Martha Speaks and Blisters Me A Good One

It’s not everyday that I hear the Holy Spirit on PBS.

But this morning, as I sat on “the girl side” of the secret fort (formerly known as the couch), with Teyla tucked into my side and Natalie at my feet, I got spanked by “Martha Speaks.”

And it wasn’t even 8:00 AM.

If you haven’t seen “Martha Speaks” – and really, if you haven’t, you are missing out – it’s a show designed to enrich kids’ vocabulary while enthralling them with the adventures of a talking dog named Martha. (She was given the gift of speech when some alphabet soup got lost on her way to her stomach, and the letters ended up in her brain. Which might be my most favorite premise for a show ever. It’s brilliant.)

This morning, Martha was more than a little irritated with her owner, Helen, since Helen was captivated by a handheld video game. She was so interested in trying to reach “the next level,” Helen forgot to walk and feed Martha, blew off her homework and basically lived and breathed the video game. Vocab words for the episode included: addict, obsessed, preoccupied, restraint and hooked.

Talk about hitting a blogger where it hurts.

If you were with me last fall, you might remember I had a small freak-out when school started. I can still feel the clammy fingers of disbelief running up my spine as I walked Natalie into her second grade classroom. It was like living a nightmare.

“Summer can’t be over yet! We were just here! This can’t be happening!”

Yet it was. Time is funny like that.

Determined not to let summer slip away from me this year, I’ve done a fair amount of brainstorming and praying over the last few weeks. One thing I realized pretty quickly is that I need to slash my computer time in a drastic, horror-flick way. "Martha Speaks" just confirmed that.

Shaun Groves posted yesterday about the tendency he has to live in his own head. And while I’m not nearly as creative as he is – which is a little like saying I’m not as in shape as this model – I get what he’s saying.

I, too, am often a bad listener. I, too, tend to think about writing and stories and ideas all day – even as I’m playing Uno or reading a book or placing orders in the imaginary restaurant in my basement. (If you can ever get a reservation, I recommend the grilled corn on the cob and the chicken. Avoid the milk. It’s not refrigerated.)

I need to get better about this. (The living, not the milk.)

And summer is the perfect season. It offers an assortment of tempting real-word distractions – the beach, family camp, homemade ice cream, fresh tomatoes. I want to work on some photo books and write in my journal and dream something big. I need to focus on my children and my husband and let the rest of the pieces fall where they may.

I want to love well.

What this means for the blog is – well, honestly, I have no idea. I think it means I’ll blog less. But to be truthful, I’ve been a pretty sporadic blogger this spring already. Is there less than every-so-often?

The only thing I know for sure is that I’m going to try to blog small stories from this summer, a la Amy Beth’s Daily Peeks. I like the idea of sharing small snippets of my day. I especially like the idea of a photograph being the impetus for the story. I’m visual that way.

Otherwise, I’m going to stay offline as much as possible. That means I’ll be a irregular commenter, a erratic Tweeter and an inconsistent blogger.

But hopefully, that will also mean a full summer. A refreshing summer. I’m looking forward to not being preoccupied or distracted or hooked.

Plus, if I can get this under control, I might just feel strong enough to watch "Word Girl." Because, really, I'm not up to being called out by a dog and dealing with Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy at the same time.