Pompeii, Italy

Lucy had a swim meet up in Naples last month, so we decided to load up the fam and make a trip of it!  It was a quick jaunt, so we didn’t do a whole lot of sight seeing, but, we did go see Pompeii. Pretty awesome, I must say.  Let’s be real…..I had heard of Pompeii before going, but wasn’t 100% sure what it was and what happened there.  So, just in case you are like I was, here’s a brief description about Pompeii (taken mostly from Wikipedia with a few tidbits from yours truly). 

The city of Pompeii was an ancient Roman city near modern Naples in the Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villages in the surrounding area, were mostly destroyed and buried under 13 to 20 feet of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.  (That’s a really long time ago!)

Its population was probably approximately 20,000, with a complex water system, an amphitheatre, gymnasium and a port.  (We saw the amphitheater and what I think was the gymnasium). 

The eruption was cataclysmic for the town. Evidence for the destruction originally came from a surviving letter by Pliny the Younger, who saw the eruption from a distance and described the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder, an admiral of the Roman fleet, who tried to rescue citizens. The site was lost for about 1500 years until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years later in 1748. The objects that lay beneath the city have been well preserved for centuries because of the lack of air and moisture. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids between the ash layers that once held human bodies. This allowed one to see the exact position the person was in when he or she died.

Cool, right?  Actually, kinda scary, but fascinating, too.  It makes me a little more nervous about the fact that I live just 20 miles from Mount Etna…..yikes.  I’ve heard Herculaneum is even more amazing, so we’ll have to give that a try next time. 

Next time we go we'll get a tour guide.  We didn't have a whole day to spend there and it was a cold and rainy afternoon, but I still think we saw some pretty cool stuff!

Who needs a tour guide? Benny decided he was in charge of the map.  

Next time we'll do a little more research before heading to different sites.  This one was not too stroller friendly.  Check out the stony walk ways.  Bumpy ride for baby....he didn't seem to mind too much, though.  

The kids had a great time exploring and got a little inventive, too.  Graham got a rousing game of "Balance Some Mud On a Stick" going.  

 This is the outside of the beautiful amphitheater.  It's ginormous!  There's my cute family trying to find the entrance.  

I loved watching them play.  There was a lot of "don't step on a crack or you'll break your mother's back" going on here.  

We weren't sure what all the different places served as.  There were lots of little streets and places that looked like they could have been stores or gathering spots.  Again...next time we'll probably pay for a tour guide.  Love Benny's face in this one.  

Benny started to get tired.  He may or may not have whined.....a lot near the end.  

Hooray for our first big trip!  Come see us and we may just take you there.  

Word.

Mediocre.  Lazy.  Weak.  These are my words for the first few days of 2014.  I keep reading people's "words" on Facebook and Instagram.  They choose a word that describes how what they want 2014 to look like.  "Improvement" or  "Happy" or  "Simplify".  You get the jist.  I'm a few months ahead of these people, though.  I've had my words for a while now.  Today I just keep feeling like I should sit down and write some of the things that I have on my mind.  Maybe then I can move past them and seek ways to get out of the slump I seem to keep falling into.

I know I'm not postpartum depressioning.  I may be postpartum drooping or slouching.  We'll call it that.  But, regardless of what name I give it, it doesn't make it seem less pronounced or make me write it off as nothing.  

I'll start with mediocre.  I understand that I am not dispensable.  My family legitimately needs me.  And not just for meals and clean clothes.  I talk to my kids, I read to them occasionally, I hug and kiss them.  But, as I go through the tasks that fill my day, I just feel like I come up short.  I talk to other moms and recently I read posts on others blogs or on Facebook about how people are "giving up" blogging or Facebook because they feel they need to spend more time with the people they love.  To be perfectly honest.....some of the times when I feel most productive is when I finish a few posts on my blog.  I feel like I'm doing something of worth for my kids to have later in life.  So quickly I allow myself to wonder, "Well, what are they doing with their kids, that I'm not, that would lead them to feel this way about Facebook or blogging."  

I've also been thinking quite a bit lately about the kind of person I want to emulate.  I have a dear friend, Alexis, who immediately comes to mind.  She is humble, she is kind, she is funny, she is genuine, and she has a strong testimony of the gospel.  Just being in her presence made my day brighter and I ALWAYS left her feeling better about my life and myself.  On this same list are a few other people I know that radiate goodness and just shine.  What do they spend their day doing?  Only a couple of them are on Facebook and they rarely, if ever post anything at all.    None of them are on Instagram.  Now, does this mean that I think social media is evil and that I am evil because I join in on the fun?  No, it doesn't.  But it leads me back to the same question....what are they doing, that I'm not?  Which also leads me to my next word....LAZY which could really just be / with WEAK.  So here it goes....lazy/weak.

Ultimately, I do know some of the things that those people are doing that I'm not.  They are much better at having the Spirit in their lives.  They are regular with their prayers, they are reading their scriptures consistently.  But surely that's not all they are doing.  I get that I need to step it up a notch in the spiritual areas of my life.  I'm lazy.  Am I angry with God?  No.  Do I feel frustrated with life, so I'm not reading my scriptures and praying?  Nope...just lazy.  

I'm trying to lose the last fifteen pounds that I still have on my bod since giving birth to Sullivan.  So...naturally I need to make better choices in the food department.  I start my day feeling good and motivated.  By 1:00, I am sneaking Hershey Kisses (I don't even really like Hershey Kisses) and finishing half a box of Triscuits (I do really like Triscuits, especially the Fire Roasted Tomato ones).  

You may have seen a pattern in a couple of my rants.  Facebook and Instagram.  Some may think, "Why doesn't she just get off of them and then she would be closer to emulating those people she admires."  I'll tell you why....weak.  I am too weak and/or lazy to figure out a different way to communicate to my branch or my kids school.  I would miss out on information I need.  But, more importantly,  I would miss out on connecting to my family and friends regularly.  It helps me to not feel so far away.  So then, the obvious answer would be to limit it, but there it is again....too weak.   It's my "go-to" when I'm bored or feeding the baby.    

I'm gonna add one more word to my list:  Selfish.  It's not the kind of "in your face" selfishness that you might be thinking.  It's more of a "I REALLY want my own time" kind of selfish.  Or maybe I start to resent my kids because I want to be able to take a nap anytime I want or go out to eat.  Or I'm selfish with my time because I don't spend it playing games with them or watching them at the park.  Sometimes I think that I'm too selfish to be a really good mom.  I'm about the right amount of selfish to be an okay mom or a mediocre mom.  Sorry kids.