The Plight of the Rutabaga

This summer I'm changing things up a bit in my life.  One of them is health and I am currently eating lots of vegetables and drinking lots of water.  I've been doing this for about 2.5 weeks now and have noticed  a difference in my overall feeling of health, liking of life, energy level and so on.  However, I've got to admit I'm getting slightly sick of salads.  I counted back and I've had some form of lettuce every single day in the past 17.  It seems like no matter how I try to spice it up, make it exciting, change its appearance by adding other cute little cut up vegetables, it is just not going down as smoothly.  Take me out to a restaurant where they make it for me, and I'm a little happier.  But, overall, I knew I will probably be on this path for awhile so I better figure out some other vegetables I will eat.

That's where the rutabaga came into play.

Seriously, have you seen a weirder looking vegetable?  It took me two trips to the grocery store to actually find it and when I asked a kid in the helpful, smiley aisles, he stared at me blankly also not knowing what the heck a rutabaga looked like.  When I saw it, I was almost taken aback with its looks.  As I glanced through the other lucky produce in under the lights that were drizzled every once in awhile with fresh water so they glowed and remained fresh, I realized this thing in my hand was definitely the wallflower of vegetables...the last one to get asked to dance or go to prom or told they're pretty. So, I brought it home.

Once home, my girls and I stared at it for awhile trying to figure out how to eat it.  Thing 1 thought we could just peel it off and jump in and eat it.  Thing 2 said to just take a bite.  Something told me there was more to this odd looking vegetable than it appeared.

It had a thick skin and appeared not so tasty on the outside, but on the inside.....

Surprising isn't it?  It's pretty pure looking.  No seeds to fuss with removing.  No strange juices coming out.  Solid cleanliness. It may seem rather weird to turn this into something spiritual, but it was to me.  I realized that I probably look like a rutabaga to others (and most times to myself) but God looks so much deeper than the skin and outward appearance.  He knows that what counts is on the inside.  Even in the vegetables he created with strange names. 

This video cracked me up.  I can't begin to tell you how many times I've had to answer the same type of question for my children.  Add to that question the whole, "Are they real sisters?" and we have summed up a small plight of the Asian race in an area with an incredibly small Asian population.

My children are growing.  And before you call me Captain Obvious, I will admit to that statement being virtually unnecessary.  But even this week as my girls were playing with some new friends, the smaller kids of the group were doing the typical, "Where are you from?" to the girls.  Then the next step, the one I hate, "Why are your eyes like this (said while pulling back sides of eyes)?"  Now, to give my girls credit, it seems like Thing 1 has gotten to the point of ignoring these kinds of questions or answering politely.  Thing 2 hasn't really been exposed to it much and as she is about to enter kindergarten, I have more preparedness I guess to handle it when she comes home to tell me the kids are chasing her around the playground pulling back their eyes and making fun of her.  Or maybe she'll be the one who just decks them.  There's a 50/50 chance right there folks.  Although, as wild as she is at home, she's pretty much a marshmallow in public so who knows.

I know this isn't much of a return to the blogosphere that is going to make you do cartwheels and say, "Yippee, she's back!" but this just kind of hit me and I think that's what this blog is about....things that hit me.  Well, not literally hit me because I'd have to deck them.  There's 100 percent chance of that right there, folks.  ;o)