our Family culture

I’m not sure about this, because I don’t leave my house much, but I suspect that what goes on inside our home may be a little different than what goes on inside the home of . . . say Martha Stewart . . . or President Bush, or our neighbor, or even my own mother. It occurred to me that each family must have its own unique family culture, its own idiosyncrasies and language and inside humor.

In our home, for instance, Sid goes out of his way to thank me or compliment me for supper. He is sincere, but he also wants the boys to pay attention, so he goes about it in a way that grabs their attention. Last week, he took a bite of supper and said, “Mama, this is so good, it slaps the monkey.” He took another bite and stated emphatically, “This is a monkey-slapping meal.” This, of course, got the boys’ attention.

But taken out of context and overheard by anyone who doesn’t know Sid, it would sound . . . . . . . well, weird and incomprehensible.

Of course, other people might find the activities in our home last Friday night incomprehensible, even in context. I had made spaghetti. As you can see, Prairie loves spaghetti.

She decided that using a fork was not an efficient way for her to get the most food to her mouth as quickly as possible.

If I looked that cute with spaghetti sauce all over my face, I might consider relinquishing my fork too. I suspect that look wouldn’t work for me as well as it does Prairie, though.

Sid told Prairie that she wasn’t eating her spaghetti correctly. He wanted to make sure she understood the proper way to do it, so he demonstrated.