Well, we are on our way as I write this we are in Ventura, Ca. As I write this we have been in transit since 9;45am! Why you may ask – well because in review all of the options for transporting our posse – we determined that Amtrak was the best – best for our pockets , not to mention our planet!
Van rental from Hertz was 503.00 that with a AAA discount, we estimated that gas at apex. 4/gallon 300 – 350.00 for the entire trip – so we have there an approx. cost of 800 – 850.00 In comparison the bus train combo from Amtrak was 365.00 approx. so you see this was the way to go!
I did have a moment of concern wondering how the kids Jazmine aged 10 Anilyse, aged and Nioni, aged 8 – would stand up to the test – but I was ever faithful. Both Jazmine and Nioni have traveled with me before and knew the drill, it was just a matter of bringing our newbie up to speed!
And so far, so good – even after many hours of travel – our little ones are mostly in a fine state of mind and very happy. I brought lots of yummies from Trader Joes – and fresh fruit, which as a big hit! The girls sang and drew pictures Ani, wrote poetry! Its been quite a hoot so far!
This is the fisrt Disneyland trip that is exclusively female. Before we had always had my godson Mitchell or my partner – or my girlfriends partner. But this year it is just Shekinah, the girls and myself. Its different – lovely still but different. What I notice is that little girls talk a great deal, my memory of my sons at this age was that they were pure motion ! The challenge with them would have been one of containment – how to channel the raw energy of busy boyness for that many hours – whew – tough, but I remember making it work!
But my young lady companions are full of words! Songs and poems and riddles, clapping games and pouts and hugs, hugs hugs…. it’s a blessing that they have each other – and are thus more than content to refer to shekinah and I , when there is a dispute to settle – such as to ask what the words are to a popular song – or to get yet another hug!
Big pats on the back for us for the foresight to bring healthy snacks and lots of fruit. Staying away from sugary snacks saves lives literally. Sugared up children are not usually the most pleasant persons to share company with – and this also goes for food that become sugar in little bodies, such as white bread. Fruits and lots of good protein ( nuts and lean meats) today was poor on veggies, sigh! But there’s always tomorrow.
But would you know it, in spite of my healthy eating plans and carefully provided snack choices, the unthinkable happened – Jazmine ate 2 lifesavers candies!!!! Now this deserve three exclamation points for a reason .. Sugar is the arch rival to my granddaughters usually sweet and cooperative nature! I kid you not, within a half hour of consumption of sugar or high fructose corn syrup – the child flips into to maximum Hyde mode, and then crashes to the point of despair! Scary, it always has been.. And even scarier is the insistence or some doctors that this doesn’t happen, that children are not affected by sugar consumption. Well folks, I beg to differ with you – and I offer some photographic proof of the effect…
This is jazmine while crashing.. Before this she was shouting, arguing with her friends and then accusing them of not liking her, poor kiddo.
While the shift in her mood is sudden and in sharp contrast to her usual nature, and the crash is deep and full of tears – when its over, jazmine reappears as if nothing ever happened. Cooperative, loving and intelligent. It’s at this time that I ask her if she remembers how it felt in her body after eating the sugar. And she says not good – I ask her if she knew why she took the candy when she is quite aware of the effect this has on her body. She says she doesn’t know… I ask her if she loves herself – she says yes. I say well if you do honey – I think it best that you not put into your body something that is so hard for it to digest.
She begins to cry” cant I ever have candy in my whole life?”
“well dear, your whole is going to be a longtime, God willing, “, right now I am not wanting you to eat candy when we are traveling on a train at night and you need to be in your body to listen to Nana and make all the connections we need to get to Disneyland”.
“Jazi, you are in charge of your body – please don’t eat things you know aren’t good for you – there are lots of natural sugar foods you can enjoy all you want.” she agrees, and after some more tears – is back to laughing and enjoying her friends.
When she is older I will talk to her about our families proclivity towards sweets, and how this makes us vulnerable to various addictions, sugar consumptions being one of them – alcoholism, food addictions, and codependency are on the list strongly. But that talk is for the future – right now she needs to not take the darn sugar her girlfriend innocently offered her. She needs to understand the limits as well as the power of her genetics and honor her growing body.
Whew. And we still haven’t even gotten to Disneyland yet…