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Sunday, November 21, 2010
Sunday snippets...
What a nice time of year for those of us who love cranberries. And pumpkin. And sweet potatoes. You can try and eat them during other seasons, but they just never taste the same. The calendar pretty much has to say "November"...I complain about the weather all too often. I know that. But seriously, having to have the A/C on in the week of Thanksgiving? It oughta be a crime to get as little use as we do from our winter wardrobes...
Fascinating how fast the TSA story has mushroomed. Having been on the receiving end of the much-discussed "enhanced" pat-down earlier this month, I can assure you that it's humiliating and every bit as invasive as you've heard. And the nice thing is that I get to undergo this EVERY time I fly and not just randomly, as my metal hips set off the detector 100% of the time. I've become quite familiar with the exclamation, "FEMALE ASSIST!" I don't pretend to know the answer; I just know that this ain't it.
Today I'm suffering from a painful and maddening case of contact dermatitis on and around my eyes. Not sure exactly what caused it, but you can be sure I'll be doing some elimination testing to find out. I don't ever want to go through this again.
I'm whittling away at the Christmas list, ordering a few more things each day and watching the boxes stack to the ceiling in my bathtub. This week I need to finish all the gifts that will have to mailed away from here and the others can wait. I'm fine until I look at the stack and think, "Oh my. All those things have to be wrapped!"
It's sure not as much fun doing meal planning with Kristen and CJ gone. And cooking for just 4-6 people each night, depending on work and other schedules, is...well, different. And it only goes downhill from here ;-)
I hardly know how to act in Thanksgiving week now that we're ditching our normal traditions to head north this year. I usually start cooking on Monday, and this year I'll have Monday-Wednesday to do some crafty things, address cards, and do some light housework. The boys have the week off school, which means I do too, and we'll be sleeping in! And then on Wednesday I'll cook the few things I'm taking upstate and from there just enjoy the ride!
I am so thankful for freelance work! Especially as our Christmas list keeps growing longer every year!
Friday night I put together a big order of wedding pictures and the family pictures we had made the day before the wedding. I just now realized that I never did put up any of the pictures here after those initial snapshots. Maybe I'll find time to do it this week. I'm especially grateful for the one we got of our entire tribe--all 29 of us plus the one hidden in utero. Of course within a month there was another one knocking at the door...every time we take one of those big photos, it seems it's outdated within a few weeks!
It's a good thing that Starbucks only has Eggnog Lattes for a few weeks. Really good thing.
It's a good thing that Starbucks only has Eggnog Lattes for a few weeks. Really good thing.
Finding time to listen to my audio books has been hard in the past few months. I have several of them "stacked" in my Audible.com library pining to be listened to, but I can't seem to finish the one I started months ago. In my defense, Charles Dickens did get paid by the word, and evidently he made a heck of a lot money.
Have you figured out yet that the 2012 campaign has already begun? On the Republican side, it's going to be very interesting since there's a whole pack of possibilities and no clear front runner. But on the Dem side it's going to be even better viewing...will they or won't they put someone up against Obama? Hillary says it won't be her (and for some odd reason I believe her this time), leaving the field open to a Dennis Kucinich or other wacko who will tend to make Obama look almost presidential.
I have such mixed feelings about our new writing program. It's been wildly successful this semester, both with teacher and student. But I'm sad that we didn't find it much sooner so that more of my kids could have taken advantage of it. Writing is not easy to teach, even for a writer. And I still believe that the best ways to grow writers are to grow readers of good literature and to encourage your kids to express themselves in healthy, vigorous debate in the context of the family and with trusted friends. But teaching the mechanics of good writing is difficult, and I've never found anything else that does it as thoroughly and winsomely as Classical Writing. If you're willing and able to invest a lot of one-on-one time with your student(s), give it a look.
In this week of Thanksgiving, I'm thankful to be living inside my dream. Or rather, inside a dream I never thought to dream. I can't imagine any life I'd rather live than the one my Father blessed me with. Never mind the pesky health issues and the disappointing climate in our part of the world...I have all I really want and more. And that's a very, very nice place to live.
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