It's just from facebook, but I liked it. :)
14 December 2009
13 December 2009
themes of the year, and I am vindictively happy about the cold
(Maybe vindictive isn't the right word, but I love it. It is what I feel when, as in most winters, we are cheated out of any cold weather whatsoever and "winter" is an elusive treat that ends up skipping us until next year, when we will wait in vain for it again.) I want more than a tiny, token "break" from summer, I want winter!!!
I am cozy on the couch drinking grapefruit juice and eating cheese toast, with way too much caramel popcorn in my tunny and football on tv. It's a good place to be.
My students just had their recital tonight. They really pulled it together at the last minute--after the rehearsal, the recital usually feels like a Christmas miracle. It was stunning and I actually thought, "Did I teach them all to play like this?!" and almost cried. (This happens to me these days, now that many of my kids are out of methods almost completely...)
And they all gave me presents at the end. There was a Starbucks gift card, a really yummy little loaf of spice bread with chocolate chips in it, awesome tea from Israel, two lovely candles, a picture album, caramel popcorn, and Sarah Palin's book.
It has been a good winter so far, quite cold and gratifyingly cloudy, so I am mostly satisfied that seasonal weather has not been completely elusive. We have Christmas lights on our outside banister, and the inside of our house is all decorated too, and cozy, and I have somehow had time to watch a lot of football and cook dinners. I am a little bit skinnier than normal, due to a bunch of dancing and then 8 days of being in bed with strep, and then more dancing. It's true that nothing tastes as good as being skinny. (If you're really that vain, which I am.) Anyway, tasting stuff isn't usually what makes you fat, it's eating a lot of it, so I guess you can have your tasting and be skinny too.
Since the year is about to end, and I am leaving my quiet a home a week from tomorrow and not coming back until January, this might be my last chance to reflect at the same time as having internet. I've been reflecting already, if you didn't notice. This year I learned that not trying to please Everyone is so worth Everyone's displeasure. I have even learned to take the displeasure as something positive for me, since it is a sharp reminder that I am no longer expending the energy to please, and am therefore happier and healthier anyway.
This year also seemed to revolve around evangelism for me, too. Sermons about it, opportunities with it, things jumping out of the Bible, stories from friends about it, all that sort of thing. Not really an odd thing to pair with not pleasing everyone, when you think about it. And it's funny, because last year was focused around obedience. I guess personal obedience has to come before you can share your faith. It couldn't be the other way around. Not that I'm all obedient now, but I'm more on the way than I was...
I don't choose these focuses, but when I look back on a year, I see the theme. So I wonder what next year's will be. I am starting to think maybe it will have to do with being kind. Impossible to be sure, but I have just been thinking a lot more about kindness recently. I just want to be as kind to Steve as he is to me so he can see how it feels.
I am cozy on the couch drinking grapefruit juice and eating cheese toast, with way too much caramel popcorn in my tunny and football on tv. It's a good place to be.
My students just had their recital tonight. They really pulled it together at the last minute--after the rehearsal, the recital usually feels like a Christmas miracle. It was stunning and I actually thought, "Did I teach them all to play like this?!" and almost cried. (This happens to me these days, now that many of my kids are out of methods almost completely...)
And they all gave me presents at the end. There was a Starbucks gift card, a really yummy little loaf of spice bread with chocolate chips in it, awesome tea from Israel, two lovely candles, a picture album, caramel popcorn, and Sarah Palin's book.
It has been a good winter so far, quite cold and gratifyingly cloudy, so I am mostly satisfied that seasonal weather has not been completely elusive. We have Christmas lights on our outside banister, and the inside of our house is all decorated too, and cozy, and I have somehow had time to watch a lot of football and cook dinners. I am a little bit skinnier than normal, due to a bunch of dancing and then 8 days of being in bed with strep, and then more dancing. It's true that nothing tastes as good as being skinny. (If you're really that vain, which I am.) Anyway, tasting stuff isn't usually what makes you fat, it's eating a lot of it, so I guess you can have your tasting and be skinny too.
Since the year is about to end, and I am leaving my quiet a home a week from tomorrow and not coming back until January, this might be my last chance to reflect at the same time as having internet. I've been reflecting already, if you didn't notice. This year I learned that not trying to please Everyone is so worth Everyone's displeasure. I have even learned to take the displeasure as something positive for me, since it is a sharp reminder that I am no longer expending the energy to please, and am therefore happier and healthier anyway.
This year also seemed to revolve around evangelism for me, too. Sermons about it, opportunities with it, things jumping out of the Bible, stories from friends about it, all that sort of thing. Not really an odd thing to pair with not pleasing everyone, when you think about it. And it's funny, because last year was focused around obedience. I guess personal obedience has to come before you can share your faith. It couldn't be the other way around. Not that I'm all obedient now, but I'm more on the way than I was...
I don't choose these focuses, but when I look back on a year, I see the theme. So I wonder what next year's will be. I am starting to think maybe it will have to do with being kind. Impossible to be sure, but I have just been thinking a lot more about kindness recently. I just want to be as kind to Steve as he is to me so he can see how it feels.
05 November 2009
I just want to...
I want to make this tea cozy, only bigger for my big teapot:
I want to have a birthday party that looks like this:
I want to have these mushrooms in my patio garden.
I want to make these gloves. AND wear them.
I want to eat these:
I want to wear this: Tights with tall socks, with heels and some cozy sweaters and a scarf.
And I want to have these goats for pets, like she does. :)
I want to have a birthday party that looks like this:
I want to have these mushrooms in my patio garden.
I want to make these gloves. AND wear them.
I want to eat these:
I want to wear this: Tights with tall socks, with heels and some cozy sweaters and a scarf.
And I want to have these goats for pets, like she does. :)
26 October 2009
glamour goat
This picture and its caption totally made my day. I LOVE goats!!! I can take or leave Madonna, but I am SO HAPPY to live in a world that has goats!
"Madonna totally looks like this little goat."
"Madonna totally looks like this little goat."
22 October 2009
a quote for today
"I am sick and tired of people saying that if you debate and you disagree with this administration, you are unpatriotic...We should stand up and say, 'We are Americans, and we have a right to debate and disagree with ANY administration!'"
~As shrieked by Hillary Clinton to attendees of the 2003 Jefferson Jackson Bailey dinner in Connecticut
Can I just add to that, KEEP IT UP RUSH LIMBAUGH AND FOX NEWS!!!! (and the rest of you!)
Is it just not obvious to most Americans that Obama's attack on people/organizations who do not agree with him is utterly outrageous and un-American and scary? I don't care if you love or hate where Obama is taking our country, this situation is showing his true colors and they are frightfully anti-free-anything. (except health care, it appears. We'll see how that goes.)
Having said that, I feel better and will now continue recovering from three hours of dance class. Thank you for your time.
~As shrieked by Hillary Clinton to attendees of the 2003 Jefferson Jackson Bailey dinner in Connecticut
Can I just add to that, KEEP IT UP RUSH LIMBAUGH AND FOX NEWS!!!! (and the rest of you!)
Is it just not obvious to most Americans that Obama's attack on people/organizations who do not agree with him is utterly outrageous and un-American and scary? I don't care if you love or hate where Obama is taking our country, this situation is showing his true colors and they are frightfully anti-free-anything. (except health care, it appears. We'll see how that goes.)
Having said that, I feel better and will now continue recovering from three hours of dance class. Thank you for your time.
18 October 2009
Cat
from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and other verses from The Red Book
by J. R. R. Tolkien
by J. R. R. Tolkien
The fat cat on the mat
may seem to dream
of nice mice that suffice
for him, or cream;
The giant lion with iron
claw in paw,
and huge, ruthless tooth
in gory jaw;
the pard, dark-starred,
fleet upon feet,
that oft soft from aloft
leaps upon his meat
where woods loom in gloom--
far now they be,
fierce and free,
and tamed is he;
but fat cat on the mat,
kept as a pet,
he does not forget.
~pictures by Steve and The Kince~
of nice mice that suffice
for him, or cream;
but he free, maybe,
walks in thought
unbowed, proud, where loud
roared and fought
his kin, lean and slim,
or deep in den
in the East feasted on beasts
or tender men.
walks in thought
unbowed, proud, where loud
roared and fought
his kin, lean and slim,
or deep in den
in the East feasted on beasts
or tender men.
The giant lion with iron
claw in paw,
and huge, ruthless tooth
in gory jaw;
the pard, dark-starred,
fleet upon feet,
that oft soft from aloft
leaps upon his meat
where woods loom in gloom--
far now they be,
fierce and free,
and tamed is he;
but fat cat on the mat,
kept as a pet,
he does not forget.
~pictures by Steve and The Kince~
03 October 2009
sister & brother
Waiting for Steve to wake up and hang out this morning, I was wandering around facebook (in between videoing Steve snoring) and I found this picture of Micheal and Kathleen.
I love it because I miss them (and all my family--don't worry, I will eventually stumble across pictures and stories about all of y'all!) and it reminds me of when they were little, because they were always together then. As little bitty kids, they'd wake each other up so early almost every day, and go outside as if there were going to be a meteor shower or a rainbow or, I don't know, something they couldn't possibly miss, out in our yard. I'm sure they could tell me what was really going on, and what they were playing, all I know is that I was awakened so many mornings by their tiptoeing and whispering in the grass outside my screened-in bedroom.
And now they're almost completely grown-up.
I love it because I miss them (and all my family--don't worry, I will eventually stumble across pictures and stories about all of y'all!) and it reminds me of when they were little, because they were always together then. As little bitty kids, they'd wake each other up so early almost every day, and go outside as if there were going to be a meteor shower or a rainbow or, I don't know, something they couldn't possibly miss, out in our yard. I'm sure they could tell me what was really going on, and what they were playing, all I know is that I was awakened so many mornings by their tiptoeing and whispering in the grass outside my screened-in bedroom.
And now they're almost completely grown-up.
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