Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope 2006 brings you much love and happiness.

If you're watching television tonight, you may get a glimpse of our part of the world!
Fox News will show the little apple drop from Aggieville here in Manhattan, Kansas ("The Little Apple").

Have a safe, fun evening! Here's to 2006!

I plan to plan

As we wrap up this year and begin planning for the next, many of us make plans to improve our lives.

Some of my previous New Year's resolutions have been grand: this will be the year I finish the Great American novel! Some of my resolutions have been small: I will keep in touch with people a little more than the year before, even if it is just via email.
There have been many, of course, and I usually give up on just about all of them by February.
It is not because they are unattainable. I have learned to set reasonable goals.
However, I have never planned to meet those goals.

I met a very busy woman a few years ago. She's great. She's a busy mom, busy volunteer, busy military wife...but she gets things done. While serving on a volunteer committee with her one year, I noted the way she ended all of her notes and emails to us:
Remember--if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

That really irritated me. I don't plan.

My husband has suggested from time to time, that I should make a plan. Of course, he is a great planner so I figure he plans enough for the both of us.

When he asks what I have done on a certain day, I often answer, you know, I had grand plans... Of course, we both know it's a lie because I have no plans. Even on busy days when I have much to accomplish--he'll ask what's the plan for your day today and I will rattle off my long to-do list but I still do not have a plan. I stumble about the day and usually get it all done.

After reading Rene's post on time management, I was struck by her idea of making herself accountable for her time. I realize that for your organized planners out there, this is a no brainer but for me, the light clicked on.

When 2006 rolls in, I will have a plan laid out for my time. Rather than throwing in a load of laundry (and doing a crossword or two) and then determining if I have time to write or exercise, I will have set times to get those things accomplished. I won't do it so I have an answer for my husband or for you but because I should hold myself accountable for doing the things I that I claim are important. At least, that's the plan.

Another lazy post

Your New Year's Resolutions

1) Get a pet frog 2) Eat more cheese 3) Travel to Italy 4) Study abnormal psychology 5) Get in shape with pilates

What Should Your New Year's Resoluton Be?

Reindeer games

You Are Dancer

Carefree and fun, you always find reasons to do a happy dance. Why You're Naughty: That dark stint you had as Santa's private dancer. Why You're Nice: You're friendly. Very friendly.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

Revision is key

The most important part of writing is rewriting.
Whether it is for The Great American Novel or a lame anniversary gift, it always holds true.

I thank those of you who tried to help me with my attempt to write 12 pages of 12 facts about the number twelve for my twelfth anniversary. The reason it was so hard was because it was not a great idea. Working through it though, the last three pages were not only salvageable but much more relevant. So...the hubbie did not get twelve pages of anything.

He did get a homemade card with three pages: Twelve new things we did on our honeymoon, Twelve new things I've done since I married you, and Twelve things I expect during the next 12 years. Beside each list, I copied a photo of a wine label from 1993. The cover page had the image at the top of this post, entitled "Wine and Still Life, 1993" by Diantha York-Ripley.

It all came together in the end and I thank you for your advice and/or positive vibes!

HELP!!!

Speaking of being busy...remember that grasshopper who could not be bothered during the summer to collect food and had to beg the ants the following winter?

Well...this grasshopper has been busy with...well, too many things to list here now but I have not spent enough time coming up with the creative anniversary present this year.

Oh, all right! Truth be told, I never come up with that creative idea until December anyway. I thought a dozen years of marriage deserved something especially creative and I've come up with something...but I've come up short.

Don't judge me. I'm a dork and I know it but I've got like 26 hours left and I need help.
Here's what I've got: 12 bottles of wine for his putting up with 12 years of my whining.

Some are from where we went for our honeymoon, some are from places we have visited or lived, some have the name of a famous golfer on them and some are just there because he'll like them.
Lacking anything else remotely clever, I thought I'd wrap a piece of paper around each bottle. Each piece of paper would list twelve interesting facts relating to the number twelve in some fashion.

SO...here is where my dedicated blog readers, friends and relatives come in! Remember that "plan" in the last paragraph? The one with 12 interesting facts on 12 separate pages?
I have 10 pages but only ONE page actually has 12 items on it. If you have anything interesting (a fact, a story, a joke, ANYTHING...that relates to the number 12 in ANY WAY, could you send it along?)

How does this help?
1. Gets me closer to my list of 144 "interesting" things to wrap around 12 bottles
2. Gives me another page (in my quest for 12 pages) as I will devote a page to all the people who helped me with this!!! Come on! I know there are 12 helpful souls out there who will help a girl out!

I know what you're thinking.
1. Why bother?
2. You've just posted this on the internet so the jig is up.

I have the answers.
1. As discussed previously, I'm a dork. A sleepy one who should be in bed but who, instead, just poured another glass of wine so there really isn't any logic involved here whatsoever.
2. a) Hubbie rarely has time to read the blog (has too much to read already)
b) IF he were to read it, he'd use his laptop, which he left here with me so he can't access it at all until tomorrow evening....

So if I can just get this done in the next 19 hours, I'll be OK! If he should happen to wander over to my blog and read my "plan", I can just give him the gift six hours early.
If you have a fact, joke, mathematical equation...anything involving the number twelve that cannot be found on Wikipedia and feel like sharing, you will have both my gratitude and a spot on my page of the "12 Most Helpful People" who helped me pull this stupid thing off. (Hurry, though! I'm not listing 13 people!)

(Yes, I will)

...or are you TOO BUSY?

In my hesitation to get off of the computer and on with my day, I found this.

(I find it just a little disconcerting that I can relate to a frog.)

Are you busy?

Are you glad it’s Friday? Do you still have many things to accomplish today? I should be shopping, wrapping and putting together some sort of amazing anniversary present.
So, of course, here I am…online.

Are there any other procrastinators out there? Here are a few links to visit so you’ll look busy!

Hanukkah Trivia Quiz
(I am embarrassed to admit I only got 60% correct with a score of 167 points)
Christmas Trivia Quiz
(I managed to do a little better here at 80%, 238 points)
December Trivia Quiz
(I should have quit while I was ahead with the Christmas quiz, as I ended up with 70%, 310 points on this one)

Have a fantastic Friday! I have to go now because I am really, really busy!

Tiny tyrant

Son: He's mean and always comes to me and hits me.
Mom: Can you stay out of his way?
Son: He finds me.
Mom: Does he bother other kids in the class?
Son: Not "S." S is the boy in my class that never listens. That's why they're friends. The people who don't listen are friends and they don't like the good kids.
Mom: Does this mean boy hit your friend "J?"
Son: No, because J is strong and can defend himself.
(J does have two older siblings, so I'm sure this is true. My son takes Taekwondo but has not made the connection that any of those cool moves could be used defensively.)
Mom: You're strong, too. Maybe you could block him.
Son: I could kick him!
Mom: (Whoops!!) No, no! I don't want you to kick him.
Son: He hits me!
Mom goes through the whole 2 wrongs don't make a right discussion and reminds son that if he is seen kicking, he will be the one to get into trouble.
Daughter: Maybe you could just run away from him!
Mom: (likes daughter's suggestion but is afraid it won't solve the problem) You could try that. Have you asked him not to hit you?
Son: No
Mom: Maybe he thinks you're really tough and you don't mind. (Mom is hoping the "hits" are like a punch on the upper arm). Tell this boy it hurts and you want him to stop.
Son: Maybe I could try to give him a hug!

Mom is speechless for a moment but gives her son a big hug!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(I don't want to make my child "easy prey" but I just love his optimism!)

This has just started since the children are playing indoors more often with other classes. (When it was warmer and they played outside more often, this did not seem to be a problem.)

For the second time this week, my son did not want to go to school because he did not want to deal with the mean kid. So I did talk with his teacher this morning. I did not have his name but when I told her it was "S's friend from another classroom" she knew who I meant. Apparently she said "he is a tiny child who thinks he's better than the other kids and picks on all of them." (My son will never be the tallest kid on the block but the fact that a preschool teacher mentioned that the bully is "tiny" at least makes me feel better that he isn't holding my son up against the wall by his shirt collar!)

Apparently this boy has been shuffled between classes a couple of times for similar problems. His parents have been told but don't believe their little darling could be causing trouble.

I went to public school

I do get pleasure out of the little things. (Sometimes, I'll admit, they're rather inane little things). My mother, rather than tell me that outright, would often just grin and say little things please little minds!

I am not pleased today and it is over the littlest thing.

Somehow I have made it this far in life assuming (there I go again) that "littlest" was not a word. When my daughter triumphs over her brother in a board game or race, as I remind her to stop gloating (he may be bigger than her one day), I've also quietly told her that he is smaller but he isn't "littler" because that is not a word.

So she greatly enjoyed her victory yesterday when I tried to correct her homework. She was to write five sentences, using at least two spelling words in each sentence. I told her to fix number two because she had written "littlest," which is not actually a word.

She presented her spelling list and showed me that it is not only a word but also a spelling word this week!

As I muttered comments about education today and her teacher's inattention, I pulled out the big dictionary. (To be fair, the little one leaves lots of things out!)
There they were. Both littler and littlest are apparently legitimate, correct words in the English language.

I then decided that these must be recent additions.(You know, the way that "muggle" is now in the dictionary too after the success of the Harry Potter series). However, I was wrong once again. My little dictionary was revised in 1984 and the words are there too. Even if it was new then, I've had plenty of time to get up to speed.

Maybe my little mind is a bit littler than I thought.

The REAL reason for the season

All right. I've whined publicly about how busy this month gets and hopefully I've gotten the complaints out of my system. Because, of course, I really don't have much to complain about.

I do know what is important. I enjoy the fact that my children are starting to understand just a little bit too. While the five-minute discussion I had yesterday with my daughter about whether or not the baby Jesus should be placed in the Nativity display now or Christmas Eve does not constitute a real philosophical debate, we were discussing what it is we are celebrating.

Yet after reading a particular post yesterday afternoon, I still find myself wondering if we stress the really important aspects enough. While I am still shocked to hear that some churches will be closed on Christmas Day, I cannot cast any stones at anyone else. While my family attends Mass each Christmas, I will admit that we attend the "children's Mass" on Christmas Eve rather than making it there early Christmas Day. It is convenient. The children actually pay attention to some parts so we have a chance to relax and pay attention too. We say our thanks and our prayers that evening so we don't have to pull hyper children or our exhausted selves away from the packages and stockings early the next morning.

So if I don't make the effort on Christmas morning, I cannot deride others for not going either. Ministers have families too. I understand that they would want to share a quiet Christmas morning with their families. However, I also assume (which is a bad thing to do) that ministers are in touch with both the real reason for celebrating Christmas and the needs of their church families. What message will it send to the people who ARE willing to go to church early on Christmas morning when they find that the doors to their church, rather than being open and welcoming, are locked?

Thanks, Q, for posting the story!

'tis the season...

...the busy season, that is! It's a good thing I'm not baking or traveling this year or I might forget the fact that we celebrate holidays this month!

We've made it through a preschool holiday concert and a Christmas piano recital, along with various December birthday parties for young friends. Just one more Christmas concert this week, Taekwondo testing and a few more holiday parties! Somewhere in there I really will send out Christmas cards. Really. I will.

Hubbie has been traveling the past two weekends and the upcoming weekend is no exception...but he will return before our wedding anniversary on Sunday!

We are very blessed. We have many reasons to celebrate and wonderful friends to share our food, fun and holidays with. We will attend Mass together as a family and thank the Lord for all of our blessings. I will say thank you, I will behave and when we get home I will leave my list out for Santa.

All I want for Christmas is a nice, long nap!

Greetings from the world beyond

I have returned, briefly, from the world outside of the world wide web!

I cannot blame my absence entirely on the hustle and bustle of the season, though that might be part of it. I regret to admit I've had nothing inspiring to share. I've visited other blogs here and there this week but I'm sorry to say I had nothing to add.

At least the mental stagnation has not been complete! I HAVE gotten some writing done! I'm very excited and will have to keep this short to MAKE myself get back to the WIP. Almost every year, somewhere in our family Christmas letter, I tell my friends and family that I'm still at work on "the novel." While it would indeed be a Christmas miracle to be able to tell everyone this year that I have a completed draft, I'd like to see how close I can get before the end of 2005!

One quick update--our son had his very first Christmas concert last night with his preschool class. For my family members who have seen the video of our daughter's first preschool concert (she was a pale, frightened, shy child who finally managed to whisper a few lyrics at the very end), I can tell you that her little brother's first performance was quite the opposite! He had a blast!

It's cold and snowing here today. Though the kids are in school, they're thrilled and are asking for playdates after school as they're sure to have enough snow for snowballs today!

I hope you can pause for a moment on to remember this somber occasion in American history but also go on to have a great day!

Let us drink wine!

Let the monks have their beer.

They're celibate and they live with their co-workers--at least let them keep some beer!

http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifestyle/24hour_food/story/2919994p-11586083c.html

I know we live in Kansas, but...

...what if these do not actually take you to Oz?

The tornado sirens were enough to scare my children into the basement immediately. We had all been playing Monopoly near a window. They were quite concerned that the parents were not in as much of a hurry.

The hubbie even went TO the window to check the weather.

The kids were getting desperate so while I calmly explained that we'd be fine, I did go downstairs with them. The hubbie made sure we had shoes and coats downstairs "just in case" then came back up to watch the weather on the news and through the window.

While I understand the fascination, as I explained just before the sirens stopped, if a twister does pay us a visit, he may not have time to get downstairs. So we'll just wait and see if clicking his heels will bring him back from wherever he may end up.

As for the rest of us, we'll keep our sneakers on in the basement. After all, what would we do if we received a pair of ruby slippers that did not fit?

I've lived outside the Emerald City and while I'm sure I could continue bloghopping from there, I'll take a slower route if and when we go back, thanks.

Some weather we're having!

It was a nice fall weekend. I mean summer weekend, no winter...well, at least I'm sure the weekend is over!

After telling my in-laws to expect cooler weather for Thanksgiving, there were days that we did not even need jackets. Then, yesterday, the western part of the state had blizzards while our part had "summer" weather (thunderstorms and tornadoes).

Ft. Riley (where hubbie works) did get hit but the twister did not make it this way.

Today we have a light dusting of snow on the grass and more snow is expected this afternoon. My daughter can't wait for school to be over today! She's anticipating fantastic snowballs.

In the meantime, I am trying to recover from yet another cold. (With all of the weather changes, I'm baffled as to why I keep getting sick!) ; (

Tomorrow should be sunny and warmer.

Happy Thanksgiving!
I have been very blessed and have much to be thankful for. I hope you all can find many things to be grateful for as well!
(THANK YOU for visiting and have a very happy and safe Thanksgiving!)

The Wisdom of Dory

Marlin : I promised I'd never let anything happen to him.
Dory : Hmm. That's a funny thing to promise.
Marlin : What?
Dory : Well you can't never let anything happen to him. Then nothing would ever happen to him. Not much fun for little Harpo.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My daughter returns home from a playdate at one of her best friend's homes. She tells me about the day and is quite excited that she, her friend and friend's younger sister were allowed to walk to the park by themselves!

She is proud. She is happy.

That is, until she has to help me gather my eyeballs, which have popped from my skull and are rolling on the hard wood floor. I do not say anything against the best friend's parents but my daughter senses I am not quite as proud as she was just a moment ago. I tell her that I was just surprised, as that mother can't see the park from her window.

Weeks have passed and I've had time to relax. Everyone got to the little park and back just fine. My daughter and this friend are inseparable most of the time; the only variation is when my daughter sticks to the friend's little sister instead. Mostly, when they all get together, they are The Three Female Musketeers! They get into trouble together at times but they stick together.

I know it was not wrong to let the girls venture forth on their own. My worry is always that "the stranger" will say the one thing we have not discussed and my girl will get in his car. Yet those crafty strangers are usually singling out solitary children, not a band of three. If someone tried to con that group, as long as one of them was smart enough not to go, the other two would stick with her.

I've talked with the friend's father--though we came to this subject in a roundabout way--he mentioned that while he "probably ought to be concerned about kidnappings," he is "much more concerned about traffic." He's right. The odds are much better that a distracted driver will get to her before a predator.

When the girls are over here, I still don't let them leave our street without me. (As worried as I get about losing my own children, I don't want to run the risk of losing someone else's)! I considered not letting her go over to that friend's home anymore and just letting them play here.

My daughter is smart though and perhaps I should trust her a bit more. (The next time she went to that friend's house, she diplomatically told her friend she just did not want to go to the park that day and asked to play in her backyard). The last time she went, the girls did go to the park (with one more friend, so there was a pack of four). She quickly told me that the friend's mother let them walk but she got in the car and met them there.

In any case, everyone is home safe and sound. So I'll try to remember to just keep swimming...

An adventure is an adventure, even if it is in your own backyard

When I was seven years old, I lived on the edge of a forest. It was enormous and daunting and I was sure there were bugs, snakes and more dangerous creatures, so I never entered the forest.

By the time I was eight years old, half of the forest had become a housing subdivision. I had a friend who lived in one of the new houses. (Now, my parents had strongly opposed the new subdivision, citing heavier traffic on our quiet road, so I was quite certain that my friend’s parents were partly evil. Luckily, they were never home during the day so I’d go home with her after school with no worries of running into them.)

The other half of the area was still undeveloped or becoming developed. My friend and I would stray from her house in the afternoons to the area that was still “the woods” and find all sorts of treasures left behind by the contractors.

Those were glorious days! We could imagine we were Indians or pilgrims or even the Ingalls family. We built forts, with spare boards, roofing shingles and rusty nails. There were no adults, no siblings and no snakes (that I saw). My biggest fear at the time (because it was my friend’s biggest fear) was poison ivy. If it rained or got cold, we could go to her house. It was empty and quiet. How I envied her!
I don’t know how my mother continued to let me play with her. I came home to my mother every time asking if she could please get a job so I could have my own key and come home alone too! (Of course, I had three younger siblings waiting at home too so there were a few flaws in my simple plan).

I wonder sometimes what adventures my kids will have to tell about their childhood as much more of their childhood play is supervised.
When I was eight, no stranger ever penetrated our forest sanctuary; we never played with matches at my friends house; despite the rusty nails, I did not need a new tetanus shot and I did not actually come into contact with poison ivy. We were just being kids and we survived.

I am now thirty-five and I have two children. I do not let my daughter (7 yrs) go anywhere alone or with another child, not to mention someplace where there might be snakes or rusty nails! While we live on a fairly quiet cul-de-sac, it’s adjacent to a busy street. So she is allowed to go outdoors alone but she can’t leave our street. (I try to give her some illusion of autonomy but only if I can still see her from one of the windows of my house!)

Am I depriving my children of adventures?

Maybe not. As I started this post the other day, the children came running in from the backyard where they had been planting acorns. (They go and look each morning for signs of a tree. Despite my comments about waiting for spring, they’re quite optimistic).
They came running in to tell me that they had spotted a “giant, poisonous worm!”

By the time they pulled me outdoors to look at it, the monster had disappeared. While I doubt that there are any poisonous worms in Kansas, I was good enough to be quiet and look frightened. Maybe they can find just a little danger and adventure in their sheltered lives after all.

(I can clearly see both of my children involved in this adventure!)

Rearranging the nightstand

For any of you keeping up with my lists over there to the left, I have removed a few books from the nightstand and added a few more.

The Price of Motherhood, Ann Crittenden
Insightful and inciteful. (The latter not being a real word, of course, but it should be). Ms. Crittenden got right to the point, a real problem in our society. You hear rumblings, murmurings, unrest…she has stumbled onto what even she believes should be a revolution that, for whatever reason has not come about. Yet.
I want to join the movement! I have not, however, finished the book. While Ms. Crittenden has touched a very important nerve, I (like many of the women who really want to push for change but don’t have time right now) didn’t even have time to finish the book. The library let me have it for three weeks and I did not finish it. I could have renewed it. I didn’t. I will check it out again or just buy it this time.


Finding Balance, Becca Stevens
I had to finish this book, as this was the text we were discussing in my women’s bible study group. Luckily, I was able to vote for this one before we chose it so I should not say that I had to finish it!
This book focused on what we can learn from the women of the Bible. I learned a great deal, though of course I learned more from the women in my group and their interpretations than from the book itself but this one was a great beginning for discussion!
I loved having a chapter devoted to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Someone will judge me for broadcasting this over the internet, but she’s been a tough one to deal with. I could never explain it right until the author found a nun who could: she was a virgin mother. Who can live up to that???
No matter what you’ve learned about Mary Magdalene from the media and The Da Vinci Code, you’ll find something new about her here!
I could go on. If it sounds intriguing, check it out. We did it as a group study so we ordered a video that went along with it. I enjoyed getting to see the author and hear her talk further about topics brought up in the book.
Of course, as a Catholic, I’m still intrigued to see a female priest. (The author is an Episcopal priest at Saint Augustine's Chapel on the Vanderbilt University campus. I find that amazing.)
I’ve only read this in preparation for group discussion but I highly recommend it whether for yourself or for a group. I might go back through it again when I have more time. (Whenever that may be...)

So, there are “updates” for two of the four books that have been sitting on my nightstand forever.

While I should use this time to get through the remaining two on the list, you should know by now that I am not that logical. I have started to re-read the Grapes of Wrath and am astounded at how much I have forgotten! I found this copy on the bookshelf and it still has my maiden name and a college dorm I lived in inscribed in the front cover. Therefore, I’m quite certain I read it in college and I even remember all of Tom Joad’s relatives’ names. I also remember that they could not afford to eat meat for a while. (The vegetarian remembers the important parts of novels).
I am about a third of the way through and thoroughly enjoying it but I honestly don’t remember any of this from the first time through. (I’m sure the fact that I read it in COLLEGE in NEW ORLEANS where there was no real, defined DRINKING AGE has absolutely nothing to do with my lack of recollection!)

In addition, I made a stop at the mall bookstore on Friday. (For anyone who does not know much about me: I hate malls. I will look for ANY excuse to avoid them. However, as I had agreed to an errand or two in the mall on Friday, I thought I deserved a trip to Waldenbooks as long as I was in there!) I picked up Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses (I cannot put this one down!!!) and Four Souls. I have not had a chance to open the latter yet, but I loved Ms. Erdich’s The Master Butchers Singing Club, and can’t wait to delve into this one!

So, there. Now you know exactly what books are lying on my nightstand when I go to sleep each night.
What's on yours?