These are not my usual style of candles, but we are supposed to (assuming my foot agrees) walk in the Starlight Parade with church on Saturday night and we are all supposed to hold candles. I think these sorts are better for the kids to hold.
With November on the way out, it’s time to bring out the Yule decorations. A time of light in the dark winter. And by "dark winter" I mean "80 degrees and sunny" but you get my drift.
Thanks for joining me and I wish you all a happy December!
My foot hurts. I cannot figure out why, but turns out that walking (if you can call what I was doing walking) all day on it yesterday really was a terrible idea. So I lay on the couch all day with my foot elevated. It still hurts, but not so severely.
I passed the time reading Twilight because I truly have no backbone and feel compelled to jump on each and every bandwagon that comes along.
Actually, that reminds me that I have not been updating my books read list in a long time. Better get on that.
I didn’t take my camera with me today when I went shopping. I may be crazy enough to bring it with me everywhere else, but I am not insane. On Black Friday the big fancy camera stays home.
I did, however, take my iPod with me. It’s small enough to tuck in my purse, and it was absolutely necessary for the drive today. Last night my husband discovered he could buy me the new Killers album for, like, a dollar on the Zune website (whatever that may be, we have opposing mp3 players). Anyway, long story longer, he downloaded it for me and I am the happiest girl on the planet today.
I recently finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, the second novel by the author of The Kite Runner (I have not read The Kite Runner yet if that matters). It was riveting. Horrible and beautiful all at once. One of the things I like about photography is how you can make something awful into something beautiful enough to call art. That is exactly what this book is.
The Universe is speaking a message to me with the timing of this book finally falling into my lap. I just finished it this week – Thanksgiving week. And it reminded me of so much that I take for granted: running water, enough food, my children, my marriage free of beatings, my freedom, my life. The book is more than that, of course, I came away with a new understand of Afghani culture and a little history and found it rich and, well, splendid. But for the purpose of this particular blog entry, I have been focusing on the hard parts all week. I have been reminding myself of how very rich I am, confidant that I will never take all these things for granted again.
HA. Well, the Universe decided to give me a pop quiz today.
Purely for selfish reasons, Thanksgiving is very important to me. It is my very favorte meal EVER and I pride myself on making everything from scratch (except this year) right down to the cornbread for the croutons for the stuffing. I use wholesome ingredients and am trying to perfect my Thanksgiving recipes so that someday my kids will remember me for them and cry when I am dead. Well, and also because I enjoy cooking it, it’s not all for revenge.
So today I got ready to get cookin’. I pulled my giant turkey out of the freezer and opened the package and…. UGH. It had gone bad! It was too late to go hunt down another fresh turkey.
And I cried. And I pouted. And I cursed Trader Joe’s.
And then I felt guilty, thinking of all that I had been trying to focus on this week. After all, I still had so much food and there are people within my own city who have much less than I do.
So, turkey or no turkey, I enjoyed preparing and eating the side dishes, and I counted my blessings.
This year, for the first time, I will be purchasing some animals for the Heifer Organization. It’s not much, but it’s something I can put out there into the universe.
What are you thankful for?
These are only half of the books I pulled out of M’s room today. She takes a pile in with her each night and they don’t always get cleaned out right away. I’m not sure how many nights this represents, maybe 2 weeks?
She is sick today, poor babe. This seems to be a slow-moving cold. The husband got it over a week ago, E came down with it on Friday, and M has been flirting with it for awhile now, but it’s only become official today.
We spent some time playing, she and I, this morning. Reenacting Charlotte’s Web (the cartoon, and sometimes the book) with Littlest Petshop animals. When the story was over, her brother ran in with a book and I read it to them, with my big girl curled up on my lap, head resting against my chest like so many nights so long ago. The book was short, but by the end of it, I looked down at M and saw a large puddle of drool – she had fallen asleep! I don’t remember the last time she slept on me. I wish I could have kept her there longer. I would have sat for hours cuddled with my first baby. It was, without a doubt, the highlight of my day. Well, except for the part about the drool.
Last I went to acupuncture, my acupuncturist seemed so bummed we didn’t get my pincushion feet for my tiny moment so I brought my camera this time as a do-over.
Alternate photo here.
My sweet little boy ran up to me the other day and informed me he’d stepped on a spider.
“Oh?” I asked him, “How does the spider feel about that?”
“He’s all done.”
Indeed.
A trip to the Post Office. A birthday gift for my dad. Of course, today is his birthday so it will be, uh, late. But, hey. At least it’s mailed.
At church this morning. I much prefer to sit in the back row, and this was before service so it filled up more after I took this photo (which, might I add, I took in public. You should owe me for setting the camera on the ground and snapping pics looking like a complete loon). After M went off to RE (which is Unitarian-speak for Sunday School), I pulled out the knitting needles and began work on my current, secret, project once again. Did I mention the smaller child is sick AGAIN? I daresay WTF?
A clementine and sugar cane. Now, if only I knew what the heck to do with sugar cane.
I am, in no particular order... mom, wife, friend, hippie, liberal, Pagan, woman, attachment parent, paranoid, photographer, homeschooler, breastfeeder, exerciser, dysfunctional, adult child of an alcoholic, hilarious, listener, sincere, honest, sporadic knitter, semi-crafty, feminist, Lost Addict, dependent, independent, mildly self-absorbed.
