But they have to look like this. Note for future visitors: you’ll find less seating in my new place, but you’ll be able to see my books. I’m never. ever. hiding my treasures behind couches again. Ever. And I’m buying them fresh shelves to make up for this recent injustice.
For World Book Night on the 23rd. So excited to be a giver this year!
My entire day. Except for cooking and a load of laundry and distracting myself with the internet because this book’s photo is in the dictionary beside the entry for “dry.”
So, yeah, I know I am in seclusion this weekend and in theory should not be making a lengthy post. Truly it has been wonderful to step away from the computer for a bit and focus on some other (inner) work. I have gotten a good number of things done, and will have to visit the idea of making this a regular occurrence. My lists of things to do continue to multiply, which should have ceased to surprise me long ago. Sigh.
Anyway, one of the tasks I assigned myself was clearing my desk. Again. And one of the things on my desk was a review copy of Wise Craft.
Perhaps the most effective endorsement I can give this book is to tell you this: in a time when I am looking to downsize my everything, I am glad to have this book, and I will be taking it with me when I move. The projects in it are not overly complicated or fussy. Few of them are costly or overly time consuming. Most of them can be varied to use what you have on hand or are able to find easily. Many of them will find themselves in the rooms of my new home. I am quite fascinated by the crocheted net enclosed glass fishing floats on p.87 and the knitted swatch blanket on p. 167. I am so enthralled, in fact, that I am willing to forgive Miss Stocker for suggesting that one might use books as hot pads by intentionally desecrating them (p. 22 for the infidels among you).
Anyway, if you consider yourself to be a crafty sort, you might want to give this one a look. Unfortunately, you will have to order it, or visit your library/bookstore. You can’t sample the kindle edition or “look inside” the print version on Amazon. In my mind, that’s a serious omission in today’s book world. OTOH, the book is relatively inexpensive as far as crafting books go, so there’s that.
First Anais Nin. First book read with a new reading partner. There will be hot-from-the-microwave Krispy Kreme doughnuts tonight, too.
This is our snowpocolypse. You will note that there is no snow. This is 2-4 inches of sleet which has become a vast sheet of ice. The children, however, believe this is snow and they are happy. They made themselves snowboards from scrap wood, and I saw my 18 year old laughing as she slipped and slid and “sledded” on a lid from a plastic bin. Resourceful, my children. I took the pic standing on my steps at ten after six without flash. The colors here amazed me–I didn’t see all those blues with the naked eye.
School is cancelled for all the children and for me again tomorrow. Maybe I will get some things done. Maybe I won’t. What I am now concerned about is internship hours. I really should hit the homework hard and get ahead while we are locked in so I can devote more hours at work once we are back on a semi-normal routine. But it is nice, this hanging out at home with my children. Reminds me of how things were in my pre-divorce, home-schooling life. I miss knowing what goes on with them all day, and it is difficult for me to reconnect with the little ones when the three of them all come in the door at the same time, full of their day. Someone always has to wait, and by the time I get to listen to the last one, the excitement has often gone out of whatever they were bursting to share when they came in.
I’m still reading Minn but will likely finish it tonight. And maybe start Self-Reliance. I’m expecting a new book tomorrow that I will read with a partner, but I think I will probably not lodge a complaint with Amazon if it arrives late. After all, they did give me access to the beginning of the ebook with my paper purchase.
I think I will also cast on a pair of green socks tonight. I’d like to be delivering those on February 14th. And then will be gauntlets for an April delivery. And then the scarf for May. And in between my not-a-pair socks, forever constrained to boots. Or to being worn with my feet spread far apart, as one friend so graciously advised.
Alright, dinner is ready. Who’s hungry?
Oh, please ignore the mess in the yard. Sometimes we lose things out there. Anybody need a 16×4 snake audio? I’m not sure we have one, but we might.
So this is my agenda for the day. A child’s book, 84 pages. I like these Holling C. Holling books, because I learn so much reading them. I used them when I homeschooled the children in the early grades to teach subjects like science, history, and geography. But reading them aloud is not the same as reading them for myself. Today I have learned about the vast amount of things in the bottom of the Mississippi, and also that pearl buttons come from clam shells. And that turtle eggs take 100 days to hatch. And I have remembered my last camping trip, and how the kids saw a box turtle sitting in the trail, and I told them just to watch, but not bother her, because she was laying eggs. And how we watched a baby alligator swimming for over an hour. And how I cooked hot dogs in the rain. I’m on page 56.
I had also planned to read Self-Reliance today. And finish The Law of Attraction. But, the internet has been distracting. And text messages have made me smile. Repeatedly. Soon it will be time to cook. And then later tonight, I am putting my head together with a friend to plan my next adventure.
The internet, distracting. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I cannot deny that it is a massive time sink in my life. But I also cannot deny that the advent of such technology has enabled me to pull my circle of friends from far flung places and then keep up with them, almost in real time.
Which thought path led, this morning, to thoughts about laziness, and how invalid I now find the concept of not putting forth effort in interpersonal relationships. And how angry it makes me when people don’t. And then the side of me that doesn’t like to sit in anger had to remind angry me that maybe people who don’t put forth effort just don’t desire the depth of relationship that I desire. Maybe they would rather have easy than real. Maybe they are getting the quality of relationships they want, and I can’t judge them for wanting things to be more superficial. But I can say I think they are often settling, and settling is a miserable way to live a life. You only get one, so don’t settle. Work for what you want: in relationships, in calling, in art– in all you do, work for what you want. Do not let complacency, laziness or cowardice steal from you your one precious life.
I live a life of rabbit trails. I suck the marrow from the bone. I follow my bliss. All those cliches. But the thing is, living like this makes the joy rise up out of me and spill over. And in truth, I fail. I fail often, and I fail hard. But I don’t judge myself for that. I judge myself for the times I hold back effort. I judge myself if I have to ask “what if?” The last thing I want on my death bed is a lingering discourse with myself about what might have been if I had just tried.
Behold! A selection of watches! Just kidding! It’s books. But not 52. Only 24.
I have had an ongoing love affair with the written word since I was 6 years old. In my life BC (that is, Before Children) I easily churned through 2,000 pages per week. It is very safe to say that I have missed reading more than I have missed regular meals and plenty of hot water for showering. It seems that there has been a shift in household dynamics in the past 6 months or so. All my children are now readers. They get the concept of, “just a sec, I’m reading.” This is new and different. It’s been roughly 25 years since I was able to say that and get the desired response, which is….waiting just a sec without whining or pouting. I’m able to read again.
In 2013, I read 50 books. I eeked the last one out on New Year’s Eve, but eek it out I did. This year, my goal is 52. Magazines count, as long as I read the whole thing. Textbooks count, with the same caveat. Books that I pick up, read 10% of and then discard also count. Because if the author doesn’t have my attention 10% in, if I am not emotionally invested or at least curious by that point, he/she hasn’t written a good book and life is too short to read crappy books. There are so many good ones out there waiting for a little love. There were 2 such discards last year.
I’d like, at least for the first 6 months of the year, to read primarily paper books, and ones that may or may not move with me. I gathered these up last night from various nooks, crannies, and shelves. Then I added them to my currently reading list at goodreads. Yes, I currently have 28 books in my “currently reading” list. Too few you say?
You will probably note the Holling C. Holling selections in the back. Yes, kid books count too, depending. I have many books here that I used when I homeschooled my children. When we stopped, I kept the ones that I wanted to read myself and I think it’s time I allow myself to do that.
Anyway, these are the ones I plan to start with. Some of them are underway already. My plan is to start a new one each Wednesday so I can talk about it on Thursday. Because, do you remember this?
Last night, I started You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down by Alice Walker. This is a collection of short stories, and they are short shorts. The longest so far is about 15 pages, and the shortest was two paragraphs. Interestingly enough, it’s the two paragraph story that is still blazing in my mind this morning. It’s called “Petunia.” Read it if you get the chance.
This week’s BTT question is: “What were your favorite books last year?â€
In fiction, History of Love , by Nicole Krauss. It is a beautiful story beautifully told, and earned a spot on the permanent shelf alongside The Time Traveler’s Wife. I also greatly enjoyed The Book Thief.
Nonfiction, Tao Te Ching and Thich Nhat Hahn’s Peace is Every Step. Both of these were game changers for me, and I plan to read them once a year every year for the foreseeable future.