x3

So I have a new project going on… I want to reclaim my home, which kinda got away from me during the misery of last autumn. Right now, it’s a miserable, overwhelming place, but I’ve decided to cut it down into little chunks, and do one a day until I’ve got it to a place where maybe even I can manage to keep it handled.

I’m trying to make little lists for myself of each section I do, so that I have nice little check off boxes that I can look at and feel like things are getting done, especially given the nature of some of these sections. And eventually, when I’ve reclaimed enough space, we’re going to dig the boxes out of storage and get out things like our books! That’ll be wonderful.

On the whole, this project is looking to take me around 3-4 months, easily, especially since there’ll be days here and there that I take off, for whatever reason. But if I can manage to get it done… it’ll feel so great.

This video blew me away when I first saw it, and it wouldn’t be right not to share. It was made by percula and posted on the Vimeo website, though I know he’s also posted it in other places. There are hints that someday, it might perhaps become a series - I highly encourage anyone who likes it to go share your thoughts with the creator, and encourage him to continue his work.

It’s been many years since this household got a newspaper. In truth, I personally don’t pay much attention to the news, but it’s a conscious choice on my part. I tried, when I was younger, and found it very depressive for me - yes there were a few happy stories here and there, but by and large, it felt very much like the world was one great vat of misery and crime, and I didn’t like feeling that way, or seeing that much… so I stopped. Since my husband can keep up with the news at work, we’ve never really felt any great need for a newspaper. That may change in a couple of years.

My daughter came to me recently - at eight years old, she’s assured me that when she’s a little older, she wants to start keeping track of the news and knowing what’s going on in the world. Right before my eyes, she’s growing up, and her outlook makes me proud. I won’t be changing my own personal choices, but it’s encouraging to me that she feels free to make such decisions for herself, without feeling that she has to conform to the way I do things.

What I do know I will do is, on the day when she decides she’s ready to take that step, support her. We will arrange for a newspaper for her, or a subscription to a news site, or something similar. And I will do my best to be someone she can talk to about what she reads and learns about, so that she doesn’t feel alone in this.

Substitute other green vegetables to suit your tastes and what you have on hand.

(continue reading…)

Hair,
Mouse-brown and board-straight.
A brilliant mind,
Full of thoughts and jokes I never understood,
but it was the hair that stayed,
A single mental image:
One hand lifting
A lacy web of mouse-brown strands.
In the light, they were gold.