Summer 2011

Comfort Books

I love books. I mean really love them...to the point I cannot even allow myself to read during the school year, because I don't have any self-control when it comes to books. Once I start reading, I cannot stop until the book is finished. And then I mourn the loss of the characters from my life until new ones enter. Repeat. These habits can be somewhat problematic to my other worlds (i.e. Being prepared to teach, making sure my kids have eaten, etc...).

I typically have a summer reading list. Until today, I hadn't even started one. This morning, I realized I want to re-read my lifetime favorites.

My Top 10 Books (In no particular order and I will admit I may remember I have another favorite or six tomorrow I forgot to include today.):

1. My Antonia-Willa Cather. I read this book when I was in college for a history class on American women. It's a lot of things for a gentle kind of book. This is my favorite book of all time.

2. A Prayer for Owen Meany-John Irving. Either you can read Irving or you can't. Either you love his work, or you don't. I'm in the "can read" and "love him" categories. Of his works, I love this one best.

3. East of Eden-John Steinbeck. I've tried to read Grapes of Wrath a dozen times and have never made it very far in before declaring it a boring waste of time. I had given up on Steinbeck as a contender for my time and then stumbled upon this masterpiece. According to the experts, it has literary flaws; too many characters, not enough development, too long, etc... Ummm...who are experts to tell me what I'm going to love? Literary flaws or not, hands down this beats Grapes of Wrath which is supposedly the masterpiece.

4. The Good Earth-Pearl S. Buck. Can you believe this was my favorite book in 5th grade? I've read it a few times again as an adult and am always intrigued as to what I could possibly have gotten from it when I was 11. It was on my grandma's shelf and I picked it up early in the evening. I did not sleep until I had read the whole thing through. It's a long book for an 11 year old to read straight through. It took me all night and all the next day to do it.

5. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn-Betty Smith. Another gem I pulled from my grandma's shelf as a child. This book took over my favorites list when I was 13.

6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings-Maya Angelou. I was obsessed with Maya Angelou's works when I was around 16. Truly obsessed. I believed she was a genius. I'm choosing this title simply because it was the book that introduced me to her work and the door which led to so many other great books and authors.

7. A Thousand Splendid Suns-Khaled Hosseini. I didn't really like The Kite Runner. It was o.k., but it didn't mow me over. This book...how is it that the same author wrote two books with such differing styles? For everything The Kite Runner didn't give me, this book gave me. Many times over. This book made me weep and has haunted me since.

8. The Poisonwood Bible-Barbara Kingsolver. If you can ignore that the author has projected her politics through her fiction, this is an awesome book which tells the story of all Hell breaking loose as a result of human tendency. I've only read it once. It has sufficiently stayed with me long enough to deserve a second read-through and to take up a space in my list of favorites.

9. To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee. What can I even say that hasn't already been said a thousand times over? We listened to this on tape a few years ago and this book became a favorite of my then 7 year old son. Ignoring the fact we obviously have the same taste in books (How awesome is that?), if a book can be the favorite of both a 7 year old and a 35 year old, you know it has to be good.

10. The Screwtape Letters-C.S. Lewis. The thing about Baptist Universities is their required reading lists are a little different than what one may find on non-Christian campuses. I am not a fan of the Narnia series (because I'm bored by it) Lewis is possibly most famous for and therefore maybe never would have read this had it not been on the list. I first read it in 1995 which was the year a single event undoubtedly changed my life in so many ways-beginning with a journey into the darkest of the dark places and then back out again. Coincidental or not, the timing of this reading was impactful; not because it is a comforting or even joyful book, but because it satisfied my analytical mind when I needed something new to think about.

It was only a matter of time. My dad has been waiting for this moment for a long time.

We don't have any food in the house. Or, at least that seems to be the verbal theme around here. In reality, we have enough food in this house to last weeks. Granted, I usually have jarred sauce (and currently don't) for when I need a "cheater meal" and granted there are like 4 different kinds of pasta in this (because we didn't have enough of any one kind), but geez...What do you people think I grew and froze tomatoes for? Why do you think there is basil and rosemary out in the garden? Be creative people. Maybe it's easier to wait for me to do it?

Friday the 13th

1. My table is about 2" too big to fit in my car. Unless I figure out how to get it home, I will have to build another-at home. Boo. I have other projects to be making.

2. Alicia has a Daisy Girl Scout Troop. (Which means "on paper" I have two Girl Scout troops.) These girls are the sweetest little things...the total opposite of my other girls who are sometimes not all that sweet. I made them heart cupcakes.

3. And here's where the day got weird... It occurred to me that when Jac outgrows his Easter shoes, they can become mine. These are my feet. This is alarming.

"The Most"

I'm not sure how many days are left of school. Usually, I've started a countdown something or other by now in anticipation of summer. For some reason, I don't want this school year to end. I have no idea what's up with that.

This is a telling note. (Click on it so you can read it.) It's all fine and good until you get to that part about "the most". "The most" is teenage slang (possibly cultural since I've never heard my own kid say it) and contextually means something like "too much". For example, if I gave out an assignment that required more than minimal effort (or any effort at all, actually) they might say something like "You are the most." (This is not a compliment.) To say I am not "the most" is an attempt to say something good-from the perspective of said teenager. Umm...so I'm not doing "the most". Read between the lines on that one.

They are convinced I'm not white. This is a compliment from their perspective. Before they decided I am obviously black, they were convinced I was Asian...because there was no way I could possibly be white. To clarify, I'm white.

I'm not sure what this is about. She taped it up next to the security call button-maybe there's some meaning in that? It's a drawing of a girl in a weird hat standing in a thunderstorm. That's all I've got.

This totally cracks me up every time I look at it. Someone asked me what my favorite bird was and then gave me this drawing of a flamingo. The part I find funny is the dramatic signature on a simple line drawing. (Bonus Question: How many different spellings of my name can you find in today's post?)

Just being real. It wouldn't be fair of me to give you an incomplete picture.

I built this table yesterday. It had significant issues (a frequent result when one approaches instructions as if they are mere suggestions). I messed around with it today and now it has fewer issues. Maybe the next one will be perfect. Tomorrow: four bar stools to go around it.

Dinner=Fried Potatoes and Onions with Chickpeas and Bratwurst Seasoned with Curry.

The Basics

My "Top Ten Pantry Must Haves":
1. Olive Oil
2. Fresh Garlic
3. Ginger Root
4. Onions (more than 1 variety is preferable)
5. Sea Salt
6. Limes
7. Curry Powder
8. Fresh Rosemary
9. Fresh Basil
10. Some kind of hot pepper

Dinner tonight...Stir fried tofu and brocolli with sweet onions in a peanut sauce over jasmine rice.

This was supposed to be a Mother's Day Post, but...umm...yeah...it's not.

It's interesting. I don't remember anything about Mother's Day last year. Weird.

1. I have the best friends. (Just to be clear, I spent approximately 37.something of my years thinking I didn't need any people in my life. "Too much trouble", I said. I was wrong. Oh, I was so wrong.)

My friend made me this beautiful basket. She probably didn't even know that lavendar is one of my favorite scents and that I threw away my old (and smelled badly) travel mug on Friday (and forgot to buy a new one over the weekend). I was in a funky mood this morning and she totally brightened my day. I love you Diane Weaver.

2. There's too much to say about this. For those not in the know, these cards were passed out for Mother's Day at the church. Each card was different and they were prayed over with the hopes each woman would get the verse they were meant to have. I got Philippians 4:6-7.

Back in the day (some odd 20ish years ago when I had some convuluted idea of who God is, but I relied on Him to some extent anyway), I had those verses written in my ATO (Airman Training Order). In basic training, when we were marching around or standing around or pretending to not look around or whatever...I would be saying those verses over and over to myself in my head. Whenever we were supposed to be reading that ATO (which was pretty much anytime we were still enough to open it), I would be reading those verses over and over. Basic training was a little rough for me...because I don't like people telling me what to do (duh?). The military isn't the place for somebody with that kind of issue (duh?). These verses got me through those 6 weeks. They got me through a lot of things in my earlier life.

In my current world, I'm all caught up with trying to memorize other things. But, today I am reminded, these will always be my verses.

3. Last year, I was part of an on-line group of people (We met through a sewing board 10+ years ago and have remained friends.) who were all selecting a word for the year. Just one word to focus on. I was newly happy and chose the word "Be" (as in "just be" and stop worrying about/thinking about anything I didn't like or want to do.) It later got expanded to "Be still and know...", but that's not the story I'm telling right now.

This year, I couldn't think of a word. I had almost settled on a phrase, but that wasn't quite right either. It came to me this past week. My word is "wait". Miss E (I love you too, Miss E!) finds it somewhat humorous I had to wait for my word and my word turned out to be "wait". I'm not really fun like that, but I do see the irony. I also realize I'm not all that good at waiting (as was mentioned in a previous post).

Full Day

I'm tired. Really, really tired. It seems like a million years ago I woke up.

I taught school. (No pictures of that...it's sort of illegal for me to post pictures of kids who don't belong to me.)

I built some furniture. Two benches. Sort of. I started them at the beginning of the week and am just now getting them done. One is completely done and I'm happy with it. The other is nearly done and is really scrappy. (E are you smiling?) I'm not known for being able to wait on anything and when I decided to build these, I couldn't wait to get good wood. (Tomorrow I'm going to make a post entitled "Wait". There is something to say about that.) The boards I used were not so great and twisted boards don't do much for anything you want to be square. (The result, in this case, is one leg is higher than the rest due to the twisting of the boards in the seat frame.) They are going outside. Do I care enough to keep worrying about what to do about that (i.e...make another bench)? I have all these furniture building plans and they are so much I'm too hesitant to even share my list. (Because, I may not be able to pull it off. It really is a lot.)

I started with a pile of boards. The plans I used are loosely based on those of Ana White. I say loosely, because her plans call for 1x4's and I only had 1x6's. (Remember? I didn't want to wait.) That required some math (but mostly some winging it). I painted all six sides three times. That takes awhile.

Speaking of paint...I dragged home a gazillion paint chips from Home Depot. These colors match my dishes (and the tiles in my kitchen and the walls in my living room...), so I'm going with them. I like a different red, but we've already got a can of this red in the basement.

This is the good bench. Who knew it would be so hard to photograph a bench? I took a million pics and none of them are outstanding.

This is where it gets sketchy. Like I said, the second bench isn't totally screwed together and if I decide to not scrap it, it will need sanded/painted/etc... I had envisioned this on my screen porch in the corner.

Had to stop and smell the roses...or bleeding hearts. (I don't have any roses.) Bleeding hearts are my all-time favorite flower. Is it possible something cuter could have been created? Lilies of the valley are my next favorite and I noticed mine are on the cusp of blooming.

Dinner...leek and potato frittata with cheese and broccoli muffins. My family raised their eyebrows at the latter (and two of them were fairly vocal with the "Eww...brocolli muffins?), but somehow all 12 have been eaten.