Day #6: Geese a-Laying*

Quack honk HONK! Honk honk honk

Honk HONK HONK quack honk!

HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK!

Honk quack.

*Lay: A narrative poem or ballad, often one sung by minstrels. Who knew geese were so poetic? 

 

2011 - best of

#1 J - thank you for being so fantastic, so full of love and patience and creativity. Thank you for being mine and my being yours. I love you!
#2 C + A
#3 Everything else

Day #5: Five (Golden Rings)

A cinquain*

Maple

Sticky, green

Pouring, crunching, crystallizing

A food? A tree?

Dual-y

*Yes, I had to look it up. I do not generally remember most poetic forms off the top of my head.

Day #4: Colly Birds

(A limerick)

There once was a bird called “Colly”

Who liked to say “good golly!”

One day—who knows why?—

She poked me in the eye.

You can guess that did not make me jolly.

Day #3: French (Hens)

(Free verse)

“J’aime mieux tes levres que mes livres,” I say.

“Cara mia!” you exclaim, and you grab my arm to kiss it.

The Addams family lives on.

Day #2: Turtle Doves

(An acrostic)

Today, not

Unexpectedly, I

Really love

To watch my

Lovely daughters and

Excellent hubby play together,

Doing all

Of the crazy,

Very

Energetic 

Stuff they do.

Day #1: A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Actually, a haiku.

Instead of partridge

In any sort of fruit tree

I’ll write random poems

Frivoling and Whuffing

Today, while my darling husband took Addra and Coriel out for some quality daddy playtime, I had the house to myself. So I took the opportunity to engage in both some frivoling and some whuffing.

Frivoling: Essentially time wasting. This is separate from things like relaxing or having fun. It’s more like filler that qualifies as sort of low-grade amusement. In this case, it was watching the rest of a movie that was only semi-interesting to me while I played computer games and avoided getting to work on cleaning the house. (Frivoling generally occurs in avoidance of some other activity.)

Also, in writing this post, I have discovered something tragic: The word “frivoling” was not of my very own invention (and yes, it is based on the word “frivolity,” but I hadn’t realized that it had already been turned into a verb). It is, in fact, a real word. Darn it, I was feeling creative for a minute there.

Whuffing: Doing productive stuff, sort of. We (Brice and I, not just the royal “we”) started using this word after we read this book in which the future currency is called “whuffy points.” Whuffy points are awarded based on, pretty much, how great people think you are. Hold a door open for someone with their arms full of books? Get some whuffy from them. Cut someone off in traffic? Lose some whuffy. So around our house whuffing is when you do something that the rest of the family will probably appreciate. Like laundry and cleaning and jazz like that.

And there you go! Brice played with the kiddos (which totally earned him whuffy in my book). I whuffed and frivoled (mostly whuffed, though). We watched some movies and relaxed and opened one Christmas eve present (pajamas for the girls, pillows for us), and had an all-round smashy-good Christmas eve.

And now for a completely unrelated picture. I’ll be posting more later, but this is from the family pictures Meghan took for us a couple weeks ago. Awesome!

not equal (or splenda)

I wonder why we're so trained or wired to over-focus on negatives. A day can be going along amazingly and one perceived negative thing can shoot the day down the tubes even if there are positive things of equal or greater magnitude nearby. That's not very splendid.

I

I kea You kea, we all kea for plush toys, shelves, and tasty Swedish food. We wondered who first thought of putting berries with meatballs and gravy.

Also, that means we get to go through tunnels, hooray!

motive

I lacked it at work today. Tomorrow I'll get back into it. Indian food for dinner, library visit, family night, helping Jim/Jean, carols from the Lewises (we love you!), and finally bed.

Voices in My Head*

Ever have those days when it feels like there are just too many voices competing for their place in your mind? I have been having a lot of those lately. I’m not feeling brilliant at the moment, so don’t expect me to be witty or interesting, but I decided to just write out some thoughts (one of the voices in my head was yelling at me to write write write!) and finish up a blog post instead of agonizing over it eternally (which is what I do with much of my writing).

One of the things I think about a lot (with plenty of warring opinions) is parenting. There should be a book, don’t you think? Oh wait, there are (let her cry it out). About a million of them. Each certain that theirs (children must learn who’s boss) is the best way. I don’t read all that (you can’t spoil a baby) many of them, because I think most (don’t say “no”) of them are somewhat bunk-y. Or based on parenting philosophies I disagree (guide by time-outs) with. Or just too long and boring to bother with. (guide by love and reason) Whatever. The point is, that I don’t (guide by love unfeigned) read many of them, but even the ones I do read fill my head (don’t say “good job”) with differing pieces of advice. It’s exhausting. It’s even more exhausting when, after a long long day, my daughter wants yet one more story and I can’t even decide whether it’s better to spend more time together (and thus attempt to meet her needs) or remind her that she reached her story limit (and thus be firm in rule making). Tired tired tired.

It is hard clearing the voices and listening to the Spirit. Sometimes it is nearly impossible. Nevertheless, here are a few voices that I have appreciated over the last week or two. I think these might be about right, or at least they are something to think about (even if they don’t particularly tell me exactly what to do—which, let’s be honest, is sort of what I want sometimes). Pretty much this is sort of a linkdump; all those tabs in Firefox are getting out of hand again.

From http://thegiftofgivinglife.blogspot.com/2011/05/prophetess.html (which was thought provoking for me in terms of what it means to raise a child):

Back to the weightier matter of raising little prophets and prophetesses. This is no small task. But here’s the kicker. It is not so much about parenting skills as it is about getting over your stuff—your own personal stuff and your relationship stuff—so that you install as little as possible of it in your children. That way they can find and start their missions sooner.

When I say get over your stuff, I’m not talking about the sort-of-trying, thinking-about-it, small steps you may have been taking toward positive change. Small steps are good. But I’m talking quantum leaps. These are the last days. And the fact that you are here now today parenting these children means that you can quantum leap every day. If you are not already growing and transforming and healing from your past every day, then ask God how. Lay down all your old stories, including guilt about not being there already. Just move forward. Any time a woman does something to raise her own vibration, the entire family benefits. You know this to be true. When you are grouchy, the whole family follows. When you are joyful, they also trail along like little puppies.

Ask God where to look and what to do so that you can grow more each day than you ever have before. Pour your heart out to Him. Then be prepared to follow inspiration. This requires releasing attachment to what growth should look like. Ask your children to pray for you, too. Then get ready.

About commitment and the difference between “having options” and “keeping your options open”: http://thegiftofgivinglife.com/opposite-of-anxiety/

From my friend Derrill, about how part of parenting is trying to guide our children through discipline (and sometimes frustration) now so that they don’t have to suffer for mistakes later:

Thus we find ourselves in the very uncomfortable position of trying to make him truly regret his actions and desire to change. As I held him in loving but firm time out tonight until he finally began to be sorrowful, I pondered what it meant to be a father. This wasn’t about retribution or punishment - the actual offense had been very minor, and nothing I can’t remember doing at his age. But because of that I see afar off the misery he will bring to himself (and to us) if he cannot learn some very basic principles. I need to bring into the present a very small portion of that future sorrow so that he will see today the importance of a repentance whose real fruits won’t be felt in full for years.

In a way, this is how I feel about some of my students who had to receive failing grades this semester. If some of their earlier teachers had had the courage to tell them they had no mathematical background, they would not have had a difficult time in my class; but because someone let it slide then they have a consequence today. If I let it slide too, they will surely face a worse consequence further on down the road.

I ponder how God has tried to bring the future misery of my own decisions into my present to help me repent now and save myself an eternal weight of sorrow.

I ponder how to unite both a willingness to sacrifice anything so that he need not suffer with the need as a dutiful father to discipline.

It’s time to quiet down now, voices. I’m tired, my babies are asleep, and I want to go to bed. (ha ha ha, you think we’ll quiet down, but we won’t; good luck sleeping!)

*And might I just say that today has been a rather prolific blog day?

best

I have the best wife ever - she let me take a nap today! It was so great. I hardly ever get naps and I was really tired today. Up multiple times with the kids then up early for Bishopric meeting. But my superb spouse saved the day! I sure do love that woman.

foamy soap

Turns out you can refill foamy soap dispensers with regular liquid hand soap by just adding about 1/3 the volume with water, then shaking a bit after you add the soap. Without the water the soap is too thick and clogs up the foamer. But the liquid soap big refills are cheap compared to new little foamers, so that's why : )

Got to talk for a while with Grandma and Uncle Trace tonight, which was fun. C gave a talk in primary about Jesus' birth. A fell asleep on me, but woke up after I tried to pass her off to J so I could leave to go home teaching.

Speaking of which, it feels so good to finally be doing my duty this month and visiting people. I don't like when I get too lazy to do much, which has been the case for far too long now. But for now at least I'm doing better.

Pens

Addra is addicted to pens. Everywhere we go in the house, she finds them. They are almost the first thing she picks up in the morning and usually the first thing she sets down at night. And, to be completely honest, she sometimes doesn’t bother with that lat step. One night she fell asleep with one in each hand.

She can find a pen anywhere, even when I think an area is safe—suddenly she has another one! She also notices when I put them up high on a shelf, and she reaches up and squeals until I appease her.

To keep our house safe, we are constantly having to find pens that are impervious to her growing skills. She has already learned to uncap some, and she can click those clicky ones. Of course crayons and pencils are right out—they’re not only implements of writing destruction, but they are also suspiciously like food.

Yesterday I let her actually use a bright purple marker. The moment it touched the paper and she saw the streak of color cross the page, she was delighted. She looked up at me with the biggest grin on her face, and she giggled. Then she continued to jab the marker at the paper and wave it around. The results were quite artistic.

We read a book recently in which four things are set before a baby on her one-year birthday. Conclusions are drawn about her future career path based on what she reaches for first. I must say that, based on this idea, Addra is definitely going to be a writer. Maybe next year she can do NaNoWriMo with me. Granted, most of her words will look suspiciously like “adf;an;ogd,” but you’ve gotta start somewhere.

review

Cleaning, making cookie bars with C, playing with the girls, trimming my hair, studying for the PMP test, ward Christmas party, late bedtimes. Now, low on oomf.

early

Early bedtime tonight - we're all super tired. Our fun houseguests have left, but we hope they'll come back soon. C continues to love putting on J's makeup. I'm still having fun swooshing A up down and back and forth when she reaches out to touch things like a picture or magnet on the fridge. She laughs / squeels with delight. That makes it all worth it. I survived my big work meetings today - yay!

grrrreat

Today I am grrrateful for a smartphone for blogging while A falls asleep, most people liking my experimental cookies, exec secretary calls going well, five guys burgers, stable employment, a daughter who is totally thrilled to see me every day when I get home, that A is now walking more than crawling, guests who are nice, finding a babysitter we think will be good, getting to schedule some home teaching, no snow yet (although I scrape thin frosty ice from all my car windows every morning), and finally significant progress on contract stuff at work.

mixnmatch

3 things for a Monday:
- you can put any veggies you want in stir fry as long as they're thin and you have soy sauce
- you can put any veggies you want in curry
- you can put all sorts of flavorings in chocolate chip cookies. Tonight C, Al, and Si helped me make pecan chocochip cookies and also helped me make Li-min-chip (Festival flavor) cookies with lime, peppermint, and choco chips. Rubysnap is amazing at her flavor combinations- I aspire to such creativity.

Oh, the treats are for "Mandatory Fun Week" at work. It tells you so much about the work dynamic, doesn't it?

cycles

How does one tell when A is really deeply asleep? when she finally drops the pen(s) she's been holding for the last 39 hours some kids have blankies or knuffle bunnies. She has pens we've taken the ink out of. Maybe she's destined for writing.

pictures

Getting ready for and taking family pictures (waterford park) took up a good piece of the day. Thought I had lost my phone, but found it. Alloy of law was excellent. So was Breyers cookies 'n choco ice cream. Wish I had lots of time off to go visit foo and friends everywhere. I actually want to study for PMP a bit. I also want to sleep for 30 hours, but I try not to set such unrealistic goals.

Five Things for Friday

Pretentious: So, you remember the guys you used to mock in high school because whenever they passed a mirror, they would look in it and artistically muss up their hair? I am now one of those guys. No, I don’t actually do this for every mirror I pass (I’m sure it’s only every third or fourth one). But essentially my hairstyle now is “messy—but on purpose.” And I can’t help it that, every morning when I do my hair for the day,* I feel just a little bit pretentious.

Houseguests: You know how Benjamin Franklin said “fish and visitors stink after three days”?** In the case of my current guests, I must say they are still smelling as fresh and lovely as the day they arrived. We have been happily hosting two of my sisters and three of one sister’s kids since Wednesday (I suppose this means they could start smelling tomorrow? I doubt it though). They are lovely houseguests.

I, on the other hand, am not the most lovely of hostesses. I do try, really, but I think it says something about the situation that they have probably done more dishes and meal preparation than I have, definitely made more beds than I have (what? make my bed? why?), and done my daughter’s hair more than I have. In fact, it’s quite possible that my house will be cleaner after they leave than before they came.

NaNoWriMo and other literary craziness: Yes, I sort of forgot to mention it, but I did achieve my NaNoWriMo goal! Calloo callay! I celebrated by eating ice cream and doing a happy excited dance very quietly (so as not to wake up the girls). And then I promptly started dreading all the editing the novel would require. You think I’m joking or exaggerating or something, but I’m really not. Take, for example, this passage.

“Nice to meet you too, Mrs. Lewis. And me and Gillian—Fgillian and I--we’re just planning on studying. Just studing, all night long. Nothing else.”

Now I realliy winced. How could hep possibly have said thais in a way to  make her even more suspicoul? I coulnd’t think of a way.

“So that’s it,” I said to Mom, gently grabbing Sam’s elbow and trying to steer him toward the living room. “Like he said, just studying. We’ll be in here if you need us.”

I practicaly had to yank him the rest of the way into the living room, and then I just stared at him for a minute. “Realyy? I asked. “You had to meniotn it three times? Nothing suspcious there. For a guy who’s good with words, you’re awfully dumb sometimes.” I smiled to take a waawy the sting.

Take a gander, if you please, at just the need for spell checking (ignoring altogether everything else that might be wrong with it). This, my friends, is what my writing looks like during NaNoWriMo. So, yeah, there’s a lot of work to do.

On the other hand, I’m taking a break, as Brice already mentioned, to do something completely different in December. A contest! Facing off against… my husband (and probably countless faceless masses)! So wish me luck.

Thirty-something: Yes, indeed, I had a birthday. I have now achieved the ripe old age of … (drum roll, please) … thirty-one. I don’t feel particularly old.*** I know lots of women dread reaching the thirties, but I must confess a lack of consternation over it last year, and no more consternation this year. The only real problem is this: shouldn’t I be a little more mature by now? Don’t you think? Say, maybe by now I should have stopped using the word “like” extragrammatically? Or dealt with and tossed out a little more emotional baggage? Or, I dunno, at least learned to make my bed in the morning?**** Perhaps these shall be tasks for the coming year. But honestly, folks, life is pretty awesome, even at thirty-one (especially with the Fantastic Hubby of Shininess).*****

I can’t count: It turns out that I can really only think of four things today. I’m sure if I were feeling more brilliant, I’d come up with something else. But… no.

*Okay, maybe not every morning. I don’t actually even do my hair every morning.

**Obnoxiously, the Googoracle could not inform me whether he actually said “smell in three days” or “stink after three days.” So please don’t send me hate mail telling me I quoted it wrong.

***More correctly: I don’t feel particularly old until I have conversations with friends in which I realize they are twenty-one (cough, cough, Rachel a couple years ago and now Meghan). And then I later realize that when I was graduating from high school, my friend was… eight.

****Please see above section, “Houseguests.”

*****And he didn’t even have to bribe me to call him that. Actually, if he’d come up with the name, it would probably have been way cooler.

luzes (lights)

Went down to DC LDS temple and saw the lights and the many nativities. I took a few pictures with my phone and will post them to FB (they said it was ok!). Still have Marno, kids, Dawn here - still loving them being here!

invasion + ducks

We've temporarily increased our home occupancy rate by 125% and we're so delighted they're here. We hope you'll stay a long time! Aunt Marno and kids + Aunt dawn = so much fun! Plus they very kindly watched C and A so J and I could go out to celebrate her bday. La Madeleine (quiche + dinner crepes + parfait + pie + hot cocoa). Yum! Then duck pin bowling. You may have to google it for a full understanding, but here's the basics:
- it seems to be a Maryland area thing
- a few bowling alleys are set up entirely for duckpin (instead of normal 10 pin).
- the balls are the size of a grapefruit, have no holes, and don't weigh very much
- the lane is the same
- the pins are much smaller than normal and shaped a bit different
- you get 3 tries instead of 2. You can score 10 points on a frame without getting a spare or strike if you tip the last pins in the 3rd frame
- here's one of my favorite parts: the lane doesn't clear between bowls. So you can do 1, 2, 3 in quick succession. Even better, the tipped pins stay in the lane so you can use them to ricochet around and hit the other pins.
- the smaller pins do fly around a lot in explosive bursts (perhaps leading to the name- if they look like ducks bursting out of the brush).
- I've bee told no one has ever scored a perfect 300 in duckpin - it's harder and less precise and more fun!
Next time you (any of you) come visit us, we'll take you so you can try it.

tree

We bought a cute little tree from Vince's, then bought a tree stand and some lights from target. This is our first live tree while we've been married and it looks pretty nice and shiny! Plus C helped put ornaments on while A took them off (and tried to chew on them), so that was extra fun.

french horns

"They look like musical intestines" -- J

devotional

LDS christmas devotional was fantastic - I recommend watching it at LDS.org. I am looking forward to the new videos - thanks first presidency for my first Christmas present of the year. Plus, it's focused on the savior, awesome!

decor

Christmas decorations! I decided to not be a scrooge-grinch this year and not stall forever when J talked about Christmas. So we got the boxes out of the attic and spent some family time putting up mini-trees, a green fabric tree (which I really love), lights (blue), nativities, and more. Fun times.

We made fajita pot-roast for dinner, which was very tasy. Just substitute fajita seasonings for onion gravyand cook on low for 10 hours with some onions. Seve as the meat in fajitas.

Darn, I wish I could remember the thing I thought would make a great post earlier in the day. C did tell me that "tomatos are sneaky because if you take off the red skin, voilà, they have an onion inside". Yep, she used voilà. So delightful and also wacky. Good work taking after your old man kiddo!

Did fast offering route, had a nice walk outside in the sun with the fam, worked on scheduling tithing settlement for the bishop, got released as Elder's Quorum teacher. But there was still something else. I'll have to ask J.

soul stealer

Dear wifey, don't worry about the pictues. They are going to turn out amazing, just like our family. And I'm pretty sure we'll have most of our souls left after the pictures. Hmm, makes me think about my job. Wonder why that would be.

extremely tall mountain region hut just doesn't have the same ring to it

I picked up dinner from Himalayan House tonight. The food was delicious. I also felt like I had a really nice blessing: they didn't take Amex, and their machine wouldn't read my MC. I felt blessed because I had almost enough cash (somewhat unusual) and the clerk said I could bring the last few dollars next time I came (extremely unusual)!

In other news I already have 1 or 2 ideas for Mormon Lit Blitz! J and I are competing: my awesome talent against her 2-time novelist status (and amazing talent). Fortunately, I read a lot of short stories, so I'm ready to roll. So bring it on wifey with the cute hair!