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Saturday, December 31, 2005

year-end survey

lifted from KiwiRia...

1) Was 2005 a good year for you?
Yes, it was.

2) What was your favorite moment of the year?
Oh, geesh, one favorite moment? Most of my life is made up of my favorite moments. Which means I'm truly blessed, but it does make it difficult to answer questions like this.

3) What was your least favorite moment of the year?
I had some bouts of near-depression and some days when I felt very unlike myself.

4) Where were you when 2005 began?
Home. I think I might even have been awake.

5) Who were you with?
The cat. I think everybody else was asleep.

6) Where will you be when 2005 ends?
Home.

7) Who will you be with when 2005 ends?
The cat again. At least I'm consistent.

8) Did you keep your new years resolution of 2005?
I kept one (to keep track of the books I read) and shattered two (to lose weight and get/keep the house organized and tidy). I also started a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days, and although I haven't kept up with actually marking things off it or blogging about the things I've done, I do sort of have a lot of them in the back of my mind. I should pull that out and go over it and post it. Hmm.

9) Do you have a new years resolution for 2006?
I think T and I are going to read through the Bible together. And (drumroll please) I'm going to stop yelling.

10) Did you fall in love in 2005?
I fell more deeply in love. (side note: you know how when you've been married a while, the love is stronger and things are even more blissful but you don't often have that initial heady butterflies in the stomach and weak knees thing going on? Don't you love it when out of the blue that feeling comes again? The other day T and I were talking about how I always associate the texture and scent of wool flannel shirts with falling in love with him, because he wore them a lot at that time, and he replied that he always associates them with the way he would put one on on purpose when he knew he was going to see me because he knew that I liked him in them. And bingo -- butterflies in the stomach and weak knees. It felt like a gift)

11) If yes, with whom?
Um, my husband. (And my Nikon).

12) If yes, does he know?
I tell him all the time, just to make sure.

14) Did you have fun in 2005?
Oh goodness yes.

15) Did you breakup with anyone in 2005?
No.

16) Did you make any new friends in 2005?
Kristen! I made a couple of friendly acquaintances IRL, but no call-at-4-am kind of friends. I did grow closer to several people and meet a lot of nice people online, too.

17) Who are your favorite new friends?
You know, asking about favorite friends is kind of problematic. You can't rank friends on a scale, you know? All my friends are wonderful and I'm not in high school so I don't have to pick a 'best friend'. Even though that means I don't write 'YBFFAE!!!' on the bottom of any letters.

18) What was your favorite month of 2005?
I liked the spring, and the summer. For once. The evenings were long and I was having a heady and passionate affair with my camera, so that provided lots of time to indulge it. (you didn't think I could pick just ONE, did you?)

19) Did you travel outside of the US in 2005?
No.

20) How many different states did you travel to in 2005?
I did not venture out of California. California's BIG, though. :)

21) Did you lose anyone close to you in 2005?
I don't think so. Of course, because my mind is like a steel sieve, the possibility exists that I did and as soon as I've posted this I'll hate myself for forgetting. But I don't think so.

22) Did you miss anybody in the past year?
Yes, several of my dear friends live quite far away.

23) What was your favorite movie that you saw [for the first time] in 2005?
hmm. HMM. I didn't watch a whole lot of new movies, or movies new to me. Maybe Ocean's Eleven, or The Phantom of the Opera, or the new Pride and Prejudice (the second time I saw it I did a pretty decent job of forcing myself to forget I'd ever read the book, and voila, it was a beautiful movie, except when Donald Sutherland was on the screen or when the actors had lines that were glaringly anachronistic. Still like the BBC version better, though.)

24) What was your favorite song from 2005?
I don't keep up with new music so I've no idea on this one.

25) What was your favorite record from 2005?
Ditto

26) How many concerts did you see in 2005?:
Well, I saw a couple of community chorus concerts...

27) Did you have a favorite concert in 2005?
Could this survey be aimed any more sharply at people in an entirely different phase of life than I'm in?

28) Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2005?
Ah, no.

29) Did you do a lot of drugs in 2005?
I took some Tylenol with codeine when I had surgery...

30) How many people did you sleep with in 2005?
[steals/adapts Ria's answer] Literally sleep, 3. Have sex with - 1 (hey, we're married, you'd be surprised if we didn't ;-) )

31) Did you lose anything important this year?
Nothing that couldn't be replaced, I don't think.

33) What was the worst lie someone told you in 2005?
If anyone told me terrible lies, I didn't know it.

34) Did you treat somebody badly in 2005?
I think maybe I did.

35) Did somebody treat you badly in 2005?
Yes, a guy ripped off one of my pictures and then weaseled out of paying me for it, and I let him. I'm a softie. This is why I'm not in business.

36) How much money did you spend in 2005?
Too. Much.

37) What was your proudest moment of 2005?
Well, there were a lot of proud mother-moments, I know this, but honestly, I can't remember any of them right now. The only specific things that stand out are a) seeing a 'best of show' ribbon on my crocheted baby outfit at the fair b) hearing a couple of people enthuse about one of my pictures (also at the fair) when they didn't know I was the photographer, and c) THE CRACK-FREE CHEESECAKE.

38) What was your most embarrassing moment of 2005?
Sometimes I feel like my life is an embarrassing moment, but nothing specific springs to mind right now.

39) If you could go back in time to any moment of 2005 and change something, what would it be?
I am not sure if I would go back and continue sticking it to the photo guy or not. I didn't feel like myself when I was doing that, but at the same time, he shouldn't be allowed to continue to rip people off, either.

40) What are your plans for 2006?
Hmm. Mostly little stuff -- looking forward to a visit with Jenn in January and maybe a trip to San Francisco with her, probably going to take my nephews and kids on a day-long outing in the spring, hoping to buy a D70s with our tax return, planning a week at the beach in the summer. I'd also like to lose twenty pounds, and go to the ladies' retreat in the fall, and the mother/daughter camp at the same place in the spring would be fantastic but I don't imagine we can afford it.

41. What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before?
Took an average of 27.33 photos a day for ten months. Had a major organ removed. Bought my own domain (that sounds so cool and powerful. MY DOMAIN. BWA HA HA HA.). Oh, wait, I did that in 1998 also. whoops. Um, installed Movable Type. Used Photoshop.

42. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My sister-in-law and my husband's lifelong friend's wife.

43. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?
Discipline. (I think in 2040, if I'm filling one of these out, I'll have the same answer.)

44. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
June 12th-- my nephew was born.
March 3rd-- my Nikon arrived.
April 14th-- I had a hysterectomy.

45. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I'm having a hard time thinking of anything specific. Oh, wait, THE CRACK-FREE CHEESECAKE. And my kids are smarter than they were this time last year, so that's something. I finished a few crochet projects that had been hanging over my head for ages.

46. What was your biggest failure?
I didn't completely quit yelling at my children (although I do yell less) or keep my house clean. sigh.

47. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Had surgery.

48. What was the best thing you bought?
Well, The Nikon was bought for me, so I'm going to say... the spare battery for The Nikon. :)

49. Where did most of your money go?
The usual -- rent, bills, groceries, etc.

50. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Anything that would make a really excellent photograph. :) The ladies' retreat (and was a little disappointed). The Nikon. Our very brief beach vacation (and was, again, slightly disappointed due to weather).

51. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder? Neither.
thinner or fatter? Fatter.
richer or poorer? Maybe a bit better-off financially but not by much.

52. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Housework, and playing with my kids.

53. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Sitting in front of this machine, and kind of losing it emotionally.

54. What was your favorite TV program?
Didn't watch TV.

55. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005:
Spiritually, I learned never to give up on my relationship with God or on what He can do.

Books for December

I only read three books this month -- all Beverly Clearys. I needed the light reading to compensate for all the typing and sewing and wrapping and cooking and ill-child-tending I had to do.

1. Fifteen -- Beverly Cleary -- 5
   • This is one of my most beloved comfort books, on a level with Anne of Green Gables almost. All the 50's imagery makes me smile. And of course there's that crush I used to have on Stan Crandall.
2. A Girl from Yamhill and My Own Two Feet -- Beverly Cleary -- 5
   • These are the two volumes of Beverly Cleary's memoirs (I keep hoping that she'll come out with a third, but considering that she'll turn 90 this year and that she's a very private person, I am not counting on it). A Girl From Yamhill covers from her early childhood through her high-school graduation, and My Own Two Feet describes her life from college through the publication of her first book. Together they make up one of my favorite biographies -- not only do you get to know the author in a way that feels very chummy (and encounter many of the sources and settings for her wonderful books), you also get a really excellent sense of the time in which she lived. Her writing style is as engaging as it is in her novels, but these aren't really for kids, in case you were thinking of having a child read them. There are some adult themes that I think are better for junior high and up. Really, really wonderful books; I highly recommend them.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

I. Hate. Fresno.

But you know, today it really wasn't that bad. Even though we had hoped to go to the zoo, but couldn't. (It doesn't help that the zoo is only open five hours a day in the winter.) We all had gift certificates and Christmas money to spend, and I bought three books. I made a vow that I would not buy classics -- I always end up buying classics when I have bookstore money, because I want to buy something I haven't read but know for sure I want to own anyway. This time I just bought books that I've read before, but that I want to read again (and again and again): The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (I wonder if her publishers asked her to consider a pseudonym? my goodness, that's hard to spell), Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes (which I've had from the library three times, I think), and A Thread of Grace, which is the best new book I've read in years. Have you read it yet? Didn't I tell you to read it? Get on it! (All except Mary, who already did as she was told and thanked me for ordering her around in such a bossy manner. Well, sort of. Mary, you may relax and feel superior now.)

Also we got new tires put on our car. Whoopee. Can't you sense the excitement just coming off me in waves. AND we ran into my parents, in a huge Wal-Mart many miles from home, as they were on their way home from an overnight in [heavenly chord] Morro Bay. Me, envious? (Oh, you know I am. The waves were up to the dunes again and I missed it. Sob.)

Lastly: This is far too much fun. My new advertising slogan:

I am totally putting that on my business cards.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

snippets

Let's see how many snippets I can type before T finishes setting up LT's computer game:

1) Yesterday I wore eyeliner (family took me out to dinner because of my birthday) for the first time since my wedding on March 19, 1994.

2) Speaking of birthday: If you had told me when I was ten years old that I would someday not find it an eternity between Christmases, I would maybe have believed you. I might even have gone along with it if you'd said that I wouldn't always think Christmas was the be-all and end-all, best day of the year hands down. However, if you'd told me that I would ever be unbelievably glad to see the end of the Holy Grail of days -- I'd have laughed in your face. Maybe even until Christmas Eve of this year. Not anymore. Ack. C was sick and was totally unenthusiastic about all her presents (including the matching nightgowns for herself and her brand-new doll who also came with a really enormous horse), T and I got in an argument, I went to sleep crying. Yippee.

3) The day after was much, much better.

4) I have only read three books this month so far. All of them were written by Beverly Cleary. I blame the typing jobs and the sewing projects.

5) A waterbath is THE ANSWER to a crackless cheesecake. I swear, the moment I removed a crack-free cheesecake from the oven was among the most triumphant of my life. Granted, my life has not exactly been what one would call overly triumphant in general. But still.

6) LT got Star Wars Trivial Pursuit from his paternal grandparents for Christmas. So far we've played it twice -- the whole family -- with tonight's game being a rematch, because guess who inexplicably lost the first time. It wasn't me, even though I don't know a blockade runner from a hole in the ground. (He was vindicated.)

And the answer to the question above is apparently 6. Good night all; I'm heading for bed with a Jane Austen book.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

I'm -- not -- really -- your -- procrastinating -- Mommy

In the annals of my family history, there is an incident that still stands out vividly in the minds of everyone involved. My brother, my dad, and I were tooling down the road in our pickup truck -- I was maybe eight so my brother was maybe ten -- when my dad, who likes a practical joke as much as the next guy, turned to us and said in this Frankenstein-ish voice, "I'M ... NOT ... REALLY ... YOUR ... DADDY ... I'M ... REALLY ... AN ... ALIEN...!" I think the response was more than he bargained for, as my brother was groping for the door handle in preparation for jumping out of the moving truck.

I tried this on my kids, in a watered-down form, and they just laughed. Today, however, if I said it to, say, my mom, or my sister-in-law, or my high-school chemistry teacher, they would totally fall for it. Why? Because I, who never did my homework if there was something more pressing (like, say, staring out the window at a blank wall) to do, who never have all the projects to put in the fair that I say I will, who occasionally still show up to a Bible study without a chapter summary because I put it off till the last minute -- I have all my Christmas ducks in a row a full day ahead of time.

I know. I should have warned you so you could have been sitting down. I'm sorry. But the sewing projects are done (have been for almost a week), the presents are wrapped, everything's sitting nicely under the tree waiting for tomorrow morning. All I have to do today is bake a cheesecake in case C is well enough to go to her immunocompromised grandmother's house for Christmas dinner tomorrow, and then tonight I have to fill T's stocking, and that's all. I could conceivably be in bed at nine or some totally unnatural hour like that.

That is, if I don't decide to stick to my original resolution to have that dratted typing project done before Christmas. But maybe I'll just put that off.

Friday, December 23, 2005

a few more snapshots

Snapshot 1: C is lying on the couch, finally asleep, doped up on the following:

• Tylenol for fever
• Dramamine because right before she got the fever we still thought we were going to my parents' -- more about that in a second -- and her tummy was upset (um, VERY upset, as it turned out)
• about three episodes of Little House on the Prairie watched back-to-back. Maybe it was two. I lost count.

The date on the snapshot says "December 23rd 2005", which coincidentally is the date marked on the calendar with "Rachel's BDay Mom and Dad's". So, that's not happening, nor is the Nikon getting to take its first walk down Christmas Tree Lane tonight like it was hoping it would.

Snapshot 2: LT is in the front yard, where he was sent by his mother about an hour ago under orders to put away the rakes and shovels he'd left lying on the lawn. Rakes and shovels are put away, and LT, who was 'so bored and there's NOTHING to do outside without [my friend down the street who is also ill, along with his entire family, with symptoms strikingly similar to C's] or C' is now battling imaginary foes and running around in the fresh sixty-degree air and bright sunshine having a grand old time.

Snapshot 3: Mommy's not bummed about missing her birthday party or anything. Naah. Especially not since the rest of the crowd is likely going to take THEIR Nikons down Christmas Tree Lane without her. Nope. Not at all. (item: I know my husband and son well enough to be certain that by the end of this weekend, their sweet thoughtfulness about my birthday will likely have brought me to tears at least once. So I'm genuinely not terribly bummed. Much.)

Whoops! I've just been invited to play Scrabble with my nine-year-old (T's at the store buying sickie supplies and a last-minute gift or two). What sane mother would pass that up to sit in front of this machine whining to her vast blogging public? Not this one.

****EDITED TO ADD****

That little stinker beat me! As a homeschooling mom (who, er, might have helped a little), what can I say but YES! :)

Friday, December 16, 2005

a snapshot of my life of late

• A few days ago I took my flute out of its case (to take a picture of it, not to play it, sigh, bad me). The flute is now on the piano tray and Mary has found that my open flute case, on top of the piano, is a fantastic place to hang out where that pesky new cat Elizabeth (who is really a darling, but you have to look at it from the big-sister point of view here) will leave her alone. If I ever do take up the flute again, I'll likely be finding cat hairs in it for the rest of its life.

• Sewing all night (well, till the wee sma's) + transcribing all day = one major crick in my back, right between my shoulder blades. (sympathy cards and backrubs can be sent to Rachel at 123 Pity Party Way.)

• I have been mulling over Psalm 4. I keep thinking that in between the cooking and cleaning and transcribing and sewing and picture-taking and cat-brushing and child-minding and home-schooling and just about every other hyphenated task you can think of, I would sit down and do a nice Kristen-style exegetical post about it. At the rate things are going, that might happen sometime in 2008. The parts that have been sticking in my brain like play-dough in the carpet (add play-dough-making to the list above) are: the bit about "in your anger, do not sin." I guess that would mean, "In your anger, do not go ballistic and frighten your children with the yelling," wouldn't it. Ouch. And also, on a more cheerful note:
  

  
  6 Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?" Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD. 7 You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.
  8 I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
  

  
  Which means, in plain Rachel-ese: Sometime life seems really rough. But God, He's good. He gives us lots of joy if we know where to look, and also peace, if we know to whom to look. Easy to forget that, in all the stress, sometimes.

• I have discovered that December is a very, very bad time to decide that I want fresh green beans. You'd think a society that could put a man on the moon could grow green beans that didn't cost an arm and a leg, even off-season. But no.

• I found the bottom of my laundry hamper the other day. High fives all around! Unfortunately, I lost it again in short order. BUT I KNOW IT'S DOWN THERE. I might even find it again, when the kids are grown, or maybe when we go to move out of this house, whichever comes sooner.

• In the space of about a week, T acquired about ten hours of Mopar-related documentary programs on DVD. This means that even if I had time to watch a DVD, I couldn't, because it's always Mopar time.

• This is the two and a half weeks of the year when T is six years older than me. Funny how I thought he was so old and mature when I was twenty and he was 25. In four short years he'll be forty, which I thought was ripe middle age when my dad hit it. Obviously I was totally wrong.

• Speaking of T, he has the week after Christmas off work (his boss actually let him use his use or lose this year. Doesn't mean I have to start liking the man.) We are going to spend the time puttering around the house and maybe traveling as far as the zoo one day. In other words, we're going to have a truly relaxing (and truly cheap) vacation. Look at me trying to convince myself I don't want to go to the beach and spend our retirement. (Seriously, I am genuinely looking forward to ten days of having the family together with nothing pressing to do. Really I am.)

• I came home from grocery shopping yesterday evening and left a five-pound container of sour cream to sit on the counter till morning. Did I mention that thanks to our woodstove, the front part of our house is about 85 degrees at night? I am SO SMART. Sometimes I just amaze myself.

  
  
  

************EDITED TO ADD***********

While I was typing this entry, there was a lot of very secretive shuffling going on in our house. T and LT took off on a mysterious trip to the store and brought me back a bag of Jolly Ranchers (for transcribing, of course), but would not disclose their other purchases. Then there were many secretive looks and whispered conversations, and it was decided that C should take a bath. Meanwhile I'm whining and moaning about wasted sour cream, right? About the time I was starting to really know something was probably up, I was escorted into the bathroom where the three of them had set up a bubble bath (my husband bought Calgon at the grocery store. For that, if nothing else, he deserves a Husband of the Year medal, no?), complete with candles and a warm, neatly folded towel, and Chanticleer on the CD player. The kids came and sang Christmas carols outside the door, which, it later turned out, was a cover for the sound of the mixer, as T was making brownies to serve with my Dulce de Leche ice cream.

You are free to say 'awwww' now. (I am still smiling.)

Monday, December 12, 2005

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005)

We went to see this yesterday. I'm so frustrated, because they made a beautiful movie, with good music and good casting, but ack. Uh oh, here comes a list. Things that bothered me:

1) Whole-cloth fabrication of several scenes. Peter, Susan, Lucy, and the Badgers pursued by the Witch's wolves onto the frozen-but-breaking-up Great River and floating down a raging torrent on a chunk of ice into which Peter has plunged his sword as a handhold? And that's not all.

Which leads into:
2) Complete alteration of the 'feel' of the story.The whole series of books have this very British, measured, carefully-paced feeling of restraint to them which is totally absent here. The filmmakers essentially gutted the original stories, added in a good number of the original elements compacted together for a greater sense of urgency and tension, and mixed in this whole load of new stuff, turning the entire production into a Narnian "Indiana Jones" adventure.

3) Script fiddling. Again with the modern phraseology. Maybe they think your average nine-year-old won't relate to a movie in which the people don't talk like him. Maybe they're right. If they are, that's a shame.

4) The absence of 'deeper magic from before the dawn of time'. I was a little surprised at this, because the reviews I've heard and read of this movie from a Christian perspective have raved about how the entire Aslan/Christ angle was kept intact. And yet there is nothing in this version to indicate that Aslan predates the White Witch or has any greater understanding of spiritual matters than she has -- which is pretty darned important if you're looking at the story as a theological allegory.

5) Character alteration. Not one of the children was written faithfully, in my opinion. Peter is a reluctant hero, with none of the book Peter's best-foot-forward no-nonsense bravery. I got so, so tired of seeing him indecisively point his sword at whomever he was supposed to be killing. Susan is a contrary, doubting bratty sister in many scenes. The nature of Edmund's betrayal is altered. Remember that in the original story, Edmund did not know that he was betraying his brother and sisters into the Witch's hands when he gave away their location at the Beavers'. He still thought he was going to be a Prince and that his brothers and sisters would be his servants -- not that they'd be killed. So much was handled -- eh, OK -- in the movie, but then afterward Edmund repeatedly betrays Aslan and the children -- sometimes in quite desperate moments, but still. Even Lucy, who was otherwise very, very well-handled, gloats when they all reach Narnia together. Quite different from the "brick" of a Lucy who never said "I told you so."

OK, enough negativity. Some things I liked:

1) The casting. The children, the White Witch, the Professor, Mrs. Macready -- everyone looked the part, and the acting was excellent all around.

2) The animated animals. Aslan and the Beavers, especially, were wonderful. I had a few moments of disliking the way the Wolves looked when they were talking -- something about the eyes -- but overall they were also done well.

3) The coronation scene. Excellently done.

4) The execution of Aslan, as watched by the girls. Just about the only story element which I found to be completely, satisfyingly faithful to the original was the one with Susan, Lucy, and Aslan in the time before and after his execution. It was pitch-perfect.

It really sounds like I hated this movie. I didn't. If I'd never read the book I might have loved it. As it is, it is yet another addition to my "pretty good movie but pretty bad adaptation" file. Which is pretty fat. :)

Friday, December 09, 2005

Elizabeth

... joined us today.

She's six months old and very affectionate. She and Mary (all we need are three more girl cats and we'd have all the Bennet sisters represented) are not exactly best friends yet, but there haven't been any hisses or growls either.

I had expected to have to do a bit of convincing to get T to go along with a new kitty. Turns out he had been wanting to get one for a few months. But I didn't tell you that, OK? We wouldn't want to ruin his tough-guy image. OF COURSE he wouldn't have already fitted out Broadway tunes with new lyrics that include Elizabeth's name. Only someone really soft-hearted and a little zany would do that.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Seven sevens

I must be feeling a little bit better; I can at least do a meme now. This is a sort of hybrid of a few of these "Seven" things I've seen going around.

Seven things I'm good at:

1. Cooking. I'm not brilliant at it, but I manage to keep myself in size twelves. And my husband in size 36s.
   
2. Sewing, and a very few assorted other craft-ish things.
   
3. I usually say 'mothering', but I have not felt like a good mother lately. I have felt like Joan Crawford might feel if she were less obsessive and more lazy. And also far less physically attractive. OK, not THAT bad. But I've been a bit grouchy, maybe. I'm sorry, children.
   
4. Typing
   
5. Spelling
   
6. OK, I will say it, I think I'm good at taking pictures. That sounds so -- so full of myself. I will qualify it: I'm good at taking pictures that I like to look at afterward. Whether anyone else wants to look at them is perhaps a separate issue.
   
7. Physical labor. I can mix concrete and haul it around in five-gallon buckets. I can clear brush and haul wood. I can paint a room all by myself. I can string the Christmas lights on the eaves. I may not be very ornamental, but at least I'm useful. :)
   

seven things I'm terrible at

1. Keeping my house clean
   
2. Inspiring my kids to keep their parts of the house clean without losing my cool
   
3. Making quick decisions. Give me time and I can make a good plan for most anything, find the holes in it, and fix them. Give me five seconds to decide whether to go to Burger King or Applebee's and I may just cause a traffic accident.
   
4. Shopping
   
5. Writing fiction
   
6. keeping my temper under stress
   
7. Budgeting
   

seven things I'd like to be very good at

1. taking photographs
   
2. debating
   
3. mothering
   
4. loving
   
5. keeping my house clean
   
6. playing the piano (again)
   
7. keeping my temper under stress
   

Seven A partial list of novels/series I've read more than twice and will probably read several more times, at least, over the course of my life (I had to stop or this would have taken all night):

1. Jane Eyre (almost time to pull this one out again) by Charlotte Brontë
   
2. Pride and Prejudice (and everything else) by Jane Austen
   
3. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
   
4. Into the Wilderness and those following by Sara Donati
   
5. A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
   
6. The Narnia series by C.S. Lewis
   
7. Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
   
8. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
   
9. Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
   
10. The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
    
11. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Richard C. O'Brien
    
12. Watership Down by Richard Adams
    

Seven favorite movies:

1. Pride and Prejudice (1995)
   
2. Return to Me
   
3. The Black Stallion (for pure eye-candy reasons, if nothing else)
   
4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
   
5. Persuasion (with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds)
   
6. While You Were Sleeping
   
7. Amadeus
   

Seven things I'd like to do before I die:

1. See my children grow into Christ-loving adults who lead happy lives and bring up Godly children
   
2. Spend a long, comfortable, relaxed retirement with my husband
   
3. Live in a place we own and love
   
4. Watch the Nutcracker at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House
   
5. Spend more time with my friends who live far away
   
6. Further my education, possibly earning a degree and taking on a career, post-children
   
7. Travel outside the United States
   

seven role models

1. My mother, who is the one who taught me how to be a mom
   
2. My husband, who has so much faith in God, and love for Him, and willingness to serve Him and others -- and is just generally the perfect man for God to have sent into my life to help me grow closer to Him (and have a really blissful life in the meantime)
   
3. My children, each in his or her own way
   
4. My dad, who is always in pain and yet always has a cheerful attitude and is so generous with his time, labor, love, and resources
   
5. Jesus (no, really?)
   
6. My maternal grandmother, who raised seven children on a shoestring, has worked hard her whole life, and never complains about anything as far as I know
   
7. My paternal (step-)grandmother, dead now, whose voice I hear telling me to stand up straight and tuck in my tummy every time I slouch, and who loved us with a tenacity that I never understood or believed until after she was gone
   

Monday, December 05, 2005

blocked

I've nothing to write about. I don't even feel a great and eager interest in reading. I don't feel much like taking pictures or watching movies. I'm the closest I've been in my entire adult life to being bored -- because heaven forbid I should take my own advice to the kids and find something useful to do, right? or maybe I think sitting at the computer for long spells (reading comic strips and other people's blogs and voting at dpchallenge) is useful, there's always that. Anyway, this all results, as I said in the first sentence, in having nothing to write about. And really, you may not know it, but I think you're glad. Because my boredom is contagious, and the primary method of contamination is through the reading of something I've written, trust me on this.

You know what I think, back in the recesses of my mind, where I keep the things I don't really actually want to think about? I think because I said I would read and write about the Psalms, that's kind of what I (thanks to my subconscious mind, or God, or whatever) am waiting to do, and until I actually follow through on that idea, I'll be in this sorry state. Of course that doesn't make much logical sense, but the ideas in that particular recess of my mind never do. Oddly enough, they also frequently turn out to be right.

(I even tried a meme. A book meme, and even that didn't flow. Sorry state, indeed.)

P.S. I had a family portrait all planned for us, and then today I was at Costco and saw from the cover of a book about the Beatles that the Beatles had already done my idea. (four people lying with their heads together on the floor). Even to the black turtlenecks. Now we can never do that pose, because God forbid anyone should ever walk into our house and say to my husband, "Hey, I like that portrait! It's like the Beatles one!" No... not a pretty scene, that.

Friday, December 02, 2005

What we do at Christmas

We don't have a whole lot of rich, deep, from-our-childhoods Christmas traditions. Well, we don't have any. But we do have these:

1) Movies. We have a few Christmas movies, and we take turns choosing which one to sit down as a family and watch. It's my turn next and I'm going to pick It's a Wonderful Life, even though I never really think of it as a Christmas movie. It's just an excuse to force everyone to sit and watch it with me. And I always, always start to cry as soon as Uncle Billy comes in with the basket of money, and I don't stop until the end music.

2) Speaking of music, I get to pick out a new Christmas music CD every year. This dates from our first married Christmas. Last year I got Chanticleer's Sing We Christmas, and I've no idea how I'm ever going to top that. I probably can't.

3) We set up the tree on the evening of the day after Thanksgiving, and take it down on New Year's Day or New Year's Eve.

4) The newest, and our favorite: the nightly ornament. We bought two packages of plain burgundy glass ornaments last year, and we numbered them 1-25 with a gold paint marker. We put a verse reference relating in one way or another to the Incarnation on each one, and then each evening from December 1st through Christmas Eve, we read and discuss the verse from the appropriately-numbered ornament, and one of the kids puts the ornament on the tree. On Christmas morning, the reference is from Luke 2. Tonight's was Isaiah 9:6, which I always want to sing, because I'm nerdy that way.