Book Review: The Year of Pleasures

Sigh. I just love Elizabeth Berg's writing style. It's like pulling a warm, heavy blanket over you and snuggling down for a long nap. This latest read, The Year of Pleasures was sad and sweet. She talks about the ordinary day-to-day stuff, calls attention to it and makes it special. In this story, a newly-widowed middle-aged woman makes a new life for herself in a small town. She is feeling great loss as well as hope as she finds her way again. I love that she never loses sight of who she is or abandons what she wants for herself, in this next chapter of her life. One quote, in particular stands out to me. In the story, the widow, Betta, is trying to befriend the bitter, cotchety old woman from whom she purchased her 'new' house. The old woman refuses to play along...

"There is a story about a Navajo grandfather who once told his grandson, "Two wolves live inside me. One is the bad wolf, full of greed and laziness, full of anger and jealousy and regret. The other is the good wolf, full of joy and compassion and willingness and a great love for the world. All the time, these wolves are fighting inside me." "But grandfather," the boy said. "Which wolf will win?" The grandfather answered, "The one I feed."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0812970993/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link

Breakfast...

Most mornings it takes us awhile to get the mental motors running... We go through our morning routines of showers and dressing and a few chores before we even sit down at the table. Today we managed to begin eating around 10 am. Which is on the late side for us, but we all got up late this morning.

Jordan - Jordan is eating Rice Crispies (which he served himself, which is kind of a new thing...) scrambled eggs (which he cooked and served, also a new thing...), and a banana. He is not happy about the banana because there is just a slight green tinge on a portion of the peel. He will begin the whole dramatic scene of pretending to gag, shortly. He is reading his latest Garfield book (from the library) while he eats. He is also taking every opportunity to antagonize his sister, who is sitting next to him. (We really need to separate them at the table...

Rylan - is eating on the run. She has been busily cruising around the house, working on her banana. She does not care about the color of the peel, but does not like it when I forget and leave the sticker on. It must be removed before she will eat it. Her eggs are now ice cold... I mooched some of them to give to Owen, who scarfed his first helping down. Abby is circling the table, anxious to claim the rest of them.. which will be imminent. Rylan also just discovered that she can (by using the double step stool) reach the top cupboard of the pantry. That means that there are no longer any safe cupboards in the kitchen, save the one above the fridge. I guess we will have to find a new place for the candy stash... Currently Rylan is sitting in her chair, and is staring at me in challenge as I am requesting for about the 30th time that she eat a bite of her remaining scrambled egg.

Owen - Owen ate most of his banana, until the eggs were served. He promptly shoved most of the banana off of his tray and worked on the eggs. Then he drank some milk, and then flung his bottle a good 10 feet across the kitchen. Atta boy! He is always the first to finish, so to keep him entertained, I put little plastic animals on his tray. A brown and white pony is currently tromping through the remaining banana.

Me - I can't stand eggs, so I had a bagle with peanut butter and banana. It was the last bagle in the bag, so it is a little chewy... now on to my second cup of coffee. #1 was at 7:15 this morning, when I stole an unexpected half-hour (!!!) of quiet to visit my favorite blogs. Owen is usually up by then.

What we are listening to: We are listening to Keb' Mo' (self-titled album). Owen really likes Keb' Mo' He is bouncing in his chair to the beat. There isn't much that Owen doesn't like. Little Boots is also a favorite.

What we are doing today: As soon as breakfast is done, we are off to Target to get Owen some diapers. He is currently wearing his last one, so I hope it holds. His last package went very quickly and took me by surprise last night when I realized that we only had two left... oops.

Then it will be the usual Thursday school routine:
World Geography (Canada), World History (Sumerians), math (working with data in graphs and table to discern minimum, maximum, median, mode, and mean), life science (the circulatory system), handwriting (cursive - writing out the months), spelling (short 'e'), reading skills (will be covered when we read about the heart), writing (combining sentences), read for 30 minutes (he is reading Prince Caspian), Art (making May baskets), piano practice, and a walk to the park later today. Whew! Rylan will busy herself with sorting, coloring, cutting pasting, and putting together puzzles. Potty training is essentially done - we just work on the hygiene thing... Owen will practice his walking and digging out in the sand table. And me? My job is to look up different building plans for garden beds. We will be building them this weekend, come hell or highwater!

Now, what to do first? Oh yeah. My nose just told me the answer...

The slipper in the dishwasher

I found Owen's little brown slipper in the bottom of the dishwasher just a few moments ago. I had been searching for it earlier this evening. Never could I imagine I would find it there, as I was loading the dishwasher before heading to bed. Yet there it was. Small, soft and velvety, it fits in the palm of my hand. He grinned at me from his highchair (we keep odd hours, I know..) as he finished his late night snack. Now he is sleeping, as a snowstorm rages outside.

There is about 2 inches of snow on the ground outside. My two year old just came downstairs, sipping her apple juice, and threw up on me. Now I must put Rylan back to bed, with a towel and a pan. I'll get to rock her to sleep and listen to her soft breathing. I'll go to bed and snuggle up next to my husband to ward off the cold of the blizzard raging outside these walls.

We choose to hope

Our family is so excited by the change of leadership in Washington! It has been a long, long eight years and it now feels as though a dark cloud of fear, suspicion and deception has lifted. Never before have we (Dean and I) been so moved as to take part in the political process. I served as a delegate for my precinct at the Larimer County Democratic Convention. I had to bring little Owen with me, who was only 5 days old, because I was determined to be there. We donated money throughout the campaign, sported multiple bumper stickers on our cars, and spent several weekends during late fall canvassing in various neighborhoods. Since our house is situated on a busy neighborhood corner, we felt that 6 Obama signs were sufficient as well as one for Markey, Udall, Eubanks, Hoffman and Kefalas. I even painted a huge Obama symbol in our front window, just to get the point across in case there was any confusion. As we trick-or-treated our neighborhood, we could hear comments from passing families about the 'crazy Obama people' on the corner. We are loud and proud!! On election day we stood at a busy intersection and waved signs at passing motorists before Dean left for work. The excitement of the day was incredible! As the final election results were announced, I opened the front door and shared with the neighborhood how pleased I was. I have no shame.... :) What a journey for our family! It has been wonderful to be able to share this with our children, to let them take part in the political process and to experience it all first hand. We can only hope that someday in the next 4/8?? years that we might get the meet the man himself! Congratulations Mr. President!

Our collection of signs in the front yard. We had more on the corner and around the side of the house, as well as on the back of the house. We suffered a few losses but always had a spare sign to replace them.

The Obama rally on The Oval at Colorado State University. We waited in line for about 3 hours, but it was worth it!

Sign waving early in the morning on election day. Owen slept through it and Rylan started crying after grandma Judy drove by, honking and waving. Jordan was keeping count of the number of honks we got during the hour we spent there. I think we made it to 130....

The day after the election. One tired but happy family! I used Crayola washable paint to make the window design.

Morning of inauguration day. Much to our neighbor's delight we put our Obama yard signs back in use. All of them. :)

What a country!

The New Normal

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, savour you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it will not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky, and want, more than all the world, your return.
-Mary Jean Irion

Have you ever just dismissed today because you choose to think about tomorrow instead? It's one thing to prepare for things that are to come and quite another to never live in the moment and experience what is happening in the present. I'm a chronic worrier. Even if things are going well, I just create new worries so I can sustain a low hum of mental mayhem. I don't seem to feel productive without it, but it drives me crazy that I do that. It is hard work to quiet the nagging voices of unfinished business. For instance, I'll be engaged in some activity that I really should be 'present' for, like driving, grocery shopping, nursing the baby, or reading and doing schoolwork with the kids and have found it difficult to not think about everything else that is going on (ie; it's time to start dinner, the plants need watering, did we pay that bill??, I should be finishing --fill in the blank--). I just need to internalize the wisdom found within the words above: there is no telling what tomorrow will hold, but in the quiet comfort of a 'normal' today, where everything is as it should be, I should rejoice that it is so.

I am not the only one in our household who cannot live in the present. Jordan always has to be in the know of what will be happening next. Even when involved in some highly engaging activity (like enjoying a day at the zoo), he wants to know what are we doing after we are done. Can he play the Wii when we get home? Can he invite a friend over to play? When are we going camping? What are we having for dinner? Is it time to go yet???? I worry (see, I told you I was a chronic worrier!) about how much Jordan misses out on by never being in the present. I hope that some day he figures it out.

A 'normal' day for us does not involve alarm clocks, a frantic dashing out the door or driving in heavy morning traffic. We don't pack lunches or bookbags. We don't stand on a corner waiting for a school bus or drop off kiddos at daycare. We don't scramble to make afterschool soccer practice or struggle through piles of homework in the evenings. We don't impose a strict bedtime. We sometimes (gasp) spend our entire day in pajamas. Our version of 'normal' is vastly different than what the majority of American families experience. This is relatively new for us though - we have only been homeschooling for one year. We love our new normal though - it has brought us all closer together.

Here are a variety of 'normal' school days:

Normal can be pretty wonderful. :)