Thing-a-day.com

Helping an excellent little school keep track of its building project.

And…. I’m out.

Dear Friends, yesterday I gave blood.  I have been giving blood since I was old enough to do so, and am proud to work now at an institution that sponsors a very successful annual blood drive.  I am particularly proud to see, every year, a handful of brave students overcome their intense fear and donate anyway.  I hope that they, too, come to view the chance to donate as a privilege.

Today I started a blog on behalf of the Princeton Friends School’s construction project.  Over here.

My contributions to Thing-A-Day are much less self-conscious this year than my work last year.  Last year the community was much smaller, and I really felt the weight of people’s attention (or lack of it, sometimes).  This year that sense of attention is diluted by the sheer volume of participants and contributions, so I just toodle along doing my own thing.  Both ways are good.

sound of rain on ice  –

I try to comfort

my heartbroken friend

I didn’t take a picture, but I used chorizo instead of ham, and MAN, is that some good soup!  Thanks to Magpie Girl for the inspiration.  (She used proscuitto instead of ham.)

I wish I’d taken advantage of the chances I had in my young adult life to learn from people who knew how to cook.  Instead I assigned myself dishwasher duty, and am now playing catch-up.

Today I learned how to download movies from my camera (which I’ve had for several years) and figured out how to save an iMovie into a format compatible with YouTube.  More importantly, I took my kid sledding.  (Turn the sound up; it’s more fun that way.)

How I spent my weekend…

Once a month, the folks at haikuworld.org put together a kukai, in which writers of English-language haiku write and submit haiku that follow specific prompts. Then, if you’ve submitted a haiku to either prompt (there are usually two), you are permitted to vote on the haiku other folks have written.

I submit my own haiku so that I may have the privilege of voting for other folks’. The voting deadline this month is tomorrow, and there were over 250 haiku to read and think about. I have now made my selections.

Some of my thinking about haiku has been shaped by the editors at Simply Haiku, this post by David Giacalone, and the writings of Robert Hass on the subject. I hope to be trying to write haiku for many years to come. It’s harder than it looks.

All manner of audio creativity today, posted here because I figured it out over there and am too tired to post it again over here.

Put your PJ’s on inside out, people!

My boy and I spent the whole time between dinner and books discovering the magic of the 10’s times tables.

How cool is that?

Had the great misfortune to order a hamburger on the day of the biggest beef recall in US history.  You don’t really want to read about that, do you?

On the way back to DE to return my niece to my sister, my son noticed some extremely well-defined clouds off to starboard.  I steered into a scenic overlook that I think I’ve driven past about a squillion times, and took some pictures.  Like this (only lots bigger, maybe clicking will do that for you):

Today my niece, my son, and I carefully and sneakily returned the empty curbside recycling bins of our neighbors to their sideyards, porches, or other rightful spots.  My niece, who is only seven, has a terrific ability to empathetically imagine herself in someone else’s shoes… “Tonight, people will be getting home and saying, ‘Thanks for bringing those cans in, honey,’ but it was really us!”  Indeed.

Pictures tomorrow, when I hope to have the energy.  (I’ve been dealing with some low-level food poisoning courtesy of an unnamed Delaware diner since Saturday, bleah.)  Also tomorrow, a great (if aggravating) story in the misunderstandings category.  Maybe.

there’s the train whistle
I didn’t know
I was waiting for

My seven year old niece is visiting and cannot stop crying. She has slept overnight here successfully several times before, but tonight is here without her big sister for the first time. She is exhausted, and lonely, and nothing I do or say seems to make any difference.

I am trying really hard tonight to create an environment in which she can sleep. But I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it.

 Update: I did it!  Brought her into my bed and was a silent loving presence to her.  She’s finally asleep.  Poor little sweetie.

My relationship with sleep has been a good one, for the most part. Or at least that’s how I think of it. But upon further reflection I think that I have been something of a jerk in the relationship.

I enjoy sleeping, and periodically bemoan the fact that I wasn’t fortunate enough to be born into a culture more supportive of napping. When I used to do a lot of babysitting, I was constantly pleading with the sleep-resisting five year olds: “Trust me, you think you don’t want to take a nap, but in twenty years or so you’re going to really want one and not be able to get it, so just take it today, will you?” It didn’t work, but it made me feel better.

Now that I’m a parent, and especially because we’re into the thick of college application review season in my household, sleep has taken a bit of a hit. The lovely T often doesn’t get home until what used to be our bedtime, and then of course there’s all that catching up to do.

Poor sleep, taken for granted and always getting pushed further down on the list of priorities. I have made my peace with the crazier hours, and it was the early days of parenting that made it possible… once you let go of the idea that sleep should happen at a particular time during the day, it’s less frustrating to find yourself still awake at 12:23am.

But I do pay a price. I can feel that my mind is not as sharp, that my balance is a little off, and that my temper runs shorter when I’m tired. I get a second wind, and I count on it, but I remember another trick from early parenting… the way to tell how tired you are is to remember how you felt when you first woke up that morning. Before coffee. Before your second wind. Like most people, I need more sleep than I get, but it seems that I am an unrepentant jerk… I’ve got another late night planned tonight. And no nap in sight.

On Valentine’s Day, I am feelin’ the love.  (That’s my boy in front of our day 13 creativity.)

Trying to comment on as many of yesterday’s posts as I can. Although the system is getting a little balky with all the late-night traffic.

One batch cherry almond, one batch chocolate-cranberry-almond.  Mmmmmm!

I spent about an hour and a half tonight working on Valentines (we send these instead of Christmas cards), but I’m not uploading a picture because I want them to be a surprise. If you’re concerned that you might be facing an empty mailbox on the 14th and care about that, send me your snailmail at shelleyq (at) yahoo.com anytime on the 13th and I’ll get one out to you.

Our son D. watched an old Lassie movie over the long winter break, and a character in it apparently recited some Bible verses from memory.   This plus Quaker First Day School has led D. into a deeper interest in the Bible, which previously was considered a story book of a slightly lesser order, since the Greek myths had better battles and more of a superhero flavor.  Now, though, I am suddenly realizing how much of a foundational role Bible stories played in my own childhood… I know a lot more of them than I thought I did, and some of them even remain important to me, despite the fact that I haven’t read the Bible regularly for more than twenty years.

He’s got the loaves and fishes down cold, kind of likes the miracle thing, I think… I’m sitting here thinking about Moses in the bullrushes, and Peter’s “I don’t know the man.”  Did Bible stories matter to you?  Do they still?  I’d love to hear about it.

Blog post on a completely different topic here:  http://butwait.blogspot.com/2008/02/love-and-desire-haiku.html

My partner is a weaver.  Our son has recently expressed interest.  And he’ll be wanting to give every kid in his kindergarten class a Valentine.  So…. (check out the one in front of the toaster with a “thread” sticking up… it’s awe-inspiring to witness how NOT constrained by adult thinking he is):

Today I got up early and was one of two main flippers at the annual pancake breakfast at our son’s school.  My creative juices were definitely flowing.  But I only have a picture of the “before”… I was too busy flipping to get a “during” shot!