Run for your life

Why yes, I am going to bother to deconstruct a harmless Facebook meme, why did you ask?

This cropped up in my news feed a couple of times last week, posted by some very well-meaning and nice people:

Now, what's wrong with this? Rather a nice idea. Keep God first, and all that.

Well, for starters, it suggests that marriage (and relationships leading thereto) are for spiritual overachievers. First get your spiritual life in order, then find someone. (Without actually looking for anyone, because that would be unspiritual. It has to look like an accident.)

It's the churchy parallel to the theme in our culture: get your financial life in order, your career started, your nice house bought, then get married. Marriage becomes the crowning achievement of personal and spiritual life.

Except for the most part it works better the other way: Marriage helps people behave in responsible ways, leading them to greater financial stability and spiritual involvement. (Indeed, does the Bible ever suggest spiritual maturity is an essential prerequisite for getting married? Kind of the opposite--it suggests that having trouble keeping your pants zipped is the primary reason for getting married.) Raise the bar for marriage too high and you prevent the very goal you're trying to achieve.

Now, it is helpful to date and marry someone with some basic shared values. That's just common sense. If you want to raise orphans in Africa dating someone who yearns after the corporate high life is not going to work out well. But spirituality is not a competitive sport.

And that's the deeper problem--the idea that we can somehow chart our own or someone else's spiritual growth and measure how close we are getting to God. That our spirituality is measured by the intensity of our efforts. That we should reject as inferior anyone who can't keep up with us. When in fact the intensity of our efforts may be leading us farther from resting in God. And the more spiritual we think we are, the more in danger we are.

Paul spoke of running the race, but he never suggested that the race was a contest to get closer to God--Jesus ran it too, and he already *was* God. The race is just the journey of life, and God is already with us on that one.

Just as a practical measure, it's not that great of advice for young people. If you've been on the planet long enough you've known people--probably lots of people--who were all set to be spiritual superstars in the early years, but who burned out, washed up, or just walked away. (And on the other hand people who came to spiritual devotion late but strong.) The intensity of a person's visible fervor at 21 is not a strong indicator of what kind of partner they'll be in twenty years. Really, none of us know this for ourselves, either.

I wish I could come up with some sort of pithy counterstatement, but I'm no good at dating advice. Although "It is better to marry than to burn" could possibly serve as a Facebook meme. With the right picture.

Lists of Five for 2013

These are, of course, things in MY life for 2013. So don't expect, say, movies or songs that were actually released in 2013, because I don't move at that pace.

Five good things:
1. Kids being bigger. Bigger kids are always good.
2. Getting to actually go to court. I think I like being a lawyer.
3. Still being alive and all together.
4. Staying on track and organized with school. I'm not sure who I'm channeling with teaching school, but it's certainly not me.
5. Role playing games. They're fun, we can do them together, and they don't involve major exertion.

Five bad things:.
1. & 2. Grandparents dying
3. DOB's health problems
4. House not magically becoming wheelchair accessible when we needed it to be.
5. Feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and sad because of items #1-#4.

Five books or authors that stood out:
1. Anthony Trollope!!!
2. Wild Coast, by John Gimlette. A vivid travel memoir/history about an area I knew next to nothing about.
3. The Island of the Day Before, by Umberto Eco, where I finally found a reference I had been looking for for a decade. Also, the title of the book makes me happy.
4. The Lost World of Genesis One, by John Walton
5. The Count of Monte Cristo, which I had put off reading for far too long.

Five movies or TV shows I will probably watch again someday:
1. Barchester Chronicles
2. The Dresden Files
3. Inception
4. John Adams miniseries
5. Gunless

Five songs that stuck in my head:
1. "Go No More A-Roving," Leonard Cohen (and Lord Byron)
2. "Caravanserai," Loreena McKennit
3. "Hounds of Winter," Sting
4. The Three Ravens, old folk song
5. "Every December Sky," Mae Robertson

Five thoughtful posts:
Dorothy Sayers on Why Life is Not Like a Detective Story

"Old-Fashioned" Courtship?
A Different Thought on Giving
Beauty and Brains
On Ends, Means, and Obedience

Five funny posts:
Waiting for the Apocalypse (the humor in this is much darker, in retrospect)
Toy Stories
The Grammar Commando Takes the Stage
Twin Time
In Which I Stay Out of Trouble (except nobody laughed at that one. I think I shocked everyone.)

2012 in Review

This year, I'm going to modify it to ask the questions I want to ask. Because I can.

1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?

Played role playing games. Taught third grade. Spent an entire road trip in the driver's seat.

2. How did your goals for the year come out? 
Meh. I read some older books, though not as many as I would have liked. Memorable ones: Histories of Herodotus (not all of it yet, but it's quite the read); Count of Monte Cristo (doing with a book club, slowly, so haven't finished); The Practice of the Presence of God. I made enough money practicing law to pay for a massive cement loading-dock-and-wheelchair-ramp. Which wasn't what I wanted to do for landscaping or with the money, but it worked and I'm glad of that. I didn't give up on my book research, though I didn't progress very far. I didn't ferment anything. We did do some science lessons. The basement, after a brief respite in the summer, has returned to utter chaos. However, the living room is much better and we have bookshelves!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth or get pregnant?
DOB's sister had her first, a little boy. My brother and sister-in-law had their second, a little boy. They have the same name, just to confuse the cousin issue.

4. Travel?
Some fun local trips: the mountains; the ocean; the mountains and the ocean. That's pretty much our options. But we haven't gotten tired of them yet.

Also, a real, honest, overnighter-at-a-bed-and-breakfast without the kids.

5. Did you move anywhere?
No. Hallelujah.


6. What was the best month?
April and May might have been good. Or I might just have forgotten what went wrong.

7. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
A feeling of being on top of things. Ha.

8. What date(s) from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
July 1. When a very small pain in the sole of my foot became the catalyst for massive upheaval.

9. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Keeping going and feeling relatively optimistic.

10. What was your biggest failure?
Occasionally losing it.

11. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I sprained my metatarsal arch. Which ought to have been minor, except it never got better. And then DOB tried to help me out, and his feet (which were already doing badly) got worse. And worse. And worse. And now he's in a wheelchair, which was bound to happen sooner or later anyway, but this is sooner.

12. What was the best thing you bought?
Bookshelves! Bookshelves! Did I mention we have bookshelves?

13. Whose behavior merited celebration?
The ducklings, who are somehow managing to grow into reasonably sane, well-educated and often even helpful people despite their parents' continual state of crisis.

14. Where did most of your money go?
A wheelchair ramp. Which is really snazzy, and actually improves the look of the house over the falling apart and far too narrow sidewalk that was there. It would have been nice to put more of it on the old credit cards, but at least we had it to pay for.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
ii. richer or poorer?

i. A little sadder. More discouraged, anyway. I could use a little less of Massive Overwhelming New Problems arriving regularly. On the other hand, I have much to be thankful for.

ii. About the same. Which could be a lot worse, considering.

16. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Walking. Wow do I miss walking when I don't get it.

17. What do you wish you'd done less of? 
Dealt with people throwing up. Sat around.

18. How will you be spending New Year's Eve/Day?
Waiting to decide, once we find out whether the upset tummies in evidence this morning were harbingers of doom to come or merely a reaction to low blood sugar headaches.

19. What was an unexpected surprise?
This was not a year in which surprises were anything good.

20. Did you fall in love in 2011?
With role-playing games! Would you like to hear about my wisecracking hobbit thief alter ego? Or perhaps my homely but sturdy medieval middle eastern cook trying to rebuild the merchant fortune her father lost? Or my space-age charming, manipulative, mind-reading ex-geologist?

21. What was the best event you've been to this year?
Seeing Fiddler on the Roof outside was awesome. Also, getting to see the Duchess perform in her first musical was pretty thrilling.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
We finally discovered Monk. It's been therapeutic for both of us: DOB who finally is willing to be open about his OCD and me who finally understands what that pained expression on his face means. Also it's really funny and most of the mysteries are well plotted. And little of the gore and other ookiness that is too often in modern shows. (We tried Castle for awhile and just found it distasteful. We also watched Luther which DOB loved but I found extremely depressing.)

We also finally started watching Dr. Who. Unfortunately, so did a lot of other people who use our library, so we don't get to watch it for very long at a stretch.

23. What authors did you discover this year?
I am really terrible about keeping lists. If you saw my shopping lists, you would not wonder that I don't keep a book list. 

However, if I read enough books by the same author, I might remember him or her.

Nonfiction: Oliver Sacks. He writes beautifully about science, loves it passionately, and knows its limits. I thoroughly enjoyed The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and just finished reading Uncle Tungsten: Memoirs of a Chemical Boyhood. I did not finish some of his more clinical books, but I might give some more a try.

I am always reading a bit of the Charlotte Mason education series, to try to keep myself in the right frame of mind.

I didn't finish, but I got almost to the end of Dawn to Decadence, by Jacques Barzun. I should get it from the library again. It's just too thick to finish even in a twelve-week maximum checkout.

Fiction: OK, I read more series fiction than perhaps was good for me. They are handy when everyone has the stomach flu, though. Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series got us through the stomach flu early in the year, and I have much enjoyed discovering David Weber's War God and Safehold series. (Even though he does info dump. Boy, does he info dump.)

Also, after being extremely horrified by reading The Three Musketeers at the age of ten, I think I am ready to handle Dumas now.

Also, I finally finished Anna Karenina! (I think that was this year. It got lost when we moved and I rediscovered it.)



Also, I read The Hobbit out loud to everyone, which was wonderful.

24. Random Memories from 2012?
Going to Port Townsend with just DOB.  Wandering in the woods. Children learning to write. Standing in the ocean. Date nights in DOB's short-lived but beautiful orange Camaro. Learning the names of birds and mushrooms. Children squealing, "We have Shakespeare this week? Hooray!" Relearning how to knit.

Getting to Know You

Carrie at Reading to Know is doing a "Getting to Know You" post, and although she probably already knows more about me than she wants to (including my incredible talents at exploding hard-boiled eggs), I thought I would participate since it's also my birthday and therefore I should spend some time talking about myself. 

1. Do you attend church and, if so, what denomination are you a part of?


We attend an Evangelical Lutheran Church of America congregation. I never saw myself as part of the mainline, but this particular church, anyway, is one that is all about Jesus giving his life for ours and being ready to share that. (And not about us showing everyone how great we are, or measuring up to somebody's standard, or trying to take over the world politically, or what not.) Ours is a rural congregation that may be a bit more conservative than the denomination at large; there are some social issues that just don't get talked about.

There are some kids besides ours and the people who don't have young kids are universally accepting of kids as kids and let them be part of the life of the church, not sequestered off. There's room for people who are struggling with doubts or don't have it all together. And it's liturgical (in a relaxed way with a variety of music) and I find I have a raw need for that; for hearing, every week, "God, in Christ, forgives you all your sins," and "The body of Christ, broken for you."

2. Do you home school/use the public system or enroll your kids in private school? Any particular reason why?
We homeschool. Why? People have been asking that lately. Life has been very stressful and the question comes up, "Wouldn't it be easier to put them in school?"

Well, no, I don't think so. I could be wrong. But I would have to drag them all out of bed on time and have them dressed (in clothes that weren't their favorite worn-to-rags-and-stained) and find shoes and get them on and then the twins are too young for school so either I would still be stuck at home all day with preschoolers (which is a fate I would do almost anything to avoid experiencing again) or we would have to pay to put them in preschool and I'd have to get them there, too. And Deux would HATE school. (Deux hates switching gears to go places he loves, and I can't imagine that he would love a noisy classroom with 25 other 6 and 7-year-olds, where his inability to pay attention to thoughts outside his head would become acutely problematic and his ability to work out negative numbers and division by fractions would be completely overlooked.) And then I would have to pick them up again and they'd be tired and cranky and I'd have to make them do homework (much of which I would probably find boring and a waste of time) and help them with fundraisers and stuff.

The truth is, I'm a better tutor than a mother, and the thought of giving up the only part of motherhood that I have some comfort and talent with is not appealing to me.


3. How long have you been married? How many kids do you have, or want to have? Have you ever thought of adopting, or have you? 
DOB and I have been married nine years. We have four kids. Four is a good number. I think the topic of adoption came up once, three weeks after we were married and two weeks before we discovered the Duchess was on the way. Ever since, we have more than had our hands full with our biological offspring, so we have never seriously considered messing up somebody else's kids.

4. What is your greatest personality strength? Weakest?
 Ha! I picked this one out and I am drawing a blank.

Probably my curiosity. I am interested in pretty much everything. (Well, except for things that interest normal people, like sports or shopping or dogs.) Nothing energizes me like something new to think about, find out about, or try out.

By the same token, my greatest weakness is probably that I quickly overload and then I freeze.  Which is why I spent forty-five minutes in the back of Fred Meyer on Saturday looking for the electronics section, somehow having missed on my previous 167 visits to the store that the electronics section was Right Out Front next to the checkout. Yeah. Shopping is not a good thing for me. Too many options.

5. What do you like best about your family?
I like that we are all completely, bizarrely, weirdly imaginative. Everything is a story. Something too strange to even reduce to writing is usually going on in the living room: drawings of evil mermaids, battles between plants and zombie ninjas, school with pirates. Meanwhile the grownups are reading or writing fantasy or sci-fi or developing their GURPS characters.

6. What is your favorite thing about where you live (country, neighborhood, etc.)? Least? Favorite? I don't know. I love water. I love mountains. I love lots and lots of trees. I even love rain. I like our little town that's close to the big city but not too close.

One thing I don't love is the lack of sidewalks close to our house. It's very hard to walk in the dark, and this time of year, dark is the only time I have to walk.

7.  What is your idea of the perfect day?
No schedule. Nowhere to go. The fridge already stocked with food. A very long walk in the woods. A stack of books to read. Some games. Nobody crying or needing wiped.

This is a picture of me doing something usual--trying to take care of both the twins at once and dropping things. The only thing not usual is that my hair is looking unusually restrained.

2011 in Review

Borrowed from me two years ago. Some answers haven't changed. Some have.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?

Started a business. Played in a bell choir. Painted a house. Potty-trained twins.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don't do New Year's resolutions.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth or get pregnant?

My brother and sister-in-law had their fifth. DOB's sister is expecting her first.

4. Did anyone close to you get married?

DOB's sister.

5. Did anyone close to you die?

My weird aunt. DOB's grandfather.

6. Travel?

Very little. Just our get-out-of-the-house-or-bust trip in November.

7. Did you move anywhere?

We moved into our own house in May.

8. What was the best month?

I think August was pretty nice: calm, somewhat settled in, not too hectic. November had its nice points, too.

9. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

Time to concentrate. On something.

10. What date(s) from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

June 14 (day my aunt died).

11. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Working and homeschooling and staying sane--in fact, feeling saner.

12. What was your biggest failure?

Losing a major contract.

13. Did you suffer illness or injury?

There was the stomach flu of eternal doom that afflicted us all for the first few months of the year. That was . . . nasty. DOB sprained an ankle.

14. What was the best thing you bought?

I was going to put "my Nook," and then I thought, what about the house? Well, that wasn't a personal expenditure.

15. Whose behavior merited celebration?

DOB, for persevering through starting a new career, building a business, and still having energy to interact with his family.

16. Whose behavior made you appalled and/or depressed?

Previous occupants of this house, who apparently smoked indoors and drank outdoors (and then smashed the bottles); grew things in the basement; and tossed dead pets with the rest of the garbage into the bushes.

On very rare occasions, the children did something stunning. Like knocking over the Christmas tree. On top of a pile of library books. Not quite appalling, though.

17. Where did most of your money go?

Most of the money I personally earned went to putting large payments on our credit cards. Which are nearing the bottom.

18. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Starting "real" homeschooling. Practicing law.

19. What song will always remind you of 2011?

"I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"

20. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
ii. richer or poorer?

i. Happier, for the most part. We are beginning to fulfill goals. I think I'm finding a bit better balance. Maybe. I can eat things besides chicken broth and yogurt.
ii. And, by the same token, a bit richer. Well, closer to zero.

21. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Organizing the basement. It's a scary, scary place down there.

22. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Taken people potty. And zipped coats. The closer children get to not being helpless, the more annoying their continuing helplessness is.

23. How will you be spending New Year's Eve/Day?

We have already spent them.

24. What was an unexpected surprise?

Everything. I am easily surprised.

25. Did you fall in love in 2011?

Only with new projects.

26. What was the best concert you've been to this year?

I didn't go to any concerts, but we did take the Duchess to The Sound of Music, which was fun.

27. What was your favorite TV program?

LOST. Yes, I'm always five years behind the times.

28. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't dislike this time last year?

Jack in LOST. Arrogant, reckless, god complex. And still presented as a hero.

29. What was the best book you read?

Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis. (They're really just one long book split into two, so I will count both.) Honorable mention to The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. In non-fiction, The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. I have not read enough old books this year.

30. What was your greatest musical discovery?

How easy it is to learn cool new folksongs using Youtube videos.

31. What did you want and get?

Children who were potty-trained. A home of our own. Work.

32. What did you want and not get?

Children who are completely self-sufficient. A home with enough rooms. Work.

33. What was your favorite film of this year?

Since my peanut gallery says Neverwhere was a miniseries, not a movie, I will say Serenity. It is one of the most recent, though, so it could have an unfair advantage because of my poor memory.

34. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 33, and I played cards.

35. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Nobody I knew dying.

36. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

Adding classy quirkiness.

37. What kept you sane?

Reading and taking walks for as long as I could. (This is always the answer.)

38. What political issue stirred you the most?

When I thought about it, the Occupy X movement annoyed me. So I tried not to think about it.

39. Who did you miss?

My weird aunt. My mom.

40. Random Memories from 2011?

The flu that would not die. Having the children baptized. Scrubbing walls in between potty runs. Feeling like a real lawyer for the first time. Hiking with the ducklings. Actually organizing a term of school and following through.

Not Ten TV Shows I've Enjoyed

Because I really can't come up with ten, but thanks to Carrie at Reading to Know, I'm going to give it a whirl with the ones I can.

Truth is, I hate most television shows. I hate knowing ahead of time exactly what's going to happen next. And most TV shows run on predictability. There are shows I really tried to like--Numbers is one--because of the characters, but if I can walk in at any point, watch two minutes and tell you exactly how far along it is, whodunnit, and what's going to happen next, then I'm just not interested.

It's got to have plot, yes it does. I know there are only six plots in the world, but keep me guessing on which one it's going to be and how it's going to get there. And character development--not just characters I like, but characters I am curious about what they're going to turn into. And difficult moral questions. Not "good guys" and "bad guys" but real, honest people who might choose good and who might choose bad.

Or you can get me with a good laugh.

We don't watch much with the kids, but I'll try to include a ratings comment in case you wonder.

1. Lost

This is the one we just finished. And yes, it had it all. Plot that developed mind-blowing new complications in nearly every episode. Characters that you loved to hate and hated to love and couldn't wait to see how they might grow. "Bad" people getting second chances . . . and third chances . . . and "good" people finding out what was under the facade. I loved it.

Suitability for Small Hippos: It's about people's choices. Some of those are really bad ones. Some of those get shown a little more onscreen than probably should happen. It's also really, really scary at times. OK, most of the time.

2. Babylon 5

Another one with fascinating characters, unpredictable plot twists, and difficult moral questions. Plus, this one has exploding spacecraft! Like all sci-fi, it shows its age a little. (We've got intergalactic travel, but no cell phones?) But on the whole, very well thought-out. I also appreciate that it's one of those rare works of science fiction that doesn't treat religion as either irrelevant or malevolent, but still a significant factor in the life of sentients. The series as a whole seems to favor a kind of proactive pantheism, but even the occasional devout Christian gets respectful treatment. The first four seasons are awesome--the fifth one kind of got tacked on, and is comparatively lame, but by that point we were too hooked to stop.
Suitability for Small Hippos: The camera tends to pan out when necessary (except for some in the last season), but because of themes it would need some judicious editing for me to show it to young teens. Plus I don't think anyone younger would enjoy it.

3. Jeeves and Wooster

And now for something completely different . . . OK, so this has no character development and the moral questions come down to, "If Aunt Dahlia says you MUST pinch the cow creamer, then what else can you do?" But Wodehouse is Wodehouse, and if you don't find it hilarious then there is something seriously wrong with you and you should probably seek professional help. Immediately. And then watch it.
Suitability for Small Hippos: Well, we let OUR kids watch it. They haven't started drinking cocktails or pinching cow creamers yet. The Duchess did develop strong opinions on the proper clothing for gentlemen, though.


4. Neverwhere

It had me at the use of the Underground stations. Of course there should be Black Friars at Blackfriars! And an Earl's Court at Earl's Court! It kept me going with great characters, epic adventure, and subtle but deep examination of serious questions. It's only a miniseries, so maybe it doesn't count, and maybe if it does I should lump in all the adaptations of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens and George Eliot I've enjoyed (and in that case, we WILL make it to ten and then some), but I think in this case the miniseries came before the book so I'll count it.
Suitability for Small Hippos: Very scary and some very creepy characters, but highly recommended for the strong of stomach.


5. Fawlty Towers

We've actually only watched this in little chunks on YouTube, but John Cleese is hilarious at any resolution.
Suitability for Small Hippos: As I recall, the only things there were to get wouldn't be gotten by anyone too young to get them.

6. Poirot

Does this count? I think there are movie-length ones and TV-length ones. OK, so there's complete predictability (Poirot WILL deduce who did it) and no character development (Hastings will always be lovable and dumb). However, at least one is always kept guessing as to who will prove to be the murderer and how Poirot will figure it out. I can't watch in large doses, but every once in a while I enjoy one.
Suitability for Small Hippos: Well, murder is kind of nasty and people usually do it for rather nasty reasons. However, that stuff takes place off screen. There have been a few which I would have preferred not to see for thematic reasons, although I suspect those tend to be the more recent ones. I would watch many of them with youngish teens.

The Year in Review

Borrowed from The Common Room

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?

Drove across the northern Plain states.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don't think so. I have a deep aversion to the whole New Improved Shiny Me thing, as it rarely involves permanent character development and generally instead involves looking better to everyone else.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth or get pregnant?

Quite a few of them. But not me, hurrah!

4. Did anyone close to you get married?

Not that they told me about.

5. Did anyone close to you die?

My uncle, which may or may not count as close enough.

6. Travel?

Oh my yes. West Virginia in February, and then the Great Trip.

7. Did you move anywhere?

From Ohio to Washington.

8. What was the best month?

The first six months of the year where rather steadily dull; the last six months were all highs and lows. I don't think I could pick one as being a real best, although the trip itself makes October stand out.

9. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

Patience. (Spare me the jokes, please.)

10. What date(s) from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

June 29, the day we decided to move. October 10, the day we left, and October 22, the day we arrived.

11. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Keeping myself and those dependent on me alive.

12. What was your biggest failure?

Losing my cool and perspective and being unwilling to live in acceptance of the moment instead of impatiently insisting that everything be sorted out right now. (Um, this is more of an ongoing one.)

13. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Just general exhaustion.

14. What was the best thing you bought?

Most of my achievements of the year would be the things I cleverly managed to avoid buying, such as by resurrecting old computers.

15. Whose behavior merited celebration?

The kids', for taking their parents' insanity in stride and handling massive upheaval without complaint; DOB's, for being brave enough to try new things; and the family and friends who made it all possible, most especially Their Majesties.

16. Whose behavior made you appalled and/or depressed?

Pretty much anything that was in the news all year, which is why I tried to ignore it.

17. Where did most of your money go?

If one only knew . . .

18. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Moving back home, reexamining life.

19. What song will always remind you of 2009?

Long, Long Journey

20. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
ii. richer or poorer?

i. Happier, I think, but things are still settling themselves out.

ii. Poorer for the present.

21. What do you wish you'd done more of?

I think I've done enough, thanks.

22. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Changing dirty diapers. I really think one per child per day ought to be enough.

23. How will you be spending New Year's Eve/Day?

We will probably have a small celebration with the older ducklings that ends by 9 p.m. and go to bed early. New Year's Day we have a wedding to attend.

24. What was an unexpected surprise?

Everything. I am easily surprised.

25. Did you fall in love in 2009?

Surely I've done enough in that department, too.

26. What was the best concert you've been to this year?

The cousins singing "Let All Things Now Living" on Thanksgiving.

27. What was your favorite TV program?

Jeeves and Wooster. It's my favorite TV program every year!

28. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't dislike this time last year?

It takes a lot for me to dislike someone. No one has worked hard enough at it lately.

29. What was the best book you read?

I wish I kept better track of them. (Perhaps that is what I should have done more of.)

30. What was your greatest musical discovery?

The effect a quiet CD has on getting four children to sleep in the same room.

31. What did you want and get?

The chance to be with my family-of-origin. Adventure and excitement. Children who all sleep through the night.

32. What did you want and not get?

Finding a way to bridge the gap between what I like to do and what I have to do.

33. What was your favorite film of this year?

I'm tempted to say Hogfather. So I think I will.

34. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 31, and since it was Thanksgiving, I spent most of the day chopping vegetables.

35. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

DOB already having new work.

36. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?

Can I still button it?

37. What kept you sane?

Reading and taking walks for as long as I could.

38. What political issue stirred you the most?

The incredible undying stupidity of Congress on every issue has stirred me so much already that nothing is left in the pot.

39. Who did you miss?

Friends and family from Cincinnati.

40. Random Memories from 2009?

An overambitious but fun garden; the pristine if almost unfriendly beauty of a house ready for the market; babies turning into toddlers like an invasion of the infantry; D1 learning to read and D2 following close behind; plains, rivers, forests, mountains, snow, rain, sun.

Oh, the Places You've Been

Taken from The Common Room, but I saw it at the Treehouse first.

bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut (?) / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland ? / Massachusetts / Michigan* / Minnesota* / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana (?) / Nebraska / Nevada (?) / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania (?) / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont (?) / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming (?) / Washington D.C /

The asterisks represent transfers at the Detroit and Minneapolis airports, as I don't recall ever being elsewhere in the state. The question marks are states I think I've passed through on road trips but don't positively remember for sure.

I think I need to pay more attention. :-P

Five Things I Like About Motherhood

Sara tagged me for this and at first I thought she'd already covered the best stuff in her post. But I think I have my own particular things.

1. Reading out loud. What better excuse than having kids to re-read all your childhood favorites and discover new treasures?

2. Siblings playing together. I am so grateful I could have more than one child; I really wouldn't have the first notion of what to do with only one. Even though I ask myself, "What WAS I thinking to have four so close together?" almost every day, I love that they'll be able to grow up together, that we have such a great mix of boys and girls and introverts and extroverts to keep each other balanced and make a strong team and have a lot of fun.

3. Watching them figure things out. I love watching the light bulbs go off, and I get a curious pleasure out of it when I wasn't involved at all and it wasn't one of those things that you can pull up in maternal bragging competitions. Last week D1 was sitting on the porch eating lunch and suddenly pointed to the neighbors' house and said, "Hey! We are their neighbors!"

4. The way babies giggle when you tickle them. There's nothing like getting two of them going at once.

5. Naptime. Is it ok to have that on the top five? It's such a wonderful time of day . . .


I tag: Wendy, Carrie, Melissa, Songbirdy, Mary

The Closest Book Meme

From Uncle Steve.

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people & post a comment here once you post it to your blog, so I can come see.

Here goes:

"Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel. The Lord said to Moses, 'How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?'"

We don't keep a lot of books close to the computer. But, since the computer desk is opposite the dinner table, we do keep a Bible there in hopes that occasionally we will remember to have family Bible reading during dinner. (We have discovered this is the easy way to keep the kids quiet during the reading, and at this stage of life, we're all about easy.) It was buried by a stack of tax forms and the box for Mille Bornes, so that's probably not a good sign.

I'm feeling too fuzzy to come up with names, so if you haven't done this recently, consider yourself tagged.

Eight Random Things

I don't think I've actually done this one, even though *everybody* has. But now Amy has tagged me. So. Eight random things about me, plus eight people to tag (if I can come up with that many who have not just been tagged.)

1. One of my lifelong dreams is to live in a remote, quiet seaside cottage on a northern coast, taking long walks, wearing tweedy woolen sweaters, and writing Profound Things. Since I now live in a noisy house in a midwestern city, only wear cotton sweaters (and those seldom), and my writing perpetually declines in profundity, this dream seems rather hopeless right now. (I still take long walks whenever I get the chance.) But I refuse to give up hope.

2. I hate shopping. I hate spending money; I hate making decisions; I hate finding things in a big crowd of Other Things; I hate finding new places to put things. I really, really hate shopping. Even online. Every once in awhile I find a fabulous deal on something I desperately need (I usually have desperately needed things for a long time before I even go looking), and then I feel moderately tolerant of it, but I can still think of a thousand ways I'd rather spend the day. The only thing fun about shopping is mocking the things available for sale, and other people seem to frown on doing this publicly.

3. So far I've shown no sign of having wisdom teeth.

4. DOB and I are trying to further our cultural literacy by watching Star Wars for the first time, but we're finding it painful. The plot is so predictable! The dialogue sounds like it was written as a group activity by the freshman composition class! The acting is terrible! The science so irrational! The philosophy so absurd! Harrison Ford is the only thing that makes it remotely bearable. That and . . . it's fun to mock.

5. I've had two multi-year bouts of chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia type illness, but nothing in recent years. Just normal having babies and toddlers and never getting enough sleep fatigue, which doesn't count.

6. I attended "regular" school for one day in fourth grade and, though I had no particular interest in attending school before then, that certainly was enough to commit me to homeschooling for life. Sitting around waiting for some arbitrary declaration that it was time to move on, long after I had finished filling in all the right blanks, did not impress me as a good way to spend my life.

7. I love cooking if I don't have to stick to the recipe, teaching if I don't have to stick to the curriculum, and writing if I won't be graded on it.

8. I've only worn nail polish once in my life, and it was silver glitter.


And now I tag Carrie, Rose, Wendy, Melissa, Devona, Birdy, and um . . . I'm running out of untagged names here, but if you haven't done it (or you have eight MORE random things), feel free to join in.