6 Word Memoir

This was a tag from my friend Melissa from the Nook, my book club. I have been thinking about this for two days solid. The idea is to distill your life into 6 words. I came up with several, but this is the one that gave me a little shiver down my spine when I thought of it, so it must be the one, at least for now. Here it is, with illustration:

Making it up as I go...

Here are the rules:
6 Word Memoir

1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4. Tag five more blogs with links
5. Remember to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

I tag Christie, Tracy, Ashlee, Julia, and Joni

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Scarves

So, I fell asleep before I could get these posted last night, but here are some of the completed scarves we've been working on in Relief Society at church. Aren't they pretty? I'm so pleased with the number of finished ones. I just got an email from one friend who has already made three and has five more to bring me! Wow!

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There is Beauty All Around...

...If you stop and look for it. Today I found myself near a local Reservoir called Rocky Gorge and stopped to take some pictures. I didn't have my tripod, but I got a few nice shots anyway. I have always been in the habit of trying to be present wherever I am, and winter in Maryland is no exception. It is usually wet and a bit dreary, but there exists color and texture and layers of subtle beauty under the gray clouds. There are no big skies, or mountains or craggy vistas, but I love the trees and the endless variety of the landscape here. I love that you can't stop things from growing here-even in winter. The life of the land refuses to be quenched--no matter how dreary things get, you can usually find something green, or one of a million other colors. Here is winter as I've seen it for most of the last 38 years.

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Just Another Country? or a Whole Other Planet?

You may or may not be aware of this simple fact: Playing games with teenage boys is different than playing with women. Or kids. Or a mixed group of adults. Or any other group that you can think of. It is like a whole other place. I visited that place tonight and returned home to tell the tale. The location was the barren wilderness of a place called Catan. My fellow Settlers were my two sons and a nephew aged 14-18. I was surprised to be invited, but they needed a full complement of Imperialistic Opportunists. The testosterone level was high. The flatulence meter was off the scale. The giggling over the flatulence was even further off the scale. These are boys who don't use profanity of any kind except the made-up kind, which turns profanity from something to engender distaste to something so hilarious as to be surreal. The only f word I heard was flip. The s word was stinking or schniggin. I heard "holy" as a prefix for so many odd things I thought I might be in an old episode of Batman and Robin ("Holy Goats and Chickens!") The competitive edge and will to win at all costs was interesting to observe. I've heard this game praised because it is about cooperation and interdependence. I didn't see it. I mostly saw plain old imperialism played out between fits of silliness mixed with teenage bravado. I felt a bit like a visiting scientist in a foreign country: the basic things were the same, but the culture couldn't have been more different. I'm grateful I got to be an exchange student tonight.

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Julia's Meme

I haven't done a meme for a while, and never this one, so here is more stuff about me. I tried to do one word answers, but just couldn't do it. Anyhow, thanks for a few minutes of diverting entertainment, Julia!

What time did you get up this morning?
I hesitate to say...4:45 am
Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds, real or fake, doesn't matter.
What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
National Treasure 2
What is your favorite TV show?
M*A*S*H
What do you usually have for breakfast?
Oatmeal, yogurt, smoothies, and the occasional bowl of Cocoa Puffs.
What food do you dislike?
Liver
What is your favorite CD at the moment?
Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
What kind of car do you drive?
Black 2005 Honda Accord
Favorite Sandwich
Peanut Butter and Honey on homemade bread
Favorite item of clothing?
Socks
If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
At this moment, England.
Favorite Brand of clothing
J Jill
Where would you retire to?
Somewhere in the country. With mountains. And water.
What is your most recent memorable birthday?
Last year-41-friends threw me a party-way fun.
Favorite sport to watch
Tennis
When is your birthday?
August 23
Are you a morning person or a night person?
In truth a night person, but mostly I wish I didn't have to sleep. I might actually be able to keep up on the laundry.
What is your shoe size?
8 EEEE. Those are hard to find, so I mostly wear 8 1/2 or 9. Euro 39 fits the best.
Pets?
Many
Any new and exciting news you'd like to share?
My son will be home from his mission for our church in July!
What did you want to be when you were little?
a Mom and Jacques Cousteau
How are you today?
Great! I'm done teaching seminary and am looking at a lovely three-day weekend.
What is your favorite candy?
Homemade truffles
What is your favorite flower?
All of them. Roses for looks, Daylilies for reliability, Lilacs for scent, Peonies for all out gorgeousness, etc...
What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?
Feb 25th: I'll be home from a business trip. It is fun to go, but way more fun to come home.
What are you listening to right now?
Quiet hum of my iMac G5, kids getting ready for school
What is the last thing you ate?
I licked the peanut butter knife after making lunches.
Do you wish on stars?
No
If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Sky Blue
How is the weather right now?
Thin high clouds and cold
Last person you spoke to on the phone.
My daughter
Favorite Soft Drink
IBC Cream Soda
Favorite Resturant
La Madeleine or Panera, because I've had so many wonderful, cozy lunches at those places with friends.
Hair Color
Reddish Brown, starting to go grey
What was your favorite toy as a child?
my bike
Summer or winter
Winter: it is easier for me to keep warm than fight the humidity
Hugs or kisses
Hugs
Chocolate or vanilla
Chocolate-dark
When was the last time you cried?
Yesterday
What is under your bed?
books, yarn, wrapping paper
What did you do last night?
Went out to dinner with my Valentine. He even surprised me.
What are you afraid of?
House fires, not being liked-I suffer from debilitating insecurity.
Salty or sweet
Sweet
Favorite day of the week?
Sunday, especially the afternoon
How many towns have you lived in?
Nine. Ten if you count my summer as an exchange student in Costa Rica.
Do you make friends easily?
Loaded question. It is one of the biggest challenges in my life, but one with some of the greatest rewards of my life.

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Winter Day with Children

Yesterday turned out to be a day of moments. Most of my plans changed, but what remained was a collection of lovely convergences, any of which could have been captured in a single image with a title like the one I chose for this post. Two nieces, a nephew and a darling young friend ended up spending the day with me.

My friend is already an accomplished knitter, and seeing her progress, my nieces got started yesterday and did beautifully.
Before the rain started, we went out long enough for everyone to get roses in their cheeks and just chilly enough for hot cocoa to sound good.


I ran out of both creative and actual steam in the afternoon, so there was a bit of guitar hero, but it was all in good balance. Besides, that game is very fun -the ultimate air guitar!
The spinning wheel standing in my corner has cast its spell and one little girl is now making her own yarn. She's a natural!
Throughout the day, Sara was my faithful helper, peacemaker and giver of hugs to younger children. Sam had wrestling practice, then read and rested the rest of the day. In between the knitting and game-playing, we did a craft (Thanks to Lucia for the idea!), made some cookies to decorate (we didn't get around to the decorating part, because the cookies all got eaten) and had a picnic on the family room floor for lunch because the table was full of craft supplies.

My temple trip was canceled due to the weather, and the scarf project became a wonderful, quiet evening spent with one intrepid friend, Jen, who braved the weather to come over and has already completed three scarves! It was such a pleasure to talk for a long time and get to know her better.

If I had to choose a day to become a portrait of my life, this one would be in the running. I got to be the kind of mom I always picture myself being, but who sometimes gets caught in the thick of thin things and misses out on the moments. Yesterday, I think I got them all.

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Photos

Here's a post I've been working on since the last week of January. This was my peaceful, snowy weekend in Pennsylvania a few weeks ago. Here we are watching Youtube videos and reading. Notice the beautiful snowy woods outside the windows.






























The charms of the winter landscape were too much to resist and I spent a very cold half hour out in the 11 degree morning snapping a few impressions of the quiet forest.

The conditions were perfect for snow that was lighter than air. Each flake lighted on its fellows without weight or disturbance. There was no wind, the snow damped the normal sounds of nature, and these woods are out of range of hearing anything but the occasional passing flock of wild turkeys. Overall, the effect was quite magical.

The last photo is the cabin. It has the perfect amount of space. Not enough for anything but the most fundamental possessions, but infinite in capacity for love and memories.

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Gearing UP!

Tomorrow is election day, and in Maryland that means a statewide day off school, because how on earth can they use one room of a school for a polling place and still actually HAVE school?? Oh, wait, did I type that out loud? Sorry. It's been that way ever since I was a kid, why should it be different now-shouldn't complain-I do get to spend a day with the kids, which I actually do like. The bigger problem is that I am just flummoxed about who to vote for. I've been doing my homework and what I really need is a Frankenstein's Monster-Candidate who has all the bits and pieces that I want from each candidate's platform, conveniently bolted together into one package. I'm just not satisfied with any one individual. Sad. I'll just have to make my priority list and stick to it.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, so I'll just write about it now. It starts off around 7 with my niece getting dropped off. At 9 I have a knitting encounter with one of my most special young friends, then around 10 am the rest of the nieces and nephews come for the day. My sis is working furiously on her PhD proposal and my sister-in-law-in-law has to work. So, I'll have 5-6 extra kids around at different times of the day. Generally, the cousins do really well together, so it will be a largely peaceful day. My only worry is whether or not it will warm up enough for me to lure them outside for a while. I have to leave for a while in the late afternoon, so my strategy is to hold off on the tv and video games till then, then use those options while I'm gone. Johnathan is doing the quintessentially college-boy thing to do and ditching class to go skiing. It's kinda hard to come down on him when he works and goes to school pretty much 6 days a week without a break and never complains. I hope he has fun.


My afternoon errand is a very happy one as my pal's daughter (who is also my pal) goes to the Temple for the first time. In our faith, that is an opportunity to make covenants and commitments that shape one's religious participation and devotion as an adult. It is a very happy occasion because it is a choice that requires a level of spiritual maturity indicating that an individual is fully committed to the doctrines and practices of the LDS faith. The temple ceremonies are beautiful, simple, and rooted in scripture, but we don't discuss them because we believe they are personal and sacred. Some things need to be experienced in an atmosphere of faith and devotion rather than discussed and analyzed out of context. Tomorrow is in preparation for her marriage on Saturday, which will also take place in the temple. I'm so happy I will be in attendance to rejoice with my friend and her family.

But wait! The day is not over...by the time I get back from the temple, the munchkins will likely all be gone, unless my sis is having a really long day. In any event, at 7 pm, my house opens up as the Official Hang-out for Scarf-Makers once again. Hopefully some folks will come. That goes till 10 pm. By then, my lids will be heavy, my seminary lesson will be prepared, and I will be ready for bed. So, in case I don't get to check in tomorrow, you'll already know what I'm up to.

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First week of Febrary

The shortest month is a fourth of the way gone. This week I spent about 8 hours of my time either at or driving to dental and orthodontic appointments. I had regular appointments on two of the days and then return appointments on another day. The good news is that Sara is completely done with actual braces and has her retainer. So far, she is doing pretty well wearing it when she needs to. I need to do better at reminding her. She is pretty happy to be done after 4 years. Of course, she looks beautiful.

I completely forgot to schedule any parent-teacher conferences, so I'm feeling like the champion lame mother for that. There were some reasonably good reasons why I forgot, but I still feel lame. So what to do with my feelings of lameness? Congratulate myself for at least being a champion at lameness (no mediocrity there), then forgive myself and move on. We'll all survive and my kids are doing fine overall. I'm in touch with teachers by email, and that will just have to do. I will try to avoid comparing myself to other, better, mothers and try to have a sense of humor about it all. I'm pretty sure my kids don't mind a bit that I didn't make it in to talk to their teachers.

This was the first week of my knitting project with the women of my congregation at church, and it was a most pleasant part of the week. 7 friends and their kids came to my house on Tuesday and either knitted or crocheted scarves for Cancer patients. I got bags of toys from the library and the youngsters did really well while the moms worked. I do love little ones. I love being an Auntie, a surrogate auntie and I think I'll love being a grandma. Someday...far away... Anyway, on Wednesday night I was at the church during youth and children's activities and got a few other stitchers started. I am very happy with the response. We should get plenty of scarves.

This week, the goals are to get Sara signed up for dance, get her an eye doctor appointment, get her signed up for dance camp, get Johnathan a consult with an oral surgeon to get his wisdom teeth removed, get a package out to Jeff, get to sleep by 10 pm, get seminary report cards out, and get myself running again. I've been under the weather with some odd symptoms lately and haven't run in two weeks. I've put on 8 pounds in spite of making some major dietary changes. Sheesh. Oh yeah, I also have to figure out who the heck to vote for.

Good things coming this week are: My pal's daughter's wedding and more chances to get together with friends for the scarf project. Okay...time for bed. I'm determined to be good.

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Welcome to my life...

A Seminary Teacher's view of high-schoolers at 5:50 am. This made me laugh so hard. I promise I would never even consider giving them pepsi max to wake them up.

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Bloggin'

Sam was home sick from church and my pinched nerve was acting up again, so I stayed home. I ended up doing quite a bit of study, did this frilly update on my blog (it reminds me of my Laura Ashley days in the 90's) and actually made some comments on pal's blogs. I also worked on some family history and scrapbooking. Not too bad a use of 3 hours.

I'm not sure how long this particular update will last, but I am having tons of fun experimenting with the connection between digital scrapbooking and blog design. All part of my education.

I got the notion to update from my sister's blog. At first I inadvertently picked the same background she has. That made me smile. Then I branched out on my own. The backgrounds are available here and they're free along with the instructions for changing the code. Now to put some of my own designs up.

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Family Memory Saturday

There is a little-known day on our church congregation's (called a Ward) local calendar. It is Family Memory Saturday. For us it can be an especial boon because as the Bishop or lay minister in charge of our Ward, my husband gets to have a day off from those responsibilities. On these Saturdays, usually one per month, there are to be no church activities scheduled so that families can have a day without the pressure of calendared events pulling them away from home. Our church is a busy, social, happy church and it is wonderful, but sometimes the array of available activities to participate in can be overwhelming. So, yesterday was a Family Memory Saturday that turned out quite nicely. We shared the day with another family and spent a quiet and contemplative afternoon together watching the televised funeral services of our beloved Prophet/President, Gordon B. Hinckley, then our friends stayed for dinner. It totally cheered me up after a tough week. It may seem strange that another funeral would help cheer me up, but this one was quite different because of the nature of the death. It was full of testimony, counsel and inspiration. It made it seem possible to be the kind of person Gordon B. Hinckley was.

In the evening, we made memories with more dear friends as Eric and I and 2 1/2 other couples went to see U23D, an IMAX concert film of the U2 Vertigo tour. Friends, laughter, cheesecake, and BONO-can there be a more perfect evening?

In the afternoon, we made a list with the kids of Family Memory activities for us to schedule for the coming year. It is so cool that we can look to these days and know that there is nothing else to get in the way of a fun day together. Here is the list we put together:
Bowling
Splashdown
Spy Museum
Air Show at Andrews AFB
Wii tournament
Water Taxi around Baltimore
Lunch and shopping in Harborplace
Dodgeball or basketball game outside
Medieval Times
Go help Grandma and Grandpa with chores (my KIDS came up with this one, not me! Please join me in a moment of extreme parental pride!)
Make a movie together
Book store crawl
Nerf Basketball Tournament
Nerf dart gun battle
Mall scavenger hunt
Shadowland lasertag
Family bike ride to Lake Elkhorn or the B&A trail
Kayaking or canoeing (I see a trip to REI in our future)
Walk in the woods
Other local museums
Amish Country tour
Blackwater Wildlife Refuge
Spend a day in Annapolis
Spend a day in St. Michaels

I am going to try and use this just like a checklist and schedule these things on the calendar, budget for them, and have a year full of family memories!

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