Twice in the last week I've dreamed about making a quilt.
The first dream concerned a quilt with a traditional star block done in Kansas Troubles-like fabrics (not a type of fabric I typically work with!).
The second was about having a stack of really colorful fabrics and needing to make an applique quilt of some kind. Just as I settled on butterflies and started drafting my pattern, I woke up.
Is it a coincidence that I have in my sewing machine upstairs a half-done quilt and have been saying for days and days, "I'd like to have a chance to sew today"? That since starting to work at the local quilt shop I nearly constantly have fabrics and designs and colors and ideas dancing in my brain?
Surely not!
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Nothing ventured, nothing gained; Or, heaping high the plate and hoping for the best
NaNoWriMo 2011 starts in just over 12 days. While it is true I completely flamed out in 2010 and never wrote beyond week two (I blame the moving), and it is also true that my participation in Camp NaNoWriMo this past August was largely an imaginary endeavor, the third truth is that I for sure will not write anything if I don't sign up at all. At this point I would rather take the hit to my pride and admit I didn't finish my 50,000 words than not attempt it at all.
So, put the coffee on and warm up the laptop. I'll be doing NaNoWriMo again this year.
(And put some beer in the fridge, too, okay?)
Thursday, September 29, 2011
The trouble with the buffet
I talked with my mom on the phone this morning, trying to sort through the difficult choices and dilemmas that life has been sending my way lately, and she said that maybe the Universe is sending me a buffet of choices so that I can better understand what I really like to do.
I can see the wisdom in this. But I still kind of wish I had a continental breakfast menu and was choosing between the bagel and the sweet roll.
Of course, sometimes a buffet is not as broad a choice as it seems. A seafood buffet, for example, would still probably only be offering me two choices that I would be interested in. Or, you know, sometimes you look at the buffet and wonder how long that food has been sitting there.
Don't you love how the further you extend the metaphor, the more ridiculous it becomes?
I remember when Cora was around three years old and, faced with two choices and wanting neither, she would cry, "These are NOT my options!"
I can see the wisdom in this. But I still kind of wish I had a continental breakfast menu and was choosing between the bagel and the sweet roll.
Of course, sometimes a buffet is not as broad a choice as it seems. A seafood buffet, for example, would still probably only be offering me two choices that I would be interested in. Or, you know, sometimes you look at the buffet and wonder how long that food has been sitting there.
Don't you love how the further you extend the metaphor, the more ridiculous it becomes?
I remember when Cora was around three years old and, faced with two choices and wanting neither, she would cry, "These are NOT my options!"
Monday, September 19, 2011
Possibly both waving and drowning
When things get very busy, I start to feel a little panicky. A little like the walls are closing in and all my chances to do anything important to me are fast vanishing.
Maybe it's the two part-time jobs, the part-time going to school, the full-time mothering and wife-ing and general holding-the-homestead-togethering, combined with having a kid who is in school full time for the first time in her life.
She comes home and she wants to spend time with us. She has an agenda for us, an imaginary play game that she cares very much about playing. After being on my feet for a full day of work, then taking care of emails and work for online clients, bolting down a dinner, I do still want to have the energy to be Ms. Flower the art teacher for a 20 minute bout of coloring.
But I also want to take a nap. To lie down and stare at the ceiling. To read a grown up book. To knit for a little or do some sewing or maybe even catch my mental breath enough to try to write something worthwhile.
Maybe it's the two part-time jobs, the part-time going to school, the full-time mothering and wife-ing and general holding-the-homestead-togethering, combined with having a kid who is in school full time for the first time in her life.
She comes home and she wants to spend time with us. She has an agenda for us, an imaginary play game that she cares very much about playing. After being on my feet for a full day of work, then taking care of emails and work for online clients, bolting down a dinner, I do still want to have the energy to be Ms. Flower the art teacher for a 20 minute bout of coloring.
But I also want to take a nap. To lie down and stare at the ceiling. To read a grown up book. To knit for a little or do some sewing or maybe even catch my mental breath enough to try to write something worthwhile.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
In the classroom
It is strange to be in the classroom as a student again. It is strange in two ways. First, of course, I am now more used to being on the other side of the teacher's desk. Second, and more strangely, it feels pretty natural - maybe not so surprising. I did, after all, spend 19 years as a student and only 8 as a teacher.
Some things are the same as they were for much of my scholastic career. I can't believe other people aren't doing the reading, don't bring their books to class, and never have anything to say when the professor asks a question. I get impatient for the teacher to move on to the next point; I wish the pace would either pick up or else that there would be more opportunities to move the conversation deeper.
I'm taking two classes. One is Introduction to Education (taught by a graduate teaching assistant - he has a lot of experience with elementary and high school teaching, but not much at all with college students, and he often puts himself in a position to have that lack of experience taken advantage of) and the other is Education of the Exceptional Student. Good material, interesting, but we're really just hovering on the surface.
I'm not really the type of student who likes to hang out on the surface. When it seems clear that that is where we are staying, I have a tendency to tune out and read ahead. This has its pros and cons. Luckily, I have 19 years of experience with the pros and cons.
Some things are the same as they were for much of my scholastic career. I can't believe other people aren't doing the reading, don't bring their books to class, and never have anything to say when the professor asks a question. I get impatient for the teacher to move on to the next point; I wish the pace would either pick up or else that there would be more opportunities to move the conversation deeper.
I'm taking two classes. One is Introduction to Education (taught by a graduate teaching assistant - he has a lot of experience with elementary and high school teaching, but not much at all with college students, and he often puts himself in a position to have that lack of experience taken advantage of) and the other is Education of the Exceptional Student. Good material, interesting, but we're really just hovering on the surface.
I'm not really the type of student who likes to hang out on the surface. When it seems clear that that is where we are staying, I have a tendency to tune out and read ahead. This has its pros and cons. Luckily, I have 19 years of experience with the pros and cons.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Something completely different, indeed
It has been a month since I last posted. A strange month. Cora's time in daycare ended and she had a month of real summer break before starting kindergarten this week. I decided to go back to school to earn another degree in what I am thinking of as my personal Start a New Career Initiative (since I've been unable to find a position in my former career, which breaks my heart), and in the last month I applied, was accepted, registered for classes, bought textbooks (yep, they are still expensive), and started classes.
And I'm still looking for a job to bring in some sort of income, too (believe me, I see the irony of going back to school and thus spending more money at the same time). But, finally there has been some promising development on that front.
Of course, the real story is that we have a school-ager in the house now! Chances are that very soon a typical weekday night will find Chris doing his prep and grading while Cora and I do homework.
Crazy!
And I'm still looking for a job to bring in some sort of income, too (believe me, I see the irony of going back to school and thus spending more money at the same time). But, finally there has been some promising development on that front.
Of course, the real story is that we have a school-ager in the house now! Chances are that very soon a typical weekday night will find Chris doing his prep and grading while Cora and I do homework.
Crazy!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Report on Girl Week
Girl Week was good. It was beastly hot and humid, but the girl and I do know how to be on our own. Our days were busy with daycare, swimming lessons, VBS for her, and sweltering and running errands for me. On Friday, we had nothing going on. I'd planned some errands I thought would be fun: visiting our community garden plot, going to the library, the butcher, picking up a few groceries to make a good welcome-home dinner for Daddy.
She wanted nothing to do with my plan. She didn't want to get dressed. She didn't want to leave the house. She didn't want to do anything but watch some PBS shows, watch a DVD, play by herself in her room, and do some puzzles and coloring. I was very frustrated, but at the same time recognized that none of our errands were truly necessary.
It was, finally, a beautiful day, a perfect temperature for me, sunny, nice breeze, no rain coming, and I was really looking forward to being outside (a rather rare thing in the height of summer). But, she needed to stay in, and so we did, and we still had a nice day. Just the two of us.
She wanted nothing to do with my plan. She didn't want to get dressed. She didn't want to leave the house. She didn't want to do anything but watch some PBS shows, watch a DVD, play by herself in her room, and do some puzzles and coloring. I was very frustrated, but at the same time recognized that none of our errands were truly necessary.
It was, finally, a beautiful day, a perfect temperature for me, sunny, nice breeze, no rain coming, and I was really looking forward to being outside (a rather rare thing in the height of summer). But, she needed to stay in, and so we did, and we still had a nice day. Just the two of us.
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