Read This: The Environmental Impact of Feminism

Don't you love to stumble upon great blogs that leave you wishing you lived next door to the author? Robin over at Blue Skies Urban Farm is one of those moms. She keeps up on three blogs (whew!), and I found this post about stay at home mothers, creating a home, modern living, and the environment worth passing along. Make sure to click on the "comment" section and read the interesting follow up.

Go Bucks!!!

Santa gave me a cake stand for Christmas. I gave him a big kiss.
For more cake fun, check out A Year of Cake.

Sunday Evening Post, issue 7

Cried reading over ya'll's (I'm so into correct punctuation ha ha ha) plethora of comments knowing we all have bad days...opposition in all things, right? We sure couldn't have good days without having bad ones to know the difference.

I had an EXTREMELY pleasant week this week which I will have to record about later because Whoops! Started this week's post a little late in the evening and I'm way past tired. So, rather than write a jumble of jamble, I've skimmed through fun things I've collected from surfing the web. Here are a few of my favorite things.

• What's not to love about Lois Lowry? Think Number the Stars or The Giver. Here's something I came across a few years ago on antidotes and anecdotes from her website, April 23, 2006:
  
  "...a woman came up to me to have a book signed, and said: "I just loved listening to your antidotes." She meant anecdotes, of course, and I didn't point that out because I didn't want to embarrass her. But I've been thinking about it ever since. My anecdotes are simply the bits and pieces of my life: the things that went into the making of who I am, as well as the fiction I've written, and none of them important to the world in any way. But I do like thinkng of them, now, as antidotes. The whole process of telling our stories to one another is what makes us human, and is sometimes very healing. If you eat a little Drano by mistake, you call the Poison Control Center in Atlanta, and find out what the antidote is, and then you don't die. In the same way, if you have had caustic experiences in the past....you talk about them. Tell them to others. Listen to what they tell in return. And it neutralizes the Drano that might otherwise erode your being. Gardens, dogs, children, and stories are the most restorative, antidotal things I know."
  
  
  
• At burpee's seed catalogue:

WHITE tomatoes. A little strange...yes...but very, very amazing and very, very much making me want to try one.

• "The universe if full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." ~Eden Phillpots

• Over at at etsy.com, I came across one of my favorite things ever!

A recycled book clock. Made by recycleeh

• Modish: Handmade Goods has a great assortment of handmade stuffs for sale just like etsy.

Cute little hair ties by Insidesign

Just beautiful cut-out earrings by Debora de Stefanis

The Sunday Evening Post, Issue 1

PBS has a great advertising campaign: Be More. You've probably seen the Be More Empowered interstitial where a little goldfish makes her way to a river filled with salmon via puddles and drainpipes. When I see it, I want to do two things at once: jump up and down cheering "go little fish go" and I want to cry over the sentiment of being empowered. You can watch it by clicking here. I love it. I love all their clips. Mostly I love the idea behind this campaign of
Be More: Informed, Engaged, Inspired, Creative, Open-Minded. Don't you want to be all those things? Life has so much to offer. Here, read this:

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music
- the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures,
beautiful souls, and interesting people. Forget yourself.
~Henry Miller

The summer of 2000 I took a job doing something I've always wanted to do---work as a camp counselor. What days and weeks I spent at a child and teenage hiking, boating, singing crazy songs, tromping through rain, and tying knots were pure joy. So this was a dream come true. We were assigned a tentmate for the summer and I seriously lucked out getting Amanda Morgan. She changed my life forever. We had some great times together and if you know her, you know what a gem she is. I'll never forget the day she said to me,
"Just share yourself!" It was a much needed slap in the face because I didn't realize how introverted I really was. I think she was fed up with my keeping to myself. It never occurred to me we need to share ourselves. We just go along with the flow our life takes and let inhibitions, busyness, and sometimes apathy take place of these ideas to Be More, to Forget Yourself.

So for this year, if I were a PBS commercial I would read (insert inspiring music):

Be More...known and knowing.

Share yourself. Be the best Visiting Teacher ever.
Be an abundant sister, daughter, wife, mother, friend.
Get to know those around you and let them in so they will know you.

Be More...uninhibited.

Just say it. Just do it. I did not want to jump in the lake.
Cold, lots of cold, lots of deep dark depths...but I knew myself and those
were just surface feelings because truly I am more adventurous, more fun loving?
So, if it's scary (or unflattering), do it with pizazz, at least you'll look back with a smile. Jared is so good at just doing things even if he feels apprehensive (you'd never guess would you?) or unsure if it will work out.
This year I want to be more proactive.

Be more...true.

I think about my primary role and commitments of
everyday life---making an orderly, inviting, happy home. Being
true to those dreams and hopes surrounding motherhood and companionship.

Be more...energetic.

When I think back on my best days this past year, they are the
ones filled. That's all. Just filled. Filled with people, filled with fun, filled with nothing to do, filled with a huge to-do list, filled with spontaneity, filled with routine. Funny how some of those seem contradictory, but you can't have spontaneity without having routine.
How fun is hanging out with mom until 10 pm if you always get to stay awake until 10? I just dread the mundane and half-hearted.

Last year I set some big ideas for myself for example getting to be earlier. The hard-headed night owl in me pretty regularly gets to bed around 10 pm. For some reason I feel like Denise will be happy to hear that. I shimmied off all the extra fluff from Thing One and Thing Two by the end of summer and actually enjoyed the process of loosing weight. I am WAAAAY more organized, my house is cleaner, I follow through with things and obligations. A lot of this a result of necessity (like my eyelids are stuck shut out of exhaustion and I simply can't stay awake...) But here's the thing. I'm far, far from perfect, but I've felt successful enough (and that's the key) to find setting ideals worthwhile. So here's to a great 2008.

Adios to a wonderful 2007!

A few favorites from a very happy year for us.

Winter

"Leading" her Happy Birthday singing.

Fall

a walk through the leaves

pumpkin Halloween dress

Summer

This and the next five photos chronicle one of one of my favorite days: a hammock (thanks Jason and Nicole), some chalk, and nothin' to do but be.

a study in snail

I can't even think how to title this photograph. Any suggestions?

Who could forget the mandrake?

Partners in crime...who got the raw end I wonder?

I'm so looking forward to life with her! How did we get so lucky?

What a joy.

What a girl.

Natalie was immesurably excited about this.

This summer my bike-con-bike stroller was our car---the library, grocery store, park, church all within short biking distances. One afternoon coming home from somewhere, a certain 3 year old pulled out the camera and took photos all the way home. I didn't know it until I down loaded our camera later. The best part is, she had the setting on video so we have all these few-second video clips with all sorts of random chatter and views. Enjoy.



Spring






This was such a fun date. I was almost the youngest person in the theater. Some parents had dragged their pre-teen daughter with them. Not unlike what we did to our friends Krissy and Ray---you are such good sports! Thanks for chancing $10 and coming with us! I'm sure it was a highlight of your year as well...

Another favorite "date" was actually a win of sorts. Our ward had a service auction where ward members donate skills and talents or services and then everyone bids on them with fake money. We won a backstage look into the life our a great friend , John, who was getting his PhD in percussion. He played some marimba for us (the video clip does not do it justice AT ALL) and then let us into the practice area to get a first hand look at all the instruments which included drums, gongs, triangles, and such but also a WIDE assortment of garbage cans, plastic buckets filled with water and hand-made gadgets . One of our best afternoons. Thanks John! We felt awed and educated.