2009/11/05
What I did today
It's time to go put dinner into the crock pot. The morning has flown by because I was working on these. Tell me what you think!
2009/11/04
Orienteering in the morning
Orienteering is the outdoor map-following thing. You have a map in your hand, and you have a compass, and you go - you look or follow or seek - you might find (at least, you might find your way home). There's a whole U.S. Orienteering Foundation with teams, and events, and all kinds of stuff (who knew?), 
and there are lots of families who think a good time is had by all when they're all outdoors with maps and compasses. Orienteering is one thing I would put into our days if I had homeschooling to do over again. At the time, I didn't feel like I could find my own way down the hill and back with 100% accuracy, but I made the classic mistake of the homeschooling mom. I thought I had to be the expert before I could do something with my kids. (forehead slap goes here - and I wonder why I had to learn this basic truth of homeschooling over and over again. Somehow, I could never remember from one subject to the next that we learn with our kids more than we ever learned prior to them.)
Anyway, as I sit here on my first quiet and alone morning this month so far, listening to NPR, looking at the blogs my Bloglines web crawler found for me today, sipping my coffee and consuming my yogurt (aaaahhh....), I think about the fact that this is how my husband starts his days too. We have coffee and the news. The news and the croissants on Saturdays. The news and the coffee, the coffee and the news. I think we're getting oriented for the day. Starting the day without this period of calm re-orientation feels like being thrust into a course without a map. The compass part of it is the Morning Prayer Office - but the map for this world is in the news of the day somehow. Or, it is if we're home and not on vacation, anyway.
I think I started this habit for myself on the pivotal, now ubiquitously mythical, and rude awakening that oriented the whole country on September 11 a few years back. Our country's map before that was rather frayed and fuzzed at the edges, with whole chunks coffee stained or missing altogether. We were living in Pleasantville where the end of Main Street was just the beginning again. Oddballs like military people or members of the Peace Corps had been bringing home stories from off the edges of the map, but nobody had to listen to them - before the towers fell, we didn't have to listen.
But I don't listen to Morning Edition because I think there might be a disaster somewhere and I want to know about it. I'm not getting forewarned in order to be forearmed. Most stuff in life doesn't work like that anyway - a person can only "be prepared" for a limited number of things.
No, I listen in exactly the same way as I would take out a map before starting the car. I still do that. The availability of cell phones for getting other people to tell me where to turn, on-board navigation systems to read maps for me, and dumb luck notwithstanding, I still look at a map before I put the key in the ignition. I want to get oriented. Main Street does not end at the beginning, Madoff's auditor shoulda picked up the phone and at least asked a question or two, and I have serious doubts about the wonders of wine grown in Missouri. I just do. (New word for today: enologist)
And now I can work on some school stuff. I'm awake.
and there are lots of families who think a good time is had by all when they're all outdoors with maps and compasses. Orienteering is one thing I would put into our days if I had homeschooling to do over again. At the time, I didn't feel like I could find my own way down the hill and back with 100% accuracy, but I made the classic mistake of the homeschooling mom. I thought I had to be the expert before I could do something with my kids. (forehead slap goes here - and I wonder why I had to learn this basic truth of homeschooling over and over again. Somehow, I could never remember from one subject to the next that we learn with our kids more than we ever learned prior to them.)Anyway, as I sit here on my first quiet and alone morning this month so far, listening to NPR, looking at the blogs my Bloglines web crawler found for me today, sipping my coffee and consuming my yogurt (aaaahhh....), I think about the fact that this is how my husband starts his days too. We have coffee and the news. The news and the croissants on Saturdays. The news and the coffee, the coffee and the news. I think we're getting oriented for the day. Starting the day without this period of calm re-orientation feels like being thrust into a course without a map. The compass part of it is the Morning Prayer Office - but the map for this world is in the news of the day somehow. Or, it is if we're home and not on vacation, anyway.
I think I started this habit for myself on the pivotal, now ubiquitously mythical, and rude awakening that oriented the whole country on September 11 a few years back. Our country's map before that was rather frayed and fuzzed at the edges, with whole chunks coffee stained or missing altogether. We were living in Pleasantville where the end of Main Street was just the beginning again. Oddballs like military people or members of the Peace Corps had been bringing home stories from off the edges of the map, but nobody had to listen to them - before the towers fell, we didn't have to listen.But I don't listen to Morning Edition because I think there might be a disaster somewhere and I want to know about it. I'm not getting forewarned in order to be forearmed. Most stuff in life doesn't work like that anyway - a person can only "be prepared" for a limited number of things.
No, I listen in exactly the same way as I would take out a map before starting the car. I still do that. The availability of cell phones for getting other people to tell me where to turn, on-board navigation systems to read maps for me, and dumb luck notwithstanding, I still look at a map before I put the key in the ignition. I want to get oriented. Main Street does not end at the beginning, Madoff's auditor shoulda picked up the phone and at least asked a question or two, and I have serious doubts about the wonders of wine grown in Missouri. I just do. (New word for today: enologist)
And now I can work on some school stuff. I'm awake.
And his wife Donna's a photo genius!
Have you ever been to Michael Ruhlman's food blog? The guy is pure delight to watch, I tell you. He's another heir of Julia Child - food should be amazing, and it should be something anyone can do with a little practice. He loves technique, tools, and flavor, and I love to read his work.
But his wife! His wife and her camera can do THIS!
Those, my friend, are shallots. Yes, shallots. Aren't they wonderful? I want posters and paintings and a volume of food poetry when I look at Donna's work. There's lots more - go on over and look. It'll do you as much good as a trip to a gallery - or Sur la Table - and it doesn't cost a penny to look.
But his wife! His wife and her camera can do THIS!
Those, my friend, are shallots. Yes, shallots. Aren't they wonderful? I want posters and paintings and a volume of food poetry when I look at Donna's work. There's lots more - go on over and look. It'll do you as much good as a trip to a gallery - or Sur la Table - and it doesn't cost a penny to look.
2009/11/03
Working Model
This is what I have so far for my Human Studies: Relationship to the Self course. We are supposed to be coming up with a model for the human Self. I call him Chakra Man. (Click on it to make it big enough to read.) 
The dark print san serif font words ("prioritize family," "move," etc) are from Blue Zones. It's fascinating to me that the newest scientific research shows that when we pay attention to each of the areas of the human recognized by the human sciences and also by the Eastern notion of chakras, we live longer and healthier lives. No matter which path I take into the model, the results can be overlaid and they line up wonderfully. I haven't quite figured out how to overlay the personality type theories, but I want to. This is fun!
The dark print san serif font words ("prioritize family," "move," etc) are from Blue Zones. It's fascinating to me that the newest scientific research shows that when we pay attention to each of the areas of the human recognized by the human sciences and also by the Eastern notion of chakras, we live longer and healthier lives. No matter which path I take into the model, the results can be overlaid and they line up wonderfully. I haven't quite figured out how to overlay the personality type theories, but I want to. This is fun!
Midterm Yawn
So ... we fell back. Yay. An extra hour.
But I think I completely squandered it somehow. Nothing deep or meaningful here today. I can't stop yawning.
Stayed up late on Saturday. Had a reeeeeallly long day on Sunday - which was a good day - All Saints Day on a Sunday this year, capped off by the Oregon Chorale in the evening. It was nice. But it was a lot in one day. And Monday started early and ended late with my Human Studies class, and today I'm absolutely beat. And I don't want to get sick. And I have a lot of writing to do. And I've thought of a good metaphor to explain the condition of this house about a month after I avulsionly fractured my foot (in three places) and acquired my autumn footwear.
My house looks as if it's been carried around for the last month in the bottom of a giant's coat pocket - a sort of woolly coat that tends to harbor lint and things.
What a complainer I am today!
Time to get on with the tasks at hand - namely, the writing of this PLA Children's Lit essay. That's the good news from the Monday marathon that was yesterday. I found a copy of the text I needed for only $5 at Powell's. Today, I get this thing moving. By the end of the week, it needs to be done, done, done. Ready to submit. Injured foot or not, I could use a bit of happy dancing.
But I think I completely squandered it somehow. Nothing deep or meaningful here today. I can't stop yawning.Stayed up late on Saturday. Had a reeeeeallly long day on Sunday - which was a good day - All Saints Day on a Sunday this year, capped off by the Oregon Chorale in the evening. It was nice. But it was a lot in one day. And Monday started early and ended late with my Human Studies class, and today I'm absolutely beat. And I don't want to get sick. And I have a lot of writing to do. And I've thought of a good metaphor to explain the condition of this house about a month after I avulsionly fractured my foot (in three places) and acquired my autumn footwear.
My house looks as if it's been carried around for the last month in the bottom of a giant's coat pocket - a sort of woolly coat that tends to harbor lint and things.
What a complainer I am today!
Time to get on with the tasks at hand - namely, the writing of this PLA Children's Lit essay. That's the good news from the Monday marathon that was yesterday. I found a copy of the text I needed for only $5 at Powell's. Today, I get this thing moving. By the end of the week, it needs to be done, done, done. Ready to submit. Injured foot or not, I could use a bit of happy dancing.
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