A Visit from the Willows Boys

A few weeks ago, I received in a package--or, really, a tour bus--in the mail. When I opened it, three young scamps popped out, none other than Mole, Toad and Rat, AKA the Wind in the Willows gang. If you keep up with Pom Pom, you know she sent these rascals on a journey last fall, and now here they are.

At first, I set them up in the guest house ...

... where they spent a great deal of their time watching TV with a duck. I kept telling them it was time for them to go, but they were far too caught up in the soap opera that is Downton Abbey Season 2.

"But Mags is waiting for you in Belfast," I told them. "She's starting to get impatient!"

Finally, tearing himself away from the trials of Lady Mary and Cousin Matthew, Mole looked at me and said, "Mags, you say? The one who never sent you bangers, even though you asked so nicely?"

"She said it was illegal to send them overseas," I explained. "Otherwise, I'm sure she would have."

"I bet she says it's illegal to send jars of cheese overseas, too," Mole said, sneering ever so slightly. When I nodded, he gave out a hoot. "Illegal to send a jar of cheese? What turnip truck did you fall off, my dear? Perfectly legal to send jarred cheese! I do it all the time!"

Curses! Foiled again! Oh, that little minsk, Mags! Pretending that customs agents won't allow her to send me a little of this:

Well, I had to get my hands on that cheese, and I came up with a diabolical scheme. I would hold the boys hostage until Mags sent me some.


This plan worked brilliantly--until bedtime, that is, when the Boys' full-throated singing kept the family up all night. Oh, you can lock the Willows Gang up, but you can't keep their spirits down.

And so I am forced to send them on their merry way. Mags, look for them next week, no doubt worse for the wear. I'm glad I had a chance to spend some time with them, and with their lovely story, The Wind in the Willows, which I'm so glad I gave a second chance.

Still waiting for the cheese, Mags ...

Sawtooth Star quilt top

I continue to enjoy good health, you'll be happy to hear. Will, on the other hand, upon learning that the University of Carolina had been defeated by Duke in basketball, developed a stomachache and couldn't be convinced to go to school. Both universities are near our home, and people in this area tend to love one and hate the other. Will, like his dad, is a Carolina man. Jack could not care less.

I did finally get Will to school, an hour late. It's hard to know what to do with a stomachache, unless the child is actually throwing up, in which case you send him to school as fast as you can. But Will was not throwing up or doing anything else icky. He was crying, though, and tears are tough. I let him go back to bed for an hour, and then sent him on his way, where I'm sure he was razzed mercilessly by his Duke-loving friends and took it like a man.

I made some pillows; aren't they nice? You can find the pattern for the envelope pillow case here: http://www.curbly.com/users/diy-maven/posts/892-how-to-make-an-envelope-pillow. Each case took approximately five minutes, from the cutting out to the sewing up.


When I took this picture I didn't realize my laundry basket was in the frame. It sort of spoils the House Beautiful effect of my fancy new pillows, doesn't it? But maybe it makes you feel at home. Do you mind when you go into somebody else's house and it's messy?

Pilates with Sarah tomorrow! If you never hear from me again, that's why.

Start Over

Vines. I'm in love with vines! This year has been the best year
for vines on record.What is it about 2012 and vines? I just don't know.

Okay, I feel like I'm finally getting a foothold on 2012. January turned out to be kind of a wash. First there was this to do, and then there was that to do, and then Will got sick, and then I got sick, and last week, when I said I was better? It turned out I wasn't. I had a fever all week and had no energy at all.

But now, my dears, I am really and truly better. I have energy! I'm almost done with a new (small) quilt top, and I made two pillowcases that are just darling (pictures soon), and I've been to the gym twice this week.

I'm back, baby!

So, my friend Sarah has joined my gym, and now she's forcing me to go to classes with her (Just kidding, Sarah! I'm going of my own free will!). The thing is, Sarah is very young, and I am very old. When she hears that there's a class at the gym titled "Dance Fusion," she thinks, "Fun!" I think, "Oh, my poor knees!"

But she made me go, and you know what? It was fun! We did a lot of hip gyrating, that's for sure. Maybe next time I'll take a video and post it. I'm sure Sarah wouldn't mind. On Friday we're going to try Pilates, and maybe the cycling class afterwards. And then who knows what else Sarah will talk me into. Zumba, probably.

I would like to report that I have lost five pounds in 2012. I'm halfway to my 2012 goal, with almost eleven months left to go. I might actually pull this off ...

I think that's it for now. I'm feeling very sleepy after all that gyrating. Imagine!

Monday

I think I'm finally over the bug. It got progressively worse Friday and Saturday, then yesterday it started to fade. The good news is that I got a ton of reading done, which is always nice. I finished The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morten, which I enjoyed very much, and read a moving memoir about parenting a special needs child, The Boy in the Moon by Ian Brown.

I also spent time with The Wind and the Willows, which has been visiting me on its tour around the States. As far as I can tell, it's a book of poetry masquerading as a novel. Strangely, I think the playfulness of the language is one of the reasons Jack and I didn't love it as a read-aloud. There's all sorts of lovely bits that, reading by yourself, you go over several times just for the pleasure of it. But I remember reading it aloud at bedtime, how slow it all felt, and I remember that sensation from childhood as well--not enough was happening. As an adult, I'm fine with the slowness--better to savor the language, my dear--but as a child it made me feel impatient, and I recall Jack being impatient as well.

Old Jack. He's in the throes of it again, cranky, grumpy, no fun to be around, holing up in his room for hours. He got a report card a couple of weeks ago that wasn't too impressive. It wasn't the grades so much, but his effort scores, four out of six of which had fallen in the six week period. He got a C+ in Science, in spite of getting an A- on the exam, because he'd missed two assignments. Turns out it's hard to recover from two zeros in the grade book.

So we've put him on probation. He has six weeks to bring up his grades to all A's and B's and bring up his effort scores to all 1's. If he doesn't, all sorts of dire things happen to his computer.

***

Travis and I are back in walking mode after a short break due to illness. We are enjoying spring-like weather this winter, which leaves me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it's nice as can be to take a walk in late January wearing only a jacket over a warm-up jacket and a hat. On the other hand, it's unnatural to have birds singing and crocuses blooming this early. It feels out of whack. It is out of whack.

Because I spent much of last week either tending the ill (both Jack and the Man got Will's bug after I caught it) and being ill myself, this week is going to be the Great Vacation that I was supposed to have last week. In a few minutes I'm going to comb my hair and trot off for a cup of coffee at Fosters, journal in hand. Wednesday, I'm having lunch at an art museum, and Thursday I'm off fabric-shopping with my friend Sarah in the morning, then taking a walk with another friend in the afternoon. By Friday, I'll be socially exhausted and ready to get back to work.

***

I read a piece in yesterday's New York Times Magazine about how our computers and smart phones act as a kind of second brain for us, storing information and memories. The author told a few horror stories about people losing their hard drives and as a result losing years of work, photographs, music, etc. In a sense, losing their memories. She herself lost all the photographs she'd taken of her child since birth when her hard drive crashed.

I love my computer. I find it a very handy machine. But I don't think very many people think critically about our reliance on our computers. We've just accepted the technology. Those of us with preteen children accept that they will live most of their lives totally plugged-in and shrug it off--what are you gonna do?

But what does spending 24/7--or close to it--on a computer do to our brains? How does it affect our ability to connect in real life. How does it affect our ability to think? Is gaming or surfing the Web addictive? I think it can be.

And what happens if the power goes out? As oil supplies diminish and we need to power down, how will we live? When the storms of global warming hit and the electricity is out for weeks, how will we get along? Those of us past the age of forty will do just fine, I reckon. But how about our kids? How will they live if they're forced to live unplugged?

Better, is what I think, once they get used to the idea. More alive in the world. But I know a lot of people who would disagree with me.

***

Okay, enough. Off for coffee, then some volunteering at Jack's school, and then errands and chores, errands and chores. So it goes. How does it go for you?

Fever

Will brought home a bug, and now I have it. Nothing terrible--fever and general lack of zippity doo-dah. I can function, but I probably shouldn't use any sharp tools or drive heavy machinery. I feel a bit fuzzy, is all.

Mind you, I'm not complaining. I sent my editor a draft of a new book earlier today, and I have nothing--nothing!--on my calendar for weeks. Well, there's my book club meeting tomorrow, and I'll hate to miss it, but the girls will understand. Folks who pay you to come speak to them are less understanding about these sort of things, but I don't have any speaking engagements until March, so I can have all the bugs I want until then.

Really, the reason I'm not complaining is sometimes a girl just needs an excuse to sit on her couch and read. When I was younger, before husband and kids, I needed no excuse to read at all. I read whenever I wanted to, which was pretty much all of the time. But now I have to be at the beach or with a temperature over 99 to read during the day with impunity. So I've got a bug--yay!

I have lost three pounds since I wrote about my goals two weeks ago. I've been going to the gym three times a week and keeping my carbs to under 50 grams a day. I'm eating a lot of roasted broccoli. Also: deviled eggs. Yes, my diet is Frances's Roasted Broccoli and Deviled Egg Diet. I should write a book, shouldn't I?

The last two days have been sunny and fairly warm, and so I myself have been sunny (and with this fever, fairly warm). Tomorrow it's going to cloud over again, and therefore I probably will, too. I am a very simple girl, ruled by the weather and the cycles of the moon. I actually don't know about the moon part of that, but it sounded poetic.

Okay, I'm getting rambly; time to go read some more. I hope you're feeling sunny, not gloomy, and are living a life where you don't have to make excuses to sprawl across your couch with a good book. Cheers!

***

P.S. My latest book made this list today: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/bfya/2012. Hurray! It's a very nice list to be on, indeed.

Hello, I'm Back

Where have I been? Floating around, mostly, though I did take a trip down to Atlanta to give a speech. It was a quick trip--I left on Thursday, came back on Friday--but any kind of travel, especially travel that includes flying, makes me anxious for a couple of days beforehand, and so I just sort of wander around the house and worry about everything. I'm a terrible homebody, and though I know many fellow moms who would swoon at the thought of their own hotel room, even for just one night, I get very lonely when I'm out on the road by myself.

But I'm home, and I've finished a draft of a novel, so I actually have a little time to do this and that before starting on another project.

The weather has been gloomy. Some winters January is a bright and cheerful, even chirpy, sort of month, but this year it's been overcast and gray. Today I went out to have coffee and write in my journal, just because I knew if I stayed home I'd feel blue. I like being around other people and eavesdropping on their conversations.

Yesterday I went to church by myself. I ended up sitting next to a woman wearing jeans and these great cowboy boots with flowers painted on them. I was wearing my cowboy boots, too, as I usually do. I am a graduate of Killeen High School in the great state of Texas, which means cowboy boots count as formal wear if I want them to.

Anyway, I liked this woman immediately, as she smiled a friendly smile as I slipped into the pew a few minutes late and later greeted me with a cheerful "hello!" when we passed the peace. She left right after communion, which is easy to do when you sit in the back, because you take communion by the back door (I go to church in a huge Gothic cathedral, and there are always lots of folks, which is why some of us go to the rear for our bread and wine). She took communion, tucked her bulletin in her back pocket and was gone.

We only exchanged two words--she said "hello!" and I said "peace!" but I really liked her, and I was sad to see her leave. It was like we'd spent an hour being friends in a quiet, comfortable way, admiring one another's cowboy boots and wishing each other well.

That's all I have to say right now. I hope to have more to say soon.

Friday Report

The beginning of a new quilt

I've been trying to have a good think all year, but without much luck so far. It's been too busy, too much picking up and dropping off, too much cooking and cleaning and writing. Every day I tell myself this is the day I'm going to sit down with my journal and figure everything out. Where is my life right now? Where is it going? What do I hope for? What do I want to happen next? I'll be fifty in two years. What do I want fifty to look like?

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I don't make New Year's resolutions, and Deborah commented that she didn't either, though she did make goals. I like that idea. One thing I did get written down this week is a list of goals for 2012, which includes ...

1. Finishing the three sweaters in my knitting basket. One is only lacking a sleeve and a half (oh, but sleeves are so boring!), one is two-thirds done, and the last I just cast on two weeks ago. Two of the sweaters are for me, one is for Will. I feel quite the dilettante for not following through and finishing up. But I shall, I shall!

2. Establishing an herb garden. I fooled around with flowers last summer and enjoyed them, although my garden was pretty messy-looking by the end of August, probably because Will was my co-pilot and wanted to plant a lot of stuff that didn't necessary go together.

A lot of herbs have very pretty flowers, and even better, they smell great and they often make food taste great. Many of them are perennials, which is good for a lazy gardener like me. Useful and low-maintenance: that's my kind of plant.

3. Remodeling the master bath. We've got a new sink picked out. The Man has re-grouted the tub. Now all we need to do is call the electrician and the plumber and figure out what to do about the floor ...

4. Painting the master bedroom. No brainer. Just need to pick a color and put it on the calendar. I'm voting for periwinkle blue, my favorite color. The Man's not sure. He likes periwinkle blue, but what if it comes out purple? I can live with purple; the Man? Not so much.

5. Straightening up the attic once and for all. Yes, I can hear you laughing. But this is the year, ladies. This is the year.

6. Losing 10 pounds. I need to lose twenty, and any doctor worth his salt would tell you I really need to lose twenty-five. But ten sounds so manageable. I lost ten pounds last year (and didn't gain it back, thank you very much). Ten pounds a year is less than a pound a month. I should be able to pull that off. And who knows, maybe I'll lose ten more. But let's start small. Small is good.

Those are my goals, and modest and humble goals they are, other than the attic, which is pure fantasy. Ah, well, we should all reach for the stars every once in awhile.

***

Weekend plans: Will has a sleepover tonight, and a basketball game tomorrow. The house needs cleaning. Jack and Travis need grooming. I have lots of required reading--for my Bible study, for the middle school book club that I help out with, and for Pom Pom and Mags. The Wind and the Willow boys have arrived, and they're hoping I'll show them a good time this weekend. First, I must read their story. I've tried before. I tried as a child and I tried when Jack was five. Third time's the charm, so I'm told. More on that anon.

So, what are you doing this weekend? And those of you who lost weight in 2011--and I know at least two of you who did--what's your big secret? I'd love to know!