Thursday Thirteen 17 : The Mushy edition

This Saturday Hunky Hubby and I will have been together seventeen years. Next year it will be half my life - how freaky is THAT. I suffered endless chastisement for the lack of recognition on our wedding anniversary in December, so today you get the first installment of the Portwood Valentines Extravaganza! in which I will extoll, at length, the amazing wonder of the Hunky. Since we are celebrating the big one-seven, I have added four bonus items to my list.

1. When I met my husband he was wearing grease paint and fake boobs. It takes a tremendous amount of  magnetism to overcome that - and he did it.

2. He has this amazing voice. No really, truly wonderful and amazing. Not enough of you who read this blog have heard it. Mrowr. Sends shivers down my spine.

3. He excels at everything he does. Part of it is drive, part of it is talent. He approaches everything with passion and will not settle for "good enough." His range of ability is amazing.

4. He makes me laugh. One day he made me laugh non-stop for over an hour. Deep down, bend over, tears streaming laughter. In fact, I don't know how I ever stop laughing. HOOTER CHOWDER! HOOTER CHOWDER!

5. He makes me feel safe and adored. I don't care how unfeminist that is, it is what my heart wants. He does it perfectly. 

6. He shaved my head, and still thought I was beautiful.

7. He makes me think about things differently. Even when I don't agree, I at least have given consideration to the other side of things. I both love and hate that.

8.  We read together. 'Nuff said.

9. My heart still goes pitty pat when he comes home, and I still miss him when he leaves. I'd still rather spend 5 minutes with him than a day with anyone else on this earth. 

10. He spoils me ROTTEN. and I love every minute of it. I admit. I enjoy it, and I wish every woman on earth felt as special as I do pretty much all the time.

11. Those eyes. *swoons*

12. He is so freaking smart. Honestly, I won't lie and say that I don't  think he is one hottie of a man, but his intellect is tremendously attractive to me. I love a smart man. Even pretty, dumb is not sexy.

13. He brings me flowers, on a regular basis and for no reason at all.

14. Watching him be a daddy to our girls...is amazing.  I admire him for everything he has overcome in his life and tell my girls that the best thing I will ever teach them is to marry a man like their father. It's still the truth.

15. He's a man of God. And with him is easier to be the kind of wife and woman God wants me to be. In this world, I can't think of higher praise than that.

16. His kisses make toes curl and take my breath away.

17. He is my favorite person in all the world, for every reason listed above and so many more. I know all his faults and flaws, and they only make him a more amazing person to me.  He makes me better, and he continues to make me better day by day and he still tries to convince me that it's me who's the better part of this partnership. And what's more....he really believes it.

Wordless Wednesday 2/11

I Should Drink More

Olivia has to keep a little journal for creative writing class in co-op. Here is her entry for today:

Today at school was not a good day. Mother got mad when I told her the answer in a math problem and my sister was working on the same problem. She punished me and told me that I had a pout on when I didn't. And she told me to write an entry in my journal and and she yelled at me and said not to roll my eyes when I was only sighing because I was tired of her yelling at me. My sister Bailey wasn't yelled at. And she was not blamed. And I was not happy when I had to say sorry for the things i DIDN'T do. And I am not happy my sister Bailey won't play dolls with me.

I definitely should institute drinking at breakfast

By the River in the Sun

I went to the river to find myself

to warm  me in the sleeping bones 

for sunlight kisses and  fresh air caresses

a passion I'd forgotten.

To watch the knock kneed heron

picks its careful way along the shore line

deliberate and precise

while all around the seagulls muttered

and mingled

bold and aggravated and busy

with an eye more to attention than detail.

To watch the dappled shadows dance 

across the magenta pulse of my eyelids

face raised

imagining flights fanciful and far reaching

sweeping long and wide over the swelling waters

where dolphinfarmers herd bait fish

and the bold crabs wave warning with one grotesque claw.

Hair a-tossed and a-tangled in the brackish bluster

that gusts with frantic bursting off the curling waves

To squelch the muddy-sandiness 

and the acrid squeak of seagrass on the shore.

To escape the humdrum inanity of a million endless chores

in one sparkling afternoon

by the river in the sun.

Sunday Salon #4

This week was an excellent week of reading. I started out by reading Neil Gaimon's Graveyard Book. I had been eyeballing it for a bit anyway, and when it won the Newberry I decided to just go ahead and grab it. It was excellent, and definitely Newberry worthy. I always enjoy Gaimon, but this story simply outdid itself in clever wordplay, creative plot, creepiness, and a really excellent message about seeing things, even ghoulish things, differently. I haven't reviewed the book yet, but I can tell you that I highly recommend it for adults and the teen/ pre-teen crowd. 

 

I also read my first chunkster this week. I plowed through Duma Key in just under six days, mostly because I was completely unable to put it down. Stephen King vowed that he was done writing after finishing the Dark tower series, but I am so glad he changed his mind (or if what he writes about now is in any way biographical, I am so glad his gift won't let him not write ).  What draws me more than anything to his later works, aside from his absolute genius, is their exploration of his craft, and of creating in general.  His insight into the darker side of humanity, creativity and spirituality is razor sharp, and his ability ot force us to acknowledge it exists is nothing short of cathartic.  

Although I want to read more books that are on my shelves at home, I couldn't resist putting the new Stephenie Meyer on hold at the library. It came in with a hold already on it for someone else so I have two weeks only to finish it. I'm going to start it tonight and should have it finished and ready to pass on well before it comes due. I'm not sure where I will head after that. I've been feeling the need to look at a classic and I have a shelf full, so maybe that's in this month's line up as well.  So far this month, I've read three books, so I am well on my way to making up for last month's shortfall.

I'm listening

If you didn't read yesterday's blog, this won't mean as much to you, but completely unbeknownst to me, this was the text for today's sermon,

 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Maybe someone's trying to tell me something.....

Less is more

Something I've been convicted of for some time, and something I am going to be exploring more in the coming year is the idea of focusing and paring down. On multiple occasions this week I have had the discussion that we spend so much time trying to do every good thing that we end up doing no good at all.  It manifests in us feeling scattered, rushed, stressed out, failing to meet our commitments and doing everything just enough to get by and nothing done truly well. We don't take pride or pleasure in our work, and we always look forward to the next good thing, failing to live in and enjoy the moment.  I think we as Christians are called not only to good works, but to quiet reflection, to stillness, and yes, even to enjoying the restful and relaxing activities that bring us pleasure. We are called to good works yes, but not to every good work all the time. 

I don't want to lose God's voice and vision because I am so busy trying to meet up to everyone else's expectations of me....or even my inflated expectations of myself. My theme for the year is deepening, but deepening is only done by taking time and being still. Rushing about doesn't lend itself well to putting down roots or growth. I want more, and less is more.

Thursday Thirteen: 13 things for MEEEEEE

I took a me day today. Mostly, I did just what I wanted all. stinking. day. long. It was awesome.

1.) I made and ate waffles. Granted, the whole family benefited from this but that doesn't change the delicious syrupy goodness. Yum.

2.) Colored my hair. And really that's all I have to say about that right now.  I am in hate with my hair. Coloring didn't change that. Life goes on.

3) Wore pajama pants all day. Personally, I think flannel pajamas are perfectly acceptable indoor/outdoor apparel when the temperature is below 50*.

4) Read over 100 pages in my book (delicious, it is)

5.) Finished my January book reviews. I am now only one book behind. THAT'S TITAKKY!

6) Ate popcorn in bed while reading my delicious book. Double delicious.

7) Smooched hunky but good. TEN DAYS PEOPLE. My lips almost freaked out with happiness.

8) Took pictures, but didn't upload them because I decided to watch The Office, Scrubs and Lost with hunky instead. You'll see pictures later. Today is about me.

9) Froliced about with a box full of books from Barnes and Noble.

10) Burned yummy candles all day (I bought them when I bought hair color at walgreens WEARING MY JAMMIE PANTS-- because, it's about me)

11) Three words: baked. sweet. potato.  YUMMO!

12) Took an after dark walk with my doggy- cold but GORGEOUS! The moon is amazing.

13) Ate ice cream, in bed, in my jammies, watching programs with a hunny who is definitely on the mend.

It was a good day.

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

I consider this book to be a lesson in why I should listen to my daughter. My oldest read this and the sequel Inkspell last year and truly loved them both (we have yet to purchase Inkdeath but I am sure we will). I waited until now to read the first one, and could kick myself for not falling in love with this series sooner. Inkheart was obviously written by and for the true bibliophile. With attention and detail to the care and fascination with every element of a well-written story, Inkheart will resonate with the heart of anyone who has ever wanted to fall into the tale with which they are enraptured.  Funke's story is a clever, creative adventure steeped in the fairy tales on which we cut our teeth while at the same time, maintaining an entirely unique identity. Her characters are well rounded and believable and filled with pathos and passion that are wonderful to share. Inkheart was an utter delight, and I very much look forward to reading the next two books of the trilogy.  Rating: 8

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8-Characters from books literally leap off the page in this engrossing fantasy. Meggie, 12, has had her father to herself since her mother went away when she was young. Mo taught her to read when she was five, and the two share a mutual love of books. Things change after a visit from a scarred man who calls himself Dustfinger and who refers to Mo as Silvertongue. Meggie learns that her father has been keeping secrets. He can "read" characters out of books. When she was three, he read aloud from a book called Inkheart and released Dustfinger and other characters into the real world. At the same time, Meggie's mother disappeared into the story. Mo also released Capricorn, a sadistic villain who takes great pleasure in murdering people. He has sent his black-coated henchmen to track down Mo and intends to force him to read an immortal monster out of the story to get rid of his enemies. Meggie, Mo, Dustfinger, and Meggie's great-aunt Elinor are pursued, repeatedly captured, but manage to escape from Capricorn's henchmen as they attempt to find the author of Inkheart in the hope that he can write a new ending to the story. This "story within a story" will delight not just fantasy fans, but all readers who like an exciting plot with larger-than-life characters. Pair this title with Roderick Townley's The Great Good Thing (2001) and Into the Labyrinth (2002, both Atheneum) for a wonderful exploration of worlds within words.
Sharon Rawlins, Piscataway Public Library, NJ
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

I am Legend by Richard Matheson

 I have been thinking about reading I Am Legend since I read several reviews of it during Carl's RIP 2008 challenge. After I left the world of the Cullens, I wasn't quite ready to give up entirely on vampires so I decided to give it a try. Make no mistake, the existence of vampires is the only thing these two stories have in common. I am Legend is a semi-apocolyptic story of what we assume is the only remaining survivor of a viral infection that sweeps the earth. In a cruel twist of irony, it isn't vampires that are the most horrifying aspect of the novel, instead it's the isolation, the lonliness and the grief that are the spectors that lurk most menacingly in the shadows here. I found Robert Neville to be one of the most tragic characters imaginable as he faces interminable lonliness in the midst of a world gone mad. I will be haunted for a long  time to come by the events in this truly horrific short story. Rating: 9

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Robert Neville has witnessed the end of the world. The world's population has been obliterated by a vampire virus, though Neville has somehow survived. As he toils to make sense of it all and protect himself against the hounding vampires who seek out his life force, Neville embarks on a series of projects to discover the source of the plague and hopefully put an end to the vampires. In a tale that plays with the slippery slope of sanity, Dean makes the perfect choice for a narrator. His powerful performance proves chilling and haunting. As Neville teeters on the edge of sanity, Dean manipulates his tone, speed, emphasis and projection accordingly, making listeners tremble with his narration. While some might rebuke his narration for being too dramatic or providing too much interpretation, Dean's intensity adds to the book in a way that benefits listeners over readers. The visceral nature of his performance evokes the image of a foamy-mouthed Dean growling at a microphone with spittle flying. A Tor paperback. (Oct.) 

Wordless Wednesday - Warmer Times

Dog Pile

    Days like this its hard to know what to say. I can't pinpoint any one thing that went horribly and irrevocably wrong. There wasn't one event that made it harder or more troublesome. It's simply that every thing...every act, every responsibility, every plan, every thing was just [             ] <---- that much harder than had it to be. I would venture to say that most days three, four, even five or six things take more time, more effort, or just plain don't go as planned, but on the days when it seems like each piece of the puzzle is just that little bit more difficult, it adds up to a heavy, discouraging day.  And that's the truth of it.

    

Happy Monkey Day

Hunky thinks William looks melancholy, here. I say who wouldn't be if someone else was being called the prognosticator of prognosticators?

 After school the girls wanted to see if they could make a William shadow and perhaps create Monkey Day . When asked what he would predict, Olivia said "toots."

I smell a hit.

*incidentally they did manage the lighting, pose the monkey and create the shadow all on their own. I just took the picture*

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Why it took me until early last year to read anything by Neil Gaiman, I'll never know.  While I have not read everything he has available by any stretch, everything I have read, I have simply loved. Gaiman uniquely blends fantasy, quirkiness, and cleverness in a way that makes his storylines seem almost possible since they are just a shade or two darker than the "real world" we inhabit. Just a few grotesquely out of place characters and events is all it takes to carry the reader away into a world of ghosts and gods, heroes and bedlams. 

   Coraline is published as a young adult novella and was short enough for me to justify whiling away the majority of an afternoon to savor it from cover to cover. After reading it, I decided that my own children (ages 11, 10 and 8) would probably find the scarier elements of the story a little too intense (they are very easily scared). Overall, Coraline is certainly no darker than Hansel and Gretal and delighifully as disturbing, while still managing the happy ending we all hope for in even the darkest of fairy tales. Rating: 9

Coraline lives with her preoccupied parents in part of a huge old house--a house so huge that other people live in it, too... round, old former actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible and their aging Highland terriers ("We trod the boards, luvvy") and the mustachioed old man under the roof ("'The reason you cannot see the mouse circus,' said the man upstairs, 'is that the mice are not yet ready and rehearsed.'") Coraline contents herself for weeks with exploring the vast garden and grounds. But with a little rain she becomes bored--so bored that she begins to count everything blue (153), the windows (21), and the doors (14). And it is the 14th door that--sometimes blocked with a wall of bricks--opens up for Coraline into an entirely alternate universe. Now, if you're thinking fondly of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, you're on the wrong track. Neil Gaiman's Coraline is far darker, far stranger, playing on our deepest fears. And, like Roald Dahl's work, it is delicious.

What's on the other side of the door? A distorted-mirror world, containing presumably everything Coraline has ever dreamed of... people who pronounce her name correctly (not "Caroline"), delicious meals (not like her father's overblown "recipes"), an unusually pink and green bedroom (not like her dull one), and plenty of horrible (very un-boring) marvels, like a man made out of live rats. The creepiest part, however, is her mirrored parents, her "other mother" and her "other father"--people who look just like her own parents, but with big, shiny, black button eyes, paper-white skin... and a keen desire to keep her on their side of the door. To make creepy creepier, Coraline has been illustrated masterfully in scritchy, terrifying ink drawings by British mixed-media artist and Sandman cover illustrator Dave McKean. This delightful, funny, haunting, scary as heck, fairy-tale novel is about as fine as they come. Highly recommended. (Ages 11 and older) --Karin Snelson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! take 2

  Again we go with a new week and new month all wrapped into one day. I love that. Too few months accomodate my love for newness by starting on Sunday. I had originally intended to write up all my goals for the week tonight, but honestly, Craig is still very much on the mend, and I really don't want to get to Thursday and burn out, so we're going to err on the side of fluidity and let each day, or each hour, be it's own guide. 

However, loosely speaking this is what I would like to see happen:

*follow my room-a-day cleaning plan.

*finish all house work and chores by 2pm daily (not including dinner schtuffs).

*spend two hours shamelessly doing whatever creative pursuit I choose.

*yoga yoga yoga

Most of all I just need to be back in the daily rhythm of life. All of January was a scramble and adjustment. We were constantly saying "If we can just get to.....; If we can just make it through...." I don't like living like that. It makes it nearly impossible to enjoy the moment. It also makes me a cranky and unflexible mom. I don't want to be that person.

I'm toying with the idea of using It's not all Glamour strictly for list, schedule and ccalendar purposes. I don't expect you to blogline it--BORING.

I am hopeful that allowing more creative and reflective time will be something that will make me be a generally more relaxed and joyful person. I've has several occasions in January to draw lines in the sand about our families needs and schedules, which I think hasn't made us entirely popular, but is shaping us as a family into happier, less frantic mess.

I'm working on some writing and BIP ideas (you'll see the BIP prompt tomorrow). I've once again signed up for nablopomo, which hasn't seen the success in December and January that it did in November, but has held me certainly to far more regular blogging than has been happening for awhile. I am happy with that. The theme for the month is "I want"....it feels like a good month for that.

I am still working on more regular book blogging- I cranked out a Sunday Salon today, and in fact spent a good portion of the day reading a delightful novella. I don't know if reading counts as some of my creative endeavors, but I need to do more of it as well.

February is going to be a good month; it can only go up from here!