Category Archives: Lists

Tonic for the “drags”

Posted on by

I don’t know what everybody else calls it. I talk about someone being in a funk. I say I’m feeling “dragy.” Basically it’s that not- feeling-like-doing-anything that isn’t (I think) quite depression.

I was brainstorming about useful things to do when “down in the dumps” (another descriptor), and was surprised with how much I came up with. (This originally began as a comment elsewhere). So here’s my list of tips:

  • Put on “happy music,” whatever that is for you.
    • I found my happy music was the stuff I listened to in High School or college and hadn’t heard in a long time. It brought me a startling joy.
    • Pick music from a light era of yours.
    • A book I’ve been reading recently describes the reason books get fatter as you read them is because it preserves a part of you between the pages– like a pressed plant– the you that was, at the time you read it, and you see that former self whenever you re-read. That’s the way of me and music too.
    • ETA: Classical or folk instrumentals collected for children are a fantastic pick-me-up.

My dad loaned me the “Rhythmically Moving” series from his classroom for the summer– my kids had heard something on the radio they’d wanted to hear again.

I put the first one on while I was stressed-out and racing to finish dinner. Almost instantly I had to laugh. My mind was rebelling at the cognitive dissonance between my mood and the atmosphere. It was nearly like being in a river and resisting being moved by it.

Didn’t “fix” my stress, but it made me smile, even laugh, and that had to be healthy.

  • Start a new book, even if you haven’t finished your current one.
    • Anything you’re interested in will do, as long as you don’t feel obligated to finish it if it doesn’t suit you.
    • It may take a couple tries to find the right fit. (Write me if you want suggestions ;-))
    • This is where Books-on-tape are so essential to me now– with the three little ones I frequently feel I’m stealing from them to sit and read a whole novel.
  • Read “Good Poems” or Poem a Day V. 1.
    • Both of those are great for finding concise (no pages-long), interesting poems.
    • I’ve found the right poems to be tonic to me, because they were a sort of deep-thought pizza: Delivering filling new ideas and ways of looking at things, sparing me the effort of looking (cooking) for myself.
    • Very good for when I’m tired and can’t focus on longer or “more meaningful” works.
  • Do mindless research about something that interests you but you can’t act on.
      • I read about new-born and toddler care while I was pregnant the first time.
      • Last fall (after Grandma died) I started reading a lot about dogs. Still do, occasionally– though I won’t be able to get one until the end of April. Or later.
    • I found this activity helpful because engaged my mind without the obligation to do more. I couldn’t/can’t do more at the time of the research.

These probably won’t pull you out of a funk (If you can get the energy to clean, the activity and the result very frequently can), but they will help you tread water while you’re there. Sort of help keep you afloat.

There are those times when that’s all you’re looking for.

I am not a perfect cat…

Posted on by

…But in an attempt to improve, I resolve:

  • Though my human will never let me eat the pet hamster, I am at peace with that.
  • To remember my toy mouse is a much more socially acceptable gift than a big live bug, even if it isn’t as tasty.
  • I will not slurp fish food from the surface of the aquarium.
  • I will not lean way over to drink out of the tub, fall in, and then pelt right for the box of clumping cat litter.
  • I will not use the bathtub to store live mice for late-night snacks.
  • I will not play “Herd-of-Thundering-Wildebeests-Stampeding- Across-the-Plains-of-the-Serengeti” over any humans’ bed while they are trying to sleep. Continue reading »

Thank you Kendra Fletcher

Posted on by

Kendra Fletcher of the Preschoolers and Peace website and blog posted this last week.

If you are the mother, grandmother, sister, friend, father, or brother of a homeschooling mom, here are some things you should know:

1. Educating children at home is a full-time job. Don’t get irritated if she consistently allows the answering machine to do its job. If she were a teacher in an institutional classroom, you probably wouldn’t think of calling her during school hours, so try to realize that while still at home, she is keeping regular school hours, too.

2. Unlike homes in which the children are gone for eight straight hours, her home is in a constant state of activity. The children are not only home, they are home making messes. All day long. Their mother doesn’t even have the opportunity to go into their rooms while they are at school and weed out the junk. And if she is like me, you might find odd homeschooly things lying around- like the month we had a dead turtle in the garage fridge.

3. Housekeeping and homeschooling are mutually exclusive. If she is doing her job educating her children academically, then her house is not being cleaned. If she takes the day to clean the house, then school will not be accomplished. Continue reading »

God likes me liking what I like

Posted on by

At least, if his provision for my delight is any indication, He does.

Last week, okay, two weeks ago now, our family was in Anchorage. While there I visited this fabulous new/used bookstore called Title Wave Books. Cool name, yes?

I’ve never been in a bookstore before that shelved new and used side by side, really great for browsing. As might be expected, I limited my purchases to titles that had a used copy, since the cost was less, and, well, there were still loads of neat titles.

My first night there I found (and bought):

The last three (*) have been on my amazon wish list for months, the second (Uses) has been on my story-telling radar, and the folktales book (in addition to being part of a useful series I have two books from already) opened with a very thoughtful essay that included insights about the structural differences between male-centered and female-centered tales that gave me an insight I needed for the novels I’ve been writing.

“I was supposed to buy this book,” I thought to myself over and over again as I read the essay and stories.

“I feel so validated,” I kept telling my husband, cycling from book to book. Kid in a candy store just doesn’t cut it. I would take a bite from one, say “This is so good,” know this was the one I would read while Elisha kept me up tonight, then “taste” the next one. “This is so good,” I’d say again, and experience the delicious pain of this type of indecision.

So many choices and all of them good. (If you can give me the context/title of the work with the opposite quote–So many choices, and all of them bad– I’ll give you great thanks, assuming it’s one I’ve read/seen. The line keeps circling through my head).

I felt validated, as I mentioned earlier, because these were all used books. They none of them had to be there, but God allowed/brought together the circumstances that gave them to me to encourage me. And they did.

Needs

Posted on by

I watched the first disk of the first season of Monk last week.

Really liked it.

After finishing the last two episodes in one evening, I mentioned to Jay how nice it was to find another good source for my story “fix” that was positive/clean. I think I’m mentally setting this against, say, soap operas. Monk is a sort of modern Sherlock Holms, so it is a detective show.

Then, of course, as soon as I acknowledged my need for Story as a type of dependency I got both nervous and defensive. Nervous because I have to question whether each dependency is healthy, and defensive because I want to argue it isn’t, at least, unhealthy.

It got me thinking about all those needs we have that aren’t physical. Continue reading »

List-making

Posted on by

(Originally at Family News)

I don’t know what’s up with me and lists. You’d think these sorts of things would discourage me…be depressing. Everything I can’t/don’t do… (I do all types of these).

But in a weird way they’re encouraging too. Putting them down helps me see what really real (I had to dig for the last two [list on the original post]– and really they aren’t as critical, I just thought the list needed padding) so I actually only have 3 things to figure out, whereas, when I started the list, I felt buried under a mountain of unknowns.

And then, especially with day-to-day not-dones, I look at the list and see how well we all can survive with so much left undone. It also gives me a tangible list to prioritize and work from.

For example, the dried noodles under Melody’s chair can be really annoying (and even painful) when I’m trying to do something in that area, but cleaning some dishes to cook dinner in is more important than vacuuming or picking up that area. And so is sitting to cuddle Melody while she watches “Wooma Weed!” She has a high cuddle need, but isn’t really good at asking for it before she melts down. Movies sometimes help fill that gap. So do certain books.

Food, clothes, and cuddling (not necessarily in that order) are, I’ve decided, the priorities in this house.

That, and I get nap-times to myself. In case you’re wondering, that’s when I write (or after bed-time, like now).

Boundaries for Behavior

Posted on by

I came across this quote while reading an article on the Boundless webzine.

It was written by Susanna Wesley to her son while he was away at college. Apparently he had written to ask her for a list of sins he should avoid while away (?!). I can only presume this was to allow himself a human conscience (that might forget something) rather than invoking divine guidance that would doubtless be more thorough.

She did well though. Instead of making a list of vices she made a list of descriptions. I thought this was great:

Whatever weakens your reason, whatever impairs the tenderness of your conscience, whatever obscures your sense of God, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind, whatever takes away from your relish for spiritual things, that to you is sin, no matter how innocent it is in itself.