Moderatrix Musings

A Butterfly Story

2009-10-23T08:40:00.005-05:00

We went camping at Lake Whitney State Park with a homeschool group a couple of weeks ago and were lucky enough to be a part of something pretty neat. On checkout day, besides the family with which we had shared a campsite, all of the other families had already left. We decided to explore the park with our campsite-mates for a bit before departing. We had been seeing a lot of monarchs passing through on their annual migration to Mexico, and that afternoon, even with its high wind gusts, was no exception. While searching the beach for interesting rocks, I saw a monarch take a nose dive and land pretty hard.

It wasn't moving very well and kept getting blown about by the wind. So I did what any butterfly lover would do: I let it climb onto my hand and kept it protected from the gusts. My son took on the post of second in command of the butterfly protection brigade.

Upon closer examination, I could see that this butterfly had taken a lot of wear and tear. It was missing a couple of legs, and it had what looked to be an injury at the top of its thorax. It was not moving very much, and we feared the worst. When the rest of the group wanted to go find a better spot for skipping stones, we had to figure out what to do with it. Bug Barn to the rescue! The Bug Barn was our first ever homeschool project three years ago. My son did most of the building, and I did the painting per his instructions.

With some help, we were able to coax the butterfly into its new temporary home. Even within the shelter of an enclosed space, it was not active at all. We drove a ways to another area that proved to be a prime spot for skipping stones, and the contest between the boys (the grown ones, that is) ensued. I kept an eye on our new friend, and it eventually started to climb around a bit. When it was time for us to leave, the butterfly had become quite active, having gotten a nice rest away from the high winds. It was time to send it on its way. It didn't want to come out of the front door, so we had to take apart the side of the barn to get it to come out.

After it crawled out onto my hand, it took a brief flight of a few feet. But just when we thought maybe it had not rested enough and were considering what to do, it took off. As it climbed higher and higher, another monarch came into view and tumbled around in the air with our friend as if to say, "Come on, this way!" We watched them fly off together until we could no longer see them, feeling our hearts swell with the beauty of nature and the end of a great camping trip.

Epic Fail: EA Sports Active 30 Day Challenge

2009-09-30T12:25:00.002-05:00

So, this happened a while ago, but you know me, grand procrastinator extraordinaire. At the request of a friend, and with the promise of a free video game, I took on the 30 Day Challenge.

I was very excited at first, as I really could do with some fitness in my life. Each day provides a different set of exercises, which is good for variety. And there are also programmed-in 'rest days.' Things went pretty well for the first week, though I had a little trouble with the 'running - long.' The 'running' has you jogging in place, and you have to keep up a good tempo or the game shows you walking instead of running and tells you (albeit nicely) to step it up. I began to notice that 'running' of some sort was on the menu for every workout day. When it was 'short' or of a specific type (like high-knees - which is more like walking briskly while raising your knees as far as you can), it wasn't too bad. But then I started having trouble with my ankles.

With sore tendons/ligaments in my ankles, it became tough to do some of the exercises. As I mentally examined what was happening, I realized that I was actually injuring my ankles because jogging in place is NOT a natural movement. You use the joint in a completely different way than usual when jogging in place as opposed to running or walking normally. With so much jogging in place, there was no way to avoid injury. I could have, of course, opted to not do that part of the exercise routine (you can uncheck any of the exercises before the start of each workout), but then you don't get full credit for the workout, and the total calories burned is much less. And since this is done in a game-type environment, you are subtly encouraged to do the most that you can so you can earn 'trophies.'

After two and a half weeks, I missed a workout because I was ill for a couple of days. Then I didn't feel motivated to make it up because my ankles were hurting so bad, so I ended up just quitting the whole thing. It took another two weeks for my ankles to heal. When I talked to my friend who had passed the game onto me in the first place, she reported having the same problem with her ankles, and had quit at about the same point I had.

Overall, I think the game is OK if you do not do the 30 Day Challenge. You can just turn the game on and choose which exercises you would like to do for a custom workout. I feel like EA somehow missed something when designing this game, even though it was done with the help of 'experts.' Jogging in place that much just flat-out should not be a part of a regular exercise routine in my opinion. It is an unnatural movement and ends up over stressing the joint. I may end up using the other exercises as part of a regular workout routine, but I figure I can just run/walk/jog 'for real' on our treadmill.

Book Review: The Book of God and Physics by Enrique Joven

2009-08-07T14:53:00.004-05:00

This is a fascinating story interwoven with history, astronomy, alchemy and intrigue. Centered around a Jesuit trying to decipher it, the reader learns about the Voynich manuscript (which today is housed at Yale) and the mysteries surrounding it. The pages are dotted with many "Greats" of science such as Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo. For good measure, we also have Edward Kelley, John Dee, and a host of Jesuits and popes. Included almost as a side story is the debate between religion and science, creationism, intelligent design and evolution.

This book is more well written than Ian Caldwell's The Rule of Four,which, even though it shares the subject of old cryptic books, was a chore for me to finish. I found the translation of The Book of God and Physicsto be a bit clunky, so it didn't read as smoothly as The Da Vinci Code,but overall I enjoyed the story and found it hard to put down.

Book Review: FrameShifting by David K. Banner

2009-07-28T23:22:00.003-05:00

More spiritual memoir than guidebook, FrameShifting: A Path to Wholeness takes you along on Mr. Banner's personal journey looking for enlightenment. Many of the concepts he talks about are already familiar to me, but I did find it a nice reminder of ideas I hadn't thought about consciously for a while. I felt my own 'spiritual seeker' nature being rekindled. It may be that others will not be as familiar with the theories and practices he encounters, so they could serve as a jumping off point for further research.

I was, however, disappointed that he didn't go into greater detail on some of the techniques, sometimes giving only the barest of summaries, and I found the lack of good editing in some spots a little distracting. If the revised second edition I just noticed on Amazon corrects the editing issues, then this will be a much better book. On the whole, I believe this book could be inspirational to others on a similar spiritual journey.

Traumatized by Twilight

2009-06-30T00:52:00.002-05:00

***SPOILER WARNING*** If you have not read all four books of the Twilight Saga and intend to do so, you may not want to read this post.

I know my family has noticed that I've been acting strangely, but I haven't been able to bring myself to talk about it out loud just yet.

Reading about the relationship between Edward and Bella brought back memories that I had thought were long suppressed. Edward bears a striking resemblance to my first true love, *A*. At first, I only noticed the similarity in passing. But then, Edward used the same pet name for Bella that *A* used for me. Love. I was temporarily dumbstruck when I read it. Maybe it's because I don't read romance novels or something, but I don't recall ever reading this particular pet name before, even though it must be somewhat common. I almost couldn't continue reading. But only for a second. I mentally shook myself, called myself silly and pathetic and continued.

But the similarities just kept coming. Comparisons with Romeo and Juliet. Telling her he was no good for her, dangerous even. The over-protectiveness. And then he left her 'for her own good' and she sought solace with someone else. Later, a joyful reunion and an heirloom engagement ring. All of these things happened to me.

I know there must be scads of women out there who have had somewhat similar experiences in their lives. I don't see myself as special in that regard. It's not really the stories themselves that were traumatizing. It was that reading the books brought my old (17 plus years ago) memories back to the surface. But even that I probably could have dealt with. The memories may have resurfaced, but they were still blurry. Tempered by time. I spent spare moments marveling at my experiences back then. Many were unusual, which tied in nicely with the unusual nature of Edward and Bella.

But then my daughter asked me some questions about *A*. Simple questions really. Easy enough to answer. What was he like. How did we meet up again. But she was intensely curious. She's heard bits and pieces of this story over the years. After all, she's the product of the 'solace-bringer.' And he wasn't as understanding or as desirable an alternative as Jacob. She confessed that she'd always been secretly obsessed with the story. She seemed eager to hear more, wanted to see letters and keepsakes, though she said she would wait until I was ready to share.

Unable to help myself, two days later I pulled the box down from the closet. I read the letters, the calendar entries. Looked at the few photographs and the jewelry. And then I absolutely broke down. Luckily I was alone. You see, my story ended in tragedy rather than happily ever after. Now, don't get me wrong, I am incredibly happily married and have a wonderful family and my happily ever after now, but before that could happen, I had to live through hell. Because *A*, my first love, did not survive. After knowing each other for six years, he was gone a mere two weeks after I got that heirloom ring.

Looking through everything was possibly the worst thing I could have done. It's like the wound that had healed over with time was ripped open again. I've found myself absolutely raw with grief. Which has made it a tad bit hard to go about daily life. It's only been a couple of days, and I know it will get better. I'm just shocked at the depth of emotion that welled up out of me after all this time.

A positive that has come from this is that I've been able to recognize fully now the forces that have made me who I am today. I would not be who I am, nor would I have the interests I do, or feel so confident about my life's work if I did not live though all of it. The glorious AND the tragic.

EA Sports Active 30 Day Challenge

2009-06-13T15:50:00.002-05:00

A friend of mine asked me if I would like a free copy of EA Sports Activefor the Wii with the caveat that I try out the 30 Day Challenge. Why not? I thought - it's free and I could use a little exercise... Oh boy. I just finished the first workout and I'm still trying to catch my breath. Now I knew I was a little out of shape, but after that, I think I'm a LOT out of shape. I even chose 'low intensity' - and it was only a 20 minute 'let's get you started' workout. I hope that as I progress it will get easier. --That's the way exercise is supposed to work, right?

The game itself is pretty customizable. You choose what you look like body style wise (I was only a little tempted to be dishonest with that) and then of course your hair color and style, etc. You can even choose your workout outfit and shoes. There is also the option to not do some of the exercises if you have an injury or something that prevents you from doing it.

I had a little trouble with the leg strap at first (it's so you can drop the nunchuk in there for some exercises), but once I figured out it had to be all the way up on my thigh, it stayed on. And it was a little frustrating having the cord whack me in the face a few times while I was 'running.' There must be a learning curve here for how to hold the remotes...

The personal trainer character was encouraging during the workout without being too cheerleader-y which was a plus. And I even earned two trophies on my first day. One for completing the workout, and one for doing my first journal entry. You can enter your activities and food choices from the previous day in the journal as well as ticking off how you're feeling. This helps you track how 'healthy' you are, I guess.

The idea behind the 30 day challenge is to get you to do the workouts for a month (thankfully with two rest days per week) to help you get into the habit of exercising. I think there is also the supposition that if you are more active, you will make better choices with your diet. (It did ask me if I had any fast food yesterday...) So I guess we'll see how I feel a month from now... and whether my jeans fit any better!

Facebook Pressure

2009-05-02T18:00:00.002-05:00

I've finally succumbed. I've been refusing to get onto Facebook for months, all the while figuring out that practically EVERYONE I know is on. My husband joined a couple of months ago and has said he will help me get started. My refusals have had a lot to do with personal insecurities. I knew some of my family members were on as well as my friends. I only see most of my family on holidays, and I don't think that they really know that much about who I am the rest of the year. I wasn't sure if I wanted to open myself up to that. Then I found out that a friend who just got married posted her wedding pictures on Facebook. Did I really care so much about my insecurities that I would miss seeing pictures of a wedding I was unable to attend?

At this point I realized, Hey, I'm a grownup! I shouldn't be worrying about things like what people will think of me, right? So if you know me personally and do the Facebook thing, I've started up my profile. But for now, I will not be linking it to my blog or anything else I've done online anonymously. Baby steps you know.

Book Review: My Little Red Book by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff

2009-04-06T20:15:00.005-05:00

My Little Red Bookis a collection of true stories from women and teen girls about the experience of their first period. Reading this book is empowering. I've certainly never shared my personal story with anyone, but now I feel like it would be OK to do so. As the editor states, talking about periods, even just among women, is fairly taboo. One of the things I found striking is that girls' experiences could be so similar across the boundaries of time (from the early 20th century to the present) and space (from all around the world.)

I felt compelled to read 'just one more' of the stories every time I picked it up. Bravo to the editor for having the guts to share her story and then gather stories from others to share with the rest of the world. This book should become just as coveted by young girls as Are You There God? It's Me Margaret.

As a side note, when I was just about done with the book, my (newly adult) daughter asked me about certain cultural differences regarding first periods. I knew the answer only because of some of the stories. She insisted that she be next to read the book. I think I'll tell her MY story first.

Lament for History Lost

2009-03-17T11:38:00.004-05:00

I've just gotten home from a doctor's visit that accidentally resulted in an emotional detour on the way home. I normally see this doctor a little closer to home, but I needed to see him sooner rather than later, so I agreed to drive to his office in Dallas. Perhaps not surprisingly, I got a little lost upon leaving the office. I was close to downtown, so I knew that if I could find my way to Deep Ellum, I'd be able to get home, albeit by the long way. After turning a few times, I spotted Elm Street. I was home free.

But I had no idea what was in store for me. I spent a fair bit of time in Deep Ellum in my youth, beginning as a teenager when I served as an intern of sorts at my drama teacher's theater and leading to many nights spent club-hopping and afternoons browsing through eclectic shops. This was where I learned how to be cool. I had heard rumors that the area was dying, but what I saw was heartbreaking, the first thing of which was a faded announcement on the side of a building asking to save Deep Ellum and its 100 years of history.

The shops and clubs were almost all closed. The original signs were still there, but 'For Lease' or 'Rezoning Requested' signs hung on the windows and doors. I passed by the clothing shop, Moda, where these came from:

Articles, the home furnishings and unusual goods store was also closed. This was where an exclusive Christmas Party was held that I attended with my fiance two weeks before he died in a car accident on one of the highways leading into the area. I still have the invitation. And finally, the club, Trees, where I've seen many a band, and also where I lost my $100, custom made by a dental assistant, vampire teeth. Just a few weeks later it was the first place I went with my husband the night we met.

I don't know if anything will be done to save Deep Ellum. Maybe there are things underway right now of which I am unaware. I hope so. Perhaps its time has come though, as all things must pass eventually. I know I am not the only one who has had significant events take place here and has strong memories of this place. I've shared a little of my story in the hopes that it will at least add to the collective memory and keep the place alive in our minds.

Happy Square Root Day!

2009-03-03T20:34:00.002-06:00

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy Square Root Day! You know... March 3, '09? 3 times 3 is 9? Seems some people are celebrating with root beer. The next square root day will be April 4, 2016.

Can't wait until Pi Day...

Book Review: The Fire by Katherine Neville

2009-02-17T20:46:00.004-06:00

I was unfortunately a little disappointed by this follow-up to Katherine Neville's The Eight even though I wanted so badly for it to be good. I had been meaning to read The Eight for at least 15 years, so I finally put it to the front of the TBR pile when I received a review copy of The Fire.

I enjoyed The Eight immensely. It mashed up historical fiction, modern-day fiction, obscure history, esoteric lore and chess. I loved it. Oddly enough, even though The Fire has all of those things, it was just not as enjoyable. The historical plot line was done quite well, but the modern day plot line being told concurrently was a mess. I felt that the author tried to cram too much information into this one. Many times I found myself wondering if anyone without an interest in esoterica (like myself) could even follow what was happening. Usually an author will set forth enough of an explanation, either via dialogue or context, for things that are not mostly common knowledge. Not so in this case.

Characters coming to astounding conclusions from little information became another irksome factor. I had to assume that they had prior knowledge of which I, as the reader, was not privy. And then there is the character of Key. She has an annoying habit of spouting off aphorisms in what seems like every third sentence. This would maybe have been tolerable if the main character, Alexandra, didn't rattle them off for her in her absence: "As Key would say..."

Overall, I did like the idea of the story, and I liked the subject matters that were touched upon. But the ending was not an ending at all. Maybe that was the author's point, but I found it rather obscure and dissatisfying.

Free Books!

2009-01-24T16:49:00.003-06:00

A few months ago, I joined the Early Reviewers group on LibraryThing. You read a brief synopsis of a monthly batch of books and then 'request' those that spark your interest. They then choose members to receive each title, and the book is sent to them directly from the publisher; the only thing asked in return is that you read the book and post a review. I honestly didn't expect to ever be chosen since each title typically has 15-30 copies available, and people requesting each title is usually in the several hundreds, sometimes topping a thousand. So I was duly surprised when I got a message that I'd been chosen to receive one of the titles I'd requested. And then another. And another. I now have a short stack of books that have been moved to the front of the TBR (to be read) pile. I've finished the first one I chose to read, and I'll post my review in a few days once I've tweaked it a bit. Here's a picture of the books received thus far...

Well, not exactly true: I got a package yesterday with yet another book! Which I couldn't help but start reading as soon as I opened it. So I seem to have accidentally acquired another job - book reviewer. Well, I've always said that I wouldn't mind being paid in books...

Happy Holidays "T" You

2008-12-31T11:49:00.004-06:00

This year's Christmas gifts were quite a bit leaner than usual, including the elimination of a gift on Solstice night, but that doesn't mean you can't have fun with them. Thanks to the extreme generosity of a coworker, I was able to wrap up four presents for my son instead of two. This friend gave us two DVDs and two CDs that my son had put on his list. Since shopping and gifts would not be a major focus of this year's celebrations, we instead spent a lot of time watching holiday themed TV shows together. One of our new favorites is the Colbert Christmas Special. At the end of the special as the credits are rolling, Stephen Colbert advises us that his DVD would make the perfect Christmas present. But, he says, don't you just hate that when you wrap a DVD, it still looks like a DVD? He then suggests buying TWO copies and wrapping them perpendicular to each other - "then they'll think you got them a letter T!" Well, I had two DVDs to wrap; I couldn't resist:

I have never seen my son crack up as much as he did when he saw his "letter T" under the tree. Of course this was the first present he opened Christmas morning.

I hope everyone has had a decent holiday season this year. Ours was made much better by the generosity of others and the humor of Stephen Colbert. Thank you everyone.

Charity Work

2008-12-17T11:01:00.003-06:00

I had a bit of an adventure yesterday. During the holidays, you hear a lot of encouragement to help out with local charities. Some families make a yearly donation of money, food, or goods, or they actually go to a soup kitchen and help serve a meal. I've always thought this was a great idea, especially if you do it as a family. Right now I'm sure you're thinking that we must have done some helping of the poor yesterday. Well, you'd be wrong. My adventure was to be on the receiving end of said charity.

Basically we ran out of food and money. I only work part-time so that I can homeschool our son, but my meager income is the only guaranteed money that we have. The rest has to come from my husband, who does contract work. This fall, his major long-term agreement of trimming trees for a home owner's association was canceled because they decided to try and save money and get the actual neighborhood home owners to do it on a volunteer basis. We were counting on this money, and it was gone. We've been able to scrape by pretty well with his other much smaller jobs since this happened in August, all the while expecting the HOA to figure out that they weren't going to get anyone to volunteer, but somehow it just wasn't happening this month.

On Monday evening, I used the last of the frozen chicken we had, steamed the last handful of baby carrots and made the last box of macaroni and cheese. Once I did this, all we had in the cupboard was a pint of milk, some rice, a couple of packages of ramen, and peanut butter. Oh, and some stale cereal. As far as staples, we had a little flour and sugar left at the bottom of the canister, but no eggs, no bread, no cheese, no meat or vegetables of any kind. And we had $27 to last until the day after Christmas with low gas in both vehicles. I was a little stressed.

I remembered several years ago when we had been in a similar financial situation and I had gotten a sack of groceries from a nearby church. It wasn't the greatest of food, but it was something. So yesterday morning I called 211 (after looking it up online to make sure that I remembered right.) For those of you who don't know, 211 is like 911 for emergency human services. I told the operator my ZIP code and my need, food. She gave me a list of charities in my city with hours, addresses and phone numbers. I called them all to get further information about requirements. One required recent pay stubs, proof of residency, birth certificates and an interview, so I chose to not use that one as I didn't want to dig in the file cabinet. Or in the pile waiting to be put into the file cabinet... One told me that they had very little food available right now. One is only open two days a week at 8:30 AM, and you'd better come get in line at 8:00. But the other two seemed a little more accessible.

The first that I went to was the city charity. I was told that you can only receive food assistance once every two months. Fair enough. I did have to prove who I had in my household and fill out a form, but overall it was fairly simple. They gave me three paper bags filled with groceries, and I got to choose from a giant selection of day old bread. You know all those fancy artisan breads at the store that cost $4 and up? I guess they don't sell them all because that was mostly what was there. I got some wonderful oatmeal bread, a loaf a store bakery unsliced white bread, some rosemary and olive oil bread, some ciabatta rolls, a 4-pack of cream cheeses muffins and half an apple pie. In the sacks were some canned vegetables (expected), but also 2 boxes of spaghetti and three cans of spaghetti sauce, tomato soup (Campbell's, no less) and chicken noodle soup, pork and beans, canned diced tomatoes, canned black-eyed peas, real Spaghettio's, canned spaghetti and meatballs, ramen noodles, rice-a-roni and macaroni & cheese, dried pinto beans, packets of ranch dressing and turkey gravy mix, Manwich (with nothing to mix it with...) four apples, some fresh carrots, a box of cereal, a jar of peanut butter, a bag of frozen chicken nuggets, and a whole frozen chicken. I had tears in my eyes as I thanked them and took the groceries to my car. Who knew just being given food, such a basic necessity, would be so emotional.

Next I went to the mission. This is run by the large church downtown and takes up several city blocks. They run not just a food bank, but also a clothing bank, a night shelter, a day shelter, a free clinic, a small church, and a free Christmas store. Here I also had to fill out a form and talk to a worker about our situation. She pressed me for anything else I needed besides food. I had overheard someone else talking about needing kitchen things like a toaster and a blender. She prayed a very nice prayer for my family's financial situation to improve. I also had to answer creatively when she asked if I went to church or if I was a Christian - I didn't want to offend anyone. Here I got two plastic bags of groceries. One had bread - the same types as the other place, but I got different kinds here (two whole-grain artisan loaves, a loaf of sourdough and a small baguette.) There were canned goods in the other bag, two large cans of chicken, a can of turkey gravy, some more vegetables (including the kind we usually buy), a jar of peanut butter, cream of chicken soup, generic spaghettio's, canned fruit salad, more ramen and mac & cheese, and albacore tuna.

So now we have enough food for a few days. I'm going to freeze about half the bread to use later - there's no way we can eat all that bread before it goes bad no matter how good it is. We'll parcel out the $27 to get just enough gas (it's only $1.39 right now!)and some supplemental foods items like more milk. We'll be eating a lot at other people's houses next week for holiday gatherings, so we should be able to make it alright to next Friday's paycheck.

The moral of the story? It can happen to anyone, and charity does work. After seeing up close everyone being helped, I'll be donating more often now myself. In the past I have only done so when it was convenient, but people need help all the time. Not just when it's convenient, and not just during the holidays.

Completion

2008-10-16T18:12:00.003-05:00

Well, we've done it: We've finally finished Deathly Hallows. So, all of you people who have been so kind to my son and me as we lagged behind the rest of the world while scrupulously avoiding magazine articles and websites and conversations, thank you for your patience. You may now speak freely. And yes, I'd love to discuss with anyone who is still interested!

Once we actually started the book, it took less than a month reading one, two, sometimes three chapters a day. Sadly, Harry Potter reading is no longer a thrice weekly official subject at our homeschool. Even though I brightly suggested starting over again...

We can now safely join in the anticipation of the upcoming Tales of Beedle the Bard(and know what we are anticipating - I'm especially coveting the Collector's Edition)and look at news on the upcoming movies (despite the delay of #6 - grrrr) without fear of being spoiled. Upon finishing, we quickly logged onto JKRowling.com - a favorite that we'd been missing for some time, as well as Mugglenet and The Leaky Cauldron so we could catch up.

What a relief!

Summer Fun is Over

2008-09-02T13:12:00.006-05:00

Summer is officially over at my house. School has started (well, attempted to start - the only reason I'm posting right now is that my son fell asleep on the couch during our first French review...) Anyway, I had intended to post about our trip to Denver for the International New Age Trade Show soon after we got back, but yeah, that didn't happen. Better late than never I always say.

Besides ordering more products for my still non-functioning online store (because more stuff to sell is more important than being able to sell it, right?), we visited some touristy type things like Pike's Peak and the zoo. I'd post a picture from Pike's Peak if we hadn't left the camera in the car. Oh, but we've got plenty of zoo pictures - because everyone needs more of those... Here's one now:

Why do we feel compelled to take these pictures?!! On another note, we saw this little guy roaming around right next to the wolf's 'enclosure.' Run away little rabbit!

All right, here's some ~~typical~~ better Colorado pictures. One from Boulder Falls:

And another from the Denver Botanical Gardens:

All in all we had fun when we weren't in our ~~closet~~ motel room. Seriously, we were trying to save money, but come on - a whole room/suitcase area/bathroom setup that could easily fit into my son's bedroom? Well, we did save a lot of money, and I guess it was clean at least.

OK, I better go wake up my son now and torture him some more with "Quelle heure est-il?"

Addled

2008-08-09T19:16:00.004-05:00

That's how I'm feeling at the moment. I'm guessing it's stemming from a combination of Levaquin and Toradol, both of which say "may cause dizziness" on the label. So, why do a blog post while feeling woozy? Why not? Since this is medication induced, let's talk about why I'm in this predicament.

An outside observer might think that I enjoy going to the doctor. I certainly spent enough time there as a child. Not for anything serious, of course, usually just bad hay fever leading to lovely things like bronchitis. Nowadays, though, it's just a string of one doctor visit after the other, all different kinds of specialists. Lots of fun medical tests. (Insert sarcastic laugh here.) Why, just this past summer I've had an IVP (a type of x-ray of the kidneys), a cystoscopy (avoid this one at all costs if they ever suggest it to you), a colonoscopy, and an abdominal CT (because don't we just love drinking barium.) Up next is a HIDA scan and a sonogram. Apparently, the cause of abdominal pain can be hard to figure out. I'm glad I have insurance.

So, I've dealt with pain before. I have a recurring kidney stone problem due to my body's apparent inability to balance vitamin D, calcium and all those other nice things without outside intervention. So the good old parathyroid says, hey, we need more calcium in the blood, let's get it from those bones, they don't need it. Well, let me tell you, bone pain is not a nice thing. But it stays away as long as I maintain supplements. Kidney stones are not a walk in the park either; luckily mine are usually small and pass easily.

But I have another source of pain lurking in my past. Endometriosis. I had a total hysterectomy and bilateral oopherectomy 10 years ago because of it. I though I was cured, I thought I was safe. Five years ago, I had unexplained abdominal pain. Once the gastroenterologist couldn't find anything serious, he suggested that it was the endometriosis. Surely not, I thought. My gynecologist at the time concurred. Preposterous! he said - it was all cleaned out in 1998. Luckily, my pain improved.

Fast forward a couple of years. It's now the Fall of 2006, and I have symptoms of too much estrogen. You know, weight gain, sore, lumpy breasts... My dosage of estrogen has not changed in 8 years, why would this be happening? Maybe it's because you're getting older says my endocrinologist. We'll just lower your dose. The gynecologist orders an obligatory mammogram (since those are so much fun), which is normal of course. Oh, maybe you should cut out caffeine. OK, I say (as I grumble to myself that one soda a day is not just a whole heck of a lot to begin with.) But without the caffeine dependency and with the lower estrogen dose, I do feel better. I just can't skip breakfast anymore. Turns out you need food to have energy in the morning.

So, just over a year later in early 2008, I start having pain again and I need a bigger bra cup size. Have I gained any weight? No, not really, just a few pounds. Not enough to explain needing bigger everything. Bra, underwear, jeans (two whole sizes bigger for those). I've worn the same size underwear for my whole adult life - even when I've weighed more than I do now. So why does it suddenly seem like they got sent through the shrink ray?! Complicating matters is an increase of kidney stones. But, with additional medications, they get under control. So why is this other stuff getting worse?

Off I go to the urologist when the pain becomes unbearable. Maybe there's a stone stuck in there after all. Nope, she says after checking me out thoroughly, you should go see a gastroenterologist, do you have one? Well, I guess I do, even if it has been five years. At this point, I'm thinking, I want to check EVERYTHING out, so I make an appointment with my new gynecologist also (the old one retired.) So, the gastroenterologist orders all the usual tests (see above) but asks me about endometriosis. He's satisfied when I tell him I have a gynecologist appointment. Of course all his tests are negative (well, I haven't had the HIDA scan yet, but I'm going to assume), and I'm wondering what the heck is going on.

I haven't read anything about endometriosis in 10 years. Why would I need to, I was cured, right? But after discussing this whole mess with my mom, I looked at a book and some websites on Thursday. I had no idea that hysterectomy was not a cure. I knew that surgery to laser it all off pre-hysterectomy wasn't, it would just grow back. But I had been told that this surgery was the penultimate. Anything small that they missed would die off, and of course, they would do their best to not miss anything. Well, that's all wrong. I think this article tells it the most succinctly. The most likely reason (it seems to me) I'm having high estrogen symptoms is that there is endo growing in there still, and it's producing it's own estrogen. The gynecologist agreed that it was pretty likely this was what was going on (my appointment was yesterday.) But the only way to know for sure is another laparoscopy (I've had two previously - a really long time ago.) She wants to rule out a couple of things first (hence the levaquin and upcoming sonogram), but more than likely there's a surgery in my future. I guess we'll see once and for all, soon enough.

Neglected

2008-08-01T09:06:00.002-05:00

That's how my blog feels. It hasn't been updated in a while, and I've had several posts floating around in my head for over a month - they haven't even made it to draft stage. I have pictures to show, stories to tell, and thoughts I've pondered to muse about. That list of books we're reading in homeschool on the right over there is probably three months old. His summer reading isn't even worth the time to put up over there; he goes through a new book every day or two. (We keep running out of books for him!) Heck, I finished two of the books I say I'm reading long ago (only two of them though, the Dreamweaver book, not so much - still working on that enormous thing), and I've read another couple besides.

So, here's my pledge: Over the next week, I'll try to post as many of those posts that are in my head as possible. AND, I'll update the books section and any other thingies/buttons I've stuck over there and have long forgotten about. Deal?

School's Out for Summer

2008-06-18T17:57:00.004-05:00

So this post is a little late. We've been done with school for a week and a half already. My goal was to have everything completed by the end of May, and we finished a week late only because we spent that time at my parent's house when my grandfather became very ill suddenly, and ultimately passed away.

Our last few weeks consisted of cramming as much French instruction in as we could stand in order to finish the book. It seems that those textbooks get more in depth and difficult as you get towards the end. Who'd-a thunk? We also did the final three tests for math in the last week (that should have been done starting three weeks earlier...ahem). We finished all of our science and history for the year about the middle of May, so that helped with trying to get the other subjects finished. But we did decide to postpone a library skills unit until next year, as I hadn't realized how long it would actually take when I stuck it into the syllabus.

I feel so much relief that we'll have a real summer vacation this year. Last year we only had about six weeks break before we started up again. We're actually taking a trip this summer, next week to be exact. We'll be heading to Colorado for some fun and a little business, too. We're going to check out INATS to look for some new products to have on hand once I finish building our website. For the first time in about four years, I am actively working on the site, and I am really excited. I'll let y'all know how it's coming. I may start a separate blog to update on the business stuff, but I'm still mulling all that over.

The Rising Cost of Food

2008-05-07T12:51:00.002-05:00

Something interesting has happened during our recent forays to the grocery store. The prices of most basic foodstuffs have increased by 50%, and in some cases 100%. We don't buy just a whole lot of prepackaged goodies, usually we buy the basic building block ingredients and create our own goodies (cookies and the like), so we don't often encounter sudden higher prices. I guess I should have seen it coming when milk prices went up a while back. According to the news, this is happening all over the world and wreaking havoc on the lives of just about everyone.

Now, I'm not going to go into a political/ecological rant about the whole thing, that's not the purpose of this particular post. I just wanted to point out an unexpected personal consequence of higher prices: it has become easier to justify buying organic products. They are no longer much more expensive than non-organic; they're just a little bit more. My first encounter with this was at the eggs. Normally, a dozen regular, factory-produced, grade A, large, white eggs would cost me $1.29. They've been this price for I don't know how long. So I am astonished when one day, out of the blue, they're $1.99. What?! So, this causes me to look around at the other eggs I usually ignore. In the top of the egg case, there's a nice carton of brown, organic, hand-gathered eggs from free-roaming chickens for $2.19. I normally wouldn't feel OK with spending almost twice as much for the nice eggs, being on a tight budget and all. But now they're actually a viable option at only 20 cents more. I found this theme repeated throughout the store with the butter, cheese, etc. In some cases the organic and/or locally grown option was exactly the same price as the 'regular' stuff with the new inflated prices.

So, I'm wondering if this is going on in other parts of the country as well. If other shoppers are as attentive and actually start choosing the 'better' options, couldn't that translate to a boost for our own economy? Especially our local ones? I think the main reason people don't buy these types of items more often is that they are cost prohibitive for most of us. If suddenly they're not so outrageous, maybe things can improve as an unintentional consequence of recession/inflation. Or do I just need to get my rose-colored glasses adjusted?

The Irony of the Spheres

2008-04-23T11:00:00.010-05:00

First, let me explain. I was browsing through the homeschool section of a Christian bookstore because, other than used (which can be extremely difficult to find in good shape), the only real place to buy our Saxon homeschool math text is at one of these stores. Gut-wrenching, I know.

So, as I was browsing, I spotted a series of creation science texts, and my curiosity was piqued. There's a whole line of these on individual science subjects. I picked up the one on astronomy as it purported to be authored by a real astronomer. I'm pretty sure it was this one.Now, I must confess that my only real scientific education has come from watching innumerable TV shows like "The Universe," which I guess may be more than a lot of people, but still, I'm no scholar. I skimmed through the book and found some pretty good astronomy information, but it was of course based in creationism which I found intriguing. I've always wondered how they explain things. As a child growing up in a Christian home, I reconciled the ideas of creation with the Big Bang by deciding that we didn't know how long a "day" was according to God. Apparently, according to the astronomy book, this is a common wayof explaining things among some Christians, but it's wrong. It went on to show that the original Hebrew for "day" that is used in the creation passages means specifically 24 hours. Again, I'm not a Hebrew scholar either, so I have to take the author's word for it.

While explaining astronomy from a biblical, the universe was created in 6 literal days point of view, the author spent quite some time explaining what's wrong with the other points of view. One of the points that stuck with me and will require me to do some actual in-depth research and thinking was two-fold. Apparently, scientists use the problem with the distance of stars from us and the time it takes for light to reach earth as evidence that the earth was NOT created 6000 years ago. The author states that this is not a problem because we are dealing with supernatural explanations, e.g. God, anyway, and he could have set things up any way he wanted (I believe this is also the explanation for dinosaur fossils.) He then goes on to say that scientists have their own problem of a similar nature regarding distance and heat. He says that if the Big Bang were true, then there should be pockets of space that are warmer or colder than each other, since warmer and colder areas would have resulted from the current Big Bang model and that since the universe's expansion happened so fast, there would have been insufficient time for the temperature to even out. Now, call me ignorant, go ahead it's OK, especially if you're an astronomer, but it seems to me that if the universe has been around for billions of years, then there has been ample time for the temperature of the universe to even out.

OK, back to the irony title of this post. We hold a discussion group on Friday nights at my house, and I thought it would be interesting to discuss some of this, especially as some regulars know more about science and astronomy than I do. Of course I didn't want to pay full price for the book or give the author his portion of the proceeds, so I looked on Amazon for a used copy. Imagine my surprise when I typed "astronomy creation science"into the search box under books and came up with 666 results. I just had to laugh and, of course, share. I guess as books are added and subtracted the results number may change in future, but today it's funny!

Pi Day 2008

2008-03-14T19:33:00.003-05:00

Happy Pi Day everyone! We've celebrated today with discussions of Pi and the watching of videos on YouTube. We checked out PiDay.org and talked about Daniel Tammet, the savant who holds the European record for reciting Pi (over 20,000 digits!) His book, Born on a Blue Day, was very interesting BTW. This led to talking about Kim Peek, the original Rain Man.

Well, I must be off, it's time for chocolate-banana...

Here's a funny cartoon to keep you company while I'm gone. Oh, and if anyone's ever looking for a gift idea for me...

The Texas Caucus Ruckus

2008-03-05T18:43:00.006-06:00

This post comes late in the day as I've been trying to recover from last night while still getting in a little bit of homeschool. Call it caucus exhaustion.

Last night our precinct caucus took until 2 AM and was conducted for the most part, outdoors. Unbelievable right? And yet this story was repeated across the state. Our precinct polling place is a small polling place (maybe 800 square feet) that is used for 8 different precincts. When we arrived earlier in the day to vote in the Primary, we stood in line for about an hour or so, something we expected. But we were astonished at the small size of the building. Having just moved to this area recently, this was our first time voting here. So it was with some trepidation that we returned at 7 PM for the caucus.

For those who are unfamiliar with the caucus process in Texas, you must return to your polling place after the Primary has closed in order to sign in under your candidate of choice. Once everyone from that precinct has signed in, delegates are elected to be sent on to the County and then the State Convention where final delegates are chosen for the National Convention. One third of the total delegates from Texas are determined in this process. Each precinct has a specific number of delegates based on the size of the precinct, and the candidates are assigned delegates based on the percentage of supporters that return to caucus. There are lots of regulations governing this process along with how many delegates are assigned to any given precinct. You can read more about these rules here.

The caucus is supposed to start at 7:15, or as soon as the last voter in line for the Primary at 7:00 has cast their ballot. In our case, the last ballot was cast shortly before 10 PM causing everyone who had returned for the caucus to wait. Outside. In the mud. As temperatures dropped from the mid 50s down to the upper 30s, this was a test of resolve for many. In our area, there were a lot of Obama supporters; I would guess well over a thousand people. We had a much smaller group of Hillary Clinton supporters, but we were all determined to stick it out. As the night wore on, many Obama supporters gave up and went home. I'm sure the TAKS test being today was a factor for some who have kids. We knew that the more of them that went home, the higher the percentage of delegates we would have. In the end, only a couple of us left.

When the Primary voting was close to being done, we were grouped by precinct. Ours, number 2031, was told to meet "over there by the streetlight." Others were told to meet "in that parking lot," or "by that building." We waited here for more than an hour while the papers required (the 'packet') for the caucus were being prepared: essentially the list of everyone who voted in the Primary for that precinct. When this was close to being ready, we were called to come get into two 'lines' depending on whether we were 'Today Voters' or 'Early Voters.' This was at around 11 PM. After maybe another hour, we were able to actually start signing in. At this point, we had about 150 people left from our precinct. Two other precincts were about the same size as us, and we were allowed to caucus before them. The other precincts were much smaller and had gone before. Just after 1 AM, the last voter signed in. With only around 40 people remaining, it was time to choose delegates. What had started out as *guesstimating* 200 Obama supporters to our 22 became just over 120 to 22. That's a jump from 10% to nearly 20%. We had gained an extra delegate by sticking it out. In the end, myself and my husband were nominated as alternate delegates; we chose additional alternates in case we were assigned additional delegates after the audit by the precinct judge. It was 2 AM: time to go home.

Now for the fun part: the "irregularities." Or, why our caucus rolls are being audited by the precinct judge. Early on, after we had been allowed to line up, a shouting match broke out about how to follow the rules. We called the police at this point to request assistance, just in case. Keep in mind that it was cold, there are no restaurants within walking distance, and no public restroom. Before we received our 'packet,' there was discussion about just signing our names and votes on notebook paper, rather than waiting for the official voting documents, so everyone could go home. Apparently the two other large precincts were doing just that after contacting the Obama campaign and being told that this is what the precincts should do, and that they (Obama's people) would make sure it would be counted. Our precinct was discussing this, loudly and with much opposition, when our 'packet' finally came out, making the discussion moot. Another instance occurred which required my husband to run and get the police from his post on the corner. Apparently, people that were not from our precinct were signing in on our rolls. All while our Hillary supporting precinct chair was away from the table for a moment. Highly illegal. The people at the table, all Obama supporters, were a little more diligent after this. After everyone had signed in, questions were raised, to much shouting, as to how well the voters were checked to verify that they had voted in the Primary. Because you can't caucus if you haven't voted. This issue was not resolved last night, hence the selection of additional alternates for Hillary. Watching the news today, I've seen reports of multiple "irregularities" committed by Obama supporters all over the state. Knowing what our neighbor precincts were being told by the campaign, I wonder how many of these "irregularities" were carried out on instructions from Obama's people.

All in all it was a highly educational experience for us; we were literally living history. And it was interesting enough to draw at least two news crews to our polling place. We'll count it as our son's 'Civics' requirement. He was a real trooper, and I should thank the fellow Hillary supporter who let him use the bathroom at her house down the street. It was also exciting for my daughter, currently enrolled in college government. She kept us updated regularly via phone about the results as more precincts reported results. Every time my phone would ring, our group would gather round with bated breath. The excitement built as Hillary pulled from a little bit behind to ahead by more and more throughout the night. As other supporters said repeatedly last night, "Hillary, you go girl!"

Vermont Goodness

2008-03-02T21:16:00.002-06:00

This week I've experienced the ultimate in cheese toastiness, and I thought I should share.

It all started when I visited Vermont last summer with my BFF and her fam for her birthday. We did the whirlwind tour of the state by doing as many factory tours as we could fit into two days. Of course souvenirs were picked up along the way, including some Sage cheese from Sugarbush Farm (which didn't make it home with me - but I was able to order it from them online) and a French Herb bread mix from King Arthur flour.

Which leads me to this week. Being a champion procrastinator, I still had not made the bread or eaten the cheese. While the cheese was safe inside its wax coating, the bread mix was due to expire in the middle of March. So I sprung into action. The bread was easy enough to mix, and I even remembered to put my rings back on my fingers after kneading. It turned out deliciously; even my picky pickerton son loved it. Then the cheese was opened with much fanfare, butter was smeared on top of a slice of bread, two slices of cheese were put on top of the butter, and all of the above was placed under the broiler for just the right amount of time. Ooey gooey scrumptiousness. If I'd been smart I would have taken a picture to post. Alas, I'm a loser. You'll just have to trust me then.

In case you're wondering, other wonderful places visited were the Simon Pearce blown glass factory, Green Mountain coffee, Cold Hollow Cider Mill, and, of course, Ben and Jerry's.

Hillary for President

2008-02-26T11:40:00.002-06:00

Texans, vote for Hillary at the March 4 Primary. Don't forget to COME BACK at 7:00 for the Precinct Convention process where the actual delegates are chosen. Otherwise you may be represented by someone who supports a candidate that you don't.

Check out these sites for inspiration:

HillaryClinton.com

Hillary Speaks for Me
(This is where I originally saw a slightly different version of the above video. The (presumably) first version actually has some good things in it about NLP and mind control. Who's bamboozling who?)

Obama is 'Just Words.' His 'inspiring' speeches contain no substance. His feel-good catch phrases are merely hypnotizing the people. Hillary has the long-term experience, and she knows how to make decisions and get things done. She backs up her statements with REAL plans. See ya at the Primary.

Jericho Returns

2008-02-12T23:07:00.002-06:00

We've just finished watching the triumphant return of Jericho on CBS. We waited anxiously all day for the moment to arrive. My son even did his math lesson first thing without a fuss in order to get it out of the way in case other school subjects ran long today (they didn't.)

The episode was very satisfying, tying up the last episode of the first season and introducing new issues that we're sure to discuss in the coming week. We especially liked the scene early on in which one of the deputies is eating peanuts in deference to the fan campaign to bring the show back from the dead. Thanks CBS!

Freedom and Justice?

2008-01-19T15:04:00.000-06:00

Just a quick thought about a news story this week...

I was just watching Religion & Ethics Newsweekly on my local PBS station, and they reported on President Bush's recent trip to the Middle East. They said, " When he visited Saudi Arabia, he emphasized religious commonalities and said monotheistic faith is the root of freedom and justice."

Here's a news story discussing it as well, which includes the rest of the statement that monotheistic faith is the root of freedom, justice and representative government.

So that means polytheism is the root of serfdom, injustice and despotism, right? I guess the Greek democracy, the Roman Republic, and the atheistic philosophies of the Enlightenment, on which our government is based, didn't make it into Mr. Bush's public education. And neither did the French revolution with it's revolt against the despotic government and its reliance on the Catholic Church for its authority. Clearly "No Child Left Behind" was inspired by personal experience.

At least I live in a country where I can express my opinions without fear of reprisal (for now.)

Only one year left...

Coke Cake

2008-01-05T11:49:00.001-06:00

Having just checked Cygknit's blog, I found something that saddened me: an obliterated Coke Cake recipe. This is a terrible tragedy! So I did some digging through my cookbooks on the counter...

Nope, not here...

Maybe in the boxes that are hidden in the back of the pantry...

Yep! Here it is. In my mother's handwriting no less...

So for good measure, I'll also include the Snickerdoodle recipe in her hand. When I make these now, I use ALL butter, rather than shortening, and I double the amount of cinnamon and sugar (last ingredient.)

Snickerdoodle recipe is courtesy of Betty Crocker's Cooky Book, the book held in the highest esteem at my childhood home.

Hope y'all enjoy!

Dreams of New Beginnings

2007-11-16T11:53:00.000-06:00

All of my dreams last night had a theme: birth. I have been having pregnancy and birth related dreams sporadically for the past few weeks. Symbolically associated with new beginnings, I felt that these dreams indicated I was on the right track again with my business plan. For those who don't know me, I have been in the planning stages of an online metaphysical store for about three years now. I have the domain, the appropriate registrations with the government, and even a closet full of great merchandise, but no working website. A lot of our indecision lies in the choice between starting small or saving up lots of money and starting big. We have vacillated between these ideas endlessly.

Choice #1: Start with an online all-in-one hosting package that offers simple templates for a monthly fee.
Choice #2: Pay a programmer to design the whole website with all of the features we want, exactly how we want.
Choice #3: Wait until we are living in a place that makes us happy (not Texas) and start with a brick & mortar location.
Choice #4: Go ahead and open a brick & mortar location in Texas now, along with a simple website, and then move the business when we move.

After a few dreams of myself being pregnant and giving birth, I made a decision to go with choice #1. This after we had been settled on #2 for quite some time (which had resulted in nearly no action being taken.) While I am anxious to have a physical location where I can interact in person with people and provide services such as seminars and discussion groups, I have finally realized that Rome was not built in a day. To quote an insightful friend, I need to Start Where I Am, Use What I Have, and Do What I Can.

We are once again actively researching hosting sites, and my husband is actively working on one of his pet projects, making ambient music. Keyword here is ACTIVE. We have been passive and (mostly) patient for too long.

Which must have led to my all night dreaming of births and babies. The weirdest one involved me taking a carton of eggs out of the case at a grocery store and feeling movement inside. When I opened it, the eggs started hatching. Another had me carrying a basket (womb metaphor) of mouse babies to a woman who had just given birth. I held the baby for her while she took the basket. According to one of my more far-out dream interpretation books, accepting a baby represents accepting a new birth in the initiation process of your higher self. So we're off to a new beginning!

Trick or Treat

2007-10-31T21:26:00.000-05:00

Delayed Daylight Savings had an unexpected benefit after all. Every Halloween we frantically try and fail to finish eating dinner before trick-or-treat time at sundown around 6:30. This evening, however, found me finishing dinner preparations at 6:30, as per usual, with a little panic - until I realized it was not getting dark. We were actually able to finish eating before the first ring of the doorbell. That doesn't mean I have to like it, though.

Something interesting happened this year. My son forgot it was Halloween today. We didn't discuss costume options prior to this afternoon, after he remembered (he saw someone dressed up at the store.) So at the last minute he threw on his (homemade) cloak and pointy wizard hat, grabbed his (real) wand, and away we went. We made it through our entire neighborhood in just one hour. Only about thirty percent of our neighbors had on their front porch lights. I guess that's to be expected here in the Bible Belt. One house even had a sign advertisement in the front yard for their church party. Yuck. The participating neighbors were very generous with the candy; we ended up with two full buckets (a pumpkin and a cauldron) out of a fairly small number of houses.

A cold front is apparently coming through either tonight or tomorrow as we observe the change into the darkest part of the year. Another turning of the wheel.

Back to School

2007-09-24T20:41:00.000-05:00

After successfully completing our first week of sixth grade last week, we are now almost done with the second. I feel much more on top of things this year, this being our second year of homeschool, even though I procrastinated quite a bit on getting the syllabus ready. (I didn't finish until the middle of last week!) I think I put it off so much because I was a little worried about this year's topics. For example, how do you explain the Enlightenment to an 11-year-old in a way that is interesting to them? Or, is Dickens really appropriate for 6th grade? We're also doing a study on the origins of Judaism and Christianity, which I feel needs to be done with care in order to engender tolerance and respect for other religions. Following that is an in depth study of Greek mythology (fun!) and the Iliad and the Odyssey. Then comes Dickens with the Industrial Revolution, followed by reforms such as the women's suffrage movement.

All in all, some pretty serious subjects. It's almost like this year my son will officially become an older kid and begin to take some of the weight of the world onto his shoulders. This was worrying me. And then he and I sat down and talked about the schedule for the year. After not completely finishing everything last year until well into July, he had some definite ideas about how to avoid that this time. I did some renegotiating of my work schedule so that I'm home three days during the week rather than two. We cooperatively came up with a daily schedule that will allow us (if followed faithfully) to finish everything by May:

Monday - Math, Science, Reading (textbook)
Tuesday - Math, History, Writing, French
Wednesday - Math, Science
Thursday - Math, History, Art, Writing
Friday - Math (lesson + test), History, Poetry

Literature and history reading assignments are worked on every day, and PE and Health are incorporated into daily life. Monday and Wednesday are the days I've been working, so on those days he does the subjects he can do without me present. I was excited to find quizzes and activities online for the textbooks we're using for Reading and Science. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with having a schedule. Last year we didn't start with 'official' days for specific subjects until towards the end of the year when we realized we needed to get caught up.

Learning French was a last-minute decision. I had been wanting to teach it to him and had purchased a beginner text "on a whim," so when I casually brought it up during schedule-making, he agreed enthusiastically. (Much to my surprise!) Another pleasant surprise so far has been that my staunchly anti-Art child has now done two art projects. I guess it helps when it's on the schedule! Here's one of them:

This is called Bubble Aquarium, and it's from a textbook called With Art in Mind. Even though it is from Bob Jones University Press, there are only two references to God or the Bible in the whole book (easily skipped.) It has simple lessons that show examples and list supplies needed. Perfect for my Art-hating kid. Luckily he doesn't mind looking at art, just actually doing it.

As for Dickens, I found myself greatly relieved when I did my Lexile rating research. Turns out that Dickens is right in line with my son's current reading level and is just about on par with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. So, we'll be reading (out loud since I've never read these two) A Tale of Two Cities and Hard Times as planned. Now, I'm still a little worried about the sections on Romanticism and the Enlightenment. We're to study the ideas of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau, and how their ideas affected history. I'm open for suggestions on how to approach this in a non-yawn-inducing manner!

I mentioned I've been worried about introducing these heavy topics. After working with him these past couple of weeks on preparation, and then seeing him try things he's been resistant to in the past, I must admit that maybe he is ready for the added responsibility that this knowledge will bring.

Birthday Eclipse

2007-08-28T06:13:00.000-05:00

I've just come back inside (about 15 minutes ago) from seeing the eclipse. This one was pretty exciting for me: how often does a full moon eclipse that is visible in your area occur on your birthday? I had seen that the mid-totality would occur at 5:37 AM, but I didn't set my alarm to see it. I thought I would let fate set its own course. As it happens, I woke up at 5:23 from an interesting dream about the eclipse, which saw me going outside into a body of water to help a woman named Diane. After rising, I quietly asked my husband and my son if they'd like to join me. Both declined. My son actually said, "I'm trying to get some sleep!" So I sat alone on the back porch and enjoyed the view of a beautiful, muted red full moon. As I sat, I realized I also had a great view of a lot of constellations. I was able to see Cassiopeia, and my favorites Orion and Taurus, with the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, almost directly overhead. Sirius was just above the horizon winking at me, the old dog.

Harry Potter and the Canon

2007-08-10T17:07:00.001-05:00

Is Harry Potter becoming a new mythos? Complete author's works are often referred to as their 'Canon of Works.' This has become the case for Harry Potter as created by Jo Rowling. Not only are the books considered canon, but any direct quotes from Rowling herself are considered as well. Basically, anything Rowling says or writes about Harry is 'the truth,' making her, well, the god of her alternate magical world which seemingly coexists alongside ours. It is so easy at times to want to suspend disbelief and imagine that there really is an unseen magical society just down that alley or behind that mountain. It is a story that seems to offer some form of hope that things aren't always as they appear.

This thought originally struck me as possibly similar to the way in which scriptures, and therefore religions, come about. Let's consider the Gospels of the New Testament. In a nutshell, what supposedly happened is that a guy was born of a virgin, stirred up a lot of trouble with his own religion, Judaism, became a problem for the government of the time, the Romans, and performed some miracles and generated followers along the way. This is all clear from reading the New Testament as a whole. What is interesting is how we came to have this Testament. The four gospels as we know them weren't written until about 70 CE, supposedly some 40 years after our hero's death and resurrection. In letters written a bit earlier, Jesus began to become divine with the views of the apostle Paul, who had never even met Jesus. What I like about the gospel stories is how similar they are to other 'Saviour' mythologies. Virgin birth in a cave (stable in later versions,) death for the World's sins, and resurrection. These themes can be seen in the story of Mithras, Krishna, Horus, and various others.

If our hero was an actual person, you can argue that the stories about him were circulating orally for a time until they were written down. But what if the same thing occurred from legends rather than truth? Jo Rowling had the complete story of Harry fully formed in her mind before she ever wrote a word. What if she hadn't written them down? What if there was no such thing as the printing press and mass distribution? Perhaps she would have shared the stories with those closest to her. they would have, in turn, told the stories to others, thereby 'spreading the word.'

A correlation I find fascinating is that of 'fan fiction' and extra-biblical texts. There are numerous such texts hanging around. Some resurface every now and then to stir up some controversy. Currently there is a swirling storm of controversy around any 'Gospels' containing mention of Mary Magdelene. These were all found to be 'heresy' by around 1560 during the Council of Trent, and most of the current New Testament was in place by at least by 382 CE. How did they decide what was 'truth,' or Canon, and what was not? With Harry, fan fiction also abounds. There are stories about Harry's parents and other adult characters when they were at Hogwarts, and stories that fill in gaps that are left in the stories. In Book One, Harry goes from infant to ten years old rather quickly. Included are only a couple of anecdotes from his childhood. Fan Fiction fills in these gaps. Consider also the Infancy Gospel of Jesus Christ with the missing years of the traditional gospels or the books about Adam and Eve's experiences in the Garden of Eden.

In regards to Harry, the seven books are definitely considered canon, but some disagree as to whether additional statements by Ms. Rowling should be as well. It seems to make sense to include her statements, since she is the creatrix. But what about the movies? These present the same story, only slightly different. There is even some major tampering with the plot here and there. This reminds me of four gospels that tell the same story, only with slight differences. Also intriguing about including the movies is that we are now supplied with alternate names for our characters, Harry becomes Daniel, Hermione becomes Emma, and Ron becomes Rupert. Ron is even mistakenly called his alternate name by Professor Slughorn in Book Six, further entwining our two versions of the same story. In other myths and legends around the world, many heroes, heroines, gods, and goddesses are referred to by different names. This sometimes occurs within the confines of the story, for instance when Jacob becomes Israel in the Old Testament. It can also occur when the same story is told, but with different character names as in the case of Gilgamesh and Noah. What if some of these alternate names are indeed those of actual people who played that part in a yearly play or ceremony and did such a remarkable job that their name became synonymous with the character?

I can envision a future several hundred years from now where there is much debate about whether a boy named Harry Potter did exist. Perhaps the meaning of the word 'Novel' will have been lost. Such things do happen. Maybe certain well written fan fiction will be considered 'truth' in regards to the story of Harry. Maybe there will even be an outspoken group of people that influence society and government while waiting fervently for Harry's return so that he may bring tribulation and usher in a new era of peace.

Disclaimer: Please bear in mind that I am not a literary scholar nor a religious one. I study these things on my own time for personal interest, and my opinions and ideas are always evolving.

The Deathly Hallows Has Arrived

2007-07-21T01:12:00.001-05:00

Order of the Phoenix

2007-07-11T13:22:00.000-05:00

At midnight last night, I found myself breathless with anticipation in a darkening theater with family and friends. Many people were dressed in wizard gear (myself included), and some in full character costumes. We had a fantastic Mad-Eye Moody and Draco Malfoy in our row. Luckily we had arrived two hours early and gotten our preferred seats. The theater we attended sold out all 18 screens (!), so every seat in the house was filled.

I was pleasantly surprised, right from the start, with how much was taken verbatim from the book. This installment actually did the least twiddling with the plot out of all the movies, in my opinion. There were a couple of notable changes and omissions that disappointed me. However, seeing as Ms. Rowling signs off on the scripts before production, I can only assume that they are unimportant in the long run. It seems that she did insist that one character be put back into the film who was not previously included. Apparently this character will play an important role in Deathly Hallows. My immediate guess when I read about this was that it was Kreacher who must be left in. I then found an article at The Leaky Cauldron quoting the director that confirms my guess, but I can't get it to load properly, so I don't know if this link to it will work.

In short, we all enjoyed the movie a great deal, but we all agree that a second viewing will be in order very shortly. It seems everyone missed quite a bit of the dialogue because of our own laughter and gasps along with those of the rest of the audience. Hopefully our next theater trip will be this Saturday morning.

Solstice Reflections

2007-06-25T22:59:00.000-05:00

The Solstice has passed and the Sun is again waning. It seems that it might be a nice time to check in with myself and see how I'm doing on my resolutions.

1. Blog once or twice a week.
Not going so well... But at least it's more often than before...
2. Exercise more.
This I'm actually doing, if only to fit into my white capris for July 4th.
3. Finish painting and unpacking.
Ummm... I unpacked a few boxes...
4. Meditate.
Maybe if I'd finished unpacking and arranging my meditation area, this might be going better. What am I saying? That's no excuse.
5. Business.
No change really, other than a couple of ideas. Anybody have any recommendations for a good webhost and/or programmer?
6. Complete homeschool by June.
Well, almost - it seems we took an extended Winter Break and are running a little late. Almost done, though. I've told him we're on the Hogwarts schedule.
7. No caffeine.
This I've done, with minimal chocolate even.
8. Buy books.
No problem!

We had a nice theme dinner for Solstice (this seems the simplest way to celebrate, especially if it involves company.) Lots of Sun shapes and colors. My son, of course, helped with all the cooking while we discussed the relevance of the ingredients. He even pointed out that he was remembering to stir clockwise while he mixed the icing for the Sun Cake.

We ate alfresco and enjoyed ourselves until the sun fell below the horizon. Hope everyone else had a pleasant time as the Holly King takes charge once more.

Jericho Lives

2007-06-06T17:51:00.000-05:00

So, I just got home from work and found this article waiting for me when I got online. I am so happy that they decided to save this series. My family has definitely enjoyed watching Jericho this past year, and it has sparked a lot of discussion about how realistic the premise might be and what really causes people to go to war. We were very upset when we heard that it was to be canceled. I even joined in the ensuing fray myself by e-mailing our displeasure to CBS and by signing an online petition. I stopped short of mailing a bag of nuts to CBS headquarters. I say Nuts! to my friends who told me to give it up.

So now it seems that it is up to the fans to enlist more viewers. I guess that means me. So if you didn't watch this post-apocalyptic drama over the past year, please give it a shot and join in for the second season. The article says that they will rerun the series over the summer and then release season one on DVD in September so you will have a chance to get caught up. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

Butterflies

2007-05-19T21:18:00.000-05:00

We've just gotten back from our (mostly) annual visit to Scarborough Faire. I'm munching on some lovely cinnamon sugar encrusted pecans from said Faire and thinking about butterflies.

I have always been enamored with butterflies. I practiced catch and release as a child with my trusty butterfly net, and I also used the symbol of a blue butterfly to represent myself in numerous (OK, just three) 'Secret Clubs.' I have butterfly jewelry, butterfly hair pieces, and I'm still looking for copies of particular prints of various butterfly species that I saw once in a model home. And we're currently planning our butterfly garden.

This Spring has been rather good for wildflowers and therefore butterflies. They are everywhere in droves. I have to remind myself while driving that I shouldn't swerve to avoid hitting them. It's been really cool to have them hovering around and landing on us whenever we're outside. I've had three nice experiences with butterflies over the past couple of weeks, and since three of the same type of thing equals a blog post, it's time to share.

#1 - Three weeks ago, we had a family reunion at Lake Whitney. There were, of course, just as many butterflies flying around there as there are around where we live. On the last day, we were all down at the dock after a final boat ride. My son noticed a butterfly that had landed in the lake and couldn't pull itself out because its wings were wet. It struggled for a while and then eventually stopped as it drifted closer and closer to the dock. We thought that it had drowned. When it got close enough, I leaned over the edge and scooped it out of the water and found it was still alive. It rested in my hand for a bit while its wings dried and then took off. Very cool.

#2 - I spotted a butterfly hanging out in the grass in our front yard one day. For some reason I thought I'd try and see if it would climb onto my finger (despite many hundreds of failures attempting the same as a child.) To mine and my son's surprise, it climbed right on. We then noticed that it was having trouble flying as it would go a very short distance and then climb right back onto my hand. We fed it some leftover fruit smoothie and then took it to some nearby flowers. Hopefully it has recuperated.

#3 - Today at Scarborough Faire, there were again lots and lots of butterflies flying around and landing on people. One butterfly took a particular liking to me. It apparently liked root beer. It landed on me, flew around me and then landed in my cup to sip some of the drink clinging to the side. We watched it until it curled its proboscis back up and flew out of the cup. As we were walking from the area, it followed us and continually landed on my hat and my shoulder for quite a bit. It was really grateful for the root beer. Very amusing.

Just call me the butterfly whisperer. :)

A Poem

2007-04-23T18:37:00.000-05:00

A friend passed this poem to me today as she thought I would enjoy it. She wrote it a while back after being inspired by a dance she was performing. I did enjoy it and thought it would be nice to share. (Yes I got her permission first...)

Dark Moon Witchery

I'm a witch
With fingers gnarled
Purple walks in my shadows
There's eternal Spring in my stepping
In my mouth the taste of June
In your ears my haunting tune
Airs my cavernous throat hums hallowed

Catch if you can a fatal glimpse
Of all that's forgotten, of all that is lost
I tread darkly nightly through thickening verdure
Claiming my soul as a mytsic sojourner
Come if you will to watch my descent
But do not turn back, do not repent
You too can be lost

If you feel dark arms surround you
Fear not, for that is me
If you feel a kiss like fog
Cringe not, for that is me
And if you wish to know the night
Cry not, come with me
We will swallow the night together
Or failing, swallowed be

by Stephanie WIlling
October 19, 2005

Crazy Spring Storms

2007-04-09T21:53:00.000-05:00

I know that the weather may not be the most interesting topic for a blog post, but it's the best I've got for now. I promise that there are much better things percolating in my head that will be posted soon.

So hail and tornadoes, in the Spring, in Texas, is not really that unusual. But I wanted to at least share a couple of pictures from a recent storm that had us scurrying for cover in the downstairs bathroom while the storm sirens were blaring. The first three were taken from our house by our friend Zach Durland. He got some really cool shots.

Downpour

Lightning

And more lightning

He took more, but alas, I can't seem to uplaod an unlimited number of pictures.

This shot is of the ping-pong ball sized hail that fell at my parent's house a few miles away. You can see it falling as well as the pile collecting on the ground.

And here is a pic of snow falling this past Saturday. Snow. In April. In Texas. I'm not thinking so much anymore about Global Warming, I'm thinking more along the lines of next Ice Age...

And, no, I didn't have anything to do with this storm.

Welcome Spring

2007-03-21T17:51:00.000-05:00

Happy Ostara to everyone! Spring is here and everything is blooming *sniffle* - I'm having bad allergy problems this year. This spring seems to be extra strong! I'm seeing things blooming that I didn't know even bloomed. The bluebonnets are awake today, and I'm so glad to see them. Last year there were very few because of the drought.

March came in like a lion with the wind. On the 1st, we had a very nice strong breeze that was perfect for kite flying. Since then we've had some really strong winds. Our porch swing was blown over! Here's some pics of the kite flying fun.

Here's our son with Mr. Dragon:

And here's both of us:

And a close-up of his cool dragon kite:

This was the dragon kite's first outing as well as our son's first kite-flying experience. He did really well, and we both had a blast! We're hoping to take Mr. Dragon out again really soon.

Happy Pi Day

2007-03-14T21:20:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Pi day this March 14 (3.14, get it?) We celebrated at work with chocolate pie. Yummy! For some Pi day fun, check out this poem/story on Mike Keith's page and see if you can figure it out. Today is the biggest clue you can have!

Daylight Savings

2007-03-12T17:42:00.000-05:00

I hate Daylight Savings. It is unnatural. I was rather upset when I found out that not only are we now starting three weeks earlier, we'll be ending one week later. That's an extra month! There is an article from BBC news extolling the virtues of moving the clocks ahead. Something about less electricity usage, less crime, fewer traffic fatalities, and various other 'good things.'

About the lessening of electricity usage, I'm wondering just how much it really saves. It seems that the only difference would be in homes that won't turn on their overhead lights until it gets dark. Meaning only those homes that have good enough windows to get decent natural light and have people who don't habitually keep the lights on. Otherwise, people still use their TVs, computers, dishwashers, refigerators, washing machines, clothes dryers, irons, hair dryers, hot water heaters, ovens, stoves, microwaves and toasters just as often whether it's dark or not.

As far as crime, I don't think criminals care what time it is. Daylight naturally increases as we approach the Summer Solstice leading to less 'cover of night' crime anyway. We don't magically have any more daylight with Daylight 'Savings.'

The article actually says "Ultimately, daylight saving just brings a smile to everybody's faces." Not mine. I now have to drive to work in the dark. This is a real problem for me as I've got terrible night blindness and avoid driving in the dark at all costs. It's just not safe (especially for the other drivers since I can't tell where they are.) So as far as fewer traffic fatalities, I guess they only mean on the drive home. At least with the older version time change, the sun would already be rising early enough for me to be able to see.

I just don't appreciate being 'out of sync' with what the Earth is actually doing. The sun should be directly overhead at noon, not 1:00. So it seems that for the next 9 months, I will be getting up, going to work, coming home, and going to bed all an hour early. You may have noted that I didn't say watch my TV shows - we have TiVo :)

Maybe I just need to move to Arizona.

Harry Potter-thon

2007-03-05T17:58:00.000-06:00

Let's start with an admission. I'm a big Harry Potter geek. I actually got giddy a few minutes ago when I saw that Daniel Radcliffe has signed on to do the last two movies. But, c'mon, how could he not?! You can watch the trailer for Order of the Phoenix here. I still get chills when I watch it. I know, I'm a nerd.

My son is, of course, also a fan, so a few months ago we decided that it would be cool to spend a whole day watching all four movies in a row. While at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, we mentioned this to one of my coworkers. Since he's a fan too, we promtly invited him to join us when we got around to it. I wasn't sure when this would be since Holidays were coming up, and we had yet to unpack much. Then a Very Nice Thing happened. A friend of ours called us up to tell us that his dad had gotten a new flatscreen TV for Xmas and was tossing out his 60 inch big screen TV, did we want it? Are you kidding me? Our rescued TV was in place within two days. I always had the impression that big screen TVs had a somewhat fuzzy picture, and this one fulfilled my expectations. Still, it was pretty cool to have such a BIG picture. Then the picture went out. My husband has always seemed to have some kind of luck with fixing mechanical things by simply taking them apart, jiggling the parts, blowing on it, and then putting it back together. It's a gift, really. Since the TV was free, there was no fear of screwing it up by taking it apart. When he did, not only did it start working again, but after he cleaned the projectors with windex, the picture was crystal clear and beautiful. All that was left was to have a Harry Potter marathon!

Well, word got around at work and before I knew it we had plenty of people wanting to share the love. We finally got together a couple of weeks ago with plenty of chips, dip, popcorn, pizza, candy and soda. I have to tell you that if you've never watched them all in a row, book yourself a Saturday (it'll take 12 hours with breaks) and do so. It was so neat to see the characters growing up. Also, I had had kind of a problem with the portayal of Voldemort in Goblet of Fire when I first saw it, but after seeing the others right beforehand, it was actually the most appropriate portrayal they could have done.

So now we are anxiously awaiting the final book, Deathly Hallows, and the fifth movie, Order of the Phoenix. I think we might be doing the marathon again when movie 5 comes out and then go to see it at the midnight showing. In preparation for the book, we're reading all the books out loud together again. We just started last night. Hopefully four and a half months will be long enough!

Weather Control

2007-02-21T18:11:00.000-06:00

Can someone control the weather? It seems unlikely, but there are lots of theories and books about it. Some of which I own myself... *clears throat* I guess I'm willing to give any wild idea a bit of my time. One of the most interesting ones I've read is PK Man by Jeffrey Mishlove, which was loaned to me a few years ago by a friend with similar interests. It's about a guy, Ted Owens, who claimed to cause storms, among other things.

So why the blog post you ask. I feel compelled to tell a story that that seems, well, worthy of sharing because I find it somewhat humorous. Some interesting things have happened in my life. If you know me, you're saying 'Well, that's one way to put it.' In the realm of weather, there have been a few, shall we say, coincidences that have occurred. I'll just highlight a couple of them.

In the autumn of 1998, my husband and I were scheduled to take our long-awaited two-years-late honeymoon in Cozumel. About three weeks before said trip, Hurricane Mitch decided it would wreak some havoc in the Caribbean. Early to mid reports predicted that it was heading straight towards Cozumel. Well, I wasn't going to have any of that! I watched the Weather Channel everyday and focused all my energy and willpower on making sure that hurricane didn't go anywhere near the island I was planning on visiting. In the end, the storm made a circle around Cozumel and didn't cause any major damage there despite being a category 5 storm at one point. We had a wonderful time.

More recently, we had our first new house built. Now, my husband has a hyper-sensitive nose and was feeling kind of paranoid about our house being constructed over the winter when it usually rains/ices/sleets etc. He didn't want any mold taking hold and hiding out in the house's innards. He had wished aloud that it would be nice if it just wouldn't rain before the house was done. It rained just after the foundation was poured in October, and then didn't rain again for 88 days. We got more than 1.5 inches on January 28, after the house was completed. We closed on February 2 and moved in soon after.

I know those weather events aren't humorous, they caused terrible damage and death. But what happened this week is kind of funny. Last week at work there was a lively discussion about the weather and how unusually cold it had been all winter. One coworker then looked at me and said, 'You can control the weather, can't you?' 'Sure,' I said, ever the joker, 'What would you like?' She replies, 'I'd like some nice real Spring weather.' I told her I could get it for her the next week. So, this week it's in the upper 70s, and I saw a robin on the way to work.

So, do I truly believe I have anything to do with the weather? Not really. Besides, who would want that kind of responsiblity?

Makes You Wonder

2007-02-06T09:35:00.000-06:00

A remarkable thing has occurred. So I shall remark upon it. Through various interesting circumstances, my teenage daughter has had to transfer high schools mid-year. If you've read previous posts, you might be wondering why she isn't also in on the homeschool experiment. She was in a private school for part of elementary and all of middle school. When high school came, she was dying to go to a 'real' school, so we moved her to public. She is a social butterfly and loves being surrounded by her friends.

Back to the story. Without going into the why's here (because I don't think I could make the story succinct otherwise) she has now transferred to my old Alma Mater. This is also the Alma Mater of both of my parents and various aunts and uncles. We were nervous and excited when we went to enroll her. We were taken on a short tour during which I got to insert things like, 'Wow, that's new,' and 'Hey, that's where my locker was.' Very surreal. In the main hall we came upon a display of all the panoramic pictures of classes back to the sixties. This, of course, led to 'Where are you?' and then snickers at all the eighties hairstyles. My parents are on the wall. Again, surreal.

While in the office filling out paperwork, a curious thought came to me, so I just blurted it out. I said, 'I never picked up my senior yearbook, do you think ya'll have it laying around somewhere?' I had moved overseas shortly out of high school (first husband, Air Force, don't want to talk about it), and had not stopped by the school before I left, nor had I ever gotten up the nerve to stop in for it after I got back (sans husband). I had paid for one, surely it was still there... The lady politely asked me what year and explained that she doubted it, but she would send a message to the yearbook coordinator. I felt sufficiently foolish and promptly forgot the matter.

Several days later, there was a message on my cell phone when I got off from work. It was a bubbly yearbook coordinator telling me that they actually still had several copies of that yearbook, and she'd be happy to let me have one. I actually jumped up and down on the spot. Luckily, my coworkers already think I'm a little strange. Arrangements were made to have my daughter stop by the yearbook room to pick it up the next week.

I had never seen this yearbook. I only knew that I hated my senior picture. My hair had been in drastic need of a cut and was very uncooperative. It had been suggested that the girls put on their make-up a little heavier than normal so it would look good in the picture. Mine ended up looking garish. Luckily, I had only ordered the basic prints package and was able to hide them away when they arrived.

The day came, and she picked up the yearbook. It was my dad's birthday, so we were all over at my parent's house for the party. My daughter informs me that she has been showing my picture to everyone at school all day (horror of horrors!) and that she thinks the picture is 'gorgeous' and that her guy friends said 'your mom's hot.' What??!!! She opens up to the page I'm on, and, wonder of wonders, it's actually not bad in black and white.

We had some more fun looking through at everyone while I pointed out things like my first boyfriend and guys on whom I just had a crush. More surreal-ness. Like I was in a time warp or something. It was so long ago (it seems), but looking at the pictures took me right back. I felt almost a solemn reverence as this portion of my life was completed, now that I had the yearbook. Another chapter closed. What struck me most about the whole situation, though, was the yearbook title. I felt like it was the most appropriate title to see when presented with my yearbook after so many years. It was 'Makes You Wonder.'

Holiday Tea

2007-02-03T11:29:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Imbolc celebration this past week. We had some cooking fun by combining ours with a culminating school project on The Secret Garden. We had a traditional English 'Tea' party, or as we referred to it, a "Secret Garden Party." I looked through a stack of different 'Tea' magazines and The Secret Garden Cookbook for recipe ideas. We chose to make Hibiscus Tea Punch, Cucumber Sandwiches, Orange Mini-Muffins with Turkey and Orange Marmalade, Lemon Cream Scones, and regular Cream Scones. We also served Lemon Zinger tea and plain old Lipton, and had Lemon Curd and Black Raspberry Preserves on the side. All in all, it was very successful, and tasty. My son helped prepare each dish, and he made the Cream Scones without my assistance. Everyone who attended agreed that these scones were the best item. Here's a pic of the table:

And here's a better pic of the scones (the traditional triangular-shaped ones are those which my son made all by himself!):

The ladies (three of us) wore fancy hats, and fun was had by all - even the boys. Going through all the tea magazines had me wishing I had more time in my life to throw tea parties. Now I just might need a subscription to Southern Lady Presents Tea Time. hint hint...

Winter Clothes

2007-01-21T19:39:00.000-06:00

You may have noticed the winter storm that traveled over the U.S. this past week. Well, it came through Texas and gave us a nice blanket of snow for day or so. (Enough to make a medium-sized snowman!) The picture is actually from the day after it snowed, and so most of it is gone. That's a snow covered construction site in the background, not a mountain - or even a hill.

Because it was cold for a whole week, for once, (it's in the low 60s today) I was able to wear what I call 'real clothes' to work. You know, sweaters with a nice shirt underneath that coordinates with your pants and so forth. Anyway, I got SO MANY compliments on how I looked, I think I've decided that a cold climate works best for me. You can look nice even if you've got a little extra 'fluff' around the middle from certain holiday overindulgences.

Another Cute Bunny Vid

2007-01-20T11:53:00.000-06:00

This one's called 'The Fox and Bella Story.' Make sure your speakers are on for this one. It's definitely one of the best bunny vids I've seen on YouTube. We can't have a bunny right now, so I must satisfy my bunny cuteness cravings online. (That almost sounds like something I need a 12 step program for!)

Without further ado, here are bunnies doing all those cute bunny things...

Flounder Joy

2007-01-06T22:24:00.000-06:00

My son wants to be a chef. He has always wanted to be a chef. Not a fireman, not a doctor - he did say farmer for a little while, but that was so he could grow his own ingredients. He's watched Food Network since he was four, and he's been writing recipes since then. He even got a little hand-held voice recorder for Christmas one year because he kept getting frustrated that he couldn't write things down fast enough. And of course we still have the tapes!

Since our Renaissance study, he has decided that Leonardo Da Vinci is his hero, but I often wonder if it isn't actually Alton Brown. He quotes 'AB' all the time like gospel. Cooking is kind of a big deal in my family. We have certain 'family recipes' and traditions like making dressing together at my grandparent's for Thanksgiving. Because of his enthusiastic interest, my son was introduced to all of this at an early age with bread making and then cookies (all with my grandfather.) Recently he's been getting lessons on Chicken and Dumplings - mmmm. Now, however, all of these lessons are punctuated with "Alton Brown says."

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big 'AB' fan myself, so is the rest of my family. It's just funny to hear a 10-year-old voice correcting someone with something Alton said on last night's episode. Because he watches it every day!

Even though he has always wanted to be a chef, he has never been adventurous about what he actually eats. I think he subsists on mainly cheese and bread products along with the occasional hot dog. Well, he will eat steak, but how often does that get served?

Most of his cooking experience so far has been of the helping variety. Measure ingredients, stir the sauce, roll the dough. He recently graduated to using a knife to help with chopping. So I was pleased the other day when he suggested a dish that he wanted to prepare that I thought he could actually do mostly by himself. Usually he suggests very complicated things (sometimes of his own creation) that we have to politely put off till later... Well, you can probably guess where this suggested recipe came from. That's right, Good Eats. Episode Flat is Beautiful III - Flounder. The recipe is for Oil Poached Flounder.

My son did almost all of the preparations himself. I only helped with the 'hot' bits. It turned out just great. And here's the best part. The rule is, if he cooks something, he has to at least try it. His response to a bite? And I quote, "That's wonderful! No really, I like it!"

Thank you Alton Brown.

New Year's Day Magical Associations

2007-01-02T20:05:00.000-06:00

As I finished eating our New Year's feast leftovers, I thought it might be nice to post about some of the magical things about our New Year's Day.

Let's talk about food. If you're from the South, you know that you are supposed to eat black-eyed peas for luck, and greens for money in the coming year. We did both at our house, using spinach as our 'green,' since it is strongly associated with prosperity. We also followed the tradition from my family of having rice and cornbread with the meal. Rice is a prosperity grain which, in addition, confers protection and fertility. Cornbread (another Southern dish), made from cornmeal, is protective as well, and it connects us to the Mother Goddess ensuring spiritual growth.

Foods will always naturally carry their own special brand of magical energy, but this can be greatly enhanced by your intent. If you choose foods based on their qualities, be sure to 'charge' the foods before and during cooking, and then bless the food again before consumption. Charging simply consists of raising energy within yourself while focusing on the appropriate intention, and then directing it through your dominant hand (or from your hand through another item, if you prefer) into the desired object, in this case your food.

As far as non-food magic goes, the first day of the year is supposed to be representative of the year to come. With that in mind, it is best to have a clean house, a full pantry, and most importantly, lots of fun!

We had some discussion at our house about when we should actually be celebrating the New Year. It seems that you can find a different 'right' time to do it with every tradition investigated. It could be Yule or Samhain, or possibly Ostara. New Years based on lunar calendars change every year (from a Western perspective). So, then, what is right? I feel like it is appropriate to celebrate the New Year based on whatever tradition you are following, but it is also appropriate to celebrate the calendar New Year. We are subject to the energies around us whether we participate in them or not, so why not join in the festivities? As long as in your tradition there is not a 'ban' on such willy-nilly joining in, it seems to me that by participating, we can enjoy the free flow of happiness and joyful energy that surrounds us during celebrations such as these. The more the merrier!

Perfect Excuse for a Blog Post

2007-01-01T21:15:00.000-06:00

Here are my New Year's resolutions/goals for 2007, in no particular order:

1. Blog more - at least once or twice a week.
(Obvious, I know)

2. Continue with my recently instated exercise program of walking three times a week, and maybe add a little yoga.
(Again, obvious)

3. Finish painting my house (interior) and unpacking all those boxes ASAP.
(Three months is long enough to put off unpacking, don't you think?)

4. Begin a regular meditation practice of at least once a week.
(For my own sanity)

5. Actually get my business going online finally.
(Year number 3 for this particular goal, but it looks more promising this time)

6. Succesfully complete our first year of homeschooling.
(Meaning we get everything finished by June)

7. Continue to be caffeine-free.
(But I might officially exclude chocolate from the caffeine category)

8. Buy more books :)
(OK, that's not a real goal, and not really hard to do, but you gotta have something fun on your list, right?)

Texas Weather

2006-11-30T17:12:00.000-06:00

OK, you've probably heard the jokes. "When you're in Texas, if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes." Well, here's the evidence. It was 80 degrees when I got home from work last night, and here's a pic from the backyard this afternoon. Yes, that's snow. And it's about 25 degrees. Sheesh.

Doing Time with Library Thing

2006-11-22T11:43:00.000-06:00

For the past week or two my computer time has seen me with single-minded focus. I must get all my books onto Library Thing. The LT love affair started simply enough. You enter a few books, see who else has them, find out what they have on their shelves that you covet... Soon I purchased the Lifetime Account (only $25 for forever, what a bargain!) This enables me to finally have a list of every single last one of my books. Easier said than done...

Why am I suddenly in such a rush? Why, Yule is coming of course! You see, we moved house recently (OK, it was over half a year ago...) Anyway, due to various circumstances, the majority of our worldly belongings made it to our new abode only last month. Now, we have a lot of stuff, so much so that I'm almost embarrassed. We will hopefully be having a garage sale in the not too distant future, but if not, there's always Freecycle, right?

OK, my story's off track. The bottom line is, we have no place to put The Tree, and it seems that my stacks of books, which do in fact have lovely bookshelves on which to go, are first in the long line of Things Which Must Be Put Away. Because, apparently, some furniture belongs to the spot in which they are currently residing...

The Renaissance

2006-10-23T18:25:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been a month since I posted. Not that I haven't been feeling a wee bit guilty about it in the back of my mind or anything...

Of late, I have been somewhat frustrated in my preparations for the upcoming homeschool study of the Renaissance. We breezed through Pre-Columbian Americas and had a nice unit on Exploration and Discovery, after I spent a late night organizing (rearranging and condensing) the lesson plans I had found and synthesizing them with our library books.

Now we have hit the Renaissance. According to the 'master plan,' we should have started last week. I'm not really bothered by this except that when we go for a few days without working on a little of everything, it's hard to get back into gear.

According to our guidebook, we are to learn about Islamic Scholars (like Avicenna), Florence and the Medici, Artists of the time (Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli et al), Courtiers, Machiavelli, Gutenberg, Martin Luther and the Reformation, John Calvin, and the Counter-Reformation, and that's just for the 'Continent.' For England, there's Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, James I, Charles I, the English Civil War, Charles II and the Restoration of the monarchy, James II and the Glorious Revolution, William and Mary, and the English Bill of Rights. For Russia we have Ivan the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great. And that's just the history! We've also got science, art, literature (Shakespeare and Cervantes!) Maybe you can see why I'm a little out of sorts...

There is so much going on here, I can't seem to squeeze in the word 'synthesize.' I have a great personal interest in this time period (well, and history in general!) so it's hard to get something together for a fifth grader when I know so much additional information. I want him to be as astounded and amazed as I am by all the changes that took place during this time. Maybe this is unrealistic.

I was finally chastised by my husband (don't be too Virgo about this - you'll never have it perfect enough) and a coworker who is a homeschool graduate (this won't be the only chance he'll have to study the Renaissance). So I started to slowly eliminate books from the 'to read' pile. Which is probably a good thing - if anyone in my area wants a children's book on the Renaissance from the library, they are out of luck. I cleaned out the three closest branches. So I'll assuage my guilt by returning some of them tomorrow. I have a good general plan, and we'll read only the best books I found plus a few passages out of a few more, and we'll just have a lot of discussion.

Wish me luck.

Blah Blah Blog

2006-09-23T15:46:00.000-05:00

OK, it's been quite a while since I posted. Sorry about that... We've been holed up here in homeschool land for the past three-and-a-half weeks. My sincerest apologies to everyone that I have ignored, i.e. not responded to in a timely manner, during our 'adjustment period.'

Things have gone really well considering that our decision to homeschool came at the proverbial eleventh hour. I've found some great (& free) resources online with ideas and starting points for lesson plans, and I've made a fabulous (if I do say so myself) spreadsheet detailing the books we'll need throughout the year along with the branch of the library at which they are available.

I'm still working four days a week, so we have had to do some creative thinking to fit everything into a reasonable timeframe. The first week saw me in super high-stress mode as I tried to keep track of everything we were starting while trying to make decisions about what we would study when. Then my wonderful husband came home with the simplest solution ever - a teacher's plan book. Of course it was too obvious for me to think of myself.

I'm finally staring to feel like we may be able to keep our heads above water school-wise and still be able to enjoy life. Now all we need to do is get our store website going...

Birthday Excursion

2006-08-29T00:35:00.000-05:00

Monday was my birthday, and it so happens that I work for a company that gives you the day off, PAID, as a 'gift.' So, son went off to Nana's to help prepare the traditional birthday cake, and husband and I went shopping. Not your typical birthday shopping, mind. We went Book shopping! The most important kind of shopping there is. The only caveat was that we were looking for textbooks and supplementary materials for this year's venture into homeschooling, due to start next Tuesday. We had previously purchased Books To Build On, by E.D. Hirsch, which recommends a ton of books to go along with the Core Knowldege curriculum we will be using. We scavenged through three local used stores and came back with three textbooks and a stack of 28 additional books from the list. All for less than $100. Through this, I seem to have discovered that my book buying sickness extends to buying books that aren't just for me. (You'll just have to imagine the evil grin...)

2006-08-22T00:23:00.000-05:00

For Fellow Bunnyphiles

In lieu of a well thought-out and meaningful blog post, I thought I'd share a cute video I saw on YouTube.

Homeschooling Part 3

2006-08-08T21:09:00.000-05:00

We did it. We withdrew our son from school on Friday. He is ecstatic. My husband and I are cautiously excited (we're both Virgos,) and figure the worst that can happen is having to get on the waiting list to get back into the charter school. (We decided it was worth the drive if necessary.) We purchased the requisite copy of What Your Fifth Grader Needs To Know, and a couple of teachers from his charter school gave us the list of books they will be using this year as well as a review book for 'The Test.' You know, in case we get the urge to download it at the end of the schoolyear... We also talked to his chess club sponsor who suggested we continue to come to the tournaments. She said we could still sit with them even if we were our own 'team.'

Thanks again to everyone who posted a comment with suggestions and support.

Homeschooling Part 2

2006-08-01T20:17:00.000-05:00

Wow. I really would like to thank everybody for all of the comments. I never expected this kind of response, but I am very grateful for all of the information and support provided.

I wanted to address some of the questions posed, and provide an update to our current position, decision-wise. First, I absolutely agree with you, Daryl, that fear and doubt are holding us back. My husband and I get excited every time we talk, but then the inevitable "are we really going to do this" will arise. We have finally spoken with our son frankly and seriously about the possiblity of homeschooling, and he seems to be mirroring what we are feeling. He acts excited, and then he says he isn't sure. I believe that what he's most worried about is maintaining current friendships.

Secondly, I would like to thank Unique for reminding me about the "What Your XX Grader Needs to Know" books. I had managed to forget (how, I don't know, as it had been a major selling point for us) that the Core Knowledge curriculum that our charter school uses comes from these books.

As I was fretting about this publicly, my husband was quietly going about his research. As we pored over all of your comments, he kept saying, I have that link saved, and that link, yes I read about that... He also found a list of reasons to homeschool that really hit home. After our son read the list, I asked him what he thought. His response, complete with big grin, was, "I'm thinking about homeschooling!"

I must say that I already knew, in my heart, everything ya'll have said. I just wasn't able to bring it to the surface and put it all together. After discussion, I think I have to admit that the inept 'grads' I have met or known were just victims of bad parenting. I had forgotten so many things in my worry. My cousin homeschools, and their daughter is wonderful. My in-laws (that we live with) are UU, and they have a homeschool group at their church. And, I actually used to work with the woman who led the homeschooling charge here in Texas!

It was so enlightening and inspiring to read all of your comments, especially the 'we did it, you can too' ones. I have to say that they reminded me that maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't be all on our own.

I do need to address the comment by Cygknit, as she has known me for a looooong time. It is more a question of how everybody's needs would fit together as a family with all of us managing to stay sane. (Tips on alone time for the parents, anyone?) Because I know I would do a good job teaching even though I'm not a 'professional.' (A friend at work made me feel really good when I told her about our recent thoughts. She said, 'Wow, you'll be great, can I come, too?") You know you would be great, too, Cygknit. You may have forgotten our plans from some time long ago to have our own small community with our friends.... Ahem, I believe you were going to be the teacher...

As it stands now, if we can all get just a little past our nervousness, I think we are most likely going to be trying homeschooling this year. We have to make the official decision by Friday, I think, so that we can withdraw from the charter school.

Thanks again, everyone, and, I'll 'keep you posted' :)

Homeschooling

2006-07-29T22:24:00.000-05:00

The subject of school has been a difficult one for my household this summer. Our son, who is 10, has been attending a charter school since kindergarten. We initially made the decision for him to attend based on their accelerated curriculum. We have put up with their lack of amenities (lunchroom, gym, etc.) as a sacrifice for the excellent education. We also happened to be lucky that the school was just as close to us as the public school for which we were districted. That changed when we moved this spring. We are now nearly 30 minutes away, and with gas prices as they are, we have somewhat of a dilemma.

I have always had a problem with public schools. I feel like the curriculum is based on making sure enough students get good marks on 'The Test' that is given every couple of years so that the schools will continue to receive adequate funding. I don't feel like enough time is spent on subjects beyond the basics for kids to come out at the end with a true appreciation for the world and a desire for lifelong learning.

Supposedly, the school district that we have moved into has a reputation for being 'good.' I'm not sure, though, what that is supposed to mean. Do they hire better teachers? Do they have more money in the district for cooler equipment? Or do they actually go above and beyond the call of duty? We recently visited the local intermediate school that he would go to, should we so choose. It certainly looks nice, and the people seem nice. We talked extensively with the principal about the gifted/talented program, to see if that could somehow make up for the difference between what the charter school offers and what public school has. I have my doubts. While we were there, I looked through the 5th grade math textbook. I saw everything that he had learned LAST year. And he had begun complaining that he was bored, as he had done some math self-study at home.

This has led us to some radical and dangerous thinking. Some background information may be necessary before I go any further... I am the full-time worker of my household. My husband is the stay-at-home dad who does some work here and there to help supplement. We moved this spring in order to shift everything around so that we could change our situation in life and hopefully get 'ahead.' We puchased a large house with my in-laws, moved in together (but fairly well separated), and I started working only four days a week. The idea is that I can keep our health insurance in place while we start our own business (an online metaphysical shop.) The business has been in the works for a while, but I'll post more on that at another time. Back to the radical ideas. As may have been surmised from the title of this post, the subject of homeschooling came up. Now I know that the Christians have pretty much cornered the market on this idea, but I have seen some things here and there about a pagan homeschooling movement. My husband and I figured that I have the best 'teaching' rapport since we already do other kinds of 'lessons' (see previous post), and would therefore be the main instructor, but would I have enough time to work, start a business, and teach school? I could feasibly drop another day in my workweek and still receive our health insurance, and we would probably be able to scrape by financially.

The main concern, I think, for any homeschooled child, is socialization. I've met many a homeschooled graduate who did not know how to function in the real world. I guess that's a problem here in the bible belt. It's possible that if we did homeschool, we would only do so for a couple of years. But, in the meantime, would karate class and Spiral Scouts be enough? One other factor, my son's best friend from the charter school just happens to be transferring to public school this year so he can participate in sports. You only get one guess which school he's going to. That's right, the same one we would go to. Now, I do need to mention that my son has been begging to be homeschooled for many years. Much the same way I begged to go to private school when I was a kid (no, I never got to go.) I just wanted a better eduaction than what I felt I was getting. I was bored - just like he is now. So, the question now is, do we try this? We are running out of time to make a decision. School is starting at the charter school week after next, and at the public school one week later. We don't even know whether to buy regular clothes (public), uniforms (charter), or nothing (home)!

Wicca Books

2006-07-22T22:19:00.000-05:00

I've been asked by my friend the Librarian (note the capital L, that's new) to recommend a book or two on Wicca for the religion section at her library. Apparently they have absolutely no books on the subject, and she is seeking to remedy the situation. I must admit that I have pondered on this for maybe too many days (I think she would have liked an answer a few days ago...), as the longer I think about it, the more undecided I become. I mean, how can you condense the entirety of Wiccan practice and philosophy down to a book or two? You just can't.

Usually when someone asks me at work (yes, I'm really a bookseller) what they should start with, I recommend Scott Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. That's the one I started with, along with Raymond Buckland's Practical Candleburning Rituals. But this was quite some time ago, and there was not much to choose from. I quickly became enamored of Scott Cunningham and bought everything he had written. His Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs and his Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem, and Metal Magic are still the books I use most often. Unfortunately, he passed away shortly after I discovered him. Here's a wonderful article about him from Llewellyn's site.

Back then, it seemed there was a larger demand for Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft (yes, I worked at a bookstore then, too), but I didn't really dig it myself. Maybe others found it more desirable beacuse it's a big book with a giant pentagram on it? I had forgotten why I didn't like it until I looked in one again the other day. In Gardnerian witchcraft, which is where Buckland got most of his 'brand' of witchcraft, it is necessary to do rituals 'skyclad' (naked), and the initiation rites seem to include a fair bit of bondage. Not for me, thank you very much...

In the early 90's, I bought pretty much every new witchcraft book that came in so I could give it a try. Some I kept, but most have been sent out into the world to find a new home. Aside from a few of the Cunningham books, the one book from then that I actually still use is Edain McCoy's The Sabbats. Celebrating the Sabbats is my favorite part of being pagan, and I've gotten many, many ideas for family shindigs from this book. One book I wish I still had is Power of the Witch, by Laurie Cabot, although I do still have her Celebrate the Earth book about the Sabbats which has some good recipes. Since Ms. Cabot is based out of Salem, Mass, my dear Librarian might have some local interest in her books, as her library is in nearby Connecticut.

In the past few years, there has been just an enormous amount of paper dedicated to Wiccan practice. Many are excellent, and some are just so-so. Speaking of family (yes I was, just a minute ago), my son, age 10, and I have been having 'magic' lessons based on Elements of Witchcraft and The Book of Wizardry. Elements of Witchcraft is a very basic book written for (pre-)teens, but it serves our purposes (he is only 10...). The Book of Wizardry is written more as a young adult novel kind of thing. It seems to try to make a bridge between those interested in the Harry Potter kind of magic and those who are serious about how things really work. I don't think I would really recommend it for a child/teen to read on their own as they might misunderstand. I've been reading the chapters out loud during the lesson and then following up with 'real-world' magic instruction.

As far as recent books I've actually felt the need to purchase (which if you know me, you might think it wouldn't be too hard to convince me to buy a book, but I'm actually pretty picky), there are three that stand out to me. One is Grimoire for the Green Witch, which is a book on natural witchcraft with a Wiccan slant. This is a great all-around book that is substantial enough for a beginner and beyond. And it only has a small pentagram on the cover...The other book is Wicca: A Year and a Day. I actually just purchased this book and am anxious to be at a place in life (soon hopefully) that I can start work through it. It will be nice to get a refresher course that's more in depth than my original self-guided training. A year and a day is the traditional amount of time for study before initiation. (As well as other things like a handfasting...) This book has a lesson for each day and covers theology, deities, divination, correspondences, ritual work, and etc. I'm hoping that I will be able to integrate some of the lessons into my son's lessons. While this seems to be a really great book, my husband pointed out to me that if it got checked out of a library, it could result in a very, very overdue book. The last book is Everyday Magic by Dorothy Morrison. This is essentially a spell handbook; they are all fairly simple to do, and they are arranged alphabetically by intention. Handy in a pinch.

OK, down to the official Moderatrix recommendations. If you can get only one book, get Cunningham's Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. If you can get two books, get Wicca and The Sabbats. If you can get three...(we can always hope, right?), get Wicca, The Sabbats, and Grimoire for the Green Witch.

New things I like

2006-07-07T23:21:00.000-05:00

Well, we braved the movie theater this evening to see Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest. I must say it was almost as fun as the first one. Lots of fun stunts and cool effects and makeup. Oh, and you have to stay till the end of the credits. It's nothing that big, but still cute.

If you haven't had Haagen Dazs Mayan Chocolate yet, go get some right now. It is fabulous (and I don't use that word - ever). Vey simple formula - their rich creamy chocolate with a fudge swirl and a hint of cinnamon. I had it in a shake today at the mall - it was even better all swirled up with whipped cream on top!

And alas, I have been seduced by Library Thing. I've only entered around a hundred books so far, but I can't get over how easy it is. It's so cool how you can see who else has the same books and then look at their shelves without feeling like you're spying! It's the coolest (dot) thing (dot) ever(dot).

Rhythm of the Heart

2006-07-03T18:37:00.000-05:00

I stumbled upon a magazine today that I'd never heard of (even though it's apparently been around for 10 years), called ODE. I found this week's featured article very interesting. Here's a link:

http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4326

What I found most intriguing was the idea that heart rhythm is connected to stress levels. Of course when we read things we see them through the lens of our own experience. I have a mild mitral valve prolapse and have been officially diagnosed with 'Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome.' Basically meaning that when I get even a little stressed out or overtired, I have chest pain, palpitations, and shortness of breath, not unlike an anxiety attack. The problem with this 'syndrome' is that no one seems to know why a problem with the anatomy of a heart valve can cause anxiety symptoms. I had a proverbial 'lightbulb' moment when I read

“There is a constant exchange between the heart and the brain. Research shows that a coherent heart rhythm is able to bring the emotional brain to rest. When your heart is beating in a healthy way, you can heal stress, depression, tension and other mental afflictions.”

So maybe it's not the stress causing the symptoms, but the heart causing the sensitivity to stress.

For Cygknit

2006-06-30T20:46:00.000-05:00

And so begins a possibly feeble (but hopefully not) attempt at having my very own blog and the swearing off of only reading those belonging to others. Much to my chagrin, I have been goaded into being less cautious than usual by making my thoughts somewhat public.
More to come.