Fantasy As I Know It

So, I have been really "in to" fantasy for the last couple years, what with my daughter's re-re-re-readings of Chronicles of Narnia and voracious appetite for Harry Potter movies. When my favorite aunt handed me a copy of Once and Future King, I started a King Arthur binge, as well... And besides seriously considering writing a series (or two) of my own, this is where I am (not THAT many books later).

As in a lot of genre fiction, I am disillusioned by all the crappy writing that sneaks in. But I have stayed to "best of" lists and books that led to other books. As a kid, I loved Madelaine L'Engle, but I can not stomach either Tolkien--oh, the horror!--or, so far, Lawhead. Yikes. Perhaps I can't get past the detailed writing to see the imagination (and knowledge) for the forest. But I have already discovered some shining gems, which is what I look for when I sift through all the dregs of literary fiction, too.

My Short-Short List of My Favorite Fantasy Books

1. Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis.  This was my first real fantasy love, although I didn't realize it at the time. I read it for a Lewis seminar, and I never hear people talk about it or see it listed anywhere. But in my very limited and therefore humble opinion, it HAS to be one of the best fantasy books ever written. Seriously. A must-read (and a quick one, at that). And great fun for us grown-ups who are past the Chronicles series. My husband agrees with me, for what it's worth.

2. The Once and Future King, T. H. White. And then you can continue on with the series, but in the future I will probably stick mainly to re-reading this one book. When I first put my hands on it, I thought all Arthur books must be beautiful, but I was in for a nasty shock. This book is exceptional as the kind during which I would suddenly pause, out of breath from the sheer beauty of a passage of text. How often does that happen?

3. The Harry Potter Series, J. K. Rowling. I know I am a world-class wiener for including this, but there are two main reasons that I have read it twice in the past year. One; the ability to immerse the reader in a complete world, mostly separate from their own, which is both full of normal things like annoyances, food, sports, and bad hair days and also full of fantastical places, objects and beasts, heroism, and magic. Two; an amazing consistency and wholeness from page one through to the end (in my version, at page 4167). As a writer myself, I marvel at the way that everything from the first chapter makes its way to the very end, and nothing is ever off. How on earth did she release as she wrote?!? It's baffling. I can understand why some people say she sold her soul for the story. It's that perfect. On the downside... the prose is only adequate and occasionally quaint. But what I wouldn't give to have that story, imagination, and steel trap mind... Plus, it is clearly addictive.

Let's Get Clinical, Clinical

Again, I am full of excuses for why I have not been blogging regularly. And once again, they are totally legitimate.

So, a few weeks ago, my husband came to me and said that due to adding clinicals to his already-80-hour-a-week-plus schedule, he was going to have to cut back a shift every week at work. He asked me to do whatever it might take to start generating some money. I had just set into another month--posted the schedule, filled the calendar, planned the menu, purchased the groceries--and so announced to him that it would take me about a month to re-route our lives. I became immediately obsessed with re-working the schedule. (I may have mentioned the schedule before: I started scheduling instead of listing about a year ago, and it has been ground-breaking for me.) All day, I was clicking away at the computer and poring over cookbooks, because that was my brilliant idea, my great sacrifice: I was going to give up gourmet cooking and convoluted meal plans for a stream-lined version of feeding the family on a low income. Once that was done, I would squeeze "work" into as many spaces as possible in the schedule, trimming down meal times and chucking anything else that could go. (That, and I had already filled out the forms to get preschool assistance for Boy next school year.)

Then Kevin quit the shift and he sort of looked at me like, "Now, what?" We were only about a week into whatever, and I had readied the schedule but was waiting until we could actually switch over (since the schedule and groceries still had weeks to go). So, I made another move. I pulled the schedule (but not the meal plan, 'cause what are you gonna' do at this point?) from the fridge and threw it away. Three weeks were now "free" to follow job leads and bury ourselves in dirty laundry and paper plates, while we waited for the new schedule to take effect (which always starts the Sunday after the 11th of the month).

Therefore, my long-winded excuse is that I have been dusting off my resume, re-working my curriculum vitae, scanning in written works, and shooting off emails to publishing houses. This is step one in my grand scheme; get back into freelancing. I have also been doing things like applying for renovation assistance, inquiring about home mortgage rates, and pricing the sale of scrap metal. I have spent days and days and days just buried in paperwork, the phone glued to the side of my head, and the computer screen burning holes in my retinas. Poor Boy has bore the brunt of my concentration.

So the deal is this: I have finally relented to a schedule where all the food is the same, every two weeks. I compiled our healthiest and easiest meals, snacks, drinks, etc. copied them and put them in a binder in an order concurrent with the schedule. Right on the schedule is the food to make and at what time. This should cut back on preparation time (since making the same, easy food will become automatic), and also on planning time (since I usually make a new meal plan and grocery list every month). I also pre-made the grocery list that I will take to the store every two weeks, from now until forever. And I discovered something else: making the same things over and over makes it easy to pre-make batches of things. I make coleslaw on Monday, it becomes the side dish for three dinners. I make a bunch of granola, we have breakfast for four. This has always been a principal I used, but it's easier to do this way.

I suppose I've rambled enough for now. I might have more to share about it later. Next week we will actually be on the new schedule and eventually I might have employment news to share.

Here are some Facebook posts from the past couple weeks:


2/6  So Boy was doing something in his room that probably included throwing his body from heights and holding and gun, and I walked in and said something like, "That is so weird. Just so amazingly different."

He's no dummy; he lowered his voice about an octave and came back with, "That's 'cuz I'm a guy. A boy-guy. A man-boy."

What's not to love about that kid?


1/31  Boy is in the back seat of the car yelling "STOP IT! STOP IT!" so I pop off the radio and he says, "Mom. It's indescribable." "What is, honey?" "Later."


1/24  Girl yells, "No, Boy! You don't NEED anything except food and a house and clothes and your PARENTS!" and Boy yells back, "I already have on my PANTS!"

Crafty Christmas

I am sick once again, and so am out of steam by the time I get to blogging, let alone thinking. However, it occurs to me that I did not yet share all the Christmas gifts that I made this year. In the end, there were several that I did not get photos of... even some of the best (including the jean purses I made for three of my relatives). I was so pressed for time (due to a previous illness. Yes, I was not a breast-fed baby). I always tell myself I will do a better job with photos next time, but alas, I have yet to master either the quantity or quality of inventory photos. Also, I do not have the photos of the quilt I made for Kevin's parents, but they are stuck on the broken camera and I will post them eventually. It was really cute.

 I think this is the front and back of a purse (complete with inside pockets) I made for my sister-in-law. Refurbed from tees.

 Front and back again of similar purse for my aunt.

 Tee shirt I painted for my cousin. I used thrift store tees for all these.

 For my step-brother.

 For my bro-in-law. (This is the logo he requested.)

 Front and back of bag for my sister-in-law. Refurbed from tees, of course.

 Backpack for my sister-in-law's finacee.

 Tee shirt for my uncle.

 Stack of finished tees. Took this after midnight on Christmas Eve.

 Tee for my other brother-in-law.

Tee for my foster-brother-in-law.

Don't Panic

You must choose one of the following and only one:

A) Miss the exit next time you want to leave the freeway.
B) Cause a gruesome accident in which you lose both your legs and kill a small child in another car.

As far as I can tell, this is the multiple choice that someone has been given, and it might just be someone near me, next time. Nearly every day I am in contact with some driver who suddenly realizes that they are in the wrong lane for a turn or a merge and--instead of gracefully dealing with it--they panic. People are that harried, that frenzied, these days that they routinely put their safety and the safety of those around them in jeopardy for something as simple as a missed exit. Really? When did it become so important to hit that right turn that we were willing to gamble our health and lives on it as we skid across two lanes, merge without looking, or slam a sudden lucy without signalling? And what is so very frightening about missing the turn? Are a lost couple of minutes that terrifying--or perhaps that precious--that we will reclaim them at all costs?

Let me propose something revolutionary; not only are those lost minutes not worth our health, safety, and the safety of those around us, but in finding the peace and grace it would take to absorb the incident, I think we would find much more than just a few lost minutes. We might even find an adventure.

We ARE Almost a Week In

I fully intended not to make any New Year's Resolutions this year. It was hardly an emphatic protest; it was more of an accident that I decided after awhile to agree with. You see, the year completely snuck up on me, hanging out there as it was right after Christmas. And then when I had done nothing to honor it save an after-work snuggle and a virgin bubbly on the couch as the clock quickly struck midnight, I realized just how softly and un-honored 2012 had already begun. In the back of my mind, pomp and introspection were dancing about amid broken cars and broken pipes and carpool lines and grocery lists. And there they stayed, a little nagging and flitting. And there they turned into a nagging and flitting thought that perhaps New Years Resolutions might be a tad overrated, or at least only for those poor souls who lacked daily resolution.

But in the end, despite that I really do find myself with more peace in my days and hours than I have in many years (maybe ever), I succumbed to the glitter of a Resolution. It is completely ripped off from a friend (or perhaps two) whose conversations about it I have heard only obliquely. Is this their resolution? Or is just a joke of a possible resolution? Or a life goal? I don't know. But here is my less-ayurvedic version:

Put my bare feet on the earth once a day.

That's it. Just naked feet planted solidly on some sort of naked ground. For five seconds, or less, or more. In the night, in the morning, in the middle of the day. In rain, in cold, in heat. It appealed to me largely because of its simplicity, concreteness, and creativity.

And what I am expecting? Health? Maybe a little. But mostly surprises. A still moment, or at least a moment when I am whisked away from what is to be expected, from what I have come to expect of myself and life. A surprise for someone else. A surprise for me. A breath of fresh air to blow the stink off. All that. And so much more.

Christmas Retrospective in Photos

Hair Cut.

Check it out. We have been going to give Boy a classic spike for months, but we finally got to Michigan so that Makah could give him one. Awesome.

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Amid Christmas Projects

This project is not Christmas related, so I can share. I got an eleventh-hour invitation to a baby shower and was pretty proud to have whipped this up out of fabric scraps around the house. Made with fleece, it ended up being really soft and feeling very thick and warm. I think it will make a great blanket to set the baby on a hard ground, and Mommy Monika really seemed to like it. Lalaloopsy not included.

Yet Another Treeless Christmas

We have our reasons, but we are going to go another year without a Christmas tree and without taking down all our breakable ornaments from the attic. I have simplified, with only some paper chains, a few lights, some paper ornaments and--what I simply can not do without--my nativity display. (One of them is suddenly missing Baby Jesus. That can't be right.) And then I added two things, which I have taken advantage of the spareness to incorporate into the holiday, long wanting: an advent wreath and a Jesse branch. Really, they are both part of adding (or perhaps reintroducing) advent into our holiday celebration. According to the Celtic prayer book that I always keep handy, we are starting advent today, and celebrating with a prayer and lighting of the candle(s) each week. Then from December 1st-25th, we will (make and) add a nativity-themed ornament to our Jesse branch (a branch from the yard mounted to the wall above our hearth) each day, ending with Jesus on Christmas. We can add the shepherds and magi as we continue the last thing; a special prayer and verse of a song each day to mark the 12 days of Christmas, which officially end the 6th of January.

When I was thinking advent wreaths--several months ago, in fact, I came across this one: Homemade Advent Wreath. If you know me much at all, you will understand how the idea of using old bottles would appeal, but it was a little too cutesy-country for me. So I just tackled it my own way, with no solid plans but some ideas and some supplies. What happened is what you see in the photo. Once we reach the fourth week, we will celebrate the lighting of the Christ candle with the turning on the bottle from "hope" to "joy." Get it? Yay! I am happy to be lighting the first advent candle tonight, and I look forward to years of celebrating not just Christmas, but advent, the nativity, the creche, the King in the manger.

Meanwhile, I am doing a lot of thinking about bad expectations and broken expectations. Boy, do I live in the middle of a muddle of poor expectations. Perhaps I won't enumerate them here... or now. But suffice it to say that I hope to go into the holidays--chock-a-block with family, stress, activity, the world, meaning--with a renewed sense of what my expectations are or should be, how I can introduce change to them, and even see them change, as I am honest with myself about why I have all these strange expectations in the first place. Could it be I am generally selfish and self-serving? It could be. Oh yes, it could be.

By the way, had you any inkling that the metal, plastic, paper, or glass ring around the bottom of the candle used to catch wax drippings is in fact called a bobeche? It is a French word, and clearly I need some bobeches before I fire up my advent wreath.

Slow-Going

I have not been able to type for the last few weeks, due to what was probably a finger sprain. My left hand was immobilized in a splint, and apparently I do not have the patience for one-hand typing which--like many things one-handed--does not take twice as long as normal, but is instead compounded several times. It took me many visits to the computer just to get the Hogwarts post up, and that because I really wanted to post the pics. But I am back to normal function of the left hand, as long as I don't lift anything too heavy or snap my fingers. I guess I'll be slowing down on moving furniture and doing yoga for the holidays. But now, as you can see, I can return to a normal blogging schedule of three times a week. Sure you are dying to hear me pontificate on poverty and see my crafty Christmas decorations...

Right now, I have more important things to do.

Welcome to Hogwarts

Of course, throwing birthday parties--or any party--can be a real challenge (and discouraging process) when you are low on funds. This year has been our tightest holiday time so far, but I think that we managed rather nicely for Halloween (thanks to costumes from Grandma) and now into the birthday season and Thanksgiving. Girl wanted a Harry Potter party this year, and since her birthday falls on Thanksgiving, we picked a day a week ahead on a week day. (We wanted to try the week day thing, sick of Kevin missing the kids' birthday parties, so we made it a family pot luck.) Another challenge: Girl prefers big birthday parties with all her friends, but she does not like the mess that her room becomes. So despite the season, we planned a party at the state park. A week later when daylight savings hit we realized this would be impossible, unless we were going for an illegal, pitch-black romp in the chilly woods. Change it to the house. Then I sprain my finger and end up in a splint. All the cooking and sewing I had planned? Had to severely cut back. And yet...

How to Throw a Very Affordable Harry Potter Party:
1) Everything should be Gryffindor colors; red and yellow... the dishes, the cake, the steamers, the balloons, etc.
2) Make signs for various rooms of your house, such as "Welcome to Hogwarts," "Great Hall," "Moaning Myrtle's  Bathroom," "Gryffindor Tower," "The Forbidden Forest," "The Room of Requirement," "Dungeon," etc.
3) Prop up your broom somewhere prominent with a sign attached reading "To: Harry / From: Sirius Black."
4) If you dare, light candles all over the place.
5) Play your Harry Potter favorite DVD (from the library) on super low volume or mute.
6) Play either a Harry Potter soundtrack (from the library) or a custom-made mix including British bands and songs that include wizards, magic, etc.

7) Hang an owl from the ceiling with a rolled paper tied to its leg. After opening gifts, have this owl "fly" down and deliver a birthday message, secretly contained on the paper.
8) Use a dry-erase marker to draw faces on the mirrors in your house, like ghosts.
9) Make an Oozing Gryffindor Cake, which means top with red and yellow frosting--preferable with the lion crest--with bare sides that are leaking worms and red frosting.
10) Have a Make-Your-Own-Potion Bar: fill glass bottles of various shapes and sizes with all sorts of juices and sparkling beverages. Label them with wizard potion ingredients such as Bubutubor Pus and Unicorn Blood (look online for a complete list of possibilities). Then label "Make Your Own Potion." People LOVE this. Of course, for a grown-up party, you could add liquor as well.
11) Fill glass jars of various shapes a sizes with plastic bugs, amphibians and reptiles and then with water, but not quite to full. Use as decoration, preferably near the Potion Bar.
12) Serve up Butterbeer. It is usually nonalcoholic, can by warm, cold, or frozen, and recipes for it abound on the internet.
13) Wear whatever Hogwarts costumes you can put together. My kids had cloaks, and Kevin and I made pins which read, "Head Boy" and "Head Girl."