Study Time

Seeking peace, understanding, growth,  contemplation, unity,  and love.

Oh, and a win tonight from the U.S. women's team.

Til then,  growing my heart, mind, and one tiny human.

Please take a moment to appreciate the tiny post-it notes.

Simple Joys

Tiny post-it notes are one of the key tools in my intellectual and spiritual pursuits. 

A Bookish Girl

This is what I've purchased or checked out in the last 48 hours.  Not pictured: Sex at Dawn, which I just finished and returned (Lots of thoughts on that one and how it connects to other books I've read recently.  Look out for some thoughts later), and three more used books that ought to arrive today or tomorrow. 

Man,  I love summer!  And I got to do my morning pages (as recommended in The Artist's Way,  by Julia Cameron) while Chris got the kids dressed.

More to come,  my friends.  So much mental energy, so many ideas!  Oh snap!  There were two others on the table right beside me that I totally missed:

 

When we are considering whether or not it would be more prudent to take the rest of the year for maternity leave vs. just the first 12 weeks, one of the secret things I've been considering but not wanting to say aloud is that staying home will allow me to do so much freakin' reading!  That's a pretty awesome prospect.  Maternity leave gives a girl so much time-- I mean, yeah, you're exhausted and struggling and always meeting the needs of 1, 2, 3, or 4 little people.  But there are naps and evenings and all that time spent nursing each day.  And this time I WON'T BE IN GRADUATE SCHOOL!!!!  That's insanely appealing.  I keep forgetting how crazy it is to balance coursework with newborns and how much more pleasant leave with Jones was vs. Nora or Em because of that.  And Chris was still in school during Jones' leave, so there was still all that balancing to do.  This time, nobody is going to be in school and at work and raising babies!  How liberating.  And holy heck, there is so much to read!  My brain is happy.

In My Element

The reality of being on Christmas break did not set in until this morning when no alarms went off, unless you count children.  Then I got to indulge in finishing Carter Beats the Devil -- between staying up stupid late to read, reading this morning over breakfast, and reading after lunch while the kids were sleeping.  Holy heck that is a fine book indeed!  I can't decide if I like that better than Kavalier and Clay.  This one wraps up more cleanly and enjoyably, but I like the very real painfulness of K and C because it feels authentic and like you can't breathe right for the last fifty or hundred pages of it.  There are more haunting images in K and C, but... well, I liked them both a lot and want to recommend them to people, but it takes the right kind of person to appreciate them, so I will be judicious with those recommendations.  Now what to read next?!?!?? 

Oh, and I left breakfast and reading because, in the process of cutting an apple this morning, I had three good ideas at once and had to write them all down or I'd lose them.  Caught two of the three, which is pretty good.  

And we ran errands and bought food to share with guests today!  And then two families with two kids each came over and played all afternoon!  We had a lovely tea party with fancy tea cups and saucers.  And it was so great to say, "Hey, just stay for dinner!  It's no problem!" and throw something good and healthy together and eat at the table and use the festive paper plates I bought and didn't use yesterday. 

Speaking of yesterday... I might have to murder this cat if she doesn't stop sneezing on me and lying on the keyboard... anyway, yesterday, we hosted three couples for dinner and busted out the good dishes.  .  I made breads (Jones was very excited and kept asking for more "home made bread" very clearly).  We averted a meat disaster successfully.  They liked dessert.  There was so much laughter and banter and goodness.  I liked watching the empty bottles collect on the table and the people sit back and stretch their full bellies.  

It was lovely to have the house filled with company two days in a row, to feed everyone and bring tea around, to hold other people's kids and smell new babies.  And more visiting tomorrow morning, which will probably bleed into feeding everyone lunch, which is beautiful.  

And tomorrow morning I'll probably make that baked oatmeal, but tweak up that recipe and ooooh whip up a caramelized pear sauce to top it off.  Yes!  With that good Greek yogurt from Mustard Seed.  Who am I kidding?  I fully enjoy prepping all this food and then I eat three bites and feel like I'm going to explode.  Ya'll are going to have to come over and get fat or this is all going to to go waste.  

My brain is so unrestrained and undisciplined today.  I'm just allowing it to roam in all it's hyperactivity.  Probably also part of why I feel so in my element-- because I'm up to my elbows in fifteen different ideas and actions at any given moment today.  

AND today was bright happy sun and warmth outside (relative warmth for Clevecember), so we went out and chalked before lunch!  

And after everyone left and the dishes and children were clean, Emilia and I drew and I made my best Elsa yet and Emilia made her best Anna (with crazy hair because she was jumping on her bed, in case you can't tell)

A night scene where fairies and princesses played on the stars and snowflakes, my happy Christmas message, part of a table setting, which doesn't capture the beauty of the whole table, but I mainly just want to remember that using the wrapping paper as a table runner was a fine idea.

And this is just one day.  The first day.  And there are many more days of break to come, so more naps, more creativity, wrapping presents!!!!!! and visiting and fifteen kinds of other good times.  There is so much writing and studying I want to do, too.  Oh my peas, life is full of joys.

Carter Beats the Devil

"Parts of him were built to be awake before dawn and yearning  to be both absolutely still and everywhere everywhere at once."  140