suziebeezieland

paula

A few days ago when I was urging you to get involved in a local God-glorifying, gospel-believing church if you aren't already, one of the things I forgot to tell you about church, is that church can break your heart. 

My church lost a very dear friend yesterday.  Paula was hospitable and funny and talented and wise, and she loved her family (so do we), and she loved her friends. She loved visiting suziebeezieland, and enjoyed all you creative ladies. For Paula, people were where it was at. When she talked to you, she looked at your face and used your name, and when she asked you a question, she listened to the answer.

Most of all, Paula loved God.  She was vulnerable about her own struggles in life because she knew this glorified God's grace and work in her life. (One of the many things she said that has stuck with me for a long time was on the subject of why she was active in Moms in Touch. She said, "I know my own limitations as a parent, and I need as many Godly women as possible praying for my kids.")

If you met Paula at the bus stop, or in the vegetable section of the grocery store, or at the hairdressers, or anywhere, she probably told you about Jesus, and then invited you over for tea and knitting, and made you a friend. And she would sew or knit you neat things. And she would pray for you, all the time, even though she was the one who was so very ill for so long. 

Scotty Smith recently posted A Prayer About Friends Finishing Well in the Gospel (excerpted below in italics), which I have thought about this week as I've prayed for Paula in the hospital, and now as I mourn her death. 

Paula finished well in the Gospel. She did not allow her disappointments, pain, and the harsh difficulties in her life to knock her off the path. She used these things to testify to God's lovingkindness and goodness.

And so even though church can break your heart, we wouldn't want it any other way. We rejoice in being part of this body of Christ, where such love is even possible:

I’m so very grateful for the friends you’ve woven into my life. Being an introvert, the journey of investing my heart in long term relationships has required, and still requires the work of the gospel in my heart—a grace work you’ve been faithful to provide.

I’ve already gripped the handle of a couple of friend’s caskets and [my friends will] do the same for me one day. More than ever, I want us to finish well together in the gospel. What does that look like and what will it require, Jesus?

My temptation is to treat my easiest friendships like a broken-in pair of Birkenstocks—I just enjoy these relationships without much thought or effort. It’s a great gift to have a few friends who can finish each other’s sentences, endure one another’s jokes, appreciate each other’s quirks and accept one another’s weaknesses. Surely, this is a gospel-gift.

Yet, Jesus, we’re still foolish [people]—capable of acting out in very destructive ways, prone to wander, easy targets for temptation. Sin is exceedingly deceitful. With all of my heart, I believe in the “final perseverance of the saints,” but I equally believe that it’s the saints who will finally persevere. Your Word is very clear—continuance in the gospel is a sign of being rooted in the gospel. That doesn’t scare me, but it does humble me.

Help us know how to hold each other accountable for believing the gospel. Help us to take each other’s heart-struggles seriously. Don’t let us confuse flattery with encouragement. Help us never to minimize nor marginalize the hardening power of sin. Help us know how to preach the gospel to our own hearts daily and to each all the time, until Today gives way to the Day. 

So very Amen, I pray, in your all glorious name.

masterpiece theatre spring schedule

Here is the remainder of the Masterpiece Theatre Classic Season (on PBS) for 2011. If you click on it, you can see it in its original size. (You know, for those of us in our forties and up who are grabbing for our reading glasses an awful lot lately. Ha.)

ps I saw this The 39 Steps when it first aired, and I quite liked it. :) I didn't like that horrid version of Persuasion that Rupert Penry Jones was in one bit, but I liked this a lot.

the winner!

 

The winner of our drawing for the book The Organized Heart: A Woman's Guide to Conquering Chaos is our Valeria! Congratulations, Valeria.

That's pretty funny, because Valeria lives down the street from me. :)

(If you are trying to figure out how the drawing worked, there were fifteen women who entered to win. Your number is based on which comment you were, after removing my own comments! Then I had Random.org generate one number from 1 to 15.)

We'll have more book drawings later. Hooray!

mommy's nose is scary

roast beef sandwich

Here is a roast beef sandwich I like to make for special, like when somebody I love comes over for lunch. I got this from my sister, who is a delicious sandwich maker. So is my mom.

Here is what you'll need:

• bread (I use San Francisco International Sheepherder's Sliced Bread, and pull the longest slices out of the middle. It's a round loaf. Sweet Hawaiian is good for this, too.)
• thinly sliced lean roast beef
• a red onion
• leaf lettuce or romaine
• Laughing Cow Spreadable Cheese Wedges (I use Light Garlic + Herb)

Spread one cheese wedge over two pieces of bread, then layer with roast beef (lots), one big lettuce leaf, and a few thin rings of red onion. If you don't like red onion you could use tomato, but red onion gives it some zing. :)

I like to serve this with the deli broccoli salad from our local Ralph's, which is really good. And a few Kettle Brand Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper Chips. (I eat chips rarely these days.*)

If you used whole wheat bread and served it with fruit, instead, it would be pretty healthy. :)

*I've lost 16 pounds so far, since January 31, if you're keeping track. :D I still can't tell by looking at me, but I've gone down a size, which has been exciting. I may have also lost a chin or two. I'm not sure. :) I have a lot to go, but so far, so good. An also-losing-weight friend at church passed on some pretty clothes to me in my new size (she's now smaller, hooray) and that has been fun. It's nice not to spend money on a size which I hope to pass through in a couple months. I hope this info is encouraging to any of you also losing weight, or wanting to. You can do it! Hooray! :)

"s" to the "i" to the "m" to the "p"

If there is one thing the three of us here can always agree on, it's that we love Phineas and Ferb.

We also love their music.

We also love singing to their music, lip-synching to their music, and dancing to their music.

Yes. All three of us love this. ("Forty-five seconds of pure genius," Bob says of Backyard Beach.)

In no particular order, here are ten of our very favorite Phineas and Ferb songs. (Except for "Izzy's Got the Frizzies," they, plus sixteen more songs, are all available on the Phineas and Ferb Soundtrack.)

knit your own royal wedding

"With a cast of characters including the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Camilla, Price Harry, the Archbishop of Canterbury, a variety of wedding guests plus, of course, the happy couple themselves - and even a corgi - this is one wedding souvenir that will be a must-have for any keen crafter."

Thanks, our Michele V., for sending this! :) Look at those corgis ...

spring cleaning

Yay to our Kristina over at Two Happy Mamas Blog Design Studio, who made the pretty new banner and sidebar titles and cute little green frame with the birdie "happy art" for the sidebar.

She is so, so nice to work with.

Thank you, Kristina. :) You knew exactly what I wanted. How did you do that?

"the organized heart" drawing,+ our struggles with perfectionism, busyness, possessions,+ leisure

How many of us, two weeks ago, could have foreseen the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and the resulting problems with the Fukushima reactors? Or the violence in Libya, Syria, Bahrain, and Yemen? If you have even glanced at a news source lately, you may have come away with a sense that the whole world is falling apart around us. 

Decorating, organizing, and recipe blog posts can seem pretty weak-sauce -- not to mention insensitive -- in the midst of such grief and chaos. Are you really going to complain that your closet is too small for all your shoes and that your spice cabinet is a mess when people are watching their homes and loved ones swept away?

But the thing is, those have NEVER been topics to build a life on. Even on "quiet" news days, our hearts weren't designed to grow and thrive on a diet of materialism.

Creative and joyful homekeeping and crafting is a great blessing, and a delight for women to share with each other, but it has never been the main thing, and it has never been enough, for anyone, anywhere.

We are spiritual creatures, made to worship a living God. 

Isaiah 46:5-7 gives some sharp, almost sarcastic imagery of people worshipping idols instead of God:

To whom will you liken me and make me equal,
and compare me, that we may be alike? 
Those who lavish gold from the purse,
and weigh out silver in the scales,
hire a goldsmith,
and he makes it into a god;
then they fall down and worship! 
They lift it to their shoulders,
they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there;
it cannot move from its place.
If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble. 
(Isaiah 46:5-7 ESV)

Then they fall down and worship! They create a god themselves, and then they fall down and worship it. How dumb it is to worship created things rather than the creator Himself. Will our etsy purchases answer us or save us from our troubles? Will our foolproof organizational methods come to our rescue when our house floats out to sea? Will our super duper recipes nourish us when we have lost our loved ones?

No, they will not.

But although I know this to be true, I find my heart having idols big and small all the time. I make things that God never intended to be ultimate, ultimate.

Imagine my surprise this week when I read a review for a new book about organization that treats disorganization not as a problem requiring a new system in place, but rather as a problem of idolatry. Yep. You read that right: disorganization as a heart issue, a sin issue, and an idol.

I downloaded The Organized Heart: A Woman's Guide to Conquering Chaos by Staci Eastin onto my Kindle as quickly as you can say "this idea sounds disconcerting but rings true and I must read more", and read the whole book in a couple hours. I found the author to be very transparent about her own struggle with organization, winsome in her writing style, and solid in her knowledge of God.

It kind of smacked me in the head. I know I am frequently talking about books just "smacking me in the head", but honestly, that is often the reaction I have to books (or friends) that speak Biblical truth to me in a new way. I kind of get knocked over. It's because I tend to make everything a lot more complicated than it actually is, and when people cut to the chase and say, here's the problem and here's the solution, kablooey, just like that, it always flabbergasts me.

(I am pretty sure that's the first time I've used the word "flabbergasts" in suziebeezieland. I was so embarrassed by that word when I was a little girl, because it sounded like a mixture of "flubber" and "blabber" and "gas". I totally remember the first time I ever learned it, too. We had those Sally, Dick and Jane readers in school, and Sally was doing a handstand, and Father was flabbergasted that she knew how to do one.)

I've been so unhappy lately about my busy schedule and my time management (lately = forever), and actually, my disorganized head has been a grievance to me my whole long life. And this book was extremely convicting, and very good.

The author says,

This book will be different than any other book on organization that you've probably read. I have no schedule to offer you, I won't tell you what day to mop the kitchen floor, and you don't need to buy a timer. Your standards for an organized home and a reasonable schedule will vary with your personality, season of life, and the needs and preferences of your family.

What I hope to do is to help you examine your heart and discover things that may be hindering your walk with God. My goal is not necessarily for you to have a cleaner home or a more manageable schedule -- although I certainly hope that is the case. Rather, my hope for this book is that it will help you serve God and your family more effectively, more fruitfully, and with greater peace and joy.

As I read it, I felt like the author had been spying on my own life:

The disorganization in my life was not due to lack of knowledge or skill and it was not due to a problem in my childhood. Rather, it's a broken belief system: a heart issue, a sin issue. At the end of the day, it's idolatry.

That may sound awfully harsh. You want this book to help you organize your life, not lay more guilt and shame at your feet. Being disorganized may be unhandy, but it's just your personality, right? It's certainly not a sin. 

Or is it? Disorganization steals your joy. It causes you to go through your life frazzled and stressed. It causes friction with your husband and makes you snap at your children. It makes you perform ministry tasks grudgingly. It prevents you from developing friendships, because you're always rushing from one task to the next. You don't feel like you're doing anything well, let alone to the glory of God.

Hey, how did she know? And I am willing to bet money that if this sounds to me a whole lot like me, it sounds to at least one of you a whole lot like you.

If you would like to win a copy of The Organized Heart: A Woman's Guide to Conquering Chaos by Staci Eastin, please sign up here in comments by midnight Pacific Daylight Time on Tuesday, March 22. I'll announce the winner next week, and the book will ship to you direct from Amazon.com.

Here is the official Amazon description of the book, which is from Cruciform Press:

Disorganized? You don’t need more rules, the latest technique, or a new gadget. The fight against chaos is universal, whether it be the outward chaos of disorder and frenzy or the inward chaos of fear and self-criticism. Even if we already know how to do better, something falls apart between our good intentions and getting it done. Most books on organization just add more rules to your life, whether it be another plan, another calendar, or another method.

This book will show you a different, better way that is grounded in the grace of God. The Organized Heart focuses on four areas of common difficulty for women: Perfectionism, Busyness, Possessions, and Leisure.

Jesus taught that true change doesn’t come by the addition of more rules, but from the inside out, with a change of the heart that only the gospel can bring. When you identify the heart problems behind the chaos in your life, lasting change can happen. This will not only reduce the stress in your life, but help you be more effective in your service to God.

asian access matching gift pledge

Someone gave a $1,000,000 matching gift pledge to Asian Access for the Japan Tsunami Relief Fund I mentioned earlier this week. Here's what the Asian Access website says about it:

Asian Access received a $1,000,000 matching gift pledge to help meet the spiritual and physical needs of those who have been impacted by the devastating earthquakes and tsunami last week. This gift and the funds given to match the pledge will help us achieve our mission for Asian Access/Japan "to unite the church" and "extend the transforming power of the gospel."

Asian Access is working with our vast network of churches across the country (400 pastors and 1800 churches - approximately 20-25% of the congregations in Japan) and with CRASH--a ministry of Grace Church which has grown into the largest Christian coordinating agency--to help meet the spiritual and physical needs of several communities across the nation.

We estimate there are nearly 300 churches in the tsunami-impacted areas and Asian Access has already launched a disaster response team for CRASH to set up a relief base in the affected areas. A few churches are already serving as shelters and are receiving those who have been left homeless.

Help us provide relief to the people of Japan by giving to this special matching pledge! Your gifts will double the impact of the relief efforts.

To give financially, mark your check "Japan Matching Grant" and send to Asian Access, PO Box 200, San Dimas, CA 91773 USA

My friend Tim has updated his blog a couple times since the earthquake and tsunami. He notes things we don't hear about on the news here in the U.S.

enjoy your shamrock shakes

war

You will not know what prayer is for
until you know that life is war.
One of the great obstacles to praying
is that life is just too routinely smooth for many of us.
The battlefront is way out there,
but here in my tiny bubble of peace and contentment all is well.
O may God open our eyes
to see and feel the needs around us
and the great potential of prayer.
(John Piper) 

south pasadena

Today my sister and a friend and I went to lunch in South Pasadena. We browsed in a store called Zinnia, where I've never been, and they had the neatest painted floor. And a shop cat! Claire and I have both always wanted a shop cat.

That whole area right there around where they have the South Pas Farmer's Market is so cute. Next time I'll bring my camera (I just had my phone today) and show you some of the neat houses. I've been meaning to do that for years. But not when I'm out with friends, because the photo taking gets kind of obnoxious then, I think. And I end up missing what we're doing, and missing out on enjoying each other because I'm too busy taking pictures.

It's weird how anti-social technology can be, or how wonderfully social, depending on how you use it.

Half the people at the grocery store are on the cell phone. I haven't seen anyone's face in a year or so at the grocery store. Just the tops of bent-over heads.

If you come to California, I'll take you to South Pas. :)

summer with matthew mead

Matthew Mead has another "bookazine" coming out soon for summer. Yay! It's available for preorder here. (It will only be available from his website, and you'll receive it in early May.)

how long, o lord

This past weekend, I downloaded onto my Kindle a book called How Long, O Lord: Reflections on Suffering and Evil by D.A. Carson, and have been reading it since. It was recommended to me by a few different friends, and because I have read other books by Carson and appreciated his wisdom, maturity, and scholarship, I quickly bought it.

It is a thorough book that does not flinch from examining some of the Bible's most difficult passages on evil and suffering. Carson focuses on Biblical truth and God's character.

It's not the type of book where you will sit and nod your head excitedly and rush to the end. It's the type of book where you'll read a little bit, have an initial reaction (sometimes negative), think about it all day, go to the Bible a few times and read the context of the verses, think about it again, pray, then go back and read some more. I wouldn't want less from a book on such a difficult topic.

Carson himself acknowledges that he is "not primarily addressing unbelievers who think the problem of evil and pain so intractable that it calls into question the very existence of God." (If you find this describes you, you might consider reading A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis, which is the book that inspired both versions of the movie Shadowlands.)

I recommend How Long, O Lord if you know Jesus, are committed to the truth of God's sovereignty (even as you struggle to understand it), believe in the infallibility of scripture, are committed to your own spiritual growth and maturity, and have a genuine desire to understand the presence of pain and evil and suffering in the world. 

my crazy puppy

This is Violet, on the sofa, asleep. She always starts on the top of the back cushions (where her back foot still is)(wait, maybe that's her tail), and then she kind of slides down, but stays asleep. I've seen her do this at a much steeper angle, almost straight down, like those ski jumpers in the winter Olympics.

I keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't slide right off the sofa, which she doesn't. Somehow.

It's a mystery to me how this is comfortable, but she swears by it.

a bit of gardening

In March here, it rains some (and sometimes storms), and the wind blows (and sometimes howls), and things get a good cleaning from this rain and this wind.

Our camellia trees in the backyard drop brown, dead flowers on the patio in March, and the wind blows more off as soon as I sweep them up. The grass is patchy and muddy, and the hydrangeas and the tree are twiggy and unfriendly looking.

But everything smells hopeful, and when the sky is not gray it is a very sky blue, with sheepy clouds that scuttle across like they're being herded somewhere. Everyone feels excited for spring. Some of the most beautiful days of the year here happen in March. I LOVE March!

I like to get out in March and start a bit of gardening. I don't do a whole lot yet, like in April, when I go bananas, but I do a little. I ignore it out there all winter, so first of all there is a lot of cleaning up to do.

I use bleach and water to scrub the algae off the patio, but first I write my name in the algae with the bleach. My bleach cursive gets better every year.

I cut dead flowers off the hydrangeas. Any time you talk to someone who knows about hydrangeas, they will very loudly tell you not to prune hydrangeas. That's because traditional hydrangeas bloom on old wood, and set their buds for the following spring almost immediately after they blossom in the summer. And hydrangea lovers are terrified that you are going to cut the baby buds off at the end of the summer, and then you won't have any flowers next spring. It makes them so anxious that they have to take a Tums and go lie down. But I'm telling you, you can cut the dead hydrangea flowers off. (I wait until spring instead of doing them at the end of summer, because even though they are ugly all winter, I like to see them turn red in the fall, and then after that it's usually rainy and gross and I'm reluctant to go out there and mess in the garden, because yuck.)

Just make sure you cut off only the dead flower itself and not even a centimeter of the stem underneath. You're not actually pruning the bushes. Just cutting off the dead flowers. Please don't tell the hydrangea police that I told you that you can do this. They don't trust you. But I do.

It is true that traditional hydrangeas don't need pruning. Those stems that look dead will get buds on them, so leave them alone. (All those new "Endless Summer" varieties, which bloom on new wood as well as old wood, are less fussy, because they'll set new buds even if you accidentally cut some off.)

I dump last year's soil out of any pots I was too lazy to dump soil out of in the fall. Those same pots are always the ones with slugs or black widows hiding under them, so I wear thick leather gloves and hold the pot by the top rim and run to the trashcan with the pot way out in front of my body, like it contains a bomb, just in case. Then I turn the pot over and yell "hee-yah!" and scrape anything I see into the can.

This year we have two big backyard projects: the pergola needs to be replaced, and we'd like to pave the ancient gray concrete using antique-looking brick facing, to match the sidewalks out front. This year, I also ordered new, scrollwork iron edging to go around the border beds. (I like the wicker edging we have used in years past, but it is no longer available at a reasonable price in the U.S., and has to be replaced every year because the sprinklers cause it to deteriorate.) 

I put down some compost and heavy brown bark mulch in the border beds.

And I plant some new, spring flowers in the pots, which is the fun part.

I don't do this all at once. I spread it out over the weekends in March. I have to be careful because I usually hurt myself, carrying too-heavy bags of soil and moving the bunny hutches around. Which I did again this past weekend, because I never learn. I redid my old back injury and knee injury, and now I'm stuck in bed with some meds for a few days. It's a garden out there. Be careful.

So our backyard is still a mess in March, but it's better than in the winter. My favorite thing about gardening is that while it is a means to an end, the process is a pleasure in itself (don't hurt yourself), so it's good that you don't make a garden all at once. I think it's more like a story than a recipe.

Do you see this small, fuzzy monster? She likes to eat my flowers. And she taught Hyacinth, our dear, trustworthy old dog, who has never done a naughty thing in her life, how to eat flowers.

Note, below, how the pot of yellow violas is intact.

And note, below, how the pot of yellow violas is no longer intact.

This is because while of course I did not let Violet the Flower Eater outside unsupervised, I allowed Hyacinth the Good Dog to be outside unsupervised for an hour, because I thought she might like some time alone, very patient dear, away from the crazy puppy.

And she ATE half my yellow violas! Hyacinth! And oh, was she ever ashamed when I came out. Her trustworthy Corgi ears went down and her old sweet head went down, and everything about her kind of went down in deep shame. She kept licking my ankle in apology. She is such a good dog.

Now when I let her out (and the two of them can only go out now under supervision), she makes a wide berth around the pots, very nimbly, on Corgi tiptoes, as if to show me how very sorry and very good she is.

Violet, who is incorrigible, just charges right up to the pots and starts to nibble until I run her off.

And of course Hugo the Bunny is also only allowed out under supervision in the spring, because he will eat everything.

It is hard work to have a garden, and you have to be very firm with all your pets, and try to override thousands of years of hardwiring in their DNA that tells them to nibble stuff.

Here is a little video of Violet who both loves and is scared of the hippity-hop. :) As you watch it, see if you can spot the bits where she gets distracted and stops to (1) nibble a flower and (2) check out the bunny hutch.

(ps I can't figure out why the music is cutting out abruptly before it's over. Sorry about that. I have given up trying to fix it.)

ellen's hawaii chair

Jennie S., you may have already seen this, but I wanted to show it to you in case you ever get bored with the elliptical machine. :)

this and that

1. Hey! Have you read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy yet, like I told you to? It has been awhile since I mentioned it. I may have also mentioned it here. And a few other times.

Because it's coming to the big screen at the end of this year, and you have to read the book first, so you can have opinions about the movie.

I just do not think I will be able to look myself in the mirror each morning if I do not officially go on record right now as saying that there is only one George Smiley, and that George Smiley is Sir Alec Guinness. That George Smiley is not Gary Oldman. And if they mess up my fourth favorite book of all time, I am going to be so disappointed, and am going to write an indignant letter. Probably just inside my head, because I rarely actually mail or even type my indignant letters, but still.

Here is one of John LeCarre's descriptions of George Smiley. You will read it, and many other wonderful things, if you read Tinker, Tailor. I leave it to your conscience to decide if Gary Oldman can pull this off. Your conscience should clearly be telling you, "No, no, he cannot. Only Sir Alec Guinness could bring that to life."

Unlike Jim Prideaux, Mr. George Smiley was not naturally equipped for hurrying in the rain, least of all at dead of night. Indeed, he might have been the final form for which Bill Roach was the prototype. Small, podgy, and at best middle-aged, he was by appearance one of London's meek who do not inherit the earth. His legs were short, his gait anything but agile, his dress costly, ill-fitting, and extremely wet. His overcoat, which had a hint of widowhood about it, was of that black loose weave which is designed to retain moisture. Either the sleeves were too long or his arms were too short, for, as with Roach, when he wore his mackintosh, the cuffs all but concealed the fingers. For reasons of vanity he wore no hat, believing rightly that hats made him ridiculous. "Like an egg-cosy," his beautiful wife had remarked not long before the last occasion on which she had left him, and her criticism, as so often, had endured. Therefore the rain had formed in fat, unbanishable drops on the thick lenses of his spectacles, forcing him alternately to lower or throw back his head as he scuttled along the pavement that skirted the blacked arcades of Victoria Station. He was proceeding west, to the sanctuary of Chelsea, where he lived.

For some unfathomable reason, the book is currently out of print in the U.S. I'm sure they'll release a new version when the movie comes out, with Gary on the cover, which is just ALL WRONG. So just go right over to Amazon right now and buy one of these or, better yet, this one or this one, used.

Or better yet, go to Amazon UK, where they still have it in print, and get this one. 

Then you will look respectable as you read. John LeCarre just donated his literary archive to Oxford. If you are there tomorrow, March 3 (lucky duck), which is World Book Day, you can go see some of it on view at the Bodleian. I would give my eye teeth to do that. :)

Here's a bit (the bit I just quoted) from one of his original drafts of Tinker, Tailor. I have this as my computer desktop right now, because it is inspiring. 

So let's review.

Sir Alec Guinness as George Smiley is yes:

Gary Oldman as George Smiley is no:

Although Gary Oldman as Sirius Black was brilliant:

I will apologize loudly and profusely if I turn out to be wrong about this. And I want to be wrong about it, because I want it to be the best movie I have ever seen. The UK is releasing this some time in the last quarter of 2011, so we shall see. 

2. I really hope they don't mess up my fourth favorite book.

3. I started doing Weight Watchers Online on January 31. I have lost ten pounds so far. I even lost a pound on vacation, which I didn't expect. I really like it. I have a very long way to go, but I will check back in with you about it from time to time. 

4. I had these exact same Nikes when I was in junior high. 

5. Violet still isn't potty-trained. It is making me crazy.

6. I bought a used iPod on eBay, and it hasn't blown up yet. And we have music again, after a long time without. I'm so happy about that.

I bought a used one because my last new one got fried, and then the free replacement for it also got fried, so for some reason Apple did not want to give me another free replacement. (Ha.) We think (but do not know) that there was a power surge through the dock that I put it on. I was listening to it (this was last summer) and there was a crackling noise, and poof. It was dead. And then the same thing happened to the replacement a week later.  I have things rearranged in different outlets now, and so far, so good. The new one is one of those cute little squatty light blue Nanos they used to make. Every day, I tell it I love it, so that it will not blow up.

7. I was reading about the Vikings in Scotland for something I'm working on, and this summary of a 13th century Viking travel guide made me laugh:

Scotland is full of dangerous natives who speak an incomprehensible language and the weather is awful. 

8. Did any of you enter to win the HGTV Dream House in Vermont this year? I keep forgetting to ask you that. :) They announce the winner in 17 days. Claire was telling me every single day to enter, because she saw the special about the house on HGTV on New Year's Day after the Rose Parade, and was in love with the dog house. :D That girl cracks me up. She is pretty sure we're going to win. I haven't had the heart to explain "odds" to her.

9. We are done with Girl Scout cookie sales, except that Claire is boothing this Friday. But after that, done. Phew.

10. Do any of you do Zumba? Do you like it? I have to find some exercise to do. I hate exercise. But Zumba looked kind of fun online. Maybe I could just sit here and watch people do it online. :D I wish that worked.