Coming To You...

from the library!

It seems the "network port" on my computer is on the fritz....an $11 part that is going to keep me incommunicado for who knows how long.

I'll miss you!

Merry Christmas to All--

One year in my late twenties, tired of pretending to be happy around relatives who had no use for me, I begged off, protesting I had too much work to do for school. The excuse was true--given it was an 8 hour drive each way without holiday traffic and I was behind on a slew of projects. But, I wasn't a practising Christian then, (I'm barely one now, but I'm trying) so the holiday, as such, meant nothing to me. I wanted to find out what I really thought of the "tradition" --was it just crass materialism and consumerism writ large on a canvass of hypocrisy or did it have some meaning for me I was too blind to see?

So, I stayed home. I worked round the clock and loved every minute of it. I decided to go for a nice long walk on Christmas day. I was surprised I felt lonely and left out. Then, like a gift, I saw two cardinals flitting about in some trees. They were so beautiful. The red was so intense against the green foliage and white snow, I cried. I decided Christmas did have meaning for me--it was a time, at least, to be with those who knew my name, even if I was the black sheep among them.

Christmas has had meaning for me ever since and the joy has gradually and steadily returned, even during these annually dark, hectic weeks.

It's been wonderful getting to know all of you. I hope you have a meaningful and joyous Christmas, whatever you do and whomever you are with.

A New Throne

Yes!
The new toilet is installed. It's actually cute, in a totally porcelain way. (Item may not be exactly as shown)
I told the husband it HAD to be done by Christmas Eve--that's when my very pregnant half-sister is coming for dinner. (How pregnant? Her due date was the 21st). I really didn't want her to have to climb our stairs.
Now, we just need a seat!

Heliotropism or Turning Towards Daylight: Resolution #2.

We aren't quite as far north as Moscow, but we're still north of Amsterdam, Berlin and Birmingham. For those of us who live in the Northern Latitudes, the winter solstice (which was around midnight Friday) marks the turning point towards longer days. This is good--even though the rate of increase is only about a minute a day.

The last month has been difficult. It always is. As is usually the next. Our internal biological clocks run askew until our circadian rhythm has no rhythm at all but lurches and bumps along until one no longer knows when to be asleep or when to be awake. Pulling all-nighters and cat-napping become the norm, if somewhat unsettling. For one does need to interact with the schedules of the outside world, even though the shortest day is only 7 1/2 hours.

Not having any morning commitments outside the house only aggravates the situation. There are no external cues to coerce compliance. My husband, who must be out of the house by seven a.m. (and six on Saturdays) finds himself dragging at this time of year, his sleep compressed to a few hours a night as the children and I don't settle until the wee hours. I wish I was exaggerating.

The week before last we were all up until 2 or 3 am. That's when I decided that this week, from Monday to Friday, we would get up with the husband and drive him to work. (We became a one car family in September.) But then, exhausted, we would come home and sleep until noon. After four days, it was possible to stay awake on the fifth (though my son did climb back into bed for an hour). But things are not yet back to anything like normal. We slept in 'til 10am this morning. (And the puppy waited patiently. I was so impressed. He was in the house for about 12 hours without an accident.)

Until last week, I had no hope. I had thought our biological clocks ran on a 25 hour cycle, which meant that we would always be fighting our natural inclination to successively sleep and wake an hour later every day. My son has always had tremendous difficulties with sleeping on a consistent schedule....and I thought it only natural.

But I had out-of-date information. Apparently our biological clocks do re-set every 24 hours. And the best way to wind up the clock, it seems, it to expose oneself to a boost of sunlight in the early afternoon, every day. The light affects the regulation and production of melatonin, which, as we all know, is essential for sleep. Insulin levels also play a role, so switching our diet over to more low glycemic foods will also help.

So, creativity resolution #2 is this: We will get outside every afternoon, rain or shine. It doesn't sound like much, and I'm not sure I'm going to report it everyday. I'm not even sure how long we'll go out for, nor do I know when I'm going to implement it.

Today I had my son take the dog out until the dog wanted to come in (it was only minus 11 C, so it seemed reasonable). Tomorrow, I think we should all go. It's a bit of a challenge with the husband, though. He likes to go for Walks--at least an hour or so, and I just don't have the time or inclination for that. But a tour around the block might give us all a good night's sleep.

Keep your fingers crossed for us.
(image from here)

Phase One: Complete

January to December, in order.
I don't think there's any way in h*ll Staples can have the calendars done by Monday, but we can try.

Never Say Never

We have a dog.
I'm not sure how it happened.
The night before last I was looking things up on the 'net.
Last night I made a few calls.
Today at noon, I was rushing madly to my mom's for a "meeting" with a dog and its owner.
Tonight, I am forcing my lethargic son outside in -25(C) so the dog can do his business.
But that's why we got the dog. To get the boy off the couch.

In good news, the family helped me blitz clean and "puppy-proof" when we came home. There were still the contents of the medicine cabinet on the floor outside the bathroom, and other detritus that accumulates when you are deep inside a must-be-done-now-sacrifice-everything project. So, the house is halfway decent. Bonus.

Oh, for those dying to know, his name is "Stomper," he's almost 4 months old, and he's pure bred underdog. That's what the boy wanted.

Creativity Resolution #1

No surprise to any of you--I'm getting back to scrapping.
Actually, I already have. I've been working on "calendar" pages as a Christmas present for my Mom for the last 48 hours--pretty much straight through. This is not my preferred method....but it's working, sort of.

What I do is purchase a pre-made calendar and take one picture from that month (so January 08 has a picture from January 07), find a quote, do up the page and attach them to one side--just like those you get in the mail. So far, so good, you'd think. Christmas is days away. But the catch is, I take the scrapbook pages to Staples and have them "make" calendars for two other relatives and mail those. My Mom gets the originals--after Staples is finished with them and I've attached them. You see the problem? If this were November 19th I'd be in great shape. I usually work in a 6x6 format (with photos at 4x6 its ridiculously quick) but I couldn't find any 6x6 calendars this year, so I had to use 8x8. There's lots of 2" dead space at the top of these pages I just didn't have the time to deal with creatively.

OK, enough about that--I hope it made sense. I'm so exhausted I can't tell whether I'm making sense or not!

The resolution: Make one double page layout per month about that month. That way, I'll have a "Year in Review" album done this time next year. I was actually thinking about this last week. Today, my favourite scrapping magazine came in the mail--and it had this very concept as one of its articles. Of course, I can't put my hands on it at the moment.

But here's the deal. By the 15th of the following month, I will have the previous month's page spread completed. That will give me lots of time to get the pictures out of the camera and developed and write something up. The format will be two 8.5 x 11 pages per month. If you can stand it, I'll scan them in and post them when done.

This is the first of the calendar pages completed. It's even the first one of the year: January. (And it looks crooked. Probably is. Ack.)