No technology today, either

I didn't have time or motivation to fight computer and camera today, so instead you get a look at a different part of my mind.

I am fascinated with what people read. I think it says a lot about their personalities and interests. I could be completely wrong, of course, but it's a theory I'm going with for the time being. Thus, with no further ado, here is a list of of books on my mind right now:

Books I have checked out from the library:

• The Last Lecture (for the Milne book club - haven't started it yet)
• The History of Japan (because I'm out of school and it feels weird not to be reading something educational, and Lizzy suggested October be "Japan Month."
• The Writer's Path (because I have a fantasy about writing a novel, but figured it might be like working out; start in small increments before heading off for the marathon)

Books I have on hold at the library:

• 10 Books Every Conservative Must Read: Plus Four Not to Miss and One Imposter (does it count if I just read about them?)
• Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow (variation on East of the Sun, West of the Moon)
• The Black Pearl
• Princess of Glass (variation on Cinderella)
• Princess of the Midnight Ball (variation on 12 dancing princesses)
• Troubled Waters
• (and 4 different books on meditation - because I am an American to my core, and I want to be able to achieve a deep meditative state, but I want to do it quickly, and I don't want it to be hard)

Books I've told goodreads I'm "currently reading:"

• The 10 Big Lies about America: Combating Destructive Distortions about our Nation's Past and Present (started it four years ago, still on page 67)
• Life of Pi (page 18)
• Silas Marner
• To Have and To Hold: A Personal Handbook for Building a Strong Marriage and Preventing Affairs (should I be worried that this was a gift from my father-in-law?)

Books I am actually reading:

• Silas Marner (slowly but surely)
• Lust and other things to do with your spare hormones. (Comic strip collection; no need to call my bishop)

So, there you have it. I'll let you decide what it actually says about me.

On a completely different front:

Today I saw my cousin Nathan get married. We (Nathan and I) aren't particularly close, but I love his sisters and his mother like crazy, and seeing them was awesome. I wish we'd had more time.

I checked my kids out of school for the family wedding luncheon. This was a mixed success.

Win: They weren't expecting it, so getting out early was a major treat.

Loss: The food was definitely for grownups (including grownups more adult than I), so they didn't eat much.

Win: My kids love my cousins as much as I do, and were excited to see them.

Loss: My cousins were (imagine) drafted for luncheon duty by their mother and were hardly to be seen.

Loss: My kids didn't eat much and ran around to drive off the boredom.

Win: They did it outside the church, so I wasn't embarrassed by a 15, 11 and 10 year old running around like mad people.

Still, I'd do it again, given the chance, and pick up Wendy's for them either on the way out or on the way back.

Better luck next time

Today was going to be a beautiful blog; I was going to show you some beautiful hand knit socks, including a pair that is now in sock hospice. I was going to show you a Work in Progress (WIP), and a project to come. It would have been lovely. You'd have been impressed and inspired, I'm sure.



But the technology stars just weren't in alignment for me today.



First: I took pictures of a lot of things, including kids, and then realized that I'd left the SD card in the computer. So I'd taken the pics, put everything away, and then realized that I didn't have a convenient way to put them onto the computer.



Second: I decided that taking the pictures with the SD card in the camera would be easier than figuring out how to transfer them from the camera to the computer without the SD card. So I pulled the card from the computer, put it in the camera, set the props up again, snapped photos, and sat down to transfer the pictures from SD to computer.



Third: The computer won't recognize my SD card. Don't know why (it did yesterday), it just won't. There's a little yellow slidey thing on the side. Remember how you could protect a floppy disc from being overwritten by sliding the thing? I think it's the same concept. I have no idea which way is protected. I tried it both ways (which way is up? which way is down?) and my computer still won't even recognize that there is anything in the drive.



Fourth: I took the path I'd been trying to avoid all the way along: transferring the photos directly from camera to computer. Spent a few minutes looking for any cord before realizing that the cord port in my camera is unusually small and requires its own cord (naturally). Then I focused my search on the cord, foolishly searching in the places that I had already looked before finding the camera box under a stack of rubbish on the desk. Lo, there was box, there was cord. Brought camera, cord, and computer all together, plugged it in, and waited for it to happen: the magical transfer of images of loveliness from camera to computer.



Fifth: The computer still doesn't recognize the camera. If I were the yarn harlot, I'd say it was obviously beer o'clock and time to move on to something else. Sadly, as much as I love the Harlot's writing, I'm not going to start drinking beer just because I can't beat some technology demons.



So, instead of a lovely column with pictures of knit elegance, you have my mild whining about how technology has it in for me today.

I am an artist

Some people draw. Some paint. Some sculpt. Others sing or dance. I don't do these things. My pictures are flat and uninspiring; I can only paint smiley faces. I've never tried sculpting. I like to sing, but don't do it well, and I'm much too large and awkward to dance.

I work with fiber.

Here are some of the tools of my trade:

I have two spinning wheels, my Ashford Joy and my Schacht upright. (There is blue cotton being spun on the joy)

Left is my ball winder, and right is the swift, which holds skeins so that I can make my balls. These two wonderful inventions eliminate the need for hijacking family members to hold skeins.

These are my double point knitting needles. They are great for knitting tubes, as when doing hats or socks. I have them in plastic (which frankly is just wrong on so many levels, but a friend found them at a second hand store in bulk, gave them to me, and you can never tell when I'll finally be organized enough to carry yarn and needles to convert an unsuspecting populace), metal (which I like best), and wood, which are best in group situations in which the slight click would be irritating (if you can imagine such a thing. I can't, but I can respect that others aren't as infatuated with knitting as I am).

This is the most important part of my art: yarn. Yarn that I have spun myself (which often ends up staying as skeins), yarn that I have bought for myself because I haven't had time to spin, yarn to have solely to have.

These skeins are all handspun. The top skein is a blend of cashmere and silk; the second skein is silk only; the bottom two are wool. I dyed the yellow yarn and bought fiber to spin the dark green wool.

These are all purchased. The cotton candy yarn on the left turned out to be a disappointment (if I can find the socks, I'll explain why), and other yarns will be featured in future articles (I know, you just can't wait).

Another time (tomorrow probably) I'll show what I can do with the tools of my art.

I'm baack!

Some important updates. Since I have last written:

I have graduated from the University of Utah College of Nursing with a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing, Cum Laude.

I have passed my licensing exam, making me officially a Registered Nurse.

The nursing job market has tightened up considerably. I went into nursing (in part) because it was supposed to be a "guaranteed job," and the darn recession has hit nursing as well. I've applied to 15 jobs, and have received 3 "No, thank you"s and several applications appear to have been reviewed and not deemed even worthy of official notice of rejection. (Not that I am bitter, no; I don't do bitter. Just don't ask me about discouraged.)

During school, my husband informed me that we no longer share religious beliefs, and he wasn't going to church with his family any more. (I've revisited that sentence several times, and that is about the best way that I can write it.)

After school, my sweet mother-in-law, who's husband did the same to her, passed away. I wish I'd had a chance to talk to her about how she survived it for so many years.

I am more grateful than I can say for my own testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The last 7 months have been a time of spiritual reinforcement unprecidented for me. I feel the love and goodness of God as I never have before.

The Spirit of Elijah

Today I went to the temple with Honey to do some temple work. One of the workers had the surname "Stromberg." Stromberg is my maternal grandmother's maiden name.

I asked the woman if she knew the first Stromberg in her husband's line to enter the country; she replied "Karl Johan." So, small world of small worlds: her husband's grandfather (Golden Alvin) is my grandmother's father. (As I look in my family history, it occurs to me that it wasn't likely to be her husband's grandfather; I wonder if she is a closer relation than I thought?!)

I was just struck by the coincidence. There are abundant descendants, scattered hither and yon, and two meet at 9:30 in the Oquirrh Mountain temple on a Thursday morning.

The spirit of Elijah made this possible. If it weren't for it, I wouldn't have known/cared about my grandmother's maiden name, and those who came before them. I wonder how many other family members I pass, all unknowing?

Happy New Year

It is always so reassuring that the New Year comes without me staying up to watch it happen. Being a morning person, I don't often get to/want to watch the old night tick over to the new day, and I don't really change that policy just because there is a giant party going on.

Some goals and hopes for the New Year:

1) To better represent my faith in the world
2) To better live my faith at home in and in private
3) To pass the NCLEX the first time I take it
4) To find gainful employment as an RN
5) To lose 25 pounds (is any list complete without a weight goal?)
6) To take my kids on more adventures that don't come with joy stick
7) To remember and acknowledge family birthdays

Hopes:
1) That my country will survive the current attempts to save it
2) That I will be courteous, no matter the conduct of others
3) That more people will desire self-reliance and liberty than assistance and bondage
4) That I will be able to help someone else in a meaningful way, and not do it for praise of the world - or even that person
5) That all will be well for the people I love, and that that list might get longer.

Happy New Year to you all!

Two Things

Why do kids always think that you have never been a kid? Why do they imagine that I can't figure out what they are thinking? (Okay, sometimes I really can't; but still!).

All of my kids play musical instruments. Addie plays the violin, Jake plays the trumpet, and Tom and Lizzie play the piano. The older two labor under unfair history. Let me back up.

Back in the days that we did home school, Addie and Jake took piano lessons. They were 7 and 6. Oops, I need to back up more.

Both Honey and I have musical backgrounds. My parents required their kids to learn a muscial instrument (two, actually; three all told). They had played, and they felt that we would benefit if we learned. We started with piano and something else, gradually dropped the piano and took the something else and, in junior high, changed it to still another instrument. We took lessons, we had to practice, we played in bands, we had family concerts.

Honey's family isn't musical at all. The only thing they play is the stereo. When Honey was in middle school, he started playing the sax. He'd practice in the afternoon and his older brother would complain that it was too loud while he was napping. Honey was told to be considerate and knock it off (that would never have flown in my house growing up. The whiner would have been told to suck it up. Actual practice happened so rarely that my parents would never have banned it). In defense, he changed to the electric guitar. If there is no amp, there is no volume.

Fast forward a bunch of years: I remember my instrument days with fondness. When I hear songs we played, I am magically transported to those years; I remember those friends, I remember those crushes, I remember weighing significantly less than I do now. It's magical. And. I never play. I have an oboe that is collecting dust, and a piano that I use to torture Tom and Liz. Honey plays almost daily. It is his default setting. When he isn't required to do something else, he is playing. He has a musical harem: guitars (electric and acoustic), bass, banjos, mandolin, and dobro. His heritage is playing for fun, mine is playing with discipline.

Now, back to younger Addie and Jake. They are doing piano. They hate it because I make them practice and take lessons and repeat bits that they don't play correctly. Every day is a trial, for them and for me, as we stride onto the battle field and choose our weapons. Everyday is a trial for Honey, as he has to listen to the battle. When it finally became clear that I was the only one who cared, we dropped it. Well, the music. I kept hold of a pretty good bundle of righteous resentment.

Forward some more: homeschool is over and Addie is in 5th Grade. She comes home and begs to be able to play the violin. Honey is all for it, and the seething pools of resentment that have been silent erupt in me. If there is going to be music, then there will be no whining about: practicing, lessons, band participation, etc etc. Terms accepted and agreed. Ditto when Jake entered fifth grade the next year and begged to play the trumpet.

At last, we arrive to now. Addie still loves her violin. She plays with joy and diligence, all is well.

Jake, on the other hand. He knows an easy A when he sees one (he thinks). So even though he doesn't want to practice, even though he doesn't want to listen to his teacher (who is teaching him so much more than just the trumpet, if Jake only had ears to hear), he refuses to quit because he doesn't want to yield that easy A.

I'm not dumb. I've been in band. I've been resentful about it. I'm not my parents. I won't compel it if it isn't wanted. But he has to tell me. I've asked: "aren't you tired? do you want to continue?" and his lips speak "yes" and then play "not so much."

And it all came to a head tonight. I got home from choir practice, and he should have practiced his trumpet, and hadn't. When I called him on it, I snapped.

"Jake, it's time to tell the truth. Tell me, to my face, that you want to stay in band because it's an easy A."

(Eyes shifting side to side) "Kind of."

"See? I've been thirteen! So: two choices: tell me, to my face, and I'll call the school and get your schedule changed. Or, suck it up one more year, follow my rules, and quit at the end of the school year. Cuz, son, I gotta tell ya, my job is to make sure that 'easy A' isn't worth the work!"

As of this moment (until the next time) we have come to an agreement that includes continuing until the end of the school year. I think I'd better get it in writing, though, with consequences for contract violation included.


Second thing: Tuesday September 8 is National Obama Day in the elementary schools. There will be a broadcast to the elementary schools from the white house; teachers have a packet prepared for them from the NEA, all about what teachers can do before and after the speech. These things include asking the kids what they can do to fulfill what Obama has asked of them. (Pretty vague language, addmittedly). Check it out: top of the page at www.ed.gov.

I'm keeping my kids home from school. It isn't anti-liberal (or not solely so); I'd have done the same if President Bush or President McCain had tried such a stunt. Thought you should know; the school claims that they are sending home a note about it, but that's all they are saying, and I haven't seen it yet.