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Public Service Annoucement
The American Red Cross recommends a 72-hour supply of nonperishable food for each family member. By having a supply of food, you can reduce the stress of locating food during a disaster.
Got mine:
And it’s portable:
Warning
A few years ago, while driving through the Maryland countryside, I committed vehicular manslaughter rodentslaughter. Yes, I accidentally ran over a baby groundhog. As I felt the thump of its tiny body being crushed beneath the wheels of my SUV, I felt sorrow – grief even, at this senseless loss of life. A shadow was cast upon my heart.
This morning, when Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, my shadow was lifted. No more will I mourn the loss of that overgrown rat. And to all groundhogs everywhere, but most especially to Phil, I say: watch out when crossing the road.
Phil’s official forecast as read February 2nd, 2009 at sunrise at Gobbler’s Knob:
Hear Ye Hear Ye Hear Ye
On Gobbler’s Knob on this glorious Groundhog Day, February 2nd, 2010, Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of all Prognosticators awoke to the call of President Bill Deeley and greeted his handlers, John Griffiths and Ben Hughes.
After casting a joyful eye towards thousands of his faithful followers, Phil proclaimed, “If you want to know next, you must read my text. As the sky shines bright above me, my shadow I see beside me. So six more weeks of winter it will be.”
P.S. from Newt: Boo! I wish Phil was blind!
What I Did on My Summer Vacation: Potter-Style
Back in July, after ten months of reading aloud, GW, Harry Potter, and I reached the end of our journey. It was bittersweet, and there were some casualties.
I’m not talking about those unfortunate characters that fell victim to the Death Eaters. Oh no. Hermione fell from grace once she and Ron finally kissed. After months of pretending to be Hermione nearly everyday, GW declared that she would be her no more. In fact, she didn’t even want to be a Gryffindor. She declared herself a Ravenclaw and created a Luna Lovegood costume to wear to the Harry Potter 6 movie.
Last week, GW reconciled with her alter ego and Hermione returned to our lives.
I have to admit, I have missed her.
Savasana-AAA!
Sorry about the long silence.
I have felt the need for it – a need to draw inward, a need to focus on my family.
We are fine. Losing W’s dad has been painful but we have been grateful for those that have offered their support and prayers. Thank you.
In other news, all of the tension and emotion of the last couple of months has really done a number on my body. My back is tight and my front is flabby. Lovely…
I started doing yoga again, here at home. There is a great series of half-hour videos on you-tube by yoga today. I’d love to start going to a studio again, but for now this is working out great. This morning I lay in savasana or corpse pose (beautiful imagery, isn’t it?) to relax at the end of my – what do I call it? Workout doesn’t sound right, but neither does practice – at the end of my other… yoga… stuff.
I focused on my breathing, trying to clear my mind. It was wonderful and so needed.
Breath.
Relax.
Breathe.
RelaAAAAA!
Note to self: next time check for spiders in the room. It is not very meditative to have one scurry up your bare arm.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll wear something like this:
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Namaste.
Winner
Finished.
The day was long.
And hot.
But overall it was a pretty cool experience.
I am so amazed at my girl! Her best event is the butterfly. The butterfly - that’s hard!
At least, it looks hard. And I’ve heard other people say that it is. But I can’t say for sure, since I never learned how to do it myself.
It is an amazing and humbling thing to watch my child surpass my abilities for the first time. I can’t wait to see where she passes me up next.
For My Dear Sister
It was actually yesterday. Sorry I missed it. Hope it was happy.
Speaking of anniversaries, today is my parent’s. They have been married for 38 years. This is for you, Mom:
Love you!
At Least He Put The Seat Back Down
Courtesy of GW, age 8
After racking my brains for a full 20 minutes and exhausting all of the technological know-how at my disposal, my comments are now…
wait for it…
Still broken!
And since my leisure funds have gone the way of leisure suits, paying someone to fix it is sort of out of the question.
So, that brings me to…you. If you have any knowledge of wordpress, could you help a sister out?
Email me because, well, my comments are broken.
**Update: Lisa at Simply His is simply amazing. Thanks, Lisa! Comments are open and working! **
Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom
Wilderness Princess
Isn’t it fun to watch little girls play with their toys?
The care they take in posing everyone, just right, before the real play commences…
Or do I have it backwards? Is it the set up that is the fun part of playing? It certainly seems that way for GW sometimes.
She takes her time getting everything just so, and then
Wait a minute – are these the right pictures?
What ever happened to my little princess?
The one who was so girly she refused to wear anything but dresses?
She’s a complicated child…
PS: I wasn’t really intending to post this morning. I was am planning on going for a run, but I stopped to check my email and it hit me: the urge to update.
After all, Shasta’s digging is no longer hot news. But the problem, you see, is that something is wrong with my blog. The comment function is broken. I think I screwed up the CSS but I can’t fix it. And it’s not really in the budget to pay someone else to fix it right now, so it’s going to stay broken for awhile. If you’d like to make my day comment on this or any post, just email me. My address is under the contact tab, up there ↑.
Apologies to you non-blog types that didn’t understand a word of that last paragraph.
Now I’m off for my run.
Weekly Highlight
GW’s three legged race tip #1: A tube sock may cut down on chaffing.
GW’s three legged race tip #2: If tip #1 doesn’t work, just yell ‘ow!’ with every step.
GW’s three legged race tip #3: Being paired with your best friend makes the pain quite bearable.
GW’s three legged race tip #4: Giggling makes it hard to go fast.
GW’s three legged race tip #5: Winning isn’t everything. Fourth place can be just as fun as first.
Drink
You know, I don’t really call myself a writer.
Even though:
I write as often as I can.
I am 9/10ths of my way through the first draft of my first novel.
I have submitted work to publishing agencies.
And I have earned a very small amount of money for words that I have put on a page, but I don’t think of myself as a writer. I feel like I have to reach a certain level first. A nebulous level of success that will only become clear once I’ve reached it. On that distant day, I will declare myself a writer.
I could sit and ponder why it is that I am loathe to name myself that way…
Hmm…could it be that I prefer not to be constrained by labels? Perhaps something from my childhood?
…but deep down, I know why I can not will not do not say I am a writer. It is because I am afraid of the scrutiny that I think it would invite. I am afraid people would disagree.
Oh Heidi, you are not a writer. You just aren’t. Not really.
I was talking to a friend today and I mentioned that I don’t look at a glass as half-full or half-empty; I just drink it. And that’s truly the way I approach life.
I do.
When I want something, I go for it.
When I want to know something, I find it out.
I try to live each day drinking life in instead of trying to figure our what it all means. I just do.
How can I bring these two parts of myself into harmony? The one who is afraid to declare what I want to be, and the one who picks up the glass and drains every last drop?
I can’t.
I can’t be both fearless and afraid.
I can’t be the both conqueror and the conquered.
Okay, maybe I can, but I don’t want to be.
I won’t.
So here and now
for the first time ever
I declare:
I am a writer.
Just don’t tell anyone, okay?
Once upon a time there was a Heidi…
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