Developing Habits

Because it's a day away from school, and because I've been up since 12:35 a.m. this morning (never happens, but I have SO much to do and that just happens to be when I woke up!), I decided to write in my journal this morning rather than wait until my usual evening routine in order to close out the year.

I've developed this habit of writing in my journal every single day. I didn't ever start keeping a journal until I was sixteen, but back then, it wasn't a daily habit. And then on 1 January 1991, I decided I would do it every day for that year. And I did. I actually kept that goal. And then I kept going. And today marks the end of twenty-two years of writing in my personal journal (by hand!) on a daily basis, never missing. That means I've had the habit for over 8,000 days in a row. Too bad some of that discipline hasn't carried over to weight loss!

To be sure, not all of those journal entries have been what you would call "high quality." Some of them are pretty good, but not all. There were many lazy days where it was all I could do to write the day, date, month, year, city, state, and one other tiny little thing before hopping into bed. It's been great, on the other hand, to be able to look things up. Even K asks me to check my journal so we can remember the last time we did something or went somewhere. My journal helps me to see God's hand in my life. It helps me to count my blessings.

On top of my journal, we have a special camping journal, we have our NPS Passports, and we have our blog. So, I think I've done a fair job of documenting my doings. However, we have no posterity, so I really don't know what the point is other than my journal helps me. I suppose all the moms out there with posterity don't have as much time as I do to keep a journal and there's the juxtaposition of it all.

Here's to the New Year and the practice and development of more good habits!

Cold Chicken and Pine Nuts

Our neighborhood was suddenly adopted a couple of months ago by these chickens. They sleep in this pine tree every night and then they jump out and walk around during the day. Some people have seen them on the sidewalk. I sometimes see them near the kids at the bus stop in the mornings. More often, I see them across the road and I always wonder, "Why DO the chickens cross the road?" They don't seem very worried about cars and such so I'm really surprised they've made it this long. Don't know much about chickens, but they sure seem to be handling the cold temperatures. K keeps asking, "Where did they come from?"

I just had to take their picture this morning. They weren't very happy about it. Didn't make a peep, but they were on high alert. They crow a lot (or would that just be him crowing a lot?) and some people find that disturbing. Personally, I think it just adds to the music of the wetland preserve on the other side of the neighborhood. Chickens on the South and ducks laughing uproariously on the North. Seriously, those ducks sound like they're attending one whale of a cocktail party! Hope they don't mind when I chime in with my own cackling.

Hey, Stalkers!

Quite a lot of people mention to me that they stalk our blog. I usually say something like, "It's totally public! Anybody can read it." However, if you feel like being brave in the new year, you could officially "follow" our blog (looks like we have a grand total of 13 followers at the moment--not so popular) and you could even leave a comment, occasionally. They say it really helps to know your audience. I guess I, in turn, need be following more and commenting more myself. So, while I've got you here, and because I'm too lazy to click around and look it up (headed to the fitness center) and because I do NOT find Blogger easy to use, how do I go about getting my blog made into a keepsake book? I hear of other folks getting their blog printed up every year...what would that take? Please advise and Happy New Year!

Getting Jazzed!

Back in July, we were gifted two tickets to the Utah Jazz with seats in the Lower Bowl! Everyone's been asking, "Who gave you the tickets?" Well, it's our friend, Ann! I have her blog listed on my blog reading list. She's been teacher of the year, her blog won best educational blog of the year, and she's incredible in many ways on top of all that! Ann has the distinction of being the first person to ever take me to a Jazz game several years ago, and THAT was a playoff game! We hadn't been to a game for a couple of years, so this was a real treat!

The photo above documents the first time in the game the Jazz were in the lead.

Meet Linda! She is the Guardian of Portal L. Nothing gets past this woman! If I had season tickets, I would want them to be in Linda's portal! Teenage hoodlums tried shlepping in, but she asked to see their tickets and they shlepped right back out with their heads down, guilty as charged. When we arrived and showed her our tickets, she said, "Oh, you must be Annie's friends!" Yep, we are! Every now and then I could hear Linda yelling, "Keep your cool, guys, keep your cool!" She confided to me that she really likes the younger players because they haven't been around long enough "to get an attitude."

Shucks.

And...it's New Year's Eve!

What does one write about on the last day of a whole year? Turkey soup, that's what! Oh, how I loves me a turkey carcass! After Thanksgiving, K and I made our own turkey dinner and later I made this soup. It looks a little green but I think that's because there are no carrots, as per K's request. The noodles were made by the Amish folks and purchased in Iowa. I know it's not right to brag about your own cooking, but this soup was SO good. So, so good!

The soup was good, but I still managed to catch a really bad cold. I've officially been sick since 12 December! I'm almost better. Almost. I rested, I pushed water and other fluids, I avoided dairy products, and I did the steamy shower therapy which doctors have been prescribing for me my entire life: close the bathroom door, get in the shower with the water just as hot as you can stand it, force yourself to cough until you spit out as many green and yellow chunks of mucous as you possibly can, cough some more, go back to bed with a couple of humidifiers, and don't get out until your bladder demands that you must. Repeat daily. Hey, I've had pneumonia four times in my life (twice before the pneumonia shot and twice after). Shower therapy is preferable. Let's move on to our drive to Iowa for Christmas, shall we?

This is like the only picture I took the whole trip. I had my camera with me everywhere I went, but I was just out of steam, you might say, for snapping pictures. It probably had something to do with my illness, my mom's passing, and sheer exhaustion. People complain a lot about that drive across I-80 and how there's "nothing to look at." Well, if you'll just open your eyes, you'll admire those stalwart cattle in Wyoming making their living on windy slopes at a balmy five degrees. You might also notice the sculpted snowbanks that look like whipped cream and merengue. You might somehow feel motivated to actually snap a picture of a semi that had been on fire, since traffic was backed up anyway. My favorite sites were the aftermath of the blizzard: fourteen vehicles strewn across one little patch of I-80, one of them a semi upside down surrounded by thirteen other unluckies. It's kind of a challenge to count that fast as you speed by! Can't tell you how many big trucks we saw on their sides waiting for the tow-ban to be lifted.

Bottom line is...God has blessed us for so many miles! K is a good driver, I'm a good driver, we maintain our vehicles, we pray our way across the plains and back, and everything has worked out to our benefit. Anything can happen at any time, even to good drivers who try hard to be prepared, and so we just thank the Lord for watching over us!

My Husband's Ancestral Home

I, for some reason, started referring to Des Moines as my husband's ancestral home. I used the phrase a couple of times over the Christmas holidays and a few people chuckled. Here's the thing though, except for the first six months of his life, he's only ever lived in that house. Well, you know, until he left for college. This is amazing to me. A lot of people move around more than that. When we pulled out of the driveway the other day to return to our Marriage Home, he said aloud in the car, "Goodbye, Childhood Home!"

And then there's my mother-in-law's ancestral home, also known as Grandpa's Farm or The Farm. My MIL has spent every single Christmas of her life out at that farm! I love being attached to a family such as this. Grandpa is as cute as ever, cracking jokes, teasing, and telling me, "You're a good member of the family."

My husband's parents are amazing, sweet people. They are so loving and kind. Salt of the Earth. Who else would sit at the table with me first thing in the morning and play seven games of Aggravation? At first, FIL was reluctant to send my marble back to base saying, "It's early in the game, no need to get ferocious." However, once I started sending his marble back to base, he wasn't quite so hesitant. As far as MIL goes, she's out for blood every single time! And BIL beat the socks off all of us in Michigan Rummy.

Aunt J., cousins, babies, in-laws...it was a nice, nice Christmas!

Starring Santa!

We painted our wooden Santa Stars today as I have been doing with my students every single year for many years (thanks to the idea from Tim) and...I had a new experience with those stars this year.

The Early Birds had just left for the weekend and the Later Gators were transitioning into Literacy. What was I doing? I was speaking to the physical therapist because he had stopped by my classroom to chat about a student of mine with whom he works weekly. So, yes, the Later Gators were a bit chatty, but I knew Mr. PT would be gone soon, so I was making eye contact and actively listening to him when one of my girls yelled loudly in a most ferocious tone of voice, "SANTA'S NOT GAY!!!"

Show stopping to be sure.

Mr. PT quickly finished and left. It was all I could do to to hold the laughter in thinking, "Am I going to get a call from a parent over this?" I mean, how would one anticipate such a circumstance in the classroom? One doesn't. So I gingerly asked, "What brought about that statement?"

As it turns out, one of the boys had grabbed someone else's Santa, made it face his own Santa's face, and made kissing noises and motions. I explained that these Santa Stars were intended to be holiday ornaments and then distributed baggies so that each child could put theirs in their backpack.

What would you have done?