For the past year or so, I've been talking to The Kid like this:
wash. rinse. repeat.
To paraphrase Dirk Calloway, I want it to stop. I used to be a much more serene sort of person. Over the past months, I've become frustrated with "not getting things done", not being able to figure out how to get back on the writing track, wondering why I'm so tired at the end of the day, blah blah blah. I believe that can change, and until it does, there's really no need to take it out on him, because he is one of the sweetest, most wonderful men around. So for Lent I'm re-reading The Quotidian Mysteries, hoping that I'll be reminded to infuse that contemplative spirit back into my daily life, no matter what the days bring. (And maybe do a better job on the housework front.) Some friends will also join me in a Lenten study, I'm thinking it can also help me be a little less attitudinal, a little more Beatitudinal.
My knitting. I've realized that my "gift knitting" has become less "What would you like?" and more "What I would like to make for you because I want to try this technique/try this yarn/work this pattern." I'm going to work on my sister's prayer shawl. I've been promising it for months. I've gotten the yarn for it three times (a variegated wool boucle, a mohair blend, Rowan Biggy Print). Problem is, she told me what she wanted in the beginning (I'd done the shawl before for our grandmother in the Lion Brand Homespun the pattern calls for, and that's what she said she wanted.) But I *hated* knitting with the Homespun, so I'd been trying to talk her into something else. Not exactly in the prayer shawl spirit. I've really got to get over myself. So, I'll Give The Sister What She Wants, get the Homespun and knit contemplatively. And cheerfully. The gorgeous, gorgeous Biggy Print that I got from Froggy's stash can become a capey/hooded poncho thing for Cocoa Pebbles (I can still impose my knitwill on her with a clear conscience, for a few more days, at least.) Her flower dress? Should be ready in time for Easter.
Random Blather:
My friend Sarah Littman's book has been published! Barnes and Noble description: "To be more like her best friend, eleven-year-old Justine decides to give up Judaism to become Catholic, but after her beloved, religious grandmother dies, she realizes that she needs to seek her own way of being Jewish." I laughed, I cried, I haven't actually read the whole thing, but the parts I heard in workshop were wonderful and Sarah's a great woman and great writer.
A cute Web site: I Used To Believe. I'm thinking of putting in how I used to think that because my dad worked for the World Bank, that meant that people lined up at teller windows in the traditional dress of their respective countries, and managed their "country bank accounts". And maybe also how I used to believe that taking Baton Twirling at Music Camp made me much cooler than just a regular Music Camp sort of person.
Cocoa Pebbles and I have been a bit under the weather this week. Lots of hanging out at home, so I filled a little basin with water and put some floaty toys inside. But she had a better idea:
