Story: 15/9/08-21/9/08
Friday, 17 October, 2008
Monday 15/9/08
Another week. I was up at 6:15. I really needed more sleep but because I had so much sleep the night before, it was hard to go to sleep.
I was in at work by 7. We had no cereal in the house, but fortunately for me, Wendy had brought in all these little boxes of Cornflakes that her children had rejected so I had one of those. I was trying to get on track again with Bible reading and prayer, but Carson's For the Love of God was no longer online. So I did the reading and prayer part (and even put my prayer cards online, but I've amended the htaccess file so hopefully search engines won't be able to find them) but not the Carson part.
Email and Sola Panel stuff followed, and I realised nothing had gone up on Saturday so I called Tony. He was not going to be in that day and Elsie had to cancel. This was somewhat fortuitous because, once again, I didn't have any lunch so had to go buy some (Oporto's, which wasn't great but it was cheap). I got The Briefing (October) off to the printer (which meant it was finally out of my hands!) Then I dealt with various little things.
Results from the Bible reading survey started trickling in and the responses were both fascinating and a real rebuke to my own rather lax Bible reading habits.
I left work at 4, went home, picked up Ben and together we faced the shops. We bought fruit and vegetables, fish, meat and groceries from Woolworths. (It just occurred to me there's a distinct lack of wool in Woolworths.) At home, we carried it all upstairs and unpacked. I chopped up three kilos of chicken while watching So You Think You Can Dance? (US). Ben made dinner. Then we watched The Life of Mammals together (“Life in the trees”). I played with Wii Fit for 45 minutes (and got a 100% burn rate on the running! I think it was because I put the remote in my pocket instead of holding it) and had a shower. Ben was watching Boston Legal in the bedroom. Then I tried to go to bed at a respectable hour.
Tuesday 16/9/08
Day off!—my first in a long while. I tried to get up at 8:15 (i.e. 8 hours of sleep; Wii Fit recommends 7.5 hours on average) but I couldn't get up until 10:30. I had a shower, did laundry, ate breakfast, read the Bible and prayed, and then realised that the dust build-up on our floors was not good; it was starting to look (and act) like tumbleweed. (It's probably contributing to our ill health.) So I vacuumed the entire house and dusted some problem hours.
I had a break for lunch and watched the rest of So You Think You Can Dance? so that I was up to date. And then I turned on my computer, error-checked the hard drive and did a disk clean up (yes, computer housekeeping to go with the regular kind) while sorting yarns and updating my knitting folder. I also swept the steps downstairs because the build-up of leaves was annoying me.
For dinner, I made quiche with soy milk and played with Wii Fit for 30 minutes while it was cooking in the oven. It came out rather odd but still edible. We watched Australian Idol, then I did some blogging. But then I stayed up reading blogs for too long. I had a shower and went to bed, but couldn't sleep because I'd slept 10 hours the night before. Sigh.
Wednesday 17/9/08
I was up at 6:15. I ate breakfast, read my Bible and prayed, and drove in to work, arriving by 7:30. I scored the prime parking spot which made me rather happy. I dealt with email, Bible reading survey responses, worked out how to use .htaccess to redirect my old blog feeds to my new blog feed (though I suspect I've lost blog readers in the process, or it could be that no one reads blogs anymore), and then moved onto Briefing things: article assessment, chasing commissions, then cleaning the interview Tony did with Don Carson on Christianity and culture (which coincided nicely with the studies my Bible study group were doing on culture). I ate lunch, then met with Elsie to read the Bible and pray. Then I left for counselling and got there in half an hour, so spent the rest of the time knitting in the waiting room.
Counselling was okay. I feel like I don't express myself very well. I also realised I'm still sad about what happened with my old church. Afterwards, I drove back to work in fairly good traffic (i.e. it only took 35-40 minutes, as opposed to the hour it normally does). I continued cleaning up the Carson interview, feeling really tired in the late afternoon. I left at 6:30 to go to Bible study and found myself the first one there.
For once, everyone was there. We thought about evangelism, the subversive message of the gospel, and the subversive messenger of that gospel. We had prayer time and I ended up crying. Then I drove home, had a shower and went to bed.
Thursday 18/9/08
I was in at 7:30, and ate breakfast, read my Bible and prayed there. Work was the usual (I think). We had staff lunch (I forget what) and then I brainstormed ideas for Bible brief topical studies with Guan. I then worked on Briefing meeting minutes and booked tickets for Lisa Mitchell at The Basement for Ben's birthday.
I left work at 5:30 and drove to Paddington. At the the intersection of Anzac Parade and Moore Park Road, something weird happened: I was first at the lights but the light was still red, and then it felt like the car behind me bumped into me. I looked behind me but couldn't work out what had happened. The lights changed to green and I continued on my way, and the car behind me followed me for a bit. I wasn't sure what to do, but after a while, it kept going. I parked and inspected the damage, but there wasn't any so maybe it was all okay.
Parking in Paddington was only an annoying 1 hour. I figured that's when I should probably go home anyway. I went to the Australian Centre for Photography to hear a panel on Web 2.0 in review. It was really interesting stuff because the panel consisted of three artists who not only knew a bit about Web 2.0, they were also creating artworks and exploring issues to do with the internet, the virtual and the real, representations of the self (avatars, etc.) and the way relationships develop (they were Kate Richards, Kathy Cleland and Gary Hayes). I would have liked to stay for the whole thing, but I was on a time limit, and I left just before they opened it up for questions.
I drove home. Ben had made stir fried mince for dinner. I sat and watched TV for a bit, then went on the computer to do things like print a packing list, look up the weather for the weekend and get directions. Then I got to packing. We went to bed around midnight having almost finished packing.
Friday 19/9/08
I rose around 8, had a shower and finished the packing. We got in to work a little later than planned. I finished Briefing minutes (I've decided I don't like doing them) and moved onto Faithful Writer finances (woohoo, we're not in the red!) I also edited Sola Panel posts and dealt with my email. Then we had lunch.
It was nearly time to go, so I went out and bought a powerboard and batteries, and then remembered he needed a card for his mum. This meant we didn't get away until 4. And, of course, the M5 was totally packed. I was glad Ben was driving; I fell asleep and only woke up when we were well along the Federal Highway.
We took the turn off near Sutton Forest for Bundanoon and drove through the countryside in the dark. We arrived at the Bundanoon Hotel just in time. The Southern Highlands always seems a bit odd to me: it's Scotland and Scottishness transplanted onto the Australian landscape, and it doesn't quite work. But all the houses in that sort of Tudor style, and the names of everything are reminiscent of Brigadoon or some such thing.
The rest of the family had already arrived. We were sharing a little room with another party of mostly men. We waited for Roy and Jenny who were running late, and then we ordered. The food took 45 minutes to arrive and they completely forgot my meal. Everyone else was ordering dessert while I was finishing. I decided to forgo dessert but mostly so the Wii couldn't pick up on me the next time I stepped on it.
We followed Hans and Cathy's car back to the house (Morvern Valley Guest House). We unloaded and unpacked. Ben and I had the room just off the kitchen—the “school room”, complete with desks, slates and chalk:
—and cow dolls.
Lizz had the room next to ours—the dining room with a little bed in the corner:
We all gathered in the lounge room and had tea and hot chocolate (mint hot chocolate, even!), and I broke out the Wii. Lizz and I played a few games of Wii Play, much to the others' amusement. And then we went to bed.
Saturday 20/9/08
The roosters and their brood of chickens woke us at around 4 am and then again at 6. Pity you can't hit the snooze button on a rooster; they're made to behave that way. I think we also overheated a bit so we didn't sleep very well. We were up at 8:30 because the walls were paper thin which meant you could hear everything. So if everyone else was up, there wasn't much point in trying to sleep any longer because you couldn't. Here are some photos I took of the house in daylight:
So I got up, got dressed and made myself some breakfast. The toaster printed smiley faces on your toast which was rather cute. Unfortunately there was not enough bacon for all of us, and we couldn't work out how to get into the other pen to get eggs from the other chickens. (The two roosters can't be out at the same time because they fight. Silly males.)
Hans and Cathy went to the shop for supplies. Everyone else got up in their absence. They soon returned with some cereal, more bread and soy milk for Ben, then went out to find a suitable picnic spot for Cathy's 60th birthday lunch. The girls had been allocated to get food whereas the boys were to babysit the picnic spot until the guests arrived. Hans and Cathy were going to find a place in Bundanoon with good mobile reception so they could direct people where to go.
Bundanoon didn't have much of a supermarket, so Lizz, Ros and I decided to drive to Moss Vale which was about 18 kilometres away. We found the IGA in one of the backstreets and fortunately it was a good one. Then we went to a local bakery to get bread, and then drove back to Bundanoon and into Moreton National Park. It was a $7 ticket to park, and we followed the dirt road all the way to Echo Point where we found all the others. Tim and Ros had come equipped with esky, portable barbecue, chopping board and knife, so Lizz and I helped chop up the salad ingredients and the rest of the lunch things. Tim barbecued the sausages, bacon, pineapple and onions, and I buttered the bread.
The rest of the guests started showing up, and we all sat down to eat together (the guests had brought their own food; we weren't catering for everyone). After lunch, we walked around a bit—going to the lookout and then doing a short walk to another lookout further out into the valley—and I took heaps of photos of wildflowers:
We had cake and sang Happy Birthday to Cathy, then took some group photos. Then all of us kids headed back to the house because we were, understandably, rather tired (Ros had a valid excuse because she's pregnant). The rest of them had a nap, but I went and read Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach and finished it (and enjoyed it too; he writes very well). Hans and Cathy returned a bit later with Bob and Judy who stayed for a coffee. While they were there, birds came to roost on the porch:
Bob and Judy had to leave to drive home. Hans and Cathy decided to take a walk in the paddock, and they encouraged me to come too to feed the horses. Unfortunately I slipped on a particularly muddy bit and got mud all over my backside. Good grief, that's the second time in a month and a half that I've fallen over. Wii Fit is right: I am unbalanced.
Anyways, we continued on to feed the horses carrots that the owners had left in the fridge. Unfortunately they were rather aggressive horses, and one of them was certain I had the carrots and kept grabbing whatever I was holding and whatever was in my pocked with his? her? teeth.
Beautiful horse, though.
We headed back inside, and I changed and washed my muddy clothes in the antiquated laundry tubs. Unfortunately the bulb had blown in the laundry so I had to do it in the dark.
For dinner, Hans and Cathy went out to get takeaway Chinese locally. It seems that everyone else in Bundanoon had the same idea because it took a while. None of us were particularly hungry, however. After dinner, I suggested watching Howl's Moving Castle. Some of us were keen but others weren't so keen. However, by the end, everyone was watching it. (And we stopped halfway through to eat cherry pie and cream/ice cream for dessert.)
Afterwards, I had a shower, then played some Wii with Lizz, then packed up the Wii in anticipation of the following day when we'd have to be out of the house by 10. I read a bit of Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird and then we went to bed.
Sunday 21/9/08
The rooster woke us again at 4 am, but we went back to sleep again. Ben slept very badly but I slept better. We slept in as long as possible, and then realised we were running out of time. I tried to make some sort of breakfast for me, Ben and Lizz, but my skills at bacon and eggs are pretty terrible. We finished packing while Hans and Cathy went out to chat to the owners to buy us some more time. Then we went up to join them—to meet the owners and say hi to the baby alpacas (very cute! I can see why people want to have them as pets.)
We loaded the car and said goodbye, then headed back to Sydney. Back at home, we unpacked, tied up and then I went to church. I sat with Michelle and Kirsty and came home straight after because I was tired. I had leftovers for dinner and watched So You Think You Can Dance? (US) and a bit of Idol, then part of Rove with Ben when he came home from church. I also finished the Branching out scarf and went to bed.
Current:
seen: Moon 15/10/2009
read: The Incredibles 11/10/2009
seen: She's the Man 05/10/2009
read: I Kill Giants (Joe Kelly and J. M. Ken Niimura) 04/10/2009
read: Astro City The Dark Ages Book 1: Brothers and Other Strangers (Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross) 04/10/2009
seen: Children of Men 02/10/2009
seen: Metric (The Metro) 30/09/2009
seen: 500 Days of Summer 25/09/2009
seen: The September Issue 18/09/2009
seen: Gilmore Girls: Season 1 17/09/2009
read: Flight (Volume 1) (edited by Kazu Kibuishi) 16/09/2009
seen: Ponyo 11/09/2009
read: Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? (Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert) 05/09/2009
heard: Aimee Mann (Enmore Theatre) 04/09/2009
heard: Ben Folds Solo (Opera House) 31/08/2009
read: Phonogram: Rue Britannia (Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie) 26/08/2009
seen: Northanger Abbey 20/08/2009
read: The Princess Diaries (Meg Cabot) 18/08/2009
seen: The Phantom of the Opera 17/08/2009
seen: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? 10/08/2009
seen: District 9 10/08/2009
read: Shortcomings (Adrian Tomine) 02/08/2009
read: AIR Volume 1: Letters from Lost Countries (Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker) 28/07/2009
seen: Persepolis 25/07/2009
seen: Ghost Town 25/07/2009
heard: Gutter Twins (Seymour Centre) 23/07/2009
seen: Coco Avant Chanel 20/07/2009
seen: Gutenberg! The Musical (Seymour Centre) 16/07/2009
seen: So You Think You Can Dance? Australia Live Tour (Sydney Entertainment Centre) 11/07/2009
seen: Every Little Step 07/07/2009
seen: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen 03/07/2009
seen: Synecdoche, New York 30/06/2009
seen: Charlie's Angels 27/06/2009
seen: Penelope 26/06/2009
seen: Coraline 10/06/2009
seen: The Sky Crawlers 08/06/2009
seen: The Bourne Ultimatum 07/06/2009
seen: The Bourne Supremacy 07/06/2009
seen: The Bourne Identity 06/06/2009
seen: Stick it 05/06/2009
Comment:
Hi Karen,
Congratulations on Astrid’s birth.
A quick tip that we learned when we became parents and my wife was breastfeeding (don’t you love tips from strangers 
):
Instead of writing down which side to feed on next, stick a hairclip, or peg on your bra strap on the side they will next feed from. Then swap it over when you feed.
Then you never have to remember, and you don’t need to worry about writing it down.
That is indeed an epic post! Brings back a lot of memories of Puff’s first weeks.
As far as how long until Astrid hits 16kgs, you can read it off the graphs in her blue book. I would guess somewhere between 2 and 3 years old.
Hi Karen - yes! But we’re finished at Moore now and living back in Tassie so it’s unlikely. I enjoy still enjoy reading though, hope you don’t mind!
@Miriam - I had a very fast labour too (lets just say it was quite a bit quicker than 4 hours) and I almost felt embarrassed telling people! I’d never imagined I’d be one of ‘those’ women. Still, friends who’ve had longer labours followed by shorter labours assured me it’s the same amount of pain, just squeezed into a shorter time span so I try not to feel too bad 
Congratulations Karen & Ben. What a beautiful daughter. Thanks for sharing your birth story - sounds almost identical to mine, except my labour was only 4 hours! My midwife also told me not to share it at mothers group as people would be jealous hehe
Enjoy this wonderful time getting to know Astrid.
Miriam
Thanks everyone!
Wow, Bron, I still can’t believe I haven’t met you yet! Thanks for continuing to read this blog!
Little Rachel, now I’m intrigued!!!
It’s so funny reading your labour experience. It’s so funny she came out when you were standing up and the midwife had to catch her. Wow! I will remember to go through your blog more carefully when my time comes around. It’s very informative.
Congratulations to you all and many blessings. Astrid is a little sweetie.
Congratulations Karen and Ben. A gorgeous girl with a gorgeous name. Praise God!
Thanks for sharing your story.
Congrats, Karen! She looks wonderful, so alert and adorable! Glad that everything went so smoothly (comparatively).
Well, one of your details clears up a conversation Jess and Anna and Liza and I had! I’ll tell you later.
I think you and Ben did amazingly well, and that the staff were right: you were pretty tough! I will have to give all those exercises a go when that time comes.
Yay for Astrid! Such a beautiful name for a precious daughter.
Hello! Thanks for sharing. It sounded tough and bewildering! Can I come and visit sometime? Tonight or tomorrow night? I’m away for the next 4 days after that. Love George
Congratulations! Astrid Winter is a gorgeous name. So beautiful. Thank you for sharing your story. It’s interesting to hear from other women. Now I’m expecting my second I’m starting to think about all that again. Eeeeek!
RPA is very busy, apparently they’re at 3 times capacity for the area. When we were there last year the night my daughter was born there were something like 8 births in 45 minutes. As soon as I’d had a shower we had to be out of there! I remember being rather surprised at having to walk up to the post-natal ward. “you want me to what?!”
I don’t think it’s exclusively the change of temperature: young babies like to be cuddled up (or wrapped in a blanket or similar) as they adjust to being on the outside after so long being wrapped up on the inside.
Oh yeah, it makes perfect sense that babies would cry if you put them in a cold bed! I totally never thought of that!
I love your posts, they are so fascinating! :D
Oh Jess! There are so many good things about Sydney
Looks like really nice adventures! I don’t really think of Sydney as a place to explore.. hmm.. you have opened my mind up to The Staycation.
I get depressed at the adrenaline crash also because then I have time to think about how shitty everything is lol.
Hmm...food for thought indeed. V. interesting, thank you for posting
lol! Karen, you’re so frank and I love it. “the non-constipating kind” of iron pills. hahaha.
i know how hard it is to not tell people the sex of your baby. I am tempted to tell strangers or acquaintances what you’re having because, as Ben reasoned with the waiter, I’ll either never see them again or it’s not like their going to tell anyone of consequence.
Thanks Kathleen! Glad you’re finding them interesting!
These posts are fascinating, Karen, and I’m happy/sad for you.
Hey Little! One of the things that astounds me is that people all over the world give birth everyday in different circumstances, and they seem to get through it. Maybe all the bells and whistles of the western world are simply that—bells and whistles, and things we do to make ourselves feel better about such a painful and momentous occurrence. I’m sure Mongolia has its own ways of looking after their expectant mums!
Great post, Karen.
As I said to you last Friday: the Toturo thing is gorgeous!
Thanks for posting about the changing relationships between friends. I’ve been struggling to come to terms with my best friend’s relationship with her boyfriend and the loss I feel. It’s been 18mths now, but I guess it’s taking longer for me to deal with because he’s not something we talk about and I don’t often see them together. However, it’s still known. It’s good to know I’m not alone or going crazy or whatever.
Also, thanks for the updates on Peanut. Can’t wait to meet him/her!
I think that your child will one day be thankful that they can read about what their mother was thinking. They won’t have to wonder if you’ve forgotten anything or just telling the good things! I think the positives are more believable when accompanied by the negatives, that’s just more realistic.
The PGP sounds really hard! Also not something that people talk about, so is it hard to get understanding from people when you need to go a little slower? Though perhaps they just expect that of pregnant women… gah, there are so many steps at MM! :(
I worry about the money stuff too… though I guess in Mongolia maybe they won’t do all those medical things so I won’t have to pay for them! 
Keep blogging! You know I’m fascinated. ;p
Thanks Miriam! That’s good to know!
Hi Karen,
Thanks for the long update. It sounds like you are experiencing very common emotions (high and low) of first-time expectant mothers.
In answer to your question about breastfeeding in 5mins - that’s pretty common. In the first few weeks as both you and baby are learning how to feed (it takes a while to get the hang of it)feeding takes a little while (about an hour for me and Alex). This was actually a blessing for me as it meant I could sit and rest for that period of time, 5 or 6 times a day! Lovely, especially as it was such a tiring time of my life, with all the adjusting that comes with the birth of a child.
The milk flow can be quite fast to begin with(often too fast for baby!) and it means they take in too much and then need to be burped, which all takes time. After awhile though your breasts will adjust and regulate themselves as they work out how much milk is needed. THey are amazing the way they work. They actually feel quite soft and empty after a few weeks and lots of new mums worry that they don’t hvae enough milk, but it is very normal, and just means your body has regulated the amount of milk it makes.
Check out the Australian Breastfeeding Association webpage - it is full of excellent information. I would recommend joining the association - you receive a magazine every 2 months, which is filled with wonderful articles. I found it very helpful (and still do after 3 years of feeding). A great bit of reading to have in your hands while sitting down to feed. You also receive an excellent book “Breastfeeding....naturally” which answers just about any question you may have about breastfeeding. I read it many many times!
Mim
Congratulations again - and it is very interesting to hear what happens!
@Sarah: Thanks for the tip RE Australian Breastfeeding Association! I never would have thought to look there. Ditto KMart: I was wondering if they did since Target don’t.
@Rae: Thanks for the tip! I’ll check it out.
@Little Rachel: Oh, I’ll definitely be up for visitors! I may not be very good company (brain-dead, etc.) but I’ll certainly appreciate visits!
@Rachel C: CONGRATS!!! So excited for you Yours sounds like a good philosophy. One day I shall have to blog about Outliers!
@CafeDave: Thanks for the tip!
@Elissa: Thanks for your kind words! It makes me happy that you and Dave were excited we were getting married! Thanks also for the prayers!
@Elsie: There are lots of other lovely things I could have said about you, but let’s not overload my readers, shall we? ;P
Aww...thanks for the lovely things you said about me! I enjoyed reading this post (as I do with all yours). xo
Congratulations to you both. I know you will be such wonderful parents. You sound WAY too sensible! 
(Sorry to read that there were some unusual comments made about your marriage! We thought it was exciting. We still have a lovely photo of you & Ben in our lovely box of special memories. (I was only 22 when married & I was 30 when we had Bonnie...)
Everyone is different! I nodded through your post. SO many people feel the curious need to share their “horror stories” which is just dreadful. I remember complaining to David who said - go find people who are positive & listen to them. Great advice, which I did. Those people still have a big place in my heart because their advice was honest & gentle.
Bless you & Ben & the little Peanut. We pray all goes smoothly over the coming weeks/months ahead. We sometimes forget what a precious little miracle life really is…
Another book from the dad’s perspective I found helpful was From here to paternity - it’s an Australian book, and was followed up with a blog.
Hi!
I’m so excited for you reading your blog about being pregnant I am 13 weeks pregnant with #2.
You’re so right about all the pessimism “advice” that you get. I got so mad about it but never found a good response. I’ve had such joy right from day one with E that I just don’t want to buy into the negativity (I’m sure kids pick up on it too!).
My philosophy was/is to be a relaxed mum and from that figure out what was best for my baby/child. Get advice when you’re not sure on things or want to know how other people approached things, read books (loved Outliers!) that aren’t all about parenting… but just enjoy.
In a sample size of one to date, I’ve had such a happy, chilled out son right from day one. People say all the craziest advice… glad you don’t do guilt
With love,
R
Thanks so much for writing more! I love hearing how you’re going and all your thoughts.
After watching my sister I agree with you that it seems the first six months are perhaps the hardest. She got quite lonely at home all day; weekends were all right because then her husband was around but it’s just as you say… one feed ends then the next begins! If you are accepting visitors during this period then I hope to use some RDOs to come have grown-up conversations!
The book review of The Second Nine Months makes me want to read it now!
Names: We have one girl name that we both like and no boy names that we agree on. But they are also top-secret… so if anyone else uses them we can’t accuse them of theft!
Yay Peanut, keep on growing, can’t wait to meet you!
Hello! Thanks for sharing
I loved reading your pregnancy update! I am glad to hear that things are all going pretty well, and I hope the rest of your 2nd trimester is as good.
I just wanted to add, that some other blokes decided that there was not much for the fathers-t0-be, and made a couple of DVD’s just for expectant dads. They are called ‘Being Dad’and i think they are available at big W. I have both though, if you would like me to send them!
Just wanted to wish you all the best!
Love
Rae
re: gluten: no idea!! I didn’t have to go on that diet - it was probably related to the test I didn’t do.
At the risk of adding to your list of advice:
Re: maternity bras - because I’m big I had to look hard for something nice in my size and discovered the Australian Breastfeeding Association. They have a massive range online and most are (dare I say it) sexy.
Re: maternity clothes - Kmart have a nice range of basic stuff.. I only found out towards the end of pregnancy and I would have liked to know earlier!
Re: Parenting classes - if you’re at RPA you can just ring the midwives section (they’ll put you through) and ask directly.
Congratulations again
Don’t laminate your ultrasound picture That is my advice.
Congratulations! This is so fantastic!
Thanks so much for sharing all of this… people swap engagement stories but rarely pregnancy stories! And it’s kind of similar don’t you think, all this excitement leading up to a big day!
So happy for you guys! Actually never been more excited for anyone except my sister! I think it’s because I think that you will both be amazing parents and love the idea that someone could grow up in your family.
Looking forward to many more posts on the topic.
Blinks:
"For a long time, I was waiting for my life to go back to normal," he said. "And then I realized, this is my life. So this is my normal."
How to make wontons.
Short-sleeved cardigan with lace edging.
Interesting answer.
"We pick out people who have the same kind of unhappiness we do. And we gravitate toward them and try to help them.
"Many of us are like this. Every time we try to help someone else and fail, it feels weird. It feels bad. We do not know exactly what is going on but it is upsetting.
"Until one day we realize that what we are doing is avoiding our own pain. We have learned to act as though it is not our pain that is at issue, but other people's."
Cleaning tips for all sorts of things. White vinegar is apparently wonderful!
The case for print.
"Laura Miller has argued eloquently in Salon about reading on the iPad as a serene experience, a sanctuary from the link-surfing that dominates so much of what we read online. And yet, I know what having an iPod has done to my attention span and ability to sit through an entire album, in order, by one artist ... and I'll be damned if I let the same thing happen to the way I read. Out of every argument I've heard in favor of e-readers ... my least favorite might be the central point of the thing: the fact that it allows you to choose from thousands of books at any given time. I simply don't want that kind of potential for distraction ...
"For me, to deny books their physical structure simply ignores far too much of what makes them enjoyable. The commitment they require, the way they force you into a state of simultaneous calm and focus—these are things I have yet to duplicate by any other means."
Something to do with leftover wool. Makes good toys!
The reasons behind the creation of the 4 am news slot. Interesting how lifestyle fuels these sorts of cultural changes.
Via Elsie. Consumer addiction used to distract or cover for emotional emptiness/loss/grief, etc.
A parenting philosophy to introduce media to children late and slowly.
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Comments
Hi! *I’m* still reading your blog!
sounds like you had a nice time!
the last comment I left got eaten (i.e. never appeared) so better luck this time??
Alison P.
Sorry about that! My blog must be rather hungry, eating comments like that ...
So glad you’re still reading
Been praying for you.
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