My Fellas in the Savannah Bridge Run

Michael and Alex were in the 5K bridge run on December 5th. They had a great time.

Fiona is not quite up to long distance runs, and apparently I can kiss my love of jogging good-bye, too, with this unpadded, cruddy left knee.

Michael has always loved running, and he has a couple of marathons under his belt, but ankle problems keep him from making it a serious, constant venture--as if he had time, though!

Alex ran the St. Patrick's Day 5K run back when he was only four years old, and he has always loved to run distances. I think we have a future cross-country runner in the making!

Winding down...

Just thought I'd write a brief entry. There is so much to do... Recital video clips and picture downloading and catching up. I thought I'd write a holiday letter to family and friends, but oops...
Being thoroughly daunted by all my self-assigned tasks and communications, I realize I may do NONE of the above at all, so I thought I'd just write a brief entry to surmise our current state and say Merry Christmas!
Yesterday was Christmas day, and it did go as smoothly as we could hope. Fiona and Alex hopefully made it through fairly unscathed, though I definitely did see the rotten-ness starting to poke its head through! I absolve myself, though, as I will lay that burden of 'guilt' at certain other family members prone to deluging presents upon loved ones! Not that I am guilt-free, but I did try to keep the presents within reason and within different categories, for the most part! Perhaps the ultimate thing would be to coordinate with everyone else, but that's crazy ridiculous!

Santa did bring Fiona a 'sister' for Olivia, and, despite TWO Barbies from unknowing friends, Fiona did focus on Abigail, Olivia's sweet new Gotz sister. I think I may have stated that Olivia was 'porcelain' last year, which is completely not true. I don't know what they are made of, but I'd say they're much more like the larger American Girl dolls. High quality, fabulous clothes...

There was definitely a bit of a manic feel to the day for Fiona, especially, but I think we made it through alright. Alex had a bit of a shaky start on Christmas Eve, when he received his first present. He received a new Summer Sports Wii game, but apparently not the 'nice' version that he wanted. While Fiona was elated over her new beautiful wooden art kit with built-in easel and drawers, Alex was frustrated with the generic, crappy game! Not only that, but we had 'spaced' on the fact that Alex had bought Fiona a big art kit just a couple of months prior, and, when we were going on about her beautiful new kit, he commented, as though off-hand, "well, I guess Fiona should just set fire to the cheap kit I bought her." Poor guy. I felt like a thoughtless bum for upstaging his sweet, sweet recent present. I roughly salvaged the situation by pointing out that this one wasn't a travel kit, so her other kit would still be great for carrying around. He mildly perked up and said, "well, maybe she shouldn't burn it, then..."

I was fairly worried that Fiona was going to have a lot more presents than Alex under the tree. She has so many interests and is so easy for me to buy for. She likes everything, whereas Alex truly doesn't have as diverse of taste. I don't innately know what to get him, and I don't want to buy half the things I know he'd like! Seems like junk and clutter to me--apologies to Bakugan, Pokemon, and Yu-gi-oh! Fiona's art kits, ballet supplies, dolls, and horse and vet Wii games are much more appealing to me! She likes clothes, too--a lot!--whereas Alex has to exercise his grace & courtesy in not making a smart comment when he wastes his time opening a clothing present. What a disappointment for him! Anyhow, he is much better now with it, and he did truly like the Pokemon and dragon shirts that my mother bought him this year. I'm afraid I don't tend to like the screen-printed stuff all that much...

Anyhow, yes, Christmas is about STUFF and reactions to STUFF at this point in my life. It's also about maneuvering with family visits, which are simultaneously nice and stressful. I am often naturally withdrawn, so it's a challenge to be social and friendly sometimes, even though there's often no reason it should be.

I received a Wii Fit game with balance board, which has actually been the fun family activity of choice! I had tried it last year at my neighbor's, and I was pleased to find that my still 'imbalanced' body is only mildly leaning to the right, as opposed to last year, perhaps three or four months past my knee surgery, when I was solidly rooted over my right leg. Nice to see the improvement!

Guess what my best activity is? I am a master champion at (drum roll, please)...SITTING STILL! Hah! One after another activity scoffed at me as uncoordinated and imbalanced, but I was an absolute master at not budging a muscle! The game is supposed to be a meditation activity--stare at the candle flame and do NOT get distracted by the posted distractions. I personally find my grand achievement hilarious and not quite flattering, but oh well...it does match what I know about me, and why I so often was hit in the head by basketballs in high school gym class--I CAN'T focus on too many things at once! Peripheral attention is absent!

Well, I suppose I'll wrap it up. I will say that Fiona was our brilliant star at her school performance...lovely, beautiful Ona in her pretty ballet outfit and multitude of activities. A school friend commented that she had stolen the show, which she protested with, "but I didn't steal anything!" The highlight was her solo of "The Holly and the Ivy" on recorder, which was the only solo of the show, I believe. We were SO proud, including Alex--who must be the BEST big brother on the planet.

The Joy of Cooking

My sister and I just finished watching Julie & Julia, which I surprisingly enjoyed, despite not particularly relishing all the lobster boiling and chicken deboning!

The movie features happily married women who feel a bit lost and purposeless. Julie loves to cook and, with the support of her husband, decides to cook through Julia Childs' Mastery of French Cooking in exactly one year and record the entire experience in a blog. The movie also tells a parallel story of Julia Childs' own discovery of French cooking and attempt to get published.

Both women find success and meaning in their diligent determination, and the movie left a warm glow in us--and a renewed interest in our cookbooks! In fact, I have a fantastic cookbook, Carol Gelles' 1000 Vegetarian Recipes, that I use as my 'staple' cookbook, and I momentarily considered trying to cook my way through it! However, that absurd notion soon passed, of course!

I was intrigued by the assertion that Julia Childs added to her cookbook careful explanations of how to cook, for the 'servantless' American housewife...in order to actually teach French cooking to the average American. Despite the fact that most of the book would not be of interest to me (due to its heavy focus on animal products), I am curious about French cooking techniques and tips...perhaps I'll check it out from the library before I invest in it!

I have been thinking about the purpose of art and other skills not related to basic survival for quite some time. I often step back from my determination to get the kids to practice their instruments or learn some cultural trivia and think, "why? what is the real point of any of this?" My sister and the movie seem to answer, "Joy and Fulfillment!" A brilliant artist or chef provides nourishment for the soul, and, after basic survival, this nourishment is a basic need that we have. We seek beauty and pleasure, and overall joy can be derived from developing and implementing these skills, even if there are difficulties encountered in the course of the development of these talents.

Thank you to my sister Stephenie for this thoughtful insight. I wanted to record it while it was still fresh in my mind, so that I can periodically remind myself if need be!

P.S. I've just gone back to add the title to this blog, and, to bring it all together, I thought I'd mention that we actually did spend some time looking at my copy of The Joy of Cooking, which was discussed and shown quite a bit in the film. It is an amazing book with a lot of extra writing on how to cook. There are a lot of different sections, but I have to admit that I keep finding myself on the meat sections, out of sheer shock value! This book tells you how to skin and prepare porcupines, squirrels, rabbits, etc.! Organ meats are discussed in detail with lots of recipes, too! I take a strange sort of comfort in knowing that we have a sort of 'survival' manual like this for our clueless selves if survival ever becomes an issue!:) Anyhow, that's an aside, as The Joy of Cooking is a fabulous cookbook for the regular American kitchen, and I'm delighted to know that there are many sections on cooking techniques that do apply to the vegetarian cook, including flambe and souffle and such, so no need for any fancy French cookbooks yet or likely ever!

Big Night for Ona girl

Fiona is having a big performance night! Her school is having its holiday recital, and she is dancing ballet and playing violin and recorder. She has a solo in recorder, "The Holly & the Ivy", which she's particularly nervous about. Anyhow, it's a big deal for us, though of course it's all rather beginner level.

Getting ready for Christmas

Christmas is fast approaching. I've been weighing how many presents to buy...initially resolving to be more reserved this year-- but slowly losing my conviction. Priorities need to play a role in making our decisions, but society and reality also must factor in.
The kids and I have been listening to Little House on the Prairie, and it is inspiring how the children are so grateful for an absolutely meager Christmas. However, these are children who haven't seen other kids for the entire year and have nothing to compare it to. The family is also quite poor, so they know that their parents truly are making an effort and could not afford a lot more.
It's hard to figure out exactly how much is optimal. I do sometimes wish we lived in a sort of bubble, like the Ingalls children, so that the kids don't expect or want the popular, plastic toys so much. The point of Christmas shopping, though, is to see the kids happy and excited on Christmas morning. All respect to the Ingalls, but a peppermint stick, penny, tin cup and cake aren't going to cut it for my worldly young'uns!
That said, I do not want a repeat of last year, when Fiona was overwhelmed with too much and became a little spastic and unable to appreciate her deluge. Secretly, though, I think I'll feel a tad less guilty about overwhelming her than I would feel if I got her even close to what I would consider a 'meager' Christmas. I know material goods don't translate into love, but I can't help but correlate the two. Alrighty...I'll try to tone it down a little bit...