Sunday, January 2, 2011

Sure and It's a New Year


















On New Year's Eve, Scott, the boys and I covered up with quilts and settled in to watch the latest Shrek movie. For those who haven't seen it, it starts out with the ogre Shrek living a happily mundane life with his wife and three tiny tots in a peaceful and friendly environment. Aside from the pristine nature of his surroundings, which are less-than-satisfying for an ogre, the repetitiveness of raising children and taking care of a home gets to Shrek. He is constantly called upon to take care of the backed-up outhouse, for instance. Over and over again.

Chuckling at that, I looked over at Scott, who also deals regularly with similar issues here, and said, "See? This is part of every man's life. It's not just you!"

Shortly after, he fell asleep, and stayed that way till the end of the film.
Which reminded me of the time I took Baby Everett to a display of life-sized, moving, roaring dinosaurs, and after his initial terror he fell asleep and remained in a coma till we left the museum.

Some things are just too overwhelming.

And speaking of outhouses, we do have one. We don't use it (yet; I'm wondering if we might need to one of these days, the way things are going), but I took this photo while out for my walk yesterday:

















The thermometer said 25-below, I heard, but it was gorgeous out there. Not a breeze... snow sparkling...air fresh and crisp...happy dogs bouncing around me as we made our way down the road under the sunshiny blue sky...

I didn't make New Year's resolutions, as I promptly forget them anyway. Instead, on New Year's Day I tried to do everything that I hope to do much, much more of in the year ahead—to “seed” the year:

1) Up before 9, make the bed
2) Make breakfast for everyone
3) Clean kitchen, including doing dishes
4) Listen to music; my CD choice, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raising Sand
5) Dance
6) Sing
7) Bath and take the time to oil my body afterward
8) Call someone who is dear to me; I phoned Dad, my cousin Oscar, and my gal-pal Cathy
9) Have a "wrestling match" with Scott
10) Followed by a cuddle and short afternoon nap
11) Take a Medicine Walk; all walks are medicinal, right?
12) Do the Tibetan Rites
13) Play guitar
14) Eat an orange for my health
15) Read
16) Write
17) Meditate
18) Afternoon tea and birdwatching
19) Get editing work done

Well I didn’t do them all; didn’t play my bass, sing (beyond my usual mindless melody-making while doing other things), eat the orange, watch the birds or meditate. And that is okay! It was a full, satisfying day and we watched How to Train Your Dragon with the boys in the evening.

I'll drive Emil to Aylesbury House this afternoon. He's been home since the 23rd and has said countless times, "Mom, aren't you happy you got to have me here so many days?" and "Will you miss me when I go back?"

***

Were you a Led Zeppelin fan back in the '70s? Do you love Alison Krauss's angelic voice (which, by the way, my sister Karen's singing voice is often likened to)? Then here's a little treat for you, one of the songs on their Raising Sand CD, a favourite of mine:

8 comments:

  1. I like that you had to write down "eat an orange for my health" because, although I love oranges - in my head - I have to talk myself into eating them. For my health. What is up with that?!

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  2. I can only speak for myself, SouthKath, and here it is: I am lazy, and orange-eating requires actual effort. All that damn chewing! God, it's a real workout. Not like a banana, quick to peel, easy to gobble down without even paying attention. And then oranges are messy. All that juice squirting out all over the place! I hate that. Juice in the eye, juice on my clothing, juice on the table, on the keyboard. Blech.
    I'd way rather drink a glass of orange juice every dady-- easy, fast, no muss no fuss. But that wouldn't be as healthy.

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  3. I love your outhouse picture!
    Thank you for the post! I always enjoy reading them!!

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  4. Wishing you and the family a very Happy New Year. Love the list.

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  5. As on New Year's Day, thus the year. I remember hearing this all my life. If it were true, I would sleep in, eat sweet french toast for breakfast, see an afternoon movie and go our for pizza. Hmmm...that doesn't sound too bad.

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  6. LOVE this New Year's list. Beautiful. You made me want to partake of every little thing here!
    B
    The Middle Ages

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  7. I love that album, Katie, so much so I bought 2 cds but now have it on the Ipod.
    Love your outhouse, I want one.
    XO
    WWW

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  8. Raising Sand is one of my favorite cd's of recent years.

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