Friday Fave Five... on Sunday night.

This week, I wasn't too lazy and I didn't forget. This week I was just too busy. But I really think this whole thing of reminding oneself of what we're thankful for is a good thing. Especially for me right now. So here I go...

1. My parents just spent most of their weekend helping Beloved and I move. The distance wasn't long but we were moving from over 1000 sq ft with an attached garage to around 600 sq ft with no garage. Dad came out and did one load with the pickup on friday, then 2 loads with pickup and trailer on saturday. While the menfolk were moving furniture and big stuff, mom and I did 2 loads in each of our 2 cars and set up the kitchen. Needless to say, their tireless work was a huge support to Beloved and I.

2. My mom came back today while Beloved was at work. She and I emptied over half our boxes, settled the bathroom, shelved books, moved furniture, lined the shelves in the linen closet, and bought a new microwave cause ours crapped out this morning.

3. This morning Beloved and I had a wonderful, restful, lazy morning.

4. With moving, my diet is shot to pieces, but I have been mostly doing ok at tracking my exercise and food this week at SparkPeople, thanks to MamaMia's suggestion.

5. The support of friends. To support and to be supported by people I genuinely care about and who genuinely care about me. So many blessings to be found in that.


Friday Fave Five is hosted by Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

cliche? maybe. but true nontheless

last night, Beloved and I were spending some time with some friends. one woman started in on the amusements of men - how often they are absolutely hilarious and you can see it coming and that's half of the funny part. that I can agree on, yet are women any different? but then the conversation morphed into annoyances and the woman asked me point-blank for my "pet peeves" regarding Beloved's more predictible behaviors.

the thing is, he has his quirks, but I love them. and you know what? the most predictable thing about him is that he makes me feel good. yeah we have our fights. but by the end, I always feel heard and cared for.

she didn't think that was an appropriately funny response.

screw funny.

even if I had something to complain about, I sure ain't going to cut him down for the amusement of someone I just met.

It's Banned Book Week!

Sept 26 - October 3 is 2009's Banned Books Week, held by the American Library Association to raise awareness of censorship and encourage people to step out of their comfort zones.

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm

It's interesting to look at the titles of Banned and Challenged books from year to year and watch the trends. The link following is just the classics, not to mention all the others.

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm

Reading all of these is something I want to do before I die. If I don't, no big deal. But I want to.

(if you look at the links on the left side you can view lists by year, though many books stay on the list from one year to the next)

There's also a statistics page that shows graphically the reasons books were challenged, what the institution was that contained the challenged books, and the most frequent complaintants.

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengesbytype/index.cfm

Going from unemployed/partially employed and out of school for two years to married, employed and attending grad school all at once is overwhelming to say the least.

This week contains about 70% of the non-reading coursework for 2 of my classes this term. I'm a little nervous about it. especially as I want to keep up in the readings at the same time. on the upside, I'm not alone in my overwhelmedness, as many of my peers are returning to school for the first time in 5-10 yrs and have careers and families to boot. I guess my whining privileges have just been officially been revoked.

Tonight during a study break, I made this incredible buttery pear cake ala ThePioneerWoman. Check out the recipe here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/09/apple-cake-in-an-iron-skillet/


I kid you not, I want to go on vacation in this woman's kitchen. And then maybe go to fat camp for three months, cause I think the only reason she is so slim on all this decadent food is maybe something to do with living on a farm and chasing her 4 little munchins around.

If you decide to make that Apple Cake, please please please for the love of your arteries, HALVE (at least) the amount of butter in her recipe. (Actually I have found that most of Ree's recipes can easily afford half, or even a third, of the butter called for). Also, watch the yield on these things. She has a heavenly recipe for homemade cinnamon rolls.... heavenly enough to serve 7 pans full. That's 35 cinnamon rolls! I quartered the recipe and it made almost 2 pans worth, though again, even after quartering I should have halved the butter.

Apparently I haven't moved my pictures over from my external hard drive after reformatting my laptop. Consider there to be more pictures and a recipe or two to come.

stepping back from the edge

i've been here before.

that exhilerating feeling of coming out of the fog.

the world is brighter.

even summer can feel dark under that grey lifelessness.

stepping back from the precipice.

i'm on the mend. i'll be better soon. i'm starting to believe it for myself.

a lot of the darkness was circumstantial. i'm not crazy. life was unstable. i was afraid and suffering a lot of rejection. my confidence will take some time to recover. but i'm getting there.

thank you to my family and friends and my beloved and most of all my God.

we're all of us in the journey.

none of us is there yet.