Me: “I think I’m about to start my period.”
Bryan: “What makes you say that?”
“Because right now I’m pretty convinced you’re a rat bastard, and I really have no reason to think that.”
“I see.”
“Maybe I should just lay low tonight and not talk.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
CPSIA, or How to Lose Your Small Business and the Shirt Off Your Back – Mommy Needs a Cocktail
I hate to belabor the lead testing point any further – particularly since I first mentioned it right down there, below this post, the one I wrote seven whole days ago – but the whole thing is just so ridiculous I think it deserves another rant. I’ve appointed Kristin to Secretary of Legal Interpretation because she knows what all this means and (more importantly) can break it down to it’s logical conclusion. Also, she’s selling all her kids and baby tee’s at a greatly reduced price to unload her lead-free shirts because she can’t afford to have them tested for lead.
Handpicked book recommendations – flashlightworthybooks.com
This link found me through twitter, and continually updates with new book lists every day. Maybe you’re in a book club? Or like Mad Men? Or enjoy mysteries? I’ll bet you can find a good book here.
Volatile Markets? Try Lady Gaga to Calm Down – NPR’s All Things Considered
Heard this in the car and thought it was interesting. A professor of finance and risk engineering (???) studied 50 years of pop music and found a correlation between financial market trends and popular music – the more dreadful the market, the greater desire for music with a steady, consistent beat. Sounds a little out there, but I actually think I get it.
New About Page – Thispile.com
Shameless self promotion, but I updated my sidebar and about page, so if you read me through RSS check it out!
Lead testing law could put thrift stores and small businesses out of commission – LA Times.com
At first I was just irritated by the paranoia, but then I started to realize the larger consequences to the new law. Consequences like thrift stores discontinuing sales of children’s clothing, consignment shops going out of business due to expensive lead testing costs, Etsy shops closing down, and other small children’s toy and clothing makers getting put out. Can you imagine all the perfectly usable clothing and toys that will be thrown into our landfills? All the jobs that will be lost?! I’m all for protecting the children from toxins, but this law is written too vaguely.
Update: public outcry is getting results. Keep up with the changes here.
Some requesting delay in switch to digital tv – NPR.org
This story cracked me up – the poor, poor consumer’s union, the poor, poor consumers. Delay the switch to make sure everyone is prepared? I say the best motivator for making the switch is discovering your television won’t work. But spending millions of dollars to change the date and modify the advertising campaign to make sure all Americans will have ability to watch Grey’s Anatomy? Logic FAIL.
Call me morbid
Call me pale
I’ve spent six years on your trail
Six full years on your trailCall me morbid
Call me pale
I’ve spent six years on your trail
Six full years of my life on your trail
– “Half a Person” as sung by The Welcome Wagon
I was at the gym this morning feeling motivated and invigorated, imagining myself 40lbs lighter by summer and training for a 5K.
Then I tweaked my knee on the way to the locker room and could barely walk.
I wonder how many times I’ve started over? Set goals? Had hopes? I pondered this as I stretched after my workout, and this song came on the iPod.
Have I spent six years chasing the tail of success? Is that morbid or tenacious? For a split second I felt discouraged and frustrated by my broken record self promises. But then I resolved to put it all behind me and start fresh – as if I’d never started before.
It is, after all, a new day, a new year, a new birth.
My friend Laurie, who lives on the East Coast, alerted me to this annual event here in Seattle – National Soup Swap Day. It started out local, but has become popular around the country.
I love the Internet.
So anyhow, we’re hosting a Soup Swap! Following are the details. If you plan to come, please leave a comment – include the type of soup you plan to bring, if possible, so we can plan on a variety. If you don’t live here but think it’s a great idea, I suggest you host your own!
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ZugHaus Soup Swap
Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Time: 7:00 – 8:30pm
Location: ZugHaus
What to Bring:
Bring SIX quarts of a frozen soup. Six quarts is generally the biggest stock pot in most kitchens (1 quart = 2 pints = 4 cups = 32 fluid ounces). Often the recipes will need doubled or tweaked to get this amount. Bring six quarts of the same soup if possible, but if you show up with two kinds of soup to make the required SIX quarts we will not turn you away – the real requirement is that everyone has the same amount of soup in same size containers.
Be mindful of soups that do not freeze well, like potato or cream soups. Identify your soups with labels or marker in case your containers look the same as someone else’s. And finally, be sure to include any necessary “accessories” to your soup, like cheese (also in a freezable container).
What to Expect:
7:00 – arrive promptly with your soup. We’ll display all the quarts in one place – likely my dining table.
7:20 – the Telling of the Soup! This is each chef’s opportunity to talk about what makes their soup special. Is it organic? It is spicy? Does it have anything someone might not be able to eat? Is it a treasured recipe?
8:00 – the soup swap! Participants will each be given a number. Person #1 picks the first soup, Person #2 the second and so on, until everyone has selected a soup. Repeat six times until all the soup is gone.
8:30 – Everyone should now be leaving with the same amount of soup, but now it is a wonderful mix of soup!
Etcetera:
Finally, be sure to check out the Soup Swap Blog for fun pictures of swaps past – like this one!
My friend Amy recently sent me this link – the summary of Charles Darwin’s typical daily schedule. According to Darwin’s son, Francis, he rarely changed this routine, even when guests were visiting.
I’m not suggesting I could in any way maintain such a rigid, unchanging schedule, but a few things struck me as I thought about this over these last extremely busy weeks in the Zug Haus.
A time for everything. Darwin set aside time to “read his letters,” to work in his study, and to walk. There was also a huge chunk of time in the middle of the day for resting and spending time with his family. After lunch he “answered his letters.”
I am incredibly undisciplined in setting aside time for specific tasks, and feel overwhelmed most of the day because my mind is divided between many priorities. Darwin sat down to “read his letters,” then came back to “answer his letters” another time. I read my email all day long, and half the time I never respond because I’m reading the email while involved with another task and I just forget. I like the idea of setting aside time just for reading and responding to correspondence, and closing gmail for the rest of the day.
My face twitched a little just thinking about it. I think the mental withdrawal will be excruciating, but that only confirms it needs to be done.
Know your best time to focus. According to Darwin’s son, 8-9:30 was his best time for focused work. I’m still trying to figure this one out for myself, as it seems my best time for focused work is whenever the spirit moves me. If I’m not feeling inspired to do something, it’s maddening to force myself to do it. And yes, I often feel inspired to clean, or do laundry, so it’s not like my inspiration is biased to all the fun things.
Exercise. I know it’s been a theme at This Pile lately, the lack of exercise I’m engaging in. But seriously, it keeps coming up. In his schedule, Darwin walked, then worked, then walked, ate lunch, answered letters, and rested; then worked, then walked again. His son indicated the distance of his walk “depended on his health,” which implies he walked even if he didn’t feel that great
Sometimes I wonder if I take my exercising (or lack thereof) too seriously. Granted, I have a gym membership so I shouldn’t waste that money, but what if I was a little less intense about the purpose of my exercise? Walking is good. I moves and stretches my muscles, it clears the mind, and if done outside it provides fresh air. Maybe I need to set aside goals of losing weight or running a 5K and just focus on working hard, then taking a walk.
Over the Christmas break I implemented one of these things. I sent my over 500 emails to an archived folder, which left just the ten emails needing immediate action in my inbox. My goal is to respond to emails once a day before archiving them, keeping my inbox to just one page. So far this is working, and I only have 20 emails needing attention – most of which just came in this morning. Hopefully those of you who normally get frustrated with me for not answering emails have noticed I’m actually responding to you!
For a great “map” of an effective work flow, Trisha posted one from the Getting Things Done model.
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What is your trusted system of getting things done?
This week’s Link Love is inspired by a story I heard on KUOW recently while driving. It was the story linked below, called School Closure Jockeying.
For some reason, Seattle is closing down schools. I admit I don’t know exactly why (we live in the Renton district), but I think it has to do with budget shortfalls. An elementary school in a white upper middle class neighborhood in West Seattle was on this list to be closed, which obviously alarmed parents. They rallied. They raised their voices. They made t-shirts. Parents in West Seattle saved their own school by throwing an “under resourced” school under the bus.
They so much as admitted it on the radio – that they took advantage of their socio-economic status to influence the school closure decision –
AND SHE ADMITS: SOME OF THE FACTORS THAT LED ARBOR HEIGHTS TO POINT THE FINGER AT COOPER AND RAINIER BEACH ARE THE SAME THINGS THAT GIVE ARBOR HEIGHTS AN ADVANTAGE IN THE CLOSURE PROCESS.
ARBOR HEIGHTS DOESN’T HAVE A MAJORITY OF FAMILIES IN POVERTY. COOPER AND RAINIER BEACH DO. POVERTY AFFECTS A SCHOOL’S POPULARITY, WHICH IS A FACTOR IN THE CLOSURE PROCESS. AND RILEY SAYS POVERTY ALSO AFFECTS HOW EASY IT IS FOR PARENTS TO ORGANIZE WHEN THEIR SCHOOL IS UNDER THE GUN.
Rainier Beach High School seems to be spared for now, but this saddened and angered me. I am saddened that children in these “under resourced” schools (which is the new code word for “at risk” schools) continue to face obstacles in achieving success. I am angered by the arrogance and conniving of the West Seattle parents, who disregarded the already fragile nature of “under resourced” children in “under resourced” neighborhoods.
I have only been involved in Renton’s public school system for four months, so I don’t pretend to have it all figured out. But I’ve seen a glimpse of this fact: children and families need neighborhood connections to succeed. This much I know.
Our school’s socio-economic demographic is very similar to that of Rainier Beach, which I suppose is why this issue concerns me so much. What follows is a timeline of stories from KUOW relating to education in Southeast Seattle. I apologize for the all caps in some places – I’m not shouting at you, but simply copied and pasted the formatted text from KUOW’s website.
Seattle’s Southeast Education Initiative and School Reform
An hour long discussion on how to draw neighborhood students back into Rainier Beach High School. The perception vs. reality of the school is discussed, as well as ways the district is working to increase class options and other programs.
This story aired September 2007. Little did they know at the time that all the effort and resources to help make this a more successful school would be potentially derailed by a group of parents and school board members from West Seattle – half a world away, in so many respects, from Rainier Beach.
“Schools are the responsibility of the entire community. If schools are going to be successful in Seattle it’s going to be because parents are at the table.”
“The extra curricular activities are not supported by the school district, they’re supported by the parents. And parents who are struggling economically do not have the time and resources to put into the classroom and to donate to the schools.”
Why parents bail on Southeast Seattle schools
GOODLOE–JOHNSON: “I’m always interested in getting perspectives about why parents make choices and how we can be stronger in systems and if there’s things we need to look at that perhaps we haven’t thought of before.”
School Closure Jockeying
SHELLEY WILLIAMS HAS TWO KIDS AT COOPER. SHE WENT THERE WHEN SHE WAS A KID. SHE COMPARES THE CLOSURE PROCESS TO A BOARD GAME. AND SAYS A LOT OF PARENTS AT COOPER DON’T EVEN KNOW THE RULES.
WILLIAMS: “We have 6 parents I can think of right off the top of my head who have been in this country less than two years, and spent more than two years prior in a refugee camp. They don’t even know this system.”
SO SHE WONDERS, HOW CAN THEY POSSIBLY BE EXPECTED TO ORDER T–SHIRTS, SHOW UP TO SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS, GIVE PUBLIC TESTIMONY, AND TALK TO THEIR SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS?
High schools spared
THE CHOICE POLICY LETS PARENTS TRY TO GET THEIR CHILDREN INTO ANY HIGH SCHOOL IN SEATTLE. IT’S GIVEN SCHOOLS IN MIDDLE–CLASS NEIGHBORHOODS HUGE WAITLISTS, WHILE IT’S DRAINED SCHOOLS IN POORER NEIGHBORHOODS AND GIVEN THEM STUDENT BODIES THAT MOSTLY LIVE IN POVERTY. THOSE SCHOOLS HAVE BEEN THE MOST VULNERABLE TO CLOSURE.
Everyone is looking out for themselves – the parents, their children,
“Maybe like me, instead of hard circumstances causing you to cling deeply to Him and to meditate on your relationship with him, you allow it to divert your focus away from Him.”
I’ve been meditating on this post by Wendy all week. Well, sort of. The truth is I remembered that I’d read it, and that it resonated with me, but it passed so quickly in and and out of my distracted mind that there was no real meditation at all. Just a nagging feeling that I should go back to it again and read it more slowly… and with my brain turned on.
So now that I’ve done that, I’m sighing with relief that someone else wrote down how I’m feeling so I don’t have to. So just go read that post, and know pretty much what’s going on with me these days.
“We are choked from fruitfulness when we become consumed with the cares of this temporary world….”
I’ve been a surface level kind of girl lately – putting out fires and generally tackling the loudest distraction in the moment just to make it shut up. My container is cracked and leaking from multiple contusions. I can’t hold a thought or motivate to action. The other night I had drinks with a friend, and I couldn’t think clearly enough to calculate a tip.
I am stressed. I am grouchy. I am anxious.
It occurred to me recently that when I feel overwhelmed it doesn’t draw me closer to God. Not immediately. It’s not my first reaction. I prefer to spin my wheels, turn in circles, and take care of myself. Sort of. But in attempting to take care of myself I actually run myself into the ground.
And THEN I grasp into the air for God.
“Many Christians are more convinced of the reality of their daily problems than the reality of their God.”
My circumstances loom large over me. Always. I cling to my success or failure at just making it through the day, and give myself extra points if I make it without a stain on my shirt. I haven’t always felt like this. For most of 2008 I felt exactly the opposite of this. I’ve been radiant, balanced, and content even if circumstances were not stellar. But December’s got me down.
My bread machine broke today and I cried. It fell on the floor and warped and now the door won’t stay closed. I cried because I couldn’t fix it, and I couldn’t go back in time to before it fell and push it back just a little from the edge of the counter. And I cried because right now it just feels like nothing could ever replace the bread machine I loved so much.
But given a little hindsight, maybe it wasn’t really the bread machine I was crying about.
“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you…” (Ephesians 1:18).
It is now one week after I wrote these thoughts, and I’m thankful I chose to hold off on publishing them. I woke up Christmas Eve feeling despair and weight. I wondered whether I was being overcome by depression or if I was choosing to wallow – this is always my question, now, when I dip into dark places – Am I falling into darkness because I do not look into The Light?
But by late afternoon, after the multi-vitamins with an extra dose of Vitamin B kicked in, we braved the snowy roads to our Christmas Eve service. Surrounded by candlelight and children’s voices and music about the savior who came to redeem us, who humbled himself and became one of us – suddenly I remembered it isn’t about me. That no matter what happens around me or inside my head, Jesus is still the Giver of Hope.
December was blue, but I am already feeling hopeful.
“From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” John 6:66
When God gives a vision by His Spirit through His word of what He wants, and your mind and soul thrill to it, if you do not walk in the light of that vision, you will sink into servitude to a point of view which Our Lord never had. Disobedience in mind to the heavenly vision will make you a slave to points of view that are alien to Jesus Christ…. When you find that a point of view in which you have been delighting clashes with the heavenly vision and you debate, certain things will begin to develop in you – a sense of property and a sense of personal right, things of which Jesus Christ made nothing.
-Oswald Chambers
I read this from Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest this morning, and it struck a note. Over the years I’ve come to disagree with much of Chambers’ theology as I’ve become more reformed in mine, but he is still filled with nuggets of wisdom.
The verse Chambers quotes from John 6 refers to the occasion in which Jesus draws a line in the sand. He declares he is the Son of God, the Bread of Life, that anyone who believes in him will have eternal life with the Father. When many of the disciples heard this, they said it was a “hard teaching,” and deserted him. When Jesus asked The Twelve Disciples if they also wished to leave, Simon Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
I like the way Chambers puts it – you will sink into servitude to a point of view in which Our Lord never had. In other words, when I disagree with or lose sight of Jesus – his hope, his truth, his vision, his healing, his rest, etc. – I will fall captive to something else, and it will not be beneficial to me.
I think of my anger, which comes from my selfishness and need to be in control. When I think only of myself, I become angry at others who thwart my comfort. When I set aside my perceived needs and desires to follow Jesus, I take on his “point of view,” which is love, kindness, service, etc.
Reminds me also of Paul in Romans 6 –
Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:16-18).
Today feels like a New Day after several weeks of chaos and lack of routine. I feel refreshed and ready put my universe back in order – mind, body, and soul. Today, I focus on these words from Jesus’ disciples in prayer for the priorities of my heart to be set correctly –
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.â€
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When have you felt like a “deserter?” How were you drawn back as His disciple?
I grew up eating this dessert. My mom made it on all occasions, and sometimes Just Because. It involves a chocolate Rice Krispie crust (which I always tried to steal pieces of as a kid), and two kinds of ice cream. For Christmas I used Peppermint and Mint Chocolate Chip, but another great combination is Cookies and Cream with Mint Chocolate Chip, or Cookie Dough with Chocolate Fudge, or something peanut buttery with something chocolatey.
You get the idea.
Melt a package of chocolate chips in a double boiler with about 6 tablespoons of butter. Stir in four cups Rice Krispie cereal.
Press into a 9×11 baking pan and chill until hardened. Set first half gallon of ice cream out to soften.
When ice cream is soft enough to handle, press into pan over Rice Krispie crust. Freeze until hardened while you soften second half gallon of ice cream.
Press the second layer of ice cream into the pan, and refreeze.
Isn’t it beautiful?!
Moses Cooks
We met Moses several months ago – he goes to our church and we started attending the same community group as him. Our community group begins with a pot luck dinner, and he always brings a home made, baked from scratch, dessert. Not something you expect from a guy with tattooed eyebrows. He loves to cook and bake, and twitters a lot about his creations – and now he has a cooking blog for his vegetarian dishes.
Anguish – Living Palm
I’ve had a rough December, and this short post captures how I’m starting to feel about it.
Brevity – The Rabbit Room
My friend sent me this link and said, “made me think of why you say you like twitter so much.” Anything that serves as a Twitter evangelist, in my opinion, is worth linking to.
Apparently I’m taking a blogging break. If you want to keep up with me, I’m still going strong on Twitter.
It’s been snowing here for 40 days and 40 nights. The running metaphor among Seattle residents is from The Shining, in which Jack Nicholson goes crazy while snowed in at a remote resort for the winter. Seattle owns something like 20 snow plows for all its roads. Renton owns six. The Puget Sound area has chosen to not use salt on the road for melting ice in defense of the environment.
All this adds up to a gagillion people stuck in their homes, riding tricycles down hallways while chanting, “REDRUM! REDRUM! REDRUM!”
So, Merry Christmas to you. And if I make it out of Snowpocalypse 2008 with all my faculties intact, you’ll hear from me again.
Buzz Light Year: Hey, you wanna go for a fly?
Optimus Prime: I can’t. I don’t have wings.
Buzz Light Year: You could pretend your arms are wings!
Optimus Prime: Hey, I have a great idea! I saw some wings at the store!
[insert wing attachment sound effects]
Optimus Prime: Okay, let’s go! Wanna go to the park?
I hesitate to mention this because I feel like such a whiner, but I just can’t seem to get into Christmas this year. Jesus, shopping, family, friends, baking – whatever Christmas represents, I’m not feelin’ it.
We’re not traveling this year, and even though I love visiting family, I look forward to the years we spend in our own home with our own traditions. We usually head out to get a tree and do all our Christmas decorating on the weekend after Thanksgiving.
It didn’t happen this year, and now I fear I’m missing my window of opportunity. As I sit in my darkened basement alone, thinking about it, certain factors come to mind.
Death. Christmas is a season of life and new birth, but I feel heavy. I lost my dog a few weeks ago, and four Christmases ago my family anticipated losing Gordy at any time. He finally passed on January 3rd.
Lethargy. Several months ago I became discouraged by one injury after another, and quit going to the gym. I told myself I would replace running with some other exercise, but frankly I’m being a big pouter. I love to run – as much for the mental stimulation as for the physical. I do not move my body anymore, and I feel like a 95 year old woman.
Balance. I feel buried by projects and Things Undone. On Friday I treated myself to an hour of writing – which refreshed me beyond words – but otherwise I have not engaged in things that re-create me. I work, I waste time, and I flop into bed exhausted. The Pile seems never-ending.
Sanity. Perhaps I’m in a funk. Other than the heaviness of remembering Loss, I have a good life. I’m the healthiest I’ve been emotionally and spiritually, Bryan and I are groovy, and I’m aware of the many material and relational blessings of my life. I really have nothing to complain about, which leads me to consider (mild) depression. I normally take a regimen of herbal supplements to combat The Blues, and I sort of keep forgetting to take my pills. I get the feeling I should really try harder at that.
I’m not sure why all of this came out as I sat down to write about my Christmas Mix – it’s not exactly a festive introduction. But this mix makes me smile, and the process of putting it together busied the half of my brain that needed to be busied so I could ponder all this sorrow I feel with the other half of my brain.
As I listen to this mix over and over, I’m reminded of how much I love O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Of all the verses available, I find it curious Sufjan Stevens chose to record the ones he did. It seems to fit my mood right now, and I find comfort in the repeating refrain of Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!
Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!
Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!
It doesn’t strike me until just now that in the song Israel is rejoicing for the Messiah they have yet to know. They are rejoicing in the hope of things unseen. I think this is where I settle, lately, during the Darker Days. I settle into quiet contemplation, feeling lonely and sorrowful, but with rejoicing hope that I know my savior will carry me through to the other side.
In that respect, depression has never felt so good.
For this reason, I purposely chose to end the mix with Emmylou Harris’ There’s a Light. I want the last song echoing in my mind to be a reminder of the Light in the darkness, of the Rain in the desert, of the Keeper of our hearts.
There’s a light, there’s a light in the darkness
And the black of the night cannot harm us
We can trust not to fear for our comfort is near
There’s a light, there’s a light in the darknessIt will rain it will rain in the desert
In the cracks of the plain there’s a treasure
Like the thurst of the seed we will await we believe
It will rain it will rain in the desertWe will fly we will fly we will let go
To this world we will die but our hearts know
We’ll see more on that side when the door opens wide
We will fly we will fly we will fly we will fly
We will all go
Merry Christmas, and I hope you enjoy my special Christmas mix, He Is Born.
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How do you feel at Christmas time? Do you easily rejoice and make merry? What revs you up to celebrate? Do you struggle with fatigue and depression? What inspires you in the darkness?
