Oh so Random...

1. First, I want to thank everyone who has stopped by my blog. I feel so honored.



2. I am embarrased to admit that I didn't know JD Salinger died until four days later. I don't read or watch the news because I find it depresssing.



3. The cult of celebrity is the modern equivalent to the Greek gods. They act like idiots with little consequences and we are in awe of them and bewildered by them at the same time.



4. Listening to 9th graders read "Romeo and Juliet" out loud takes away a lot of the magic Shakespeare's poetry--I thinking more Oedipus and gouging out my eyes.

Two Funnies from my Mom

Teacher Humor

English Teacher Humor :)

State of Mind

I would like to start out this post by saying.. I have nothing to say. I feel so unmotivated, uninspired, so very blah. I can seem to locate the source of these emotions but I have a feeling there is simply too much on my plate and my mind reels. There is nothing like stillness to inspire me and I would hope there are others out there like this but sometime what motivates me the most is nothing. To sit quietly and feel the thoughts in your mind organize themselves. The peace begins becomes life-giving and ideas begin to flow. I need to take the time to find that moment where stillness is central and my "to do list" and "to pay list" and "to call list" dissapears and instead what appears is the cloudy-clearness of creativity.

I... Must... Finish... This... Movie.

Everybody has them. For me it is more than one. They are movies that if you start watching you must finish. Even if you have seen it twenty times. Even if you have missed the first hour, if you see it is on you must watch. It doesn't matter if it is going to end at one o'clock in the morning and you have to be up at five. It must be finished. I have several that fit in this category. You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan, A League of Their Own, cutesy films really, but by far the most grand is Gone With the Wind. It dazzles. It mesmerizes. I must simply get to the end with that grand staircase and hear Rhett say "Frankly, Scarlett...".

This, unfortunately, is not always beneficial. I always seem to come upon it on a Thursday night at 10:30 with three hours left to go and I have to work the next day, but it is no matter. There is something special about "happening" upon Gone With the Wind. A feeling of unexpected surprise. "Oooh, I love that movie" It is not just the senses filled experiences of the movie but a sense of fate, of destiny.

Thanks to my father I know have four disc commemortive DVD set, but I am not sure it will cure of me of the compelling desire to watch it when I see it listed alluringly in the TV listings. Oh well, " I can't think about that right now. I will think about that tomorrow." ; )

Dreaming (no it really happened) of a white Christmas

A white Christmas. Yes, it really happened here in Texas. I have lived here for 17 years and my husband his whole life and neither of us have ever seen a white Christmas. We have had a white Thanksgiving and a white Valentines day, but never Christmas. It was really beautiful and welcome. I am sure it ruined many a plans as it ruined ours. We did not want to risk the drive to Dallas to celebrate Christmas Eve but there was something magical about our little family being warm and snug in our home. The kids tucked into bed with their jammies and the husband and I sitting by our fireplace watching the snow fall outside. We also got on our coats and hats and went outside slipping in sliding on our neighbors icy driveway and making tracks through fresh snow. Owen earlier in the afternoon was taught the art of the snowball and catching snow flakes on his tongue. It just really felt like the Christmas of my childhood ( I grew up in Indiana) for one magical evening. Most of it melted the next day and chances are it will be back to 70 degrees in a week but it was a memory that will last and be fondly remembered.

Our yard looking so peaceful and serene with the snow.

The tradition with my husband's family is we get together on Christmas Eve and have an "appetizer"meal . Everyone brings various appetizers and we just snack and spend time together and give the kids their gifts. Since my husband and I could not join everyone due to the icy roads we had our own little appetizer dinner and spent time together with our boys. My veggie Christmas tree came out quite cute.

Christmas Around the corner!!

I really can't believe Christmas is almost here and even though my husband and have most of the shopping for the kids out of the way I still so much to do. I need to make the gifts for my son's teachers and preschool classmates . I completely forgot to bring gifts for Owen's Sunday school teachers this morning and it was the last class until after the new year. I felt like such a slacker mom!).

And to add more spice to the bowl of punch that is the holiday season, it is the last week of school before the break and high-schoolers smelling a breeze of freedom are a little restless, as am I. The week is even more exciting because my students are turning in their research projects that they have spent the last four weeks on and are worth a gazillion points towards their grade. I having a student teacher this year is handing their entire lot of 1oo+ projects over to him with a very cheery "Merry Christmas". So that will be one less cookie on my plate (actually more a piece of mince meat or fruitcake both which have never received rave reviews from my pallete.) Although I have no doubt their will be a few pleasant surprises among those essays as some of my students picked some very interesting research topics but they will be much more enjoyable to read without having to worry about that critical red pen.

To me one of the most enjoyable parts of Christmas is decorating the house. Sitting watching the fire by the glow of the tree with all the whimsical decorations really lifts the spirit.


Here is our card display. Usually it is packed with Christmas cards but friends and family are probably just like me, procrastinating! I haven't gotten mine out yet either. I love the vintage reading card I got a few weeks ago.
My other vintage flash card tucked in my vintage toast rack along with the adorable photo of my mother and aunt.
My dining buffet. I love, love, love, grapevine decorations. I must add a new one each year. The sleigh was the new one this year. You can't tell in the picture but the sides are woven grapevine. Love my new banner as well. Tarnished and Tattered, the seller on etsy, has some others for sale as well!
A close up of my favorite vintage Christmas post card. I think the post mark is 1922!
My vintage Christmas cards on display!!

We are the loud one's behind the glass..

Went to church tonight. Got our God on... Then I remembered why we don't make it every week. We are Catholic and since having children I have started to envy other churches with their blessed nursery. For the most part, Catholic churches do not have a nursery at every service instead they have the cry room. You would assume from the title that it is the room where parents taking their crying children. In reality it is the room where parents take their screaming children and parents go to cry . It is a glass fronted room where you can see the service and supposedly hear through a speaker, but really you hear nothing but just follow the cue of others, sitting, standing, sitting again, kneeling, "oh, are we getting up for communion?"; but are about as engaged as one can be while trying to keep your four-year old from standing on the seats, and and occupying a baby with puffs because if you don't keep his mouth full he feels he needs to show everyone how talented he is by screaming na-na-na-na at the top of his baby lungs. I am pretty sure we won't be there next week.

Now if you ask "why don't they have a nursery program" and any reasonable person would ask is because the church feels that children are part of the family and should experience the church with the family. True in theory but not in reality! You have room full of families you are simply trying to maintain and in our case maintaining ineffectively. The four year old makes is 20 minutes then he is done. So for the next forty minutes is a series of threats and the eventual time out where I or my husband drag him screaming from the "cry" room.

He is simply not ready to sit through a 60 minute service quietly despite my best efforts to come fully armed with books and coloring books and small cars. I leave feeling like a horrible and ineffective parent. In my opinion it is a real issue with the Catholic church and an issue that keeps young families from feeling fully included in the community.

Am I Boring?...I feel kind of boring?

I am new to the blogger world and my understanding of the blog was apparently very limited. I thought of as a journal, a simple page to post your thoughts so that is was I started to do. Simply (as my husbands calls them).. my musings. My blogs skills consisted of knowing how to do three things.... write and post, post a picture, and insert a hyperlink. Pretty basic. But I have been exploring the world of blogger and am feeling a bit........boring.

A co-worker's blog was a featured blog on the SITS blog and she let her friends know via facebook. That post led me to the SITS blog and through exploring their page led to a whole world of blogger I didn't know existed. Decor, poetry, motherhood, literature.. anything imaginable and I was floored.

I went back to my page and felt a little inadequate. "I need to post a some pictures. How do they get three columns? Where did they get all those cool buttons? Is the stuff I'm writing even interesting?"

A little insecurity can get the best of us, but like high school doesn't last forever. I am proud of my little start. My drop in the bucket of thought and idea. Maybe nobody reads it (except my devoted husband :) and that is OK. They are my thoughts and this is a place to put them and that itself is empowering.