Making it Up As I Go

It is 8:18 am. It’s 79 degrees out, and while Yahoo tells me that it feels like 81, I don’t agree at the moment. It’s very pleasant, and I can drink my Bengal Spice tea without wanting to die. (Bengal Spice tea is my new favorite thing. It is SO good. It’s based on chai, but without the black tea.)

I’m listening to Simon & Garfunkel as I type. We’ve also had some Debussy during breakfast prep, and some The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter during breakfast. The other day I found an audiobook app on my iPod that I’d forgotten about, and so we’ve started listening to some Beatrix Potter stories during breakfast, and the girls LOVE it.

It’s been a calm, relaxed morning. I set my alarm for 6 am and actually forced myself out of bed to exercise. I’ve exercised in the morning for the last few days, and it’s felt great to get my body moving in the morning. But I’ve been doing it when the girls are already up, and while they do pretty well at leaving me to it, it pushes the rest of the morning back a bit far. So getting up before them is where it’s at. I know it, I just have to do it. I am not a fan of getting up. The thing that got me up this morning was thinking of my friend Brandy getting up every day at 4am to work out. That’s dedication, and 6 am is nothing compared to that. (So thank you darling, for being inspiring. 🙂 ) SO, I got up and did some yoga. I did a DVD by Shiva Rea, who is a lovely, kooky, creative, incredibly flexible woman. Her yoga is not typical yoga, and I think it would drive some people crazy, but I enjoy it. I need my sun salutations too, don’t get me wrong. But 45 minutes with her this morning was just right.

I showered and got upstairs just in time to hear Tiny crying for her daddy because she had a bad dream. B is in San Jose for the week, so I had to do, and I convinced her it was still nighttime and that she should go back to sleep. Well, kind of convinced her- she was up 10 minutes later, as was Z, who had been woken up by the whole thing. But that was fine since it was 7. 🙂

They’re playing in their room now, until 9 am when we start school. We’re experimenting with splitting the school day- doing scripture study, math, reading, and handwriting in the morning. Then we take a break until 1, when we do history, spelling, and science. We have a few more subjects to get in there too, but we’re starting out here and we’ll fill more in as we go. The girls like having a break, and I’m figuring out how to fit the things I need to get done around those pockets of school time. Schedules are so important in our house, we all do so much better with them.

I got a new calling in church on Sunday, which I’m really excited about. I can’t say what it is since it hasn’t been announced, but those who know me well will laugh.

I’m in the middle of A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, though I haven’t picked it up for a couple days. I binged on about half of it in a day, and it infiltrated my dreams that night and was a bit disturbing. The next night I watched the first episode of Broadchurch because I’d heard great things about it, and David Tennant is in it. Oh my dear goodness. Talk about horrible dreams. I’d heard the show described as Twin Peaks without the weirdness, and I think that’s highly accurate. The show starts with the discovery of the body of an 11 year old boy from the town on the beach, and it becomes clear that he’d been murdered. The whole point of the show is to explore how his death and the investigation impacts the town, and they do not pull any punches. It was so intense and raw and wow. I can’t handle watching anymore, and it’s made me compulsive about checking on the girls in their beds this week.  It also made me realize that the weirdness in Twin Peaks served the purpose of breaking the tension and the sadness. (As well as functioning symbolically/metaphorically for the horror and disorienting feelings Laura’s death caused, but that’s a different argument.)  I found myself wishing for something weird to happen in Broadchurch to break the horribleness for a minute.

We’re waiting for a delivery from yoyomarket this morning, which is the company that brings us our Costco goodies. It’s wonderful having groceries delivered to my door. 🙂 I’m experimenting with making a Costco order once a month, doing a big shop once a week, and stopping in for bread and milk twice a week.  So far it’s working pretty well. I got out my bread maker yesterday and it worked just fine with the power and made me a nice loaf, so once I stock up on flour we can cut the bread shop out of the equation.

In case you were wondering, I’m now listening to Sinead O’ Connor. The Simon and Garfunkel album was being aggravating. Or rather, iTunes was being aggravating. Do yourself a favor and go listen to Sinead’s Jerusalem right now. (Here, I’ll make it easy. Click here now.) Her voice kills me.  It’s just so controlled. I remember back when I worked at Atlantis I went across the street to the cafe on a break and this song was playing, and it almost knocked me over. I asked who it was and when they said Sinead I didn’t believe them, since I really only knew her from Nothing Compares To You. I went right out (after work) and bought the CD (I feel old.) and listened to it for weeks straight.  And her version of Ode to Billy Joe is so incredibly haunting.

It’s 9, which means it’s time for school. What’s going on with you at this moment?