Random Meanderings at Middle Age

30 Days of Everyday: Day 13

My second loaf of deli-rye using my new favorite cookbook, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day.  The house smells heavenly!

30 Days of Everyday: Day 12

Of all my knitted hats this is one of my goofiest and hence, one of my favorites.

30 Days of Everyday: Day 11

Brief Break from Everyday.

America's Giving Challenge

Sharing Foundation's English and Literacy projects on Global Giving

Bloggers Campaign

Many of you know that both our children came to us through adoption.  Our son, was adopted in Cambodia and a fellow Cambodia parent and Sharing Foundation supporter,Beth Kanter has notified me of this wonderful opportunity to win $50,000  for the Sharing Foundation and the children of Cambodia it helps every day.  I've never lnked to a fundraiser before but we have been supporters of the Sharing Foundation since before we adopted our son and support everything it does in Cambodia.  More information about this program follows.

What?

The America's Giving Challenge will award $50,000 to the project that gets the most unique donors. I can't do this alone and that's why I'm asking my blogger friends to join me and in helping to raise money to help the many children who are touched by the Sharing Foundation's programs. Michele Martin has graciously agreed to lead the charge and created this widget (Thanks Michele) Join my other blogging friends who blogging about the Sharing Foundation during the America's Giving Challenge. Even if your readers donate the minimum amount, $10, it will go a long way in Cambodia.

Why?

Literacy is key to education and jobs for poor children. It's a route out of poverty. One of the The Sharing Foundation’s programs is its Khmer literacy school. It helps farm children learn their native alphabet and numbers well enough to attend elementary school. The Sharing Foundation's English Language Program offers village students, ages 8-18, the opportunity to learn English, allowing them to obtain jobs in tourism and word processing. These students are so dedicated that some meet on their own to study on weekends. The literacy school runs three sessions a day for 130 children of Roteang village’s poorest families. Ten bilingual Cambodian college graduates teach English to 500 students in 19 sections offered daily after school hours at the village school.

How to Participate

1. Volunteer to write at least one blog between today and January 31, 2008 about this and ask your readers to contribute the minimum amount. I'd love it if you could write more than one post, but I know that this is a volunteer effort.
2. Put the widget on your blog on the side bar (it is easy to cut and paste)
3. Consider donating $10 to campaign!
4. We'll all feel great if we can demonstrate the generosity and power of the social web.

30 Days of Everyday: Day 10

Our  wonderful family portrait by the incomparable Auntie Cookie.  (click to enbiggen)

30 Days of Everyday: Day 9

Provincetown.
Summer 2007

30 Days of Everyday: Day 8

At con. Taken with camera phone so kind of poor quality, however, I certainly spent a great deal of time standing around waiting for elevators to arrive.

30 Days of Everyday: Day 7

Family room carpet.  I really, really love this carpet.  I'm also mostly at Arisia this week-end and haven't had a chance to take much in the way of pictures.  The observant amoung you will note this isn't even our exact rug or our flow, although that is Noah's hand.  It's the picture I took of the model at the store before we ordered ours.  Like I said, I'm not around, but really, we see the rug everyday.

30 Days of Everyday: Day 6

Quilt.

30 Days of Everyday: Day 5

Setting the table.

30 Days of Everyday: Day 4

Junco.

30 Days of Everyday: Day 3

Sick day.

30 Days of Everyday: Day 2

30 Days of Everyday: Day 1

Snow Day!

30 Days of Everyday: Prologue

Jumping on a photojournal meme bandwagon.  My goal here is to shut up for a bit (stop cheering!) and let pictures I take in my everyday mundane life speak for me.  I haven't decided yet if I will caption or not.  I'll start later today.

Random..day before the likely snow day edition:

1. How cool is this cool cell phone handset ?   I love the idea of having my cellphone in my pocket and talking on this cool retro handset while walking around.  I suspect people would think I'm insane but in all likelihood they already suspect this so why not run with it?
2. Much snow is predicted overnight and through tomorrow.  Tons of snow.  Many, many inches of the white fluffy stuff. All I can say is the weather forecasters have better be certain because everyone I know and everyone I don't has prepared for the expected snow day tomorrow.  John had to wait in line to fill his  container with gas for the snow blower.  The markets were full of people buying food (and this has always confused me.  Sure, if you are older or infirm it might be smart to stock up a little so you don't have to drive on crummy roads for a day or 2, but 3-4 frozen chickens and 2 gallons of milk?  What's that all about?).  I work in a religious school and so had the pleasure of listening to many kids plan their expected day off.  Let me tell you, they will not be happy if school is not canceled. 
3. Knitting?  I'm in a sort of knitting slump that started when I was sick, abated briefly and then resumed when I had to frog my fingerless gloves and start over.  I did finish spinning one of Artclub's wonderful Cuckoo Batts and am about to start another.  My hope is to ply them together and then knit a nice warm and funky hat.  Her batts just spin themselves and look so cool that I get mesmerized watching the fiber slip through my fingers. She always encloses something fun to add (thread, angelina fibers, silk etc) and some leftover bits of another batt and as a result the yarn I make is unpredictable and just a  whole mess of fun to make!
4. The Bat Mitzvah train keeps on rolling and so far is on track.  The invites look amazing, we all found clothes to wear to the service and the party (an exhausting task that I am recovering from even as we speak), Em has learned all of her Torah portion and is on to the Haftorah portion..all in all we're getting there.  It's a little overwhelming at times, all the details and meetings and related activities and yet I do try to remind myself that when the day comes everything will rush past and I try to slow down and enjoy even these early parts of the process.  A friend of mine reminded me today that I Em's journey didn't just start but really started when we joined the synagogue and enrolled her in early childhood mommy and me groups there and began taking her to services etc.   Bar or Bat Mitzvah is not an end, it's the beginning of a Jewish person's existence as a fully incorporated member of the community.  Soon, my daughter will be able to be part of a minyan, she will be able to move forward and fully participate as a Jew in any segment of the community she wishes.  It's kind of cool actually.
5. Current reading is exceeding the warp containment field of readingness.  Currently, I am in the middle of not 1, not 2 but 6 books!  Fire Within, Chris D'Lacey, Dhampir, Barb and JC Hendee,The Best American Nonrequired reading 2007, The Luxe, Anna Godberson,Shakspeare, Bill Bryson,10 Conversations You Need To Have With Your Children, Shmuley Boteach.  I'm also reading the latest issues of Vanity Fair, The Believer,Clothe-Paper-Scissors,O,Yankee,Blueprint,The Atlantic,Time,New York Times,The Nation, Wild Fibers and some I am forgetting.  This could have something to do with my on again/off again insomnia and my lack of knitting.  If tomorrow is indeed a snow day I hope to spend a good part of the morning reading because...
6. we thought ahead!  Tomato-Potato-Cheddar-Beer Soup via Crescent Dragonwagon's wonderful cookbook, Dairy Hollow House Soup and Bread has been made. We used Smuttynose Beer's Barleywine Ale and it really tasted yummy.  It's a hearty soup so a salad and maybe a bit of cornbread is all you need.  We also made Chicken soup w/ matzoh balls.  So we are set for a cold, snowy day indoor (although if it lets up there's cocoa for after we play outside.
7. In the interest of full disclosure and honesty I must admit that in the above entry "we" means I directed and John was sous chef.  And um "play outside" means the kids and maybe I play outside and John snow blows. 
8. So we have friends who in addition to their day-to-day lives doing mundane tasks, are artists who work in glass. The husband is a glassblower and periodically he gifts us with what he calls "seconds" and we call "free art and glassware".  One of the neat byproducts of some of his efforts are long, some my say phallic shaped glass objects of varying hues and sizes.  A few of them have made their way into a an area of the front garden beds.  The other day I came home and found a lovely clear glass flower on a long glass stem stuck in with the others and a couple of small smaller pieces there as well.  I am wondering if the snow will cover the glass flower or not.  If not I will take pictures.
9. OK, there is reading and knitting and spinning to be done.  Tomorrow I will hopefully learn to play Apples to Apples (although if my children are reading this...please let mommy sleep in a bit if it's a snow day, you know where the cereal and milk are!)

Stupid US media of all types.

Warning: Mini political rant coming on (with very minor knitting content to follow):

Dear Various Media Outlets,

Stop messing with us and telling us what kind of race it is, was or should be.  It's January!!  One minute you're all about Obama and then it's poor Obama loses momentum.  Hilary is a robot!  No wait-she's too emotional-no wait again she's only pretending to be emotional-no really she is emotional and has lost the election already...oops no she "won" NH.  Huckabee, McCain whatever (in my humble opinion as long as Romney isn't on the GOP ticket I'll be pleased).  Edwards is plastic..no wait, he's real, he's a contender..um no..he isn't.

The media (of all sorts) pretends to care about the issues but for reasons unknown prefer to comment on non essentials and then express shock when the people actually seem to care about issues.

Here's the deal, just let us decide for ourselves whether McCain is too old, or Hilary "cares", or Obama is sincere etc.  I don't need several paragraphs dissecting why a candidates daughter is accompanying her mom.  I'm sick of you (the media) jumping to conclusions and then because you need to be right going to great lengths to sell that conclusion to us.

Here's a thought.  Write about those issues.  Ignore all the spin and artifice the handlers feed you.  Remind us what a mess this country is in and why.  We'll make up our minds and hopefully not screw things up to badly in November.

Yours,

Amysue

p.s.  I'm sick again.  And ala The Harlot I'm going to stop for real for a couple of days and let my body recuperate and get back on track. 

p.p.s. I'm knitting something for me.  I decided to just grab some long loved but neglected yarn from the stash and make something pretty and useful for me..in this case the Fingerless Gloves (w/ ruffled cuffs) from Sandi Rosner's Not Just Socks using Dani's (Sunshine Yarns) hand-dyed striping sock yarn in Black and Blue (purchased over a year ago and looking smashing so far).  I'll take pics when theres enough of something to photograph.

p.p.p.s.  Sick bed reading: The Book of Other People, edited by Zadie Smith, The Art of Simple Food, Alice Waters, The Fire Within, Chris D'Lacey, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007 edited by Dave Eggers (and the intro is by Sufjan Stevens!)  On the Kindle I am reading The Luxe, Anne Godberson.

p.p.p.p.s. Mostly though I sleep.

Damn it's cold.

It wasn't always this cold.  No...I remember a time not so very long ago when it was warm. 

   And yet, tonight it seems a very, very long time ago.

Grown in 2007.

Made in 2007.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I didn't take pictures of everything I made, but it's neat to see some of it.  I'm hoping I have more finished objects in 2008 (and that I remember to document them!)