Otherwendy

I’ve decided to take a somewhat easy way out on this topic. Since a year has twelve months, I’ll blog about twelve things in my life since January. I’ll be as random as I can, which is hard for me.

1. I spent at least an hour each week watching Eva and ten to twelve other little girls learn a bit of ballet and tap and gymnastics. Little girls dancing and tumbling in a group have a the twirliest kind of energy I have ever seen. And they can tap extremely loudly.

2. Eva switched from her two-day-a-week Parents’ Day Out program, which she adored, to a full-time Montessori school. It is a big adjustment for her and for our daily life. Today, Eva had a lesson on sewing buttons, because yesterday, I told Ms. Ella I think Eva works well with her hands. Ella said Eva worked really hard at the sewing for a long time. I can’t wait to see her do it. We also joined a new church this year.

3. I have not lost or gained weight, so far. I am enamored of a book I read on the subject of overeating, called Women Food and God. The basic principle of this book (that people use overeating and bad habits in general to separate themselves from other things they’d rather not confront) resonates with me. So do its guidelines and suggestions. But I haven’t been able to bring them to bear over my appetite and imagination in any actual moment yet.

4. Some of the firsts for Eva this year—She can go to town on a jigsaw puzzle and a memory game, sing in tune, fall asleep without us (sometimes), tie her shoes, hula hoop, count to thirty and beyond, memorize and recite (with rap-like enthusiasm and beatbox sounds) poems and nursery rhymes, navigate the iPad and iPhone and all her games, just barely swim, express her thoughts and emotions well with her words (and her moods), write letters, tie dye, and crack an egg. Right now, she wants to learn to shuffle cards.

5. David and I have been trying to be more deliberate about how we live our lives and influence Eva’s, how we spend our time, space, money, and energy. We are gradually getting our house ready to sell, one step at a time, and this year, we’ve made some good progress. (Kudos to David, on that one.)

6. I have been working on my novel on a scheduled, regular basis. It makes me feel great, because there was a time I only got around to writing a few times a month, at best. I have started another writing project (inspired by library-land) and a short story as well, which I hope to finish and enter in a contest by the end of this month. 

7. I co-hosted a baby shower for my dear friends Honor and Drew, which made me happy happy happy.

8. I ate a lot of sushi, sometimes with friends and sometimes alone with a book. This relates to number 3, I suppose. And number 9. 

9. I read many books (but not as many as my friend Emily). I discovered a new series to devour, George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. I re-read a book from my childhood, A Wrinkle in Time. I loved a book we read in my book club, The Shadow of the Wind. The most recent book I finished is The Magicians. 

10. I listened to writing-related podcasts while cleaning the house and driving to work. Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing and I Should be Writing are the ones I’ve been devouring the most. Every time I listen to writing podcasts, I am boosted. 

11. I enjoyed my job for the most part, even though it is a tumultuous time in our library system. I like “moving books” and teen programs (when teens show up). I like Panera Thursdays and having lunch with the staff before work on Saturdays, especially when Penny makes one of her masterpieces like heroin wings or falafel. Or lemon chicken soup. I don’t like grime-smeared book covers and knee-high bookdrops, but every job has its drudgery. One other piece of drudgery—no one showed up for an awesome Flip Camera program for teens I helped plan. But, on a much better note, one of my best friends, Erin, joined the library staff and moved to Knoxville!  

12. I made plans to go camping for the first time in years. They fell through because of the weather, or rather, our fear of weather, but we still have a month or two of camping season left. The wild is calling…

I know there are many other things of note I am leaving out, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t happen. Does it? 

Oh yeah. Another tree fell on our house.