Friday, December 17, 2010

Christmas Read

The only thing I must have for Christmas is a book!
It is a tradition that I get myself and each of my children a book for Christmas. I never choose a book for Kari-he usually picks his own and I can never guess his taste because he's all over the place in what he wants to read. I think he'd be happy if Micheal Crichton had a new book however.
That's all I need and if it were up to me that's all they'd get. I love having some days off and time to read.
It's been a busy year so far, and I'm sorry to say, aside from some Old Testament and my daily Book of Mormon fix I haven't finished a book since "Ahab's Wife" this last summer. Oh, I did read a really annoying little Richard Paul Evan's book a few weeks ago-but that's not what I'm after. I'm talkin' really good down time with a really good book. I'm going hunting for my Christmas read this weekend.

I'd like to pick a new one, but if I can't find one that looks good I'll just reread one of my faves; Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice or maybe Les Miserables.
I'm also in love with the books I read with Henrik when he did "HomeSchool" for a few months in fourth grade. I'm not even sure if I can say what it is those books really meant to us, but we theorized together that the world has just always been a rough and "dangerous place" full of scary and impossible trials-you just have to "get through". That seemed like a really important thought for a fourth grade boy and his mom that year. We read "The Lonesome Gods" by Louis L'amour, "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas" and "Little Britches". Maybe I'll read one of those again.
I loved reading the abridged "Shakespeare for young readers" with Raini one summer-those classic stories alongside beautiful illustrations kept her attention all the way through Romeo and Juliet to Macbeth. Jon's favorites have included "Super Diaper Baby"and "Hashbrown Winters" but he has been brainwashed-I mean- converted by his dad to Science fiction through "Runaway Robot" and I'm not sure how many times they've read that one together, but they really need a new book!
Oh the exquisite joy of reading "Heidi" and "Little Women" with Sophie and Miya! Fifth and sixth grade are the perfect time to read about Meg's desire for popularity, Amy's tantrum's and Heidi's compassion and service despite her homesickness!

We've found other books that have also worked their way down deep into our souls over the years; "Fablehaven", "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane", "Stargirl", "White Fang", "Diary of a Wimpy kid" and various Harry Potter's to name a few.

I've recommended lots of books to my kids over the years and now they're giving me some ideas ...
Raini is still waiting for me to finish the last of the "Twilight" series-still don't know what happens. Henrik thinks I should read "Hunger Games" even though I will be grossed out. Sophie and Miya are way into Ghost Stories like "Waiting for Helen" or "A Doll in the Garden" so I have lots of good ideas and can't wait to see what I will pick!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

11:11

Back in "the Day" when I was dating the guy who is now my husband a funny thing happened...
One day we were driving in my car, I'm not sure why because usually we motored around in his freezing cold VW Bus-maybe it was in for repairs that day or something, but there we were going out on our date or running errands or whatever it was we were doing and we were done and getting back in my car to go home and he screamed; "AH-H-H-H-H-H!" It made me jump and swerve and I may have screamed back something like "What the heck is wrong?"
Did I almost hit a pedestrian? a dog? what?
He asked "Why does your clock radio say 11:11?"
I said "Geeze-it's broken er something and it always says 11:11!!!"
I explained that I hardly ever noticed it, but thought that it resets itself every time I start the car to 11:11. It hadn't said that before because once I'm driving it starts keeping time from 11:11. It was in fact around 7:00 0r 8:00 at night and my car radio clock flashed 11:11.
"Well, here's the weird thing..." he explained "....all my friends know I have a freaky weird connection to the time 11:11! For years I started noticing that whenever I looked at a clock it was always 11:11, and after I told some of my friends, whenever I would look at a clock and they'd be with me I'd say "Look there it happenend again-it's 11:11...the only time I ever look at a clock it's 11:11! They started to notice how freaky it was- more than a kind of coincidence-it's like the universe will only let me see clocks with 11:11! And now you're telling me that even though it's nowhere near 11:11 I'm looking at your clock that says 11:11?"
He dated some cute girls before me-but I'm the only one he got a "clock message" with.
The rest is history.
It would have been fun if one of our babies had an 11/11 birthday or something, but our five children came when they were supposed to, I think.
Since then whenever I look at a clock and it's 11:11 I smile. It happens a lot.
I also like the Date November 11th. There have been a few years when we've called each other on 11/11 at 11:11. This year it won't work because of our work schedules. He's often in the Lab at Merritt Medical and I'm over at the School doing my "Reading Rotations" in Mrs Miller's class.
There are a few other things that seem sort of special regarding that date. A few years ago my Dad shared with me the fact that 11/11 is the date he considers his "recovery date." He's been Sober since that date 30 something years ago.
Then there's Veterans Day. That must qualify the date as a kind of cosmic and or spiritual date for sure. We honor those who have given their lives in the name of Home and Country and Freedom, on that date. Maybe it's a kind of an acknowledgement and connection between our world and the spirit world-we know and remember them and maybe they know us, we who are their sons and daughters-maybe they get glimpses of who we are, and what we're up to...you know, checking on us to see what we're doing with all that hard won freedom-because they gave us so much. Anyway, Veterans Day feels like a Holy Day.
I once considered the idea of throwing a Big Party next year for 11/11/2011.
But, it dosn't quite feel like the right kind of thing to do.
I'm not sure what day of the week It falls on next year, or what we'll all be doing then , but I hope I'll be able to acknowlege quietly the moment when it's 11:11.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Our Alien life

As parents of a child with disabilities, we let go of the world most people live in and enter a world apart. One day, all of a sudden, we say goodbye to earth as we know it and go speeding off to a new dimension in the space/time continuum.
This new world is freaky, spazzy, scary and thrilling, and adjustment to it takes some time, as well as some hours of prayer and meditation.
It's a world where a person's success is not meted out in the usual ways. Instead of popularity, straight A's, or winning in soccer, we honor more a drawing of a sunset, a well-told idea that took 20 minutes to get out, a prayer of gratitude, or laughing and crying together. We learn new definitions of what is beautiful, worthy, clever and also what is meaningful. We learn very early not to attach too much weight to other peoples opinions or recommendations concerning our children, and steer sharply clear of those who are easy with the dispensation of judgements. We search out friends and family who accept the fact that we have become aliens. Our deepest bonds are within our own spaceship. Sometimes we do meet friendly earthlings who sort of like the thrill of an occasional Alien encounter...and some of them even invite your child to a birthday party or sit by them at lunch, but for the most part, earthlings cannot see us. We are mostly invisible to them.
In this world, matching outfits and matching words do not matter, pets and animals are just as important a friend as your sister, cleaning your room can mean stacking your collection of Fuze bottles in a straight row,
trick-or treating when you're old, and lots of other exciting twists and turns.

This is a world where you can let go of the idea of perfection and find that it is wonderful to love and be loved for who you are right now- at this moment. We find that even Aliens are children of God. We find in this world that kindness is the most important thing and that just "being" is acceptable. We like living in this new world and would not choose to go back.