Hearts and Flowers University

Practicing

2011-11-30T13:44:00.001-05:00

I'm taking notes for a practice blog post in case I decide to run a blog for a brand. Even if I don't turn it into a blog post, it will break down nicely into Twitterable/Facebookable chunks.

May will bring change . . .

2011-05-04T12:58:00.000-04:00

. . . and some of them I can't talk about just yet, but most of them I'm looking forward to. Of course we will be sad that Grandmama will not be living in the apartment downstairs after about mid-month, but we believe she'll enjoy the social environment at Shannondale.
Robyn will graduate on her birthday this month, and come back home to live with us the following day. I think I'm ready - she has grown up a lot during the past year under her daddy's care. I look forward very much to having her return. It will be the start of a process of rehabilitating and reworking our relationship into a healthier form that will serve us both well in the coming years as she pursues her education and I pursue my career and (with luck and help) furthering my education, and as we both participate in varying ways in Alexander's upbringing.
I've already been given a little bump forward in my situation at Smarthinking in being named one of perhaps 15-20 new "Senior Leads" -- it doesn't mean an increase in my wages, but it's an increase in my hours and, most importantly, comes with benefits, including health insurance. That's a big plus for the whole family.
And bigger things are yet to come.

Old Friends, New Friends,

2011-02-19T10:26:00.001-05:00

An old friend took me to Hixon, TN, just outside of Chattanooga, yesterday to meet a new friend! The new friend, Becca, is an old friend of my old friend, Shelley. My new friend let me dig some Lenten Roses (helleborus) out of her yard and her sweet neighbor let us get some out of her yard, too. We also had lunch at an Asian restaurant (yummy sesame balls!). These plants flourish in the shade, so we plan to use them to pretty up GM's side yard and make the beginnings of a really pretty outdoor sitting area for her.

These are some of the plants, after we loaded them in the back of Shelley's car. Then we went to get some suet for Becca's neighbor and we only bought suet. And seeds. And other gardening stuff. Then we decided to go to Panera's for dinner and I got home so late I fell right into bed.

It was the first day in a long time that I hadn't done any work related to housecleaning or my job. A lovely day with two lovely friends.

My fully-filled charm bracelet with autism awareness charm.

2011-01-15T04:55:00.001-05:00

Equilibrium and the Roller Coaster: Economics for Real People

2011-01-08T07:04:00.000-05:00

I'm still working on the first topic of discussion, but I've finally got my long-planned economics discussion forum for non-economists up and running at Yuku. Stay tuned for the link and the first discussion. I'll be inviting everyone I know, and participation is by invitation only. If you know someone who'd like to participate, or if you don't get an invitation from me, let me know.

A wreath I refurbished

2010-12-07T20:21:00.001-05:00

With Gratitude Comes Confidence

2010-11-27T07:58:00.001-05:00

If you feel gratitude – really feel it – you find yourself subtly relaxing on the inside. You know you have the things in life that will sustain you, whatever happens. You feel confidence. You feel peace.

I have a son who will calmly and articulately say what needs to be said in a timely manner.

I have a friend who has always and will always be there to do just what I need, just when I need it.

I have another friend who truly cares, and who doesn’t need to be right by my side to know when and how to make me laugh.

I have a home in a city where a skillful surgeon is an easy drive away.

I have a cousin who knows what “keep it on your end of the grapevine” means.

I have the knowledge that I am loved.

I have a cell phone.

I have a sweet daughter who knows what is important in life.

I have the ability to sweep the unnecessary thoughts and feelings out of the way and get things taken care of.

My Thanksgiving came a day late this year, and with it came a bit of the confidence that I’ve lost in the last two harrowing years of my life. Thanks be to God, and to those named herein, for the things I have which will sustain me. Thanks be to God for a fresh, precious little fragment of peace.

18" Boy Dolls? Anyone?

2010-11-20T18:31:00.000-05:00

Alexander saw the American Girl doll commercial (strategically placed among the other order-in-time-for-Christmas toys) and stated most definitely that he wanted a boy doll just like those girl dolls. I thought surely there would be such a thing, but I'm not finding 18" boy dolls with blue eyes and brown hair so hard to find.

I wouldn't care so much, except I'm sort of pleased that the idea of having a boy doll appeals to him. For me, that aspiration is laden with worlds of meaning, all good.

If anyone knows of where an American Girl-quality and -style boy doll might be found, let me know in the comments.

A squirrel

2010-11-20T15:08:00.001-05:00

Who seemed fully aware I was watching him from the front set of my car. I think he was watching me back.

He's gone now. Alexander is taking a nap in his carseat, and we've just arrived home after taking Grandmama to the airport. Dean is at his office, making computers do their thing.

It's one of those moments between moments.

Free images at Wylio.com

2010-11-19T20:10:00.001-05:00

I like that this site makes the code for those of us who don’t know how to do it otherwise.

photo © 2005 nao-cha | more info (via: Wylio)

The only problem is, as you can see, once you've posted the image, there's no guarantee that the image will remain at the same location, available for display.

Still, I found 137 pages of emu, which is a lot more than I expected. Also, as you can see, the photo credit is built into the code, which is really nice. We historians like to credit our sources.

So it's not difficult to find another option. Actually, I think this one is prettier than the first.

photo © 2009 mctheriot | more info (via: Wylio)

I found out about Wylio at MakeUseOf.com.

Interesting picture

2010-11-17T21:12:00.001-05:00

I never knew what emu eggs look like. Here, it almost seems as if Tigger has laid them.

Thinking about Sunday Dinner

2010-10-24T05:04:00.001-04:00

I can’t figure out how my mom got so skilled. She cooked us all breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the world, with a few exceptions, and she did it sweetly, willingly, without ever the first question that she was the one to do that. And my mother is not exactly and even-tempered person. What’s more, she didn’t dither about like I do, trying to figure out what to make. She just went to the store, found what looked good, and produced (mostly) delicious, fabulous, English/Southern US-style meals without much forward planning. Her sister did this, too, though I think Auntie Ann’s cooking has more of a gourmet/Southern US influence. Significantly, while I know Grandmama was a more than competent cook, I don’t think cooking per se was ever really her “thing.” She cooked for important and numerous gatherings, as the wife of a minister, and I’m told she was the chief meal-maker (though I think Granddaddy Joe did more cooking than my Daddy ever did). Mom also claims Grandmama always shooed her out of the kitchen, so I don’t get the impression that she ever really taught my mother to cook. And yet, as we sometimes joke, my mom could look at a cupboard with a rotten potato and a dried bean and a fridge with a near-empty gallon container of milk and a rubbery carrot, take a pot missing a handle, and within half an hour produce a bounteous feast for a family of five to eight. The state of the kitchen tells you she worked some kind of magic (she cooks with wild abandon), but how she does it has always been an incredible mystery to me.
I can’t do it. I have to plan meticulously my family’s meals, and even when I do, by meal preparation time, I’m so exhausted that I’m often afraid if I try to cook, I’ll burn the food, spin into a tirade, and dissolve into dysfunction for the next 24 hours. These days, I handle about half the evening-time meals and my spouse uses the leftovers to produce creative concoctions for the rest.
And yet I enjoy cooking above almost all other things. If the timing is right, the kitchen clean, the pots shining and have their handles intact, and the fridge and pantry stocked with the full contingent of fresh ingredients for a meal that meets my high standards, I’m at peace and supremely happy when I cook. It feels nearly as natural as writing does to me. I look a little ahead, envision the next few sentences of my composition, and proceed through the working of my craft until I have produced a meal of nearly gourmet quality and high nutritional content.
I’ve recently realized that, perhaps I’ll never be the cook that my mom has been, but that, perhaps, I am the ideal Sunday dinner chef. She always cooked a scrumptious Sunday dinner after church (my mother watered and my stomach growled while we listened to music, I set the table with the fine china and silver, and my brothers and father waited eagerly for the call to the meal). Heretofore, the idea has seemed so daunting to me, and soup and sandwiches has been our Sunday dinner fare (we don’t dare brave the restaurants – both the Baptists and the Methodists get out before we hardy Episcopalians do). And anyway, for many years, it was just Robyn and me at the table, and we were often under the wing of another family – Jeanne’s or Darlene’s – with whom we attended church and, often as not, went home to dinner. The turbulence of my life since arriving in Knoxville has also discouraged me from cooking ambitious Sunday feasts.
But I think, at this point, the habit of cooking Sunday dinner might be a very therapeutic one for me to cultivate, and one that would be most beneficial to my little household. I won’t be able to wave my magic wand, as my mother can do, over a raw potato and a green tomato, though. So yesterday, I planned for an after-church meal of seeded roast pork, collard greens, and biscuits (my style tends towards the gourmet, but when I cook South, I don’t hold back). It’s not ambitious, but it’s a Sunday-quality meal. We finally got my fine china out of the attic when we moved (though we still don’t have an adequate china cabinet), but I don’t have my Robyn here to set the table while she complains bitterly of her grumbling tummy, so I’ll deck the table out with the Noritake before we leave for church. My hope is that by 2 o’clock we’ll be sitting down to The Return of Sunday Dinner.
Any suggestions for next Sunday are welcome!

Granola

2010-10-23T19:23:00.001-04:00

I made homemade granola for the first time today and feel a little silly for not having tried it before. It's a simple matter of spreading out some rolled oats in a spray-coated pan with a smaller amount of wheat germ or milled flax and some coarsely chopped walnuts, and then baking the mixture at 300 for thirty minutes, giving a stir halfway through. Then all you have to do is turn up the oven, pour a mixture of apple juice concentrate, a little brown sugar, and a couple of tablespoons of oil, stir to coat, and bake for another 30. Pull it out, cool it, toss it in an air-right storage container with some dried fruit, chopped finely, and enjoy over the next 4 or 5 weeks. You've got healthy cereal that's cheaper than bought granola and has a lot less fat.
Endless variations are possible. I added a dash of salt and some cinnamon and nutmeg to ours. Next time I'll try adding vanilla. Yummy!

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My neighbor's lovely maple

2010-10-19T14:50:00.001-04:00

The leaves are turning fast this year - not much rain means they'll fall fast, too, even though it hasn't been very cold yet.

I'm aching for a road trip.

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Gem show

2010-10-17T06:31:00.001-04:00

Shelley and I went to a "rock show" Friday and found some cool fossils for Robyn, some earrings I couldn't resist, and some jewelry-making classes in Maryville that we want to take. But the coolest things were the amethyst Shelley got me, and the obsidian cross pendant. Also, I have me a new rose quartz to play with.

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A Historian's Code

2010-10-03T21:08:00.000-04:00

Glenn Williams of the National Military Museum shared this to the H-NET early American listserv and my friend Doug Wolf sent it to me. Comments anyone? There are of course other "takes" on the historian's role, but this one more or less matches my own.

A Historian's Code (1)

1. I will footnote (or endnote) all my sources (none of this MLA or
social science parenthetical business).
2. If I do not reference my sources accurately, I will surely
perish in the fires of various real or metaphorical infernal regions and
I will completely deserve it. I have been warned.
3. I will respect the hard-won historical gains of those historians
in whose steps I walk and will share such knowledge as is mine with all
other historians (as they doubtless will cheerfully share it with me).
4. I will not be ashamed to say "I do not know" or to change my
narrative of historical events when new sources point to my errors.
5. I will never leave a fallen book behind.
6. I will acknowledge that history is created by people and not by
impersonal cosmic forces or "isms." An "ism" by itself never harmed or
helped anyone without human agency.
7. I am not a sociologist, political scientist, international
relations-ist, or any other such "ist." I am a historian and deal in
facts, not models.
8. I know I have a special responsibility to the truth and will
seek, as fully as I can, to be thorough, objective, careful, and
balanced in my judgments, relying on primary source documents whenever
possible.
9. Life may be short, but history is forever. I am a servant of
forever.

(1) Stewart, Richard, Ph.D., "Historians and a Historian's Code,"
ARMY HISTORY, No. 77 (Fall 2010), p. 46.

Photographers' Rights

2010-09-30T21:58:00.001-04:00

My friend, Mike, who is a photographer, videographer, and filmmaker posted this link to Bert P. Krages Attorney at Law Photographer's Rights Page: http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm - some stuff I'd never thought of before.

Android Phone Memory Management

2010-09-30T14:33:00.001-04:00

There's a really good article at Lifehacker.com about managing memory on a Droid Smartphone. It recommends, instead of an app killer, a program that tells you which apps are using cpu cycles, such as Watchdog. I went ahead and gave Watchdog a try; I found out the Bluetooth Sharing, a native app that runs at startup even if bluetooth isn't, is a big cpu user on my Droid.

2010-09-21T10:17:00.000-04:00

My most absorbing project lately is learning to get control of my time. I have a tendency allow my impulses to define what I spend my time on. But when I try to apportion my time among all the various facets of my life, I become anxious - paralyzed even.

I have already all the answers to what I'd most like to spend my time doing. The mystery is why I don't spend my time doing those things. And I also am suspicious of time itself. How does it work? Why does it seem to rush along so quickly at some times, and grind to a near stop at other times?

Ever since Robyn's suicide attempt the day before Mother's Day this year, and her departure for Georgia to live with her daddy, I've been increasingly absorbed with this question of time, and how to manage it, both externally and internally. Somehow, Robyn got to be a teenager, and one who jumped the nest too soon, while I was distracted by other things. I don't want that to happen with Alexander.

As I write this, I'm watching a mother bird feed her babies, nested in a hollow of an oak tree in our yard. She's talking to them as she dips her head in and out. What is she saying? How does she experience the moment to moment passage of time? A bird is among the busiest of all creatures. And yet, most of them find time to fly. Why oh why can't I?

Hearts and Flowers University

Practicing

May will bring change . . .

Old Friends, New Friends,

My fully-filled charm bracelet with autism awareness charm.

Equilibrium and the Roller Coaster: Economics for Real People

A wreath I refurbished

With Gratitude Comes Confidence

18" Boy Dolls? Anyone?

A squirrel

Free images at Wylio.com

Interesting picture

Thinking about Sunday Dinner

Granola

My neighbor's lovely maple

Gem show

More questions than answers

A Historian's Code

Photographers' Rights

Android Phone Memory Management