Doodle Album

I am an occasional doodler, and it tends to be on hand-outs or in margins. Sometimes I find I have saved a piece of paper not for its information, but for its doodles. To declutter, I shall start saving digital photographs of these doodles, and throwing the originals away.

I Like Lists

Recently, via a haphazard path of links on links, I came upon a fun website called Flavorwire. Its articles are all in the framework of lists. I am a listmaker by nature, and as it turns out, I also enjoy reading other people's lists on interesting topics. So as a nod to the list with explanation format of Flavorwire, here are some of the Flavorwire articles I have enjoyed:
1 http://www.flavorwire.com/291877/10-fictional-characters-people-need-to-stop-idolizing
This was the article that brought me to Flavorwire, and the list does make me go "who is looking at any of these characters and going 'that's me!' and thinking that's a good thing?"

2 http://www.flavorwire.com/290560/10-ya-books-that-scarred-us-for-life
Of those books on this list that I have read (Where the Red Fern Grows, The Giver, The Golden Compass, Lord of the Flies) I definitely agree that they are not for children. For those of you who are less familiar with these works, Where the Red Fern Grows is one of that overnumerous category of 'books about a kid and the dog(s) he loves and the dog(s) die at the end' which they all too often have children read in elementary school. The Giver, while conceptually interesting, is dark, has a confusing, potentially depressing ending, and (particularly offensive to me) vilifies knowing what words mean and using them correctly! Communication only works if all parties involved are understanding a word or symbol to have the same meaning, and the fact that a WRITER is ignoring that fact troubles me deeply. The Golden Compass (thinly veiled anti-religion propaganda) has horrible things happening to children, and a series conclusion which children will find unsatisfying, and which acts like it is a grown-up solution which you children readers just aren't mature enough to appreciate, but in fact, having read it as an adult, is legitimately unsatisfying and is not actually justified by the book even though he killed off the boy's father to try and make it make sense. Lord of the Flies is shipwrecked kids going ferrel and vicious on an island.

3 http://www.flavorwire.com/291123/10-of-the-weirdest-childrens-book-authors-of-all-time
Like #2, from what I was familiar with, i agreed with this list. But unlike #2, it gave me good ideas for pleasant future reading with Baby Girl, instead of triggering my Bad Book Angries.

4 http://www.flavorwire.com/293974/gorgeous-photographs-of-london-reflected-in-puddles
These are some beautiful, disorienting photographs, some of which can give a slight feeling of vertigo. I don't only enjoy lists of authors and books.

5 http://www.flavorwire.com/293384/10-antisocial-designs-for-your-inner-recluse
A bunch of stuff that aids aloneness. It is pretty cool.

This Week in the Garden

While the lilacs have passed and the forget-me-nots are going to seed, the roses and bearded(?) irises have come in to bloom. Clearly the previous owner, who planted all this, was in favor of the continuously blooming garden, but it's prettiness does not mean that it is time for me to rest on my laurels! (ok, no more puns)
This warm sunny weather is good for gardening (especially if you have iced tea or ice cream to cool off with afterward), so by the end of the long weekend, I'm hoping to have a few things squared away.
Must do:
- start replacement corn seeds
- start marigold and sunflower seeds
- weed as needed
- start warm weather veggies (I missed spring, so peas will have to wait until fall)
- fertilize with bunny droppings

May Do:
- pull out most of the lamb's-ear plant
- take apart wooden pallets and build raised bed (for the veggies; otherwise they go in pots)
- trim back lilac bushes
- turn compost

A Simple Healthy Eating Tip

The Tip: choose the healthy foods you WILL eat, not the healthy foods you SHOULD eat.
I've been trying to improve my diet, both for my own health, and so I can be a better role-model for Baby Girl. I tried buying the fresh fruits and veggies that were most appealing at the store each week, and had mixed success. We've had tasty steamed asparagus, and we've fed broccoli to the bunny (healthy for the bunny, though). There have been days when I ate an apple in my lunch at work, and days when I brought the same apple in again in hopes I would eat it this time.
Finally, I realized that there are certain healthy foods that I eat more readily and reliably than others, and healthy as it is to "eat a rainbow" and get lots of variation in your fruits and vegetables, for me it isn't currently an issue of eating this fruit vs. that one, but of dishing up this fruit which I will eat, vs. that one which I only might. Therefore, I have turned my larger goal of "eat a plentiful variety of fruits and veggies" to the two, more easily achieved goals of "get in the habit of eating more fruits and veggies", and then "get more variety in my fruits and veggies." Now my standard sack lunch has baby carrots and guacamole and apple sauce; all healthy foods that I like to eat (and bonus: they say having a little fat- such as in non-reduced fat dressings or in guacamole- with your veggies can help you absorb the nutrients). Would it be healthier to switch off each day's fruit and alternate the colors of my veggie? Sure, if I would always eat them, but right now I'm cultivating the habit of eating those things rather than crackers or cookies or the like, so I'm ok with it.

Baby Proofing: How the Heck Do You Make That Safe?

We've lowered the crib mattress all the way and put on the gummy rail-protector so when she grows some teeth she won't be biting bits off it. We've put covers on the doorknobs and in the outlets. I even picked up some Velcro cable ties to try and keep long wires out of her way.
Here are some things I'm still puzzled by:
- how to keep her from unplugging things
- what to do about smaller pieces of furniture (chairs, end tables) that she can move while sitting on the ground
- how to keep her out of the dog's bed/toys/crate/food/water, without effectively punishing the dog

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

It's Alive!

I am delighted to find that I spoke too soon last weekend when I wrote off me veggie and melon seeds. I was out gardening at the beginning of the week and found several sprouts coming up. When I was letting the dog out this morning I saw that there were even a couple more sprouts than I had noticed before. I will have to replant the blue jade corn though.

The Week My Garden Was Made For

When we went out of town, all that was blooming was the forget-me-nots and the dandelions (aka tortoise food). We got back this past week, and the forget-me-nots were blooming like gang-busters, the columbine had gone from just low mounds if leaves to having loads of their colorful, long-stalked blossoms, the purple and the white lilacs were blooming and scenting the whole yard, and the strawberry plants are blooming too. The only thing that hadn't flourished while we were gone were the fruit and veggie seeds I had planted just before our last frost; I think it's safe to say at this point that the aren't coming up. Today seems like a good day to start more seeds to replace them, and I have more of almost everything.

Top 3 Reasons to Avoid Reading Comments on Internet Articles

3) Internet commenters are very often angry and mean, and I don't need to bring their unpleasantness in to my day.
2) Comment threads tend to cycle through the same half-dozen or so responses, so reading more than that is redundant.
1) A certain percentage of Internet users cannot or will not form a coherent post to share. It's not all weird word usage and incorrect grammar either (even though those things DO make it harder to understand what a post means)- some people don't use punctuation. Punctuation was invented for a reason! I can't tell what you're saying if there is no demarcation between you sentences.