The Way of the Wind

2 June 2009, 2:01 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Folks, Life

For some reason it seems like our drier was broken a lot when my family lived in El Paso. That might just be how I remember things though. But it was never that big of a problem. We had an umbrella style drying rack outside in our yard. And honestly, clothes would frequently dry faster out there in the El Paso heat and dry air than they would have in an electric drier. Not only that, but clothes dried in the air last longer (heat and tumbling wear out clothes) and it saved energy costs over running the drier.

Then I went to Brasil on my mission. Not only did I dry clothes on a line, but we washed them by hand in a wash basin or a bucket. I’m still not a big fan of washing all my clothes, especially sheets (although that builds up good hand and lower arm muscles) by hand, drying clothes was easy.

Then I went to Mexico to student teach. We washed clothes in a washer, but hung them all out to dry.

Then I came back to the States and lived in apartments. I’d use my quarters to wash clothes in the washing machines, but then I’d bring my clothes back to my apartment, wet, and hang them up on collapsible drying racks in my living room. Even when I had a working washing machine in my own apartment (ie, connecting and acting as a washing machine rather than a microwave stand), I still never considered buying a drier.

With the Tucson summer, I know I can wash clothes in the afternoon, and they’ll be dry in the evening, even though I’m still hanging them to dry on collapsible racks in my living room.

I’ve heard of neighborhoods run by HOAs that don’t allow clotheslines. I’m crossing my fingers I never live in one of those. It seems like one of the most ridiculous rules there could be. I’m already slightly annoyed that I could get in trouble for the few times I carry my racks out to my patio here at my apartment to get a little more air on them. (They’re concerned with me drying some towels and jeans on the patio while stupid neighbor kid is trying to kill himself and others jumping off the stairs on his skateboard?)

In the mean time, I’m going to feel very New Yorker when I put my clothes up to dry this afternoon.

4 Shared thoughts

They aren’t my sixth graders any more

29 May 2009, 11:43 am by Giggles
Categories: Education, Life

In August of 2002 I stood in front of my first students as a newly graduated teacher. I wonder if they knew I was making it up as I went that whole year.

Today, those sixth graders I taught that first year are wearing a cap and gown as high school graduates. Wow! Brings a bit of a tear to my eye.

I’ll have former students graduating from now until 2020 (this year’s first graders, my last kindergartners). It’s a little weird to think of them all grown up now. I wonder what they are going to do next. I also wonder if what I did had any effect at all.

2 Shared thoughts

When cleaning clutter is BAD

28 May 2009, 8:32 am by Giggles
Categories: Folks

One of my goals for this summer is to really go through my stuff and clear out what I don’t need. I tried to do that when I moved last year, but I wasn’t able to do a spectacular job of it because the move was rather fast, and I was trying to move not clean. So aside from getting a lot of sewing/quilting done (which I am making visible progress on and it feels good) I also want to get rid of stuff. My mind feels more organized when my surroundings are more organized (that wasn’t a problem when I was a teenager which explains why I didn’t feel such a need to clean when I was a teenager, must be old age or something).

But this does NOT mean that I will be cleaning out down to the bare minimum needed for survival. I live in a home. Homes are where you thrive. Homes are where memories live. And some of those memories live in objects.

So reading a post on Declutter Your Life about, “letting go of sentimental attachments,” part of me wanted to scream out, “Noooo!!!” It’s those sentimental objects that make a house a home. It’s that feeling you get when you open up a book that belonged to your grandpa and see some notes he made in pencil. It’s seeing the little nick-knacks that remind you of who you are, where you came from, where you’ve been, where you are going, and those who love you along the way.

I’ve seen the pictures and tv shows of people who take it to an extreme. Junk is junk and should be thrown out. But don’t throw out your memories. Don’t de-clutter your home to the point of living in a large hotel room that has no meaning. We need that meaning in our life. It’s part of being human.

4 Shared thoughts

For not being a morning person…

23 May 2009, 7:35 am by Giggles
Categories: Family, Life, Questions

I am NOT a morning person. My parents will testify to that. Family lore has it that I’ve never been a morning person. And there’s facts and truths to back it up.

As a baby I’d go to sleep about the time Dad got up for work. When I’d run with Dad in elementary through high school during the summer, we’d get up early, but I’d go back to bed when we got home while he went on to work. Early morning seminary darn near killed me. It was more than once that my roommates woke up in the morning during college to find a cheese cake in the fridge that hadn’t been there when they went to bed because I’d feel like making one at 2am while I was studying. Dad joked that the 8 regulated hours of sleep I’d get as a missionary (10:30pm to 6:30am) would be the most sleep I’d ever get in my life (I surprisingly only woke up mad at my alarm clock once as a missionary). If left completely to my own devices, as I am every summer (one of the benefits of my chosen career) I’ll get my eight hours of sleep, but they’ll be the eight hours between 4am and noon. And they’ll be better than the eight hours I could get between 10pm and 6am during the school year.

Me. Not a morning person.

Mom isn’t much of a morning person either. So that’s probably where I get it from. Night is just so nice! It’s cool. It’s quiet. It’s less distracting (as long as there aren’t cheese cake ingredients in the house). I love my nights.

So then explain to me, why, left to my own devices of late, I’ve been going to bed before midnight (before 11pm some nights even!) and waking up between 5 and 7 in the morning?

I think part of it has to do with my garden. Mornings are still rather cool. So I wake up, go for a run, and then sit on my porch and enjoy looking at my plants and watching the hummingbirds come get breakfast at the feeder and read the scriptures. And then, and this is where it gets real weird, rather than go back to sleep, I actually get stuff done during the morning rather than doing it at night.

I think this is going to have to remain an unsolved mystery. We may never know why I’m suddenly sleeping like a “normal” person like my dad’s been telling me to do my whole life. I think I’ll just enjoy whatever comes.

1 Shared thought

What if they’d had 911 in ancient Jerusalem

21 May 2009, 2:02 pm by Giggles
Categories: Random

The man who provides the audio for the Bible does as good a job as he can given the situation to put some emotion in it. Some of it manages to be funnier than others.

Last year when I was listening to the Old Testament while I was running, the book of Job cracked me up. When I shared it with Brett, he suggested combining the words of the servants with another little audio bit.42D

So with a little bit of audio magic, this is what we get:

Job’s servant calls 911

For other biblical audio fun, check out the quirky old Hebrew guy in this clip: To confuse or amuse.

5 Shared thoughts

And now for the news

19 May 2009, 9:09 am by Giggles
Categories: Books, Education, Health, News, Science & Tech

Time to clean out my news feeds again.

Today we’ll go through drawing, space photos, magazines, sprained ankles, math, math, communicating, and writing letters.

Keep reading →

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How to have a great weekend in 3 easy steps

18 May 2009, 8:07 am by Giggles
Categories: Happy Things, Life, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

And now for my 3 step program to having a great weekend.42D

Step 1 – Have a great dinner Friday night and then go see “Harlie’s Angels” at The Gaslight Theatre, a musical melodrama parody of the show “Charlie’s Angels” with more disco and polyester than you can shake a stick at. Recognize pretty much every song they use because your mom always had a lot of music in the house.

Step 2 – Enjoy a productive Saturday where you get the house cleaned and sew the top to an absolutely adorable quilted wall hanging and then go to Stake Conference for a pretty darn good adult meeting.

Step 3 – After the general session of Stake Conference, come home and make homemade scones and put together vegetable and fruit trays and eat scones with homemade strawberry jam and the vegetables and fruits for dinner because it’s too hot to cook anything else or eat anything else (and because somebody was craving cheese, broccoli, and cauliflower). Enjoy a nap. Have some stimulating conversation, learn about Victoria Falls, and have a nice walk around the block after the sun goes down and it starts to cool off.

All in all, I had a real great weekend. Life is good.

Being confused by a strange sound outside Sunday afternoon that turns out to be a lone cloud in the sky that’s raining at your house is completely optional. But it does let you know that you’ve been in the desert for a while when rain confuses you.

3 Shared thoughts