Slap It!

 https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Wearable-Silicone-Wristband-Healthcare/dp/B08YR9D6FZ

I’m always looking for ways to improve productivity. A to do list is the most basic unit no matter how you dress it up, but I recently found a new version of this basic on Amazon—the to do list slap bracelet. If you’re a little older you will remember the slap bracelet with its ability to transform from a flat rectangle into a bracelet with just a tap on your wrist. Someone has developed a grown-up version with a ruler printed on one side and a place to make a list on the other.

This simplicity gets a little complicated as you need a frixion erasable pen and an eraser so that the list can be erased and the bracelet be used over and over again. I think it is worth it. I got one for myself and for each child still living at home. They even come in colors.

 

A Little Vegetarian

 

I am always trying to expand what I am willing to eat, partly because I’m stubborn about food and partly because I want to be ready to eat whatever in case of an Apocalypse. Vegetarian is a new category. In my ideal world all the fast food chains would offer a veggie option to save the world and our diets. For that to happen we have to be eating more vegetarian food, so I’m trying to eat more vegetarian food. Taco Bell offers the excellent Crunchwrap, a long-term favorite, and when I heard it came vegetarian with black beans, I could not think of a reason to decline. It’s delicious. The texture of the the beans blends with all the other textures and I get to be virtuous for nearly no effort. 

Give it a try. It’s good for you and the planet.

Changed

 

I only planned on giving Revelations of Divine Love a week. It was important and would close the loop on female, medieval mystics, but it was me in collector mode. I did not expect to be changed by the reading. St. Julian received a deep bounty of wisdom about the love of God and its impact on our lives. She shares it with clarity and humility. You really must read it for yourself. Take your time. You will be a different person when you finish.

On an aside, I might pair it with Kierkegaard’s The Sickness Unto Death. She surely shares the antidote.

Dust Ups: Shaun Overton

 

I fell in love with Africa when I was a child. I grew up in a mission-minded church that supported missionaries, and the missionaries would come back every four or five years and teach us where they’d been. They would bring back slides, items, but most of all stories. It meant a whole Sunday away from the monotony of our preaching cycle, and a glimpse of the exotic. We sent missionaries everywhere, even in the US, but my favorite was always Africa.

I meant to be a missionary myself, but God had other plans. In any case, I get excited about African content. I bumped into The Green Wall of Africa, where they are fighting desertification one hole in the ground at a time. I went through a lot of You Tube videos about it all, but they felt static, like encyclopedia articles. Shaun Overton sneaked into my feed with his project in west Texas. Buying a large ranch in the desert, he is deternied to raise up a desert forest. He was just this guy going out there with no real idea of what he was doing, but determined to do it. It is that grit that makes the show interesting. He hires experts. He chops up cactus. He takes a week a month to put in the hard labor his project demands. I just love it.

I wish someone would create the same long-format story-telling in Africa.

Mrs. Who Phase

 

In the past when I was making the choice about new frames for my glasses I tried to get the most flattering  one. Most of the time I chose the most unobtrusive pair, preferring to present my face rather than a mask, as much as possible.

I am slowly becoming aware that working with children is my thing. I like lots of things. There are many things I can do, but children make me the happiest. If you can help someone get their feet on the good path in their childhood you will save them so much grief. Things that are so hard to adopt in adulthood are simply accepted by children. The school I grew up in loved the quote, “It is easier to build a boy than mend a man.” Setting aside the sexism it is true. I’d like to build children.

Buying new glasses was different this time around. I bought them on line. They offered various ways to virtually try frames on, but I never quite got them working. In the end I just liked what appeared to be a light brown pair. It was a great experience, the glasses arrived swiftly and I love them. They are however, more of a mask. They remind one of Sybil Trelawny. I like to think of them as Mrs. Who from A Wrinkle in Time. Children do need some space from the adults in their lives. Adults carry all the broken things that come with maturity. 

I’m Back!

 

Somewhere around April I quit reading. I’m not sure why. I love the book I was reading at the time. I just couldn’t find the energy to invest in books and all the activities I center around reading. I tried to force it, but it just wouldn’t go. 

Setting that aside I turned to streaming and Redecor. Eventually it was just noise playing in the background while I thought about my life. Thinking about one’s life is generally a lonely experience unless you can afford a therapist or have very impartial and patient family and friends. 

For whatever reason, I’m reading again. Finally finished Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays. The book was as great as it was when I took a break from reading. The medieval vocabulary and interpretation of the Bible turn me on. It also puts me four books away from my current Crowhook goal. Lots of goals worth reaching, feel just at my fingertips.

Big Plan Books

 

When I was a child I loved gigantic books. Coffee table books weren’t a thing where I grew up, so anytime I found myself faced with a giant book on a coffee table I was impressed by how fancy this home was. My uncle used to give me some money just to see what I’d buy, and he was particularly pleased with the purchase of Vasari’s Great Masters. I was pleased because it was huge with great pictures and lots to read.

Homeschooling provided an excuse for buying more giant books, like world atlases, science omnibuses, and more art. I used to worry that I’d wasted money, but I recently looked them up. The spines are destroyed. They were getting read even if I wasn’t seeing it. 

I intend to spend significant time with my grandchildren, enough to need planning which is so fun. I’ve bought books (Cousin Camp, Camp Granny) and I’m doing lots of day dreaming. I’ve decided to incorporate a “Big Book Time” into longer stays. I’ll set a timer for 15 minutes or so and let them choose a giant book from the cram jam on the kid book case to explore. With such a variety it might fill an afternoon.

Here are some titles that’ll be on my shelf.

Hammond World Atlas

Vasari’s Great Masters

America’s Glorious Quilts

Earth by James F. Luhr

Peanuts by Charles Schultz

Christopher Columbus by Consuelo Varela

The Illustrated Treasury of Classic Children’s Stories by Charles Santore