AWAKE! and a book and art....

Hallelujah ladies and gentlemen, I am able to say today that I am NOT exhausted. For the first time since we arrived in Canada about three weeks ago now, I feel good. Like James Brown put it. WoooHOOOOOOOO.

What a delightful feeling. Have to say, I am probably still tired in the grand scheme of things, but I am not simply dragging my sorry ass around from one thing to another fighting the numbness in my head. What a fantastic feeling.



OK, on to something more interesting. One of the things I noticed when I got here is that as far as I can tell, everyone and his hairy nose-picking uncle was reading, or at least had purchased Blink by Malcom Gladwell. Now this made me curious, and since we have some challenges around getting new books, there would have been times I would have fallen on it with GLEE. Not now. I started it, but really. Meh. He wanders all over the countryside in these really long examples that only shallowly illustrate what I think he is trying to get at. Pop psych. Blech.

What I picked up at work, always a fascinating place to find a good read, especially since some of my co-workers are deeply intelligent and passionate readers, was "The Hand" by neurologist Frank R. Wilson. The subtitle is "How its use shapes the brain, language and human culture." This I am dying to read. I have long believed for a variety of reasons that the close realtionship between the hand and the mind is one of the keynote factors in our humanity. That is aside from the mundane pincer grasp non-sense where we can do stuff because of our refined tool using. I think that this ability to make and use tools was shaped by, and was also instrumental in the sculpting of our minds, intelligence and human spirit. I am anticipating a good read. I'll try and let you know. Since those few lines of Blink are all I have managed in the last three weeks, which is profoundly pathetic for me, I am anticipating a pleasant evening as I may even stay awake for more than a paragraph!

Here are some pictures of some of the things that the kids are making at camp:


A troll's head if I am correct,



THe troll's fingers, one made by each child...



A musical instrument made by youngest and a buddy out of found materials from our walk yesterday...



Have a lovely day, I have.

Pics

I am tired of posting about being tired. Blech.
Soooooo instead here are some photos I took when we went on a wee field trip to Edwards gardens.

Plus, as a bonus, odd stuff I have seen around town....

This is a cool pattern I have seen in the pavement...

I have no idea what this is about.

I made a decent meal tonight anyway...spinach salad with grapefruit and avocado. Mmmm. There were other things too, but that was the best.

Crap dinner, but great company

Well, I managed to burn pasta tonight. I think that deserves some kind of freaking award anyway.

The girls had, shall we say, a FEW crises this evening, on top of me returning from work exhausted and suffering from a mild case of sunstroke/heat stroke...so my attention wasn't really on the meal...burnt the damned pasta. Tossed a can of coconut milk on top, squirted in some honey and bailed out. Needed a new view to say the least.

Went to a friend's house, her kids are great too, as is her husband, although no one else was home. We ate burnt pasta with coconut milk, it almost sounds like something you'd see on a nouveau cuisine menu when you say it that way doesn't it? The kids swam and splashed and were HAPPY thank goodness, and we chatted which was simply wonderful. Fortunately she had already eaten and didn't have to suffer one of my moments of culinary genius.

Now I am heading to bed, much later than I wanted, but what can you do.

Nap.

Why can't we have the siesta here?

OUCH

Ya know what?

Sometimes the dog wants to lick my cuts, and you know what? Sometimes it hurts. Why do they do that anyway?

If your tired and you know it....lose your?

Back when i was working with kids and mine were younger, and my sister was working a corporate life, which she still is, we had a debate about which attribute fades most when your tired. For me, it was my patience. For her, it was her intellect. We came to the conclusion that it was probably a universal loss of skill and readiness, and I can now attest the truth to that. I am now working mostly in an intellectual capacity, and it was definitely lacking today. Definitely. Now I was also slow and dropped things a lot, and tended to sit if given the option, but where I noticed it most was in my metal speed, or rather my mental numbness.

So what do you think? What do you lose when your too tired? Does it tie into what is called on most in your day?

It's done; or as done as I am going to get it right now.


I did not blog while working on the house for the last eternity.

Other things I did not do while working on the house

Dishes
laundry
eat
sleep more than four hours a night
groceries...a big thanks to E who picked some up for me, the kids won't die yet
cook
put out the garbage


I can't think I am too tired

But it is as done as I can get it right now. The listing starts soon.

*exhausted sigh*

sleep. zzzzzzzz

I even managed to doze off flat on my back, which I NEVER sleep on, on the hardwood floor this morning. I woke up with the dog's head on my arm and a thunderstorm overhead. I didn't sleep long though. I had seen the storm approaching.

Stupid blogger won't let me type a title *grrrr* WHY?!?!?

An ode to my folks, and work on the house.

My parents are the best. I have to say it. I thought I was going to have to stay and work on the house tonight until 2 am or something silly, but they came over and helped out a ton. My Dad hung a light fixture back up which was brutal to do, and he hung a door. My Mom and I went through the place and made a definitive list of what needs to be done. It is predictably more than optimistic me hoped for, but that is good too. She has a very sharp eye for what is necessary. I have to paint the living room and dining room as well, although I thought I would have to as I inspected it in better light. I also have to do parts of the hall which is a serious drag as it is a lot of work, tons of edges and it goes up two stories so it is very difficult to do. Sucks.

I have the rooms entirely prepped for painting so tomorrow I can just go right to it. Thank goodness. My Dad is going to go over tomorrow and do more work, pull up the worn rug on the front stairs and paint the porch, he may be able to replace the planks on the back porch as well.

A lot got knocked off the list, but I am seriously over-tired. I didn't teach as well as I could have today, and I am one grumpy Mama, so I think it is off to bed for me. Only 10:15! Way better than I would have managed on my own.

Thanks Mom and Dad. Really. Thanks a lot. I know you read this.

Home despot.

I spent an hour at Home Despot today...honest to God, is it possible to get through that place in less than an hour, however little you're buying?

I got mulch for the front garden, working on that curb appeal, and stain for the porch, paint for the kid's rooms inside which look particularly shabby, yadda yadda yadda...

I then went to the house, spread mulch over the newly weeded garden, those of you who read Nomad's ecstatic comments about working with the earth are not going to hear an echo on these pages. Work to get finished. That is it. I think I would enjoy it much more if there weren't such a deadline.

I pulled nails from walls and spread plaster, etc etc etc basically boring, even if your doing it.

I am not sure I will post tomorrow as my Dad is meeting me over there, he is going to hang a light fixture that I am too chicken to put in myself, and help me rehang a door. I am also going to have the boy who lives upstairs with us, so between jobs, I will feed all the kids dinner, and then drive the boy home, returning with the girls who will crash at our house on thermarests until I finish painting for the night, then I will pour them and maybe the dog as well, into the car, dump them all into bed and crash. The house goes on the market on Saturday, so there is a big push on to get it all done. Also that means that the end is in sight and I only have one week of this insanity until my life can hopefully approach normal again. There will still be stuff to do, but I can slow the pace and get some of it done at a more reasonable pace. One of the porches we build in the yard is rotting badly. I think I will leave it till the man gets here, even if the joint is rented, he can go out and get rid of that and we'll lay down flagstones instead.

The girls are missing their Dad pretty badly these days, particularly the eldest. They had an absolutely fantastic first day of the camp. I cannot get them to tell me anything they did other than dance like robots. Ah well. Maybe when we have more time. I am barely seeing them at all these days.

Landlords.

I just went over to our house, the one we own, and the tenants are gone. I am very glad. They were great tenants, but it was getting a little weird at the end and I had nightmare visions of them staying on and not paying rent, so now, although there is no one living there and paying rent, at least there are no squatters. I also now have quite a long to do list for the place. Of course today is Canada day, and all the stores are closed. Ho hum. I will go over and clean and garden though which should help. This week is going to be a wee bit busy though I must say.

*shudder*

It is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be though so...lets hope it re-rents fast. We need the cash.

I am over the three of the biggest worries I had though, flying the dog, the tenants leaving, and the state of the house. Now all I have to do is work hard. That I can manage.

Dissonance

Here's a weird fact for you,

Laura Ingalls Wilder of the Little house books had a daughter. That's not the weird part. Her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, loved Albania and wrote two book about the country. She was a journalist who travelled to WW1 and also Vietnam. And she loved Albania. The books are "The Peaks of Shala" about Albanian life and "Travels With Zenobia."

Hard to picture in some ways.

The sailing was fantastic again, the girls went to Black Creek with my Mom, and we are all bagged out and tired. A good day, but long.