My Siblings Are So Talented!

I should be posting about all three of my siblings with a title like that. But today I'm focusing on one: Ann. She can create art in so many different mediums! She weaves, dyes, sews, and so much more. She is also a member of Minnesota's Textile Center. As such, she has a piece hanging in the member show. Joshua and I got there to see it in person before the show closed (and before Covid-19 had us all staying home).

Here we are, admiring Ann's piece in the gallery:

I had asked a volunteer to take our photo. I probably should have cropped it . . .

Below are the scans of the postcard advertisement sent out for the annual show. I love that Ann has done this for many years! I wish I were organized enough to share photos of some of her other years' entries.

She is so talented!

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Saturday, March 7, 2020

Commitments have dissolved. The day is gorgeous. We have so many home projects to do! Louie is diligently moving from one stated goal to the next, completing one before moving to the next. I am in a tizzy, overwhelmed by options and a lack of direction. I've done a little of this, a little of that . . . and need to make something a priority! I think I'll start with prayer. . .

Fart Humor

I was trying to decide whether to put this on my reading blog, my mom and dad blog, or here! It fits on any of those places, but it's mostly a random musing.

My mom was very open about her gas "issues" and we joked about farting a lot. Here's one book I think she owned:

The Gas We Pass: The Story of Farts by Shinta Cho is actually pretty interesting in explaining how gas happens. It's also a bit crude / entertaining for kids who like scatological humor.



She farted a lot. It was often quite smelly. As a family, we had a lot of jokes about it. She was also a third grade teacher, and third graders absolutely lose it when someone farts. I'm not sure if she bought the book to use in her classroom or just got it for her own library and entertainment . . . 







She also owned a copy of Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi. I grabbed a photo from the publisher. I've found that most kids are really fascinated by these books. 













 A book that I thought I owned but couldn't find on my bookshelf is Walter the Farting Dog by William Kotzwinkle. I borrowed it from the public library to share with some kiddos after we had a conversation about farting. Great conversation, huh?



Oh! I referenced "scatological humor" to someone and when they asked what that meant, I don't think I explained it very well. So I googled it and here's what Wikipedia said: "Toilet humour or scatological humour is a type of off-colour humour dealing with defecation, urination and flatulence, and to a lesser extent vomiting and other body functions."

More Movies

This slip of paper has been sitting at my desk for a while. My recovery from knee surgery has been fantastic, so I'm busier again. These are movies I've watched since the last time I blogged about movies.

On A Clear Day
I had seen a trailer for this quite a while ago, but had a hard time remembering the title. When I googled for it, it took a while to find it! (Barbara Streisand comes up right away.) Here's a Wikipedia blurb about it: "On a Clear Day is a 2005 Scottish drama film written by Alex Rose and directed by Gaby Dellal. It stars Peter Mullan as Frank Redmond, an engineer in the shipyards on the River Clyde, who becomes stagnant and quickly sinks into depression following his redundancy. A naturally strong swimmer, Frank gets an idea while on a 'booze cruise' with his friends to swim the English Channel. Featuring an ensemble cast, it co-stars Brenda Blethyn, Sean McGinley and Billy Boyd, among others."Louie wasn't interested in watching it with me, but I really liked it a lot. I liked how his relationship with his son and his own self-discovery came along.

Upside
Again, I had seen a trailer that intrigued me. I really enjoyed this one, too. (I watched it alone.) Kevin Hart plays an ex-con who's trying to get his life together. Brian Cranston(?) is a quadriplegic who needs a caregiver / assistant. It was funny, touching, and sad. It made me a little curious to find and watch the French film originally made about the real-life people the story is based upon.

Letters To Juliet
Loved this! Super cute and fun! (Except her original fiance and how he basically ignored her . . . ) Louie watched it with me. Another one that makes me want to visit Italy. Delightful!

Aquaman
We watched our home DVD version. It's the second time we've seen it.

Bend It Like Beckham
I borrowed this from our d-i-l Angela. It's one that I've heard of for a long time, but never before watched. It was an interesting mix of coming-of-age and cultural lessons on Indians in Britain. I liked it a lot. I love that David and Victoria Beckham had a little cameo at the end!

Green Lantern
Again, a home DVD. I am so weird. As this is often panned as Ryan Reynolds' worst movie ever, I like it! I think it is an entertaining hero movie. And I love love love the way he and Blake Lively make googly eyes at one another . . . though I think that each was actually romantically involved with someone else at the time. They've been married for a while, though!

The Croods
Netflix. Pretty dumb. Kind of cute. Wouldn't watch it again or recommend it.

Instant Family
Amazing! This story of adoption and families and love had me. I thought about re-watching it before bringing it back to the library. Such a lovely story! And sad. And touching. And inspiring.

Difference Between Sisters and Brothers!

Every once in a while, I'll give one of my siblings the "gift of time" for a birthday gift. I've primarily done it for Ann and Louise (only one person at a time, though!). My sisters are always more than happy to have me help them with projects - cleaning, sorting, organizing, etc. This is a gift I enjoy giving and they enjoy receiving. I'm not always timely in my once-a-month intentions, but I usually get it all done in one calendar year.

For Tom's July 2018 birthday, I gave him this gift. It was the first time I've ever done this for my brother. Wow, was it hard. It has taken me 19 months to finally give / do something for the one year I intended! When I kept bringing this up, he kept saying I didn't need to do anything else. "That's not the point! What do you want?" He mostly wanted just to spend time with his little sister . . . he is such an incredibly sweet guy.

I'm not sure how I should try to do something like this for him in the future . . . but I know that my sisters have a much easier time bossing me around! (Just kidding. They're lovely, but are happy to have me help with projects.)

Here's my copy of the "coupon" for Tom:

Movies and Recovery

Since I knew I would have some "down time" while recovering from total knee replacement surgery, I requested a bunch of videos from the library that I'd been meaning to watch. I just wanted to make some quick notes. It's weird for me to watch so much media in less than a month's time!

Ready Player One - I loved this! I'm not really a video game person, but I loved all the 80s cultural references and music. I loved the underdog beating the Goliath. Perhaps I had low expectations and that's why it surprised me so much. Louie and I watched it together and he enjoyed it, too. True confession: after I had returned it to the library, I was looking at clips on YouTube and ended up getting it from the library a second time and re-watching it! I just really enjoyed it.

Iron Lady - I'm glad I watched this without Louie. Although I love Meryl Streep and I'm up for learning about historical figures and eras, it was a bit slow-paced. It opens as Margaret Thatcher is in her dotage and uses flashbacks to tell her story. I liked that she was a shopkeeper's daughter and "rose above" her "station" in life. I'm glad that she made her way in a man's world.

Crazy Rich Asians - I watched this one alone, too. Louie said he wasn't interested, but I think he might have enjoyed it. I was delighted by Rachel's story. I think the cast was fantastic (though I didn't know who Awkwafina was before this). My favorite scenes were when her mom came to see her (I cried) and the Mah-jong game. I would watch this again! Loved it!

Manchester By the Sea - I got this thinking it was something else. My friend Kathy loved this and I need to ask her why. I thought it was super depressing. Casey Affleck plays a man who is deeply troubled. He seems to be dead inside. He gets into bar fights. When his brother dies and he has to return to deal with the details, he learns his brother has left him in charge of his teenage nephew. Long, sad, winding story with an unsatisfying (to me) resolution.

A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish - Netflix. Louie watched it with me and said, "I think the target audience was 13 year old girls." "We didn't have to watch the whole thing!" We usually decide within 10-15 minutes if it's worth the hour and a half. Oh well. It was cute. I like Cinderella stories.

Knight Christmas - Netflix. I had watched this home alone and should have waited to watch it with Louie. Not much less silly than the other one, but geared for an older audience at least.

White Christmas - Netflix. Also watched alone. For the third(?) time in my life.

Woman in Gold - watched alone. So cool! I'm amazed at how it turned out. In fact, I had to look up the info online afterward. The painting is in the U.S. now! Absolutely amazing. The interviews afterward made me chuckle. The young lawyer dude never comments on how cool it is that RYAN REYNOLDS is portraying him!

Ender's Game - DVD. Rewatch for us. Just makes me want to reread Card's books which are so much better than this movie. Interesting to see Harrison Ford as Graff . . .

A Brilliant Young Mind - I liked it more than Louie did. Asa Butterfield is incredible. I'm so very glad that our children were not autistic! I loved the young girl.

Won't You Be My Neighbor? - This documentary about Fred Rogers was extremely well-done. I thought about my mom and how much she loved Mr. Rogers and what he stood for. This was worthwhile and interesting. I like Mr. Rogers more and more the older I get and the more course the world gets.

Motivational Notecards

I was going through a clipped together bunch of notecards to pick a new face-forward one when I realized that a lot of these don't "speak" to me anymore. They were all meaningful at one point in time, so I decided to scan, blog, and recycle. (I still have a few dozen clipped together at my desk.)

One that was in pencil and wouldn't scan well says, "Goals are Dreams with Deadlines." I disliked writing "SMART" goals for professional purposes. It felt artificial. This quotation caught my attention, though. I like the concept.

Fight the Control Freak: 
Slow down
Reduce anxiety (have faith)
Delegate
Give up "if onlys"
Defer to others
Count your blessings
Value people
Be neither pushy nor pushover
Know circle of influence
Do one thing at a time
Learn to be led


Great Leaders Exhibit:
Caring
Integrity
High Expectations (no mediocrity)


PUCK:
Provide values and purpose
Unleash and develop skills
Create team power
Keep the accent on the positive


The Seattle Pike Place Fish Market!
Play
Make Their Day
Be There
Choose Your Attitude


CAVE People
You can't change C(itizens) A(gainst) V(irtually) E(verything) People!


I can.


I have many, many more, but these were quick and easy to weed out.