More good books:

We’re packing up books over here. Turns out most of our clutter is… books. That’s not a bad thing. I’ll just have to make sure to get a house with bookcases, this time around.

* The Andy Briggs’ books look great, I’m just not going to have a chance to read them any time soon. So much good stuff out there, so little time.

* I started “The Triple Bind” awhile back. (Subtitle is “Saving our teenage girls from today’s pressures. Be pretty, sweet, and nice. Be athletic, be competitive, and get straight A’s. Be impossibly perfect.” That sums it up, doesn’t it?) This is a fantastic book — I highly recommend it. I’m just a little way into it, but I’ve already put post-its on a handful of pages. Always a good sign.

* I heard Mr. Singleton speak in November at a conference — he’s dynamite. I’ve started the book and it’s excellent. This guy needs to review “Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools,” but who do you think is schlepping the boxes around? Anyway, check it out.

happy Monday.

— wm

“When I go into the garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

“Words are the soul’s ambassadors, who go / Abroad upon her errands to and fro.” — James Howell, writer (c. 1594-1666)

still not feeling well. i would say “not 100 percent,” but i’m really feeling more like… 30 percent. Forty-five percent if it’s one of those fake-outs where I start thinking, Oh I’m getting better see? See????

Now on third round of antibiotics for kidney infection and other ailments. (Fourth round if you count what they added to the IV in the hospital.) Getting concerned now (as I always do with bronchitis and bronchial pneumonia, too), what if this time they don’t work?

They will work. Faith, prayers, candles, love and this hot cup of chamomile tea that my husband just brought me. The kids and Steve are packing — we’ve been sorting and planning for the move. Hoping to get the house on the market mid-February. It’s a lovely house, I know that another family, solo dweller or couple will be happy here. It will be nice to have a little more space. I’m going to go read for awhile now — still loving Julia Child’s memoir, “My Life in France.” Such a delight, that book.

Here are a few books (kids’ stuff) that I enjoyed as well, but won’t have a chance to review. (The dog books are about Thoreau, just illustrated versions of his stories. Really clever.) Bon appetit!

— wm

Reading this week:

Faith: Imani (ee–MAH–nee)

To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

because i don’t wanna, that’s why. start with January 2009 and read away, if you feel so inclined. I am now fighting 2 (two!) infections with 2 (two!) kinds of antibiotics because the little dose they slipped into my IV was not enough and the first round i took last weekend was not enough either. Drama queen over here, as always.

Ouchy Owie Wacky Mommy.

i will tell you that i’m excited that 2010 will be Year of the Tiger because I like tigers. Meow. Here, kitty, kitty. And that this year, finally, oh for the love of God will they ever just commit and do it, that we move to the west side. (The UrbanMamas — or as I prefer to call them, The Pioneers Who Saved the Ghetto — in unison, Oh thank God I hate that bitch.) (Honestly. Cannot believe that someone said “circle jerk” and they never pulled the comment. You kiss your babies with that mouth? hahahahaha.)

We’ll be closer to Steve’s work, we’ll get out of the asthma-fest that is North Portland and hell yeah, we won’t have to deal with the school b.s. anymore. Hell. Yes.

This will be the first time in 10 years that we have moved. That’s a lot of Legos, i’m just saying. Also, due to the fact that all four of us have too many hobbies (writing, music, gardening, art, for starters), we have a lot of junk.

So wish us luck on the whole packing thing. First up? The classroom guinea pig. We’re sending her a-packin’ next week, back to school.

thank you and good night. hope you have a grand, glorious, peaceful and healthy new year.

— wm

Creativity: Kuumba (koo–OOM–bah)

To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

“When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it’s time to step into the darkness of the unknown, FAITH is knowing that one of two things will happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly.”

love you, L, you are an amazing woman.

— wm

NIA Purpose

Today is the 5th day of Kwanzaa, called NIA.

It means Purpose.

KWANZAA
DAY 5 NIA (nee-AH)
To make as our collective vocation, the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Wouldn’t you rather be skiing right now? You could if you were over in my neighborhood.

that’s all.

oh and my belly button hurts. also this eyboard sucks i want my (new) old one.

took the kids all of fourminutesflat to get outside to play in snow.

(did i mention keyboard sucks? space key works sporadically.)

there are five kids playing here. all v. nicely. the littlest one is the cutest. “Where is him?” she says when she spots a picture of Wacky Cousin 2.0.

“He’s at his house,” I told her.

“He looks nice,” she says, then adds, “I got 5 grandpas.” (holds up her hand, fingers outstretched.) “I gotta lotta grandpas.” (Her sister: “She doesn’t. YOU GOT TWO.” Little cutie turns to me, holds up her hand again for emphasis, five fingers: “A lotta grandpas.”)

Whoops, she just coughed on me — “i gotta cold!” says she. Some people bring me soup cuz i’m recuperating. Miss Honey Butt brings me a sick kid. Oddly, she avoids me when we’re sick.

i gotta go wash hands now!

xo

wm

edited at 8:30 to say: Vit. E on sore, scarred skin — yes. Watching “Ace of Cakes,” gotta go Spocky. I fixed the mouse — you have to hit the button on the weird looking thing under the desk, then it resets. Stupid wireless mouses and your mysterious ways.

ps it’s still snowing. there’s like, I don’t know. six to eight feet of it out there?

pss that post, by the way, includes my favorite quote ever from my kids. (Baby is our large black and white kitty cat.) So, just to leave you with something delightful to chew on:

Wacky Boy: “…that would be like if some stranger came into our house — Stranger Danger! — and bit off Baby’s leg. That would be sad. The end of Baby. And his leg.”

Wacky Boy: “Same as me!”