Saturday, December 22, 2007

What kind of coffee am I?

You Are a Plain Ole Cup of Joe
You Are a Plain Ole Cup of Joe
You Are a Plain Ole Cup of Joe

But don't think plain - instead think, uncomplicated
You're a low maintenance kind of girl... who can hang with the guys
Down to earth, easy going, and fun! Yup, that's you: the friend everyone invites.
And your dependable too. Both for a laugh and a sympathetic ear.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Some interesting quotes from Grace Paley

I just finished reading the book Just as I thought (well, honestly, I skimmed over the last 1/3, but I really enjoyed the first 2/3!), essays by Grace Paley. She was born in 1922 and died in 2007 after a battle with breast cancer. In addition to being a writer, she was a political activist.

I especially liked the following quotes:
I don't think the thing for me has been civil disobedience so much as the importance not asking permission. For instance, we had kids in our public school who had trouble reading or writing. A few of us just got together and said we'd better go ahead and help out. We suspected that the principal wouldn't want us around. So we simply went into the school and scattered ourselves among the teachers and began to work with the kids. It's true that three months later we were kicked out, but we got a lot done, and methods and forms were created so parents could come back and be useful. People will say to this day, "How did you women do that? Who did you talk to?" We didn't talk to anyone. We just did it. So I can't say it was civil disobedience. It was just an effort to make change by making change. We talk a lot about living in a free and democratic country but we're always asking permission to do very simple things.
and

[She was in jail as a result of attending a protest, and heard women singing and long song and wanted to write it down because she didn't think she cold memorize it, but she had no pen or paper.]
...Which is how I finally understood that I didn't lack pen and paper but my own memorizing mind. It had been given away with a hundred poems, called rote learning, old-fashioned, backward, an enemy of creative thinking, a great human gift disowned.
This second quote makes me think of all of the time I wasted learning "things" that someone else thought I should "know" -- and grateful for the things I've learned that have been useful, like music and sewing and writing. The first quote reminds me to be brave, and not give away my rights, I'm thinking especially as they pertain to my children and family.

Random photos from this fall and winter


For sharing Bret with the team for 12+ weeks, Sabine and Vivian got flowers at the Swimming and Diving team banquet (so did Carolyn). Sabine and Vivian also picked out their "special outfits" to look pretty at the dinner.


Chirstmas tree "hunting" photos. We got our permits from the Forest Service and went out with the Klomparens clan. We found a tree that had been cut, but left on the ground (so yeah, it's a little Charlie Brown-ish, but just right for us!).



Sabine getting ready for her second ice skating performance as a Snowflake in The Grinch on ice...pretty darn cute. And can you believe I put all those curls in her hair? It holds a curl about as well as mine does (or doesn't). Thank God for hairspray!
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