the Blethering Spot

Right, hello! Here I am again, blasting rudely and arrogantly into blogland once more.

Went for a lovely visit to Vancouver Island, land of my youth. It’s odd, isn’t it, how deeply a geographical location can take root in one’s emotions.

I love living in Northern BC, and I’ve lived here for nearly a decade, but there is still a part of me that yearns for lighthouses, and the smell of the ocean, and Scotch broom, and salal.

Had a lovely time with my fam, though, and spent a lot of time sitting around my parents’ house, watching the rain slide down the windowpanes and listening to the wind howling. We seemed to drink a lot of tea, and we consumed an inordinate amount of hummus. Money dripped through my fingers like water, and I’m still not sure where the staggering total went. I did buy three Christmas gifts, though, and am feeling quite smug about it.

I watched The Hunt for Red October, for the first time in about ten years, and loved, loved, loved it. The Cold War was the best thing ever to happen to Tom Clancy. This keeps running through my shockingly empty head: (said with a thick American accent) “This business will get out of control. It will get out of control, and we’ll be lucky to live through it.”

I put it in red, because I looooove that line.

Clearly, ladies and gentlemen, I’ve got not much to say. Think I will feed some spinach to the Guinea Pig, then hit the sack. Mwah! Mwah! Good night all!

Oof.

Terrible turkey dinner. Turkey refused to cook, perversely, and took great pleasure in taunting me with pink juices and unjiggleable legs. Children began to cry from hunger at 7:30. Cupboard door banging and pot holder flinging was indulged in, briefly, and the cook was secretly impressed with the dramatic visual effect of tears dropping onto the napkin during prayer. Turkeyless dinner was eaten at 7:45 p.m. Saw humour in situation by 7:50. Was remarkable how little the turkey was missed. (Gravy was safely made by boiling the daylights out of the pan drippings before proceeding.)

but…

Here it is, the requisite yearly I Am Thankful For list:

1. health
2. God’s provision for us — we’ve never been hungry yet
3. a happy family
4. good friends
5. Canadian citizenship

Done:

1. Sunshine Salad
2. Turkey brining
3. Dressing
4. Cranberry Sauce
5. Sweet Potato / Carrot Casserole
6. Veggies (ready to steam)
7. Pumpkin Pie

Yet to do:

1. Stuff and roast turkey
2. Mashed potatoes
3. Gravy
4. Slice Pickles

Mmmmmmmmmmmm!

The problem with not homeschooling is that I haven’t got much blog fodder any more. I’ll have to take up knitting, like some people I know. I would, except that the mere sight of knitting needles gives me hives. Talk of yarn, blocking, tension and sk2p? We’re talking about anaphylactic shock. Perhaps something less combative, like cross-stitch*, might be the solution.

Speaking of schooling, head l1ce** is going through our school. Just thinking about l1ce makes me start scratching frantically. I went through the girls’ hair, though, and found nothing. But I dreamed about n1ts last night, and got up in the morning to wash all the pillowcases. You know. Just in case.

We went to a leadership training session tonight at our church. It was lovely, really wonderful, and I particularly enjoyed breaking into small groups and discussing what we’d heard. Shirley was in my group, and was insightful, mild and wise as always. What a fabulous person she is. I also liked singing a hymn at the beginning, since, as you might know, I grew up on hymns and kind of dig them.

I have been diligently freezing up boxes of apples, which were kindly given to me by co-workers. It’s been a big job (and one that’s not actually finished yet) but I have been thrilled to use the handy dandy Apple Peeler, Corer and Slicer, which makes me feel quite farmwife-like. I can easily peel, core and slice a pie’s worth of apples between rustlin’ up some grub fer the menfolk when they come in hungry from the day’s labourin’.

Right, so I have also begun the Great Operation De-Clutter again. I truly, truly don’t know what happened last time. Life happened, maybe. I started out gung-ho, but said gung-hoedness fizzled out over time.

But now I am back into the de-cluttering groove. My goal is to be de-cluttered by Christmas, which seems entirely reasonable.* I envision my slimmer, cooler and more peaceful self basking in the warmth of a spacious, clutter-free home, complete with crackling fire, shortbread cookies and hot wassail.

The “slimmer” reference in the above description refers to my new bellydance/walking regime. I am disciplined. I am determined. I will become, as Helen Fielding once wrote, a lean teenage greyhound. Svelteness shall be mine.

* Have already begun. Stay tuned for forthcoming illustrated posts.
** Characters changed slightly to be unrecognizable by GoogleAdsen$e

Rented “Perfect Stranger” tonight, and were so bored that we turned it off and watched “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” instead. Oh! I do so love this movie. Here are my favourite bits:

“Just for tonight, we are David and Ruth Laskin. Which one do you want to be? I prefer to be Ruth, but I’m flexible.”

“I think your name is magical.”

“Are we like couples you see in restaurants? Are we the dining dead?”

and my very, very favourite:

Clementine: “My favourite is this ugly girl doll who I call Clementine, and I keep yelling at her, ‘You can’t be ugly! Be pretty!’ It’s weird, like if I can transform her, I would magically change, too.”
Joel: “You’re pretty.”