shift

Source: artyulia.com via Katie on Pinterest

Sometimes your dreams change shape.

It was a tearful goodbye, but I said it.  That dream, the multiple degrees, the academic career? I don't want it anymore.  A good-sized part of me never really wanted it.  Once I finally recognized that and believed it, I felt a wonderful sense of peace and calm, so different from the uncertainty that plagued me from August to December.  One semester of graduate school made me realize that I want to teach.

So this new year is bringing changes with it.  I am leaving my current program, taking a semester to work and save and read through my monstrous stack of books, and enrolling in a teacher certification/master's degree program in the summer.

Changes come, but they can be so good.  This is one of my steps toward a joy-filled life.

Image by Yulia Brodskaya. 

Busy

Source: etsy.com via Katie on Pinterest

It's been a crazy two weeks and next week is pretty packed, too.  My mom and I are off to Wisconsin to bring my little sister home from her first semester of college.  I'll be back with a post on Thursday...maybe.

Have a great week!

Gifts

Source: onethousandgifts.com via Katie on Pinterest

I read this book about a month ago.  I didn't have time for it, really, but I made it, and I am glad I did.  Ann Voskamp was dared by a friend to count one thousand gifts.  She did, and found well beyond one thousand gifts.  She found a deeper faith, a fuller life, even when it was not easier--especially when it was not easier.  Voskamp is part poet, part mystic, part theologian, and fills her pages with imagery that will call to mind the Romantics and Transcendentalists and syntax that throws your attention around, grabbing you, engaging you, making you read twice to get just what that line is saying.

Starting today, I'm going to keep a gratitude journal, my own list, hopefully to one thousand, hopefully beyond.  And I'm going to try to take photos of the little things, the tiny things, because it is so easy to forget how much they matter--the sky in all its wonder, the dappling sunlight when you're up early, a quiet dinner at home, even something as simple as a clean, clear glass of water.  These things are worth remembering, worth appreciating, worth our gratitude.

One Thousand Gifts was a gift for my birthday in September, and I am so glad it was given to me--I never would've picked it up for myself, as I don't really pick up books from Christian publishers anymore (I burned out on them years ago).  This one surprised me.  I should add that if it's not your faith, you may not feel quite the same way about it.  Still, Voskamp's poetic prose might get you anyway...

Interruptions :: An Ounce of Action...

Source: dribbble.com via Katie on Pinterest

"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory."

Friedrich Engels*

I was going to write last night, but I have a theory-heavy class on Monday nights and it sometimes renders me unable to do anything intelligent whatsoever because my brain is spinning inside my head.  This line resonated with me today because sometimes I sit in classrooms thinking about how we talk about so much but how much do we ever do?  We talk constantly in one of my classes about social problems as embodied in the texts we're reading, the way this narrative reveals this truth, that narrative talks about that one, this author (if we even accept authorial intent as relevant to meaning), but do we ever actually do anything about it?  Do we ever do anything to right the wrongs that we see recorded over and over again in literature?

Sometimes the academy gets a little too far from the experience of daily living, I think.  Maybe it's different outside the humanities.  Days like today, I want to skip class to go do something with a directly visible purpose, to go matter to someone in some small way, to take this indignation with the historical injustices we're reading about and use it to help someone else in the here and now.  Ultimately, we cannot change the past, but we can make the present a little better and maybe help another person with the future.

*Yes, that Friedrich Engels.  No, I'm not a Marxist, socialist, communist, or anything like it.  I debated using the quote because of all the connotations of its author.  Interestingly, it's occasionally attributed to Emerson.  I don't really know what to make of that.  Also, I'm usually one to overthink things, but I guess I do sometimes reach my limit.  

Renegotiations

Source: weheartit.com via Katie on Pinterest

Life is a constant series of renegotiations of self and perspective.  Perhaps those should be plural--selves and perspectives, really.  We go through different selves, different perspectives on the world and our experience of it.  We cycle from one thing to the next, sometimes forward, sometimes backward, always moving.

It's times like right now that I feel it most, when I am trying to negotiate who I am becoming at the same time that I discover I am not becoming who I once thought I would be by now.  It's not a bad thing; it's just the interplay of personal growth and environmental changes.  It is simply what is.

I know I'm being obtuse in a way, but I don't have much to say that I haven't already said before, which you could read if you clicked those links...

Things are changing here.  We've moved from the in-between stage to our new life, the one where my husband has a really great job and I keep hitting the books and we go forward until we tumble into a new routine.

I don't yet know if this blog is going to go with us.  I keep feeling the change, coming with the color of the leaves and the sliding temperatures and the curiously rainy fall we're having, but I don't know yet what it means.

I do know that it's Wednesday and this is the first time I've been able to sit at my laptop and type a few words for you since last week.  Would you still stop by if I only wrote once a week?

Interruptions :: Mixed Feelings

Source: the-athenaeum.org via Katie on Pinterest

On my birthday, I must always strike a balance.

I always try to remember and savor my happiness with my family over a shared meal and an off-key happy birthday tune and my never-successful attempts at blowing out all the candles in one breath.

I remember and savor my happiness without forgetting the unhappiness of so many others on the day that was always fun and celebratory for me (and my cousin, too).

It feels silly to even talk about it, really, as if I'm calling for attention or asking for sympathy.  But I know there are a lot of people whose anniversaries of some sort of happiness fall on the same day as a memory of sadness for others.  I know I'm not the only one who struggles to understand my own happiness when I know others who are struggling with sadness and sorrow.  If you have this struggle, too, I get it, and I'm telling myself this as much as I'm telling you: try to enjoy your happiness.  Life isn't always full of happiness, so enjoy it when it comes and it'll give you the strength for the less happy parts of life.

interruptions: between the dreaming and the coming true

I'm going to do a double post today, because I wasn't done saying what I had to say, but it seems to exist in two parts in my head.  Also, you might get bored, because this post is a mildly narcissistic one bemoaning the difficulty of translating my area of interest into a job.

Source: everythingsright.com via Katie on Pinterest

I hear a lot about seeking out your passion, being yourself, chasing your dreams, even when they seem impossible.  I think that is all good; I often repeat it myself.  But sometimes life and dreams and practicality and desire all collide.  Sometimes the different dreams you have for your life conflict with each other.

Although I know earning a terminal degree in a humanities field (for me, eventually a Ph.D. in English) is difficult, I have also been discovering more than ever that it's impractical.  Over half of all Ph.D. in English graduates cannot find a job in their field, and those who do often have to move.  I would like to have that advanced degree attached to my name (Dr. Snyder!) and, far more than that, I would like to be so thoroughly immersed in study and research that I earn that degree.  Yet I'm debating the merits of the decision I will eventually make. 

Is this a dream that I should pursue, or is it one of those dreams that should be set aside in order to pursue other dreams?  Besides, when I get to the point that I've achieved this dream, will the reality be anything like what I imagine?  I do not want to spend years and money chasing a wisp of a dream that doesn't exist. 

{via weheartit}

I don't have to decide today, of course, and I know I want to pursue the MA in English--I was definitely not done with my studies in the subject when I graduated in December.  But being admitted to the MA program has me pondering the next step and exactly what I should do now in order to get there, even if I have two years to decide (and that's assuming I finish my MA in two years).  For those of you who are a little older and hopefully wiser than me, how did you decide what to do when you finished your undergraduate degree?  

Post title credit goes back to this Bebo Norman cd I had in high school.  He's the only Christian musician I ever listen to anymore; I still love the poetry of his songs, especially this one from another cd.

dreaming versus doing

I've been thinking about dreams and next steps lately.  I hate getting stuck in waiting periods--waiting to hear if I have a job, waiting for paperwork from other people to be submitted so I can be officially accepted into a graduate program and register for classes, waiting for our life to settle down so I don't have to shuttle between two cities and live out of a suitcase constantly, waiting for...

I'll stop there.  

Do you dream like I do, with wonder and hope tempered by a dose of anxiety and an occasional touch of angst?  Lately, I've been wondering what, exactly, I'm dreaming of, and how, exactly, I will achieve something that I can't even seem to name.  Part of the problem with being a lover of language and a student of the liberal arts is that your area of study rarely translates into real-world work and practice (the other part of the problem, in my opinion, is the constant sense that you have to justify your area, yourself, and your work if you find it).  I want to do good in my life, to give back at least some of the blessings with which my life has been filled, but it's hard to figure out how the gifts I have could translate into something I can actually do.  

For now, then, I will keep dreaming of a sort of life that I can't seem to put into words and trying to figure out how I can begin living that life--how my dreaming can translate into doing.

These three posts from Not Your Average Ordinary probably played a role in sparking these thoughts to a much greater flame (compared to the little flicker that they've been for the last few months in which I've been only partially employed and the ember for years before that).  Those pictures are by nicole pierce photography, a happy accidental discovery on flickr.

interruptions :: on Easter and resurrections

Spring is beautiful.  It's life springing up, putting my Land's End squall coat away, ballet flats instead of boots, preparing for the end of the term, and blooms that are beautiful despite their incredible ability to make me sniffle and sneeze.

Easter comes around at this time and I have a whole childhood stock of memories that the season reawakens.  I remember the first time I became aware of the magnitude of Good Friday.  I don't know what year it was, but I remember that it registered suddenly and clearly with me, even as a child, that this was a day defining to the Christian faith.  But it didn't really settle with me to overemphasize Good Friday, because while there was suffering and sorrow, that's not where the story ended.  If it had, it would be a tragedy and nothing more.  Easter and the resurrection, though, are where the story is strengthened and defined.  Life returns.

I'm not one to avoid logic and embrace my faith unquestioningly; I've asked the questions, read the books, taken the classes, and looked at what we can even possibly know.  I always find myself back where I started, ultimately dependent on my experience of life and the world to know that this is real.  I don't expect everyone to agree or believe, but I think that, no matter what your faith or even a lack thereof, the return to life that is Easter is worth celebrating.  The concept of a resurrection and a return to life is beautiful.  It's the renewal of things, the promise that everything can be better.

I call myself an optimist and I usually am such, but I do get mired in the humdrum of the day-to-day most of the time, and have to remind myself to look for joy and life.  Easter is all about that.  I'll celebrate the joy of life returning to what was once dead as long as I live, no matter what I believe.  Easter is all about hope.  How could I not embrace that?

The first image is a tulip in my mom's garden, the second is a bunch of roses from the bushes behind my parents' house, and the third is the dozen roses Cory gave me for our second dating anniversary.
Here's an interesting and semi-irrelevant fact gleaned from the dictionary: the word "Easter" has origins in dispute.  According to Bede, it derives from the name of a goddess associated with spring.  A more generally held view is that it derived from the Germanic "ostern" and "east," though these may have originally come from that spring goddess.  It's time to do a little more etymological research, no?  Also, this is the first time I've really spoken about faith on this blog and I do hope you don't mind.  It's not a subject I broach frequently--I believe more in living a good and positive life than being outspoken--but it's one that is important to me, especially around this holiday.  Oh my goodness, this is a long footnote.

interruptions :: musings of the stylishly inept

Sometimes I can manage to put things together and look good.  Yesterday, I even matched.  Back in high school, Kat and Kay used to just about gasp in amazement when I came to school in a matching outfit, and we wore uniforms.  I try.  I really do.  I've gotten better recently, but I still feel like something is remiss most of the time when I try to put an outfit together.  I wonder where enormously stylish people, like Annabel of Blushing Ambition or Taylor of The Little Deer, get the ability to recognize what looks good and what doesn't, and to put it all together.  Half of my problem is that I'm always cold, so I'm inclined to wearing multiple layers.  This picture captures one of my worst moments of layer wearing, and I'm only sharing a tiny little part of it because it's not a good picture of me at all.

I'm not only mixing sweaters, but mixing black and brown.  I was cold, okay?

I think, sometimes, when I write about all the lovely things I find in the world, or post gorgeous outfits on my style pinboard, I may come across as fashionable.  True, I own skinny jeans (okay, three pairs of slim-fitting jeans, not actual skinny jeans, but shush).  I have a pair of Toms that I could wear constantly.  Today, I'm  even wearing a brown sweater that matches the brown in my top, and I'm not wearing black shoes.  

The truth is, though, I don't really care.  I'd rather be comfortable, like I am right now.  I never wear heels because flats are comfortable and they suit me.  I also have this tendency to dislike clothes that call attention, because I generally don't like to call attention to myself in any way, and I wonder if that plays into my lack of serious interest in fashion.  Perhaps I don't dress incredibly cute not because I'm kind of cheap (hey, I like saving my money!) but because I'm content with a plain wardrobe that doesn't draw attention.  Sometimes I think the psychology of wardrobe choices could be explored to very interesting extents.

I've had my wardrobe on my mind lately because I packed up a good bit of it last weekend in preparation for our move (one month away!) and realized that I actually just want to pitch most of it.  It's not that I don't like any of it, but rather that I would kind of like to start from scratch.  I'm thinking that I might actually do so this summer, but I want to make sure that when I get rid of things, they go somewhere that won't end up in a landfill.  Because if I do start a major purge, there will be a lot of things that go.  I got rid of over half my clothes a year ago and I don't miss a thing that I gave away.

This post is scattered, I know, like my wardrobe, and I'm a little sorry for that.  I've been interrupted about five times since I started writing it (an hour ago), so hopefully my scatterbrained ways haven't confounded you too much today.  My goodness, this post is full of fluff.

I can occasionally put together a pretty decent outfit, and my skills with virtually coordinating a combination are much better than my practical real-world talents.  I even managed to pull these two outfits together in a fairly short time.  Kaboodle is kind of fun, just so you know.

I'm linking up with long distance loving's Friday Fancies, where you'll find a bunch of stylish bloggers posting adorable outfits.  Maybe I should look around and learn a thing or two about matching.

interruptions :: wanderlusting; or, remembering where I've been and wanting to go somewhere new

It's been awhile since I traveled.  My husband and I went to Sanibel Island for our honeymoon almost a year ago (crazy!), and we were in Wisconsin for a reception with family and friends who couldn't travel to our wedding a week after that, but otherwise, our travel has only been between our hometowns and our current residence.  In my high school and college years, I traveled a lot--not the exotic vacation type of trips, but adventures with my family in the US and going across the Atlantic with my church.  I've been at English immersion youth camps in Poland and Romania and traveled with local churches doing some aid work in Kenya.  But the last time I travelled somewhere overseas was in 2007, and the last time I traveled somewhere completely new was in 2009.  I'm getting the itch to board a plane and see a place I've never been, but I don't have time or resources.  For now, I guess I'll soothe the itch with prolific pinning and meandering through my photos--and wishing I'd brought my scrapbooks with me from my parents' house.

Fagaras Mountains and Balea Lake, Romania 

Bucharest, Romania, 2006

Braila, Romania, 2006

Braila, Romania, 2006

the camp-Fagaras Mountains, Romania, 2006

(the plumbing in the building wasn't set up, so this was where we bathed, and it was icy cold)

the camp-Fagaras Mountains, Romania, 2006

Fagaras Mountains, Romania, 2006

view from the road, Kenya, 2007

Grand Canyon, Arizona, 2008

Sedona, Arizona, 2008

Sanibel, Florida, 2010

Sanibel, Florida, 2010

Iron Ridge, Wisconsin, 2010

interruptions, part 2 :: post grad thoughts and a taste test (again)

Have you ever noticed that your tastes in, well, everything fluctuate quite a bit?

Maybe it's because right now, I'm thinking about all the things I could do in the fast-approaching future.  I'm wondering about what to study for my graduate degree (still leaning towards sticking with English), wondering what I want to do for a career, and at the same time thinking about the new space we'll be moving into once C. graduates and, well, we find a place to live.  I'm thinking about what I'm going to do for a job before C. starts his and I go back to school.  I'm awfully curious about so many things.

I was galavanting about the internet and stumbled back upon Etsy's taste test, so I took it again.  My results are similar, but a little more me in a way.  I find it interesting that the kinds of objects and images I like are a little more defined right now, when the more intangible parts of my life are fluctuating.  It's always an interesting relationship between the things you know and don't know; it seems like what you do know will get more defined when you are trying to figure out all those things you don't know.

{original source unknown; found on We Heart It}

I know I love writing but I don't know if I could or even want to write for a living somewhere down the road.

I know I love research but I don't know if I could ever achieve everything it would require to be able to study and write for a living.

I know I love helping kids/adults/anyone discover how good it is to read for understanding and for pleasure, and do the same with writing, but do I have what it takes to work through all the hard parts of getting there?

These are the questions that float about in my brain as I think about the future.  What do I want?  How do I get there?  I get the feeling I will ask them repeatedly throughout my entire life.  Such is my nature.

interruptions :: major change

{Edgar Allen Pillow by regansbrain on Etsy}

As I prepare for graduate school and try to decide exactly what I want to study--or rather, what I should study, since I know what I want to study--I have been reflecting a lot on how I wound up with my major, and how I realized that I want to study literature and composition even more than I have so far.  So, if you will oblige me and not get too terribly bored, I'm going to share a bit about how I changed my major twice and still graduated early without knowing exactly what I will do next.

At eighteen, I loved kids.  I worked as a nanny, babysat every weekend, and was a teacher's aid in a first grade classroom (the advantage of attending a k-12 school). I entered college as an elementary education major.

First wake up: I would take one, yes, ONLY one English class in my entire college career.  Anyone who knows me knows that was not going to happen.

Second wake up: I was going to have to teach math and science.  Science was okay, but you would not want me teaching your child math.

Third wake up: You can't teach a six year old about the irony at play in Oedipus Rex.  You can't even imagine teaching a six year old such a story--not if the eighteen to twenty somethings in your college literature course couldn't handle it maturely.

So I changed my mind, and I became an English Education major.  This would let me study the books I so love, learn more about theory, and allow me to gain certification and get a job after graduating.  Did I mention that the college I attended at the time has a ninety-seven percent hire rate for their education grads?  I was being practical.  I also still thought I wanted to teach in public schools.

Fourth wake up: I was going to have to teach high schoolers.  Now, I did not like high schoolers all that much when I was one, and that has not really changed.  Some of you guys are cool, sure, and individual students are fine, but high schoolers in groups?  Put simply, I'm not tough enough for that.

Fifth wake up: At that point, I had been in private schools for ten years, and had little concept of the greater world.  It's not actually as different as one might think, which I've learned from my time at a big state university, but it is different.  For one thing, there are way more factors at work at any given time governing what is being taught.  For another, although there may be more apparent freedom in the public primary and secondary school--no uniforms, swearing is allowed, etc.--overall freedom is actually restricted by a billion little rules (thank you, federal government), and I was not ready to deal with that.

Sixth wake up: education classes. They did not interest me.  They drove me nuts.

So I changed my major again, this time to just English.  Then I transferred schools to be at home after an extended illness.  I ran out of time to add a minor and still have the opportunity to graduate early (I somewhat regret that I didn't do a minor but am very glad I graduated early and married C.).  So I graduated in December with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

I was so much happier with school once I dedicated my time to studying words.  I can sit with you and talk about three different interpretations of one scene in Hamlet.  I can tell you an unfortunate amount about Freud, since that's about all I ever learned in my literary theory class (thank goodness I can take a different theory class in the graduate degree).  I learned history I never could have otherwise known.  I took a few linguistics courses and can write sounds with the IPA without referencing my textbook.  I know how to craft a solid thesis (even if I never manage to do it in my first draft), use academic language appropriately (thanks to ENGL 310), and think about any situation from multiple points of view (something that would be good to practice in my everyday life).

I gained a lot of knowledge from my major, and I don't regret it at all.  Figuring out how to use that knowledge is where it gets interesting, because the sorts of academic jobs I would love to have are few and highly competitive, and many of the other sorts of jobs I would like (in writing and editing) seem to be dwindling these days.  While I was in school, and anytime I tell people what I majored in, I got asked the same question: do you want to teach?

That's a question I'll answer tomorrow.

Further reading

*edit: Can I clarify that, in spite of all the other things I've read in my life, Oedipus Rex is among my least favorite works of all time?   It is.  I am not one of those sorts of people who unabashedly declares anything old to be terrifically and indisputably amazing.  I'm more than ready to be critical and look at OLD-old works and say "why are we still reading this?"

for my dog-loving friends and family...

This is far too darling, from Dottie Angel...

"little olive...using the couch as a 'step-up'..."

{click image or link to read the entire post and enjoy it}

It's no secret that I'm a serious dog person.  After I got over my fear of dogs around age five, my family found and adopted Bucky, the most blase and beloved cocker spaniel.

He lived thirteen happy years before having several strokes about three years ago.  I still get teary thinking about the good old dog.  He was my pet; I used to read him bedtime stories back when I was in grade school, I fed him, I took him for walks (which were always short), and never made it through a roll of film without a picture of him sleeping, which is what he did most of the time...

Only a few weeks after we lost him, my little sister found Dolly when she and my parents went to donate Bucky's old kennel to the humane society.  We weren't sure about a dog, but Dolly was a funny little bundle of energy that needed a loving family, and we had a space in our home.  Welcoming her in was a wonderful decision.

{Dolly, fall 2009}

She bounces about half the time and sleeps the other half.  Whenever I go back to my parents' after being gone for more than a week, she follows right at my heels.  She's a sweetheart, energetic and active (the complete opposite of Bucky), and a bundle of joy.

I always love finding that my favorite blog writers adore their pups as much as I do.  I hope you didn't mind me sharing about my family's pets.  Have a lovely day!

a little adventure

On Sunday night, I made a trek to E-town to have dinner with my best friend while she was driving back to her university.  We had not seen each other since the summer, which should never happen again (you hear that, Kat?).  Well, we never found Starbucks and wound up eating our five-dollar-bread-bowl-soups at a Panera instead.  Getting back to the interstate was a great adventure in the dark because I drove north instead of south twice...but I digress.  Not only did I enjoy a quiet dinner with Kat, but on my way there, along the stretch of road I've driven a hundred times by now, I saw this herd of deer, ten or twenty of them, grazing in the snow.



It's not something you see every day, is it?

interruptions :: family time

I spent today doing something very rare for me--in fact, I haven't done it since, I don't know, my freshman year of college.  I went to a high school football game.  Yes, me, totally-not-a-sports-fan-me.

See, my little-brother-in-law is a pretty good football player.  Not only did he score the game-winning touchdown against my high school (ok, so that's not impressive, but funny), but he was selected to participate in this year's Border Bowl.  The Bowl is a match-up of all star high school teams in Kentucky and Tennessee located in cities along the I-75 corridor.  So my little-sister-in-law came down to hang out with us for the weekend, and together, we three trekked to the University of the Cumberlands to watch some football.

(he definitely caught that throw)

I will have you know that this is probably the first football game I have actually watched from nearly start to finish.  The little-brother-in-law made some pretty sweet catches, too.  Kentucky should have played him more, we all believe.  Then they might have scored enough to win.  Either way, good job.

My little-sister-in-law is staying with us until tomorrow and might teach me how to purl stitch.  If she is successful, then expect some knitting adventures to come in the future, sometime between working and taking a phonetics class at the graduate level.  Here we go!

so you want to have a wedding...

A few friends of mine are getting married this summer, and I've been asked what resources I used in planning.

{image by K L Phy Photography, who was fantastic!}

Now, I wouldn't necessarily recommend my way of planning--scatterbrained messes that took over my room at home--and my mom was largely responsible for organization, but I found loads of inspiration, advice, and encouragements all across the internet.

So here, I have a little list for you, with links to my favorite sites.

I think I got on weddingbee every day for a few months, and loved the boards, where I found lots of honest talk from brides-to-be and veterans of wedding planning.  I sought inspiration from Once Wed and used a couple of their DIY tutorials.  Snippet and Ink is still a favorite read, because it's full of inspiration for all that is girly and stylish, regardless of whether you're planning a wedding or not.  When it came to organizing, the planner I got when setting up a registry at JC Penney (which I never used, in the end) was pretty useful.  Overall, though, my planning was mostly contained in a spiral notebook and binder, with dividers and pages pulled from the JC Penney planner.  My mom used what I think was an older version of this planner, but I'm not sure.  Either way, the books that have lots of space to write in as well as lots of pockets are the best.  Martha Stewart Weddings has a lot of good online wedding planning resources, including an account you can set up.  For purchasing, I frequented Goodwill (glasswares), Etsy (accessories, paper tape, etc.), and Hobby Lobby (paper supplies).  My mom also found ribbon in the exact color of the bridesmaids' dresses on E-Bay by searching for the David's Bridal colors by name (we picked Mermaid).

I have my journal of planning and all the fun things along the way on my old blog, so head over and read up if there's more you'd like to know.  Here's a super-sweet post from our photographer, Kathy Phy, as well.

Happy planning, girls!

dear blog world...

...I do love you.  I read so many interesting things on an almost-daily basis, and fall in love with photography and beautiful creations that I could never make.

But please, oh please, learn just a few basic things about grammar, spelling, and the use of the apostrophe.

{click image for source}

Here is an introductory course:

(^Please note that the colon above did not follow a verb, which is another thing to remember.  You should never write something like "I have: four dogs, two cats, and a lot of hair on the couch."  You could, however, write this: "I have a problem with hair on the couch for these reasons: four dogs, two cats, and the shedding of their winter coats.")

It's may be used in any instance in which whatever it may be is performing the action of being; that is to say, whenever it is may be used instead.  For example, use it's raining when you could also say it is raining.

Its may be used whenever object X belongs to it; that is to say, whenever it possesses something.  For example, use its hair to refer to the hair that belongs to it.

Does it make sense to say its raining?  Does it possess the rain?  No, I do not think so.

 

I am such a grammar snob sometimes.

happy 2011

Hello 2011!  You certainly caught me by surprise.

2010 was quite the year for C. and I.  We got married, we both moved into our apartment C-ville, C. had interviews and a wonderful job offer, and I graduated.  So 2011, you have some big shoes to fill!

I always make resolutions and promptly forget them.



In spite of that, here are some craft and domestic related things I'd like to take on in the new year, regardless of whether or not I remember them in a few hours.

1. Organize my crafts and my kitchen

2. Learn to knit

3. Learn to crochet

4. Improve my crafts and have a booth at a craft fair, then donate whatever amount I make to a nonprofit like Rapha House (or perhaps something similar here in the US)

5. Do all sorts of printmaking and create personalized gifts for my friends and family

6. Take a photography class

7. Read through at least another twelve (preferably more) of the BBC's The Big Read book list.  That's one per month.  It sounds manageable, considering I read four books in a week during my time off.  I'm a nerd like that.

I have personal goals, too, so finishing up this list is just the beginning.  With a new year and a fresh-feeling new start, I feel ready to take on new things!  What are you hoping to do?

merry christmas

It is Christmas again.  All the gifts are wrapped (almost), the food is made, and we have the treat of snow on the ground (first time in years here).  It's cold and it's bright for a day of joy.



I approached today thinking of all the fun of watching everyone open my gifts, and eating piles of delicious food, and, well, opening a few presents myself (motivated somewhat by curiosity, I do have to say).  I am now thinking how lucky I am for this last year.  My family has grown by the addition of my in-laws, my husband has a great job to start as soon as he graduates, I've graduated and have a job, and my life is full of love and loved ones.  Today, perhaps more than on Thanksgiving, I am grateful, because for some, this holiday is full of sorrow.  I ask that you keep an old friend of mine in your prayers; she and her family were in a horrible car accident.  They lost someone they love and suffered many injuries, and they will all be spending some time in the hospital.  Pray they will have peace; or, if you don't pray, please just hope.

Give great hugs to all that you love, and cherish those moments of joy when they open a gift that tells them you love them and were thinking of them.  Today is to be treasured.