daily exhale

Face the Sun - the Movie independent feature film by Sunflower Pictures

Face the Sun is an important new feature film that follows the lives of a young family dealing with breast cancer.

When photographer, and mother of two, Kathy Anderson first becomes aware of what seems to be an early symptom of the illness, the locum for her vacationing family physician reassures her that, "It's nothing more than a water cyst. You're much too young for it to be anything more serious." Not wanting to worry those closest to her, she hides the symptoms from both family and friends.

Never thought about beetle reproduction before.

We have lizards - anoles. They eat meal worms.  Worms turn into beetles.  I never thought about how baby meal worms are made. Insects aren't my thing.  But tonight the topic came up because two beetles were in the food dish of the male anole and were - as my son said  "doing something funny on top of each other."

Spring Break - nothing a couple of hired hands can't fix.

The anxiety we go through with each extended time off from school - Spring Break, Winter Break and the dreaded S U M M E R   V A C A T I O N.  I'm getting smarter, having done this for a few years.  I still have to work, but that doesn't mean I have to be it. I can hire someone to come here for the day and be "it."

Thank goodness for the sunshine and two wonderful sitters who come with their bags of tricks and ideas.  They have saved my week at $7 per hour.  The children have played, crafted, ventured to the park, had the pool out for the one warm day.  We're almost through the week. One more day to go.

Pulling back the reins on hobby - personal blogging to strangers.

Business blogging and writing aside, I'm noticing I'm blogging and writing more; but not for the world, not for strangers.  I'm writing for my friends.  As much fun as I've had social posting for the world as a creative outlet, it's really not for any purpose, other than sharing with my friends. 

Solution:  create a private blog for my friends and I to dump. This is not FB, this is very targeted to special groups of intimate friends that will only see it and it won't be in their news feed.  I'm finding more freedom and receiving more joy from the private comments and "conversation." It feels more like a visit.

My favorite is with a group of women from my school circle.  They see me weekly and check up on me, know my family and understand my humor.  This is fun.  They also pick me up on the days of sad or muddled posts.  I also enjoy visiting with the chapter leaders in my non-profit, Binky Patrol. These women have great hearts and a wry sense of humor that not everyone would get outside our organization.  We have our place to laugh, vent and support.

In the past, I've splatter blogged to express myself. It helped, but there is nothing to replace real relationships with real, live friends you can decide to meet with, give a hug, and share out loud laughter rather than emoticons, LOL's and the like.

Try it - get back to real people relationships. Put down the texting unless you're scheduling a brief visit, or pick up the phone once in a while. Don't lose the ability to communicate in person.  It's becoming a dying art.  When was the last time you blogged for your live friends?  Try it, it feels good.

Try it:

Free sites on Shutterfly.  I find the share sites are PERFECT for this application.  Quick journal entries, regular emailed recaps for the posts and photos. It's a great way to share photos in a community for printing, photo books, etc.  We have one for our brownie troop, one for my daughters class, one for "the moms" and others.  They are all private - members only can view and share the photos.

Amy Alkon Was Met By Rude People at Powell's

Greeted by the events calendar from Powell's the other morning, I set to work securing Katie Kepner, Amazing Sitter for the night of Amy Alkon, author of "I See Rude People."  We are SO glad we did.  As we walked through the doors of Powell's City of Books on Burnside, there she was in her tall, red-headed persona.  I knew this would be a fun night.  We had no idea that hecklers had decided to pounce upon the visiting author.

Green Christmas cards, or just lazy?

The season is here.  Everyone has their own approach to Christmas cards, holiday cards and the like.  But it's time for a bit of honesty.  By not sending out cards and going e-card, are you going green or is this your excuse to forgo the tradition?  Here's the test:

Do you usually send post-office variety cards to a list each year?

Are you sending individually addressed e-cards that have some personal element to them?

Are you not sending a mass email to your entire address book with the excuse of "going green this year?"

Savannah, will you bring me some raisins, please?

Our son understands about fiber and how things you eat affect the "end of the story."  He doesn't quite have the concept of time down.

I'm not that kind of advocate.

Advocacy is not being the go-to person for tattletales.

Being an advocate is a big part of who I am. But I'm not the type of advocate to do all the work for someone.  I'd rather teach them to stand up for themselves, take action, be stronger.  If they are unable (not to be confused with unwilling) then I'm happy to step in and do what I can to help them.

Our bus stop has turned into a bit of victim, gossipy drama.  We have two factions:  Those who live in houses and those who live in the apartments.  I'm friends with both, but seem to be in the minority.  One side makes snide remarks about the other, the other reads too much into it and tattles, whines to me.  I'm not that kind of advocate.

Why is it that we continuously stay in jr. high or elementary school?  We should be beyond this.  Self-imposed victims are unattractive and annoying. Buck UP!  Take responsibility for yourself. If you overhear someone saying something unkind, you have two choices:  accept what they say or change it.  If you change it, you will have to be brave and ask them about the comment. This shows that:

1. you are not deaf

2. you are respecting yourself and your family

3. you won't tolerate "mean girls" syndrome

If you choose to accept it, don't complain to anyone else - especially me if you are unwilling to take action.  You are allowing their meanness seep into you so you can absorb their unkind, uneducated, prejudiced feelings.

Hmm, doesn't sound like much of a choice to me.

Inglourious Basterds - you either like it a lot or not at all.

As usual with a Quentin Tarantino film, there's very little room for middle of the road.  We had a date night for this one.  After a great dinner at Pastini, we made it just in time for the end of the over-the-top previews before, "Inglourious Basterds."  We really enjoyed the movie.

I admit to wincing at the gore several times, but the casting was terrific as was the premise.  In spite of reviews saying this was a formula-type of Tarantino film, it still caught me off-guard.

spoiler...

I got out four years ago. She just caught on.

An honest take from today’s LA Times…Thanks for sending this Bret and, thank you Candice for writing what I figured out years ago. 

Dear California, I'm dumping you
I thought it would last forever, but you've changed and I want out.
By Candice Reed , August 16, 2009


Dear California,

I've been thinking about this for a very long time, and I've come to the conclusion that we should go our separate ways. I thought I loved you and it would last forever, but I was so very wrong.

I know that our relationship has lasted 50 years and that we should fight to stay together, but you've changed so much that, frankly, I don't know who you are anymore!

When we first met I was young and rather naive, and I loved you unconditionally. I spent years running with abandon across your sandy beaches in the bright sunshine, playing in your beautiful parks and attending your top-rated schools, which were a national model for the other states. For 18 years or so, I can honestly say that I was truly in love with you, but then came your first major transgression: Proposition 13.

Oh sure, you tried to tell me that property taxes were bad for our relationship, but I knew you were lying. Low taxes, you said, would bring us closer together. You wanted to have your cake and eat it too. You said we could build schools and roads and parks without that tax money, but even back then I knew you were in denial.