One New Year's Resolution Down, 9 to go

I finally finished the arrangement of "In Humility Our Savior" for my cousin. She wanted to overcome her fear of singing in public and asked if we could do a duet together in Church. I asked her what songs she liked and she named two, of which this was one. I couldn't find good arrangements for either, so I told her (last September) that I'd arrange In Humility for us. I used to do some slapped-together arranging back when I was the UCLA Ward choir director and was particularly fond of what today would be called "mashups" meaning I'd shove two hymns together musically and lyrically (Lead Kindly Light and I Need Thee work really well, for instance). The choir had fun with it and was patient, even when we'd discover one measure was missing a beat entirely.

So this was an exciting thing for me to do my first full arrangement and put it in composing software (rather than just use copies of the hymnbook, scissors, paste and white-out, as with the UCLA days ;) ). I don't know how to put it in a PDF format, and I haven't heard real people sing it (just the "choir" bots in the software), but I'm happy with it nonetheless.

Work is fine, I'm in one of my "missing my kids" phases right now and hoping for a deus de machina to make that possible, although the reduced schedule helps. I do have trouble doing much work from home, though, because the kids demand attention sometimes until almost 9 and then I often crash. But I honestly feel my productivity is higher than it was before I changed my schedule. Something about working in 4-hour blocks makes me rush to get things accomplished, rather than the "hare" mentality I often have at the beginning of an 8-hour work day.

Ben is doing well in school and seems pretty happy overall. Sophie is having some struggles feeling left out at Church and school, but I'm arranging for her to go play with her cousins more often. Noah is happy at Lucy's daycare, but he still seems sad about my absence and really acts out a lot. Lucy is cute, talking more and more, opinionated, and possibly gaining weight. I'm doing some things with diet and herbs and gradually weaning them off the sugar binge they've been on since Halloween, motivated by a book I've owned but avoided reading for some time, "Little Sugar Addicts." Since I was praying about these issues the day before my eye fell on that book, buried in the shelf, I felt it must be a prompting.

I am not exactly sure where David is, although on his occasional calls he tells me he is "in the East" or "in the West" (because he is crossing the Mississippi in his travels). I know he'll be back in a few days, though.

My January probably looks like many people's January--dieting, going to the gym, writing that book, organizing that room, completing this and that project. Hopefully I'll get over all this ambition soon and get some real sleep.

My stock guy says "cataclysmic collapse" is coming after inauguration, and some people seem to think that the Gaza/Israel thing is going to develop into Armageddon, but I'm holding out that 2009 will turn out to be a good year anyway.

Love to all--(by which I mean YOU those sweet friends and family who read my blog, not a love for all man--baby steps, you know)

Valerie

A Fresh Start

Happy New Year! Do you like my new pic on the blog? This year that little trist will have taken place 20 YEARS AGO. Craziness!

I am not looking forward to getting back into the school routine, the laziness has been very nice.



David worked hard on the scout fundraiser all day on Jan 1 & 2, raking in piles of dough to support his program, but stretching out the illness he had before that due to many hours of exertion outside, so he's all cuddled up in jammies today doing crosswords.


Lucy is a little firecracker--since she is underweight and has problems with dairy and soy, she is nursed whenever she wants. Because when she cries hard she starts to have lung issues and wheeze, she is sometimes placated regardless of whether or not it is the best idea. She wakes up at night, wants to nurse and sleep with me all the time, is still easily toted in an infant carseat and still sleeps in a boppy in her crib (for that three hours a day she will stay in her crib--2 napping and 1 at night). Somehow through all of this she has come to feel that she should have whatever she wants whenever she wants. I'm trying to explain to her that she is 19 months old, not 6 months old. Her church behavior today was, I feel, a preview to many sabbath wrestling matches to come.



Noah has been a little bored over the holidays sometimes and has watched too much TV. Potty training is not going so well again, and I thought we'd turned a corner. He sleeps great, I'll give him that. And he's hilarious and sweet and adorable. I need to write down the things he says more often, he gets me laughing almost every day.


Sophie has really enjoyed being home, it has been so nice having her around. She wrote a fully illustrated book about Santa Claus yesterday that was just wonderful, with creative pictures and spelling. She's just a joy.



I am embarrassed to say that all I do in my spare time right now is blog. I'd forgotten how much I love writing. Where am I blogging? You might ask? I'm blogging a tiny bit on suburbanharvest.blogspot.com and two other sites that aren't yet open to the public, but will be soon. I'll tell you about those more next week, when one will be ready and I'll shamelessly ask you to send it to everyone you know. Although I'm very entertained by and learn a lot from several blogs, there is something so egotistical and voyeuristic about blogging. Still, for writing addicts like myself, the ability to self-publish is dangerous. I'm posting like crazy, loving it, and don't even have public sites. Silly, silly Valerie.



Benjamin has had some great time hanging out with his dad, he really thrives on that and is starting to turn a corner in his development where he wants less to romp and play as to be with his dad. For instance, on the 31st, I decided to take the kids to the zoo while David did fundraising prep. Ben chose errands with dad. Here are some zoo pics:


Sophie (with conspicuously missing teeth) and a lion, who had just roared! I never thought I'd hear a lion roar in the zoo! It was loud and intense and amazing. Noah was a little freaked out.


Here is a koala. They were all out and easy to see. I'd been to the zoo a lot but never had seen the koalas well. The ones I took of koalas and my kids were blurry, so here's just a plain one.



A parent and baby giraffe!

Noah attacking a hippo on the zoo playground.


Sophie being a monkey, as she is wont to do.

Now for the major event of the week, the big fat Rose Bowl Parade! Tuesday we popped up and went over to our friends the Hunter's who live by where we used to on the parade route--they saved a space for us. I was going to put some float pictures in here, but theirs are better and she has a good description of the excitement, so pop on over there for the parade pics, then come back and see my people pics.

Ready? Ok:

Eli and Noah both used this phone booth as a fancy VIP Seat for the parade. This is me, Sophie, Noah and our friends Thomas and Kath Chamberlain. The Chamberlains crammed with us in our van to drive over and we had a grand time.

Me and Lucy, both covered in cookie goo from Lucy's 10-minute cookie-eating project.

Sophie and Ella, having wiggled their way into a front spot between all the people who stayed overnight.

Ben and Addy Hunter. Sad story, really. Years ago Ben settled on her for his eternal mate, but Addy has other plans.

Emeril Lagasse! Charisma, cooking skills, complicated recipies. Reminds me a bit of a gangster. But I was excitedly compelled to take a picture, so all my aloof coolness is betrayed to reveal I do get excited about the occassional celebrity--if they are related to food.

I'm reading some great books, I'll tell you all about them on my other blogs later. Wishing you all a very happy new year!