I have the pleasure of working in an extremely diverse school district, and the title above is a favorite colloquialism that I have picked up around the halls from some of my African American students.  It is obviously a greeting, but I think in some ways it is also tied another phrase I have heard, “I’m livin’ right” or “He/She ain’t livin’ right”.  Since the whole idea of incorporating my New Years list into my life is about “livin’ right” I thought it was appropriate.  I have realized that it is very unlikely that I will post here everyday-good intentions or no, we have enough trouble keeping the main blog up to date and it is essentially weekly.  Last weekend still isn’t up and we are three photo galleries behind-Arrgh!  However I think it will actually be better to do it this way (i.e. every few days or so) because then I will have done more of the 6 goals and have more to list.  So, without further ado…

1. Make something-I made a new budget, no this isn’t creative (although creative budgeting is a cornerstone of making it from paycheck to paycheck) but it does help me see where my money is going and provides some boundaries, which I always need.  It sort of happened because of something I was writing, but I’ll get to that a bit later on.

2. Maintain something-I cleaned the kitchen which sorely needed it and worked on my bulletin boards at school.  While this last may not seem very important for a high school teacher, it is amazing how much more welcoming (and less institutional) a room seems with interesting and attractive decorations.

3. Learn something-I actually have learned quite a bit this week.  I learned how to make tortillas and cornmeal mush (also based on my writing project) and I learned that I was wrong; “Death Letter Blues” is not a Leadbelly song, it is a Son House song-but in my trolling around the internet (I got started because I was trying to figure out which album contained the White Stripes version of the song) I found some footage of Leadbelly, which led to the last thing I learned.  I learned a new song (originally a field call/response) called “Take This Hammer, and Carry to the Captain” on my guitar.

4. Write something-Okay, this is the big time sink this week.  I have started a new book.  Not fiction (like the never finished novel) but a sort of how-to non-fiction.  The working title is “Eating On $50.00 A Week” and it was one more step in trying to get control of what I can in my life and let the rest sort itself out.  I picture it as having meal plans, grocery lists, and attending recipes for real people eating, along with some advice on how to stretch the food dollar a bit farther.  I am actually writing it for myself and Josh-trying out all the plans and lists as I go to help us save money and eat better.  But in the future I envision giving it as a gift to nieces and nephews going off to college or even (perish the thought) if it works well trying to get it published somewhere.  I think it might be helpful to folks living paycheck to paycheck like we do.  Of course making it yourself is almost always cheaper, thus the learning how to make tortillas and corn meal mush, but it also made me consider all the other ways I waste money-thus the new budget.

5. Cultivate something-I am still trying to save the philodendron.  I think the haircut and love (i.e. any attention other than the occasionally half empty glass of water and sitting on top of the fridge)  I have given it of late has actually sent it into shock, and some of the leaves are turning brown-but I think I will win it back from the dark side.

6. Let someone know I love them.-Of course I tell my mother I love her every time I talk to her on the phone (which I confess is not often enough) but I called her this week to ask if I could come down and watch her make her amazing homemade bread.  Okay, yes there is an ulterior motive.  I want to try and capture a recipe for #4, but I do mean it as sort of an homage to her cooking, I just need to tell her that out loud:)

That’s it for now!

1. Make something-Made Root beer with extract, water and seltzer.

3. Learn something-I learned how to make homemade pita tonight, to go with Josh’s yummy roasted pepper hummus.  It was surprisingly good!

5. Cultivate something-There is this lovely philodendron that my sister-in-law gave me that has been languishing, I trimmed it back and got it down off the refrigerator where I can water it regularly tonight.

6. Let someone know I love them- I tried to snuggle Josh through a bout of chills, does that count?:)

So on the New Year’s blog I said that I wanted to incorporate some things into my life everyday, namely:

1. Make something, 2. Maintain something, 3. Learn something, 4. Write something, 5. Cultivate something,

6. Let someone know I love them.

I live a far more hectic life than I want to, and it will be difficult to try to do these things everyday, but I think it will be good for my soul.  So I thought I would use this post to brainstorm some things I could do under each category, to help me out when I feel frustrated.

1. Make something-yes this could just be dinner, but I mean it to be something creative or useful.  A sculpture, a sewing project, something useful or pretty for the property, an outhouse or sawdust toilet, a great lesson plan, a gift for someone, etc.

2. Maintain something-this is easy, stuff like working on my grading or laundry pile, fixing ripped clothes, painting the outside of the little cabin, cleaning the apartment, entering grades in my grade book, trimming trees and pulling rocks on the drive, things that will lower my overall stress level because I am taking care of them.

3. Learn something-a skill, or just a new piece of info.  This probably means a lot of reading, much of which will probably be about homesteading or self-sufficiency skills.  Though I would really like to learn to weld and speak Spanish too.

4. Write something-mostly on the never finished novel, but also poems, blogs, journals, a really good description of something, etc.

5. Cultivate something-When the garden starts this one will take care of itself, but also house plants, figuring out how to get the poverty grass to grow in a “yard” at the property, seedlings, etc.

6. Let someone know I love them-Real handwritten letters, e-mails, phone calls, care packages, funny cards that make me think of the person, etc.  I need to make an effort to let the people I love know how much I appreciate having them in my life.

That’s about it I guess, maybe I will try to track daily progress (or at least semi-often) progress here in the musings.

Unfortunately we did not get to go to the property as planned this weekend.  Unforeseen budgetary developments grounded the trip.  So after moping around a bit I decided to immerse myself in reading a few new things.  I may even start on my pile of “to read” books at some point this weekend, though I will have to devote a big chunk of time to grading.  I have student essays galore!  However, while I was out procrastinating on the web, I found some fun things that I thought I would put up.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7669522.stm  this is a BBC report about “An attempt to create a pioneering carbon-neutral farm…in Italy.”

This was just funny, if you can have a sense of humor about the whole campaign thing.  Yes it is important, but we can’t lose our sense of humor-so no direspect meant to any McCain supporters out there.  Apparently the actors in this are from some T.V. show called “gossip girls” but, as I don’t own a T.V., I have never seen it.  I just loved the fairly intelligent use of parody/satire.  Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxvHkFLmqRk

I also have been trying to figure out if there is any way to create a cycle powered washing machine, because hauling all of our clothes back from the property dirty starts the week off with way too many chores.  I have only found a couple of sites, one a group of engineering students and one a guy that has a prototype that he takes around.  But there aren’t any diagrams or plans anywhere.  If anyone happens to read this and knows of where I can get info, let me know-I don’t know how soon I could set it up (getting garlic in the ground is a bit more of a priority) but I am fascinated by the idea.

That’s about it, I should probably go grade now.

No, I am serious.  Have you ever seen those commercials with people staring longingly at picture frames with something like “Only You” playing in the background, then you find out that the pictures are all of cheese?  I completely identify with that.  Sharp cheddar, gouda, sheep’s milk brie, I can’t think of anything I would rather eat than cheese.  In fact, I think that if I could figure out how to wrap an extremely sharp cheese in a layer of dark chocolate-truffle style, I would have created the perfect food.  I realize that there is absolutely no social, environmental or cultural contribution that this post makes, I have accepted it and moved on, this section is, after all, called musings.  Cheese is an excellent muse, I think I’ll go have a chunk and dream of the day that I can make my own.

So, this is my first attempt at a musing.  I preferred that title to “rant”, as I don’t really rant all that often-though my students might tell you otherwise-but I think this one might fit better into that category.  It is a little late in coming, but I’ve been thinking about it for a while.  What I have been thinking about is the fact that people keep questioning whether it is the right thing for Sarah Palin to have run for V.P. when she has 5 kids at home, one of them with special needs.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not a McCain/Palin supporter; my politics are probably just a touch left of Frederich Engels’s, but I get a little tired of the double-standard. No one has brought up the fact that many of our presidents and V.P.s have had young children. No one has questioned whether it made them bad fathers to accept a post that took so much of their time away from family and home. In a country where commercials regularly portray women as the only chef/housekeeper/nurturer and men as incapable of handling their children let alone cooking anything that doesn’t come off the grill or out of the microwave, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. But really, when are we going to get over the idea that a woman is always the main or better parent, or that men can’t be responsible for their side of the equation. I think these attacks are unfair to and underestimate both sexes. Sure, it would be great if both parents could spend most of the day raising their children, but unfortunately for many people this just isn’t a possibility. We should not judge our elected officials by a different standard based on their gender, nor should we think less of men who stay home to raise their kids because they are somehow not fulfilling the socially accepted stereotype (in fact we should give anyone who does this an ovation-male or female). It bothers me that these comments have not drawn more rebuke. There-rant over

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