keelyblog

I am sure all my readers know by now that I listen, via the web, to my favorite Austin radio station–KVET. This morning while I sit calmly hand-edging my new silk kitchen towels, a Conway Twitty song came on. I am hand-edging the towels as opposed to machine top-stitching for several reasons, not the least of which is that it looks nicer and goes better with the hand-embroidered Bible verse. Also, I can sit upstairs where it is warmer than downstairs which is still too shivery in the day to enter.

So this song comes on the radio and I am singing along to it. Not just the chorus, but the verses as well. Part of mind acknowledges that this could be described as “sexist”. Another part is feeling all warm and glowy thinking of the sentiments expressed. Still another part finally settles on an apron pattern that will work for me.

I chose this career and I love it. I want to be better at it, and self-improvement is more motivation than raises or stock options. I want to cook more. I want to garden. I want cleaning to not make me so irritable. Or really, I want the kids to learn to clean more without my having to goad them. All this and hoping the verses of this song will apply to me. Some women would be offended to have this song sung to them. Many women, these days. Some of us still want that and there is no telling what a woman wants without asking her. To this end, a love song can never be described as sexist. It is intended for the one person who the writer loves. The intended may truly swell in happiness from the song. And sharing a love song is nice for those men who want to express these things to the wives that will appreciate them, but not be very poetically inclined themselves.

A lot of contemporary love songs are obnoxious, but I will try to keep in mind that they are intended for a different woman. A woman who chooses a different path. Lucky for me, songs last longer than their popularity. Lucky, also, that there is a radio station that still plays these songs. In case you don’t know what Conway Twitty song I heard this morning, here it is.

Link to YouTube video

Sewing has only stopped to do bigger, home re-organization projects.
My current sewing to do list goes in this order:
1. Bag for T’s travel booster seat.
(week spent in SF)
2. T’s new latex topped mattress (cut out, foam pieces cut and wrapped w/ cotton batting already)
3. diaper & training pants baby gift for FB friend–finally someone who will want John Deere flannel and camo colored FOE!
4. co-ordinating Easter outfits including 2 new hats.
5. stretch wool wrap dress for Mama! Thinking about buying some silk for the trim. I’m trying out a pattern from a company I’ve never used before, and am excited about it. I keep putting off sewing myself a new dress from this fabric because of the possible breast surgery. Now I am not so sure that is going to happen at all and a wrap dress is pretty forgiving w/ sizing.

Also, started going to a new chiropractor who has me doing back strengthening exercises. Seeing him again today and my vertebrae are finally starting to move independently. For the first time in over a decade, I experience times without back pain! Spending all that money, time, and recovery for something that is no longer causing pain seems not so worth it any more. I know I was super excited about the Laserbra surgery–especially since the milk came in for T. When pain is making something necessary, it is easy to find all the other great aspects of it. But when the pain is gone, or at least going, it is only a small adjustment to find other things to be excited about. Anyway, I AM going to make a new dress with the luxurious stretch wool. :)

Also, I have a 6th lumbar vertebrae! There is a reason I have a disproportionately long torso! They call it a “normal variance” like webbed toes and third nipples. Probably Mom and T have this also.

We are back from a busy month in Austin. I cleaned out one of my husband’s garages, and cleared most of his stuff out of the other into the freshly cleaned one. Then moved my sewing stuff and fabric storage into the cleared out space of the second garage. The end goal being to no longer live in a giant storage unit. The backyard also got a makeover. I started the zero-scaping project. For Valentine’s Day, my husband bought me nine and half tons of gravel and a new wheel-barrow. One day I will live in a house that does not look like a storage unit on the inside and relax on a back patio paradise.

Anyway, at some point during my time down there, I was trying to explain Linux to a Facebook friend and came across the blog of Linus Torvalds. He had written a snarky post about the software and firmware of his wife’s embroidery sewing machine. I cracked up! So many times my husband has had similar complaints about a similar machine that he bought me in place of an engagement ring. This is not the first time we have compared our lives to that of Linus Torvalds.

Obviously, there are lots of differences between us, a regular tech family, and the Torvalds, a celebrity tech family. However, it is fun to see similarities. I take back every off-color thought I have ever had about people comparing their lives to celebrities like Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt–Linus Torvalds–It’s all the same.

Because I couldn’t help myself, I added Mr. Torvalds’ blog to my Google Reader. Today he posted this. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Just a few weeks ago, amid my big garage shuffle, my husband and i decided that the easiest way to give each kid a bedroom was to move his office out of one. We are planning a big warehouse to be built when we move home, and now that warehouse must include office space. Our network hub, that my husband installed and laid out all the cables for up in the attic, is in the closet of our son’s future bedroom. We agreed to leave it there. That plan still stands because the new office will be in a different building. My husband says, “when you get $20 million in stock options you can put the network hub anywhere you want.” LOL

To Mr. Torvalds:
I am fully aware that my posting a link to your post will most likely notify you of this blog. While I enjoy reading what you post, I am an no way a crazy stalker. :) I am way to busy for that kind of craziness in healthy times, and have difficulty getting out of my chair when my S.A.D. gets out of control. Also, this blog is read almost exclusively by my mother-in-law, immediate family, and sometimes my best friend. I doubt my posting this link will bring a huge amount of traffic to your blog. However, I will be happy to remove the link if it makes you uncomfortable. Thank you for blogging.

A 2yo, a 4yo, and a Mama went on 2 long flights–SEA to AUS, and AUS to SEA–not too long ago. Upon returning to the Ube House, the whole family took me to the doctor and we went on a new regime. Daily B-12 injections, increased dosage of D3 and Armour, black cohosh for luteal phase. If I take the right supplements, with the right food, on the right schedule, I can move around and not yell. Before the Thanksgiving trip home, I was drowning. I was in that place where your lungs are too full of water to fight death any longer, and yet you are still not quite dead. Since starting the new regime, my head is above the water. It’s a fight and sometimes I start to slip under. Yet I end up above water again. As long as there is fight, there is hope. As long as there is hope, there is life. I feel alive. I feel disoriented, have difficulty focusing, am often drained. SAD effects are widespread.

A 2yo, a 4yo, and a Mama going on a long flight on Friday. Maybe by Sunday, I will take a calm breath. I’ll have a raft until it is pulled out from under me a month later.