Serendipitous Coincidences

These always make me happy, serendipitous coincidences. And they are everywhere, if you look for them.

For example, on my way home from dropping my boy off at school, I looked at the cars lining up at the light to get on the toll road. There were 13 vehicles, and every single one of them was white or light silver. I've also seen big groups of red cars. It looked like a fleet or something.

Another happened day before yesterday, when I was trying to separate the icky, sticky weeds from the wildflowers coming up in front of the yard. The neighbor came home, and we were chatting. He said, "Sue Ann, come look at this!" I turned around and there were our friends, the cedar waxwings. About 50 of them had descended on his hedge, which has red berries in it. There were so many that the hedge looked like it was alive. They made that cool cedar waxing noise, ate for about two minutes, then flew away. He got a photo, but I didn't. Wow, I have enjoyed those birds this year--I'll be sad when they move on.

Cedar Waxwing in South Austin

Since I didn't get a photo, I am sharing these that Jeff took. Apparently they pooped all over his car, so there are negative aspects to the yearly visit!

Cedar Waxwings in Soapberry Tree

The one above is well worth clicking on. The colors are beautiful.

The conclusion: Keep your eyes open for little serendipitous moments. They are all around you if you keep your eyes open. Want to hear about moments from other people? I am loving the blog It Made My Day: Little Moments of Win.  People post little things that happen in their life that cheer them up, make them smile, or bring a moment of endearing oddness. It's hard to be down if you check that blog every so often!

Small Rant

OK, I have been using Blogger since 2005. I have always been able to upload images from my computer. Suddenly, yesterday, when I click on the "upload image" link in the blogger interface, I only get the options to upload from a Picasa album, a URL or an image already on the blog. Excuse me? So, to put images in, I've had to upload them to Flickr and paste in the URL. What the heck happened? Anyone else experiencing this? Did I fill my quota of images? I no longer see a notice of how much space I have left, but I had plenty last time I saw it. Is this a problem with Blogger in Draft? Argh.

UPDATE: I finally found the blogger list of current issues, and this was the most recent post:

Some users are experiencing errors when uploading images to Blogger in Draft (draft.blogger.com). We are working on the fix. Meanwhile, you can still upload images to your posts via www.blogger.com

So, I can switch away from Blogger in Draft (which I really like, though) and post normally from the regular Blogger. Just thought I'd share in case anyone else is having the problem!

A New Look and the Time to Get It

This blog is nearly 5 years old (on April 1!), and I had used the same template the whole time. I'd put a lot of customization on it, but it was still very recognizable as one of the standard Blogger themes. So, I bit the bullet, lost a bunch of my customized things, but got a new look. I like it. Maybe one day I will really branch out and use another service or get a custom template, but this will be fine for now!

So, I stuck in a photo of our little church choir from last week. That is one of the things in my life that I am glad I have time for. Sometimes it's frustrating, like last night when we had 0 sopranos (but it IS spring break and people are busy). I do love choral singing, and am glad to have this opportunity to do that--it complements my rock and roll fun nicely!

Really what I'd wanted to talk about today was being grateful for the last 4 weeks with no work. We've had some good luck and the pressure to work so bills will be paid is off a bit. Now I am looking for work I will enjoy and not stressing about it--and will be thrilled if the folks I have been contracting with are able to provide something to do, too. I still love them!

What's been good, though, is having the time to mindfully do some of the things I have been rushing through while I was working so much and spending so much time at yarn shops. I have been able to not only clean the kitchen, but work on getting it back to where I can enjoy working in it again. I've actually kept it nice and tidy for three weeks even though I have been cooking a lot more, and for some reason that really makes me feel good. I got the family room decluttered for my Pampered Chef party, and it has STAYED that way since then. Perhaps the kids are old enough to not create chaos wherever they go (more likely Beccano's just confining his chaos to his room). The dining room FINALLY does not have a lot of extraneous equipment in it (I lie: there is an upside-down bass amp in there right now, but it just needs to get its wheel reattached and it will roll back into its space). And there is just one pile of computer equipment to move out of the "parlor" and it will be nice, too!

I keep trying to declutter the bedroom, but it comes back. I guess that's next!

Cleaning lets me think. I had not had much time to do that recently. I was too busy panicking. I feel like, at last, I can make future plans that aren't in crisis mode. This helps a lot.

Having this bonus time to myself has also enabled me to meditate more. I have always meditated, since I was a teen, but sometimes I only get a few minutes. I have been able to spend more time meditating, which has always been a boon to my serenity and clarity of thought.

It's funny how sometimes a big catharsis precedes calm. A couple of weeks ago I had to face some issues I'd been avoiding (was really too embarrassed to meet them head on). It was painful at the time for me and a friend, but I got through that, and as a bonus figured out it is OK to not be beloved by everyone, it is OK to prefer to be around positive friends, and it is OK to mess up sometimes and not be understood. I now know who my friends are, bear no ill will toward those who aren't fond of me, and feel like a huge weight is off my shoulders. That's just peachy! I'm rested, relaxed, and ready to face the world!

A new look for the blog means for me, also a new phase in life has started. I think my birthday this year was a significant one. The long, scary phase of most of the 2000s may well be behind me, and I can enjoy my spouse, my children, my friends, my hobbies and my work!

601! And My Yule Tree

Wow, I just looked at my blog post listing and saw it said 600 posts on this blog! Hard to believe I could come up with that much to say over the past few years! I should have done something for the big event, but I don't think my readers are the kind who'd want to enter some contest or something. So, hey, send a congrats if you feel like it. It would warm my heart, which needs it, due to the fact that it is SNOWING outside. That's right. OK, more like SLEETING. Still, it was over 70 earlier today!

So, I was actually going to write about our lovely Yule, or Christmas, if you wish, tree. It is really different this year. We got a nice big tree thanks to generous Home Depot gift card wedding presents. It's a sort of strange tree, because its leaves have not opened up or anything. I guess it's uptight.

So, we can't find the ornaments, or the tree topper. Just a few of the things have showed up, so I decided to make things. We got bright new multicolored lights, which are a departure from the golden and purple ones I have favored in the past (I always have had slightly odd trees). Anyway, I found a bunch of the purple ball ornaments from last year, and covered them with the squares of cloth and tulle we'd used on our pansy favors from the wedding, tying them up with the left over curling ribbon. They look sort of quaint and rustic. I also (as seen in top picture) covered some shiny gold ornaments with just the red or gold tulle. They look nice, too. I added ribbon left over from the wedding, and Lee and the kids keep saying how nice the lights look shining off it. Not what I'd normally do, but it looks fine.

In this picture you also see an ornament sent to me by an email friend, which she made. It's a little glass container full of shiny beads, with beaded cord around it, and cute li'l shrinky dinks with nice sayings on them. It is really shiny. And sweet. She also sent an ornament made from felted sweaters and some llama roving. Very soft.


This picture shows the ornament we got at Yule Fest on Sunday. It's a Christmas spider, which is based on some German legend about a spider that spins a web that turns gold for Christmas. We thought it was a nice story and a really pretty spider, too. It's not very itsy bitsy. Below that is a fish ornament, which came from the set of bride's ornaments that Parker gave us for our wedding gift. We put the fertility bunny in the back, 'cause we really could do without any babies in the near future. Ho ho ho. All the ornaments are really cute, and each one symbolizes something about married life. I like the lovely rose and the big heart with the wedding rings on it the best. They are the only shiny ornaments I put on, at least so far.

So, here is what the tree looks like.

To me it is a little sparse, but I tend to over-decorate. Lee and the boys seem quite taken by it, so I will leave it like it is this year. Like Lee says, I need to try to make some new traditions for our new family and such. I'll have to. No kids with us this Christmas, so it WILL be different. We have a very happy lit-up redbud tree in the front yard (we are the only people on the street with colored lights, not to mention jumpy blinky ones).

I have a bit of a sad note. You may remember all the things that have been going wrong with my corgi, Gwynneth. She went blind two years ago, and a few months ago began having trouble with her back legs. Tonight she seems a lot worse. I don't know how much longer we'll be able to keep her. If she can't walk, she won't have any quality to her life, and that will make me sad--she is the first dog I've ever had from puppyhood to old age. A number of my friends have lost pets recently. It is never an easy time.

Think about This

I was just reading about this on a guy's blog (a guy who posted a GREAT sock knitting pattern, too), and wanted to share the philosophy of some OTHER guy, who came up with the idea of Blogging without Obligation. This applies especially to you, my seldom-blogging friends. Out with the guilt! Post when you want to! And only when you want to!

Here is my favorite quote from the original BWO page answering why blog without obligation:

Because they are probably not going to inscribe your stat, link and comment
numbers on your tombstone.

Words I need to live by when I am fretting over declining numbers on my knitting blog, like a person with no real life. :-)

Back to your blog, WoW, Ravelry, email, work or whatever is filling your time...

Learning Styles Insight

Me Knitting
Originally uploaded by sunasak

My post yesterday on how much I like to sing, then Stephanie's comment got me thinking about why I pick the hobbies I pick. I love to sing and knit (and type, i.e., blog).

It dawned on me that both singing and knitting are things I use my kinesthetic learning style on. Both I learn by how it feels to do an action I may have mentioned before that the reason I don't often forget a harmony part is that my throat remembers the feelings of each note in a song--I don't remember the note values; I remember the pitches relative to each other.

And I remember how to knit various patterns by how they feel when I do them. The fact that I learn patterns better from a chart than from written-out knitting instructions also has to do with learning physically--I can see the direction the decreases or increases go in on a chart, so I don' t have to thinking "K2tog" or "SKP" -- I just do the "thing that leans left" or the "thing that leans right," physically, as depicted in the chart without having to translate into the words for what I am doing, which is an extra step in my mind.

Certainly, one reason I like doing these things, and also why I like typing, is that I enjoy the fact that I can get my body to be so precise and do exactly what is needed to create something of high quality--a song in tune, a sock, a quickly typed email with few errors. It feels good to be physically adept at something.

Anyway, just a short insight into how I do things and why I like them.

---

OK, we all know we have a mix of learning styles in us, and that there's more than one way that people define learning styles. Robin (see comments) suggested that some of my liking for knitting and singing might be due to being a visual-spatial style learner. Are you? If you want to know, here's a set of questions and here's an interesting comparison. I found it interesting to look at, because I do share many (probably most) characteristics of someone with that style, but with a few marked exceptions: I am an excellent speller and I like to speak in public. However, sure enough, I visualize words to spell them, like the comparison mentions.

Enough about me--what truly struck me was how the descriptions fit Beccano, and the comparison, which I think is intended to show why folks with this learning style might not fit in well in a traditional academic setting--fit my boy Beccano. To a "t" even. Makes a lot of sense. Really makes it clear how he can be so "gifted" and have such a high IQ but not be a great traditional student.

So, thanks, Robin, you educator, you!