No dieting for me

Would I like less girth on my overall frame? Would my health benefit if I weighed less? Absolutely. But I stubbornly REFUSE to succumb to the diet mentality that overtakes human kind this time of year.

Prompted by a Ted Talk by Melissa Rankin, MD, I felt a tension give way in my psyche. Rather than beat myself up and torture my amazing body with deprivation, starvation & crazed workouts, I am choosing to eat on purpose. Glynn and I cleaned out the cupboards. We will eat minimally processed, whole foods. We will drink plenty of purified water. We are moving our bodies in a moderate vs. Nazi approach. We choose to honor our bodies by giving them gentle care vs. harsh treatment.



We are also doing this 'bloat' cleanse. Not the best tasting concoction around but it's one way to make sure one is drinking enough water!

'Women Food and God' by Geneen Roth has been on my reading list for over a year. It made it to the top of my reading pile and it's blowing my mind wide open. (Interestingly, books find their way to the top of the pile when I'm ready to read them.) I didn't think I fit the description of an emotional eater. I don't hide food. I don't binge eat.... Yet with Geneen's gentle guidance I realize that when I have the inclination to bolt to avoid a situation or a painful reality, I eat. I highly recommend this book if you want to find your way out of the maze of emotional eating.

In the spirit of starting afresh in a new year, I'll share some recent art journal creations:

Happy new year!

And the winner is.....

We asked our guests to bring/wear an ugly sweater to our Christmas party this year.

Interestingly enough, as I perused the racks at the Goodwill and a local thrift shop for appropriate attire, I was surprised at how difficult it was to find a sweater with a holiday theme. A short while later, I learned via nightly news that ugly sweater contests have skyrocketed in popularity. So much so that accumulating such tacky attire has become a cottage industry! I logged onto Ebay thinking I'd have success there and was shocked at the prices; $25 to $75 + shipping costs. Yikes!

As a result, many of our contestants utilized their craftiness and became creative:

The tacky Knox family.
(I'm pretty sure Kim pulled this sweater out of the back of her closet having worn it in the 80's.)

The tablecloth duo



Other serious contenders



And the winner is: Phil who lit up like a Christmas tree when he plugged himself into a socket!

(So sorry if you and your lovely sweater are not pictured here. We didn't get photos of all the lovely tackiness!)

Holiday images 2011

Twinkle and sparkle wherever one goes

Sugar highs

Pretty little packages tied up in bows

Giving and receiving handmade is the best!

The real Santa Claus

Joy, plain and simple

Familial love

Anticipation

Loving the little toys more than the big ones

Christmas warmth

The clan on Christmas day, minus a few who left early....

In 1897, eight year old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the New York Sun asking a very important question.

"Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in The Sun, it's so'. Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?"

The response by veteran newsman Francis Church has become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial ever written.

"VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except (what) they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virgina, whether they be man's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither child nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

I believe. Do you?

Firefly delight

I didn't see my first firefly until I was approaching middle age. The moment would have been serendipitous had I been a youngster frolicking on a hillside. Instead, I was walking off travel fatigue in a parking lot of a nondescript motel in North Carolina.

Age didn't matter as I squealed with delight, finally realizing what the unusual phosphorescent bursts of light were. Magical!

On this same trip, as I was rocking in a porch swing of an old bed and breakfast* situated along a bank of the Ohio River, a stern wheeler slowly chugged by. It was a dinner cruise of some sort and I heard laughter and merriment coming from its deck. As the stern of the boat slipped from my line of vision, it was replaced by the twinkling of hundreds, if not thousands, of fireflies. Were they attracted to the gaiety and lightheartedness of the passengers on the boat?

I like to think so.


(* It just so happens that Glynn's great-great-great-great-great grandfather built the guts of this old home. Although it cannot be verified, local lore claims its property was part of the underground railroad.)

In Grandma Bessie's later years, I remember her often asking "where has the time gone"? It was a comment more than a question. Now that I'm on the flip side of 50, I find myself relating to her query - a lot.

A preoccupation with what may happen tomorrow, next month, even in the next few hours robs me of the essence of the here and now. My physical body may be mired in the present but my mind is focused on another time.

So, once again, I'm reminded of my need to live in and pay close attention to the present moment, especially during the holiday season!

random thoughts

(My dream house at Christmastime)

A few years ago, Glynn and spent a night in Astoria, OR during the Christmas holidays. The main street of the downtown area was festively decorated like a downtown should be during the holidays with garlands draped across the street, adorned with a large red bell and twinkling with lights. Over sized, plastic candy canes were mounted on light poles and Christmas carols were heard playing over a loud speaker.

not Astoria - a random town in Sweden

somewhere in Maryland

Cartier's: NYC

Anytown, USA

The pinnacle of quintessential downtown perfection: Main St., Disneyland

Sadly, although holiday light displays are still present, the LED revolution has all but obliterated the warm, happy atmosphere of many downtowns across America. This technology apparently helps reduce energy costs. Beneficial, yet. Festive and fuzzy? Absolutely not. The color emitted from these lights is cold and harsh.



While driving through downtown Olympia last night I sadly observed the stark, extra-terrestrial white/blue glow emitting from giant snowflakes attached to street lamps. It feels like the inside of a hospital operating room. It's a sad, sad day....

....which has absolutely nothing to do with my next topic.

The governing assemblies of Thurston county have deemed it vital to traffic safety to convert major intersections into round-abouts. Initially I was vehemently opposed to the idea. However since being forced to utilize them, I grudgingly concur that they do seem to enhance the flow of traffic (unless one is hit by an idiot who is texting on her cell phone while driving, thus clogging the round-about with a fender bender).

My favorite aspect of our new round-about paradigm is that tingling bolt of power that surges through me when I have the right-of-way in the round-about forcing oncoming cars to pause and merge into traffic behind me. I've got the power!

December is here!

Each and every year I struggle to hold back tears of gratitude on Thanksgiving day - gratitude for wonderful family and friends and good health and a roof over my head and food on the table and an incredible husband and great (adult) children and living in a free country, and Cooper and ...the list goes on.

Cooper didn't know what to think of this naked bird.

Hostessing and taking photos don't mix well. I did get one picture of the kids (young and old) eating.
When it's finally dessert time, we celebrate Willa's birthday . This year we surprised Chris with a 50th birthday party as well. Here he holds up a festive pair of Christmas undies! When each of us kids reach 50, dad and mom gift us with a photo book containing pictures of ourselves from birth through graduation. What a treasure! Chris was given his book that day. Also, Uncle Gene gifted him with a rifle that our grandfather used and his father before him. Wow!


While searching for my Thanksgiving napkins, I was rather shocked to realize just how many sets of napkins I own! I need to have some tea parties (or cocktail parties?) to use them up.

Last summer, I bought a large container of Christmas bulbs at a garage sale for $2. Many are flocked, all are vintage. Tonight I strung them along a wire and draped the mass atop my vintage door along with a string of vintage green lights = vintage delight!

I'm digging my recent art journal entry. I copied the idea from a booze advertisement in a magazine! The red border is actual vintage wallpaper from my grandma's little farmhouse kitchen in Enumclaw, WA. (How many times have I used the word 'vintage' in this post?)

My mind is whirling with decorating ideas, gifts to make and buy, goodies to bake, all preparation for Christmas which will be here soon!

This and that

Here is a mish mash of various pictures giving a glimpse into the ordinariness of my recent life. (Ordinariness = good.)

The quilt

Stephanie informed me she does not like the 'fancy stitches' on quilts. So, I decided to try stitch-in-the-ditch and ordered a special foot for my sewing machine. After many attempts at adjusting the tension (puckering), I gave up. No fancy stitches on this quilt - just a running stitch.

I decided it was high time to start using some of the old architectural pieces I have in storage. (The ones Glynn calls junk...) This is the door I rescued from a garbage pile...

and these are the original shutters on dad & mom's home in Kent. A perfect backdrop for Mr. and Mrs. Old Timer.


Cuteness = these rocks, made by sister Kim for mom's birthday. It's a basket of happy!

Tucker, the Knox family cat

A camera cannot do justice to the flaming sugar maple tree outside my office.

Bonnie (as in Bonnie and Clyde), our neighbors goat, asking me if I have anything to eat. She and Clyde love a scratch behind their ears and food of any kind.

And last, little Otis. He has not been overly happy with me as I rouse him from the first of his many morning cat naps to take a walk. To add insult to injury, I made him pose in a pile of damp leaves. Doesn't he look thrilled?