Happy Thanksgiving!

I know I'm a little early...just by a day...but I wanted to go ahead and wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.  Perhaps the most overlooked holiday these days, and it's sad.  It's a great day.

May this one bring smiles to your faces, hearts and tummies alike!

On Reading and Books.

I have not had much time to read lately. It might be more accurate to say that I haven't MADE much time for reading lately...lately, as in, the past year or so.

This is a very sad thing. As a kid (and those of you who knew me then can vouch) I was never without a book. Literally - NEVER. At the dinner table, at friends' houses, even in church if I could manage to get it past my mom's attention (which, rest assured, wasn't often).

Still, my first impulse when I want to know something about anything is to find a book. I love books. Not even because I love to read. I DO love to read, passionately. But the funny thing is, I love a book. I love the concept of pieces of paper with words written in a linear fashion and bound together. I love the smell and feel of paper. I love the sight of words on a page. I love words and language, period. I love the way they look on a bookshelf or in a stack on a table or strewn about beside the bed. I love that they contain information. It's always there...on every page. It doesn't go away or disappear just because that page isn't open at the moment. I have so many books at home...probably well over a thousand by now, most bought with my own money, even as a child. That is a lot of information! It makes me salivate intellectually, thinking of all the stuff there is to know that is already available to me, if I would take a moment and open the book and discover it.

Which brings me to what I was initially thinking about when I began this post. I never have (or make? whichever you want to say) time to read anymore. I can't remember the last time I actually finished a book. With the exception of books like Baby-Sitters' Club and Sweet Valley Twins, Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume, Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling...you get the picture. Kids and fantasy books. I will never outgrow them. I started reading them before kindergarten and I will never stop. This is what I would write if I had the option. (And Grandmama, I know you're thinking it, if you're reading this right now...Yes. I have read them probably hundreds of times by now, and they only get better.)

I'm trying to get through Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover these days. It is actually much better than I ever expected it to be. Dave's style is informal and friendly but it certainly doesn't leave any room for misinterpretation about what he is trying to get across. He explains very clearly what the problems with money management are and gives hope for the future. I'm really enjoying it. The problem is...I'm about halfway done now and I'm losing steam. I need to finish this book. Not just because my money needs a major overhaul (and believe me, it DOES) but because I need a breakthrough in my reading life! I need to finish a book, one that I haven't already read 200 times and isn't targeted to a fifth grade audience! Why do I need this so badly, you might wonder? I think it's because reading is about not just this one hobby for me, but about all of my hobbies. I love to read, but I also need to read in order to develop my other interests. It's such a defining part of who I am that when I don't do it, I don't recognize myself.

I recommend the book, by the way. It's really great. I will probably be discussing some of the things I'm reading and learning in it at times here in the blog. Especially when I begin to see results.

I'll let you know how it goes.

My Herbs, Oh, My Herbs!

My herbs are growing!

Let me, before there is a major misunderstanding that might lead to some pretty serious legal implications, specify: these are herbs for cooking. And also cat grass. Parsley, basil, rosemary, sage, lavender, thyme, and chives. NO marijuana. Although when I was at Borders a few weeks ago looking for books to do some research on herb gardens, there were like 3 books on growing actual herbs in an entire shelf full of books about growing (and smoking, and cooking with) The Herb. I think the guys nearby searching for books on being a wine connoisseur (they were converting from beer, they said) thought that I was really interested in weed. I plopped myself down on the ground in front of the shelf and settled in for awhile.

I digress.

This may not seem like a big deal, that my herbs are growing. It's not that hard. But you must understand this: I do not have a green thumb. It might very well be the only thing I've ever tried to do that I haven't been reasonably naturally adept at. I have a black thumb. But I decided that I wanted to grow plants, and I wanted to start with herbs, since I love to cook and what tastes better than fresh herbs? Extra incentive to get them to grow. So I did my research. I dragged Rob to the nursery to buy some seeds. I squealed and ooh'ed and aah'ed over the selection of seeds. We came home with our purchases and I planted my little seeds and put them in plastic freezer bags to create a greenhouse-type environment for them (except for the lavender, which I put in the refrigerator, since it seeds best when cold). Most of the seeds take a minimum of 5 days to seed, but my basil and cat grass seeded within 3 days of when I planted them! So I have this cute little baby basil growing now, as well as my chives, thyme, and sage. The cat grass (which I grew for the kittens to eat, since cats have a natural urge to eat grass because it aids their digestion...this is a healthy and safe alternative to grass for indoor cats, and it will help them not eat my other plants) just SHOT up. It's like 5 inches tall and it's only been just over a week!

I squealed with delight again when I came home from work today and saw a little seedling of parsley having just pushed through the soil since I have been home for lunch today! It's a big deal for me, because parsley is a notoriously long seeder and can take up to 60 days!

Maybe I'm the herb whisperer.

My lavender and rosemary (the two I'm most looking forward to growing, since I adore the smells) are the only two not to sprout yet. Updates to come, and probably pictures, too, since I feel about these plants the way most people probably feel about their firstborn children.

Not really, but close.

The First is Always the Hardest

It is so daunting to begin something like a blog or journal. The first post or entry always feels like it has to do so much...and I feel like it sets the tone for the entire thing. Maybe not so much for a blog as for a journal (and as a lifelong journaler, I would know). Then again, there are very few things I love quite as much as opening a fresh journal and beginning to write on page one. I do love BUYING journals. But that's not quite the same thing. And a very different type of pleasure, one that I am working hard to overcome. There is so much possibility with things like this! What will I eventually be posting about? My kids? My first house? A new job? A graduation? Will I post in a different language, to offer proof that I actually learned one? Who knows. Hopefully all those things, eventually, will appear on the pages of this blog.

Or at least on the pages of a journal.

I don't want to kid myself. It is likely that I'll be one of those people who writes one blog entry and is so stoked about their blog. I'm going to write EVERY DAY. I'm going to be witty and glib. I'm going to have a loyal following of readers. Even if they are my grandmother, aunts and uncles, and maybe even (gasp) cousins too! I joke. I have no idea if anyone will ever even read this besides me. But one of my dearest wishes is to be a writer. And as this is not the proper time to pursue that particular dream, it seems like the best way to deal with it is to blog. I do write in my journal. But that is private. It is a very different thing to have written something that people actually read. I'm not going to lie...it's scary and vulnerable.

So we will see what happens. I'm going to write in this blog about the daily happenings in the Learned home and also about what this Learned woman (girl? chick? lady? Woman doesn't sound right) is learning. Trivial sometimes, deep others...we will play it by ear, but there will probably be a fair share of both.