I am so stalling here...

With the start of a new year comes the internal pressure to organize! exercise! revamp financial details! fulfill those resolutions! And so much more.

This weekend I made a list of everything I'd like to accomplish this week. Hahaha. It's now up to 32 things. And I keep thinking of others.

To be fair, it is 11 am on Monday and I have been able to cross out 8 lines. That's 1/4 of the list. Not bad, right? I could be so much more productive, though, if I'd quit sitting at my desk and staring at the list. Just reading it is not going to get anything done.

But I don't want to do any of it. I've had so much fun over the past two and a half weeks relaxing and playing and reading that being organized and focused again does not sound appealing. I'd much rather crawl into bed, read for a little bit, then snooze for a while.

But wouldn't we all.

Actually, it just occurred to me that I'm hungry. Maybe my general malaise is really just hunger. I have a chicken salad sandwich on molasses bread waiting for me in the fridge, so I'll go enjoy that and see what happens.

Better luck to you all in getting back into focus!

Finally some pre-holiday photos!

Sorry it took so long to get these up. First I lost my camera and by the time I had found it, Scott was doing something to our computer and I couldn't get on for any length of time.

Here's our Hayley-Bear getting ready for her very first piano recital! She was a little nervous, but much less so than we thought she'd be. Although she's been in plenty of choral and band concerts, she's never done an individual recital before. She did fabulously, of course, and we are soooo proud of her!

The very same day, Emma had her orchestra concert! Unlike Hayley, she had never played with more than one person before so performing with a group was a bit different for her. These things don't seem to phase her too much, thank goodness. (There were about 30 kids all playing violins and cellos.)


I took videos of the seven different songs they played, but I think this one turned out the best. It was hard to film because she wasn't in front and her instructor kept walking between her and my camera! Emma is wearing a red dress and is standing right in the center...

Now off I go to hunt down Hayley's camera (our retired digital) and transfer all the photos I took on that one when mine was missing. So more photos to come!

Deliciously Reviewed: The Great Gatsby

Required reading for high school students across America, but I somehow managed to never read F. Scott's Fitzgerald's most famous novel. I did buy a copy a couple summers ago from one of Borders' clearance bins, but it sat on a bookshelf just waiting for my attention.

And finally.... I picked it up...

The story was.... well... strange. The plot revolves around the misshapen ideology and unreachability of the American Dream. Set outside NYC during the '20's, the main character is merely a window through which to watch three specific people -- his neighbor (Gatsby), his cousin (Daisy) and her husband (Tom). (I think this is the first book I've ever read in which the main character is completely extraneous.)

The three have everything that the wealthy seem to require as necessity, but they are, of course, completely unhappy and disillusioned with life. Through metaphor and symbolism, Fitzgerald opens up the stereotypical "American Dream" to criticism.

What impressed me most about the novel was the absolutely amazing descriptions. I have never read such fresh, unequivocal portrayals. Here's what I'm talking about... It's a section of paragraph from chapter one. Nick, our convenient window, is telling us about the area he is moving into...

"Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western Hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound. They are not perfect ovals ... but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual confusion to the gulls that fly overhead."

Seriously, people, is that not phenomenal writing??? That, right there, is what I aspire to... fresh and eye-opening narration.

Ahhh... the soul-satisfying comfort of enjoying a truly talented writer...

The total number of books I read in 2008 was...

68!

I would have like to get up to 69, which has been my average for the years I've been keeping track, but I kept falling asleep yesterday while trying to finish that last book! I guess I just wasn't too engrossed in "The Explosive Child". Very helpful book, but still, not something to be rushed.

I don't have a clear favorite for the year but one that sticks out from the extensive list is Dream Country by Luann Rice. A fantastic story, Rice writes about a couple living in the wilds of Wyoming with their twin toddlers. One of the toddlers, Jake, disappears and the ensuing thirteen years bring broken hearts, divorce, misplaced anger, hope, courage and a very surprising ending.

Last spring, I was sprawled on the couch deeply engrossed in Dream Country late one night. All of a sudden, I was sitting up saying, "Nuh uh! No way! I did NOT see that coming! I can NOT believe it!" Then I had to recount the entire plot to Scott so he could understand my shock!


So if you want a great, pull-you-in, keep-your-mind-off-other-things novel, this is it!


Elizabeth Berg is an amazing author I discovered this past year. I immediately read four of her novels and was impressed by her witty and clever twists, but most of all, I adore her descriptions! I was constantly stopping to think about how appropo a metaphor was or how aptly and uniquely she described things. The stories themselves were really good, but none of them had the strength to pull to the top of my list.


Definitely read her novels, though. She was one of Oprah's picks a few years ago -- I'm so glad I didn't hold that against her! She's a truly valuable author to study and learn from.

Our New Year's "Revolutions"...

I explained to Emma yesterday what "resolutions" are. For the rest of the day, she kept calling them "revolutions"!



As we chowed on our Banana Splits last night, we discussed what each one of us would like to accomplish in 2009. I thought you, my Delicious Readers, would like to know what the D____ family's resolutions are...



Hayley:

1. Play both pieces in her next piano recital. (She only played one of the two at her last one.)

2. Become less anxious so she feels comfortable participating in things.

3. Become more accomplished at sewing and crocheting.

4. Learn to budget.



Emma:

1. Make every recipe in "The Usborne Little Book of Christmas Cooking". (We started today!)

2. Join a swim team.

3. Read the entire Rainbow Magic series.

4. Learn to sew.

5. Finish her Suzuki 2 violin book and start #3.

6. Play in the school talent show in June.



Scott:

1. Be more like Kate -- live like Jesus and not be cynical and judgemental.

2. Practice the trumpet more often.

3. Learn basic piano.

4. Stop spending so much time with the computer.

5. Exercise and strengthen back.

6. Create a cookbook of recipes he can actually eat from.



Kate:

1. Finish writing my book.

2. Invest my green fund (now up to about $300!)

3. Finish my second book (already started) and start a third.

4. Learn to knit.

5. Start (and stick with) the cash/envelope money system and not get pissed off with Dave Ramsey in the process.



And a family resolution...

A "Word of the Week" -- All of us will learn a new word (chosen by Kate) each week and use it as often as we are able to do so correctly.



Look to the sidebar on the right for a new segment... "Delicious Resolutions". I'll keep you updated on our progress!