I have the luxury of having a nanny come live with us in February and March, a lovely cutie of a girl with a strong and adorable British accent. I don't need a nanny, really-- it's not like I work or anything-- so this is going to be super lush, like getting a vacation in places. I've felt a bit guilty about having someone do my job while I dote upon myself. Then I remember that I entirely deserve it.
Here, the rough concept:
1. Sarah will help Jude get the kids ready for school in the morning, making sandwiches and perhaps some breakfast, while I sleep in. I will, however, have to drag myself out of bed for family prayer and scripture study which we have before Jude and the three kids leave.
2. Back to bed to read and slumber, or just read and write.
Books I am not reading: Les Misérables.
I am more than halfway through and Ron was right: I give up. It's just not worth it to slog through pages and pages of bit characters who mean almost nothing to the story. Perhaps if I had drawn up a storyboard before commencing, but in the end I would have to cross out 95% of the characters, including Napoleon himself, as being completely irrelevant. So, what kind of a book is that, I ask you? A mere test of determination and a notch on my belt? I have read through and understood most of more than 560 pages; it's like getting the epidural for my last childbirth: I've proved I can be the hero steeped in raw, earthy womanliness, now let's move on to other things. I will say it loudly, without apology: Victor Hugo was a masterful failure of an editor. NO WAY would that book make it past any editor today.
And if I say that, it must be true.
Books I am reading:
(Click to enlarge. Thanks be to Tracy S-B. for buying me Pen on Fire. She'll get a mention in credits of my first book. Hopefully she will live another 50 years to see it.)
I never see myself curling up in bed with a Kindle. Honestly, it's the difference between a vibrator and a human. If you prefer the machinery, maybe you're just not holding the right book in your hands. Or, I suppose, maybe you're pressed for time and space, like on the subway or in a closet or a back alley... wherever you like to read (it's really none of my business).
I like the feel and look of a good book. I have a preference for everything: The size; the satiny smoothness of the cover, or the roughness of the letterpress cover, as is the case of A Room of One's Own, below; the size and style of the font; the raggedness of the pages (suitable only for literary or historical topics, not science or business or even modern lit, thank you). I like to leave highlights and thoughts and comments on the pages and I like to borrow books where someone else has left his or her own markings, a casually sketched map of heart and mind.
My favourite ever book cover:
Talk about beautiful handwriting. Also, I love handwriting in pencil markings and I love the different fonts on the different pencils, varying sharpness of the leads, varying heights of the pencils, like city skyscrapers. See how the sticks of the little Ds curl to the left? I might start doing that. Handwriting can be a decision, you know, and I may have decided to adopt that style.
Letterpress!
So, those are some books I am reading depending upon my mood. I have decided, for now, that I do not need to take classes on writing to learn how to write. Like my son, I merely need to read the kind of writing I want to write and it will soak in. My theory is that reading is the best way to learn new words, the best way to understand different devices, if you notice them, which I think I do. Reading is, of course, how I learned to spell and how I learned in grade school to properly use a semi-colon. Reading is why, like my son, I sometimes adorably know the meaning of words but not their correct pronunciation. Although, I do know the difference between an umlaut and an oomphlat when I'm not distracted by other things.
For now, I feel achingly compelled to read and we'll see where it takes me.
3. I will, on some days, or maybe even every day, go swimming in the morning. It is on my bucket list to the right to become adept at swimming properly rather than say, flouncing about in such a way as to only, almost miraculously, fail to drown. I'm not that bad but it painted a good picture.
4. On Mondays and Wednesdays, Sarah can drive Lulu to preschool, an easy drive, and she can fill my volunteer spots. I'm a little worried at how she'll handle driving on ice and if she'll remember to stay on the right hand side of the road. I've imagined taking her for a test drive and it was scary. Hopefully reality will be more promising.
5. Sarah will help me cook healthy snacks and meals. It will be fun to have company and also to teach Sarah to cook. I'm also going to have her frequently bake things with the kids because I hate to do it but like to eat baking.
That's as far as my imagination has carried me. I suppose we will wing things from there. I do like to wing things because while it may be easier to fail it's harder to know that you've failed.
As for Jude being alone with Sarah, I'm not worried. (Mormons have this guideline-- not a commandment, but a guideline so ingrained that it might as well be a commandment-- to not find themselves alone with someone of the opposite sex, ever. You'd be surprised at how easy it usually is to accommodate this guideline.) But, of course, Jude will be "alone" with Sarah with the children about, the oldest turning 10 tomorrow. The chances of Jude falling in love with a cute, 19-year-old girl with a perfect little body and an adorable accent, with whom he has nothing in common? I'd wager about 2%. The chances of him doing anything inappropriate? 0%. I'd bet my and your children's lives on it. So, I will sleep in and I will relish the rebellion of it.
I just need some ideas for what Sarah can do with Lulu so they're not bored.
I also need a working laptop computer. And an iPhone. And a cabana boy to massage my back when it's sore from all the in-bed slouching.
Daily Gratitudes
- Giving up diet Coke was a cinch. Because I wasn't actually addicted, see. I haven't had any for a week or so and I only occasionally crave carbonated acid, not the actual caffeine.
- Jude is patiently my gym trainer for Project Fit and Fine By My Last Day as 29. I was a tad snotty to him the last I did squats and he was a doll.
- Today I invented something magical: vanilla yogurt with fig spread mixed in.
- The weather is fairly warm for January winter.
- My computer and internet connection is fast.
