Haikus

Martha Jr. is struggling with writing a haiku. She gets this way sometimes- she is a very capable student, but sometimes she puts up a wall in her brain when she doesn't immediately get a concept. The rest of us were encouraging her by writing haikus of our own; they were too good (ahem) not too share!!! (Well, "good" may be stretching it...)

Here they are:

Me:
Orange sunset bright
Beautiful color hues
My favorite time

DH:
Orange blossoms fall
Writing Florida haikus sucks
But then maybe not

The Eldest:
This is really hard
Haikus are pretty silly
Nature reference

Me:
Cherry blossoms fall
Streets of Washington shimmer
Fabulous field trips

(DH said there was a haiku meme on the internet a while back where you had to start every haiku with "cherry blossoms fall". That reminded me of our field trip to Washington, DC where they were celebrating the cherry blossom trees that were gifted to the city from Japan 100 years before, thus my haiku.)

The Wild Child:
Minecraft really rocks
I am digging for diamonds
Creepers explode BOOM

I'll post an update when Martha Jr. stops being her own worst enemy and writes one of her own!!

Frustrating Limits

Fibro stinks. One of the reasons it stinks is because of the limitations it puts on my life. I'm handling it as well as can be expected, some people are completely disabled by fibromyalgia after all, but I am frustrated that I can't do everything I want to do. I love the various groups I've been involved with, Girl Scouts, 4H, political campaigns, a local non-profit for kids, and a greyhound rescue group to name a few, but I can't do as much for each of them as I'd like. I constantly find myself saying "NO" when I would so dearly love to say "YES", just because I don't have the energy reserves to take on the work. This week was one of those weeks. Monday and Tuesday were both busy, busy days, up early and running around with the kids for various activities, and by the end of the day on Tuesday it was catching up with me. I struggled through a trip to the grocery store, then about passed out after I got home. On Wednesday I was bed ridden. I had a full "to do" list but just getting up out of bed made me tired, so I mostly didn't. I feel terrible that I'm leaning on my husband so much- he picks up the slack when I have those "fibro days", but I just can't. It feels like when you have the flu and you're over the worst of it, but you still feel lousy and weak, so you know there's a few more days of recovery and bed rest left to go. That's the exact feeling I have when I get a bad flare up. I stand up and immediately feel like I need to lay down again. Sometimes I can push through it, but that's hard to do. Sometimes I need to just give in, cancel everything, and rest. Thanks to DH, when I have those days I usually can get the rest I need; I can't imagine having to work for a paycheck while dealing with this.

So when you ask me to help out with something, and I say no with some lame excuse, it's because I'm feeling a flare coming on, or I know I'm over-scheduled, or I've taken on too much already, and I just can't. I rarely say it's because of the fibro, I'm not sure why, but that's usually what it is. Maybe it's because I hate acknowledging it myself- if I admit that's why I can't do something, then I'm admitting I have a disability. Blech. I want to feel healthy and alive and in control of my life, not limited and weak, but it is what it is. I can't say I'd be a Type A personality if I didn't have fibro, but I would be a much more active go-getter if I could manage it. Sigh.

Oh, well; we all have to handle the cards we're dealt, so here's to life and making the best of it. :)

A Jane Austen Read Through!

I don't know if "read throughs" are a thing, but "cook throughs" are, made popular by the Julie & Julia blog. Lots and lots of bloggers have cooked through various cookbooks since then; too much work for me, so don't expect that here! What I am reporting about, however, is my Jane Austen read through. I read all of her novels (not that many, but still) a couple of weeks ago. I started with Pride & Prejudice, then backtracked to Sense & Sensibility, then read the rest in the order of publication. I followed that up with Lady Susan and the unfinished Sandition. This wasn't the first time I've read her work; she's one of my favorite authors.

As I've grown older, I've valued her work for different reasons. Originally I liked the stories- they are very charming and so easy to love. I still adore the stories, but now I feel a deeper connection to them. Not because of the stories themselves, or any feeling of connection to the author, but more of a connection to the generations of women who've read them before me. When my grandmother was alive I once mentioned my fondness for Jane Austen and she said she read her work too; my mother said the same thing recently. That made me realize how many generations these books have touched- 200 years of women. Countless women have taken time out of their busy lives to stop and read these very books. I wonder at the clothing they might have been wearing, from the popular dress when they were first published to women in the last century wearing the fashions of their day, to now, the 2000's. Where were they sitting? What were they in the middle of when they stopped to read? My Great Aunt Peg, who died young- I don't know much about her, but I do know she frequently babysat my mom and aunt, and that she liked apples and reading. Did she grab an apple, find a cozy spot, and open a beloved copy of Pride & Prejudice while my mom and aunt played nearby? She never could have envisioned the way I read these books recently- on my electronic reader. What would she have thought of that, I wonder!!

I feel such a sense of nostalgia when I read these books now. It wasn't my first time reading them all, and I'm sure it won't be my last. Jane Austen endures because she is a thread that connects women through time; I hope that thread continues for many more centuries to come.