Week 43: Being Fruitful

What's new?

I am MOMENTS away from completing a major crochet project. You know when you give a project a name, that it has taken over your life and spread its tendrils into the nerve center of your brain. Your children are eating toast for every meal (well, mine basically does anyway), you haven't cleaned or gone grocery shopping in 2 weeks. The house smells like pee and burned toast and you don't care. It. Must. Get. Finished. The reason, my creative fellows, is that you cannot be fruitful again until you have produced this thing. Being fruitful is important because that's how you get Joy. If you're not fruitful, you don't have Joy. And if you aren't producing, you can't be fruitful. I don't make the rules, people, but I do like to try new things. 

The newness of Week 43 was so awesome that I barely noticed the pee smell:

• First field trip. Henry's preschool class took a field trip to Lamborn Farm in Leavenworth, KS, and it was wonderful. A family-owned, small-farm who actually grows their own pumpkins (rather than have them shipped in, like all of the other farms with "pumpkin patches"), raises beef, sheep, and pigs and has a little hay maze for kids as well as a playground? Priceless. Plus, this farm has recently been put on the National Historic Register, which is very great for this family. This farm has been in existence since 1877! The kids had fun and were so adorable to hang out with for a couple of hours. It was also interesting to see Henry with his class for the first time. He is definitely that kid who they give jobs to, and I realized that is probably how they get him to transition from one activity to the next or to do anything, in general :) Give him a job. He takes it very seriously :) I keep saying that I need to do more of this, but I think that this needs to be more of a focus of our day now, rather than a cute little thing he does. You judgers out there who are thinking, "oh, but kids should play and have all play-based learning..." Meet my son. He likes working, this one. 

• New Children's Fiction. Steam Train, Dream Train (by Sherri Duskey Rinker and Tom Lichtenheld), like it's predecessor, Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, is ADORABLE, long-winded, and the perfect bedtime story, with lots of onomatopoeia and make-believe, as well as beautiful artwork. Henry gives this 5/5 stars. 

• New app!! Charity Miles - Have you heard of this wonderful fitness app? It is legitimate! A fairly new invention, you can run, bike, or walk for a number of fantastic charities of your choosing. The app lets you track via miles or time, and you start and stop the GPS when the workout is finished, which then reports the total on your behalf. I like it because it keeps track of your history, but I wish it would keep track of which charities you gave to as well (it only tracks distance or time). You can also create teams, which is how I found out about this (via the Michael J. Fox Parkinson's Foundation). I was just telling Ted that I don't think I will ever be able to do a run again without using this app. Why would you?? It would be nice to know exactly how this works and how much money you are raising, but, I also believe in the Placebo Effect. In other words, even if this is totally bogus, when you dedicate something to a cause and meditate on it (your heart's intention), I believe that energy can only be used for good in the World. Like if you go around thinking, "I just ran 6 miles for Parkinson's research," and you keep doing stuff like that, at some point, that energy is going to be fruitful. And being fruitful creates Joy, which hopefully, eventually, generates awareness and healing and something tangible, though it may not help a person write actual, for real, grammatically correct sentences whilst blogging :)

• Fleece-lined running tights. Um. Are you serious? 100/5 stars for Sugoi running apparel. How I have lived in KS without these, ever, is beyond me. I recommend them for runs >30 degrees F, with wind or without. They are breathable, so you can't overheat. I basically want to marry them. They weren't cheap, but still less than a gym membership.