Things Worth Remembering The three habits that lead to success are: Patience, Application, and Vision.
Take care: The person who will tell others' faults to you - will tell yours to others.
It is always better to be underestimated.
There are three things that are better than riches: Health, Freedom, and Honor.
Think swiftly, speak softly, act wisely.
"The world is neither Scottish, English, nor Irish, neither French, Dutch, nor Chinese, but human, and each nation is only the partial development of a universal humanity." - James Grant on founding the National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights, 1862
All from: The Book of Celtic Wisdom
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Princess Leia: “I love you.”
Han Solo: ”I know.”
Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
I’m going to apologize to each and every heart-shaped box full of waxy chocolate lover out there right now. I don’t like Valentine’s Day. There I said it; I admit it.
I think the whole entire thing is a waste of cocoa beans and card-stock. I should be an ardent admirer of the day, having a mother who still – even 40 years after first becoming a mother -makes Valentines a must-do event for all her kids and grandson. She gets her panties in a major twist if she can’t get those red boxes to each of us by the big day. It’s sweet that she does it, even though she knows I tend to forget that Valentine’s Day is even upon us again.
I was very relieved to find, early in our dating years, that Dad Windu is also a Valentine’s humbug. Padawan Learner, no doubt because of our ”yeah, whatever” response to the marketing buildup each February, is equally blase’ about the day. (My apologies to his future spouse.)
I love Dad Windu and Padawan Learner with every fiber of my being, every beat of my heart. I don’t want a heart-shaped diamond necklace or even an over-sized card in a red envelope each February 14th as proof of their love for me. The hand massage when my knuckles hurt showed me that. The hug and kiss before going to bed reminds me of that. Going vegan for a month because I asked you to, more than speaks to your devotion my beloved carnivores. The dishwasher unloaded without me having to ask, gives me proof of your affection.
Here’s to you, DW and PL. No red box. No sparkly bauble. No glitter. Just love forever more.
That said, if you’re an ardent Valentine’s Day fan, I say more power to you. Live the dream. Eat the chocolate. Tear up over the handmade or store bought card. I hope it’s all you ever imaged it to be. And I promise to understand if you’re not as crazy about Halloween as I.
Anakin: ”It doesn’t have to be that way. We could keep it a secret.”
Padme: ”We’d be living a lie. One we couldn’t keep, even if we wanted to.”
Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
Keeping gifts a secret, come Christmas time, is so hard for me – the main gift buyer. It just makes me want to dance around screaming, “I’ve got the coolest stuff in the closet right now. Do you want to see? Do you want to see?”
Luckily, I got to give my guys (and myself) part of our Christmas presents early this year. A couple of years ago, we all bought cheap little mp3 players for next to nothing at an after-Christmas sale and they’ve served us well – until this fall – when all three started to die off on us. Padawan Learner couldn’t get sound from the headphones on both sides anymore. Dad Windu’s kept depleting the battery halfway through his run, despite putting in a freshly charged one before heading out. And mine? Well, let’s just say that it and I were often in disagreement about which songs I had downloaded onto it.
Because of this, Dad Windu has been Jones-ing for an iPod Nano (after playing with our Sunday Morning Doughnut Buddy’s) for a couple of months and, since he rarely asks for anything, I was determined to get him one this year. I looked over the models available, and picked the 3rd generation with video with 8G of memory instead of the newest version because of some complaints I’d read about by other runners regarding the “shake to shuffle” feature when used for running.
Padawan Learner and I began to plot about how to get one without DW knowing about it. We concocted a master scheme to convince DW that we were getting a new tent and camping equipment. I filled up my cart on Amazon with camping equipment so it kept showing camping stuff across the “Recommended for you” header on the main page. I “hid” camping equipment catalogs in the house with dog-eared pages. Friends made comments about “Hey, I have a coupon for free shipping for ‘that stuff from that place.’ Let me know if you want to use it.” I even got a big @ss box to wrap up under the tree. I am soooo good.
Too good, apparently, because I completely snowed him into thinking he was getting a tent and he called to tell me that he found a really good price on the Nano. A round-robin of me saying, “Don’t buy it,” and him saying, “Why? It’s $10 cheaper here than anywhere else,” began. Finally, I had to give and snarled said, “Christmas, you idiot!” He quietly said, “Oh. OK.”
The nice thing is that along the way PW and I also began Jones-ing for an iPod Nano, so I ordered one for him and one me for Christmas too. I pooled my pennies, snagged some coin from a few other places, and basically scrimped and saved to be able to give us a ‘Holly, Jolly, Apple-based Christmas’. I filled them up and gave them out on the morning of the bus trip so that my reading-in-the-car-makes-me-want-to-hurl men would have something to do on the 3 hour one-way (that became 4.5 hours one-way) bus trip last weekend.
But fear not, I did get a few other little things to hand out on Christmas morning, too, and they’re in the closet right now. Do you want to see? Do you want to see?
“I’m just a simple man, trying to make my way in the universe.” – Jango Fett, Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
Ah, the simple life. How many of us long for it, but fall back into the more, more, more habit when the holidays roll around? A few more presents, a few more dinners out, a few more decorations (but they were on sale!). I know I do.
I have a few self-determined must do things that are meaningful and deliberate, even though they take up an inordinate amount of time. But many things are more likely to fall into the “we probably should” category, despite the fact that they don’t mean much to me, aren’t terribly enjoyed or are merely echoes of what I see going on around me.
A few things that I, personally, must do for the winter holiday season:
- Bake a pumpkin pie. This alone heralds in the winter holiday season and not just because I then eat the entire thing myself as neither Dad Windu nor Padawan Learner like pumpkin pie. I eat a slice for breakfast and lunch until it’s gone.
- Make a few homemade gifts for at least a few of the people that I love: candy, cookies, present toppers, knitted gifts and etc. They aren’t always impressive or (perhaps) even appreciated, but to me it is love and I am always glad to have done it.
- Make Banket. This is a most wonderful almost paste confection, wrapped in a flaky crust, that comes from my husband’s Dutch ancestry. It takes a long time to do, is a royal pain in the rear and is about as calorie unfriendly as possible (butter, almond paste, butter, refined white flour, butter, and sugar). It is also completely worth it.
- Find a wonderful tree with Dad Windu and Padawan Learner, on a cold and snowy day. Cold and snowy being the operative words here. We must then drink hot chocolate and listen to traditional Christmas music while we decorate it – the more “Cathedral-ly” sounding the better. Hey, I wasn’t always an atheist.
- Watch my personal trinity of Christmas movies: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original animated version), A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Christmas Story.
None of these things cost much (trees are still pretty cheap here), but they are all deeply meaningful to me. Nodin’s Nest has a nice post about some of the things she and her family do or are going to do for the holiday seasons that don’t cost an arm and a leg, but are priceless in meaning. What are your must do holiday activities?
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Secular Homeschoolers Unite!
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