A Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY ~ Wednesday 14th March 2012

Outside my window...someone has turned off the sun...oh no wait a minute, it's the start of autumn and very early so even the sun isn't up yet! My hubby has an early morning meeting today, so one up all up! The blinds are open even though its still dark out there. Only the street lamp is casting it's light through the window. I can just make out the trees gently swaying. Thank goodness there's a cup of tea sitting on my bedside cabinet to help ease me into the day. 

I am thinking...how can my son get up so easily without any help to watch his UK football team play. It wasn't too bad today starting at 7am....but sometimes they play in the evenings in the UK which means silly-o-clock here! Disturbed nights are the norm throughout the soccer season. Thankfully they won so he left the house a happy bunny.

I am thankful...for being able to shower daily. I know this is a strange one, but when you think how good a shower feels and how many people never get to experience that. Water being so precious and scarce in some countries to waste water and take a shower would be unthinkable.
I remember as a child we used to have a weekly bath on a Saturday night (sorry even as I type this it grosses me out) "whether we needed one or not!" I can't imagine going a whole week now...Yuk! It's unthinkable.

In the kitchen...Nothing! I haven't baked for a few weeks now. I've been concentrating more on art work and there's only so many hours in the day, so baking had to go...well for a little while anyway.

I am wearing...bedcovers! I mentioned it's really early...I can't even hear the birds yet!

I am creating...zentangles (apparently)...I didn't know that was the technical term for my line drawings, but now I do. I have lots of creative ideas in my head now, that all seem to be clambering to get out. Where have they been hiding for the last twelve years?

I am going...to put the kettle on. LOL... I need another cuppa :D

 

I am wondering...how can the temperature reach into the 30's yesterday and today when we're supposed to be in autumn? The leaves haven't started to change colour yet, the birds seem to be still twitterbaiting, the grass is growing, weeds even more so....I imagine that the animals and birds might well be a little confused because without the calender you would think it was still summer!
It'll all change probably as soon as my SIL arrives from the UK for a holiday.

I am reading.....I know I should have finished this one by now, but I've been busy! It doesn't have any reflection on the book because I'm really enjoying reading it. It's amazing and thought provoking on so many levels.


My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate - a life and a role that she has never questioned… until now.

Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister - and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable… a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less?

I know I'm perhaps a little late reading this especially with the movie now viewed by so many...but I haven't seen it yet and as you know I much prefer to read a book before seeing the film.

The book is certainly highlighting a complex emotive subject and although I've only just started to read it, I'm already involved with fascinating characters contained within.

At this stage I don't wish to research any further about the book because it may give too much away and don't want to spoil it for myself. It has grabbed me from the first page.
I just wish I didn't have to sleep then I could find time to read it...

“ The author vividly evokes the physical and psychic toll a desperately sick child imposes on a family, even a close and loving one like the Fitzgeralds… there can be no easy outcomes in a tale about individual autonomy clashing with a sibling's right to life, but Picoult thwarts out expectations in unexpected ways… a telling portrait of a profoundly stressed family. ”

—Kirkus Reviews

About the Authur:

Jodi Picoult, 44, is the bestselling author of eighteen novels ~ the last five of which debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Picoult studied creative writing with Mary Morris at Princeton, and had two short stories published in Seventeen magazine while still a student. Realism - and a profound desire to be able to pay the rent - led Picoult to a series of different jobs following her graduation: as a technical writer for a Wall Street brokerage firm, as a copywriter at an ad agency, as an editor at a textbook publisher, and as an 8th grade English teacher - before entering Harvard to pursue a master’s in education. She married Tim Van Leer, whom she had known at Princeton, and it was while she was pregnant with her first child that she wrote her first novel,Songs of a Humpback Whale.

In 2003 she was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction. She has also been the recipient an Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association, sponsored by the Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust and Booklist, one of ten books written for adults that have special appeal for young adults; the Book Browse Diamond Award for novel of the year; a lifetime achievement award for mainstream fiction from the Romance Writers of America; Cosmopolitan magazine’s ‘Fearless Fiction’ Award 2007; Waterstone’s Author of the Year in the UK, a Vermont Green Mountain Book Award, a Virginia Reader’s Choice Award, the Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award, and a Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award. She wrote five issues of the Wonder Woman comic book series for DC Comics. Her books are translated into thirty four languages in thirty five countries. Four – The Pact, Plain Truth, The Tenth Circle, and Salem Falls - have been made into television movies. My Sister’s Keeper was a big-screen released from New Line Cinema, with Nick Cassavetes directing and Cameron Diaz starring, which is now available in DVD. She received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Dartmouth College in 2010 and another from the University of New Haven in 2012.

She and Tim and their three children live in Hanover, New Hampshire with two Springer spaniels, a rescue puppy, two donkeys, two geese, one duck, eight chickens, and the occasional Holstein.

I am hoping...that I keep coming up with ideas for my art, plus get the time and talent to achieve my goals.
I've got lots of ideas popping into my head which is wonderful especially after 12 years absence I just need to allocate enough time now to execute them.

I am looking forward to...buying lots of bulbs and planting them into containers and tubs ready for the spring. I'm reading how everyone in the Northern Hemisphere have lots of snowdrops, daffodils, crocus, and tulips popping up and I realise that I've missed them here. So I'm going to rectify that for the coming spring. Hopefully I'll still be here to see them appear :-$

Around the house..there may well be dust and bits to clear but I'm not looking today. I know there's the floor to mop and a Mount Etna of ironing calling me but that will be dealt with later. 

A favourite quote for today... 
Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art ~ Leonardo da Vinci 

One of my favourite things...Finding emails in my inbox from my loved ones 12,000 miles away. It brings them right into the room with me for a while.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Work, rest, play and keeping my options open.

 

A peek into my day... When I saw this double headed hibiscus yesterday in the garden, it brought a smile to my face. I hope it makes you smile too. It reminds me of a flamenco dancers dress....what do you think?

And that's it for this week; I hope you enjoyed your visit. Don't forget to pop over to The Simple Womans Daybook and check out the other day book entries

Have fun : D