I love kissing his squishy cheeks, and hands, and chin, and ears, and pretty much his whole self. I am a very lucky/blessed woman to have such an adorable human to confer so many millions of kisses on. But, the most wonderful thing is that not only to I get to kiss my Dylan anytime I want, it is my job! Not only is it my job to smother him with love, I would be a terrible person if I didn't. Well, shoot, I guess I have to keep kissing this baby.
He is unbelievably the best. He amazes me. I know that he is extraordinary. He is very special, I can feel it (maybe every mom does, I don't know). You should see how he smiles away the morning. Splashing in the bathtub simultaneously thrills him and freaks him out. He loves watching his dad dance. I could go on an on about my little baby Dylan. I just love being his mom so much.
I hesitate to blog. I always think, "I haven't blogged for a while, I must think of something to blog about." How horribly boring.
So, I've decided that today I don't care about being valid or validated, I shall just BLOG.
....about crap I saw on the internet today....awesome.
(Downton Spoilers ahead)
Downton Abbey Season 3 just ended, and I've been thoroughly addicted to the show since sometime last year when I was pregnant and feeling pathetic (not that one need be or is pathetic who watches this show). I gobbled down season 1 and 2 from various online outlets, and when season 3 commenced, I was right there with the rest of the Downtonians hanging on every ping of Lady Mary's eyebrows. I watched with everyone else until Lady Sybil's harrowing demise, which was very unexpected and very painful. After that episode, I had to reassess my emotional state and my personal investment in these fictional characters and come back to reality a bit. Also, I had seen some whisperings online that neared spoilers, so I instead of stumbling onto something and accidentally spoiling the rest of the season for myself, I decided to watch the rest of the season on some shady website and have it over.
As a result, I knew about Matthew's tragic death in advance of the rest of the (honest) country. But, for me, it was better that way. I've needed the time to process the whole ordeal on my own. Which I have, and have made my peace and am ready to charge into season 4 (in 10 *swear word* months).
However, it did provide me a fun vantage point the night of the finale. I spent the majority of my "relax in bed with ipad" time before I went to sleep that night refreshing my twitter feed under the #downtonpbs hashtag. It was hilarious, and muy entertaining. I've been on twitter a bit more lately, mostly because I find a lot of great reading material as people link all sorts of articles on all sorts of topics. Here are some great Downton things on the internets:
I Love This:
I love Maggie Smith. I've loved her long before her Downton fame. She is a living legend, and I thought her way above Downton when I first saw the show. I figured she'd come on occasionally as more of a cameo than a regular cast member. It is strange to think that she may be remembered for her role on Downton rather than the rest of her life's work. This interview is simply one of my favorites (I love interviews anyway). She's so real, so straight-forward, and her handling of the interviewer and his ridiculous questions kind of reminds me of Bob Dylan's attitude toward journalists.
In my grieving process, it helped me tremendously to know the real reasons behind Matthew's very unfair and tragic death. Once I learned that he died because he was leaving the show, I was brought back to reality. Julian Fellows had no intention of killing Sybil or Matthew, the actors just weren't coming back for season 4. Sybil's death didn't feel contrived the way Matthew's did, it felt like an organic and natural part of the overall arch of the plot. It really doesn't make sense for Matthew to die when the show has pretty much been all about him the whole time, and the way it was done made it impossible for me to hide behind my wall of soap-opera denial, which is irritating. Anyway, this article explains Dan Steven's side of the story, and, simultaneously makes him seem like a d-bag. Good riddance, Matthew was starting to drive me nuts anyway, what with all his yelling at Robert, his growing double chin, his "kiss me again"'s, and his inability to kill humungous dear creatures. I am sad for Mary and the baby, but Dan Stevens bugs.
Fun facts and coincidences like this fill me with glee: Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey is filmed, was the home of the Earl of Carnarvon who financed the expeditions that discovered the tomb of King Tut! The first major presentation I gave in college was on King Tut's tomb in Art History class, and let me tell you, I KILLED it! I spent a great deal of my early life as a devote Egyptology nerd. Read this short article, and picture the downstairs staff at Downton talking about the replica of Tut's tomb in the cellars--I don't think Daisy would sleep a wink. If only the Granthams were doing better financially, Robert and Cora could go off to Egypt to dig up artifacts.
Second to last thing:
I didn't hear a word they were saying in this scene, I was just looking at THAT FISH. Take me to that river, PUH-LEASE!
Okay, one last thing about Downton tonight. I drew this on my ipad. Its not really finished, and not too fancy, but it was fun.
Are you a Downton Abbey fan? What did you think of the finale?
Nesting is a real thing. With four weeks left until the arrival of my first baby boy, I have been anxiously engaged in preparing my house for his arrival. Part of this has included reorganizing ALL THE THINGS and fixing up his room, which would be called "the nursery" if you were someone other than me. Random craft projects have been abundant around my house lately, mostly to distract me from essential to-do's like cleaning and organizing, but slowly I'm beginning to prioritize those less desirable tasks and things are starting to come together. My procrastination of the last month has started to really catch up with me, though.
One of the more fun projects that I tackled lately is refurbishing an old dresser of mine into a changing table/dresser for the boy. When I first moved to Washington DC, I didn't own anything that couldn't fit inside my Honda Accord, so I found all my furniture on the side of the road, including this hideous dresser. Yes, its that awkward moment when you see a neighbor in your complex/neighborhood put an ugly, broken down piece of furniture on the curb for the garbage man because its not worth the effort to even post it on Freecyle, and you sneak out of your house at just the right streets-appear-to-be-vacant moment, grab that awful discarded piece of junk and whisk it into your house before anyone sees you picking through your neighbor's trash. SCORE!
I spray painted it white when I first got it, fully intending to paint
it some cool, funky color, but never got around to it. So, these 5
years later, instead of putting it back on the curb for some other
cheapskate, I decided to be even cheaper and just give the ol' thing a
facelift.
I removed the 3 drawers on the left, intending to transform that space into cubbies. One of the drawers on that side was broken anyway.
Unfortunately, the tops of those small drawers on the top row (except the one on the far right) are broken, leaving a 1/2 inch gap. After I sanded them down, it bothered me less, but it isn't ideal.
Using an electric palm sander, I sanded the crap out of the whole thing.
I removed all of the knobs from the drawers and used their screws to secure them to this piece of cardboard to make them easy to paint with no mess.
After I sanded the front of all the drawers until they were butter smooth, I painted them.
I used some old masonite panels I had unsuccessfully used as canvases in my college oil painting class to create the floor and sides of the cubbies. I painted them before I installed them, but ended up putting on another coat when I painted the entire dresser.
I used 3/4 of a quart of satin latex paint (paint/primer in one), and covered the entire dresser in two coats. The color didn't turn out quite like I expected from the sample, but it grew on me.
We're getting ready to welcome this little guy into our family, one task at a time. Now, if we could only decide on a name!
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." ~Hebrews 11:1
Faith is one of my favorite topics to study. About 4 years ago, I felt prompted to study and learn more about the principle of faith, and how to "make it work" in my life. I read a lot, prayed a lot, and began to understand better what faith actually is. Applying a true understanding of faith to my daily thoughts and actions changed my life. Oftentimes, we use the words "faith" and "belief/believe" interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. To have faith in someone or something is different from believing in that person or thing. To have faith in God is different than just believing he exists. Belief doesn't accomplish anything--it is a mindset, an opinion or conviction, that can influence your actions, but it is not requisite for belief to have anything to do with behavior. Faith, on the other hand, has everything to do with action/behavior. The most valuable insights I have read are found in the Bible Dictionary and Joseph Smith's Lectures on Faith. The Bible Dictionary says:
"Faith is to hope for things which are not seen, but which are true (Heb. 11:1; Alma 32:21), and must be centered in Jesus Christ in order to produce salvation. To
have faith is to have confidence in something or someone. The Lord has
revealed himself and his perfect character, possessing in their fulness
all the attributes of love, knowledge, justice, mercy, unchangeableness,
power, and every other needful thing, so as to enable the mind of man
to place confidence in him without reservation." (bold added)
All of us want a lot of things. My entire life, I have always wanted to play the piano. When I was young, my grandmother taught me how to play the accordion, which I mostly enjoyed despite the ready comparison at the time to a certain Coke-bottle-glasses-wearing, suspender-strutting, nerd-next-door from the Friday night line-up of primetime family television. Accordion wasn't as cool as guitar, so when the same grandmother bought a guitar for my brother, I waited until his attention to the instrument waned and took it up myself. I've been playing guitar for over 15 years, and my life has been blessed in incalculable ways from my love of the guitar.
The desire to play piano always persisted. I've never had access to a piano of my own, which I always equated to being impoverished or deprived in some way. Like I wasn't "high class" enough to have a piano, fueling some deep seeded insecurity. When I got married and moved into our townhouse with my husband, I immediately designated a little nook by the stairs as the place where our piano would live. I wanted that piano--I wanted to prove to myself that I could own a piano, and I would learn to play it, and play it well.
I refused to put any furniture in that space, even though it was painfully bare. We put our Christmas tree there, but cleared it after the holidays. The blank space was a constant reminder of what I wanted, and that I needed to work to get it. I visualized our piano sitting there. I imagined Kyle playing it on Sunday mornings. I saw the framed pictures resting on its solid top, and heard beautiful music coming from its chest and filling our house. I was "creating it spiritually", before I could see it physically. I knew that just because I didn't have it right now, didn't mean it wasn't real. My piano was somewhere out there in the world, I just had to figure out how to get it.
On Craigslist, there is a "free" section, and I checked it several times a week searching for a piano. Hundreds came and went, in all different states of repair. I jumped at a few, but was never able to connect and secure my piano. Months went by. At times I was discouraged, especially when a particularly beautiful and healthy piano barely slipped through my grasp because of a miscommunication. I checked into buying a new piano, but knew that, with a baby on the way, that expense would have to wait. I was not deterred. I knew that my desire was good, and the Lord would bless me if I was persistent and faithful. I prayed to find a piano. I knew the Lord cared about what I cared about. I watched and waited.
"And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." ~Alma 32:21
Prayers and faith are answered by our loving Heavenly Father every day, whether we recognize His hand in our lives or not. Oftentimes they are so subtle and incremental that we don't notice He is leading us. Sometimes they are huge and obvious.
One day an ad popped up on Craigslist for an old baby grand piano that a man needed to get rid of because he was moving. It was beautiful!--a far cry from so many free pianos that were no longer functional instruments. I emailed immediately. He said he got over 20 emails in the first hour his ad was up. He responded to me first; he said he didn't know why, but he felt like I should have his piano. In less than an hour, I made the arrangements to get a truck and a team to move the piano, which was a miracle by itself. We drove to his house, he was kind and cool, we took the piano apart, loaded it in the truck, and drove it to my house. We cleaned it meticulously, re-assembled it, and settled it in its little nook by the stairs. It was a perfect fit.
"Seest thou how works wrought with his faith, and by works was faith made perfect?" ~James 2:21
To have faith is to hope for something, then work for it. You then receive an assurance that your diligent work will result in the acquisition of the thing you hope for. There is no reason to doubt. Faith must not be limited by our expectations of time. Time is irrelevant. Time is up to God, whose time is different than ours. (I am grateful I didn't have to wait too awfully long for my piano.) I never doubted I would own a piano; nothing was going to stand in between me and the thing I righteously desired. My faith became knowledge when I saw my beautiful instrument sitting in my living room. The process had worked.
Bible Dictionary:
"Faith is a principle of action
and of power, and by it one can command the elements and/or heal the
sick, or influence any number of circumstances when occasion warrants (Jacob 4:4–7). Even more important, by faith one obtains a remission of sins and eventually can stand in the presence of God. All
true faith must be based upon correct knowledge or it cannot produce
the desired results. Faith in Jesus Christ is the first principle of the
gospel and is more than belief, since true faith always moves its
possessor to some kind of physical and mental action; it carries an
assurance of the fulfillment of the things hoped for." (bold added)
