A short-statured, un-abled body, height deficient, disabled, incumbently insufficient, vertically challenged these e are just some of the words that have been said about Lebanese comedian Imaan Hadchiti  – mostly by the man himself… but if that’s what he calls himself… what do others call him?

To give us a little perspective on what life is like on the short side, Catherine Zengerer was joined in the studio by Imaan.

She asked him whether he’d ever imagined doing stand-up comedy for a living.

Download Interview

A Little Perspective with Imaan starts tonight (Thursday 10th March) and runs every night at 10:45pm until Sunday the 13th of March in the Spare Room at the Garden of Unearthly Delights.

Tix to Imaan here

Oh, yes, I’ve been busy!

Just last night we arrived home from Oregon. We stayed in Yachats, Depoe Bay and Mt. Hood.

Did I tell you that my monster-in-law, whoa, I mean mother-in-law retired? And, that she went with us on our trip?

Okay, let’s see if I can address the title subjects in a few quick bullets.

• Yes, I finally received my chicks. But not all from the farm store I ordered from in my previous posts. This story will need it’s own post. As it turns out, the manager DOES hate me!
• My father in law purchased a calf, cow and a hiefer. We will help take care of them and will be packing the freezer w/ . 5 of the heifer in fall. [Okay, I've been corrected. Steer, we have a steer instead of a hiefer?!]
• Skittles and M&M, our sister and brother, 8-month old, cats ”married” and had four kittens on Easter Day. My allergic, no-like-cats  hubby, for some reason has decided to let all of them stick around. [Update: just got a call from hubby, it seems two of the kitties, Hershey and Annika, hitched a ride to work this a.m. One made it about 50 feet past the mailbox, the other didn't make more than a mile up the highway. Unfortunately, those two were the two older girls kitties.]
• The garden… oh, the garden. I spent three weeks non-stop planting up to the day we left. I did get in: tomatos, peppers, stawberries, royal bush beans, carrots, chard, spinache, three kinds of lettuce, cabbage, broccolli, cauliflower, cabbage, oregano, catnip, basil, thyme, rosemary, basil, cilantro, kholrabi, beets, radishes, and potatos. Still have pole beans, pole peas, horseradish, onions, garlic and corn. I figured most of it had to go in before the trip and no, it is not summer warm weather yet, and I paid for putting in my warm weather plants. They are yellowing and the rain has not stopped in over 2 weeks. They are not dead however and it is only June 12. Either they’ll revive or I’ll replant. The cool weather items however, are in heaven! More on my poor garden in its own post.
• The vacation. Ah, the vacation. Long story short for now: my brother-in-law purchased a World-Mark membership or condo [?], I’m not exactly sure how it works. All I know is he spends a lot of money and feels that the rest of us need to utilize his condos when he gets them. He nor we, get to choose dates. He gets to stay at timeshares around the world. For this vaca he chose a three bedroom in Depoe Bay, OR on cliffs overlooking the ocean. It was a beautiful view. He insisted in having along: his ma (retired from 35 years medical service the day before we left), his brother- my hubby, me and the three munchkins (one of which missed her last week of school). As luck has it, my uncle owns a 100 year old motel 45 miles down the coast, that he’s spent the last five years remodeling. A great little mom and pop, or aunt and uncle place. On the way over from N. Idaho, grandma’s pristine condition Caddy over-heated south of the tri-cities. Thus, the tone for our vacation was set.

Gosh, I hope I have time to eventually write this post! Picture this: 1) A family of five feeling obligated to go on vacation, not wanting to because of lack of gas funds, 36 baby chicks, a dog who runs, a large garden with night freezes still, and the last week of school so important to the third grader. 2) Grandmother, an RN, who for the much of her 35 years of public health service, was the county wide manager for the local health district, just retired, not on her own terms and still needing to control… anything. 3) A 30-year successful construction business owner, who in the last two years has been heading into some type of life crisis, has let his hair and general appearance go, is the baby of the family (and acts as such), and while on said vacation, started getting calls from the IRS because his accountant paid neither his federal nor state taxes. Oh and while we were there, his head foreman was caught with missing equipment and tools at his house, and the head of sales was caught pocketing money that clients had paid for jobs, we’re talking thousands. The you have my hubby the older brother,  who feels he needs to take care of everyone. Stressful vacation for him.

I spent the vacation packing and unloading everyday, taking turns staying at the condo and my uncles, as I refused to be caught up in the drama. Yes, I said drama. All I wanted to do was take the kids to the beach, Newport Bayfront, the Aquarium, eat seafood and more beach. And, we did those things. I’d say the kids and I had a pretty good vacation. We also had some good times with Daddy.

Daddy and the trouble makers! Cate is 2 and at the heighth of her terrible two’s, Alicia’s is 4 and addresses herself as “the middle child”, and Emily is 9 and is our “little” softball start. Actually, she’s very big and very smart. She scored in the 7th grade, 8th month on her STARS and had the highest ISAT scores in all categories in Math, Reading and Language. Yes, I like to brag, I’m very proud of her.

Ah… isn’t this a sweet photo? There’ve only been a handful of pics of Erik and I over the last 13 years.

I wonder if they know that Jaws is one of my ALL time favorites?

I talked about my ex’s friend who was on life support after giving birth to a healthy baby. She passed on leaving behind a husband of less than two years and a week old baby who will never feel his mother’s touch.

Life is short. And now the uncertainty of financing grad school seems stupid. The anger over my son’s lousy elementary school and the frustrations due to my Upward Bound students’ laziness all seem like worthless issues to exert so much emotion over today.

Now I feel lucky. Lucky enough to be able to experience those emotions at all. Lucky that I may have touched and motivated the life of at least one of the students I worked with. Lucky that I have a son I’ve watched grow up over the last nine years. Lucky that breath runs through my body which enables me to make mistakes, dream and enjoy.

I can think back and see her laughing, enjoying our day, and talking about the future. We all know our time on Earth is short. But she never knew it would be this short. That day we laughed and laughed and laughed none of us knew her time was winding down.

I am, by no means, a religious person. And maybe that means I don’t have the right to post this but I will because it just rings true to how I feel right now.

we thank you now for all her life,
for every memory of love and joy,
for every good deed done by her
and every sorrow shared with us.
We thank you for her life and for her death,
we thank you for the rest in Christ she now enjoys,
we thank you for giving her to us…

You can’t even be a positive light in your own life, forget someone else’s or the world, when you’re a pessimist. The key to change is to not walk around acting like the world and everyone in it is hopeless. The key to happiness is realizing as time goes on, someway somehow the present and future will be (can be) better than the past.

What I definitely don’t like is blowing things out of proportion to make the molehill an erupting lava-filled volcano (forget the mountain). I know, I’ve been that way and no one can tell me that attitude is conducive to positive change or a good life.

When I’m having a bad day I always remember: I could complain, but it could be worse. I’m not for keeping my feelings (happy, sad or otherwise) bottled up but I’m not going to use up all my “Cry on my shoulder” passes on the small stuff.

One of the changes I’ve made in my life is to surround myself not solely with people who are like me, but people I aspire to be (and be more like). So being around people who don’t know how to appreciate accomplishments, gains, good events, and worthwhile efforts is not happening.

They are the kind of people who will shove the 2nd place trophy their kid is waving in their face instead of first congratulating them.

I found this great graphic on Google images:

There aren’t many proverbs I tend to disagree with but the ending of this one rubs me the wrong way: “A true friend laughs at your stories even when they’re not so good, and sympathizes with your troubles even when they’re not so bad”

Nah, a true friend tells you to shut that bull$*&# up when your troubles aren’t so bad.

Every rose has its thorn.

It is not that we are a stupid people and make these decision consciously. It is that in the last 60 years our nation has built itself on the idea that it’s all there for the taking, so why wait. If you want it, get it. Life, liberty and property. It’s our liberty to spend our property freely, even wantonly, to be able to live our lives to the fullest. We as a nation have been taught this.

Since WWII this is the overriding more’ that each generation has built upon and made easier for the next to live up to. Living “the dream”.  Yes, that’s what our gratuitous lifestyles are called- “the dream”.  Ironically the two thesaraus definitions for gratuitous are unwarranted and free.

Little did I understand what lack of pride and true ownership does that life hold until we started doing w/out. Doing without for two reason. One, because we wanted to. 

By some act of God my husband and I came to a similar understanding after our third child came along that we were not raised in cities dealing with some of the issues our little ones had to endure and that by moving back home and rural, we didn’t have to live life in the fast lane and neither did our kids. We had a choice. What strong words. Try saying that everyday. “I make the choices.”  See what happens. I don’t say that after two years of making choices, I actually taught that. I expected it to work for other people. Never thought about applying it to my own crazy life.

Two, by making a long series of choices, we now have to do w/out. I won’t bitch or moan because we live in a trailer, however temporary. Or that we live paycheck to paycheck, probably not temporary if I want to stay at home and our family debt free.  We made the choice. Or, actually quite a long series of choices.

What does doing w/out mean? Well, I’m finding every week that it means something different. And, honestly, it’s that old saying about why didn’t the frog jump out of the pot before he was boiled to death. Every day the last two years has lived up to this day. Next week, will be an addition of this week.

After doing w/out for long enough, you don’t even think about some of what you are doing w/out. The cravings diminish and you feel as if you are losing your successes in life. Heck, making Executive Director enabled us to by a new car, a new house, a new child may even fit this category. I traded that job in for this life.

Many people may see this as taking a step backward.  I don’t. My husband and I worked hard to get here. Our schooling, degrees, grunt jobs, good paying, emotionally hectic and exciting jobs are all part of our successes and led this family of five to live in this little trailer. If you don’t think so, well, we’re probably not good enough to hang out w/ you anymore anyway, so I’m not even going to worry about it.

What are we doing w/out? While I am proud of our family, my husband especially and feel good about my daily accomplishments in simplicity, sometimes it ways heavy on the soul some of what we consciously decided to give up. Good and bad a few things come to mind-

*We gave up storebought meat and eggs to support our community, do our share in the rising fuel and commodities costs, and eat healthier. Turns out we also save money and the meat tastes better and is fresher. Go figure.

*We don’t eat out and we save money. We save tons of money. If we happen to be out of town and do eat out. More than one of us gets physically sick.

*We gave up a mortgage and car payments.

*We gave up storebought cookies, cakes and breads. I bake all these items now and love it.

*Only one of our two vehicles makes the 16 mile round trip drive to town in any given day. We save tons of money here too. And, I have a great excuse to not go anywhere.

*We gave up our brand new house we built, with its master bath, walk in closets and dining room. Never thought I’d miss a dining room so much.

*We gave up dry roads and sidewalks over country roads, spring break up and mud that sucks your boots off when you step off the porch.

*We gave up a nightlife.

*I gave up 65lbs.

*We gave up prepackaged food for homecooked. Yes, you save a lot of money this way.

*We gave up donuts, Cheetos, pretty much most those foods w/ nuclear levels of preservatives. Yes, we save a lot of money this way too. I swear the more it costs, the more preservatives it has.

*We gave up cable for three primetime stations and two PBS stations.

*We gave up radio stations.

*I gave up an indoor washer and dryer for a set that is a couple hundred feet up the hill from us in the pumphouse. Lots of bootsucking mud.

*I gave up hotwater.

What we’ve gained? Well, I’m still figuring this out. This is where we wonder why the frog didn’t hop out of the boiling pot, with a positive twist. I know my life has greater quality that it ever has. I feel like this is what I’ve been waiting for the last 20 years and where I belong. I’ll be damned if I can tell you all we’ve gained. It feels too natural to me. Like it was always meant to be this way. I still feel that each day I am striving for that simplicity and look for ways daily to work at acheiving it. 

Go figure. I know that my life no way resembles the life I once had. I’m still here and mentally saner that I was previous, contrary to what all thought of me going into this. And, those who said that 34 was too young too retire. I know I’m healthier and so are my family. But there is more we can do, always more.  And, each day and month that goes by we are ready to make one more change or do w/out what we couldn’t have 6 months ago. Amazing how that works and it feels so good.

Having recently come back to this site after 6 months and reading some of what I have put on here the previous year almost makes me somewhat melancholy, but then gives me perspective. All of my posts have given me strength in one form or another. However, from this point, I won’t be writing to heal,  I’ll be writing to share my experiences and report on my epiphanies, as they are.

Right now I’m into food and sustainability. Recently, I looked around my kitchen at the brand names on all my food packages. While we do partake in local meat, poultry and eggs, produce in season and I typically bake from scratch, I have a lot of name brand items that I wonder about. Do I really need that food? Can I make it from scratch at limited cost? Can I buy something in place of it, w/out all of the preservatives, sodium, sugars, etc…

And so my adventure goes. A day at a time. A time to enjoy!

1. Youngest (2) sleeping in her own bed, all night long!!

2. The middle child (4) sleeping in her own bed, all night long!!

3. I have become an artisan of crocheted hats made out of exotic and luxury fibers such as yak, camel, NZ Possum, Angora, alpaca, silk, Cashmere, Rambouillet… etc… My shop: www.browncreekexchange.etsy.com

4. I have crossed the 30′s barrier (36). It’s official, I am getting older!

5. I have lost 60lbs since the birth of my last child in March 06. The last time I weighed this was prior to my first birth in October 98.

6. No mother-in-law in the house.

7. Much less stress.

8. Wonderful white winter. Total snow accumulation was 3 ft. Our new 7-8 ft. fruit trees were buried up past branches.

 9. I have spring fever in a bad way!

Phew… this is a nutshell.  I’m moving on. Soon we’ll be building the chicken coop, pig-pen, and now that we only have 18 inches of snow left, we’ll be getting our new property ready for spring and planting. Praise God!!

I would say right now my primary focus in simplifying. Doing this takes conscious thought daily and the willingness to change things. I’m learning a lot and enjoying breaking out of the stereotypes that we and others (mostly family) have set for us over the years.I do have my challenges, which result in the previous negative blog.

We chose to live with our in-laws while building our house. Here we are a year later. The whole process is taking sooo long. From approval to sub-diving my in-laws land to gifting us our acreage, drilling the well, getting electricity, house plans, ahhh… It can be overwhelming. And, has been.

While my in-laws are good people, my mother-in-law is in medicine and hasn’t even given it a thought that there are other ways to do things than her way. She has been the country wife, mom, breadwinner and community champion for 35 years. I greatly respect her for all those titles. She earned her retirement last year but will not take it for a variety of reasons. She says mostly money, insurance, however my hubby who is very close to his mother says that she wouldn’t know what to do with herself and couldn’t hang out with her husband all day.

She is the boss at her place of employment and has been for 25 years.  She is tired, her health is staring to fail and she comes home cranky each night with a martyr complex. Much to everyone’s surprise, from the very beginning I have been the one she takes most of this out on. Passively. This has never been the way I do things. You do not get to be an Executive Director by being passive.

She treats me like I’m 18 and one of her charges. I for the most part and I hope to my credit, make myself very scarce. This can involve inactive periods that give you time to dwell. Not good. Hence the previous negative post.

My husband’s parents have done us a great service giving us the acreage and letting us stay here. I am very grateful. While we sold our house double the cost we built it for, we cannot afford property, a new house AND paying off our debts. Debts were the biggy for us. This allows me to stay home. Something I have NEVER done. Everyone was quite surprised and still are that I really like staying home and it takes a darn good excuse to get me out.

I am frustrated in the fact that I am still holding a passion to make great changes in our lives. I do what I can from where we are and get shot down here and there. Mostly my self assurance takes hits.

I try to look forward and plan, but truly want to live for today. I’ll wait for the gardens, solar power, making my own cheese & butter and fresh eggs. But I need to find a piece of the life to live now without upsetting the applecart, because truly it is just a matter of time, and, perspective.  Did I tell you about my new pigs?? )

So here I am. I have already soaked up so much from the many blogs in this domain. What a great place to surf and learn.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome!!