Christmas will be here before we know it, so I went ahead and put up my decorations the day BEFORE Thanksgiving.

Partly so that I could do my post on Dames of Dialogue about Home for the Holidays.

In that post, I talk about Christmases past and present, with my current holiday spirit something that had to be revived a few years ago.  I was Queen of the Scrooges for awhile there!

Not so much anymore.  Although my Christmases these days are quite scaled down from some, I have to consider the size of my down-sized space.  That’s why I have three small trees instead of one gigantic one.

And my stockings are hung on my folding screen!

I do have a hearth, though, and a mantle, but I can’t drive nails into it.

Here are some more of my decorations.

Codziennie przeraża mnie świadomość mojej ubogiej polszczyzny i równie nędzny zasób słów jakimi posługują się moi rodacy. To samo mogę powiedzieć o angielskim, który widzę i słyszę każdego dnia. Słowa to energia. Mówiąc i pisząc produkujemy prąd, wibracje, częstotliwości, a te mają jakiś wpływ na nasze samopoczucie, myślenie,akcje, reakcje i interakcje. Walczę z moją prymitywną polszczyzną na różne sposoby. Szukam słów, których nie znam i nie używam na codzień. Przed zaśnięciem, staram się ulokować w mózgu jakieś mało używane, pozytywne, dobre słowo, które będzie moją nitką Ariadny w sennych wędrówkach po labiryncie nieznanych światów. Gdy budzę się rano, pytam siebie z jakim słowem chcę zacząć dzień. O sole mio? Czy „ech, co za ohyda!” Bo takie słowa będą drgać w mojej podświadomości do późnej nocy, magnetycznie przyciągając do siebie te wibracje, które tworzą z nimi harmonie lub dysonansy. Dziś myślę o słowach, które widzę przed sobą codziennie, ale one są tylko jak znaki w nutach, które ignoruję w komponowaniu muzycznego poematu dnia. Każdy zginający się człon palca to mój knykieć. Eureka! Kiedy ostatnio pojawiło się to piękne słowo w mojej miałkiej polszczyźnie? Rzadziej niż eureka. Zaglądam do wiki pod hasłem „oko” i jestem porażony woltażem nowosłowia. Toż ja mam „sztyfciki” w oczach, siatkówkę (brawo sport oczny), wyrostki rzęsowe itepe itede…Jak dawno temu użyłem słowa „tęczówka”, patrząc w lustro na moje wyblakłe oczęta? Gdzie jest moją codzienna tęcza? Kiedy ostatnio poświęciłem kilka minut rogatej rogówce, plamce żółtej lub smętnym gruczołom łzowym? Polecam gorąco studiowanie wikipedii pod hasłem anatomia i wyszukiwanie słów, które przebierają mojego polskiego Kopciuszka w balowe suknie pełne roztańczonej energii nowych słów. PS. Te bratki, to cuda które kwitną na balkonie, nawet w tych zimnych, słotnych dniach. Moje kwieciste słowa.

The year has fled by yet again and now it’s time to think about making some gifts for the holidays.

This year I’ve decided to give some potpourri. Potpourri is usually a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant material, used to provide a agreeable natural scent in houses. You can place it in bowls or small cloth bags, or as I did, in glass jars.

I prepared it today, but really I started it last summer when I picked and dried roses and lavender.
I chose to use the glass jar because it shows the pretty dried flowers. The jar held a candle until recently, so it was also a good way to recycle the jar. When the candle was done, I took out the leftover wax and put aside for remaking into candles. I then cleaned the jar thoroughly.

This is a before and after photo of the candle jars.

I mixed rose petals, a dried orange peel and some lavender in the jar. I then added some vetier root powder as a fixative to keep the scent strong. Orris root can also be used.  I added some rose and some lavender essential oils to the mix and gently stirred with a wooden spoon. I put on the lid and tied on a pretty ribbon. Wala!  A finished gift ready to go. The cost was minimal and it only took a few minutes. Also it made my home smell nice while I was making it.

I have all the ingredients assembled.

Time to mix in the scents and the fixative.

The finished product!

I save pretty jars and interesting containers throughout the year. I also collect flower petals, pine cones and whatever I come across. Then when it’s gift time I have lots of material on hand to work with.

There are many things that can be added. Allspice, cloves, cinnamon bark, mint, any kind of sweet smelling flowers are all great additions.   A winter themed  one could have small pine cones mixed in and scented with wintergreen, for instance. You are only limited by your imagination

I really enjoy making small gifts for friends on many levels. I enjoy planning what I am going to make each year.  I put on some good music and spend an peaceful quiet afternoon having fun creating presents for my loved ones. I also like not driving to a mall and fighting the crowds to purchase mass produced objects that are most likely made in China.  And of course, I like to recycle and reuse whatever I can, remaking what would be trash into something useful and attractive.

I hope that if you try it you will enjoy creating gifts as much as I do.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!  I am getting ready to join my daughter and her family for the day.  There will be the usual festivities, with lots of warm, companionable moments.  Nothing dysfunctional, ha ha!

Yesterday, besides the usual errands, etc., I was hanging out with my youngest grandson Noah, who is out of school for the week.  He persuaded me to visit the local Borders store just around the corner, and since he’d been such a trooper already—he helped me pull the Christmas decorations out of the boxes and arrange them around the rooms—I capitulated.

Reminding him that Christmas is just around the corner, and he shouldn’t expect me to buy something expensive (LOL), I turned him loose.  And then had to redirect him a couple of times, because his eyes are bigger than the allowable price tag.

But we found something and came home.  While I put away my day’s purchases, he happily “read the directions” and put together his action figure.

Even though he now is reading for real, he actually “read” the directions of his various toys that needed assembling for quite awhile, by studying the pictures and working it all out perfectly.  I’ve always warned him that anything that needs assembling has to be done by him alone, or has to wait until he gets home to his parents.  That always motivated him!

So here is the finished product from yesterday, while on my tomorrow’s post over at Dames of Dialogue, you’ll see the results of some of my efforts!

Lubię słuchać wielogłosowych ballad śpiewanych przez rzeki, wodospady i deszcz. Dawno temu, gdy miałem w domu kominki, słuchałem przedziwnej muzyki płomieni do akompaniamentu trzaskających sosnowych kłód. Melodie chmur są lekkie, gdy białe obłoki bawią się w gonitwę z wiatrem, ale gdy nadciąga czarna nawałnica wtedy słychać w nich symfonie grzmotów i wężowy syk błyskawic. Ludzie to też dźwięki wielu instrumentów, czasem w hałaśliwym bezladzie, ale gdy „wszystko gra”, wtedy potrafią oczarować słuchujących recytalem swoich snów i marzeń na jawie. Posłuchajcie tych relaksujących śnień fletu w baletowej inscenizacji chmur. Każda kultura, każdy naród, szczep i posiołek ma swoje melodie. Jest ich wiele w internecie. Indianie Płn Ameryki urzekli mnie swoją wersją fletowych snów.

Lots going on, as always and so many things to record, so many more things to do, ones that need immediate attention, and ones that have been waiting patiently:

• Son turned 13 over the weekend and now am officially a mom of two teenagers and one toddler (is a 5 year who thinks she’s a teenager still called a toddler?)
• Never seen the son so excited about a birthday. Guy’s planned it out to the tee with the help of his sister and we have been asked to provide food and shelter for the loud 13 year old guests. Manage-able is what I think.
• I became an aunt again! My niece appeared over the week after much apprehension and now I can’t wait to see her. Thanksgiving would have been a good time to visit, but driving along the interstate on a long weekend has never been a favorite, so maybe we won’t. A tad disappointing.
• It’s heartening to see the daughter get into the spirit of “track”. Conditioning, and sprints, workouts and abs training, – everyday, a part of the routine to build stamina, energy and spirit. A decision am glad I nudged her into and something she’s warming up to – a lifestyle sport – that’s what I’d like to call it.
• Days are running into weeks, and the year is slowly coming to an end. So many little clips fly past within earshot. Vacations are being planned, flights are being booked, the mood is setting in, and there is an apprehension in the air. One that I always face, what with not knowing what to do with ourselves.
• Am hoping to stick to the gym again. Winter somehow seems to motivate me more than the nicer weather of summer/fall. It’s cold, dreary and dark, yet, I’ve managed to haul myself despite the tight evening schedules. I’ll see how long I last.
• The to-do list is growing too long. So long, that I threw one away and started afresh, hoping I’d be able to cut back some of them or better yet, forget them, but the sneaky things crept back right in!
• I so badly wanted to take my camera and get some fall shots, but the one weekend I could, it was raining and cold, and the next day the leaves turned brown. Disappointing, now I need to go find some winter shots. Hope it rains ice this winter! Oh okay, at least once? So I can get those stalagmites. stalactites!
  
• Was planning on doing a photo calendar as gifts for family. Any good recommendations?
• Why doesn’t it ever feel good no matter what decision one takes with respect to work-life balance? As much peace as I make with it, there’s always a pang, a shortcoming, a feeling of unfairness. As a friend humorously put it “we are never really happy in whatever situation we are put in. maybe that’s what keeps us going?” I agree.
• I feel lackadaisical. Maybe it’s the winter blues. Which also explains why am sleeping a lot. Hibernation.
• When you leave a voice message (which I rarely do), what do you expect the person to do? Call back? Without listening, or after listening. Write or text back saying – okay, got it, bla bla, and then some kind of action, or reaction based on the voice message? Ever heard of “I heard your voice message. It’s nice.” ? Yeah, I got that. Nice? Really?! Made me wonder if I unwittingly sang a song or something? In a way am flattered, maybe my voice does sound melodious after all! ..and o, am still waiting for the call back. Something tells me it ain’t happening any time soon.

Here are a few things that are read-worthy this morning (and thought-worthy):

1. Adam Lambert’s performance on the American Music Awards. Can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJqjf_T-GQk

ZOMG!!!  But really, the response to this performance are so full of double standards it’s nauseating. The camera cut away from scenes like when he made out with a guy so fast that it barely gives anyone time to be outraged (Simulated oral sex scene? I had to watch it twice, and I had something much more graphic in mind. Not rubbing a guy’s head in his crotch).

The performance was edited for West Coast viewers, which is ridiculous. It’s not just that he’s gay, it’s that he is a gay man. There has always been less hostility toward woman-on-woman related performances. Or maybe it’s that he is gay, and the same-sex performances we usually see are between people who are heterosexual — example, Madonna and Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Sure, Britney and Madonna kissed — but if you are homophobic then you can say it was “hot” because they don’t identify as gay …

2. As Cara at Feministe points out, an insurance company stopped paying a woman, who was on paid leave from work because of major depression, because they saw Facebook photos where she was smiling and looking not so depressed anymore. This is absurd on so many levels, from the fact they got permission to look into her private Facebook pictures to the fact that depression isn’t a constant, 24/7 storm cloud over your head to the fact that, oh, I don’t know, people hide their depression because of the social stigma attached to mental illness?

3. At a cabinet meeting today, Obama said that he told Chinese representatives that he wanted to increase exports to the country, and explained how lucrative just a 5 percent increase in exports could be. Although I learned that exports > imports = not in the red when I was in junior high, I am glad someone is finally getting the picture that the US imports way too much. Job creation? Economic stimulation? Yeah, if we didn’t rely on importing most goods from other countries, we’d likely have those jobs that have gotten outsourced for the past few decades.

 I meant to have more, but I started writing this way earlier, then the heating people came, then I lost my train of thought, then I had to start looking for jobs and be productive.

When I opened my newspaper this morning, there were Christmas ads colorfully displayed.

In the stores, everything seems to be “business as usual.”

But we know that it is not.  Even without the reminders when another business closes down—and yesterday, I got a postcard from one of my favorites sending me the “going out of business” message—we can feel it in our own pocketbooks.

So how will we get through this cheerful season? 

Somehow I know that we will.  Maybe we’ll have to turn toward homemade gifts, or perhaps we’ll simply surround ourselves with family and friends, knowing that “togetherness” is the best gift of all.  I know that I have found many pleasures in simple activities lately, like the family game night with my daughter and a couple of grandkids.

Filling my various blogs with seasonal images cheers me up, as does the blog-hopping that follows.

So here’s to a Happy Yuletide to all.  May you find those homey blessings that bring memorable joy.

The 2009 Fall River Historical House Tour Event sponsored by the Preservation Society of Fall River !  Start & Program Pickup: The Quequechan Club, 306 North Main St. Enjoy 6 Private Historic Homes, The Fall River Historical Society, Lafayette Durfee House, & The Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast.  Tickets are $17.00 Saturday December 12, 2009 11:am – 4:pm Advance Tickets Available at: New Boston Bakery Fall River Historical Society ArtCart or call 508-673-4841

hat-tip to insomniamg and Dean Sherwin:

This is a weird potpourri of sound recordings. There’s short clips of percussion, slamming car doors, blues, planes taking off, balancing tests, a classical orchestra, dixieland tunes, a ping pong match, traditional greek music, firetrucks, mexican trumpets, frequency ranges, the often used ‘russian roulette’ and ’submarine’ scene, big band music… you name it, it’s there, and all in no particular order! Most of it can be found on other records in my collection as well, but here it seems like they grabbed all the stereo sounds they could get their hands on an just dumped it on to one disk.

Most of the records here come without a year on it, just like this one.
The oscillator on the cover is quite nice though!

Listen to a turbo speed sampler:

Or you can d/l the disk (36mb) here.

Domy jak to domy: kwadraty, prostokąty, trójkąty… Drzewa rosnące obok nich, patrzyły i kręciły głowami, z niesmakiem i rosnącymi wątpliwościami. Czy te dziwne stwory żyjące w sztywnych pudełkach na prawdę oczekiwały od nich, gałęzianych tancerek, aby naśladowały te ciężkie dinozaury architektury, tylko dlatego że rosły w ich bliskim sąsiedztwie? Młodsze drzewo (po lewej) miało ochotę na trójkątne gałęziowanie i weszło w układy z sylfami, które pomagały dmuchaniem i nawet udało im się złamać kilka gałązek w niezbyt udana imitację ludzkiego gniazda. Starsze drzewo było zgorszone, ale dla świętego spokoju, wydłużyło jedno ramię równolegle do dachu trzeciego domugniazda i pomogło w nakreśleniu czegoś w rodzaju prostokąta, niezbyt udanego. Po tych próbach drzewa zbuntowały się. „Niech te stwory uczą się od nas jak budować krzywe domy, domy pełne wygibasów, skrętów, niezwykłych kształtów, gałęziastej geometri tańczącej w rytm wiatrów i huraganów, które naginają, ale rzadko łamią. Ludzie patrzyli na drzewa przez okna zamazane listopadowym deszczem i mruczeli : „patrzcie na te pokraki, połamańce! Aż wstyd mieć coś takiego przed domem. Gdzie jest nasza niezrównana prostota prostych kątów? Dlaczego nas nie naśladują te kaleki?” A drzewa kłaniały się ironicznie w zadeszczone okna i szumiały cicho „Prostaki! nudziarze! Geometryczne ramole…”

About 10 years ago, I switched to teaching mostly developmental mathematics classes. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the material in Calculus (my family tree does contain Newton, after all), I found that teaching developmental mathematics can be more personally fulfilling. Here’s a story to illustrate this.

On the first day of each class, I collect a survey from my students. It contains the standard information (name, email address, math background, …). I also give the students a space to share any information that they feel I should know. One student, who I will call Laura, wrote down that math was her worst subject and would like to talk to me about it during office hours.

When Laura came to my office I asked her when her problems with math began. (It’s funny, but in my experience students can answer this question in about 0.3 seconds. We always seem to know the cause of our troubles, even if we don’t know how to fix them.) Laura told me that she remembered a time in the third grade – that’s right, the third grade -  when her teacher held up her math paper and told the class “Take a good look at this paper. This is a bad paper. Don’t do it this way.” Naturally, Laura was crushed. It was so bad that she still hadn’t recovered over 10 years later.

I asked her how she did in the rest of her classes, and she told me that she was a great student except in math. I told her that I had a deal for her. If she would put aside her negative math feelings and give her fullest effort, I would work as hard as I could to help her. I felt that if she could experience one success, she could lose all of that old baggage and move on. I promised her that if she passed the first test, I would hold her test up in front of the class and tell them “This is a good test! This is how you do it! Well done!”

So, we worked really hard, and Laura passed the first test. I held up my end of the bargain, held up her test, and said my piece. As I glanced over at Laura, I saw her eyes starting to well up. My eyes started as well. That’s why I love teaching developmental mathematics.

Laura went on to pass elementary and intermediate algebra, eventually transferred, and got a bachelor’s degree.

“Laura” – If you are reading this, thank you.

I am a math instructor at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA. If there are topics you’d like me to address in future Potpourri articles, send in your requests through the contact page on my web site. Be sure to check out next Thursday’s article.  – George