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Right/Wright/Write Resolutions 07

I've never done this before. Here goes:

  • Set the alarm clock.
  • Go to bed earlier.
  • Begin days earlier.
  • Drink more water.
  • Eat less sugar.
  • Eat more veggies.
  • Reduce clutter.
  • Have more patience with clutter.
  • Walk 2x/week.
  • Pilates 3x/week.
  • Stretch everyday.
  • Sit up straight.
  • Clean the basement.
  • Organize the office.
  • Wallpaper the kitchen.
  • Work together with Jeromy on home projects and chores.
  • Sing, dance, read and play games more often with the kids.
  • Manage calendar - no more than two trips per month.
  • Blog more. Blog less. Shit. I don't know. Write more.
  • Stop trying to be. Just be.
  • Create. Always create. Never stop creating.
  • The Move (In Progress)

    trailerI realized after reading Erika's comment that I've been writing lots of nice posts about Scrabble games and wagon rides but haven't provided the real scoop on what's going on with the move.

    In the last month, Jeromy's truck has hauled three separate trailers to Ohio, each carrying a few thousand pounds of our belongings. This is the third and final load. Two weeks ago, while I was in NC and Jeromy was home alone, the military packed up another 10,000 pounds of household goods, which will remain in storage until we find a more permanent place to live.

    We don't know yet if we will buy a campground or a house or a large piece of land to develop ourselves, but I do know we will always have a place for our friends to stay when they come to visit. Whether you want to pitch a tent, hook up an RV or sleep in a spare bed, we'll have room.

    Right now we're staying with my parents in Mansfield for a couple months until we find a place of our own. Robey and I are here now, and Jeromy will be here for good in one week as well. His final outprocessing is 14 July.

    We'll be sending an e-mail with updated contact information soon. Until then, post a comment or click the 'email me' link at the left to drop us a line. Please make note of the new e-mail address: we're with Yahoo now instead of Direcway.


    It's All Happening

    house2Right when we start to resign ourselves to staying in St. Louis for another six months, we find renters for the house.

    *It's all happening.* I've been saying this for the last month, as all the pieces of this move have fallen into place. Last week we signed a rental agreement with the young family that will be renting our home for a few years. They move in the first of September, so we'll be in Ohio in two weeks. Where will we be exactly? Staying with family in Mansfield for a few months probably, until we have time to house hunt ourselvs. After that, who knows. McConnelsville? Mansfield? Columbus? Athens? Anyone got a vote?

    The Straw House Dream

    straw_houseSomeday Jeromy is going to build me a house of straw. I'm serious. You have to check out the weblog about this gorgeous straw house built by a young couple in Canada.

    Glen Hunter, the owner and weblog author sums it up perfectly when he says: "I had always had it in my head that I would like to live in a home that was off-grid, energy efficient and as 'healthy' as possible. I've also always been interested in modern architecture. It has always seemed a shame to me that so many people when they have the chance to build their own homes can't get past Victorian, mock-Tudor or suburban bungalow."

    There are hundreds of great straw bale sites out there. Do a search on Google. You'll be amazed. What if we all aimed to build homes like this within the next 30 years?

    Worth a click

    Worth a read

    • Alan Jones: Reimagining Christianity
      If - like many - you've been tempted to dismiss Christianity as a judgemental, patriarchal Western religion but - like me - have longed to see it as a mystical, metaphorical and compassionate process, this book is for you.
    • Amy Tan: The Hundred Secret Senses
      I've just finished my first Amy Tan novel, and so I'm wishing I had an eccentric sister with yin eyes and lost memories of a past life. But alas I'll have to settle for another magical story from Tan - which should I read next?
    • Helen Nearing, Scott Nearing: The Good Life
      I've been buying Jeromy books for the past 15 years, and he's never read a single one. Until now. I bought him this classic on self-sufficient living, and now he's devouring every book and magazine that he can find on the subject.
    • Matthew Van Fleet: Tails
      A Christmas gift from Aunt Susan and Uncle Beau, this book is Robey's current favorite. He just learned how to pull the tabs to make the tails wag.
    • John Irving: The Fourth Hand
      Pick a favorite John Irving book? I can't. Read them all. Laugh, snicker and fall in love with the characters, not despite of but FOR all their flaws and idiosyncracies.
    • Saul Bellow: Henderson the Rain King
      Is there any better way to overcome a mid-life crisis? If only we all had the resources and dumb luck of Henderson and the lyrical dexterity of Bellow.
    • Hunter S. Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
      Take a trip with Thompson into the swill and swine of Vegas. It still makes me laugh and gasp and hallucinate more than any other book I've ever read.
    • Oliver Sacks: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
      That one of my favorite authors of all time is a socially-awkward yet highly perceptive neurologist is a testament more to Sacks' ability to write plainly about complex subjects than it is a comment on my own attraction to the strangely bizarre. Or is it?
    • Rick Bragg: All Over But the Shoutin'
      Read this book and you will almost wish that you had grown up poor and fatherless in the deep South, if only to be a part Bragg's mother's clan --lively, hard-working and proud.
    • Betty Smith: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
      Read this book at least once a decade, and you'll root for Francie again and again, but for different reasons each time.