I Have Not Yet Managed to Kill My Plants

Happy February!

Just thought I'd write a little January review, as tribute to the month-long Monday that most people dislike and many would prefer to vote off the calendar altogether.

It's been chilly, there have been snowfalls, and the fjord is partially frozen over into three lovely shades of blue.

The view from my living room windows of the cathedral and fjord.  

The foliage has turned brown and white, 

although underneath that soft layer of snow 

there is some seriously hard-core grass that is still green.  

On sunny days, at noon, I can sit in my living room, close my eyes, and pretend it's summer.  Because I live on the top floor and my apartment has windows for walls, I can almost convince myself I'm at the coast.

I started up another glass bottle collection, like the one Tim and I have in our storage unit in Georgia.  Somehow it makes me feel a little closer to home.  I only have four bottles so far, but I hope the collection will eventually take over the entire windowsill.  There is something so peaceful and inspiring about the way light plays on glass ... it makes me want to paint.

This month, I finished a series of sketches that may be the beginning of an etsy shop, as soon as I find a scanner and printer (someday I fully intend to have my own: the Superhero Scanner-Printer Duo that does not have mind-numbingly stupid technical difficulties, cannot run out of ink, and will never require Tim to say, "Huh.  Let me just play around with it," - famous last words that always precede The Grand Fiasco in which Tim takes apart the entire device and then begins repairing it by a process of elimination that swallows up enormous amounts of time, energy, and money, only to discover that the thing is essentially unfixable and we have to buy a new one, or duct tape it back together.  Don't tell him I said that).

I also mailed out the children's book to six different literary agencies.  I have only heard back from one so far: my first rejection.  It was fairly generic (my thoughts in red):

.... Unfortunately, this project isn't a fit for me or the agency (why, why, WHY?).  As you know, these decisions are highly subjective (please for the love of all things happy, EXPOUND on this!), and another agent may have an entirely different opinion (you're killing me slowly). After all, it takes just one "yes" to find the right match (and thus, with a sigh, she died)...

Etc., etc.

That's okay.  I shan't give up!  

In other news, I've started homeschooling Isaac.  Unfortunately he's been wait-listed for the nearby preschools and they're telling me it could be May before there's an opening, so we're on our own for now.  Since he's only four, that basically means minimal time (or less, depending on his attention span) of alphabet, colors, counting, reading stories, making puzzles, and building things with blocks (which he promptly  knocks over).  Last week, I taught him how to write his name.  He has trouble with the 's.'

This is Tim reading a bedtime story to Isaac.

Or rather, I should say making up a bedtime story for Isaac.

Since it's a library book and we can't read Danish,

we make up all the stories.

Sometimes they're quite odd ...

... As you can see ...

By Isaac's expressions.

Also unrelated: this month we bought some furniture.  A gray couch, a white table, benches, and a pallet-board coffee table (which is currently in sore need of four wheels and a glass top).  And it was about time, too.  We owed several people long-overdue dinners, and I say overdue because the polite period between when you are invited over to someone's home and when you invite them to your own home in return had long since lapsed (according to Miss Manners), the reason being that we had no seats and three forks.  Subsequently, the month of January transformed us into semi-adequate hosts.  We've had five or six dinner parties thus far. These are my new coffee-cups, which I love because the pattern reminds me of sea biscuits:

Also unrelated: I went on 'happy' pills to help with my seasonal depressions, and they've finally started kicking in.  I am much less prone to the depths of despair (as Anne would say).  Also, my doctor says 'receipt' whenever she means prescription, which I think is kind of charming.

Also unrelated: someone gave us a Danish coffee-maker.  It's huge.  And quite intimidating to look at, but the main thing is it makes a lot of coffee.  What's more, I just discovered that you can't buy American-sized coffee filters in Denmark and I've only got six left.  No, five, because I had a coffee-grind-incident this morning and thus the stuff I am currently drinking is twice-filtered.  Also I ruined the cream carton.  I keep telling Tim that he has got to open those things as soon as he buys them, that way I don't a chance to try and open them myself.  Because when I open them, they become perfectly useless.  Big gaping holes from which it is impossible to pour anyhing.  (This may be one of the things Tim likes least about me: my inability to open anything in the correct fashion.)

Also unrelated: I found a dog I love.  We'd happened upon it a few months ago, locked up in a little yard by itself and in sore need of petting.  Surprisingly, it's still there.  I'm sorely tempted to pull off a heist and keep it in my apartment. 

So there you have it.  My January.  I've got to say, I accomplished much less than I thought I would (as expected), but the main thing is ... my boys are happy, my house is clean, I got a pay raise, the book I'm reading is wonderful, my favorite pants have not yet fallen apart (despite the fact that they are kneeless and holey and covered in paint and coffee stains and don't actually fit me anymore because of the weight loss), my hair is growing back out, and I have not yet managed to kill my plants.

{ January, a perfect success. }

... how was yours?