Jonah Lisa Land

Live from the front lines

For any complaining I've ever done about my husband, I apologize. Since we've been gone, I've woken up to this glorious sight twice.

Comfort Reading

I don't know if other people do this, but I have certain books that I go back to year after year.  They're like a great pair of broken in jeans or a long visit with a really good friend you haven't seen in while. 

I read them repeatedly, for sheer comfort.  I wear out the spines. Of course, there are literary classics that I love as well, but the heavy stuff doesn't usually fit the bill for a comfort read. 

Here are of my favs in that category:

• Watership Down by Richard Adams - My husband calls this "The Bunny Book" and teases me mercilessly when I'm reading it. Apparently, he can tell if the little band of bunnies is in trouble by how tightly I'm holding book.  I finally had to buy a new copy because my original lost some pages.

• Papillon by Henri Charriere' - I am a total sucker for a good escape story and this is one of the best.  The movie, as usual, is a pale comparison to Charriere's autobiographical novel.  Basic plot: French man spends 14 years wrongly jailed for murder in various horrible prison colonies. He mounts multiple escape attempts but is always caught and sent back into an even worse situation.

• The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - The Arthurian legend told from the perspectives of the female characters. Set in an historical time when huge gender power shifts were happening.  Lots of good female power stuff and Goddess worship.  I also like the prequel, The Forest House, and the sequel, The Lady of Avalon.
  

• Dune by Frank Herbert - I am not a huge SciFi fan but I have always loved this book.  The mixed elements of feudal politics and fanatical religion are right up my alley.  I also enjoy the second book in the series, Dune Messiah, but less so.  And even less again with the third book, Children of Dune. By the fourth book, I find them almost unreadable. 

• The Long Walk - The truth of this supposedly autobiographical escape story has been debunked (though not offically) but I don't even care.  It's still just a great story.  A band of WWII POWS escape from the Russians on their way to the Gulags.  They walk across Siberia, the Gobi Desert and the Himalyas to reach safety in India.

Just writing this is making me want to cozy down under the covers and read The Bunny Book again.   If you've got a favorite comfort read, I'd love to hear what it is.  It's never too late to add something new to the repertoire.

"Mommy out bed!"

You know it's a rough day when you're greeted with this phrase 50 times as you try to burrow under the covers.  I was having a hard time getting up the other morning.  Hey, to my credit it was 6am.  But Huck was adamant.  He kept trying to pull to covers back to coax me out.

The whole thing gave me flashbacks of my Dad doing the same thing when I was a teenager.  Not in a gross way!  In a get out of bed and go to school way.

I tried to ignore the little guy as long as I could, but the soft spray of particulate matter on my face when he implored, "Wa-ffuuulz!" made it rather hard.  When he brought me my house shoes, I knew there was no more hiding.

Remember the days of sleeping in until 11?  Or 10 even?  In many ways I feel like motherhood has changed my entire chemistry.  Though I wouldn't mind staying in bed until 8, I'm not really sure my body would let me sleep as late as I used to.  Oh well, I had a good long run.   

Plastic Bags Blow!

Thought I'd share another GREEN LIVING success story with the hopes of inspiring someone to make a similar change.  I've weaned myself from the plastic tit.  It's been almost a year of shunning plastic bags.  And let me tell you, except for not knowing what to put the cat shit in, I have no regrets.

It's a very small change but it feels incredibly good.  I also find it easier in the long run and the bags I use now are just plain better. 

Yep, I drank the kool-aid and now I'm preaching the gospel.  Line up brothers and sisters and take a sip, it'll only hurt for a second.  Click Continue reading below for the whys and hows of switching to reusable bags and for a peek at the too cool bags and amazing online store, ReusableBags.com, that I'm in love with.

Oh...and check out my plastic bag ticker in the sidebar.  That's the kind of stuff that flips me out!

Oh, Idaho

Found this in my driveway.  This picture just says so much about Idaho. 

The year we moved here there was a big stink because some wingnut was hunting elk with a scoped rifle from a powered paraglider--it's like a go-cart frame attached to a set of wings with a motor on the back.  Hardly seems fair.  He was flying over neighborhoods shooting from this contraption!  Now "neighborhood" is a relative term here--more than 10 houses in a 50 acre stretch pretty much constitutes a neighborhood.   But still!   I don't even think he got a ticket.  Just an admonishment from the sheriff to, "Keep it to the backcountry."

I'm stockpiling WMDs

As you know, Huck and I are off to Texas for 10 days.  We leave at the crack of dawn.  The alarm is set for 4:30 am!  I put him to sleep in his clothes and I'll have the car loaded and warmed up when I go up to get him out of bed at 5am.  Pray he sleeps another hour on the drive over the pass. 

I've been stockpiling blog entries that I can post from my groovy new iPhone while I'm gone.  Pretty wonky, huh?  Hope it doesn't feel too much like I'm cheating.  Just think of them as previously recorded programs, like on NPR.  I'll be entirely too busy to blog--playing in the cesspool ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese, riding the Yellow Rose Express at the Ft. Worth Zoo and trying to keep my mother from buying us things. 
And now that I know it works, I might even post a photo or two of our adventures from the iPhone. 

I must say, the iPhone is very, very cool.   Very intuitive and user-friendly.  But I've figured out one very important thing (ok, actually I was told by my friend Kate who also got one for Christmas), you must invest in The Missing Manual. It's full of shortcuts and great iPhone specific websites and programs you can get as extras, and nothing like it is included with the darn gizmo.

So, in order to keep The Toby Show going while I'm off enjoying the suburbs, this is me right now, clickety-clacking away.

I do some of my best blogging one handed.  I've had those glasses since the mid-90s.  Don't know the exact year, but I'm pretty sure Lisa Loeb was on the charts.

Wish me luck.    

My Shrine

My mother is a home decor procrastinator.  My parents built the house they live in when I was in the 7th grade and they still don't have dining room furniture.  Lucky for me though because that empty room is a perfect toddler demolition zone.  She's also quite averse to change.

All this to explain why a shrine exists in the suburbs of Texas...a shrine to my youth. 

My mother has never changed my bedroom.  It's there for me still, as it's always been, in all its juvenile glory.  Pale blue walls and yellow little girl furniture they bought for me when I was 9.  Knick knacks only a junior high schooler would appreciate--a shadow box, clown figurines and other Hallmark fodder.  Framed photos of me and school friends I haven't spoken to in 20 odd years.  A desk full of the detritus of suburban adolescence--notes folded into tiny squares and triangles, team booster buttons, a Swatch Watch.

In my closet is the moldy clarinet I played in the 7th and 8th grades before I moved on to drama, and the hideous collection of comedy & tragedy masks I began acquiring after.  Even the proverbial sweater of my high school boyfriend is in there.  And clothes.  Horrible, horrible clothes.  Clothes from when Madonna wore lace.   Clothes from when Dexy's Midnight Runners were the coolest thing going.  I know you can picture it.  I have trouble believing I couldn't find some green eyeliner in there if I gave the place a good going over.

I've been telling her for years, at least a decade, to change it.  "Move on," I say, "let go."  I've offered to help.  I've boxed up a few items that were truly special and told her we should burn the rest in a glorious bonfire in the backyard.  No dice.  Several years ago she did make one change.  She got rid of my twin bed and replaced it with a double.  Baby steps, but at least it was something--I don't have to sleep under that butterfly bedspread any more.

The whole thing is a little bizarre.  It gives my husband the creeps.  We huddle together in the double bed, looking up at the glow-in-the-dark constellations on the ceiling and under the watchful eye of my stuffed animals.  It's like being transported back in time, only now there's a grown man with ear hair in my bed and I know exactly what to do with my hands.

So, as I get ready for another trip home to see the folks, I'm also preparing for a trip down memory lane.  Strange as it is, it's also vaguely comforting to me.  I can bury my face in Ben's sweater and try to detect the ancient smell of Polo Cologne.  And I can thumb through my yearbooks again remembering all those people who implored me to "Stay Sweet." 

Party Animal

We had our little birthday party over the weekend before Stephen left for London.  Huck really loved us singing Happy Birthday to him and he wore his crown the entire time.  He also loved the cupcakes, which of course he calls...muffins.

He got this wonderful Kitchen Helper from my parents.  It's cheaper and a little smaller than the more familar Learning Tower and it collapses so it can be stored in a closet.  A must have feature if you have a small kitchen and don't want your toddler to have 24/7 access to the counters.  It's already a big hit and cuts down drastically on the fussing while I make food.  He loves to get in it and "help" me get his plate ready.  We haven't tried any cooking yet but maybe tonight I'll let him do some dishes.

He also got The Jungle Book DVD and a lovely set of old Beatrix Potter Books I found on eBay.  I made him a cape, a caveman wrap and a felt pizza, and we finally opened the cardboard playhouse our friends sent him for Christmas. It's HUGE!

Anyway, a swell time was had by all.   One more gift orgy to go...yes, the in laws are having a party for him next Sunday in Texas, too. 

iPhone test post

Yes, I'm actually blogging from my iPhone.  That's how savvy I am.   
You may now kneel at the alter of my tech abilities and envy my taste in pajamas.

Cloth Coasters

I've been at it again.  I so enjoyed making gifts this Christmas that I've decided to make birthday presents this year, too.  I wanted to go with something simple but pretty and something I could make a ton of all at once and then just dole them out as the birthdays come throughout the year.  I have my sister, 2 sister-in-laws, mother, aunt, one grandmother and my best friend all in April and May.  Having gifts standing by will ensure I don't miss any--my Verjaardagkalender helps, too.

Each set is 6 reversible coasters.  I got my inspiration from the Clever Coaster in Amy Karol's Bend the Rules Sewing.  It's a great book, full of fun and easy sewing projects.  I nixed her embellishment (binding sewn on the fronts with stamped lettering on it) and let the fabric choices be the standout thing in mine.  All the fabrics are from Fat Quarters I've been obsessively collecting for years.  It feels good to purge a bunch on a useful project.  I did use a soft natural flannel, as the book suggests, for the inside instead of a stiff interfacing.  I also did a bit of decorative machine stitching on some of them.

I'll definitely be keeping a set for myself but I haven't decided which one yet.  I like the yellow and orange ones the best, I think.  I also considered some mix and match sets but the little packs looked so nice once I had them tied up with rick rack that I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Click continue reading below for a closer look at each set, front and back. 

Note to my sister:  Pick the set you like best!  I have another little surprise up my sleeve for you, so I don't mind that you'll know about this one.