Third Century Prayer of Eusebius

May I be no man's enemy, and may I be the friend of that which is eternal and abides.
May I never quarrel with those nearest me: and if I do, may I be reconciled quickly.
May I love, seek, and attain only that which is good.
May I wish for all men’s happiness and envy none.
May I never rejoice in the ill-fortune of one who has wronged me.
When I have done or said what is wrong, may I never wait for the rebuke of others, but always rebuke myself until I make amends.
May I win no victory that harms either me or my opponent.
May I reconcile friends who are angry with one another.
May I never fail a friend who is in danger.
When visiting those in grief may I be able by gentle and healing words to soften their pain.
May I respect myself.
May I always keep tame that which rages within me.
May I accustom myself to be gentle, and never be angry with people because of circumstances.
May I never discuss who is wicked and what wicked things he has done, but know good men and follow in their footsteps.

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown.

And he replied: Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.

~ M. Louise Haskins

View from a Couch

Yes, we are one of those converter-box households.

The Little Joys of Teaching

Sigh .... time to write a test.

Maybe nobody'll notice .....

At least we didn't have to wait for the UPS man to come back ....

Must. Stop. Neglecting. .... this too.

See previous post.

Must. Stop. Neglecting.

One of the multitudinous New Year's Goals to be working on ...

"Some Settling May Occur" .... I don't buy it.

Freshly opened Noodle-Roni box

Ditto

The first addition to the happy little home ... 20 months ago.

Little Man Tucker

The 5-month-old (1 month with us) little brother ... aka Our Little Scavenger

Madame Sophia Pumpkinhead

The 18-month-old (17 months with us) big sister ... aka Our Little Predator

Our Only Way to Battle the Cold

Unfortunately for us, this has absolutely NOTHING to do with the ice storm. :-(

All the Necessary Gear .... except one thing

Some assembly required. Sparring partner not included. :-(

Happy New Year .... take 2!

Ice Storm 2009 is at least SOMEWHAT over ..... though 350,000 in Kentucky (83,000 of whom are in Louisville) are still without power. But today's temperatures got up to the upper 40s and low 50s this weekend, melting a lot of the stuff and (fortunately!) not snapping any further trees and lines in the process. And, while the warming gave a brief reprieve to those without power, temperatures will be dropping back down into the 20s over the next couple days. Jefferson County Public Schools will be closed for one more day, but the Archdiocesan schools (with the exception of two) will be back in session tomorrow. Thus, the resetting of the alarm ..... and the attempts to figure out how best to ease myself (and my girls) back into the routine.

{And, with the subject line .... obviously, the New Year's Goals never quite took, so I'm starting again.}

Day 3

Roommate randomly decided today that she wanted a cat that liked her {she claims that my precious little baby is of the devil}, so this little guy has been here all of four hours in the apartment. He's still nameless, although she's taken to calling him "Little Man", which I actually kind of like. Surprisingly, Madame Sophia Pumpkinhead is taking it quite well --- at least, better than we expected --- but I thought this shot of Little Man cornered by the fridge gave a nice sense of who's in charge.

New Year, New Beginnings

Much as I'm a film purist, an all-manual camera snob .... I got a digital SLR for Christmas. Now granted, it's not my trusty Pentax, nor does its basic 18-55mm lens even come close to my most-beloved 75-300mm zoom ..... it still has its good points. And much MUCH better for the good quick shots than my little digital Canon (though that one's good for the pocketability). {Need I mention I'm a bit of a photo geek?} Anyway, I'm still into the film thing, and, while there's a lot of expense in processing film, I don't see myself giving up my Pentax anytime soon. All that being said ..... I have, to some extent, given up my Pentax, in that I haven't done much shooting in QUITE a long time. My roommate's been chomping at the bit, trying to get me back into it, but it hasn't worked too well. But, now that there's not the film expense involved .....

Also, I've been intending {and been being nagged by the roommate as well} to get back onto the blog scene. Great option for that came as I was looking up who-knows-what on Google {ahh, Google -- world's greatest time-evaporator!} and discovered Project 365. I think I had heard of it before, but film made it not-very-feasible. But NOW, with the new toy ..... all things are possible. {Well, perhaps not ALL things, but .....}

So, thus I begin my very own Project365. The one site that they suggested as a good host unfortunately told me that they are not accepting new registrations until Monday, so I will have to wait until then to be official. In the meantime, though ..... that doesn't mean I can't start here, correct?

Thus, I present to you (back-datedly) .... my first three shots of the year!

Day 2

A Palmy with a mostly crossed-off list {Goodwill chair was looked for but didn't exist; recycling was attempted, but city-employee furlough day was forgotten; school stuff (of course) remaining}, shot next to my EMPTY gmail inbox. Granted, I feel like a somewhat cheater, since the inbox just got labelled "MUST BE DEALT WITH" and archived, but at least I've got a clean slate for the moment, and I'll (hopefully) go back and clear things out as I get the chance. It's at least a start, yes?

Day 1

Last week, while at home, for some reason I found myself all inspired for all these things I was going to do in the New Year. Not resolutions, really .... but every once in a while I get all gung-ho about new ideas for life. No surprise, I didn't write any of them at the time, but they rattled around my head for a week or so until I got on a plane Wednesday to fly back to Loovul, whereupon I wrote down those which I could remember, as well as new ones that those inspired. I don't think it's TOO overly-optimistic, and I think I did an OK job on trying to make things concrete and managable, but we'll see how it goes. {Click to zoom in} My biggest thing will be establishing a system to keep everything going AND to keep success visible .... I have good thoughts for this. And yes, blogging is there too --- and perhaps that will help with accountability!

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown.

And he replied: Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.

~ M. Louise Haskins

Sigh .....

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