Prior proper planning prevents psychosis...

Right after New Year's Day, I put away most of the holiday decor, cleared off the book shelf and started filling it up with my armament to get through this political year. This is the year I'm going to ignore the political machine and read instead of watching talking heads. I think it's a good plan. I started a Shelfari account, but ran out of energy trying to add all of my books. Perhaps I'll do it a little bit at a time. It's not that it's hard, but it is a little time consuming.


My e-readers are full of books waiting to be read, and a hard copy of The Hobbit is on my shelf waiting to be re-read for about the tenth time. Hey! Peter Jackson's version of the story is being released on the big screen in December and I want the tale--which I do have memorized-- to be fresh in my mind. I think I'll savor it again in November. Another vintage book I plan on reading again is Charlotte's Web. I found a copy prior to the estate sale and rather selfishly rescued it from the .25 cent pile. The edges had been chewed by Stinkerbell, but the book is still readable and worthy of owning.

The bottom of the book shelf is filling up with knitting books and patterns I also plan to use as weaponry instead of watching or listening to political rhetoric. Also present is the Planet Earth DVD set that I'll watch while knitting. I hope Sigourney's voice doesn't lull me to sleep while I knit. Then there are television shows I never used to be into but now I am. The Good Wife is an example. I missed the first two seasons so I can rent those over the summer when the verbal barrage should be approaching the boiling point and try to catch up before season 4 begins.

I think I have the beginnings of a good plan and have kicked off the year reading, Midwife for Souls, which was recommended to me by a cloistered nun when I attended a death at her convent. She told me she was very moved by this book and thought I would be, too. Up until recently, it wasn't available on Kindle, but now it is, so I bought it this morning.

As an aside, the holiday baking is truly complete now. Last night, Sara started baking the one cookie that lets us know Christmas was here: Cherry Winks. As like last year, these got baked well after the holiday, and just like then, I think we're enjoying them even more when we have them late.

Leo the Unhelpful Baker

As usual when baking, Leo helped. This is him pouting because he got kicked out of the kitchen when he wouldn't stop licking the flour that had fallen on the floor and on his head. It wasn't a problem that he was in the way...it was just that by licking the spill, he wasn't cleaning, he was making paste.