Knitted quilt

After about two years of working on and off on this blanket, here it is on our cozy loveseat!  I still need to sew in few dangling strands of yarn, but I feel like I've made it!

Bitty Birdy

I had bitty balls of yarn leftover from a blanket that I made (pictures to come when I get the lighting right so that the colors don't look crazy).  A bitty knit bird seemed like a pleasant use for some of the yarn.  Add some t-shirt scraps as stuffing and embroidery thread for the face, and we're on our way!  I started with the instructions here, but I wanted a less clunky bird (and I didn't have the right size of needles...), so I played with things a fair amount as I went.  To do this project, I learned how to increase using Knit Front and Back.  I think that learning new things is like crack to me.  Especially when creating things is involved.

Just chillin'.

Finally a bird to accompany the bird house I found on the side of the rode and brought home to paint!

Technology... in particular, electronics

In opening my discussion of electronics, I can't do anything better than ask you to watch The Story of Electronics which is a terrific video that Annie Leonard created.  She has done the research and made a short video that compiles her concerns and suggested improvements to our current system.  In case you do not care to watch the video, I will list a few of the concerns that Annie gives:

• Electronics are often made with toxic chemicals that harm primarily the factory workers building the product and then the workers tearing apart the product to "recycle" it.
• The manufacturers are not bearing the responsibility of the pollution and waste caused by production and disposal.  Because of this, electronics are designed to become obsolete quickly because this is what creates maximum profit.
• The products are cheap because the costs come to foreign workers getting ill, the rivers where the pollution shows up, the air getting polluted, etc.
• It is more expensive to repair products than to buy new ones.

She has ideas about how to prevent a lot of these problems.  The biggest would be to hold companies accountable for the problems their product causes including workers' health, pollution, and product waste.  If this was the case, she believes that companies would work to produce products with greater longevity because this would be cheaper than cleaning up all of the current problems.  I think that this seems reasonable.

I'm not against technology or electronics, but, like Annie, I do not like the current system that we have.  I agree that companies should be held accountable, but I also would love to see individuals' attitudes change as well.  The companies only make money by creating newer versions of products because people buy them!  It seems to me like any time a new big product is released, people are ready to buy it even if they already own a comparable functioning device.  Why is this?

I think that people like new things, especially if it's the latest and greatest.  The status that comes with these products certainly might be tempting as well.  However, this attitude is a great way to never feel satisfied and to spend more money than one should.

The electronics in our lives are a 6-year old laptop, a 3-year old refurbished desktop with dual-screen monitors, a 5-year old digital camera, our cellphones that we will only replace if they manage to break, and Matthew's 3-year old MP3 player, and the printer that we bought used.  There are some accompanying devices as well, of course.  We have chargers, cords, cables, speakers, etc.  What we try to do is remain satisfied with what we have.  When we do buy electronics (or anything, really), we make it a top priority to buy used or refurbished.  If we buy something new, we look into buying a long-lasting product from a responsible company.  I also promise that we do not feel like we are in want!

Now that I have talked about the costs of technology at large-scale, I also want to recommend that people consider the time they spend using these devices.  I've heard from many sources that when technology began to have a role in our society, people predicted that it would free our time so that we could work less and spend more time bonding with family and friends, pursuing our interests, reflecting, and being involved in our communities.  While certainly technology has made some things faster and better, we actually are working more, and when we're not working, I would argue that we spend a lot of time doing activities that are not terribly fulfilling.  In my opinion (and it is just that, not fact), video games, television, Facebook, MP3 players, online games, and even blogging have their times and places, but we just don't know when to shut these things off and just live the life we have in the real world with real people! 

Also, maybe I'm old and out-of-touch, but it truly bothers me when I am having a conversation with someone and he/she tries to stay in the conversation with me while simultaneously carry on a texting conversation with someone else.  I just want to shout, "Helloooo!  I'm right here trying to have a conversation with yooouuu!"  I just feel like technology ends up fragmenting our lives and disconnecting us sometimes even more than it helps connect us.

Throughout college, I became addicted to constantly checking email, Facebook, and other sites.  Sometimes I found myself clicking through my set of tabs in Firefox (and later Chrome) just watching them and seeing if something new happened.  Gah!  How unfulfilling, and what a waste of time!!  This year I finally figured out a way to stop this vicious cycle that was eating my time and sanity.  I learned that hibernating my laptop throughout the day makes it so that I will only have the laptop going when I'm truly using it.  I am so happy with this new system because I feel free from this silly thing.

The laptop was my addiction, but I think that similar ideas can help you too if you find that you are leashed to your technology!  Perhaps you can shut off your phone during times spent with family and friends so that you can give them your full attention?  Maybe only use your MP3 player or I-pod when you are running alone and not with your friends?  Maybe limit your time playing online games to a certain amount per day?  Maybe have a time of day where you shut off all of the devices and enjoy other activities in life?

I want to end by saying that I think that technology can be used to enrich lives, but I know that it's tempting for me to use it in a way that ends up absorbing my life.  By limiting my purchases and time spent with my electronics, I feel like I am honestly improving my quality of life rather than just keeping myself from indulging.  

Peace

Let there be peace on earth,
And let it begin with me.

Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be.

With God as our father

Brothers all are we. 
Let me walk with my brother

In perfect harmony.
~Vince Gill~

As I considered writing this post, this song began to run through my head, and I realized that it encapsulated a lot of my beliefs about peace.  Peace with God, peace within ourselves, and peace with each other and our planet are three lofty goals worth seeking daily.  I find it hard to be at peace with anybody or anything when I am not at peace inside, so I will spend this post considering the idea of internal peace.

"We can work on inner peace and world peace at the same time. On one hand, people have found inner peace by losing themselves in a cause larger than themselves, like the cause of world peace, because finding inner peace means coming from the self-centered life into the life centered in the good of the whole. On the other hand, one of the ways of working for world peace is to work for more inner peace, because world peace will never be stable until enough of us find inner peace to stabilize it." ~ Peace Pilgrim

While people have different approaches based on personality differences, I'll go ahead and share my experiences with a search for peace.

Selfishness is one of the biggest obstacles to my inner peace.  I know that when I am focused on my own needs and especially wants, I become a person I would rather not be.  I make decisions that I regret, and I become cross and irritable.  When I remove my focus from myself, I feel better and live better.

I also have been learning about how consumerism affects internal peace.  While we have an abundance, it is in fact not things that gives us peace.  I have found that by using less and giving things away, I increase my ability to be at peace because I feel satisfied with what I have.  I don't think that there can be inner peace when so much time is spent thinking about money and material possessions.  I also feel at peace by being more in rhythm with our planet.

An important part of my peace is listening to the quiet inner voice that questions what I do.  When I continue harmful actions because they are convenient to me even when I know that I should work to change, I don't feel at peace.

I also find peace when I accept others the way they are.  I tend to get frustrated when people do things in a way that bothers me even when it is a relatively small thing like throwing litter on the ground or a big thing like saying hateful things.  This past year I have been working to control my anxiety by looking for the good in people and realizing that we are all in a state of flux.  I'm not always the best at this, but as I get better I do feel more peace.

What brings peace is gratefulness.  When I am thankful for my family, friends, food, life, and all of the other daily blessings, my soul fills with satisfaction.

What brings peace is attention and appreciation of daily routine.  Instead of hurrying through life, I'm trying to appreciate the details.

What brings peace is avoiding worry and trusting that the future will provide for future needs.

What brings me peace is also taking time away from the frantic pace of life that it is easy to get swept away in.  I find that I need to shut off my computer and return to the here and now.  While technology is supposed to be a time-saver, it also has the tendency to absorb people.

When I am at peace internally, I am able to focus on God and others.  I feel more productive, energetic, and happy.

Where there is faith, there is love.
Where there is love, there is peace.

Where there is peace, there is God.

And where there is God, there is no need.
~Leo Tolstoy~

Window garden update

Oregano explosion!  I tasted a leaf off of one of these guys, and now I know what gives spaghetti sauce so much of its flavor!  Yum!

Oh happy basil plants.  I should pinch off some of your leaves so that you get nice and full.

Look!  Florg is alive!!!  What a cute baby avocado plant!

Ramblings

I've started and not finished a few posts over the last week, but I'm just never satisfied with what I'm saying.  I have felt passionately about a few things, but I have been unable to collect my thoughts in a meaningful way.  I really don't like posting just to post, so I have been holding off until I can say something that I think is significant.

It has been a bit over a week since I passed my Master's exam, and it has been a challenge to regain my footing.  I spent so much time hemming and hawing over my project and then so much mental and emotional energy preparing for the exam!  Having it be all over is overwhelming.  It's nice, but it's still confusing to me.

One way that I handle myself is by cleaning and organizing.  In the last week I have sold my desk and chair, and I assimilated all that my desk held into Matthew's desk since that will be the one that we keep.  Matthew and I tore pages and pages of college notes out of notebooks, and we recycled them.  I also have my college textbooks listed to be sold.  It feels really good to let this all go, and I'm glad that I can allow someone else to make use of what I have.  Plus, I won't be sad that the books are gone when it comes time to move...

Speaking of moving, we're probably going to do that in about a month.  However, we don't know for sure where yet.  It looks like Matthew has an interview at a company in Eugene, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he'll get that job or that he won't get another interview for another job that he likes better.  Eugene wouldn't be a bad place to live.  It's close to Matthew's family, and it's about two hours from my parents which beats the option of three hours that Portland offers.  That all being said, we love living in Corvallis, so if Matthew gets offered a job here we sure wouldn't mind...

I'm thinking that I won't try to work until the school year starts in September.  At that point, I think that it would be good to find part-time work teaching math at a college or university.  Until then, I hope to explore some interests.  If we move, I'd like to spend time getting to know our new town.  I'll be especially interested in finding a place to provide us with good food.  I'm also considering joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program to help out a local farmer and to provide us with an adventuresome way to get fresh, local fruits and vegetables.  I also really want to preserve some food over this summer.  We probably won't have a huge freezer, so I'll probably just get some berries, freezer jam, and a little bit of other fresh food in the freezer.  However, I want to learn how to can food this summer.  I think it would be really fun to go to farms and pick all sorts of fruits and vegetables and then can them.  I also think that I'd like to dry some food, too.  I think it would be awesome to have stores of food next winter.

I also have been regularly picturing my dream of my own garden, chickens, kittens, and my purple kitchen...  Those might not happen for another year or two, though.  We'll see. :)

Besides my dreaming, I've also had thoughts about how people treat each other running through my head.  Essentially, I've been considering the idea of motivation.  I think that God is very concerned about motivation, and I feel like humans end up focusing more on outward action than motivation.  We don't know anybody else's motivation besides our own, so this makes sense in a way.  However, when you think about it, it really means that we need to extend copious amounts of grace to people.  For example, I have someone in my life who I consider to be somewhat self-centered, a show-off, and often downright arrogant.  However, how do I know what motivates this person's speech and behavior?  We're all so different, it's impossible to tell.  It bothers me that I struggle to extend this grace because I tend to judge people who don't extend grace.   Oops!  At any rate, it is something I am working on.

My final thought in my post of ramblings is about peace.  I am watching the sunset as I type this, and I feel peace and contentment fill me.  I think peace is important to God as well, and I think that peace is generally ignored.  We assume that outward peace between nations and people can't happen, so we don't fight very hard for it.  I think that we also tend to forget that we are supposed to find it inwardly, so we don't notice as our fast-paced, consumerist culture keeps us moving but unfulfilled.  I thank God for the peaceful moments that I have while spending time with my family and friends, typing a blog post that allows me to collect my thoughts, watching a sunset, or living simply with love.  It is fulfilling and good.

I feel like peace would be a worthwhile topic for a full post sometime in the future.  For those of you who read this, is there something that you'd like to hear about?  I love when people comment, so please don't feel shy about commenting.  Until we talk next... Peace be with you!

Props to Parents

I have to give props to my parents because without them I wouldn't exist.  However, I think they're especially cool because they still are my parents even though I'm twenty-three years old.  As I get older, I realize that I can rely on my mom and dad to care about me and always be interested in what is happening in my life.  In a world of busy people with clashing opinions, it is nice to have the security of people who just love you.  Period.

I don't want this post to be too idealistic because my relationship with my parents is real.  There were times when I was growing up that we got mad at each other and I thought that they were trying to make me miserable. I'm sure there were times where they looked at me and wondered what in the world was wrong with me, too.  I think that a lot of the time perhaps we did not communicate as well as we could have, and I think that we caused each other hard times as a result.

That all being said, it's nice to be able to look back and see my parents as people and not just parents.  I now understand their actions better now that I'm old enough to understand that they experience life's stresses, pains, and joys as I do.

My dad is an interesting person who enjoys discussing what's going on in life and what's happening in the world.  He likes big ideas, and he is very good at carrying out thoughtful discussions.  He is thoughtful, and I recognize that he taught me very well about being considerate of other's needs.  My mom is one of the sweetest, most patient people that I know, and she deserves a special reward for putting up with "teenage-Karen."  I think mom needs to speak up more because she has useful things to say, but she still has managed to teach me by just being her quiet self.

Twenty-three years is a long relationship, and I appreciate all of the good they have done for me, and I forgive them for any imperfections as well. :)  

Thanks for doing your best at parenthood!  I miss you when you're out-of-state, and I love you!