Looking for a New Job

I am hunting for a new job. Somehow, after ten years away from the full-time workforce, I thought this was going to be easier than it has been. I know that some of my skills are rusty, and that my field tends to be slim in economic hard times, but I just knew it would be different for me. Because I'm delusional like that, I guess. After applying for 30+ jobs, I'm adjusting my expectations. Maybe working at the golden arches is a viable option. The boys would really think it was cool.

However, I did interview for a position this week. It's in training, and I will need to go back and present a sample class - it's really the only way to evaluate how well someone teaches. So, I'm casting about for an appropriate topic, given that I know next to nothing about my audience. If it were you in the audience, would you rather sit through 30-45 minutes on improving your writing, or basic presentation skills, or basic graphic design concepts, or some type of efficiency/time management training? This will be a multimedia extravaganza - PowerPoint is encouraged.

On a related note, the boys are really looking forward to the prospect of being in after-school care. I have let them know that I'm looking for a job, and some ways our life will change when that happens, thinking that this is a big change and I should prepare them for it. However, it really hasn't turned out that they are concerned - more like 'haven't you found a job YET?' Big Boy came downstairs the other morning and his first words of the day were: "So, Mom, what happens if you don't find a job?" Well, nothing, son. Things will stay like they have been. So, why did he look disappointed?

What I read on my summer vacation

We spent yesterday afternoon corralling school supplies for each boy, as the first day of school looms large next week. So, in the spirit of back-to-school writing assignments, I thought I'd share this list of some selected summer reading highlights:

A Rush of Wings and Secrets, by Kristen Heitzmann - I had actually read A Rush of Wings before, and forgotten it. These are suspenseful Christian romances. I would put them in the same category with Dee Henderson and Terri Blackstock's writing - a bit better than Blackstock, not quite as good as Henderson. The characters are multi-faceted and feel like real people. The plot is condensed a bit too much in places, but great summer reading. I've put in a wish on PaperBackSwap for the sequel to Secrets, so I liked it enough to want to spend a precious credit on the sequel.

Robin Paige's Victorian/Edwardian mysteries - this is a series of 12 mysteries, beginning with Death at Bishop's Keep and ending with Death on the Lizard. I was looking for a series that I would enjoy as much as Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody Emerson books or Laurie King's Mary Russell Holmes series, and this one has definitely held my interest. The basic premise of the series is to take fictional characters and intersperse them with real historical personages, intertwining a mystery in the process. I've read all but the last one, and they were entertaining and filled with period details.

Tasha Alexander's A Fatal Waltz - third in a series. I enjoyed the first two so much that I ordered the hardcover of this book, which puts her in the Elizabeth Peters category for me. I like the character and the suspenseful plots, and I enjoy novels set in this period - obviously, as I have read a lot of them!

The last is one I'm eagerly awaiting - Elizabeth Peters' new book in the Vicky Bliss series is released in August, and I have it on preorder.

What have you read this summer? Anything less 'fluffy' than my list?

Happy Earth Day!

Although I'm not a vegetarian or otherwise wholeheartedly committed to the green earth movement, I do believe in being a wise steward of resources. As a result, we recycle in the Volunteer Peach household and try to reuse and conserve what we can. An increasingly difficult task with the boys who love playing in the water whenever they turn it on. So, here are some of the things we have adopted:

1. Recycling -- the Hawkeye bought three identical kitchen trash cans, which now live under our breakfast bar. They house paper, cardboard and plastic. Try this for a week -- you will be amazed how much packaging you throw away! We also recycle aluminum as we have it, which is rare, because we're mostly water drinkers here - our refrigerator has a built-in filter, so we drink tap water.

2. Water -- I have a kitchen timer in the boys' bathroom, and they have to set it every time they take a shower. This originally came about when I figured out they just sat down in the shower and waited for the hot water to run out! They get between 5-7 minutes in the shower. I also do my best not to run the dishwasher or wash clothes unless it is a full load.

3. Gas! -- this is more for frugality than anything else, but the Hawkeye is making many more trips on the way home from work (saving me at least 30 miles roundtrip) to pick up things. He is also looking into carpooling for his 35-mile one-way commute.

So, nothing really earth-shattering, but it makes me feel like we are better stewards, which the Lord expects of us. We're planting a garden this year and looking at purchasing some produce from the farm up the road, which also participates in a CSA (community-supported agriculture) program. The Hawkeye would like to get chickens and maybe a cow, but not so much for me!

Books I read reluctantly, but then really enjoyed

I was mulling over this topic last night. I am a voracious reader, meaning I'm always reading a book in the van for the car rider line, one by the bed for the occasional evening chapter or two, one in the living room that I'm serious about reading, and usually at least one Bible study. And all of these books have back-ups for when they are finished -- I really don't want to be caught without reading material.

So, I was chuckling to myself about some of the books I read only because I thought I should, or someone I care about insisted, or some other reason that made me reluctant to pick them up, and then I became pleasantly caught up in the story. So, here they are:

1. The Lord of the Rings series, and anything Tolkien, including The Hobbit. I think this dates to my high school days. I had a group of friends who were obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons, and who also loved Tolkien. Although they were friends and all, I thought the D&D obsession was kind of weird. Also, a subset of these people built small pipe bombs on the weekends for fun, which they dropped from one of those remote-control airplane models in someone's field. That was really weird. So, it was guilt by association.

However, after the first movie was made, the Hawkeye bought me the trilogy in book form. Given that I generally enjoy science fiction and fantasy, I finally read it. At first I was intrigued, then finally I gave in and was caught up in the story, to the point of reading the appendices and The Hobbit. I loved it. I had to see the movies. I loved them. You would think I'd have learned my lesson.

2. Jane Austen. I don't really know why I was reluctant to pick up Austen's books. I have always enjoyed historical fiction, particularly if it has well-drawn characters. However, I never read an Austen novel until a few years ago. Perhaps it has to do with being a journalism major instead of an English major. There's a lot of 'must-read' classics that I have never read, although one semester in college, I had to read the entire New York Times every day. That takes a long time, people. A really long time.

However, once I did pick up Austen, I was embarrassed that it took me so long. The characters! The plots! The heroines! The scenery! What an idiot I was, to have missed it for as long as I did.

3. Conan Doyle. I like mysteries, but Sherlock Holmes wasn't ever even midly interesting to me. However, thanks to Laurie King's Mary Russell series, (which projects Holmes, later in life, acquiring a female partner) I picked them up, and lots of references I've read elsewhere made more sense. It's a bit like reading Edith Hamilton's Mythology in order to understand references in classical poetry -- no one in America needs to know all of those myths to get by just fine in life, but when you are familiar with them, many of the things you read acquire a new dimension. And you feel like less of an idiot. Or maybe that's just me.

4. The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara. I don't care for war books, or really anything that is considered 'important,' which is code for 'you will cry buckets and be depressed when you finish this book' to me. I'm shallow, I guess -- happy endings for me, thankyouverymuch. I only picked up this book for my PaPa, who was a Civil War fanatic. As in he was from South Carolina, was a member of the Sons of the Confederacy, and went to the Citadel fanatic. I thought he hung the moon, and therefore read all of his civil war books as a preteen/teenager, including Shelby Foote and lots of other authors. So, I picked this one up remembering him. Amazingly, I found it fascinating, and I can't put my finger on why I did. The people were very real and the setting was well-described, I think. As a result of this experience, I've picked up some others here and there and enjoyed them, including Band of Brothers, which was a compelling, powerful story (yes, I know about the author's unfortunate plagiarism issues), and Unknown Soldiers: the Story of the Missing in the First World War, which was disturbing but I couldn't put it down.

So, there you go. This list could be even longer, but these are definitely some biggies. Maybe having this here will remind me in the future to branch out a little more. Happy reading!

Spring is here, so my sinus cavities tell me

The Volunteer Peach household had a lovely visit with my family this weekend - which means five adults and five kids in a three-bedroom house. Family togetherness - there's nothing like it!

Every Spring when my mother comes, she raves and raves about how green it is here. The greenness is due to what I affectionately call (especially after last summer's drought) the monsoon season. We normally receive so much rain here in the spring that we temporarily become a mushroom haven, all over the yard. As soon as the grass dries from the last rain, an amazing roar is heard -- simultaneous cranking of every lawnmower in the vicinity, as people sprint to cut their yards before the next shower.

I really love spring, all the new leaves and blooming flowers and trees and, actually, the rain. The main reason I love the rain is that it washes lots of pollen out of the air. Because my allergies are so bad that even Allegra, Flonase and Advair doesn't completely keep them at bay. So, generally, I enjoy spring through glass. It's kind of like a terrarium in reverse -- all the beautiful stuff is outside, and I'm in -- the house, the car, that kind of thing.

So, given those facts, what on earth would make me decide to go camping with my two Cub Scouts this coming weekend? Insanity, I tell you -- it's brought on by all those pregnancy hormones, and apparently never wears off. I wonder if it's possible to whip up an Allegra/Zyrtec/Claritin cocktail?

Yes, that is the view from my front porch

It occurs to me that my title photograph might be a bit misleading. Although we do live in the country (I took the picture while sitting on my porch last fall), we aren't farmers. As a matter of fact, I am a transplanted suburban girl. When we bought this house (with a bit more than 10 acres of land), the Hawkeye and I had to have some agreements about it.

Agreement #1: NO farm animals. This includes '4H projects,' 'hobby farm' type animals, or anything else even remotely related to this category. Animals stink, in my humble opinion, and I would like to continue enjoying my front porch without the odor.

Agreement #2: NO expecting me to be a farm-type housewife. Although I am a housewife, my food preserving capabilities are strictly limited to the freezer. I am a fairly good cook (well, I am Southern, after all), but I have no idea how to can. At all. A pressure cooker looks, to me, like a pretty efficient way to blow up the kitchen. Have I mentioned that I'm klutzy?

So, this has worked for us. We get to watch the farmer (that's 240 acres surrounding our land) plant, work and harvest his soybeans, cut hay and other farm-type activities, without having to do them ourselves. However, that land is now up for sale (progress in Middle Tennessee is rapidly resembling the suburban Atlanta that I lived in growing up) and I'm sad.

Maybe we should buy a cow? Nah.

A Friday Without Plans

Today, I rose from my bed, ambled out to the kitchen to check the calendar, and lo! What surprise! Nothing is scheduled for today. After I double- and triple-checked, (true story: I once missed a final because I didn't read the final exam schedule correctly) I began calling my friends (after dropping the kids off at school, of course). The conversations went something like this:

Me: Hello? Good friend? Can you come out and play today?

Good Friend: Nope. Lots of commitments, things to get done while the kids are in school.

Me: No? Well, it's short notice, we'll do it again sometime.

Me: Hello? Just as good friend? Can you come out and play today?

Just as Good Friend: Well, no. Plans to clean the house, bake, other commitments while the kids are at school.

Me: No? Okay, it's short notice, we'll pick another time.

Me: Well, that stinks. I'm boooooooored. I waaaaaant someeeeeebody to plaaaaaaay with. Oh, my. Those words, and that tone of voice, aren't allowed in this house.
Should I go outside to say them?


Actual conclusion: I guess I'll spend this day working on some of those projects I never seem to have time to complete. Gee, doesn't that sound exciting?