bugsii

This week’s challenge was to bake bread. I was finally able to get to baking on Friday.  I used this recipe, but modified it some by using some maple syrup and stevia instead of molasses and using all wheat flour instead of a mix of white and wheat.  I was a little worried that the yeast wouldn’t work, even though I just bought it the other day.  I think I was afraid that my water was the wrong amount of warm.  When the dough was ready, I kneaded like a maniac.  It was more physically challenging than I thought it would be, but I think that’s because the dough was dense from all the wheat flour.  I had to wait about an hour and a half for the bread to double in size.  I was impatient and I kept checking on it.  It seemed like all of the sudden, it really had doubled in size!  That was kind of exciting.  The yeast had worked!  Now, all that was left was the baking… and the eating.  I thought I would use up some sunflower seeds I had, so I sprayed the dough with olive oil and pour them on (they all just fell right off later, but nice try).  It smelled so good while it was baking that I thought I should bake bread every week.  It wasn’t too hard, just lots of waiting.  Once it was done, Dan and I dug right in.  The warm bread was awesome with some natural peanut butter!  Then, I was inspired to make some butternut squash and vegetable soup just to dunk the bread in.

Deceptive sunflower seeds

Ah, bread.  It’s just one of those givens.  It was nice to make it myself and know what was in it and what went into making it.  It’s only been two days and it’s half gone.  That’s a good sign.

This week’s challenge was to pray everyday for a week.  I grew up Catholic, so prayer for me as a kid meant a few different things.  It always meant “talking to God,” but there were different circumstances where it occurred.  Of course, there were the normal prayers during mass.  We also would pray the rosary at various times, but I remember it most after confession. And then, we always recited the meal-time prayer (all holding hands of course). Here it is in case you’re curious:

“Bless us, Oh Lord, and these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.”

It looks funnier written than it sounds to me.  Anyway, I would also pray at night before bed, using this one:

“Dear God, Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep and if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.  God bless… (I would list all of the family members I could think of).”

I don’t know if that last part was traditional, or if my parents added it on or what, but that’s what we did.  This one also looks pretty morbid now that I write it down.  It sounds like you should be afraid to die every night, yikes!

As I got older, I would do the same things, but I would sort of talk to God a little more, ask for help, say thank you for things, etc.  When I prayed in high school, I remember thinking that it was important to have equal amounts of asking and thanking.  I also remember, that I would always pray after I turned the lights out and was snuggled into bed.

This week, as I made a dedicated effort to pray every day, I noticed that my habits have changed only a little.  I skipped the thoughts of death and went straight to “Dear God, Thank you for today… ” followed by a series of thank yous and please help mes, and then God bless every member of my family, noting specific things for ones that had them (like health problems or whatnot) and then I also added the widowed dads that I read about earlier this week and a friend of mine at school that lost a family member, finishing with a big Amen (although I must admit that I think I fell asleep one night as I was going through the list of family members… I was tired).  The good thing about taking a few minutes before I went to sleep, was that I felt like I got out of my own head for a little bit and thought about others.  That’s hard to do with only 24 hours in a day and a to-do list ten miles long.  The other good thing is that I was able to be thankful for the good parts of my day.  Usually my back is already all tensed up and ready for the next day.  By the last night though, I started to think that my prayer style seemed kind of dull and list-y.   Not that there’s a “right way” to pray, but I wonder if this is how other people pray?  Am I a type-A pray-er?

This week’s challenge was to watch some old movies from childhood.  In the end, I settled on three.  On Thursday, we watched Harry and the Hendersons.  On Friday, we watched Flight of the Navigator and on Saturday, we watched The Neverending Story (which I can never say without singing… The Nevereeeending Stooooooryyyyyy!  Lalalalalalala).

Harry and the Hendersons-

I don’t think I have seen this movie since we went to the theater to see it when I was about 6.  We didn’t go to the movies too often, so I remember this being really exciting.  I thought Harry would look pretty crappy 20+ years later, but I have to admit that I was still thoroughly convinced that he was really bigfoot.  I had forgotten about the little boy in the movie, but he really cracked me up, especially when he swore (awwwwwwe!  That was that kind of awe that gets progressively higher pitched.  You know the one you do to someone in first grade when their in trouble?  That one.).  I for some reason distinctly remembered when Harry ate the teenage daughter’s fifteenth birthday corsage and she yelled at him.  I like a tough girl, I guess.  Overall the movie wasn’t as terrible as I thought it was going to be (but don’t ask Dan about it).  It was decently well made and I liked all of the characters except for the bigfoot hunter that had a really bad french accent.  The thing I didn’t like about it was that it was 2 hours long!  I don’t remember it being that long and I’m kind of surprised a kids’ movie was so long.  I had to stop it before it was over and save the rest for another night because I was too tired.  Ha.  I’m old.  My favorite part when I got to the end though, was the baby bigfoot that came out of the woods when Harry went home.  Aww, baby things.

Flight of the Navigator-

As a kid, I think I only saw this movie a few times on television, but I remember thinking that it was so cool that the main character was taken away for 8 years and didn’t age (when he was found they asked him who the president was and he said “Jimmy Carter” and I was like who?  Wait, we’re gonna have a different president someday?).  I remembered each of the scenes pretty well once the movie got going, but I didn’t remember that he was sort of quarantined by NASA and then escaped (with the help of Sarah Jessica Parker, no less) and went on a joy ride in the spaceship.  Dan and I loved the awesome old green screen computers at NASA and the fact that they hooked his head up to the computers and someone shouted, “He’s communicating with the computers in binary code!”  I know I thought that the spaceship was awesome because the stairs magically melted out of the back of the ship (the graphics were definitely crappier than I remember though).  And, I also forgot that the voice of the spaceship was Peewee Herman.  Ah, it was pretty funny (Hey blimpo!  Too many twinkies!  Oink oink!).  On a crazy side note, years later when I went Disney World with my dad in college, the spaceship from the movie was relegated to a site to see as you waited for a ride.  It was looking a little less shiny.

The Neverending Story-

This was by far the best movie of the week!  I remember visiting the movie rental store and I knew exactly where this movie was because I wanted to rent it every time we went there.  It was in a little three-sided cubby, on the left hand side, two shelves up, right in my eye line, resting on a tiny plastic shelf and the wood-paneled wall.  I would pick up the box and look at the picture of the empress on the front and turn it and turn it and hope that one of my parents would ask if I wanted to rent it.  I loved that movie.  And, it was just as good as I remembered too.  Who doesn’t love a movie where the boy, instead of going to take his Math test, sneaks up into the creepy, cob-webby attic of the school and reads a book all day?  Although, no school attic I know has a wolf head on a stick in it, but whatever.  I loved all of the fantasy creatures in the story, the rock-biter, the racing snail, Valcor the luck dragon, and all the crazy creatures of Fantasia that went to the empress for help.  I also loved the idea of “the Nothing.”  “Was it a hole?” “A hole would be something, no, this was nothing.” Oh, and I loved Atreyu, who was much younger looking than I remember (ha).  And, I was so sad when Artex, his horse, got sucked into the swamps of sadness.  And I loved when he got to the Southern Oracle and the little funny people helped him.  And I was scared when the gamorck came after him.  Man, it was just such a great movie.  If you’ve never seen it, you should.  When I was looking it up, it turns out it was originally a German film.  That totally makes sense.

Looking back on all of these movies, I realize that they all had a fantasy element… a bigfoot, a UFO, a whole fantasy world.  Currently, I claim to like documentaries best and movies about “real events”.  I don’t know why I gave up on fantasy and imagination.  It’s sad, really.  Maybe I should reconsider.

-Watch a few movies from childhood you haven’t seen in awhile-

This week’s challenge is to watch a few movies.  Not so hard, right?  For the past few weeks, Dan has been helping me compile these movies a la Netflix.  I am now in possession of Flight of the Navigator and Harry and the Hendersons!  Those are both must-sees.  I also will choose from a few favorites that I purchased (at various times) including, but not limited to, The Neverending Story, Annie, The Wizard of Oz, Willow, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.  It’s tough for me to sit down and focus on movies, but my intention for the week is to revert to childhood a little and really enjoy these hilarious old movies that I loved as a kid.

What were your favorite movies as a kid?  And more importantly, who’s with me?!

This week’s challenge was to meditate everyday for a week.  I have to admit that I think I am a very bad meditator, though, I do think that this is also something that must be practiced regularly and perhaps a week is just not enough time.  Monday, my first day of meditation, started well enough.  I decided to meditate in the afternoon, just before my class.  I thought, this would relax me and allow me to clear my mind before class.  I sat up in my bedroom on the floor at the foot of my bed, crossed my legs, and let my hands rest on my knees.  I set my meditation timer for ten minutes and began to breathe.  It started easily enough.  I tried to focus on the feeling of my breath, the coldness in my throat, the rise and fall of my belly.  A few minutes in, I started to have thoughts intrude on my silence.  I thought about dogs (no idea why), family members, but mostly, what am I going to do when this ten minutes is over?  My mind really wanted to spend the ten minutes of silence in planning mode.  Oh, you thought you were going to relax did you?  Why are you wasting a perfectly good ten minutes!  You should be reading!  You should be checking your email!  Don’t you have grades to do?  You know that as you sit here like a lump, you are forgetting to do something VERY IMPORTANT.  START MOVING! My mind is ferocious, I tell you.  I felt like I had to stand guard and shoo my thoughts away, but it was kind of exhausting and a little disturbing that I felt like I lost the battle with my persistent and neurotic thoughts.  When my meditation timer sounded the bell to end my session, my body felt a little more relaxed, but I jumped up to check my email and my calendar to make sure my thoughts weren’t right.  I don’t really think that that’s how meditation is supposed to go.

The next four days were all the same (unfortunately).  I put off meditating all day because I felt like I just had too much to do to sit still for ten minutes.  Then, I meditated right before bed, laying down on my bed.  I kept the light on and set my timer, determined not to think for ten minutes before I tucked myself in for the night.  This was actually a little more successful (though I realize also very lazy).  I was tired, so I was able to be more still.  There was nothing left in the day to think about.  It was also nice to completely clear my head before I tried to fall asleep.  This let me relax and not go through the list in my head once I turned off the light.  I still had thoughts intruding, mind you, but they were easier to shoo away.

Saturday was a complete disaster.  I put off meditating until it was 1am (and so not Saturday any longer) and then just decided to not meditate that day.  Ah.  Friday was such a bad day with all the work piled up and the rejection letter, that Saturday was a loss.  I had to do schoolwork all morning and then in the evening we celebrated Ben’s birthday.  No meditating at all, and I feel like a slacker (one more thing I didn’t get to).

Today was my last day, and I was determined to hold to my promise to meditate for twenty minutes.  So, before bed, I got into comfortable clothes, parked myself on my bed (sitting up, cross-legged), set my meditation timer for twenty minutes and folded my hands in my lap.  This was my most successful attempt!  Maybe it was the longer time, or maybe it was a new strategy I had.  I first started by breathing in and breathing out and with each breath thinking, “right here, right now.”  I tried to focus on those words and my breathing so as not to let my mind yell at me.  Thoughts still popped up like, what I was going to write in this blog and what time I needed to get up in the morning, but I peacefully shooed those away and went back to breathing.  In the middle sometime, I changed my thinking to, “spirit, lightness.”  I have no idea why I picked these words, but they just appeared and I tried to focus on my spirit and a feeling of lightness.  I also tried to sort of half smile.  I imagined that I was light and floating and at peace.  Later on, my thoughts changed to, “peace, love” (very 1960s, I know) and I started to think of each of my family members with smiles on their faces.  My thoughts started to wander again, this time saying, How long is twenty minutes?! But, it was only a few seconds later that the timer went off.  I felt very peaceful and relaxed and I also felt like I had an experience to share on my blog.

In the future, I think I might try to meditate more often for about 15-20 minutes, but only when I truly feel like I have time.  It just can’t be another thing on my list that stresses me out.  That makes no sense.  Although, it is supposed to be a break from the day and it’s not good that I have a hard time giving myself a ten minute break.  I need to work on that.

This week’s challenge, completing an entire NY Times crossword, would have been impossible without help from the internet.  Before this week, I’ve started many crosswords and finished zero.  Now I remember why.  I get to a certain point, I get stuck, and I need just a few more letters to move me along.  I usually ask whoever is in the room and if they can’t help, I quit.  This week, I stayed with it.  The first few days I was determined not to use the internet.  Day one, I got stuck.  When I went back the second day, with fresh eyes, I actually got a fewthat I thought I didn’t know the first day.  That was cool.  But, by the third day, I was scouring the internet for help.  I figured that if it was fair to ask people in the room, then asking the internet was almost the same, it just happened to be a lot smarter.  I learned a few things through that process though.

1) You cannot find every answer on the internet.  I mean, sure, you can find a clue like “Prince Valiant’s wife” easily enough (ALETA), but crossword puzzle writers are tricky and the put other clues in that aren’t so straightforward.  Clues like, “the racer’s edge” (STP), “exactly what’s expected” (PARFORTHECOURSE), and “preside over the tea ceremony” (POUR).  Just try googling any of those phrases and you will not come up with the answer.  But, once I got a few of the ones I could google, I at least had enough letters to help me with the more slippery clues.  So, I didn’t have to look up a lot of clues.  I’d say 10-15?  (sheepish smile)

2) There are people that are crossword fanatics!  There were whole blogs dedicated to people figuring out the NY Times crosswords and then posting every answer with commentary on each one.  I avoided these sites once I found them (I swear!), but it was kind of funny.  I also hear that there are competitions and people can do these things fast and without the internet!  I am in awe.

So, I worked on the puzzle with the internet for days three and four and I was able to finish it on Thursday.  Answers I knew right away… “high protein food often found in vegetarian cuisine” (TOFU!), “Wrigley Field and Camden Yards” (BALLPARK), and “cheese-covered chip” (NACHO!).  Haha.  There’s still one I completely do not understand… “Lollapalooza” (ONER??).  Does anyone know what that means?  I made sure I got Tuesday’s paper because it had the answers from Monday.  When I finished the puzzle, I checked my answers and, even with the internet’s help, I had two letters wrong!  The Lollapalooza one got me (I had OVER) and another clue “went in haste” was HIED and I had HIAD (which I didn’t think was a word, but it worked in the space).  I also had the darndest time with “syllables in a gay refrain” (TRALA).  What?  That was mean.  Ah well.  I was going to give myself a 98% for only missing two letters, but then with all the cheating, I thought I better give myself a B-.

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I had fun challenging myself to finish a tough (to me) crossword, but it was also a nice break from work.  It was addictive and it relaxed me a bit.  It was sort of like a mental workout without any consequences.  I liked it.  I think I might try a few more.  Does anyone have links to good online ones?