Adventures in housewifery: Cooking, crafting, and not a lot of cleaning
If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.
If your strength is small, don’t carry heavy burdens. If your words are worthless, don’t give advice.
If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
“I must drink lots of tea or I cannot work. Tea unleashes the potential which slumbers in the depth of my soul.” – Leo Tolstoy
“There’s always time for tea.” – Seanan McGuire, An Artificial Night
“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it as the axis on which the world revolves” – Thich Nhat Hanh
“As far as her mom was concerned, tea fixed everything. Have a cold? Have some tea. Broken bones? There’s a tea for that too. Somewhere in her mother’s pantry, Laurel suspected, was a box of tea that said, ‘In case of Armageddon, steep three to five minutes’.”-Aprilynne Pike, Illusions
“Making tea is a ritual that stops the world from falling in on you.” – Jonathan Stroud, The Creeping Shadow
Here are some quotes from books I’ve enjoyed recently. A lot of them are fantasy. Actually, I think all but First Frost is and even that one has magic of a sort. I’m pretty predictable when it seems to reading: romance, dragons, humor, puns, or fairy tales.
“We are all dealt a hand at birth. A good hand can ultimately lose – just as a poor hand can win – but we must all play the cards the fate deals. The choices we face may not be the choices we want, but they are choices nonetheless.”― Brigid Kemmerer, A Curse So Dark and Lonely (Retelling of Beauty and the Beast made into a fantasy series. Some urban fantasy.)
Reluctantly, I pulled out my necklace and showed it to them. Samuel frowned. The little figure was stylized; I suppose he couldn’t tell what it was at first.” A dog?” asked Zee, staring at my necklace. “A lamb,” I said defensively, tucking it safely back under my shirt. “Because one of Christ’s names is ‘The Lamb of God.'” Samuel’s shoulders shook slightly. “I can see it now, Mercy holding a roomful of vampire at bay with her glowing sheep.” I gave his shoulder a hard push, aware of the heat climbing to my cheeks, but it didn’t help. He sang in a soft taunting voice, “Mercy had a little lamb…”― Patricia Briggs, Moon Called (Fantasy)
“A happily-ever-after is never the real ending to a story. It’s where the real story begins.”― Sarah Addison Allen, First Frost (Mostly normal, but her books are all gorgeous, lush, and thought provoking stories.)
“Fear is a tool, like anything else. The trick is learning to use it without it turning on you.”― Matt Wallace, Idle Ingredients (Urban Fantasy)
“To dream of something more is the greatest gift one owns. Without them, there is nothing to strive for. No reason to continue breathing. We might as well become the rock and stone beneath our feet.”― Bec McMaster, Heart of Fire (Steampunk Romance)
“People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom? “- Thich Nhat Hanh
“You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.”-Maya Angelou
“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”-Ayn Rand
“If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.”-Emile Zola
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”-Michelangelo
“Winter lingered so long in the lap of Spring that it occasioned a great deal of talk.”- Bill Nye
“Winter is the time for stories, staying fast by the glow of fire. And outside, in the darkness, the stars are brighter than you can possibly imagine.” – Isabel Greenberg, The Encyclopedia of Early Earth
“How could it be winter without snow?I appreciated every season, but winter was my favorite.I loved when it was time to pull out my thick sweaters.I loved the smell of a wood fire.I loved skiing and snow boarding and sledding, when i could find the time-although time was in a short supply when school was in session.I even enjoyed the cold, wintry weather, it was great for snuggling.” -Rachel Hawthorne, Suite Dreams
“Outside, snow solidified itself into graceful forms. The peace of winter stars seemed permanent.” – Toni Morrison, Beloved
“A sad tale’s best for winter: I have one of sprites and goblins.”
― William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale
“If you want an interesting party sometime, combine cocktails and a fresh box of crayons for everyone.”-Robert Fulghum
“A year of ending and beginning, a year of loss and finding…and all of you were with me through the storm. I drink your health, your wealth, your fortune for long years to come, and I hope for many more days in which we can gather like this.”-C.J. Cherryh, Fortress of Eagles
“Ring out the false, ring in the true.”-Alfred Lord Tennyson
At Rainbow Cake, January’s special flavors would be dark chocolate and coffee, those pick-me-ups we all needed to start the day- or a new year. To me, their toasty-toasty flavors said that even if you only had a mere handful of beans and your life went up in flames, you could still create something wonderful. A little trial by fire could do you good. After all, if it worked so well with raw cacao and coffee beans, it could work for others, including me.”- Judith Fertig, The Cake Therapist
“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.”-Bill Gates
“The spring, summer, is quite a hectic time for people in their lives, but then it comes to autumn, and to winter, and you can’t but help think back to the year that was, and then hopefully looking forward to the year that is approaching.”-Enya
“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,’ returned the nephew. ‘Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and willdo me good; and I say, God bless it!”
― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
“I was just thinking about how Christmas is right around the corner, but no matter how you choose to celebrate the holidays, books in general make great gifts!”
― Lauren Graham, Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls
“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”-Norman Vincent Peale
“Pets, like their owners, tend to expand a little over the Christmas period.”-Frances Wright
“The nutcracker sits under the holiday tree, a guardian of childhood stories. Feed him walnuts and he will crack open a tale…”
― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration
“I want people to fall in love with themselves and to be really proud and full of joy for the space they take up. If someone else appreciates the space you take up, then that’s icing on the cake.”- Jonathan Van Ness
“I like joy; I want to be joyous; I want to have fun on the set; I want to wear beautiful clothes and look pretty. I want to smile, and I want to make people laugh. And that’s all I want. I like it. I like being happy. I want to make others happy.”-Doris Day
“Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.”- Thich Nhat Hanh
“Joy doesn’t betray but sustains activism. And when you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated and isolated, joy is a fine initial act of insurrection.”-Rebecca Solnit
“The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace.”-Carlos Santana
“My mother is a big believer in being responsible for your own happiness. She always talked about finding joy in small moments and insisted that we stop and take in the beauty of an ordinary day. When I stop the car to make my kids really see a sunset, I hear my mother’s voice and smile.”-Jennifer Garner
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”-Ernest Hemingway
“Breaking down barriers is tough. Many companies make the mistake of dismissing diversity early on, only to realize later how foundational it is to their success or failure.”-Christine Tsai
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”-Frederick Douglas
“There are times you can’t really see or even feel how sweet life can be. Hopefully its mountains will be higher than its valleys are deep. I know things that are broken can be fixed. Take the punch if you have to, hit the canvas and then get up again. Life is worth it.”-Queen Latifah
“We’ve all fallen, but at the same time we’re not broken. There is the hint that we are going to get up again.”-Amy Lee
‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.”-Alice Walker
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
― Marcel Proust
“She had gradually discovered that the best response to glorious, unexpected happiness was not to seek explanation for its appearance but simply to embrace it and be glad.”
― Janice Hadlow, The Other Bennet Sister
“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.”- Carl Jung
“For me, every hour is grace. And I feel gratitude in my heart each time I can meet someone and look at his or her smile.”-Elie Wiesel