1. One of the small pleasures of life in a large family is watching the big kids share favorite books with the little kids. My second son loved the book The Enormous Carrot as a toddler and preschooler, and my mother went through some hassle to track down a copy for him. I pulled it off the shelf recently for Stella, who thinks it's great. "Oh, it's The Enormous Carrot! The book of my childhood!" cried the 12yo, who is perhaps a mite on the young side to be waxing nostalgic about his childhood. But it was really fun to watch them read it together, to remember the sweet blond 2yo he used to be and to wonder what they will both be like in another ten years.
2. Another fun thing about having kids that I never suspected before I actually had kids is the way they laugh at my jokes. (I am a SUCKER for people who laugh at my jokes. I am putty in your hands if you laugh at my jokes. We will not discuss what this reveals about my psyche.) A couple of days ago I was talking to Joe about Stella, about how lately when she doesn't want to be on my hip she says insistently, "Walk my beet!" Even though I know it means "walk on my feet," I have a mental image of her with a dog leash in her hand, tied around a rather battered beet she is dragging along behind her. Joe cracked up -- laughing and laughing at my mental picture.
3. You might remember how one of my new year's resolutions was to make this a year of Finishing Things. You might even remember (but probably not) that I wanted to finish all the knitting projects I had on the needles. This seemed like a crazy goal, because I was working on a crazy sweater. But do you know what, internet? I have about 30 minutes' worth of end-weaving-in to go on that sweater, and it will indeed be done. This is a little surprising to me. Saying I was going to finish it felt like saying I was going to read all of Remembrance of Things Past -- in French -- even though I was about ten pages into Swann's Way and my French dictionary had disappeared.
4. This almost makes me think I should plan to read Proust in French with what's left of 2012. Except not quite.
5. But I do have a lofty goal, you guys, and I am writing it down here as a kick in the pants. I want to get a draft of an article ready to roll by the end of my spring break. Which starts Friday. OH OH OH I am looking forward to spring break. I am even looking forward to this week, in which I only have to teach one class. (Group projects this week in my grad class, and an exam for my undergrads. So grading aplenty, but only one lecture.)
6. I've been feeling a little hopeless about my research, in part because teaching classes outside my area has been enormously time-consuming. I think I just need to get back in the saddle. My plan for this article is to aim high, and if it gets rejected then aim low -- just get it out there, without worrying any further about the prestige of the journal I'm submitting to.
7. My brother should blog more often. Did you see his crazy comment? I started to reply, saying something like, "That is the wackiest comment I have ever seen in almost eight years of blogging," but I'm pretty sure I've left a reply like that to one of his previous comments. See take #2 above, about families and their shared senses of humor.
More quick takes at Jen's.
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