Ignorance

Good morning! Joanna had my laptop yesterday morning and when I got it back, the ‘r’ wasn’t working and I just had to fix the ‘g’. I wonder if she’s been eating while she’s using my computer. The ‘0’ sometimes doesn’t like to produce 0’s or )’s either but nothing seems to be stuck there.

I’m pretty sure that I am really not in a writing mood. I read some good stuff yesterday about cesarean-sections and found a good quote that I will share with you once I go upstairs and get the book and find the quote again. Here it is: “Ignorance is not bliss; it is, quite simply, ignorance (Nancy Wainer Cohen and Lois J. Estner).” Good quite. Very true.

I went to the Meet the Doula Night at the hospital Tuesday night and got to meet some of the ‘veteran’ doulas. Very interesting. I signed up for my first seven shifts which was also interesting. I’m sure actually going will also be interesting. Not being able to talk about different women is going to be difficult but I suppose I will have to do it. Perhaps I should clarify. It isn’t not talking about different women that will be difficult; the difficult thing will be not sharing a part of my life that is so wonderful. Birth, to me, is a way to feel close to God. He created our spirits and we create the bodies; together we create individual, unique people. If there is a way for me to share that with you without breeching confidentiality, I will. Otherwise, I’ll just have to tell you that I had a wonderful night and you will have to guess what that means.

Yesterday I registered for the phlebotomy exam. That was fun. I wasn’t having any luck registering online so I called and got a woman who had a hard time enunciating English. If I had a hard time understanding her, could she understand me? I got the confirming email yesterday afternoon so I know that everything worked but I really do wonder sometimes about this lack of effective communication when the person on the other end is so hard to understand. Anyway, my date is November 14^th and I’m seriously thinking about seeing what dates are available for December so I’ll have more time to study. As long as I change the date at least 24 hours before the scheduled time, I’m good. We’ll see how it goes.

I also came up with a new look yesterday. I decided it was time to clean out the fireplace. Our fireplace isn’t what most people think of when they think of a fireplace which is a firebox made of some kind of stone or brick with a chimney. Ours has an enclosed firebox. The flames, heat, and smoke go up through another chamber (the oven) and then down the sides to below the firebox and then back to the chimney. So, the heat and smoke travel a good 10 to 12 feet before meeting the chimney. This allows lots of brick and cement to collect and store heat which then radiates once the fire has been let go out and the chimney is closed. That 10 to 12 feet need to be cleaned upon occasion and since the chimney was cleaned on the 22^nd and it’s been rather cool as of late, I decided to clean what I could of that 10 to 12 feet and as a result got covered with soot and ashes and banged up my knuckles and made my fingers sore. There is a little more to do in the basement before a fire is lit and Paul wants to put a gasket around the top door (to the oven) which would be nice because sometimes the smoke leaks out around it. When I went downstairs earlier, I discovered that the chimney was open which would partly explain why it’s been so cold in the house as of late—all the heat we’ve managed to generate with laundry and baking has gone right up the chimney. Anyway, that was fun and a shower got rid of most of the grime but there is still a bit of black on my hands (fingernails and knuckles). Today I’ll get what needs to be done in the basement and hopefully Paul will get gasket material so we’ll be good to go for a fire tomorrow. I am ready.

We had over for supper yesterday Elders Smith and Stoa. Since Paul hadn’t been able to catch Ruth for home teaching, I thought we could have her over as well and since Julia and I weren’t able to get out visiting teaching, I thought we could invite Laurie over as well. With them we of course got Jared as well and we also had Zack because Joanna decided to not go to class. So, we had a houseful. Thirteen. Gosh, that’s almost twice what we have when everyone is home. I made bread that didn’t rise as well as I’d’ve liked due to the temperature of the house in spite of laundry and the oven being on but it was still tolerable. I made a cocoa cake with coconut pecan frosting except that I didn’t have any pecans so I used walnuts (and some rolled oats because they soak up the excessive juiciness). And I made cheddar chowder. I made my 8-quart Pampered Chef pot full and we have about enough for one person to have some for lunch. Unless the one person is Paul in which case we do not have enough. So, the cake is gone, I didn’t even get to take pictures of what was left for Laura because there was nothing left. The soup is almost gone. There is some bread left but not much. I can turn it into garlic bread tonight. Pretty exciting. I wish the beans were gone.

Because Joanna was home yesterday afternoon, much house cleaning was done. Cedric did most of the living room while Joanna and Amena worked on the library and kitchen. The dining room needs to be done now and I’d really like to get a couch out of here. I’ve heard that Salvation Army will come and take furniture away for you if you give them a call. I might look into that. While I was with Seth for soccer practice the brown couch in the living room got switched with the green one in the library. That might be okay. I might like sitting on that couch in the winter because it’s nearer the fireplace and will be warmer and it might be a good place to read. Or maybe even knit although I like to be doing something else while I do that because the mind isn’t very occupied while knitting.

Anyway, this is actually quite longer than I thought it would be and I need to get on with other things. Sooooo. . . . Have a fantabulous day!