Immersion Blender, Cemetery, Cosby

Recently, I blogged about My Notebook -- a composition book that I've been filling with things I want to remember, consider, create, purchase or otherwise return to later: quotations, recipes, consumer products, gifts, project ideas. It's not a to-do list and not a bucket list, just a collection of good (or potentially good) stuff.

Since I'm struggling to find the time and mental resources to blog these days, I thought I'd share some items from My Notebook.

Quotations

"Don't settle for food when you need conversation, rest, appreciation, or fun." -- a tweet from @michellemay, author of Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." -- wise words from Bill Cosby but brought to my attention by a facebook status update of a childhood friend of a college friend

"Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible." -- Francis of Assisi, courtesy of my high school religion teacher in response to one of my facebook status updates

Can I just mention for the umpteenth time that I love facebook?

Gifts

Of late, I've been making entries in My Notebook about gifts I would not mind receiving, such as an immersion blender, the box set of The Hunger Games Trilogy (just finished listening to audiobook of Mockingjay), and the As Seen on TV perfect brownie pan.

City Living

Since our move to the 'burbs is not happening this school year, I've also added some items to My Notebook that have to do with making the most of our current city location.

Movie and popcorn at the iconic Music Box Theatre. Ashamed to report that I've never been inside after five plus years living here, and it's only three blocks away. One of these days . . .

Empanadas from El Mercado Food Mart for dinner. This little store that's even closer than the movie theatre sells empanadas out of a hot, glass case. I always say to myself, "You should buy some of those for lunch or dinner sometime." And so I should and shall.

Check out tombstones in Graceland Cemetery. I love a good cemetery walking tour and this nearby one is the final resting place for many famous Chicagoans.

New Ventures

I think I mentioned that I have also come up with a few ideas for "businesses" since beginning My Notebook. One of them is particularly exciting to me so I am starting to lay the foundation and figure out what it would take to get it started. Hubby is asking for a business plan before any additional household capital is committed to the endeavor, but he seems fairly intrigued by the prospect. No details for now (Hubby says the business term for that is "stealth mode"), but it's fun to have a project. Plus, the next time someone asks me if I work outside the home, I am going to try to say, with a straight face, "Well, I work from home and am raising capital for a new business venture right now." NTB.

So, there you have it, some tidbits from My Notebook. What's in yours? Any good quotations for me to add to mine? Spanish speakers, am I correct in suspecting that El Mercado Food Mart is redundant? That's what the sign says.

The Notebook -- No, Not That One

During the months that I feverishly cleaned and decluttered our home in the hopes of selling it, I allowed myself, in my most hopeful moments, to imagine life in a new home. How I would decorate Sweet P's room with framed color copies of illustrations of literary heroines like Ramona, Anne of Green Gables, and Elizabeth Bennett. Maybe Bub could finally have a dedicated craft center. And wouldn't it be cool if we could have a living room that was more like a library than a sitting room. On one wall somewhere in the house I could feature various prints and paintings of cardinals, my very favorite bird (a whole post on cardinals and their significance to me is overdue). On and on.

When I began steeling myself for the disappointment of not selling and moving, I told myself that all my ideas could wait and maybe even better ones would come along. I found an unused composition book and decided to start recording all my plans and hopes and ideas. It's not really a journal because I don't write long entries or anything, but the notebook is more than and more special than a list. A collection? I'll just call it The Notebook for now. I started out collecting ideas for a new home, but it has turned into a spot where I collect all the things I want to do, try, remember, or consider someday. "Someday" could be next year or in twenty years. Someday might be tomorrow. I've collected references to recipes (i.e. "Melissa D'Arabian Chocolate Chip Rosemary Shortbread" and "Molly Wizenberg -- try pickling"). I've collected quotations (i.e. "The Measure of Love Is To Love Without Measure" from a plaque in my parents' house). I've collected names of books and websites I want to check out, craft projects I want to complete, and even two ideas for businesses (you know, for all my spare time). The Notebook makes me feel happy and hopeful and calm. I feel like a little squirrel storing away nuts for the long winter.

I'm planning to share more about The Notebook as I find the time to realize the hopes collected inside its pages.

One simple thing I had written down in The Notebook was to sort our children's books by theme. This idea is not all that clever as I know several organized moms who rotate books in and out all year. Christmas books come out after Thanksgiving, Halloween ones in October, and etc. Bub and I made an attempt to thematically sort the books during a nesting frenzy this past spring, but the end result is a bunch of books sorted into ziploc freezer bags and looking junky in the book cabinet. Since the books are consolidated in bags, it is easier to clean up when, as happens almost daily, the shelves get cleared. However, the bags also make it difficult to find out what's what.

I've decide instead to sort books by the month/season and to do it month by month, not all at once. I spent a few minutes this evening pulling books for September -- books about school(s), books about apples, and books to help Little Bit in learning his numbers, colors, and letters.

Because the Scholastic Book Order is my special mommy porn, I had no problem finding books for September inside our house, but I think it would also be fun to visit the library to collect books with a theme.

Can I just say how fun it was to choose the books? And how excited I am for Bub to see the special September book box? I know he is going to be so pumped up, and I hope that having this box might inspire us to read more and watch less Phineas and Ferb.

I like the feeling of making the most of some items that we already have and love the feeling that the kids and I may just be forging an awesome new family tradition.

Right now, I am loving The Notebook. My Notebook.

What do you think? What would you collect in your Notebook? Do you have one? Do you rotate books at your house? Any "September" books I should seek out? What literary heroines should be on Sweet P's walls someday when she finally has a bedroom and not just a corner of ours? Please share in the comments.

Please forgive the webcam photography. Also, please know that it is killing me that I have not yet adorned the September book basket with a colorful ribbon or possibly a cut-out of an apple.