Snippets: Losing My Mind Edition

Last I knew anything, the books were en route to me on November 15 and I expected them to arrive a couple of days after that. They are still not here! Unbeknownst to me, they were put on a truck that was making other stops (I thought they were literally a day away from me and had no idea they’d be going on a road trip in a wayward semi). So then they were supposed to arrive the day before Thanksgiving. And they didn’t. And then Thanksgiving happened, and then the weekend, and yesterday, when I called to find out where in the world my books are and when I would be getting them, I learned that eighteen semi trucks had been blown over on a certain stretch of road in Wyoming, south of where I live. The road on which the semi truck carrying my books happened to be traveling. The truck with my books did not blow over. The driver decided to park and wait out the wind. So delivery is further delayed….. but the books are safe. And I have an entire room filled – floor to ceiling – with boxes built and ready to be loaded with books, and mailing labels all ready to be printed, and a pantry of coffee to fuel my packing marathon. I’m so excited for it! Fingers crossed I get to start tomorrow. {technical note: we are still on track for Christmas delivery worldwide}

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Sage is such a good puppy…. with one aggravating habit: he takes *ages* to poop. We take him outside and he gets so distracted by everything – a chicken! A leaf! An elk toe bone! A bird in a tree! A blade of grass! And he runs around sniffing and exploring, overcome by wonderment – so overcome, that he will have (TMI warning) a very tiny bit of poop actually pushing out, but he won’t stop running around to poop. For like 30 to 45 minutes. Which is irritating/painful first thing in the morning before coffee or when its blowing freezing sideways wind or when I know the maniac FedEx driver is due to speed up the driveway. There are times that Mike and I have each gotten sick of waiting outside and bring Sage back in and then he immediately poops on the floor. So I had an idea. Incentive for fast pooping. I filled a tupperware with dog treats and put it in a basket in a tree in the yard. Then I waited waited waited the standard 40 minutes for Sage to get around to pooping outside and immediately gave him a treat from the tree stash. That night and the next morning, whoever was outside with him gave him a treat right after he pooped. And twenty-four hours later, Sage was pooping within the first five minutes of being outside. It’s been a few days now, and he poops immediately when we go outside (and still gets treats for it). Yay!

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I’ve been using the time I have from not packaging books (arrghh!) to photograph some gorgeous new jewelry from my silversmith neighbor Fred. It’s in the shop, and you can find it HERE….

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Thank you SO much for your patience and excitement re/books.
Your emails make my days!!!

Snippets: It’s Winter Edition

I’ve been away from this space for a long time. For a while, all my words went to my book. After that, my words swirled around and around in my head like butterflies because I was too tired to write them down. I am so tired… It’s dark at 5pm now. There’s snow on all the north-facing hillsides. It’s November! I worked so hard this year, so fully and completely, and I’m trying to tell myself it’s OK to lay around and read books and hang out with friends and not dive into the nine million new projects I want to dive into but don’t have energy for at the moment. In the past month, I’ve read Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl – which I loved, particularly because Sleater-Kinney was the soundtrack of my early 20s – and The Autobiography of Malcolm X – which is one of those books I’ve had on my shelf for years but never committed to because it’s 500 pages. It was worth committing to. I found myself replacing “white devils” with “The 1%” and his messages from 6o years ago are still so relevant – to all of us.

It’s also been hard to force myself to attend to the tedium of daily life. I had an excuse to ignore it all this summer (bills and laundry and cleaning the house and stuff of that nature) – the book demanded everything from me; demanded, as books do, that I dive head first into the never-never-land of creation. I loved it. I loved being in that space, being a disciple of the project and nothing else. But now it’s over…. and I still have a sleeping bag on my bed because I need to wash sheets and haven’t yet, and I have a one-inch-tall stack of paperwork and bills on my desk that I must (MUST!) attend to today, and I have cauliflower in the fridge that needs to be turned into soup…. switching gears is hard and I’m a little depressed by it. I’m glad summer is over and I’m glad the book is done but I miss the summer, I miss sitting outside in the shade with my pen and paper and Charlie curled up next to me, I miss being in the cocoon of pure creation. From this distance, now that it’s over, I can easily forget the stress and anguish and tears and sleep deprivation and look back at it as a pocket of time and space of pure magic.

There’s still magic in my life. Two days after I turned in the book, Mike came home with a puppy. The cutest smartest sweetest softest cuddliest puppy! His name is Sage and he is amazing. Chloe is crazy about him (the feeling is mutual) and Ivan, our demon cat, is crazy about him, too. Thanks to Sage, Ivan has grown a heart. They roughhouse together and nap together and it’s the sweetest thing. {The hyperbole is REAL with this puppy.} Charlie is not a fan, and I wonder if that’s because Sage arrived in October and now it’s November and this reasoning will make sense when you read the book. Mike wonders if it’s because Sage is a male canine. We shall see. Charlie was watching cows while sunbathing yesterday, looking very peaceful and sweet, and when Sage and I walked over, Charlie looked up at me with heart eyes, then shifted his glance to Sage and bared his teeth. He didn’t bother growling, his pupils didn’t dilate; it was the most nonchalant baring of teeth I’ve ever seen. It was the equivalent of blowing cigarette smoke in someone’s face to make them leave. Maybe they’ll be friends by Spring. Maybe not. Regardless, there’s plenty of love to go around….

But seriously, look at this puppy:

More magic: I went on an incredible, life-changing adventure at the very end of October. It deserves a full blog post of its own. Coming soon, now that I’m writing things down again…..
Also deserving of blog posts: the bees, the cows, a full Farmily update. One reader suggested an update in the style of a “Farmily holiday letter,” an idea I love. Soon, soon….. the short version is that all is well.

A Note About Books

Hi Everyone!

I’ve been getting a wave of emails all with the same question – when will books go out??? As stated in the listing, books ship in November. The exact date depends on when I get them from the printer. The printers began bindery (sewing each book together) a couple of weeks ago, so it’s getting close. So exciting!

International orders will go out first to allow for the most transit time across borders before the holidays. Then US orders will fly out just as fast as my elves and I can wrap and box and wrap and box. All US orders will be sent via USPS Priority Mail ~ transit time should only be a few days once they leave my hands. Tracking numbers will be automatically sent out to everyone via my shipping program when your books fly out.

Thank you so much! I’m so happy you are so excited for this!
~ S