The Future Has Arrived!

K, so that's a lame reference to a Disney movie (albeit a great Disney movie, 'Meet The Robinsons. Keep moving forward!) Anyway I stand by it.

So, lately, I've been pondering. On life, on now, on the future, and all that. I feel like this year, I've really got a handle on things. I know what I'm doing and I'm working hard; I have a path and a means. I love my job as a nanny. I know it is actually preparing me for the future, and it's matured me way past anything I've ever done before. I have the lives of five little souls in hands for thirty hours a week, which is a lot of stress! AND joy. Those kids are precious and special, just like all kids. I can't wait to get my hands on some of my own! 

(creep.)

So, now that I have my career all figured out, I'm thinking of all the things that suddenly seem like silly pipe dreams that were so important to me for so long. Like travel, mostly. It's less alluring now that it was even six months ago. Maybe I've finally grown roots! Or maybe my restlessness has been settled by the acquisition of purpose. I don't know.  There are only a few of the 49 original Bucket List tasks left in my heart-of-hearts. 

Hillary's Revised Bucket List:

1) See the Isle of Man, Ireland, and Yorkshire
     I'm rereading The Secret Garden (Francis Hodgsen Burnett) for my Grandma's book club (right?!) and am re-fascinated by 'the moors'. I still haven't got an image in my head of what they even are. It's like describing the taste of salt without just saying 'salty'; you just have to experience it. All these places seem so mysterious and Romantic, I ache to see them. It's the only kind of place I can image living away from my cold desert mountains. (I also want to visit Greenland!)

2) Have some kiddies
     I don't know if this one even counts, BUT it's what I really want. I want to have babies hanging off me and teach them to say 'thank you' and show them all my favorite books. There is nothing more perfect than throwing those kids around or watch them play and imagine... it makes me nostalgic, or achy, or that feeling that you miss someone you've never met? Like that.

3) Keep house
     Oh, I'm such a hypocrite. If I heard anyone else go on the way I do about My Future Home and all the homemaking skills I'm honing, I'd call them a Molly Mormon and lecture them on new age feminism. This task still has the sheen of betrayl to it, like I'm supposed to dread the day I have to do this, or look at it as a backseat to a big career or not worth my time or whatever. Instead I see it as part of my devotion to providing a positive, nurturing environment for as many kids as I possibly can, coupled with my fledgling philosophy of simplicity and hard work. There'll be no PlayStations or iPads or satellite TV (oh wait- no- ok, TV) in my house, thank you very much! Just, like, jump ropes and books, or something. Paintbrushes. "A penny's worth of seeds for your garden..."

4) Find fulfillment
     I took my nanny kiddies (the goat themes in my profession make me laugh and laaaugh!) to a birthday party at our cousins' house today and had a talk with my aunt about a Facebook status I put up about needing adults to talk to after spending aaall my time now with children. It's a little wit-numbing. I come home and start talking like the children. Not baby talk- I don't believe in baby talk, it stunts vocabulary- but with mushed up letters and confused words ('puter, 'sprinkles', choc'at milk instead of 'computer', sprinklers, and chocolate milk) (there are better examples but I can't think under pressure!) and also I yell a lot. So I need adult friends, stimulating conversation, books, or something. I'll figure it out.

So, there it is. My Future in four tasks.

The Garden Diaries

Day Two: Planning and Report

Today was one of hard labor! I finished weeding the plot on the side of the house and put in new dirt- everything is so super dry that dust was ev-er-y-where. I planted a bunch of seeds: bachelor's buttons, black-eyed susans, poppies, a whole bunch of wildflowers. After watering the whole thing (and apologizing to all the trampled strawberries) I think that one is done for now!

When that was done I moved on to my little garden in the front yard. Turning up the dirt to re-soil is more complicated down there because there are already plants in it. Doing my best to avoid all the bulbs and annuals in there I pulled up a lot of grass and put on new dirt. I can't imagine there wasn't mass destruction, though... I'll keep working before putting in any plants, I think.

Tomorrow we go to get plants! Yay! It's like CHRISTMAS!

Summer, Day One!

The Garden Diaries, Part 1: Planning and Report

"What time is it?/ Summertime/ It's our vacation!/ It's time to shout!/" -High School Musical 2

I'm out of school and home for three whole months! To pass the time (and since I can't find a job :/) I am wholly devoting myself to the garden. I started yesterday and am pretty jazzed about getting started!

    There is a little plot of dirt on the side of our house that we've never really planted in before because it  doesn't get good water. All that's there now is a few rows of strawberries that do pretty well (when we remember to pick them), a rhubarb, and last year's failed sunflower seeds. I spent a couple of hours in there pulling up all the grass and dandelions and some incredibly frustratingly deep-rooted clover. My plans are to put in some partial sun/shade wildflower mix seeds in there and really monitor the water that gets over there.

      Last year we potted some peppermint cuts from my aunt's garden in a box in the herb garden. I didn't think the plant had survived the car ride in the whipped cream carton and interment in a shallow grave (half and inch of dirt on top of some plastic plant carriers), but now I am glad we have it contained it in that herb box. It's thriving! I took out all the plastic I could and replaced it with mulch, and I expect that little cutting to really explode this year. Yay! It's super fragrant, which is awesome- when it doesn't mix with the also thriving chives right next to them. (I love those chives- they're yummy and pretty! but they make everything smell like onion.)

     Another pleasant surprise this summer is how well the blue lobelia I planted last year underneath the tree is doing. Again, I thought most of the little plants died last year, but this summer they are all over the place and spreading. They'll stop blooming before I get any perennials in, but it's nice to have some spring color in the shade. It'll look really pretty there once we've got the ivy trained up the stairwell. Also doing great are the vegtables (lettuce, beans, peas, and the tomatoes are already starting to bloom!) and the lemon thyme is going everywhere. The wisteria ivy on the front porch is blooming on last year's growth- smells sooo pretty- and by next year we'll have those purple flowers all up the side of the railings.

     Next up is to finish weeding the grass out of my mom's Bishop's weed (ugh ugh ugh) and re-soiling the front garden (my garden- my own, my preeeccciousss), and pulling up all the ivy ground cover in the beds around the front of the house and replace them with some shrubs. Mom and I are going to spray and kill everything in the mum beds in the backyard and start over, cuz it is a jungle in there. That'll be a big project.

Yay, summer!

A Few Of My Favorite Things, and a Few of The Not-So-Favorite Too

I Think of My Favorite Things...

-'The Lion King'
-BBC's 'Sherlock'
-the soundtrack to Disney's 'Brother Bear'
-any food with pumpkin and chocolate chips in it
-bipolar Utah weather (especially the epic thunder storm last night!)
-loving the old 'Red Dawn' and being super excited for the new 'Red Dawn'
-winning $50 for an essay I had to write anyway
-rediscovering applesauce 
-finally having a direction in my life (did you know you only have to be 21 years old to be a -foster parent? I am one year away from getting A FREE BABY!)
-having Harry Potter in my life
-snagging a shirt I've been looking for on sale!
-planning my garden to plant next weekend
-getting visited by home teacher for the first time ever 


It's good to keep track of these things. Cuz otherwise I get caught up in all the hateful things:

-finding out I have take more math for my new major
-finding out I have to retake all the math I've done since it's been over a year since I took it
-hating math so, so, much
-and also science
-knowing that all my classes next semester are either Freshman 1010's, math, or science
-stressing over not having a job for the summer and being all poor
-moving home to my parent's couch (no more bed! no more door to close! no more privacy!)
-the bittersweet of the end of the semester and losing my beloved roommates forever *sniff*


Life, you know? Barf.

All About Me

   I am a twenty-year-old sophomore at Utah State University.
   
   I like doing things, but I am really, really, bad at them. I love crocheting and knitting, though everything I make comes out messy and REALLY REALLY UGLY.  I have a garden at my parents house that I plant and kill every year. I like to cook for my friends and family, but I can't do it very often- I always say that I'm like Anne Shirley when she gets distracted imagining nursing Diana back to health after battling with scarlet fever and forgets to add the flour to the cake: "There's no scope for imagination in cookery...". Or the time she left the cheesecloth off the pudding sauce and the mouse got in and drowned? Like that.
     Lets see... Independence Day is my favorite holiday, because everyone is each others' neighbor. I like to read and listen to music, but only the music and books I've always listened to and read; I like TV, but not movies. I'm not easily intimidated or scared, but spook worse than a horse. I've had more panic attacks induced by ghosts than anything else.
     My mission here at Utah State is to get a BS in Community Services and a minor in History, so that someday when I grow up I can work with children that are wards of the state, in foster care or in refugee communities. I have a huge belief in the people of this world, with equal potential for good as evil. I am determined to live away from home soon- and not 'away from home' like my apartment an hour and a half away from my parents, but an airplane and a bus ride away from what I know.
     I love my home- Utah is the best, man. It's got everything- desert rocks and cactus, world-famous landscapes, snowy mountains, meadows of wildflowers. Basically all anyone could ever need. But I feel like there is more out there... I want to see Alaska, and Maine and Texas; Amsterdam, Denmark, and Austria; South Africa, the pyramids... and live in Ireland. I want to learn to return to simplicity, to be aware of what's around me and control it. I want to have a hand in my own existence: to create, not just to consume. I want to make a difference.

Freckles

Lately I've become, like, obsessed with freckles. I think they are the most interesting things ever. It's like leopard-people!

My Life At Twenty

I realized today that I've missed two prim-o blogging opportunities, Valentine's Day and my birthday. I'm twenty!


Here's my life, now that I'm twenty:

• I have thing about freckles- I think they're super rad
• I love playing sports, but hate watching them
• I am a pathological liar
• I think that 'Parks and Rec' is the best show on TV
• I think lions are the best animals
• which makes 'Lion King' the best Disney movie
• but 'Tarzan' has the best music
• but I also like sheep
• I really DID like The Civil Wars before everyone else
• And Adele too but I'll let that one go
• I spent this Thursday night in silence with the lights off so the friendly upstairs neighbors that invited me out tonight will think I'm not home
• I could never be happy living somewhere without mountains
• My future husband is a cross of Detective Lassiter from 'Psych' and Dr. Cox from 'Scrubs'
• I am so never getting married
• I am more excited for the new 'Red Dawn' movie to come out than 'The Hunger Games'
• I'm an air-headed shopper
• I'm a slob, '...not at all pleasant to be around in domestic situations' (-Daniel Radcliffe)
• My favorite possession in an 1888 edition of 'Sara Crewe, or What Happened at Miss Minchens' (later changed to the much more manageable title 'The Little Princess'.)
• My life is finally coming to order: I (finally) settled on a major- childhood and community development, FCHD- and am reinvigorated about school and life and yay!
• I still have no idea what I'm doing.

That's me at twenty. 

Memory: Weird and Sticky

  Memories are sticky, secret things. Lately mine has been reminding me of things that I remember forgetting, connecting all the little dots and coming up with "Oh, so that's why I like that/ do that/ think that." moments. The connections only kind of make sense, sometimes. 

     For example, as a kid- and, well, now- I was a super reader. I'd get into a book and devour it in a day or two and usually just flush it right back out to make room for the next YA on the C-D shelf in the public library (I had a goal to read the entire shelf. I think I remember having friends that summer...). Some books STUCK, though. The good ones, usually: Peter Pan, The Little Princess, and every book Meg Cabot ever wrote. The good ones were so good and sticky in my brain that they got all attached up with the music I'd listen to while reading. The music and the words are all intertwined and I can't do one without the other. 

    Every time I hear 'For You' by the Barenaked Ladies I think of Meggie waiting for Mo and Dustfinger to come rescue her from the evil Capricorn in Inkheart; Voice Male pleading to 'Give Them A Vision' is urging King Peter to help Prince Caspian write a military letter and devise strategy to save Narnia; and most oddly, Rooney's song 'Sorry, Sorry' is inside Green Gables.

The subconscious is a weird thing.

A Playlist for Rainy or Fancy Days

In honor of the rainy spring weather we've had today, here are my favorite rainy-day, poetry-reading, water color-painting songs. Enjoy :)




"Music Box", Regina Spektor
"7 Baboker", Yael Naim
"Your Song", Ellie Golding
"I Hate Seagulls", Kate Nash
"Man With 1000 Faces", Regina Spektor
"Enchanting Ghost", Sufjan Stevens
"Moon Shadow", Mandy Moore
"Swingset Chain", Loquat
"Lachlom", Yael Naim
"Breaks My Heart", Regina Spektor
"Chasing Pavements", Adele
"Eet", Regina Spektor
"Not Anymore", Benton Paul
"Seven Swans", Sufjan Stevens
"Comme Sie den Rien N'etait", Carla Bruni
"If I Lost The Best Thing", Yael Naim

Advent, Day 25: The Last Post!

CHRISTMAS! is today. We got up early, at like 7:00, and opened presents. I got a bunch of supercool new stuff. We ate breakfast and got ready for church (I wore my green 1990's Christmas dress, black velvet heels, big curls and new red lipstick from Nikki. I was class-ay!) and then went early to church for our big musical number. 

I like short church. Church should always be one hour long and mostly musical numbers.

Afterwards we went to Grandma's house, where Megan, Dad and I spent the whole time digging through big trunks of old pictures and magazines. I love that stuff; Megan brought a bunch of stuff home to paint and sketch.

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, I really do. It's the best time of year, this, so peaceful and centered. Life and stress starts again tomorrow. A new year starts in a week. 

Get ready!

Advent, Day 24: Christmas Eve!!

Today is Christmas Eeeevvvee!!! Yay! We are celebrating by cleaning the house (yaaay) and making food. My sisters, Mom and I made a ham, twice-baked potatoes, asparagus, Christmas mousse, carrot pudding (which is actually cake. Not pudding. I think cuz it's probably English because they call everything pudding and who else would put carrots and potatoes in dessert. I ask you.) and a breakfast casserole for tomorrow morning (our day will have to start early to account for church not being for Christmas.. go figure.) 


We are playing Barenaked For The Holidays and have essence of white fir in the oil-diffuser-thingy. Tonight we'll eat this giant meal, by candlelight, read the Nativity, sing carols (edit: we did, quite irrevrently. Never have so many hymns been made into beer-drinking songs.) and then open a present (I opened a new Bop-It!) and all the kids go down to the basement for the night (we watched reruns of 'The Amanda Show'- classic!)


So, that's been my Christmas Eve! Merry Christmas tomorrow!

Advent, Day 23: A Book I Just Read

My family is one of those were in elementary school we would all read instead of play at recess cuz we love books and we don't have friends. Our big summertime thrill is going to the public library and getting as many books as we want instead of the regular two-book limit. HIGH TIMES.

Yesterday I went with my mom to sneakily return some overdue library books and almost returned this book that wasn't a library book at all, but a school classroom book called 'Princess of the Midnight Ball', by Jessica Day George. It's a retelling of the fairytale 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses', which I, and you, I'm sure, only know from the Barbie version. The book coulda been written better, yeah, but it's, you know, for fifth graders.* The actual story, through all the silly writing, is pretty and touching and is solved by a man knitting things, which I don't know is true or not but is kind of silly and sweet.

So, a good book overall and good for a two-day read. I'm reading 'The Thief Lord' again next, (unless I get something better for Christmas... hehehe), which, yeah, I've read before, but I love Cornelia Funke and also Rissa is reading 'Inkheart' so I can't. 

Merry Christmas! Happy vacation reading! 


(Sorry Mrs. Rollins' fifth grade class at East Layton Elementary... I'll give it back! Soon probably!)

Advent, Day 22: The Christensen Family Show

Christmas this year is on a Sunday again, which means short church! Yes! Best Christmas present ever!

(Not really. That's terrible. But really. It's Christmas. Sorry.)

I'm sure most Mormon Christmas services are just music, like ours. My mom, unofficial ward pianist extradinaire, is playing in like ever single number. Accompaning, singing, and playing in the Christensen Family Band! Rob's on the bassoon, Nikki on violin, Holly on clarinet, Megan on cello, and me on viola cuz everything else was taken. 

We sound re-DIC. It's a stupid combination of instruments. But I love it :) Family band! (Except Rissa and Dad...)

EVERYONE SKIP CHURCH ON SUNDAY AND COME LISTEN TO US PLAY IT SOUNDS AWESOME MERRY CHRISTMAS

Advent, Day 21: The House That Built Me, In A Lot of Words

     I've been working on this post for a while, cuz I wasn't sure exactly how to say this and also I always get so distracted when I have deadlines...
     Tonight I was reading a post from a friend's blog about her parents' upcoming move (thanks Sam!). She posted a video of Miranda Lambert's song 'The House That Built Me'. It's not a song I particularly love, mostly because for the longest time I thought she was saying 'Bilby', like a dog or something... But anyway it's a good song and I like it well enough.
     So the song and the post helped me find some words for this post. I wanted to write about how much I love where I live. I feel like I live in the greatest country on earth. Not many people would contest that; we have the most freedoms, the most stability, the most wealth, a great education system, equality, health care, all that and more. On top of that, I live in the best state in the greatest country; everyone here is friendly, it's wealthy, low crime, mild summers, and 'the best snow on earth'- plus, who doesn't like living in a place where everyone has the same high values? I ask you. 
     So, in this greatest country in the best state, I live in the best city. Northern Utah is near enough to the wildlands of central and southern Utah (Moab, Canyonlands, all that) for frequent vacays, but is more mild and green. The Wasatch Front is the best of all this- nestled in the great big bowl created by the Great Salt Lake, close enough to see the Lake but far enough from the smell, far enough from the bustle and pollution of SLC but close enough for like concerts and stuff that happens in the city. 
     See? Perfect. Layton is a great little town, half farming village, half 'biggest city in Davis County', which it is. Then there's the East Bench, where I live in the East Layton neighborhood of Snow Canyon (no one rob me). The air force base is a ten minute drive, so there's a huge population of military families. In school, class was constantly halted by No crime, nice people, a view of the mountains in the back and clear sights all the way over the valley to the Ochre Mountains across Antelope Island the Lake. It's beautiful (plus the pollution from the city makes for great sunsets!). On the Fourth of July we can see the firework shows from twelve different cities! I haven't even talked about the small-town feel of these people. We have Independence Day breakfasts, bicycle parades, Christmas concerts, all sorts of neighborly events. My favorite it the generic 'Neighborhood Party' in the summertime up at the home of the richest family in town. We play games, ride horses, have watermelon-eating contests, watch a football game, and, this year, roast a pit in the sandbox. De-lish.
     So, Snow Canyon on the East Bench of East Layton of the Wasatch Front in Northern Utah in America is the best place to live in the world.

That's the Miranda Lambert video. It's a prettier version of everything that I just said.

Merry Christmas!

Advent, Day 20: It's America! Anyway...

     I was watching GAC (that's Great American Country to all you people not raised in Texas) on TV the other day. They only show country music videos, all day long. Also the Miss America pageant.
    Anyway, I was watching it, and this Rodney Atkins song came on, for 'It's America'. (Country music always makes me weepy and patriotic, so I was tearing already by this time.) The video's hilarious, cute, American (awesome), and... anyway, I like it. Especially the part when Rodney Atkins goes and and sends the Mexicans out! AMERICA!, as Professor Clybor says...

Sorry for the disorganization of this post... stray thoughts... Merry... Christmas...? Anyway...

Advent, Day 19: A Music Festival

I think these bands would be super awesome together in concert, complenetary sounds and whatever. A super awesome (yes, twice) music festival line-up:

Sufjan Stevens and Freelance Whales
The Civil Wars, Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers
Adele and Kate Nash
James Taylor and The Dixie Chicks 
Weezer and Rooney
Noah and the Whale and Yellowcard

My sister, Megan, had some suggestions:
Foster the People and Band of Horses
The Naked and Famous and The Barenaked Ladies... pretty much for the names, I think. So much nakedness!!

(That's the Avett Brothers. Are they actually brothers? I don't know.)

Merry Christmas!

Advent, Day 18: Christmas Mini Cupcake-Muffins

My little sister Rissa got this mini cupcake maker for Christmas from her cousin yesterday. This morning I helped her make chocolate chip muffins (from a box) in her new mini cupcake maker. Though they taste like metal and take five minutes a muffin, an Easy Bake this is not!

It's freakin' awesome! Her cupcake-muffins came out all adorable and mini, and my oven muffins came out all mammoth and admittedly very, very burnt. Go figure.


Merry Christmas!

Advent, Day 17: A Christmas Complaint

My sister took over my room when I went to college so now I have to sleep on the couch. My brother took the downstairs couch so now I get the 'lights-on-at-6:30-piano-lessons-breakfast-talking-loud' upstairs couch.

Happy to be home? Of course. But I'm asking Santa for a bed this year.

(This is an actual painting of our Christmas mornings. Isn't that sweet!)

Merry Christmas!

Advent, Day 16: WonderMom

If I've learned one thing since I've been home for Christmas is that being a stay at home mom is hardly the walk in the park that I thought. It's EXHAUSTING. I've run countless errands, volunteered at the school and at church, spent hours shopping for gifts and groceries, cooking, baking, cleaning... and I don't even have to deal with the six kids or subbing jobs.


Sheesh. My mom = Wonder Woman.

Merry Christmas! Love you, Mom!

Advent, Day 15: Home For Christmas!

Truly, there is 'no place like home for the holidays'. So that's where I am right now. At home.




For Christmas.




And it's wonderful.

That's my house. Merry Christmas!