Books, pens and paper

Ed Irwin is cool.

2010-04-25T22:29:00.002-05:00

Why is Ed Irwin cool? Because he is generous and helpful to people he barely knows. Like me.

I never took Latin in high school (I was all romantic and thought French would serve me better for some reason. Stupid.). However, I have been able to keep up with Timo's Latin lessons pretty well the last three years - seriously, a book written for 3rd through 6th graders can't be THAT hard to suss out before the lesson starts. It's all been dandy - until we hit the great linking verb vs. helping verb debacle.

Oh help. I understand that a linking verb is an equals sign, and therefore needs a form of the verb to be, which we conjugate as sum es est sumus estis sunt in the present tense. Okey dokey. But when you have a helping verb and you have to figure out which ending to put on the verb? My brain turns to Jell-O (the proof of which is that I just spelled turns as "terns").

So I asked Hazel if I could call Ed for advice - sure! I called Ed and he very kindly suggested I check out what the public library has available and see if anything there would work. I haven't had a chance to do that this week, but intended to tomorrow.

BUT - I won't have to now, because at church this morning, Hazel handed me a book and said, "Ed said he thinks this will help you out." And after just flipping through "English Grammar for Students of Latin" by Norma W. Goldman, I believe he is right.

And THAT is why Ed Irwin is cool.

Adding to the Christmas list....

2009-10-29T13:27:00.002-05:00

I've seen these books suggested in my homeschooling Bible before but always used something else or what I had on hand, but finally checked out Janice VanCleve's Astronomy for Every Kid when I couldn't come up with good science experiment ideas on my own. WOW. Fabulous book. The variety of experiments means they work for all three kids, and the concepts they cover are simply explained (my weakness is over-explaining and going too far into other topics). We are having the best time trying these out for ourselves. I'll be adding the Earth Science, Chemistry and Physics books to our Christmas list.

I'm also adding Learning Through History magazine to my wish list. We subscribed to LTH a few years ago and I was amazed at how much information and fun they were able to pack into a single issue, but the expense was a bit much at the time, so I didn't renew. The majority of the articles were a bit old for Timo at the time, too, but I knew I could hold on to them and they'd be appropriate again. We have just hit Medieval Japan again, and voila! Perfect for Timo with neat things thrown in for Meg and Lillie as well. I just wish I could get all the back issues as well!

Mental respite

2009-10-23T14:45:00.002-05:00

This weekend was supposed to be a creative, fun getaway for me, but alas, the event was canceled. So, I've got this afternoon and all day tomorrow open all of a sudden, and I'm trying to figure out how best to use the time. (I promise myself I won't waste it all on the computer - I WON'T!)

I'm always torn when I have time like this. Is it fair to go off and be totally selfish, wandering into stores I won't take the kids in, perusing the shelves at the library, enjoying a coffee on my own in silence and leave Chris to hold down the fort? He doesn't get days like that. He goes to the Episcopal Men's Conference once a year for a weekend, but he's still sharing a hotel room with someone and surrounded by people all day.

Plus, I'd much rather spend time with him. The caveat is that I want to spend time with him without the kids interrupting. I want to go wander in stores with him, share a coffee with him and peruse the shelves with him (though he'd rather go to Borders than the library; he's a buyer, not a borrower). That doesn't happen often because sitters are expensive and the grandparents don't remember to offer to sit often.

So my guilt keeps me at home, doing things I ought to do but don't really want to do. Like make Halloween costumes. Or vacuuming.

For the moment, I should be happy. Chris is helping Timo make his Halloween costume downstairs and the girls are outside playing with Jan and Frank's littlest grandkids. They're all happy. I ought to join in as well.

Lookie here........

2009-10-22T13:28:00.003-05:00

Playing catch up. :)

Okay, so I have been indulging myself in completely useless, tawdry, thoroughly enjoyable reading, but it's not trash (by which I mean Dan Brown or Danielle Steele). It's literary-ish. Kinda.

Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife and Darcy and Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley by Linda Berdoll are unadulterated fun. If you're a Jane Austen fan, you'll enjoy following Lizzy and Darcy into married bliss, but only if you're willing to read about them cavorting around Pemberley christening every room. Make sure you're husband's home and available while you're reading this. Whew.

When I'm not fanning myself from reading about Lizzy and Darcy's boots knocking, I've been reading a few Elizabeth George mysteries. Not having television has prevented me from watching PBS' Mystery! or else I'd already be aware of Inspector Lynley, I suppose. The two I've read so far kept me guessing, weren't too tidy, and didn't frustrate or let me down with their endings. CMCPL doesn't have the first book in the series, so I began with #2, Payment in Blood. Ignore the cheesy titles; the stories are better than they suggest.

Christina P. has lent me Jon Krakauer's newest, Where Men Win Glory. I'm not a Pat Tillman football fan, but Krakauer does a good job of taking you along for a pleasant read regardless of where he's going. We'll see how well I keep up with this one.

As for pens and paper - I have been scrapbooking a bit (yaaay!) and have FINALLY figured out how to print photos on our new printer. The ink is pretty expensive but I (DUH) tried printing in black and white last night for the first time and whadduyaknow? They look pretty good! Maybe this will get my creative juices flowing again. :)

Science for Dummies, but without the embarrassing cover and title

2009-09-04T09:20:00.002-05:00

I suppose it's the homeschooling that is continually alerting me to the gaps in my own knowledge base, but the older I get, the more I realize how little I remember or know about science. When the kids ask questions, I ALWAYS have to say, "Let's go look that up."

So when I was browsing and found "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson, I had to pick it up. The book came out in 2003 and was on best seller lists, but I don't remember hearing about it. (In my defense, that was the year Meg was entering terrible toddlerhood and Lillie was born AND we started Timo on kindergarten, so I was just a little distracted.) I'm making it my crusade to tell everyone about this book now. Bryson has taken almost every branch of science and presents the major discoveries and theories in an understandable, fascinating way. Newton's Laws of Motion? Yup, makes sense. What DNA is? I got it. Theory of Relativity? Well, yeah, I see that now!

If only my high school science textbooks and teachers had been this interesting, I might have become a meteorologist after all. :)

Oooh, twice in less than a month!

2009-09-03T13:31:00.003-05:00

HA! I know, lame. Anyway....

I'm totally hating this weather. Call me a spoil sport, but September should still be hot and super sunny and have me fantasizing about putting in an in-ground pool in the backyard. It should NOT be cool and damp and kind of gray. We've had the windows open all week and no AC (which I won't complain about - my refund check from CDE is going to ROCK!) but come on - it's SEPTEMBER. The whole of August got away from me without me wanting to go to the beach once. NOT ONCE. I have to suffer through August to get the reward of the beach in September................Oh, I get it. We don't get to go to the beach this September, so I don't have to suffer. Well, okay. I'll quit complaining. (Don't hold your breath.)

I also have a terrible craving to clean the entire house, top to bottom. Like moving furniture and mopping under beds and washing walls kind of cleaning. However, I have three dirty children and a dirty dog and a husband who doesn't get enthusiastic about such cravings, and oh yeah, I'm supposed to educate said kids every day, which seriously cuts into my cleaning time. So instead of actually doing what is bugging me, I just have to let it bug me.

In good news, I have scrapbooked in the past month. Chris and I talked about how the kids want the computer whenever we'll let them have it, and the computer desk is where my scrapbooking supplies were, so we were constantly competing. We decided to rearrange shelves (I LOVE to rearrange) and moved my scrap stuff to the shelves behind my homeschool table, and moved curriculum that's not currently in use to the big shelves above the computer. It looks pretty, but I admit I've only done about 4 pages. Here's the only 8 1/2 X 11 I've done:

It was fun to dig through all my stuff and just throw a bunch of things on there. I'm having to seriously reconsider how I scrapbook, because I have begun to realize that if I stick to the formula and style I have been using, the kids will have to move into one bedroom so I'll have storage for all my scrapbooks. I don't think that will go over well, so I guess I'll have to be the one who compromises. Still thinking about this.

Okay, off to study Venus and Mercury!

Babbling again

2009-08-06T15:14:00.002-05:00

It can't hurt to try keeping up with this thing again. And at the very least it is more productive and reasonable than playing Bejeweled for 30 minutes (cough cough).

We started homeschooling again this week after a record two month break, which I desperately needed. Things have gone very well so far. We've rearranged the schedule so that we start with history and science, the kids' two favorite subjects, in the morning, then go on to the other stuff from there. That means all 3 of them are enthusiastic about getting going; last year I had to cajole and threaten to get them to their desks in the morning. Now they're starting before I am - they've finally figured out that if they get their handwriting, spelling and other independent work done before we sit down to do history/science, they have less to do after lunch. Smart little critters.

I'm not as fond of getting out of bed early, however. I need to drag myself up and work in some exercise somewhere, but that isn't happening yet. Maybe if I can get to the point where I sleep through the night, I can. I'm reallllllllllly done with waking up at 3 am each morning. I've taken to just getting up at that point and reading for about an hour, then dozing back off, but the disruption is still annoying. Exercise would probably help, wouldn't it? Damn.

Another exciting thing to look forward to soon: Girl Scouts! My Brownie troop will start in September, but we're planning an ice cream social before then to handle registration and kickoff stuff. Lillie will have her own Daisy troop this year, and their ice cream social is Aug. 16. She is giddy thinking about having her own troop. I wish I felt like I could lead hers as well, but I think just volunteering will be fine for now.

Time to read to the littlest.

One Little Word 2009

2009-01-01T21:29:00.003-06:00

Ali Edwards has done this little challenge for two years now, and it has taken me this long to finally jump on board. My word this year is OUTSIDE. Why? Several reasons:

1. I want to focus on getting outside my own head. I want to be more aware and alert to things that go on around me, and the only way I can do that is to get outside this squishy little square foot or so between my ears.

2. I want to go physically outside more this year, to explore with the kids, to work in the garden, to ride my bike, to go for walks, to go camping, to go hiking, to Dunbar Cave (which is kind of inside, but in an outside kind of way), to see the local parks, to go to LBL, to the zoo, to state parks - wherever! Just outside of the walls of 195 Maplemere.

3. I want to work on my physical outside, my body. I gave up completely on exercise this year and I can feel it. Time to give myself some love and attention and coax myself back into health.

Not a bad little word, outside. I think it will do just fine.

Horror of horrors!

2008-12-10T20:29:00.002-06:00

Timothy has figured out the Santa thing this year, and though I am glad we were able to prolong the magic 10 whole years, it is kind of nice to see his reaction to the other side of things. Chris had him read "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus," and he GETS it. And we've spent the past two nights watching "It's a Wonderful Life" with him, so he's seeing his Daddy and me at our mushy worst. Chris cries in about 4 places in the film, and I cry watching Chris. I married George Bailey folks, and I know how lucky I am. :)

The ONLY thing I don't like about this movie is when George gets his wish of seeing what life would have been like without him and discovers - HORRORS! - that Mary is a spinster LIBRARIAN. Oh no! What a terrible fate!

I am affronted!

Public Service Announcement

2008-12-01T00:31:00.002-06:00

In an effort to be greener this Christmas, when we realized that all but two of our strands of Christmas lights had burned out, I sent Chris to the store to buy some of those new fangled LED lights for the tree. $33 later, he had 4 sets on the tree in hopes that the extra cost would be worth it in a reduced power bill.

Then we turned them on. After we had all the decorations and tinsel on the tree.

They are HIDEOUS. UGLY. AWFUL.

DO NOT BUY THE LED LIGHTS!!!!! Unless you intentionally want your Christmas tree to look cold and weird and blue and odd, in which case, buy away. But if you like your Christmas tree warm and cozy and sparkly and capable of inspiring fond, fuzzy memories for generations to come, stick with the old power guzzling variety. They may burn out fast, but at least they don't look like evil robots decorated your tree.

I realize this post is useless without pictures, but pictures don't capture this correctly. You'll just have to come by for a demonstration.

Happy Day After Thanksgiving!

2008-11-28T11:23:00.002-06:00

I was cooking and cooking and cooking yesterday - had a wonderful time doing it, too. My family was here (minus my brother in law, who was out hunting deer - we missed him!) and Chris' dad and stepmom brought Grandmother and the twins, so we had a houseful! Everyone talked and talked and ate and ate and would wander in and out of the kitchen while I was cooking. Lovely.

Chris is back at work today and I gave the kids the day off from school since we have Girl Scout cookie baking this afternoon anyway. My Brownies said they wanted to bake cookies for the Room in the Inn program at church, so that's what we're doing. Ten little girls in a kitchen with sugar and flour and hot ovens - I hope I come home sane! Actually, my girls are astoundingly good and sooo enthusiastic and fun that I'm sure we'll have a blast. I'll have a mess to clean up, but it will have been fun making the mess.

Now to focus on the Wine and Cheese party preparations. Whew!

When I am Empress........

2008-11-24T14:11:00.002-06:00

there shall be no viruses. They will be exiled to lifeless planets far, far away.

So last week I was voiceless and squeaking, but felt fine otherwise. That cold travelled into my chest, where it still didn't harass me much but allowed me to share it with Lillie. Then it made me and Lillie cough and cough and cough yesterday, which made us both MISERABLE. Today the cough is gone, but I'm sore as all get out and now my throat hurts. UGH. Meanwhile, Meg has fallen asleep on the sofa, which has happened about NEVER, so I suspect Teflon Girl is fighting off her share of the bug. Isn't this a great way to prepare for Thanksgiving?

I love all the ideas for my pretty fabric! I think I'll be making some napkins in the near future with other fabric (I'm up for a fabric store trip, Christina!), but will probably make that sling purse with the prettiness I have now. Yaay! Thank you, ladies!

Okey doke, time for more tea.

Teach me something!

2008-11-21T18:58:00.002-06:00

I have two pieces of lovely pink patterned fabric that Karen gave me to make into a skirt last year - remember that skirt project we were going to make that I got everyone all excited about and then I didn't get to do it? Yeah, that one - and I'm itching to make something for myself out of them. Each piece is about a yard, so I can do something but not clothes. So, crafty friends, what should I do? It needs to be easy 'cause I'm dumb at sewing. I would love a personal tutorial. We do NOT have to do it this weekend. :)

So give me your ideas. The winner gets to claim "I taught Kate how to sew."

Squeak squeak

2008-11-17T17:39:00.003-06:00

If you know me, you know I like to talk. A lot. And it SUCKS having this cold because I can't talk for long without it either hurting or losing my voice. So I'm trying to be more particular about what I'm saying, especially to the kids. Yelling just isn't working or even possible, so I have to THINK about what I say before I say it. Which is what I ought to do a lot more of anyway. My dad's mantra when I was growing up was "Think before you speak." I hate it when I realize my dad was always right.

The lovely Karen made the best Indian dinner for us all last night and now all I can think about is Saturday night at Tandoor with Charly and eating more jasmine rice and naan and prawn pasanda and a mango lassi. Drool drool drool. My girlfriends are all excellent cooks, which makes me very happy to think about our future commune and all the good eating I'm going to do when we all move there!

One last thing: Why don't children understand when you say "NO roughhousing" that yanking on each other and pulling arms and sitting on each other IS roughhousing? Someone always gets hurt. (I seem to remember my mom saying that all the time too............)

Rockin' like it's 1987. Geez I'm old.

2008-11-15T22:14:00.005-06:00

I was trying to save money by canceling my subscription to Rhapsody, but alas, I fell off the wagon and signed up again today. I can't stand not having my music!!!! Yes, it's all 80s alternative and sappy female vocalists and pop music, but it's mine and darn it I like it. As I'm typing, I'm listening to Echo and the Bunnymen's "Lips Like Sugar" and it's 1987 all over again. Pining for MRM, dressing all in black and borrowing Sally's hoop earrings for a night out with Curt. Good times!

Meanwhile, my husband is listening to someone singing "Muskrat Love" to her Guinea pig on YouTube. Yup, my $15 a month is WORTH IT.

I remember why I forgot....

2008-11-14T17:33:00.002-06:00

I finished The Witching Hour yesterday and now remember why I didn't have any recollection of this book: The ending SUCKS. Hugely. Terribly. Wretchedly. I hated the ending (if you couldn't already tell). Most of the book is pleasant in the typical Anne Rice way: Over-written, but you don't mind because it's so gothy and dramatic and supernatural. But Witching Hour's end leaves the door completely wide open for a sequel - there is NO satisfactory ending to THIS story at all. UGH. Bleh bleh bleh.

And instead of jumping into a Jane Austen mystery as I had planned, I picked up A Maze of Murders by C.L. Grace. I'm on the last chapter and have thoroughly enjoyed this one! Yes, it's more medieval historical mystery, but it definitely holds up to Ellis Peter's Brother Cadfael and Margaret Frazer's series. I'll be hunting for more of these Kathryn Swinbrooke series!

As for non-book related things, I have to recommend a movie to moms of girls ages 4-10 or so: the new Tinker Bell movie. Lillie got this for her birthday (good job Nana!) and I expected it to be garbage. HOORAY! It's a charming little movie! I stayed engaged and interested for the entire film and was pleased with the moral of the story. So much of what Disney puts out has pitiful excuses for "heroines" for little girls - smart-alecky, overly mature "it" girls that are certainly NOT what I want my daughters to be. But thanks to the influence of Pixar, Tinker Bell instead encourages girls to embrace who they really are and appreciate their own strengths. The only antagonist in the film is cocky and focused on popularity; Tinker Bell's friends are kind and gentle and more interested in excelling in their own fields than in being popular or "it." It's a refreshing little movie - consider putting it on your Christmas list.

Woah - I'm lame.

2008-11-11T21:11:00.002-06:00

Geez, it's November 11 and I haven't posted since October 21? That's pitiful. And I have been reading a lot in that time period, so I guess I'd better catch up here.

I finished The Long Winter and went on to read Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years and The First Four Years. Little Town was MUCH more upbeat than Winter was; I suppose they were so damned happy they hadn't starved to death that everything seemed better. Happy Golden Years covers the beginning of Laura's teaching career and I find it hilarious since I can relate to teaching several age levels at once. This is also the book where Almanzo begins courting Laura, but reading it is bizarre, because Laura is much more interested in his horses than she is in him. I couldn't figure out why he kept coming to see her since she was so rude to him over and over. They were married for 64 years and went through incredibly difficult circumstances their entire married lives, so there must have been more there than is portrayed in the books. First Four Years is a bummer again; Laura told Almanzo he had 4 years to make it as a farmer and he barely scrapes it out. Again, glad I'm not a pioneer girl.

Now I am fully engaged in a dirty, guilty pleasure: Anne Rice. As I mentioned earlier, we used books to decorate for Halloween, and when I finished Laura, I grabbed The Witching Hour from the mantel. Chris gave this to me years ago when I was still recovering from my Goth period, and I'm sure I read it, but it didn't stick with me AT ALL. So I'm getting to enjoy it all over again. Nothing like Anne Rice to get your blood flowing and make you happy to be an insomniac. Witches, ghosts, crazy family bloodlines and really well written sex scenes. Oh yeah.

So, OF COURSE, what's the reasonable thing to read after all the supernatural sexiness? Jane Austen of course! Or Jane Austen mysteries to be more exact. Jane and the Wandering Eye is waiting for me on the bedside table.

Blah. Pffft. Ugh. Bleh.

2008-10-21T13:44:00.002-05:00

That's about how I feel right now. A general malaise. Everything irritates me or annoys me or makes me mad, and then I feel bad about being grumpy. I have no energy, am sleepy all day long, but am not sleeping well at night. I want to drink coffee, but that just makes me grumpier. I've quit eating chocolate after 5 pm - doesn't matter. Still sleepless and bitchy.

I'm going to blame this all on the weather. Or at least the light. Yes, it is painfully beautiful and the grass has never looked greener (a feat at Chez Smith) and the sky is achingly blue on the days when there are no clouds. But that light that is so poetic and fancy looking in pictures does something to my psyche. I know it means winter is coming, and the leaves are falling and while brisk weather is great, cold damp weather just sucks. And this light means cold and damp are straight ahead. Ugh. I need to go back to Florida.

Instead, a much cheaper option, is borrowing The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder from the library. I checked it out intending to read it to the girls but have devoured it myself over three sleepless nights instead. I'm trying to take from it that at least we don't have 7 months of hard winter and nothing to eat but potatoes and home-ground hard wheat bread. Man, what a depressing book. I guess that's why it stuck with me though I only read it once. BLEAK. If I had been Ma Ingalls, I would have left that jerk years ago and headed back East to stay with family. Pa was a jerk, I don't care how nice Michael Landon made him seem.

Now I'm going to try to boost my mood by doing something fun with the kids. And then we'll take poor old Dr. Frank the Cat to the vet to find out why his fur is falling out. Poor old kitty.

Anticipation.......

2008-10-16T12:17:00.003-05:00

Saturday I printed almost 300 pictures and am awaiting their arrival in the mail from Snapfish. I am soooo ready to do some scrapbooking with new pictures! Tell some stories. Remember some memories. Laugh a little. Play with my goodies (and by that I mean my scrapbooking goodies). The weather today is dreary and gray and perfect for some good music, a cup of tea, and playing with pens and paper.

But I am being good and educating my beasties instead. We've done 3 solid hours of work - whoo hoo! - and the kids are now at recess. I'm going to make lunch in a bit, then back at the work for a few more hours; we're doing the Assyrians and the Hebrews in history, and they're both fun. Lots to work with. But no taekwondo this afternoon, so maybe, just maybe, I can scrap a bit while the kids watch a movie. Please?

I'm not sure Jesus or Julie Johnson would approve

2008-10-14T15:06:00.002-05:00

Melissa Hunter has passed along a hilarious book: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. Irreverent, hilarious, clever and lots of fun. After I get the kids off to bed tonight and Chris goes downstairs to write, I'm turning off my electronic heroin (re: the computer) and am going to read read read. This is total fluff and I'm loving in.

Halloween decorations

2008-10-11T15:13:00.003-05:00

Last weekend we spent time putting out our Halloween decorations. I've collected a few pieces over the years, but this year I wanted things to be a little spookier and more subtle than in years past. After placing candles, plastic spiders, Edgar the Stuffed Owl and silly pumpkin lights, I was a little stumped as to how to fill out the rest of the spaces. Then it came to me: Books. I knew we had several Anne Rice tomes on the shelves and figured there were other spooky titles around that we could "flesh" out our decor with. So Creepy Book Titles became our theme.

Here are the stacks we have around:
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Frankenstein
The Stranger
Einstein's Monsters
The Witching Hour

All Hallow's Eve
The Hunger
Interview with the Vampire
Memnoch the Devil

To Kill a Mockingbird (with a bird on top of the book - ha!)
Midnight Boy
Misery
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Castle of Otranto
The Haunting of Hill House
Thirteen Stories

The Dead Zone
Dead-Eye Dick
Dead Babies
The Tale of the Body Thief
Neil's Book of the Dead
Remains of the Day
Nightwork
The Shining

Death Be Not Proud
Le Morte d'Arthur
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Body Farm
and Finnegan's Wake

At first glance, nothing seems unusual. But I hope people will take a second to stop and look and get the joke.

Oh, new books. I forgot.

2008-10-03T11:57:00.002-05:00

My mom lent me Left to Tell by Imaculee Ilibagiza and I finished it the other day. Compelling and horrific story. Imaculee was a young college student in Rwanda when the genocide of the Tutsi people by the Hutus began. I remember the horror I felt when I would hear on the radio the number of people being killed each day in Rwanda, yet our government did nothing to intervene. Left to Tell fills in the blanks of the background of the genocide for me, so I understand how the situation came about, but that only makes the U.S. refusal to get involved more pitiful, and points to our neglect of today's situation in Darfur.

While Left to Tell shares an important history, Ilibagiza's main point is that we must all find God's forgiveness and allow it to transform us. I always find it difficult to read people's individual testaments of faith because our language dulls incredibly emotional experiences and turns them into cliches. Ilibagiza suffers from this as well (C.S. Lewis is the sole exception I've found), but her conviction is still inspiring.

Now I'm reading The Book of Flying by Keith Miller. Chris' sister gave it to me, raving that it is the best book she has ever read. Out of respect to her, I'm going to stick through it to the end, but so far, I'm having trouble with it. The premise of a young librarian in love with a girl with wings, and who embarks on a journey to earn wings of his own, isn't my usual genre, and the writing is quirky, to say the least. Lots of lengthy and laborious alliteration, not limited to lists and their ilk. A little bit of that goes a long way.....and Miller stretches and stretches. Pico, the librarian, isn't a compelling character yet, and the next main character we meet, the Robber Queen, is fun to read but discarded quickly. Like I said, I'll keep going, but reluctantly.

Next up: The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Christina, it had better be good! And after that, I'm going to find some really juicy, good historical fiction and wallow in it.

No! You did not! Get out of here!

2008-10-03T11:52:00.002-05:00

I did! I scrapbooked! Who would have thought? But I did, yes ma'am, three pages in one sitting.

Now, I'm not saying they are good pages, but I did them, and that's the important point. I sit at this desk, surrounded by all the goodies I've bought over the years, with tons of old pictures in boxes waiting to be preserved, and empty albums to boot, but there is always something else to do. A book to read. A New York Times to finish. A load of laundry to be washed. A friend to talk to. All of which are good, valuable, necessary and wholesome things. But scrapbooking is my art medium (stop laughing at me!) and I have been DRY. Dry as Clarksville in September. I've taken pictures, I've read blogs, I've thumbed through old albums - nothing is inspiring me. I can admire what other people have been doing, but me: Bleh. Nada. And it's sooo frustrating, so I haven't even tried.

But I did the other night. And finished three pages. And that has to count for something. Right?

GO. GET. THIS. BOOK.

2008-09-29T21:49:00.002-05:00

Now. I'm serious - right now. I turned it in to the library this morning, so it's probably still there, just waiting for the next person to check it out and enchant them as it has me.

The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson is going on my Top 10 Fun Reads list (which is different from the favorite books of all time; a good read and a favorite read are not necessarily the same thing. Discuss!). A woman receives a handbook on embroidery stitches as a gift, only to discover within the handbook the story of Cat, a young woman in Cornwall in 1625 who years to see more of the world than her uncle's home and a marriage to her cousin. I don't want to spoil anything else for you, because finding out Cat's story alongside the story of Julia, the woman the book has come to, makes this a double "can't put it down" read. Warning: teensy bit of cheesiness in the final chapter, but not enough to ruin the rest of the story/stories! I want to pick this one up again right now and re-read it already. BUT - instead, I've returned it to CMCPL so you can get it next. GO! The library opens at 9 am. Be there.

By request :)

2008-09-24T22:11:00.004-05:00

You asked for it, you got it. My favorite books of all time that you MUST sit down and read as soon as the kids will let you.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. If you haven't already read this, go find your high school English teachers and slap them around. Shame on them! I'm also attached to Harper because she and my grandmother were friends. I wish I could have sat around listening to the two of them talk.

2. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. The book that opened my eyes to the wider world as a third grader. My favorite babysitter gave it to me and I probably stayed up all night long with a flashlight to finish it. Meggers is named for the main character, Margaret "Meg" Murray.

3. The Little House books by L.I. Wilder. I re-read these when I'm tired of heavy mental lifting and dreaming of the simple life. We just finished the first 5 with Meg and she loves them too and wants the rest of the series for Christmas. Yaay!

4. The History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes. A truly brilliant novel that I stupidly lent out to an acquaintance about 15 years ago and never got back. I need to hunt this one down again. I wish all books made me think and laugh this much.

5. Everything by Sharon Kay Penman. The BEST historical fiction writer I have ever found, hands down. Incredible storytelling, unforgettable characters and rock solid history. Start with When Christ and His Saints Slept and just see if you can't resist reading the rest of her work.

6. Lord of the Rings by Tolkein. Yes, I am an uber geek. And most LOTR fans would beat me to death for saying so, but I think J.R.R. would have done well with a bit more forcible editor. However, I've read this book once a year since the movies came out and still find something new to fascinate me each time. In defense of myself, I had not read LOTR until Chris took me to see Jackson's Fellowship. Someone had recommended LOTR to me in third grade and I bought The Return of the King by accident - oops. Nothing made a lick of sense, so I quit reading and figured the friend was a nut. Wish I'd read it back when, in correct order!

7. Illusions by Richard Bach. My best friend Rita gave this to me as a gift in college, telling me to listen to what Bach was trying to say. Then she helped me fall in love with the Episcopal church. Which explains my off-kilter Christian beliefs, I think. :) Wonderful book.

8. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Incredible storytelling. After starting this one, I had to go back and read my Old Testament to put it in perspective.

9. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. The book that made me a Christian. Thank you Cheri.

10. The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. My educational heroine and inspiration. I have already worn out one copy and bought my second, and I've only been homeschooling for 5 years. It will either make you want to homeschool or at the very least wish you'd had an education like this.

So there you have it! Let me know how your list compares.

Ahhh..........relaxing and reading......

2008-09-23T13:56:00.003-05:00

We got back from the beach Sun. night and it was then that I realized I read three books while we were down there - yaay me! I started another while we were there and was given two others, so I have lots of good reading to come too.

First up was "Mr. Darcy's Diary" by Amanda Grange. My dear friend Shirley, who is a fellow Austenphile, recommended it and she was spot on. Grange is brilliant at channeling Austin, but this one is Pride and Prejudice from Darcy's viewpoint. Dreamy! I flew through this one in less than 2 days.

Next up was "Falling Angels" by Tracy Chevalier, which was interesting while I was reading it, but since it took me about 20 minutes to remember what the book was about and I then had to google the author to figure out the title, it obviously wasn't one that sticks with you. I adored Chevalier's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and liked her "The Lady and The Unicorn" as well, so I hoped this one would be as inspired. Ehn. Not so much, but like I said, a pleasant though not memorable read.

When I finished it, I picked up "Crossed" by Nicole Galland, which I had brought as my heavy reading. It wasn't grabbing me, however, and since Timo had just finished reading Crichton's "The Lost World" I picked it up instead. Zoom! Gotta love Crichton. He's definitely a page turner. Timo was fascinated by the idea of chaos theory and that humans could be bringing about another extinction, and I have to admit, it is scary/exciting to think about. It stirred lots of conversations about protecting the environment and being stewards of the earth.

Now I'm working on Crossed again (too much modern speech for characters set in the 1200s if you ask me), and in the wings sit "Live to Tell" which Mom gave me. She met the author at a church dinner and was very moved by her story. Not a cheerful read, but something important that I will get to. Christina gave me Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" which I promised to try even though all the other McCarthy I've tried has given me headaches. I'll give it a shot for Christina's sake.

In between the books, I'm trying to catch up with a week's worth of The Leaf-Chronicle, two Newsweeks, the latest Domino and Reader's Digest, and emails. I think I'll get caught up right before we go out of town again this weekend. Whew.

Kate vanquishes the computer demons!

2008-09-10T21:03:00.002-05:00

I have no clear idea how I did it, but when I found that file on the computer last night - the one that had all the numbers and letters strung together and included files in Arabic and THAI - and deleted it, I managed to fix the *#&$^% computer!!!!! Yaaay me! So THERE, tech services folks! Yeah, like I need you! Bah! (Just a hint: AdAware and SpyBot are MUSTS on your computer. And Firefox is a good thing too.)

So instead of blogging the past few nights, I've been reading! Karen passed along "Remembering Blue" by Connie May Fowler. I read Fowler's "Before Women Had Wings" back when we lived in Tallahassee. I don't remember tons about it - main character has an obscure bird's name, abuse, solace found in crazy old black lady who protects her - but had a positive memory about the book. I'll probably say the same of "Remembering Blue" in a few years. The main character isn't quite believeable and the language is slightly too literary and stilted, but since it is set in my absolute favorite place on the face of this earth - Franklin County, Florida, home to Apalachicola, Carabelle and my beloved St. George Island - and Fowler has pegged the area EXACTLY, I am enjoying it, if for nothing more than stirring my anticipation of our beach trip coming up next week. Ahh, I can smell the beach breeze already.

A quick note on my newest fountain pen: LOVE it. Writes reliably, the ink cartridges are surprisingly long lasting, and it has a lovely fine nib. Thank you Tato and Paige!

I have started one scrapbook page this week of Timo skateboarding. I hope I finish before we go to St. George, but doubt I'll find the time between laundry, packing and planning. Which I really ought to be doing NOW. Ah well.

Zzzzzz.........

2008-09-04T13:58:00.003-05:00

Timo inhaled "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" last Saturday afternoon, so I said I'd read it so we could talk about it. Ugh, sorry I said that. It's only 77 pages, but just not a compelling read. I'm stuck on page 26 and have no urge to keep going, except that I know my boy expects me to. The good side: Lots of great vocabulary words!

I'm headed to the library in a bit in order to finish up homeschooling books for this week and next, and to start scoping for books to read at the beach. I believe I'll pick up some Jodi Picoult but don't know what else to look for. I can hope I'll get browsing time in, but it's doubtful.

Zoom! The good ones go by too fast

2008-09-01T10:14:00.002-05:00

The ending of a book can complete or ruin the entire story for me. If it's unrealistic or too put together, I'm irritated at the author for not having the vision to know where his/her story is going. Not often enough, I dread the last few pages because I know it's coming to an end and I don't want it to - I want to keep living in this world. (Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings do this to me every single time.)

"Thousand Splendid Suns" wasn't quite to the "NOOO! Don't let it end!" level, but only because the ending was perfectly written. Hosseini tied up loose ends and made his tale satisfying without making it to precious and twee. Beautiful prose, stirring description, heart breaking in it's connection to reality, living, breathing characters and inspiring, this book brings to life Afghanistan, it's people, and the struggles the women and children face under Islamic law. I finished reading and felt I have to do something now. This is the BEST kind of writing there is.

I recently read Greg Mortensen's "Three Cups of Tea" which means I'm on a bit of an Afghani women streak here. That book touched me deeply as well, so I went digging around to see what kind of awareness and financial support programs are available through Mortensen's site. Looks like I just missed hearing him speak nearby: http://www.threecupsoftea.com/Intro.php
darn it. But here is a good organization that has shown it can affect change: https://www.ikat.org/ I'm looking into the Pennies for Peace campaign for my Girl Scout troop to sponsor and maybe as a project at the church too.

Now onto the next book: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Timo started asking about it this past week and read it in one sitting yesterday. He liked it "okay" he said, so I'm going to read it now and we'll discuss it this week. Lots of high-power vocabulary words (thank you Robert Louis Stevenson!) and possibly an essay out of this one.

And now I suppose I should go rally Chris to finish caulking and painting the front door. Ugh. Why did we think this was a good idea? I don't remember.

FINALLY! I finished the damn thing......

2008-08-28T20:25:00.002-05:00

I can give Pillars of the Earth back to Jan. I am done. Such a frustrating book. The story was.....okay? The writing was pedestrian and whoever edited that thing must have gotten as irritated as I did because they did a crappy job. One of the female characters was described as "sexy" - Excuse me? This is in the 1140s! Women were not sexy back then, nor were they "hot" in the 1130s, as he describes two women early in the book. ARGH. I have no doubt that women were attractive, even beautiful, in the middle ages, but I am sorry. People who bathe only twice a year, wear the same clothes for months on end, live with their cattle and have lice are NOT sexy or hot. Find some new adjectives, Mr. Follett.

In better news, finishing that damned book allows me to do something around the house again. Since we've got this week off from homeschooling, I have read that book but have done NOTHING resembling housekeeping. The dog hair has formed tumbleweeds, laundry piles abound, and the girls have taken to creating forts out of blankets, pillows and random chairs in the playroom. I have managed to keep the kitchen sanitary (I do have my limits) but since the garbage disposal on/off seal isn't working, extra vigilance is required in there this week. Everything must go in compost or in the bag in the freezer to go out on trash day. Nothing goes in the disposal or in the garbage can due to the awful fruit fly problems of late. Plus, the dog realllllllly needs a bath and our carpet is beginning to remind me of that point every evening when the sun comes streaming in the playroom, warming said carpet. Funk-E.

So, tomorrow, I vow that I will make the kids put away their forts, clean up the playroom, and vacuum (and Febreze). I will wash three loads of laundry and (sigh) fold and put it away. I will clean off my desk. Well, I guess I could do that now..........hey! Look! It's the copy of "A Thousand Splendid Suns" I got at the library the other day. Hmmm, maybe I should read this instead......

Yeah, housekeeping can wait until the weekend.

We love the library!

2008-08-27T14:31:00.002-05:00

It is truly one of my favorite places in Clarksville (some of the others are Trinity Episcopal Church, Hodgepodge, the Blackhorse Pub and Tandoor, by the way) and it tickles me no end that my kids feel the same way. Today we returned 12 DVDs/videos and 20 books; played with our friend Koen; found 10 more books to check out; picked up a book on reserve; played with Little People; read in a quiet corner; talked to my friend Christina; used the computer card catalog to look things up; played in the bathtub; made a new friend; and talked to our favorite circulation employee, Vanya. (No movies today because they keep leaving the library DVDs out of the cases, and until they keep our DVDs in the cases for a week, they can't be trusted with someone else's - make sense?) How many other places can you do that many different things and not have to pay a dime? So cool. One of these days (read: When Lillie graduates from homeschool) I hope to work there. But I hope Miss Jean, Miss Mary and Miss JJ are still working there so I can work with them.

I picked up A Thousand Splendid Suns (thanks for returning it, Christina!) to read for our book club, Under the Covers. I have until Sept 12 to finish it, which is totally do-able if I can get through Pillars of the Earth. I'm about 2/3 of the way through it now and if I'm lucky, can spend the rest of my homeschooling-week-off finishing it up. Then I have to come up with something to read at the beach - whoo hoo! Another trip to library! :)

Focused

2008-08-26T13:54:00.002-05:00

Mom and Dad kept the girls for us last weekend so we could help Chris' sister and hubby move in. While M&L were with Nana and Grandaddy, they went to the Frist Center for the Arts, one of our favorite field trip locations. Nana's main reason for going was to see the Tiffany glass exhibit before it closed, but the girls were focused on ArtQuest, the hands-on children's art area. They LOVE this place. Both of them are more artistically inclined than Timo and happily spend several hours painting, constructing and learning. This past weekend, one of the docents commented to Mom (who used to work there), "This little one is so SERIOUS - and focused!"

And so she is. That picture is from last week when she decided to watch birds outside and then draw them. She sat out there for about an hour, watching and drawing. What not-yet-5 year old does that? Certainly not Meggers. And her drawings ended up being pretty darn good too. I think I may have to work on art lessons for her.

Pillars of the Earth

2008-08-26T12:25:00.002-05:00

Jan read this last month and gave it to me when she was done. She had warned me ahead of time that the writing "isn't literature," in her words, and she was right. Ugh. The first 1/5th of the book is a struggle to read. The prose is sooooo pedestrian and 5th grade and while the characters are vaguely interesting, they are also so two-dimensional that it's hard to stir up enough energy to keep reading. I finally got over the hump and got engaged in the main character, Prior Philip, enough to want to see how he manages to get his cathedral built. I'm now halfway through and the writing hasn't improved much (I just read about how one character hopes another gets his "just deserts" - WTF? Edit much?) but I've gotten this far, so I want to see how everything ends up. So far, it's a 2 1/2 out of 5 stars, and I don't expect it to get any more.

Write it myself

2008-08-25T13:03:00.000-05:00

Rather than wasting so much time running down the rabbit hole of reading other people's blogs and wishing I had their perfect lives, I'm going to document my own totally less than perfect life and brush up on my writing skills at the same time. Plus it will make me download my pictures from the camera more often, help me keep track of things to scrapbook, and hopefully be fun. I shall see.

Chris gave me a beautiful pen from Hodgepodge for my birthday (or Mother's Day - I can't remember which, since they're so close together!), but it had an italic nib. Well, I can't stand to write fat, so I finally got around to getting a new nib for it last week, and it came in today's mail. LOVE this pen now. Beautiful. And it has written reliably all day long, which is a good sign. Yaay! Thank you Tato.

Also working on planning for the St. George Island trip next month. I still want to find a way to bring bikes down there, but rental for the 5 of us for the week would be $200. We gave away our old bike rack (stupid) and a new one would carry at most 3 bikes, leaving us to rent only two (cheaper), but the new rack would cost about $100 (not cheaper). ARGH! Still trying to figure this one out without spending an arm and a leg. On a good note, however, Chris' sister and brother in law have offered to keep the dog at their new house while we go on vacation (an excellent way to say thank you for us helping them move this weekend). That saves a cool $180 bucks - yaay! Oooh, must remember to call the vet's office and cancel our reservation for the beast.

We are taking off work from homeschooling this week. I was feeling so burned out last week only to discover on Thursday that - duh - it was because we had been going for 7 weeks straight. So we are having fun this week, no formal classes required. So far today the kids have cut up cardboard boxes to play with, read some books and made a fort upstairs. They have also asked me about a thousand times, "What are we doing today?" Whatever you want, baby; whatever you want.

I slept weird on my neck and have an awful kink in it. I'll put poor Chris to work rubbing it out when he gets home, but in the meantime, I wish I could find my heating pad. :(