Well, yesterday was our SEVENTEENTH wedding anniversary. Don't try to figure out how old this must make me. :-) This Halloween will be the TWENTIETH anniversary of our first date. Remind me to tell that story sometime. :-) We celebrated by going out to lunch at Applebee's, sans kids.
I also decided to let dh have one of the things I had ordered for him for Father's Day. Deseret Book helpfully sent HIM the confirmation email instead of me, so he already knew what it all was anyway, lol. (Deseret Book did that in REVERSE a couple of Christmases ago, sending ME the confirmation email for my own gift from dh, lol) So I gave him the new DVD of The Work and the Glory II: American Zion. We decided to pop it in last night. We had enjoyed the first Work and the Glory movie, naturally we felt the book was better, but still, we had liked it.
Not so with this one, I'm afraid. Not only was it only very LOOSELY based on the books, it even played loose with the facts of Church history, and I for one cannot understand why on earth they would need to change the amazing true story of Church history around for a movie.
For starters, I was pretty irritated at the departures from the book. Benjamin Steed did NOT go on march with Zion's Camp. Melissa Steed was NOT a whiny, backtalking brat who ought to have been whipped. Some of the very best segments of the book were totally left out. The movie left the viewer wondering why on earth Jessica did not go back with that nice Joshua, especially since in the MOVIE version of their fight, Joshua got hurt much worse than did Jessica.
Some of the most dramatic scenes, some of them true Church history scenes, were totally left out, including a favorite of mine, the true and amazing story of the boatful of pioneers led to Ohio by Lucy Mack Smith, and the story of how her faith got them through when other pioneers were stranded by ice. Where on earth was this story? The scene at Fishing River, when the Lord protected Zion's Camp--it was there, but not nearly as amazing and dramatic as it could have been. It came across as rather flat, in fact. I am left to wonder if the producers simply didn't have enough money to do it right, or whether they just weren't as moved by these true stories and wanted to hype up the Benjamin-Joshua-Nathan conflicts artificially instead.
The departures from real Church history are what bugged me the most. I kept telling my kids "Just forget this, this is NOT how it happened!" Perhaps the Lucy Mack Smith and ice part was left out on purpose because Joseph and Emma arrived in Kirtland, in a wagon, in the SPRING with the trees already leafed out, not in February in the snow in a sleigh. Why mess with that? The movie has the scene in which Joseph Smith was drug out of his home in Kirtland, taken from his sick baby he was comforting, and beaten and tarred and feathered, all messed up too. In the movie, the baby dies DURING the night while Lucy Smith cleans the tar off of Joseph and Emma sits in a chair crying. (another side note, I did not think Emma was portrayed as the strong woman she really was in this film either) Then, after being cleaned up, Joseph goes to work at the TEMPLE site, leaving bereaved Emma alone. That is not what happened either! EMMA was part of the cleaning up of Joseph, the baby did not die that night, but 2 or 3 days later, and Joseph did not go to work at the temple site the next morning, but preached at Sunday services. Why on earth do we need to change this story? The movie has Joseph making prophecies and predictions that he did in fact make, but many of them were made much later than the movie has it--after the temple was completed, or even in Nauvoo, not Kirtland.
I must admit to being disappointed. If the real story was changed to reflect what the director and producers want to have happened, then their vision of the story is far from my own. If it just reflects time and money constraints, then they should wait until they have the means, and then tell the story RIGHT.
I could handle departures from the book storyline. After all, it's not the Gospel, it's a work of fiction. But I have a much harder time overlooking departures from the truth of Church history. This is a story deserving of Academy Award-quality filmmaking. All the drama, faith, tragedy, pain, overcoming love are all in the story already. Why tamper with it? It certainly cannot be improved upon. It was written by the Master Storyteller Himself, and cast carefully and deliberately with the best He had to offer. It's a shame to see it reduced and manipulated like any other "plot element"

I have an Ambleside Online success to report today! I began using parts of Ambleside for our curriculum last fall. The booklists looked so attractive. I jumped right in with parts of years 2 and 4 for my children. One of the books about which I was most excited was Kidnapped--I read it for the first time right before giving it to my oldest son. I was sure he was going to love it! He read it according to schedule, without complaint, but he was NOT as excited about it as I had hoped. He loved the science and nature type books, and gave relatively decent narrations from Kidnapped, but when asked if he liked it, he'd say "It's OK" and occasionally his narrations would make me wonder if he really got all the details sorted out or not. I was mildly disappointed but just figured he needed more practice.
When someone mentioned Masterpiece Theater was doing Kidnapped, we taped it but put it aside so we wouldn't be tempted to watch it until after Tallman had finished the book. So, finally, some time after he finished it, we popped the tape in last night. Imagine my surprise and delight when he excitedly began to fill his dad and brothers in on all the details, and also telling them about all the places the book differed. He remembered so much more than I thought he would, based on his narrations last fall and winter! I had been trying to "explain" things to the rest of the family, too, but after a little bit I had the good sense to shut up and just listen to my son. I was truly amazed at his understanding of the details and his enthusiasm! I asked him later what made the difference, and he admitted that he'd been thinking about the book ever since he read it, and liked it better all the time! It works! It really, truly works! :-) I am pretty happy right now, especially when I "broke" it to Tallman the other day, that one of the poets I had covered, out of order, was on his list of poets for Year 5, and I wanted him to repeat that poet, finding more poems. I thought that my science-and-nature guy would moan and complain at the prospect of repeating a poet. Instead, he said, "Cool! Kipling is my favorite anyway!" and went on to tell me about the poems he liked best. Astounding!
My only "problem"--my 9yo son who will be doing year 3 next year, wants to read Kidnapped NOW. He will have to wait for a while, however, because his dad has absconded with the book. :-)

Oh, it's here, it's here, it's finally here! It was a LONG wait for three excited little boys (and two pretty excited parents!) but finally, our pre-ordered collector's edition of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe is here! We're, um, on our second time through it since we got it home. It's not quite as perfect as seeing it in the theater, but it's ours and we can see it whenever we want!
We're on Spring Break and the boys had been annoying me a little with their desire to sit in front of the TV, but all other tv, movies, computer, etc. have been forgotten, and two kids have even brought books out to reread yet again, and PPM is pestering me to toss Dr. Dolittle, which he loved, and read him TLTWATW. So Narnia fever has struck my home again!
One boy even wants me to make him "armor" with Aslan's crest. LOL We might seem a little odd, but Narnia, and Lord of the Rings, aren't just movies at our house, and they aren't just stories, but they are part of our family culture and personality.
FOR NARNIA AND FOR ASLAN!!!

Quote of the Day:
Kindness in words creates confidence; kindness in thinking creates profoundness; kindness in giving creates love. Lao-tzu

What I am Reading Today: The Lord's Holy Days: Powerful Witnesses of Truth. My dear friend Becky told me about this book a while ago, and I'm just now getting around to reading it. It is amazing. It's connecting dots for me that I didn't even know were there. Heady stuff.

What We Are Watching . . . Again: OK. I'm really not a movie-crazed person. But all the male people in my house . . that is, everyone except me and one girl snake . . really like movies. So when I was in Nauvoo I picked up a video for them. I wanted to get them "Esther" from Liken the Scriptures, but it wasn't out yet. So I just grabbed something with boys on the front--"Follow Me, Boys", a Disney flick from the 60's with Fred MacMurray and a young Kurt Russell. OH, my. This is a truly great movie. It's based on a true story (and an out-of-print book I'm trying frantically to find) of a man who moves to a small Iowa town and begins a Scout troop to keep the boys out of mischief. He ends up marrying but being unable to have children, so he really adopts and gives his heart and soul to these boys. It shows through the years how he gave his time and love, and then at the end shows how much this was appreciated and meant--generations of boys now grown show up to honor him and what he gave to their lives. We laughed, we cried, we put it in again . . . and again. Fun Scout memories, boy hijinks, a campout that finds itself in the midst of "war games" during WWII--wow. It's like "Mr. Holland's Opus" except even more wholesome, even more self-sacrificing--and it came first! LOL They always tease me about "chick flicks" Well, this is a "guy flick" but one I love too. They just don't make them like this anymore. Highly recommended!

What I Wish I was Still Reading:
84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff. I finished this last night. HOW did I ever miss this book earlier in life? Sheer delight. My only complaint: I wish it were four times longer.

Up Next: American Places, by William Zinsser

Last Night: Watched "March of the Penguins" with the family. We all enjoyed it. I kept thinking as I was watching this story of penguin love and devotion, that if all things testify of Christ, surely there is a message in the story of these birds for the family in our day. If a PENGUIN family is worthy of such sacrifice, just to produce one chick, then what does that tell us about the value of an ETERNAL family? Perhaps I should complain less about the sacrifices I make for my own family; at least I don't have to go for months without food. :-) I wonder if I am the first person for whom watching "The March of the Penguins" created a desire to do genealogy. LOL

Calandria: Shall try to get Tallman to let me take a picture. He is camera-shy. He has a bunch of kits for building robots downstairs, and a bunch of assorted electronic components; I think he primarily uses the kits at this point. He has a bit of a "mad-scientist" thing going on in the basement so I rarely go look. ;-)