Tallman is growing up! He's wanted to be able to mow for years, but I insisted on his waiting until he was 12. Well, now he's 12, and the mowing job is his for the summer, and he's delighted! So is Dad. LOL

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. :-)

It's a beautiful Sunday here, sunshine and birdsong and a butterfly just flittered by. It's teasing me, trying to entice me outdoors and off the computer. Smart little creature, isn't it.

Sunday Thoughts:

1. I"m thankful for my new piano. OK, it's really an old piano. We've had a "piano fund" for ten years that keeps losing its money to something more pressing; yesterday we installed my friend's piano which she is giving us. I've always had this dream of my family gathered around singing hymns and carols while I play. LOL Well, it might have to wait for the grandchildren, but at least I have something to work on now. Cheery is interested in lessons, PMM just wants to make noise on it, and we're working on Tallman. My friends who play are amazed at the size of his hands and say he MUST learn to take advantage of those mammoth fingers. We'll see. :-)

2. I was lacking a bit in one of the talks I'll be giving next month, and I'm very grateful that this morning, I found an excerpt from a conference talk with just the thought I need. I'll be pressing it into service, and of course giving credit. :-)

3. This week has brought home to me once more just how critical an influence my reading material has upon my thoughts and mood. I was looking forward to reading a particular book, but got only to page 7 before finding a "fatal word" so I discarded it immediately. (Anyone who noted the titles on my to-read shelf---please take note and read Bill Bryson only with extreme caution--he's just been tossed out of my house on his ear.) So when I began another book I had been wanting to read, I didn't want to quit and toss it too. I began The Egg and I, by Betty MacDonald (yes, the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Betty MacDonald) You'd think the author of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle would be clean, especially since it was written in an earlier era. Well. It wasn't exactly awful, such that I HAD to get rid of it, but there were just some pernicious bad attitudes and habits in it, which I tried to shrug off, since the book WAS amusing. I periodically fear at times that constantly tossing books in protest of things that seem not to bother others means I must be unintelligent or at least on the road to becoming an anti-intellectual dud. At any rate, I kept telling myself this had come well-recommended and I should buck up and finish it. But last night I had to admit that it was having a depressing influence, that I just was not feeling the Spirit very strongly, that something was up. When I got up this morning, I had a few minutes to read, but very definitely knew I did NOT want to read that book before church. Well. So I decided just to quit reading the book, period--if it wasn't good for me before church it wasn't going to do me much good AFTER church, either. Then, naturally, there was a talk in sacrament meeting on this very thing. :-) Okay, Lord, I'm convinced again, the book is gone, replaced by something thoroughly wholesome, and I'll toss quicker next time I encounter the bookish equivalent of a spiritual wet blanket. :-)

These are the "stained glass windows" that the boys made as part of their Hands and Hearts Middle Ages Discovery Kit. Cheery's is on the left, and Tallman wouldn't make his own . . . but he consented to help PMM, so their collaborative effort is on the right. They had fun!

We took off early today and went to our local nature center for a nature walk. This stuffed mountain lion is part of a special traveling educational exhibit; we've "met" him on previous trips but decided to snap a photo today. We had a very adventurous nature walk--not from planning. Keep scrolling down. :-)

A redbud in bloom at the local nature center.

Not a terrific shot of the ubiquitous red-winged blackbird, but he was a funny fellow and we wanted to add him to the blog anyway. :-)

Eastern goldfinch at a bird feeder at our nature center. We were in a bird blind.

THIS MONSTER KILLER GOOSE ATTACKED US!
Yes, I know he looks harmless and peaceful now, but under those composed feathers lurks a violent antisocial personality. After chasing us away from one side of a pond, we hastily removed to the OTHER side, only to be treated to a stealth attack! Without warning or noise, we found ourselves suddenly descended upon by a furious Canada goose, who chased off the two smaller children and viciously beat Tallman and me to the ground, mercilessly whipping us with his wings! We still bear battle scars. Bucolic nature retreat? NO! Rather, a scene of many vicious criminal attacks.
Never a dull moment in our family nature study. :-)

Tallman playing at the local playground. We sort of had an interesting experience. In his 12yo, approaching teen-ness, he decided he did not want to leave when we said we had to get home. In fact, he climbed to the top of the rock-climbing wall and nonchalantly sat there as we prepared to leave. We gave him several warnings, loaded into the van, drove by the playground entrance and waited a couple of minutes--still on the wall. Well. So we left him there and drove home. (Relax, this wasn't child abuse, we live maybe a 10-15 minute walk away.) We decided to let him fret a few minutes and exercise himself to get home. Fortunately for him, a friend of mine was leaving the playground and saw him there, and offered him a ride home, but I guess he did experience a few minutes of "Hey, I didn't really think they'd do that!" LOL Parenting is not for wimps. :-)

Cheery receiving his Religious Square Knot award last night, presented by the bishop--his daddy! Way to go, Cheery!

Cheery and PMM playing at a local playground.

A lone pelican.

More pelican pictures!

Pelican pictures!

We had a "wild day" today--we just HAD to go outside and enjoy the world around us a little. We called off school early, about 10 am, and headed out the door. We drove first to a nearby wooded park, where we sat and listened to bird sounds. We watched a really cute mallard duck couple, listened to and watched a beautiful red-winged blackbird, then--treat of treats--saw a bluebird couple. A rare treat in town! We were all thrilled. We did not have our camara, just Tallman's Zire, and he couldn't get a good picture. But we were happy anyway! Then, on our way to Target to buy bubble-gun replacements (we had a major argument over the one unbroken gun yesterday, lol) we drove by the local lagoon system (really ox-bow lakes from when the river was straightened by the Army Corps of Engineers) and saw some American pelicans. That isn't unusual during migration season, but when we drove down behind the mall to take a better look--there were HUNDREDS. That IS unusual! Tallman did get one photo on the Zire, and some video, but it isn't very clear. We will try to return with the digital camera tomorrow and see if we can catch them again. PMM was astonished at how huge they are! We are happy birders today, and now the boys are happily chasing each other with their new bubble-guns. We really needed that today! We are refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the week. :-)

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!!!

ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO!
Well, ONE speech is pretty much completed--will need some refining & lots of oral practice later, but the basic info & organization is all done. Naturally, it was the easier one. :-) But still. It is somewhat encouraging to only have ONE left to write. Now, if I could just figure out what I wanted to say . . .
I had a moment during the RS re-enactment conference, while reading in the Book of Mormon, that seemed insightful at the time but now I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. Basically, I felt I'd been asking the wrong questions--I'd been begging "Lord, what do I say?" and felt I needed to respond more like Nephi--"Lord, where may I go that I might find ore to make tools?" So I've been asking where to go for "ore" but still am lost. So.
At any rate, I now have SOMETHING done, the sun is shining, hope is springing. I read for my Mother's Education Course last night, the conference talk "Perfection Pending" by Elder Russell M. Nelson. Below are some "hopeful quotes" to help me keep the sunshine all day:

We all need to remember: men are that they might have joy--not guilt trips!

The perfection that the Savior envisions for us is much more than errorless performance.

Endowments and sealings are for our personal perfection and are secured through our faithfulness.

"When he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is . . . And eery man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." 1 John 3:1-3

"Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness . . . love God with all your might, mind, and strength . . . [Then] ye may be perfect in Christ . . . holy, [and] without spot." Moroni 10:32-33

We need not be dismayed if our earnest efforts toward perfection now seem to arduous and endless. Perfection is pending.

Rambling on, last night for Family Home Evening, we played the matching game from the Friend that covered the Apostles' General Conference talks. The kids had a good laugh at some of the "artwork" we had to illustrate the talks. I ended up drawing President Monson's "Maka-feke" talk, and tried to draw an octopus, which induced great hilarity. LOL Anyway, we kept "quizzing" each other during the game, by holding up a picture of an Apostle and asking the kids who they were--we've been working on that this year. The older two are pretty good, but our 5yo kept us in stitches last night. Turns out the NAMES are pretty familiar to him, and he can even get the FIRST names matched with the pictures pretty well, but he tends to scramble up the last names. Hence, he'd give us answers like "L. Tom Nelson" and "Dieter F. Wirthlin" or "David A. Monson" It was hysterical! It's funny, he even gets the initial letters correct, just mixes up the last names. Too funny!

I don't really know why I'm posting this, I haven't made it recently and likely will not be making it any time soon, but it really is very very luscious. :-)


Feather Bread from Irions Honey Farm

10 cups freshly milled white wheat flour
3 Tbsp yeast
1/2 cup dry milk powder
3 cups warm water
2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup honey
2 Tbsp dough enhancer (commercial, or just lecithin or vitamin C powder will work)
4 large eggs
4 tsp sea salt
In mixer, mix 5 cups flour, water, dry milk, yeast, honey and oil. Let sponge for 10-15 minutes. Then pulse until deflated, and add remainder of flour, dough enhancer, eggs, and salt. Mix until smooth for five minutes on kneading speed of your mixer. Dough will not clean sides of bowl for at least 2 minutes. Very moist dough! Oil hands and counter top to handle, then shape as desired--it makes 4 lovely 8x4in. loaves, or rolls, cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, whatever. :-) Let rise again, then bake at 350 (about 20 minutes for 8x4 loaf pans) Yummy! I found that the dough is so soft that loaves keep shape better if you shape them by braiding. I got so I could do this as fast as I used to be able to just make plain loaves. Beautiful soft yummy bread

Well, it's been a while since I managed to post here. It's been a very difficult week in our ward, and a difficult week for me personally, and I just haven't had it together enough to be posting. Hopefully I'm getting sorted out.
Anyway, I've been drained, and not spending any time on the speeches I need to give in a matter of weeks, and verging on panic.
I do need to make a note--if anyone has been looking at my previous posts and looked at the books on my list of "to be read's" then please consider Crusoe's Daughter removed from my list. I began it and nearly immediately ran into an unnecessary crude scene--it's outta here. :-)
I can hardly believe it--Tallman went tonight with dh to Priesthood Session of conference. I'm not sure I was ready for that somehow! It seemed like it ought to be a "big moment" but he just got dressed and waltzed out the door like it was something he'd done before. LOL I'm not sure that was enough for his mama. The really scary thing is that in seven years, I'll be sitting here ALL BY MYSELF on Saturday nights during General Conference. Yikes.
Anyway. What a week. I am working up to my fourth migraine in the week, my basement is soggy and wet, more rain is expected tonight, and MY SPEECHES ARE NOT WRITTEN. Someone remind me not to hyperventilate.

THE MONSTER STACK
OK, I really ought to be doing something else, but I don't want to yet, so I thought I'd share the Monster Stack by my bed, waiting to be read. Maybe if I mention them they won't give up on me, or sneak up on me at night and smother me. :-)
On My Bedside Bookcase: (yes, others have stands, I have a bookcase)
Wanderings, by Chaim Potok

The Swiss Family Robinson, Johann Wyss (read)
Rob Roy, Walter Scott
The Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald
At the Back of the North Wind, George MacDonald
Then There Were Five, Elizabeth Enright (read)
Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Venerable Bede
Galileo's Daughter, Dava Sobel
The Tainted Relic, The Medieval Murderers
Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
The Book of Lights, Chaim Potok (read)
Captains Courageous, Rudyard Kipling (attempted and failed)
The Once and Future King, T.H. White (began but never finished)
Jane and the Genius of the Place, Stephanie Barron (read)
The White Company, Arthur Conan Doyle
For Packrats Only, Don Aslett
Founding Father, Richard Brookhiser
Real-Life Homeschooling, Rhonda Barfield (read)
We Die Alone, David Howarth (read)
The Story of My Life, Helen Keller

Whate'er Thou Art, Act Well Thy Part, David O. McKay
The Christmas Books, 2 vols, Charles Dickens
The Water Babies, Charles Kingsley
Hans Brinker, Mary Mapes Dodge
Foxe's Book of Martyrs, John Foxe
Joan of Arc, Mark Twain
Our Sacred Honor, William J. Bennet (read)
From Dawn to Decadence, Jacques Barzun
Longitude, Dava Sobel (read)
What Latter-Day Stripling Warriors Learn from their Mothers, Ardeth Kapp (read)
Gift from the Sea, Anne Morrow Lindbergh (read)
More J. Golden Kimball Stories (read)
Essays for Prospective Missionaries, Grant von Harrison
Defining the Word, John Tvedtnes (read)
Beloved Bridegroom, Donna Nielson (read)
Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell (read)
Discover Your Children's Gifts, Don Fortune (read)

There, think that'll keep me busy for a while? I won't tell you what's next, because they might hear, I never tell them so I don't get their hopes up. Disappointed books are tough customers. You can talk, though, they won't hear you. ROFL

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!

The boys decorated these candlestick holders, then we burned candles and measured how far they burned in an hour, marked off other candlesticks, and made these candlestick timekeepers, as part of our Middle Ages study. The boys were surprised at how well it worked, but they wanted to find a way to fix an "alarm" at the end of an hour or something.

Last night, for Family Home Evening, we dressed PMM in the Armor of God. It was pretty cute! Although his brothers got a little carried away throwing "the fiery darts of the wicked" at him. :-)

Tallman found this quote in his copywork book and showed it to me after he copied it:
Beware the barrenness of a busy life. Socrates I love it! Now I have a classical reason to simplify. :-)

First day of spring in Iowa! The maples are budding, the daffodils have sprouted . . . and we are expecting ten inches of snow. Joy. :-)

I just returned last night from the most amazing weekend. A hotel in Nauvoo, IL, decided to organize a women's conference around a re-enactment of the organization of the Relief Society in 1842 at the Red Brick Store, Nauvoo. I got lucky and blessed enough to get to attend. It was a tremendous event, and a dear friend and I drove over on Friday. The theme of the conference was "Building Upon Our Legacy" and much of it focused upon what we can learn from the women who lived here, who participated in organizing the Relief Society.
I wish I could write about every speaker, every event. Sister Anne Wirthlin, temple matron at the Nauvoo Temple, gave a lovely talk "In the Company of Angels." She repeated the oft-quoted line of the Prophet Joseph Smith, that if the Relief Society sisters lived up to their privileges, the angels could not be restrained from being their associates. This promise is ours as well--are we living up to our privileges?
Sister Kathleen R. Cook from Palmyra, New York, gave a wonderful talk on Finding Unity in Our Diversity. Sister Cook is a wonderful speaker! I have so many notes from her talk. I'm transcribing some tidbits here:
"History is philosophy taught with examples." Bolingbroke
"Remember" is in the Book of Mormon 240 times
"If you and I think exactly alike, then one of us is unnecessary."
What do studies of the natural world reveal about God? "An inordinate fondness for beetles." J.B.S. Haldane
Unanimity is NOT uniformity
What makes a father threaten to disown his beloved children? "If ye are not one, ye are not mine."
Sisterhood does not mean sameness
There is no one "Perfect Mormon Woman" but working together, adding our gifts together, we can ADD UP TO ONE!
Common ground of love for the Lord invites our love of each other
We want to be a mosaic of Saints, not a melting pot of American stew
Apply the 13th article of faith TO EACH OTHER: "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy about YOU, I will seek after it and find it"
We all got to attend a re-enactment of the first Relief Society meeting, with costumed sisters portraying the sisters present, and Dallyn and Rachel Bayles portraying the Prophet Joseph Smith and Emma (they did this as well in the Nauvoo Pageant last summer, and will do so again this summer) This was just magic! I forgot for a time about being in a stuffy room on a hard chair--I was THERE. The man portraying John Taylor had an English accent. I was pretty surprised when it was over, to find myself in modern clothing there. It was very powerful! I was so moved by the video shown at Relief Society Conference last fall, and this was terrific also! What a terrific heritage and legacy we have as sisters. I'm so proud to belong to the same organization as these ladies began.
There was a concert of lovely music, including Dallyn Bayles, followed by a Chocolate Bar Pajama Party with the most delectable food, including two chocolate fountains and some very delicious and decadent sweets! The next day, we had a seminar with Douglas Brinley, "What Can Joseph and Emma Teach Us About the Marriage Relationship?" that was fascinating. I had to leave it early to attend a temple session with a dear friend receiving her own endowment; I also missed the talk by a descendant of Joseph and Emma named Kim Smith Davis. But I did get to hear another descendant of Joseph and Emma, actually the first of their posterity to be baptized, named Gracia Jones. Sister Jones gave a most powerful talk on her great-grandparents. A friend and I had actually just been discussing, "What do we think about Emma? What do we teach our children?" I was so moved by Sister Jones' presentation, about how she described her own conversion, her own personal struggles, and her current mission to teach and reclaim Emma's children. It's a good thing I wasn't wearing eye makeup. Sister Jones wrote an article on Emma which was published in the August 1992 Ensign, I'll be going to print that off in a minute!
We also got to see the new movie about Joseph Smith that has been playing in the theater in Salt Lake and some of the visitors' centers--fortunately for me, including the Nauvoo one. So we all got to see it. A sister who had seen it before warned us it was a multiple-tissue event. She was right. It was incredibly powerful.
We were presented a spiritual feast, and I hope I can take it all in and process it and make it part of myself. I was so busy I almost didn't go, it seemed selfish to take so much time just for me. But I've been so blessed for going.
This is going to be an annual event! I'm so excited, an annual women's conference within MY reach, my ability to travel easily!

More Mitten Strings

"Home is no longer just a place to eat and sleep, but a school for our souls and spirits."
Quoting Mother Teresa: "We must not think that our love has to be extraordinary. But we do need to love without getting tired. How does a lamp burn? Through the continuous input of small drops of oil. These drops are the small things of daily life: faithfulness, small words of kindness, a thought for others, our way of being quiet, of looking, of speaking, and of acting. They are the true drops of love that keep our lives and our relationships burning like a lively flame."
Kenison describes a typical over-scheduled weekend, then goes on to ask: "Is this what we mean today by family life? Is it really the way any of us want to live? I think not. Why, then, do we try to do so much? Why, as one friend put it ruefully, are we 'dervishing through life'? . . . I am convinced that one reason we try to do so much is because we are afraid."
I must admit that I'm feeling dervished. This book has just brought out in stark relief something I am not sure I want to face: I am not satisfied living in such a perpetual rush. At first I felt valuable and useful. Now I feel flattened by the weight of demands. I want carefree mornings reading and learning with my children, baking bread, doing gentle nurturing things. I want long walks. I want picnics at the nature center. I want evenings stretching before me peacefully. At least some of the time! I do not want every moment crammed. I am tired of saying to my children, "Hurry up! We have to X and Y and Z before 2." I am exhausted from living in such a mass of stuff that I cannot possibly take care of, consequently it is all always a mess. I am angry that Saturdays to spend as a family seem completely nonexistent--someone is always somewhere. What is the most frustrating is that the "things" we are doing are mostly good---work, Church service, attending the temple, Boy Scouts, visiting and home teaching, what I euphemistically call "opportunities for personal growth" but what really feel to me like lead weights . . . One thing that has always been a "given" in my family is evening time reading good books. We used to get through a huge stack of good books in a year! Now a good week is a week we had two nights to spend fifteen minutes reading! If I weren't already so tired, I'd have a temper tantrum.
There. That's my second official Blog Rant.

What I am Reading Today:
Mitten Strings for God, by Katrina Kenison
I really needed this book. I am always complaining at how "imposed from without" our busy-ness is, but don't always pause and take a moment to try and find ways to center ourselves despite the outside demands I can't get rid of. To tell the truth, I'm guilty of racing on to the next thing, myself, and thinking of what else I need to be doing, even when what I really want are moments of connectedness with my family.
Kenison says, "We do too much and savor too little." "I have found that it is much easier for me to stay busy than to make a commitment to empty time--not surprising, perhaps, in a culture that seems to equate being busy with being alive." "When I come to a stop myself, when I draw a circle of stillness around me, my children are drawn into that peaceful place. They visibly relax, as if my very calmness nourishes them." She makes a strong case for reducing the extraneous noise of our lives--now I'm a mom of 3 boys. It's never going to be NOISELESS here until they leave home. But I have felt for some time that we don't need the constant noise we add in--TV, radio, constant music. Ack! And I do like music. But I've gotten so that I crave a little quiet. No one ever wants to just listen to birds or neighborhood noises anymore. I've lately focused a lot of my ire on the TV, much to my dh's dismay. But it makes me feel jittery to have it always on! I feel unnerved, and I know it isn't good for the rest of the family either, even if it is "easier." Sometimes I have dark fantasies of tossing it and the computer games out into the back yard and attacking them with a sledgehammer. :-) Kenison quotes Thomas Moore (note the two O's, lol) as saying, "The vessel in which soulmaking takes place is an inner container, scooped out by reflection and wonder." I believe we shorcircuit this process by the continual noise, and I believe modern humans suffer for it. We don't know ourselves anymore. We aren't truly in touch with our thoughts or with the thoughts of those around us, because we continually drown them out with perpetual noise. Kenison writes "In our house, eliminating television cleared a space for the things we really care about." I believe that TV leaches into spaces that we don't even realize, making us think we have "no time" even when we do. Kenison's son Henry said, "Just say that TV fills your head up with other people's ideas, which means that you don't have as much room for your own. Also, it's a waste of time." Wow. I have to admit, I wonder what I'm missing. I'd like to find out. :-)

I've been told before by parents of teens how critical it is to talk when THEY want to talk. OK, tallman isn't quite a teen yet, he's only 12, but he's 5'11" so I'm counting him. :-) The other day when he was really struggling about the snake, really grieving, I kept going to him and asking him if he needed anything, if he wanted to talk, or what. He never did! But I suppose because I was extra-sensitive towards him that day, because I was thinking of him a lot, I really noticed how he'd show up behind me at odd times--while I was folding laundry, fixing dinner, on the computer. I'm grateful that because I was more aware of him that day, I put down what I was doing and listened, for those are the times he communicated, and I'd have missed it. It makes me wonder what I might have missed previously when I wasn't as focused on him. New resolution-try to be aware of this in the future!
Calandria is trying to get us all moved to a compound near Charlottesville VA. Sounds great! My "previous dream" is Lawrence, KS. I grew up not too far away and it's always been in my mind a mecca of culture, while still on the prairie. Although the joke is that there's ONE mountain in Kansas, and they build the University of Kansas on it--then put all the parking at the bottom. LOL Plus there's the basketball team (GO JAYHAWKS!!!!!!!) See here for pictures of downtown Lawrence. I used to drive in to Lawrence in the early 80's and stock up on foods that the grocery store in my hometown would not carry--like yogurt and bagels. LOL
But Charlottesville could work too. I'll be posting lots of pictures of Virginia, I'm sure, after I return from the LDS-EHE conference.

Requiem
We got a sad phone call this morning. A few weeks ago Tallman gave his snake Copper to some good friends so he could have room for a new snake. For a picture of Copper click here. Sadly Copper hadn't done well in his new home; he'd refused to eat, and the last week or so he really began going downhill. Tallman had visited and tried to help, but Copper just wasn't responding. In our area, none of the veterinarians will treat snakes, so there wasn't really much we could try to do. This morning we found out that he died during the night. Tallman is heartbroken.
I'm sad for him, and I hate to see animals sick or hurt, and Copper was obviously ill, we just had no way to help. Tallman has a new determination, however--he told me he wants to become a veterinarian and serve in an area where few vets will treat exotic species. That way he could help make sure things like this didn't have to happen.
I once nearly drowned Copper when he bit Tallman and wouldn't let go, yet I'm sad that this had to happen. I've had upset young men on my hands all day. We suspended much of "regular" school, to read what prophets had written concerning the souls and eternal destiny of animals, and to write memorials of Copper. We plan on burying him with a commemorative garden path stone which we will make, and perhaps a donation in his name to the humane society, or a reptile treatment book donated to the public library.
It's been an eventful day. How grateful I am that we can take this time together now, that we have flexibility in our schedules. I hope Tallman can be comforted. It's odd, how much we learn from the "difficult" situations which we would probably avoid if we could. But I can see growth and thinking going on in my son that happier days just doesn't bring. Still, I wish I could make it all better.

Oh, May My Soul Commune With Thee

Oh, may my soul commune with thee
And find thy holy peace;
From worldly care and pain of fear,
Please bring me sweet release.

Oh, bless me when I worship thee
To keep my heart in tune,
That I may hear thy still, small voice,
And, Lord, with thee commune.

Enfold me in thy quiet hour
And gently guide my mind
To seek thy will, to know thy ways,
And thy sweet Spirit find.

Lord, grand me thy abiding love
And make my turmoil cease.
Oh, may my soul commune with thee
And find thy holy peace.

Copyright Lorin F. Wheelwright.

This is the hymn I'll be memorizing for March; I don't know it well yet, I've never heard it sung outside of my CD's, but I need its message!

Shakespeare After All
I just had to laugh this week. When I first planned out this school year, I decided to add in one term of learning ABOUT Shakespeare and Plutarach, then read Term 2's Shakespeare play (The Merchant of Venice), then read a Plutarch's Life for Term 3. I had this secret fear that the boys would hate both, and I needed to ease them in. When I was young, I loved reading Shakespeare--I first fell in love with the Lambs' Tales from Shakespeare, then some funny books (Twisted Tales from Shakespeare), then actual plays--until I hit high school and we read them as assignments. We would take a play at a time, and take turns reading, slowly, stopping to define every word. Ugh! The high school version of Chinese water torture. Drip, drip.
So I was a bit nervous. Silly me. The boys immediately took to it, had favorite "characters" that they always wanted to read (Cheery LOVED Gratiano).
When typing up this term's assignments, I put Plutarch's Life of Poplicola in place of the Shakespeare reading, though. I had instant protest. I tried to satisfy them by saying we'd read the Lamb's Tale for the 3rd term play, The Winter's Tale. No go. They want to read the whole thing! I told them we'd need to spend evening time on it. They said good, they'd like that better, Daddy could read too. (They had made me save the big courtroom scene in Merchant of Venice for when Daddy was home). I protested that I hadn't bought copies of the play for all of us. (I overdid it with Merchant of Venice, and bought three copies of the No Fear Shakespeare books, which it turns out we did not really need). They went hunting online and found copies of the play that we could download to our Palms for free.
So I quit protesting. Dh will help us get the downloads on our Palms, from which we'll read the play. I might print off a public domain copy, just so I can "see" more than a few lines at a time (helps me decide who ought to read what part); and I'll download the online Sparks notes to have on hand.
My friend Stacey encouraged me to just read the plays; she said she thought the boys would enjoy it. She was right. :-) Again. :-)
So, let the play begin!

Miscellaneous Musings for the Day

What we are doing: Being outdoors! It's nearly 70 degrees today. We finished our ITBS testing and have been reveling in fresh air.

What We've Been Watching: Backyard Habitat on Animal Planet. Problem: this is creating extreme Yard Envy. I look out at my gloomy impossible back yard full of garage, broken swing set and three enormous "weed" trees, reflect upon my inability to grow anything but dandelions, and have a pity party. *I* want a cool bird habitat with a pond for frogs and salamanders and a hummingbird garden with cardinal flowers and trumpet vine. *I* want bird feeders that keep the grackles and starlings out. *I* want goldfinches and orioles and bluebirds, butterflies and chipmunks and deer (as long as they walk gracefully by, and not munch or leave calling cards) Wah!

What We've Been Reading:
Out loud, we are reading Adam of the Road. I began the utterly, exquisitely perfect North to the Orient by Anne Morrow Lindbergh this morning. I am rationing it, the way one does with a box of Godiva chocolates. All of it at once might make me drunken! At least it's calorie-free. I can't possibly blog my favorite passages as I'd have to type in the entire book. Tedious. Just go get it. :-)

Breaking News of the Day:
SimplyCharlotteMason.com just released their new, graded studied dictation exercises for spelling. I downloaded the sample and it looks terrific! I can hardly wait to have studied dictation/spelling simplified at my house--no more hunting up passages with the "right" words, it's already been done! See here: http://simplycharlottemason.com/progress/index.php/spelling-wisdom/

Time for a rant!
I'm annoyed. I have to take three school days from doing something much more productive and beneficial, to administer the ITBS to my two older boys, just so I can jump through hoops the state has set. Why? Who knows. We have to jump, and jump so high, so the state will "let" us continue to homeschool. The public school kids are tested, but if THEY score below 30%, shall we not "let" them go to public school anymore? No, if they score below, nothing much happens; the federal government shakes a finger at them and says "Bad school" and that's about it. Grrr. Anyway, I'd rather spend my week truly assessing what my children have absorbed from our term's readings in Charlotte Mason style. I like to think I'm bright enough to be able to notice if they've learned or not. :-) But apparently I'm not, since I'm not "certified." So we will spend several hours this week filling in little ovals instead of narrating their books to me.
And all to fulfill what the state THINKS is their "responsibility." Oh, please. Ten minutes with my kids and one could determine that they are bright and learning; a half an hour and one could see they were light-years ahead. Last night my 9yo (and his 12yo brother) were discussing with their father the difference between ionic and covalent bonds and which was more prevalent in nature and why. (eyes rolling) It's MY responsibility to see that my kids learn, and I have a whole lot more interest in the outcome than the state does. These kids will be raising my grandchildren!!! LOL All the evidence shows that homeschooled kids in tightly regulated, mandatory-testing states like mine do NO BETTER than homeschooled kids in more lenient states. So all this aggravation and hassle is not benefitting the homeschooled kids of Iowa one iota. Although it certainly is providing employment for bureaucrats who push all the papers around and make regulations. So I suppose I'm performing a public service that way. I guess I feel better now.
One silver lining--I get to sit at the table and read while they are testing. I have Josephine Tey's Daughter of Time open at the moment and it is fascinating! I should be able to finish it today, LOL.
Well, off to sharpen pencils and blunt minds. :-)

Finding time to read
Well, that is an interesting topic. And I need to note that there are times that I don't read much--the two weeks I was occupied with visiting my grandmother and attending her funeral, for instance, or when my babies were small or my toddlers roving destruction machines . . . For whatever reason, Heavenly Father does not have any babies or toddlers in my home right now. There are whole days I think "Hmm, I'm still on page 34 of that book, wonder if I'll ever finish."
But there are things I have done to carve out time. The first--deliberately infect my family. :-) My dh loves to read, too, so that was easy already. And a main goal of my parenting has been to get my children to love to read. So far I'm 3 for 3, and consider myself blessed. So the whole family happily reads--together, separately, separately in the same room. On a recent evening, we did have the Olympics on, but we all had something out to read, and even the 5yo was at the dining room table "writing" a book. (very cute--I'll have some adorable things to share later about his first authorial attempts, lol)
Another thing I did was to institute a mandatory quiet time in the afternoons. This took place during nap time as soon as I could get a little one on a nap schedule. Even after naps are given up and before the child can actually sit and read for long, I keep a quiet time--they can go to their rooms and play with puzzles or legos or whatever. I will be transitioning my 5yo over the next year or so to reading during part of his quiet time. It takes some determination and training, but this has been a non-negotiable in my home since the first days.
We often read in the evenings, out loud and separately. I can often find some time for my own reading right before bedtime.
Another thing I've needed to do is adapt my own reading style. I used to be a totally engrossed reader who could read right through a meal and never miss it. This would cause some consternation among the hungry hordes here. :-) Every great once in a while I do get pretty lost and have a hard time pulling myself back to the real world--but by and large, I don't do that anymore. I can now read while partially paying attention to the rest of the family, carrying on a low-intensity conversation with them while they watch TV, for example. I can read in 5-minute bits while waiting in a doctor's office. I can even read while making dinner. :-) I reward myself with 5 or 10 minutes with a book when I get something done around the house that I've been dreading. I would definitely rather read in this imperfect way than not read at all, so it works out pretty well.
These are things that work for me. Naturally, I'd like to read even more. :-) But I do treasure the time with my family while they are all still here. I have trouble with the balance at times, like any mom. But I do know that reading is like breathing for me, and I wouldn't last long without at least some. It's been too big a part of how I make sense of and interact with the world around me, for too long. There are days I probably should have paid more attention to something else rather than read, and there are days where I end my day feeling slightly desperate because I did not get time to reorder my mind by reading.

OK, I'm onto a new book. Sensitive readers might not be so fascinated with the last chapter of The Child That Books Built; there were parts of that I skipped. :-) Didn't really need to read his thoughts on science fiction and especially not his thoughts on, um, erotic literature. I always read a fiction alternating with a nonfiction, so I had to squeeze in a quick fiction read before getting to the new book my son found for me at the library yesterday (wasn't hard, I had Goodbye, Mr. Chips in my stack, I finished it this morning.) So now I am onto More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl; I've read the original Book Lust and got LOTS of new ideas for my ever-expansing Want to Read lists. I'm looking forward to the same with this one, and she even mentions The Child That Books Built in her intro. Also this quote, which I love!

"I have always been reconciled to the fact that I was born a bibliomaniac, never have I sought a cure, and my dearest friends have been drawn from those likewise suffering from book madness." Lawrence Clark Powell

Ditto. :-)

More musings on The Child That Books Built:

Spufford mentions a phenomenom that I have experienced myself--the child reader who reads words far too complex for him, really, and imagines unusual meanings and pronunciations and then finds them difficult to let go even after gaining enough sophistication to have more understanding. He says a classic example is "misled" which some children read as myzled--the past tense of the verb "to misle" LOL His own favorite example is "grimace" which he still prefers in his imagination to give his own childlike "grimACE rhymes with face" LOL Having once, when I was five, convulsed my parents by announcing during a country drive that there was a great big pile of man-yerr behind that barn, I know what he means. How was I to know that "manure" was not pronounced according to the same reasonable rule as "picture"? I mean, really. :-)

He also writes of the library:

I approached them (the fiction stacks) slowly, not with reverence exactly, but with the feeling that the riches in the room needed to be handled with some kind of grateful attention to their ordered abundance. Also, I knew that once I'd chosen my four books, the multiple possibilities of the library would shrink down to that finite handful. I hated to be hurried out of the great, free bazaar.

I remember feeling that way, too. And in my tiny small-town library, even the "ordered abundance" there seemed insufficient to meet my needs. Like children of the Depression who still hoard string and rubber bands, wasting nothing, out of memory of the times when there WAS nothing, I may never recover from the feeling that one day, I would run out of things to read. Since I owned only a handful of books myself, I methodically began reading my way around the children's section. I finished when I was nine, not taking into accoun, naturally, the small subset of books worthy to be reread again, and for which I periodically descended the stairs even into adulthood. The adult rooms upstairs looked so large to begin with, but by my mid-teens, the appropriate and interesting had started to diminish and I was on letter T, with not very much left afterwards. It was a near-panicked sensation, contemplating what I would do when I finished Z. I would RUN OUT! What on earth would I do with myself?
Fortunately I was able to occupy myself until leaving for college in the "big city". But I still suffer from a fear that I will "run out"; partly because my standards are higher now, and while I can mentally summon a list of books that will take me decades yet to finish, they are not all available in my town/library/home yet. This is why I have a love/hate relationship with my endless stacks of unread books; sometimes they seem to be jeering at me, reproaching me for not having read them yet, and I threaten them with dumping in the fires of File 13. They know, though, that I will never do that; I would sooner burn my food storage. Those tottering stacks represent insurance to me--the reassurance that THIS MONTH at least, I will NOT "run out": there will be something fit to read.

I love having tactful friends. Yes, I'm "just a titch" over 34. :-) The author, Francis Spufford, is counting from the time he first read a real book--at age 6, when he was home in bed for a month with the mumps, and made his way through The Hobbit--haltingly at first, fluently by the end, although he admits that there were many words he did not understand then. Still, he got the gist of the story.
I was counting from the same event--my first real "book", not a picture book. I began reading so young that I cannot remember before I could read . . . but for some time I read captions, cereal boxes, picture books--I have a vague memory of some book of poetry with a poem in it about tying shoes and the last line was "because my thumbs get in the way." But my first "real" book was the fall I turned five, and it was The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. My mother knew I could read, had been encouraging me to read picture books, and somehow acquired The Long Winter--the lovely yellow-covered version with the Garth Williams cover (any other kind ought to be illegal!) She told me how much she had loved these books, and set it on a shelf for "when I was older" I stared at that book, crept up and caressed it, looked longingly at the cover . . . but it was awfully thick, with so many small-printed words in it! Finally one day I worked up the courage to crack open the cover and see just how hard it was to read words when there were sooo many on each page . . . and found it not really that hard at all. I'm sure, in retrospect, it took me a very long time to finish that book--weeks or months, probably. But in my memory it seems like a single day--one day I knew only Dr. Seuss, nonsense and picture books, and the next, suddenly, a book had opened for me, like Pandora's box, and let out mysteries I had never imagined---whole real people, with problems and thoughts and clothes and hair. Who knew all that had been in that book? How did it all get in, and why was I suddenly privy to the magic to let them out? My world was never again the same. It seems to me as though my world, like Dorothy's, was instantly colorized, changed from rather drab Kansas to brilliant and vivid Oz with a mere swoop of print. Astonishing!
So one momentous day, my fifth birthday, my mother took me to the library and got me my own card. The token of the secret membership which would let me go anywhere, anytime! I proudly carried home two other Little House books, and Indian Captive by Lois Lenski. I remember them still, it's another crystal moment. I became insatiable; why was it that with all those marvelous books, anyone ever wanted to do anything else? I still find that puzzling. :-) I became greedy--I wanted them for myself. This was largely unrealized in my childhood; most of my books came from the library, and I had a precious few of my own. But no princess ever treasured her jewels and silks and satins more! I eventually ended up with the WHOLE beautiful yellow-covered set of Little House books (sixth birthday present, wish I still had them!) and an odd assortment of other things, with an honorable mention to my lavender-covered bookclub Nancy Drews, two stories to a volume. :-) I hoarded them with miserly drive.
This is surely why The Child That Books Built is resonating with me; the author has different memories, but still of the same order. His description of how The Hobbit released its dragon is the counterpart of Laura suddenly appearing in my little mobile home. Tomorrow I will try to include some interesting tidbits from the book I also identify with--like all those words we learn first in books, when we know neither their exact meaning nor their accepted pronunciation, but they nevertheless are as real as the other words. Lovely!

What I'm reading today: The Child that Books Built, by Francis Spufford
Interesting, although it's on sudden death due to two profanities I've encountered; I've decided to give Spufford three strikes. :-)
Anyway, it's a rather odd psychological explanation of why the author reads books obsessively. Ought to be interesting since I read books obsessively. At the moment I'm wandering through a rather tedious chapter full of "forests as myth" and Piaget. Hmm. However, a few interesting things caught my eye in the first chapter, called "Confessions of an English Fiction Eater." LOL
"Reading catatonically wasn't something I chose to do, it just happened, and if it could be my funny characteristic in the family . . . that was great. Though I never framed the thought on the surface of my mind, stopping my ears with fiction was non-negotiable. There were things to block out."
He says he's been reading for 26 years. (Ha, I have him beat--34 and counting here!)
"Twenty-six years since the furze of black marks between the covers of The Hobbit grew lucid, and released a dragon." I love that! For me, 34 years since those black marks coalesced and aligned themselves and released . . . Laura, a friend and playmate, and her sisters.
Spufford writes, "I have a cultural sanction for my addiction. Books get cited over and over as the virtuous term of a contrast whose wicked other half is Nintendo, or MTV, or the Web. The villian varies but it's always some cathode-ray entertainment that jitters on the retina, where printed words are supposed to rest calmly. It doesn't matter that my eyes track across the breakfast table for the wafer of text on the cornflake box just as avidly as any channel hopper squeezing the remote, both of us eager for the mere brush of our chosen medium going by. The difference of the forms is enough."
I love this quote as well:
"Story's lucidating way with experience rushes into the primary fashioning of a self, the very first construction of a person out of the materials of environment, and family, and reading silence."
"We can remember readings that acted like transformations. There were times when a particular book, like a seed crystal, dropped into our minds when they were exactly ready for it, like a supersaturated solution, and suddenly we changed. Suddenly a thousand crystals of perception of our own formed, the original insight of the story ordering whole arrays of discoveries inside us, into winking accuracy." What a description of Charlotte Mason's "animating idea"
He included a William Hazlitt quote that I did not have in my "book files":
"Books alone teach us to judge of truth and good in the abstract: without a knowledge of things at a distance from us, we judge like savages or animals from our senses and appetites alone; but by the aid of books and of an intercourse with the world of ideas, we are purified, raised, ennobled from savages into intellectual and rational beings." Ignoring the spiritual here, as well, but I think the force of Hazlitt's thought holds still.

So, that was the serious thought for the day. The Funny Thought for the Day:
My 5yo, PMM, has begun a very low-key state-by-state unit study sort of thing. Picture books from each state, stickers for the state bird, a recipe. Yesterday we read about Missouri, and learned the state nickname. I asked him to tell Daddy what Missouri's state nickname was when he got home last night. PMM proudly announced "The CALL ME STATE"

Calandria, the earlier picture was taken, of all places, in a field in Dust Bowl Kansas. :-) This one was taken right before Grandpa was sent overseas in WWII. They already had 3 little boys by then, and my mom was born while he was away in Italy. Thanks everyone for sharing in my reminiscing, it makes me feel better to think of good days and happy smiles.

Somehow it just seems right and appropriate that Grandma M. will be able to spend Valentine's Day with Grandpa H. She was released from her suffering and went Home shortly before midnight Feb. 13. She lived a long and full and active life. We will miss her, but we are happy she made it safely Home.

I just returned home from a trip to see my extended family, who is in need of a little support right now. My brother is in the middle of a messy divorce and is having a terrible time; he's living at my mom and dad's house right now. And both my grandmothers have been very ill. I went down to see everyone, and happily one of my grandmothers is rallying and improving a lot. The other one, however--I was shocked to see how quickly she has worsened. This is a picture of this special lady, my grandmother, in better days. I will try and collect my thoughts and see if I can express them. I think at one point yesterday she recognized me, but she simply was not well enough to track a conversation, and there are many things I wish she knew I felt that I could not say, for she would not have heard them.

Grandma M,
There are so many things I wish I could have told you yesterday. It was so hard to see you so ill--you, who have always been a model of busy efficiency and vigor. I always thought you were too feisty to ever really fall ill.
I told you I loved you, and that you meant a lot to me, and I hope you heard me. But there were many things I could not tell you. Grandma, thank you for believing in me. When everyone else thought I was just odd or perhaps a changeling, it was YOU who kept handing me challenging books and telling me to be ME. I know that my love of books and thinking and my lack of fear of what others think, are largely legacies from you. How can I ever thank you enough? I often thought you were one of the smartest people I knew; even though you had few chances for higher education, that never stopped you from learning and trying new things. You seemed fearless to me.
I probably owe my rather strong will to you as well, and we had a few titanic clashes in the days you took care of us when Mom worked, didn't we? :-) I know you and Mom had a sometimes difficult relationship, too, but I hope you can feel her love as she tenderly takes care of you, for it is plain to see.
Do you realize that nearly all the places away from "home" I've ever been, you took me to? I've never known anyone to love travel so. I remember how disappointed you were not to make it to all 50 states with Grandpa. But I also remember how proud I was of you when you nonchalantly flew off to Hong Kong at an age when some other women just give up and stay home. I wish I'd inherited a little of your wanderlust, but alas, I'm a homebody. :-)
I'll never forget the day I solved a Wheel of Fortune puzzle BEFORE you had it figured out! I was so excited, and rightfully so. I always thought you would clean up if you could get on the show!
Grandma, I don't know how long you will be here with us, but you will be sorely missed. I love you for your courage, your determination, your willingness to be yourself, and for nurturing and encouraging a hopeless bookworm whom everyone else seemed to want to remake in some other image. Thank you for your love, and for the legacies you have passed on. I wish I could make this easier for you, but I cannot. I wish I could stay near and help take care of you, but I cannot do that either.
Go with God, Grandma.

New today: my library entered the twenty-first century a few years late, and finally got its catalog online! I spent my free time yesterday investigating the new online services. So we're a little late, lol, when I moved here they were still using card catalogs in the lobby. :-)
I am so glad, because it's going to save me hours of in-library time, and part of me wishes they'd done it sooner!
However, I am feeling a little nostalgic too. Does anyone miss the old-fashioned card catalogs, and pulling out the whole drawer to search for what you want, and standing with several drawers open at once? Or the satisfying little "clunck" sound when the old-fashioned stamping machine stamped the cards? Did anyone else have the cardstock cards with a little metal piece on it, and if you left it in the pocket of your jeans and washed it, and just returned the metal strip, they would only charge you half the cost of replacing your card? What about trying to find articles for school papers using the big fat green periodical index books? OK, sure, it took a lot longer, but somehow it seemed more "hands-on". Maybe I just view all that old-fashioned stuff through the eyes of the little girl who escaped to the library as often as possible, thinking it was a wonderland, a place of miracles, where anything could happen and I could go anywhere. Security to me as a child was being back in the stacks where no one could see me, surrounded by books. There was a lady librarian there, in the magical library of my childhood, who even entered into my fantasies by tiptoeing back to me, whispering that I might like to take a trip somewhere, and pointing out a book she thought I'd like. I read everything in the children's section by the time I was nine, sometimes several times over (yes, it was a small library) and moved "upstairs" where this librarian would simply frown at me if I chose a book she considered inappropriate, and I'd obediently go put it back (although sometimes I'd peek to see if I could figure out why it was forbidden, LOL)
I read some of my favorite books over and over and over again, never tiring of them. How many times did I read the Lambs' Shakespeare stories? The Betsy-Tacy books? The Story of the von Trapp Family Singers? I have no idea. I wish I could find the titles of some other favorites for which I simply do not remember enough identifying details to locate now, for I'd hunt them down and buy them if I did. There was a large volume of stories of all the English queens, illustrated--it was beautiful! I'd read of the "Chere reine crosses" and Henry the 8th's wives, Boadicea and Victoria, over and over. I also loved a compilation of stories of ballerinas--Anna Pavlova, Maria Tallchief--for an ungainly girl in the middle of a wheat field, it made anything seem possible. Oh, and a volume of stories of ice skaters---older ones, like Carol Heiss, and I'd dream of someday finding the thing that I was good at, was meant to do.
The library was my refuge from a sometimes disturbing reality, a "safe place", a second home. At one point, when I was attending the junior high across the street from the library, I'd beg my father to please let me go to the library after school, missing the bus, and have him pick me up on his way home from work at 5. He always suspected I was really trying to see a boy---but I wasn't. Who needed boys? I needed books.
Now I have both. A pretty good life. :-)

And in with the new!
Announcing Satin, the new kingsnake. We believe she is a SHE. She is delicate and slender and is popular with the whole house already. She really likes to burrow in her bedding, with only her nose sticking out, so when she comes out, the entire house stops everything and goes to look at her. We hope Silky the Californian kingsnake likes her when she's a little older.

Out with the old . . .
This is Copper, Tallman's corn snake. The picture is dark, but he was by far our biggest snake. Tallman decided he wanted a new snake, and I told him he could only keep 3 at once, so one had to go. This is the one that went--a friend was found who had always wanted a snake, and his wife even let him. :-) So Copper has a new home, and Tallman has visitation rights. This particular snake was cranky and didn't like to be handled, so we rarely got him out. He was also very strong! Once he bit Tallman and wouldn't let go. I tried all the "tricks" like blowing in his face, and finally I headed to the sink, where I intended to put him under water . . . and not be in a hurry to let him up. He sensed his approaching doom and let go. LOL

We just finished reading this book as a read-aloud. I don't know a lot about Farley Mowat, but he was a Canadian naturalist and writer, and this is a book of reminiscences about his childhood companion, Mutt, who was rather . . . exceptional. This book is HILARIOUS! Ten combined thumbs-up from our family. Mowat's writing is exquisite--perhaps some of the most lyrical and powerful nature descriptions I've ever read, especially his haunting depictions of the western Canadian plains. Beautiful! It's worth reading just for that. Caution--for some inexplicable reason Mowat sprinkles his writing with "d***" words. It works best as a read-aloud, for then a judicious mama can black out or omit as necessary. :-) Terrific book!

My mother says I was born looking ornery. Apparently I was a handful. :-) The back (OHH I hate it when they write on the backs!) says I was 16 months here.

OK, if everyone is going to put up pictures of herself and her sister, then I suppose I will too. I actually just found this picture today while I was cleaning the office, so apparently it wants to be seen. I'm maybe 6-7 here, and my sister is 4 years younger. It was tough being the sister of a cute blonde. :-) But I love her anyway. I remember being very impressed with my "mod" miniskirt and matching tights. Don't try and figure out how old this makes me. :-)

PMM and Cheery made homemade crowns from our Hands and Hearts Middle Ages activity kit. They papier-mached the crowns, then painted them and added jewels. They look very royal, I think. :-)

It's quite an interesting story, how we suddenly ended up finshing our Egypt-Biblical history course, and ended up jumping right into the Middle Ages. It's a long story. The short version is that we are using part Ambleside Online, and part Truthquest history and some other assorted things, but I had noticed how much extra work it was for my son, reading Kidnapped, for example, to follow along when we weren't doing the history. We, or I guess more properly I, had been agonizing over how to get us more fully integrated into using mostly Ambleside, but couldn't wrap my head around a way to make it work in chronological order. I fussed and stewed for weeks, then the Lord dropped the bombshell that He thought we ought to go straight into Ambleside years 5 and 3 next year, and just have a party studying whatever the kids wanted to study this spring. They picked the Middle Ages, so here we are. Not chronological, not perfect, quite a revelation, causing me some angst because it doesn't seem to fit neatly into how I ought to do things, but we are at peace and having fun. So. I need occasionally to remind myself that His plan is the perfect one!

This isn't a very good picture, but meet Samuel the Hamsterite in his ball. He runs it all over the house, up and down and up and down, sometimes for hours. It makes me tired to watch him!