Books, Books, Everywhere

I love this time of year.  Packages come in the mail day after day with books and curriculum for next year.  I have to admit that I get as excited (or more excited) with all of these packages as I do at Christmas time when all the gifts start rolling in!  And I think I am more excited about it this year because I didn't order a set curriculum package, but rather I put together my own book list and am working on coordinating it all into cohesive units.  It is so rewarding and fun to see all my ideas coming together and turn into a great school year that I cannot wait to get into and teach.

There are some really neat books that I think Aaron will really enjoy.  I am currently reading through all of them and dividing them into "read alone" books for Aaron to read and report on, and "read aloud" books for us to read together and discuss.  So if you are wondering if I am ignoring my family to do nothing but read when you see my book list growing and growing, never fear!  Most of the books I've added in the past few weeks are on a 3rd - 8th grade reading level.  It has also been really fun for me because children's literature is my thing.  I have had a personal goal to read more great children's literature for some time now, and it is good to be doing it. 

One of the books has been really fun to read.  This is Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges.  This book is a retelling of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene. 

Check out that dragon!  You can really get a sense of the bravery that must be within the knight to be willing to go up against that dragon.

The pictures in this book are amazing!  The scenes just draw you in and make you want to know more about what is happening in the story. 

It is clear to see why this book won The Caldecott Medal!

Trina Schart Hyman is an amazing illustrator.  I am always amazed at what the illustrator adds to a text.  You can have a great story, but for a child it can be lost in the jumble of words.  But when illustrations like these are added, those same words open up a whole new world to the child reading them!

As it turns out, Aaron got my "book bug"!  He has been as excited about each new package as me! I have had to ask him not to read the books for next year's school so that we do not have them all read before school even starts! 

Top Ten...Thursday?

I wanted to do this Tuesday but...I have five kids. And you put up that cute post about Andrew and I couldn't bear to bury it for a couple of days so I could look at his cute little face some more. He's cute. Anyway...

Jenni made this week's TTT theme favorite fictional people. Aren't you so glad she's blogging again? I am. In random order:

1) Matthew Cuthbert - Anne of Green Gables

2) Elizabeth Bennet - Pride and Prejudice ...actually Mr. and Mrs. Darcy. I want to live next door to the Darcys and play cards with them and go fishing in their lake.

3) Anne Elliot - Persuasion

4) Strider - The Lord of the Rings; and not that goofy guy they got to play in the movie. He's not a man, he's a goofball.

5) Can I just say that I hardly read fiction anymore so I'm actually having a hard time not coming up with characters from the same three or four books. I guess that's because I read the same books over and over again unless it's an apologetics book or some sort of text book. Ahhh, I need to expand my horizons.

6) Anne Shirley - Anne of Green Gables; Even though she is absolutely silly and is sometimes very misguided, I have to admit I do really like her character.

7) Hadassah - The Mark of the Lion series; she's lovely. I wish I could be her...actually, I don't really want to be half eaten by a lion so...never mind, but isn't she lovely?

8) Leana McKie - Thorn in My Heart and the other two books in that series.

9) Mr. Bennet - Pride and Prejudice

10) Mr. Knightley - Emma; everyone needs a Mr. Knightley in their life. Thank God I have Del, he's my Mr. Knightley only...better.

and because I wasted my #5 whining...

11) David Copperfield - David Copperfield; you know I hated almost every Charles Dickens book I picked up. But when I read David Copperfield I couldn't put it down. It's a thick book and I finished it in a week and a half or something. Yes, this was before I had any children.

All Shrugged Out

About three weeks ago I finished listening to Atlas Shrugged. (A big, big thank you to Marie for providing the option to listen rather than read! I never would have finished if reading were my only option.) I listened primarily when I was up nursing Andrew during the night, so I may have dozed off a time or two, but I think I heard most of it! :)

Have you finished it yet? Although I cannot say that I liked this book, I am glad that I "read" it if only to provide a humorous comparison each time Obama comes out with a new program and a new office to run said program. And truly, there needs to be something to laugh about as I watch my freedoms be ripped from my hands one at a time! I think that I would have enjoyed the book more if Rand had left out about a third of the book. I think it could have been easily condensed by at least a third without losing any of the plot and details important to the story line. Plus I felt like she wrote this book with a thesaurus in hand. Have you felt that way? I wish I could think of a specific example, but since I listened mostly at 4:00 AM, one eludes me just now, but it seemed like she would pick a big descriptive word from the book, use it three or four times in a paragraph, and then realize, "Oh, I've used that a few times now, I should find another "smart" word now!" Perhaps it was just my general frustration with the overly long descriptions of things having nothing to do with the actual plot that made me think this.

Even with those complaints, I do think I am glad I "read" this book. It made me think a bit more about what is going on around me politically, which is something I don't generally do on my own. Sadly, unless I try really hard, I do not usually pay attention to politics until they intrude upon my life in a way I cannot ignore. I think it is probably time for me to change that.

Movie and Book Review

I finished The Autobiography of Jane Pittman. I can't believe such a short book took me so long to read. After a while it got to be more like assigned reading; it was difficult to pick it up. The premise of the book is that a writer knew a 110-year old woman who had lived through 7 years of slavery and then through the reconstruction, Jim Crow and was getting involved the civil rights movement. Had she been a real person, I would love to have known her and her story.

My biggest...actually, only problem with the book, what made it so difficult to read was that it's written as if Miss Jane wrote it and her speech is very colloquial. She's got paragraph after paragraph with no pronouns or other identifying nouns. I spent half the time trying to figure out who was talking, who they were talking about and then even if they were talking about a person or a town. It wasn't that I didn't understand the meaning of words, but the broken up English was hard to follow. Also, the lack of a timeline. I never knew when it was that events were taking place.

All in all, it was a pretty good book with a disappointing ending. What a schizophrenic review.

A few weeks ago Mom was rifling through some old papers and came up with this little tiny blue one with the names of a few movies on it. She said someone had recommended that she watch them. On the list was a movie called The Second Chance and another called Gospel.

The review at Plugged In says that Second Chance is about racism, but I disagree. I think the movie is about getting out of your comfy chair and helping people. Tossing money at problems is rarely the correct fix. I really liked this movie and even Del liked it and that's saying something!!

Gospel was depressing. Although this is supposed to be a story about a prodigal son who comes home and turns his life over to Jesus, I just don't see that. I see a story about a man who changes singing venues. I'd like to know how realistic this movie is. Del did not watch it with us but has said he would to give us his own review. I have a lot more to say about this movie but this is not the venue for me to voice it so I'll stop with...it's worth it to watch.

Then Del had the audacity to send me to Blockbuster. I just don't do well with picking out movies. I won't pick up anything that has "some sensuality" in it...period. And I'm not really into mindless action flicks. I usually just resort to my tried and true favorites when I want to watch a movie.

So anyway, I go to Blockbuster all by myself. I didn't even have Anna. Amazing. My eye and interest is caught by A Raisin in the Sun and Not Easily Broken. I don't know why, but that's what I came home with. Oh and Way of War, but we'll just pretend I didn't get that one. Sshhhhh. Del actually laughed at me when I walked in the door with these movies. LOL. I'm terrible at picking out movies. I think I did pretty well though.

The more I thought about Not Easily Broken the more I thought I had heard about this movie before. Then I saw "A TDJakes Film" at the bottom remembered that Terry had mentioned a TD Jakes movie before and when I checked out the post, this was the movie. It was fascinating to see what Terry was talking about in her review. I liked the movie, but once again, time and forum leave me with "let's talk about it later." It's telling that the married couple in this film are Dave Johnson and Clarice Clark.

A Raisin in the Sun. Go get it, watch it. I *really* liked this movie. I didn't feel it was a "black movie." It was simply a story about a family and they happened to be black. Except for Sean "P Diddy" Combs I though everyone's performance was stellar. Go get it, watch it. I'd like to hear what you like about it.

The Final Touches

I think that after all this time we're finally feeling moved in. All that was really left to do was to power wash the house (we'll paint the exterior next year) and sod the yard with zoysia grass. None of this icky St. Augustine (read: weed) stuff that they pass off as grass. Yesterday our house went from looking like this

to this. Isn't it nice?

Yes, those are snowflakes on our windows. They're cute...the kids made some...and GG. It's as close to snow as it gets here.

And today Mr. Joe is coming to take up the old, dead grass weeds. He is also going to remove these awful, hideous bushes. They are horribly infested with aphids. We are actually calling a holiday from school today so that we can watch him take out these bushes.

On to even more exciting news. I got a call from my good friend Marie yesterday. First, she rubbed it in that she was eating Korean for lunch. Not nice. I had a lousy salami sandwich.

Then she made up for it by informing me that she had Atlas Shrugged audio. She's already put it in the mail so I can listen to it while I sew this cute dress (the red one) for Sarah. I'm so excited. Especially after Granny put this post up today about the movie. I'm quite anxious to know the whole story.

I Have a Few Thoughts Here

I just have to show you these totally cute pictures. Lily ate one of my cupcake bites, and Anna finally found her thumb.

Ayn Rand - I still cannot find that silly book. I'm very frustrated about this. Here's the story. Last Friday we went to the AirFest. I packed up the diaper bag (just a backpack with diapers in it) with extra diapers, changes of clothes and Atlas Shrugged, thinking that maybe I'd get a moment to read. I haven't seen it since. I've cleaned out the van two times, once more thoroughly than the first time, I've scoured the house, I've looked in my parents' van. Did I drop it? How frustrating. Now I am really kicking myself for not buying the audio version when it was on sale for $4.95 at Audible.com. I could have listened to it while sewing Ella's dress, Sarah's dress and many other times. I may have to get an iPod. I did notice though, that if I sign up for Audible they'll let me have Atlas Shrugged for about $7.50 instead of nearly $50. I may do that if I can't find the book by this weekend.

I did read Playing For Pizza by John Grisham. I used to read all his books but he got redundant and I learned about as much as I could possibly handle about lawyers. Playing for Pizza is about football though and while interesting I found the writing style to be elementary. I think he wrote that book in a serious hurry; the plot is shallow. It was an easy read though; I finished it in about 36 hours, even amongst all the other tasks I had to do and sleeping twice. It was nice to finish a book fast like that. I can still read!!! WOOHOO. I was beginning to wonder.

Oswald Chambers. I'm not sure I like this bible study. I just don't get it. It's My Utmost For His Highest. Two days in a row I've just been shaking my head wondering what in the heck Mr. Chambers is talking about. It's an "updated" version for all us modern people. I wonder if I'd like the older version better.

Getting up. Day three. Two days in a row now I've almost stayed in bed but both days I've been very glad I got up. I like kissing Del on his way out the door and having time to leisurely write blog posts, read my bible and today I'm going to fold three loads of laundry. I like it so far.

Psalm and Proverbs. Whenever I start reading my bible on a regular basis, I am constantly wanting to quote extensively here. This morning I read a bunch of Psalms and Proverbs. I just can help it, I have to tell you my favorite parts.

Proverbs 17
9 - He who conceals an offense promotes love,
but he who harps on it can separate even close friends.
27, 28 - A knowledgeable person controls his tongue;
a discerning person controls his temper
Even a fool, if he stays silent, is thought wise;
he who keeps his mouth shut can pass for smart.

Have you read Psalm 139 lately?
Here's 1-6 but the whole chapter is worth memorizing.

Adonai, you have probed me, and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I stand up,
you discern my inclinations from afar,
you scrutinize my daily activities.
You are so familiar with all my ways
that before I speak even a word,
you know all about it already.
You have hemmed me in both behind and in front
and laid your hand on me.
Such wonderful knowledge is beyond me,
far too high for me to reach.

From the Complete Jewish Bible.

Shrugging Along

So I picked up a copy of Atlas Shrugged at my library this week. Holy Cow! This is a huge book! (And the cover bothers my husband. He saw it and said, "What's this book with a naked man on the cover?" I'm so tired these days, I hadn't even noticed that there was a naked man on the cover...lol) But if Granny says it is a worthwhile read, I will give it a go. My one problem is that my main times to read are while nursing and while eating breakfast. This book is so thick that it is hard to hold while nursing and doesn't lay flat to lay on the table to read it while eating. Oh, and the print is so small that I feel like I need to get some reading glasses!

I also got another book at my favorite book store tonight. Andrew has resisted all my tried and true methods for sleep training, and he is still not taking any nap during the day that is longer than 20 minutes! For the last three weeks, he has averaged five hours of crying a day, and only put himself to sleep for a nap in his crib twice. Both times it was after over an hour of crying. (Which explains why I've had so little posted here lately...) I think it is time to consider a new method. I'll let you know how it goes!

Here We Go Again

You know that movie "You've Got Mail"? At the very beginning Kathleen Kelly writes to Just-Call-Me-Joe that she's read Pride and Prejudice about 200 times, at least once a year. I nearly jumped off the couch the first time I saw that movie because that's me. I watch the A&E version at least a dozen times a year and read the book at least once but more likely two or three times a year. And then Kathleen says that she's always in suspense about whether Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet will ever really get together in the end. THAT'S ME!!! I know they do, but I'm always in suspense. I *really* like this book. Plus it's got the best opening line in the world!!!

There it is with my latest sewing project and my empty hot chocolate mug and my lens cap.

Joanna and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I figured out why I've stopped reading so much. I really thought that it was because of blogs but I was wrong.

Yesterday I decided that it was time to go to the library and get some of the books on my list. They had two of them...how annoying. Apparently I like to read obscure books. Anyway, I put those two books on hold and then tried to figure out what other books I'd like to read. I remembered that Granny had recommended a book on her blog so I checked to see if the library had it and they did. I went to the library, about 10:30 in the morning, and got Left to Tell:Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza. I read about two chapters of it and the introduction (I read all that stuff, too) when I got home and then I got tired and fatigued and busy and just put the book off for a while.

After the kids went to bed I cleaned up the kitchen and by 9pm I was settled on the couch with this book. 4 hours and 5 minutes later, I finished the acknowledgements, closed the book and proceeded to berate myself for NOT BEING ABLE TO PUT A BOOK DOWN. It's terrible!!! I get so into the story that I just can't stop. It's worse than TV. At least with TV you can half pay attention to stuff, but with a book, you must put all of yourself into it. I can't do anything else at all while I'm reading.

Of course, it took me a good hour to go to sleep since this is a very intense book and I'm running over scenes in my head and critiquing it for quite a long time. I'm tired.

So today, the girls get into a pushing fight and they have to get swats, which always is sad for me, then I have this horrible neck pain from sitting in a funny position and reading until one in the morning, we went to a new church, which was stressful, I'm exhausted and barely staying awake here but can't nap because no one can do anything without mom, Sarah spilled lemonade on the living room floor. The final straw for my horrible day was as I was coming out of the bathroom after I cleaned it up, I didn't know that Lily was right outside the door and I opened the door real quick and smacked her hard on the head with the door. I hit her so hard she fell over backwards screaming her head off. So, of course, I'm consoling her and I think she's fine but when I put her down she's following me around screaming for a good amount of time. This is right about the time I really want to smash my head in the refrigerator door.

The book. Immaculee Ilibagiza is a Rwandan, of the Tutsi tribe. In 1994 the president of Rwanda was killed when his airplane was shot out of the sky and upon that event, the Hutu tribe decided that it was a good time to rid the country of the Tutsis. They commenced in equipping every Hutu in Rwanda with guns and machetes so that they could murder their Tutsi neighbors, men, women, adults, children, elderly, infants. Immaculee was hidden in a Hutu pastor's bathroom with up to 7 other women for three months while a million of her fellow countrymen were ruthlessly gunned down or hacked to pieces - her words - in the matter of three months. This is her story, of how she relied on God to deliver her from madness; the madness of the Hutus and the madness of her own brain. It is also a story of forgiveness and how only through God's grace and love can we learn to forgive people who have hurt us and move on with our lives.

It's hard for me to believe that a million people were killed in three months while I was 17 and pouting about not being able to stay out longer than 11pm. It's appalling that in the late 20th century, when all the world seems civilized, a million people were killed in three months because they were taller and their nose was different. Where were we? What were the politics behind us deciding it was okay to ignore this situation? What was Bill Clinton doing that he didn't feel this was something we should be interested in. Although, believe me, this is the first book I've read about the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and I've only vaguely heard of it before this so I'm hardly one to be making any sort of statement about what should have been done or the rightness or wrongness of our actions or lack thereof.

Immaculee is very detailed in her description of what went on. Some of the images she presented are awful and ones I wish I could rid my brain of. I asked God how people could be so inhuman and evil and the thing that came to me was that they were acting human. It is in our very nature be so selfish about the lives of others. It is only God through us that we are able to show love, forgiveness, selflessness and have humane treatment of others.

I don't think she should have dumbed down the images in the book, because how else do we learn from the mistakes of others, when you don't even describe what the mistakes were.

(Re)Considering Ballet

As you know, we have the two older girls in a dance class each. Sarah's is ballet, tap, tumbling for an hour and Ella's is ballet for 45 minutes. I have had conflicting feelings about sending the girls to a dance class from the very beginning, often saying things about "poise", "grace" and "discipline" to ease any conscience pricks that may have arisen.

From my reading post, you also know that I have had the intention to read Tedd Tripp's Shepherding a Child's Heart. So, I have been waking up with Del and after he leaves I read my bible and a book until the kids wake up. I am reading Mr. Tripp's book and it is quite a doozy; very conscience pricking.

Here's my issue with ballet.

We are to have a God-oriented, God-glorifying, God-pleasing life.

1) We can get them to ballet on time every week without fail but we can't get them to church? We don't even do a simple Sunday service at home in our house. We don't even do a daily bible study, but we sure can get them to ballet on time.

2) Are we sending them to ballet because of the social pressure of giving your child what makes them happy? The "grace" thing doesn't always resonate with me considering what I see them learning in class. They learn the recital and not the discipline of ballet. The only reason we sent them in the first place is because Sarah asked to go and we like to give them things that make them happy.

3) Does ballet counteract our modesty message? I don't want them in the recital because I don't want them performing in public in tights and a leotard, but does simply sending them to ballet give them mixed messages about beauty and modesty?

4) What is the end purpose of ballet? Does it glorify God? If we are teaching them that everything we do glorifies God, is ballet what they should be doing at this time?

Some things that Tedd brought up that have made me consider these things are:

We homeschool; we "refuse to have them influenced by secular humanism in school, but will expose them to unbiblical ideas of beauty in dance class."

"Many families who always have time for team practice are unable to organize family life around regular times of family Bible reading and prayer. What values are taught?"

From the shorter catechism:
Q: What is the chief end of man?
A: Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

"You must equip your children to function in a culture that has abandoned the knowledge of God. If you teach them to use their abilities, aptitudes, talents and intelligence to make their lives better, without reference to God, you turn them away from God. If your objectives are anything other than "Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever," you teach your children to function in the culture on its terms."

All these things are making me question ballet, at this time. I feel we as a family need to put more of an emphasis on glorifying God on a daily basis, before we venture out into other activities.

I also think that because I homeschool, I desired to put them into ballet so that I could prove to other people that we are normal; we do normal things, just like everyone else. This is hardly a God-glorifying reason to put them in such an expensive and time consuming activity.

Reading List

I have to say that as much as I enjoy reading the Jane Austen books every year, I'm getting a wee bit tired of only reading those books every year. I decided that I am going to make a list of books that I am going to read this year. So, here it is. I'll add more as I figure out what I'm going to read.

- the Bible (One Year Bible plan)
- Because They Hate by Brigitte Gabriel
- Bamboozled by Anglea McGlowan
- Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
- Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
- Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham
- A Midwife's Story by Penny Armstrong
- Fatal Misconception by Matthew Connelly
- Stupid Black Men: How To Play the Race Card - and Lose by Larry Elder
- The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States by Benjamin F. Morris
- Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
- The Shack by William P. Young
- Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza

To Drivel or Not To Drivel

I love to read (I've already read 8 books in 2008), but often times I gravitate toward mindless fiction. I generally stick to Christian fiction so I don't usually end up reading trash, but it isn't great literature by any stretch of the imagination. Then the things I pick up at the library - I've ended up with some real doosies. One of my dreams (probably after all my kids are no longer homeschooled - and since I'm clearly not even done having kids yet, this could be a while!) is to go back to school and get my masters, or even my PhD in some literary field. While I did really well in school, graduating summa cum laude with my BA in English, I know I have some real gaps in my knowledge. One of those major gaps, because of my tendency to read drivel, is that there are many, many classics I have not read. I did some research at various university web sites and found lists of both American and British literature that are recommended reading before entering a master's program. I decided that rather than check out mindless book after mindless book from the library, I would read through these lists. It's not that I don't think drivel has its place. Children's literature is full of it, and even though it doesn't teach the children much, it is very valuable for building vocabulary. For adults, it is a great way to relax. But I think I will require myself to finish a book of literary value before indulging in each mindless book this year.

For my first pick, just going down the list, I ended up with The Awakening by Kate Chopin. This actually cracks me up because this very happy to be a stay at home, homeschooling mom with extremely conservative views when it comes to marriage and family ended up starting her journey with one of the most controversial pieces of feminist literature of its time! Even though I completely disagreed with the book and its premise, I enjoyed reading it because it is very well written. It made me sad that this woman felt trapped in a loving marriage with loving children and saw desperate measures as her only way out. I am blessed to know that even on days I don't feel like it, my husband and my children are blessings. I don't know if you really want me to type many of my impressions of the book because a) I could be the only one alive interested in my impressions of this book, and b) if you ever wanted to read it, I would ruin the plot for you!

Even though I enjoyed The Awakening from a literary critique viewpoint, I am thankful to have just started Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. This is one of Austen's books that I have never read and it is a wonderful contrast to the book I just finished!