We watched Fiddler on the Roof recently, and apparently Martin the Warrior and The Queen thought it catchy, even if they didn't quite grasp what the songs meant, for today they were doing their chores singing:
"Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match
Find me a fish
Catch me a cat"
from Dewey's Treehouse
How much snow is there on the ground where you live?
-- Strangely, about four inches. This is the most snow we've had in years.
How do you make a snowbear?
-- I don't?
Do you know the song "The Minstrel Boy?"
-- I do.
Do you like the song "The Minstrel Boy?"
--Rather.
What do you put in baked peanut butter cookies?
--Since I don't bake peanut butter cookies, I wouldn't know.
Do you like writing stories?
-- I do indeed! Right now, in fact, I have twelve that I am in the middle of writing, and eighteen ideas that need to be written. Do I have an overactive imagination, you ask? Why, of course!
Well, 2006 is over, and is the first year I have kept track of exactly how many books I read. I was aiming for 180, but though I was on a role in the beginning of the year, last few months I only read a couple books. Still, I read 174 overall, which averages to 14 1/2 books a month. I read the most in April (26 books), and the least in December (3 books). My good book to twaddle ratio was 4 to 1, something I was really working for.
Top Ten Rereads
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Lieutenant Hornblower by C. S. Forester
Top Ten Wonderful New Books I Discovered
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Longitude by Dava Sobel
The Eyre Affair/Lost in a Good Book/The Well of Lost Plots/Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde
John Adams by David McCullough
Lord Cochrane by Christopher Lloyd
A Blunt Instrument by Georgette Heyer
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Mister Monday/Grim Tuesday/Drowned Wednesday by Garth Nix
Some days I make the mistake of thinking that my relationship with my family is like any other, that they are merely friends with whom I am 24/7. And then something extraordinary will occur, and I will laugh at my folly.
One such occurance was as we were driving home from Christmas dinner at a friend's house. Emma Darcy started singing You Are My Sunshine, and soon we were all singing along. And when the song ended, we continued with others, singing all the way home. And what was amazing was that, though only two people were in the same key and carrying the same tune, it was the most beautiful sound on earth. Because they were my family.
Over a million homes lost power in our area this week because of a wind
storm...and we were one in a million!
The storm hit on Thursday evening and took out our power around midnight.
We got our power back Saturday evening. There are still hundreds of
thousands still without power.
Thursday afternoon (before the storm started) part of our family went with
another family from church to see "The Lights of Christmas", which is a at
Christian camp that puts out over a million lights in beautiful displays
with Bible messages, carolers, train rides, horse rides, fresh donuts and a
ton of other fun. The rain started gushing while we were driving
there...just buckets of rain...and it took 3 hours to get there (normally it
would only take 1.5 hours)! There was a foot of water on the interstate
highway which slowed traffic to a crawl as 4 lanes of traffic narrowed down
to 2 lanes and then cars took turns fording the water.
We decided to keep going, since we were past the worst traffic by then, and
the ride was fun, regardless of whether we would see lights when we got
where we were going! It turned out that nobody else decided to go that
night, with a storm threatening, so there were no lines for any of the
attractions and we had a great time! The rain had stopped by the time we
arrived at the camp but whenever we would go inside a tent (like the animal
petting area) it would pour down rain, and then by the time we were done and
washed our hands, it had stopped raining! That happened 3 times! Then
around 9pm we loaded up to leave, and as we were leaving the parking lot the
electricity went out and those million lights were dark! There were downed
trees along the road home, including one that caused us to be detoured. The
winds nearly blew us off the highway a few times but we made it home safely.
What an adventure!
Once we got home we shared tales of the storm with those who stayed behind
(they had some great stories, too!)...and then the power went out! The wind
blew hard through out the night, keeping me awake for most of it. The next
morning we found one of our roof vents on the front driveway, a large
section of our fence blown over, tons of branches down in the woods and
shingles from our neighbors roof in our yard! We faired quite well compared
to others in our area.
Friday and Saturday we enjoyed the peace and quiet of life without
electricity, although we never stopped trying to turn on the lights whenever
we entered a dark room! ;) We had a space heater in our living room, so we
were warm enough. We used our camping stove to cook on, and since we have a
gas water heater, we had hot water for dishes and showers. We have a second
refrigerator in our carport, so we just moved items out there (or left them
on the porch) and they kept well since the outside temp was not above 40
anyway, and near freezing at night. We did have to empty and wash out the
fridge, but it needed a good cleaning and fresh paper towel on the
shelves/drawers anyway! Our deep freezer was fine, as was the freezer in
the kitchen. Our pantry was stocked, we had gas in the van (gas lines were
hours long) and some neighborhoods near us had power so we were able to go
to a movie on Saturday, which was a nice break and a special treat for us.
Clankeeper took the older children to see "Eragon" while I took the little
girls to see "Charlotte's Web." I was sad not to get to see "Eragon" but I
must admit that I really enjoyed "Charlotte's Web." After the movie they
had parrots for the children to hold, free treats, a beautiful ice
sculpture, huge furry mascots, coloring pages, a rat, a magician, and all
kinds of fun stuff for children. It kept the Queen and Emma Darcy busy
while we waited for "Eragon" to finish.
All in all, a wonderful set of family memories! My favorite memory was
singing songs on Friday night...all the ones we could think of with 'light'
or 'lamp' in them!
If you haven't been here yet, you must go and check out some amazing pictures of real snowflakes! I was stunned to learn about some of the unusual shapes! The site goes into great details about how they are made, as well as activities you can try at home, tours of places with really cool snow, history of snowflakes, physics, and a whole lot more. Go and see it!
"Thursday, that's not possible!"
"Anything is possible right now. We're in the middle of an isolated high-coincidental localized entropic field decreasement."
"We're in a what?"
"We're in a psuedoscientific technobabble."
"Ah!" replied Wilbur, having witnessed quiet a few at Mycro-Tech Development. "One of those."
—Jasper Fforde, Lost in a Good Book
[and yes, that would make sense if you had read the book]
Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman by Anne Ortlund
The Gospel According to Tolkien by Ralph Wood
Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
It's easy to see why this one was the book that vaulted him to Victorian fame.
The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin
Lord Cochrane by Christopher Lloyd
One of the best biographies I've read.
Mister Monday by Garth Nix
Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix
The Fellowship of the Ring (reread) by J. R. R. Tolkien
At Home in Mitford (reread) by Jan Karon
I liked this one much better the second time around.
The Penguin Classic Baby Name Book by Carol Wallace
A very interesting read.
Drowned Wednesday by Garth Nix
The Case For Christ (reread) by Lee Strobel
The Two Towers (reread) by J. R. R. Tolkien
Robert E Lee: The Christian by William Johnson
Michael Faraday by Charles Ludwig
The Return of the King (reread) by J. R. R. Tolkien
Lost in a Good Book (reread) by Jasper Fforde
Recently, I went to a friend's birthday party, which consisted mainly of going to see the movie Happy Feet in the Imax.
I came out of it with opinions stronger than I had ever felt for a children's movie before. And perhaps that was right, because Happy Feet was not a children's movie. Yes, the penguins were cute, and the dancing and songs would probably appeal to children, but the movie was intense and scary almost all the way through, contained mature and sometimes disturbing themes, and was depressing up till the end. The anti-Christian and anti-human messages were so obvious, it felt as if they were slamming you in the head with them. The pro-homosexual message was more subtle, but still there, and the only redeeming quality of the movie was the tap dancing.
Yes, the tap dancing is great, and certainly made everyone in our group want to go take tap dancing lessons. The movie, though animated, accurately caught the movements of the feet, according to my tap dancer friend, and was very well done. There was also a good supply of humor, especially with the Argentinian penguins, which made the movie a real mixed bag. I wouldn't watch it all the way through again, and definitely wouldn't take children to see it (even I was nervous in some parts) but I would love to watch the good parts again when it comes to DVD.
I read this Daily Mail article about how women talk about 3 times more that men. Through my experince (mainly through my dear wife and oldest daughter), the article sounds accurate, thought I believe the ratio should be closer to 4 or 5 times more ;) That being said, the following sentence jumped out at me:
And, if that wasn't enough, the simple act of talking triggers a flood of brain chemicals which give women a rush similar to that felt by heroin addicts when they get a high.I had always thought that some people like to hear themselves talk, but I never thought that they were getting high doing it!
Because the hymns were just too much fun...
A - Austen, Jane; Alexander, Lloyd
B - Bronte, Charlotte
C - Cooper, Susan
D - Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan
E - Eliot, George
F - Fforde, Jasper; Forester, C. S.
G - Gaskell, Elizabeth
H -Heyer, Georgette
I - Irving, Washington
J - Jacques, Brian
K - King-Smith, Dick
L - Lewis, C. S.
M - McCullough, David; McKingley, Robin
N - Norton, Mary
O - O'Brian, Patrick
P - Potok, Chaim
Q - Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur
R - Ransome, Arthur
S - Sayers, Dorothy; Sutcliff, Rosemary; Snicket, Lemony; Sobel, Dava
T - Trollope, Anthony; Tolkien, J.R.R.; Thurber, James
V - Veith, Gene Edward
W - White, John; White, T. H.
Y - Yolen, Jane
I was thinking about favorite hymns because of a music meme the other day, and I realized that I really have too many to pick just one. So I'm inventing a meme (hat tip to Equuschick) for my favorite hymns:
A - Abide With Me
B - Be Thou My Vision
C - Come Thou Fount
D - Doxology
E - Eternal Father Strong to Save
F - For the Beauty of the Earth
G - The Greatest Commands
H - Holy God We Praise Thy Name
I - I Vow To Thee My Country
J - Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee
K - Kneel At the Cross
L - Lord I Lift Your Name on High
M - Majesty
N - Nearer Still Nearer
O - O Sacred Head
P - Paradise Valley
R - Ring Out the Message
S - Sing and Be Happy
T - To God Be the Glory
U - Unto Thee O Lord
V - Victory In Jesus
W - When We All Get to Heaven
Y - Years I Spent in Vanity
| What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Literate Good Citizen You read to inform or entertain yourself, but you're not nerdy about it. You've read most major classics (in school) and you have a favorite genre or two. | |
| Dedicated Reader | |
| Fad Reader | |
| Book Snob | |
| Non-Reader | |
| Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm | |
| What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz | |
| You Are 65% Left Brained, 35% Right Brained |
 The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports. |
| What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane. | |
| Dedicated Reader | |
| Book Snob | |
| Literate Good Citizen | |
| Non-Reader | |
| Fad Reader | |
| What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz | |
You Are 55% Left Brained, 45% Right Brained |
The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports. |
I enjoy reading how my friends and acquaintances spend their holidays. In fact, I love going to other blogs and reading humorous anecdotes, recipes, opinions, book reviews, and all those other things folks blog about! I also realize that I rarely ever make time to post to our own blog. I will try to do better.
Because we live thousands of miles from our nearest family members, our family has never spent the holidays with our blood relatives. The last time I spent a holiday with blood relatives, MerryK was a wee infant and while I was on the east coast, Clankeeper had a severe asthma attack and was rushed to the ER. The X-ray they did for pneumonia ended up showing us that he had a tumor, which turned out to be Hodgekins lymphoma. All that to say, it has been a very, very long time since we have spend a holiday with our family.
As a result of our distance (and lack of funds to travel) we began to gather with other friends from church who did not have family nearby for the holidays. For nearly 20 years we have been meeting with these same friends, plus new families who have joined us over the years, as well as anyone else we can invite! As our families have grown over the years, the group as swelled. In recent years some of the young adults have married and started their traditions or have been visiting with their in-laws. This year, we met at our church building so that one of our guests, who cannot maneuver stairs well, could join us.
Our Thanksgiving fare includes all the basic foods, with each family choosing one or two things to bring, and then bringing enough for 20-50 people, depending on the size of the group we are expecting. Our family usually brings Clankeeper's Chex Mix and dessert...which means lots and lots of pies. This year we only made 9 pies: 2 regular pumpkin, 1 diabetic pumpkin, 2 chocolate cream, 1 banana cream, 1 blueberry, and 2 Dutch apple. I love doing the pies since I can do them the day (or two) before and then Thanksgiving day is relaxing. Some years we try new pie recipes, and some years we keep it traditional.
Other than lots of eating, we chatted all evening...enjoying each others company. The children played Apples to Apples and other games involving running and squealing, which were only possible due to the extra room at the church building. I was hoping to teach the children some folk song dances that require lots of people and lots of room, but we ran out of time. I'll have to do plan that for another time. Maybe Christmas.
It is impossible to imagine our holidays without our dearest friends. The blood that ties us together is not the genetic one, it is the blood of Jesus. These are friends who have been there through all of our joys and trials, births, marriages, sicknesses and deaths. We share all our burdens and all our blessings. We vacation together, field trip together, and share our day to day lives together. We are family. And even though we all have oddities and irritating traits, we forbear with each other, we support one another, we encourage one another and we love each other completely. And for these dear friends we give God our daily thanks!
[Because this post was inspired by Equuschick, MerryK will refer to herself in the third person throughout. Ahem. MerryK apologizes for not posting recently...plenty of ideas for posts, just no diligence to write them down]
*A- Favourite Animals: Horses and birds (of prey, specifically)
*B- Favourite Bad Habit: (You know, that one that you like too much to even try to break. You like being addicted.) Becoming strongly attached to fictional characters
*C- Favourite Cookie: Snickerdoodle
*D- Favourite Drink: Ice water, or chai tea
*E-Favourite Egg Style: MerryK has a fairly strong aversion to eggs when you can actually taste them...if you disguise them in cakes and puddings, she'll eat them, but show her scrambled or fried eggs in the morning, and her stomach will turn
*F- Five Favourite Fiction Books: Blegh. Only five? The Lord of the Rings, The Complete Works of Jane Austen, North and South, Barchester Towers, and, lastly, a threeway tie between The Grand Sophy, The Unknown Ajax, and A Civil Contract
*G-Favourite Gadget: MerryK is not that big on gadgets, but she would pick an iPod above others.
*H- Favourite Hymn: "Be Thou My Vision" or "Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee"
*I- Favourite Ice Cream- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, or Cookies and Cream
*K-Favourite Kid's Books: The Song of the King by Max Lucado, A Tale of Two Princes by Eckart Zur Nieden, any book by Sandra Boynton, Tumble Bumble by Felicia Bond
*L-Favourite Love Song- Arise My Love by Michael Card...actually the only love song that MerryK can think of without revulsion.
*M-Favourite Memories: All of MerryK's siblings' births surprisingly
*N-Favourite Nonfiction Books: Postmodern Times by Gene Edward Veith, Longitude by Dava Sobel, Tolkien: Author of the Century by Tom Shippey, Lord Cochrane by Christopher Lloyd, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
*O-Favourite Operatic Song: MerryK likes opera, but not enough to have a favorite piece, though Figaro's Aria from The Marriage of Figaro is good.
*P-Favourite Piece of Music at the moment: "I Vow To Thee, My Country"
*Q-Favourite Quiet Spot: Her bed, which, besides being especially comfortable, happens to be where MerryK has to sit to use her computer.
*R-Favourite Reading when you're sick: Teary-eye tragedy, or laugh-out-loud humor.
*S-Favourite Song that you want played at your funeral: "New Jerusalem" by Michael Card
*T-Favourite Task: MerryK does not consider enjoyable things "tasks", but, for the sake of the survey, will name cooking and washing dishes (the latter because it's so monotonous that there is plenty of time for thinking up stories)
*U- Favourite Ugly Animal: Snakes
*V-Favourite Vintage Book: N/A
*W-Favourite Writing of C.S Lewis: The Screwtape Letters
*X-Favourite Word That Starts with X: Xyloid, because it sounds nothing like what it means
*The Missing Y Question-Favourite Yellow Item: The Sun. Seldom see it in the Pacific Northwest, but it's a good thing.
*Z-Favourite Zoo: N/A
We were very blessed to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit this week. It was awesome to see artifacts that were around when Jesus walked the earth! I was moved to tears several times. Reading documents that fortold of the Son of Man coming...it was so exciting to me. The actual scrolls are only lit every so often, to preserve them, and even then only dimly lit. It added to the mystery to be in this dark room, waiting for the lights to come on so you could see this little piece of history.
This exhibit, like many that we have been to in recent years, offers you a head set with a free audio tour so you can learn more about each part of the exhibit. After you overcome the technological challenge of getting the player to work for you (which doesn't seem too difficult to children, but several adults had to ask their young ones to help them out...including me!) you spend the rest of your time hunting out numbers on the wall, punching them into your hand held device that looks like a TV remote, and wandering around the exhibit. From the very first room and for the next hour or so, everyone walked around like zombies with this remote control stuck to their head. I stood back and watched as people walked in and out of the areas, not communicating with anyone, just drifting from display to display. When I tried to talk to one of my sons about something I found especially interesting at a display, he said, "Mom, I'm listening" and went on with his audio tour. I did manage to engage some of the other children who were through a section of the exhibit and waiting for the slower folks to catch up. Being the babbling brook kind of person, I like to share my experiences with others. I was a bit frustrated, especially since Clankeeper couldn't join us, and I know he would have talked with me about the displays. I also noticed that the audio tour didn't contain a lot more than what was already written on the walls, unlike the audio tours at the Art Museum, which add a lot of new information to what you are looking at. I still learned a lot, though, despite having to wait to talk about it with my family.
Later in the day, in another part of the museum, we went through an insect exhibit. All of us went from aquarium to aquarium, searching out the bug or creature on display and discussing our likes and dislikes together. That is how I like to go through museums...with my whole family, discussing each part in detail, learning more about each other and sharing the whole experience together. I found out that one of my children actually thinks milipedes are more scary than spiders! [Note from MerryK: That child is me.] It was delightful!
I have never seen it mentioned, but I would bet this is probably a personality trait. Some people must like to learn in groups, and others alone. I wouldn't want to learn with people I didn't know, but I do enjoy learning with those I love...my family and friends. I guess that is why I love homeschooling, too!
We went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit today, and talked about it a good deal before we got there. But apparently, Emma Darcy didn't get the message, for she said, nearly in tears, as we started through: "But I don't want to see dead sea squirrels!"
