Woman of the House

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ Feb. 10, 2012

2012-02-10T17:15:00.011-05:00

{Pretty}

February, not April, is the cruellest month no matter what Mr. Eliot says. Winter has lost its charm and spring is still too far off. This week was a dull, gray one in my part of the world except for Thursday when we had a day of welcome sunshine. Even scissors are beautified by sunshine!

More glorious sunshine:

{Happy}

What's happier than a birthday? Last Saturday was Girl of the House's 15th. The tradition in our family is that the birthday girl/boy gets to choose the dinner menu. Girl 2 chose corned beef, put-back potatoes (readers of Milly-Molly-Mandy will recognize those!), peas, homemade bread, and blueberry pie instead of a cake. After she opened presents, we played Settlers of Catan. We are addicted! The next day Girl 2's friend, who wasn't available on Saturday, went with us to a local pasta place after church. Then we played more Settlers, but I forgot to take pictures, alas. Here are some shots of Saturday:

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From My Commonplace Book

2012-02-07T09:21:00.004-05:00

"Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely expressed for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent busybodies." ~ C.S. Lewis

"One of the strangest disparities of history lies between the sense of abundance felt by older, simpler societies and the sense of scarcity felt by the ostensibly richer societies of today." ~ Richard Weaver

"We cannot teach citizenship if we are not citizens; we cannot free others if we have forgotten the appetite of freedom. Education is only truth in a state of transmission; and how can we pass on truth if it has never come into our hand." ~ G.K. Chesterton

"We are needy creatures, and our greatest need is for home—the place where we are, where we find protection and love. We achieve this home through representations of our own belonging, not alone but in conjunction with others. All our attempts to make our surroundings look right—through decorating, arranging, creating—are attempts to extend a welcome to ourselves and to those whom we love." ~ Roger Scruton

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ Feb. 3, 2012

2012-02-03T21:59:00.007-05:00

Joining Like Mother, Like Daughter for {Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}. . .

There's not been a lot of {funny} or {real} going on here lately, but there is plenty of {pretty} and {happy}! First is the happiest of all~ ultrasound pictures of our first grandchild. It's a girl!

We are all so excited to have a baby in the family once again. Her due date is June 12 (Magna Carta Day! lol). Isn't she sweet?

Girl Out of the House and That Boy have decided to do the nursery in Classic Pooh, which I love, of course! I've been trying to find Classic Pooh fabric, but it's not so common anymore. I was happy to find two coordinating CP prints unexpectedly at Jo-Ann Fabrics today, so I bought some of each and also some polka dot prints to round things out. Now Girl of the House can begin making her baby quilt. Won't it be sweet?

I've been a bread machine devotee, but ours started acting erratically not long before we moved, so we got rid of it. Since I haven't bought a replacement yet and we had a hankering for homemade bread, I decided to try to master the art of breadmaking. Up until this week I have only had moderate success, but when the Living on a Dime newsletter came through my inbox with some tips and recipes, I decided to try their method. It worked like a dream! This is the most delicious bread I've ever made by machine or hand. Man of the House raves about it. I just hope it wasn't beginner's luck and I can replicate it. It does look delicious, if I do say so myself!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ January 28, 2012

2012-01-28T17:20:00.006-05:00

Sigh. My life does not cooperate with getting this up on Thursday like I'm supposed to. Thankfully, the girls at Like Mother, Like Daughter don't seem to mind. :-) I just have {pretty} and {happy} jumbled into one to share this week.

{Pretty} and {Happy}

Man of the House bought me a wall decal from Trading Phrases for Christmas. It was one I had requested and he obligingly obliged.

I put it up today. I was so nervous I was going to do something wrong, but it was easier than I anticipated. Watching the instructional video a couple times gave me confidence and the decal itself was so cooperative! It acted just like the video said it would. I am very pleased with the quality of the product and ease of installation! I suspect there will be more decals in my future life . . .

Here are a few pictures~~

Though it doesn't look like it in the picture, our walls are a soft yellow. The decal is black. One thing I'm not happy about now is the lamp. I think I need a shorter one. LOL There's always something!

2011 Reading Challenge Wrap-up

2012-01-24T22:04:00.008-05:00

Here it is at long last. This is a pie that could have been divided in any number of ways, so I chose those that were most interesting to me. I note that my reading was divided exactly equally between fiction and non-fiction, and that without my paying much attention to making it come out even! How 'bout that?

Here are the books I read in 2011 divided in various ways and in no particular order. (Can we pretend that the book titles are properly italicized? When I copied and pasted the lists from a Word document, the italicizing didn't come along.)

Non-Fiction

Q's Legacy by Helene Hanff

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

The Pace of a Hen: Ways to Fulfillment for a Housewife by Josephine Moffett Benton

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan

The Blessings of Weekly Communion by Kenneth Wieting

Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life by Margaret Kim Peterson

On Christian Liberty by Martin Luther

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Conjugal America: On the Public Purposes of Marriage by Allan Carlson

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett

Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God's Spoken World by N.D. Wilson

1066: The Year of the Conquest by David Howarth

The Natural Family: A Manifesto by Allan C. Carlson and Paul T. Mero

The Most Reluctant Convert: C.S. Lewis's Journey to Faith by David C. Downing

Christmas Book 13 published by Gooseberry Patch

Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God by John Piper

Sixpence in Her Shoe by Phyllis McGinley

The Madman and the Professor: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi

The Gentle Art of Domesticity: Stitching, Baking, Nature, Art & the Comforts of Home by Jane Brocket

Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches by Russell D. Moore

Confessions by St. Augustine

Martin Luther's Christmas Book edited by Roland Bainton

Fiction

Oedipus the King by Sophocles

A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Jerome K. Jerome

The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

A World Lost by Wendell Berry

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jane Birdsall

Journey Cake by Isabel McLennan McKeekin

How Right You Are, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

A Murder Is Announced by Agatha Christie

The Tuesday Club Murders by Agatha Christie

Good-bye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton

Agamemnon by Aeschylus

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

King Lear by William Shakespeare

Books of a Devotional/Theological Nature

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

The Blessings of Weekly Communion by Kenneth Wieting

Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life by Margaret Kim Peterson

On Christian Liberty by Martin Luther

Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-eyed Wonder in God's Spoken World by N.D. Wilson

The Most Reluctant Convert: C.S. Lewis's Journey to Faith by David C. Downing

Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God by John Piper

Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches by Russell D. Moore

Confessions by St. Augustine

Martin Luther's Christmas Book edited by Roland Bainton

Children's Books

A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jane Birdsall

Journey Cake by Isabel McLennan McKeekin

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Housekeeping Books

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

The Pace of a Hen: Ways to Fulfillment for a Housewife by Josephine Moffett Benton

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan

Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life by Margaret Kim Peterson

Christmas 13 published by Gooseberry Patch

Sixpence in Her Shoe by Phyllis McGinley

The Gentle Art of Domesticity: Stitching, Baking, Nature, Art & the Comforts of Home by Jane Brocket

Old Books a la C.S. Lewis (100 Years Old or Older)

On Christian Liberty by Martin Luther

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett

Confessions by St. Augustine

Martin Luther's Christmas Book edited by Roland Bainton

Oedipus the King by Sophocles

Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Jerome K. Jerome

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

Agamemnon by Aeschylus

King Lear by William Shakespeare

Classic Fiction

King Lear by William Shakespeare

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Agamemnon by Aeschylus

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Oedipus the King by Sophocles

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

Most Disappointing Books

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jane Birdsall

The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket

The Pace of a Hen: Ways to Fulfillment for a Housewife by Josephine Moffett Benton

Most Pleasantly Surprising Books

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Sixpence in Her Shoe by Phyllis McGinley

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi

Journey Cake by Isabelle McLennan McKeekin

Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry

Funniest Books

The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

How Right You Are, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Overall, I'm very pleased with this experiment. I wish I had read more old books, though several were almost a hundred years old. One thing I caught myself doing was avoiding long books (over about 200 pages) because I knew I couldn't finish them in a week. So this year I hope to go back and pick some of those up, which will mean fewer books read this year, of course, but possibly as many or more pages. I discovered that I don't have a natural affinity for ancient literature, which is too bad because I think it's important to read. Hopefully I can make myself tackle a few each year. Thank you for following my reading journey this past year. I will continue to post book reviews from time to time. Happy reading, everyone!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ January 21, 2012

2012-01-21T21:27:00.012-05:00

Joining Like Mother, Like Daughter . . .

My poor little blog has been neglected lately. I promise to try to post at least once before the next {phfr}!

{Pretty}

I saw this idea in Gooseberry Patch's Christmas 13 and decided to try it with a little tweaking.

The instructions had you tracing and cutting snowflakes from felt, but I spotted pre-cut snowflakes in the dollar store and knew that would be so much easier and so much more likely that I'd actually get to it! Some of the snowflakes are foam (the package said they were coasters) and some are plastic with glitter. I used buttons from Girl of the House's button jar and nylon thread from our stash and regular ol' scotch tape to attach them to the window frame.

I had intended to make strings and strings of these to hang from multiple windows, but alas, this was all I could manage this year. It was a fiddly project that took more time than I thought it would. Still, I really like the results and decided to leave them up past Christmas.

{Funny}

I bought this hat for 50 cents at a yard sale this summer just knowing it would be perfect for the gag gift exchange we were planning for our Christmas party. It's very springy and unpredictable and got a great laugh at our party! It reminds me of something from a Dr. Seuss book.

{Real}

I asked for a shoe rack like this for Christmas. My mom got this for me. I really like it except for the little fact that it won't fit in my closet! Humph! It's too tall to fit under my clothes, so I tried laying it on its side, but it wouldn't fit that way either. I'm thinking about what to do.

I put it together today with assistance from the ever so helpful cat.

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ Jan. 13, 2012

2012-01-13T21:17:00.008-05:00

Wow! What a week this has been! Both Girl and Man of the House have been sick, though with different illnesses. In fact, Man of the House even ended up in the ER in the middle of the night after horrible coughing for two hours and difficulty breathing. He was given a breathing treatment and lots of meds, for which we are thankful. I'm happy to say he's on the mend, but he has quite a way to go yet to be back to 100%. Thankfully, Girl of the House is perfectly well now. It's been a tiring week for all of us!

{Pretty}

It snowed yesterday! We've been told that we usually have snow in December, but this year the first snowfall came late. The wind yesterday was strong and the cold was so bitter! The snow has made odd patterns on the ground. In some places the grass is sticking up through the snow, but in others the drifts went up to my knees! Very {pretty}!

{Happy}

Girl Out of the House took some pictures of my beloved and me while she and her beloved were here for Christmas. I can't tell you how {happy} this man makes me!

{Funny}

Girl of the House, an aspiring novelist, got this T-shirt for Christmas. It's {funny} but true!

{Real}

This week has had more than its fair share of illness, doctors, and medicine. These are just some of the medications Man of the House is taking. We are thankful for modern healthcare, but we will all be {real}-ly glad when everyone is well!

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{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ January 7, 2012

2012-01-05T21:15:00.020-05:00

Happy 2012! I was woefully rushed and harried during December and was therefore not able to post for {phfr} the past two weeks (and I'm late this week too!), so I have lots to share this time. Call it my Christmas wrap-up. Maybe you want to get a cup of tea or coffee before digging in.

{Pretty}

{Happy}

Girl of the House is a Terry Pratchett fan. She was {happy} to receive his latest book:

We were so {happy} to have Girl Out of the House and That Boy visiting us for a week. We are also ecstatic that their first baby is on the way and should make his/her appearance in mid-June! The grandchild gifts have already begun, but within reason: this is the only baby gift we bought. There's still plenty of time to spoil the wee one . . .

There were some serious Stratego games between Girl of the House and That Boy~

Every year since our oldest was small we have had a Christmas party. The girls tell us it is their favorite part of Christmas. We invite way too many people for our house, but how can we leave anyone out? There is so much fun and laughter that I don't think anyone minds. Some friends have told us that they don't consider Christmas to have really started until our party. Being in a new town this year with new friends to invite, we weren't sure what to expect, but it was a great time as always.

Lots of conversation~

Lots of food~

Lots of fun and games~

{Funny}

Girl 1 and That Boy brought their two cats with them. It made for some interesting inter-cat relations as our cat and the two visitors worked out their pecking order. At first, neither faction wanted anything to do with the other. We'd hear scrabbling and yowling and hissing coming from all parts of the house, especially at night. Then they called a truce and learned to tolerate each other:

Eventually, they ended up like this:

I'm substituting {cute} for {real} this week. With a subject like this, can you blame me?

Girl 1 and That Boy's Maine coon kitten is the cutest cat I've ever seen!

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2011 Reading Challenge~~Books #50, #51, and #52

2011-12-31T21:09:00.008-05:00

Here we are on the eve of 2012 and I have finished my reading challenge! I will post a wrap-up soon with some statistics and final thoughts. In the meantime, here are the last three (quick) reviews:

I stumbled upon the audio version of The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi at the public library. Mark Logue is the grandson of Lionel Logue, the speech therapist who proved so valuable in helping King George VI (aka Bertie) overcome his life-long speech impediment. Interestingly and atypically, the book came after the movie and fills in a lot of missing details from Bertie's early days as the second son of King George V to the end of his life as the much beloved King George VI. In listening to this book I came to admire both the man who was one of the early pioneers in the field of speech therapy and the man who never wanted nor expected to be king. I like stories of perseverance and hard work and triumph over difficulties and this one did not disappoint. One of my favorite non-fiction reads this year.

Simon Vance did an excellent job reading this book. Another highlight was the inclusion of entire speeches as given by the king. That's something you can't get in a printed book, so I highly recommend the audio version.

A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck was a delight. Peck writes with wit and a purely American flavor reminiscent of Mark Twain. Fans of his award-winning A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder won't want to miss the further adventures of Grandma Dowdel. She's as feisty and peppery as ever as she assists the new Methodist preacher and his family adjust to life in small-town Illinois in the 1950's. The theme of Grandma Dowdel's life is helping the underdog while conspicuously maintaining a front of indifference. If you've read Peck's other Grandma Dowdel books you'll recognize Joey (well, his son anyway), Carlene Lovejoy, Effie Wilcox, Mrs. L.J. Weidenbach, and the Burdick clan as they all make appearances in the book. This book can stand alone, but you will appreciate it more if you've read the other two first. I hope this is not the last we hear of Grandma Dowdel.

Martin Luther's Christmas Book is a short 70 pages of excerpts from Luther's sermons pertaining to the events leading up to the birth of Jesus and the events immediately following. This book was edited by Roland Bainton, the prominent Protestant historian, whose best known book is Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. The illustrations are drawn from the woodcuts of Schongauer and Durer. In addition to the many insights Luther gives regarding the biblical account of Christ's birth, also interesting to me was seeing the quite different viewpoint and treatment of history and tradition Luther exhibits as compared to modern Christians. As we would expect for someone who was born in 1483, Luther's vantage point smack in the middle of the Renaissance is evident. The modern mind and the Renaissance mind are not the same. This is one reason why C.S. Lewis strongly advocates reading old books~it helps to expose our own prejudices and parochialisms stemming from the times in which we live. An enlightening read.

There! I did it! Even though I've completed my 2011 Reading Challenge, I won't quit reading or posting book reviews. I've already got some books in mind for 2012 . . .

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ Dec. 17, 2011

2011-12-17T12:47:00.001-05:00

This is the "better late than never" edition of {phfr}!

For the last few years I've been enjoying the simple beauty of evergreen for Christmas decorations. Instead of packing a lot of things away and replacing them with Christmas-themed doodads, I've been just adding a sprig of evergreen here and there. It adds a festive touch without a lot of rearranging. Here is the shelf in the kitchen all decked out with boughs of, well, not holly, but evergreen. Isn't it {pretty}?

When my in-laws were moving to a new house a few years ago, we helped them go through forty-plus years of accumulated stuff. My mother-in-law didn't want this nativity set anymore, so she gave it to me. I don't know how old it is, but it comes from a refugee camp near Jericho in Jordan. I'm {happy} to have it! I put it on top of our microwave in the kitchen. This is the only nativity set we own in which Baby Jesus, who will make his appearance on Christmas Eve, can be removed from the manger.

My favorite piece of this nativity set is the cute little donkey. I think he's {funny}!

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2011 Reading Challenge~~Books #48 and #49

2011-12-14T11:31:00.012-05:00

The Pace of Hen: Ways to Fulfullment for a Housewife by Josephine Moffett Benton is a book I expected and wanted to love but which I only moderately liked. Her main premise is that a housewife has so many opportunites open to her that there is no reason for her to languish in boredom and unfulfillment. I agree completely with that thesis. The author writes about many ways a woman at home can enliven her experience, and I think that is a message that needs to be shouted from the rooftops. Feminism has convinced many in my generation and those subsequent that there is nothing worthwhile to do at home. Feminism couldn't be more wrong. This book, written in 1962, one year before The Feminine Mystique was published, explains how a wife and mother caring for her family and community makes a vital contribution to the well-being of our society. Young women especially need to be told this. Mrs. Benton was a woman of wide experience and understanding who clearly has not been stifled in mind or spirit just because she makes home her base of operations. I was amused by how many of the problems women faced in 1962 before the feminist revolution are the same problems women lament about today: feeling isolated at home, being pressured by society to be something more than "just a housewife," and lacking child-rearing wisdom and know-how, to name a few. The subtitle points in that direction also. Some things never change.

What I didn't like was the book's thorough-going Quaker outlook, evident on almost every page. I have many bones to pick with Quaker theology and practice, so I was exasperated with this book at times. Mrs. Benton exhibits a non-traditional, non-historical understanding of what a sacrament is and because of that misrepresents what it means to live sacramentally. Her reliance on our mystical ability to discern God's voice within our own hearts can lead to spiritual and theological disaster and has done just that for many, including myself. I do agree with her insistence that a rich and fulfilling life can be made by just about anyone in just about anywhere, but it's not necessary to be a Quaker to achieve it. What is necessary is thought, prayer, and a very large mental adjustment.

All in all, The Pace of a Hen is not a book I'm likely to return to.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling is, I think, my favorite Harry Potter book, mainly because Man of the House and I have suffered at the hands of a Dolores Umbridge-like teacher and administrator in the past. The resemblance in some ways is striking, and I guess it's this firsthand understanding of what life at Hogwart's was like that makes me more empathetic toward Harry & Co. than usual. The Harry Potter books are great fun, and to me, this one is the most fun of all. I listened to this on CD. Jim Dale will forever be the voice of HP to me. He does an excellent job throughout all seven books.

Just three more books to go before the challenge is over. I think I'm going to make it! I will post a round-up sometime in January.

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ December 8, 2011

2011-12-08T21:36:00.011-05:00

Since there was no {phfr} on Thanksgiving and I totally missed last week, I have a lot of pictures to share. Let's dive right in!

{Pretty}

This counts as {real} too because I wanted these to bloom over Christmas and they've been blooming for a week now. I followed the instructions on the box, but I guess the bulb hadn't read them because the flowers appeared much earlier than they were supposed to. Early or not, aren't they gorgeous? I love they way the perk up this room!

{Happy}

Lots of {happy} this week! Over Thanksgiving we visited Man of the House's parents, and Girl of the House was finally able to give them a present she had intended for last Christmas. Alas, her illness prevented her from finishing it on time, but G'ma and G'pa thought it was worth the wait! Didn't Girl 2 do a great job? We got the idea for the color scheme from a quilt we saw at an antique store. We knew it was just the thing to help keep the grandparents warm in winter.

Remember my apple-eating squirrel? He's still around though the apples have long been gone. I've been feeding him corn I gleaned from Farmer John's fields the day he took us on his combine. I sneaked up on Squirrel Nutkin one morning and got some good shots of him enjoying his corn. I like to see him frolicking (that is the perfect word for what he does!) in our backyard. I'm happy he's still around!

Girl of the House cooks supper twice a week, something which makes me happy even though I enjoy cooking. Tonight she made individual pot pies from leftover turkey in our new Fiestaware bowls. We always stop at a particular antique/crafts shop when we visit Man of the House's parents, and normally we are shopping for Fiestaware for Girl Out of the House, but Man of the House convinced me that these bowls would be perfect for pot pies. Since these are factory seconds (which have very small, practically unnoticeable blemishes) they were bargains. Doesn't the table look festive and colorful with the red tablecloth and multi-colored bowls? I made us wait to sit down so that I could get a shot! (P.S. Girl 2 wants me to tell you that she ran short of piecrust and that's why they look "funny," as she put it. No matter how they looked, they were delicious!)

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2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #47

2011-12-04T21:35:00.004-05:00

Every Christmas I treat myself to some form of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Sometimes I listen to a recording, sometimes I watch a movie or play, sometimes, like this year, I read the book. Oftentimes I do more than one. It's a compulsion every December for me to fellowship with the Cratchitts, nephew Fred, the ghost of Jacob Marley, and even ol' Ebenezer Scrooge himself. I have nothing original add to the volumes that have already been written about A Christmas Carol, so I won't try. I will, however, recommend a book I read two or three years ago called The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford. Though it is the story of how Dickens came to write his best-known novel, it is much more. The book is part biography, part literary analysis, and part social history. It was an easy, fun read that filled in the backstory to one of my favorite holiday tales and authors.

2011 Reading Challenge ~ Books #45 and #46

2011-11-27T17:25:00.011-05:00

One of the things I like best about Allan Carlson, the author of Conjugal America: On the Public Purposes of Marriage, is his ability to write substantial, well researched books for the layman. This is a book that a person of average intelligence can read with reasonable ease. In Conjugal America, Carlson traces the importance of one man/one woman marriage with resulting children~what he likes to call the "natural family"~ throughout the history and therefore national identity of America. He demonstrates how, contrary to the typical ideal of the rugged individual as the basis for American settlement and expansion, America was built by and for families in a way that the Old World never was nor could be. He traces the fortunes of the family through the Pilgrims up to the modern day. He overthrows some of the misconceptions many of us hold regarding marriage and the family. For instance, young people in early America tended to marry younger and have more children than their European counterparts because abundant, cheap American land meant that it was easier for a young man to get an economic foothold, thus encouraging him earlier in his life that he could support a wife and family. Young men in Europe may have wanted to marry sooner but thought they couldn't because they couldn't afford it until they had spent more years establishing themselves economically. Carlson's book is chock full of historical and sociological support in the fight for traditional marriage.

Carlson also encourages what he calls the "child-rich family" and helps the reader to understand that marriage is the union of the sexual and economic. He writes convincingly about the community's interest in promoting and aiding strong marriages, and most interesting of all, he shows how some political ideologies such as fascism and communisim/socialism undermine the family as a de facto component of their systems of government. He claims that the traditional family is the necessary basis for nations who desire "ordered liberty."

Another thing I like about Allan Carlson is that he makes the case for traditional marriage from a non-religious standpoint, though he is a practicing Christian and can very likely make the case from the Bible. For the simple reason that an increasing number of people in our country give the Bible little or no credence, I think it's important that we defend man/woman marriage without referring to religious doctrine, etc. This book (along with The Natural Family) is very helpful in that task.

I was so busy before Thanksgiving that I didn't even get to update my sidebar to show that I read Arnold Bennett's How to Live on 24 Hours a Day last week. I picked this book up for a pittance at an antique store's going-out-of-business sale after being pretty sure I remembered the Deputy Headmistress refer to it once. Not knowing Arnold Bennett, I looked him up and learned that he was an English novelist and journalist who did pretty well for himself back in his day. This is one of his most popular books. I'm astonished to find it in a 2010 edition on Amazon. My edition is from 1910. Though far from agreeing with all he had to say, I can see why Bennett was popular: he writes with much energy and wit. He had me chuckling during the preface and at regular intervals throughout. Despite what the title may lead a person to think, this book is not about maximizing every minute of your day to cram in as much activity as possible. You will not find time-saving hints and suggestions for increasing your efficiency or reducing your waste of time. Rather, Bennett's main idea is to encourage the reader that he can improve his mind by setting aside a specific amount of time for reading and thinking~what Bennett calls "living." Now, I love this idea and it's one I would love to implement in my own life (that's part of what this reading challenge is all about), but Bennett's plan would take quite a bit of overhauling for twenty-first century American life, beginning with cutting out most outside activities and obligations for children and adults alike. Despite its many impracticalities for today, the idea of deliberately and purposefully setting aside time to cultivate the mind is intriguing and worth pursuing. Plus, it was a fun book to read, plain and simple.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T17:21:00.004-05:00

I've been more negligent than usual this week in posting. Man of the House is taking his first vacation week from both pastoring and teaching for the first time since April, so we've been busy doing nothing. Well, that's not exactly true. He has taken some time to catch up with some things, and we went Christmas shopping yesterday. After tonight's Thanksgiving vespers (he's interrupting his vacation for it) we will be traveling. But we have spent time in extra sleep and some much-needed goofing off, including watching our way through the Harry Potter movies. But before I sign off for the rest of the week, I wanted to share two things my vast reading audience, a link and a prayer.

The link is to an article from the Ludwig von Mises Institute about the Pilgrims failed attempts at socialism in the early years of Plymouth Colony. I'm posting it as a matter of interest and a little poke in the eye of the Occupy Wall Street mob . . . I mean, crowd. Ahem.

The second is a prayer in honor of Thanksgiving Day.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving by Robert Louis Stevenson

Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank Thee for this place in which we dwell;
for the love that unites us;
for the peace accorded us this day;
for the hope with which we expect the morrow;
for the health, the work, the food, and the bright skies,
that make our lives delightful;
and for our friends in all parts of the earth.
Let peace abound in our small company.

Purge out of every heart the lurking grudge.
Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere.
Give us the grace to accept and to forgive offenders.
Forgetful ourselves, help us to bear cheerfully the forgetfulness of others.
Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind.
Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.

Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors.
If it may not, give us the strength to encournter that which is to come,
that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath,
and in all changes of fortune, and, down to the gates of death, loyal and loving to one another.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving, everyone.

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ November 17, 2011

2011-11-17T20:14:00.012-05:00

It's time for {phfr} already! Didn't I just do this two days ago??

{Pretty}

For my birthday, Man of the House took me antiquing in a semi-nearby town. Things I look for particularly are books and blue and white transferware. Sometimes I hit the jackpot and sometimes I come up with nothing. This time the pickings were pretty slim, but I did find a dinner plate for $6.50. Since we use these dishes every day (and decorate with it too!), I won't spend a lot. It's fun to mix and match, and transferware does set a pretty table. I saw a lot of gorgeous red/pink and white transferware, which makes me think maybe I ought to broaden my color horizons. :-) Even though I found only one piece, we had a good time hunting!

{Happy}

See my birthday present from Man of the House? He has an mp3 player like it and thought I'd enjoy one too. He was right!

{Funny}

What's so funny about a cemetery, you ask? Take a closer look at the sign . . .

I guess they thought they ought to tell us just what is buried in this cemetery, though I would have thought it was pretty obvious. Actually, we later found out that it is pronounced "bode-y," but without a pronunciation guide, who would know? lol

{Real}

One of the best things about this house is the number of bedrooms (4) and bathrooms (2). With just one child at home, we have two bedrooms to spare, and one of them is slated to become the guest room. Right now, it's storage for boxes still to be unpacked, but all that changes this Saturday. It'll be cleared out and well scrubbed, the bed will be set up and new bedding put on, pictures hung, etc., etc. Thankfully, the paint color is acceptable. (I keep forgetting to take my pictures during the day! The walls are really not as drab as they appear in this photo.) There's even a bathroom next door. I think it will be comfortable for guests. Girl Out of the House and That Boy will be here just after Christmas, which is our incentive to get moving on this project. But I didn't want to wait until the crazy busyness of December. I'll share pictures when it's finished!

Thanks for visiting! :-)

From My Commonplace Book

2011-11-16T13:28:00.002-05:00

I like to do these little posts from time to time. They make me look through the quotes preserved in my commonplace book and remind me of ideas I want to ponder. I hope you find them food for thought as well. I try not to repeat, but I suspect I have and/or will. That's okay. All these things are worth a second look. :-)

"The chief aim of the Christian order is to give room for all good things to run wild." ~ G.K. Chesterton

"The real way of mending a man's taste is not to denigrate his favourites but to teach him how to enjoy something better." ~ C.S. Lewis

"Homeschooling forces you to see your home as a place where more than just consumption takes place. It leads you back to the traditional view of the home as a place where something was produced. It keeps you from seeing home as just a place where you sleep and eat before you go out into the rest of the world to do the really important things. It keeps you from feeling dependent on experts to do the serious teaching of your children." ~ Rod Dreher

"The person who has stopped being thankful has fallen asleep in life." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

"A general state education is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another: and as the mould in which it casts them is that which pleases the predominant power in the government, whether this be a monarch, a priesthood, an aristocracy, or the majority of the existing generation; in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by natural tendency to one over the body." ~ John Stuart Mill

2011 Reading Challenge~~Books #43 and #44

2011-11-13T16:20:00.011-05:00

I'm caught up! I had fallen a little behind during September, but as of now I'm back to an average of a book a week. Now if I can only maintain it through the end of the year . . .

Finishing The House at Pooh Corner was like saying good-bye to an old friend, one you don't want to part with but know you must. Maybe that feeling is so strong because of the way A.A. Milne brings the stories to an end with the departure of Christopher Robin, who is growing up and out of his old friends, Pooh & Co. It's a poignant ending and one I've known to bring tears to the eyes of at least one tough ol' codger. But before that last chapter, there are many laughs and much insight into life. Reading these stories makes me realize how impoverished modern childhood can be if parents are not careful. There is too much noise and distraction coming from ubiquitous electronic gadgets, including the television, and from endless activities, organized by adults for children, to allow them to engage in the long hours of doing "Nothing," as Christopher Robin puts it. What is Nothing? "It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering," says Christopher Robin. I could go on for a long time along this vein, but I'll spare you that. I'm sure I will continue to make forays into the 100 Acre Wood from time to time. Not returning for brief visits is a prospect that I cannot countenance.

Little House on the Prairie continues the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood growing up in a frontier family. As I'm sure you are aware, in this book her family moves from the Big Woods of Wisconsin to Indian Terrority forty miles west of Independence, Missouri. I'm always amused that Pa decides to move because the Big Woods are getting too crowded. What's his definition of too crowded? Seeing one wagon passing their house a day. So they move to where the only neighbors are American Indians and couple other settlers a few miles away. I'm always impressed with the Ingalls' grit and resourcefulness. Through the literal sweat of their collective brow they produce practically everthing they need, and what can't they can't make or procure themselves they get through barter. Their life is not easy, but they are happy. They are without almost every material good that we in the 21st century think essential, but they feel blessed. Spending time with the Ingalls family reminds me to pursue contentment and to be thankful for the advantages of modern life. I'm also reminded to weigh carefully the hidden costs of those advantages. The hardships the Ingalls faced ~ though I doubt they would have considered most of them hardships ~ also knitted them together with a common goal and unity that most modern families are lacking. I first read the Little House books so long ago that I can't remember a time when they weren't part of my consciousness. Even after so long a time I still find it satisfying to re-establish my old friendship with Pa and Ma, Mary, Laura, Carrie, and Grace.

I think it's time for me to return once again to the grown-up world of literature and books. I had considered continuing the Little House series and re-reading Beatrix Potter, but my vacation in children's literature has come to an end for now. I'm sure I'll return sometime, though. :-)

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ Nov. 10, 2011

2011-11-10T21:39:00.007-05:00

Joining Like Mother, Like Daughter for {phfr} . . .

{Pretty}

My birthday was this week, and Girl of the House made my favorite cake: red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. Yum! Didn't she do a good job?

{Happy}

We had a spontaneous discussion about math at the dinner table! Those of you who know us personally know just how astounding that is. We tend more to the literary/musical/philosophical side of life than the scientific/mathematical, but this discussion arose of its own accord and was sustained for some minutes, long enough to incorporate diagrams on the blackboard! I don't know what got into us. Of course, we couldn't discuss math without working in some Greek and a bad joke, and I recall there being a literary allusion or two also. Still, it was a first for us.

{Funny}

Girl of the House is not thrilled that I am posting this picture, but what else are parents for if not to embarrass their children? Here she sports a bow from one of my birthday presents.

{Real}

I don't have an actual picture of {real} because I'm not good at taking pictures of pitch black, which is what we have at 5:00pm since the time change. And it's only Nov. 10! We are on the edge of the central time zone, and we are considerably farther north than we used to be, so by 4:30 ~ 4:30!! ~ we are well on the way to darkness. What will it be like by the time the solstice is actually here??

2011 Reading Challenge ~ Books #40, #41, and #42

2011-11-06T14:00:00.008-05:00

Yes, three reviews in one week! That's because I never managed to get reviews posted for last week, alas. I'll try to keep it short.

This is my second read-through of Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. Read my first review here. I loved it as much this time as I did then. Berry is a master prose writer. As someone who has spent her entire life in "fly-over country," I so appreciate Berry's portrayal of the people who live there~ the majority of Americans, after all~ with fondness and respect. Hannah is no unsophisticated bumpkin who does not and cannot grasp the larger issues of life. She is intelligent and wise. I wish she lived next door; I could learn so much from her! Berry is a Christian and this book is a product of his faith, but it is not Christian fiction in the traditional sense. There are no tidy and convenient religious conversions that clear up everyone's problems. Hannah weaves biblical allusions naturally into her conversation, but she is not preachy. (I wonder how many people read Berry's books and miss these? There was a time when that would have been unthinkable . . .) Hannah suffers and endures trials always with courage and sometimes without relief. She is of the last generation of pioneer stock.

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne is always a pure joy and delight. As a child, I was only familiar with the Disney-fied version (take pity on me), so discovering the originals when Girl Out of the House was little more than a baby was a real excitement. These stories are classics of childhood for very good reason. Milne understands a child's world. As for the adults~ well, we all know that the best children's books are also engaging for the adults who will be reading them to children, and Winnie the Pooh is certainly that. I love re-entering Christopher Robin's world where there are no Gameboys or Nintendos to distract from the real work of play and where the sources of amusement are Christopher Robin's own wits and resourcefulness. I always feel like all's right with the world after a visit to the 100 Acre Wood.

I've mentioned before that I love pioneer stories, and the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder was my first introduction to them when I was a little girl. I've read my copies until they are falling apart, but I still own them for I couldn't throw them away! I have spent hours of my life crossing the Mississippi with Laura and Mary, huddled in log cabins during bitter blizzards, and blazing trails across the prairie in covered wagons. I think these books have such appeal today because children intuitively realize (or maybe it's not so intuitive) that there was a time when children directly and actively contributed to the physical survival of their families. A time when if they didn't help to make hay or tend the garden or care for livestock their family's very existence was in jeopardy. Now if a child forgets to take out the trash, no one is going to starve. Or if he misses school for a time, the livestock are not going to perish. Children were an integral part of the work necessary to keep everyone alive. I think readers of (or listener's to) these books recognize the difference and long to fulfill some necessary role in their families. I also think this loss of crucial work for the American housewife contributed to the discontent of young women like Betty Friedan and gave rise to the feminism of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, but that's another post for another day.

I'm going to continue my foray into children's literature for at least the next week. I am enjoying myself too much to stop!

{Pretty Happy Funny Real} ~ November 3, 2011

2011-11-03T19:18:00.007-04:00

I just have {pretty} this week . . .

Morning mist rising over adjacent backyards~

Morning frost over our own backyard and a nearby school~

Moonrise over our frontyard~

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more {phfr} entries!

Happy Reformation Day!

2011-10-31T17:34:00.001-04:00

I know, I know, I'm late posting book reviews, but I couldn't let this day pass without wishing you all a happy Reformation Day. I'd be a pretty poor Lutheran if I didn't! October 31, 1517, was a watershed day in the history of Christianity, and if you're a Protestant, you have much to celebrate this day. If you think of October 31 as only Halloween, read this Wikipedia article, which isn't too long, to get a basic overview of why and how the Reformation began. In honor of the day and its founder, Martin Luther, here is a rousing rendition of Luther's best-known hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," which became the "Battle Hymn of the Reformation."**

Now, I'm off to watch the Luther movie and hand out candy to the kiddies. :-)

**I'm told that the Catholic church has included this hymn in its most recent revision of their hymnal. Whatever side of the Reformation you come down on, this is a great hymn for all Christians to sing. There was a Roman Catholic at our Reformation Sunday vespers service last night, and he sang it with great gusto!

Word Watch ~ "Holpen"

2011-10-24T22:39:00.003-04:00

"Holpen" is the archaic past participle of "help." It has Germanic, rather than Latin, roots. I first came across it when teaching "Masters in This Hall," a Christmas carol by Marin Marais and William Morris (yes, the famous one), to a group of elementary students sixteen years ago. The chorus says,

Nowell! Nowell! Nowell! Nowell, sing we clear!
Holpen are all folk on earth, Born is God's son so dear:
Nowell! Nowell! Nowell! Nowell, sing we loud!
God to-day hath poor folk raised
And cast a-down the proud.

Then last week I came across it again in the good ol' King James Version of the Bible. Psalm 86:17 to be exact:

Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.

You can listen to "Masters in This Hall" on Youtube. It's rollicking fun!

2011 Reading Challenge~~Books #38 and #39

2011-10-23T15:43:00.005-04:00

I'm not a fan of John Piper. I know that's heresy to most Christians, but there it is. I've read a few of his books and they just fell flat with me, and that was before I was Lutheran even. So I'm of the small minority of American Christians who do not rush out to buy the latest book by Piper, but when I saw that his newest title was about Christians and thinking and that Christian Audio was offering it as their free download this month, I decided to give it a try. It wouldn't cost me anything but some time.

And Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God is the best Piper book I've read, though his circuitous method of exegesis still loses me. Perhaps I would have followed it better had I had the print version, but if past experiences count for anything, I doubt it would have helped. Piper, who shows his debt to Jonathan Edwards strongly in this book, makes a strong case for a Christian cultivating right thinking and against the anti-intellectualism so evident in many strains of American evangelicalism. In his chapters on relativism, he shows that not only is relativism wrong; it's evil. He spends considerable time exhorting Christians to humility in intellectual pursuits because only through humility can the mind be used in the service of God and neighbor.

In the chapter titled "All Scholarship Is for the Love of God and Man" Piper sounded downright Lutheran! Maybe that's why I liked this book more than others of his. lol The last chapter is a plea to two types of Christians: thinkers and non-thinkers. He encourages non-thinkers to honor and pray for those who do the hard work of thinking. Likewise, he encourages thinkers to use their intellectual gifts in love and humility to bless and serve others, not to show off. These two chapters, along with the three on relativism, were the best in the book, in my opinion.

The book is still available for free download from Christian Audio. Except for trying to follow the round about way Piper does exegesis, it was easy to listen to. The narrator, whose name I can't remember just now, was competent but rather bland.

Enough about Piper. I want to talk about Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows! What pure delight it was to read this book! I was in raptures throughout and laughed out loud at several points. I'm not sure why I've never read this book for myself before now. I had heard Man of the House reading it to our girls, but I must not have been paying attention. There is no other explanation. Anyone who knows me well knows I am partial to books about talking animals who wear clothes ~ A.A. Milne, Beatrix Potter, even Richard Scarry ~ but the attraction to this book goes well beyond that. There isn't even much of a plot until Toad takes his wild ride which is followed up by dire (and simultaneously hilarious!) events, but I loved the descriptions of the animals' lives on the river, how they boated all day during the summer and stayed snug and warm in their cozy homes all winter. The descriptions of their houses were all I could ask for. There were plenty of good eating, cozy feather beds, and enjoyable visiting back and forth. And may I just say something about the author's use of language? It was stunningly poetic at times, uproariously funny at others, and poignantly beautiful at still others, but each and every word gave the impression of having been chosen very carefully from the author's enormous lexicon. It felt as though the words poured effortlessly from Grahame's pen. Each word was smoothly perfect. That in and of itself was delight enough, but add talking animals in waistcoats and I was entranced!

I don't know if Grahame had ever read Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, but I was struck immediately (and the idea stayed with me throughout the book) that it must have been known to Grahame, especially when I read the line on p. 6 of The Wind in the Willows, "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing--absolutely nothing--half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." No wonder I enjoyed it so much! The Wind in the Willows is simply one of the very most enjoyable books I have ever read. I told you last week I would wax rhapsodic about this book!

I'm running out of time and will just post this without proofreading, but I have to say one last thing ~ the icing on the cake was Ernest H. Shephard's illustrations in both black and white and color. They were perfect!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ Oct. 20, 2011

2011-10-20T19:55:00.013-04:00

I totally missed last week's {phfr}. Man of the House was at a pastor's conference most of the week. He needed to be delivered to the train station 60 rural miles away on Monday and picked up on Thursday. The only problem was that our only car broke down on my way to pick him up. Thankfully, I hadn't gotten very far, so at least I wasn't stranded with nothing but cornfields and/or grain elevators in sight. But getting him home was more of an ordeal than I had anticipated, so I missed posting. Oh, well. I'm happy to be back. :-)

{Pretty}

I have lots of {pretty} to share. A parishioner who is a farmer invited us to ride his combine during the soybean harvest. We had never done anything like that, so we eagerly said yes. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

{Happy}

This is Farmer John's dog, Mac. He is the typical happy-go-lucky farm dog.

{Funny}

There was GPS and air conditioning in the combine!

{Real}

Evidence that Man of the House really did make it home from the conference eventually!

Join the {phfr} fun at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

2011 Reading Challenge~~Books #36 and #37

2011-10-16T14:59:00.007-04:00

Terry Pratchett is one of the most imaginative authors around today, and in The Wee Free Men he lives up to his reputation. Tiffany Aching is a young witch wanna-be who must rescue her brother from the evil Queen of the Elves who attempts to rule through the use of dreams. The Wee Free Men are Pictsies (pixies, get it?) in the manner of traditional folklore. We are not talking Tinkerbell's Disney incarnation or saccharine Victorian fairies. The Pictsies, also know as the Nac Mac Feegles, are rowdy, mischievous, and very funny. They aid Tiffany in fighting the Queen and bringing her brother back. The plot moves fast and is full of the jokes, puns, and twists and turns one expects from Terry Pratchett. Despite the book being set sometime in the pre-Industrial Revolution past, Pratchett succeeds in making jibes at our modern world's sensibilities. That's one of the things I most enjoy about Pratchett: he sees modern life as it really is and is able to cut through much contemporary psychobabble with just a few words. If you like Terry Pratchett's other novels, you'll like The Wee Free Men. If he's not your cup of tea, then skip it.

One of the things I appreciated most was Tiffany herself. Though only nine years old, she is smart, capable, and resourceful, and Pratchett apparently did not find it necessary to cast her as a 21st century women's studies graduate to make her so. It is possible to be all those things without being a devotee of Gloria Steinem, and Tiffany is an excellent example of that. She just does what needs to be done~whether beating off razor-teethed German shepherds with a frying pan or thinking her way out of having to marry one of the Nac Mac Feelges~without any thought of furthering the Cause of Women's Rights Everywhere. I do get so weary of young adult fiction featuring heroines set in ages past with modern feminist mindsets.

I listened to the HarperAudio version read by Stephen Briggs. He did a great job with the accents, especially of the Wee Free Men, though I found myself wishing from time to time that he'd go a little slower. The dialect was a little difficult to follow without being able to see it.

The second book I'm reviewing is~surprise!~Gooseberry Patch's Christmas Book 13. It was in the "what's new" section of my local library, so I brought it home for a perusal. This is the first GP Christmas book I've looked at, so I can't compare it the the rest, but I can say that it's a lovely book full of beautiful pictures, a treat to look through on a gray, rainy afternoon. It's full of typical GP recipes, several of which I hope to try. There are also page after page of craft and decorating ideas. Some I liked; some I didn't. Some were easy; some weren't. I did find rather a lot of instructions that reminded me of my mother-in-law's recipe for roast duck: "Find a duck. Roast until done." Some of the ideas would be difficult to pull off without some prior experience in sewing and other crafts or at least the gumption to finagle things until they worked. The ability to picture the individual steps in your mind would be invaluable here. There were crafts and decorations included for many different styles and tastes. All in all, I spent an enjoyable hour looking through Christmas Book 13 and plan to spend more time with it before it is due back at the library.

I am nearing the finish line on The Wind in the Willows. Expect me to wax rhapsodic about it in the near future!

Word Watch ~ "Where"

2011-10-10T21:51:00.006-04:00

As I've been reading the King James Version of the Bible during 2011 in honor of its 400th anniversary, I've been struck by so many turns of phrases and unusual words and usages. I've decided to share them, and any other interesting bits of philology I come across elsewhere, with my vast readership. I should have started in January, alas, since I have noticed so many good examples in the intervening months, but since I can't turn back the clock I'll just start here. This will be a periodic series with entries occuring as words and phrases present themselves. This isn't professional analysis; I'm just a rank amateur who thinks words and their usages and development fascinating.

~WHERE~

Usually we see "where" as an adverb, but there is a verse in the English folksong "Searching for Lambs" that uses it as a noun:

“How gloriously the sun doth shine,
How pleasant is the air.
I'd rather rest on a true love's breast
Than any other where.”

I was intrigued by the noun usage the first time I heard it almost two years ago, but then imagine my surprise when I was reading Matthew 8 a last week and ran across this: "And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."

!!!!

I was shocked! I have read the KJV many times in my younger days, but that particular usage never stood out to me until now. I was probably too young to notice or care before now. Oh, the folly of youth! Do you know of other instances in which "where" is used as a noun?

P.S. I'm still reading (and loving!) The Wind in the Willows and listening to (and enjoying!) The Wee Free Men. Reviews coming ASAP!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ October 6, 2011

2011-10-06T21:00:00.007-04:00

Joining Like Mother, Like Daughter again . . .

{Pretty}

Girl of the House and I made this banner using scrapbooking supplies and ribbon a few years ago. In our old house we hung it on a fireplace, but here we hung it from the bookshelves. It's pretty there, don't you think?

{Happy}

This utility sink makes me inordinately and ridiculously happy. I've never had one before, but I have wished for one many times. It's so much better to wash out paint brushes here than in the kitchen sink or to empty the mop bucket here instead of outside. It's truly the little things in life that make us happy!

{Funny}

This tree ~ I don't know what to say about this tree! I'm not even sure a tree like this should be allowed. But I can vouch for its existence. It lives in my neighborhood a few blocks from my house. Doesn't it look like something straight out of a Dr. Seuss book? And just how did it get that way??? It's at least thirty feet tall!!

{Real}

Girl of the House woke up Monday with the stomach bug that's going around these parts. It lasted three loooooong days, and now she has to catch up on her on-line classes, alas and alack. Generic Pepto-Bismal and Sambucol are her best friends during such times.

From My Commonplace Book

2011-10-05T21:55:00.002-04:00

"I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not upon our circumstances."~~Martha Washington

"The task of scholarship is in fact a lowly role which demands tremendous dedication. My own personal feeling is that young men with a gift of conceptualization and perception need to be encouraged to really believe that God can be served in the solitude of one's study surrounded by the fruits of scholarly labor."~~Robert Mounce

"Don't be too easily convinced that God really wants you to do all sorts of work you needn't do. Each must do his duty 'in that state of life to which God has called him.' Remember that a belief in the virtues of doing for doing's sake is characteristically feminine, characteristically American, and characteristically modern: so that three veils may divide you from the correct view! There can be intemperance in work just as in drink. What feels like zeal may be only fidgets or even the flattering of one's self-importance. As MacDonald says, 'In holy things may be unholy greed!' And by doing what 'one's station and its duties' does not demand, one can make oneself less fit for the duties it does demand and so commit some injustice. Just you give Mary a chance as well as Martha!"~~C.S. Lewis

"True education is a kind of neverending story~ a matter of continual beginnings, of habitual fresh starts, of persistent newness."~~J.R.R. Tolkien

2011 Reading Challenge~~Books #35

2011-10-02T15:51:00.010-04:00

Whew! I finally finished Augestine's Confessions at long last. That was the longest 200-page book I think I've ever read. The more I read ancient literature the more I realize I do not have a natural affinity for it (unlike my beloved). I'm not saying it was boring exactly or unworthy to be read. Parts of it did drag, but it was worth reading and I'm glad I did; however, I don't think I will again for a long time.

Why am I glad I read it? Because it's a classic not just of Christian literature but of Western literature. Augustine's influence on the Western church, and consequently Western civilization, is enormous. I have gained a better understanding of the man and his influence through his Confessions. I value the perspective gained from reading books written by minds from dramatically different ages and places; as C.S. Lewis said, reading old books is a corrective for historical myopia. Sometimes it's a chore to digest such correctives, but just like we need to eat our vegetables, we need to read old books. I realize that many people hold Confessions near and dear to their hearts, but I am not one of those, alas.

I was amused that Augustine makes many of the same complaints about his world as we do about ours. As a teacher, he laments the lack of diligence and respect and the love of idleness shown by his students. We hear (and I have made) that grievance in our own times. He complains~no doubt rightly~about the violence of the circuses and gladiator fights. Who hasn't heard many criticims of today's violent movies and video games? The Young Augustine chases after the celebrity actors of his day, wishing to be one of them. If the newspaper tabloids of today don't attest to millions of Americans who wish they were rich and famous, then I don't know what does. As the Preacher says, "There's nothing new under the sun." If we hold romantic ideas about how people of times past were more noble, more learned, and all around more righteous, reading a book like this will surely cure us of that notion.

One of the most interesting aspects of Augustine's life was his long, slow conversion to Christ. Although taught the Christian faith as a child by his devout mother Monica, Augustine turned from the Truth as a young man and sought to fill the void with various philosophies. For years he wandered in the dark, but all the while God was drawing Augustine to Him. He slowly chiseled away at Augustine's intellectual objections to the Christian faith until he was won. Such a drawn out coversion was a reminder to me to be patient with other people's objections and to take them seriously. What may seem like ages to me is a short time to God. I wish to see instant change, but God is sometimes content to move at a slower pace. I need to leave that to Him.

All in all, I'm glad I read Augustine's Confessions, but I'm glad it's finally over. I'm going to treat myself for the next few weeks by reading something less laborious. Maybe I can make some progress catching up that way too. :-)

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ Sept. 29, 2011

2011-09-29T20:16:00.012-04:00

I'm on time this week! Hurray! I think things may slow down a bit here now that the rush of starting school and Dave's installation are over. Of course, Christmas is less than three months away . . .

{Pretty}

A storm blew through a few days ago and brought with it some pretty spectacular clouds. I wish there weren't wires going everywhere, though!

{Happy}

Hannah and I are working through Martin Cothran's Traditional Logic Book I. At the start of every chapter we watch the video of Mr. Cothran explaining the material, only he is . . . ahem . . . not the most riveting and engaging of teachers, bless him. Now, I have heard him give other talks where he is much more animated and interesting, so maybe it was just talking into a camera that did him in. I don't know, but I do know that after chapter 1, we decided we needed to do something with our hands to break up the monotony a bit. So Hannah got out this quilt that she's been working on for her grandparents. It's a tied quilt. Once she's finished tying it, all that's left is the binding. We took the idea ~ fabrics, color scheme, etc. ~ from a quilt we saw in an antique shop about a year ago. I'm embroidering pillowcases for Girl Out of the House and That Boy. She started them a long time ago, but they fell by the wayside, so I decided to do them for her. It makes me happy that Hannah is so capable with her hands. (So is Girl 1 but in different areas.) I think it's important that children learn how to work with their hands and feel comfortable with tools of all sorts, whether those tools are scissors, a spatula, a piano, or a hammer. It's an excellent way to give children a sense of accomplishment and the feeling that they are capable people.

{Funny}

Our cat Felix will sit by this door for hours on end and watch the birds and squirrels. They taunt and tantalize him, the saucy things! They know they are safe from Felix's depredations. His tail twitches and he makes hungry little sounds, but it's a hopeless cause.

{Real}

Man of the House began building these shelves in the garage Labor Day weekend, and he has not been able to get back to them since. I'm hoping he can arrange for a couple free Saturdays so he can have the pleasure of finishing them . . . not for me, but for him. Spending some quality time in the garage with his tools would be very therapeutic!

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2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #34

2011-09-27T14:33:00.006-04:00

It's been awhile since I posted about my reading challenge. With school starting and Dave's official installation as pastor of our church this past Sunday, September flew by like a lawn chair left out during a hurricane. I hope to post about the installation soon, but first I want to update you on a book I listened to and found beneficial, Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches by Russell D. Moore.

Though I'm Lutheran and he's Southern Baptist, I've appreciated everything I've ever read or heard from Russell D. Moore. I've read his articles in Touchstone magazine, and I've heard him on Issues, Etc. He is a gifted theologian and teacher, so I had high expectations for this book. I wasn't disappointed. As you might expect, Moore talks a lot about his experiences as an adoptive father and how to navigate the waters of adoption. I thought that last part might be kind of boring if a person isn't looking to adopt a child, but Moore clearly and simply weaves the biblical doctrine of our adoption into God' family through Christ into the nuts and bolts of how to adopt a child so that it is edifying reading for any Christian. Adopted for Life is as much a theology book as an adoption manual. His Baptist take on issues is evident but not so much so that anyone of any denomination could not benefit from reading this book.

Moore spends a lot of time talking about the pain of infertility. He helps infertile couples to look at this hard providence scripturally, and he instructs those who know infertile couples how to minister to them compassionately. He also gives considerable time to the idea of adoption as a means of fulfilling the Great Comission and what you can do if you are not called to adopt but want to help and encourage those who are. These aspects alone make the book worth reading.

I got this as a freebie from ChristianAudio. It was read by Moore himself, which gave it a personal, urgent tone. I enjoy listening to books read by their authors. It's like listening to music conducted or performed by the composer. Moore reads his book in a conversational style so that it feels more like he's in your living room talking to you than reading to you over your computer. And if you like the genteel, understated drawl of the Southern Gentleman, you will like listening to Moore's voice.

I am still hoeing away at Augustine's Confessions, but I expect to finish it this week. Alas, I will nevertheless be two books behind my goal of 52 books this year. With the help of a few audiobooks, I should be able to catch up. With my recent busyness and wrestlings with St. Augustine, I think I will pamper myself with a little fun reading for the next few weeks. Stay tuned . . .

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ September 23, 2011

2011-09-23T10:50:00.010-04:00

I'm late again this week. *sigh* I teach my two classes on Thursday, and it just seems that between that everything else that happens on a normal day, Thursday is not my ideal time to make a {phfr} post. As long as Leila and Co. at Like Mother, Like Daughter don't mind, I guess it's all right. :-)

I just have {pretty} and {happy} this week.

{Pretty}

A misty, moisty morning:

{Happy}

A second crop of raspberries! I didn't realize they would yield twice until someone told me. What a bonus to have these at this time of year! There aren't as many as there were this summer, but I'll take what I can get.

This is a big weekend for us. Dave is being officially installed as pastor on Sunday, and there are out-of-town guests arriving, including the head of our denomination (The American Association of Lutheran Churches). I'll post about it next week!

The Growlery

2011-09-20T21:29:00.030-04:00

We've just about wrapped up another room and I wanted to show you pictures. This room is off the kitchen and is intended to be a TV room, I'm sure, but since we don't have a TV, we repurposed it. We call it the growlery (begin at about 6:30 for the reference). In days of yore, the growlery was a room where the men retired after dinner to sip brandy, smoke cigars, and talk politics. We were stumped as to what to call this room, but Dave hit upon "the growlery" and it has stuck. We all knew right away that that was the perfect name! It inspired me to take a more masculine tack in paint, furniture, and decor. See what you think!

The view as you enter from the kitchen:

We bought the chairs brand new. We hardly ever buy new furniture, but we'd used up most of what we already had in other rooms, so we splurged. I'd love to move the exercise bike if we can find a more propitious place for it.

The view from the door that leads to the back patio:

And the view from the utility room:

The wall unit is really deep ~ about two feet ~ so I left the books pulled out from the wall. We could actually store another layer of books back there, but then we'd be likely to forget about them! The storage below is used for games and puzzles and some things I haven't unpacked yet. There is a door to the right of the organ that is a pocket door and leads to the utility room, which is not very exciting yet. So, yes, there are three doors in this small room!

Here's a picture showing our bright blue bookcase which will soon be painted another color that I haven't decided upon yet. We keep Hannah's school things and mine on it. It's a little bit messy because it was in use at that moment. You can see the door into the kitchen (which shows our finished chalkboard!).

I made the curtains, but I took the simplest possible route: I sewed two big rectangles and hung them on a rod with clips. I really like how they turned out. Dave is getting very good at installing curtain rods. He should be! He's done it enough in the last three months! (Nota bene: The ceiling is not dirty; that is paint of umpteen different colors! It seems that everyone who has ever painted this house felt obliged to hit the ceiling with the roller multiple times and not wipe it off [except us!]. We will paint every ceiling in the house eventually. In the meantime, we just avoid looking up. Grrrr . . . )

This little table is one of a pair of Drexel Heritage tables we bought at a garage sale for $15. The other is destined for the guest room. I'm going to paint it, but I haven't decided on the color yet. Ideas, anyone? Opinions?

This picture shows Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg:

Bookshelves . . .

This is a facsimile of the title page from J.S. Bach's Bible, translated by Martin Luther. The brown smudge in the lower righthand corner is Bach's signature. Pretty neat, eh?

And more bookshelves . . .

A terribly backlit photo of the back door plus our kitty. He insisted I include him. :-)

So that's it. Thanks for looking!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ September 16, 2011

2011-09-16T17:26:00.014-04:00

Pardon me for being a day late. Life has been very busy lately. Online teaching duties began this week, which also means that Dave is now busy with two jobs and Hannah started her online classes this week. We'll be hanging on to our hats for the next nine months!

{Pretty} and {Happy}

I'm combining these two categories this week. The weather has definitely turned to autumn. It's been in the 40's at night and the low 60's during the day, the evenings are turning dusky not long after dinner, and soups and stews are finding their way on the menu once again. We've had several overcast and/or rainy days, which is perfect candle-burning weather. Hurray!

I've been working on these curtains for weeks during little snatches of time here and there. I wanted something colorful that would unify the blue walls and yellow accents. I don't know if these achieved that, but I like them and I'm happy I've finished them. I used six-inch squares of scraps and some remnants that I bought, sewed them together with no particular rhyme or reason, lined them with white muslin, and made tabs for the top. Very simple!

(Sorry for the rotten light. I had to wait until twilight or all I got was a lot of backlighting and no curtains.)

{Funny}

The last two weeks I've shown you pictures of our little squirrel friend and the apple he hid on our trellis. Well, he's still at it! I've found apples all over the place this week. It amuses me to no end to look out the window and see a half-eaten apple perched up high somewhere. Here are some apple-hiding places:

So there you have it for this week! Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more {phfr}!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ September 8, 2011

2011-09-08T21:28:00.007-04:00

{Pretty}

Chicory is such a pretty little flower. I love its periwinkle color. This lone little guy is blooming next to our sidewalk, though the roadsides are awash with them in mid- to late-ish summer. They are especially lovely paired with Queen Anne's lace.

{Happy}

The first hint of fall color! Lookee! I spotted this tree just down the street from our house.

Chocolate chip muffins. Yum! They are Hannah's favorite; she'll be very happy to come home and gobble some up. The weather was very fall-ish today with cool temperatures and rain. I was definitely in the mood to bake something, and these seemed just right.

{Funny}

How did that partially eaten apple get up there?? It's a good eight feet off the ground. Our guess is that our apple-loving squirrel friend put it there. We're going to leave it and see what happens!

{Real}

This is what happens when you try to take a close-up without knowing how to manually focus the camera. I guess it's time I learned how to do that!

Enjoy more {phfr} at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

The Big Plan for 2011-2012

2011-09-06T17:45:00.007-04:00

Last year I wrote about our homeschool plan for Girl of the House's eighth grade year. Things did not go exactly as we expected (do they ever?). She had a very challenging year dealing with acute acid reflux, which often derailed schoolwork. She worked hard during the days she felt well, but all told, she missed at least one day (and often two or three days) a week due to illness for all but eight weeks the entire schoolyear. We made up for some of the lost time during the summer, but she still managed B's in her on-line classes, and all essential things were covered by hook or crook. I have more than once thanked the Lord for leading us to homeschooling and never more than last year. I'm also thanking Him that Girl 2 is a thousand times better than she was this time a year ago. So I have high hopes for the coming months of school! Here's the plan:

Math ~ Continue Math-U-See tutored by That Boy. She's over halfway through Zeta and will be moving into pre-algebra during the year. But do you know what she brought home from the library the other day? The entire Demystified series of math books, starting with pre-algebra! You gotta love a motivated student!

Logic ~ This is something that got dropped last year. Using Traditional Logic by Martin Cothran, we picked it up this summer and will slowly work our way through it. Once it's finished, we will study . . .

History and Literature of Late Antiquity through the Renaissance and Reformation ~ Our resident classicist, Man of the House, took her through ancient lit. last year and over the summer. Since he'll have enough to do for the next nine months what with teaching, pastoring, and going to seminary and all, I'll pick up where he left off with Vergil's Aeneid, some Aristotle, on through Augustine, Dante, Chaucer,etc. Details still to follow. We'll cover the history at the same time using Jackson Speilvogel's Western Civilization and Philip Daileader's medieval lectures through The Teaching Company.

Music History ~ I teach this class for an on-line school. Okay, I'll come clean and say that it's The Potter's School. Any remaining anonymity we might have had is now blown. ;-) Not that I'm biased or anything, but I think this class is fascinating . . . at least I find it fascinating to teach! Girl of the House has already absorbed a lot of this through osmosis, but I think she'll find it an enjoyable class.

English Vocabulary from Latin and Greek Elements ~ This is Man of the House's class. (Need I say it's through The Potter's School also? Yes, my dh is Mr. Spotts of international reputation. LOL!) Girl of the House is eager to take it. I know she'll get a lot out of it. I know I did the year I taught it. The development of the English language is another fascinating topic.

Writing ~ The One-Year Adventure Novel curriculum is going to be more like the 18-Month Adventure Novel for Girl 2. Illness is the culprit again, but she's on the verge of actually writing her novel now. We both really like this program, and I know she has learned a lot from it because she uses concepts she's learned to discuss movies and books with us. She will also be taking some progymnasmata tutorials with Cindy Marsch of Writing Assessment Services. I can't speak highly enough of Cindy and her writing tutorials!

German I ~ Even though Girl 2 (okay, let's call her by her name, Hannah) managed a B in this class last year despite everything, none of us thought she really mastered the material well enough to go on to German II. Dratted reflux! Her foundation was too shaky, so she's happy to have a do-over this year. This is another Potter's School class with another excellent teacher, Frau Gilliam.

Christian Philosophy ~ This class is being offered by some on-line friends. One of our goals for both our girls' education is to familiarize them with the foundations of Western civilization. If they don't know where they came from, they won't know where they're going. We want them to be able to discern the spirit of the age and weigh it against a biblical perspective. That's why we spend so much time in the upper grades studying worldview and philosophy. The text is Norman Melchert's The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy. Hannah seems very eager to tackle this discipline judging by the readiness with which she digs in every morning.

So there you have it! It looks like a full year full of good learning! May the Lord be glorified and His will be done.

2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #33

2011-09-04T13:45:00.004-04:00

It's finally finished! Man of the House read aloud the remaining pages of Sophocles' Oedipus the King to me while I was doing some housework on Friday. He's had an extremely busy time of it lately, including his first funeral on Thursday, so I'm not blaming him for being unable to get to it until now. I'm thankful I have my own resident expert to help me with ancient literature. :-)

So how did I like it? Weeeeellll . . . the story is great, but I find I'm not very accustomed to the manner in which the ancient Greeks tell their stories ~ flowery and long-winded (or maybe that was just the translation?). It did help a lot to have the methods and forms of ancient Greek playwrights explained to me, so thanks to Man of the House for that!

I felt sorry for poor Oedipus, who was desperately trying to thwart the prochecy of the oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He knew such acts were perverse, but despite everything, he was unable to dodge his fate, which brings me to the Greek worldview: a fatalistic belief that a person's destiny is irrevocable and unavoidable no matter what the person does to try to thwart it. Fate can't be stopped. What an awful way to live. The Christian worldview that God, who is sovereign, good, and wise, guides the Christian's life to ultimate good is hopeful and life-affirming . . . and TRUE. One of the benefits of reading books from different times and places from the one we live in is the contrast we see between our own beliefs and attitudes and those of a different culture. Reading old books helps us to think through and define our own thoughts more clearly. So I guess C.S. Lewis was right. ;-)

I didn't finish Augustine's Confessions, unfortunately, though I will keep plugging away at it. We've been so busy gearing up for the start of school and trying to finish some house projects before then that my reading time has been limited. Challenging myself to read a book a week while also moving was not the best idea in the world, but I didn't know that we'd be moving when I started. lol I'll keep trying. I'm only behind by one, which is not too bad all things considered!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ September 1, 2011

2011-09-01T15:25:00.011-04:00

Happy September! This month feels like New Year to me and always has. I've spent most of my life on an academic schedule, and September means the beginning of a new schoolyear and all its attendant activities and fresh starts ~ pristine notebooks, pencils with long erasers, books with uncracked spines, new areas of interest, high hopes. January 1st holds less promise to me than September 1st.

{Pretty}

Last week we took a few days to visit my mom. That meant a long drive through one part of the Midwest to another. O the big sky! O the verdant fields! O the open spaces! *sigh of rapture!* Some people think the Midwest is boring, but I've never understood that with scenery like this. Our fifteen years in Appalachia were fruitful, enjoyable, and memorable, but the scenery there can never compare with our native Midwest. Here are the best of the bunch of pictures I took from the car:

{Happy}

Lots of happy things this week. Check out this water tower! How can you not smile when you see this?

Girl of the House is always happy when doing math. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but I'm happy when she's doing math. :-) Anyway, I think doing it on our new chalkboard makes it a little less irksome for her. Here she is working on metric conversions. Doesn't a little metric conversion brighten anyone's day?

Last in the {happy} category is this little guy. I saw him one afternoon enjoying the windfalls from our apple tree. He certainly looks very happy with his afternoon snack! Look how his cheeks are stuffed full of apple!

{Funny}

Girl of the House revealing her true feelings about math . . . or maybe about her mother trying to sneak pictures of her!

{Real}

I was trying to take a picture of a pond but ended up with the rusty guardrail instead . . .

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From My Commonplace Book

2011-08-31T09:51:00.004-04:00

"First of all educate your son's soul, and he will acquire possessions later. If his soul is bad he will not receive the slightest benefit from money. And vice versa, if he has been given the proper upbringing, then poverty will not harm him in the least." ~ St. John Chrysostom

"The chief aim of the Christian order is to give room for all good things to run wild." ~ G.K. Chesterton

"Earlier in this century someone claimed that we work at our play and play at our work. Today the confusion has deepened: we worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship." ~ Leland Ryken

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common ~ this is my symphony." ~ William Henry Channing

"The smell of the food had been exciting from the beginning. It was rich and good and full of promise. It made hunger merry. It made craving a joy. The rare memory of it would come into lean weeks for long after." ~ Neil Gunn, Morning Tide

2011 Reading Challenge ~ Book #32

2011-08-28T14:59:00.003-04:00

I very much enjoy reading books about housekeeping, so I expected very much to enjoy The Gentle Art of Domesticity: Stitching, Baking, Nature, Art & the Comforts of Home by Jane Brocket. However, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I tried to love it ~ I really did ~ but I just didn't, though it did grow on me somewhat as I read my way through it.

The positives of this book were the lay-out, colors, and chatty tone. It's at least half pictures, so it reads a lot faster than most 275-page books. I'm guessing that it's a compilation of posts from the author's blog, Yarnstorm (are blog titles italicized or put in quotation marks? That's something I definitely didn't learn in junior high grammar classes!). If it's not, it certainly was written to read that way. The result is that it's an easy book to browse around in and read in short snippets. I can see going to this book for a quick, rainy-day pick-me-up.

After about a hundred pages, however, the colors began to seem garish, at least to me, a lover of subtle, refined, and calm hues. But what grated on my nerves the most was the author's snootiness about everything from flower bulbs to yarn brands to chocolatiers. I couldn't imagine her stepping foot inside a Jo-Ann Fabrics store, perusing the pages of a Gurney's catalog, or ever eating a good ol' Hershey's Kiss. The book was full of designer this and designer that. She admits to her fussiness, but her admission did little to ameloriate the bad vibes such snobbery created between her book and me. Brocket seemed to have no financial limits. I'm glad for her, but most of us don't have seemingly unlimited resources and can't hop on a plane to go yarn shopping in upscale New York yarnshops. What this book did for me was to help me recognize how much I appreciate resourceful homemakers who can create beauty and comfort for their families with limited means. Almost anyone can do it with a blank check, but it takes real skill and creativity to do it within a limited budget. It's those homemakers I admire the most.

To be fair, the author considers herself a domestic artist; I consider myself a homemaker. Her emphasis is on her own artistic self-expression while mine is on creating and maintaining a comfortable space that serves my family. That doesn't mean that Brocket doesn't care about her family's space or that I don't care about beauty and creativity, but we each put the accent on a different syllable of the same word. She's certainly allowed to view homemaking differently than I do, but her book didn't speak to me like Phyllis McGinley's Sixpence in Her Shoe or Margaret Kim Peterson's Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life. I will return The Gentle Art of Domesticity to the library with little regret.

If you loved this book, please share your reasons in the comments. Maybe I'm missing something!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ August 25, 2011

2011-08-24T22:23:00.015-04:00

{Pretty}

Girl of the House, who's really growing in her photography skills, took this picture. The flag shows Luther's Rose. We got it for Man of the House when he received a call to this pastorate, and it flies proudly from our patio.

{Happy}

Schoolbooks for the new year began arriving this week. That is always an event! Everything else is forgotten while we open the box and inspect the contents, anticipating the vast stores of knowledge and wisdom that will be absorbed in the coming months. It's almost as good as Christmas (which, by the way, is five month from today)!

{Funny}

I'm usually scraping the bottom of the barrel~and sometimes coming up empty~for a funny picture, but this week it was easy. We had ordered a couple chairs and they were delivered this week. Well, the truck pulled up in front of our house, but *we* were responsible for getting the chairs off the truck and into our house. He-Man of the House just hoisted them on his shoulder (one at a time) and off he went! Girl of the House took this picture, and when we looked at it, we laughed because it looks like a box with legs walking down the street!

{Real}

Girl Out of the House and That Boy celebrated their second anniversary recently. In fact, they were married the same day as Man of the House and I and as my parents. They are the third generation to marry on August 8! How's that for tradition?

Aren't they sweet? They "real"ly love each other!

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2011 Reading Challenge ~ Book #31

2011-08-21T14:25:00.005-04:00

Girl of the House and I read King Lear by William Shakespeare as part of her school studies, though we both consider reading Shakespeare more fun than work. King Lear is one of Shakespeare's greatest masterpieces and that's really saying something! Shakespeare's deep understanding of human nature combined with his complete mastery of the English language means he deserves the title of the greatest writer in the English-speaking world. Shakespeare is the literary equivalent of Bach and Mozart. Of all composers, those two give to their music a profound sense of rightness, of every note being exactly the right one, placed exactly in the right place, held for exactly the right duration, and performed by the exactly right instrument or voice. Their music has a sense of perfection~of there being nothing upon which to improve~that no other composers, great though they undoubtedly are, possess. What Bach and Mozart are to music, Shakespeare is to writing. His word choices, rhythms, cadences, and flow are perfect.

As for King Lear specifically, I don't know what I can say that has not already been said by better minds than mine. So let me talk about the edition we used from the Oxford School Shakespeare series. I'm not very familiar with the various editions of Shakespeare out there, but we have used the Oxford series consistently and have found it very helpful. There is plenty of history and background information provided, along with discussion and essay questions, plot summaries, lists of characters, project ideas, and explanatory annotations within the text of the play itself. A homeschooling mother who is not very confident that she can tackle Shakespeare or a student who just wants to learn on his own will be aided by the many helps provided. Though a small point, Girl of the House and I enjoy the cover pictures because we often recognize the actors! Our Henry V and Hamlet feature Kenneth Branagh, for instance, and our Taming of the Shrew features Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy Dalton. You can get copies from this series on Amazon for 1 penny plus shipping. With the Oxford School Shakespeare series, there is no excuse for not reading Shakespeare!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ August 18, 2011

2011-08-18T20:20:00.008-04:00

Joining the fun at Like Mother, Like Daughter once again this week.

{Pretty}

Two days after LMLD's linky party about entryways Man of the House and I were at Lowe's (our home away from home lately!) and spotted this bench on clearance. Plus I had a coupon! We thought this was just what our new front porch needed. It does look nice, doesn't it? But now I think I need to move the cross! lol

{Happy}

Girl of the House makes me very happy. She's a hard worker and a delight to be around. She has adapted to our new town without a complaint and has really gotten into the swing of our new life here. She even asks to do schoolwork in the summer!

{Real}

We were warned that the fruit on the apple tree in our backyard was not very appetizing, but we had to see for ourselves. When they began to turn red, Man of the House and Girl of the House gave one a try. They gave it a definite thumbs down. That's too bad, but the tree sure is pretty to look at!

Update on That Dreadfully Ugly and Boring Corner of the Kitchen

2011-08-15T16:54:00.008-04:00

Remember when I asked your advice about this little bit of kitchen dreariness? Here's what it looks like now:

Isn't it loads better? We painted the chalkboard right on the wall using chalkboard paint, but alas, when we pulled off the tape, some of the yellow paint came with it. I think we will use trim to create a frame and cover up those places. The blackboard paint was a breeze to use. We all started writing on it as soon as it was dry, just silly quotations and things. The shelf and china we already had, though I did paint the shelf black. We bought the "Keep Calm and Carry On" sign at Hobby Lobby for $14. What it is is a big sticker! It's sort of become our family motto. I got the clock at that big discount store that begins with a W that everyone loves to hate but is always full of customers. We set it an hour ahead of our time zone to correspond with the time of the internet school we teach for or take classes at, as the case may be. For ten years we lived in the same time zone as the school, but now we don't and we're all afraid we will get mixed up and go to class an hour late! Let's just hope we don't forget and end up everywhere else an hour early! lol

Look at the vintage cuteness of these tablecloths!

I got them at a yardsale for $2 each. They remind me of tablecloths my mom had when I was little.

The little basket is my one and only Longaberger basket (a gift from a friend). It holds chalk, an eraser, and our catechisms, which we review at dinner.

So what do you think? Much better, yes? We still need to replace two of the chairs. We actually already have two Windsor chairs; they just need to be painted. It's a good thing I like to paint considering how much of it I've done this summer! :-)

Up next on the room re-do list ~ the family room!

2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #30

2011-08-14T14:27:00.007-04:00

I first heard about Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary on NPR way back when it was first published in 1998. I was intrigued and made a mental note to read it. The problem was, I never remembered my mental note while at the library or bookstore! Then one day a few weeks ago, Girl of the House picked it off the local library shelf for me because she thought it was the type of book I would like. She was right! It's a curious story about a man whose mind in some aspects had lost all reason and ability to think clearly and in other aspects was as sharp and precise as a surgeon's scalpel. The unreasonable part kept him imprisoned in an asylum for the criminally insane; the sharp and precise part made him one of the two most important volunteer contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary that it had.

The making of the OED in and of itself would be fascinating enough in its own right, but add to it the story of Dr. William Chester Minor, American Army doctor who grew up the son of missionaries in Ceylon and served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and you have a thoroughly compelling and captivating book. The path that led Dr. Minor to madness and murder and then to Dr. James Murray, venerable editor of the OED, has been masterfully reconstructed by the author, who has done his research and then compiled it into a tale all the more engrossing because it actually happened. He portrays Dr. Minor sympathetically without excusing his crime. We feel for Dr. Minor and even admire the manner in which he adapted to life in the asylum and sought personal redemption but understand at the same time that he was a danger to himself and others and could not go free. The only flaw, and it occupies only a few pages, is Winchester's complete faith in the modern psychiatric community's insistence that mental illness is always the result of a chemical brain disorder. He poo-poos the idea of mental illness having any moral or spiritual component, though as I was reading the book I could easily trace the effects of specific instances of Dr. Minor's sin on his life and well-being. I know this isn't a popular stance today and I'm taking a risk in saying it, but we don't do ourselves any favors by pretending that our choices have no effect on our mental state. (I do, by the way, believe that the brain can malfunction just as any organ can; I'm just unwilling to say that there are no other contributing factors. Please don't leave nasty comments. You're free to disagree, but be nice about it. :-) I also don't intend to engage in a debate on the issue.) Oh, one more way the book could have been improved would have been to include photographs. They are sorely lacking, and though there are some drawings, it's hard to believe that photographs of important people and places weren't available.

Winchester's writing is excellent. His organization of the book is almost novel-like. At times I forgot I was reading non-fiction. The story never lags, even during the chapters devoted to the history of English dictionaries and the making of the OED. Perhaps that's because linguistics and etymology are interesting subjects to me, but I don't think that's the only reason. The Professor and the Madman is simply a well-written book.

An update on Oedipus the King ~ Man of the House has been very busy lately, so progress has been slow. I'll keep it up as a current read and write a review when we finish . . . whenever that will be. :-)

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ August 11, 2011

2011-08-11T21:32:00.012-04:00

{Pretty}

This picture is from a couple weeks ago when a storm was brewing at twilight. I took it from the backyard. The light is so intriguing!

{Happy}

Everywhere you look here there are cornfields, beautiful cornfields. Several parishioners are farmers, and one of them brought us about twenty ears of corn last week. (An aside: in this parish and our previous dual parish, farming is an important part of life. Some parishioners make their living by farming and some just have large gardens, keep chickens, and the like. But in both places we were/are often given gifts of produce, eggs, sausage, etc. There is nothing like fresh-from-the-farm, and we are grateful for the generosity of these fine people in sharing with us!) So I took a stab at freezing it following my mother-in-law's methods. I would like to learn more about canning and freezing, but this little attempt made me happy. . . and it was so easy!

{Funny}

Man of the House and I gave Girl of the House this sign as a little "welcome to your new home" present. I spied it at Hobby Lobby and knew it was perfect for her. She is imaginative, creative, and often off in her own world. Lots of children have imaginary friends, but she's the only child I know who had an imaginary enemy. LOL Now she has characters from her stories populating her imagination. The sign is over her closet door.

{Real ~ This could have been happy too . . very happy!}

Man of the House and I celebrated our twenty-fourth anniversary this week. Every day with him is a blessing!

I'm linking to Like Mother, Like Daughter again this week. Join the fun!

A "Reasonably Clean" Welcome

2011-08-08T20:00:00.003-04:00

Like Mother, Like Daughter is having a linky party similar to their "Pretty over the Kitchen Sink" from last December. This time we are focusing on entryways. Leila of LMLD has written a series of helpful posts on the Reasonably Clean House, which you can find in the LMLD's sidebar; hence the "Reasonably Clean" Welcome!

As I may have mentioned once or twice *wink*, we moved in mid-June, and I've been swept up in a flurry of nesting ever since. I don't mind because I enjoy nesting, but the focus of said nesting has not been on any of the three entryways this house is blessed with. In fact, one of them is still downright dismal as the room it opens on awaits paint, furniture, and general unpacking. Unfortunately, that seems to be the one lots of people use. But I'm not showing you that one . . . yet. I put my energies into the front entry, the one I *wish* people would use more often and the one that had the least to do to pretty it up a bit. First, some "before" pictures.

This is the front porch:

It's pretty non-descript and not thrilling, isn't it? We brought the geraniums with us when we moved and I just sort of plopped them there to get them out of their box and into the sunshine, although I don't think they are getting enough sunshine judging by the lack of blooms. The marigolds were planted for us before we arrived and thankfully they are blooming. Next year I plan to have a lot more flowers in the beds, but it was too late this year and I was pretty busy with more essential things. (Did I really just say that???) Nothing says welcome more than flowers!

I decided that I could create a more welcoming front entry by accomplishing just a few tasks. First I spraypainted the metal cross that was left here by the previous occupants. Before:

After:

Better, don't you agree?

When I was rummaging around in the garage, this red wagon caught my eye and I had the thought that the flowers would look better sitting in it. They do!

I scrubbed off the sidewalk chalk from the wall . . .

. . . but we are stuck with this little bit of utilitarianism for the time being:

There is also a new doormat where there wasn't one before:

The end result is not strikingly different than what was there before, but it is spruced up a bit. By the way, there isn't much I can do about the storm door. This is a parsonage, and such upgrades are not really up to us. I'm looking on the bright side, though: at least it works well. :-) Next year, I'd like to add a plant stand or something similar and maybe a chair.

If you'd like to see what the inside looks like from the front door, go here. Thanks for visiting! I wish you really could come through my entryway and we could chat for awhile!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ August 4, 2011

2011-08-04T17:56:00.010-04:00

{Pretty}

Remember this picture in which I showed you the drab color in the kitchen? Guess what? It's gone! Man of the House and I finished painting it this week, and yesterday I hung the curtain and the doo-dads on the walls. I'll elaborate on each picture as necessary.

This is what you see if you enter from the living room. We painted it with the same paint we used there for continuity. It makes for a bright, sunny room, does it not? I'll hang more plates as inspiration and inclination strike. These three are a set of Wedgwood I bought at an antique store with some Christmas money. They were $18 each, which is more than I usually spend, but they have depictions of Colonial Williamsburg on them, a place we have visited a few times and that I adore. How could I resist? The curtain is just like those in the living room. I actually ordered one too many but put it to good use here.

This shows the view down the hallway, which is not very exciting because it has wall decor still to be hung. The plates are Spode and the rack came from Michael's (half off with a coupon!).

Look at all that counter space! I had about a third of that in my old kitchen, so I really feel like I can s-p-r-e-a-d out now. It's downright luxurious!

Girl Out of the House gave me the tiles for Mother's Day awhile back. I thought over the stove was the perfect spot for them. Please ignore the fact that there is no filter on the stove hood. It doesn't matter because there is no fan! lol Man of the House has asked the church council if one could be put in. I assume we'll get a filter then, too.

And here is the eating area. We still need to paint the chalkboard on the wall and hang a few things. When that's done, I'll show you. And we need a couple more chairs and a tablecloth and . . . Oh, well, it will happen eventually. But the room is much improved from what it was, and I really like it. :-)

{Real}

I can't believe I'm showing you this. It's the room off the kitchen that I guess is supposed to be the TV room, only we don't have a TV, so it'll have to be something else. We yet haven't quite decided what, *plus* it's painted in that same dreary color that used to be in the living room. So it's the current depository for unpacked boxes, painting supplies, and the other detritus of moving. But it's next on the agenda for a makeover. I'll be excited to see what it becomes!

As always, you can see more {phfr} excitment at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

2011 Reading Challenge~~Update

2011-07-31T18:48:00.003-04:00

Man of the House and I are reading Oedipus the King together. It's his very favorite book of all time, so I'm hoping to benefit from his knowledge and enthusiasm. But we didn't get very far this week, so I'll just keep it posted as the current book until we do finish along with the book I'm reading by myself. Hopefully next week I'll have two books to write about. :-)

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} ~ July 28, 2011

2011-07-28T21:24:00.010-04:00

{Pretty}

Remember when I showed you the living room newly put together and said I needed to do something more for a centerpiece on the dining table? This is what I did:

I already had these three little vases (there is a fourth one, but it hasn't emerged from the box it was packed in yet). I bought the flowers at Jo-Ann Fabrics on clearance. I think they were 75 cents. I got the candlesticks in a shop in a nearby town that specializes in gift-y type things but had some antiques too. They were $6 for the pair. I know brass isn't "in" right now, but I like brass and thought they would look good with the yellow walls. I was right! The candles came from my mother-in-law. She gave me a big box of them when we were helping clear out their house before a move. I like the twistiness! I'd still like to get or make a table runner, but this is much better than the cakestand alone, don't you think?

{Happy}

I bought this today! Isn't it great? I've wanted something like this for a long time. Man of the House and I spotted it at Michael's for half off, so we got it. You can't really tell in the picture, but the background is chalkboard green. Now to find just the right place for it . . .

{Funny}

Know what this is? Take a guess; I'll wait. *waits*

Nope, it's the insert for a clerical collar. Man of the House calls it a plastic smile. LOL I suppose they were made of linen at one point, and I suppose you can still get them in linen, but the manufacturer includes two plastic ones with every clerical shirt they sell. I guess they tend to get lost so the company sends two, but Man of the House never loses anything so he has quite a pile of them in his sock drawer now.

{Real}

This is the kind of picture I get when I hurriedly try to snap a shot of Girl of the House before she ducks and runs for cover. I obviously failed to achieve my goal. :-(

Vist Like Mother, Like Daughter for more {Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} fun!

My Family

2011-07-26T22:08:00.004-04:00

I was tagged for this by Girl of the House. Bear with me. ;-)

I'm supposed to give what I think are correct answers for each family member for the following categories:

MAN OF THE HOUSE

Favourite book: Oedipus the King by Sophocles
Favourite song: "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off"
Favourite hobby: Brewing, reading
Favourite movie: The Godfather Trilogy
Favourite colour: Black
Favourite animal: Cat, turtle
Favourite pet name: Capn Salty

GIRL OF THE HOUSE

Favourite book: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Favourite song: "Defying Gravity" or that "loathing" song from Wicked
Favourite hobby: Writing, reading, quilting, making graphics
Favourite movie: Harry Potter series
Favourite colour: Blue
Favourite animal: Cats and dogs
Favourite pet name: Boo-boo

GIRL OUT OF THE HOUSE

Favourite book: Harry Potter series
Favourite song: Something by Nightwish
Favourite hobby: Reading, cooking
Favourite movie: Pan's Labyrinth
Favourite colour: Green
Favourite animal: Cats
Favourite pet name: Anne-girl from us, Sunny from That Boy

THAT BOY

Favourite book: The Odd Thomas books by Dean Koontz
Favourite song: That song from the video game that he asked Girl Out of the House to learn on the piano for him
Favourite hobby: Designing video games, playing with the cat
Favourite movie: Iron Man
Favourite colour: Red
Favourite animal: Cat
Favourite pet name: That Boy lol

So, how'd I do? :-)

2011 Reading Challenge~~Books #28 and #29

2011-07-24T17:35:00.006-04:00

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn is not the kind of book I normally read voluntarily. I don't like delving into the intense suffering of others. The world can be very, very bleak ~ why should I read about it when I don't have to? Don't I get enough of that in that daily news? But wow! Am I glad I read this book. Solzhenitsyn is a master storyteller.

The book really does depict just a single day in the life of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. It's a slice of life but not of a life any of us would want for ourselves. Through Shukhov's eyes we are given a view of a Soviet forced labor camp in the last days of Stalin's rule in 1953. We see how the prisoners contrive to survive cruel Siberian winters, overwork, and underfeeding. They develop their own micro-society, including a class/power hierarchy and an economy based on personal property. Nevermind that two main tenets of socialism abolish those societal structures.

Solzhenitsyn wrote this book based on his own experiences in a Soviet labor camp. Solzhenitsyn's camp is Shukhov's camp. One Day was the first widely distributed account of such a prison and was specifically mentioned when Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970. The writing is clear, plain, and powerful. The author gives us many subtle insights into the prisoners' methods of survival under such dire circumstances as he relates the happenings of the day. Though this type of book is not usually my cup of tea, I found it engaging and thought-provoking. I give it a definite thumbs up.

Oh, and Harry Potter ~ what can I say? I wanted to read and/or listen to the book before seeing the final movie installment, which didn't happen as we saw it when I was about halfway through. Oh, well. I stilled enjoyed both book and movie immensely. Do I need to say more? Those of you who love HP can get much better reviews elsewhere, and those of you who hate it are glad it's finally over and don't want to read more about it! So I'll say no more. lol

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ July 21, 2011

2011-07-21T21:50:00.010-04:00

{Pretty}

Rainbows were a semi-regular occurance in our old house. There was something about the angle of the light in the evening and the situation of the front porch that made seeing rainbows not uncommon. I've seen more rainbows from our front porch in fifteen years than I've seen in the rest of my life combined. This one is a double!

{Happy}

Sheets on the line make me happy. The fragance of sheets fresh from the line makes me happier still.

{Funny}

The "funny" category is hardest for me each week because we don't have cute little kids doing amusing things anymore. However, we do have an amusing cat who likes to sleep in the weirdest positions. Being black, he's hard to photograph, though!

{Real}

The thermometer at our kitchen window. The heat has been record-breaking this week.

Man of the House, Girl of the House, and I manned the Lutherans for Life booth at the county fair for three hours today ~ three hot, sticky hours. But we survived and helped to keep the pro-life message before the public. The discomfort was a small sacrifice . . . though I am happy to be home in the air conditioning once again!

Join the fun at Like Mother, Like Daughter and see an oh-so-adorable baby!

From My Commonplace Book

2011-07-19T22:21:00.002-04:00

"People forgot that the human soul can enjoy a thing most when there is time to think about it and be thankful for it."~~G.K. Chesterton

"There is a good deal to be said for excluding literature from school curricula altogether. I am not sure that the best way to make a boy love the English poets might not be to forbid him to read them and then make sure that he had plenty of opportunities to disobey you."~~C.S. Lewis

"The ordinary arts we practice everyday at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest."~~Thomas More

"To live within a just order is to live within a pattern that has beauty. The individual finds purpose within an order, and security-whether it is the order of the soul or the order of the community. Without order, indeed the life of man is poor, nasty, brutish, and short."~~Russell Kirk

"Gargantuanism and the care of souls cannot coexist."~~Thomas Chalmers

"I am always hopeful that the pendulum will swing back and that women will see again not only the necessity of a mother's being at home, but also the infinite and rich choice in that occupation for women of all ages. Some will complain of monotony, but how few going out to a paid job have the opportunity to make their own schedules, to choose the routine of their week's labor, to follow up creative interests that women have within the home. Our ever-present disciplines, the pattern of creaturely necessities-cooking, laundry, decently clean houses-are a blessing. Beyond the physical care of the family, for better or worse we are shaping souls and characters. women learn slowly the magnitude of their influence. Perhaps we would be more contented if we could realize that one of the few remaining free prefessions is that of a housewife. If a woman resents being just a housewife, let her be called an artist . . ."~~Josephine Moffett Benton

2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #27

2011-07-17T23:20:00.006-04:00

Sixpence in Her Shoe by Phyllis McGinley is a book after my own heart. I loved it! In it, McGinley sings the praises of domesticity, and though I didn't agree with her in every little point, I did agree heartily with the major thrust of the book ~ that caring for home and family is an endeavor worthy of our best efforts and expenditures in time, intelligence, and creativity.

McGinley divides the book into three main spheres of a woman's domestic life: the wife, the house, and the family. In chapters with such titles as "How Not to Kill Your Husband," "What Cookbooks Don't Tell You," and "Keeping Up with the Joneses, Jr.," she covers everything from how to be a good car passenger, how to buy good furniture on the cheap, and what to look for in children's literature, plus much, much more. What most intrigued me about Sixpence in Her Shoe was the time it was written: 1960, just a few years before The Feminine Mystique was published but far enough into the modern feminist movement that the author frequently writes to defend the domestic woman who still wants to cook dinner for her family and take care of her babies herself. She also writes about contemporary trends she sees as dangerous, including children being smothered with too many material possessions, schools divvying students up according to rigid standardized test results, juvenile literature that has been dumbed down and stripped of anything interesting, and kitchens that serve more as showcases than as places to do the often messy work of preparing food. (Okay, that last one is probably not dangerous, but it is foolish, in her view . . . and mine too.) What struck me is how these trends have grown in spades since 1960. What would the author think if she were alive today?

McGinley was a well known writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1961. Sixpence in Her Shoe is skillfully written and is also a pleasure to read from a literary standpoint. She makes many allusions to the Bible and classical literature that I'm afraid would be lost on most of today's audience, but sadly, I don't think this book would have been published in today's climate anyway. However, I rank it as one of the best books I've read all year, right up there with Keeping House by Margaret Kim Peterson (#13 on my Reading Challenge list). I value books that value me and my role as wife and mother. Happily, Sixpence in Her Shoe does just that.

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ July 14, 2011

2011-07-14T19:56:00.014-04:00

{Pretty}

Before we arrived at the parsonage, an anonymous person or persons (may he/they live forever) spruced up the yard and tidied up the landscaping, including hanging these beautiful flowers. It was a thoughtful gesture that made me feel welcome. I love the colors!

{Happy}

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! There are two bathrooms in this house, a blessing we have not had in all our (nearly) twenty-four years of marriage. But alas, one of the bathrooms has no storage except a medicine cabinet~not an under-sink cabinet, not a closet, nothing. So I had the idea to use this terrific, vintage, metal cabinet a friend gave me a number of years ago. In our old house, it was hidden away and used for food storage, but in this house it would sit out in the open, so it needed a facelift. So two cans of primer and six (!) cans of spray paint later, it looks like this (sorry, I can't get far enough away from it to get a really good picture):

The walls were already light blue, so I decided to continue the yellow and blue theme from the living room. There is still more to do in this room (I will show you when it's finished), but I'm happy with how this project turned out.

Another picture for your viewing pleasure:

{Funny}

A few years ago, Girl Out of the House went to England. Her flight left from Boston, so those of us who (sadly!) didn't get to go to England stayed a few days and saw some of the Boston sites. I bought this in a shop along the Freedom Trail. We are all ardent tea drinkers, so this tickled my funnybone. I've put it on my kitchen windowsill for now, but I'd like to find a more satisfactory and permanent home for it.

{Real}

And now I'd like your advice. Here's a corner of the kitchen:

'Tis bland. 'Tisn't cheery. Yes, the chairs and table don't match and there are two outlets in the same wall. Something needs to be done. Steps need to be taken. Since it opens onto the living room and hallway, it too will be painted yellow, but I want to paint a chalkboard onto one or both of these walls. We need it for homeschooling and we gave away our former chalkboard before we moved, one of those little preschool easles with a chalkboard on one side and a whiteboard on the other. But I'm not sure how much of the wall(s) to turn into a chalkboard. I think we will definitely do the big wall from about three or four feet from the floor to about two feet from the ceiling, but should we do the other wall too? If so, should it wrap around the corner or be two separate areas? Do you have any other ideas? I'd love to hear them! :-)

Be sure to visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for other {Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} entries!

2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #26

2011-07-10T13:40:00.004-04:00

Besides being a pastor, Man of the House is also a classicist. That means that whenever one of our girls is learning about ancient history and literature at the high school level, he teaches it since he is the expert. It's very convenient to be married to my very own classicist, but there's one drawback: I never had the necessity to read that literature myself. Except for reading Homer's Odyssey in high school, that area of literature is unknown to me. Agamemnon by Aeschylus was my first attempt to remedy that situation. Man of the House tells me that that is not where he would have had me start, but he gamely read it aloud with me anyway, divvying up the parts between us. I now agree with his assessment. I probably have should started with something a wee bit more interesting, like Sophocles' Oedipus the King (his suggestion). I had expected a little more action and less obfuscating talking. Man of the House tells me it picks up somewhat in the second and third parts of the trilogy, so I will believe him and give them a try at some point.

Am I sorry I bothered to read it? No, not at all! This area of my education really does need some shoring up, and I'm glad I've begun doing that at long last. But if you feel like I do, take Man of the House's word for it and start with Oedipus the King instead. ;-)

By the way, we are halfway through the year and, with Agamemnon under my belt, I'm right on track for reaching my goal of 52 books in 52 weeks. I am also back on track after our move and am hoping to keep to my original plan of posting a book review each weekend. :-)

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ July 8, 2011

2011-07-08T14:23:00.011-04:00

I hope the good ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter, who host this feature, won't mind that I'm a day late joining in the fun. I just ran out of time yesterday to post.

{Pretty} and {Happy}

Except for a few finishing touches, the living room in our new house is complete! Man of the House and I hung the curtains yesterday, so now I'm ready to show you some pictures. Tell me what you think!

I want to get a wall decal to go over the piano. There are so many neat ones I'm having difficulty choosing! Also, the big wall in the dining area is still blank because I have to paint a shelf before it or anything else can be hung. We are also going to keep our eyes open for a china cabinet. In our old house, you may remember, there were built-ins in which I displayed my china. Most of it is still packed away until we have a place for it. The china cabinet will go where Girl of House's hope chest is, and the hope chest will go . . . who knows? We'll have to figure that out. And something more needs to be done about a centerpiece, but I lack inspiration at the moment. Any ideas?

The valances are Waverly's Imperial Dress Porcelain design. I spotted them one day at Lowe's and liked them immediately because it tied the blue/yellow color scheme together and also because the pattern echos the patterns of my china pieces. I hope to order some of the same fabric for new pillows and other accessories. I also want to get some tie-backs for the sheers so we can let in more light and so my stained glass hanging is more visible. I'll share updates as they happen.

We are really pleased with how this room turned out. We worked with what we already had, except for the valances (the sheers came with the house) and the cross on the wall. Otherwise, it's all our old things but rearranged. And of course, as I may have mentioned once or twice *wink*, we banished the dreary walls and painted them a sunny yellow. We were nervous using what was for us such a bright color, but we are really happy with it.

Thanks for touring our new living room!

2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #25

2011-07-05T22:20:00.005-04:00

At times intriguing and at times a little tedious, The Most Reluctant Convert: C.S. Lewis's Journey to Faith by David C. Downing traces the great 20th century Christian apologist's spiritual journey from Christianity to a variety of philosophies back again to Christianity. (If it were Tolkien instead of Lewis, There and Back Again would be a good subtitle. lol) The author has obviously done his homework and is very well-versed in all things Lewis. Downing relies heavily on Surprised by Joy, Lewis's memoirs written in his 50's, but he also draws on Lewis's other writings, other authors' writings about Lewis, and also on books that Lewis read and which influenced his thinking and spiritual development (which is where the tedium comes in from time to time *wink*).

The writing is solid and the research is deep and wide. Downing helps the reader to understand Lewis's thought processes and how he ended up exactly where he started ~ at Christianity, though a more robust and thoughtful Christianity than he had held as a boy (unsurprisingly). He portrays Lewis as a brilliant though fallible man and gives insight into the first half of Lewis's life leading up to his conversion to Christ, which is an interesting episode all by itself. If you value the work and influence of C.S. Lewis, then this book will be of interest to you.

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ June 30, 2011

2011-06-30T20:45:00.015-04:00

{Pretty}

Remember this post in which I showed you the dreary view out my kitchen window? Well, I have a new house now which has a fabulous view from the kitchen window! Look at this!

And this!

And this (taken by Girl of the House)!

One of the things I missed most while living in Appalachia was the wide open spaces of the Midwest. Those darn hills kept getting in the way of the scenery! Instead of feeling claustrophopic, I feel like I can breathe again. I missed the cornfields too and now I can see one from my backyard. *sigh of contentment*

{Happy}

We had a pet rabbit for four years, but there were no wild rabbits in our old neighborhood. This little guy (gal?) visits almost nightly with a few friends and relations.

Here's another backyard visitor. I've never seen robins as big as those around here!

Man of the House and I visited the only antique store in town last Saturday. Sadly, it's going out of business. Happily, everything was half-off, so we nabbed these crates for Girl of the House. Two real, gen-u-ine dairy crates and one fruit crate. She loved them! Here she is giving them a clean up. (She doesn't know I took these. Aren't I sneaky?)

{Funny}

Cat of the House apparently likes opera. Girl of the House was listening to a CD of famous soprano arias, and he plunked himself down right next to the CD player!

(Black cats are exceedingly difficult to photograph!)

{Real}

Man of the House is painting the hallway. It and the living room were a muddy tan/green/gray-ish color that was about as appealing as cold oatmeal. As an added bonus, it sucked any and all particles of light right out of the air. I knew I couldn't survive a winter with my sanity intact with that color. We've finished with the living room (pictures of which I will show you soon!) and are on to the hallway now. We chose a subtle, cheerful yellow which has made all the difference in the living room. Here Man of the House is in the primer stage. Even that has made a huge difference!

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Classical Education, Classical . . . Liturgy?

2011-06-29T19:11:00.005-04:00

My family has been part of the classical education restoration since 1995. In terms of the contemporary movement, that's a long time. Man of the House teaches Latin, Greek, and ancient literature. We have both taught at a classical Christian school. We've attended ACCS conferences. We have read most of the "right" books, and we even agree with some of them. ;-) We attempted/are attempting to educate our own children in the classical tradition. (I use the verb "attempt" because I know we have not really captured classical education in all its fullness. Having so far to come in our own education leaves us starting out behind, but I believe by God's grace our children are better off than we were. Our hope is that they will contine recovering what has been lost with their own children.) We've been around the modern classical movement for awhile.

When it comes to being Lutherans, we are newbies. It's only been two and a half years since we made the move officially, but we have a good five years of prior study, prayer, and discussion to our credit. During those two and half years we have come to greatly appreciate the historic liturgy. Even Girl of the House prefers it. Lying just under the surface of my active thoughts during the divine service is an awareness of the connection the liturgy has to the church of the past and the saints who have gone before us. The richness and timelessness of worshiping the Lord using the very forms and words that the early Christians used is unequalled by any other mode of organizing a church service that I have ever participated in . . . and I've seen quite a few. After these few short years, I cannot imagine going back. I would miss the liturgy too much, and I'm thankful for faithful Lutheran pastors who still use it.

Now, what have these two paragraphs to do with each other? They raise a question in my mind: Why don't those who espouse classical education also espouse classical worship more often? We classical educators, whether in schools or at home, spend a lot of time looking to the past when it comes to history, literature, educational methods, etc. We rightly extol the timeless classics of past centuries, but we participate in worship that employs modes and methods that are anything but timeless. Contemporary worship services and praise songs pass their freshness dates within a few months. The historic liturgy has been around for at least a millenium and a half. It is an inconsistency I didn't see myself until my family moved to a liturgical tradition. So what I'm offering here is food for thought. If we go to so much effort to bring classical education to our children, should we not also give them classical worship?

2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #24

2011-06-28T09:17:00.004-04:00

With life just beginning to settle down, I'm having trouble posting book reviews on time, but hopefully I'll be back on schedule soon. I thoroughly enjoyed this week's book, Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton, perhaps because I'm married to my own modern-day version of Mr. Chips. I've long been a fan of the 1939 movie, and it was fun comparing it to the book. The literary Mr. Chips is just as endearing as the live-action Mr. Chips, and the movie does a wonderful job translating Hilton's book to the big screen. I especially appreciate the way Mr. Chips (whose real name is Chipping, by the way)embodies the Christian doctrine of vocation. He wasn't terribly ambitious, he knew his strengths and limitations and lived accordingly, and he faithfully and steadily labored to teach his students and help train them to take their places in the world when they grew up. He understood that small tasks performed quietly and faithfully reaped big results, and he didn't expect great acclaim from simply fulfilling his vocation either. But he did receive personal satisfaction and a sense of doing something that mattered, a sense of serving something bigger than himself. We in the twenty-first century can learn a lot from this man forged during the height of Victorian England.

For some reason, I had always had the idea that Goodbye, Mr. Chips was Hilton's memoirs of his time as a Latin master in an English boys' school. I don't know where I got that idea, but it was totally wrong. Hilton was an author by trade who penned this novel in homage to schoolmasters everywhere. Goodbye, Mr. Chips was his most popular book. If you'd like a light, quick summer read, then you won't go wrong with this little gem. It is delightful!

Pretty Happy Funny Real ~ June 23, 2011

2011-06-23T19:53:00.009-04:00

{Pretty}

As you know, we moved last week for Man of the House to begin a new phase of life as pastor of a Lutheran church. These were sent to us from a parishioner as a token of welcome. Aren't they gorgeous?

{Happy}

Raspberries right in our own backyard! These were given to the former pastor by a parishioner, but of course he couldn't take them with him when he left, so here they are for us. They are yummy!

{Funny}

This may not be laugh-out-loud funny, but this kind of mushroom always makes me smile. It's been cool and misty around here lately, and a whole circle of these popped up in the church yard. Did you know that a complete circle of mushrooms is called a fairy ring? Isn't that delightful? I would show it to you, but alas, someone knocked down most of it before I got a picture.

{Real}

This little beauty is the the light fixture for the backdoor of the parsonage. I'm hoping we can get it replaced one day, but in the meantime, at least it works. :-)

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2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #23

2011-06-20T21:14:00.003-04:00

With no interent to distract me (it hasn't been hooked up to our new house yet ~ I'm writing this hasty review from Man of the House's new office), I've finally finished Q's Legacy by Helene Hanff. I loved it! However, if you're not a fan of 84, Charing Cross Road or have never read it, you won't get a lot out of Q's Legacy. In this book, the author tells the story of 84: how she came to write it, how it grew to be a cult classic, and how it took on a life of its own and was eventually adapted into a stage play. (The movie didn't come out until 1987, six years after Q's Legacy was published, and so isn't included in the book, obviously.)

The "Q" of the title refers to Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (rhymes with "pooch"), a Cornish author who used "Q" as his pen name. He taught at both Oxford and Cambridge and is probably best known for the Oxford Book of English Verse. As a young woman who had to drop out of college for financial reasons, Hanff studied Q's books on writing, which inspired her to delve into the riches of English literature, which in turn led her to begin writing to Marks and Co. in the quest for inexpensive copies of books she couldn't find in New York City. And this in turn eventually led to 84.

Q's Legacy is a witty and engaging book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who already enjoys 84. If you don't, skip Q. If you don't know, get thee to the nearest library and read 84 (and watch the film too!).

Update: We are still busily unpacking and painting and with no internet yet, my online time is limited. I hope to return to regular blogging soon!

2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #22

2011-06-12T13:55:00.003-04:00

Hi, everyone! Moving Day is tomorrow and there are some last minute things to take care of, so today's review is short and sweet. I listened to another Miss Marple book this week, this time narrated by Joan Hickson, who played Miss Marple in the BBC series in the 1980's. She is as delightful in an audiobook as she is on screen! In fact, Agatha Christie actually told Joan Hickson that she (Agatha) hoped she (Joan) would play her beloved Miss Marple. The book, The Tuesday Club Murders, is a collection of short mysteries loosely woven together and is the book in which Miss Marple is first introduced. I enjoyed it very much.

I hope I will be able to get back in the swing of reading (rather than listening) this week, but we shall see. I'll leave Q's Legacy at the top of my queue as I am thoroughly enjoying it and think I will be able to squeeze a few minutes of reading into the days as an escape from unpacking. The next time I post here I should be in the Midwest instead of Appalachia. See you then!

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ June 9, 2011

2011-06-09T20:04:00.013-04:00

{Pretty}

I like to hunt for blue and white transferware in antique and thrift shops. If money weren't an object, my collection would be huge, but since it is and I pass up many an overpriced piece, my collection grows more slowly though more thriftily. :-) Dinner plates are by far the easiest to find; I estimate I have about 30 and all of them different. What's not so easy to find are serving pieces, especially at a price I'm willing to pay. So I was absolutely positively thrilled to find this beauty for $8.50 a year or two ago. It's Wedgwood and in perfect condition! It hasn't yet been packed, so I thought I'd share it here. The picture is of the White Swan, a coaching inn in Warwickshire dating from about 1350. Maybe someday I'll get to see the real thing!

{Happy}

I have two "happy" pictures to share. The first is of Man of the House's alb hanging from a closet door after being laundered. He wears this when conducting the divine service, and this Sunday he is assisting at our home church, including preaching the sermon. (He finished his interim position on May 29.) It will be our last Sunday before hitting the road on Monday for his new pastorate. It makes me happy because it makes him happy to minister in Word and Sacrament.

The second picture is of Girl of the House in her room sitting at her desk amidst boxes and other detritus from packing up. Why does this make me happy? What you can't tell from the picture is that she is listening to Hamlet of her own accord. Be still my heart!

{Funny}

Girl of the House and I visited a friend and her new baby this week. So what's so funny about this picture? Nothing, but if you could have heard this little guy laugh, you'd have thought it was pretty funny too. He was infectious!

{Real}

My "real" picture is related to our imminent move, but you already knew it would be, didn't you? There are boxes, boxes everywhere! But the packing is going well and we are even a little ahead of schedule. Everything's a mess! All week I felt like my kitchen was a haven of neatness and tidiness amidst the flood of boxes and bubblewrap, but no more, alas. We began packing up the kitchen today.

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AN ASIDE: I am not doing very well reading this week's book, so I added an audiobook to this week's line-up. Hopefully I'll get back to "regular" reading next week!

2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #21

2011-06-05T15:40:00.010-04:00

I wish I could have met Agatha Christie. As someone interested in out-of-the-mainstream educational methods, I would have asked her how her own unorthodox education contributed to her ability to create such ingenious crime novels. I would have also asked her about her views regarding human nature. She seems to have held no romantic illusions about the universal goodness of man. I don't know her religious views, but it is obvious in her books that she is operating from a Chrisianized (if not outright Christian) moral conscience and worldview. And I would have liked to get a peek into the mind that concocted one of my very favorite literary characters, Miss Marple, the sharp-as-a-tack, elderly English spinster who solves complicated mysteries by relying on her knowledge of human nature gained by living in a typical English village.

A Murder Is Announced is my favorite Agatha Christie book so far. (I've read a handful.) I like the way quiet, unassuming Miss Marple sees what no one else sees and cuts through evidence and circumstances like a hot knife through butter to get to the truth. I like her old-fashioned sense of morality and her treatment of people as people, even the murderers, for whom she often displays sympathy while acknowledging the proper place of justice in civilized society. Nobody expects much of Miss Marple, and she always surprises them. People aren't always what they seem on the surface, and sometimes digging a little deeper reveals a true gem like Miss Marple.

A Murder Is Announced revolves around a murder mystery game gone awry. The ending is unexpected, of course, even though the author gives plenty of clues as to the identity of the murderer throughout the book. She also does a good job of quietly misleading her readers, which is what a good mystery does. It was a fun, light read that also appealed to my love of all things British.

I listened to a recording of this book narrated by Rosemary Leach. (I'm sorry I can't remember which company produced it. It's already back at the library, and I've forgotten.) She did a good job, and I especially liked her characterization of Mitzi, the paranoid foreign cook.

Being in the middle of packing for our move on June 13 and everything being in a state of general upheaval, I'll do my best to keep up with this reading challenge, but don't be too surprised if you don't hear from me next weekend. It'll be like the flight from Egypt around here!

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ June 2, 2011

2011-06-02T21:17:00.011-04:00

{Pretty}

In the summer, the evening light is so luminous through this window over our fireplace. Look at the shadows it throws on the wall through the lace curtains. There is something about the evening light that always gives me such a feeling of contentment and well-being. I will miss this little spot when we move.

{Happy}

I haven't mentioned it much here, but Girl of the House has had a challenging year due to a chronic condition which became acute. She has borne it with grace and patience, and I am happier than I can say that she is a bazillion times better than she was a year ago. Thank the Lord.

{Funny}

This is from the same photo shoot (I use that term loosely) as my {pretty} picture. Look at the left side and you'll see our Martin and Katie Luther bobbleheads. They always make me chuckle!

{Real}

And speaking of chronic conditions, Man of the House has suffered from migraine headaches for twenty years. They have truly been a thorn in his side, but over the years and through much trial and error he has learned how to squash them pretty quickly, all things considered. This is what he does: at the first sign of a migraine, he drinks a strong cup of coffee and takes two aspirin. About an hour later he drinks a dark beer. If he can get a nap, all the better, but even if he can't this combination really helps. (A midwife friend told us about it.) Man of the House discovered a few years ago that if he addds smoking a pipe to the routine, the cure works even better. So that's what he's doing here: curing his migraine! (I took this picture through the window without him knowing it.)

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2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #20

2011-05-28T11:48:00.005-04:00

I'm glad I read The Natural Family: A Manifesto by Allan C. Carlson and Paul T. Mero, though it's not what you'd call a page-turner. Carlson and Mero make the case for the traditional family (they prefer the term "natural family") from a non-religious standpoint, something I think we must do in our secularizing culture. Looking at biology, sociology, psychology, and politics and by using plain ol' commonsense the authors show why people ~ men, women, and children ~ are happier and better off when they are part of a natural family. The book is well documented and loaded with statistics and references to study after study. That's where it gets just a wee bit tedious, but I understand why that was necessary.

In relation to the natural family, the authors discuss poverty, population decline, domestic violence, anti-family governmental policies, education (with more than a few positive references to homeschooling), working mothers, daycare ~ whatever topic you can think of that relates to the family, it is probably in this book. Something I found refreshing about The Natural Family is that although Carlson and Mero spell out steps the government could and should take to strengthen the family, their main thrust is aimed at families themselves. In true conservative fashion, they don't expect or want the government to fix the family, only support it through family-friendly tax and other policies. The solutions lie in the hands of men and women and the families they form through marriage and childbearing.

Though their ideas are helpful to people of all ages, Carlson and Mero plea especially with those in their 20's and 30's to rethink what they've been told by liberal feminism about marriage, divorce, and family size and timing. I hope many young people will read this book and be persuaded about the benefits to themselves and society of marrying and having many children.

If you go here and type his name in the search engine, you can hear many interviews Allan Carlson has done with Issues, Etc. host, Todd Wilken. Very enjoyable listening.

With our upcoming move, I will be relying on audiobooks and shorter books for several weeks to keep up with the reading challenge. I hope that's all right with my vast reading audience, but I'm afraid it will have to do. This is real life. ;-)

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ May 26, 2011

2011-05-26T21:10:00.009-04:00

Pretty~

The landing on our staircase is one of the prettiest spots in our house. We bought the bookcase at an antique store for $30, and when we brought it home, I painted it using crackly paint. (Please don't judge too harshly ~ it was my first attempt creating this effect, and it is less than perfect. But since I was going for a distressed look anyway, I figured it didn't really matter. lol) The painting was given to us by a friend before she moved. See her signature in Korean in the lower right-hand corner? I think of her everyday because of this painting. The blue and white transferware is part of my vast collection. Not only do we eat from my collection everyday, various and sundry pieces are scattered through the house. One of my very favorites is the little bank on the first shelf. Isn't it sweet? The ginger jar was a gift from my mother, and Girl Out of the House and That Boy gave me the plate for Christmas last year. Both are gorgeous!

I also love the gothic cut-outs on the sides!

Real~

We've begun packing boxes for our upcoming move. These are in Man of the House's office, and now the bookcases are empty. Just two and a half weeks until Moving Day!

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A Teensy Rant (Or: Oh, No! Not Again!)

2011-05-24T18:37:00.004-04:00

Yes, I'm going to rant again, but I'll keep it short.

When one attends a formal or semi-formal wedding, one should not wear cargo shorts. If the groom and groomsmen are in tuxes and the bride and bridesmaids are wearing formal dresses, cargo shorts are not in keeping with the nature of the occasion. Come on, fellas, at least put on a pair of dress pants and a polo shirt, for crying out load! Even that falls short, but cargo shorts?! I ask you!

At the wedding we attended Saturday I saw three ~ count 'em, three! ~ young men (er . . . excuse me . . . guys) wearing cargo shorts. Their mothers would have hung their heads in shame had they seen their progeny so attired for an occasion of such import. People, what you wear speaks volumes about what you think of the function you are attending and the people with whom you are attending it. It is not okay to wear to a wedding what you would wear to mow your grass. The two are not of equal import and do require different clothing. And I'm sorry to say that this plague of inappropriate dress is found not only among the young. I see middle-aged and elderly people doing the same thing in increasing numbers. The rampant casualness of American society is getting out of hand. You don't have to wear a suit to change the oil, but how about to a friend's wedding? Show some respect, for Pete's sake.

There. I feel better now. ;-)

2011 Reading Challenge ~ Too Busy!

2011-05-22T16:40:00.003-04:00

Hi, all! Well, I failed. I didn't get book #20 finished this week, mainly because of a very busy weekend, but it was for a happy reason. Man of the House performed his first wedding! Rehearsal Friday, wedding Saturday, and regular divine services Sunday all combined to restrict my reading time. But I am a book ahead and so still on schedule. I shouldn't have any trouble finishing this week.

The young couple who got married were as cute as they could be ~ endearingly nervous and excited. Man of the House did a bang-up job. No one knew it was his first wedding. I forgot my camera, alas, so I have no pictures to share.

So hopefully this week should be a little more leisurely . . . except I keep forgetting that I should be packing. Moving day is in just three weeks! Yikes!

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ May 19, 2011

2011-05-19T20:22:00.006-04:00

Just a quick post today about something pretty. These come from an enormous rose bush in front of our house, which produces profuse blooms of the most delicate pink. I cut these and put them on top of our piano. There are still plenty more outside!

Big News

2011-05-17T15:12:00.006-04:00

Big happenings around here. Man of the House has received and accepted a call to a permanent pastorate, so we will be leaving Appalachia and moving back to the Mid-west, something Man of the House and I are happy about. Girl of the House has been surrounded by hills since birth and the wide open spaces make her nervous. Other than that, she seems pretty laid back about it. No "you're ruining my life!" drama. What a sweetie.

We should be ensconced in the parsonage in mid-June, Lord willing. In the meantime, we will, of course, be packing and selling our house. Even though we've lived in our present house for over fifteen years, we've been pretty good about giving things a good clear-out every year or two, so there isn't too much detritus to wade through. We are all thankful for that!

I will do my best to keep up with my reading challenge during the transition. I may have to rely on short books or audiobooks, or I may have to catch up later. I am a book ahead, so that gives me a little leeway up front. I'll blog about our move if there's anything blog-worthy.

This is a dream come true for Man of the House and we are all excited for him! He's thought about being a pastor since before we were married. He has a lot of prior ministry experience as an elder and interim pastor, but this is his first full-fledged call. Hey, he's younger than Moses was when God called him. ;-)

Our denomination is The American Association of Lutheran Churches, a small, conservative arm of Lutheranism. We are moving to a small (pop. 5700) farming community within pretty easy driving distance of a large metropolitan area. It's big enough to merit its own Walmart. lol The people at the church were friendly and welcoming when we visited. May we be blessings to one another.

Man of the House will continue his online teaching duties, at least for the first year. The schedule has already been made and families registered, so he needs to see it through. His schedule will be a challenge, but he's a hard worker ~ always has been ~ and I will help him as much as I can.

So that's our big news. It's been a long time coming and I'm not sure we are fully grasping the implications yet. Your prayers for us as we make this transition are truly appreciated. :-)

2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #19

2011-05-14T22:40:00.004-04:00

I first learned of the Battle of Hastings in my high school world history class, and since that time I have encountered it while homeschooling my kids, in other reading, and in Teaching Co. lectures, but 1066: The Year of the Conquest by David Howarth filled in many gaps in my knowledge. The book takes its readers through the events that led to Harold's coronation as King of England and Duke William's consequent invasion to secure the crown that he believed was rightfully his, culminating in the Battle of Hastings. At just two hundred pages, I'm sure it's not an exhaustive history, but it is certainly informative for those whose knowledge about the battle was picked up piecemeal like mine was.

The author is very fair and evenhanded in his assessment of the events and players in the crucial year of 1066. He does not engage in the riduiculous speculation so common among historians today that result in equally ridiculous interpretations of history. The writing itself is very good. I can see why The New Yorker commented, "A model of scholarly popular history . . . Mr. Howarth is a brilliant writer, full of wit and solid common sense."

David Howarth was a military historian; I had never read any military history before now, but this book was so much more interesting and engaging than I ever thought a book about military history could be, and I will likely stop avoiding books of that type now. This book would also make an excellent addition to a high school history curriculum.

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ May 11, 2011

2011-05-12T09:47:00.000-04:00

Happy~

Short Ride in a Fast Machine by composer John Adams is a lot of fun! Adams (born 1947) is one of America's most often performed composers and this paricular work is extremely popular as an encore piece. Adams is known as a minimalist composer, which means that he is interested in stripping music down to its bare bones, especially rhythm. Minimalist music is highly repetitive and can get downright boring if you don't know what to listen for (and even if you do sometimes!). The great thing about Adams, the thing that makes him my favorite minimalist composer, is that he avoids the tedium that other minimalists are prone to. I've been listening to this piece the past few days as I prepare to teach my last class of the year and it's so much fun I thought I'd share it here. The animation in the video is terrific too!

Funny ~

This is Man of the House hard at work. Doesn't he look like he's strenuously toiling away to earn our daily bread? He actually is! When he's not pastoring, he's teaching Latin and Greek to junior high and high school students online. Anyone who's ever worked with that age group knows what hard work that can be. But how many teachers do you know who can go to work in shorts and a T-shirt, put their feet up on their desks and still run a smooth and stimulating class? The commute to the office (down the hall from our bedroom) isn't bad either! :-)

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2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #18

2011-05-07T19:16:00.009-04:00

Weeeelll, I didn't finish 1066: The Year of the Conquest after all this week. I'm surprised I didn't because it's only 200 pages long, but I am just over halfway. I'm reading it rather slowly, trying to keep straight people named Tostig, Stigand, Loefwulf, and Lanfranc. I'll save my comments about it for now, but I am eager to commend it to you. Let that suffice for the time being.

In the meantime, I've been listening to Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope and finished it just yesterday. I found it a very enjoyable book, read engagingly by Simon Vance. The plot revolves around the political and/or ecclesiastical maneuverings of the clergymen of Barchester Cathedral and their effects on the various relationships among themselves and their families. There are a wide array of characters: the hen-pecked Bishop Proudie and his overbearing wife; the gentle and capable ex-warden Septimus Harding and his two daughters, one a young widow, the other married to fastidious Archdeacon Grantly; the odious and manipulative golddigger Mr. Slope; the scholarly yet socially inept Mr. Arabin; the disreputable Stanhope family; and the impecunious but likable Quiverfull family (who naturally have a lot of children~fourteen, to be precise).

Written in 1857, Barchester Towers pokes fun at the opposing forces inside the Church of England at the time: the High Church traditionalists and the new Evangelicals. It's enlightening to read books that deal with the issues of the day and which were written by people who were eyewitnesses. Viewing the controversies from their vantage point rather having the events interpreted for us by a modern historian looking back brings a different perspective. Even though the book is mainly a work of fiction, Trollope's discussion of "Sabbath schools" for children of the poor and high church v. low church was interesting to me. I already had a fairly good understanding of these issues before I read Trollope's book, but it's always gratifying to read something that refreshes and cements ideas already planted in the mind.

In some ways, Barchester Towers reminds me of Dickens but without the intricate storyline and mysterious plot tangles. The story is much more straighforward and even predictable. It certainly has the amusing names, which I think are fashioned after Dickens (i.e. Mr. Quiverfull and Dr. Omicron Pi*). It also has a similar level of detail, so if Dickens isn't your thing, I don't think Trollope will be either. However, I enjoyed it and will probably give more Trollope books a try.

*Since I listened to this book, I haven't seen how the good doctor spells his last name. It could be Pi, Pye, or even Pie, I presume. I used Pi to stay with the Greek alphabet theme.

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ Pathetic Garden Edition

2011-05-05T09:34:00.008-04:00

This week my focus is on the "real" part of Like Mother, Like Daughter's Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real feature. Our backyard is very small and of course our garden is even smaller, but it's big enough to keep us in green beans, carrots, and lettuce throughout the summer. But this spring~THIS spring~the weather has been most uncooperative for keeping it weeded. It has rained almost everyday for the past five weeks, and since I will not weed in the rain, this is what it looks like now. Pathetic, isn't it?

That lovely spray of green you see? That is mostly weeds. There are a few things that we planted on purpose, though. See?

I try not to complain about the weather since complaining about it is in effect complaining about God. Since He controls the weather and sends it to us, who am I to say that it ought to be different? Do I really think He doesn't know what's going on? How much I am longing for open windows and sunshine and warm breezes? How tired I am of the rain? And I am sooooooo successful in not complaining. Just ask my family. On second thought, you better not.

I know there are many people who are truly suffering because of the recent tornadoes and flooding; my unweeded garden insignificant compared to that, but it's real life around here and so I thought I'd share it. The sun is shining today and it's forecast to be 67 degrees, so I'm making a raid on those weeds this afternoon. Say your prayers, weeds. Your end is near. . . Lord willing and the creek don't rise (literally!).

Family Culture IV

2011-05-04T11:11:00.005-04:00

You know the drill. Whence did these quotes originate?

She’s nothing but a baby.

A ghastly looking crew!

What's it got in its pocketses?

You're a fine, steady hand.

Not very how (in answer to inquiries about one's health and well-being)

A wizard is never late. He arrives exactly when he means to.

Gotcher conk!

Tut, tut, it looks like rain!

That's the boy for me.

I'm the most horrible! I'm the most horrible!

He jumped six inches in the air with surprise and anxiety.

Swish and flick!

I can't put my arms down!

You won't have to be mumbling with me.

I just want your opinion, your honest opinion.

Plain food and plenty of it.

Pickin' flowers (pronounced "flawrs")

I never bawled!

Husband high (in reference to whether or not a girl is of marriageable age)

References to Napoleon, character, the Magna Carta, or propitious occasions

How many of them did you recognize?

2011 Reading Challenge~~Book #17

2011-05-02T08:51:00.007-04:00

I'm glad I read the dedication* of John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps or I might have given up in disgust by the third chapter. Since I had been warned to expect the improbable and even the nearly impossible, I was amused rather than dismayed at the long pile-up of unlikely events throughout the story. Our hero, Richard Hannay, has the uncanniest luck I have ever seen and is more than once saved from certain demise by the unlikeliest of rescuers. Hannay is unwittingly drawn into international political intrigue when a stranger shows up on his doorstep and ends up dead a few days later, leaving behind a little black notebook full of coded clues and a trail that leads his enemies straight to Hannay. A chase across Scotland and back to London ensues. Set in 1914 just before the start of World War I, this book is an early example of the spy novel. I'm not a huge fan of the genre, but it was interesting to read an early specimen.

The Thirty-Nine Steps was a fun-enough, easy read, a good choice after my rather serious Lenten reading. There are four more Richard Hannay novels, which I may or may not read, but I'm glad I've read this one after hearing so much about the author over the years. The Thirty-Nine Steps has been made into a movie several times. We own the Hitchcock version, so I will have to dig it out now and see what I think.

I must apologize that this review is late. We were out-of-town this weekend, and it turns out we had no internet access. Once the withdrawal symptoms ceased, we found we didn't really mind (except I couldn't post my review!).

*TO THOMAS ARTHUR NELSON

My dear Tommy,
You and I have long cherished an affection for that elementary type of tale which Americans call the "dime novel" and which we know as the "shocker"--the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible. During an illnes last winter I exhausted my store of those aids to cheerfulness, and was driven to write one for myslef. This little volume is the result, and I should like to put your name on it in memory of our long friendship, in the days when the wildest fictions are so much less improbable than the facts.

J.B.

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

2011-04-27T18:41:00.016-04:00

This week I have a picture for each category of Like Mother, Like Daughter's Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real feature.

Pretty~

We visited Girl Out of the House and That Boy for a few days last week. They took us to a beautiful park smack in the middle of their big-ish city. They are pretty too, don't you think? :-)

Happy~

Man of the House performed his first baptism on Easter Sunday. What better way to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord than with a baptism? After all, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4, KJV). Did you know that Easter is a traditional time for converts to receive baptism? The young man desires to follow Christ and hadn't been baptized before. What a joy it was to hear him affirm his faith in Jesus as his Savior and to renounce the devil and all his works!

Funny~

We saw the oddest ducks at the park! They certainly qualify as funny. They were quite tame and followed us around. It probably helped that we fed them bread crumbs.

Real~

I like geraniums on windowsills, but they don't always look picture-perfect. Notice the unusual shape of this one, how its long stem has doubled back on itself to reach the sunlight. The blossom is on such a long stem that it's having trouble supporting it. I will probably cut it back after the flower wilts.

Russian Easter Overture by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

2011-04-24T17:38:00.006-04:00

On this glorious Resurrection Day of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'd like to introduce you to a stunning piece by the Russian Nationalist composer, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Overture. The beauty and mystery of this composition is breathtaking.

Though a non-believer himself, Rimsky-Korsakov was interested in liturgical themes and employed chant from the Russian Orthodox liturgy in his Russian Easter Overture, specifically "Christ Is Risen" and "The Angel Cried." I have Russian Orthodox friends who have confirmed that they sing these very chants during their Vigil and Pascha liturgies. The solo violin cadenzas represent the light eminating from Jesus's empty tomb. Psalm 68:1 ("Let God arise and His enemies be scattered; let them also that hate Him flee before Him") and Mark 16 in which the angel announces to the women at the empty tomb that Jesus has risen from the dead also play prominent roles.

Rimsky-Korsakov said in his autobiography that he was also portraying "the legendary and heathen aspect of the holiday, and the transition from the solemnity and mystery of the evening of Passion Saturday to the unbridled pagan-religious celebrations of Easter Sunday morning." I confess that I don't know where in the world he attempted to do this; it is lost on me. Maybe he made a note in the score (which I have not seen)? I don't know, but I do know that this is one of my very favorite compositions. Believer or not, Rimsky-Korsakov gave us in his Russian Easter Overture an awe-inspiring musical work pointing to the risen Christ.

2011 Reading Challenge~Why I Failed This Week and Why It's All Right

2011-04-24T16:29:00.003-04:00

Yep, you read that correctly: I didn't get my book read this week. It was less than 100 pages and I didn't get a third of the way through. Here's why:

1) After church Sunday, we immediately headed south to visit Girl Out of the House and That Boy. I did manage to read a few pages in the car, but mostly I read Three Men in a Boat aloud or we listened to Connie Willis's Doomsday Book. We had a great time and stayed until Wednesday morning. Once there, I hardly cracked my book. I'll share more details and some pictures soon. . . I hope!

2) This being Holy Week and all, there was a lot more church-going, which for us means four extra hours in the car per service, and half of that is in the dark, which makes it harder to read. (Man of the House is interim pastor for two churches two hours away.) So with Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services in the evenings, the days were short, especially since I was trying to catch up from being gone (which I haven't yet).

3) Girl of the House is under the weather, and someone has to do her chores. That would be me. ;-)

Now you know why I didn't finish On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius. I picked it largely because it was short*, but apparently even that was too much for me this week. Oh, well. I'll get to it another week, and besides, I'm still a book ahead of schedule, so I can afford this minor lapse.

So are family relationships, ministry, and focusing on the Passion of our Lord good enough reasons not to have met my goal this week? I think so.

*I also chose it to fit my plan to read theological and/or devotional books during Lent. On the Incarnation is good stuff, and I definitely want to get back to it. Now that Lent is over, however, I am ready for something lighter, though I will sprinkle my reading with theological/devotional books throughout the remainder of the year.

O Sacred Head Now Wounded

2011-04-22T13:55:00.002-04:00

It's not Good Friday without this hymn.

2011 Reading Challenge~Book #16

2011-04-18T10:54:00.006-04:00

Hey, everybody! I'm gone for a few days visiting Girl Out of the House and That Boy; hence the late post on last week's read. My review is short and sweet. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis: Five stars. Get it. Read it. Inwardly digest it. Lewis is his usual brilliant and insightful self.

See you in a few days!

Violets

2011-04-14T13:47:00.009-04:00

"And I think the violets are little snips of the sky that fell down when the angels cut out holes for the stars to shine through."~A Pupil to Anne in Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

Violets grow abundantly in my neighborhood in spring. The coming of the violets is a sure way to know that winter has been replaced by spring. They are such sweet, old-fashioned flowers! I don't actually have very many growing in my own small yard, but some yards are full of them, so full that I don't think their owners miss the few handfuls that I "borrow" to take home. I forbid the boy who mows our lawn to mow down the violets; he must go around them even if it means having odd patches of long grass here and there. I can't bear the thought of my violets being murdered! They are allowed to go to seed, and each year we have a few more. I will never understand people who wipe out their entire violet populations with herbicides or lawnmowers. When I see a lawn that has been massacred of its violets, I mutter imprecations on the owners. A pox upon the houses of all violet murderers!

These are on my windowsill in a 50-cent garage sale vase I bought when Girl Out of the House was a baby. It has been used in all its chipped glory for over twenty years to hold bouquets of dandelions and clover, violets and pansies, wild phlox and shepherd's purse. How I miss bouquets picked by chubby fingers accompanied by little voices exclaiming, "Here, Mommy! These are for you!"

(Please visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for other entries in their "Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real" link-up. Today is the premiere of this new weekly feature. Should be fun!)

From My Commonplace Book

2011-04-12T17:09:00.004-04:00

"Knowledge of words comes first in time; knowledge of things is first in importance. But some hasten unwashed to the feast, as they say, who neglect proper care for language in their overeagerness to acquire knowledge of things. For, since we can understand nothing except through words, whoever is unskilled in language, will be blind in judgment, wandering in mind, and crazed when he deals with a knowledge of things."~~Erasmus

"Trouble is often the means whereby God delivers us. God knows that our backsliding will soon end in our destruction, and he in mercy sends the rod. We say, 'Lord, why is this?' not knowing that our trouble has been the means of delivering us from far greater evil. Many have thus been saved from ruin by their sorrows and crosses."~~Charles Spurgeon

"An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones."~~Proverbs 12:4

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."~~Thomas Edison

"The end of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him."~~John Milton

"No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty--except, of course, books of information. The only imaginative works we ought to grow out of are those which it would have been better not to have read at all."~~C.S.Lewis

2011 Reading Challenge~Book #15

2011-04-10T08:56:00.010-04:00

At the end of Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God's Spoken World, N.D. Wilson calls his book "abnormal." Abnormal may be a bit too strong, but Notes is certainly an odd book. And that's why I liked it. Wilson covers everything from insects to death to Nietzsche to the Resurrection to death to sand castles to Plato to the Incarnation to kittens to death to heaven and hell. There were places I found myself nodding in agreement and thinking, "Ah, so someone else does see it the way I do!" and there were places that are still big question marks, sections in which I didn't quite get what he was driving at.

Wilson uses the earth's rotation around the sun as it also spins on its axis (hence the titular tilt-a-whirl) to frame his musings on life and death, heaven and hell, salvation and damnation. Part philosophy, part theology, part apolgetics, Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl reveals Wilson as a well-educated, thoughtful man who has eyes and heart opened to God's revelation of Himself in the world He has made. He helps us to have the same.

N.D. Wilson is the son of the well-known and oft controversial leaders of the modern classical Christian education movement and revitalized Reformed wing of Christianity, Douglas and Nancy Wilson. His writing style and presumably his thinking have obviously been influenced by his parents, or at least the same authors that influenced them, which is not at all a bad thing. :-) Wilson's writing is witty and insightful. I enjoyed this book a great deal.

You may recognize Wilson's name from his children's books, all of which Girl of the House has read (and loved, I might add) and none of which I have read: Leepike Ridge, 100 Cupboards, Dandelion Fire, and The Chestnut King. They sound like perfect summer reading and will probably make it on my list for this summer.

Family Culture III

2011-04-06T14:23:00.006-04:00

Here are some more quotations from books and/or movies that we liberally sprinkle our conversation with. Can you guess where they come from?

You're a likely looking girl and have a right smart way of steppin'. I don't want no lazy woman.

No blame can be attached to him.

Capital, capital!

I don’t wanna, and I’m not gonna!

Oh, help! Oh, bother! Oh, help and bother!

It burns, precious, it burns!

Enough pills to make me rattle.

You're a fine, steady hand.

I'm a child, a child.

Keep your knees opened and closed!

That's no S-M-F-O.

It's a particular morning thing. It has to be done in the morning.

Cabbage has a cabbage smell.

That has nothing to do with me.

Sit down. That's what chairs are for.

They can’t possibly need all these trains!

Who's going to make the sums come out at the end of the month?

My poor nerves!

Apocolyptic!

It's levi-OH-sa, not levio-SAH!

You'll shoot your eye out!

We think it never happen for you!

2011 Reading Challenge~Book #14

2011-04-03T15:02:00.008-04:00

The weather is too glorious for a long book review today, but I'll at least give you a brief sketch of this week's book. On Christian Liberty by Martin Luther (also known as The Freedom of the Christian) is an early work, dating from 1520. Luther composed it between challenging John Tetzel with his Ninety-five Theses in 1517 and his refusal to recant his teachings at the Diet of Worms in 1521. Luther makes the case for justification by faith alone, the doctrine that set off the Reformation and put him and his followers on a collision course with Rome. I was intrigued reading Luther's own words (well, a translation anyway) explaining this doctrine that I could recite in my sleep I've known it so long. It was hard for me to remember while reading this book how revolutionary his ideas were as they have been part of my very core for decades now.

Luther also lays out (for the first time, I think?~if anyone knows for sure, please comment!) the famous Lutheran doctrine of Law and Gospel, which says in summary that the Law reveals to us what sinners we are as we are unable to keep even the smallest part of it. It crushes us under a weight of guilt and despair. But then the glorious Gospel of Christ~justification by grace through faith~lifts us up, washes away our sin, guilt and shame, and redeems us through Jesus's death on the cross on our behalf. Without the Law first condemning us, we wouldn't know our need for a Savior, who in contrast appears all the more glorious! And that's where our liberty comes in~we are freed from sin, death, and condemnation as well as laboring for our own salvation. Christ is our Sabbath.

Luther then goes on to write about the role of good works in the Christian's life and how he is now through Christ at liberty to serve others, and here he brings in his doctrine of vocation. I wish I knew if this is the first place he wrote about it; I did a little digging but was unable to find out. According to Luther, good works flow out of the Christian's vocation(s)to serve his neighbor, who needs his good works just as the Christian needs the good works of his neighbor. But never is the Christian to think that he is justified before God by his works. That would mean he is no longer justified by faith alone.

Luther writes with great pastoral concern and care. I suspect he had no idea that in just a few months he would be called before an ecclesiastical court to denounce his teachings and submit to the errors of the Roman Catholic Church at the time. It is fascinating to read the actual words of people who made history. It's quite different than reading about them. C.S. Lewis knew what he was talking about when he said we should read old books!

And speaking of old books, I also read an even older "book" this week: The Didache: The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations. But since it's less than three 8.5x11 pages on both sides I'm not going to count it as a book in my tally. The Didache is a treatise dating from the end of the first century or the beginning of the second and is a record of the Apostles' teachings regarding sin, church organization, and rituals and practices within the Church. Reading about how the earliest Christians conducted themselves and their churches was engrossing and convicting. I was sometimes surprised how different modern Christianity looks from that practiced by the first Christians. As with Luther's On Christian Liberty, I was fascinated getting the story straight from the horse's mouth (in translation, of course). This is a quick read (under an hour) that gives modern Christians a look into the earliest Christianity. Well worth the time and easily available online.

Hmmm . . . this wasn't so short after all!

Sit Down

2011-03-30T20:42:00.005-04:00

Allow me a teeny rant, please. It used to be that a standing ovation was given only at truly great and wondrous performances. A regular concert-goer should expect to give possibly ten in his whole life. I myself have only twice been so awed by a musical performance that I felt compelled to stand, and they were both when I was in college. How is that I can't recall a single performance of the past decade that has not resulted in the audience leaping to its collective feet? High school musicals, preschool Christmas pageants, the Vienna Boys Choir, Aunty Tilly playing "The Old Rugged Cross" on her musical saw at the church talent night~~they ALL receive standing ovations. It is now a meaningless gesture. Stop and think about this for a moment: If we honor Aunt Tilly and the VBC equally with a standing ovation, what is left when we as an audience really do sense that we've just witnessed something extraordinary and want to express our awe and appreciation? Or can we no longer distinguish what is truly outstanding? As much as we might enjoy Aunt Tilly's saw and love Aunt Tilly herself, we should not honor mediocrity that way. Applaud till your hands fall off if you wish to, but stay seated. Don't budge, even if you are the only one in the hall still sitting. Resist the peer pressure if you don't think in the depths of your soul that a standing O is warranted. I've done it many times and have never been mobbed afterwards. We must stem the tide of over-praising and this is as good a place to begin as any. Stand with me! Errrr . . . I should say, Sit with me! ;-)