Mommy Brain

Egermeier’s Bible Story Book: A Complete Narration from Genesis to Revelation for Young and Old by Elsie E. Egermeier
Favorite Poems Old and New selected by Helen Ferris
Wonders of Nature
Wild About Books by Judy Sierra
Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
Hit the Ball, Duck! by Jez Alborough
Big David, Little David by S. E. Hinton
The Big Alfie Out of Doors Storybook by Shirley Hughes
How the Cat Swallowed Thunder by Lloyd Alexander
A Fairy Went A-Marketing by Rose Fyleman
Goblin Walk by Tony Johnston and Bruce Degen
I Wonder If Sea Cows Give Milk, and Other Neat Facts About Unusual Animals
A Birthday for Frances by Russell Hoban
The Big Bug Book by Margery and Paul Facklam
Dinosaurs Galore by Giles Andreae
Miss Smith’s Incredible Storybook by Michael Garland
Three Pandas by Jan Wahl
Everything I Know About Pirates by Tom Lichtenheld
McDuff Goes to School by Rosemary Wells
It’s Quacking Time by Martin Waddell
You and Me, Little Bear by Martin Waddell
Amazing Butterflies and Moths by John Still
Alphabet Mystery by Audrey Wood
Teeth, Tails, & Tentacles: An Animal Counting Book by Christopher Wormell
The Rattlebang Picnic by Margaret Mahy
One Hot Summer Day by Nina Crews

The Adventure Bible for Young Readers
The It’s My Life Book by Nancy Rue
Lily the Rebel by Nancy Rue
The Secret of Shadow Ranch by Carolyn Keene
Barbie: The Lucky Skates

Journey to the Volcano Palace by Tony Abbott
Hank the Cowdog: The Case of the Vanishing Fishhook by John R. Erickson
Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel
Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel
Poppleton Everyday by Cynthia Rylant
Big Boss by Anne Rockwell
Henry and Mudge in the Family Trees by Cynthia Rylant
Jellyfish by Sharon Sharth
Wolf Spiders by Jason Cooper
Henry and Mudge and the Wild Goose Chase by Cynthia Rylant
Henry and Mudge and the Bedtime Thumps by Cynthia Rylant
The Thanksgiving Beast Feast by Karen Gray Ruelle

A blogger named D. C. Roe has come up with a way to memorialize the 2,996 victims of 9/11.

“On September 11, 2006, 2,996 volunteer bloggers will join together for a tribute to the victims of 9/11. Each person will pay tribute to a single victim.

We will honor them by remembering their lives, and not by remembering their murderers.”

If you would like to participate, you can sign up on D. C. Roe’s blog.

…how they could turn this into a movie. I’m hoping it will be “loosely adapted” and more enjoyable than the book was.

Three more books completed, 9 to go. I finished listening to A New Song and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I also finished reading Atonement by Ian McEwan. It was just okay - two and a half stars. I’m curious to know if this is his typical writing style or if I should give another of his books a try, since he’s supposed to be brilliant.

When your 6-year-old son has an accident in his swimming trunks (because he is too busy having fun to bother with coming in to use the bathroom and “they were wet anyway, Mom!”), and you tell him to go downstairs and throw them in the washing machine (in which you have just started a load), make sure he knows which machine is the washing machine. If you don’t, there is a good chance that when you go downstairs to get the clean clothes out of the dryer, they will have an unpleasant smell and need to be washed all over again.

This game. Hat tip: A Life in Pages.

“climate and weather
Lightning goes up. It shoots right up from the ground and into the cloud. This is what the encyclopedia says in the section on climate and weather. I reread this passage a couple of times to make sure I hadn’t gone batty - but no, lightning goes up.

To be technical, it does first go down - there’s an initial bolt called the “leader” that zips from the cloud to the ground. But the bright part, the part that flashes, is the “return stroke,” which goes from the ground back to the cloud.

This is profoundly unnerving. When I didn’t know the history of canned laughter or the existence of a sexy Confederate spy, that was mildly vexing. But this is unnerving. This is a whole new level of ignorance. I’ve been looking at lightning all my life, and its sky-to-ground direction seemed about as certain as the slightly asymmetrical nose on my face. To be confronted with this totally counterintuitive information - it makes me paranoid. What other incorrect ideas do I have? Is the sun actually cold? Is the sky orange? Is Keanu Reeves a brilliant actor?”

Remember, those are A. J. Jacobs’ words, not mine, so if you adore Mr. Reeves, please don’t take it out on me!

“irony
The French horn is from Germany. The Great Dane has no relation to Denmark. Cold-blooded animals often have warmer blood than warm-blooded animals. Softwood is often harder than hardwood. Catgut is made from sheepgut. Caesar was not born by cesarean section. A cold is not caused by the cold (Ben Franklin pointed this out). Death Valley is teeming with life (more than two hundred types of birds, several types of fish, and so on). Heinz has several hundred varieties, not its advertised fifty-seven. Starfish are not fish. The electric eel is not an eel. The anomalous Zeeman effect in atomic physics is more common than the regular old Zeeman effect.

These are all things I’ve been keeping in my little “Ironic Facts” file on my computer. Irony is named for “the Greek comic character Eiron, a clever underdog, who by his wit repeatedly triumphs over the boastful character of Alazon.” But the stuff above is a different kind of irony. These ironies are a function of our ridiculously imprecise language. I feel we need someone to come in and clean it all up, a Rudy Giuliani of English who would crack down on all lazy, loitering, leftover-from-other-eras words. But that’ll never happen. As I learned in Fahrenheit, the inertia of bad ideas is a powerful force.”

Jodi and Karen both asked me to elaborate on the problems I had with Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul by John and Stasi Eldredge.

The authors hold to an over-riding belief that permeates this book. I first noticed it in Chapter Two: What Eve Alone Can Tell.

“It is nearing the end of the sixth day, the end of the Creator’s great labor, as Adam steps forth, the image of God, the triumph of his work. He alone is pronounced the son of God. Nothing in creation even comes close. Picture Michelangelo’s David. He is…magnificent. Truly, the masterpiece seems complete. And yet, the Master says that something is not good, not right. Something is missing…and that something is Eve….”
page 25

So far, so good, right? But then, after quoting Gen. 2:21-23, the passage continues:

“She is the crescendo, the final, astonishing work of God. Woman. In one last flourish creation comes to a finish not with Adam, but with Eve. She is the Master’s finishing touch. How we wish this were an illustrated book, and we could show you now some painting or sculpture that captures this, like the stunning Greek sculpture of the goddess Nike of Samothrace, the winged beauty, just alighting on the prow of a great ship, her beautiful form revealed through the thin veils that sweep around her. Eve is…breathtaking.

Given the way creation unfolds, how it builds to ever higher and higher works of art, can there be any doubt that Eve is the crown of creation? Not an afterthought. Not a nice addition like an ornament on a tree. She is God’s final touch, his piece de resistance. She fills a place in the world nothing and no one else can fill. Step to a window, ladies, if you can. Better still, find some place with a view. Look out across the earth and say to yourselves, “The whole, vast world is incomplete without me. Creation reached its zenith in me.”
page 25, emphasis mine

I agree that creation was not complete without woman. I agree that woman is unique and fulfills a unique role in the world. What I do not agree with is the idea that Eve was the climax of creation, that creation kept building to “higher and higher works of art” and that Eve crowns it all. Yes, the creation week built to a climax, but that climax was the creation of mankind. Man and woman together are made in the image of God. Both are necessary, but woman is not a higher or better model. I believe that God waited to create woman so that Adam would see his need of her.

Lest you think this is an isolated passage, or that I’m reading too much in, here is another section in a later chapter:

“Eve was given to the world as the incarnation of a beautiful, captivating God - a life-offering, life-saving lover, a relational specialist, full of tender mercy and hope.”
page 44

No! Eve was not given to the world as the incarnation of a beautiful, captivating God - Jesus, His Son was.

Is there a need for books that affirm a woman’s femininity and unique place in creation? Yes. But why does it seem like the church always swings from one extreme to another instead of finding the biblical middle?

For years, women were subjugated and abused and their talents neglected, all in the name of submission. But now the church has gone to the other extreme and denied that men and women were created to fulfill different roles. And that’s not even good enough, now some declare that Eve was a higher created being than Adam.

I did find some good material in this book, passages that encourage women to let God heal their woundedness and to embrace their femininity. But in my opinion, this doctrinal error is large enough that I would not recommend this book. Yes, many women who are grounded in the Word and mature in Christ could “take out the good stuff”. But when a book is written from a biblical perspective, why should we have to weed through it?

Just my opinion, for what it’s worth.

Three more books finished, 12 to go to make my 18-book challenge for the summer. I’m actually hoping I’ll finish more than my goal in order to stay on track and finish my reading list for the year. We’ll see.

I finished Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul by John and Stasi Eldredge before we left. There were a couple of good nuggets in there, but there’s a huge doctrinal error that runs through the entire book, so I would not recommend it.

Two nights ago, I finished The Novelist by Angela Hunt. Definitely a good read, especially for anyone who aspires to write. I don’t know how she managed it, but she wrote two stories in one. There’s the main story about a woman novelist, and then there’s the story the novelist is writing. The two stories intertwine and along the way are some good lessons about God’s sovereignty and how our choices to sin affect not only ourselves but everyone around us. It took me a while to get drawn in, but once the story grabbed me, I didn’t want to put it down.

Today I finished The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs. This was a very entertaining read. After years of writing for pop culture magazines like Entertainment Weekly and Esquire, Jacobs decided he was being “dumbed down”. In an effort to learn, well, everything, he embarks on a quest to read the entire Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 2002 edition.

“…33,000 pages, 65,000 articles, 9,500 contributors, 24,000 images. I’m looking at thirty-two volumes, each one weighing in at a solid four pounds, each packed with those giant, tissue-thin pages. The total: 44 million words.”

When I picked up this book, I thought it had the potential to either be completely fascinating or extremely dull. Jacobs’ sense of humor pervades, along with personal anecdotes about his attempts to get his wife pregnant and to come to an understanding in his relationship with his father. And along the way I learned some fascinating stuff - almost enough to make me want to read the EB myself. Almost.

“Absalom
Absalom, a biblical hero, has the oddest death so far in the encyclopedia. During a battle in the forest, Absalom got his flowing hair caught in the branches of an oak tree, which allowed his enemy, Joab, to catch him and slay him. This, I figure, is exactly why the army requires crew cuts.”

The Bible actually says his head got caught in the tree, but I still found this funny. I marked many passages and will share some more in a later post. Anyone who is fascinated by trivia would enjoy this book. There is some profanity, though it is not pervasive, so keep this in mind if you decide to pick it up.

Next up: Atonement by Ian McEwan and Fresh-Brewed Life by Nicole Johnson. I’m also close to being finished listening to both A New Song by Jan Karon and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling on audiobook - the latter with Natalie and Noah.

How about you - what are you reading these days?

By day 5, we were very tired. The kids had done remarkably well, but they were starting to bicker and disagree with each other. I was trying not to get anxious about our drive home.

My wonderful sister treated the kids and I and took us to see Cars at the theater. At a big theater, with cup-holders in the seats! The kids couldn’t believe that there were five or six movies being shown at the same time. Our little theater here in Colville is ancient, and not as plush as this one was.

The movie was good, though a little long for a kids’ movie. Josiah ate his candy and a few handfulls of popcorn and then promptly put his head in my lap and slept until it was over. He was so tuckered out.

Back at Deb’s, we had steak off the grill and raspberry cream cheese coffecake to celebrate Father’s Day for Deb’s husband Derek. I brought the recipe home.

After some tearful hugs and goodbyes, we headed back to the hotel, where the kids watched Inspector Gadget and then we all crashed.

We drove home the next day, and made it home without a crisis. The kids slept from the moment we left Silverdale until we stopped for a potty break before heading up Snoqualmie Pass. We listened to Laurie Berkner’s CD Buzz Buzz, which turned out to be one of the biggest hits of the trip. (Thanks to whoever - or is it whomever- suggested it!) We listened to more Harry Potter, but I have to admit that the way Jim Dale pronounces Voldemort (with a silent “t”) and Gryffindor (GRIFF - in - der) bugs me. A lot.

Since we’ve been home, I’ve washed, folded, and put away six loads of laundry. We’ve had Kevin’s van into the shop twice, for a grand total of $360. (With the brakes and shocks work he had done before we left, and my windshield wiper arm replacement while we were gone, this brings our grand total to $940 in a little over two weeks. I don’t even want to think about it.) I’ve planned Noah’s birthday party for tomorrow and he spent his birthday money from Kevin’s mom on a new scooter. I finished The Novelist by Angela Hunt - 4 stars. I started crocheting a afghan for my youngest sister, Marni. (I finished Deb’s just in time to take it to her.) Tomorrow we have Noah’s party and then Monday starts a week of VBS, so Josiah and I will be having some quiet mornings together. I imagine the rest of our summer will seem a little tame after Our Grand Adventure. And please, God, no more car repairs!

When we woke up in the hotel room on Day Four, the kids were hungry. Starving, to be exact. We got out of there as fast as we could and traipsed downstairs to the complimentary continental breakfast. When we checked in, I was assured that it was a very nice breakfast that included waffles, fruit, muffins, and cereal. A little low on the protein scale, I figured, but it would get us by.

When we got downstairs to the breakfast nook, the first thing I noticed was the table. Yes, table, singular. One table. Two chairs. Already occupied. Where are we supposed to sit and eat?

Then I looked at the counter where “breakfast” was laid out. “Breakfast” consisted of a few stale bagels and some packets of instant oatmeal. Oh, and coffee that looked as thick as mud.

So the kids and I piled into the van and headed to Shari’s where they all scarfed down smiley-face pancakes and bacon and I dumped an entire cup of decaf plus cream and sugar in my lap. The nice waitress brought me a wet rag so that I could wipe off my sticky legs (I was wearing shorts) and after we were done eating we headed back to the hotel so Mommy could change.

After spending the morning at Deb’s house, we headed for the beach. I grew up on Puget Sound, so until I took my honeymoon to the Oregon Coast, I thought Puget Sound beaches were beaches. They’re not quite the same, but it was the closest my inland-born kids had ever come to the ocean. The smell of the Sound - kelp, saltwater - brought back such memories.

The kids spent the afternoon collecting clam and mussel shells in their buckets and catching tiny crabs. We’re not taking those home with us, kids! Okay? Hello? Anyone listening? Jonathan fell on some barnacles and scraped up his leg and Natalie sat down in the water unintentionally, but it was a good afternoon.

Day three was much lower-key, which we all needed. It started with Josiah and I driving about 15 minutes to Bremerton to have the wiper arm fixed on the van. A repair that they said would take 30 minutes took 2 1/2 hours. At 1 hour and 45 minutes the service rep came and told me the repair was finished and they were taking the van out for a courtesy wash. Okay, I’ve waited this long, how long can a wash take?

35 minutes later I went to the service desk and asked if we could please skip the wash and just bring my van around. What kind of a courtesy is it if it makes you wait that much longer? Not to mention that a repair of ONE wiper arm cost $133. Ouch.

After having lunch at Deb’s, we headed to the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington. These were outside:

Inside, we walked through the many exhibits on the ocean environment and submarine technology. Did you know the Japanese had a manned torpedo during World War II? It had a driver whose job it was to drive it into an enemy ship or sub and blow it to smithareens, along with himself. Crazy.

There were some creepy looking diving suits like this one:

The kids got to play in the simulated control room of the nuclear fast attack submarine Greenling.

After dinner, the kids and I moved out of Deb and Derek’s house into our hotel. The timing was perfect, as the kids all needed a break from each other and my back needed a break from sleeping on Deb’s couch.

I had made the reservations six weeks in advance, and yet when we checked in I was informed that the kind of room I’d requested (two queens) had not come available and that they’d “upgraded” me to a room with a king-size bed and a roll-away at no extra charge. The lady assured me that the roll-away was just a little bit smaller than a full-size bed and so two of the boys should be able to fit on it, no problem.

I then asked for directions to the elevator, since she’d put us on the third floor. No elevator. “Your kids are young, they’ll be fine,” was her response. I’m not worried about the kids, lady. I’m the one who will be lugging all of our baggage up two flights of stairs!

The roll-away was barely a twin, of course, but a borrowed sleeping bag sufficed and Jonathan was perfectly content to sleep on the floor. We watched a borrowed movie on the VCR and then crashed. Natalie, Josiah, and I all shared the king and I learned that Josiah likes to turn around upside-down and back to right-side up in his sleep. He’s one wiggly sleeper! But it was still better than the couch.

*Our Grand Adventure

The second day of our trip was one of the busiest, fullest, and funnest (is that a word?) days the kids and I have ever had. We caught the ferry in Kingston in the morning and headed over to Edmonds. After a couple metro bus rides and walking for a few blocks, we reached the Seattle Center.

(Of course, it didn’t look quite like that cause we reached it at lunchtime.)

We grabbed some lunch in the Center House…

…and then headed for the Pacific Science Center.

I haven’t been to the science center since I was a kid, but I remember it being my favorite field trip in grade school. There was so much to see and do. Of course, I wanted to read all of the information plastered over every exhibit, but the kids just wanted to get their hands on everything. Once I let go of my “but you should be reading all this stuff!” expectations, we had a great time.

We started at the dinosaur exhibit, where the huge, moving, growling animatronic dinosaurs kept Josiah (my 4-year-old) plastered to my side, his hand safely in mine.

Next we headed to the Insect Village, where there were rows of glass tanks full of fun creatures like this:

Past the insect exhibit was my favorite part of the science center, the Tropical Butterfly House:

It was amazing. Thousands of butterflies fluttering all around you, the scent of tropical orchids in the moist, heavy air. It was like being in another world.

We had our shadows captured on the shadow wall. We stood in front of a green screen and watched ourselves on video doing the weather, complete with weather map. We got our hands into the tide pool and touched all kinds of creatures. We stood inside a giant guitar and felt the vibrations caused by plucking the strings. We saw naked mole rats (”Just like on Kim Possible, Mom!”) So many other things. I’ll post pictures of the kids doing some of these things as soon as my sister e-mails them to me. Unfortunately, she got hit with a stomach thing the day after we left and she hasn’t had time to do it yet.

After we had exhausted ourselves, we headed back outside and sat down to watch the fountain for a while.

The kids had fun seeing how close they could get without actually getting wet. I would’ve let them get soaked, but there were still two buses and a ferry to ride to get home.

Back in the Center House, we had ice cream (for the kids), coffee (for Deb), and Seattle’s Best Fudge (for me). Our trip home was an adventure, since the bus our metro itinerary told us to take to the ferry terminal turned out to be a train. But we made it.

Back in Kingston, we walked to the yacht club where we had parked in Debra’s in-laws spaces to avoid paying for parking in the ferry lot. We were starving and ready to head back to Deb’s for pizza. But I had left the lights of my van on all day and it wouldn’t start. Of course. Couldn’t have a day without a crisis, could we?

Fortunately, Debra’s brother-in-law lives five minutes from the yacht club and he drove over in his mud-caked jeep to jump start my van. Back at Deb’s, we pigged out on pizza and nursed our feet, which were aching from all that walking. It was a good day.