Mommy Brain

It’s evening, but still Friday, so I’m not too late, right? We had a good day: I talked to my sister Andrea for an hour and a half this morning, then we did some school - mostly reading, ran some errands, baked pumpkin muffins, and then Michelle and her boys came over for a few hours.

The boys have their first belt promotion test for Tae Kwon Do tomorrow, so we will be spending the entire afternoon at the dojang. I am excited for them - they have been working really hard. And Natalie has decided to quit ballet and join her brothers at TKD, so that eliminates one of our commitments on “crazy Wednesdays”. I’ll miss seeing my parents every Wednesday, but I’ll just have to find another time to drive down to Chewelah during the week.

Since everyone seems to be done with this flu-ish stuff, we’re going to visit a new church on Sunday. I’ve been there twice already and I really like it - I’m hoping the rest of the family feels the same way. Sunday night I’ll head to Mom and Dad’s for dinner and to watch the Oscars.

I have a few links to share, and for some reason, three of them are snarky posts about the state of the Church. I’m not in a snarky mood myself, honestly, but I couldn’t resist sharing them and waiting for the comments.

~This guy’s blog makes me laugh and makes me think. I think Tonia was the one who pointed him out. Check out Mmm….Sacrilicious… and The Seven Habitrails of Highly Effective Churches.

~Think Christian posted this video.

~I can’t wait to see Amazing Grace: The Story of William Wilberforce. Click the link to watch a trailer.

~This video tickled me to pieces.

~This news article belongs in the “Well, duh!” files.

~Cindy at Dominion Family opened a can of worms with this post about books we’re supposed to love, but can’t stand. People are coming out of the closet against all sorts of books: Elsie Dinsmore, Mitford, A Tale of Two Cities, Stepping Heavenward, Narnia, Lord of the Rings - it’s crazy confession time! I don’t feel so bad about hating Gilead and The Poisonwood Bible anymore!

That’s all for this week - what are your plans for the weekend?

I thought I was the only one suffering from the winter blahs, but this morning Josiah (5yo) ran into the living room, looked out the window, and burst into tears. I was in the kitchen and came in to ask him what was wrong.

“It’s snowing!” he wailed. “I miss the grass!”

When I joined the Winter Reading Challenge, my goal was to finish these in progress books:

Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose
Redemption by Leon Uris
Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L’Amour
The Collected Works of Emily Dickinson
Proverbs and Sayings of Ireland Edited by Sean Gaffney & Seamus Cashman
Bibliotopia: Mr. Gilbar’s Book of Books & Catch-all of Literary Facts And Curiosities Compiled by Steven Gilbar

I know February isn’t officially over, but here’s how I did:

Finished
Reading Like a Writer
Education of a Wandering Man
Proverbs and Sayings of Ireland
Bibliotopia: Mr. Gilbar’s Book of Books & Catch-all of Literary Facts And Curiosities

Still Reading
Redemption
The Collected Works of Emily Dickinson

I am about 2/3 of the way through Redemption and it has finally grabbed me, so I fully expect to have it finished before the end of the month. The Emily Dickinson poems will probably take another month or so. I’m enjoying them - but some of them are fairly obscure and hard to understand. (Maybe it’s just me.) Still, I will push on.

I also wanted to read five books off of the top portion of this list, the top portion being books that I own and have been waiting on my shelves - some for a long time!

The only book that qualifies for this portion of the challenge is Happiness Sold Separately by Lolly Winston, which I hated. I truly intended to read more books off my shelves, but… Here, let me explain.

At the beginning of the year, Michelle and I were talking about how much she loves Chekhov’s short stories and then we both read Reading Like a Writer in which the author truly gushes over Chekhov. So Michelle loaned me her copy of The Duel, which I devoured. One book read, not on my list - or my shelves.

After reading The Thirteenth Tale, I wanted very much to read Jane Eyre. I started reading it through DailyLit, but got tired of pushing the “send next fragment immediately” button several times a day, so Michelle loaned me her copy. One more book read, not on my list - or my shelves.

I saw a preview for the movie version of The Children of Men, knew I wanted to see it, but wanted to read the book first, so I checked out the library’s copy. Another book read, not on my list - or my shelves.

When I returned Children of Men to the library, I wandered over to the “New Books” shelves, “just to browse.” Knowing that we were leaving for the weekend and I would have lots of time to read, I checked out Famous Writers School. (Which wasn’t very good, by the way.) Yet one more book read that wasn’t on my list or my shelves.

When we were away on our weekend, we made our mandatory two-hour trip to Barnes & Noble, and I picked up a copy of The Awakening and Selected Short Fiction. Another book read…. You know the drill.

So, did I meet my challenge? No. But, honestly, I did better than I thought! For some reason I had it in my head that my goal had been 18 books off of my to-be-read shelves. 18! So when I saw that I had actually been wise and made a much more reachable goal, I was pretty pleased with myself. Next up will be the Spring Reading Challenge - I’ll post more details as Janie does. And my goal will probably be to stay out of the library, stop borrowing books, and stop shopping for books!

Jennifer at Snapshot is sponsoring Read to Me 2007, a challenge for those of us who love books and children.

“Read to Me 2007 is a mission to encourage reading to children. Most of us know that reading to children is a good thing. Most of us are busy. Most of us are selfish with our time (alright, I won’t saddle you with that, but I will admit that I am selfish with my time). Goals are important to me, and accountability is important to me, too. So, I’m going to set some goals for reading to my children and I’m going to invite you to do the same.”

I’ve been much better about keeping our read-aloud time consistent this (school) year than last, but I still see some areas needing improvement. One is to do more picture books - now that Natalie and Noah are loving to listen to longer books like Inkheart and Eragon, I’ve neglected Jonathan and Josiah some since they aren’t quite ready to sit still for those. We also do very little reading aloud on the weekends, and I want to change that.

So here are my goals:

~At least two picture books a day for Jonathan and Josiah.

~Read aloud for 30 to 45 minutes on either Saturday or Sunday.

Not grand goals, I know, but since we already have a daily read-aloud time, these are the areas we need to work on.

If you want to participate, you can find complete details here, and join by Mr. Linky here.

Be sure and leave me a comment to let me know if you decide to participate!

Found this meme at Everyday Mommy’s place.

His age: 41

How tall is he: 5′5″ - same as me

How long have you been together (married): Married twelve years on March 31, 2007…together for six months before we got married.

How long did you know each other before you got together?: We knew each other as friends for about six months.

What physical features attracted you to him first?: His smile.

Eye color: Brown

Hair color: Dark brown, with some salt and pepper.

Hair style: Buzzed on top to prevent the whole combover thing, very short everywhere else. We call it the Costanza.

Normal Outfit: Jeans and button-up shirt at work, jeans and t-shirt or sweatshirt at home.

How did you meet: Church singles group.

How serious is it?: Umm, we’re married, so pretty serious.

Are you “in love”: Yep - most days. Of course I love him all the time, but those fluttery, emotional “in-love” feelings are fickle, right?

Do your parents like him: Yes.

Do his parents like you: Yep.

Do you trust him: Completely.

Would you share a toothbrush with him?: No…that’s just gross.

Would he let you wear his pants?: He would if I could fit into them.

Do you have a shirt of his that you sleep in?: Nope.

Do you like the way he smells?: Yes. He has a naturally sweet smell to his skin. (Two of the kids have it, too.) He doesn’t wear cologne, and even when he gets all sweaty, he doesn’t have that body odor smell. God knew I have a very sensitive nose!

Can you picture having kids with him?: Not any additional, but we’ll keep the four we already have.

What bothers you the most about him?: His snoring.

Does he have a temper?: Yes, but he’s working on it.

Are you happy to be with him?: Yes, very much so.

Does he embarrass you in public?: A few times in home group, when his strong doctrinal opinions came out, but most of the time, no.

Does he smoke or do drugs?: His vice is chewing tobacco - he’s been trying to quit since, well, forever.

Does he have any piercings?: Ha, ha, ha. No.

Any tattoos?: No.

Does he have any scars that you know of?: From hernia surgery and having part of his colon removed due to Crohn’s disease. I have more, though - two c-sections and a gall bladder removal.

Is he a Party dude or Stay at home?: Stay at home.

Is he Outgoing or Shy?: In-between. He hates crowds, but he likes small get-togethers with people we already know and are comfortable with.

Does he love his mama?: Yes, but they don’t always get along.

Would he hang out with you and YOUR friends?: Yes, and be very frustrated that he couldn’t get a word in edgewise. It’s happened.

Sing?: With the radio.

If you decide to dish about the man in your life, let me know!

This was one of the books I treated myself to when we were away for the weekend and spent our evening out at Barnes & Noble. I had listened to a few of Kate Chopin’s short stories on the audiobook Great American Women’s Fiction and was intrigued by them. She writes very well, and her low opinion of marriage comes through in many of her stories. And yet, when she writes about what marriage was like during the late 1800s, you can hardly blame her.

Chopin was mostly forgotten about until the 1970s revived her work under the heading “feminist fiction.” This isn’t a categorization I’m quite sure she deserves. Feminist is a relative term, isn’t it? I agree with her that the marriages she writes about are completely disfunctional - and I have to imagine that her fictional marriages are based on true-life ones that she observed. The husbands are obsessed with work and earning money and going to the “club” and treat their wives as children to be patronized, at best, or property to be used, at worst.

The heroin in the novel The Awakening is a married woman with children who becomes awakened to her own intellectual and sexual needs, and because these needs aren’t being fulfilled by her husband, she seeks fulfillment elsewhere. Ms. Chopin’s writing is not explicit, so the adultery happens “off-stage,” so to speak.

I don’t want to give away the ending for those of you planning to read this, but I don’t see it as a great feminist manifesto. I saw it as a good example of what happens when we follow our flesh and our selfish impulses, rather than make sacrifices for the people who love us.

The end-notes of the book include a review by Willa Cather, in which she compares The Awakening’s main character Edna Pontellier with Flaubert’s Emma Bovary. I believe she gets exactly what this book made me feel:

“Edna Pontellier and Emma Bovary are studies in the same feminine type; one a finished and complete portrayal, the other a hasty sketch, but the theme is essentially the same. Both women belong to a class, not large, but forever clamoring in our ears, that demands more romance out of life than God put into it. Mr. G. Bernard Shaw would say that they are the victims of the over-idealization of love….These people really expect the passion of love to fill and gratify every need of life, whereas nature only intended that it should meet one of many demands.”

This volume also included many of Chopin’s short storie’s, Desiree’s Baby, A Pair of Silk Stockings, and The Story of an Hour being my favorites.

Aside from the fact that her topic choices make me think, I love the way her writing creates the mood of the Bayou. She was raised in Louisiana, and whether her characters are intellectuals from the French Quarter or plantation servants, you can see them and their surroundings.

Four out of five stars.

(Hollywoodland was provided to me by Special Ops Media for the purpose of review.)

Hollywoodland tells the story of one of Hollywood’s most notorious unsolved mysteries: the death of The Adventures of Superman star George Reeves. Reeves is an actor in old-time Hollywood, back when the studios controlled everything from their players’ salaries to their choice of spouse. Reeves has everything an old-time movie star needs: looks, charisma, a great voice. He’s only lacking a career. He takes a part in the television show Superman, thinking that no one will ever see it. Movie studios and those who worked in film are in denial and believe that television has no future. When Superman makes him a household name - and unhirable for any other movie roles, Reeves sinks into depression.

Throw in the fact that he is a “kept” man, and he has every reason to be disgusted with his life. He is stuck in an affair with older woman Toni Mannix, wife of a MGM honcho who also has a mistress on the side and is fine with his wife’s dalliances - as long as no one breaks her heart, which Reeves does when he leaves her for a younger actress.

One night after singing a song for his guests at a small party at his home, Reeves says “Good night” and heads up to his bedroom. A shot is heard. Did he kill himself? Did Mannix have him “offed?” Or did his new fiance, who is disgusted with the fact that he has become a “has-been”, murder him in a rage?

Louis Simo, a private detective whose career is in the dump, takes the case when he hears that Reeves mother believes he was murdered. The police have quickly called his death a suicide and closed the case - but was the studio involved in a cover-up?

There are so many questions surrounding this true story - and not many answers. The p.i. storyline is fictional, and was the perfect way to tell Reeves’ story. As a murder mystery, this moving is somewhat unsatisfying. But as a character piece, it is perfect. Diane Lane is terrific as Toni Mannix, and Ben Affleck is astounding. I’ve always liked him, but I honestly doubted whether I could “see” him in this role. He became George Reeves. Bob Hoskins is cold and menacing as Mannix.

The best part of the picture, in my opinion, is watching the transformation in Louis Simo, the private detective - brilliantly played by Adrien Brody. He begins to see his own failures and life through real eyes while he is investigating Reeves’ death. The ending is satisfying because of the changes that he has undergone.

See this movie for the acting, if not for the intriguing mystery. I’m still thinking about it and wondering if we will every know what truly happened.

Hollywoodland is rated R for extremely strong language and a brief sexual situation that contains no nudity.

Well, we had a wonderful weekend away and then a week of sick kids. Josiah and Noah are both fighting a cough/fever thing, and Natalie’s just getting over a cold, which may or may not be the same thing. I wish they would all get it on the same day instead of spreading it out over weeks!

I’m doing better after my re-entry shock. For some reason, no one in the real world wants to serve me all my meals, make my bed every morning, and let me read as much as I want to. Funny, that.

Our weekend plans are pretty low-key, what with the sick kids. I’m heading over to Michelle’s tomorrow evening to watch The Devil Wears Prada, but other than that we have nothing planned. If the kids are well enough to get a little work out of them, I’d like to clean the basement Saturday. We’ll see. I’m just praying hard that Kevin and I don’t catch it. And that everyone is completely well by next Saturday, when the boys have their first promotion test for Tae Kwon Do. Noah and Jonathan will both be testing for their “white with yellow stripe” belts. They had to memorize a ton of knowledge, not to mention their form, punches, blocks, kicks, etc. I am really proud of how hard they have worked.

I have a couple of posts rumbling around my head: one on The Awakening and Selected Short Fiction by Kate Chopin that I hope to get done in time to participate in Semicolon’s Saturday Review of Books, and one on my complete and utter failure to meet my goal in the Winter Reading Challenge. But for right now, here are a few links that intrigued me, entertained me, or made me think this week:

~Chronicle Books is holding a Best Chronicle Children’s Books of the Year Contest. Click on the link to enter. The Grand Prize gift basket includes a copy of An Egg is Quiet, Cybil winner in the non-fiction picture book category.

~This list of error messages had me and my husband in stitches. I can’t remember where I saw the link - if it was you, let me know so I can give you credit.

~Christianity Today has an interview with Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia. I’m reading this aloud to Natalie right now, and the previews for the movie have me scratching my head. I feel a little better about seeing it after reading this interview.

~The Rebelution has the results of the Modesty Survey posted. Very interesting reading - a must for all young girls.

~Katy at fallible is a wonderful writer who cracks me up and makes me think on a regular basis. She was one of the first blogs I started reading and remains a favorite. This post was just what I needed after dealing with sick kids all week.

~This man’s 3D pavement drawings are amazing. Hat tip: Lisa Samson.

~I found Principled Discovery’s post on what to do if you want your child socialized at this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling. Very funny.

Have a happy - and healthy - weekend!

…watching:

…listening to:

…reading aloud:

What are you listening to/watching/reading in your house these days?

Make your own here.

Plus, don’t forget to check out the Cybils web site. They will be announcing the winners today at 2 p.m. Chicago time.

There’s supposed to be a cool blue graphic and a “What Color Are You?” title, but for some reason the html doesn’t work right.

Found at Lisa’s.