Mommy Brain

(Mr. Bean’s Holiday was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of review.)

At our house we are huge fans of the first Mr. Bean movie, Bean. The scene where Mr. Bean destroys the painting Whistler’s Mother makes me cringe and laugh at the same time. Rowan Atkinson is brilliant in whatever he does, but he will always be Mr. Bean to us.

In Mr. Bean’s Holiday, Mr. Bean wins a trip to Cannes at a charity raffle. He is ecstatic with the idea of a vacation at the beach, and heads off on his adventure.

As you can imagine, chaos ensues, including accidentally separating a son from his father, getting hired and then fired as an extra in a World War II film, and appearing in a film being shown at the Cannes Film Festival. The kids and I laughed our way through the whole film. You have to see it if only for the scene where Mr. Bean lip-syncs to Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro.”

Best of all, this family comedy is rated G. It was perfect viewing for the holiday weekend.

Last night, I finished the second of the Thursday Next novels that Michelle gave me for my birthday. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to pick up next. I’m still reading The Year of Living Biblically, and it’s very entertaining, but I always like to have some fiction going, too. Then I saw Sherry at Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books post come up on my Bloglines, and I was reminded that I still have two books to read before the end of the year to complete my Saturday Review of Books Challenge. So I took The Road to bed with me. Kevin was tired enough that he said it wouldn’t bother him if I read for awhile.

Around page two, my thoughts were something like this: I’m not going to like this book. But I’ll give it a little longer. What was that rule in Book Lust? Take your age and subtract it from 100. The difference is the number of pages you should give a book before you give up on it. (The theory being that the older you are, the less time you have to waste on books that you don’t like.) I just turned 35, so I’ll give it to page 65.

Around page 25, I knew I would finish this book. At page 122, as I wiped away the tears I wept when the father and son found the underground hatch filled with supplies, I looked at the clock. It was 12:45 a.m. I turned off the lamp, and proceeded to think about the book until I finally drifted off to sleep around 2 a.m.

I finished the book this morning. I’m still thinking about it; I’m not sure what to say or how to do a review. How Cormac McCarthy made me care so desperately for characters that didn’t even have names, I’ll never understand. I suppose that is what brilliance in an author is.

This book is a post-apocalyptic book about what our world would be like after a cataclysmic disaster, like a nuclear holocaust. The picture McCarthy paints is horrifying. There is nothing left alive: no livestock, no birds singing, nothing to eat. There are a few roaming bands of humans who have reverted to their animalistic nature, capturing any other people they come upon for the purpose of eating them. There are some truly terrible scenes in this book; it is very realistic in its depiction of what desperation and starvation will drive some people to do.

On the other hand, the father and son who are at the center of the book show the best of human nature. The father is close to hopeless, but because he has his son, he holds on to the last bit he can. They are carrying the fire, he tells his son. They are the good guys. The father is keeping himself alive for the sake of his son, and all the while his heart is breaking at the things his son is having to experience and witness.

I won’t say anymore, for the sake of not giving away the plot. Just read it. Have a box of tissue handy. And hug your kids. Hug them.

I’m going to take a hint from Melanie at The Refrigerator Door and call today Festive Friday. No getting up at the crack of dawn for all those sales for me. We slept in until 8:30 – it was glorious! After breakfast, we put up the Christmas tree and decorated the house, while listening to Christmas music.

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful. I survived doing the turkey. My stuffing, while a little too moist, still tasted good. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the kids didn’t drive my grandmother crazy. Plus, my mom brought me a present. When we were growing up, this was one of our all-time favorite Christmas records (yes, records) to listen to:

My mom brought me The Roger Whittaker Christmas Album CD yesterday, and I’ve been feeling like a little girl full of Christmas anticipation. This isn’t a CD full of old Christmas favorites – they are all originals, most written by Roger Whittaker himself – but these songs mean Christmas to our family. (You have to hear Darcy the Dragon.)

Last night when I was saying good night to Natalie, she said, “I can’t wait until tomorrow.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because that Christmas feeling will start!”

I’ll leave you with a few words from Roger Whittaker:

Hallelujah, It’s Christmas

Look down, look down and see the world;
Look down and see the world rejoicing!
A child, a child is born today,
In peace and love, so raise your voices!

A time to learn from every child,
A time to give, a time to smile.
Embracing all in happiness,
A time to ask them for forgiveness.

So we sing:
Hal-le, hal-le, hal-le, hal-le, hal-le
Hallelujah!
And we sing:
Hal-le, hal-le, hal-le, hal-le, hal-le
Hallelujah!

Lead on, lead on and take my mind,
Lead me to greater understanding.
Of all the sorrow’s of mankind,
In you, a love ever-expanding.

To be content with what I need,
To live without a trace of greed,
To be a child once again,
And never, never more the same.

So we sing:
Hal-le, hal-le, hal-le, hal-le, hal-le
Hallelujah!
And we sing:
Hal-le, hal-le, hal-le, hal-le, hal-le
Hallelujah!

And so, and so the day is done.
The child once more peacefully sleeping.
The Son has set upon the world,
His watch of love peacefully keeping.

Have we just passed the time away?
Have we just lost ourselves in play?
Have we begun to live again,
Like children never more the same?

So we sing:
Hal-le, hal-le, hal-le, hal-le, hal-le
Hallelujah!
And we sing:
Hal-le, hal-le, hal-le, hal-le, hal-le
Hallelujah!

Wishing you and yours a joyous and peaceful Thanksgiving.

My blog will be unavailable tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, while Ron and Andrea perform some site maintenance. (They celebrated their Thanksgiving last month.) Check back Friday. And, thanks, Ron and Andrea!

(Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of review.)

This past summer was the summer of the threequels: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Spiderman 3, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Shrek the Third. There was a lot of speculation about whether they could live up to their predecessors, and three out of four did. I liked the third Shrek, Spiderman, and Bourne movies better than the second installments in those series. Pirates 3? Not so much.

Don’t get me wrong – it was still a fairly entertaining movie. How could it not be, with Johnny Depp at his most wonderful as Jack Sparrow, and the ever-yummy Orlando Bloom. (On a side note, I just recently found out that he is 30 years old, so I can stop feeling guilty for having such a crush on him. I thought he was all of about 22. ) But a lot of the humor that was so terrific in the first and second Pirates movies was missing. And the plotlines – my goodness, how many were there? I had to keep pausing the movie to explain to the kids what was going on, and by the last hour, I gave up because I was completely lost. Who was on which side? I have no idea.

SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS MOVIE AND DON’T WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING, PLEASE STOP READING NOW!

I certainly hope that the ending was a set-up for another movie, and that they go back to the humorous roots of the first two movies. Leaving Will as the new Davy Jones, doomed to sail the seas for all eternity, only returning to land for one day every ten years? Come on, people. We romantics want a much better ending for Will and Elizabeth than that.

So, like Santa Clause 3, this is a movie that is good to have to complete the series, but doesn’t live up to the series as a whole.

My Dad makes these Mincemeat Star cookies every year for Christmas – it wouldn’t be Christmas without them. I’m not a big fan of mincemeat in pie, but these cookies are fabulous. (Don’t worry, it’s not the old-fashioned mincemeat with real meat (ugh) in it.)

MINCEMEAT STARS

Cookie dough:

1 1/3 cups shortening
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 to 3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract

Mincemeat filling:
1 jar mincemeat filling
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 tablespoon lemon peel
1 tablespoon orange peel

Thoroughly cream shortening, sugar, eggs, extracts, and vanilla. Stir in peel. Sift together dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture alternately with the milk. Divide dough in half; chill. On lightly floured surface, roll each half to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with 2 ¾-inch round cutter. Cut small star centers in half of the cookies. Mix jar of filling with extracts and peel. Place 1 heaping tablespoon of filling on each plain cookie. Top with a cut-out cookie; press edges with fork to seal. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 375 F for 12 minutes. Makes 2 ½ dozen.

I’ve been waiting for Kevin to resize these pictures for me of the kids at Halloween:

Noah and Natalie were Harry and Hermione, and Jonathan and Josiah were kings. The pictures don’t really do them justice, but I crocheted Gryffindor scarves for Natalie and Noah.

(Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of review.)

The kids and I watched Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause over the weekend, and they liked it very much. I, on the other hand, was less impressed. It wasn’t nearly as good as the first two – however, it still is worth owning to complete the series.

Martin Short plays Jack Frost, and I must say that he’s really the only actor in the film – aside from the little girl who plays Lucy – who seemed to be putting in a heartfelt performance. Tim Allen and Elizabeth Mitchell seem tired of the whole thing – especially Allen. There was such a joy and playfulness for the first two films – and both were absent from this one.

I will repeat, though, that the kids loved it just as much as the first two. The North Pole set was just as wonderful as ever; I especially liked the snow globe room.

The DVD bonus features include the all-new “Christmas Carol-Oke,” a Christmas caroling guide for the entire family, the “Greatest Time of Year” music video performed by teen pop singing sisters Aly & A.J., “The Making of The Santa Clause 3” featurette and a hysterical new blooper reel.

I didn’t post a links post on Friday, but I did have a few things to share, so I’m doing it today. For those of you who were wondering, singing Friday night went fine – in spite of the fact that I came down with the cold the family’s been passing around for the past few weeks. I wasn’t too sick to sing, so that’s good.

Yesterday, we went down to Spokane to meet some new friends at Chuck E. Cheese’s. We met Chris and Carrie at the lake this summer while we were camping, and our kids hit it off right away. We found out that they were just getting started on their homeschooling journey this year. Kevin and Chris have stayed in touch by e-mail, so we met yesterday. We had a great time – visiting for three hours while the kids played and played and played.

This morning we went to church, even though the cold has settled in and I pretty much feel like death. The kids are rehearsing for their Christmas program, so I didn’t want them to miss. This afternoon, I curled up on the couch and watched the Seahawks beat the Bears. Go, ‘Hawks – you’re back!

This is a week off of homeschooling, and we’re all ready for a break. I’m ready to have some good reading time on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday will be spent cleaning, since we’re hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year. I haven’t done the whole turkey dinner thing in seven years, so I’m praying it will all turn out all right.

Do you have lots of plans for the holiday week? Will you be brave enough to shop on Friday?

Here are the links I wanted to pass on:

~ I’ve seen this Bitter Homeschooler’s Wish List a few different places now, but I first saw it at More Than Fine.

~ If you like word games as much as I do, you’ll want to check out this one. Improve your vocabulary while helping the hungry. My highest score is 43 so far.

~ Here’s a great editorial explaining why the writers are right in the current strike situation.

~ Amazon has set up a Homeschooling Store – how cool is that?

~ Finally, I’ll leave you with another hilarious Baby Blues comic.

(Shrek the Third was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of review.)

I know the critics weren’t too thrilled with Shrek the Third, but the kids and I loved it. I’m not sure about the kids, but I liked it better than the second one.

Shrek and Fiona face the prospect of parenthood, all while trying to protect the kingdom from the power-hungry Prince Charming and his army of baddies. There are a couple of new characters: Justin Timberlake as Artie (King Arthur) and Merlin, who is voiced by Eric Idle of Monty Python fame. I especially liked the scenes with Fiona and all of the other fairy tale princesses: Snow White, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. The scene when Snow White uses her annoyingly high voice to distract the guards and get the woodland creatures to storm the castle is fabulous.

The kids and I have watched this twice – once in the theater, and once at home on DVD – and I must say that the scene that got the loudest laughs both times was the death scene of the Frog King. Now, I don’t want my kids to sound like insensitive jerks – the scene was pretty funny. But it was a little embarrassing to be in the theater watching this scene where Fiona is saying goodbye to her father, and my kids are laughing so hard they’re spitting popcorn.

I also found it slightly disturbing and hilarious that when the soundtrack plays “Live and Let Die” by the Beatles, my kids all thought it was the Bee Gees. I’m sure John Lennon was rolling over in his grave.

The DVD has special features that include music videos (there’s a great soundtrack), deleted scenes, and featurettes. This DVD would make a great stocking gift for the Shrek-lover in your life.