Mommy Brain

The Lost Scrolls: Air (Avatar: the Last Airbender) by Tom Mason and Dan Danko

Several Choose Your Own Adventure books

The Jesus Bible Storybook: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones
Fly by Night by Francis Hardinge
Noisy Poems collected by Jill Bennett
Adventures with the Vikings (Good Times Travel Agency) by Linda Bailey
Oh, No! Where Are My Pants? and Other Disasters: Poems compiled by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Science Verse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
Please Bury Me in the Library by J. Patrick Lewis
If Not For the Cat by Jack Prelutsky
Here’s a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry compiled by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters
Before Columbus: The Leif Eriksson Expedition: A True Adventure by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms compiled by Paul Janeczko
The End of the Beginning: Being the Adventures of a Small Snail (and an Even Smaller Ant) by Avi
Math Curse by Jon Scieszka
Ms. Frizzle’s Adventures: Medieval Castle by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
Women in Medieval Times by Fiona Macdonald

Mouse Tales by Arnold Lobel
Mouse Soup by Arnold Lobel
Daniel’s Duck by Clyde Robert Bulla
The Viper by Lisa Thiesing
Little Critter Sleeps Over by Mercer Mayer
The Case of the Two Masked Robbers by Lillian Hoban
Kick, Pass, and Run by Leonard Kessler

A Walk in Wolf Wood by Mary Stewart
The Best Ever Book of Knights by Philip Steele

Any other House and Bones fans out there? Weren’t last night’s episodes terrific? (Spoiler: If you are watching on DVD, and are a season behind, you’ll want to scroll down past the next two paragraphs.)

I loved how House had them all thinking he had neuro-syph and that the antibiotics were making him “nicer.” Also, I felt for the wife of the patient - the look on her face after he said, “I guess I don’t like catsup. I wonder what else I don’t like.” - that was heartbreaking.

And how precious were Bones and Booth with baby Andy? Bones trying to relate to him like a logical adult: “Elephants are not purple.” And then when she started to warm up: “Phalanges! Dancing phalanges!” Leading to her blowing a raspberry into his neck - after making sure no one was watching, of course. It was a great episode. I can’t believe we only have four more to go until we’re done for the summer. The writer’s strike sure took a bite out of the TV season!

We are not partaking of American Idol this season. I don’t miss it at all - which is strange, since I used to love watching it. I thought that last season’s singers were just “meh,” though. Then last May, the choice came down to the AI finale or the Lost finale. I chose Lost, and decided we were done with AI. Natalie was bummed at first, but she hasn’t said a word about it for months, so I guess she’s over it. She’s in a huge mystery phase, and is re-watching the DVDs of Monk in order. Gotta love Netflix.

Speaking of Netflix, Kevin and I discovered a great show. Anyone out there watch Psych? It’s a USA series; I think it runs right after Monk. It’s very funny - and I have loved Dule Hill ever since he played Charlie on West Wing.

I haven’t just been sitting around watching television, though, I’ve also been sitting around reading. Friday afternoon, after I finished Anna Karenina, I read The Radiation Sonnets: For My Love, in Sickness and in Health, which is a collection of 43 sonnets Jane Yolen wrote while her husband was undergoing radiation for a brain tumor. Every night during treatment, she wrote one sonnet before bed. They are heartbreaking, funny, poignant, and wonderful. When she finished the book, her husband David Stemple was still alive and had a good prognosis. I looked her up on Wikipedia and found that he later died - in 2006, I think. The book of sonnets was published in 2003. Highly recommended.

I also read Debra Ginsberg’s memoir About My Sisters this weekend. I have three sisters, like Ms. Ginsberg, and so much of it rang true, even though their family’s “style” is completely different from ours. Also recommended.

I am currently halfway through Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. You never know what you’re getting with a Gaiman book! The kids and I adored Coraline, even though it was by far the creepiest book we’d ever read aloud. I tried to read American Gods, and couldn’t get past the first couple of chapters - too bizarrely sexual. (Is bizarrely a word?) Michelle read Anansi Boys and said it wasn’t like that at all, which prompted me to listen to his Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders on audiobook. I don’t even know quite how to describe it. Some stories I liked very much, and you should definitely hear him read his poem “The Day the Saucers Came”. (The link is to a video of Neil Gaiman visiting Google to talk about Fragile Things. He reads the poem at the beginning of the video.) Some of the stories in Fragile Things were disturbing, others funny and fascinating, and a couple were downright horrific. He is the only author who should definitely perform the audiobooks of his own work - he is one of the best audiobook readers I’ve listened to, and I’ve listened to a bunch.

Anyway, back to Neverwhere, which I’m about halfway through, and absolutely loving. It’s fantasy, dark fantasy, but not horror. At least, not so far. He is a craftsman when it comes to words, and very funny. An example:

“Richard had noticed that events were cowards: they didn’t occur singly, but they would run in packs and leap out at him all at once.”

That’s how last week felt. Blech.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on long enough. Have any of you been watching or reading or listening to anything wonderful? Please share.

I usually reserve links for Friday, but this contest is happening now! Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer is giving away a copy of the new A&E Romance Collection DVD Set. This includes Pride and Prejudice and so many more: Emma, Jane Eyre, Lorna Doone, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Victoria & Albert, Tom Jones, and Ivanhoe. The contest ends tomorrow, so don’t wait - click over right now!

(I was allowed to listen to Clay Aiken’s On My Way Here online for the purpose of review. This was arranged by Special Ops Media.)

I didn’t watch American Idol the first season. My first experience with AI was the season that involved Clay Aiken winning second - and I felt like he was robbed. I am so happy for him that he has had so much post-AI success. Yes, I bought his first album, and his Christmas album. They are frequently listened to at our house - and my boys love his music.

Well, Clay finally has an album of all-new material coming out on May 6th:

On My Way Here chronicles Aiken’s experiences over the past five years, ascending from popular contestant on the second season of American Idol to pop superstar. The album’s theme came to Aiken when he and his executive producer Jaymes Foster fell in love with a song co-written by Ryan Tedder called “On My Way Here.” The message of the lyrics - how the lessons we learn while growing up shape us into who we become as adults - struck a very deep chord with the artist. The title track “On My Way Here” is the first radio single from the album and it debuted at Number One on the AOL Top 40 Songs Chart on April 15th.

When I was given a chance to listen to On My Way Here online before the release date, I was ecstatic. I enjoyed his first CD very much, but I loved the music on this CD. Clay has done a lot of growing up since he was almost the American Idol, and it shows in the songs on this CD. His Christian faith comes through in many of the songs, as well as the experience of being single and waiting for “the one.”

Track Listing:

1: On My Way Here
“Faith has conquered fear, on my way here…

2: Ashes

3: Everything I Don’t Need

4: Something About Us
This is a beautiful love song: “The words on every poet’s tongue, every love song ever sung is about us…”

5: Falling

6: Where I Draw the Line

7: The Real Me

8: The Weight of the World

9: As Long As We’re Here
“Some people live their lives holding their fear inside of them, afraid to build windows to let the light of the world in…”

10: Sacrificial Love

11: Grace of God

12: Lover All Alone
“As hard as love can be, it’s harder still it seems, to be a lover all alone without love.”

On My Way Here will be available to purchase on May 6th, but you can pre-order at Amazon.com now.

Deja watches and smiles. “Sometimes I just can’t get over it,” she says.

“What’s that, Dej?”

“You’re all just so . . . beautiful,” she says. “I have the most beautiful sisters in the world.”

We all share this feeling, but only Deja could give it voice. In anyone else’s mouth, these words would sound syrupy and insincere. Deja manages to convey their real meaning. My sisters are lovely, but she’s not talking about physical beauty. Together, we illuminate each other. When we reflect off each other, whatever light we possess individually is made that much brighter. It is this brightness that Deja finds beautiful. It is the brilliance and power of sisters.

~ from About My Sisters by Debra Ginsberg

Today was just what I needed. Kevin and I and the boys drove up to Trail, B.C. to swim and play at the Aquatic Center. (Natalie is spending the weekend with Grandmama and Papa.) We stayed for about three hours. I swam for an hour and a half, showered, and then sat and read until Kevin and the boys were worn out and starving. We went out to eat where I had some very yummy stuffed mushrooms (so not on Weight Watchers ). A quick stop at Tim Horton’s for coffee and then the ride home, during which I managed to doze off in spite of drinking a large Tim Horton’s with two creams and two sugars.

The kids are now getting some game time in, Kevin is dozing since he had to stay awake to drive us home, and I’m going to watch the second half of Anna Karenina. I bought the version with Sophie Marceau and Sean Bean (!) a while ago, but have been saving it until I had finished the book. I watched the first half last night while Kevin was gaming, and it’s just okay. But it is Sean Bean, so I will force myself to finish it.

Karen tagged me to do the Seven Random Facts Meme, so here goes:

~ I love the beach, but hate the ocean - the underwater part of it, anyway. I hate movies that feature underwater scenes - Finding Nemo is about the only exception. Those underwater aquariums - where the water is all around you and you can see all those fish and sharks swimming around - make me freak out, which Kevin discovered on our honeymoon. Guess I’ll never go snorkeling.

~ I have only lived in one state - Washington. I’ve lived in the northwest corner, southwest corner, and we now reside in the northeast corner.

~ My daughter and I are planning to participate in NaNoWriMo this year.

~ I was a theater major in college and acted and/or sang in several plays, including A Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labours Lost, The Water Engine, Once Upon a Mattress, The Hostage, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Steel Magnolias.

~ I am a very light sleeper, which is why Kevin has spent the last several weeks sleeping on an air mattress in the living room while he gets over a sinus infection that makes him snore louder and more continuously than usual.

~ I can read anywhere, anytime, no matter how noisy or busy things are around me.

~ I have a really bad habit of interrupting people - especially my husband. He hates it.

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

I finally finished Anna Karenina. All 754 pages of it. In the end, I liked it very much. I will say, however, that it was one of the more difficult classics to get through.

After Michelle read it, she said that it seemed the real story was Kitty and Levin, but that Tolstoy had to put the torrid, tragic love affair in there because no one wanted to read a book about a good man and a good woman making a marriage work and coming to faith. I think she’s right.

The thought that kept coming to mind as I read was this: no matter what era we live in, no matter what country we live in, human nature is the same.

Some people will choose to overcome their baser appetites to do what is right.

Some people will give in to their passions and lusts, and destroy their family as a result.

Some people will grow up with a childlike faith in God, and never question it.

Some people will have to overcome their intellect in order to believe.

Some people will never focus their attention on anything bigger than their own self.

Some people will love their children, worry about them, and do everything to raise them right.

Some people will see their children as a hindrance to their self-interests.

Some people will talk and talk about the horrible state of the world.

Some people will work to do something about the horrible state of the world.

Tolstoy is a remarkable writer. Russia is a place I’ve never had a desire to visit - until I read Tolstoy’s descriptions of St. Petersburg and Moscow. He made me want to visit these cities. He also made me want to live as a Russian peasant and sleep on a haystack, after eating a simple meal of bread and cheese. For a day, anyway.

I did find myself wishing that he hadn’t gone off on so many political and socio-economic rabbit trails. I wanted more of Kitty and Levin, more of Anna and Vronsky. I understand his motivation for writing that way - that he could get his political views across and actually read by people in a novel. It just wasn’t that interesting to me. The character, setting, and story - these I loved.

4 out of 5 stars

It’s been one of those kind of weeks: raging hormones, a squabble with the neighbor, squabbles with my husband, sad news from a friend. Not the kind of week I’d like to repeat anytime soon. So, instead of dwelling on it, I’ll get right to the links.

~ Anyone else looking forward to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? I can’t wait - May 22nd. To tide you over, here’s an interview about Indy 4 with Harrison Ford and an interview with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

~ Speaking of movies, Ben Stein’s Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is already showing in theaters. I have not seen it yet, but we plan to watch it on DVD. I read a terrific editorial by Brent Bozell III - a man who confessed he didn’t want to even see the movie. He writes not only about the film, but about the backlash from the atheists Mr. Stein interviewed in the film. Here’s a snippet to grab your attention:

“I went into the screening bored. I came out of it stunned.

Ben Stein’s extraordinary presentation documents how the worlds of science and academia not only crush debate on the origins of life, but also crush the careers of professors who dare to question the Darwinian hypothesis of evolution and natural selection….

It’s understood that God had nothing to do with the origins of life on Earth. What, then, is the alternate explanation? Stein asks these experts, and their very serious answers are priceless. One theorizes that life began somehow on the backs of crystals. Another states electric sparks from a lightning storm created organic matter (out of nothing). Another declares that life was brought to Earth by aliens. Anything but God….

Everyone should take the opportunity to see “Expelled” — if nothing else, as a bracing antidote to the atheism-friendly culture of PC liberalism. But it’s far more than that. It’s a spotlight on the arrogance of this movement and its leaders, a spotlight on the choking intolerance of academia, and a spotlight on the ignorance of so many who say so much, yet know so very little.”

~ Do you have an opinion on the Harry Potter copyright lawsuit?

~ Anyone who has taken small children out to eat at a restaurant will appreciate this Baby Blues comic.

~ It appears that memoirists aren’t the only authors who fib. Travel authors apparently write about places they’ve never even visited.

~ Natalie and I just finished reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick - and we both found it delightful. This web site has some videos of the item that helped to inspire Selznick’s story. (If you haven’t read it yet and plan to, you might want to wait to check this web site as it will include a slight spoiler.)

~ The kids and I came across this wonderful site during our studies of the water cycle. Be sure to click on gallery to see photos taken with a special snowflake photomicroscope.

~ Moomin Light has an interesting and disturbing post about the practice of airbrushing photos of celebrities. Be sure and check out the link to examples from a company who does this work. The celebrities who are gorgeous enough without the touch-ups end up looking like mannequins.

That’s all for this week. Here’s to a weekend that’s better than the week was.

I found a white hair on my head yesterday. Now, that’s not news - they’ve been showing up for a while now. The news is that this one had managed to make it to the length of the rest of my hair. Normally, I pluck them as soon as they spring from my scalp, wiry and slightly bent and refusing to blend in with the rest of my hair.

I’m only 35, and so far I haven’t had to deal with any of the worse symptoms of aging - except the normal stretching and falling of body parts that comes with four pregnancies. However, I have friends who are older than me, some of them much older, and watching as they suffer some of the more difficult aspects of aging is heartbreaking.

I lost a dear friend to abdominal cancer three years ago. (I posted about Beve here, here, and here.) She was about the same age my parents are now.

My mom and dad will both turn 60 this summer. Sixty is not old, right? But when my grandfather died at 64, when I was in college, I don’t remember ever thinking that he was so young to die. Now, with my parents entering that decade, I realize how premature his death was.

Today, I learned that a friend from our former church was just diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Joyce is in her early seventies, though you would never know it. She is vibrant, active, sharp as a tack. In 2002, Joyce and her husband Bill took a trip across the US in an RV. They visited historical sites, watched a space shuttle launch, and Bill went birding to his heart’s content. In 2004, not content with staying home and enjoying their retirement, Joyce and Bill headed to China to teach English. Joyce ended up playing piano at a house church and leading a Bible study in their apartment. I wish you could all meet her, hear her teach Bible study, know how smart and charming she is, so that you could understand how devastating the thought of her losing her memory, her identity is.

Joyce and Bill’s daughter, Jan, is also a dear friend. She’s not much older than I am. When I think of what the years ahead will be like for her, I can’t stop crying.

Joyce loves Jesus. Jan loves Jesus. There is comfort in that, but this situation seems horribly wrong. Our bodies are fallen, our world is fallen, and aging and disease is a result. I can be logical about all of that until it hits someone I love, like today. Then it feels unjust and ugly.

Please pray for Joyce and Bill, Jan and their other three children, and their many, many grands and great-grands.

I completely lost my temper today. Not with my kids, though, amazingly enough. It was with my neighbor.

Anyone who has read Mommy Brain for long knows of our long and tortured history with our neighbors, culminating in this rant last fall. Then, on my New Year’s post, I mentioned I was grateful we had reached some sort of tentative peace with them. Well, the peace is over.

Today, the boys were playing outside after we finished homeschooling for the day. They were playing in our back yard, and they were playing pretty rough, as boys usually do. Not mean, just wrestling around a lot. The neighbor’s four-year-old asked if he could play, to which Noah replied, “No, you can’t, because you have candy in your mouth and if you got pushed down you might choke.”

Now, obviously his mother only heard one phrase of that sentence, because she yelled over the fence into our yard, “You will NOT push him down, or I’ll come over there and push YOU down!” Yes, she’s mature like that.

When Noah tried to explain what he meant, she ignored him and yelled to her son right in front of my kids, “Just come in the house. They’re just mean little kids who don’t have any friends, so you don’t need to play with them anyway.”

Deep breath - I can feel my blood pressure shooting up again just typing those words. I’m sure the “no friends” thing came from the fact that we’re homeschoolers and are completely isolated from society with no social skills, unlike her social skills which seem to include bullying children.

The kids came in, feelings hurt (of course). She had gone into her house, so I called her on the phone. Her 12-year-old daughter (who is a whole other story, let me tell you) answered the phone, and when I asked to speak to her mother, she said, “Umm, she’s in the bathroom.” I asked her to please have her mom call me back. And I waited. And stewed.

About a half hour went by, during which time the mother had gone back out to her front yard. Now, I suppose I could have gone outside to talk to her, but many of the other neighbors were out since it was a fairly nice day, and she’s the type who is perfectly willing to have a screaming match in front of the entire street. (Or to stagger over to our yard, drunk, and yell at my husband for something he didn’t do. But, again, whole other story.) I’m not so thrilled with public (or private, to be honest) confrontation, so I chose to call again.

She would not answer the phone, so I left this message on her machine: “This is Carrie. First of all, I think there was a misunderstanding. No one was pushing Adam down. Noah told him that he couldn’t wrestle around with them because he had candy in his mouth and might choke. Second of all, if you have a problem with my kids, please have the courtesy to come and talk to me about it. Don’t yell in front of them that they are mean kids who don’t have any friends. And if that’s really the way you feel about them, then please stop your son from ringing our doorbell five times every weekday and asking to play when I’m in the middle of teaching my children.” Then I hung up.

I know why southerners call losing your temper “losing your religion.” I’m sure I’ve given her plenty of fodder for one of those, “And she says she’s a Christian…” statements. But, honestly, how do you put up with a person like this - especially when she repeatedly hurts my kids’ feelings?

I cannot wait until we can sell this house and move to another neighborhood. She has made this neighborhood a horrible place to live.

(The Classic Caballeros Collection DVD was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of review.)

There is something magical about watching a movie that you remember from when you were very small with your children. I remember watching The Three Caballeros, probably on The Walt Disney Show, when I was growing up. The Latin American music, the crazy birds, Pablo - the penguin who couldn’t get warm - I loved it all. And now my own kids are watching and loving it, too.

The Classic Caballeros Collection DVD actually has two separate movies: Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.

The special features include Backstage Disney: South of the Border, an excerpt from a Walt Disney CBC interview, and two bonus shorts - Don Donald and Contrary Condor. This DVD releases on April 29th.

Brighter Minds Media has two new games releasing this month: Brainiversity and Great Art. I was sent a copy of Brainiversity to review, and I have to confess that I am completely addicted to it.

Brainiversity is a skill-building game that increases your brain power in the categories of language, math, memory, and analysis. The game is designed to be played every day for a short “Daily Exam,” during which you are tested with one short activity in each of these areas. There is also a practice section, which helps you increase in skill for your next daily exam. The more exams you take, the more practice games that are unlocked. I especially like the word games - although some people might consider it nuts to sit and put words in alphabetical order as quickly as you can, I find it relaxing and addictive.

Click on over to Brighter Minds Media for more information.