Mommy Brain

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.

I finished this amazing collection last night. Madeleine L’Engle was truly a remarkable woman, and her poetry is beautiful and haunting and joyous and funny and all the things you could possibly want poetry to be.

The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L’Engle is a collection of poems that date from 1969 to 1998. I knew that Ms. L’Engle was a Christian from reading A Circle of Quiet, but I had never read her poetry before. Her most frequent topic in her poetry, especially in the later poems, is the working and walking out of her faith.

There are poems of praise that would fit well in any liturgical service. There are poems of questioning and doubt and frustration with God. There are poems written from the point of view of biblical characters such as Noah’s wife, Japheth’s daughter, Simeon, Martha, David, and many others. I have so many I want to share with you, and I’m sure you’ll see many of her poems making an appearance here through the next few years. Here are just a couple to give you a taste of what I’m raving about:

Word

I, who live by words, am wordless when
I try my words in prayer. All language turns
To silence. Prayer will take my words and then
Reveal their emptiness. The stilled voice learns
To hold its peace, to listen with the heart
To silence that is joy, is adoration.
The self is shattered, all words torn apart
In this strange patterned time of contemplation
That, in time, breaks time, breaks words, breaks me,
And then, in silence, leaves me healed and mended.
I leave, returned to language, for I see
Through words, even when all words are ended.

I, who live by words, am wordless when
I turn me to the Word to pray. Amen.

Sonnet 1

Your place is empty, empty in the night
When I reach out with hand or foot to touch
Your living flesh, the warmth that offers such
An affirmation, oh, it is not right
The bed is empty, made for two, not one.
The reflex does not die, to touch, to reach,
To find. I think it will never be done,
And I am glad of that. It seems that each
Of us find our own answers in this grief.
I know you have been here. You have been here.
The empty place is full of deep relief
Because it still is yours and still is dear.
But oh! That my dear love were in my bed
And my life flesh to your live flesh still wed.

5 out of 5 stars

I haven’t posted much lately, have I? We’re in the middle of our toughest part of the school year: the stretch between spring break and summer break. Michelle homeschools four weeks on, one week off year-round (with a little bit longer break at Christmas and a two-week stretch in the summer), and during the school year I envy their week-long breaks. But now that spring is finally here, I’m very much looking forward to summer break. I got so much reading done last year during the summer! I’d take the kids and my books to the park, and let them run wild while I read the hours away.

And, there’s nothing that can make you look forward to summer break more than next year’s school books arriving on your doorstep. History and science for next year arrived today, and it’s crazy that I still get that little jolt of excitement as I look at the books and think that I can start planning soon!

Kevin has taken the kids to Tae Kwon Do, and Josiah is outside playing, so the house is quiet. (It’s wonderful.) I’m planning to pop Slings and Arrows: Season 1 into the DVD player and fold some laundry while I watch. I haven’t seen any of this series yet, but it comes highly recommended by Mrs. Mm-v.

Since this is still National Poetry Month, I thought I’d start you off with some poetry links.

~ YouTube has a ton of Billy Collins’ poems read to accompanying animation. I don’t quite know how to describe it, but the effect is wonderful. My favorites so far: Forgetfulness, Man in Space, The Country, and Sweet Talk.

~ The Telegraph has an article about the popularity and need for fantasy in our fiction.

~ This article confirms what I’ve been noticing as I shop for food in the past few months. It could be worse, though – as Kris pointed out.

~ MawBooks is having a book giveaway in honor of her 100th post. Click over for details.

~ There are still a couple days to enter the All Girls Getaway contest.

On Saturday, Josiah and I are headed south to Post Falls to visit Marni and Hans and their boys. Hans has graciously offered to watch the boys while Marni and I head to the theater to see Leatherheads. My sister and George Clooney all in one day – what could be better?

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Last month, Michelle and I had our very own all-girl getaway. We headed south to Spokane Valley; stayed in a wonderful hotel suite; spent about seven hours (and lots of $) at Barnes & Noble; ate at restaurants – food that we didn’t have to cook or clean up after; drank good wine; watched a sentimental, romantic movie; and talked ourselves nearly hoarse. We have since decided that our Moms’ Weekend will be an annual tradition.

We all need time away from home: the routine, the chores, the kids. I love my annual getaway with Kevin, too – but there are times when you just need to be with your best friend. Right?

Well, Fine Living Network has a new television program called All-Girl Getaways, hosted by Stephanie Oswald. This YouTube video gives you an idea of what the show is like. I wish we had that channel, because it looks like a show I would love!

Thanks to 360i, I have 5 prize packages to give away. Each package includes a traveling toiletry bag and a free issue of Travelgirl magazine. I wish I could give away five All-Girl Getaways, but if you win this prize package, it will help you plan one of your own.

To enter, please leave a comment on this post by 12:00 am PST, April 20th. Make sure you enter a valid e-mail address so that I can contact you if you are a winner. Because I’ll be paying for shipping myself, I’m going to have to limit this contest to readers in Canada and the USA. Good luck!

(Spongebob Squarepants: Pest of the West was provided to me by Special Ops Media for the purpose of review.)

Several months ago, we cancelled our satellite contract. We now have basic cable – very basic cable. I’m talking ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, Sci-Fi, and the Weather Channel – plus about five religious stations with big-haired people asking for money that you couldn’t force me to watch. Oh, and the shopping channels – which are scarily similar to the religious stations. But, I digress.

The thing my kids miss most about satellite is, hands down, Spongebob Squarepants. So, when the Spongebob Squarepants: Pest of the West DVD came in the mail to review, the kids were in Bikini Bottom heaven.

Episode Descriptions:

~Pest of the West: While researching his family tree, SpongeBob discovers he was related to Western hero, SpongeBuck. Flashback to SpongeBuck arriving in Bikini Gulch around 1882 and going head-to-head against dastardly Dead-Eye Plankton!

~The Krusty Plate: Out, out darn spot! SpongeBob refuses to leave work until he gets a stubborn spot off one of the dishes.

~Pat No Pay: When Patrick eats his weight in Krabby Patties without paying, Mr. Krabs puts him to work.

~The Inmates of Summer: SpongeBob mistakenly boards a boat hauling inmates to prison. But being SpongeBob, he can have a good time anywhere, with anyone!

To Save A Squirrel: Sandy tricks SpongeBob and Patrick into attending survival-training camp, where the creed is “eat or be eaten.”

20,000 Patties Under the Sea: SpongeBob and Patrick discover an old submarine, and Mr. Krabs talks them into using it to take the Krusty Krab on the road!

The Battle of Bikini Bottom: It’s well-groomed SpongeBob versus never-washes Patrick. In this battle, will SpongeBob clean up or will Patrick resort to dirty tricks?

I know a lot of parents hate Spongebob, but I see it as harmless fun. Kevin asked this morning, “So, there’s no point to this show?” And I said, “No, but was there any point to Bugs Bunny or The Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote?” Nope – but they were still a lot of fun to watch.

This DVD will be available Tuesday, April 15th. The special features include “Pest of the West” Original Animatic and four “Pest of the West” shorts.

It seems spring has finally sprung in our neck of the woods. The snow is all gone, and we’ve had some sunny days. Of course, on Sunday when I was overly optimistic and took the boys to the skate park, I froze. The sun was out, but the breeze was still frigid. A few more weeks, though, and we should be able to pack away the sweatshirts and bring out the t-shirts.

I’ve had more time to read this week, since my freelancing has dried up for a few months (unless I pick up another client, of course). Anna Karenina has finally grabbed me – it sure took awhile! I also finished listening to the audiobook of Blasphemy by Douglas Preston. It was a good sci-fi thriller, but it was sure apparent that he has a very low opinion of Christians. Or maybe just Christians in the media. Sadly enough, the horrible things that the televangelist and other “Christian” characters do in the book seem altogether plausible given the state of the church, which is terrible to admit, but true.

I started listening to Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. Usually, I do not like it when authors read their own books on audio. I put up with Frank Peretti’s reading of Monster, although it was extremely exaggerated; I could not listen to Elizabeth Berg read her Dream While You’re Feeling Blue. If you’re an author, you should never read your own book aloud unless you have been assured repeatedly (by people not on your payroll) that you are a terrific read-aloud-er; just don’t do it. Gaiman, on the other hand, is a wonderful reader. You can tell that he loves words; he seems to taste each one as he speaks it. I read his Coraline aloud to the kids (we all loved it) and I tried to read American Gods, but couldn’t get past the graphic nature of it. Michelle read Ananzi Boys, though, and assured me it was completely different, so I guess he’s one of those authors who writes a completely different book each time. Fragile Things is a collection of short stories and poems, and so far I’m enjoying it very much. Anyone else read any of his work?

~ Hey, it’s not a rumor! The New Kids on the Block are reuniting for a CD and a tour. The music of my high school years.

~ Poetry180 is a web site sponsored by the Library of Congress. It contains a list of 180 poems – one for each day of a school year. The poems are meant for high schoolers, and I haven’t read them all, so definitely pre-read before sending your students there.

~ This Grand Avenue comic should give fans of math and art alike a few chuckles.

~ The Telegraph has an interview with author Jodi Picoult.

~ Lawanda is celebrating her 3rd Blogoversary – head over, congratulate her, and enter to win a free book.

I am nobody.
I hide in myself,
Velvet-lined
Against the cold stares
Of the world.

I am nobody.
I keep away from the hatred,
Stone-clad
Against those who mock
And deride.

I am nobody.
I remain in darkness,
Wool-insulated
Against the pain
Of their contempt.

But when I am asleep
I am somebody.
Stripped naked
Of all the trappings of myself.
An empress of lands of plenty,
With sackfuls of love, respect
And self-worth.

So please,
Let me sleep.

Author’s Note: I wrote this poem in empathy with anyone who suffers at the eyes of others whether disabled, depressed or just a bit sad. My nights are filled with such joy travelling the worlds beyond wakefulness and I wish such release for everyone who needs it.

~ The above poem was written by this amazing 10-year-old girl who has cerebral palsy. My mom e-mailed about her after she saw her story on ABC News. Be sure to click on the link to read her essay that won the Times Educational Supplement Write Away Competition in Jan. 2006. She’s truly remarkable.

(Things We Lost in the Fire was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of review.)

Things We Lost in the Fire is a movie that went unnoticed last year. The performances in it were also overlooked by the Oscar voters, which is a shame.

Halle Berry stars as Audrey, a woman who has lost her husband, Brian, and is left with two small children. She invites her husband’s best friend, Jerry (played brilliantly by Benicio Del Toro), to come live in their garage. He is a recovering heroin addict, and their relationship prior to Brian’s death was antagonistic – mostly on Audrey’s part. She could never understand why Brian hadn’t given up on Jerry; Brian’s reason was that they had been friends since grade schoool and he could see the man Jerry could be. Brian’s love and friendship for Jerry (told in flashbacks) is a beautiful picture of mercy and grace.

The story of Brian and Audrey’s marriage is also told in flashbacks, and is a good picture of the ups and downs of marriage: the silly things that make a marriage unique, the little quirks that are irritating, the disagreements that are part of raising children together.

This film is sometimes hard to watch – have Kleenex handy – because the grief that Audrey feels is so real, so raw. The depiction of heroin withdrawal is horrifyingly authentic. Without giving any major plot points away, I’ll just say that this movie is another example of the fact that people are resilient and that we can choose the good every day.

Things We Lost in the Fire is rated R for language and drug content, but it is well worth getting past. The special features include a featurette on the making of the movie and some deleted scenes.