Mommy Brain

Here’s a pic of Kevin and the kids on a bike trip last summer.

You have probably noticed how much I love the Twilight series of vampire novels by Stephenie Meyer. They each scored a solid 4 stars out of 5. They are totally engrossing and addictive, and I can’t wait for the fourth and final book to be released on August 2nd. That said, none of them had that indefiinable quality that earns a book 5 stars in my mind. The Host, Meyer’s first foray into the world of adult novels, has that quality, and has it in spades.

Ms. Meyer calls The Host science-fiction for people who don’t like science fiction. Well, I love sci-fi, and I adored this book. But I know exactly what she means, because I am going to pass this book on to my mom, who doesn’t like sci-fi - and I know she will love it.

The Host is the story of Wanderer, a soul who has lived on seven different planets, in seven different host bodies. When she comes to Earth and is implanted into Melanie, she experiences something new and different - the host consciousness doesn’t leave, but continues to fight for ownership of her body.

Wanderer begins to learn more and more about Melanie through her memories, and especially comes to know Jared, Melanie’s boyfriend, and Jamie, her younger brother. As Wanderer experiences Melanie’s feelings for the people she loves, she is torn between her loyalty to her own race - the Souls - and her new-found feelings of love and family.

The Host asks the question: What does it mean to be human? It explores the bounds of love and loyalty and self-sacrifice, and examines what is best and worst about the human race. It’s a love story in the best possible way.

5 out of 5 stars.

Noah has started and stopped many books this month, but none has kept his attention enough for him to finish.

Mole and Shrew Step Out by Jackie French Koller
Giant Pop-Out Vehicles

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
The Ballad of Lucy Whipple by Karen Cushman
Ghosthunters and the Totally Moldy Baroness by Cornelia Funke
Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 2) by Stephenie Meyer

Eric Liddell: Something Greater Than Gold by Geoff and Janet Benge
Magyk (Septimus Heap, Book 1) by Angie Sage
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices From a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz
Crispin: Cross of Iron by Avi
Poetry Speaks to Children

Twister on Tuesday by Mary Pope Osborne
In the Whale (Andrew Lost #6) by J.C. Greenburg
Season of the Sandstorms by Mary Pope Osborne

99 degrees yesterday. 99 degrees today. Which made it a perfect weekend to spend one afternoon at the lake, and the other in an air-conditioned theater.

We headed up to the lake yesterday, bringing lunch and a van-load of floaties. Another family from our church was there, too, so Natalie was able to swim with a good friend, and we were able to get to know her parents a little better.

I’ve been having a hard time getting involved at our new church. Kevin’s not even attending much. I’ve posted before about our history with churches, and I don’t want to get into all of that again. I just wish we could find a church where politics and staying in a denominational bubble weren’t the norm.

Anyway, it was nice to get to know another couple from church. We’ve met some really nice people, and the children’s ministry has welcomed our children with open arms. I suppose that will have to be enough for right now.

Today, Mom and I took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda (my review). The kids loved it, and I enjoyed myself. And it was cool. What more can you ask for, right?

(The Sword in the Stone: 45th Anniversary Special Edition was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of review.)

Humor, spectacle, and magic rule in Walt Disney’s legendary classic tale The Sword in the Stone - now celebrating its 45th Anninversary with exciting new bonus features!

Embark on an adventure-filled quest for an unlikely hero! According to legend, only someone with honor, decency, and inner strength can claim the throne of England - by pulling out the enchanted sword that lies locked in a massive stone. Many brave knights have tried, so it seems impossible that a young apprentice known as Wart could succeed. But with the guidance of the wizard Merlin, help from some hilarious friends and true strength of character, Wart just might become England’s greatest king.

There’s even more wizardry fun with mavelous bonus features, including the all-new Merlin’s Magical Academy Game, animated shorts, Disney’s song selection and much more! The Sword in the Stone 45th Anniversary Edition DVD is a magical experience your whole family will want to share again and again!

Noah’s review: It’s about this little kid who thinks he’s just a little kid who has nothing special about him. Then he finds a wizard, and learns that he is special. He pulls a sword out of a stone and becomes king. 4 and a half stars out of 5.

Jonatha’s review: It was a great movie. It was also funny. Once, he swallowed a bug when he was a fish because the wizard turned him into one. 5 stars.

Josiah’s review: My favorite part was when he was a squirrel. 4 and a half stars.

It’s fun to watch old Disney films with my kids. The Sword in the Stone was one I hadn’t seen in years, but it is definitely a classic. This new 45th Anniversary Edition has all-new special features, including some movie shorts and Merlin’s Magic Academy Game. The Sword in the Stone: 45th Anniversary Edition is available on DVD now.

Okay, I’m blushing. Can I plead over-busy-ness due to a camping trip, birthday party, and two VBS’s? I completely forgot about the Gone giveaway.

Well, better late than never, right?

I used Random.org to generate two random numbers, and it came up with 1 and 2. So, congrats to Sheila and Lawanda. I already have your address, Lawanda, so watch the mail. Sheila, check your e-mail - I’ll be contacting you for mailing info.

Congratulations - and sorry, again.

Our week of endless VBS is almost at an end. I must admit that the free time in the mornings and evenings has been very nice, but I’m not sure it’s worth the over-tired and cranky-from-too-much-sugar kids. Next year will be different, since Natalie will have finished 6th grade, and therefore aged out of the VBS they’ve been attending for the past several years. I’ll have a daughter entering junior high next August - how did that happen?

Our weekend is looking to be much slower and quieter than our week, and that’s just fine with me. We need a quiet week to gear up for Independence Day weekend, when my sister and her family will be visiting, and we’ll be spending the bulk of our time at Mom and Dad’s. The following weekend we take Natalie to Bible camp. She comes home on Thursday the 17th, and on Saturday the 19th, the kids will participate in a Tae Kwon Do tournament. The following weekend, we leave on our trip. When we get back, it will be three weeks until school starts again. When I look at it like that, the summer’s almost over already!

From the news:

~ This is scary and ridiculous: a Canadian court rules that a father cannot discpline his daughter by grounding her from a school camping trip. The judge said that the punishment was excessive. The father was attempting to discipline his 12-year-old daughter for posting her information on an internet dating site and for fighting with her step-mother. The girl took her unhappiness with the situation to court - and won.

~ Owners of a family plantation in Maryland discovered a treasure trove of documents in their attic - dating from the 1660s through World War II.

~ Yellow Science at the Wall Street Journal:

Nevertheless, over the past several decades an increasing number of scientists have shed the restraints imposed by the scientific method and begun to proclaim the truth of man-made global warming. This is a hypothesis that remains untested, makes no predictions that can be tested in the near future, and cannot offer a numerical explanation for the limited evidence to which it clings.

Some great videos:

~ Electric strings group Scala appears on Britain’s Got Talent. These girls are amazing! Hat tip: Angela Hunt.

~ Where the H*ll is Matt? Hat tip: Chris Rice’s blog. Check out Matt’s web site, and his about page that explains how we had the opportunity to travel all over the world to make the video.

~ BBC Worldwide has its own YouTube page. Check out the QI clips - they are hilarious!

Movie stuff:

~ The movie version of Inkheart is coming in January - here’s the trailer. Looks like they made quite a few changes to the plot. I’ll reserve judgment until I actually see it. I guess.

~ Another book to movie: The Tale of Despereaux - coming in December. Here’s the trailer.

Education and learning:

~ Homeschoolers in college can sniff out the BS. Of course they can.

~ David McCullough’s commencement address at Boston College. Hat tip: Mental Multivitamin.

Read. Read, read! Read the classics of American literature that you’ve never opened. Read your country’s history. How can we profess to love our country and take no interest in its history? Read into the history of Greece and Rome. Read about the great turning points in the history of science and medicine and ideas.

Read for pleasure, to be sure. I adore a good thriller or a first-rate murder mystery. But take seriously –read closely –books that have stood the test of time. Study a masterpiece, take it apart, study its architecture, its vocabulary, its intent. Underline, make notes in the margins, and after a few years, go back and read it again.

Make use of the public libraries. Start your own personal library and see it grow. Talk about the books you’re reading. Ask others what they’re reading. You’ll learn a lot.

Win a book:

~ Head over to Puss Reboots for a chance to win Virus Games, the first in a new series geared toward 9 to 12 year olds.

At Books and Movies this week:

~ Review of Anansi Boys

~ Review of Maus

~ Great audiobooks

~ EW’s 100 New Classic Books

I guess that’s it - that’s enough, right? Oh, I also joined Facebook, so let me know if you’re there, too, so I can add you to my friends list.

…that all it takes is the taste of a cherry Jolly Rancher to make me feel 8 years old again?

Have you tried Wordle yet? Paste in any text, and it creates a beautiful word cloud. Here’s the Wordle of my Where I’m From post. (Click on the thumbnail below to see the full-size version.)

The kids are in VBS this week - one in the morning, one in the evening. That means lots of Mom-Time for me. Tonight, Michelle and I went out for coffee after dropping the kids off. There’s a new coffee place in town that actually has a place to sit down - AND has free wi-fi. If they would just add on some space for a bookstore…

I always feel refreshed after being able to just talk to a fellow mom without the kids playing in the background. Don’t get me wrong - I love our weekly playdates with Michelle and her boys, but they’re not near as relaxing as sitting down with a cup of coffee and a couple of hours to discuss anything and everything.

I haven’t been posting much of substance here at the ole blog, I’ve noticed as I paged through the past few weeks worth of posts. It’s not that there’s nothing happening; I guess I just haven’t been real motivated to write about it. I hate to settle for a bullet-list catch-up type post, but it’s all I’ve got time for before I get too sleepy to type.

~ Our house is still on the market. We’ve had a few calls and a few people come through. We’re trying to patient.

~ Next week, my sister Marni and her husband Hans and their two boys Peter and Andrew are coming up from Post Falls to visit for Independence Day. This will be our last visit before they move to St. Louis at the end of the month. I’m in complete denial and refuse to even think about it, thank you very much.

~ We are going to take our very first all-family vacation at the end of July. Other than when I took the kids to see my sister Deb two years ago, we haven’t really done anything like this - and Kevin didn’t come with us that time. We’re going to Portland first, where we will go to the zoo and possibly visit some family. Then we’ll head to Tillamook and visit the cheese factory, then head south to Lincoln City, which will be our base for the next four days. From there, we plan to head to Newport to visit the aquarium, the wax museum, and the Ripley’s museum. We will also visit a lighthouse or two, and spend lots of time on the beach and flying kites. This may be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing for us - especially if gas prices keep rising - so we plan to enjoy every minute of it.

That is the major news from our house. There is also a lot of reading, movie watching, and music listening going on. I may have to do a “reading, watching, listening to” post pretty soon.

So, what’s up with you?

(Definitely, Maybe was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of review.)

From the makers of notting Hill and Love Actually comes the charming and irresistibly funny romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe. When Will (Ryan Reynolds) decides to tell his daughter (Abigail Breslin) the story of how he met her mother, he discovers that a second look at the past might also give him a second chance at the future. Co-starring Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz and Isla Fisher, it’s the heartwarming story that makes you realize it’s definitely never too late to go back…and maybe find a happy ending.

Definitely, Maybe is a charming romantic comedy that leaves you guessing until the last minute. And although the chemistry between the main character and his three possible loves is real, it’s the love between father and daughter that makes this movie so wonderful.

Ryan Reynolds is sweet as the newly single father trying to make sense of things for his little girl. Rachel Weisz, Isla Fisher, and Elizabeth Banks do their parts justice, but if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself rooting for a certain one to be the one. And then I thought I was wrong. But I wasn’t. And I won’t say anymore than that, or else I’ll give something away.

Of course, Abigail Breslin steals the movie.

Definitely, Maybe is available now on DVD. The DVD special features include deleted scenes and two making-of featurettes.

Keep in mind that this film is rated PG-13 - and it definitely deserves that rating for some pretty frank sexual dialogue.