Mommy Brain

Monks and Mystics: Chronicles of the Medieval Church by Brandon and Mindy Withrow
Tales from Shakespeare by Tina Packer
Flyte (Septimus Heap, Book 2) by Angie Sage

Island Dreamer (The Christy Miller Series #5) by Robin Jones Gunn
(more…)

Geronimo Stilton #8: Attack of the Bandit Cats by Geronimo Stilton
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

The 39 Clues (The Maze of Bones, Book 1) by Rick Riordan
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

by Else Minarik
(more…)

She will be totally embarrassed that I’m doing this - but I wanted to congratulate my best friend, Michelle, for completing NaNoWriMo. During the month of November, she wrote a 50,000 word (actually, a couple hundred over) novel. Woo hoo!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We did. Since it was just us at Mom and Dad’s, it was relatively quiet. We ate until we were stuffed, visited, were glad we didn’t waste much time watching the Seahawks/Dallas game, played a game of Apples to Apples, and visited some more. It was a good day.

Nothing new on the health front. I slept with a pulse oximeter on my finger Monday night, to measure my oxygen levels as I sleep in order to test for sleep apnea. What with the holiday this week, I can’t imagine I’ll hear anything until next week. My doctor’s nurse must still be waiting for insurance approval for the CAT scan, cause I haven’t heard anything on that front. Emotionally, I’m doing pretty well, so thanks for all your prayers.

Tomorrow, we will put up the Christmas tree and decorate the house. Can you believe it’s that time already? We’re planning an at-home type of weekend, before we gear up for the big push of holiday season. Next weekend will be absolutely crazy, what with Natalie’s birthday party and a bunch of other stuff going on.

~ I’ve been doing some prep work for my taxes as a freelance writer, and came across this great comic.

~ The new trend in disgusting food is insect sushi.

~ Jo-Jo is giving away Names My Sisters Call Me by Megan Crane.

~ Some of the books I’m thankful I found this year.

~ My review of A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King.

~ More great TV on DVD.

~ Mini-reviews of High School Musical 3: Senior Year and Get Smart.

Have a great weekend!

A List of Praises
Anne Porter

Give praise with psalms that tell the trees to sing,
Give praise with Gospel choirs in storefront churches,
Mad with the joy of the Sabbath,
Give praise with the babble of infants, who wake with the sun,
Give praise with children chanting their skip-rope rhymes,
A poetry not in books, a vagrant mischievous poetry
living wild on the Streets through generations of children.

Give praise with the sound of the milk-train far away
With its mutter of wheels and long-drawn-out sweet whistle
As it speeds through the fields of sleep at three in the morning,
Give praise with the immense and peaceful sigh
Of the wind in the pinewoods,
At night give praise with starry silences.

Give praise with the skirling of seagulls
And the rattle and flap of sails
And gongs of buoys rocked by the sea-swell
Out in the shipping-lanes beyond the harbor.
Give praise with the humpback whales,
Huge in the ocean they sing to one another.

Read the entire poem here.

I can’t seem to resist a meme, and I saw this one at Kev’s.

1) How do you like your grilled cheese?
On white bread, with Velveeta, light to medium brown with the cheese melted.

2) Where did you go on your last vacation?
Lincoln City, Oregon this summer.

3) Who are your godparents?
My paternal grandparents, but my Grandaddy isn’t with us anymore, so now it’s just Grandma.

4) Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Still homeschooling - an 11th grader, a 9th grader, an 8th grader, and a 6th grader. Still in Colville, but hopefully in a bigger house.

5) Where are you at noon everyday?
Home fixing lunch for my family.

6) How many speeding tickets have you gotten?
One. This year. It was Michelle’s fault - we were visiting too much on the way home from Spokane, and I wasn’t paying attention.

15) When was the last time you swam?
Two or three weeks ago, I think.

16) What do you order at Subway?
Roasted Chicken Bacon but instead of Ranch, I like the Chipotle Southwestern sauce.

17) Do you keep your closets organized?
Only enough so that nothing falls out when I open the door. Usually.

18) How do you make headaches go away?
Ibuprofen.

19) Have you owned a beta before?
The fish? Or the old video player? Neither.

20) If you moved out of state where would you go?
I wouldn’t. I love Washington State. Though if you asked me in three months and there is still snow on the ground, I might answer California or Hawaii.

22) Did you attend pre-school?
Nope.

23) What do your shower curtains look like?
White outer curtain with a clearish inner curtain, no decorations - same as Kev.

24) Did you have an imaginary friend as a child?
I don’t remember.

25) How do you make eggs?
Scrambled or fried or hard-boiled.

26) Where do you wash your clothes?
In the laundry room in the basement.

28) Who are the neighbors who live to the right of you?
Jim and Veronica. They used to head to Brazil every winter, where Veronica’s family is, and Jim would teach scuba diving, but now they stay put.

29) What are your thoughts on Tom Cruise?
Fairly talented actor, but anyone who adheres to a religion created by a science fiction author is a couple bricks short.

30) What is the next vehicle you wish to buy?
Something free that runs on water.

31) Do you pay bills online or by mail?
Both.

32) What would be the best gift someone could get you right now?
Money. Or Barnes & Noble gift cards.

33) What is something stressful you will deal with next week?
Next week is one big stress-ball. Nan’s ortho appointment Wednesday, shop for Nan’s birthday plus a gift for her to bring to a friend’s birthday party which she will attend Thursday. Friday night will be Nan’s birthday/slumber party which involves many squealie girls. Possible Tae Kwon Do promotion on Saturday. Sunday evening: choir practice at 4:30, sing at our former church’s women’s Christmas party at 7, pick up Natalie from a Christmas party at her voice teacher’s house at 9.

34) What is something in your home that you collect?
Come on, you can all guess that one, right?

35) What did you do last night?
Slept with a pulse oximeter on my finger. Not a real restful night.

36) Who did you last see?
Kevin is sitting in the same room with me.

37) How do you take your coffee?
I’m not supposed to take it at all anymore. If I do, it’s decaf with half and half.

38) What is the oldest thing in your fridge?
Don’t know.

39) On your keyboard what key is wearing out from pressing it so much?
My computer’s too new to have that problem.

40) Where do you put your keys when you come home?
In my purse.

41) Where do you go for Thanksgiving?
To my parents’ house.

42) How old will you you be in 2010?
38.

43) What actor or actress would play you in a movie?
Maybe Dawn French from Vicar of Dibley.

44) How much cash is in your wallet?
$1.75.

45) Would you have a one night stand with your favorite movie star?
I’m a married woman. Plus, it would be hard to narrow it down…

46) What color is your phone?
Black.

47) If you were starving to death would you eat a pet?
I suppose. But I’m not an animal person, so no pets.

48) Ever been to Alabama?
No.

49) What kind of accent do you have?
None.

50) What kind of alcoholic drinks are in your fridge right now?
One bottle of chardonnay.

Let me know if you answer these on your own blog.

About the book:
It’s back! The Story of Christmas, the innovative Advent calendar, story book set, and tree-trimming keepsake.

Wonderfully illustrated and brimming with holiday spirit, the calendar features 24 jewel-like miniature board books nestled in a three-paneled, stand-alone backer. The books are numbered 1 through 24, and, like the peek-a-boo windows on an Advent calendar, are meant to be opened one per day from December 1st through Christmas Eve. Read in sequence, they capture the magic of the first Christmas, from Gabrie’’s visit to Mary (Book 4) to the Three Wise Men gazing at the star (Book 9) to Jesus’ birth (Book 24). Each book is one of four different trim sizes and features a gold thread loop so that after it’s read, it can be hung on the Christmas tree.

About Mary Packard:
Mary Packard is a freelance writer who also wrote The Nutcracker Story Book Set & Advent Calendar.

About Carolyn Croll:
Carolyn Croll is the author and illustrator of Too Many Babas, The Little Snowgirl, and other children’s books. She lives in Philadelphia.

The Story of Christmas Advent Calendar is available at Amazon.com or at your local bookstore.

Thank you all for your prayers and concern. I saw the doctor on Friday, but didn’t get any answers. My ears looked fine, so that doesn’t seem to be the explanation for the dizziness or the headaches. I’m also experiencing some other symptoms that my doctor called “soft neurological symptoms,” and has ordered two tests to determine the cause. One, I will be having a CAT scan on my brain sometime soon - as soon as the insurance company forks over approval. Two, I will be doing a sleep study to see if I have sleep apnea, as lack of oxygen while sleeping can sometimes cause the symptoms I’m having.

If you’re the praying sort, I would appreciate your prayers. Pray not only that the doctors are able to find an answer, and that it’s nothing serious, but that God would grant me peace while I wait. One of my biggest fears, in fact the thing that brought on my anxiety problems during a health scare a couple years ago, is dying and leaving my children. I don’t fear death itself, but I fear leaving my children before they are grown. I’m trying not to completely freak out - and the doctor was kind enough to give me a refill on anxiety meds that I have taken in the past. So far, I haven’t had to take any except at night, when the “what-if” thoughts keep me from sleeping.

I’ll post a further update as soon as I know anything else.

Look what I found at Life’s Sweetest Blessings? She nominated me for this blog award!

This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships!
These blogs are exceedingly charming.
These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement.
Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.
Please give more attention to these writers!
Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Thanks, Laura!

Here are my eight nominees:

Natalie (my daughter) at Homeschool Girl
Carrie at Chocolate, the Other White Meat
Lawanda at Lovin’ Life
Laura at Moomin Light
Gem at My So-Called Homeschool
Karen at Praise the Lord and Pass the Prozac
Kev at The Bayer Family Blog
Leann at The Good Neighbors

1. Natalie and I went to see High School Musical 3: Senior Year Saturday night - and loved it!

2. The Seahawks’ season is a constant source of depression. You may wonder why I keep watching every game. I’m nothing if not loyal.

3. I can’t believe it’s time to start working on the Christmas program for church already! I’m singing in the choir at our new church, and we’re doing some fun music - Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir style.

4. I’m very. very. angry at NBC for cancelling My Own Worst Enemy.

5. Life is one of the best shows on television right now. Are you watching it?

6. A woman came to look at our house today. First person interested in months. She seemed very interested, but we’ll see. If she is, we have no idea where we would move to - right now there aren’t any 4-bedroom houses available in our area. We don’t want to pass on an offer on the house, though, because if we sold it we would be completely out of debt - including the new (to us) van. Finances have been sticky lately. Sigh.

7. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. Don’t want to go on and on about my health, so to sum it up: dizziness and headaches for a few months that aren’t going away, plus a cyst of some type on my wrist joint. I’m hoping he has some easy answers.

8. Looking forward to a weekend of downtime - especially since we cleaned the house today to get ready for the showing.

~ My review of The Grift by Debra Ginsberg.

~ Great post at author Shannon Hale’s blog: How to be a reader.

~ New Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer.

That’s all for this week - sorry it’s slim pickings. Not a lot of time to surf the web lately. Have a great weekend!

(Hannah Montana: The Complete First Season was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of this feature.)

See how it all began for TV’s tween diva when every poppin’ episode of Hannah Montana: The Complete First Season comes to Disney DVD on November 18, 2008! Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment marks the first time all 26 episodes from the first season come together in a special four-disc Collectors Edition featuring commemorative packaging and an exclusive
collectible keepsake. With 17 episodes never before offered on DVD, a behind-the-scenes featurette with Miley Cyrus and much, much more, Hannah Montana: The Complete First Season is this year’s ultimate holiday gift!

Miley Cyrus stars as the fourteen-year-old pop superstar with a double life, joined by Emily Osment, Jason Earles, Billy Ray Cyrus, Mitchell Musso and Moises Arias as her friends and family. At home and school, she’s Miley Stewart, a typical teenager, but when the lights go down and the curtain goes up, she emerges as the glamorous and talented Hannah Montana. Having the “Best of Both Worlds” is a complicated proposition, and keeping her identity under wraps leads Miley and her friends into some
hilarious capers as she tries to balance her normal life with her rock star persona.

The roster of awesome guest stars on Hannah Montana: The Complete First Season includes Corbin Bleu and Ashley Tisdale of “High School Musical,” Cody Linley (Cheaper by the Dozen), and more! Hannah Montana: The Complete First Season will have fans rockin’ with a memorable and hilarious portrait of a very special girl who wants to be “Just Like You.”

(more…)

(Hannah Montana: The DVD Game and High School Musical: The DVD Game were provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of this feature.)

Filled with tons of clips, questions, pictures, sing-alongs, dance routines and more, the High School Musical DVD Game will have fans out of their seats and singing, dancing and acting alongside their favorite stars, including Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Corbin Bleu, Lucas Grabeel and Monique Coleman.

Far more than a trivia game, the High School Musical DVD Game is jam-packed with 11 interactive experiences that allow players to sing along with favorite tunes (including two original High School Musical 3 songs), compete in a dance off by learning new routines with friends, and test their High School Musical knowledge with hundreds of questions about all three movies. Later, they can help the Wildcats slam-dunk their way to the championship or take the Career Finder Quiz.

(more…)

It’s another birthday weekend for us. Josiah, our youngest, turns 7 tomorrow. I’ve searched through my archives, and I’ve never written his birth story. If you’re not interested in that sort of thing, scroll down for the links.

After I had Jonathan, Kevin was ready to be done having babies. Jonathan’s birth was traumatic for me, traumatic for Kevin afterward because of the complications, and he just felt done. I, however, felt like I missed a bunch of Jonathan’s newborn experiences because I was so sick with the epidural headache. I wanted one more. So I prayed that God would change my mind, or change Kevin’s. He changed Kevin’s, and one month later, we were expecting number four. Waiting for him to change his mind is why the length of time between the last two is the longest - 26 months. (18 months between Natalie and Noah; 15 months between Noah and Jonathan.)

(more…)

If you saw ME in a police car, what would you think I got arrested for?

Answer me, then post to your own blog and see how many crimes you get accused of.

I saw this at Meg’s and just had to see what your answers are.

Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander Headed to the Big Screen!

Now, if they would just call me about casting…

My dad is a veteran. He served two tours in a war that many in the government still consider a “police action.” He went to fight for a country that he loves. He came home to a country divided. He was called a “babykiller” when he went out in uniform.

When my parents graduated from high school in 1966, our military was already fighting in Vietnam. The young men leaving high school were told that the United States was helping to stop the spread of communism in the world. They were protecting our freedoms. They were not told that they would be expected to fight the war with the figurative arm tied behind their back. They weren’t told that the Viet Cong used young children, women, and old men to do their fighting, or that you would never be sure who the enemy was.

(more…)

(Kung Fu Panda Two-Pack: Kung Fu Panda & Secrets of the Furious Five was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of review.)

Prepare for awesomeness with DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda, “a delightful movie that can stand among the very best animated features” (Leonard Maltin, Entertainment Tonight). Jack Black is perfect as the voice of Po, a noodle slurping dreamer who must embrace his true self - fuzzy flaws and all - in order to become the Dragon Warrior. With groundbreaking animation, an all-star cast and high-kicking humor, Kung Fu Panda is “Ultra satisfying entertainment…There’s heart in this movie and that’s the secret ingredient.” ~Richard Corliss, TIME

Jack Black was the perfect actor to voice Po, the overweight Panda who works in his father’s noodle shop. His father inherited the shop from his father, and he expects to hand it down to Po. “Noodles are your destiny.” Po, however, has bigger dreams. He dreams of being a Kung Fu master.

Due to an accident, Po is chosen as the long-awaited and prophesied Dragon Warrior. In spite of the fact that everyone thinks he is hopeless, Po finds his true destiny. All of the “Furious Five” were voiced well, Dustin Hoffman steals the show as Shifu, the little Kung Fu master charged with traning Po.

Kung Fu Panda is the best kind of animated film. The kids loved it, and it entertained me, too.

Kung Fu Panda Two-Pack: Kung Fu Panda and Secrets of the Furious Five is available on DVD now. The DVD special features include “Dragon Warrior Training Academy;” Food Network Exclusive - “Alton Brown at Mr. Ping’s Noodle House;” “Help Save the Wild Pandas;” “How to Use Chopsticks;” “Kung Fu Fighting” music video; and more.

This two-pack also comes with Secrets of the Furious Five:

Skadoosh! It’s the world premiere of Po’s all-new adventure from the filmmakers that brought you Kung Fu Panda! He may have defeated the ferocious Tai Lung, but our Dragon Warrior (Jack Black) must now face Shifu’s (Dustin Hoffman) biggest challenge with the help of Viper, Tigress, Monkey, Crane and Mantis. The Secrets of the Furious Five are finally revealed as we discover it takes a lot more than fast feet and fists to become a kung fu master.

Special features include: “Dumpling Shuffle;” “Pandamonium Activity Kit;” “Learn the Panda Dance;” “Do You Kung Fu?;” “Inside the Chinese Zodiac;” “Animals of Kung Fu Panda;” and “What Fighting Style Are You?”