Mommy Brain

Another busy day, another very late link post. We’re getting into our school routine, which is nice. I’m reading a fantastic book aloud to the kids called The Penderwicks - I highly recommend it. We’re almost done, and I think we’ll start The Mysterious Benedict Society next.

We don’t have plans for the weekend. Some cleaning up tomorrow, maybe a trip to the pool. Church on Sunday, and then the Seahawks play their first official game of the season, so you’ll find me planted firmly in front of the television. Go, ‘Hawks!

~ You may not recognize Don LaFontaine by name, but I’m sure you would recognize his voice. If you’ve ever seen a movie trailer in which the voice over announcer says, “In a world….” - chances are that was Don LaFontaine. He passed away this week at age 68. Movie trailers just won’t be the same.

~ Remember the video I posted last week about the cell phones popping popcorn - the one that turned out to be a hoax? Here’s how - and why - they did it.

~ Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite reads from this year - and now you can read it for free!

~ Who caught the Bones premiere this week? We had to record it and watch it a day late, since the kids have to be picked up from Awana at 8 on Wednesdays. And, I loved it! Agent Booth and Great Britain - two of my favorite things - in one episode! So good. Spoiler alert - scroll down a couple lines if you don’t want it spoiled for you! Except for the Angela/Hodgins break-up. Why did they have to go and do that? Anyway, if you enjoy David Boreanaz, EW has him answering 17 pop culture questions.

~ Still bummed about the postponement of the film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? Here’s a video of Daniel Radcliffe appearing on Conan O’Brien to help tide you over.

~ My Friend Amy is hosting Book Blogger Appreciation Week - and that means some awards given out for favorite book blogs. Head over to this post and vote for your favorites. Get details on how to register for all the fun here.

~ The Dharma Initiative is looking for new recruits - click over to take their screening test.

~ Speaking of hit television shows (Yes, we were, honest. If you’re a little lost, let me know in the comments. ), Anthony Edwards is due to reprise his role as Dr. Mark Greene on ER in an episode this November - in flashbacks, of course.

Thank you so much for all your insightful comments on my previous post about the presidential election. I am at least convinced that I will definitely be voting in November. That said, I’m still not sure who I’ll be voting for! I’ll continue my research and reading and thinking and discussing and praying and make a decision before I mark my ballot. Along those lines, I’ll be including links every Friday that I have read and that are helping me make my decision.

~ FactCheck.org is a great place to check the facts on speeches, interviews, and campaign ads. You can subscribe to their RSS feed and get updates sent to your Bloglines, Google Reader, or other RSS reader account. Thanks to Sarah at The Mommylogues for pointing it out to me.

~ Speaking of facts, check this list of talking points in the Republican Convention speeches that misrepresented or stretched the truth. And, here’s the fact check list for the Democratic Convention. It’s kind of disheartening to see how much both sides of the political fence exaggerate or dissemble in order to gain poll points.

~ At VoteSmart.org, you can check each candidate’s voting record while they served in Congress. Here’s Barack Obama’s voting record. Here’s John McCain’s voting record.

~ Crunchy Con tells why one soldier, currently serving in Iraq, won’t be voting for John McCain.

~ According to the Presurfer, it’s not McCain/Palin, it’s Tigh/Roslin. (This is not a site I normally read, so please don’t hold me accountable for anything else you might find there.)

~ If you’re reading this before midnight PST on Friday, September 5th, there’s still time to enter to win a copy of Guernica by Dave Boling.

Have a great weekend!

Summer isn’t quite over, I know, but for the purpose of the Summer Reading Challenge, it is. Here’s what I managed to get read during June, July, and August.

Continued reading (these are ongoing):

~ The Oxford Book of American Poetry

~ The Intellectual Devotional by David S. Kidder & Noah D. Oppenheim

Finished:

~ An Incomplete Education: 3,684 Things You Should Have Learned but Probably Didn’t by Judy Jones & William Wilson (finished 7/2) - 4 stars - related post

~ She Always Wore Red by Angela Hunt (finished 6/3) - 5 stars

A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro (finished 8/22) - 3 stars - related post

~ Belong to Me by Marisa De Los Santos (finished 6/9) - 5 stars - related post

~ The Host by Stephenie Meyer (finished 6/29) - 5 stars - related post

~ Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3) by Stephenie Meyer (finished 6/6) - 4 stars

~ Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4) by Stephenie Meyer (finished 8/9) - 4 stars - related post

~ Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross by Sigrid Undset (finished 7/18) - 4 stars - related post

Gave up on:

~ Petite Anglaise (ARC) by Catherine Sanderson

Didn’t get to:

~ Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

~ Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

Make Friends, Break Friends by Peggy Burns

Spider Kane and the Mystery Under the May-Apple by Mary Pope Osborne
Hour of the Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne

Detective Dinosaur by James Skofield
That Stump Must Go by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Jason’s Bus Ride by Harriet Ziefert
Henry and Mudge and the Best Day of All by Cynthia Rylant

A Race Against Time (Nancy Drew: All New Girl Detective #2) by “Carolyn Keene”
Pit of Vipers (Nancy Drew: All New Girl Detective #18) by “Carolyn Keene”
Eleven by Patricia Reilly Giff
Lights, Camera… (Nancy Drew: All New Girl Detective #5) by “Carolyn Keene”
Shadowland (The Mediator, Book 1) by Meg Cabot
Intruder (Nancy Drew: All New Girl Detective #27) by “Carolyn Keene”

Crispin: Cross of Iron by Avi
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
It’s Disgusting and We Ate It! True Food Facts from Around the World and Throughout History by James Solheim

I think I’m recovered from our day-long Silverwood extravaganza. Did I mention that we left at 8:30 am and didn’t return until 10 pm? I’m looking forward to Tuesday, which - in spite of being our fifth day of school - will feel like our first day of school and life will begin to return to normal. Whatever that is.

Lots of exciting things happening in the news lately. Obama gives a darn good speech; McCain announces a surprise VP pick. And me? I’m still ambivalent about the whole thing. I’m musing over a post - that will probably be very long - about the whole presidential thing. Probably sometime this week, if I find the time to get the thoughts out of my head and into some kind of organized format.

But, for now, I promised you links - and do I have a bunch!

~ Entertainment Weekly counts down their top 25 Sci-Fi movies and TV series since 1982.

~ Speaking of sci-fi, Battlestar Galactica may be ending, but there are two projects in the planning stages that will continue the franchise.

~ Don’t Try This At Home has posted another hilarious video for her Sunday YouTube, called “Things You Don’t Say to Your Wife.”

~ Regardless of how you feel about either presidential candidate, I think this ad that McCain ran on the night Obama received the nomination was pretty classy.

~ For all of you fellow homeschooling moms who are beginning another year, I give you I Will Survive.

~ Any fans of Nathan Fillion from Firefly? He’s set to appear in a midseason series on ABC.

~ Update: Angie Hunt just commented to let me know that this video is a hoax. Sure looked real! I’m not a big fan of cell phones. Yes, I have one, and I use it very rarely - maybe twice a week. It’s simply a tool for emergencies or cases when I must reach someone and I’m not near a phone. I prepay for my minutes, so I don’t chat away on it. I don’t even know how to send a text message. I think a lot of people are very rude in how they use their cell phones - an opinion that was reinforced at a recent playdate at the park when one of the other moms proceeded to text message her teenage daughter and her mother for the entire hour she was there. She then stood up and informed the rest of us that she had lots to do and had to be going. Sigh. Anyway, this video reinforces my reasoning for not using my cell phone very often - and for not buying one for my tween daughter. It’s frankly a little scary. Hat tip: Angela Hunt.

~ Time has an amazing photo gallery from the Olympics. Some of the pictures are truly stunning.

~ Note to self: If ever in Japan, avoid the trains. Shudder.

At Books and Movies this week:

~ Review of Half-*ssed: A Weight-Loss Memoir

~ Review of The Devil’s Arithmetic

~ Reading Questionnaire

~ Teaser Tuesday

~ The Sunday Salon

~ Review of The Cross-Time Engineer

~ And, there is still time to enter to win Guernica

I just finished a truly amazing book - Guernica by Dave Boling. Click over to Books and Movies to read my review and enter to win a copy.

A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro was a different book than I expected. I thought it would be a book about Shakespeare’s life. What I didn’t know is that very little is known about Shakespeare’s personal life.

What this book is, instead, is a discussion of the plays Shakespeare wrote in 1599, and how those works were influenced by and spoke to the events in England at the time. During that year, Shakespeare was amazingly proficient, producing four of his greatest works: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet. Each of these plays had moments, actions, and references that would have resonated with the Elizabethan audiences because of their experiences in daily life and the political scene of the day.

I like reading history books because of what I learn. Sometimes a history book will also grab me in and keep me turning the pages, like McCullough’s 1776 and Ambrose’s Band of Brothers. Other times, I read the book in fits and starts. The writing style may not grab me, may even be a little dry, but the information is still interesting enough that I want to finish the book. This was one of the latter type of reading experiences. In spite of the fact that it wasn’t riveting, I am happy to have read it and I know much about Elizabethan politics that I didn’t know before.

3 out of 5 stars

We just got back from the fair and I’m pooped. I’ve been entertained out this summer, I think. Vacation was wonderful - so fun - but I have no desire to do anything else. I want to start school and have normal life back! But, that won’t happen until after Tuesday, because on Tuesday, I’m taking the kids here. I don’t want to. at. all. But, the kids read their 10 hours each (over and above normal school reading time) to earn their free tickets, so I kinda half to, or I’d be a really mean mommy. Sigh.

I am really looking forward to tomorrow night. All three boys are going for a sleepover at Michelle’s house in honor of her Jacob’s birthday, and Natalie is heading south to Grandma and Papa’s for the night. So Kevin and I are going to go out to dinner and have an evening all to ourselves. Then Saturday afternoon, he’s taking Josiah on an overnight camping trip, just the two of them. It’s Josiah’s turn for time with Daddy.

It’s been a great week, book-wise. I received a review copy of…

The Grift by Debra Ginsberg

…and an ARC of…

The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway.

I also ordered the first four books in the History Lives series, which are books for young readers that tell the history of the church from St. Paul through John Wesley. (Book 5 continues the story from there, and is due out later this year.) Westminster Books has the first four books for only $25.17 - 30% off! The series is written by Brandon and Mindy Withrow, whose blog I’ve enjoyed for a couple of years now. Anyway, I’m going to read these aloud to the kids for part of our Bible studies.

Well, Kevin’s come upstairs and wants to watch a DVD, so I better get to the links.

~ Angela Hunt posted this Urban Legend Amalgam. If you’ve ever received a forwarded e-mail, you gotta click over.

~ Confused baby sea turtles - I would have loved to be there for this!

~ If you’ve read or heard anything about the “revival” going on in Lakeland, Florida, this is a must-read.

On April 3, 2008 Canadian evangelist Todd Bentley was invited to speak to the Ignited Church of Lakeland, FL. Though he was only scheduled to be there for 5 days, he remained for 3 months during what he considered to be the biggest pentecostal revival since the Azusa Street revival. To put it mildly, the “Lakeland revival” has been controversial. Claims of people being raised from the dead? Violent healing? Now it appears Bentley is stepping down after filing for separation from his wife and admitting to an inappropriate relationship with another woman…

(snip)

Yet, when I see things like this, it is just hard not to ask: does anyone still have a Bible and some common sense?

Let me add: I do not think this is a Pentecostal issue. That is why the title is, “Evangelical Gullibility.”

In other words, all kinds of Christians are forwarding emails about the FCC’s phony plan to ban religious braoadcasting, signing up to have emails sent to the loved ones after the rapture, and watching Christian television for its theological depth. For that matter, I have just as many odd people come up to me with “something they discovered in the Bible that no one has ever noticed” after I speak at a Baptist, Wesleyan, of non-denominational meeting as I do when I speak at a Pentecostal one. Furthermore, many Pentecostals and Charismatics HAVE expressed concern about this movement– including some when I visit the Assemblies of God office a couple of weeks ago.

I just have to wonder with Grady if Christians really are just gullible.

~ If you need some Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince buzz to tide you over until the movie’s (new) release date of July 17th, EW has an article with some scoop about the film.

~ Why is it that Dan Brown could publish The Da Vinci Code, a fictional novel which offended many Christians by stating that Jesus was married and had kids, but Harper Collins won’t publish a fictional novel about one of Mohammed’s wives?

“Random House made the decision to cancel its US publication of the novel ‘The Jewel of Medina’ after much deliberation and with great reluctance,” a statement from the publisher sent to AFP said.

“The decision was based on advice from scholars of Islam, among several creditable sources, that publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community and could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.”

~ If you want to watch a slideshow and some video clips of our vacation, head over to Kevin’s site.

~ Hey - it turns out I’m raising three future surgeons.

~ This video of the a cappella group Naturally 7 is pretty awesome.

~ It’s time to sign up for this year’s Pizza Hut Book-It Program.

~ Homeschool stereotypes vs. public school realities - a must-read at Principled Discovery.

At Books and Movies this week:

~ The Sunday Salon

~ Musing Mondays

~ Teaser Tuesdays

~ Review of The Great Debaters

~ Booking Through Thursday

Thank you so much to those of you who were praying for my brother-in-law. Derek is doing much better; he’ll go home from the hospital tomorrow. They’re basically just keeping him tonight to make sure his fever doesn’t come back - all of his blood tests are coming back good. Debra will leave to go visit Andrea in the morning, and Derek’s mom will help out with Derek and the kids this weekend. All is well. God is good.

I finally quit procrastinating and dove into the school cupboard today. All of last year’s work is ready to go into storage, new books are in place, and I just need to pick up a couple of supplies to fill in some gaps. We’ll be starting Monday, the 25th. If you’re interested in what we did last year, and what we’ll be doing this upcoming year, this post will fill in all the details.

We have a busy, busy weekend ahead of us. Play date and ortho appointment tomorrow day, a BBQ at a friend’s house tomorrow evening - friends from our former church that we haven’t seen in a long time. Then a wedding Saturday evening, and celebrating Mom’s birthday Sunday afternoon. Oh, and it’s hot here. 100 degrees today. Blech.

~ Some readers who didn’t like Breaking Dawn are trying to organize a mass protest, in which readers return their books. Am I the only one who finds this ridiculous? I think it’s unethical to return a book you’ve already read. When ever you buy a book, you take a chance - it doesn’t come with a guarantee that you’ll love it. If I returned every book that I had purchased, and then didn’t like, I’d only keep 1/2 or so of the books I buy.

~ Rotten Tomatoes has a featurette about the upcoming film version of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.

~ This guy is talented in a very unusual way. Hat tip to my mom, who e-mailed me that one.

At Books and Movies this week:

~ Review of My Husband’s Sweethearts by Bridget Asher.

~ A reading personality quiz.

~ Review of August Rush.

~ Review of The Dark Knight. And just in case you don’t click over to read it, I’ll leave you with this:

Yes, I know it’s Saturday. Yesterday was busy with housework, visiting with friends, watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony, and reading Breaking Dawn. Today is busy with nothing. Actually, I am planning to do some school planning, rearranging, etc. - but we’ll see. I had to finish Breaking Dawn first - which leads me to my first link:

~ EW has a 10-part video interview with Stephenie Meyer about Breaking Dawn. Don’t watch it unless you’ve already read the book - lots of spoilers. She addresses the controversy. Oh, the horror!

~ My review of Breaking Dawn.

~ My review of Inglorious by Joanna Kavenna.

~ My review of Wall-E.

~ Thanks to Chris at Book-a-Rama, I stuck with this until the very end. Be stronger than I am. Walk away.

~ Kris at Paradise Found pointed out this site: The Periodic Table of Videos. Cool stuff, which we will be using a lot this year during our chemistry studies.

~ Pixar’s next flick: Up.

~ Ever tried to explain Twitter? This video explains it well. If you decide to tweet, be sure and let me know.

~ Thanks to Andrea, I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at awful cakes.

Hope you’re enjoying a wonderful weekend.

These are the books that came home with me from vacation:

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease

The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland

My Antonia by Willa Cather

The Shell Collector: Stories by Anthony Doerr

These books came home for the kids:

Bright Shadow by Avi

Sarah Bishop by Scott O’Dell

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick