Mommy Brain

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

On the way home from a trip to the library this afternoon, Josiah said, “Can I start reading this book now? I don’t want to wait for ’school’ time.”

Today was day one of our seventh homeschooling year. Seventh! I can hardly believe that. And, unfortunately, today seemed to be one of those days when my kids had been possessed by aliens and forgot how to be human to each other. The bickering was enough to make me want to scream. Which I did. Into a towel, in the bathroom, with the door closed. I call that a “Mommy Time Out.”

Here’s hoping day number two is better.

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.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Nancy Drew and the Clue on the Silver Screen by “Carolyn Keene”
Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke
The Ultimate Babysitter’s Handbook by Debra Mostow Zakarin
Bad Times, Big Crimes (Nancy Drew: All New Girl Detective #14) by “Carolyn Keene”
En Garde (Nancy Drew: All New Girl Detective #17) by “Carolyn Keene”
Secret of the Spa (Nancy Drew: All New Girl Detective #9) by “Carolyn Keene”
Dangerous Plays (Nancy Drew: All New Girl Detective #16) by “Carolyn Keene”
The Wish List by Eoin Colfer
The Stolen Relic (Nancy Drew: All New Girl Detective #7) by “Carolyn Keene”

Eric Liddell: Something Greater Than Gold by Geoff and Janet Benge
Crispin: Cross of Iron by Avi
Poetry Speaks to Children
The Toy Brother by William Steig
Squids Will Be Squids: Fresh Morals, Beastly Fables by Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith
Snow in Jerusalem by Deborah da Costa
The Frog Prince, Continued by John Scieszka

Is it really Friday already? This week sped by - in spite of the fact that I thought it would last forever, since Natalie was gone for most of it. She is home, exhausted and crabby, but home. And I’m a really mean mom, since I wouldn’t let her spend her first full day home at her friend’s house. Sigh.

Tomorrow is our monster-Tae Kwon Do day. Seminars from 8:30 till 11:30, then a tournament from 1:00 pm until whenever it gets over. Which means I will have lots of time to sit and read between the kids’ events.

Only nine days until we leave on our very first all-family vacation. We’re heading to the Oregon Coast, with a stop in Portland to go to the zoo and visit Kevin’s mom. I’m making lists for packing and hoping I’m not forgetting something hugely important.

I’ve got quite a few links for you today, so here goes.

~ 400-year-old Shakespeare volume recovered 10 years after theft.

~ Historical movies in chronological order. Cool resource - but make sure you check the historical accuracy on a film if you’re using it for homeschooling. Hat tip: Magic and Mayhem.

~ 100 Best Last Lines from Novels. Hat tip: Semicolon.

~ The Darrin Effect: 20 jarring cases of TV recasting. Hat tip: Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?

~ Also from Hey Lady! - Britain’s Got Talent: Great dance duo.

~ Feist’s “1-2-3-4″ song fits in perfectly on Sesame Street.

~ Trailer for the upcoming High School Musical 3: Senior Year.

~ Trailer for next May’s Terminator Salvation starring (the yummy) Christian Bale.

~ One of our favorite Avi books, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, is being made into a film.

~ The Literary Feline is having a huge book giveaway to celebrate her blogaversary.

~ Peter David, the author of Tigerheart, posted the unique story of how he proposed to his fiance.

~ New teaser trailer for the upcoming movie version of Twilight.

Whew - that’s it for this week! Have a great weekend, everyone.