Mommy Brain

I know, it’s Friday - and I have links to share, but I am just plain pooped after taking the kids to Silverwood yesterday. That and waking up with a migraine this morning is kicking my butt, so the links post will have to wait until tomorrow. I will, however, leave you with a funny story from Wednesday’s read-aloud time.

We are currently reading Tales from Shakespeare by Tina Packer - which I highly recommend. On Wednesday, we were reading Much Ado About Nothing and when we got to the part where Claudio and Don Pedro decide to play matchmakers for Benedick and Beatrice, Noah said, “So they were like the first eHarmony-dot-com!” Thank you, TV commercials.

Two more days, and we’re off to the Oregon Coast! I’m not sure who is more excited - Kevin, or the kids. I’m excited, too, but I haven’t quite reached their level yet. I’m too worried that I’m going to forget something important. Whenever I’m preparing for something - concert at church, start of a new school year, packing for a trip - I start having one of three dreams. Either it’s opening night (I was a theater major) and I don’t know my lines - or often, even what play we’re performing, or I’m back in high school and I can’t remember my locker combination or my class schedule, or I’m back in college and it’s time for an exam and I haven’t even read the text. Am I the only one that has these dreams? Tell me I’m not crazy.

This may be the last post for a while. We’re going to a hotel that has wireless, but my wireless card isn’t the best, and who knows if I’ll have time to blog. If I don’t find time, I’ll have lots to tell you when we get back.

Wanna know what books I’m packing?

Guernica by Dave Boling

Waiting to Surface by Emily Listfield

Inglorious by Joanna Kavenna

Stealing Athena by Karen Essex

This Charming Man by Marian Keyes

All of these are ARCs or publisher’s copies I’ve been sent to review - and one I won in a giveaway at Musings of a Bookish Kitty. Hopefully, I’ll have some time to read on vacation.

Here are a few links for your weekend surfing:

~ Jelly Telly is the next big thing from Phil Vischer, creator of Veggie Tales. It looks pretty cool.

~ There’s no way around it, this guy is a complete and utter idiot.

~ Remember Improv Everywhere, the group who staged the freeze-in in Central Station? They also staged a musical in a Food Court. Hat tip: Just a (Reading) Fool.

~ This video is inspiring and really cool. Hat tip: Mental Multivitamin.

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.

Natalie is back home.

You wouldn’t think a house that still contains three boys could be quieter due to the absence of one girl, but it is. I’ve discovered that boy noise is much different than girl noise. Natalie is chatty, like I am, and I didn’t realize how much I was used to her popping into whatever room I’m in to say, “Mom, guess what happened in my book?” or “I found a new Twilight link online.” or “One of my blog friends got her own horse!” or “I only have one chapter left in my book and you read so much faster - could you read it aloud to me?”

The boys can be chatty, too - but more so when I get them one-on-one away from the house. At home their boy noises tend to be more along the lines of “Jon, did you see that - Pow! Got you!” and “Oooo, I took you out!” and “What type is that Pokemon?” Especially during this week, since Kevin promised them lots of extra gaming time since Nan got go go to camp, and they didn’t. (Noah will join her next year, and Jonathan probably the year after that.)

I was very excited that the camp allows us to e-mail our happy campers every day, with the e-mails being printed out and delivered at lunch time. Natalie made my promise to e-mail every day - and this was on top of the little notes I wrote for her to open each morning when she awoke.

Last night, I went to the camp’s web site to send Nan a message for tomorrow, and found that I had to register. Okay, no problem. Then I had to wait for an approval code. Good thing, I guess - they don’t want just anyone sending e-mail to their campers. But, it’s Monday morning, and I still haven’t received my approval code - and Nan’s expecting an e-mail at lunchtime! Aargh!

I wouldn’t be upset except that my dear little Natalie tends to be a worrier. She doesn’t like it when I go on long car trips, and I must always call to let her know I’ve arrived. She worries about little things, big things - it’s something I pray about every day, that God would teach her to rest in His peace. But now I’m worried - because I don’t want her worry and disapointment over not receiving an e-mail to ruin her fun today. So, if you think about it, could you please say a quick prayer for Natalie? And another that they’d send me my gosh-durned approval code already?

Well, we had a little excitement in our neck of the woods yesterday. Winds that were 55 to 60 miles per hour hit our town. We were lucky - we still have power, and we don’t have any trees down in our yard. Others weren’t that lucky - including our city park, where a few trees were uprooted by the wind. Here are some pictures, if you’re interested - click on slideshow.

While the winds were dying down, and our husbands had the kids at Tae Kwon Do, Michelle and I went to see The Incredible Hulk. Not the usual chick flick for a girls’ night out - in fact, I think we might have been the only women there who weren’t accompanying children of the male gender. But, we both needed a night out, and we both like Edward Norton, so…

No big plans for the weekend, other than sending my only daughter off to sleep-away camp for the first time. Sniff. Any of you done this before? How do you not worry?

At Books and Movies this week:

~ Thoughts on the film Into the Wild.

~ Review of Booked to Die, the first of the Cliff “Bookman” Janeway mysteries.

Other links:

~ Anyone else excited about TNT’s The Closer returning Monday night? Here’s an interview with Kyra Sedgewick.

~ William-Adolphe Bouguereau is an incredible artist - I love his paintings of children:

~ I may not agree with Christopher Hitchen’s views on religion, but this article he wrote for Vanity Fair about the interrogation practice of water-boarding is chilling. He agreed to undergo the procedure for research - but be warned: the video is disturbing.

~ On a completely unrelated and much lighter note - I scored 15 out of 20 on this Candy Bar Identification Quiz. Not sure if I should be proud of that, however.

~ This video of a new instrument called an Air Piano is pretty cool.

~ Stephen King’s advice to aspiring writers.

~ A scene from the BBC’s Black Books about responding to a rejection letter from a publisher. Hilarious!

Have a great weekend!

Noah was born ten years ago today. He’s the one in the navy blue striped shirt. Ten years old! I now have two kids in the double-digits. How did that happen? We won’t be celebrating today, because Kevin is taking the kids camping this weekend, and we’ll celebrate at the lake Saturday.

Happy Birthday, Noah! I am very proud of the young man you are becoming. Keep loving Jesus; keep striving to do what’s right.

June’s here! I just wish the weather knew it. We had a few warm, sunny days at the beginning of May, and then the cool rainy days have settled in. Kevin assures me this happens every year, so I must dislike it every year. I don’t want it to jump right to August weather, but I would like some nice 70ish sunny days - the kind that are perfect for reading at the park while the kids play.

Speaking of reading, I love summer vacation. We signed the kids up for summer reading at the library on Monday. The first goal: 5 hours of reading wins you a free book. I took Natalie back today to pick out her free book. Of course, it helps when you have a really mean teacher-mommy who requires you to read an hour a day even during summer break. (It’s funny that she complains about that, and yet goes on to read way more than an hour a day. Figure that out.) It helps even more to be in the middle of a really good book like Twilight.

Speaking of which, I’m about a third of the way into Eclipse. Problem is, I had started Belong to Me by Marisa De Los Santos yesterday at the pool before UPS came, and it is beautifully written, though completely different. So I’m reading both, gulping in chapters at a time, then putting one down and picking up the other. I don’t think I’ll get as much reading done this weekend as last, though, since Kevin wants to take the kids to a fishing derby on Saturday.

We’ve had a few people call about the house, and one group of gentleman come through with a promise to call and come back with the prospective buyer’s wife, but that’s it so far. The house we really want is still on the market, so…. (fingers crossed) Oh, and we sold Kevin’s van - the one that was basically falling apart. We sold it for $250, because the tires were brand new. So, even if it quits running tomorrow, the guy can sell it and recoup his costs. He was just looking for a temporary, run to work car, so it should work out okay.

I only have a few links this week. I haven’t spent as much time online. I’ve also noticed that we seem to be heading into the summer blogging season, during which there are less readers and very few comments. Whatever you’re doing, I hope you’re enjoying your summer!

~ I went to see Iron Man with my mom and dad - here’s my review.

~ Here’s a video of Nan breaking a board during her last Tae Kwon Do promotion.

~ I saw this video of an actress going through 21 accents in less than three minutes at Don’t Try It At Home’s Sunday YouTube. She posts a new video every week, you should check it out.

~ Kevin can never say I have too many books again.

Well, they didn’t accept our offer on that house. Actually, they countered our offer with the stipulation that we list our house with a realtor if we didn’t have a signed purchase agreement within two weeks. We want to give it more time before we decide to give thousands of dollars to a realtor - thousands of dollars that could pay off my “new” van and some other debts so that we can afford the bigger house. So, we let the offer expire, trusting that if that’s the house for us, it will still be available when we do have a signed offer on ours. And if not, there must be another one out there, right?

We survived the weekend with our nephews. Actually, it went really well, and was much easier this year since Andrew is now potty-trained. They all got along fine, except for the typical meltdown once Mommy had picked them up. Isn’t that always how it goes?

This will be a quiet weekend before another busy one, when we’ll be watching Michelle and Don’s boys so they can have some away time. Of course, it will be a gaming weekend. If it’s anything like last year, the boys will surface long enough to eat and sleep and I’ll have lots of hours to read. If it’s nice, I’ll be really mean and force them to get some fresh air in there, too.

Other big news: Natalie is going to sleep-away Bible camp for the first time this year. She’s going with one of her best friends in July. It’s reasonably-priced, not too long of a drive to drop off and pick up (about 3 hours), and comes highly recommended by friends from church. So. I’m trying not to think about the fact that, at age 11, she is more than ready for this. I’m trying not to think about five days with her away from home. She’s been gone that long once before, but she was with my parents, so while I missed her, I didn’t worry. And I’m promising myself I won’t worry this time, either. Snort.

Lots of links to share with you this week:

~ Ellen Page is set to play Jane Eyre in a big screen adaptation. Hmmm. I loved her in Juno, but I’m not sure what I think of this. I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, though.

~ Angela Hunt at A Life in Pages linked to this harrowing, death-defying video. Don’t watch if you have a problem with heights.

~ Any Firefly fans out there? Kevin and I love it, and just recently watched the complete series on DVD all over again. I get angry every time when I think of how the creator, Joss Whedon, and the cast were treated by Fox - and by how it was prematurely cancelled before it was given a chance. Grrr. Well, apparently, Whedon is ready to give the network another try, and his Dollhouse is set to premiere on Fox in January. The trailer looks intriguing.

~ If you’re expecting, Chronicle Books is having a Nursery Sweepstakes.

~ Don’t forget to enter my book giveaway.

I haven’t posted any group shots of the kids, lately, so here’s one their computer class teacher took this week. Natalie (11) is the girl, of course. Jonathan (8) is in orange, Noah (9) is in the blue stripes, and Josiah (6) is in front.

Josiah (age 7): I’m getting a lot taller, Dad!

Kevin: How do you know?

Josiah: Because when I pee, the toilet’s a lot farther away.

The two items mentioned in the title may seem completely unrelated, but they’re not.

Our dryer went kaput last night. It had been stumbling along, half-drying clothes for a few days, during which I alternated between telling myself, “There’s something wrong with the dryer; it’s gonna quit any day” and complete denial: “It’s just your imagination. That was a really big load - it’s completely normal to have to re-start the dryer four times to get the seams in your jeans to dry completely.”

Then, last night, when I sent Natalie downstairs with a load of damp laundry to ask Kevin to put them back in, he came up and told me that the dryer would no longer turn on. Shoot.

I called the repairman this morning, expecting to hear that I would have to wait until Monday, but he actually showed up before noon! He followed Kevin downstairs and took the dryer away from the wall and then proceeded to pull a sippy cup out of the dryer vent that leads out of the house. A sippy cup with a little Precious Moments girl on it - the kind we haven’t used since we first moved into the house in 2000. Because our eleven-year-old daughter was then four and still used sippy cups. And obviously she also liked stuffing them down the dryer vent from it’s little opening next to the back porch.

The sippy cup didn’t kill our dryer, however, though it might have sped up it’s demise. I am still not sure what it was that the guy replaced, but it took him all of about ten minutes and cost a whopping $93.75.

Remember that secret project I told you Andrea was working on for me? Well, what do you think of the new look? Be sure to scroll down to the very bottom of the page for the cool image in the footer. There are a couple of wonky things in the sidebar, but they’ll be figured out soon. Thanks, Andrea! It’s perfect - just what I imagined.

Josiah: Noah, I read two of the Frog and Toad books, and I’m not even allowed!

Noah: What do you mean?

Josiah: It says right on the book: “Grades 1 through 3.” I’m only in kindergarten!

Later, he came downstairs and announced to Kevin and I that he couldn’t play Stratego anymore, that it was against the rules. I said, “What rules?” His response? “The box says ages 8 and up!”

He also created some sort of booby-trap in the bathroom, involving piles of books covered with unrolled toilet paper. Then he came and confessed it to me, prefacing it with, “Mommy, don’t be mad, but…” Can you guess what TV show we’ve been watching on DVD? Yep, Macgyver!

(Caillou’s Family Favorites was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of review.)

There are a few cartoons that I will always look on with fondness, no matter how old my children get. The stuff they love now, like Yugioh, Pokemon, Sonic? Not so much. The shows I will always remember fondly include Little Bear, Franklin, Kipper, and Caillou. The gentle animation and sweet characters make for peaceful cartoon viewing. No one is battling or playing loud rock music or, generally, driving Mommy crazy.

I’m blessed enough to still have one child in the right age demographic for these gentler shows. Josiah is 6, and he loves Caillou. Funny thing is, when the Caillou’s Family Favorites DVD came to review, he wasn’t the only one watching it.

This DVD has four episodes, each of which has four little adventures. The titles are “Caillou’s Surprise,” “People I Love,” “Captain Caillou,” and “Knowing How.”

(Snow Buddies was provided to me by Click Communications for the purpose of review.)

The five lovable talking pups are back in a brand new escapade! Hip-hoppin’ B-Dawg, the feisty RoseBud, zen Buddha, dirt-loving MudBud and the big fella Budderball are off to the Arctic for a daring Alaskan dogsled race. This time, the Buddies are joined by two new friends, a wise old sled Alaskan sled dog, Talon, and Shasta, a husky pup as well as a couple of not-so-friendly new acquaintances, as they tackle hilarious and hair-raising exploits in a heartwarming story of teamwork, triumph of the puppy spirit and adventure. Snow Buddies stars Dylan Sprouse, Jim Belushi and Kris Kristofferson. Robert Vince and Anna McRoberts return as writers and producers with Vince once again taking the reins as director. The DVD includes all new bonus, including hilarious bloopers, a brand new music video featuring Hannah Montana’s Mitchel Musso putting a hip-hop spin on the classic tune, “Lean on Me,” a behind the scenes “dog-u-mentary,” and more!

An unauthorized detour onto an ice cream truck lands the five Buddies on the next plane to Alaska in this all new adventure! Stranded in the small Arctic town of Ferntiuktuk, the pups are befriended by Shasta, a husky pup, and his owner, a young boy named Adam. The boy has big dreams of becoming a sled dog racer and even his dad’s fears can’t stop him from entering the big race. If the Buddies can get him to the finish line they will be on their way home, so they turn to the wise old Husky hermit Talon for mentorship. Sure they can win with the former champion sled dog in their corner, the pups go into intensive training. But on the day of the race, they unexpectedly find themselves on their own. Unfamiliar terrain, harsh weather conditions and dirty tricks from a rival musher teach the Buddies some valuable lessons about heart, friendship and following your dreams. It’s not the size of the individual dogs in the race but the heart of the team that counts.

Noah’s review: “It was a very cute movie. It was about these five puppies who accidentally get shipped to Ferntiuktuk, Alaska. The only way to get back is to go back to the airport, but they first have to win a dogsled race. So they make a dogsled team and they race. 3 and a half stars.”

Jonathan’s review: “My favorite part of Snow Buddies was when Butterball went into an ice cream box and the sledding race. My other favorite part is when Rosebud went into the shack and got a stylish thing and it was really funny. I loved it so much! Five stars!”

Josiah’s review: “My favorite parts were when they won the sled race and when B-dog said “It looks kind of dark” and then an owl went “hoot hoot” then B-dog said “on second thought, it looks kind of cozy.” That’s one of my favorite parts. It was very funny. Five stars!”

As you can see, the boys loved Snow Buddies. They’ve already watched it twice. How can you go wrong with adorable puppies? This DVD releases today, February 5th.