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!

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

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.

It’s up.

Drop whatever you’re doing and go watch it now. I mean it, now. Go. What are you waiting for?

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!

Happy July, everyone! Can you believe that June is over? It went very, very fast - mostly because we were so incredibly busy.

Any plans for Independence Day? We’re heading to Mom and Dad’s for the day. Dad’s got some leftover pre-cut catamarans from camp, so the kids are going to make cool wooden sailboats, and then we’re going to head to Chewelah park to float them in the creek. We’ll have chicken and potato salad for dinner, and then celebrate my sister Marni’s birthday. Her 29th - my baby sister is turning 29! How did that happen?

We’ll spend Saturday with them, too, celebrating Dad’s 60th birthday. Then Marni and Hans and the boys will spend Sunday and Monday saying their goodbyes to Hans’ parents. Tuesday morning, we will say our goodbyes. Sniff. They will be leaving for St. Louis at the end of the month, but with gas prices the way they are, Marni needing to get their apartment packed up, Natalie’s Bible camp in the middle of the month, and us leaving on the 27th for our trip to the Oregon Coast, we won’t be able to see them before then.

Well, I refuse to think about that until I have to. Here are some links for your Independence Day weekend:

~ If you love words as much as I do, you’ll love Visuwords. Type in any word, and watch what it does with it!

~ Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? is giving away up to five prize packages - each one containing 14 books!

~ There’s another book giveaway at The Tome Traveller.

~ Quantum of Solace, the next Bond movie starring (the yummy) Daniel Craig, opens on my birthday, November 7th - here’s the trailer.

~ Joss Whedon, of Firefly and Serenity brilliance, is presenting Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along blog, a 42-minute web-musical that will be presented in three 14 minute episodes. It stars Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion, from Firefly. Part one will go live on July 15th, part two on the 17th, and part three on the 19th. It will remain online until midnight the 20th, with a probable DVD release after that, but while it’s online, it’s free.

~ Didn’t this already happen in an animated children’s film?

~ Anyone else looking forward to Mamma Mia? Here’s the trailer.

~ Feeling apathetic about the upcoming presidential election? The Onion has created a video to help those who couldn’t care less. It’s satire, of course - don’t want to get any comments reminding me how important it is to do my civic duty.

~ Author Dennis Cass presents Book Launch 2.0.

~ Why does everyone hate homeschooling moms?

Methinks American middle-class people are uncomfortable around the home schooled for the same reason the alcoholic is uneasy around the teetotaler.

Their very existence represents a rejection of our values, and an indictment of our lifestyles. Those families are willing to render unto Caesar the things that Caesar’s be, but they draw the line at their children. Those of us who have put our trust in the secular state (and effectively surrendered our children to it) recognize this act of defiance as a rejection of our values, and we reject them in return. (emphasis mine)

Here’s what I’ve been blogging at Books and Movies this week:

~ An Incomplete Education

~ Squids Will Be Squids: Fresh Morals, Beastly Fables

~ The Bucket List

~ Kung Fu Panda

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.

This week involved a lot of driving: to and from basketball camp every day, to the dentist, grocery shopping, etc. I love my “new” minivan, but I’m hoping not to spend as much time in it next week! That hope is in vain, though, since VBS starts Monday.

I’m sitting in a quiet house right now. Kevin and all three boys are at archery, and Natalie is at a slumber party. Now that Josiah has decided to take archery, too, I will have every Thursday evening all by my lonesome. Woot!

Kevin and the boys are going camping tomorrow. After Nan’s last day of basketball camp tomorrow, she and I will have a girls’ night and watch 27 Dresses. Saturday, we will head to the lake for Noah’s birthday celebration. Monday, VBS starts…. Things don’t look to slow down any time soon. Sigh.

~ How to Recognize a Blond Antelope. Hat tip: Angela Hunt.

~ For all of you who have sons who have ever asked: What Happens When You Go Number Two in Space. Hat tip: Challies.

~ You know how I’ve been raving about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series? I’m reading her other novel, The Host, right now - and it’s shaping up to be a great read, too. You can enter to win an entire Stephenie Meyer library at Maw Books Blog.

~ A soldier finds a way to stay sane in Iraq.

~ Amazing pictures of ovulation. Hat tip: A Quiet Simple Life.

~ Don’t forget to enter my Gone giveaway.

~ Speaking of giveaways, Booking Mama is giving away a copy of The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton.

~ Video interview with Neil Gaiman, author of Neverwhere, Coraline, and Anansi Boys.

Here’s what I’ve been blogging at Books and Movies this week:

~ Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - the kids and I went to see it over the weekend.

~ I reviewed Life Studies: Stories by Susan Vreeland.

~ The AFI’s 10 Top 10 Special.

I just got finished reading the news. Sigh. Do you ever just get tired of it all: gas prices, flooding, a toddler beaten to death, and it just goes on and on and on…

I needed a mood-lifter after that, and this little baby belly-laughing was just right.

How was your week? Mine was busy. Let’s see: two trips to the pool, two trips to the library, one trip to Wal-mart, one orthodontist appointment, minus one boy for a sleepover, plus one girl for a sleepover, one evening out to dinner spending a little bit of our tax stimulus check, rain and cooler temperatures than we’re used to for June. (But at least it didn’t snow!) Oh, and I discovered that Supernatural is a much too scary show to watch; it causes nightmares. Even in grown women. It might even - hypothetically - cause them to sleep with the light on.

Our weekend is shaping up like this: head to Mom and Dad’s tomorrow night to celebrate an early Father’s Day since Dad has to leave Sunday afternoon to be a counselor at Royal Family Kids Camp (did I mention my Dad is awesome?), take the kids to the rodeo on Saturday, and celebrate Dad’s day with Kevin on Sunday. And next week I will put on my chauffeur cap as I ferry Nan and her friend back and forth to basketball camp every day. Phew!

~ Here are some good book suggestions for the men - or teenaged boys - in your life.

~ Rod Dreher at Crunchy Con had the same thoughts I did when I heard about John McCain’s plans for Mars:

I know it’s obligatory for American politicians to come up with new goals in the space race. It’s also obligatory to tell people who criticize this kind of thing that they’re a bunch of plodders who have no sense of adventure, and who fail to honor something deep in the human spirit.

But you know what? Plodder that I am, I don’t want this country to put a thin dime toward sending a man to Mars until we have figured out what to do about the long-term energy crisis in this country. I know, I know, you could substitute any cause you want to for space exploration (How can we send a man to the moon when there are people going without health care?!, etc.). But get this: oil just closed today a smidge shy of $140 a barrel — up over $10 in a single day. Biggest one-day jump ever.

~ Hopewell Takes on Life has some well-spoken words about trying to be the perfect Christian mother.

~ This amazing baby was born twice.

~ Are you an Overachieving Homeschooler? Take this quiz and find out. I scored a 29. I’m not an overachiever anymore.

~ What do you get when you cross a Rube Goldberg machine and a Cadbury Creme Egg? This. Hat tip: Don’t Try It At Home.

~ Ever felt like The Invisible Woman? Then this video is for you.

~ Don’t forget to share your thoughts on the worst book, movie, and TV endings.

~ If that list isn’t long enough to keep you busy, there’s a whole ‘nother list (with different links) at Books and Movies.

Have a great weekend!

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.

So, last week we bought a “new” (to us) mini-van. Today, we made an offer on a house. Yes, life has been interesting here at the Mommy Brain household. The offer is, of course, contingent on selling our home. We haven’t heard back from the sellers yet, so we’re still waiting, fingers crossed.

It has been a dream to move into a bigger house for a while now. Our home is fairly small, and the bigger the kids get, the smaller it seems. Not to mention only having one bathroom, and a girl about to turn twelve… The house we put an offer on has four bedrooms, 2.5 baths (about which Natalie exclaimed, “Half our family could be going at the same time!”), central AC, large living room, large family room downstairs, laundry on the main floor, and a fully remodeled kitchen with gorgeous hickory cabinets. I loved it the first time I saw it, but I’m trying not to get my heart set on it. A log of hoop-jumping must occur before it could be ours. Prayers would be appreciated - especially for our house to sell quickly.

I need to get some deep-cleaning done - which doesn’t happen very often during our homeschool year - but won’t be able to do much this weekend. My nephews, Peter and Andrew, are coming in the morning to spend the weekend. It has been our pleasure to have the boys for at least one weekend a year while Marni and Hans have some much-needed alone-time. This weekend is especially meaningful, since it will be the last time we will have them before Marni and Hans move to St. Louis this summer. Sunday afternoon, we will celebrate Andrew’s 4th birthday at Mom and Dad’s house. If I have any energy left at all, I’m planning to take the kids to see Prince Caspian on Monday afternoon; it actually came to our little rural theater the first weekend it opened! Anyone else planning to see it this weekend?

The oldest three kids have started archery on Thursday nights. Their Tae Kwon Do instructor offers archery once a week after junior class during the summer. Tonight was their first class, and they came home full of excitement - and an argument about whether Legolas or Robin Hood would win an archery competition.

~ I received another freelancing assignment - this one a (slightly) paid blogging gig at Today.com. My blog there is called Books and Movies - head on over if you feel like it. You’ll see some repeat posts about books, but most of the posts there will be strictly entertainment based, and I am planning to liveblog Lost tonight. (Yes, I know the title of this post is “Links for Friday,” but I have more time to post in the evenings, and once I have it written, I might as well publish it for all of you night owls out there, right?) The paid part of this assignment is partially based on traffic, so any clicks or links would be highly appreciated - and I promise not to mention it here too often, for fear of self-advertising.

~ Robin at MartinZoo posted this adorable video. See if you can get “Hey, Jude” out of your head after watching it.

~ This comic could easily happen at our house.

~ Armchair Commentary has posted the Top 5 Celebrity Gap Commercials. I never knew that was Claire Danes!

~ Randy Alcorn is giving away three copies of his new novel Deception. I haven’t read it yet, but I loved Deadline and Dominion - the first two books in the series.

~ Kamp Krusty has a unique idea to fix the environment.

~ I’ve probably posted this before, but you have to check out the Literature Map. Enter the name of a favorite author, and up will pop a map of other author’s names. The closer to your author, the more they are similar. Pretty cool.

Well, that’s all for now. Enjoy your weekend!

It’s been a wild and crazy week. On Monday, Kevin called from work and said he wasn’t sure if his van would make it home, so please stay by the phone in case he needed picked up. This wasn’t a surprise. His van is a 1992 Grand Voyager with close to 200,000 miles on it - he’s pretty much driven it into the ground. It needs thousands of dollars of work, but isn’t worth even a thousand.

So, Tuesday, we went out and bought a new van - you can see a picture at Nan’s blog. Actually, it’s not new - it’s a 2003 Plymouth Voyager, but that’s the closest to a new vehicle we’ve ever come. He will take my 1995 Ford Windstar, and I get the new one! I love the color - and the best thing is that it only has 31,150 miles on it. Oh, and it has sliding doors on both sides, so when I go shopping and there are too many bags to fit in the back, the kids can get out without cracking the eggs.

Other than that, nothing much is happening around here. We’re still plugging away at school, and enjoying the nice warm days amid the rainy, thunder-and-lightning ones.

~ My brother-in-law Hans just completed a composition course at Moody Bible Institute in preparation for starting at Covenant Theological Seminary in August. His final paper was titled “For Goodness’ Sake: How a Particular Longing for Purity Can Undermine the Spread of the Gospel”. You can read it here - it is very well-written and he makes some great points about engaging culture.

~ Chris at Book-a-rama posted this YouTube video of various BBC actors playing Consequences with the books they are reading in honor of the 2008 National National Year of Reading.

~ Michelle e-mailed me the link to this blog that is all about bookshelves. Be sure and scroll through the past pages, there are some amazing and bizarre ways to shelve books.

~ Entertainment Weekly has posted a slideshow list of 24 Bad Romantic Comedies. Hat Tip to Robin Lee Hatcher. Okay, I’ll tell you which ones I really like - or even love - if you’ll share, too. I liked Maid in Manhattan, Nine Months, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, I Love Trouble, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I LOVED Fools Rush In, Father Goose, and Two Weeks Notice. I guess I’m just a sucker for a romantic comedy. Anyone have a bad one that should have made their list?

~ Switchfoot has recorded a song for the closing credits of the upcoming Prince Caspian movie. You can watch the video - which has scenes from the movie - here. Hat tip to Challies.

~ Think you can trust Amazon reviewers to be objective and unbiased - the common person’s review? Think again.

Full disclosure: It was late at night, in a fit of furtive self-Googling, that I discovered the first Amazon customer review of my debut book of fiction. “Superb,” wrote Grady Harp of Los Angeles. “Fascinating … addictive.” Not to mention “profound.” Such extravagance should have aroused suspicion, but I was too busy basking in the glow of a five-star rave to worry about the finer points of Harp’s style. Sure, he’d spelled my name wrong, but hadn’t he also judged me “a sensitive observer of human foibles”? Only when I noticed the “Top 10 Reviewer” tag did I wonder whether Grady Harp was more than just a satisfied customer. After a brief e-mail exchange, my publicist confirmed that she’d solicited Grady Harp’s review.

~ If you’re nostalgic for the ’80s, check out this collection of the Top 15 Most Awesome Celebrity Mullets. Hat tip to Cindy Swanson.

Have a great weekend, everyone - and Happy Mother’s Day to all of my mom readers.