love to paint

Two of my favorite movies are Wives and Daughters and North and South .   They are both written by Elizabeth Gaskell.  I love the development of the characters and the story lines.  I think I love them more than Pride and Prejudice actually.  I know that often books end differently than movies, so I wanted to read the book endings. I did. And I didn't like them! Ms. Gaskell actually passed away before she finished Wives and Daughters .  I think the BBC did a great job coming up with a great ending.  The book ends before the story ends.  As for North and South , Margaret is such a different sort of character in the book than in the movie!  She's so much more froofy and fluffy in the book.  She is also much more inconstant and caught up in society.  This is not how she is portrayed in the movie.  In the BBC version of North and South , the characters are consistent in character and believable to me.  They do leave out deta...

I remember waiting for each installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy to come out on the big screen.  It was early in my marriage and the films came out around December, if I remember correctly.  It was hard to wait!  I've been waiting again because o ver the past three years, I've been reading Bryan Litfin's Chiveis Trilogy .  One by one they've been published.  The final book was just published in June.  The trilogy tells the story of the demise of our world due to a deadly virus.  The remnant left alive enter a modern dark age and Christianity is hidden.  A dark religion takes over the minds of the people.  The trilogy is about the search for Christ. The first book, The Sword , surprised me.  It was a book of speculative fiction--a genre that is not my usual choice.  I enjoyed the development of the main characters, Teo and Ana.  The plot took unexpected turns.   The second book, The Gift , was a solid sequel. ...

Last December, when we moved to our new home, we gave my daughters a beta tank and two male betas.  We have one of those beta tanks that has a divider in the middle, because betas will kill each other if they are in the same vicinity.  My daughters are responsible for feeding the fish and I am responsible for cleaning the tank.  I knew the tank needed some more water and some care, but I'd been putting it off. One day last week, I walked into my daughters' bedroom and looked at their beta tank.  I was startled when I realized they were both on the same side!  Alarmed, I ran to get to measuring cups and the fish net.  I took the fish out and realized that I had put the divider in upside down.  The blue beta had scooted under the divider and gone to the other side.  In the process, his fins had gotten mightily nipped by the other beta.  I didn't realize this at first though.  I was so focused on fixing the tank that I didn't look closely...

I sat a moment just now trying to think of a "catchy" title for this book review, but in the end have decided that the title of the book is as good a title for  this post as any.  This week I sat down with Dr. Dobson's book Bringing Up Girls .  It was an interesting experience.  Dr. Dobson's book Bringing Up Boys has become one of those books that everyone knows, mentions in conversations, and has read or knows someone who has.   Bringing Up Girls was written by Dobson and then published in 2010 for parents of girls in response to parents asking for a similar book about girls.   Seven years ago, I would have picked up this book and responded a certain with to Dobson's words.  This week I responded in a completely different way than I would have then.  Seven years ago, I was in my early 30s and the mother of one little girl with one on the way. My husband and I had only just moved to a new state and were adjusting to a completely different p...

When I've talked to friends about teaching art to their children and as I've contemplated myself, I've noticed that we all have two main desires.  First, we want our children to experience the creativity of making their artistic pieces.  Second, we want them to understand and appreciate the different types of art--both contemporary and of the past.  Often we find that a curriculum focuses on one or the other. A few months ago, I came across a curriculum that does both.  It is Artistic Pursuits .  It is written by Brenda Ellis.  For some reason, her website is giving me problems today, but it is normally www.artisticpursuits.com.  You can find her books on Amazon or CBD.  This series has one book for preschool (only available through her website), three for grades K-3, two for grades 4-6, two for junior high, and two for high schoool.   I have been working through some of the lessons in the first K-3 book with my children.  There ar...

The internet is such a complicated thing.  When I'm searching for a reproducible form for homeschooling, I have to type in a couple of combinations usually before I find what I'm looking for.  In order to use the internet effectively, I think there are a couple of things I need to do. 1) I need to construct an internet notebook with tabs/sections where I write down the sites for various subjects that I like.  I think it would also be a good idea to write the date when I find the site. 2) I need to have a good file system where I can file forms that I particularly like--that might not be there the next time I need them. But, until I have a good system like that in place, it's nice to have a place to start.  I found some ideas in a book I recently read through, Free Resources for Elementary Teachers by Colleen Kessler.  I have to be honest, I had big hopes for this book and it didn't quite measure up to those hopes.  I had a few specific types of files...

I came across a fiction book that I was curious to read.  The summary said was the story of a soldier who'd returned home with a spine injury and of the woman he'd loved.  I was curious to see how the author handled the issues injured soldiers and their families face. The book was titled Travelers Rest .  The author is Ann Tatlock. Jane is in Asheville, North Carolina for the summer.  She's a teacher and is on summer break.  Her fiancee, Seth, has been transferred to the VA rehabilitation hospital there.  She isn't sure what's ahead for them. Seth feels hopeless.  He was a carpenter before he went to fight.  Now he cannot use his hands let alone his feet.  He does believe in God, but he doesn't know what the meaning of all of this is. And then there's Truman.  He's a resident at the hospital who helps out since he's a retired doctor. This story is a story of the journey back to hope and healing.  That healing doesn't alw...

I have always felt the deep irony in my life that I was raised in a Quaker church and then married a soldier in the army.  I am patriotic and feel a deep sense of thankfulness for our soldiers and their families who support them.  This morning I read a great column in the Baltimore Sun.  A soldier's wife shared her story of having her second child while her husband was deployed.  You can read it here .  I was reminded of the sense of loyalty I have for our country and also of a completely different subject--pregnancy and delivery. I just finished perusing a book titled Jasmine and Fire by Salma Abdelnour.  The author and I don't see eye to eye on so many levels, but there were some things that I am told she portrays very accurately in her book.  One particular topic she mentions is patriotism.  She views it almost like religion.  I couldn't find the passage in her book to directly quote how she feels, but seemed to think that patriotism an...