Dear PM, I'm so sorry you were sick, but glad you went to the ER before it got worse! Prayers for you here & gentle hugs.

No. it's just wrong- not his category.

((Hugs))

for movies, also, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears. And for a satirical look at the USSR while you learn Russian, look at Alexander Lipson's curriculum. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/089357080X/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TSSY1WP7BR16N3G0M95W

Try reading Breaking Stalin's Nose by Yevgeny Yelchin. Terrific book. We met him at a book signing and he is Wonderful. he has some other books too. https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Stalins-Nose-Eugene-Yelchin-ebook/dp/B0051O9MOA If you are interested in a Christian angle, read Everyday Saints: https://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Saints-Russian-Orthodox-Archimandrite/dp/0984284834 "A Prayer for Chernobyl" is awesome. She won the Nobel for it. But it is very, very dark- just warning you so you can discern whether your kids should read it. I was destroyed after I read it. But it will give you a very, very good picture of life there. There is a book called Black and White about growing up in an orphanage there. I think it's by Galiego or Gallegos. I've been told about it, but it is reportedly very, very dark also and I could not handle it so soon after reading Chernobyl Prayer. Good luck!

Laughingcat said: " I was walking out of the library the other day and saw a sign about Banned Books -- it was something about number of books challenged -- and the way it was phrased, instead of it making me reflect on the joys of freedom in reading instead I thought exactly as Chrysalis Academy is saying above... that there was nothing wrong with speaking up to say something if you found a book inappropriate for the age group in the children's or young adults section, and that they shouldn't be censoring people for pointing something like that out. For some reason, it felt like the sign was like dissing anyone who ever challenged as if it were impossible that there could be any good reason to do so." I absolutely agree with you, thank you for saying this. I hate the idea that we must embrace every book for every age, Or else we are some kind of fascist ignoramuses!

I really like the book We Have Always Lived in the Castle-- it is so strange, yet beautiful. I've never heard of anyone else ever reading it! Just in time for your October theme, I've been trying out the mystery writer Ngaio Marsh... I had heard that she is to be compared with Christie, Sayers and Allingham as "The Big Four" so I thought I'd try her. I read "Enter a Murderer" and "Vintage Murder" which are both just okay... both are about murder in a theater company, and both have a clever plot and nice detective. But with both of them... I got impatient. Sometimes it's just not interesting to watch the detective try to figure things out by making lists, etc. You want to know what happens and not get slowed down by tedious workmanship. I have to admit it... I skipped to the end of both books. But then I read her "Death of a Peer" and I found something so different- so much better, almost as if she had developed into a different writer altogether. The main characters in this one are an eccentric, delightful family- something that you might see in Testament, or even- Peter Wimsey's mother- this kind of fearfully intelligent but very scatterbrained nobility. They are fun and they deserved a whole book for their own sake, even if there were no mystery. I really enjoyed this one and there was no temptation to ruin it by skipping ahead. I will be interested to read more of her.

Where we live, (PNW) deer will eat up tulips. I think it's their favorite food! I only plant them in window boxes now- they do look kind of striking there. Good luck!

The best book to start with is The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware, (also called Kallistos Ware). It's an adult level book, though, so if your DC are little something else might be better. Enjoy your explorations!

This is kind of fun: a dessert dash- don't know if that would work for your group? If you are sitting at tables. http://www.readysetauction.com/blog/dessert-dash-how-to-add-a-sweet-goodbye-to-your-auction-fundraiser

This is kind of fun: a dessert dash- don't know if that would work for your group? https://www.google.com/search?q=dessert+dash&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

I can't quite believe that it's not a hoax?

Lots of signs here in our area- also signs being vandalized or stolen.

I wouldn't choose it the word Yankee as an alternative to American or USian. In Chile (and perhaps in other Latin American countries?), "Yanqui" means an aggressive, imperialistic American. It's an insulting way to address or describe us.

PM, I'm sorry to disagree... I know of numerous occasions when a person has been told they are not welcome any more by the church leadership. All of the instances I know of were for pretty bad behavior: violence, or stealing, or persistent troublemaking. I've never personally seen this done capriciously. Sometimes the person would be welcome back in case of coming to be reconciled to the church through confession- I've seen this happen too. But in this case you run into the same issue Cin raised about, how can you tell the repentance is sincere. Mistakes could be made in either direction. And the congregation woudn't know what happened in the setting of confession because it's strictly confidential. I'm thinking that the process Cin is discussing about ongoing accountability would be similar to the relationship of the person to the confessor.

It seems like a really difficult situation, and I don't know if I have anything to add as far as advice, but I'm interested in what you say about 'submitting to regular accountability.' What would this actually look like? Thanks!

Hmmm... I haven't yet found any parents who wanted to do it...

I do, all the time. Sometimes the political bias annoys me and I switch it off. But I always switch it back on again. I can not bear even 5 minutes of the stations from the opposing viewpoint, so it's always back to NPR. They have the most intelligent in-depth analysis.

I've been reading Ursula Le Guin's Steering the Craft-- about writing, and has lots of writing exercises.I really liked this book & it ranks up there as one of the most helpful I've read, about writing. One of the examples she used was Virginia Woolf, so I got Mrs Dalloway and read it... I was a bit disappointed. Le Guin uses her as an example in her discussion of shifting point of view and omniscience, but I found it more interesting technically rather than an enjoyable novel... Woolf gets so caught up in the beauty of language, like Nabokov or Joyce or Gertrude Stein, that she loses the reader. She lost me! I kept feeling that inside this book is a quite nice book, introspective/sentimental/existential yet cheerful in its way- more along the lines of Barbara Pym or even Agatha Christie- struggling to get out! Also just read Longbourn- it's the story of Pride & Prejudice from the point of view of the Bennett household's servants... But again, the story about the servants was too thin to support a whole novel, even with the known-to-the-reader framework of Austen's novel hopefully supporting it. Plus, there was too much about the Bennett girls' dirty laundry. Blech! Thanks for letting me share!

My 7th grader has been offered the chance to participate in Future Problem Solving at middle school. Anyone know about it? I've read over the description and it seems to me that middle schoolers don't yet have the factual knowledge across many fields to give them a basis to try to grapple with the big issues that they are supposed to come up with "solutions" for. That seems kind of loosey-goosey. I'd rather have him spend his time learning a new language or doing logic or something more specific. This year the topics include identity theft, 3D printing, educational disparities. I don't really get it. Have any Hive kids participated in it? Is it worth it? It seems to be the only thing offered for GAT this year at the school, besides math, so I hate to dismiss it out of hand. Thanks! Nyssa

What I'm worried about is not only the abusive behavior, but saying that "CPS will be sorry if they show up@- what does that mean? Do the parents have guns? Are they liable to become violent on a large scale?

I would talk to one or two key people- that should be enough to steer the conversation if necessary. I would not email everyone.

I love the thread title- I was expecting to hear about something like a Mystery Shopper job we could get- We could go into various bookstores and secretly read books and review them, and get paid for it... Is that a thing? :)

Just sharing a recent victory in this kind of thing that might be helpful: I was caught between our insurance company and a major pharmacy chain about whether something was covered. After numerous difficult calls to insurance company, calls and visits in person to various pharmacies, talking and emailing with our employee advocate... We were getting nowhere. Finally the insurance lady called the pharmacy herself, and it quickly all worked out. I was imagining Aetna and Walgreens duking it out without me :) If your insurance rep will call the Dr office directly, maybe they can sort it out?

:(