You all are cracking me up with Paul and his short shorts. I finished "I Capture the Castle" yesterday. Here's my favorite quote from book: "It seems to me now that the whole day was like an avenue leading to a home I had loved once but forgotten, the memory of which was coming back some dimly, so gradually, as I wandered along, that only when my ome at last lay before me did I cry: “Now I know why I have been happy!†How words weave spells? As I wrote of the avenue, it rose before my eyes- I can see it now, liked with great smooth-trunked trees whose branches meet far above me. The still air is flooded with peace, yet somehow expectant- as it seemed to me once when I was in King’s Crypt cathedral at sunset. On and on I wander, beneath the vaulted roof of branch and leaf...and all the time, the avenue is yesterday, that long approach to beauty. Images in the mind, how strange they are......" The book made me long for England, ruins and this place: http://www.aboutbritain.com/images/attraction/NewsteadAbbey-E609-276.jpg

This is what I am finding. I need to really set boundaries and take care of myself or else I match the kids' intensity.

Ack! I can't see the thumbnails but that might be my temperamental computer. I'm reading "I Capture the Castle" and am loving it. I love to laugh when reading and this is perfect.

Parkinson's also causes loss of impulse control so he may have felt suicidal and moved forward on almost a whim.

Sending my best to you during this transition. I'm set to finish The Scarlet Letter today and wonder why in the world they had us read a shortened version in high school. Ugh. It's short and an easy read so why shorten it more? My library holds drifted in so I get to chose between "S", "I Capture the Castle", Abu-Jaber's "Birds of Paradise", or "The Last Unicorn". I'm leaning towards "I Capture the Castle" for my next read. I also started Coursera's Greek and Roman Mythology lectures and am due to start my next Hebrew course.

Have you seen this site for math games? http://www.educationunboxed.com/

I liked it. When she went running outside in just her underwear, my brother laughed and told me, "I can so see you doing that." So that's what he thinks of me....

I almost wonder if you could take a wedding dress (like an old one with big poofey sleeves) and change it to make it work. . I have one that wants to be a squirrel or Circe. Circe looks easier to make than the squirrel costume.

Here's my reading list so far. I can't remember at this point what book I started the new year with. :leaving: List Started December 12, 2013 1) The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers 2) The Pilgrim’s Progress 3) One thousands Gifts by Ann Voskamp 4) Tonight No Poetry Will Serve by Adrienne Rich 5) She Stoops To Conquer 6) Don Quixote 7) Shakespeare’s Sonnets 8) Bible Reading so far: Genesis, Exodus, Judges, 1 Samuel-Chronicles, Psalms 9) The Secret Garden 10) The Alexander Technique by Richard Brennan 11) Number The Stars 12) The Trumpet of the Swan 13) Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry 14) Jane Eyre 15) The Confessions by St. Augustine 16) For the Children’s Sake 17) Gulliver’s Travels 18) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 19) The Language of Baklava 20) Heaven is for Real 21) The Mismeasure of Man 22) Herodotus’s Histories “Nothing mortal travels faster than a Persian with a message.†23) T.S Elliot, The complete Poems and Plays 24)Elie Wiesel, All Rivers Run to the Sea 25) The Lost World of Genesis 26) Beth Moore’s “The Patriarchs†27) Epic of Gilgamesh 28) Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis 29) Chocolat 30) Possession by A.S. Byatt 31) The Book of Marjorie Kempe 32) C.S. Lewis Reflection on Psalms 33) Norms and Nobility 34) Beth Moore’s Psalms of Ascent- Currently Reading 35) The Scarlett Letter- Currently Reading

I finished Norms and Nobility. The first half I enjoyed. He is very hard on educators, especially when his thoughts are applied to today's teachers who often do not much liberty in their classrooms. I really did not connect much with what he said in the second half of the book. I'm working Beth Moore's "Stepping Up: A Journey Through the Psalms of Ascent" and highly recommend it for Christians. Between her study and Andrew Kern's lecture on Teaching from a State of Rest, Psalm 127 is ingrained in my brain forever. So now I'm waiting on a bunch of "fun" books to arrive at the library and reading The Scarlet Letter in the meantime.

Lizzie Siddal (the model for Ophelia and a lot of the Pre-Raphaelites) is both fascinating and tragic. I believe she was ill when she posed for Ophelia, too professional to quitt and died shortly after.

I just noticed that auto correct. :). Somewhat fitting.

Post parting depression looks easy in this day and age compared to what she went through. I kept thinking about the recent menopause thread when reading her account. Hormones can do terrible things to a person. Her decision to call herself "the creature" I find disturbing. I started Norms and Nobility. Wow. I should have read this years ago but I think my brain would have exploded.

I finished the Book of Margery Kempe. This is decidedly not one of my favorites. At some point, I realized that I value seeing personal growth in the people I read about. The way she portrays herself shows very little personal growth except in the beginning. Instead, there's a lot of weeping to show how devoted she is and how she suffers. Blah..... I also finished C.S. Lewis's Reflections on Psalms. I thought his view of marathon psalm 119 interesting. http://merecslewis.blogspot.com/2011/03/psalm-119-sweeter-than-honey-part-1.html

Mary Pope Osborne's "Tales from the Odyssey" is excellent if you want something else to listen to. Also, Great Hall Productions has a curriculum guide for their audio (many of these are available here through the library) http://www.greathall.com/curriculum.html We've enjoyed all our Magic School Bus science kits.

Praying for your mom mumto2. I'm on my phone so apologize for any oddities in this post. I finished Pride and Prejudice and rally enjoyed it. I started Margorie Kempe and am very surprised. I thought I was going to read a book about a politician's wife and instead am reading about a fervent Christian woman who goes mad after childbirth. Norms and Nobility awaits in the wings. I have the Beth Moore Psalm workbook started and C.S. Lewis's book on psalms going as well. I want to take a break after this and do some fluff reading but was offered a part time editing job and may buck up and read Elements of Style and a grammar book....or something.

I'm reading Pride and Prejudice and am enjoying it. I'm trying to finish it before I pick up all the library holds.

That would be the ideal wouldn't it?

Art of Argument is what I was looking at before put up the original post. I guess if its too advanced I could always modify it and then it would be in the house for future use as well.

Thank you Dialectica. "Critical Thinking" looks like it might be an option.

Thank you Gil. :cheers2: Last year, we did an edited version of Fallacy Detective (I don't suggest this book) and her arguments were better and less fervent so I think we need to keep exploring how to argue.

Yes, but I've never been to Columbia. I was in a dangerous part of Brazil for awhile and that experience has colored my view on S. American travel a bit. I had a friend travel through parts of Central America by contacting Women's Centers and making connections. Perhaps they could do something similar?

Is there a book or curriculum anyone can suggest? DD is not an advanced reader and she loves to argue.

:grouphug: Perhaps this is a sign of things to come? It seems like she's getting more opportunities to meet with kids that she connects with, even if they are slightly older.

I haven't read P&P before and it's next up on my reading list but I'm itching to read something that I've read before. "My Antonia" is tempting, C.S. Lewis's "Til We All Have Faces" is beckoning too and I found "The Thorn Birds" which I read as a teenager. I don't know what to choose! :willy_nilly: