Uff Da!
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Posts posted by Uff Da!
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Hey everyone,
I've been missing in action and am greatly saddened by the tragedies of this last week. It's a lot to take in.
As for reading, I was so putzy with Herodotus's Histories that I had to return it to the library and then wait for it to come back to me. I'm two thirds of the way through and am open to a "fun" suggestion from the WEM for my next book. I've been fascinated by the women in HH, such as Amazons taking over a ship and not knowing how to steer it and women killing a man by poking him with broach pins. It's also interesting that Herodutus mentions people turning into wolves once a month. Werewolves of ancient times!
I also made more progress on the Psalms and am wondering what it was about Edom that the insult of throwing on a shoe at Edom is mentioned twice.
My best to everyone,
Winter
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I've been doing the P90X3 yoga once a week. It's a supplement to the aerobics, agility training, and weight training. I think I'll stick with the original 90 day plan but venture out into other programs afterward. I didn't think they would be that different. Thanks.
We have P90X (not P90X3 so it may be different) and I turn off the volume, do my own thing and look at the TV every now and then for ideas of what to do next. It's not great introduction to yoga but it can work as a guide. I had a membership to yoga school many years ago was exposed to many different styles. Some styles worked better for me than others- some work better depending on the day and my mood. Your library may have some DVDs you could check out as well.
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Great list - Loved Robert's Three Sisters Island trilogy - read it several times. Thumbs up to the Mists of Avalon. Chocolat ended up shelving because couldn't stand first person pov or the writing. Looks like I'll be adding a couple to my wishlist.
Chocolat is on my TBR list. Now you have me worried it won't live up to my high hopes. :wacko:
I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig.
I loved the Shakespeare book, and I'll be checking it back out from the library this summer to try it out with my kids. My Goodreads review:
I started The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. My current thoughts on it are that while there is some good information here, I'm not sure I would like the author as a person. Something about his tone, or communication style or attitude bothers me, and it makes me hesitate to pass this book on to anyone. I will definitely continue it myself, though.
I am still working on Eight Skilled Gentlemen and some Robert Frost.
crstarlette- Thank you for the review of Shakespeare. I have it listed for next year's reading but maybe will have to move it up to this year.
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I'm still working slowly through Herodotus's Histories and army crawling towards June. ;)
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I keep pads of Post-Its in my tote bags and at my desk should I choose to earmark a passage.
This is a good idea. I write on random scraps of paper and can't keep track of my bookmarks. (I've been using bobby pins as bookmarks this week).
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I wouldn't give it to a six year old.
Spoiler:
It has a father committing infanticide and not even being aware that he is killing a child.
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(Or perhaps went back and forth) did it cause lasting damage to your child?
:ph34r:
Hello, my name is Amber, and apparently I need a 12 step program for curricula addiction. :seeya:
I have nothing to add to the conversation but this made me laugh. Thank you Amber.
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Hello! I hope everyone had a great mother's day.
I have four books floating around the house right now. They don't stay on the night stand. There are a 152 TBR that I can tally up on the computer but that doesn't include the massive Amazon reading list, nook list and random books I've purchased and have sitting on the bookshelf.
I finished Heaven is For Real over the weekend. It's a very easy read written by a pastor who's son had a near death experience. I still have Herodotus's Histories to work through and have a lot on my plate this week. We will see what I'm able to accomplish.
Best wishes to everyone!
Winter -
Just stopping in quick. I ended up trapped away from home yesterday so spent hours reading while waiting and made progress on Herodotus's Histories. It's fine and even funny when he's talking about military conquests and story telling. I wish the geography descriptions were not included (I understand why they are included but gah).
I also have Heaven is Real waiting now and The Mismeasure of Man appeared when a box of books fell and exploded. I've been contemplating the current wisdom (or lack there of) of using measuring sticks lately so having that book appear seems timely.
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I think I may give up on reading for the weekend. I've taken the book out on walks with DS but just can't seem to read it whenever we stop some place and I don't think it's Herodotus's fault. I've been sun struck you all. I'm happy being still, spacey and soaking in the vitamin D. The kids asked for "Through the Looking Glass" so perhaps I'll read that one aloud this weekend.
I'm in charge of the garden this year. Last year, we tried to garden but the creeping charlie won.
As for when I read, it tends to be late at night when I can't sleep and can't do anything else productive or when I'm watching the kids play outside.
Here's my list:
1) The Pilgrim’s Progress ***
2) Tonight No Poetry Will Serve by Adrienne Rich ****
Burn me some music There’s a tune
“Neglect of Sorrowâ€
I’ve heard it hummed or strummed
My whole life long
In many a corridor
Waiting for tomorrow
Long after tomorrow should’ve come
On many an ear it should have fallen
But the bands were playing so loud
(excerpt from Waiting for Rain and Music)
3) She Stoops To Conquer
Paraphrase: “All the ladies at the church seem to think you have spoiled me Mother. And now it is time that you partake of the fruit.â€
4) Don Quixote **** and **
“For, what greater sign of disorder, said he to himself, can there be, than for a man to clap on a helmet full of curds, and then take it into his head, that some magician had liquefied his skull, and what more certain proof of fool-hardiness and wild madness, than for a person, in spite of all that can be said to him, to resolve to engage lions.†Pg 538
5) Shakespeare’s Sonnets
XXVII Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed
The dear repose for limbs with travel tir’d
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body’s work’s expir’d;
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see:
Save that my soul’s imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo! Thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee and for myself no quiet find.
6) Psalms (these are still in progress):
30:11 You have turned my mourning into dancing for me.
You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,
30:12 To the end that my heart may sing praise to you, and not be silent.
Yahweh my God, I will give thanks to you forever7) The Secret Garden ****
“Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle can not grow.â€
8) Number the Stars by Lois Lowry *****
9) The Alexander Technique by Richard Brennan
John Dewey, “The real opposition is not between reason and habit, but between routine and unintelligent habit and intelligent habit or art. Old habits need modification no matter how good they have been. It is the function of intelligence to determine where changes should be made.â€
10) The Trumpet of the Swan *****
11) Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry ***** An unflinching look through a child’s eyes at the South pre-civil rights.
12) Jane Eyre
13) The Confessions by St. Augustine**
14) For the Children’s Sake****
15) Gulliver’s Travels***
16) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight****
17) The Language of Baklava *****
"The sidewalks are not like the orderly, straight-line sidewalks of our old neighborhood. Here, they wind around and roam this way and that, as if they've decided to go where they pleased."
"I have never seen a sleeping street before, never known what secret intimacy could rise from the pavement like steam."
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Now that I am home from my travels, I can finish reading the library books that I abandoned in progress: This Rough Magic and The Language of Baklava. I am also reading Miss Buncle's Book, one of those English novels with a small town setting from earlier in the 20th century. Readers who like E.M. Delafield's Provincial Lady books would like this story by D.E. Stevenson. Another comparison might be E.F. Benson's Lucia books but they are much sillier.
A bit of an update on me: After spending the Easter weekend with family and family friends, I went off to Paducah, KY, with two girlfriends. While one friend was engaged in a three day intensive course on appraising quilts, the other friend and I wandered. The National Quilt Museum in Paducah has an amazing show called Distortion. The entries are not the sort of quilt one would put on a bed. I hesitate to use the term "art quilt" since quilters themselves are at odds about terminology. But I will say that while I greatly appreciate the craft in the traditional quilt, I am blown away by some of the quilts that are like paintings made with thread on cloth. I also had the chance to hear a lecture by Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi who curated an exhibition at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, a show entitled And Still We Rise. Dr. Mazloomi is an engaging speaker and quilter!
I learned a lot and also acquired some gorgeous fabrics for my own sewing projects.
It was a lot of fun to spend five nights in a cabin at a state park with girlfriends. We cooked dinners together, drank wine, solved the world's problems and giggled like high schoolers. The girlfriends particularly needed to escape to a slightly warmer climate after the challenges of a brutal winter. Sitting outside with coffee was pure bliss for them--and for me since I don't see my friends from other parts of the country as often as I would like.
The occasional wifi connection let me keep an eye on y'all to make sure you were behaving.
Jane (who obviously lacks a smart phone)
My art mentor was a textile artist as were a lot of the women who were part of my artist group way back when (before kids). They would make the most beautiful, crazy quilts using mesh, metallics and things I would never think of for quilting.
Finished Rivka Galchen's Atmospheric Disturbances. I enjoed it & loved how she portrayed a cracking mind, fracturing reality. There's an overall coolness & distance that sets the tone very well. Definitely recommended for some, though I suspect quite a few would not like this story.
Will have to post more later. My thoughts feel very disjointed as I've just gotten over 36 hours of food poisoning & i now have a tremendous headache.
Hope you are feeling better today Stacia.
The Histories are slow going. I think I'm going to need some light poetry or something to balance out my reading.
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Ooh, this sounds fun. It's sitting in my tbr pile but I have yet to crack it. My non-fiction reading has fallen by the wayside for the moment. Hoping to pick it up again. Need to catch up on my HotAW too!
He packs a lot of information in a simple paragraph and many of his paragraphs could be used as outlines for novels. At best, I can only read about 10 pages at a time.
Which version are you reading?
The translation is by George Rawlinson and William Benton is listed as the publisher with the University of Chicago having a hand in the editing. It's the version my library had. I have a terrible free version on my nook that I couldn't flounder through.
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I'm still in the beginning of Herodotus's Histories. A harpist jumping ship and riding on a dolphin, a man accidentally killing his brother and then accidentally killing the son of the man who gives him refuge- This is more fun than I thought it would be.
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I finished the Language of Baklava and loved it all the way to the end. Then I decided to torture myself and start Herodotus's Histories late at night when I was exhausted. I was pleasantly surprised and it doesn't seem like torture. I took the Coursera class "The Greeks" (or some title like that) last fall and I think knowing what a tyrant once meant and so forth is part of the reason I'm pleasantly surprised. I think I would be scratching my head otherwise.
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We have spring fever here.
Hang in there. Freedom is coming.
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Oh, and I'm disappointed everyone is going to read The Night Circus! It is on my tbr pile this year but it is just too much for me in the next few weeks. At least, I think it is. I may cave to peer pressure and see if it's at the library. Especially since I have not started a single book this week. In fact, I really need to get off here and start getting my co-op stuff planned for Monday :thumbdown:
I'll sit on the sidelines with you. I tried reading it last year after hearing about it from my penpal, but I could never really get into it.
I won't be reading anytime soon either. Herodotus's Histories is next and I'm a bit worried about tackling that one.
I think, I hope, those are the pansiest people America has to offer. Seriously. Why whinge about a pizza shape? As for the Vegemite, my son is the only one gross enough to eat it out of the jar like that. It's supposed to be consumed as a thin scraping on bread, with lots of butter. Mm. Vegemite. I can't have any. He got into the cupboard the other day and licked the jar clean. :ack2:
I feel the same way about Warheads as the people in the vid. Aren't you supposed to? Twinkies? I don't even think they are food! Why didn't they talk about those Reece peanut butter cups? Those things are poisonous!
I'm with you on everything except the Reese's. I have those to thank for surviving November and having the first 0 draft of anything that is truly worth revision.
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I finished The Cherry Orchard. I think I must have some kind of mental deficit when it comes to Russian Lit of any kind. The back of the book says it is a comedy. I didn't think it was funny, at all. Maybe they meant the classical definition of a comedy. I just don't get it. In fact, I thought it was a rather petty commentary on human existence. Maybe if I had been Russian peasant, it would be funnier. If I had to read this stuff all the time, I would probably go into a bottomless depression. (I apologize to those who enjoy it. My opinion is only my opinion. ) That being said, I'm going to read another of his plays to get the 100 page credit. ;)
Oh, wait. I do like some Russian fairy tales. Does that redeem me?
I think humor is difficult across cultures. When I first lived in England, a movie was highly recommended as being hilarious and a bunch of us foreigners picked it up at the video store. None of us thought it was funny but by the end of the year, I could see the humor in it.
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MEP? I haven't used this so I'm just throwing it out there blind
http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/primary/default.htm
I know morestarfall.com has worksheets for a couple grade levels but you would have to buy a membership for that.
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Hmm, I'll check out the Iron Druid series and The Night Circus. I'm up for anything. I'm really going to need the distraction because my foster son is being reunified with his bio mom this weekend. We've had him for over a year. Sucks. I wouldn't trade a single minute with him but yeah, I'm going to need to get lost in a good book for a bit!
:grouphug:
WHY?
(I'm glad you didn't say A Midsummer Nights Dream, because seriously what was Kevin Kline doing flouncing around in a white suit?)
You see. Now I HAVE to see this.
Obviously, banning myself from the computer so I'll be more productive isn't working. :lol:
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Didn't get much reading done this week as I fell into the book blahs. Gave up on Zanesville. Don't know what I will start next.
In the meantime, I'm nursing my serious Kevin Costner crush. :lol: Truthfully, I may waste my reading time this week instead hitting up the dollar theater & watching the Costner movie again a time or two. :tongue_smilie: I already told dh I may be living at the theater. :D
So, did people in your house get books for Easter? We did. Trying to keep it simple/minimal this year, so a few books & a sweet treat (chocolate, cookies, or jam per personal preference). Our list:
Ds: The Rook
Dd: Eon
Dreams of Gods & Monsters (one she's been wanting really badly & has been holed up all morning reading it)
Dh: Never Go Back
Me: The Clockwork Scarab (officially not new as I got it a couple of months ago as an advance reader copy, but I haven't read it yet so I set it out w/ our various book piles & little bits of candy)
Love the challenge, Robin. Will have to try it if I can fit in a library run this week between our crazy schedule & my movie stops.
My kids were given nature journaling supplies- sketch book, traveling art supplies, a bird identification book and The Nature Connection outdoor book. DD has been busy at work all ready. DS is busy but I'm not sure if what he's doing qualifies as nature journaling. At least he's having fun.
Hello everyone! I have set aside my library books for a mystery, a paperback with which I am traveling. The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller is set in post WWI Britain. I am finding it to be a compelling read with good character development.
I am in my hometown which I last visited for Dad's memorial. This Easter holiday brings many memories, a bittersweet experience.
I cannot remember the first line but the last two lines of a favorite childhood haiku come to mind:
"Come to my Easter garden.
A seed is risen. "
Enjoy your trip Jane. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
I tried hunting for your haiku and found a gardening site with haikus but wasn't successful in tracking down your specific one.
I am procrastinating and may ban myself from the computer for the remainder of the week. I'm still reading The Language of Baklava and am really enjoying it. I was struck by how she described cooks and bakers as being at odds with each other. My mother and I are very different and, Easter morning, I showed up at her door with a swaddled dish of roasted herb maple syruped veggies, a beautiful dish that I had never made before. She had everything orderly (like the layered jello) and was putting her two types of homemade bread in baskets when I arrived. It makes me wonder about my own children and our cooking adventures. DD is a whirlwind in the kitchen of ideas and loves rice. DS tells me he wants to make bread, or biscuits and loves measuring things out. I seldom bake bread but with DS helping this last month, we've made it every week.
I have to rewash all the winter gear and optimistically pack it up again. The house is a wreck from all my closet purging and I can see that the closet purging will take only half a day to finish if I can stop procrastinating. And then there's the violin distraction- The Language of Bach-Love-Ya.
Cheers All! And Happy Reading!
Ideas for a 2.5 year old
in Accelerated Learner Board
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