Amy Krouse Rosenthal - The Wonder Book

Another wonderful Amy Rosenthal book...

Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (Chronicle Books)

I posted this on my blog a while back, but it's just so cute, that I just had to re-post.

coupla neato blogs

Stumbled upon a great blog: Hist-Fic-Chick -- a blog lovingly devoted to historical fiction.

...and...

Enchanted Serenity of Period Films, probably one of the best blog titles I have ever read.

not so hot kid-lit

Dr. Albert Mohler has an insightful perspective on the state of children's literature. Here's an excerpt:

In this sense, the books we read to our children reflect the cultural values of our age. Inescapably, these narratives for children reveal far more than a storyline. Indeed, the books tell us more than we may want to know about the tenor of our times.

Click here to read the full article, "Parents, Obey Your Children?"

another bread book to recommend

My newest bread book just arrived: Whole Grain Breads by Peter Reinhart. It was my birthday gift from the fam (I got to choose). This book in conjunction with the grain mill rounds out my collection of artisan bread baking tools. This book is not for the casual bread baker who decides some lazy Saturday afternoon that they want a loaf of bread for dinner. It requires planning, sometimes 3 days in advance. Many of the formulas require a sourdough-type starter (which had to be made weeks before!) or a biga made "yesterday". But this is the way I've already been making bread, and I have a starter in the fridge from which I will spin off a whole-grain starter. I'm excited!

some days just go well

I have been able to read today...working on my book (technically book-and-a-half) for book club this Saturday: Black and half of Red by Ted Dekker (we'll be finishing up with the second half of Red, and all of White next time we meet. While the writing engaged from the first page, I had a hard time buying-into the books until two or three chapters in. They are a hybrid of fantasy, science fiction and Christian allegory. I just have to keep convincing myself that, like C. S. Lewis and Tolkien, not everything is a symbol...sometimes a house is just a house and a room is just a room. However, much of the book is allegory, and I had to seek out some insight from reviews on the web. Interesting books...Tom goes to sleep in one reality, and is immediately awake in another; the scenario swaps and he as confused as can be. An MMA phenom for a hero, a pandemic-level virus, trees that glow, fruit that heals, damsels in distress, ugly guys with bad skin dwelling in tents in the desert, screeching black bats, white furry flying creatures, green water, religious "compromisers" [sic] who turn out to be the truth-keepers. You know, everyday stuff. *If you don't know what this is, ask your hubby...he will know if he's anything like mine.

My new Peter Reinhart white bread recipe rocks. There used to be eight rolls, now there are four. The sandwich bread has a substantial crust, but the crumb is delightfully soft and flavorful. Rolls and bread from the same recipe. Mmmmmmm.

On Monday, I had made PR's Italian bread (a two day process) and it was so good that it disappeared in no time flat. Definitely a re-make.

The girls have been coloring all day. This morning they took their stuff outside and colored at the picnic table ala Princesses. You can see our tree behind Ingrid, leaning a bit east...but it didn't fall over in the serious monsoon storm yesterday. I would love to know how much rain fell. It was, by far, the most-substantial storm I've seen since the first year we were here. It rained consistently for about three hours. This morning, I went outside to check the condition of the yard (there was some heavy wind at the leading edge of the storm) and all was fine; however, I'm glad the wind led the storm and didn't follow, as the rain completely saturated the ground, and the mesquite is leaning a bit. We are definitely going to have to add a third support pole. By now (two years in the ground) the poles really shouldn't be needed, but for some reason, the roots have just not developed strongly enough to secure this tree upright. I think the ground dirt might not be dense enough as they probably scraped the entire caliche layer off of the front yard when they planted.

top 40 christian books for 2009

World Magazine has just published their list of the best forty books of 2009. Click here and start drooling, fellow book lovers! I'd say that their number one pick is a winner...I'll give you a hint: it's the best selling book of all time in my new favorite version.

copycat post

I'm following La Vida Dulce's lead, and composing a random post today.

• I love how the girls find a toy and just play and play and play with it. Right now it's the cash register. They've been playing store for an hour now. I love how amazingly polite they are to each other while playing this game. "How may I help you today?" "Thank you!" "Have a nice day" over and over again, yet some days, it is all I can do to beg them to be civil to one another.
• Ingrid and Ilsa finished their first swimming lesson session on Thursday; the session concluded with "safety day" -- how to safely attempt to help a friend in the pool who has gotten themselves in trouble, what to do when you are wearing a life jacket, how to get help quickly. Ingrid was the only "little" girl (under the age about 8) to volunteer to be capsized in a mini boat. She did very well! The pinnacle was the chance to take trips down the big curly-q slide and jump off of the diving board. Both girls went down the slide with gusto, and Ingrid had no fear of the diving board. Ilsa didn't want to do the diving board, but that's okay, she's only 3 1/2 after all. BUT....there were two other little girls in their class who were indecisive about attempting either. I'm not judging that fear whatsoever, BUT both the teacher and their Mom just let them stand there, hem and haw for at least 5 minutes each time. That's a total of 20 minutes that the other kids couldn't use either. The teacher was sooooo encouraging, but at what point should he have stopped and said, "You know Lulabelle (not her name obviously), why don't you try this another day." Ditto to the Mom. I'm a patient woman, but my patience was wearing thin. This was the only place that the girls could do this. They aren't allowed to go "tandem" at the Base pool, nor are they allowed to be caught at the bottom of the Base slide or diving board. What would you have done?
  
• Anyone out there read the Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker (individually known as Black, Red and White)? Weird -- VERY weird. But strangely, I can't put the book down. I'm reading for book club, and I just can't think of anything "meaningful" or "smart-sounding" to say about the book...purely entertainment. I guess that's okay!
  

the bread baker's apprentice arrived

I have been watching this book on Amazon for about two years now...and finally it went on sale. Even the used ones on Half.com never got this low, so I snatched it up. I'm SO excited I'll probably never leave the kitchen.

duck! rabbit!

This is so stinkin' cute! Click the link to watch the video, or the picture to be taken to amazon to see the book, itself. Watch all the way until the very end...nice little grammar lesson :)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m296GUZCI50OD

amusing ourselves to death

My pastor mentioned "Amusing Ourselves to Death" in his sermon yesterday, so I'm going to give it a plug (it's on my sidebar right now). He is preaching through The Sermon on the Mount right now, and he was on "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted". He brought up the very good point that people avoid mourning (over sin to the point of repentance) by amusing themselves. Our culture now places amusement as the number one goal of life. This is a classic -- read it!

what would jane say???

Marvel Comics has come out with an illustrated serialized version of Pride & Prejudice. Yep. You HAVE to check this one out, Jane fans. I'm not sure what to think of it. First thought was, "Oh. That's interesting." Second thought was, "Could you dumb us down any further?" Third thought was, "How in the world are they going to get all of that dialogue into those little boxes?"

Or..... you could just go down to the library, onto Amazon or the nearest bookstore and get a REAL copy and savor the language phrase by phrase without the distraction. I promise, you'll be excessively diverted!

silly mommy

Anyone out there watch -- ahem -- put on "Charlie & Lola" for their little ones? If not, "it's worth giving it a go." It's a really clever animated children's series from the UK, based upon the series of children's books by Lauren Childs of the same name (she also wrote the "Clarice Bean" book series).


Anywayz....Ingy has loved it since she was almost 3, when it used to be on Playhouse Disney (I don't know if it's still on because, well, see my rant a few weeks ago). There is a character that the children like to watch at the movies and read in comics. For 3 years now, I have thought his name was "Fat Cat." Ingrid gently corrected me today, "No Mommy, he's BAT Cat." I had to prove it for myself, so I turned on the subtitles. I think it's time to get a hearing test.



PS Lauren Childs' website is really clever! Check it out...

the shack

Thinking about reading The Shack by William P. Young? Read this first. Already read it? You need to read this analysis too. So I guess I'm kind of reviewing a book I have never read. How weird is that? My book club voted to put it onto our 2009 calendar (I didn't vote for this one -- I wanted to read Pride & Prejudice for the umpteenth time...I hope I don't sound self-righteous -- I don't mean to). And then yesterday I was surfing the web when I ended up at this review on the Boundless webzine site. I don't think it was coincidence...I think it was a divine Google hit.

"[S]olid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” - Hebrews 5:14

What is discernment? Tim Challies gives a great definition:

It is “the skill of understanding and applying God's Word with the purpose of separating truth from error and right from wrong.” Discernment is knowing what God says to us in the Bible so that we can apply this to our lives and live in the way God would have us live. It is a skill that demands practice and one that demands intimate familiarity with the Bible. It is an ability that allows us, with God’s help, to filter what is true about God from what is false.

If you have already read this book, I humbly suggest that you prayerfully ask the Lord of Hosts, in Jesus' name, to reveal to you through His Word, the Bible, WHO HE IS.

"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, [be] honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen." - I Timothy 1:17

• Click here to go to challies.com to read both Tim Challies' blog post about the book, and download the pdf of his review.
• Click here to just view the pdf of the review.

Oh, and if you are wondering, I'm taking some Godly counsel to heart, and will not be reading this book.

Book club wrap-up on "The Hiding Place"

Book club was today. First of all, I love my girls, but it was REALLY (can I emphasize it enough??) nice to get away for three hours of insightful and meaningful conversation. We meet bi-monthly. We've read four books now: A Severe Mercy, Whose Body?, Quo Vadis and The Hiding Place. All have been good choices (except for Whose Body, which is a fun book, but I don't think it really lends itself to discussion).

It was beneficial to read Quo Vadis (QV) and The Hiding Place (THP) in succession. Both speak to the dissolution of moral/social structure, persecution, tyranny. Both also portray selflessness in the face of the seeming need for self-preservation.

Some great discussion points:

• Corrie's sister, Betsie was her "Aaron" -- just like Moses had doubts and fears, so did Corrie, but her beloved Betsie always put her back on track and pointed her face back to the Lord's face.
• What could have been a source of lifelong disappointment for many women, actually made easier Corrie and Betsie's task to save hundreds of lives: neither were married; they were "spinsters". But without spouses or children, their lives were freed-up to complete this mission.
• Corrie thought that the activities conducted within the "Beje" (their business and home) were so secret. But much of Haarlem knew! And kept their secret, too.
• Corrie was over 50 when interned at Ravensbruck.
• The smallest details of our lives are important to the Lord...and possibly working a good that we will only know later, or never. Corrie wanted to curse the fleas -- Betsie thanked the Lord for them. Later, those fleas kept the guards away, giving Corrie and Betsie freedom to conduct Bible studies right under the guards' noses.

Then we started talking about childrearing, adoption, storytime at the library, subtle social messages in children's books (I CAN'T STAND "The Rainbow Fish". Maybe I'll blog on that sometime.) Oh well, so much for enlightened discussion, but it was great while it lasted.

"The Hiding Place" -- Corrie Ten Boom

The Beje - the Ten Boom watch shop on the bottom floor and family home above and behind.

I just finished "The Hiding Place" for my book club which meets tomorrow. It seems to me that I have read it before...high school maybe? Once again, in a very broad sense, the same type of literature I've been hanging onto the past few books: "Quo Vadis" (Nero's Rome -- "civilized" society in upheaval), "The Road" (see post below), "World Made by Hand" (see post below), and now "The Hiding Place" about the nightmare that was Nazi occupied Europe.

Corrie (or the author as she relayed the story to) had an easy way of telling a story. She was able to describe the horror of Nazi occupation and then the inevitable sentence to the concentration camp in a way that was not grotesque, yet did not lessen the impact of that horror. She even interjected quite a bit of humor.

The message of forgiveness is THE POINT of this book. God forgives us. We must forgive our enemies. She regarded the Word of God worth her life -- literally. She risked her life to have a Bible, or at least portions of a Bible, always with her while at Ravensbruck (women's concentration/extermination camp in what became East Germany). She "managed" to hold onto her precious Bible even through the humiliations of "medical" exams (strip searches). The Lord had His hand on her, for sure! The Bible always made it through.

Corrie Ten Book was a remarkable woman. I think I will add her to my hypothetical "any-10-people-you'd-wish-to-have-for-dinner" table.

Many of the Amazon.com reviewers claim that the book starts out slow. I wholeheartedly disagree. It is contemplative, but not slow. It was necessary for her to set the scene explaining her idyllic and somewhat shielded childhood in Haarlem, Netherlands.

I bet your church library has a copy -- check it out.

"World Made By Hand", James Howard Kunstler

Reading another post-apocalyptic novel: "World Made By Hand". What's with that? This one is much less bleak, although somewhat more haunting in its plausibility. The author is James Howard Kunstler.

I'm about 75% done. I still am a little dark as to how it is going to end. Quite engaging. The characters are complex and interesting.

So far, the most compelling theme is that when societal constraints are removed, we revert back to traditional forms: agriculturally-based, traditional gender roles, etc... For example, the first person narrator comments that all on the town council are males who aren't "serfs" in the community. The women work hard, but are protected by the men. When a husband dies, the wife and children are taken in, even by a single man, who will protect her/family. One wealthy man is determined to remain comfortable in his wealth, so he has turned his estate into a medieval manor; he is the lord, and hiw workers are the serfs. He provides safety, food and shelter in exhange for performing work on his estate. The importance of beauty is another theme. As life is bleak, hard and unforgiving, and there is no electronic entertainment to divert ones mind, the people of this small village have put effort into their gardens and homes. The one church is very important to community life, and as such, is very well-maintained. When members of this community venture out beyond their immediate township, they realize that what they have is very special and unique: the rest of society has tanked.

Strip malls, suburbs and the mobile society are irrelevant. Large cities are violent pits of despair and desolation. Small, rural, interdependent communities are the only chance for any sort of positive life.

Do I know enough to maintain a home without electrity, refrigeration, running water, a grocery store? Would I be able to educate, train and entertain my children? Would we thrive or just get by?

There are aspects of the book that are bothersome:

Some social conventions seem to have disintegrated. Marriage is still an institution, however, for reproductive purposes (due to radiation, illness, communicable diseases, etc.) women and men often seek other than their spouse for "service". "Religion" (vocal Christians specifically) are all portrayed as either hypocrites or absolute nut jobs, but to be fair, so are pagans and atheists...it's the sort of nominally "pious" people who are the "normal" ones. (Is this accurate? Maybe....) The clergy in this book all swear, get drunk and are morally loose or "look the other way".

Life is bleak, and food is basic, but in this town, not hard to come by, but still basic. The people welcome any sort of intoxication. I think it is a form of entertainment and escape for the townspeople. Pot grows wild; people cultivate poppies; doctors use these to create their only forms of anaesthesia -- interesting. Distilled spirits, wine, ales and other beverages are commonplace and valued. However, they don't just intoxicate themselves into oblivion every night...just sometimes.

It is kill or be-killed. There is a sense of justice, but no formal framework to maintain or pursue justice or the upholding of the law.

Okay, the next book I read is going to be happy, happy, joy, joy...

"The Road", Cormac McCarthy

My husband recommended I read, "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Yeah, yeah, Christian friends, I know it's an Oprah's Book Club selection. He read it recently and was moved...I don't know that I've heard him talk about a book so much in recent memory. I'm not going to discuss the content -- it's a hard book to read. Frightening. Kept me awake until 5:00 am the night I finished it...In fact, I HAD to finish it, because I didn't want to go to sleep on it unfinished, so I read straight through 200 pages.

My lingering thought, after the fear has somewhat faded, could be summarized by one of the lines uttered by "The Man" (the father). To paraphrase him because I've already returned it to the libarry, "God gave me the job of taking care of you (spoken to "The Boy", his son) and I'm going to do what I must to make sure nothing happens to you." The Man knew this was a life or death promise.

I haven't looked at my girls the same way since I finished this book. I have let some things slide that I wouldn't have let slide before. Life is too short, and some things are just not that important. It is my heartfelt desire to protect their innocence, provide for their safety, give them comfort, solace, and a home filled with joy and laughter. More importantly, I must pray for their hearts to be protected, comforted, and to find salvation, and therefore joy in the Lord alone.

Read this book, but do it in the daytime. With a light on. And a loved one nearby. And finish it before 11:00 pm...or you won't sleep.

**** Update**** It's a movie. Arghhhh. Now I'll never shake it from my mind. Viggo Mortensen is The Man. Robert Duvall is also in the movie as the Old Man along the road to whom The Boy begs his father to share their food. Will I see it? Of course not! (That means I probably will...at home with the lights on on a Saturday afternoon when the girls are gone...)

Goin' to the "libarry"/Whoo hoo Daddy's Home!

Yesterday, Mama took the girlies to the local library for the preschool "reading" hour. It's more like controlled havoc. I sat back and watched with the hope that my beloved little girls (4 and 2 years old) would actually listen to the (silly) story that was being read -- which no one could hear above the din. There always seems to be that one kid who is totally out of control, and his/her parent is oblivious to this fact, or just doesn't care; I think it is usually the case that this parent is soooooo worn out because this is Johnny's normal mode of operation and they are just ignoring it.

What do bean bag games have to do with reading hour? Or singing the "peanut butter and jam" song? I dunno. But my girls actually participated this time, which is better than last week.

The great thing about the library, though is it is nice and cool. That's important here in Almost Mexico (thanks to my wonderful friends V & K for that phrase, pertaining to the northern border in their case) where it is going to be 101 today and 106 tomorrow.

We did manage to get out alive with 19 children's books and a few DVDs of varying quality and a copy of "The Road" for me -- I'm scared to read it though, after Hubby described his experience with the book. He really felt it was a great read but bleak, bloody and scary.

Last night, we sat on the curb and waited for Daddy to come home. Ingrid met him at the corner and escorted him home. I'm so glad he rides his bike to work. As of today, gas is $3.79 a gallon.