Day Seven - NaNo Update

2614 words written yesterday, for a grand total of 15,475. And I wasted too much time at chat today!!

Finished Flying Crows by Jim Lehrer last night. Interesting read. Odd, but interesting. I'll have to try to get a review up later. And yes, it is the same Lehrer that does the PBS news show. He has written about fourteen fiction books.

The Red Tent review

The Red Tent is celebrated it's 10th Anniversary this year, yet I just got around to actually reading it. It was well worth the wait. Anita Diamant takes a biblical character, Dinah, who is mentioned very briefly in Genesis, and weaves a tale of what her life might have been like. We meet Jacob, his four wives and twelve sons. We discover with Dinah how inconsequential she is in the scheme of her father's life and beliefs. We learn what the red tent means to the lives of the women of Jacob's (and other's) tribe. And sadly, we see how changing beliefs and attitudes on the part of the men at that time lead to the eventual disappearance of the red tent and all that it meant to womanhood.

The first few chapters were a bit confusing to me as I tried to follow the genealogy presented. Thankfully Diamant includes a page of family trees, to which I was continually turning back to consult. But after those first few introductory chapters, once Dinah's story really began, this was a book that I could not put down. I found the culture, the people and the settings all fascinating. The only addition I would have like to have seen was a geographical map so we could follow Dinah's travels over her lifetime.

I found myself frequently flipping to Diamant's biography on the back cover, almost in disbelief as I read The Red Tent. Diamant is the author of many books on contemporary Jewish life and I found it surprising that she was able to present a Biblical story from such a non-biblical viewpoint. Or maybe not exactly non-biblical, but non-conventional. A story that revolved around the women of that time period rather than the men and a story that did not always present the biblical figures in the best of light. I have to wonder if she came under some criticism from the ultra-conservative of her faith.

On another note, I will be picking Penelope up this afternoon. Hopefully she'll drive fine and we will be back to have two vehicles!!!

Made in USA

Made in USA is a phrase that has taken on new meaning over the past several months. With recalls in food, toys, makeup, etc., many of us have been having second and third thoughts about purchasing items that are made in China. Not too long ago there was a news story of a family that went a whole year without buying anything made in China. Their book, A Year Without "Made In China": One Family's True Life Adventure in Global Economy (by Sara Bongiorni; ISBN: 0470116137) sounded like it would be an interesting read.

So lately I have been checking the labels of items I want to buy just to see where they are made, mostly out of curiosity to begin with, but now with more concern. For several months I tried to find bath towels that were made in the USA and fit my budget, two seemingly disparate criteria. Finally I found some at Sam's Club, of all places! And just yesterday I was looking at potato mashers at Publix. They had three different brands, all made in China. Now a potato masher is probably not going to have lead paint on it and likely is pretty safe to buy, no matter where it is made. But still! Is there anything still manufactured in America?

With all that in mind, I have been thinking ahead to Christmas and what I might want to get for Miss Munchkin. She recently discovered baby dolls, but a trip to Toys R Us a couple of weeks ago was not real fruitful in that department. So I spent part of this afternoon looking for dolls made in the good ole USA. And actually found a couple. And some others that were made in Europe. Research indicates that the EU (European Union) has more stringent quality controls that the US, so likely any toy made in the EU is going to be as safe, if not safer, than any toy made here. That's good to know.

I liked the Corolle dolls found at Kazoo Toys. Their website indicates the dolls are "designed in France" but does that mean they are made in France? I guess I will have to contact them to be sure.

The Kinder dolls at www.usmadetoys.com are cute.

Nico & Zoe has some cute cloth dolls.

If you are looking for toys made in America, or at least not made in China, here's a couple of websites that will be very helpful:

10 Lead-Free Toys Made in USA.

Toys Made in America -- Extensive list of American toy companies, brands and products.

I am definitely looking for a baby doll suitable for an almost two-year-old little girl this Christmas, so if you know where I can find one that is not made in China, leave me a comment! Thanks!

The Dive From Clausen's Pier review

As I mentioned yesterday, I first heard of Ann Packer a couple of weeks ago on NPR. She was being interviewed about her newest book, Songs Without Words. Since I'm too cheap right now to go out and buy her new book, I instead added it to my wish list on PaperbackSwap.com and then ordered one of her older novels, The Dive From Clausen's Pier.

As the title might suggest, a diving accident is the beginning plot element around which the rest of the novel is written. Packer gives us a cast of characters that are well developed and believable. As I was reading The Dive From Clausen's Pier, the characters became almost more real to me than those around me in real life. I cared about how they were reacting to the events in their lives, worried about the directions in which they were headed, was saddened by changes in their life-long friendships, and rooted for them to find their way back to some sense of normalcy and acceptance.

Best of all, Packer gave an ending that was believable and not all neatly tidied up. I usually like nice neat endings, but Packer wrote an ending that was not what I expected, having the main character make a choice that seemed almost disappointing in the short run, but infinitely more realistic. Based upon my enjoyment of The Dive From Clausen's Pier, I am eagerly awaiting Songs Without Words. I look forward to richly developed characters and believable situations in which the characters must work through to some new self-awareness.

Penelope Update

Penelope is still at the shop and we do not have a clue when she'll be done. Her bodywork was finished last week, but there was a noise the shop couldn't pinpoint. She went to another shop and had her front end aligned, but that didn't end the noise. Now the diagnosis seems to be a new steering box, but since that is over a certain dollar amount, the shop has to go back to the insurance company for approval of additional expenditures. So there Penelope sits, waiting for approval. And here I don't sit, because while we're down to one vehicle I get to be the chauffeur, driving Bill to work, driving David to college, picking them up, taking people here and there to appointments, etc. David has taken the bus a few times to college, but for an 11:15 class he has to leave here at 9:30, and it only takes 20 minutes to drive there. So most days I drive him there.

There is an upside to all this driving, though; listening to the local NPR radio station. For some reason I do not remember to turn the radio on at home, preferring to listen to Folk Alley. I get more accomplished at home when I listen to music. But I love NPR for all the great interviews, book reviews and talk shows they offer daily and it's great company in the car.

Of course, there is also a downside to NPR; it spurs on my reading habit. After listening to interviews of authors who have new books coming out and listening to book reviews, I now have more books that I want to read. I have to keep a pad of paper handy in the car so I can jot down author names and book titles of those that sound really interesting. And when I get home, I head to PaperbackSwap to see if I can acquire a copy. If reading is my habit of choice, PaperbackSwap is my enabler. Most of the books I have read this past year have come from PaperbackSwap, and when I am done with them, I relist them and swap them back for more! If you like to read, check out PaperbackSwap. And if you decide to join, I would greatly appreciate it if you would use my email address ( wdkmg@pipeline.com ) as your "sponsor." That will gain me a book credit! Thanks!

NPR and PaperbackSwap are the reasons for no blog post yesterday. I was engrossed in The Dive From Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer, an author I listened to a couple of weeks ago on NPR. But more about that tomorrow, when I post my review!

The Historian book review

I have never read Dracula or any Ann Rice novels, much to my daughter's great dismay. Whatever knowledge I have of Dracula's story probably comes from some Saturday afternoon "Monster Movie Matinee" television version that I watched as a child. Vampire lore has just never really appealed to me. But something about the blurb on the back cover of The Historian (by Elizabeth Kostova) intrigued me, even though the story revolves around the search for Dracula. Maybe it was the mention of the fifteenth-century, a fascinating period in European history. Maybe it was the words "dusty libraries" and "capitals of Eastern Europe" that appealed to my love of books and travel. Whatever it was, I am very glad I picked up Kostova's book!

Kostova writes with an evocative voice, describing people and places with a surety that leads the reader to believe she is relating actual experiences from her own past. The story intertwines three different searches for Dracula and missing friends and/or family members spanning sixty years. Each search is dependent upon the knowledge acquired from the previous search and at times it does become confusing deciphering which search one is reading about and in which time period. As search builds upon search, ultimately the reader discovers that Dracula is not the only quest, but also Kostova's mother, whom she had thought was long dead and whom is now feared to be among Dracula's undead.

The pace of The Historian seemed slow to begin with, but by the last third of the book I only wanted to keep reading until I discovered the ending. I found the writing wonderfully detailed and rich, the historical settings compelling, and the Middle Ages history fascinating, even if it did pertain to Dracula! As a first novel, Elizabeth Kostova has set the bar high and I eagerly anticipate reading her next book.

I Won!

Whoooeeeee! I won a blog contest! Amy held a blog contest for all her readers to celebrate her first full year of blogging. And I won one of her awards! I will be getting some Rhode Island chocolate (from The Chocolate Delicacy in East Greenwich, RI), Newport Coffee Traders coffee, and a Beachcombers Guide to the North Atlantic Seashore. Maybe I'll have to take a trip to New England beaches now! Well, not NOW, but sometime in the future. Thanks so much, Amy!!

Back Again

No, it did not take me all this time to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I began it at 11:00 Thursday morning and finished it around 7:00 Friday evening. And I did other things during that time, like sleeping, eating, chatting and working on webpages. But I was so into that book that I dreamt about it Thursday night. What a great story it is! I plan to reread book seven soon, though, since I read it so quickly just to find out what was going to happen and to whom. I feel like I gorged on a Thanksgiving Dinner, eating everything in sight but not really tasting much of anything. Time to go back for leftovers, try a bit of pie, taste some stuffing. Savor the story.

One thing that did strike me (well, one of the things) about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was how much the non-human creatures played in the storyline. How humans treated them, especially HP and friends, in the previous six books played such an important role in the eventual outcome in book seven.

Now I can begin to tackle the stack of books that I have set aside in order to read the HP series. Let me see, here's what I have waiting for me to read:

• The Sunne in Splendour, by Sharon Kay Penman
• Earthly Joys, by Philippa Gregory
• Founding Mothers, by Cokie Roberts
• The World Is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman

Three of these books I acquired through PaperbackSwap. A great way to swap books online. Check it out! And if you decide to sign up, I would appreciate it if you would list me as a referring member (use my e-mail address, wdkmg@pipeline.com. Doing so will give me an additional book credit, and you know I need more books!

So many books, so little time!

HP Time

So much for getting anything done today! Charles finished THE book last night; it was sitting on the kitchen counter this morning, just waiting for me. I held off for several hours, walked the dog, walked me, did some webpage work. But then I decided to just crack the cover and read Chapter 1. Right. So this is official notice that you will not see any more posts here until I have finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Accio Book!

I am Ready Now!

This morning I finished Year 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I am so glad I reread it. I really did not remember nearly enough to have been ready to read Year 7. But I am ready now! Only I have to wait for Charles to finish with it. I think he has less than 200 pages, so likely he will finish it today. I sure hope so … I am not sure I can wait much longer than that!

After rereading Year 6, I no longer think that Dumbledore is still alive. Last time I read it, I was in such disbelief that Rowling had killed Dumbledore that I just did not want to believe it. So I glossed over certain statements made in the final chapters and finished the book believing that Dumbledore was under a spell or enchantment or perhaps Hagrid had spirited him away somewhere prearranged and he (Dumbledore) would come back alive in Year 7. I no longer think that will happen. He really is dead (although I will be more than pleased if I am proven wrong when I read HP and the Deathly Hallows!).

CTCL - Colleges That Change Lives

They are making the rounds again, those Colleges That Change Lives guys. I received an e-mail today announcing their fall tour schedule.

If you have a child planning college in the near (or not so near) future, you need to read the book that this tour is based upon and you really should make plans to attend one of their information sessions / college fairs. What book, you ask? Colleges That Change Lives, 40 Schools you should know bout even if you're not a straight-A student, by Loren Pope. Pope's book has been very informative and useful the last several years as our children have considered and/or planned for college. Read my review of Colleges That Change Lives and you will begin to understand why I like this book so much.

I do suggest that you and your college-planning child read the book before attending an information session. Most of the forty colleges will have a table and at least one representative at the college fair, oftentimes more than one representative. If you have not read the book, you really won't know which college table to visit and what questions to ask. So finish that Harry Potter book and grab a copy of Loren Pope's Colleges That Change Lives!

Harry Potter Mania

I know, I know. All the non-HP fans around the world are tired of hearing about Harry Potter mania. I'm sorry. I tried not writing about it, truly I did. But since we are all immersed here in HP, I couldn't seem to come up with anything else to write about.

Charles and I have been rereading the series in preparation of Year 7 coming out. I just began Year 5 yesterday and Charles is on Year 3. Both of us are determined to finish the series all the way through. We did that the when Year 6 came out and that is what we are doing again this time around.

Kat was visiting over the weekend (along with Miss Muchkin) and she became so caught up in our conversations about the previous books that she began to read the series. She had read the first three or four, but none after 2003. So she started Year 1 and took Year 2 home with her.

David, on the other hand, just dove in Saturday afternoon when our copy of Year 7 arrived and began reading. He finished Year 7 yesterday afternoon and now walks around with the smile of a superior being that knows how the series ends. And the frustration of not being able to talk to anyone about it!

It is amazing how many books this HP series has sold! The first twenty-four hours of its release it sold 5,000 books per minute! Per minute!!! Can you imagine? A book! A children's book at that! It is simply amazing.

I would love to be reading the series right now, but as a responsible adult, I am doing adult things instead. I have taken my morning walk, balanced my checkbook, answered a couple of e-mails, and repotted several plants this morning. Instead of 10 African violets, I know have 15. I ran out of potting soil or I probably would have turned 10 into 18 or so, since I still have two plants which need repotting. Potting, Potter, hmmm… I do believe I have HP on the brain, a disease for which there is an easy cure. It's lunchtime … I do believe it is permissible for a responsible adult to read during lunch! Cheerio!

Homeschool Chat on Friday the 13th

Chat was a lot of fun today, even if it was a Friday the 13th! We had a couple of new visitors and some visitors that have not been to chat in quite a while. Our Texas members seemed glad that it was not raining, while the Alabama members were equally as glad that it was raining! And I think our resident Londoner was saying that they had had more rain than usual. We even had a homeschooler from the Netherlands join us this morning. We spent a bit talking about how Amsterdam is laid out in a circle and what homeschooling is like for an Amsterdam teen. We truly had an International Homeschool Chat this morning!

The topic of the day ended up being books. Crystal wanted to know what books we had found to be essential over the years for our homeschool library. She asked for books we could not live without, books that we loved and/or books that had great pictures. Since this was Crystal's topic, we geared it towards the age of her children, twelve and under, but I think we slipped a few in that would be for older children too. And a few webpages and other resources were brought up also. Here are the recommends that were mentioned today:

Fiction

• Anything by Tamora Pierce
• The Book That Jack Wrote by Jon Scieszka
• Cheaper By The Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr.
• The Wrinkle in Time series by Madeline L'Engle
• Bryan Jacques Redwall books
• Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
• My Father's Dragon (& its sequels) by Ruth Stiles Gannett
• The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbitt
• Wolf Story by William McCleery and Warren Chappell
• My Side of the Mountain and others by Jean Craighead George
• Books by Elizabeth George Speare
• Hatchett and others by Gary Paulsen
• Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles
• Books by Beverly Cleary
• The Secret of Nimh
• The Borrowers
• Love Among the Walnuts by Jean Ferris

Non-Fiction

• Eyewitness Books
• World Book Encyclopedia

Math

• Anything by Theoni Pappas
• Anything by Marilyn Burns
• How Math Works by Carol Volderman
• Reader's Digest How Math Works"
• Math On Call, A Mathematics Handbook ISBN: 0-669-45770-1

Science

• The Way Things Work by David McCauley
• Growing Up With Science Encyclopedia
• Reader's Digest How Science Works
• Reader's Digest How The Universe Works

History

• Timeline from Sonlight
• Timeline stickers
• Joy Hakim's History of US series

Economics

• The Richard Maybury series

English

• Words on the Vine by Claudia Vurnakes

Poetry

• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

Classics

• Treasure Island
• Peter Pan
• Swiss Family Robinson
• Tales from Arabian Nights
• Uncle Remus
• Aesop's Fables
• Don Quixote
• Grimm's Fairy Tales
• The Three Musketeers
• The Hobbit by Tolkein
• C.S. Lewis's Narnia series
• Misty of Chincoteague by Margeurite Henry
• Charlotte's Web
• Shakespeare

Other Resources

• Sonlight'sReading Lists
• Chinaberry's catalog
• Comic Book Creator
• GameMaker's Apprentice software
• Storybook Weaver software
• The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

And finally, this blog was mentioned for it's July 12th post of veggie art: Altogether too happy

Reading Harry Potter, Again!

This weekend I finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and began Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (books one and two). This is the third read-through for me; the first time aloud to the kids as they were released and the second time two years ago just before book six was released. Each time I read them I see more hints and clues about the future books. Of course, it was difficult to see those hints and clues in the first read-through when I didn't have the advantage of having already read the rest of the series.

I will be very sorry for the series to end. But I have to know if Professor Dumbledore is really dead! I don't think he is. I noticed when I reread The Sorcerer's Stone this last time, the very first time we meet Dumbledore, he makes the statement that he would trust Hagrid with his life. Hagrid is the one who carries Dumbledore's presumably lifeless body away at the end of book six. I am sure that Hagrid took him somewhere and cared for him and hid him until Dumbledore was able to recover from whatever enchantment made him appear dead.

J.K. Rowling is an amazing author. She meshes the world we currently live in with the wizarding world so believably. She states that she knew how the story would end the very first time the story idea occurred to her. Maybe it will seem obvious once I've read book seven, but right now I cannot imagine how the series will end. I can't wait to find out, though!

A Respectable Trade

I have been reading several of Philippa Gregory's books recently, enjoying her historical fiction. A Respectable Trade, though, is much more than just historical fiction. It is an introduction into the harsh realities of the slave trade and it's economic, social and moral consequences, good and bad, for all those involved, whether willingly or not.

Chronicling the lives of one household in Bristol, England, A Respectable Trade illustrates how the slave trade of the late 1700s affected all of society. The story begins in 1787 and brings together Frances Scott, the impoverished niece of a peer of the realm, Josiah Cole, a small-time trader with ambitions to better his station in life, and Mehuru, a priest from Africa who has been enslaved. We experience only two years of their lives, but during that time we see how each member of the family confronts the issues of the slave trade (a respectable trade) and we learn how the slave trade has become an integral part of England's economic success. We also get a glimpse, albeit brief, of how the slave trade affected the ancient societies in Africa for generations to come; the strife and civil wars taking place there today are likely only one of the most evident results.

I highly recommend A Respectable Trade to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and to anyone looking for something a bit pithier than Gregory's usual novels. And you might also want to check out her Gardens For Gambia program:

http://www.philippagregory.com/Gambia.shtml
Gardens for The Gambia is a charity set up by author Philippa Gregory to provide water for wells in the gardens of rural schools in The Gambia.

Technology and Rain Delays

Today is the first NASCAR race broadcast of the season that we have not been able to watch on TV, since we do not have cable ... yet! Cable is scheduled to be hooked up tomorrow! In the meantime, we signed up for a 14-day trial version of NASCAR.com's RaceTrack so that we can watch the race live on the computer. And Bill has hooked the computer's display into our 42-inch television and the sound into our stereo. All so that we can watch a live-web cam of the pit as the cars sit covered, waiting out the rain. Such excitement! Hopefully, though, the race will begin sometime today and then we can watch it through streaming video.

Yesterday we got more things settled around the apartment. I discovered there are some hooks outside on the screened-in balcony, so I can hang a couple of my plants. I am going to have to find some outdoor plant stands, as I really only have room for a few plants indoors. And I'm more than a bit worried about how the cat (and Miss Munchkin) are going to deal with the three plant stands that I have for inside.

We moved my computer around a bit in the bedroom to ease up the bottleneck. I can now sit at my desk and still have room for someone to walk past me to the bed! And today I unpacked the bathroom boxes. That leaves just my office stuff (three boxes) to settle and Bill's computer corner in the dining room. We need some shelves for there, I think, or a desk with shelves above it. And a couple of more small bookcases to hold the books I brought. Really, small ones will work as I only brought a few books! Honest! Some to sell on e-bay, some to use this last year of homeschooling, and some I just wanted to read. But right now they are all in boxes in the hallway closet and it will be a lot easier to use them if we can actually see them!

All in all, we're getting quite settled in here and adjusting nicely!

Anyone need a Math or Science book?

My list is complete! Well, no, that is definitely not a true statement. I do have more books, more games and more software that I will have to sort through later on. I am just not quite ready to part with it all yet. Or I cannot get to it yet because it is out in the office building and that room needs a massive cleaning just to get into the door! But I do have the math and science books that I sorted out of David's room last week on a massively long list, complete with descriptions and prices. And there are a few pieces of software added in on the list. If anyone would like to look at the list, you can e-mail me at wdkmg@pipeline.com and I'll send it to you.

I sorted through my history shelves last December and felt quite proud of how many books I disposed of until Kat remarked that there appeared to be quite a few books still left. And she is right. I had five shelves full of history resources, got rid of probably 40 books or more, and those shelves all still appear to be full. What happened? Must be I had them double shelved, or piled on top of each other. So I need to go over them again with a more ruthless eye.

And then there are my language arts shelves and my biographies shelves and …. Oh, the pain of it all!!!

Oh! And yesterday Bill passed his certification test he has been studying so hard for over the past several weeks. So, in addition to his Microsoft certifications, he is now a CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate). Sounds impressive, doesn't it? Hopefully it will translate into more hiring opportunities in a higher salary bracket!

Spring Break Over

Tomorrow we take David back to college, which means another long day of traveling. It is really an easy trip, with the only really heavy traffic going through Nashville. And even then, we are usually making the trek on either a Saturday or Sunday, so the traffic is not all that bad. But it is still a long drive. And with tomorrow being the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, that means we will lose an hour's sleep tonight. I love Daylight Savings Time and am very happy that it is starting earlier this year and lasting longer, but I hate losing that hour's sleep!

I spent most of today working on creating a list of all the math and science books that I sorted off the shelves on Thursday. All day, but I have only about 1/4 of them on the list. That means a lot more work next week before I am ready to post the list to any group. After I get the list made, then I have to go back through the list, looking up comparable books on e-bay and/or Amazon and see what the used price should be for each one.

This evening we met Kat and Miss Munchkin in Cullman for dinner. Steak! Yummy! Miss Munchkin ate a fair share of my green beans, along with some french fries and a small bit of cheesecake. She definitely prefers to feed herself now, although with only two teeth, you have to really watch what she tries to eat.

It was a nice dinner out, with all three of our children there. But every time the past few months that we have been able to all be together, I cannot help but wonder how long it will be before we are all able to be together again. Life is changing. David in college. Kat with a family. Us looking to move further south. So many changes. And no way of being able to look ahead to know whether they will be good changes or not. No guarantees in this life! Just sight your course and hope for smooth waters and good times ahead.

Time for bed … I am going to have to arise much too early for a Sunday morning!

Who Collected All These Books?

I just finished cleaning off the math and science bookcases that were in David's room. Yes, that was plural. Eight shelves of science and math books. I wanted to sort through them while David was home, since some of the science books were his, but not surprisingly he did not wish to keep very many of them. So now eight shelves have been sorted down to four shelves and I have piles of books all around me here in my office. They are mostly sorted according to subject (Calculus, general math, earth science, evolution, etc.) and now I just have to go through them one by one, make a list and decide how much I might be able to sell them for. I will list them first locally on my homeschool e-mail list and then try to sell whatever is left on e-bay.

It is amazing how many books I have accumulated over the years. Homeschooling has been a wonderful facilitator to my book addiction! There's no way I can blame all of these books on homeschooling, but certainly it has been a convenient excuse for me to collect so many. Our children were interested in so many subjects when they were younger and many of these books came in very handy then. Plus, I never knew what subject might come of interest, so more books were needed just in case. Although, over the past four or five years I have noticed a definitely decline in book usage for reference purposes. The Internet seems to be taking over that function. Even I will head first to Wikipedia or Google to research a topic rather than to my bookshelves. Are books becoming outdated as reference sources?

Change

I subscribe to a daily e-mail service from www.tut.com . Today's message was this:

The great thing about change, Karen, is that it absolutely, positively, always means things are going to get even better.

Even when you don't know how.

The Universe

Sounds good to me!

I cleaned out more books yesterday. There are 24 grocery bags full of books to take to the used bookstore at the public library. It was time to get really ruthless about how many books I have versus how many I need and how many I want to pack and move. And those were only from my fiction shelves! The shelves look a lot neater, though. Time to tackle some of the non-fiction shelves again and all those that are stored in the office building. Most of those can go to the library too!

When I finished carrying all those grocery bags to the van, I then tackled the four containers of cassette tapes. Who listens to them anymore? I saved out the comedy ones that would be difficult to replace with CDs and the rest I am going to give away. What's the saying, if you haven't used it in 6 months, you don't need it? Maybe today's the day to tackle my closet again. It seems like I'm on a decluttering roll!

Weather changes

Looks like November is going to go out with a roar … and December come in with a brrr! We've been enjoying some lovely warm days this past week or more; 70s in the day, 50s at night, lots of sunshine and gentle breezes. But from the weather forecast, that is all going to end tomorrow. Lots of wind and rain, possibly some thunder and lightning (but hopefully no tornadoes) going through tomorrow afternoon and evening. And then turning much colder on Friday, with temps down in the 30s and 20s at night and not much warmer during the day. So far no forecast for any of that white stuff, at least not this far south, and let's hope it stays that way!

Thanksgiving was a nice quiet day. And then on Friday Kat and Miss Munchkin and Shawn came to spend a few days, going home on Monday. It is nice to have them all here, but nice when they leave also! The house seems to much bigger after they leave!

Miss Munchkin is trying to walk. She actually took a couple of steps on her own while she was here. She will be nine months in another week. Nine months! That's too young to be walking!!

Bill and I took David back to college on Sunday. We had a nice visit, but I think he was ready to go back. We have to pick him back up on December 13. On our way to Evansville Sunday we spent some time driving around Nashville, getting the lay of the land, scouting out some possible areas for housing, just in case that is the area we end up moving to.

I've been working hard on my website and it is beginning to pay off! I've also been trying to clean up some of the piles of books around here. Putting more on auction at e-bay rather than on my e-bay store. And either they sell or I donate them to the library. Too many piles, too many bookshelves. If we are going to move … no, when we move I do not want to have to move all these books!!

Needless to say, from the word count showing here on my blog, I will not be completing my NaNoWriMo Novel this month. I did get over the hump I was in last week and had a great writing day on Thanksgiving. But with all the additional company and taking David home on Sunday and everything else, I have not had the time to write. Today I have gotten a little bit done. But I am going to continue working on this novel, as I like the premise and I love the main character. So maybe by this time next year I will have two completed novels - the one I am working on now and one for next year's NaNoWriMo.

Cheese and Stuff

Charles and I have been reading "On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of The Kitchen" by Harold McGee. Yesterday we finished the section on cheese. A painful section to read, as at the end of almost every paragraph Charles would groan and say, "I want cheese!"

So, I guess we are going to explore cheeses, if we can find some! The local Kroger's had nothing new and exciting to offer, other than a solid block of Parmesan, a solid (small) block of Mozzarella, and a French Gournay cheese. Gourney is a soft cheese, this particular one blended with garlic, salt, pepper, parsley and chives, so I'm not sure that Charles will care much for it, since he's not a big garlic fan. I will have to make the drive to the Publix in Decatur and see what they offer. We'd like to try a new cheese or two every week, maybe make some new dishes with them, and track which cheeses we like and which we don't. Sounds like a yummy study!

Gosh, it's cold and damp today. Where's our sixty-degree sunshine-filled October? October is supposed to be a dry month! This week has been anything but dry!

Wednesday I finished reading "Meriwether" by David Nevin and began reading "Dream West, which is the last of Nevin's "The American Story" series that I have yet to read. The whole series has been very interesting. I love reading about Jefferson and Madison and Burr and Lewis and Clark as real people, rather than historical figures. Nevin's books bring them to life, puts conversations and thoughts and feelings to them. And it has been doubly interesting reading about the early exploration and settlement of areas west of the Appalachians. With all our recent trips to Evansville, it's been cool to pass through areas that I had just read about and picture them as they were 200 years ago.

Well, time for some lunch, laundry, bill paying and then off to dancing tonight!

Free Time?

So what happened to all this free time I was going to have after David went to college? Obviously, I was delusional. There is no such thing as "free time." The universe expands to absorb all free time. Anyone with free time is living in another dimension. They are certainly not living in the same dimension that I am living in!

Last year my mornings were spent on the road and sitting at college, waiting while David took his college classes. I was able to read and crochet while David was in class and converse with David while on the road. Now my mornings seem to disappear into laundry, dishes, e-mail and phone calls, with occasional hours here and there working on my website and listing books on e-bay. And I don't feel like I am accomplishing any more than I was last year. At least last year I was able to tangibly see and feel results. Afghans crocheted. Book titles added to my "books read" list. How do you tangibly see and feel the dishes done or e-mail sent?

My mornings are also being absorbed by another hour of sleep and sometimes by some morning exercises. So I am feeling more rested, I am less cranky, and might possibly be slightly more fit (but only very slightly!). And I have exchanged my "getting David to college" project with "finding hubby a new job" project. So I guess I should not reasonably expect to have more free time. But it sure was a nice dream! Maybe free time will appear when all the children have left home? But then, the eldest child and the grandchild seem to be absorbing a fair bit of my time also, so maybe I should just resign myself to the fact that I will NEVER HAVE FREE TIME!

Book list(s)

Last night David downloaded the book list for his fall freshman semester at the University of Evansville. His World Cultures class does not have a list. I assume this is because they are reading several books over the semester (actually the whole year, since it's a full year requirement for all freshmen) and the teacher only wants them reading one book at a time. So he'll likely have to get those directly from the college bookstore. And it appears as though his Computer Science 101 class does not have a text. Wouldn't it be a novel idea for a computer science class to be all computerized? No textbook needed?

So, he has to purchase books for three classes: Japanese, Calculus and Chemistry. The full list price at the bookstore for all three classes totals $433.10. If he buys used from the bookstore (assuming they are still available used), it would cost $292. After spending an hour on E-bay and Amazon this morning, I can get several for less, although surprisingly the Japanese books are cheapest at the campus bookstore. If I buy some online and the Japanese at the campus bookstore, the total could be around $260, and most of those online were brand new. So that's a fair savings.

I would love to see the list of books that David will be using for his World Cultures class. He brought home from Orientation the first book for that class, The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. I have had that book on my "too read" list for over a year. I've already read one of his books to the boys and have another here on my shelf to read next. I'm willing to bet that David's World Cultures class will be a very interesting one.

This morning someone posted on one of the high school homeschool e-mail lists a request for "the" book that we think each high school student should read. And also which book we read as a high school student had the most lasting impact. She wants to create a "must read" book list for her high school student.

If I had to name one book that made the most impact upon me as a high school student, it would have to be The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. But if I had to name one author, it would be Leon Uris. I think his books did more for my understanding of history, especially history over the past 100-150 years, than any history class I ever took, and I did enjoy all my history classes.

As an adult, there is one book that I think all adults should read before they have children of their own or work with children in any capacity. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Maybe adults would view children differently, treat them differently, if this was required reading.

I've always thought book lists were fun. A list of books someone has read can tell you a lot about that person. So can the books they own. The first thing I do upon visiting someone is look over their bookshelves (hopefully they have some!). I think the books there, or the absence thereof, tells you a lot about the household.

Know Home Schooling, history, and Harry Potter

I received an e-mail this morning from a friend, telling me about a new site, Know Home Schooling. It's a homeschooling wiki. I added my blog listing to it this morning. Looks like it might be a real help to new homeschoolers as more veterans add their info to it. Check it out. http://knowhomeschooling.com

Yesterday we actually got back to reading our world history book, "The Outline of History" by H. G. Wells. It seems like we've been working on the final chapter for months! I read for about an hour yesterday and we're down to the last three pages. Hopefully we can finish it today. Then we can pick back up the Richard Maybury book(s) I want to cover this summer before David goes off to Evansville.

Darn J. K. Rowling and her announcement yesterday about her next (and final) Harry Potter book. Here she hasn't even gotten it all written and she's already telling us that two characters (main characters!) will die in the final book. And her wording was such that it certainly seems possible that Harry could be one of those. Something to the effect that no one else can write more books in the future about Harry if he dies in the last book. So whom will she kill off? My boys speculate that it will be Ron and Hermoine. Surely she wouldn't kill them off? More likely Hagrid and maybe … maybe … oh, I can't even begin to guess! I only know that I'll be extremely saddened when the series ends. And hopeful that Rowling will write more. Although topping the HP series would likely not be possible. And certainly she doesn't need the income! It would just be interesting to see what other areas her writing brain might find appealing to write about.