Bits and Pieces of Our Days

Late last month, Betsy, Ramona and I went to see the filmed version of the Broadway show Newsies. They're big fans of the movie (which I've never seen) and they couldn't wait to see the stage version (on film, that is.) It reallly was a lot of fun, and we had a great evening. 

For more than a week I couldn't get some of the songs out of my head. On Ash Wednesday, "Seize the Day" was still pulsing through my brain but as I fasted that day, my hungry, addled brain kept changing the lyric to "Feed the Day." 

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I took my writing group girls to a coffee place last week. Our Brave Writer freewrite prompt was:

Imagine that the different kinds of food on your plate are angry at each other. Write a scene with dialogue so we can hear them fight!

Ramona wrote about the drinks we had all just ordered. Addressing the peach and cherry Italian sodas, 

Mom's coffee scoffed. 

"I will not trouble myself with such petty disagreements. I am the most mature, most robust, most sophisticated drink out there." 

Cherry Soda guffawed. "Yeah, right. You're bitter, and you stain teeth." 

I had no idea my coffee was so snooty.

She said she was channeling Jane Austen as my coffee wouldn't trouble itself with petty disagreements.

I love our writing group.

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I finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Discussion, anyone? (Tamara, I'm looking at you. Expect to be brought into an email loop for discussion.) Anyone else who wants to discuss it here? Leave a comment. 

Poetry Friday: Before a Painting

For everyone who has ever been overcome by ineffable beauty:

Before a Painting
James Weldon Johnson

I knew not who had wrought with skill so fine
What I beheld; nor by what laws of art
He had created life and love and heart
On canvas, from mere color, curve and line.
Silent I stood and made no move or sign;
Not with the crowd, but reverently apart;
Nor felt the power my rooted limbs to start,
But mutely gazed upon that face divine.

And over me the sense of beauty fell,
As music over a raptured listener to
The deep-voiced organ breathing out a hymn;
Or as on one who kneels, his beads to tell,
There falls the aureate glory filtered through
The windows in some old cathedral dim.

(This poem is in the public domain.)

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James Weldon Johnson gets me, every time. Read more of his work here.

The round up is at The Logonauts today.

Shopping My Bookshelves

Time to start thinking about what my year with Ramona will look like. Time to start shopping my own bookshelves. Hmmm...where to begin? Some initial thoughts....

There will definitely be art. 

Claire Walker Leslie's Keeping a Nature Journal is full of sketching inspiration. Pulling that one off the shelf for sure. I think I'd like to pull Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain out, too. 

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This is one of my favorite shelves in the house. Ramona has read most of these, but I think Jane of Lantern Hill is going on the reading list for her. A read-aloud, I think. We haven't yet read the second Calpurnia Tate book! Must remedy! 

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Some Shakespeare this year, of course. Romeo and Juliet?

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Is there any Louisa May that Ramona hasn't read yet? Maybe Rose in Bloom. Thinking I'll wait on Cather's My Antonia for a year or two, for fuller appreciation. 

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She's reading Emma with her big sister, so I'm leaving the Austen to them. I think we'll read Dickens this year, though - A Tale of Two Cities. 

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I see some Ray Bradbury here, but where is my copy of Dandelion Wine? I guess I need to check another shelf. That's definitely another read-aloud. Also adding Fruitless Fall to her list, and some of Silent Spring. 

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I see some good stuff here by Mike Aquilina and Peter Kreeft. (Is there any other kind of stuff from those two?) 

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Alan Schreck's Catholic and Christian is like a mini-catechism, and I love it. Will choose some selections for Ramona to read. 

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Oooh, I need to look more closely at some of the goodness on these shelves. 

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Clive Staples! This is Ramona's year for The Screwtape Letters. 

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Here's a small section of our poetry collection. Poetry Friday, anyone? Maybe I'll have Ramona do some of the picks this year. 

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Ah, homeschooling books. 

This shelf is for me, when I need a boost.  

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Fountains of Carrots Podcast: Chatting with Christy and Haley

Haley Stewart and Christy Isinger's Fountains of Carrots podcast is one of my favorites. Haley (Carrots for Michaelmas) and Christy (Fountains of Home) keep me company on a regular basis when I'm cleaning my house, transforming odious chores into something I actually look forward to. I love the variety of guests and topics, and the fact that they relish TV talk.

In Episode 48, we talked about my latest book, You Can Share the Faith, and lots of other things: sharing Christ through relationships, the difference between proselytizing and evangelizing, examples of evangelization gone awry, conversion stories, sticky family situations, and the part that popular culture can play in the life of a person of faith. It was delightful, and I was honored to be the first return guest of the podcast.

So, if you've got some housecleaning to do, or just need to sit down with a cup of coffee and some chatty friends, you can have a listen here.

Bits and Pieces of Our Days: Of Art Journals, Ewoks, and Books, Glorious Books

Ramona and I have decided to do some drawing and sketching every day. We decorated the covers of our art journals:

and then we got started. Ramona drew a portrait of her sister Betsy as Rey (funny, because I originally blog-named her Betsy Ray of Betsy-Tacy fame) from The Force Awakens: 

I love the glasses. 

Here's another of Rey (I think Ramona actually did this one before we started the new art journals, shortly after our second viewing of The Force Awakens): 

And this is her sketch of a pushcart 

from our current read-aloud, The Pushcart War (which we are both thoroughly enjoying.) 

My subjects have been a little less exciting than Force Awakens characters, but that's okay. We're having fun drawing together, promising not to compare, and not lamenting that we're not perfect. 

My rendition of the pushcart, from the delightful Pushcart War: 

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Speaking of read-alouds, Ramona likes to have something to occupy her hands while I read, so she decided to make (cross-stitch? Embroider?) an Ewok. 

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In other read-aloud news, we finished The Titan's Curse and are now headed into The Battle of the Labyrinth. Ah, the joys of Greek mythology a la Riordan! 

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What have I been reading lately? 

I fell in love with The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. It was lyrical and lovely. A timeless theme -- that the ordinary is actually extraordinary -- is handled with charm, humor, poignancy, and heart. Highly recommended. 

And for cozy, warm, better-than-a-comforter bedtime reading? Nothing beats a good, old Betsy-Tacy book. 

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Anne-with-an-e just came home from the library with Connie Willis' Blackout. So I'm suddenly in the mood to read Blackout, All Clear, and Doomsday Book. 

But first, I have to finish reading Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone. 

Arrgh! Too many books! Not enough time! 

The Dumbledore Pumpkin is

...taking shape: 

We finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with Ramona last week.

I actually made it through reading Chapter 34 aloud. 

Whew. 

There's a pumpkin decorating contest at the library this week, and Ramona's going to town with her Dumbledore design. She made a nose out Model Magic (I heard her tell her sisters, "I sculpted my first nose today!") that rivals Michelangelo.

Ramona's Summer Art

Lots of good stuff going on, but one thing I want to share is the live Mark Kistler 3-D drawing class that she's taking. The classes are available for free this summer, through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op.*

She's been available for only two intermediate lessons so far and she wants to try the advanced level next time, if we're home at the right time.

Mark Kistler's virtual classroom is here,  and the schedule of classes is here. On this page, you can find Kistler's top 400 recorded lessons that can be used anytime. 

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In other drawing news, Ramona is sorting Disney princesses into Hogwarts houses. So far, Ariel is a Gryffindor and Belle is a Ravenclaw. 

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* Several other free offerings from the co-op can be found here. 

That Summer (Routine) Feeling

Still transitioning into some kind of summer schedule here, feeling a little bit afloat, but it's getting better. I'm writing a new book, so work time for me has to be part of the schedule. So, lots of this:

And lots of this: 

Ramona is doing horseback riding and Atticus is on chauffeur duty for that, so, that's helpful.

Ramona at age 3, about (GASP) -- 9 years ago.) 

Ramona's adjusting to piano lessons with a new teacher. She loved her old teacher but she also loves her new one, who is a dear friend of mine and of our whole family. It's all good, just new and different, and and change is funny, even when it's good change, right?

The piano never changes. 

Speaking of change, I may not be able to change up anything in my dining room (between the piano and the table, there isn't much room) but I can change up the artwork: 

There's the new artwork! 

Some of it is from Betsy's "Art for Elementary Ed Majors" class last semester: We were guinea pigs for her Van Gogh-inspired collage project, and her best friend, who took the same class, taught the Eric Carle-inspired lesson (note the pink cat.) 

And second from the bottom, in the center, is Ramona's Minecraft-inspired art. I think it's a Creeper? 

One of Ramona's self-appointed summer projects is to clean up and organize her art area:

One advantage to being the youngest (and being six years behind the next-oldest sibling) is that one gets one's very own art area. When Anne and Betsy were younger, the "art area" was the kitchen table, the living room, the backyard....

Other summer stuff to fit in and work around: Anne is still working for the college as a biology tutor, Betsy will be Ramona's main chauffeur to the pool and water park (thank you, Betsy!) and we'll be visiting out of town family at some point. Ramona might do a couple of theater camps, and there are lots of fun things scheduled through our library and the parks commission, like family nature nights. There are sleepovers to plan, read-alouds to complete ...  I figure that just about the time we get the summer routine down, it will be time for everyone to head off to school. 

Bits and Pieces of Our Days: The My-Laptop-May-Have-Died Edition (With Other Stuff That's Much Cheerier)

Photo courtesy of FreeImages.com

This post is brought to you courtesy of the old, old, old laptop that belongs to Atticus. Where's mine, you ask? I'm glad you're feeling inquisitive as I am ready to complain. You see, I tried to update the operating system on mine, and apparently this was a near-fatal decision. We'll know soon, but for now I am just extravagantly grateful for the fact that I obsessively back up my work when I'm writing a book. So ... Whew!

And, dear friends and readers, please remind me to never, ever, ever, NEVER EVER do anything that could even remotely be described as tech-y when I am working on a manuscript. Thank you. 

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I'm done obsessing over Mad Men and the series finale. Really. I think. I never did get that post written, but partly because I'm mulling over the idea that some of my thoughts could go into this book I'm writing. Soooo ... best to keep mulling for now. Stop obsessing. Keep mulling. That's the ticket.

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Ramona has been baking and she has mastered my chocolate chip cookie recipe. No wonder I haven't been hungry for real food the last couple of days. Too. Many. Delicious. Cookies. Sitting. Around. 

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The VanWonderful VanDerwater (that's Amy Ludwig VanDerwater) is running a summer edition of Sharing Our Notebooks, and she's inviting readers to share ideas. I love this!

This post explains the idea.

Here's the Summer Notebooking: Try This! list so far. 

And here's the idea that Ramona and I contributed: Make Your Own Notebook. 

Ramona's Homemade Notebook

Ramona Creates

We decorated coffee cups:

Ramona's Kermit the Frog quote cup is much kinder than my cup. 

And she made Minnie Mouse ears:

Even I want to wear these. 

Saturday Watercolors

Ramona has been into watercolors lately, so I joined her. Can you tell which is which? (I like hers better.) 

Bits and Pieces of Our Days

Whither has October fled?  It's gone missing and I'm left wondering if one of my favorite months met all her obligations before she took off for a year's sabbatical.

At least one obligation was clearly fulfilled -- October brought us, as it has for twenty-one marvel-filled years now, the birthday of Anne-with-an-e.

I'd never before bought a daughter a margarita for her birthday, but I can no longer make that claim. And she likes my favorite red wine, too. Yes, I am a good homeschooler indeed. I know how to teach all the important stuff.

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Ramona and I are still on World War II. So far we've read The Winged Watchman by Hilda van Stockum, Lois Lowry's Number the Stars, The Little Riders by Margaretha Shemin, and Ian Serraillier's Escape from Warsaw (which I wish still bore its original title, The Silver Sword.)

We read Snow Treasure, which I usually include it in the WWII bundle of books, last year because it was a book club pick. I'll leave it up to her whether or not she wants to reread it this year.

I also have a stack of picture books -- we've read Always Remember Me: How One Family Survived World War II, and in the next week will pick up The Bracelet, So Far from the Sea, and
The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark. 

Lots of good geography stuff happening as we read these books, too.

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What am I reading these days? The epic and wonderful Kristin Lavransdatter. Granted, I am only one book into the trilogy (I almost typed "three-book trilogy" ... more coffee, anyone?) but I have already dubbed it Wonderful and More.

What am I watching on the laptop these days, while I work out? Gilmore Girls. It is wonderful in a different way, and strangely connected to Kristin.

Our Minion Pumpkin is Done!

We used this example as our model. So fun! 

A Minion Pumpkin With Ramona is...

... still in progress. 

We are listening to the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack and painting. Great morning.
I love homeschooling. 

Ramona the Photographer

She took these as she was jumping on the trampoline and I find them absolutely delightful. 

And this one was on the swingset: 

Absolutely, Positively the Best Way to Use the Ironing Board

Yeah. Ramona knows what an ironing board is for: