August 31, 2006

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Today, while cycling on the recumbent bike I finished Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. I was thinking about what I wanted to write about, and it occurred to me that I've developed an interest in British wartime (WWW) literature. I'm a huge fan of JRR Tolkien, and CS Lewis. Every time I go to the bookstore I am tempted to buy novels by GK Chesterson who was a friend of CS Lewis's. Then I bought Excellent Women by Barbara Pymm, not realizing that it was set in London directly following World War II, and contained, what I see now, several examples of how life changed for English people during the war. Now, I can add Evelyn Waugh to my list of British wartime authors I admire.

Two years ago Jeremy and I took Kaitlin to Portland for a long weekend. Of course we had to stop at Powell's Books so I could browse around a bit. I stumbled upon a book called Conversations with Chaim Potok. Chaim Potok happens to be one of my favorite authors of all time. He wrote two of my favorite books of all time (go figure), The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev. (A quick aside, if you haven't read those books, go out right now, get them, and begin! They're fabulous.) As I began reading the interviews compiled in Conversations I noticed that Potok mentioned Brideshead Revisited several times. He credits reading Brideshead Revisited with his becoming a writer. Of course, I had to check it out.

Brideshead Revisited is the story of Charles Ryder and his involvement with the Flyte family, an aristocratic Catholic family in prewar England. Part of what draws Charles in to his fascination with this family is the fact that they are Catholic. His Protestant upbringing and his youthful agnosticism produce in him a curiosity about the family and their religion. Two of the four Flyte children, Lord Brideshead, the eldest son, and the youngest child, Cecilia, are devout Catholics along with their mother. Sebastian and Julia have followed their father's path and essentially left the church. Throughout the years Charles is a witness to the effect this has on the lives of Sebastian and Julia, primarily their inability to give up their religious traditions despite their disbelief.

The ideas of religious belief and spirituality have been on my mind a lot lately. I have recently started really trying to understand my own religion and the things I claim to believe. This was a timely read for me. Charles is of the opinion that the religion of his friends, or any religion for the matter, is merely superstition. For him the rituals have no meaning. Adherence to religious teachings is not the way to personal happiness, it is the exact opposite. It is the way to misery. What he fails to see is that when Sebastian and Julia are farthest away from their beliefs they are unhappy, even stagnant. Sebastian retreats into the numbness that alcoholism brings him, yet he ultimately realizes that the church is his only salvation.

It is Julia's relationship with her religion that fascinates me most. The consensus in the Flyte family is that Julia is the most "lapsed" (is that even an acceptable word anymore??) of all the children. Her lifestyle is decadent and, in the eyes of Catholic England, sinful. She married a divorced man, then left him to live, unmarried, with Charles. Throughout the book, we receive hints that Julia is not so unconscious of her sins as she would like the world, and herself, to believe. However, it isn't until her brother Brideshead announces his engagement, and the fact that his bride-to-be will not come to stay in their home because of Julia's sinful live with Charles. Julia is no longer able to conceal the internal struggle that has been going on in her mind. She breaks down and finally acknowledges the facts of her life through her Catholic upbringing. It isn't until the very end of the book, though, that we see how fully Julia has accepted her faith. Though she still doubts, and is not fully willing to live in strict observance of her religion, she is finally able to acknowledge the hold it has upon her. She realizes that the course her life is taking will not lead to her lasting happiness, and she changes it abruptly.

For me, the most important aspect of this book is that it has helped me to see the effects that abandoning religious belief can have on a person. (And no, I'm not nor have I ever considered abandoning mine!) Instead of being a liberating event in one's life, it has the potential to cause great confusion and the unbearable burden of having to carry around tremendous guilt. Ultimately Julia and Sebastian return to their religious roots. Granted, their return is on their own termsm but they still return. They will never be what would be considered good, devout Catholics. However, through their return they manage to find a peace that their lives previously lacked. Don't misunderstand--this is not to say their lives will end happily ever after. We know Sebastian's won't--he is nearly dead from his long term alcoholism. And, in fact I firmly believe that if the story were to continue Julia's life will not be full of joy. The point is that they have acknowledged their beliefs instead of denying them. They also have accepted the consequences that will result from living by their beliefs. When you think about it, isn't this one of the major tasks of our existence--to find out what is true and to live by it. I believe in modern jargon, this is called being true to oneself--and it is the only way to be truly happy.

I'm not one to draw parallels between works of literature, but I was reminded of two books while I was reading. The first is My name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, which deals with the themes of abandoning one's religion as it is practiced by one's parents and assimilating religion into one's life in new and perhaps unconventional ways, then coming to terms with the consequences of that act. The second book is The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, which addresses the idea of redemption. I can heartily recommend My Name is Asher Lev to anyone. I'm not so sure about The End of the Affair. It may be a little to readerly--the kind of book that only a stuck up book snob could love.

August 30, 2006

The Last Little While. . .

As I sit here typing, Alexander is smiling at me and making the most adorable happy baby sounds. How I love that kid! Kaitlin is "swimming" in the bathtub, her reward for getting out of the shower when Alexander woke up without throwing a major fit and being good while I fed him. (All I can say is thank goodness for wireless Internet and laptop computers that allow me to blog anywhere in my house!) Life is pretty good right now--and except for the living room strewn with Kaitlin's toys and all of the pillows from the couch, and the fact that I didn't get my hair blown dry today, I'm feeling like we could be the posterchildren for domestic bliss. Isn't it funny how some days are so much better than others, even when the good days and the bad days are pretty much the same? I guess it has more to do with my ability to cope than anything else. So today my coping skills must be pretty good.

True to my word, I have to post pictures of the good mail I received this week. Of course, two of the pieces were things that I ordered for myself, but since Jill says that counts, it must be true! She is, after all, the original good mail sender. First, I received a nice thank you note from Jenny. Don't you just love purses? I adore anything that has a purse on it! Next, I got a package from My Daughter's Wish with one of the new(ish) Foofala Bag O' Buttons. It's so cute, and has great variety. I also bought some chipboard paisely from Maya Road, simply because I couldn't stand the thought of paying as much for shipping as I did for the Bag O' Buttons. Does anybody else struggle when it comes to paying shipping on the Internet? I always feel like the cost of my purchase has to somehow justify the shipping charges. Anyway, finally, I got the latest issue of Mental Floss magazine. This is a fun, quirky little magazine that I discovered when we were living in the hotel when our house was being made over. I just couldn't resist the tag line "Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix", since I am somewhat of a trivia buff. It also didn't hurt any that my fist issue featured a pitcure of Benjamin Franklin on the cover. I'm a sucker for colonial and revolutionary American history. All of that on the same day! It was so exciting!

"I want to watch my Cinderella movie with bopity bop in it." Apparently the Fairy Godmother has caught Kaitlin's eye in our daily viewings of Cinderella. Yes, she's discovered the Disney princesses. Cinderella (the ll is pronounced, by the way, with the Spanish pronounciation, ending up sounding like Cindereya) is her absolute favorite, though Sleeping Beauty could take the lead here pretty soon. I've been waiting for this day. I can't wait until The Little Mermaid comes out on DVD next month. I'm also hoping that I can get her started on Beauty and the Beast soon. I just have to convince her that Beast is a bear or a dog or somthing so she's not so scared of him. It will be nice to have a break from Dora, Diego, Woodie and Jessie.

An unforseen benefit of this new princess obsession is that it's gotten her off of "Hot Girls" and her new favorite song "Bounce" (the jumping song) by Bon Jovi. I started her on Bounce because it had a nice repetitive chorus, which she likes. Then I read the lyrcs. If only I could understand what singers are saying. We could avoid so many difficulties. Bounce contains several lines that go something like this:

Call it karma, call it luck
Me I just don't give a

Bounce, bounce. . . .

Yeah, so we went from soft porn music to a song that implies the "f" word. great. On Sunday in the car Kaitlin wanted to listen to her "jumping song". I couldn't bear the thought of listening to that song over and over, so I toldher that we were going to listen to some nice quiet Sunday music. I turned on some Mozart. She began having a meltdown until I told her that it was princess music. Thank you Disney for using so much classical music in those early films! Now, whenever we get in the car we listen to KBYU, the classical music station. The great thing is that Kaitlin can hardly tell when one song has ended and another begun. This way I don't have to listen to the same song over and over, I don't have to listen to Kaitlin complaining when I change the song, and I get to listen to nice claming music in the car. We both win! Hey, I've been wanting to become more familiar with classical music since we read An Equal Music in book club. Now I have the perfect excuse.

Speaking of being in the car on Sunday, we were heading up to American Fork Canyon to go on a little walk. For some reason Kaitlin is unbearable on Sunday afternoons, so we always try to find a little outing to take her on to help her release a little energy. We ended up following a little stream that flowed down out of a small side canyon. It was gorgeous! Kaitlin kept saying, "I'm a hiking monster and a hiking fool!" as we were going up the trail. Jeremy teaches her to say the funnies things! I'd heard her say that before, and have laughed about it a lot, but it seemed funnier in an actual hiking setting. So, I don't usually post pictures of myself here, but I thought I would make my physical presence known, especially since this is the best picture of me and Kaitlin together that we've gotten in over a year! Too bad I look terrible! Serves me right for putting off my laundry and having only a too big t-shirt and too big jeans to wear. Here are a few more pictures of our hike. It was so much fun, and Jeremy was so grateful that I came along. That, in itself, made it worth it to me!



OK, that's the short of it, in my long winded fashion. Thanks, once again for sticking with me 'till the end!

August 23, 2006

A whirlwind of a day!

Yesterday I decided it was high time I returned to the gym. I had intended to go back a month ago, but couldn't see my way to getting out of the house early enough to have Kaitlin home in time for her nap, and Kaitlin's nap is much more important to me than being in shape!

After a stressful morning of trying to get Kaitlin fed, my gym bag packed, and feeding Alexander, we finally rolled into the gym parking lot at around 9:00. We got out of the car and went into the gym. I took out my keys to scan my membership tag, and we made out way over to the two saltwater reef aquariums the gym has in it's lobby. I let Kaitlin look at the fish for a few minutes and then we headed off to "The Nest" daycare center where I signed Kaitlin and Alex in, then left to work out. I rode the recumbent bike for half an hour (my favorite because I can read and exercise at the same time!), decided I needed to get going to Costco, skipped my shower, changed my shirt, and then I looked for my keys. They were nowhere to be found. I checked my locker, the floor around my locker, the aquarium area , checked the parking lot to make sure my car was still there, and then I checked The Nest. They were gone! Vanished into thin air. I had to call my sister, have her go to my house to get the spare keys and bring them to me. Now, I don't go to a gym in my own city. I go to a gym about 20 minutes from our houses, so it was really nice of her to do this for me! We headed off to Costco, where I fueled up on Diet Coke, and then drove down to the Gandolfo's drive thru in Lehi for a much needed turkey and avocado sandwich and another diet soda. As I was pulling up to my house (several miles away from the sandwich place) Jeremy called to see if we wanted to go to lunch with him because he was in the area. So we turned around and drove back to where we'd come from to eat with Jeremy. When I got home there was a message that my keys had turned up--somebody had taken them home on accident. I must have left them on the counter when I took Kaitlin and Alex to the child care center. So I put Kaitlin down for a nap, fed Alexander and put him down for a nap, took a nice hot bath, listened to the drywall guys working in the basement (we're finishing an outdoor gear room for Jeremy), woke Kaitlin up, woke Alex up to feed him, got back into the car to go to the gym to get my keys, stopped to get gas, and went to Super Target for some groceries. We finished at Target, went home, made dinner, played outside, got ready for bed and finally it was time for the day to end. At least my day. Jeremy pulled an all nighter at the office, and I had an unexpected night at home alone.

I'll bet you were wondering when I was going to break into a new paragraph. I wrote this down as a foil to Jill's busy day yesterday. You see, her day was busy, but she actually got stuff done! All I managed to do was go to the gym for half and hour, go grocery shopping twice, drink a lot of Diet Coke and make some dinner. And while she was worn out and ready for sleep at 11:00, I could have readilly gone to bed at 7:30 with Kaitlin, except that I refuse to go to bed early because it's such a waste of time! Such a whole lot of nothing--yet another one of the joys of motherhood!

August 19, 2006

Hot Girls (Clean Version)

No, you didn't read that title incorrectly. And that's exactly what I meant to write. You'll never guess what it refers to either. That is the title to Kaitlin's favorite song. No, you didn't read that wrong either, but you can go back and read it again if you'd like.

A few weeks ago we were in the car running errands. Kaitlin kept asking to listen to Daddy's song. I had no idea, but managed to eventually placate her by letting her listen to her then favorite song, Black Horse and the Cherry Tree by KT Tunstall (otherwise known as the Woo Hoo song). That night Jeremy took her out on their weekly dinner date and happened to listen to the new INXS album, Switch. The song Hot Girls came on and Kaitlin burst out in song! What the. . .? Jeremy called me from the road to ask if I'd been listening to INXS a lot. I hadn't. Then he told me about her singing the song.

Here's the chorus--the only part that she knows, and the only part that's clean enough to publish on this blog.

Hot girls, they can break me, break me
Hot girls, you know what you're doing
Now, hot girls, come and break me, break me
Hot girls, take me where you are going

It's horrific, I know. Can you imagine the shock that Jeremy's mom must have felt when her darling, seemingly innocent little two year old granddaughter burst out singing "Hot girls!" at the top of her lungs? Can you imagine my embarrassment when, at dinner the other night, Kaitlin again started yelling "Hot girls!", again at the top of her lungs?

The funny (ironic funny, not ha ha funny) is that we almost never listen to that CD. Somehow in the one or two times she might have heard the song she picked up on it. If that isn't proof of the spongelike nature of a child's mind, I don't know what is. I guess now we know that we have to add music to our list of things to censor!

August 17, 2006

Just a Bunch of Stuff

I've determined that a miscellaneous post is necessary or I will never record everything that I want to get down. So, to my readers, if you can stand it this is going to be a long post about a lot of nothing. But, for your reading pleasure I've included a lot of pictures--something that has been noticeably lacking on my blog as of late.

Here's the rundown of what I've been up to lately:

To get things started off right, here's a recent picture of Alexander. I took it yesterday--the first day that he's been in a really good mood while awake. And, mind you, he'd just spent the previous five hours to taking this picture in the car and being dragged into the Memories outlet and Costco. What a trooper! Today continued this trend, and I'm hopeful that it will continue. We met Jeremy for dinner at The Pizza Factory in Lindon. He had to work late but wanted to see the kids for at least a few minutes today. Alexander sat very contentedly in his chair, smiling and cooing and just being generally very charming. He really is a delightful little baby. Such a joy!

Yesterday ended my three and a half day break. If I didn't miss my family so much I could have used several more days. I didn't even dent my to-do list for the time I had, but I realize that it was a very ambitious list, impossible, really. I did have a lot of time in the middle of the night to do things. Alexander decided that he would take an hour or so after eating to look around. He would not go back to sleep, and he cried if I left him in his crib. So before going to bed I'd make sure to have a project in progress. One of my projects was to finish my Christmas cards. This is my stack of completed Christmas cards. I made 50 this year since I got such a head start on them. Every year in the past we've had to trim our list down to fit the few cards I could quickly throw together after Thanksgiving. This year I'm sending cards to whoever I want. Who knows I just might have to make more!

My time almost alone at home was really quite nice. It was so wonderful to be able to spend a little one-on-one time with Alexander. It was nice to not have the stress of trying to juggle the needs of two children. It was nice being able to sleep whenever I wanted, to eat whatever I wanted, and to do whatever I wanted. I took full advantage of this. Kaitlin had a great time on the farm with her grandparents. All morning today I got to listen to Kaitlin's memories of her time with Grandma Hanks. For example, this morning I asked her if she wanted some toast and honey. Instead of giving me an answer, she said, "Grandma Hanks has toast and honey."

Although it was so nice to be alone, I am so grateful that my family is all home safe and sound. Jeremy got back from Boston last night. A little time away makes me realize just how much I enjoy our time together, and regretfully, how much I take my family for granted. This, I'm afraid is a lesson that I need to have taught to me time and time again--especially when the cares and worries of every day life start to take over.

This is what my family room looked like while Kaitlin was away. Oh, how what bliss to know when I woke up in the morning that the family room would remain in this state of cleanliness basically all day! It goes without saying that the act of occupying a room does make a little mess. I had some time with a paper mess leftover from the birth announcements that I'm working on. But we're taking about a 2 minute maximum clean up time. Now, get ready, after a single day home, with Kaitlin running free, this is what my family room looked like just after Kaitlin went to bed. How can one little girl make so much mess? What you can't see is the spot where Kaitlin wet her pants. We tried some new Disney Princess panties today to see if they would make her feel like a big enough girl to go potty on the big girl potty. Apparently not. I told her that Belle was mad at her for peeing all over her, but she doesn't seem to care. Even the bribe toys that I bought weren't enough. Kaitlin is showing signs that she's ready to potty train, but she's just not quite ready to say goodbye to her diapers. Oh well. We'll try again another day.

I have been very bad about posting pictures of the good mail that I get. I'm going to vow to everyone to change that. It's fun to see everyone else's good mail, and it's fun to have your good mail recognized. So, here I am, turning over a new leaf. Today I got a huge package from my friend Nikki. It was a bithday present that also contained gifts for the kids. She sent me some Japanese papers that are simply gorgeous! Nic, if you only knew how I've been lamenting the fact that I have no local resource for Japanese paper! I used some last week and fell in love. It's so nice for covering blank notebooks. It folds like a dream. So thank you, thank you! You got me the perfect gift! You can see the rest of my haul here. The only thing that's missing is a soft stuffed dog that Kaitlin has adopted as her own. The time that she wasn't playing with her new Color Wonder finger paints was spent riding the dog around the house. Also included in Nikki's package were a darling mug and picture frame, a US Navy teddy bear (which Kaitlin also adores, but forgot to take to bed), some cute little foam stamps for Kaitlin, a Winnie the Pooh talking cell phone that speaks Japanese(!), and some US Navy wear. (In case you were wondering, her husband is in the Navy. They're stationed in Japan right now. Cool, huh?)

Here are some pictures of our new front yard. At long last the landscaper was finally able to come out and put our yard in. The front and back took about three weeks to complete. Such a long time, but the results are amazing! Before the work was done our yard was plain and, quite frankly, pretty ugly. The grass would not stay green because the slope was so steep. There were no plants or anything else to make the yard interesting. We ripped out all of the old grass, built these stacked stone walls, added trees, a ton of plants and laid new sod. I hate to sound boastful but our yard is the nicest one on the block--though two of our across the street neighbors have gorgeous yards as well. This second picture is a close up of my favorite part of our yard--the stone steps leading up to the door. Oh, who am I kidding, the whole yard is my favorite! We also did our back yard, but when I thought to take these pictures today the yard was in too much shade. If I think about it I'll take some tomorrow and post them.

The final item: a little known fact about the Jeremy and Amy Hanks family is that we are popcorn snobs. Well, really, Jeremy is the popcorn snob, but since I'm his wife, I have to go along for the ride. Did you know that it's nearly impossible to find an air popper these days? Target doesn't carry them. I'm not sure about Walmart. I'll have to check. No, the introduction of microwave popcorn has virtually made air poppers obsolete. As a result, it's nearly impossible to find a good assortment of popcorn kernels at the grocery store. It used to be that the shelves contained bags of corn made by Orville Redenbacher's, Jiffypop, Jolly Time as well as the store's generic brand. Oh, yeah, and that microwave stuff. Now, the only brand I've been able to find in Orville Redenbacher's, and according to Jeremy, this is the worst brand around. This conclusion was reached by a great amount of experimentation. In Jeremy's opinion the best brand is Jolly Time. The Jolly Time kernels pop bigger than any other. In addition, Jolly Time popcorn leaves the fewest unpopped kernels. Finally, the white kernel popcorn is the ultimate in taste. Needless to say, it was a sad day in our house when we ran out of Jolly Time pop corn. I searched high and low for some more, and came up empty handed. In the interim we had to resort to some Orville Redenbacher's that we had left over from the time before I realized how passionately Jeremy feels about his popcorn quality and the microwave popcorn we keep on hand for babysitters. Well, thank goodness for the Internet. Because of the Internet, we were able to order a year's supply of Jeremy's favorite popcorn. The shipping cost more than the actual product, but not to worry! We will have the best popcorn around!

OK, that's all for now. Whew! If you've stuck with me this long, you are a model for endurance! Thanks. And I have to apologize now for any spelling errors/typos I might have made. It's late. Who knows when Alex will wake up. So I'm off to bed. I'll proof read in the morning.

August 14, 2006

Cold Comfort Farm

So, I found something out about myself yesterday. The urgency I feel to spend time in my craft room stems from having a child who is awake. I feel that I can spend time creating something and interact with her at the same time. When given time to myself (Jeremy and Kaitlin are away right now--not together. Jeremy's in Boston and K's in Idaho with her grandparents), with a child who sleeps all day I will elect to spend the day in bed reading. That's how I managed to read Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons in a single day. I admit, I felt the pull of the craft room, especially since I have so many projects on progress, but I couldn't get away from this book.

Unfortunately I don't have much to say about it. I mostly wanted to post about it because I wanted to put a picture of it on my blog. I love this cover! If the portraits of the characters look a little scary to you, well, they're supposed to. This novel is funny, peopled with the quirkiest characters that you will ever read about. Despite their quirks they are (almost) all lovable. So instead of any analysis, I'll just give a little synopsis.

Cold Comfort Farm is the story of Flora Poste, a 20 year old woman in 1940's London. Her parents have died, leaving her a mere 100 pounds a year on which to live. Instead of learning how to work she decides to let her relatives support her by making extended visits to them. She writes letters to all of her relatives, but when she receives their replies she realizes that she will be terribly bored with all of them. The Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm promise the least amount of boredom so she goes to them. She sees them as a project. Flora can't stand messy lives, and the lives of the Starkadders seem particularly messy--their letters are even written on dirty stationery!

When Flora arrives at Cold Comfort Farm she finds a family whose individuals are trapped on the farm. They are ruled over by a matriarch who everyone thinks is insane. Flora sees immeditely that she must help free the members of the family and sets about doing so in a very humorous manner. A reader reviewer on Amazon pointed out that these stories are common, but the person who set the family memebers free typically have some sort of magical power. Conversely, Flora uses English practicality, rather than magic, to improve the lives of those around her.

Cold Comfort Farm is a quick, fun read that I could feel comfortable recommending to just about anyone. It was also made into a move by the BBC about 10 years ago, starring Kate Beckinsale as Flora. It's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember it to be very well done, with Beckinsale making a very good Flora. For you Netflix subscribers it is available through that service, and is now at the top of my queue.

August 12, 2006

Year of Wonders

Yes, it's another book review, and this time for a book that I've read before for RBC (Real Book Club). My church book club read Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks and met together to discuss it this week. Since I read a lot, it seems that I am stuck sometimes having to read books for the church book club that I've already read before. I always have to decide whether to reread the book, or to go from memory for the discussion. Usually I decide to reread the books, but I procrastinate so long that I don't have time to finish. This was the case with Year of Wonders, but I finished it today (two days late), and I am so happy that I took the time to read it again.

Year of Wonders is about a small village in rural England that finds its residents infested with the bubonic plague in 1665. The rector of the village church challenges the members of the congregation to voluntarilly quarantine their village so as to prevent the spead of the disease.

The main character of the story is Hannah Frith, a young widow who works in the rector's home. She is a woman of remarkable intelligence, having taught herself to read and write at a young age. When she goes to work for the rector, his wife, Elinor, recognizes her desire to learn, and begins to teach her, helping her to improve the skills that she taught herself and expanding upon them. When the plague strikes their village the two women become friends as well as the medical experts in their community.

In the book club discussion we had on Thursday, I remarked that Anna is one of my favorite woman characters in literature. I'm not sure that Year of Wonders will ever become a classic, to be read fifty years from now (though I think it worthy!), but Anna will always stand out to me. She was dealt such a hard lot in life. She was the child of abusive, alcoholic parents, her husband died in a mining accident, leaving her with two young children, and perhaps most damning of all, she was born a woman in a poor rural community in the mid-17th century. She had no opportunity for formal education and no real standing in her community--yet she was not a victim of her circumstances. She rose above them, and got the better of them. Though the background of the story is factual, there was a village that quarantined itself, Anna is fictional, and herein lies the value of reading fiction. Though Anna never existed she still teaches us that we can rise above whatever our disadvantages seem to be and make our lives something extraordinary.

What I love about Anna is that she is very human. She fought the need to obtain knowledge of herbs--the very thing that became most valuable to her--for fear that people would think she was a witch. When she finally gave in to her life's calling, she was able to benefit many people. Along with the things she was able to do for others, she also learned that things are not always what they seem. She learned not to judge people for their lack of understanding, for their cruelty to others, and for giving in to their human weaknesses. Yet, she was still unwilling to stand up for her father when he was brought to trial for theft, unable to forget all of the past wrongs inflicted by his hand. Through her I was able to see that it is possible for someone to do much good, and still have human qualities that cause them to stumble. I have in my sidebar a quote from Les Miserables:

To be a saint is the exception, to be upright is the rule. Err, falter, sin, but be upright.

Anna is the embodiment of this idea. Though she errs, falters and sins, she still does her best to do right, and feels it stongly when she does not. And, really, isn't this all we can ask of ourselves?

A few little reading related miscellaneous items:

1. The last book I read was Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers. It's a Lord Peter Whimsey mystery. Sayers published her mystery novels during the 1920's and 30's. She was friends with Tolkien and CS Lewis, and though Tolkien couldn't stand the Peter Whimsely character, I find him to be quite entertaining! If you haven't read any of Sayers work, you should consider it.

2. I haven't posted about all of the books I've been reading lately so here's a list
  • Excellent Women by Barbara Pymm--I was a little uncomfortable about the treatment of the main character by other characters in the book, but really ended up enjoying this one.
  • Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See--gorgeous, also good for a reminder that everything is not what it seems to be
  • Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro--I was nearly laughed out of book club for suggesting this one. It has a science fiction sounding premise (the main characters are all clones), but a very human element to it. For me it was about coming to terms with the past and living a good life despite circumstances. Also there is a lot to be said about the power of hope in our lives.
  • The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason--very hard to get into, but once it grabbed me I couldn't put it down.
  • Good Grief by Lolly Winston--when I first started reading this book I wanted to blow my brains out because the main character was so depressed. After a while, though she grew on me, and this became a book that I couldn't put down.
  • Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock--very sad, book about child abuse, but the characters are great. Read this one with a box of Kleenex!
  • and, of course, Les Miserables (which I posted about) Strong Poison and Year of Wonders
3. Finally, I haven't posted my page total for the year for quite some time. It is 9224.

August 08, 2006

My favorite thing about babies

I love the state of babyhood for many reasons, but mostly because it's a time of firsts. Never in our lives do we do so many things for the first time. It reminds me that we all started out as blank slates, or like smooth round balls of clay. Life molds and shapes us into what we are to become. So much of that shaping comes in the first few months! Alexander had his first smile on Saturday July 30th. I haven't been able to catch it on "film" until today. This isn't the best example of his adorable little smile, but it's all we could get! Isn't he sweet?

August 03, 2006

This girl can put two and two together!

OK, hopefully this isn't TMI (too much information) but today, as I was brushing Kaitlin's hair she grabbed my shirt to look at my breasts. She said, very lovingly, I might add, "Mom's boobs!" Then, stroking them (above the shirt!), yes, you read correctly, she said, "Mommy has boobs so she can feed Alexander." What in the world?