Some Pictures

Demolition of the gingerbread house. I was determined that we wouldn't let this house sit and harden because nobody wanted to ruin it. I encouraged the boys to eat it during the evening.


Miss M has been begging for "candy house" all day. So I broke her off a square of roof. She tasted it, but had more fun playing with it than eating it. I nibbled a corner of the gingerbread, and I wasn't impressed. It was pretty hard and not especially tasty.


J and a napping Miss M earlier today


Our tree with lights but still waiting to be decorated

Blog: Reporting From Iraq

I learned of this from The Common Room. It's a news junkie who is in Iraq, and, as far as I can gather, is reporting on how things look from the perspective of the soldiers. Her blog is HERE, and she says "Everything I thought I knew was wrong...If I am truly unbiased, then I need to get used to this one simple fact; that the untold story, might in fact, be a positive one."

I'll be keeping an eye on what she has to say.

Our Gingerbread House

We made our first-ever gingerbread house! This is a kit we got from the grocery store. We followed Mother Auma's tip and made sure our icing was really thick and stiff, and it worked really well.





I've been reading with interest the posts about how various AO/CM families celebrate Christmas. Just to add our own personal variety to the pot, we try to keep the focus on Christ's nativity and family fun. We know He wasn't born in December, but Christmas seems as good a time as any to us to commemorate it. We don't do Santa, but we do have a small tabletop tree. The intent is to take our focus off the tree and instead make the nativity that we set up on the fireplace mantle our focal point. Dad loves the traditions he remembers from his own childhood, so much of our season is pretty mainstream-conventional. With influence from our CM education and other CM moms, we're discovering more classical Christmas music and older traditions. I've enjoyed reading about the different ways that families have found to honor Christ in the way they celebrate Christmas.

Vote for Your Favorite Homeschool Blogs (and some Quotes)

We aren't in any of the categories, but we did nominate some of our favorite blogs. You can place your vote here.


Two Talent Living posted some quotes about truth under the title "Thoughts on Truths I’ve Reaffirmed Recently" (thanks to Mother Auma for pointing these out!) Here are just the two I liked best; there are more:

Everyone may be entitled to his own opinion but everyone is not entitled to his own truth. Truth is but one.
Doug Groothius

The opposite of bravery is not cowardice, but conformity.
Robert Anthony

Costume Picture

This is us boys in our costumes at the theater. We got a couple compliments on them, and it was hard not to notice the stares...

Mom's Narnia Movie Review

Could be spoilers --

Tim and I agreed to write and post our reviews before we talked to each other much about it, and before we read any other reviews.

I thought the movie was great! Georgie Hensley is perfect as Lucy. There were a few changes, but nothing enough to change the gist of the story. I did miss one of my favorite quotes, but it turned up later in the movie.

My minor criticisms: Some dialog between the children was missing. My own fault for knowing the book too well, I guess! Susan was more . . . Susan-ish? They really seemed to want to emphasize her practical side. I guess they're thinking ahead. If you only read the books, you'd be surprised at Susan later, but the movie seems to be setting things up for later. In general, the children seemed to squabble more and have some real issues that I hadn't seen in any other productions or read in the book. I assume that was an attempt to modernize them and make them more believable to modern movie-goers. Is it really so hard to believe that siblings can have warm feelings for each other and not have underlying hostilities towards each other? I thought it was a good idea to expand the antagonism between Peter and Edmund, it makes it more believable that Edmund would have been resentful enough to feel okay about going to the Witch. But it seemed that that was more the norm for the Pevensie sibling relationships.

The major thing I noticed was that Aslan wasn't 'fleshed out' enough for me to feel any connection with him, or to feel the same sense of desolate hopelessness when he died that I'd felt in other productions. Maybe it was just me having an off night? The battle and the kings and queens and the prophecy seemed to be more of a focus than Aslan himself. Maybe that's just because they showed more of the battle, and I'm used to it being de-emphasized or pretty much left out altogether in an attempt to put the focus on Aslan?

On the plus side, seeing Narnia come to life, and the creatures and the battle so realistic was unbelievable. Making everything seem so real overrided any minor changes. Still, I don't think that seeing the movie will replace reading the book. More than ever, it makes me want to read LOTR to see what I missed from seeing the movies. ;)

Narnia: Tim's Review

So we saw Narnia. And of course the question is, How was it?

Excellent. It was worth the four year wait and all the anxious nitpicking of each little piece as it was released. I had worries about changes that might deviate from the book's spirit, but although there were many changes, virtually none of them changed the meaning or spirit of the story. Was it better than the book? No. No movie could be. But was it the best movie, speaking realistically, that could be made from the book? In my opinion--yes!

We arrived at the theater, in costume, a little after six o'clock. We waited in line for about forty minutes before they started seating for the movie. By that time the line reached all the way back to the door. We found out later that every single one of today's showings (nearly a dozen) were sold out. Hooray!

Of course there was the long, long wait watching advertisements and previews after we had taken our seats. But once the movie started our audience grew very quiet. There was hardly a whisper through the whole movie; only wrappers crackling and laughter at the humorous parts. My eyes only left the screen once (that was to hand out the Turkish Delight we had brought--at the appropriate moment, of course). We clapped when it finished. Not only us, but the rest of the audience too. Hooray again!

The structure of the movie was very good. The script had a few weak lines, but overall it was also very good. I think we have a new quote source in our house. A good deal of action was added or magnified. The characters of the Pevensies were much more fleshed out than in the book (which was actually a good thing). A lot of emotion and humor was added. The camera shots were good, the costumes were good, the score was good (though not, I think, particularly memorable), and the acting was very good. There were two aspects that disappointed me. First, the CG: although it was very, very good, it was not photoreal as I had hoped. However, it did not detract from the movie as a whole, and the animals talking were certainly believable. Second, Aslan's character seems to have been weakened. More on that later.


Here followeth ..:: SPOILERS ::.. Be forewarned.


The highlights of the movie? Hmm. I had thought I could select just a few, but as I think about it there were too many good parts. There were a couple that gave me shivers up my spine: Peter and Edmund drawing their swords for Narnia, Aslan's resurrection, and the of the White Witch when Aslan said "It is finished." (Astoundingly, Andrew Adamson added that line without realizing the reference. That certainly makes one think.) The children being sent away, Aslan's resurrection and the final reconciliation of Peter and Edmund were more moving parts: what I would call tear-jerkers (only for me I can't). I liked Aslan's appearance in the fireplace, which made him seem to have a hand in preventing Lucy's kidnapping. I also loved the nods to the original, such as the line about the stars falling and the blue-bottle in the windowsill. Yes, it was a fly. (Sorry, inside joke.)

The worst part of the movie, I think, was that Aslan's power and character were slightly changed. He is still the King, and the part about the Laws or Deep Magic governing even Him did not trouble me. But the things that happen--Father Christmas arriving, the Winter ending, the Witch's reign being broken, and even Aslan's appearance--were attributed more to the arrival of the Pevensies and the fulfillment of prophecy than the direct actions of the Son of the Emperor-over-the-Sea (which title is not mentioned, by the way). And Aslan's line about Narnia being his family: perfectly alright, in perspective, but leaning more towards New Age philosophy. However, Aslan still conquers death and kills the White Witch, so perhaps I should not be complaining.


Here endeth ..:: SPOILERS ::.. You may start reading again.


We enjoyed it very much. Because the excitement of the first viewing has not worn off yet, I can't trust myself to give an honest judgment of where it rests in my Top Ten Movies--but it is certainly there. We will be going to see it again at least one more time. I don't mind in the least.

Today is the Day!

The Narnia movie!!

Tim has been following this movie for four years (when it was still a rumor), and checking its progress online almost daily for two years. The boys have costumes ready to wear to the movie, and we have tickets reserved. We would have loved to go to the midnight premier, but our town is too small to do that. (Our town is so small that Pride and Prejudice isn't even being shown here at all!) Miss M will be walking around the mall with Daddy during the movie (I'll have my turn in a couple of weeks, when he takes the boys to see it a second time!) They're all too excited to eat.

On Times Past

"Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind,
long years numberless as the wings of trees!
The long years have passed like swift draughts
of the sweet mead....
Who now shall refill the cup for me?" ¹

"Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze." ²

The flow of time sometimes brings a lingering sadness and a desire for the past. Most, I think, have known this desire; for "the hours pass, and the days and months and years," says Cicero, "and times past cannot be regained, nor can the future be known." Why do we have this desire? And will it ever be satisfied?

"And when I die, and when I'm gone,
There'll be one child born and a world to carry on,
There'll be one child born to carry on." ³

Perhaps this is the answer: an endless cycle from birth to death, life to life, and time to time. But this is not what the heart desires. We enjoy the present but desire the past; love each new life but mourn at each death.

We meet death not only in the loss of life. Death comes at the loss of each year, at the end of each day, at the passing of every moment. Death is what life is full of. So it has always been: we live but to die; each moment dies even as it is born. So it will continue, age upon age, life upon life, time upon time, until time ceases. Must it be so always? Is the reality indeed so unequal to our longing?

What is this longing? What is the reality it longs for? There is nothing extraordinary about times of the past, nor in their loss; and each present moment, when it departs, will become part of that elusive longing for the past. This present does not satisfy the desire now; once past, how could it satisfy the desire if it were to be regained? Each of our other desires can be satisfied: if we are hungry, we may eat; if we need love, we can be loved. But when we think we desire the past, we find the past will not satisfy the desire. The desire must be for something else. But it is not in the present or the past. All desire must look to the future, yet this desire is not satisfied by the future. So what can it be? If past, present, and future fail us, we must look beyond them. Our desire must be for something outside of time.

But how can we find the source of our desire if it is outside of time? We are bound by time and cannot leave it. Our life is a part of time; we cannot go beyond time and yet remain in this life. Therefore the fulfillment of our desire must be beyond life—and to pass beyond life we must first pass beyond death. There is both the riddle and the answer: there is death in life; there is life in death.


¹ "Galadriel's Lament" by J.R.R. Tolkien
² "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof
³ "And When I Die" by Peter, Paul and Mary

Seven Sevens

I was tagged by - my own son!

Things to do before I die:

1. Learn to know God better. < ditto
2. see all of my children grow to be sincere Christians
3. Read Plato
4. see Hawaii
5. understand poetry
6. stop and 'smell the flowers'
7. read a lot of Tolkein, CS Lewis and Chesterton

Things I cannot do:

1. Play the piano (or any instrument, for that matter)
2. find my way around a city
3. cook
4. listen to jazz
5. feel at ease in public
6. dance
7. create music or poetry

Things that attract me to my spouse:

1. Honest
2. Silly sense of humor
3. hard-working
4. Forgiving
5. Strong sense of traditional values
6. values family
7. patient

Seven things I say most often:

1. basically
2. Think, Mommy, think!
3. I don't think you're supposed to have that (to Miss M)
4. and 5. socky-wocky and feety-feet (baby talk)
6. Smoothies are ready!
7. Bedtime! (I asked the boys what they wished I wouldn't say so much and that was their response)

Seven books (or series) I love:

1. Art book about Waterhouse
2. Chopin in Paris
3. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
4. The Charlotte Mason series
5. Endangered Minds
6. James Herriott
7. Little Women

Seven movies I watch over and over again (or would watch over and over if I had the time):

1. Pride and Prejudice miniseries
2. Wuthering Heights (with Lawrence Olivier and Merle Oberon)
3. Our Mutual Friend miniseries
4. A Little Princess
5. The Sound of Music
6. Ever After
7. Groundhog Day

Seven People I want to join in, too:

Madame B at Sunny Day
thimblecottage
Dawn :)
Amy
Phyllis
Firefly
erinee