Excellent blogs!

By accepting this Excellent Blog Award, you have to award it to 10 more people whose blogs you find Excellent Award-worthy. You can give it to as many people as you want but please award at least 10. Thank you out there for having such great blogs and being such great friends! You deserve this! Feel free to award people who have already been awarded . . .

Beth nominated me for this, and it's the nicest award I've ever received.

Finding ten worthy blogs won't be difficult; limiting it to ten will be hard, though! I've started doing RSS feeds with iGoogle, and these are some of my favorites of my feeds.

I hereby bestow the Excellent Blog Award upon the following excellent bloggers ... thank you all for the various ways you've encouraged me over the years. I look forward to continuing to follow your journey in the Blogisphere!

1. Mama Squirrel at Dewey's Treehouse
2. The Headmistress at The Common Room
3. Miss Roxie
4. Ginger at Thimble Cottage
5. Queen S. The Beehive
6. Beth at The Brew Crew
7. Donna-Jean at Liberty and Lily
8. Dawn at The Gentle Art of Learning
9. Katie at CM, Children and Lots of Grace
10. Shiloh Mom at The Country Cottage

OK, I'm out of spaces and I still have three or four to add...

Oh, wait! It said at least ten! So here are more:

11. CoffeeMama at Our Blue Castle
12. Javamom at Take Time to Smell the Coffee
13. MamaLion at Shadybrook Acres
14. Athena in a Minivan

Admonition

The sun, going down in a riot of color,
belies the dreariness of this weary day.
How can the clouds betray me with
a sudden burst of joy? All day
they were content with grey--and now
this outburst.
There was nothing in the day to merit
such a get-up; no cause
for wild bursts of joy; no excuse
for out-of-season gladness.
I was content to let the sunlight pass
in weary contemplation. But these
unruly clouds have upset my thoughts
with their joyful shouting; all this
reverberating color
rebukes me into praise.

I was sure the day was coming
to a gentle, silent stop;
but the sky has forced a humble
exclamation-mark upon it.

Sense and Sensibility

I had some catching up to do, so I listened to four chapters on Librivox.org and then read four chapters this afternoon to bring me up to chapter 34 (is that where you're at, Ginger?)

I've seen the movie with Kate Winslett and Emma Thompson a number of times, and I thought the movie exaggerated the coldheartedness of the oldest brother, John, who had been requested by his dying father to take care of his mother and sisters. But the book goes even further - in his guilt at neglecting them, he's misreading the signs and trying to marry off Elinor to rich Colonel Brandon, and persuading Elinor (and himself) that kind Mrs. Jennings intends to leave them some money when she dies! How he can think that she would do that when she has her own daughters, and when he himself won't give them anything, is beyond me. He's a strange piece of work.

My Blog - in Russian!

This link displays our blog translated into Russian.

Family-Friendly Movie Reviews

Kids in Mind
Charity's Place
Plugged In
Common Sense media

Linux Links

Message Board support:
Ubuntu Forums
Linux Questions
Linux Forums

Finding Alternative Linux programs to replace Windows programs:
The Linux Alternative Project
Open Source Alternative

NMSC

This came in the mail today:



Tim is a National Merit Scholar! He took the PSAT last year and scored high enough to be a semi-finalist. For the next level, he needed, among other things, a letter from his school (our umbrella school principal) and he had to write an essay. And he advanced to the final level!

(His full name is on the certificate - but, for privacy, I blurred all but the Tim part.)

Sometimes parents wonder if Ambleside Online or a Charlotte Mason education will provide what it takes to prepare a student to get into college. Tim is a good student, self-sufficient, organized, disciplined and able to manage his time, motivated. But his only schooling since fourth grade has been Ambleside Online (we did Sonlight for his first three years). He's had no formal creative writing, language arts, no math tutoring, no supplemental courses or projects to boost his knowledge of history or anything. So I think that a CM/AO education is enough for any student. Not that a CM education can guarantee the same results, but no education, not even a public school education (since that's the standard that homeschooling is held up to!), can make that kind of guarantee.

White Stag Sighted in Scotland

News link.

"And one year it fell out that Tumnus (who was a middle-aged Faun by now and beginning to be stout) came down river and brought them news that the White Stag had once more appeared in his parts--the White Stag who would give you wishes if you caught him. So these two Kings and Queens with the principal members of their court, rode a-hunting with horns and hounds in the Western Woods to follow the White Stag."

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

No wonder Britain is in trouble

The Archbishop of Canterbury says the adoption of certain aspects of Sharia law in the UK "seems unavoidable".
...
Dr Williams argues that adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social cohesion.
...
He says Muslims should not have to choose between "the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty".

Goodness, no, we wouldn't want to make them do that. Where do they think this is, England or something?

The BBC has the full article.

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Update: There has been a considerable backlash against the Archbishop's statement, both from the Anglican clergy and the community at large. The Times has a selection of blogs.

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Update, February 10: The Archbishop has now tried to retract his original statement, saying in a statement on his website that he "made no proposals for sharia" and "did not call for its introduction as some kind of parallel jurisdiction to the civil law."

At the same time he argues that "the very term sharia is not only misunderstood, but is the focus of much fear and anxiety deriving from its 'primitivist' application in some contexts."

The Gates of Vienna continues to blog on this topic here and here:

I admit to being surprised at the depth of the antagonism towards the Archdhimmi, especially from within the Anglican hierarchy. Is it possible that they have been roused from slumber?

Blogging Without Obligation

I saw this first on Beth's blog. She found it here, with an explanation of what it's all about. To be honest, that's been the way I've always blogged - if I have something to say, I post it. If three weeks go by and nothing strikes me, then I don't. My desire to say something has always gone in spurts, even before blogging. Blog lags never bothered me because, over the long haul, it all evens out. Now I'm part of a movement and it has a name. :)

I've been a bit saddened recently to see a few friends say goodbye to blogging. They have great reasons - wanting more time with family, etc. - but I haven't felt any nudging or desire to follow suit. Blogging Without Obligation allows me to blog when I want, and take breaks when I want, without a nagging sense that I should be posting something.