Great Success!

I have attained several goals recently,

1. TV is less important to my children
2. I got to the library
3. We are back into reading chapter books together

 Caroline watched no TV today while Will was at school and when we got home from school pick-up, the kids did not ask to watch TV. Instead, on the car ride, they planned to play a secret game involving a witch and a Star Wars commander.

They are apparently experts at this game because it was on almost before we got in the door.  However, they switched roles so that Will could be the witch, and Caroline got to choose between being a commander and an at-at pilot.  I have no idea what that is, but it's on the box of Legos we got for a friend's upcoming birthday. P.S. Sorry Jack, the box is  a little (lot) crunched, and a little open.  We love that box of Legos and badly wish it were ours.

Also, I finally got to the library today.  Here's what I got for myself:

Stacked by Susan Seligson  a book about boobs
Under the Black Flag: the Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates   By David Cordingly
Near Death on the High Seas: True Stories of Disaster and Survival  edited by Cecil Kuhne
2-at-a-time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes
Favorite Socks:25 Timeless Designs from Interweave 
Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution by Caroline Weber

(Why do all books have such long subtitles these days?  Kind of like the Most Excellent and  Lamentable Tragedie.... except that's a surtitle. Am I supposed to put in the subtitle when discussing these books?  I need to check a style guide).

This list of books makes me think that maybe I have some sort of bizarre mental disorder. I can't even begin to surmise what it says about me other than the fact that I was only able to browse in the non-fiction section because of an impatient four-year-old so I grabbed everything that caught my eye. Breasts! Shipwrecks! and Knitting your own socks!  What could be better?

I also got a bunch of kid books, most notably Book 1 of the Spiderwick Chronicles.  Will and I read one and a half chapters tonight.  I think it's going to be a pretty good one.  All I know of this series is that it is  magicky, very popular and was made into a movie.  Last week at Media Center, Will checked out a Spiderwick from later in the series so it was impenetrable to him.  Today, I got Book One at my library and he got an illustrated Field Guide at his. We are set.

Also, we have been reading and LOVING  The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by  Kate DiCamillo.  We loved Despereaux even though my kids were maybe five and three when we read it.  It takes a lot of stopping and explaining words, concepts and plot, but somehow my kids are mesmerized my Ms. DiCamillo's stories. There is alot of talk of love in these books, and the value of it, and feeling it; and about  looking for love and how it it the truest and most important feeling.  Despereaux Tilling is a mouse with strong feelings for honor and courtly love, while Edward Tulane is a china rabbit who is learning about love and what's important on his long and incredible journey. These stories have so much in them, strong characters, vivid descriptions, a recognisable, but slightly magical setting,  talk about the important things in life,  I think it all rings really true to my kids.

Ms. DiCamillo mixes in fairy tale and minor magic with perfect prose and pacing. She won the Newbery Medal for The Tale of Despereaux, and she has won numerous other notable awards, which she deserves.  I love her very much.

It's Over

I just posted "Screen Free Day 4" But really it's day 5  I think. I have literally been so busy this week that even though I am allowing myself screen time in the evenings for blogging, I haven't gotten to write much.

I'm declaring Screen Free a complete success even though I crapped out today.  Caroline was up coughing last night, and so this morning I didn't have the gumption to say no TV to Will.  I think he may have watched TV, played Nintendo Ds, and Wii in sort of a TV withdrawal orgy.

Whoops.

And now we are sitting on the couch watching King Fu Panda.

 Here's the thing.  I love sitting on the couch with my kids. It's so cozy and lazy. Plus, to assuage my guilt I  have plans for a healthy dinner and a then an evening trip to the park.

To sum up: I have also learned how easy it is to reduce screen time and how well my children adapt and blossom in a media free environment.  I plan to have much stricter limits on TV and video games, and I don't anticipate much resistance.

Screen Free Day 4

Hey this isn't so bad!  I was hopeful about cutting out tv, but scared.  I don't know what I was scared of, like maybe their heads would explode, but really, no biggie.  They ask for tv, but not with much enthusiasm.  And the way they have adapted by wandering off to their rooms by themselves.  Yesterday in the time before they left for Dad's house, a period we often have the tv on, I laid on the couch and ignored them and they played a rousing game of school involving shouting  and jumping.

A few of my goals haven't been met, I haven't made it to the library YET.  It's now Thursday morning and I'm going to make it my main goal today.  But really, we've been so busy with a field trip, with bowling and going to the park we haven't had time to get books to read.

In lieu of reading actual fun books, I finally finished 1984 by George Orwell.  It was a slog.  I wanted to read it because of it's prominent place in our culture and all that.  I'm glad I read it, and I appreciate it's significance, but woof.  It's really not my kind of book.   In high school for summer reading, we had to read a book by Ray Bradbury, and the only reason I remember it is because it was so alien (haha) to me and things I think about.  In most cases, I am not a fantasy or sci-fi gal, and don't care much for apocalyptic visions of earth or society.

An apocalypse on a small scale, like a family tragedy scale, yes, but collapse of human society, nah.  That said, in the last few years, I've read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, World War Z, 1984, and a couple others, all giving a vision of post-western society.   Now that I have them under my belt, I'm glad, but ick. Not fun reading.

Screen Free Day 1

Day 1 of Screen Free Week at my house was pretty darn good!    The kids asked for tv, but really in a half hearted way.  They were both happy to find other activities; painting, playing Polly Pockets, Legos, dancing and doing dishes. I probably read ten books yesterday and have an assignment this morning from Will to get a Spiderwick book to read to him.

Yesterday, in the hours not spent watching TV, Will built this:

A clever, clever lego battle scene complete with zip line!
 and Caroline painted this:

Hooray!!! Look at my pink hair! I love my girl.



What I'd really like to do with this project is start a better pattern of using imaginations more and screens less, so I'm not sure how long I'm going to make this go-- seven days or five?  Should I make this a regular occurence?  Every few months rather than once a lifetime?

 I want my kids to be able to fill time on thier own, without relying on electronic devices. This is much easier in the  warm weather months, they are great at playing outside, and immediately lapse into thier own imaginary world when riding bikes or playing in a pool.  But during the winter, they were helpless to figure out something to do.  My goal is to have days like today, when Will asked if he had time to play legos after dinner.

My mom suggested doing some sort of reward.  I'm considering it, like a new Lego set for Will, and  some new thing for Care.  I don't want to treat no tv as a hardship that needs a reward, but I think rewarding them with something that encourages imagination rather than zombielike staring at a screen adds to the point rather than subtracts.

Now that I am writing this on day two, I want to add that Caroline built this:

It's a city, built out of assorted girl stuff.

Just this morning, she's given her dollies a bath, is coloring at the table and hasn't asked for tv once. I think just knowing it's not an option really makes a big difference.

I also want to note that my kids generally do alot of playing and art and building, it's just that this is more production than is usual.

Crap, it starts today

Shit and Hell.  TVfree week begins today at my house.  Better switch off the tube and shut down this computer before the kids' dad drops them off at 8 this morning.

I am really unprepared for this. My children are going to be VERY angry with me.

I also need to get to the library, I've got nothing to read.

Sayonara Boob Tube!

Around my house we watch a fair amount of television. Much of it is fairly innocuous children's programming,  but some of it is SpongeBob and recently we have picked up a few less nice shows on Cartoon Network- Ick.   Also, I bought Will Lego Star Wars for his Nintendo DSi, and he loves it which is sort of good, but he is obsessed with it. He wants to play every minute, and  since the game's arrival, I have seen a marked decline in his behavior. He whines and threatens, and acts annoying about a stupid black plastic box.

Luckily, today a new issue of Tessy and Tab , a fun little magazine for kids, arrived in the mail.  In it, Tessy and Tab participate in Screen Free Week.  A week with no tv, video games or computer. "National Screen Free Week" is April 19-25, but I think I'm doing it  the week of April 26th. I don't think the  Screen Free gods will mind. I'd also seen this in an Arthur episode a few years ago, and I thought it was a good idea but was really too much of a disaster to buckle down and turn off the tube.

I'm confident that I can easily get my own tv habit under control, I keep it off in the evenings once in a while, and if there's nothing on, I turn it off. I also don't watch anything for myself during the day. On the flip side, my kids watch TV for probably about 2 hours a day weekdays and possibly more on weekends.  They really like tv. It makes me a little sick to think about it actually, the brain cells that are collapsing as they stare zombie-like at the gentle flicker. Hmm,  I don't think tv's really flicker any more.

Because this idea came into our lives at a moment when screens seem to be  negatively influencing behavior, and because I like to do things that are a little hard and not that fun, we are participating.   I'm sort of on the fence about whether I will allow myself to turn on my computer at night to check e-mail and weather.  Will is very concerned about finding out the weather report, and this way I can convince him that I am magic and psychic.  Also, blogging could probably be allowed as it is creative writing.  I'll think about these issues....

I bet I get a lot of reading and knitting done. Plus maybe some good game time, puzzles, library trips and probably some yelling.

I invite you to participate, and if not, at least  to review your own television habits.

A Plea. Plus Picture!

Now that I have a camera again, here's a picture of Patch. Handsome, No?

I think I'm out of reading material at my house.  Have any good suggestions?

Also, please note that every blog post title in April has an exclamation point.  Hmm.  I think I may need to revisit my punctuation policy.

Born to Run... Yahoo!

I come from a family of great readers and athletes.   People in my family are runners, cyclists, surfers, etc.  Also, my parents read, my grandparents read. Everyone reads. Best of all, my brother, sister, her husband and I all  have a loosey-goosey tradition of reading and passing around various books. And at the moment, we are all also in a running/swimming/biking kick. It's really fun.

 In the past, we have all read David Copperfield, East of Eden, The Caine Mutiny, Life of Pi and a few others I can't think of right now. I like to think of it as a very exclusive book club.Usually one of us reads a book then pressures a sibling to read it.  Then the other sibling catches wind that the other two (three, including my brother-in-law) have read something and picks it up to see what all the fuss is about.  Sometimes this is a process that takes a few years, for instance, my sister has yet to read War and Peace.  

Our current hot book is Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall.  This book now holds a special place in my sister's heart because she is the one who "discovered" it, gave it to my brother for Christmas and then he loved it and passed it to me.  I had heard both of them talk about it but frankly ignored them.

Honestly, I kind of thought they were bonkers.  I run, and  I even just read another really good book about running (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by  Haruki Murakami )  But I didn't immediately pick this one up.  My brother brought the book over on a recent Sunday and then asked me every day whether I had read it yet. 

I had finished up Emma, and didn't have anything else particularly pressing on my nightstand, and I was already in bed, so kind of by default, and with an eye roll, I picked up Born to Run.  It immediately hooks you with an account of a search for a sort of mystical/crazy runner living in the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico, moves through McDougall's own quest to figure out why he had so many running injuries, and skips along from there. It is well paced, informative,  and interesting enough to keep me up all night.

At the same time as he changed his own life by becoming a long distance runner, McDougall produced a well woven narrative about the build-up, planning and execution of a 50 mile footrace in crazy mountain terrain with personal stories, training advice, running history and philosophy,  as well as anthropology and finishes up with a book that could quite literally change your life.  

If you are inclined to be saved by exercise, back to the earth eating and running barefoot, that is.  

Suffice it to say, I stayed up reading this damn book until two in the morning, ran a few barefoot laps around my local park and ate a baked potato for dinner tonight.   

Go Team Why Mommy!

I am blogging for Susan today. she is a very dear friend of Stimey, a friendly aquaintance of mine, a terrific mom and blogger, and a scientist.  Today Susan is having surgery to battle the cancer she has been fighting for several years now, and Stimey has asked bloggers to write a post about science and our children to honor Susan.

                                         We staged these photos. What an actress.

Yesterday, Caroline fell asleep on the couch, and I had some time alone with Will. A very rare occurence, so I suggested we make granola bars.  He was excited and we moved into the kitchen to begin the process.  As we proceeded, I realized we were out of Karo syrup.  I checked and re-checked all the cabinets, cursing all the while.  Finally, instead of giving up, I decided to substitute honey for the Karo syrup.  We discussed what we needed to hold the dry bits of the granola bars together-- sticky things, peanut butter, a sugar solution, fats, and that the syrup and the honey could be substituted as they were both sugar solutions.

We needed to add three cups of oats the the mixture, and the one cup measure was all sticky from the wet ingredients, so I decided to add a little math lesson in and learn fractions. There's math in science-- right?

How many halfs are in a whole Will?"  I asked.

"I dunno."  He shrugged.

"Two. Right? One half, and another half make a whole. This cup is  a half cup, so two of those makes one whole cup. We need three cups, so we need two half cups three times. Six scoops."

Blank stare. He didn't care.  He wanted to scoop oats.

                                      (Note the finished granola bars and the attractive sneer).

I counted "One half. Scoop again. Level it...  dump. And another half. Level, dump. One cup.   See-- those two scoops are the same as one scoop of the one cup measure.  Let's go again..."

We then added the coconut, sunflower seeds and mini chips. Then baked the granola bars.  They are yum.

Did Will learn math yesterday, or chemistry?  Maybe, maybe not. But the words washed over his brain. I laid a foundation, as I try to do every day. Layering knowledge as it were.   Did he learn any fundamental baking truths? No.  But we had a really nice ten minutes together.

Susan, as we made those bars, and I spent time with my son, teaching him life skills, I thought of you.  I thought of the wonderful mother I know you to be, and how precious the time you spend with your boys is.  I know how mindfully you live your life.  I honor you, and try to follow the fine example you set.

Cat Watch! and More!

The cat leaves my room a little! Hooray. It turns out I'm not a fan of cat hair. Or having a cat box IN MY BEDROOM. The cat has also been wormed and had his toenails clipped.

Patch was pretty shy at first, and wouldn't leave my room. He was social in there, but happy to stay confined. Last night though, he hung out with me and was VERY interested in Life on Discovery Channel. I think he's going to be a good cat. Busy, but good.

Have I been reading? Nah, not alot. I finished Emma. It was lovely.

I also just made a really fun Amazon order for my family. If you know me, you know how rare this is. Will got Lego Star Wars for his Nintendo DSi. I got Knitting Rules! by Stephanie Pearl-Mc Phee. and Caroline got... The Princess and the Frog! Best movie ever. We love it.

Today is going to be a new stuff and Easter egg dyeing day-- always a good day.

Back to Knitting Rules!, I sort of think of Ms. Pearl-McPhee as a sort of sassier, knitting Laurie Colwin. She writes funny and or poignant essays about knitting and all things wool, as well as a very popular blog. This book, published in 2006 has lots of basic knitting information as well as some good recipes for a hats, socks, sweaters. I hope it will turn into a reference book for things like sock sizing and fixing other problems like that..

Patch

I got a cat. He is super great as cats go. I think. I haven't had a cat since I was nine, but I think this one is going to be good. He's a little nervous and spends most of his days under my bed; but when he comes out, he's ready to play. Also, he purrs every time I touch him. And once in a while, he lets both my kids pet him at the same time.

I would post a picture, but it would cost like more than a hundred dollars because my camera appears to be dying. He is a very good looking black and white boy, ten months old.

Hah! He just pounced at nothing. What a cat! Eew. Less cute, he just pounced in and out of the litter box, which is in my room because he's not really interested in leaving my room. Gross.

Seriously, what the hell is this fricking cat doing?

He's crazy.

I wish I knew more about cats.

Sadly, it's too late to call Stimey. She knows all about these things.

Read all the way to the end of this post--I've got fun news!

I feel sort of boring and predictable, but I'm reading Emma. Again.

Jane Austen, I can't get enough of her. She is always so fresh and perfect.

Off the Women's History Month table in the library, I also grabbed Laura's Album: A Remembrance Scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder compiled by William Anderson. It is really fun to see photographs of the Ingalls family and adorable Almanzo. Mrs. Wilder was apparently quite a sassafrassy. Between her childhood and her later years when she wrote her books; she was a noted farmer and active in her town and church. She was adorable and stout like a little French horse! Almanzo was surprisingly good looking, and a half-pint as well as Laura. Laura's Album also gives an accurate timeline of her family's travels, as she simplified for the children's books. It's a fun book to look over, and now I will probably have to read some Little House books for the fun of it. Maybe my kids are big enough now to listen to them.

Speaking of reading to kids; I have been trying to get my kids to listen to a chapter book lately, and they aren't biting at anything. Last year we read like five Ramona books. I have tried Trumpet of the Swan by E.B White and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty Mac Donald, to no avail. Maybe Little House in the Big Wood will spark their interest.

Speaking of Ramona though; today the three of us visited the local Humane Society to look for a cat. A CAT! And we found one. In discussing names, we turned over Rosepetal, Katie, Sally, Susan, Skipper, Apple Pie and others, but Ramona was our winner. I love it. And I really hope I love this cat. EEk! She's tiny and is black and white. She sat in my lap and purred. We were very disappointed to have to leave her at the shelter while we await our interview. Cross your fingers that I am judged to be a responsible cat owner-- my super nice landlord said that he would highly recommend me when they call him to make sure it's allowed. Aww.

Another Assignment

Back to Elizabeth Strout. My aunt visited the East Coast recently and brought me a few books, one of which came with an assignment. Read it and advise on whether to pick The Wife by Meg Wolitzer or Amy and Isabel by Elizabeth Strout for her book club next month. Last time I think she chose something by Ayn Rand so she wanted to give the ladies a break I think. Or maybe just not get kicked out of the book club.

I wasn't thinking very much when I glanced at them and didn't connect Amy and Isabel by Elizabeth Strout to Olive Kitteridge byt the same author. Duh.

I picked up Amy and Isabel a few times and said, to myself, "boy is this going to be good. I sure am tired though." So I turned of my light and went to bed after twenty minutes. Last night I picked up A and I at about eleven and it started to get really good. So good in fact that I read the whole book. And when I finished at two, I was so wound up I didn't sleep til three.

It was that good.

There are some ick parts to be sure. Watching a teenager come to sexual maturity is never pretty, and there are a fair number of images of middle aged sex, but Man. What a story. So beautfully written. I am putting Elizabeth Strout officially on my list of favorite authors. I love her.

The only negative comment I have about this book is the title. It comes off as a non-serious book, especially leading off with Amy, it seems fluffy when it definitely is not fluffy and addresses coming of age and sex and female relationships so thoughtfully. I don't have any suggestions for a better title, but am not a fan of the current one. Although really it's permanent. I wonder if Ms. Strout thought of it herself or had it forced upon her by a tyrannical publisher.

I love castaway stories!

Although I haven't been blogging for a few months, I have managed to get through a few books in the moments when I was not knitting.

One terrific book I read recently was In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. I grabbed this from Stimey's basement library because I cannot get enough of shipwreck and disaster stories. Morbid and creepy, I know. However, from all these books I have learned that I most certainly could become a cannibal. I shocked my poor friend today when I suggested that if my child were starving I would cheerfully slaughter my dog, stew him up and feed him to my children.

I am always planning for my own personal apocalypse, and so reading these survival books maybe helps me to mentally prepare for the starvation I seem to think is inevitable for me. I read them almost like textbooks, noting gruesome details so I can identify the signs of scurvy or maybe another horrible vitamin deficit in myself.

I absolutely love reading these stories of tongue swelling thirst and sucking on the bones of your first mate. Mr. Philbrick did a tremendous job of bringing this important American story to life. He described how is became Melville's inspiration for Moby Dick, and did a bang up job explaining nautical terms. Generally when reading books about ships, my eyes glaze over when they start talking about mainsails and knots and starboard but Mr. Philbrick gave one particularly useful diagram of a ship and used details from the life of a greenhorn to clearly portray how a ship leaves a harbor. I was not bored stiff when he recounted the voyage southerly around the tip of South America, or by the description of tides.

Now that I'm thinking back, this was really a great book. Not only did it have a gruesome and horrifying castaway story; it includes a colorful description of Nantucket and the unique culture that sprang up around the whaling industry as well as pertinent follow up stories about the survivors. Philbrick also touches on such thought provoking topics as the order in which people died while adrift at sea-- Blacks first. Hmm..prior nutrition patterns matter when your body is challenged. As do family and cultural ties.

Thanks Stimey for introducing me to the wonderful world of horrifying survival books. It hasn't made me morbid at all.

More books for Old Ladies

Remember how I spent like a ridiculous amount of time reading a Barbara Walters biography, and it mostly just left me fearful of being a serial marryer and dying alone? This time at least the book was funny and a quick read. (I read it last night in the bath.)

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron. It was a very funny book on aging. Ephron reviews her approach to looking good, a cooking history, thoughts on New York city and apartments, stuff like that. Boy do I wish I were a successful script writer director living in New York. She has gobs of cash to spend on her hair and waxing and Maintenance (one of the chapter names.) Plus her old apartment had eight rooms. My old house didn't have eight rooms. This book was really fun to read, and refreshingly light and silly and at moments poignant, but would I spend the list price of $21.95? Nope. I got it at the Friends of the Library book sale for $1.50.

As I read it, I was also a little puzzled by the flow of the individual chapters, and when I went back to read the front material, she had previously published all the essays in separate publications, then grouped them together for this book. The chapter on food and cooking is sort of funny, but wasn't a great follow up to the neighboring chapter on aging and beauty. The chapter on falling in and out of love with Bill Clinton "Me and Bill: The end of Love". Not so funny.

If this little book finds it's way into your field of vision for a reduced price, should you read it? Yes. Do you need to rush to the bookstore to find a cute book about aging? No.

Starting up again. Thanks Stimey.

Hi all friends of Stimey,

I suppose that because I purport to be a blogger, and a reader, I should maybe write a post. I lost steam on this blog for a while due to single parenthood, Christmas, knitting, watching television etc. And while I feel like I haven't been reading at all, really I have. Maybe tomorrow I'll post a list.

Right now I'm reading Persuasion by Jane Austen. I caught part of the Masterpiece [Theatre] adaptation and decided that as it was the last Austen novel that I had not read, I ought to. So I am.

It's kinda hard.

When I read other Jane Austen stuff, I've already read it like six times so I know who everyone is and what's happening and what they are going to say next. With Persuasion, I actually have to concentrate. There are alot of sisters in this one, lots of accomplished young women and a few naval captains. It's tough to keep them all straight.

The very best thing about Miss Austen though, is that she keeps the suspense about whether the main characters you want to fall in love will. Its uncanny. Everytime I read Pride and Predjudice, I'm on the edge of my seat, worrying that Elizabeth and Darcy won't manage to make it. And in Mansfield Park-- those two are mighty close relations to make it work. But she does it everytime; pulls everyone together and makes romance work.

She's so great.