The Movie and Hamster Escapes

The Movie
Well, Number-One Daughter and I were disappointed by the Percy Jackson movie. It felt very rushed (three overkill action scenes connected by a bunch of fast tell-not-show), and what was that ridiculous plot device of searching for the pearls? We hoped against hope that the casting choices would make more sense on the screen than they did on imdb, but no such luck. Might have to go read Riordan’s books all over again to erase that visual nonsense.

Hamster Escapes
Mayhem yesterday afternoon when the kids discovered one of the week-old hamsters blundering among the Littlest Pet Shop-palooza on the living room floor. Apparently the little guy squeezed through the bars of the cage and tumbled to the carpet. Fortunately the cat was upstairs and oblivious. We picked up the baby hamster with a spoon so our scent wouldn’t freak out the mother (cool things you learn on the internet), and returned him to the cage. He huddled for a bit by himself, but then mom came along and dragged him back into the nest. We then put some cardboard around the bottom of the cage to prevent further escapes. I thought my kids were a handful…

Exciting Things

1. Learning Connections
As in, after I read Mark Kurlansky’s The Story of Salt with the kids, then found the adult version, Salt (which Number-One Daughter insists looks and sounds like a novel, with that kind of title); and the day after I read about how salt was used for embalming in ancient Egypt (different grades for different classes of people), the kids and I started reading a book about ancient Egypt (100 Things You Should Know About Ancient Egypt, by Jane Walker) and found a spread about embalming which of course mentioned salt. Oh, and it happens that Number-One Daughter is studying ancient Egypt in school right now, and had only a day or two before described (with relish, at the dinner table) how the embalming process required that the brain be removed through the nose with a hook, and the organs placed in jars. Yep. Read that in the book, too. I’m pretty sure learning is taking place here, a lot of it mine…

Or how about this one: One night, in a book called Animals Under the Ground, by Phyllis J. Perry, Princess Two and I read about the kangaroo rat, and how it lives in the desert but gets all the moisture it needs through the seeds it eats. A little later the same night, Number-One Daughter and I found this passage in Scott O’Dell’s The King’s Fifth:

…[F]rom a pocket in her skirt she took a small, ratlike creature, with long back legs, and held it up in the palm of her hand.

“What is it?” I asked.

“An aguatil. It lives in the deserts and never needs to drink water. It does not like water. Its name is Montezuma.”

I doubted her story but it was true. In the days to come, when horses and men thirsted, this ratlike creature thrived, getting by some means from the seeds it ate, the water it needed.

I also found it handy to have Animals Under the Ground nearby when the younger two and I started reading The Wind in the Willows, for the photos of moles and badgers. Have I ever mentioned how much I love books?

2. New Yarn Store
Friend Jill took me to her new discovery yesterday afternoon. A lovely, old-fashioned storefront, dangerously close to home, filled with gorgeous yarns of every shape, color, texture. Heavenly. I bought a small ball of rainbow-colored wool that was just enough for a baby-sized beanie, and some variegated green supersoft cotton of whose possibilities I am still dreaming…

3. Impending New Releases
In 2 weeks: the Percy Jackson movie
In 8 weeks: Megan Whalen Turner’s latest book featuring Eugenides, the Thief of Eddis, titled A Conspiracy of Kings. Love, love, love these books.

4. Return of the Scrabblepoem Challenge
That’s right. Stay tuned for the official announcement, complete with rules, coming this Friday!

Back from…

…well, Life. What have I been doing for 7 months (!!!) that has kept me from posting here? I can break it down into three basic categories:

1. Wallowing in mid-life angst
2. Un-schooling two of my children
3. Working furiously on a ginormous church project

Oh, and reading of course. Rather desultorily, alas. I ripped through Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, at the behest of Number-One Daughter. They were fun. Delightfully diverting. Then Number One and I did Pride and Prejudice as a read-aloud (my third or fourth time, her first). Have I mentioned Dorothy L. Sayers, or did I discover her after I went missing last May?

Oh dear, I have a lot of catching up to do.

I haven’t described my blissful tomato-canning experience (August) or how I uploaded my novel onto the web (November). How I sang for the first time with the Lutheran Festival Chorus (last weekend). And all those false starts and dashed enthusiasms and wanderings in my writing life (ongoing)…

Muffins with Mom

This morning, our elementary school held the first day of its annual book fair. To get us all there bright and early, 45 minutes before school began, they offered the incentive of muffins and coffee.

The basement library was packed with people and display cases, but two of my kids did their preview shopping yesterday, and already knew what they wanted. Number Three is always good for an impulse buy, so her only difficulty was in narrowing selections to stay within Mom’s budget.

What did we buy?

Number One (age 12): The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan and Coke or Pepsi 3 by Mickey and Cheryl Gill

Number Two (age 9): Calvin and Hobbes, Revenge of the Babysat by Bill Watterson and Bad Kitty Gets a Bath by Nick Bruel

Number Three (age 5): Two Littlest Pet Shop readers and a two-sided nonfiction book on kittens and puppies

No deep thoughts, no literature greats here (though I happen to adore Calvin and Hobbes); but hey, they’re reading. Further good news: I didn’t hear one whine for the piddly doo-dads near the register (pencils, erasers, posters), and I still get the chance to sneak in my own picks at the library or during read-aloud time.