Top Five Things About Daphne

1. She was the baby who came after two and a half years of wondering if there would be any more babies.

2. Her first word was "blue."

3. She began reading at age 3.

4. She has sparkly blue eyes, like her Aunt Lindsay. Her daddy often succumbs to the effect of those eyes.

5. She is self-motivated, determined, and will do great things in life. Don't get in her way.

Happy birthday to Daphne -- our bright, chattery, affectionate little firecracker!


(Photo by Katie. Outfit by Addie.)

-- SJ, DJ, AMJ, SMJ, PGJ

Welcome To Hogwarts

HI! This is Katie. I'm doing a guest blog post. Isn't that cool? You'll probably like it if you like Harry Potter, and I'm sure you'll like it if you're a grandparent. ;) Click on the links to see pictures.

Addie and Stuart just read the Harry Potter series. We've been talking about HP non-stop. It's been very fun to have four other people in the same house to talk about it with.

The other day Stuart said, "I wish I could take a Care Of Magical Creatures class...HEY! We should play Harry Potter!" And so began the wand carving and spell list studying. We even made our own quills. Stuart taught C.O.M.C. outside, where he invented a new creature called Bloofies (bright colored fuzzy craft pom-poms). He had their diet, special abilities, and other aspects all laid out (which we wrote down.) Addie took over Charms. Then I taught Potions, which involved baking soda and vinegar along with other ingredients, and Arithmancy. The neighbors, Mollie and Evan, showed up with magic books and their own wands. Mollie (who acts and looks strikingly like my idea of book-Hermione, and a younger version of me) taught Divinations, DADA, and Transfiguration. Aunt Sara taught Ancient Runes (It was a very detailed, FUN lesson. She said it was an intro to dungeons and dragons, of a sort). We played this game for days, all morning. It's the most fun I've had in years. All the kids agreed, obviously. And here's a cute picture of a girl with her wand. Don't cross her. :)

An addition to the post-

I'm having a wonderful visit and I love spending time with my Aunt Sara. My cousins are cute and funny and Uncle Darren is very nice and soft-spoken, as always. However, Aunt Sara is who I love talking to. :) I don't want to leave.

Also- WE HAD AN EARTHQUAKE TODAY AND I WAS REALLY EXCITED. (I'm beginning to wonder if I have some strange affinity with natural disasters...)

Mundania 30

I opened a "new post" window and went away. Here I am back, and the Blog Fairy hasn't even *tried* to write anything. Guess I'll have to bail her out again.

Katie's visiting this week.

I left the computer for a while again, and when I came back, this is still all there was. My guess is that the Blog Fairy spent most of that time on Facebook talking about the earthquake.

Let's give this another shot.

* Katie's visiting this week. She's been up here four or five times, but this trip is special because this year she's seventeen. Why is that special? Because I was seventeen when she was born, so this year is a milestone for us. And it's a reward for being a young aunt that my kids now have an older cousin to entertain them.

* And boy are they entertained. I leave the kids with Katie so I can nap or run over town (a luxury I'm thoroughly enjoying). When I come back, I never know what I'll find. Bread baking? Check. Fun games in progress? Check. Dish soap on the trampoline? Check. Harry Potter movie and popcorn ten minutes before lunch? Check. Corn starch and cherry drink powder, mixed with water and smeared on various body parts to look like bloody wounds? Check. My predictable and stable routine has gotten shaken up like, well, like an earthquake. It's a good way to end summer.

* Summer is ending. I'm mourning it because autumn means that February is that much closer.

* Darren and I skipped our regular trip to the gym last night so we could look up curriculum options. I'm teaching first, fourth, and fifth grades this year. It's the first year that I've really felt anxious about whether my kids will get everything they need. We're trying out some video and online classes, which I hope will give A&S a break from Hearing My Voice All The Time, and spare me some preparation time.

* I prefer sitting close to Darren with a netbook between us, discussing schooling ideas, than exercising at the gym. Just to tell you, as Daphne would say.

* Katie presented us with the chance to go out overnight. I was fighting a cold, but heck, I can be sick anytime. Not like I can go out overnight with Darren anytime. We went anyway. We had a great time -- our favorite pastime is being together, which makes it easy to plan dates. Meanwhile, Katie hosted what turned into an epic slumber party for five kids (Mollie stayed over). Pip didn't go to sleep till 10, Daphne till 1, and the rest of them till 3. It was THE BEST TIME EVERRRR!, from all reports. Hey, I didn't have to stay up with a bunch of jazzed kids, so I was good.

* Since Katie is vegetarian, I had to plan my meals to include her. I was pleased to find out that we could convert to mostly vegetarian without a lot of effort. Mostly. We're having beef stew tonight.

* Oh, and there really was an earthquake. Katie and I were in the kitchen just before 2:00 when both of us noticed the house was shaking. When I felt the floor shake in a different direction from the counter, my heart rate went up. We stared at each other for fully fifteen seconds, waiting for it to subside. Katie asked, "Was that an earthquake?" I said, "I don't know, but give me about seven minutes, and I'll check Facebook." Darren had posted about it within two minutes. The next hour was a hot one on Facebook.

Katie was thrilled and hoped for some aftershocks. I had six kids in the house and thought there had been plenty enough excitement. The quake registered 5.8 at the epicenter, which was about 85 miles south of here. Here are some pictures of the aftermath.

* As for other pictures, I'll have to steal some from Katie.

-- SJ

7 Quick Takes, August 19, 2011

Wow, this is the 3rd 7 Quick Takes post I've done in a row. I feel almost like a blogger! --DJ

Other 7 Quick Takes here.

1. We went to Cracker Barrel on Wednesday for dinner, and for the first time in my life, I won the peg game. Hurray for me!

2. Jeremy Swanson and I were emailing comments on NPR's Top 100 Fantasy/Sci Fi list back and forth. I said I liked Animal Farm better than 1984. His comment: "All dystopias are equal, but some are more equal than others." Score for Jeremy.

3. Colds always seem to come at the most inopportune time. Like the day before we're getting to go out on an overnight date, Sara comes down with one. [insert scream here]

4. The detective class I was listening to last week was interesting, but I kept wanting more analysis. She would toss off comments like "some say" or "a few critics argue," but would never explain their arguments or the response to them.

5. On the lecturer's recommendation, I tried a mystery about an actor who solves cases. So far, I'm half way through the book and not inclined to finish, as he's spent most of his time either (a) wanting a drink; (b) drunk; or (c) hungover. He's also engaged in intimate relations with 2 different women, neither of which he's married to, and attempted another one, but was too drunk. Not exactly the type of guy I want to hang out with. The mystery is from the 1970s, a decade I associate with unpleasant literature.

6. I'm back finishing up the Aquinas lectures now, listening to the section on Ethics, which is much easier to comprehend than Metaphysics.

7. And here is a funny post about Aquinas as a young child.

That's all. Work is hectic this week.

The Help

I've seen three movies this summer. Three! Wow, I feel practically mainstream! I'll look back on 2011 and say, "Oh, yeah, that year! I saw *three* of the movies that came out that year!"

This past Sunday, I saw The Help, based on the novel from a couple of years ago. I went with Nina, who was the one who gave me the book to read; Nina's sister Rebecca, who was the one who gave Nina the book to read; and my niece Katie, who hasn't read it but we let her in our club anyway.

I was cautiously excited. I liked the book, which told the story of three women in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963. Skeeter is an educated white woman who wants to get the attention of Harper and Row Publishing in New York, so she decides to interview Abileen and Minnie, two black maids. Skeeter, of course, has no idea how subversive her book would be, and how dangerous for Abileen and Minnie to participate. But they eventually sit down and write it, and the ensuing uproar takes down the reigning Queen Bee, Hilly Holbrook.

The movie did justice to the book. There was a lot to laugh at, and a few places where I teared up. The whole film was shot in bright colors and made Mississippi look like a beautiful place to be. Of course, Katie and I already thought it was a beautiful place to be, but it's in our blood.

The movie also made the clothes look gorgeous, which made me laugh afterward. I've seen those clothes in photographs from the time, and I know very well that they didn't look that flattering and elegant. Well, maybe on long-legged, trim-waisted actresses, they do. But on normal people, only a very few could wear those dresses with cinched waists and flared skirts; or even worse, the tailored, straight sheaths. My mom could wear the sheaths when she was that age, but I bet I couldn't.

Only a couple of quibbles. During one scene, set outside under a full-green summertime tree, Skeeter says, "Just a minute. Let me get my sweater." Katie and I said, "A SWEATER? What FOR?"

In another scene, Skeeter is typing a newsletter. The point of the scene is that she's supposed to be typing "go by the Holbrooks' and drop off your old coats," but when the newsletter comes out, it says, "go by the Holbrooks' and drop off your old commodes." But I was distracted from the drama of the moment because what Skeeter actually typed was, "Go by the Holbrook's..." It's painful to see a twenty-foot misplaced apostrophe. There's no escaping it.

And why is it that in movieland you can get away with snapping off a parting shot and then flouncing out of the room? You can't do that in real life. In The Help, they were firing off exit lines right and left, until it started to get funny.

Oh! And you also learn from movies that at three times in history, everybody stood around the living room TV, stock still, to watch historical events unfold: Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech; JFK's assassination; and the first man on the moon. I'm glad to say that this ritual was observed in Mississippi in 1963, too (the assassination).

By and large, though, I enjoyed the movie. The women were fun to watch -- whether Minnie's sassiness or Hilly's fake-sweet smiles. Skeeter (Emma Stone) was beautiful, which was the only thing glaringly out of character. In the book, Skeeter is awkward and not very pretty, with wildly frizzy hair. In the movie, women would pay a lot of money to have Stone's eyes and perfectly-ringletted hair. But the whole movie was eye-candy, so no need to spoil the view with, you know, real-looking women.

And the most fun thing? Seeing it with four other women, because afterward we stood around and talked about it. Did you hear that, Darren? We talked about it. My friend Michele went a step farther: she talked to other people coming out of the theater. It seriously enhances the experience. You should try it sometimes, MEN.

I'm glad I saw the movie. You should go see it, too.

-- SJ

7 Quick Takes, August 12, 2011

This post is from Darren, not Sara. Just so everyone knows not to expect brilliant writing on the internal workings of our family :)

1. Yesterday Stuart decided to clean his room. When Stuart gets going on cleaning, he's really good and efficient at it. He even got the vacuum cleaner out on his own initiative and vacuumed the room.

Later, Sara went to use the vacuum. It didn't suck anything up. After watching her poke around it for a while in increasing frustration, Stuart commented, "Oh, sorry about vacuuming up the sock." Sure enough. There was a sock in it.

In an amazing display of restraint, Sara did not make Stuart eat the sock.

2. I am bad about working on Scripture memory, but I realized the other night when I couldn't get to sleep that I needed to start memorizing a passage. So I've started on Ephesians 2 (because I like 2:8-9 so much). Paul needed classes in how to use periods. That's my opinion, anyway.

3. Daphne has started having difficulty staying in her room when it's bedtime. She's such a people person that she hates being all by herself for the 45 minutes it takes her to fall asleep.

4. I found this post by John Wright called "Harry Potter and the Christian Magicians" fascinating. I'm not one who's particularly attracted to the occult, even though I read a lot of fantasy, but I agree with him that I don't just laugh off the idea. I did appreciate his viewpoint of modern paganism as essentially technological, rather than mystical.

5. Sara and I had a visit recently with a young person who is trying to find his place in God's will. A lot of it was just listening. After he left, Sara and I agreed that we both kept wondering if we'd said the right things, and even more importantly, whether he really heard anything that we said. I feel much more confident giving legal advice than life advice. As convoluted as the law can be, it's nothing compared to the intricacy of navigating your 20s.

6. This week I've been listening to a CD class on detective fiction. After the St. Thomas Aquinas class, this one seems pretty lightweight. There's not much analysis of the books, but it's an interesting introduction. I've picked up a couple recommendations. I was disappointed that in the lecture on police procedurals, the professor didn't mention Dell Shannon. I really enjoy her books.

7. NPR had a poll recently where people could vote for the top 10 best fantasy/science fiction books. They released the list of the top 100 this week. Here are my comments on the top 10:

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Yes. Absolutely.
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. It should be in the top 10, but I can't stand it. Or the sequels.
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. This is one of my all-time favorites. I actually don't much like Card's other books, but this one is amazing.
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert. Many people noted, and I agree, that if this is just Dune, the first book, it gets high billing (in fact, I'd rate it #2 probably). But the sequels are dumb.
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin. Too grim for me, at least the first time I tried.
6. 1984, by George Orwell. See my comments to #2. Good book, glad I read it, don't plan to read it again until the kids are in high school and I read it with them.
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. Never read it.
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov. Definitely belongs in the top 10. See my comments on Dune - I didn't like the sequels or attempted prequels to this one at all.
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. I've never read this one. Not a big fan of dystopias.
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. I've never read this one either, but it's on my list now.

And that's it for today. More 7 Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.

--DJ

Dating Darren

Figuring that it was about time for Darren to get some special treatment, I took him out on a Darren Date yesterday.

(The kids happily waved us away; they got to spend the evening with Vanessa, which all four of them consider an improvement on daily life. Daphne frequently expresses the wish that Vanessa would move in with us, so she could always put Daphne to bed.)

Darren always defers to what I want to do when we go out, so this time I planned things that he never gets to do because I'm the only girl he ever goes out with. First, we ate at Five Guys. They serve hamburgers. Oh, some other things too, like fries (in paper cups) and pounds of roasted peanuts. But it's mostly burgers. It's not my favorite place to eat, and I think that's partly because of the peanuts. Piles and piles of peanuts, and not a single one boiled. They're all roasted. It's such a waste of space. But Darren loves it, and I admit the burgers are good. The patties fall apart, which Darren says indicates more beef than soy product.
Then we saw Cowboys & Aliens. Darren wanted to see it, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I didn't care if I ever saw it, but I ended up enjoying it, too. I liked how they brought out all the usual Western props: grizzled country preacher (he stitches up the hero's wound and breaks the thread with his teeth); fussy bartender/doctor (wears glasses, an apron, and can't shoot a gun); cruel ranch boss who controls the town (Harrison Ford); plucky Western woman who wears a holster slung across her dress (she gets emancipated later and then wears buckskin trousers); calm and wise Native warriors; and lastly, strong and silent hero (Daniel Craig, who makes for very easy lookin' with his blue eyes and broad shoulders).

But then the story throws in advanced technology and aliens, which mixes up the tropes a little bit. The hero leaps from a galloping horse to a moving... no, not train. A low-flying spaceship. The aliens rope running... no, not cattle, but people. The cowboys and indians meet in battle... together to fight the aliens. It was fun.

It was a little scary in parts. And there were a few gaping plotholes. (Why would an alien race waste time capturing individual humans when they could just BLOW US UP?) There was some stock Hollywood theology: they just never quite get it, but they get points for effort. And the final message of the movie, as everyone is living happily in the newly-revived mining town (Old West towns can be obliterated at the beginning, but they spontaneously regenerate by the end) is clearly, "Lots of gold makes everybody good hard workers, full of integrity, and happy!" Who can dislike a promise like that?

As usual, I spend far too much time on a throwaway movie. I should have let Darren write about it. He would have had to stand blankly for a moment, because he hasn't even THOUGHT about it since we got out of the theater, and then he'd say, "It was pretty good." Which sums it up.

The date, however, was very good.

-- SJ

7 Quick Takes, August 5, 2011

1. Memo to whichever part of my mind is responsible for giving me dreams when I'm stressed: Dear mind, the normal stress-dream about running through airports never finding my gate is bad enough. I do not approve of the new version where I find the gate, get on the plane -- and then it crashes. Bad subconscious!

2. Vehicle inspections are a racket.

3. Our van is now (after >$1000) fully inspected and good to go for another year.

4. Hear that, van? ANOTHER YEAR. PLEASE! BE GOOD TO US IN THIS REGARD!!

5. I've never been a fan of philosophy courses, but I found one at the local library that I'm listening to. "The Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas" by Peter Kreeft. So far it's very good - I have read several of Kreeft's books and liked them very much. I keep having to rewind sections to listen to, though; even with a good teacher, Aquinas is not easy going.

6. I love the early morning, when it's just Phillip and me up, listening to morning prayer. He's very cuddly. Until he wakes up a bit more and gets ultra-wiggly.

7. Prayer would be appreciated for my friend Jim, who is suffering from long-term illness, and Ruth, who will probably be having a premature baby today.

--DJ

Other 7 Quick Takes here.