My Review of Mansfield Park

I've been lax in posting this review, mostly because I slept through...I'd say...80% of this movie.

Here is my experience:

Yeah, yeah, yeah...Gillian Anderson's introduction. She impresses me as being extraordinarily bored with the intros.

The "growing up sequence" was almost exactly the same as in "Northanger Abbey." I don't know which movie was written/shot first, but BOOOOOO for lack of creativity.

Wow, this movie sure is moving fast. Again.

Snooze....

Hmm, I think is the story that has probably suffered the most at the hands of Andrew Davies. Everyone seems angry and repressed. I don't like the actress in the role of Fanny...she seems like she might be better suited for a role like....

Snooze....

Wow, this movie is moving fast.

Oh, it's over?

I'm a bit slow

David's mom tagged me for this meme a few days ago and I just now saw it! So, as if you didn't already know more than you wanted to about me...

1. Were you named after anyone?
The easy answer is, "yes," my middle name, Sue, is after my mom's younger sister, Betsy Sue (I never knew her...she passed away when she was little). My first name is just one my parents liked, but my aunt Sandy happened to have a goat by the same name. After I was born, the goat up and died. The family lore is that she's never forgiven me.

2. When was the last time you cried?
The night before last, when I thought I was getting sick again

3. Do you like your handwriting?
Absolutely. I got a C in handwriting in the 3rd grade, and it was traumatizing. I made sure that it never happened again.

4. What is your favorite lunch meat?
Pastrami, but I almost never eat it

5. Do you have kids?
4 sons and a baby on the way

6. If you were another person would you be friends with you?
I don't think so, but that's a really difficult question to answer. If I were a another person, would I be another person just like me? Or would I be someone different?

7. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
No, never. *grins*

8. Do you still have your tonsils?
Yes

9. Would you bungee jump?
I'd think about it.

10. What is your favorite cereal?
Golden Grahams

11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
Most of the time, unless there is a child-related emergency that requires my immediate sock-footed attention

12. Do you think you are strong?
With the Lord's help. Without Him, I can do nothing.

13. What is your favorite ice cream?
Ben and Jerry's Phish Food

14. What is the first thing you notice about people?
I don't know. Maybe their height?

15. Red or Pink?
Red. When I was in third grade, we moved into a new house and Mom decked out my room all in pink. Then I hit adolescence and redid the whole room in red and white stripes. I have never really gone back. Plus, I think I look terrible in pink.

16. What is the least favorite thing about yourself?
I am impatient with people.

17. Who do you miss the most?
Probably the whole church family at Faith Community Church in Oxnard, California.

18. What color pants and shoes are you wearing?
Blue jeans, bare feet

19. What was the last thing you ate?
A cranberry-white chocolate chip cookie

20. What are you listening to right now?
The morning sounds of my house: washer, marble tracks being built, schoolwork being done

21. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
My, this seems very morbid, but I think black.

22. Favorite smell?
Hmmm...toss up between good men's cologne and good bread baking

23. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
my hubby

24. Favorite sports to watch?
football, baseball

25. Hair color?
brown

26. Eye color?
brown

27. Do you wear contacts?
yes, for about fifteen years now. I mean, not in a row. I do take them out at night.

28. Favorite food?
steamed lobster with drawn butter

29. Scary movies or happy endings?
happy endings. I am a total baby.

30. Last movie you watched?
I guess that would be..."Finding Neverland" (side note, GOOD NIGHT, that movie made me cry. A mother of four boys and she up and dies. Ack!)

31. What color shirt are you wearing?
Gray

32. Summer or winter?
winter. Being cold is easier to solve than being hot.

33. Hugs or kisses?
hugs

34. Favorite dessert?
this question is too hard

35. What book are you reading now?
A Woman in Charge by Bob Bernstein

36. What is on your mouse pad?
no mouse pad with a laptop!

37. What did you watch on TV last night?
Nothing. I read a book.

38. Favorite sounds?
Birds, water moving over rocks, the ocean, rain on the roof

39. Rolling Stones or Beatles?
Beatles

40. What is the farthest you have been from home?
either LA or Grand Cayman Island

41. Do you have a special talent?
not really. I can multitask pretty well, as any mother of small children can.

42. Where were you born?
Holyoke, Massachusetts (outside Springfield)

And I'll tag...anybody else who wants to do this. :-)

He is Yet More Manning Than Man

Those of you who enjoy both football and Shakespeare -- and I realize that's a pretty small crowd -- listen to Frank Deford from this morning.

This One Made Me Laugh

Last night we were at Lowe's picking up supplies for a compost heap, and we happened by the appliance section (we're always looking for a gas stove that might be damaged/marked down). So, with the help of our nice appliance salesman named Steven, we were inspecting a beautiful gas range. I noticed that the oven door, upon closing, made a loud squeaking/chirping noise.

I said, "Wow, that could drive me crazy."

Steven (looking over at our children, who were opening every fridge door, swinging from the handles, sticking their heads in the front-loading washers, etc.) politely replied, "Ma'am, you have four children. This stove is not going to win that race."

"It's a Dangerous Business Going Out Your Front Door."

How can I work this into a homeschool project?

You Supply the Caption

Or, don't if you don't want to.

But those guys should really watch how they're chatting! Don't they look catty?!

I Love the Library

On Saturday we had a nice relaxing morning out running errands (yes, I'm being serious). We started off our day with Shoney's breakfast buffet (which, when you have kids who eat as much as ours do, is a great deal: two eat for free, and the older two are half price), and then proceeded to our local library, and we finished up with grocery shopping.

The library is a favorite errand of mine. To make it easier to get books that I actually want to read (or any that we might want for school), I usually start a "hold list" online early in the week. Then, by the time we are at the library on Friday or Saturday, they are all there waiting for me with my name in them. As soon as we arrive, I can swiftly drop them into my bag and chase my excited sons to the children's section.

I realized that my list from last week was particularly eclectic. Here it is, in part:

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (this was a recommendation from my sister)
• A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton (I have pretty much despised Hillary since the days when she was wearing hairbands all the time, I am ashamed to admit. The only time I've ever had any sympathetic feelings for her was when her husband's sexual indiscretions were the topic of everyday conversation. This is my attempt to attain a more rounded view of her. So far, it has only succeeded in making me think that Bernstein has a crush on Hillary and Bill.)
• Sunday Suppers at Lucques (this was a cookbook recommended by Nora Ephron on a recent episode of The Splendid Table)
• The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (I. Love. This. Woman's. Food. Maybe someday I will open a specialty food store on Long Island...ha ha ha)
• Square Foot Gardening (a recommendation from my friend Joy)

Well, I guess it's not that eclectic. It seems like -- apart from Hillary -- I have food on the brain...either growing it or cooking it or eating it.

How Did I Get So Lucky?

While I was composing the last post, I had two personal assistants arranging my hair.

With plastic swords.

Eat your heart out, Paris Hilton.

It's Almost February

And that means that Valentine's Day is right around the corner.

Two sites that always have stuff good for wives and girlfriends:

James Avery Jewelry

Red Envelope

And now, a snippet of a conversation from the sitcom "Mad About You" which closely mirrors conversations I've had with my husband (but not in recent years, I must add):

Paul Buchman: Why is it I love you any more in the middle of February than on, say, August 21st? You know, to me, every day with you is Valentine's Day.
Jamie Buchman: So, in other words, you forgot to buy me a card.
Paul Buchman: That's what I'm saying.

---

Paul Buchman: What's the big deal with Valentine's Day? It's a made-up holiday. Nobody even knows who this St. Valentine guy was.
Jamie Buchman: He was a Roman priest who defended the Christians and was beheaded by Claudius II on February 14, 269 A.D.

---

They Asked for a Basketball Team

Those of you who have traveled anywhere with David and I in the past two years have probably heard the comment, "One more and you'll have a basketball team!". That's an amusing and creative comment the first ten times you hear it, but it soon becomes a little tiresome. I have never come up with a very clever reply, either.

But NOW...I have one.

Here it is...tell me what you think.

"OK, if you insist."

In August of this year, our little basketball team will finally have a point guard.

OK, or it could be a giant child and be the center, but it will probably take quite a few years to outpace his or her brothers' growth curve.

And if I'm honest, it could be a completely uncoordinated child who will instead play the clarinet.

But STILL...all those people should bite their tongues now.

But they won't. Instead, they will say, "Oh, trying for a girl, are you?".

*polite gritted-tooth smile*

The specifics: due date is August 12th, heartbeat sounded good and strong on Wednesday afternoon, and the nausea's over with.

And NO, we weren't "trying for a girl," thankyouverymuch.

Cameron's Birthday

Last week Cameron turned seven! He was honored to have his grandparents (my mom and dad) here to celebrate with him.

Here are some pictures.

Eagerly anticipating the cake


Blow out the candles!


Watcha' think?

This was a toy he has wanted from Target for a long time :-)

And now, some pictures that are worth looking at just for the sibling reactions. When one boy has a birthday, it's like all of them do!

Ben knew how much he wanted this toy!


He was that excited about a birthday card that Cameron had to color in. Really.


I don't know what this one was, but Andrew's face cracks me up.

Fact: I Really Miss "The Office."

(I am embarrassed to say how many times I've watched this clip. Dwight Schrute is hilarious.)

Breakfast Guests

Yes, we live in suburbia but sometimes we are blessed to have visitors come by from out of our woods. These folks came by yesterday morning. There were at least five of them traveling together.

Eucatastrophe

"A sudden joyous turn"

Andrew Peterson reflects on The Return of the King and its spiritual implications.

Meditation on Nehemiah 13

People do not drift towards holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped leagalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.

D.A. Carson, For the Love of God, Vol. II

My Review of Northanger Abbey

I feel unjust grading this adaptation since I haven't read the book. It is the only remaining Austen work I have yet to tackle.

Suffice it to say that I thought it was very well done, the actors gave a free and natural feel to their roles, and the setting where it was shot was lovely, perfect for the Gothic homage that haunts the story.

AND suffice it to say that it was interesting enough to keep us from flipping back to the Giants/Packers game. That didn't happen even once.

"Perhaps after all it is possible to read too many novels."
— Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey

I know, I'm incredibly boring.

Sorry everyone for the unannounced blogging hiatus. My parents were here for an extended weekend stay and we're just getting back to the routine around here...

Emma Has a Baby Sister!

I've given her all day to spread the news, but if you haven't heard by now, it's time you knew that my friend Nicole had a baby this morning!

Kate Elisabeth was born at 5:52 A.M, weighing 7 lbs., 9 oz., and was 19 1/2 inches long. Mommy and baby were doing well when I spoke with Nicole this morning.

Rejoice with Jonathan, Nicole, and Emma in the arrival of Baby Kate!

My Review of Persuasion

Sunday night's presentation of "Persuasion" was a good one, though I still prefer the 1995 one starring Ciaran Hinds.

What I liked about Masterpiece's version:

• The opening scene! It really made you feel the urgency of Anne's duties in preparing her family home to be taken over
• Captain Wentworth was handsome
• I liked the actors for the Musgroves...all of them, sisters included
• I had mixed feelings about the way the filmmakers had Anne breach the "fourth wall" by staring at the camera at certain times. It made me uncomfortable, which I think was the intent, but it also endeared the audience to her because we saw the difficulty of her situation.
• I thought the actress who played Anne was very, very good

What I prefer about the 1995 one:

• It's a bit longer, so there is more time to see the subtleties of the supporting characters (Sir Elliot's vanity, Lady Russell's manipulation, the camaraderie of the Naval officers, the uniqueness of Mrs. Croft)
• Captain Wentworth is handsomer
• They get the climax right, playing out within those four walls of that little room with the ladies prattling on about wedding clothes in the background. You FEEL what's happening! In the Masterpiece version, they moved the conversation between Anne and Bennick to the dinner scene at the Musgroves. This necessitates BRUTALLY ALTERING one of the GREATEST LOVE LETTERS EVER PENNED (albeit fictional!).

A Love Story, Part V

The Denouement

So sorry to keep you all waiting. I know you're all anxious with anticipation over how this all comes to a conclusion. I mean, you don't know if these people actually ended up together, right?!

Well, I went home for the summer. That much you already know. I took a job as a temp in Allmerica Financial's accounts payable division, also known at that time as Ground Zero. They were changing computer systems at the time, had a huge backlog of payments to be made, and it was part of my job to answer the phones and try to diffuse the situation. I actually had one woman who would call me every Monday and tell me what she planned on eating that week since she had no money until her insurance check arrived. The last Monday before her check came (I mailed it myself!), she had only a hard-boiled egg and a pork chop in her fridge. Dear, dear, Thelma.

Not too much changed between David and I right off the bat that summer. Things stayed pretty much the same. I gave him a couple CDs for a graduation gift (he completed his Master's degree that May). My parents went to his graduation. I did not, since I had friends graduating at Messiah that same weekend. But I did get the chance to meet his two brothers that weekend, since they came to see him get his degree.

So, by the beginning of July, things were getting a little awkward again. We hadn't talked since the year before (the aforementioned head-slamming conversation). One evening we were headed back from Bible Study (it's all so innocent, isn't it?!), and David pulled over since there was supposed to be a meteor shower that night. So there we were, under the wide open central Massachusetts sky (which is not quite as wide open as, say, the West Virginia sky or the Montana sky, but is more wide open than the southern California sky). And he broke the ice again. It takes no small amount of courage to jump back into a situation that was THAT HORRIBLE before, right?

The most memorable quote from the conversation was "I never really wanted to be your brother."(brother reference #3) Suffice it to say that this conversation had a much more positive outcome than the last one.

Our first official date was a trip to the movies -- "Armageddon," of all the horrible movies. From there the summer unfolded, and then in the fall I went back to school for my final semester. I think we saw each other almost every other weekend. We took turns driving the six-plus hours from Pennsylvania to Mass.

On December 23rd, David and I celebrated my homecoming by going to see "The Nutcracker" performed by the Boston Ballet. After the show was over, we went over to my dad's office building (this sounds incredibly un-romantic, but his offices at the time were on the 37th floor and overlooked the harbor), where David asked me to marry him.

Our wedding was August 14th, 1999. LOADS of fun to plan and live through. We honeymooned on Grand Cayman Island (oh, how we wish that Thabiti was around then!).

God's hand was certainly at work in forming our relationship over the many years. Shortly after we were married, the "courtship" trend hit the evangelical church with Josh Harris' book I Kissed Dating Goodbye. After hearing all the hubbub for a while, David and I realized that we "courted" before "courting" was cool. We did all sorts of group stuff. We hung around with my family. We really knew each other before we started dating, and therefore it wasn't long before we discussed getting married. We both valued the other person too highly to be dating them casually.

I'm realizing that I need to put some pictures up with this post, but the other computer (which is attached to the scanner) is currently in use...so please check back later!!!

A Love Story, Part IV

(Wherein Our Story Begins to Resemble a Jane Austen Novel)

So there we were, back to "normal." Christmas break was fun. More hanging out. New Year's Eve in Boston with a big crew of people. Harrod and Funck performing in Park Street Church was one of the highlights for me!

If you're a regular reader of this blog, then you know how Valentine's Day went that next year. You can read about it here. It was one of the greatest days ever! But what that story didn't include was the fact that the friend that drove down with David that weekend gave me a gift for Valentine's Day. In front of David. Awkward to say the least, for everyone concerned. (another moment where he thought about slamming his head into a door, I found out later) But still, no dating strings attached anywhere...we're all good friends...yadda yadda yadda.

March arrived, and with it came Spring Break. Being the exciting party-girl type that I was, I went home, and brought a friend with me. She was a two-time resident of my floors in college, and we were pretty close even though she was a year behind me.

Well, that week was pretty much more of the same. Hanging out with friends, and a lot of time spent with David since he basically lived with us. Anywhere we went, we rode together, because what's the point of taking two cars when you have the same destination?

By the time we went back to school at the end of the week, my friend could NOT stop talking about David. How funny he was. How smart he was. What a nice Godly man. On and on and on, until I considered leaving her by the side of route 84 in New York state.

At this point I started feeling something in my chest that was unfamiliar in reference to David up until now. Could it be...jealousy? Possessiveness? I didn't like her talking about him like that, that was certain.

Hmm. What does that mean?

Indulge me for a moment. Do we all know the story of Jane Austen's Emma? She grew up next door to a wonderful gentleman, Mr. Knightley. For years Emma thought of him as a brother. Through a storyline far too complicated to relate here, her best friend ends up falling for Knightley. When her friend, Harriet, tells Emma this, Emma's reaction is surprising to even herself:

Emma's eyes were instantly withdrawn; and she sat silently meditating, in a fixed attitude, for a few minutes. A few minutes were sufficient for making her acquainted with her own heart. A mind like hers, once opening to suspicion, made rapid progress. She touched -- she admitted -- she acknowledged the whole truth. Why was it so much worse that Harriet should be in love with Mr. Knightley, than with Frank Churchill? Why was the evil so dreadfully increased by Harriet's having some hope of a return? It darted through her, with the speed of an arrow, that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself!

So there it was. I wasn't altogether sure, and I gave myself some time to work through it, but I couldn't deny the change in my own heart.

I finished out the semester and went home, having completed my junior year and not knowing what to expect at home. There was still an unfinished business (in my mind, anyway) with the guy who gave me the Valentine's gift. And would I still feel the same way about David when I was home for the summer and saw him all the time?

To be continued... (and I hope, concluded! next time!)

A Love Story, Part III

(Wherein our Heroine Takes a Turn for the Worse)

So, back to Messiah I went, to work, as my sister so generously informed you in my last post, on the grounds crew. I worked on the athletic fields all summer. The baseball field received special attention because it was home to a summer league in the evenings. So I learned how to drag the base paths, how to properly mow the infield (with a SHARP push mower! Never a riding one!), and how to line the field. It was when I was driving the stakes for the lines one day that I smashed my finger with a sledgehammer. No broken bones, amazingly. But a disgusting flesh wound.

Anyway, I digress.

In June I returned home to Massachusetts for my best friend's wedding. I came home for the week, to be sure to attend all the pre-wedding events, etc., etc. During that week I had a few free evenings, and one night David and I went to Boston. We took the red line in, and played our favorite game, "Searching for Harrod and Funck." Once we arrived in the city, we had dinner in a sports bar on Boylston St. and then bought rush tickets for "Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk." (I'm a tap dancer, remember? And YES SAVION GLOVER WAS THERE AND YES HE WAS AMAZING.)

Now, you have to understand the status of our relationship at this point. In my mind, David is a "safe guy." One of those that you don't have to worry about falling for you because he's somehow not in your dating pool. In this case, I thought he was too old for me; I mean that in the kindest way possible. Maybe I should say I thought I was too young for him. I had just completed my sophomore year of college; he was on the verge of completing his master's degree. He had held down a real job...established a credit record...had a 401(k) plan...things like this. My biggest concern at this point was...what color lipstick was I going to wear to go with my bridesmaid's dress? (there I am at the reception with my Mom.)

So, anyway, we had a nice night. Very much not a date in my mind. Somebody mistook us for a couple and we laughed...ha, ha, ha, aren't they silly?!

Well, when we arrived home (we lived at the same address, remember?), David confessed that he wanted to be in my dating pool. Like, right next to me in the dating pool. This came as a complete and utter shock to me.

What I remember:

• Blood rushing to my face and that roaring noise in your ears when it feels like you can't hear anything, yet what you're hearing is SO, SO LOUD


• Thinking, What?! You're seven years older than me. You're my brother (brother reference #2).


• Mumbling something lame about how I'd always thought he'd be good with a friend of mine.


• Mumbling something equally lame about how "I'm just not ready for a relationship right now." (heard that one before?!)


• The nagging thought in the back of my mind that my friend (the bride of the week) was working on setting me up with one of the groomsmen.


• About twenty minutes of torture for both of us, and then me excusing myself to go downstairs and David mumbling something about slamming his head in the door.

And that was that. The week went on, and I think it's a credit to us both how quickly our friendship recovered. David was the Master of Ceremonies at the reception (right, with my friend Becky, the bride's sister) and he was witty and entertaining. I was set up with aforementioned groomsman, and a few months later we were "dating," as much as you can date someone who's several states away. "Not ready for a relationship," remember?

Well, that relationship only lasted a few months. I broke up with the guy on Thanksgiving weekend, having realized that really the only reason why I started dating him was the excitement and pressure surrounding the wedding we were both in (stupid, right?!). That was the first time I initiated a breakup. Up until this time, I had always been the dump-ee. So, feeling low and wanting a distraction, I called up some friends and asked them to go to a movie with me that night. Surprise, surprise, the only one free was David. We went to see "Anastasia," and met some friends for food afterwards.

And thus we returned to how things had been before...hanging out together, watching movies, going to Bible study, and neither of us were dating anyone. But we weren't dating each other, either.

To be continued...

It's Time to Make Some Scones

Here's the page from the lovely people who are doing this for us. It starts this Sunday, January 13th!

A Love Story, Part II

When last we left our hero, he had just braved an icy New England New Year's Day, packed up all his possessions, and moved about twenty minutes down the road to the darling little hamlet of Sterling, Massachusetts.

At this point, you should be saying, "that seemed rather uncomplicated." And it was. Mostly because he owned nothing. I think all David's worldly possessions (besides those that have migrated to our house from his parents' over the years, of course) fit in his 1993 Nissan Sentra (named for "Nermal," the world's cutest kitten, because that's about how fierce a car it was) and a friend's pickup truck...a friend who, unfortunately got in a slow-moving car accident that fateful, icy January the first. But I'm getting off track.

When David arrived with so little but with a sizable paycheck coming in every two weeks, he realized that a shopping trip might be in order. Or two shopping trips. Or heck, two major stores in one day. First the furniture store, and then WalMart, for all those other things you need to fit out an apartment. And who better to enlist for help but his new landlady and her daughter, who was home on college break? I say "landlady," but by this time David had endeared himself to our family so much that it was more like going shopping with my brother (brother reference #1 -- it won't be the last).

So off we trekked through the cold and snow to Rotman's, "New England's Largest Furniture and Carpet Store," and home of Bernie Rotman, who is the founder of potentially the most annoying TV advertising campaign ever known to man. We picked out a loveseat, an entertainment center and curio, a rug, a (teeny!) dining room set, and (I think?) a coffee table and end table.

Then on to WalMart, where Mom and I basically just threw things in his cart without asking. The trip through the store was permeated with many comments like, "oh, you'll definitely need one of these." David recalls one funny exchange about a carpet sweeper, which Mom thought he needed but I thought was a piece of junk. He remembers how quickly I caved and said, "oh it's fine." :-)

One funny memory from this day was that we ran into a lifelong friend of my mom's, Linda. She stopped and we had a short conversation, telling him that we were getting all this new stuff for David's new place. She walked away thinking we were paying for it all! Nope. It was the best kind of shopping trip, where we picked stuff out and he paid for it. What could be more fun?


After all the shopping was done, David took Mom and I out to the Sole Proprietor (one of the nicer restaurants in the area!) for a thank-you dinner. He remembers the waiter flirting with me. I think he's paranoid. The choice of the Sole for dinner is particularly amusing to me now, since it takes an act of God or a milestone birthday to get him into a seafood restaurant these days.

And so began the long stretch of time where David was the family servant, the adopted son, the chauffeur, the lawn boy, the pool boy, the go-to guy when there was extra food prepared or company needed. That spring, my sister got married, and he ran through the rain to hang up a bazillion white bows to direct guests to the reception site. We danced together at the reception (twice, if memory serves correctly). And he accompanied all of us in the wedding party to the post-reception diner breakfast, because Mom and Dad packed too many gifts in their car and they had no room for him. :-)

I stayed at school that summer. And then I came home for another wedding.

To be continued...

The Meanest Mom on the Planet

Good for her!

A Love Story, Part I

Lisa tagged me for the story of how my husband and I met and married, and she didn’t know what she was subjecting herself to. This may stretch to a few posts.

I first met David when I was just the tender age of seventeen. We attended the same church together; I had grown up there and he began attending there when he moved to the area for graduate school. The first conversation I remember having with him was on Resurrection Sunday 1995. We were both guests at another family’s home. I was there with my family, and he was adopted by the host family for the day, since he had no family in the area. I don’t remember much about that day, except I remember watching “Beauty and the Beast” on video after the annual egg hunt (men hide, women find the eggs…this is what happens when two families with only daughters spend every Easter together). David remembers me being too saucy for my own good (not surprising, when I remember what I was like as a teenager).

I graduated from high school and went on to study Elementary Education at Messiah College in the fall. My parents played host to a college-and-career-aged Bible study the following summer, unfortunately dubbed “The ‘Tweeners.” It was well-attended by people from our church, and David and I probably represented the two ends of the age range included.

David was living with a friend of his at this time, and by the time that fall (1996) rolled around, this arrangement had become less-than-favorable. My parents, conveniently, had a vacant one-bedroom apartment over their garage. They offered it to David for a song in return for some manual labor on the lawn and the pool, since their labor supply (in the form of my older sister and I) had dried up. He accepted, and moved in on New Years’ Day 1997.

(insert “Fonzie married Joanie” jokes here)

To be continued...

...aaaaand we're legal.

Today I received my card from the North Carolina Department of Non-Public Education, acknowledging that we are indeed approved by the state to homeschool!

Back in October of 2006, I asked for your help in choosing a name for our school.

The winner, however, wasn't in that original post. The winner was inspired by a comment made by my sister on this post about Sir William Jones. She recommended that I translate the motto "Read and you will know" into Latin as our school name. I altered that idea a little, and just adopted the motto Tolle Lege -- "take up and read" -- as the name. The state does not allow parents to change the name of the school, so I wanted something that I'd be comfortable with no matter what changes might occur in our school. No matter what curriculum we're using, no matter what age our children are, I know we will always be reading and always be encouraging them to read more.

Tolle Lege Academy it is!

Go Around Twice

My mom sent me this today and I loved it!

Go Around Twice if You're Happy

Christmas Day

On Christmas morning, the boys awoke to find their stockings fastened to their beds, and they had permission to open them upon discovery. Twenty minutes after they awoke, Cameron and Ben came downstairs and proudly announced that they had already consumed all their M&Ms. We had praline french toast for breakfast, and then we opened gifts together.

Jonathan was content to play with his new Matchbox car.


Many, many books...our favorite gifts!


Perhaps the best reaction to clothing...ever???


Cameron FINALLY got his looooooong-awaited marble track.


After we were done, we all got busy playing. (that's our friend Tom building a killer sports car)


Andrew and the marble track


David trying to figure out the slide rule my Dad gave him.


Ben played with his remote-control Jeep almost all day.

Ain't That the Truth

HT: Rocks in My Dryer

full disclosure: this is not one of my children, and I do not know these people. But one of my children would have responded the same way ;-)

Christmas Eve

After church and clam chowder on Christmas Eve

The youngest child puts Jesus in the manger on Christmas Eve

Then the search for the specially-demarcated Christmas Eve gifts began

So far they haven't picked up on the pattern...

that they always get the same thing on Christmas Eve...

New pajamas!

Catching up on pictures

Here are some shots of the boys helping me make Peanut Blossoms before Christmas...

Even Jonathan was able to help this year!

Ben's hands

Cameron forming the cookies

I was really amazed at how quickly the process went with the boys' increased skill this year. They were all actually very helpful...I didn't feel like I was managing a huge mess the whole time. And nobody ate any until they were done. :-)