“Confessions” by Saint Augustine

Apparently, our toddler is showing a mature interest in Christian classics.

This was right after he read that one part …

Finished: “1984”

1984 by George Orwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gripping, depressing, disturbing ... very well written. I liked Winston Smith very much and was pulling for him from the first chapter. Rachel will be reading this with her online literature class. It's definitely not her style, but I told her it is an important book and I'm glad she will be guided through its difficult themes and passages by an experienced, godly teacher.

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Can you spot the sleeping boy?

 

Summer 2012 – Part 2

Well, there’s something about Labor Day weekend to make you realize the summer is slipping away, so it’s time to do some more reflecting on Summer 2012, while it’s still fresh in my brain.  Of course, most of it is fresh, thanks only to the pictures that were taken.  Otherwise, most of it would just be a blur by now!

Mother’s Day

We celebrated Mother’s Day in the same wonderful way we are blessed to every year:  with both our mothers. 

The day started off with a nice breakfast cassserole and fresh fruit, courtesy of Mick and the girls.  He surprised me with a lovely mother’s ring and a stack of chocolate (mostly dark) – something sweet from each of the kids (yet another moment I’m so thankful we have 8. ;-).

After breakfast, we drove to Grandma Worley’s church and worshiped with her. She specifically requested that Rachel play something on the piano during the service (yes, she is a proud Grandma), so Rachel played the “It Is Well” medley. After church, we gave her her gift and card, posed for a few pictures at her house, then said our good-byes and drove down to Mom and Dad’s.

It was a beautiful day, so we spent most of the day outside.

 

Since it was so close to our monthly birthday celebration, we lumped in that as well.  Guess who one of the birthday celebrities was?

Ellie and Uncle Ron were also celebrating birthdays in May.  I think Elle was just a little excited about her birthday brownie.  ;-)

Somebody was just a leetle bit upset that I dared wander off a bit too far in the backyard.  Notice how sympathetic his father is in the background?  ;-)

No worries … all better now.  :-)

   

The day was capped off by a trip over to the Bruce ranch to see the llamas.  Ellie is leading “Caesar” here with Sarah keeping a close watch on things.

Family reunion

Back in June, Lois’s family decided to have a family reunion.  I have known Mick since 1986 and no one on either side of his family has thrown a reunion … that we know of anyway … hmmmmm.  :-D  At the time, Lois’s sister Betty and brother-in-law Don had been having fairly serious health issues, requiring hospitalizations for both.  So, the reunion was Betty’s idea and Lois offered to host it and did all the planning.  It ended up being a lovely day.  We were able to meet several of Mick’s cousins and their families who I’d never met, including some second cousins who live about 15 minutes away from us!

Here is Lois with her 2 younger sisters, Betty and Marlene.  They are very close.  Lois and Betty are 18 months a part and Marlene was born 5 years later.  Lois likes to talk about how she and Betty would dress up Baby Marlene like a doll and carry her around. :-)

I just love this picture of the three of them chatting.

One of the things I think we’ll all remember the most about this reunion is Betty’s glazed yeast donuts. Her donuts are legendary in the family; when Mick was growing up, they were a Thanksgiving tradition.  After the big Thanksgiving meal, the kids would all go bowling and the parents would stay back at the house. This was when Betty would fry up the donuts.  Mick remembers how great it was to come back to the house and smell all those donuts.

  

Oh yum, are they delicious!

Later that evening, we had a birthday celebration.  Interestingly enough, Claire shares a birthday with Mick’s brother and sister – June 10th! So, we celebrated all three birthdays.  This was a first, since Mick’s sister lives in Florida and rarely travels to Indiana (something about the cooler weather up here keeps her down there. ;-).

One of the big bonuses of the Worley get-togethers is Uncle Rick’s commercial ice cream maker. So, there’s usually all-you-can-eat homemade ice cream at our get-togethers.   

Homemade donuts, homemade ice cream … I’d better wrap up this post now … I think I need a snack.  ;-)

"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is difficult to read a classic without pre-conceived notions about what my reaction to the book "should" be. However, I have to admit, I didn't like this book at first. I did think some of the prose was witty and beautiful, and as proof of that, there were several passages that were so well-crafted that I would read them out loud to the girls. The great description of Tom Buchanan comes to mind here. But I was frustrated because some of the characters' lines and parts of the plot didn't make sense to me. It started growing on me around the time Gatsby arrives on the scene and then I just had to read it all the way through. I couldn't decide whether I was pulling for Gatsby or not; at one point, he was sympathetic and at others, he was shallow and greedy. I suppose that's one of the things that makes F. Scott Fitzgerald so talented. Great depth of character.

I decided when I was finished that this was one of the books that improves on a second reading and I immediately started re-reading parts I liked, or parts that weren't clear to me at first. I'm giving it 4 stars for now, but I reserve my right to update my rating in the future. :-)

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Happy Birthday, Mom!

As you all probably know, Mom is always making us birthday posts on our birthdays, so this is Rachel making one for Mom! :-)

Happy birthday, Mom! Thanks for all you do for us every day! We love you so much!!

(Sorry, I don’t know how to make the pictures any bigger!)

The Mystery of the Unknown Artist

I was transferring the pictures from my camera to the laptop this morning when I noticed there were over 400 pictures.  Seemed like a lot of pictures, because I had just cleaned off the memory card a couple of days ago.  When I was browsing through the pictures, I came across a series of photos (125, to be exact) of a drawing and immediately thought it would make an interesting “movie.”  So, I dragged them all into MS Movie Maker and started playing it, at that point not sure what the final picture was, or who the artist was.  You’ll have to watch to the very end to find out (like I did!).