A Great Read

For anyone who has been, is, or may be a counselor, and those who have been, are, or may be clients, or those who are just interested. This is the text for one of my courses this semester, and it is an amazing read.

100 Books

The Big Read is an NEA program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six. According to another blogger, they encourage us to:

*Look at the list and bold those we have read.
*Italicize those we intend to read.
*Underline the books we LOVE


Tough noogies. I'm only bolding the ones I've read, because I'm tired and because I can.

Share this list in your blog, too, if you like. :)



1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


43 of them. Not bad.

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Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs

Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs is one of the funniest books I have ever read. I drew unnecessary attention to myself countless times while reading this in public, because I inherited my mom's belly laugh. Thanks, Mom.

While I related to the stories because the author is a 300-lb lesbian with a cat, I think anyone could appreciate her quirky humor, her way with words, and her unpredictability.



"Fat Girls is a gay Erma Bombeck meets A Girl Named Zippy in a hilarious collection of true stories about the misadventures of a woman of size"--Kathy Patrick

Love & Hope

Laundromat time is prime reading time in our family and we always pass the time by reading stacks and stacks of books. Among many others, some of yesterday's reads included:





Yesterday while reading Moon and Otter and Frog, we came upon a section that talked about the existence of things we cannot see. I asked the kids, "What exists that we can't see? Can you think of anything?" Without missing a beat, Marian answered, "Love." And Leo simultaneously said, "Hope."



When asked yesterday if I was happy with my life, I responded with a resounding YES! I love my life and see way more positives than negatives. I'm very fulfilled with motherhood, homeschooling, pet fostering, my work, my school, my friends, my family, my community. I love my temperamental and crotchety home and car, my small town neighborhood, my stark valley. I'm putting down roots and spreading my wings and it is lovely.

(forgive the cellphone cam)


So. Are you happy?


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A Bookworm is Born

Thank you, Harry Potter.

More Words, Finally

I can't explain my absence. I've had many things worth writing about, but haven't had the inclination to write them for some reason. I'm getting an A so far in statistics (and my other class), I'm parenting wonderfully, and I'm undergoing significant spiritual growth. I think anyone who reads and absorbs The Law of Attraction and Seth Speaks at the same time is going to have a lot on their mind, and I do.

Since I last wrote, my boy turned six, my big girl lost another tooth and grew in a new one, my ex showed his worst side yet, I reconnected with lots of family and friends from Texas, M's learned to sew, L's cooking skills have increased dramatically, S has gotten even cuter, Gus has learned absolutely nothing, Cesar has mellowed, two long-term fosters have gotten adopted out of my home, curly-tailed cat is living with me temporarily, and I've learned a lot about many things.



L loves his new binoculars.


M loves hiking.


S loves me.


M spent leftover Christmas and birthday money on her favorite new toy EVER. Meet the Harry Potter 20 Questions Electronic Game. It's been awesome for her reading skills.


Walter has his first snuggle buddy. Grumpy old Walter and clumsy little Toby. (M took this picture.)

Num num, Nim Nim.

The kids and I are reading Nim's Island and are having a learning blast with it. We read the first three chapters today, and then took off for further research at the library where we devoured a large stack of books and read all about sea otters, blue whales, plankton, barometers, iguanas, and more. Those chapters also inspired fun conversations about satellite dishes, laptop computers, volcanoes, cyclones, machetes, and rudders and tillers. Marian is keeping an ongoing list of all animals mentioned and I'm helping her with a side list of other topics to explore.


The scene of the massacre:



All three kids declared the coconut opening exciting and unpredictable. I wish we'd all worn safety goggles, and I'm sure the kids will never forget the vision of their sweet sweating mother repeatedly swinging a cleaver through the air at a furry brown coconut, which then protested by showering us with wooden chips at each stroke. When we finally got it open, we lost all the juice, but the meat was a hit, however stubborn. It made a nice addition to our "Nim Dinner" of coconut, seaweed, snap peas, sweet potatoes, and strawberries. (My tropical wine cooler fit with the theme as well.)

The coconut was a hit.


Mixed reviews on the seaweed. M braved a second bite, while L reacted to his first.




And Sophie ate everything.


Dry seaweed.


Rehydrated seaweed. Just for kicks. Slime and odor abound.



A simple cut and paste craft of a coconut tree, to pass the time while waiting for the eternal sweeet potatoes to finish baking.





We can't wait for chapter 4!

Sophie is my Ramona

As a toddler, she ate grasshoppers and transported all my potatoes out the dog door. At age 2, she shoved beads up her nose, not once, not twice, but THREE times. In a week. She's colored her belly blue, painted the rug, eaten quarters, and routinely tortures kittens with a most loving intent.

She's a four-year-old now and the adventure continues:

A Day in the Life (from Friday 11/9)

8:00am
At what point does the day start when one gets no sleep?

After a tireless bout of insomnia last night, I finally nodded off only to be awoken 20 minutes later by Sophie needing to puke. I staggered off to the bathroom with her under my arm and let her hang over the toilet while I got a bowl, which we took back to bed. After 2 more rounds, I got up for good. And this is why.

Tuesday evening, Sophie swallowed two quarters, and they lodged in her throat. She could breathe around them, but we were directed to head straight to the ER, which we did. On the way there, they finally came dislodged and went all the way down, at which point I called the ER doc. After talking to him, I decided not to take her in, instead choosing to watch out for potential problems and keep an eye out for their re-arrival in the toilet. Thursday she had diarrhea. And last night/this morning was the stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting. With 4 symptoms from the "watch out for" list, we headed to the ER at 4:30 this morning.

Despite the incredulous looks and comments at the ER of all those professionals who didn't think the coins would still be in her, the x-ray showed that there were still at the very top of her intestine. No blockage though, they said. While we were at the ER, I read them chapter 2 of Story of the World volume 1 (a re-read) and chapter 8 of Lions at Lunchtime (Magic Tree House #11). I gave Marian and Leo verbal math problems and spelling words, and Sophie chilled on the ER bed and watched "Sunrise Earth" on Animal Planet. We all got a good look at Sophie's x-ray which was very cool, showing everything from chin to pelvis, and it generated lots of discussion baout the skeleton and internal organs.

At 6am, we left the hospital with another list of things to watch for , and the kids talked about the gender of Spanish nouns and also used their Spanish names for awhile (Mariana, Leo, Sofia). We parked and watched the sunrise while listening to the Tao Te Ching.

Then went to Walmart, where I wandered around in a fog not able to remember anything that was on my list. On our way back to the car, we stopped to inspect a very freshly squashed mouse and had an interesting discussion about mouse guts, which led back to Sophie's x-ray.

We got back home at 7:15am, and Marian and Leo took the dogs out while I cleaned up their crate and fed and watered them all. The kids had a second breakfast, Leo ran off some energy outside for awhile, and now they are all watching Reading Rainbow and I'm getting ready to feed the kittens.

(And it's not even 8am. Most days I don't get up until 9.)

The kids watching a Reading Rainbow about Jewish cooking and culture. (Leo's getting peanut butter off the roof of his mouth.)


Hungry little kittens waiting to be fed. (This is just the holding tank for feeding time. Their living quarters are much more spacious.)


The runt, and my favorite. Heidi. I always feed her first.



Marian got the big two some wet food while I fed the little ones. The big ones are in the process of weaning (they drink from the bottle a couple times a day). Here's everyone all full and happy.



9:00am
I watched most of "Animal Cops: Houston" with Marian while feeding the kittens. Leo and Sophie were in and out, and spent a good chunk of time playing together with dollhouse stuff upstairs.

Now the TV is off, Leo has requested math or pirate worksheets printed off the internet, and my stripey socks and I are settled in to work on a Sociology paper for a little bit. The kids are all playing upstairs at the moment.


10:00am
I got a good chunk of my paper done, and hope to finish it in one more sitting today. While I worked, the kids were all over the place. Leo did a math worksheet and played with the tunnel, Marian and Sophie dressed up, played upstairs, and then came and got in a fight with Leo about the tunnel, at which point I put it away.







12:45pm
We spent over an hour at the shelter, where Leo slept in the car, Sophie played with Jack (the dog in pics), Marian drew, and the girls both constructed some kind of mud castle. I took pictures and got descriptions of about 15 dogs and still need to update their website, I got recruited to hook up their new computer monitor tomorrow, and I fed and watered the cats.

Pictures from the shelter:

Sophie with Jack, the best babysitter I've ever had.






Marian drawing, with Jack checking in on her


Part of her picture:


After the shelter we came home, and Frank (the shelter guy) showed up shortly after bearing gifts for the kids, for Sophie's birthday. (He got all of them stuff.) Then the kids had lunch, I avoided a couple phone calls, and then answered when my dad called and talked to him for almost an hour. The kids finished lunch and played with their new toys while I was on the phone. Time to feed the kittens again!


4:45pm
All four of us piled up like a bunch of kittens and napped all afternoon. Then my friend came over with her daughter and hung out for about an hour or so, and then I watched Leo and Sophie play out front for awhile after she left.




Marian is still asleep. Off to feed kittens and then humans.

7:30pm
I served the little ones their dinner (split pea soup, rice cakes, grape tomatoes) and then snuggled Marian awake and almost fell back to sleep myself. We finally got up and she had dinner while I fed the kittens and the little ones played, and then we went to the store. Evening snack has been had.

Everyone has done their bedtime hygiene and they're waiting on me to go read to them. Be back in a bit!


9:00pm
I read them a chapter from The Seeing Summer (our new read aloud) for bed, and Leo and Sophie are asleep. Marian is quietly roaming around. So far I've gotten my Sociology paper done and submitted and I finally finished updating the animal shelter's website with photos and descriptions.

I still need to study for an exam, do research for a research paper, get in about an hour of transcription work, and write some of my novel. And I'll watch an episode or two of That 70's Show and/or Whose Line is it Anyway? while I give the kittens their last feeding of the day.

Still plenty to do, but I'm signing out.

A Damn Full Day

Today was all about the kids. I've been having a hard time balancing everything in my life lately, and felt the need to drop most of it and give the kids my all today. We had a lovely time at the animal shelter, read more books than I can remember, worked on all kinds of homeschooling stuff, fed kittens, talked and talked and talked and laughed and laughed and laughed some more. I swung them in circles through the air, I chased them, they chased me, we played games, we watched kittens romp, we dreamed. We made lots of memories on Sophie's last day as a three-year-old.

After they went to bed, I got all of my studying done for the day, and surpassed my writing goal for my first day of NaNoWriMo. I know I may seem insane to take on this challenge of writing at least 50,000 words of a novel in the next month, but this is for ME. And after finishing today's goal, I felt energized and excited. (No, not THAT way.) Although I do have to admit that my intended wholesome and family-oriented young adult novel has somehow morphed into a lesbian romance.

The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.
- Abbie Hoffman

Dumbledore is gay!

That freakin' rocks! I love you, J.K. Rowling.

"Rowling...also said that she regarded her Potter books as a 'prolonged argument for tolerance' and urged her fans to 'question authority.'


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071020/ap_en_ot/books_harry_potter

Children’s Books Featuring Homeschooled Characters

Homeschooled children often struggle to find books that show children like them. Since school is the norm, most children’s books are either set in school or are geared to prepare children for school. Fortunately for book-loving homeschooling families everywhere, there are many books featuring homeschoolers they can add to their home library. For the purpose of this compilation, a “homeschooled character” will be defined as a school-aged character who is either overtly homeschooled or who experiences sustained learning and life events over an extended period of time with no mention of school. Now for the list, which I guarantee is incomplete and ever-growing, much to the joy of homeschoolers everywhere.

Children’s Books Featuring Homeschooled Characters

The Adventures of Bellota, Avellanita, and Castanita by Elsa Bescow

The Adventures of Lil' Wolf, Twinkie, Toes, and Flower Girl in the Homeschool Forest by Jacqueline R. Campos

Allison's Story: A Book about Homeschooling by Jon Lurie

Alice, I Think by Susan Juby

Ana on the Farm by Elsa Bescow

Are we there yet?: A journey around Australia by Alison Lester

Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

The Borrowers by Mary Norton

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Brian's Hunt by Gary Paulsen

Chicken Friend by Nicola Morgan

The Conch Bearer series by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci (series) by Diana Wynne Jones

Dancing Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

Dancing with Dragonflies by Jack Francis Gorfien

Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones

Drift House: The First Voyage by Dale Peck

The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter and Rennard Strickland

Eloise by Kay Thompson

Feed by M.T. Anderson

From The Mixed-Up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler by E.L. Konisburg

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

I am a Homeschooler by Julie Voetberg

I am Not Joey Pigza by Jack Gantos

Ida B...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

Islander by Cynthia Rylant

Jess (American Girl Today) by Mary Casanova

Joey Pigza Loses Control by Jack Gantos

Josefina an American Girl (The American Girls Collection) by Valerie Tripp, Jean-Paul Tibbles, and Susan McAliley

Journey by Cynthia Rylant

Kandoo Kangaroo Hops Into Homeschool by Susan Ratner

Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Gouge

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Littles by John Peterson and Roberta Carter Clark

Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Gouge

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

Meet Felicity: An American Girl (American Girls Collection) by Valerie Tripp

Meet Kaya: An American Girl (American Girls Collection) by Janet Beeler Shaw, Bill Farnsworth, and Susan McAliley

The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman

Monster of the Month Club (Series) by Dian Curtis Regan

The Moomin books (series) by Tove Jansson

The Nature of the Beast by Jan Carr

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durell

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

Nim's Island by Wendy Orr

Nurse Matilda by Christianna Brand

Olympus: It's Not Just a Game by Scott W. Somerville

Operation Red Jericho

Operation Typhoon Shore by Joshua Mowll

Pippi Longstocking (series) by Astrid Lindgren

Road to Coorain by Jill Ker Conway

Ruby Slippers School (Series) by Stacy Towle Morgan

Sarah, Plain and Tall (Series) by Patricia MacLachlan

The Sea Chest by Toni Buzzeo

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Shouldn't You Be In School? by Angelina Hart

Skellig by David Almond

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan

Tarragon Island by Nikki Tate

A Time to Fly Free by Stephanie Tolan

The Tide Knot by Helen Dunmore

Tonia of Trelawney: A Buccaneer Girl by Jacqueline C Grant

Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit

The Wanderer by Sharon Creech

What would Joey do? by Jack Gantos

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleishman

Wise Child by Monica Furlong

The Wizard of Oz (series) by L. Frank Baum

The Year I Didn't Go to School by Giselle Potter



Head to the library, the bookstore, or online, and pick up some of these treasures for your literature-loving family. I know I will!

Lost track, man

I was hoping to keep track of all the books the kids and I read together this past week (just for kicks and nerd points), but I didn't do it. We finished our chapter book, The Littles (Peterson), and started two new ones--Matilda (Dahl) and The Magic Tree House #2: The Knight at Dawn (Osborne). And we're on chapter seven of The Golden Compass (Pullman) on CD. Over the week, we read lots of fall and Halloween books, and here is the list from the one day I kept track:

Tuesday's books--

Hansel & Gretel (Patience)
Jack and the Beanstalk (Patience)
Goodnight Moon (Brown)
Winnie-the-Pooh Tells Time (Milne, Shepherd)
Winnie-the-Pooh ABC (Milne, Shepherd)
Winnie-the-Pooh 123 (Milne, Shepherd)
Winnie-the-Pooh Opposites (Milne, Shepherd)
Winnie-the-Pooh Colors (Milne, Shepherd)
Mother Goose's Humpty Dumpty and Friends
Curious George and the Bunny (Ray)
PlayTime with Big Bird (Gorbaty)
Barneys's Alphabet Soup
Santa's WorkshopRainbow Duck (Lodge)
It's Not Easy Being a Bunny (Sadler)
Things That Go (Midal)
Corduroy's Halloween (Freeman)
Now, Soon, Later (Grunwald)
Dinosaur Train (Gurney)
Kiara's Colors
Itsy Bitsy Spider (Spangler)
My Big Bright World (Gabriel)
The Moon in my Room (McGrew)
Polly Squawks (Parent)
Care Bears Bedtime Bear (Knight)
Gandhi (Mitchell)

Fun, fun!

Licious

Einstein Quote of the Day:
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

Abraham Lincoln Quote of the Day
I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

Today's Books

Who Made That? (Nicholas)
Fairytopia (Sheridan)
Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street? (Hudson)
Tabitha's Terrifically Tough Tooth (Middleton)
"The Fairy Godmother's Assistant" from Girls to the Rescue (Lansky)
2 chapters from The Midwife's Apprentice (Cushman)
up to chapter 6 of The Golden Compass (Pullman) on CD
some "Mad Libs"

And Leo was a reading demon today and went through so many books I couldn't begin to keep track. The first two on the above list were the only titles I could remember. He also perused the Gator Gazette in the car, along with his sisters.



We spent hours at the shelter today, returned two fosterlings and brought two more home. One was a puppy who'd been rejected by his mother and hadn't grown since he was born almost a week ago. If I'd known of his sooner, I'd have taken him home sooner, but I'm the cat lady and only found out today. He died this afternoon, but spent his last hours warm, cuddled, loved on, and finally soothed and comfortable.

Old My. Whiskerson has gained half a pound since his arrival, and is at my house now; he immediately demanded to be let out to explore and insists he is home. I've got him back in a large cage, though, because I'd like to see him gain much more weight before he starts burning it off.

There is a beautiful and sweet girl cat at the shelter who came in earlier this week, and we just discovered today that she is blind. I named her Helen. Yes, I'm so creative I awe myself.

I get a break tomorrow! For the first time in 2 months, I'll have almost the entire day to myself, and the next morning as well. The kids are SO excited about their daddy coming that they cleaned their room (where he sleeps) without a single complaint. lol I'm really looking forward to my break tomorrow, but I know that I'm actually going to miss the kids. We have been so connected lately, and life with them has been incredible. But I know the break will do us all some good.

I heart my library