And the Race is On!

It's the day before the day before Christmas, school is out, and it's time for the final sprint.   School is out, and now I have time to get some things done that should get done.  Last year we were still without electricity due to the ice storm, and I was freaking out about how I'd do Christmas dinner, etc.  But last year both my sons were coming home.  This year, our "baby" (28 years old) won't be home.  That's the first time for both of us!  I realized last night that it's bothering me a lot more than I expected.   I'm tearing up even as I write this!  I'm guessing that's why I'm not super anxious that a lot of stuff isn't done.  Of course that's not fair to Elder Son who WILL be here!  

So, on today's agenda:

• grocery shopping, once I finalize the menus
• gift-wrapping
• looking for the tree skirt to go under the lighted, but decoration-less tree so we can put the wrapped gifts under the tree.
• cookie baking or "Best Buttermilk Poundcake baking.  (What doesn't get baked today, gets baked tomorrow)
• water aerobics at 5 pm - a MUST!

Wish me luck!

A Fairly Typical Weekend

Saturday:  Out of bed rather late -- 7:30 ish.  Started a load of laundry,  did some basic bookkeeping chores, and had breakfast.  Organized a shopping list for husband, and delegated a couple of errands to him.  Off to nearest shopping area with a good friend at 10 am to do some holiday shopping.  (That's actually atypical.  Normally I'd be running multiple errands and/or working on some major monthly tasks like the business bookkeeping or billing.)  Home about 3 pm.  Elder Son called to inquire about weather as a major storm was heading up the coast, and he had weekend travel plans.  He decided to come to our home for Sat night and then leave for his ski trip from here on Sunday rather than chance being snowed in in southern New England.  Meanwhile:  washed the sheets and vacuumed his room; did another load of laundry, and some school work.  At 6 pm, Elder Son arrives and we took him out to dinner.  Home about 8 pm and we watched a Netflix disk.  Off to bed about 11.

Sunday:  Up at 7, showered, dressed, breakfasted, more laundry and basic housekeeping chores.  Off to church at 9:30 for 10 am service followed by an extra-long church council meeting.  Got home at 1:30 and cooked the main meal of the day.  Now the kitchen is cleaned and it's just 3 pm.    Choices for the rest of the weekend include:  more schoolwork, bookkeeping, present wrapping, some secretarial work for business, and I hope some TV, knitting and Netflix. 

And then the week begins again.. . . At least this week, we have 2 days of school and then break.  I can do it!
I can do it!  I can do it!

I've decided that the older I'm getting, the longer it takes for my battery to be recharged, and the faster it runs out of juice!!

Book Review #102 Jane Austen Book Club

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler



I was disappointed in this book.  I never really connected with any of the characters.   If the book's organization was intended to link each character's story with one of Austen's novels, it didn't succeed.  It wasn't an awful book, but it wasn't particularly engaging or thoughtful.  I did find the chronological reviews of Austen's work at the end of the novel fascinating.  To see how  opinions of her work have evolved and changed over the years since their original publication was fascinating!

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Christmas Traditions - Friday Five

The Friday Five at  RevGalBlogPals is all about Christmas traditons"
So for this Friday Five, tell us five things about the traditions in your family. Think of

• traditions you always do
• traditions you always cook or eat
  
• traditions you would like to start
• traditions you would like to discard
• anything about your family Christmases

My Christmas traditions are in transition now as my children are now adults, and for the first time ever, the Younger Son will not be home for Christmas.  Over the past few years our traditions have evolved as our sons left home for college, graduated, and started independent lives in other states.  But for many years our family traditions were pretty much what I grew up with.  (My husband is Jewish, so all the traditions were mine!)


In MY growing up home, we put the tree up about a week before Christmas, but we always kept it up til Ephiphany.  This was important to my Cuban father whose tradition was gift-giving on Jan 6th when Los Tres Reyes arrived.     I carried on this tradition in my own home although my tree goes up earlier each year.  This year the tree has been up most of the month, but it has only lights on it still ----  I've decided I love the lights more than the hassle of unpacking all the ornaments!!

For most of my growing up years we lived away from other family members, so we'd get huge boxes of presents mailed to us.  Mom wouldn't open the boxes til Christmas Eve. We looked forward to the grand opening of the mailing boxes and loved the pile of wrapped presents that grew under the tree. Despite my mom always warning us it was "going to be a slim Christmas", that never seemed to happen.  Of course with 5 children, and generous parents and relatives, that was quite a huge pile of gifts!   I broke this tradition with my own family  --- as soon as the boxes arrived, we'd unpack them.  I've always enjoyed the anticipation as much as the actual unwrapping, and I like seeing gifts piled around a tree!

Santa brought stockings and wonderful toys to us.  We'd hang our stockings on the fireplace or stair railing, depending on the house we lived in, and sometime during the night, Santa would fill them and put them at the foot of our beds.  We were allowed to wake up as early as we wanted to and open our stockings BUT we had to stay in our rooms/beds!  Nobody was allowed downstairs until Mami and Papi were up and dressed, and then we had to line up from youngest to oldest before heading downstairs. I think my folks were brilliant --- we had the surreptitousness of opening stockings by the light of the electric candles in our window, to hold us over until about 7 am!  I was the oldest though, so I was always last to see what Santa had left under the tree.  Santa's gifts were never wrapped, and most things were removed from their packaging. My parents were smart about that too, I think.  Trying to wrap things like dollhouses and ice skates and tricycles would have been difficult!   This was one tradition I definitely kept!

A twist on the stockings that emerged when my sons were in high school was that they started to fill stockings for husband and me.  I really looked forward to that.  I think that might not happen this year, since the 2 boys would go out shopping together to put the stockings together.

Food that has to be part of Christmas now includes:
Swedish meatballs on Christmas Eve  (from  my childhood)
Farm Journal's "Best Buttermilk Poundcake" on Christmas morning  (from my teenage years on)
Mrs. Greenhill's Shortbread cookies (for most of my childhood)
Crissy's Butter Cookies (since #2 son was about 5)
Ginger Crinkles (for most of my adult life)
Cranberry Almond Biscotti (relative new comer to tradition -- only about 5 years so far)

My kids never really liked Swedish meatballs, but one year, in what I thought was deference to their tastes, I made something else for Christmas Eve.  They were so upset!!!


A tradition that has been lost, that I dearly miss, was having a huge family gathering on Christmas Eve.  Mom would serve a buffet featuring the Swedish meatballs, we'd all sit in the living room and talk and sing Christmas carols,  budding musicians would play a carol on the instrument being learned, a child would read the Nativity story from the Bible, and last of all, Mom would gather us around her and read "The Night Before Christmas".  We'd hang our stockings and head for bed, and listen to the grownups below laughing and talking, and much later, we'd hear the rustling of what I was sure was Santa, but was really the adults setting out all the "loot".  With my own family, we never had the large family gathering since we lived 1000 miles away, but I did read the poem to my kids from the book my mom read from.

This year will be very different I think ---- we'll see!  I have been discarding some traditions, partly through attrition, and partly through change of circumstance.  I've already asked First Son if he'd be upset if I made something other than the meatballs. . . ..

Book Review #101

Once in Every Life by Kristin Hannah


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
 Despite the fantastical premise of the book, once the core story started, I couldn't put it down. And this was in spite of the fact that this novel is actually from the romance genre that I generally avoid.

Tess is a lonely microbiologist.  She became deaf at age 7 from a bout with spinal meningitis, and spent her life being shunted from foster home to foster home.  On her way home from work one evening, she's hit by a bus, and dies.  During the death experience she's given a 2nd chance at life, this time as the estranged wife of a Civil War vet suffering from post-traumatic shock syndrome.  Because it's a romance, it has a satisfying happy ending.  In the author's note at the end, the author says the story was inspired by a real-life incident in her family's history.  I have to admit, that I didn't like the title.  I think Second Chance would be a better one.

I like Kristin Hannah's books, but have only read her contemporary fiction.  This is apparently from her early days as a romance writer. 

View all my reviews >>

A Few Random Thoughts

1.  A year ago we were just beginning our 13 days of no electricity.  It's been the topic of conversation all week, especially among my 6th graders.  I suspect that when they are my age, they will be regaling their children/grandchildren with stories of the the 2008 ICE STORM.    One of the good things to have come out of that experience has been the deepened appreciation of all the things I used to take for granted:  Christmas lights, our washer and dryer, lights at the turn of a switch, to name some of the biggies. 

2. This was a relatively calm week at school despite a snow day.  Today we had a blast in one of my science classes.  The kids finished their work early and we still had just under 1/2 hr left. I really couldn't stand the thought of giving them the paper and pencil assessment I'd planned, because I just couldn't add one more thing to my pile of papers to be graded.  They also needed to get up and move.  So I "improvised" and adapted a colleague's activity.   We've been talking about ecological succession, and I wanted to be sure the kids understood the difference between primary succession, secondary succession, and climax communities.  I told them to divide themselves into teams of 2,3, or 4.  Each team had to create a song or rap that defined/explained ecah concept and present it to the class.  They had 20 minutes to create and practice, and we took the final 10 minutes of class for their performances.  They had so much fun!  Most of the teams created a rap-type song, and one enterprising duet combined rap and "opera" for their presentation.  It was clear from their attempts that they understood the concepts and we all laughed a lot while they performed.  I have to keep remembering to address these other learning styles and offer them more opportunities to show what they know in ways other than paper and pencil.

3. I thought I was behind on my reading for this year, but as I was looking back over last year's book lists, I'm just about even with my pace.  That surprised me.

4.  My plans for this weekend include finishing my out of town shopping, going to the town craft fair, going to church, getting a few Christmas cards done, and relaxing.  I wonder what I'll actually accomplish!

  



 

SNOW DAY!

So just what do I do on a snow day 2 weeks before Christmas? I get up very early, my usual time in fact, and spend the better part of the day baking. Since my husband runs the bus company that provides the transportation for all of our students, he's up by 4 on mornings that are potential snow days. He turns on the outside lights to check the weather, turns on the TV to check the forecast, and then waits until the superintendent calls, usually about 5 am. Meanwhile, my alarm goes off at 4:45. I stay in bed, hoping that what the decision is, it's made early enough that I don't HAVE to get out of bed and start getting ready. Sometimes, depending on the storm's timing, the decision to call off school doesn't come until I'm up, showered, dressed, and making lunch. Today, the decision was made at 5:05, but I was awake, thinking about what I could be doing. And the phone calls start: all of the drivers have to be called, we get phone calls from people who for some reason, aren't on the automated call system the district has in place to notify teachers and parents of snow days, and then my husband and his assistant make numerous calls. So it's pretty hard to go back to sleep. Today, I got out of bed and decided that I would do this:

Don't look too closely at the oven floor - I need to run the self-cleaning cycle one of these days!

Those are my Ginger Crinkles, only one tray didn't crinkle! They taste great, however, probably my #2 favorite cookie.

And I also made these:

These are Cranberry Almond biscotti -- a relatively new Christmas favorite.

Then I made Younger Son's favorite cookies - his aunt's butter cookies. I really dislike making rolled cookies, but for him . . . .even though he won't be home, they will be sent to him.

I also made the dough for "Mrs. Greenhill's Shortbread" which is my favorite cookie. This recipe came from my brother's 2nd grade teacher, way back in the late 1960's, and they've graced the table every Christmas. I like them because they're not too sweet, and I can make the dough way ahead of time and keep it in the fridge or freezer until I have time to bake them.

And of course, now my kitchen looks like this:

From cookies

From cookies

I also put the lights on our Christmas tree!

#100

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this wild chase through Washington, DC. A great escape from the stresses of job and holiday hoopla. I especially enjoyed the very short chapters which suited the fact that I just have bits of time to read, no long periods of sustained reading available. Of all Dan Brown's books, I enjoyed Angels and Demons the most, however. This is not great literature, but it's a fun read, and it poses some interesting questions.

View all my reviews >>

A New Day, A New Frame of Mind

I feel much more relaxed today, despite the still-too-long list of To-Dos.
The play last night was terrific. We saw "Peter Pan" performed by Theater at the Mount, a community theater located at Mt. Wachusett Community College in Gardner, MA. We have season tickets with our friends and there are 5-6 plays per season. This one was a lot of fun, and brought back really good childhood memories -- of my sister "crowing" and Mary Martin flying, etc. My middle school also performed it a couple of weeks ago - this time the Disneyfied version, and they did a nice job too.


I am skipping church today --- I really need the time to get some things done, but I've been having my own Advent preparation. I spent some time with the lectionary, and I've been listening to John Rutter's "Music for Christmas". I got my creche put up too.

Now it's time for some work: science planning, new seating charts, and some language arts prep. Nevermind the piles of papers to grade. That's not going to get done today.

And it's really pretty outside. We got about 2 inches of snow yesterday/last evening. It looks like December, and the sun is shining brilliantly.

It's Just One of Those Days . . . .

I am feeling super stressed today. I have a list of things to do that seems endless, and so far everything I've worked on has either taken longer than it should have or I've run into a complication that made usually simple tasks difficult.

On my to-do list:
Monthly billing
Business check book reconciliation
Education association bookkeeping
Put up the window candles and set all the timers (the 2nd part's the worst)
Buy tree and put up (not decorate, yet!)
Plan this week's science and reading/language arts
Finish Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol
Bring creche down and set it up
Go to church
Go with friends to see play at theater for which we have tickets. Dinner first!
Laundry (It's in progress)
Christmas shopping via online
Wrap already bought gifts
Knitting
Watch Firefly Netflix disc

It's snowing too.

I just realized that I totally spaced the church Christmas fair! I was supposed to bake something for it, and not only did I forget that, I didn't even go to the fair! The first time in 30 plus years that I didn't buy my door wreath at the church fair. Now I don't have one.

I know that some of the stress is from work -- some big changes on the horizon that are scary, even though most of them are probably needed changes. I'm also disappointed that the best Younger Son I've got won't be home for Christmas.


Well, it's almost 3 pm and I haven't gotten much done on the list, but at least the billing and tree are accomplished. Now that I've had a break, I guess I'll tackle some school work before I think about what I'm changing into for dinner out and the play. I don't think my pjs will work!

Annoyed with Myself

I am annoyed and frustrated with myself right now. I started a new knitting project over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Winding Road Henley from Creative Knitting. I cast on 123 stitches and went to work. I've knitted about 4 inches of the pattern, and last night went to double check my stitch count. I have 157 stitches on my needles. I counted it 4 times, and each time it came out to 157 stitches. My pattern is perfect, so it's not that I added extra stitches during the yarn overs, or that I skipped a decrease. I just have 34 extra stitches on my needles. ARGHHHHH!!!!

So tonight I will be visiting the frog pond.

Book 99 for 2009

I'm falling behind in my reading for this year! I was on track for 150 in mid summer but my pace as slowed down. Oh well. Here's #99



The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I wish there were a ratings comment like this: Compelling but disturbing read. Or, perhaps: Well worth reading, but I can't say I liked it.
Either one of these is how I'd rate this one.

Mikael Blomkvist is the publisher and leading journalist of Millenium magazine, and he has just been convicted of libel. Henrik Vanger has hired him ostensibly to write a biography of the Vanger family, but in reality, wants him to solve the 40 mystery of his niece Harriet's disappearance. Blomkvist and the very odd, very talented researcher Lisabeth Salander team up to investigate Harriet Vanger's disappearance. Along the way they discover family secrets, industrial espionage, and unspeakable violence against women. I couldn't put this one down, but I'm not sure I will read next one.

View all my reviews >>

A Pretty Thing

 

This is indeed a "Pretty Thing." It's a pattern by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot. I knit it from Jade Sapphire Cashmere. The color is called scarab. It's a deep teal green, though the picture looks grayer than it is in reality. It is going to be a gift, but I really want to keep it myself! I've never knit with cashmere before and I loved the experience. It's so soft. I did have a few issues with the yarn breaking but I survived the trauma. It was not hard to knit, once I got appropriate needles. I started on double points because all my circulars are longer than 16 inches. I hated the fiddliness of the dpns. One night while I was just dozing off to sleep, I came suddenly awake with the "duh" experience. Use 2 circular needles! That worked fine but I did end up breaking down and purchasing a WEBS interchangeable needle tip set and cables as a way to "try them out" before deciding I want the whole set!

Another Friday Five - On Saturday

From RevGalBlog Pals:

The Cure

Lying around all day
with some strange new deep blue
weekend funk, I'm not really asleep
when my sister calls
to say she's just hung up
from talking with Aunt Bertha
who is 89 and ill but managing
to take care of Uncle Frank
who is completely bed ridden.
Aunt Bert says
it's snowing there in Arkansas,
on Catfish Lane, and she hasn't been
able to walk out to their mailbox.
She's been suffering
from a bad case of the mulleygrubs.
The cure for the mulleygrubs,
she tells my sister,
is to get up and bake a cake.
If that doesn't do it, put on a red dress.

--Ginger Andrews (from Hurricane Sisters)

So this Friday before Thanksgiving, think about Aunt Bert and how she'll celebrate Thanksgiving! And how about YOU?

1. What is your cure for the "mulleygrubs"?


It used to be to go out shopping for something I didn't really need, but that I really wanted - kind of "I deserve this" mentality. Nowadays, I tend more to call a friend, or to cozy up on the sofa with my knitting and a Netflix movie.

2. Where will you be for Thanksgiving? We're going to my youngest sister's home to celebrate with her family. They used to live about an hour from us, and we shared Thanksgivings with each other. They've moved further away, so now it's a 5-6 hour drive. We both miss the huge family celebrations of our childhood - our family of 7, my aunt and uncle and their 2 children, another aunt and uncle and their 2 children, and very early on, my grandmother. As the years went on cousins married and added their families. I think our largest celebration had almost 30 people around the table. This year, one son is in Los Angeles, and the other is on his way to spend the holiday with friends in England. So there will be 6 of us around the table.


3. What foods will be served? Which are traditional for your family?

Turkey with stuffing (inside the bird, and outside the bird), mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, squash, turnip, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and mince pie. All of these except the green bean casserole are "our" traditional foods. The green bean casserole is traditional in my brother-in-law's family. This is a somewhat pared down list of the traditional clan foods which also included creamed onions, a tray of celery/carrot sticks, olives, sweet pickles, mixed nuts in the shell, tangerines, dates, grapes, figs, and pecan pie.

4. How do you feel about Thanksgiving as a holiday?


I love it! I hate the growing trend of this holiday being overshadowed by Christmas advertising and hoopla. It's being lost. I think I love it because it's such an inclusive holiday - no matter your faith, no matter your lack of faith, everyone has an opportunity to recognize the things they are grateful for. It also triggers strong childhood memories for me: Making an elaborate centerpiece when I was about 6 years old. A weird one, for sure, but I remember the effort I put into it -- a mirror that I laid flat on the table and surrounded with cotton balls. Then I made clothespin Pilgrims and had them ice skating on the pond. I don't have any idea what inspired this delight, but I remember the pride I took in it, and I can only imagine what my mom was thinking as I created this -- Pilgrims ice skating???


5. In this season of Thanksgiving, what are you grateful for?

I am grateful for many things, big and small. My children are happy with their lives and are good men. My husband and I have jobs and are relatively healthy. We have what we need. The stars in a clear night sky. Coffee. My washer and dryer. My fleece robe and slippers. The chance to go visit one of my sisters and her family. . . .


BONUS: Describe Aunt Bert's Thanksgiving.

Aunt Bert, sitting at a card table in Uncle Frank's room. The table is covered with a lace tablecloth, and a huge 3 layer coconut cake sits in the center. Aunt Bert is slicing the cake. Her red dress is protected by a voluminous apron. They are smiling and talking with each other.

Relative Time

The concept of time is pretty weird. I just finished balancing my checkbook. I do it every month ... I thought I did it every month. I was shocked to discover that the last time I balanced it was in August, right before school started. And that was the July statement!! Where the heck did the time go?? Luckily we handle our money pretty well and haven't had any setbacks to give us nasty surprises. No checks bounced, and I actually had more money in the account than I thought I did. The last 3 months have flown by when I judge it by one set of standards. And yet when I look forward, it feels like it's a VERY long time to June. But I know that it's suddenly Thanksgiving, and tomorrow it will be Christmas. I guess it all depends on whether you're anxious for something to start, or something to end!

. . . But on the Other Hand . . .

Today was the first day in almost 2 weeks that I finally felt pretty good -- not sick, not fighting being sick, not getting over being sick, but actually felt normal. I did NOT have H1N1. I did not have a normal garden-variety cold either. I started with 24 hours of a scratchy throat, then a day of what threatened to be a major sinus problem, then a day of bronchial coughing, then 12 hours of low fever, drippy nose and itchy eyes, then heavy sinus stuff, and so on. For most of the days I've had a very productive chesty cough, but no fever except for the 12 hours over a week ago. I did take one sick day, and I spent 2 weekends doing absolutely nothing. I spent last week coming directly home from school, napping, and going to bed early. Most nights I had no problem sleeping, and I only went through 2.5 boxes of tissues. So it's been a weird collection of symptoms. I did call the dr on my sick day, but was told it wasn't flu. So that was the good news for the day.

On the other hand, I had a really difficult day with one of my classes. There are 4 students in that one class who regularly act out, usually one at a time. Today all 4 of them were "off". None of the usual tricks of the trade were working - pulling aside, moving seats, time-out, change task, etc. On the bright side however, a number of the other kids in the class took it upon themselves to start exerting some positive peer pressure -- one of the popular kids (who's not always perfectly behaved, but who is just your normal 12 year old who occasionally makes a bad choice blurted out "Will you guys knock it off! Mrs. W is trying to teach us!"' Gotta love that kid!

Report cards went home today too. Most kids had decent grades, but a few received failing or close-to-failing grades. I know I will get some parent feedback, and unfortunately it's usually of the "It's your fault, not my child's fault" variety. On the other hand, I did get an email from a parent who said that until his child's grades improve, his child will not be allowed to play video games, and also asked if there was any way his child could stay after school occasionally to get some extra help.

I stayed late tonight too --- I needed to rearrange some furniture, clean my desk, and finish putting together a project the kids will start next week. On the other hand, we don't have school tomorrow in honor of Veterans' Day. I'm all set for Thursday and Friday, and have my planning done for Monday and Tuesday too.

So, tonight I will relax, watch some TV and get some knitting done. On the other hand . . . I could go to bed early and read late!

Friday Five: What's New -- On Saturday Morning

From Songbird at RevGalBlogPals:
There's a new baby on my street, a double PK whose Mom and Dad are Methodist pastors and church planters. I'm hoping to go over and meet her today. I love new babies, the way they smell and their sweet little fingers and toes. Little K has me thinking about all the new things that please us with their shiny freshness.

Please share with us five things you like *especially* when they are new.


In no particular order:
1. New notebooks and/or pads of paper There is something about a brand new notebook or pad of paper that calls to me. I can't wait to start writing. I wish I could say that I was inspired to create something terrific - like the next bestseller, or a beautiful poem, or even a thoughtful reflection. Usually it's something much more mundane, like a grocery list or to do list. Notebooks make me feel organized too.

2. New leaves on trees. The delicate green of new leaves fill me with a feeling of promise. The leaves stand out against the dark branches, and catch the spring sunlight. There is a brightness and glow that seems to emanate from them. As the summer moves on, the color deepens and flattens out.

3. New clothes I guess I love new clothes because I hang on to my old clothes for so long. I get so bored with the same outfits all season, that it just lifts my spirits to get something new, especially in the middle of a season.

4. A new book by a favorite author or a book in a new series that I will love. I love finding a new book series to read. I am currently in search of one -- I've read all the Claire Fergussons, I've read all China Bayles, I've read all the Aunt Dimitys and Maisie Dobbs'. Any suggestions?

5. Newly-mowed grass - What can I say, the fragrance of just-cut grass conjures up summer vacation back when I was a kid. The kind of summer that probably only exists in idyllic memory, and that I wish I could re-live.

Almost to My Goal: Book #96

Echoes by Maeve Binchy


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoy Maeve Binchy's novels, and apparently this is a reissue of one of her very early ones. This story focuses on 3 characters: Angela O'Hara, a spinster teacher caring for her invalid mother; David Powers, the only son of the town's doctor and his unhappy wife; and Clare O'Brien, the intelligent, ambitious daughter of a shopkeeper. The lives of the 3 are closely intertwined, and we follow them through the 1950's and early 1960's. Clare rises "above her station" and wins a scholarship to secondary school, and again to university. David becomes a doctor. Angela finds happiness, after years of trouble and care. Binchy depicts the minutia of daily life in a very small Irish village brilliantly, and while at times, the story threatened to get bogged down in details, overall the details were what brought the characters to life. The ending is bittersweet, and I think came too quickly. After the years of build-up of the relationship between David and Clare, I felt that the denouement deserved the same amount of attention. I wasn't totally satisfied with the ending either, but it was realistic. I did really like this book.

View all my reviews >>

Knitting Content

I finished this recently as a baby shower gift. It's made from Plymouth Encore which I purchased from WEBS from a Lion Brand pattern. It was a surprisingly easy knit, and it was fun to do.

From Knitting Gallery

I ended the month with a sore throat, achiness, and general fatigue. And I did something I haven't done since I had pneumonia a couple of years ago -- I spent the entire day in my pajamas! I just didn't have the energy to shower and dress, so I didn't. I curled up on the sofa and watched a bunch of DVR'd shows, and I slept a good part of the day. I got up a couple of times for juice, tea, soup, and a piece of Halloween candy, and then finally, got up about 7:30 pm to go to bed. I slept for a few hours, and then woke up about midnight not able to sleep anymore. I read this instead:

Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea by Nancy Atherton


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was the only Aunt Dimity I hadn't read yet, and while I enjoyed it, it was least like any of the other books in the series. Lori and her twins have been sent to a castle on one of Scotland's Western Islands to keep them safe while Scotland Yard investigates death threats against Bill. Lori has nothing at all to do with the solving of this mystery. While on the island, a secret is uncovered, but only accidentally, and while her presence was the catalyst, she was not purposefully trying to uncover it. I have enjoyed all the books in the series, and I did like this one. The series is light-hearted, and perfect for reading when you don't want to have to work at it!

View all my reviews >>



It's still really early, and my throat is still sore, but I'm feeling better --- no achiness and some semblance of energy. I will have to skip church, a baby shower, and the Ecclesiastical Council for our in-care seminarian because I don't want to spread germs. But hopefully the energy will stick around long enough for me to get some work done ---- lesson-plans, unit plan, billing, and finish the art-work for the class I'm taking. At least the paper for that class is done.