Babies

I'm double posting but wanted to link this on both my blogs. I think Tegan makes a very good point here about contraception and babies. (And Pelosi's ability to govern!)

Happy Birthday!

Not Beethoven, his was last month.

4 x 10 Challenge--January

The List so far:

Children's Fiction (6-10)
1.The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling


Children's Fiction (10-14)
1.Inkheart by Cornelia Funke I liked this and wanted to read before going to see the movie (Brendan Frasier--do I need to say more?)But it did bog down in a couple of places and I was glad to finish it. Reading the next two in the trilogy is unlikely.

Science/Nature

Parenting/Family

History

World Politics

Adult Fiction

Education
1.Wild Days by Karen Skidmore Rackliffe
(I wasn't sure if this should go here of Nature but as she writes a lot about using a nature journal in all areas of the curriculum I decided here.)

Fiction (classics)

Personal Improvement changed to Social Issues (I'm too old for personal improvement, I'm afraid...)
1.On the Shortness of Life by Seneca (Personal improvement works for this one.) I've had this on my shelf for over a year but once I started it I couldn't put it down. Great! Seneca is sort of a proto-monk. I looked him up on wikipedia and found out that the book of Golden Legends says that he was converted to Christianity by St. Paul.I believe it. Here is a sample,"By the toil of others we are led into the presence of things which have been brought from darkness into light. We are excluded from no age, but we have access to them all; and if we are prepared in loftiness of mind to pass beyond confines of human weakness, there is a long period of time through which we can roam. We can argue with Socrates, express doubt with Carneades, cultivate retirement with Epicurus, overcome human nature with the Stoics, and exceed its limits with the Cynics. Since nature allows us to enter into a partnership with every age, why not turn from this brief and transient spell of time and give ourselves over wholeheartedly to the past, which is limitless and eternal and can be shared with better men than we?" This book also included Consolations to Helvia and On Tranquility of Mind. I devoured them all!
2. Guilty by Ann Coulter. Miss Coulter is always controversial but I like her anyway. This one is how liberals play the victim and then use their victim hood to push their own agenda. An example--(from the dust jacket)"Brave" liberals: In addition to being beautiful, compassionate tribunes of the downtrodden, liberals are brave. I know that because they're always telling me how brave they are. Why, five nights a week, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann courageoulsy books guests who completely agree with him. It doesn't get any braver than that.

Adult Fiction

Screaming Death Mountain

We don't just shovel snow, sometimes we play in it! Here are my band of Merry Boys on top of Screaming Death Mountain AKA: the snow hill at the Community Center.

4x10 Book Challenge

I can't turn down a book reading challenge and here is one that will make me read a broader spectrum of books than I might choose on my own. (Something more than Chesterton!). I'm not going to select books now but see what I find as the year progresses but here are the categories:
1. Children's Fiction (ages 6-10)
2. Children's Fiction (ages 10-14)
3. Science/Nature
4. Parenting/Family
5. History
6. World Politics (Chesterton here?)
7. Adult Fiction
8. Education
9. Fiction (classics)
10. Personal Improvement

The idea is to read four books for each category. To further challenge myself I am only going to count books I haven't read before. So even thought I am re-reading Vanity Fair I am not going to count it for the list.

Resolutions

I thought I had resolved to lose weight (36 lbs.) and walk more last year. I did lose weight but only 16 lbs. (alas) and I did walk more (179.5 miles which puts me in the middle of Midgewater Marsh on my walk to Rivendell). But re-reading my post, I see that what I actually resolved to do was lose weight and read more Chesterton! And I did! I down-loaded The Greybeard and The Wild Knight (any one with an annotated version of this one? I was confused!) I also read The Defendant, Varied Types, Robert Browning, Napoleon of Notting Hill (loved this one!), Heretics, Orthodoxy (3rd time) and The Club of Queer Trades. I've slowed down a bit but only because I find, materialist that I am, that I no longer want to check Chesterton out of the library (inter-loan) but I want to OWN a Chesterton library! I want to high light, dog ear, and have at my fingertips all those Chesterton quotes! Next on my list is The Everlasting Man and the biographies (commentaries?) of St. Frances and St. Thomas Aquinas. Oh, and another 16lbs. wouldn't be bad either.

Happy New Year!

I wish everyone a happy and blessed 2009! Here are the boys performing We Three Kings for relatives. They also did a very credible Ave Maris Stella.