Words Fitly Spoken

Today I ordered four new books from Amazon.com. They were “The Secret Life of France”, by Lucy Wadham (I gave away my copy to a friend I met while in France, and I wanted another on hand.), “The Secret of the Seven Pillars” by Daniel A. Biddle, P.H.D., “Stepping Heavenward”, by Elizabeth Prentiss and “Laddie” by Gene Stratton Porter.
Yes sir, it’s a red letter day when I get to order books. I love hitting the ye olde 1 click button Amazon offers and seeing the words “this item has been placed in your cart”. I love the day the books arrive and I get to hear the sound of the knife slicing through the packing tape to open the box. And BEST OF ALL, I love the time when I can draw the bath, sink in--ear deep in bubbles--to start a new adventure in my life. I can travel anywhere in the world right from my bathtub. Ahhhhhhhh, Calgon, take me away.
By the way, have I ever told you about my great and long love affair with books? It started at a very tender age, I must say. I was never much of a school student (true story, don’t tell my kids, I have ‘em fooled!!); but for whatever reason, I was a strong reader. Often, my elementary school teacher would call on me (hand and arm stretched to the ceiling and wiggling vigorously) to read something aloud, which gave me great pride. I discovered I had a talent and was actually good at something in school, even though the rest of my formal education passed in a jumbled,  fuzzy haze.
I did not love school, but I loved reading so much, I would regularly go up to my bedroom on the third floor of our semi-detached Lancaster County, Pennsylvania home to practice reading out loud the same book--over and over and over. I worked on inflection, enthusiasm and diction as I read happily away.
The book of choice that became worn out due to my repetitious readings? Ferdinand the Bull, by Munro Leaf. And you know what? It’s still one of my all-time favorite children’s stories. (Little did I know, at the time, the strong Pacifistic themes presented within those child-like innocent pages. But never mind that! Learning to DISCERN and understand themes came later, much later.)

Through the years my passion and fervor for reading has only increased. And, thankfully, I am better at understanding themes and the author’s purpose for writing a particular book nowadays. I don’t remember who suggested it or why, but I do remember being encouraged by some sage person to reach for the classics. This further fueled my desire to understand the underlying themes of the author. I became enthralled with reading these tomes and other good stuff from the written page. I am still on that quest and I long ago realized I would not have time to read all the quality literature, let alone the junk. So, I better not waste my time on trash.
As the years passed, and I became a young married woman and mom, I was lead to a very special book by my old college roommate and now cousin-in- law, Susan Peterson Barley. This one book helped me to begin the journey of discernment when reading quality literature to my children, and it helped me to instill a love of learning in them. Reading aloud was a daily ritual during our homeschool years and I believe it drew us closer and made us more cohesive as a family. Our shared interests in great books were the glue.

Not surprising, today I still come back to that book time and time again called Honey for a Child’s Heart, by Gladys Hunt, now in its 5th edition in paperback. It’s a volume that every Christian mother should have on her shelf. Between its pages I discovered books like Granfa Grig Had a Pig (note to self, buy that again for my grandchildren), Across Five Aprils, The Bronze Bow, The Secret Garden, The Borrowers, Charlotte’s Web, Adam of the Road and the list goes on and on...
Hunt taught me a zillion things but especially that: “words fitly spoken, characters memorable, a theme to challenge the heart—this is what we want for children.” And, it’s still what I want for my children and  grandchildren.
So, if you’re in need of a little reading inspiration-- young or old--just jump onto Amazon, type in “Honey for A Child’s Heart” and hit ye olde 1 click button as soon as possible! You won’t be sorry—promise!

My daughter, Christi, carrying on the legacy of homeschooling and the love of great books. 

 Here, she's pictured with Merideth.

~Enjoy~

My Top New Year's Resolutions for 2010

This year I've decided to post my New Year Resolutions based on my top favorite reads for 2009 and how they've influenced me.

1. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky-In a blink of an eye our lives could change and with the way it seems our country is headed, this may be a reality sooner than later.  We are seriously desiring to be debt free--whatever it takes.

2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows-convicted me to want to write more letters, that is, good old fashioned snail mail letters.

3. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith-Oh, how I want to be like Ma Ramotswe by spending more quality time with friends, preferably over tea.

4. West with the Night,by Beryl Markham-Markham's incredibly adventureous spirit--especially back then, when women barely did such things--makes me want to travel more; but particularly, to become more adventurous and less afraid.

5. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens-I read it almost every year, and it makes me want to give more generously--with NO strings or glory attached.
 
6. Writing Down the Bones-by Natalie Goldberg-I long to be a better writer and, shhhh-- this is top secret--in 2010 I dream of starting to write a modest publication about our life here in these Wallowas!

7. Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt-It's an old read I brought round again after listening to a very good series of lectures on teaching writing given to me by my good friend, Doug Hammerstrom.  So, my resolution is to spend more quality time with my grandchildren, teaching them to love some of the great classics I love!

8. Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury-The burning of books theme makes me want to read more.  Lot's more...

9. Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon-I don't know what made me drag my feet for so long picking up this wonderful series, but I love her stories on Father Tim featuring the joy of Christian community.  I want to be more actively involved in serving and enjoying the great Christians which lovingly surround us.

10. Massacred for Gold by R. Gregory Nokes-This true story reminds me to hate prejudice and to become more serious about studying and knowing more about the amazing valley I am priveleged to live in.

11. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim-San Salvatore, the setting for this delightful British novel, tells me that my heart could and should be more expansive, ready to burst into bloom like the lush foliage at the Medieval castle four strangers rented together for a month in Italy. I desire in 2010 to have a greater capacity to love and be content with where I am.


What are your New Year's Resolutions?  Please let me know by posting a comment.  Oh!  And Happy, Happy New Year...see you in 2010!

~the end~

Hot Buttered Rum Mondays!

This Monday, the week of Thanksgiving, is especially busy for me, as I'm sure it is for all of you. I can't think of a better way to get into a festive spirit then to mix up a big batch of Hot Buttered Rum batter for the holidays to start the week out right! 
Along with that, nothing could put me in a better frame of mind while working at all this then listening to a series of tapes by Bessie Wison, the wife of Jim Wilson, who are the parents of Doug Wilson, who is married to Nancy Wilson, who gave me these tapes.  (Did you follow all that?!) 
For those of you who don't know who I mean, let me just say the Wilson family has been inspirational to countless souls and a huge catalyst for Christianity and changed lives in Moscow, Idaho--particularly--but all over--really.  The entire family has been in ministry and time would not permit all the details of that here.  To get a better understanding, go to http://www.canonpress.com/  and take a look at the long list of books written with the Wilson name attached to it.
They are prolific writers and thinkers.  In fact, recently Doug has achieved national fame through his series of debates with atheist  Christopher Hitchens on Apologetics.  The just released DVD is called "Collision" and a must have.  (Canon Press carries the DVD as does Amazon and other large book sellers.) By the way, his son, Nate Wilson, has also received national claim with his children's book series, "100 Cupboards".

Suffice it to say that Jim and Bessie set in motion this ministry phenomenon many years ago when they received a call to come to Moscow, Idaho afer retiring from the Navy.  Bessie is a former missionary to Japan who married a little later in life.  She has a wealth of practical, down to earth, wisdom to impart--all delivered in a no nonsense (yet endearing) style.  These tapes have been brought out of the archives by CCM Books and are being reproduced on CD's.  The two series are entitled:   "Riches in Christ" and "Constancy".  They were done many years ago when her children were young newly weds, but the practical wisdom is still priceless.  I've been totally blessed by a random act of kindness by Nancy Wilson, Bessie's fine daughter-in-law, and I intend to share it around!
If you'd like copies of this lovely series and more, go to http://www.ccmbooks.org/  They are slowly getting everything up on their website including, I hear, another wonderful series on marriage by Douglas Buzby.  They are asking for a donation of $3 per CD, and I can't think of a better investment!
In the meantime, if you've never had a hot buttered rum, your in for a treat!  (Incidentally, I don't care for hard liquor, but you can mix me up a buttered rum anyday.) This recipe is from my son, Zac. It's fantastic and super easy.

Hot Buttered Rum Batter
(ratio is 2:1)
Beat together:
4 Cups vanilla ice cream
2 Cups brown sugar
2 Cups white sugar
In mugs:
1/4 C batter
1 ounce Rum
boiling water to fill
Garnish:

Cinnamon or a Cinnamon stick

                                                                                                             ~enjoy~            

The Excellent Woman's Book Club

The Excellent Woman's Book Club 2009/2010

is taking flight again and cordially invites you to a Proper British High Tea to kick off our first book of the season!

 This year you can join virtually or in reality!

(*see details below if you plan to join virtually)

*****

Where:  To be Announced

When:   During the next Men's Meeting

What to Bring:   The book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows http://www.amazon.com/ 

Who:   Ladies, young and old

It's simply a brilliant read you can't put down! 

Here are just a few of the reasons why you will want to read this book!

Absolutely wonderful characters!

It introduces you to many other authors and many other books you'll want to read (if you haven't already)!

 A clever story line!

You'll gain many new insights and information about the German occupation during World War II in the Channel Islands!

It has romance!

It's suitable for younger and older women!

It has humor!

It has tragedy!

It's uplifting!

It will make you want to write good old fashioned letters more!

*If you'd like to join us virtually simply let me know in the comment section below or email me. Then, I'll send you a list of study questions and particulars about the book.  In turn, you send me your favorite quotes, thoughts, questions or insights and we'll add them to the discussion in real time.  

Won't this be fun?

Run to "My Book House"

As a mother and now a grandmother I know it's never too soon to introduce your child or grandchild to the best the world has to offer in the way of books and art. (Okay, not a mother or grandmother yet? Stay with me here, unless you have absolutely no interest in children or books A-tal!) If you do, run--don't walk--to find your nearest collection of "My Book House" (unless, of course, you have your own personal frog who can carry you there).

C. S. Lewis said, "if a book is worth reading at 5 it should be worth reading at 50". That quote has inspired me to become a collector of children's books as well as all the other kinds of tomes the world has to offer. Starting a child out early loving the printed word and picture is a worthy task for any mother/grandmother. Giving them a desire for books--great books--is a goal which will equip them in their pursuit and love of learning for the rest of their life.

"My Book House" is a simply wonderful series of children's books that are copyrighted as far back as 1920 and were edited by Olive Beaupre Miller. She obviously had good taste. (The last sets were printed in 2000, but look for the older volumes. There are six to twelve volumes, depending on the year.)  Miller did her utmost to provide children with rich content not only in picture but in word as well.  Her choice of colors, authors, material and artists put her in a class of her own as an editor.

Her own words describe the value of the collection best:

In My BOOK HOUSE, I have tried to give children the best in literature, gathered from the greatest authors of the past and present, and from our rich heritage of old folk tales, told from generation to generation in every country in the world. But I have selected those stories with care. Avoiding those tales where evil traits of character, such as lying and cheating to gain one's ends, have been made to appear good, I have chosen only those where truly desirable qualities invite the child's admiration. I have tried also to grade all this material as wisely as possible, that the child might have the right story at the right age, and to put it forth so beautifully illustrated that it would be irresistable to him. Here, in these twelve volumes, adult and child can enter, hand-in-hand, a wonderful realm of imagination and beauty, portrayed in the best literary forms of verse and prose....

"The permanent value of My BOOK HOUSE arises from the fact that at the time of its inception, I had no pet theory of education to advance.... I was in search of fundamentals, simple fundamentals, which must remain eternally true. Chaos then existed and is, unfortunately, still permitted to exist, in the realm of reading for children. They were being given stories, ethically sound, all jumbled up with those where the ethical slant was bad, and stories for the older children were being read to the child when he was too young, overwhelming him with fright and confusion by presenting to him characters and situations far beyond his understanding at the moment. Out of this chaos I was trying to bring order, an order that could never be disturbed. So let me review a few basic principles, with which I emerged from my search and on which I built My BOOK HOUSE.

"First,--To be well equipped for life, to have ideas and the ability to express them, the child needs a broad background of familiarity with the best in literature.

"Second,--His stories and rhymes must be selected with care that he may absorb no distorted view of life and its actual values, but may grow up to be mentally clear about values and emotionally impelled to seek what is truly desirable and worthwhile in human living.

"Third,--The stories and rhymes selected must be graded to the child's understanding at different periods of his growth, graded as to vocabulary, as to subject matter and as to complexity of structure and plot.

"On those three simple fundamentals My BOOK HOUSE was built."

I've often told my children they will never be able to devour all the great books available, so why spend one moment on the mundane or unworthy trash that's out there? If true then, how much more so now?  So, what are you waiting for!  Hop on your frog NOW and find this amazing set of children's books! 

The End!

My Word Affair

"The Mermaid" by Howard Pyle

 ****

I’ve decided, in my middle age, to have a word affair. It would appear to be painless, less expensive (after all, I have to admit books aren’t free), hurt no one else and be vastly more satisfying than a love affair. I wouldn’t mess around with small miserly words either. That wouldn’t be worth it. No, I’d go for those sexy, descriptive literary device-types that slip off your tongue so smoothly, silkily and slyly. Homer caught it when Odysseus veered near the Sirens:
"The Sirens sitting on their flowery plain, To lend no ear to their enchanting strain; Me only she allows to hear their voice, If you will bind me in a grievous chain, "So sang they sweetly; and with yearning strong I fain had listened to their lovely song..."
Or when he encountered Circe on her spinning wheel:

"As works of Goddesses are wont to be,

A web thin, lovely, wonderful to see.”

But I know I would eventually stray from Homer and his words.  Let's face it, there are so many other word affairs to have. I’d be bound to go cavorting with something else like, say...Exuperatio. In that case, I would most definitely take up a fling with Huckleberry Finn:
“Tom said he slipped Jim’s hat off of his head and hung it on to a limb right over him, and Jim stirred a little, but he didn’t wake. Afterwards Jim said the witches be witched him and put him in a trance, and rode him all over the State, and then set him under the trees again, and hung his hat on a limb to show who done it. And next time Jim told it he said they rode him down to New Orleans; and , after that, every time he told it he spread it more and more, till by and by he said they rode him all over the world, and tired him most to death, and his back was all over saddle-boils.”
However, if feeling fantastically frivolous and playful I'd most likely seduce Master of the Word, Dave Barry http://www.davebarry.com/, who would fully satiate my desire for exuperatio and cause me to split a gut all along the way as well!

"I have never met a woman, no matter how attractive, who wasn't convinced, deep down inside, that she was a real woofer. Men tend to be just the opposite. A man can have a belly you could house commercial aircraft in and a grand total of eight greasy strands of hair, which he grows real long and combs across the top of his head so that he looks, when viewed from above, like an egg in the grasp of a giant spider, plus this man can have B.O. to the point where he interferes with radio transmissions, and he will still be convinced that, in terms of attractiveness, he is borderline Don Johnson."
But affairs, like the wind, are often fleeting, and I’d be wont to roam again. The Psalmist says it best:   "As the deer pants for the water" I’d be searching on to quench my thirst among all the metaphors and similes in the great gulf of words. Where would I wash up next?  Perhaps:

"By the shores of Gitche Gumee
By the Shining Big-Sea-Water,

Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis,
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them;
Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.
My lover and I would splash and play amongst the shallows and the reeds where that great American poet,Wadsworth frollicked.  But alas, soon--too soon, a lover false I'd prove to be; so off to sunnier climes and different words in space and time I'd go to gaze into the soul of the Greatest of the Great.  (The answer may be obvious to you, dear reader, but in case you wonder--well--to Shakespeare, none other!)  The words of Shylock, in "Merchant of Venice", would do nicely here to demonstrate the word:

"Hath not a Jew eyes? 
Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensios, senses, affections, passions?
If you prick us, do we not bleed, if you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die?

One could go on and on, I confess, but rambling amongst his voluminous words and pages I'm bound to think I'd end my roaming days to settle down forever with that Great Bard, whose love affair with words bests all the rest--by far.....But...then again...who knows?  Tomorrow the winds of change may blow anew and off I'd go--ever the infidel--like a harlot--chasing after her insatiable lover, words. --The End 

*****

Dear Reader, the above was inspired after teaching a writing class on literary devices namely, hyperbole, alliteration, metaphors, similes, rhetorical question, onomatopoeia, assonance, etc