As of last weekend, our little Idaho "homestead" is up in population by seven, thanks to the adoption of seven (long-awaited!) laying hens for the chicken-house we've been all summer building. With the kids incoming for the weekend, I contacted everyone on Craigslist who was offering chickens, and we lucked out by hooking up with … Continue reading Chickens & Pickles! Autumn hits Idaho…
Tag: Books
Analyzing Austen-tatiously
Keoni and I usually read in bed for a while every evening, and then put on a movie. Netflix is our one "extravagance," and we tend go on exploratory themes with our movie-ordering---the latest being a comparative look at some of the film-adaptations of Jane Austen's novels. Yup, I've got a husband who willingly watches "chick flicks" … Continue reading Analyzing Austen-tatiously
The Death of Malaise
Malaise, n. a vague or unfocused feeling of mental uneasiness,lethargy, or discomfort. If I remember correctly, my younger sister once had a gerbil which she named "Malaise." It would have been somewhere around junior-high time for her, and she acquired the gerbil during a period of, well... malaise. If I remember correctly, our cat dragged that gerbil backward out of the cage by its tail … Continue reading The Death of Malaise
Hill-Climbing, Hummingbirds, and Handguns
This evening, a particular piece of kid-art caught my eye. We have their notes and drawings tacked up all over the place---on the walls, on the fridge---but when something is always there you sometimes stop seeing it. That's the case with this piece , carefully dated 8-2-11 (almost exactly a year ago) with sticker-letters spelling … Continue reading Hill-Climbing, Hummingbirds, and Handguns
Budget Limbo: How LOW can we go?
Yesterday we made the six-hour drive back home from my parents' house, and we hope that Grandy and Boboo are recovering from the chaos of their week-long house-full of US! The kids immensely enjoyed their week, though of course it went by too quickly for them---sleeping in a tent in the backyard, roasting marshmallows for … Continue reading Budget Limbo: How LOW can we go?
Shakespeare with a Pre-Teen (& a dab of Kitchen Chemistry)
The warm-up "Green Show" before last night's production of Romeo & Juliet let slip a spoiler about the ending: Romeo & Juliet end up dead. "Oops," the Fool-Squad fool exclaimed. "If there's anyone here who didn't pass ninth grade English, we just ruined the surprise." I had a laugh at that, given that I was … Continue reading Shakespeare with a Pre-Teen (& a dab of Kitchen Chemistry)
Marginalia & Time-Travel
I've been re-reading (actually, it's more like re-re-re-re-re-... well, you get the idea) the Harry Potter series this week, occasionally swapping volumes with one of my kids when our progression through the books overlapped... This is the first time through the books for Elena Grace, who (at age eight) is well acquainted with the film … Continue reading Marginalia & Time-Travel
Kana's Chronicles 