America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It by Mark Steyn

Jun5

I think my biggest surprise picking up this book was when I checked out the back dust flap, it turns out that Mark Steyn is not an old English man with thin gray hair, big ears and wearing a cardigan, as I had pictured him. Instead he is one of those tater tot head guys, who knew?

If you have heard Mark Steyn on the radio like I have, (hence my completely wrong mental image of him) you’ll know what I mean when I say he writes like he talks. He sort of reminds me of a funny, intellectual, auctioneer…that’s either the best analogy ever or really awful, someone else who knows him is going to have to help me out.

In a nut shell the book covers current events (2006) focusing on Islamic terrorism and how it is affected by demographics. It also delves into world history as it relates to demographics. For instance, the reason the English were able to run around the world creating their empire? Demographics, they were the first to conquer infant mortality so they had a surplus of young flag waving men ready to ship out.

Would I recommend it? Yes. Unless you have a problem calling an Islamic terrorist an Islamic terrorist, then you will be irritated by the book, end up throwing it across the room and come yell at me for ever recommending it. Though before the book hits the wall I’d be willing to bet it gets at least one begrudging snort of laughter out of you!

*Despite what I’ve said this book isn’t all giggles, Steyn paints a fairly grim picture of the future, especially for some countries, like Russia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany…

** Does combining Eddie Izzard and Mark Steyn threaten the stability of this blog post? Will my whole site implode from the incongruity of it all?

Reason #72 We Do A Lot of Laundry

Jun4

Ivy likes to help feed Clara, and she’s pretty good at it. Ivy’s very careful while she is feeding her she shows Clara signs for food and more, all in all she has been a very good helper. Ivy helps, I get to keep making dinner for the rest of us, everything goes great, until Clara’s arms streak out from her side and grab the spoon and shove it into her mouth like a kraken with a hobbit.

Forget about getting that spoon back , give it up and just get another one, I think it was easier to get the hobbit back from the kraken! This picture was taken early in the meal, they don’t look too messy, but believe me it got worse. I’ll leave it up to your imagination as to how much worse, just think:

– three year old

– baby kraken

– a jar of sweet potato baby food…

…and another load of laundry!

Barefeet and Sheep

Jun3

Yesterday I went to help my cousins Sue and George with their sheep. There were nine of us working yesterday, if you count Clara, which you really shouldn’t. Activities ranged from trimming hooves, worming, and vaccinating sheep to hydrating the sheep catchers, making lunch and watching Clara, which is why she doesn’t get to count as a helper. I believe Sue said that we worked with about 150 ewes and their lambs, (but she can correct me if I’m wrong!) a big work day but one I try to help out with every year.

I like to help out for quite a few reasons:

– George and Sue are always willing to help us out so it’s always good to reciprocate so they don’t just laugh next time we ask if they will come down with their weed wrench for the day and teach us more about building fences.

-Most of the people helping were family and it’s nice to see people and get some visiting in, between getting dragged around by sheep.

-Ten of the sheep got to come back to our house when we were done to inhabit our pastures for the summer.

-Nobody else lets me give them injections.

-I do not believe I am alone in thinking there is something fun/satisfying in being able to catch a sheep and move it somewhere else, don’t ask me why, but don’t knock it ’till you’ve tried it!

-But most of all, I got to see George working in his barefeet.

You see it just so happens that I hate wearing shoes, but not as much as I hate wearing socks, and so I go barefoot when possible. This means that I frequently get harassed about going barefoot, or wearing flip-flops in November,or about how I’m going to hurt myself, or get tetanus, or whatever the person harassing thinks is the biggest icky danger out there. I of course think I’m completely reasonable in my shoe choices or lack there of, but when I watch George work I realize that it’s all relative. Yesterday I wore tennis shoes, with socks. * All the pictures in this post (except my bare toes) were taken by my Aunt Helen who added photo journalist and weeding to her list of chores yesterday. Thanks for letting me use the pictures Helen!*

** It seems according to both my spell checker and Websters dictionary that barefeet is not a real word. I decided I don’t care, it should be and I’m using it anyway!**

Roofing

Jun1

Over the big Memorial Day weekend, we headed to Pewaukee to help my Mom and Dad re-roof their house. Below should be (emphasis on the should I’ve never attempted this before) a time lapse video of the project. At the end of the movie you can see the shingles going up above the garage and over the porch they are brown so look close! Notice, how the video ends before the roof is completed…

Sorry ’bout that guys…

From Movies

I wasn’t actually on the roof though.

Ever.

Because I would hate that.

A lot.

Instead Sarah and I got to be the child watchers/ food prepers…

What I have learned about roofers is that they eat a lot and that they get really tired.

This is my Mom.

I think she is sleeping.

On her roof.

What I have learned about myself is that sometimes chasing after kids and trying to keep them from climbing ladders while making dinner for…counting on my fingers…oh man it was eleven if you count the babies, is not a lot fun even when doing it with your best friend!

But I’d still rather do that then climb around on a roof.

I mean really do they look like they had fun to you?

The Virgin’s Lover by Philippa Gregory

May31

I love both this authors writing style and her stories! In this book Queen Elizabeth finally takes the throne, what follows are the ins and outs of court, her lover, her suitors, war, trouble with the coin, trouble with the church, plots against the throne, backstabbing, double crossing and those inconvenient wives of ambitious husbands.

Would I recommend it? Yes, and if you like the time period check out some of her others too. The books stand alone if you have a particular one you are interested in such as The Other Boleyn Girl (which I have read and is excellent) but you can start at the beginning of the 16th century with The Constant Princess, (which I have not but I have yet to read a bad book by her-now I have, click title to see what I thought of that one) she has other books as well that I haven’t delved into, yet…

Little Friends

May31

This was the first weekend James (Sarah’s son, more on him over at The Little Cherubs)and Clara spent together that they really started to interact. Just four months apart it has still taken quite awhile for Clara to “catch up” enough to be able to “play” with James. This weekend they shared toys, food, sippy cups and kisses… this week I’m sure we’ll discover that they shared a few viruses as well! But until the snot starts running I’ll just be happy Clara has a new little friend!

Crafty Piper

May26

Awhile ago I wrote a bit about Piper and mentioned that she was a crafty dog. I’m sure half of you just laughed at me thinking my big ‘ole dog was crafty. But she is, and I’ll tell you about it.

All dogs are bred to do something, point, flush, pull, track, retrieve, and Great Dane’s are no different. Originally bred as boar hunters they later became “estate dogs” when boar hunting fell out of fashion. Estate dog = big dog, sit around, look pretty, bark at stuff….. and that’s Piper. And let me tell you, she takes that sitting around portion of her job seriously! In fact in Piper’s world, sitting around is everything. Preferably this should be done on a nice soft surface, a couch is preferred, and all sorts of irritations can be dealt with so long as you can keep that spot…

Piper will put up with unwanted affection from kids…

…from adults……and from dogs..

…and she will share, when she would rather not.

The only real problem Piper has is when she has no comfy spot…

A few years ago Piper and I were visiting my Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad’s house has a big tiled living room with one big couch in it. In Pipers world the couch is the ONLY acceptable place to lay down, tile is not comfy and the carpeted areas are too far out of the action. This night however my parents three dogs had already taken up the entire couch. Piper whined and stared at them, but to no avail. Then my Mom and I watched Piper leave the room, go over to a basket of dog toys, pick one out, come back and drop it in front of the couch. Three dogs then jumped off the couch to investigate the toy, and Piper jumped up in her favorite spot.

Crafty.

She must have realized how effective the bait and switch tactic was because a few weeks later she tried it out on John. John and I were going to bed one night and Piper wanted up on the bed too. She was told to go away, and after many pathetic looks and whimpers she finally “gave up” and went down stairs. Just after that Piper started barking. I (the wimpy, I’m not checking out strange noises in the dark)wife, sent my (big strapping I’ll be a man and investigate) husband down to check out the problem. Turns out there was no problem. As soon as John made it downstairs Piper stopped barking, ran upstairs and jumped on his side of the bed.

Crafty.

Piper has got some brains in that thick head of hers, she just needs the proper incentive to use them.

Oh, and sometimes she pheasant hunts.

But it makes her tired!

Where’s My Mom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

May26

Forget what I said yesterday, this book doesn’t meet that criteria.

In this book little monkey lost his mom and a butterfly is trying to help him find her and getting it all wrong!

“No, no, no! That’s an elephant”

If you can get passed the fact that it is a rhyming book but “come” and “mom” don’t really rhyme (unless you pick up an accent and call her “mum” instead), and that butterfly has a creepy head (I think it’s the nose that bothers me) it’s a pretty good one!

Would I recommended it? Yes unless you can’t say mum or have a major phobia of butterflies with noses.

Pick a Good One, O Best Beloved

May25

I just got off the phone with my Dad and in the course of the discussion we were talking about how much Ivy liked hearing my dad read her The Elephants Child by Rudyard Kipling last weekend. This was the original scalesome flailsome tail version, O Best Beloved, with one measly black and white illustration for the whole story, and Ivy loved it. She is after all a child full of ‘satiable curiosity! It’s no surprise that my Dad and I agreed that challenging books are great for kids, after all I grew up listing to my Dad read the same stories to me!

A few observations, and beliefs of mine:

People talk down to kids.

Kids of all ages understand far more than they are ever given credit for.

We create and read books to kids that are far below their comprehension level.

These books are boring, for everyone adult and child.

If you don’t challenge a vocabulary it will not grow.

You don’t need to understand every word in a book to understand the book.

My Dad seems to be holding a grudge against Dick and Jane.

Older books have great stories and vocabulary, think Beatrix Potter, Kipling, A.A. Milne.

If a picture book has one paragraph of words or less per page throw it back.

Unless the illustrations are gorgeous then take it home anyway.

And so every time we go to the library I make sure at least one book is a challenging one. Sometimes those are Ivy’s favorites and sometimes they are not but every time she gets to learn a little more.

And sometimes all this learning it causes a bit of a problem . Today a speech therapist told me Ivy’s language skills were advanced beyond her motor skills which was causing her to have fluency problems (in plain speak a nice lady played with Ivy, she stutters but she’ll grow out of it), but that’s a problem a parent can be proud of!

Princess Hyacinth the Surprising Tale of a Girl who Floated by Florence Parry Heide

May24

I think in order to be a really great picture book, the book needs to appeal to both kids and adults. In my perfect picture book world the kids would love hearing the books and the parents would love reading them, at least the first hundred times. Princess Hyacinth the Surprising Tale of a Girl who Floated by Florence Parry Heide illustrated by Lane Smith is just such a book.