Holding Still

A book shower

I am back on the book review bandwagon!  I just received The Double-Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz.  I reviewed their first book, The Daring Book for Girls last year.  This is a further exploration into projects, trivia, experiments and history for girls.  I ended up giving the first book to my husband's 12 year old cousin, who tells me she would like to have this one when I'm finished.  I consider that to be a good review in itself.

It's a fun book, I enjoyed the random historical facts about women I read, and was particularly interested in the crafts -- dream catchers; decoupage bowls; batik.  I'll use that info for future art classes, for sure.  I also got absorbed in the hula hoop factoids, as our older son, H. is an amazing hula-hooper.  I believe that the world record is 7 hours, which I think he could beat.  However, he is a little boy, so I think he would lose interest after a few minutes and move on.  A dream I must put on hold.

The people encouraging our reviews have asked us to turn this into a book shower, in the spirit of Daring in the title.  I considered the hula hoop, of course, and I may still do it.  But because it's a rainy day here, and I love words, I will direct you to an abridged list of Words to Impress from page 199 in the book.  I dare you to write a poem using one, two or more of these words.  I chose my favorite, the Haiku format -- first line 5 syllables, second line 7 syllables, third line 5 syllables.  You can do whatever type of poem you like.  Just leave it in the comments.  

I hope you can participate.  If not, I'm getting the hula hoop out!

Some of the more interesting words from the book:

agnosia:  The inability to recognize objects through the senses.

bloviate:  To talk for a long time, in a pompous manner.

chimerical:  Wildly fanciful; highly improbable

doppelganger:  A person's double; a ghostly twin of a living person.

euphonious:  Pleasing to the ear.

herculean:  Of unusual size, power, or difficulty; resembling Hercules in strength or courage.

imbroglio:  A difficult and complicated entanglement; a confusing situation.

jongleur:  A wandering minstrel.

larrikin:  A person given to comical or outlandish behavior; a rowdy or disorderly person.AWuidnunc:  a gossip or busybody; a nosy person.

tabescent:  Progressively getting smaller, wasting away.

undulant:  Resembling waves; wavelike in motion.

wizened:  Withered; shriveled; dried up; shrunken.

And here are my three haiku:

1. Tangling tails, backs arched,

Euphonious cats chorus.

The house cat's ears twitch.

2. Imbroglio my arse!

This is a fine example 

of just walk away.

3. Its nose pokes too far.

Personal stories are its food.

A Quidnunc it is.

Enjoy!

what it is?

Good Goddess!  Where has she been?

In general, I have found that when I don't blog, it's because I am busy, and generally, content.  I tend to write more when I'm depressed, since it helps get things out of my mind.  Of course, when I'm in the depths, I don't write either, so.  Well, I'm back!

LOTS is going on.  On the bummer front is the fact that Lire will not be able to stay at the closer, more diverse public school for kindergarten next school year.  I became political, got a petition signed by more than the required amount, met many neighbors who supported what we decided to call "school choice,"  went to a contentious school board meeting with some even-headed intelligent folks, but some louder, fear-mongering residents as well.  Whose concerns super-ceded ours, I guess.  Enough so that my resolution to allow school choice will NOT be put on the ballot, and so only 20 or so people will show up to vote (that's how small and apathetic our village is) instead of the large numbers my resolution would bring.  

A lot of people are pretty ticked.  Me especially.  Anyway, I'm keeping my hopes up that something might happen.  We could move, for one thing, and we could choose another school district in which to live.  

The boys, meanwhile, are doing really, really well.  They are growing gigantically, are settling into their lives more and more, and impress us when we step back and watch them when they don't know we're watching them.  They are really great guys.  My relationship with H, while not un-bumpy, has improved vastly, I'm happy to say.  I'm not sure what it was, time, probably.  He still has his behavior chart, which he is in charge of, and to which his teacher contributes.  He is learning how to read, can hula-hoop like a Guinness Book champion, and is getting along socially much better than before.  I think he is finally feeling more confident in himself.

Lire is still cracking me up, is still squeezable, and has a new-found love for all of his stuffed animals and his baby Deji (my old AA Cabbage Patch doll).  He wears him around the house and tucks him in each morning and night.  He has become a real artist, having multiple projects going at once, and I guarantee will one day grace the Food Network with his presence.

I am working all over town, enjoying being a math/art/library educator, though I'm a bit schizophrenic -- hard to remember where I'm going on which day.  Alex is rediscovering his inner musician and is mixing up a storm.  Chauncey is still a champ and my favorite dog.  Our lives are still on hold as far as the summer goes.  And we just met an amazing little boy from Ethiopia who is staying a mere mile from our house.  He is an incredible person.  H. said, "D. is the nicest boy I have ever met."  

Spending time with him has been an intense experience, especially for H.  They started playing as if they had known one another their whole lives.  I was brought back to my time in Ethiopia, all the sights and sounds.  I can only imagine how it has triggered things for our boys.  H. told me, "Mommy, I have some bad news.  I want to live in Ethiopia."

I told him it wasn't bad news, except that we would certainly miss him.  Maybe when he was older he could live here and in Ethiopia?  He liked that idea, and said he wanted to build things for people in Ethiopia.  

We're going to play again tomorrow, and have lunch, so that will be fun for us all.

Lost tooth:

I want to lose these suspenders!