Random Hoohaw

[altarflame]

We've shamelessly browsed and bought our way through antique stores; Bed, Bath and Beyond; Publix and Marshall's in the past two days. I am thrilled and probably far too satisfied by both the things we've acquired and the bargains we've found. A lot of it is very practical "we just bought a home" stuff - some is shockingly perfect advance Christmas gifting that will go into a closet for months, and then there is this - CHOCOLATE PASTA. Except we only paid $3.00 for it :D

There's a big ol' tropical storm that might have been more, so we're all in Hurricane Mode - the gas stations and hardware stores have been madhouses, we have far too many non-perishables, the plants from outside are cluttering up the place. Probably my dad will be very disgruntled that all his cab customers were evacuated out of the keys for this lot of nothing. Sitting around the house too much I've found some interesting tidbits on the computer today for the first time in awhile - like, this quote:

"... behind each face there is a hidden world that no one else can see.
Each life is a narrative that remains mostly hidden. This is why it’s
so difficult to be human: you live in two worlds - the outer world of name,
family, address and role; and the inner world which is profoundly
nameless, where no one else can enter, and which remains intimate
though unknown, largely, to you...."

~ Writer, priest and poet John O’Donoghue,
from a sermon given in 2002

And, apparently school teachers in Texas are now allowed to carry guns? Wow, that's all I can think to say. Wow. Texas, I swear.

I thought some of you might be interested in hearing that my neurology feed is reporting a link between a particular gene abnormality, and bipolar disorder. It's also implicating calcium and sodium imbalances as causing manic episodes. Now, everything that pops up on this feed is REALLY new, usually the result of a single study or even theorized, but it's all legitimate - read more here, if you like:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/118525.php

I suppose I'll go back to reading to the kids now. I was afraid of how The Goblet of Fire would be for them, and remember purposely putting it off when they were 5 and 6. But, well, it was great. We just read the graveyard scenes in the middle of the afternoon, and all at once to get them out of the way. When Dumbledore was telling Harry he needed to tell them all what happened even though it was hard, because it would just get worse if he didn't, Aaron was like, "Oh, like the sadness would stay in his body because he didn't get it out. Then he'd probably need counseling." :p Anyway, yeah, I tried to sway them back to Narnia or Rowan of Rin but they were both passionately eager for Order of the Phoenix and it really gets me, how much more they LAUGH at these books then I did/do. Like the second chapter, that we just read awhile ago, it has the Dursley's and Harry arguing in the kitchen and owls keep swooping in and interrupting and everytime they do, Uncle Vernon gets So. MAD. Well, it's amusing, but I couldn't help but laugh til I was crying because my kids were in belly-clutching hysterics everytime it happened again. Aaron was also about to pee himself everytime Vernon called dementors demembers or dementies, and "Lord Voldything" had them both going, too. I even look forward to Quidditch scenes now, which was definitely NOT the case during my own reading.

Comments

[mommydama.livejournal.com]

I'm still just so amazed that you can read HP to your kids. Mine just could not handle it. They just did not really get it at all. I'm sad now, because Maria picked up the Poetry for Young People book on Robert Louis Stephenson I have planned as part of our curriculum and read me three poems out of it this afternoon without a problem. She is going to end up wanting to read the HP books to herself!!

And I just don't know how to make time for all the books I want to read to them. I think HP just has to go on the back burner because...well, there was Peter Pan, and The Wizard of Oz and Charlie and Chocolate Factory and The House at Pooh Corner and and and .....I'm overwhelmed by books. I sometimes forget my children have a lifetime to read all these classics.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Well, as far as Luci goes, Isaac is not doing it with us. Now and then he listens in but I read him his own book every night.

I think reading the HP books for herself, the first time, would be great! Sometimes I wonder if I'm robbing them of that, because it's so different to be a little older and reading it for yourself, before you know the endings, you know?

I have read Ananda TONS and TONS of chapter books...sometimes when I think about it, it kind of blows my mind. But it's because she was ready to sit and listen and get at least some of it when she'd just turned 3. So just the two of us read the entire Roald Dahl library, all 7 Narnia books, the first 4 Oz books, other L Frank Baum works, "The Hundred Dresses", a couple of the "Ramona" books - it goes on and on. Aaron wasn't at this point until he turned 5, and we read a book he picked out, Rowan of Rin, and then James and the Giant Peach, and then I started reading to them together...and by the time I thought about reading Aaron Narnia books, Annie couldn't remember much of them and wanted to hear them again and I realized she'd get more out of them now (even though we stopped to talk about things almost by the page, back in the day).

I have ideas of things I want to read them and sometimes go to private school required reading lists for ideas. But I also think there's a lot of value in non-Classic kids' books, probably because I voraciously read them as a kid and only discovered classics when I was an adult.

[theneolistickid.livejournal.com]

That's what's up. (That's the current slang equivalent of "Word.")

[florassecret.livejournal.com]

I love reading the HP novels to my kids. We're on GOF. Madeline will hand me the novel even after we just read a few pages from a chapter (those chapters are quiet long) and she want more. My favorite HP novel has got to be GOF! It's the most magical out of all of them.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

They are long. And, yeah, even after a whoooooooole one...at least Annie is ALWAYS asking for more! We don't always get to do a whole one, depending on the state of the little kids, but it's the general nightly goal and works out about 75% of the time.

Hmm...my favorites. I think 1, 3, 5 and 7 are my favorites, though not really in any particular order. Chamber of Secrets and Goblet of Fire are both still great books, but they're my least loved. Same with the movies, so far - #1 was great because it made them real, although it had awful child acting, 3 was a great movie to me, and 5...2 drags on and on (plus I'm sick to death of it because it got stuck in a loop and the kids were addicted to it for a few months a couple of years ago). And GOF as a movie is like - come on...no Winky? No SPEW? No Rita Skeeter? I mean they're all missing book elements but with #4 it's just (imo) ridiculous.

[florassecret.livejournal.com]

Book order: 4,3,7,2,1,6,5
Movie Order: 3,1,4,2,5
I hated OoTP as a movie, it was such a let down in the last 20 minutes of the movie. Very anti climatic.
I don't like Emma Watson at all (used too) she was superb in the first movie, very text book Hermione. But after that I really didn't see much in her acting. She got more annoying after the 3rd by always sighing and saying Ronald instead of Ron. Yes, I know for a while she and Ron didn't speak and she called him Ronald but that was when they were 13 years old.
I love the third book and movie because of the introduction of Sirius, Lupin and how Snape really got involved.
I didn't like The fifth movie at all, felt too rushed, too chopped up and really bad ending. It was so anti-climatic.
I am currently being pulled away from the PC to read more of GOF! (next on our list is Secret Garden)

[florassecret.livejournal.com]

Gah. LOL I repeated myself near the end. that's what I get for being interrupted. I wish I could edit my replies, but alas, I have a free account.

[eternamariposa.livejournal.com]

Did you notice the "other people who bought this" section on that page with the chocolate pasta lists a chocolate voodoo doll? That is pretty funny. I guess sometimes you have to have your cursing power and eat it too. ;) That will conclude my early morning knee slapping.

[babyslime.livejournal.com]

The deficiency link was talked about a LONNNGGG time ago. When I was quite young I remember my mother talking about it in the kitchen while she was doing dishes, about how the right kinds of supplements could help my symptoms - we just needed to find out which ones would work. Not a lot came from that ($$$), but I know several people it made an amazing difference for.

[schleppermom.livejournal.com]

My mom read David Copperfield to us when my brothers and I were 5, 7, and 8. Several times. In spanish. Wow. That's all I can think of to say.

And I think it's awesome that Texan schoolteachers can carry guns. You (or I, rather) would think that this had always been allowed - and how come it wasn't allowed previously? And why don't more state reps the sense that Texans do? These are rhetorical questions. No need for answer.

I read The Hobbit to my boys. I think that's much better reading than David Copperfield.

I missed only one day of work because of said "hurricane." People around here like to pretend that it's the end of the world - and that there is nothing worse than Wilma because the majority of folk here weren't here during Andrew.