I love it.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Quiet Takes My Breath Away
Even though my kids have their "domain" in the basement, and they are pretty quiet kids, there is something so very soothing about having nobody here right now. George (the sweetheart) is taking his lunch break to take them to the orthodontist and on an errand. So, I am here for a bit by myself in the quietness of the morning.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
TWEM Classics: 103 out of 154 (67%)
I FINISHED THE ANCIENTS!!!!!
Chronology of Classics in The Well-Educated Mind
Ancients (15 out of 15)
2000 Epic of Gilgamesh/Ferry/Poetry
800 Iliad (*+ T)/ Homer/Lattimore/ Poetry
800 Odyssey(*+ T) /Homer/Lattimore/Poetry
600 Greek Lyrics/ Lattimore/Poetry
458 Agamemnon(*+ T)/ Aeschylus/Drama
450 Oedipus Rex(*+ T)/ Sophocles/Drama
441 Histories/ Herodotus/ History
431 Medea/ Euripedes/ Drama
400 Birds/ (Clouds – T) /Aristophanes/ Drama
400 Peloponnesian War(*+ )/Thucydides/ History
375 Republic(*+)/ Plato/ History
330 Poetics(+)/ Aristotle/Drama
65 Odes of Horace/Poetry
AD
100 Greek Lives/Roman Lives by Plutarch
Medieval Times (15 out of 19)
426 City of God+ Augustine History
731 Ecclesiastical History of the English People Bede History
1000 Beowulf* Poetry
1300 Inferno*+ Poetry
1300's Everyman Drama
1350 Sir Gawain & the Green Knight* Poetry
1386 Canterbury Tales* Chaucer Poetry
1430 The Book of Margery Kempe Autobio
1513 Prince*+ Machiavelli History
1516 Utopia* Sir Thomas More History
1564 Sonnets Shakespeare Poetry
1580 Essays+ Montaigne Autobio
1588 Life of Teresa of Avila Autobio
1588 Doctor Faustus Marlowe Drama
1592 Richard III Shakespeare Drama
1594 Midsummer's Nights Dream* Shakespeare Drama
1600 Hamlet* Shakespeare Drama
1600 Poems* Donne Poetry (British)
Early Modern -1600-1850 (23 out of 33)
1605 Don Quixote*+ Cervantes Penguin Novel
1611 Psalms KJV Poetry
1641 Meditations+ Descartes Autobio
1667 Paradise Lost*+ Milton Poetry
1666 Grace Abounding Bunyon Autobio
1669 Tartuffe Moliere Drama
1679 Pilgrim's Progress* Bunyon Novel
1682 Narrative of Captivity & Restoration(T) Rowlandson Autobio
1690 True End Civil Government Locke History
1700 Way of the World Congreve Drama
1726 Gulliver's Travels* Swift Novel
1754 History of England, V.5 Hume History
1757 Songs of Innocence and Experience by Blake/Poetry (British)
1762 Social Contract+ Rousseau History
1773 She Stoops to Conquer Goldsmith Drama
1776 Common Sense (T) Paine Dover History
1776 Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire Gibbon Wormsley(Ab) History
1777 School of Scandal Sheridan Drama
1781 Confessions* Rousseau Autobio
1791 Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (T)
1792 Vindication of the Rights of Women+ Wollstonecraft History (British)
1798 Lyrical Ballads* Wordsworth, Cooleridge Poetry (British)
1813 Pride & Prejudice*+ Austen Novel
1819 Odes* & Poems Keats Poetry (British)
Longfellow Poetry (American)
Tennyson Poetry (British)
Whitman Poetry (American)
1835 Democracy in America* Tocqueville History
1838 Oliver Twist Dickens Novel
1847 Jane Eyre Bronte Novel
1848 The Comunist Manifesto+ Marx&Engel History
1850 The Scarlet Letter* Hawthorne Novel
Modern History (1850 to present) ( 50 out of 87)
Rossetti Poetry (British)
1851 Moby-Dick/Melville/Novel
Uncle Tom's Cabin/Stowe/Novel
1854 Walden/Thoreau/Autobio
1857 Madame Bovary* Flaubert Novel
1860 Civilization of Renaissance Burckhardt History
1861 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Jacobs Autobio
1866 Crime & Punishment Dostoyevsky Novel
1850- 1866 * Dickinson Poetry (American)
1872 Dunbar Poetry (American)
1877 Anna Karenina* Tolstoy Novel
1878 Return of the Native Hardy Novel
1878 Sandburg Poetry (American)
1879 Doll's House Ibsen Drama
1881 Life & Times/Narrative of Frederick Douglass * T Autobio
1881 The Portrait of a Lady* James Novel
1883 Williams Poetry (American)
1884 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* Twain
1895 The Red Badge of Courage Crane Novel
1899 Importance of Being Earnest Wilde Drama
1901 Up From Slavery Washington Autobio
1902 Heart of Darkness* Conrad Novel
1902 Hughes Poetry (American)
1903 Souls of Black Folk DuBois History (American)
1904 Cherry Orchard Chekov Drama
1904 The Protestant Ethic & the Spirit of Capitalism Weber History (German)
1905 House of Mirth Wharton Novel
1907 Auden Poetry (American)
1908 Ecce Homo Nietzsche Autobio (German)
1913 Poems* Frost Poetry (American)
1921 Queen Victoria Stachey History
1922 Larkin Poetry (British)
1924 St. Joan Shaw Drama
1925 Mein Kampf Hitler Autobio
The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald Novel
Mrs. Dolloway Woolf Novel
The Trial* Kafka Novel
1929 An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth Gandhi Autobio
1932-1963 Sylvia Plath Poetry (American)
(1865-1939) William Butler Yeats (Irish)
Auto of Alice B. Toklas Stein Autobio
Born 1934 Mark Strand Poetry (American)
Born 1929 Adrienne Rich Poetry (American)
1935 Murder in Cathedral T.S. Eliot Drama
1937 The Road to Wigan Pier Orwell History
1938 Our Town Wilder Drama
Born 1939 Seamus Heaney Poetry (Irish)
The New England Mind Miller History *
1940 Long Day's Journey into Night O'Neill Drama
Native Son Wright Novel
Born 1940 Robert Pinsky Poetry (American)
1942 Stranger Camus Novel
1944 No Exit Sartre Drama
1947 A Streetcar Named Desire Williams Drama
1948 Seven Story Mountain Merton Autobio
1949 1984 Orwell Novel
Death of a Salesman Miller Drama
1952 Invisible Man Ellison Novel
Waiting for Godot Beckett Drama
1955 The Great Crash Galbraith History
Surprised by Joy C.S. Lewis Autobio
1956 Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) Poetry (American)
1956 Seize the Day Bellow Novel
1959 The Longest Day Ryan History
1960 A Man for All Seasons Bolt Drama
1963 The Feminine Mystique Frieden History
1965 The Autobiography of + Malcolm X Autobio
1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude Marquez Novel
Rosencrantz & Guildenstein Stoppard Drama
1972 If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Calvino Novel
1973 Journal of Solitude Sarton Autobio
Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn Autobio
1974 Roll, Jordan, Roll Genovese History
1974 Equus Shaffer Drama
1977 Born Again Colson Autobio
Song of Solomon Morrison Novel
1978 Distant Mirror Tuchman History
1978 Jan Kenyon (1947-1975) Poetry (American)
1982 Hunger of Memory Rodriguez Autobio
1985 White Noise Delillo Novel
1985 Rita Dove (1952- )Poetry (American)
1987 All the President's Men Woodward & Bernstein History
1988 Battle Cry of Freedom McPherson History
1989 Road from Coorain Conway Autobio
1990 Possession Byatt Novel
A Midwife's Tale Ballard Autobio
1992 The End of History & the Last Man Fukuyama History
1995 All Rivers Run to the Sea Wiesel Autobio
(*ITC, +D overlap, T)
ITC= Invitation to the Classics D=Denby's Great Books T = Thelma's Library
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Shaped Up Summer
Well, it is a FREE summer for me, but I did sign the boys up for some fun things this summer:
Corvallis Community Television Video Production Course - actually, George is doing it with them. It will be a fun time for me to have Monday nights free and clear. :)
Realistic Drawing - Benton Center course with Mark Allison
Tennis - two weeks in July
Saturday, June 13, 2009
So, why am I awake at 12:45 am?
Maybe I drank Lady Grey to late in the day
Or maybe the movie premiere has caused me to stay
Awake until now and cleaning up things
Browsing collectible my inheritance did bring
OK, that is enough with the rhyming. This is enough! The movie premiere was really great. I was very impressed with Bethany's editing and sound on The Road to Freedom.
Yesterday was a lovely day:
Up early to spend two hours of solid time in the Word
Morning walk with Michelle
Prayer processing after walk
Iszler's clan over for movies downstairs with the kids and talking and prayer with Kim
Took kids to Haberman party for four hours of birthday and water fight fun!
Returned microscope to Barb
Went to Jamocha Jo's
Prayed, processed in the promises of the Word, and listened to poetry as I drifted off to sleep
News as George fixed me hummus and flatbread (Have I mentioned I have the best husband in the world?)
Premiere
Cleaned out closet! A goal achieved!
Looked up collectibles I acquired because no one wanted my mom's stuff, and I am sentimental. Now, I have NO IDEA what some of these things are. What is HALL China? What is Strombergshyttan Thick Walled Scandinavian Glass Vase?
Who knows. I think I am finally getting tired.
I loved yesterday. I really and truly loved yesterday. :)
Friday, June 12, 2009
Poems, Prayers, and Promises
This John Denver song wafted through my head as I sat down and thought about what I would like to do with the next three hours of silence while my kids are out of the house for a birthday party. I did come down to three things I want to do:
Poems - Listen to some more of "Song of Myself" a massive poem in Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass
Prayers - This really is what I will do first. I just prayed with one friend an hour and a half ago, but there is so much on my heart after a conversation with her mid-day and a walk with another friend this morning. Sometimes all you can do is pray and hope that wickedness will not prevail and to remember God's desire:
"“Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’" (Ezekiel 33:11, NASB95)
I can pray that wicked people will see the light and LIVE rather than spreading their wickedness.
Promises - More time in the Word is always a good thing! I am LOVING Isaiah and getting so much more out of it than I have ever gotten before. Praise be to God for His gift to me of the Bible Book Club that keeps me accountable and learning daily.
So, off to Poem, Prayers, and Promises!
Monday, June 08, 2009
Summer Reading List
This is possibly overly ambitious, but why not?
(Finished ones in RED)
AD
100 Greek Lives/Roman Lives by Plutarch
426 City of God by Augustine
731 Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede
1580 Selected Essays by Montaigne
(This will complete the Ancient and Medieval Time periods)
1835 Democracy in America by Tocqueville (not Am Lit but related)
1850 Whitman Poetry (American)
1872 Dunbar Poetry (American)
1878 Sandburg Poetry (American)
1881 Life and Times of Frederick Douglass Autobiography
1883 Williams Poetry (American)
1902 Hughes Poetry (American)
1903 Souls of Black Folk by DuBois
1907 Auden Poetry (American)
1913 Frost Poetry (American)
Book club:
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
Selkirk’s Island by Diana Souhami
That is it! My Amazon Kindle 2 makes this so FUN too!!!! I can read with large print while I am working out! I can switch it to text-to-speech when I need to run an errand too.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Feeling No Hope for Days Gone By
That sounds so deeply sad, but I guess I should elaborate.
I went to Lamppost today, and I was the last person to post there early last night. Gone are the days of Trapdoor Society where you would leave a post and ten people would respond to what you had said and the dialogue went on for days. Now, I think there are eleven people there where there had been probably 50 regular posters and another 50 occasional posters and another 50 lurkers!
It makes me sad, but you know what? It is peaceful! Gone are the days of provocative posting that always ended in a big conflict, lots of tears, and people calling me on the phone. Gone are the days when people would post a "zinger" to me that would sting me to the core and make me sad because I felt very misunderstood. Gone are the nasty emails! In fact, I got my last "nasty" one (from that person who was usually nasty to me, but now is very nice because the drama in her marriage is now known) the night before we left our church. We got all the drama out of our life in less than 24 hours between June 15 at 8 pm & 16 at 3 pm (when we walked out the doors of our church for the last time!).
No more drama in both areas is a very good thing.
There was so much drama in that online community. Now, everyone gets along, but they aren't very committed to the group.
In looking at the 17 people in the retreat picture from seven years ago in South Carolina (before everything hit the fan), we have:
5 divorces
2 separations (One of which is already headed to divorce. The other is hopeful)
1 separation but back together and rocky
3 undetermined, but rocky, at best
6 still together and strong
I asked one friend, who is separated, whether she thought that some of her marriage difficulties played into her posting, and she said, "Most definitely."
So, all that to say is that there was a ton of drama on the board, but it had much to do with the drama playing out in their homes that we could not see.
I do miss the stimulating dialogue, but I do not miss the drama.
The online community has also dispersed to things like Facebook, and I don't mind. Facebook is friendly. I like the occasional "hi" on Facebook with those old and dear friends, but I also like how Facebook integrates my local friends. They even interact with each other, and that makes me smile.
Some of those online people still congregate on Facebook in the form of "tagged" notes. Last week, one of them had a tagged note with a great quote. I wasn't included, and it stung a bit, but I guess there was a reason for it. It seems like there are little splinters of people in the group maybe based on their life changes. While walking on the beach with Julie, she told me about someone's "guy" like I already knew, and I knew nothing about it. This was my rhetorics partner from the TWEM classics, and we had shared deep things. Now, she doesn't even tell me there is a "guy" in her life after her divorce (maybe because she told me that this guy was out of the picture when she was separated from her husband, but I guess he really wasn't).
So, a part of me is out of the loop, but a part of me doesn't mind not being a part of the drama anymore. Nobody reads this blog anymore either. I am not part of most of their "blog rolls" either, but I think they all still like me. So, I think I have good individual relationships with all of them. I am just not "in the group loop," and that is OK.
Just musing on a Thursday morning! Off to Isaiah.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Chip Ross Park Loop Trail
We did another trail today to Chip Ross Park, but Sheri and Adam knew a longer route to take. It was very nice. It took 1 hour 4 minutes, and we burned 500 calories! WOOOHOOO!
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