52 in 52 Week 42: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

The quote, "THE GREATEST WAR NOVEL OF ALL TIME" on the cover is no exaggeration. This is a masterpiece. Remarque's writing is exquisite!

"This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war."

This is one of those books that I think EVERYONE should read, and I think Hitler should have read it before he started World War II. It puts such a face on war from the perspective of our ENEMY in that war, the Germans! They were young men who were spurred on by older adults (in this case their teacher at the school they all attended) with lofty ideals but without any experience in the HORRORS of war!  

For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity . . . to the future . . . in our hearts we trusted them. The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief. We had to recognize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs. . . . The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces.

This book would make anybody a pacifist!

Comrade, I did not want to kill you. . . . But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. . . . I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?

I LOVED this book and will probably put it in my top ten. It is so compelling. The author makes amazing observations of people too.

Here is a link to a review that is much better than mine and has many quotes from the book: https://thenerdreports.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/review-all-quiet-on-the-western-front/comment-page-1/#comment-202

Well Update

Well-Watered Soul

I am in Romans 5, and I just typed as I listened to it. So rich. So wonderful. I love being in Romans. I am so looking forward to be done with hopeless novels and going to the Invitation to the Classics list that has many spiritual classics.

Well-Educated Mind

Last night, just before bed, I finished off my last Hemingway book on that "100 Great Books" list. I wonder what he would have been like to relate to. So hopeless. I am more than half way through The Plague, and I have begun both Catch-22 and House Made of Dawn. War and pestilence will be over. I cannot wait to be done!

Well-Adjusted Heart

No complaints. It is well with my soul. Always helps to be away from dysfunctional people who want power and don't want to change. I am in a very happy place with my relationships and with all the "groups" that I am involved with. No worries in this respect.

Well-Tuned Strength

I have woken up with a stiff back the last two mornings, but I am been able to work it out by movement. I am adding light weights in addition to the Physical Therapy exercises. So, I think that it why it has been stiff. Logan, the PT, didn't seem to concerned when I went in that way yesterday. He loosened up my hamstrings and made me to hard exercises anyway. I was fine the rest of the day. The trick is always to push yourself a little but not too much. I still do not know that balance.

I am eating sensibly lately. Very pleased.

This freewrite is only 8 minutes, but I want to get back to Romans.

Reading After War and Pestilence

I am going through my Downloads and deleting things. I am finding these free books books of the month from christianaudio.com and learnoutloud.org that I have totally forgotten about. 

So, this is what I want to listen to after I am done reading and listening to books about war and pestilence :)

265 - War and Pestilence

265 - War and Pestilence, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

Via Flickr:
"Everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world; yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky. There have been as many plagues as wars in history; yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise. . . When a war breaks out, people say: 'It’s too stupid; it can’t last long.' But though a war may well be 'too stupid,' that doesn’t prevent its lasting. Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves" (Camus, Albert (2012-08-08). The Plague (Locations 524-530). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.).

I looked at my four remaining books from my "100 Great Books" List, and they are all about war and pestilence! Catch-22 and House Made of Dawn address the effects of World Ward II, Farewell to Arms is about Italy in World War I, and The Plague is about an outbreak in Algeria in the 1940's. I think these books would appeal to my husband much more than they appeal to me. Although even he had to have his dad explain to him what was happening in Catch-22 when he read it in high school.

What cheery reading on these fall days!

Backing Up Baby

Update on Photo "Waiting" Goals:

While waiting I will . . .  

-------CULL and BACK UP photos

·      2012 Family June 2 to September 30 DONE!!!!

·      2012 Michael and Paul Jan 1 to September 30 (They need to do this for themselves, but I haven't told them because of beginning school)


George will . . . 

--------BACK UP on old computers

HP Envy - Misc. on his computer when I ran out of memory on computer below  - I realize that most of the stuff was already transferred to my new computer. I still need to cross check, but it isn't very much at all. 

HP dv6000 - Most already backed up, but mainly January - April 2011 - DONE!!!! 
I just need to check on the videos to make sure they were all backed up. Sometimes they lurk in different files. 

Monday Morning Fifteen Freewrite

Well-Watered Soul

Loved this morning so far. I have found a mellow praise music channel on Pandora. So, I had a lovely 5:20 am worship time as I made my chai tea this morning. Then, I prayed through Face to Face: Praying the Scriptures for Intimate Worship. I always come back to this. Yesterday was a spontaneous prayer time around the block. I came to church and found that God had answered several prayers already!

Later that day, I rode my bike and prayed through the heart of downtown.


Jeremiah 29:7 (NASB95)
7 ‘Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.’

New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation

This is my application from Bible Study this week, to pray for the Corvallis' welfare. I also wanted to pray for opportunities, but there were none that came up; but there may be some day soon. I will pray with Abi for her apartment complex later this morning. 

I have been in Acts for over a month, but I think I am going to go to Romans for a while, at least to Romans 8. I have not ever had the opportunity to finish that in-depth Bible Study, and since I have a big lead time in the Bible Book Club, it will be fun to go forward in my Romans study even though Kim and Rachel cannot join me this year. Lord, would you allow me to make a foundational Romans study that is a bit deeper than the ones we have been doing with DBS. DBS is great for new believers, and I love how there is much more application, but I would love people to learn to go deeper in Your Word. Your will be done in that. 

The last couple of months have been more prayer and presence as I go through my day than Bible study, Bible Book Club. Loving You among the pots and pans, Lord! Maybe Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence should be our next book!  Or Letters by a Modern Mystic.  Lord, lead us in that too!

Well-Educated Mind

Five more books, but I am almost done with one of the five, All the King's Men.  Now that I am finished with my photo goal (at least until the next big sale). I can concentrate on finishing that goal before the end of the year.

Well-Adjusted Heart

A person told me about how the person who blew up at me two years ago slandered me to her, but she knew it was not true because that person dislikes everyone. It did not crush me, but it made me very sad for her and reignited a critical spirit toward her. I am praying for her rather than judging her this week. The good news is that it has been 2 years and 4 months since I have had anything like this happen. I have heard twice over the last year how she has slandered me, but it has not hurt me. That is progress. It was wise to get out of her "line of fire." She always needs someone to criticize.

Well-Tuned Strength

I took a three month medical leave from the club (until December 21). I am seeing a Physical Therapist who is designing a safe weight program for me. The trainers/instructors at the club did not have safe programs for my particular problems. Logan is starting me off with trunk stability exercises and addressing the right side weakness.  Also, he is addressing my exceptionally tight hamstrings. This leads to many back pulls.

In addition, I am doing a massage two times this October. Then, I will go to once a month. This is what seems to be a spendy extravagance, but the doctor recommended that I do so.

I also took a long bike ride yesterday, and I had no problems. I also felt great. I have been mostly walking (and doing the elliptical until I left the club).

I think I will go back to doing the FIRM and quit the club all together. I loved it for many years, but going there has become more of a chore than a delight. I can go to Dixon for half the price and join on a quarterly basis. I just don't use Timberhill that much in the summer time. It will save me to do so.

Well, my fifteen minutes was up a while ago. On to Romans!

52 in 52 Week 41: The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Having lived in a Chinese neighborhood overseas for two years. This book was good to read. I have always had such a heart for what the Chinese people have had to go through in this oppressive country. This gives fictionalized stories of four women who left China and came to America for a better life. Moving and very good.

As the granddaughter of immigrants, it was also interesting for me to see how their culture was lost as the American-born daughters of the Joy Luck Club made their way into American culture raised by Chinese mothers.  Poignant and realistic. It is a well-written book.

I DON'T think it is appropriate for kids though. My friend's fourteen-year-old was forced to read it over the summer for his World Literature class in high school. He HATED it and was so glad to unload it on me when he heard I was reading it for pleasure reading! LOL!

It is not appropriate for him because

 1) It is a chick book. There are so many OTHER books that would have been more appropriate for a teenage boy

 2) The themes are too mature and sexual for teenagers, male or female.

Enough said.

Movie version: I am watching it on ClearPlay. It is pretty slow and not really well-acted, but it does seem to bring out the essence of the book. It has taken me two weeks to get through it, and it is due at the library tomorrow. So, I guess this is what I will be doing this Sunday.

Update: The ending was good. I have to say that June's father was my favorite actor. The rest were somewhat wooden.

2023 Update: Eleven years after posting this, it got "flagged" for breaking community standards on Google, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why, other than my comment that this was inappropriate for teenagers? So, I added the tag "adult," and Google reviewed it and approved it. Go figure! 

My AncestryDNA Results

Done Until the Next Shutterfly Sale!

BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL

PHOTO GOALS UPDATE

October 2, 2012

While waiting I will . . .  

-------CULL and BACK UP photos

·      2012 Family June 2 to September 30

·      2012 Michael and Paul Jan 1 to September 30


George will . . . 

--------BACK UP on old computers

HP Envy - Misc. on his computer when I ran out of memory on computer below 

HP dv6000 - Most already backed up, but mainly January - April 2011

TOTALLY DONE:

• Christmas Scrapbook 2007-2011 (Including page protectors) 
• 2007-2011 Michael and Paul
• 2007-2011 Family
• 2007-2011 Carol365
• 2010-2011 Michael's Senior Year Photo Book
• 2012 Family to March 31
• 2012 Carol365 to Day 238
• Backed Up 2007- March 2012 from HP Pavilion dv7

BHAG Update

BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL

PHOTO GOALS UPDATE

October 1, 2012

TO DO: 

-------JOURNAL: 

·      2012 Family to March 31 

-------CULL from selected photos in folders

·      2012 Family June 2 to September 30

·      2012 Michael and Paul Jan 1 to September 30

TOTALLY DONE:

• Christmas Scrapbook 2007-2011 (Including page protectors) 
• 2007-2011 Michael and Paul
• 2007-2011 Family
• 2007-2011 Carol365
• 2010-2011 Michael's Senior Year Photo Book
• 2012 Carol365 to Day 238

52 in 52 Week 40: The World of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellowes

What a visual treat! I checked this out of the library intending to only look at the pictures, but 

my friend, Stephanie encouraged me to read the whole thing. It opened up a world for me that I did not totally understand. I rewatched the whole series with a more educated eye, and it made it even more enjoyable (if that is even possible). 

This is written by the niece of the writer of the series, Julian Fellowes. She organizes it according to different topics: family life, society, change, life in service, style, house and estate, romance, war, and behind the scenes. It made me want to visit Highclere Castle! I had entered a sweepstakes to go there everyday between February and April, and would you know, I would find out the week I read this book, that some guy in Ohio won and not ME! WAAAAH.

Guess I will have to settle for the book, but that is not such a bad alternative!

 I highly recommend it. It is spendy. So, see if your library has it. 

The pictures in this are gorgeous. Here is a 21 page sample of it: http://us.macmillan.com/static/theworldofdowntonabbey/index.html

Here is a video montage on Amazon of the book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m19TAINIJKZY0Q/ref=ent_fb_link

Much Progress!

My back is really cooperating! 

TOTALLY DONE:

• Christmas Scrapbook 2007-2011 (Including page protectors) 
• 2007-2011 Michael and Paul
• 2007-2010 Family
• 2007-2011 Carol365
• 2010-2011 Michael's Senior Year 
• 2011 Family to May 8
• 2012 Carol365 to Day 238

TO DO: 

-------To Journal : 

• 2011 Family May 9 - July 13

------ To Book and Journal:

• 2011 Family July 14 to December 31
• 2012 Family to March 31 

-------To Upload to SFly

• 2012 Michael and Paul to July 1

-------To CULL from selected photos in folders

• 2012 Family April 1 to current
• 2012 Michael and Paul 7/1-current 

The Well Update Freewrite

I have not been taking time to write lately. So I will do a short update before my day gets going.

Well-Watered Soul/Well-Adjusted Heart 

I had every intention of getting through Acts this September, but I bogged down at the stoning of Stephen and decided to take more of a break. I have been walking and praying and enjoying God's presence. That is nice. Yesterday was a day of agitation that I have not experienced in quite a while. I think it was because I started the day saturated in Pandora praise. Not the contemporary stuff but old hymns set in a contemporary style. I danced around the kitchen and just loved my morning. Then I had a little back scare as I put something in a lower shelf. That made me fearful of ten million things.

I took the kids to their ortho appointment and started out rattled but ended up at peace. That continued when Paul had piano, and I went back to sitting in a chair and praising more. 

Maybe the enemy didn't like my morning?


Well-Educated Mind 

I am so close to finishing my 2012 "Great Books" goal. I am listening to All the King's Men and reading The Plague. I have some time between dropping Paul off at school and lunch with Mary. So, I plan on doing some reading during that time, not having my photos in front of me to beg me to finish them.

(Part of my stress might be due to the fact that I am SO CLOSE to finishing two big goals for 2012, and that "straining toward the finish line" usually involves stress for me. I realized I needed to chill out and forced myself to lay down last night.)

Well-Tuned Strength

After probably six weeks of not even a tight muscle in my back, I had an episode that put me in bed for two days. I think it was the combination of sitting doing photos and not being as diligent about getting up and taking a walk around the block and doing my squats and core strengthening. My exercise was there, but it was half-hearted. I realized this and went and lifted weights at the club, and pulled that same left side muscle that goes all the way down my back, parallel to my spine. It was tight and alright, but Dr. Koen's receptionist couldn't get me in for three days. When I got there, barely able to move, she scolded me for not telling her that I was hurting. I called her BACK after scheduling and asked her to PLEASE call if there were any cancellations. That should have implied I was pretty desperate, but I realize you really have to spell everything out with her. But no matter, he popped the leg, and I am on the mend, doing my exercises once again.

I am going to the PT for a good regiment for my back that doesn't involve weight machines. I keep hurting myself. 

BHAG Photo Update


TOTALLY DONE:

• Christmas Scrapbook 2007-2011
• 2007-2008, 2010 ALL
• 2009 Family and Paul
• 2010-2011 Michael's Senior Year 
• 2012 Carol365 to Day 238

TO DO: 

------To Journal: 

• 2009 Michael
• 2011 Michael and Paul

-------To Put in Book and Journal : 

• 2011 Family
• 2012 Family to March 31

2012 TO DO:

• 2012 Michael and Paul to July 1 - Ready to UPLOAD to SFly
• 2012 Family April 1 to current - SELECTED but need to CULL
• 2012 Michael and Paul 7/1-current - SELECTED but need to CULL

The Well-Educated Mind

THE BOOK OF GREAT BOOKS

Well, I am narrowing in on my goal of finishing these books in 2012, and I am home bound due to back issues. So, I think it will be a reading day since I have two of these books waiting next to my bed. Here are the final books to be had:


1. All the King's Men
2. Catch 22 (next to my bed)
3. A Farewell to Arms
4. House Made of Dawn
5. The Plague (next to my bed)

INVITATION TO THE CLASSICS

This was my first book about the classics, and I love it. I began reading books from that list in August 2002 (The Divine Comedy and The Brothers Karamazov), but it got hijacked by The Well-Educated Mind list (but many of the books overlapped).  So, I am also reading books from this list. I love this list and the book questions because they get at the intersection of the classics with Biblical values.  Here are the 17 books I have left from this list: 

Ancient 9/12

BC

1. 425 Peace - Aristophanes
2. 425 Frogs – Aristophanes
3. 384 Nichomachean Ethics – Aristotle

Medieval 10/13

AD

1. 1265 Summa theologica – Aquinas (Reading: prayer and contemplation)
2. 1400's The Second Shepherd’s Play
3. 1536 Institutes of the Christian Religion – Calvin

Early Modern 15/21

1. 1633 The Temple – Herbert
2. 1670 Pensees – Pascal
3. 1746 A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections – Edwards
4. 1759 Essays and Rasselas – Johnson
5. 1791 The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. – Boswell
6. 1787 The Federalist – Hamilton, Madison, Jay (on iPod)

Modern 22/30 

1. 1864 Apologia pro vita sua – John Henry Newman
2. 1843 Fear and Trembling – Kierkegaard
3. 1874 Middlemarch – Eliot
4. 1888 Twilight of the Idols – Nietzsche
5. 1914 Dubliners – Joyce (on iPod)
6. 1935 Four Quartets – T.S. Eliot
7. 1942 Go Down, Moses – Faulkner
8. 1950 Waiting for God – Weil (reading) 

52 in 52 Week 39: Faust Part Two by Goethe

Most lists of "Great Books" only include Faust: Part I, but both Invitation to the Classics and The Book of Great Books list the whole thing. After a few false starts, I read some reviews and settled on a rhyming version that made it much easier to get through. I read it myself for a while, but I found the "text to speech" on my Kindle got the cadence of the rhymes much better than me. So, I enjoyed listening to it as I worked on my photo books.

Since I know the story of The Iliad and other classical stories (thank you Susan Wise-Bauer of The Well-Educated Mind), it wasn't too hard to get through. I cannot imagine reading it with no prior background though. 

It was published in 1832, the year of Goethe's death. Because of its complexity in form and content, it is usually not read in German schools, although the first part commonly is. It can be seen as one of the most difficult works of World literature, requiring an extensive knowledge of Greek mythology. In fact, a saying even emanates from this fact: "do not go to the library to read Faust II without necessity.

While there were drafts of this book as early as 1797, most of Faust, Part II was written during the last seven years of his life. (www.wikipedia.org) 

Well, I guess Wikipedia just backed up what I just said in the first part of my review (I had cut and pasted this in my blog several months ago after I read Part I and was thinking I would read Part II right afterward and forgot what it said until right now). 

Goethe finished writing Faust Part Two in 1831. In contrast to Faust Part One, the focus here is no longer on the soul of Faust, which has been sold to the devil, but rather on social phenomena such as psychology, history and politics, in addition to mystical and philosophical topics. The second part formed the principal occupation of Goethe's last years. (www.wikipedia.org)

Faust is considered "the cornerstone of classical German drama and a seminal work in the Romantic movement" (Invitation to the Classics, p. 207).

To give you a little background about the legend of Faust. It is based on a real historical figure named Georg Faust (c. 1480-1540). He was a German alchemist, astrologer, and charlatan. Because of his strange and bizarre practices, many tales and legends evolved about him. One of the most notable is Christopher Marlowe's, Everyman, which I read in June of 2008. It was written two hundred years before Goethe's version. While both involve Faust selling his soul to the devil in exchange for unlimited knowledge, Marlowe's version ends differently. In Marlowe's version, since Faust refused to heed the consequences of his sin, he is damned to hell. In Goethe's version, there is universal mercy for Faust's bargain with the devil, and he is taken to heaven.  It isn't biblical, but there you have it. 

I would have liked to meet Goethe, and maybe I will read a biography of his life. I wonder if he was a troubled soul?  He certainly was a ponderer of this great dilemma. 

The idea of "Faustian striving" has made it into Western thought due to this book. When something is "Faustian" it is "pertaining to or resembling or befitting Faust or Faustus especially in insatiably striving for worldly knowledge and power even at the price of spiritual values; 'a Faustian pact with the Devil'" (http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=faustian).

Now I will probably hear this in the news and know what it REALLY means rather than letting it go over my head. That is what I like about reading the classics. 

This was NOT as difficult to read as I thought it would be, but I would heartily recommend breaking down and buying the translation by Robert David MacDonald though. 

Here is the review of Part I: http://carolhomeschool2.blogspot.com/2012/07/52-in-52-week-28-faust-part-one-by.html.

52 in 52 Week 39: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

"Without willing it, I had gone from being ignorant of being ignorant to being aware of being aware. And the worse part of my awareness was that I didn't know what I was aware of. I knew I knew very little, but I was certain that the things I had yet to learn wouldn't be taught to me at Washington High School." 

I think I started to read this when it was given to me as a gift in the late 90's.  Maybe not this particular Maya Angelou book because that one had some pretty gritty language that I didn't appreciate. While this one has a bit, it is mostly her childhood reflections from her earliest memory of being in Long Beach, CA and being sent as a toddler with her brother (without an adult) to Stamps, Arkansas to live with her grandmother. 

I didn't like it at first. I thought it would be another poorly narrated book by an author (I didn't care for Alice Walker's narration of The Color Purple), but I grew accustomed to her slow, southern narration and was drawn into her life. She is a year younger than my dear, departed mother, but she grew up with more means than my mother (her grandmother was savvy and ran a successful store for the black community) and less values. 

She also grew up with more prejudice and a sense of mystery about her father and mother and why they sent her away. She does eventually spend time with both her father and mother in California and has some interesting adventures that leads to the quote above. I don't think I want to read the sequel. Her musing on situational ethics being OK for the black man because of his disadvantaged state bothered me. Her poor life choice at the end of the book really bothered me too.

She definitely led a different life from my mother's. My mother was a person of great integrity and values. I don't see Maya Angelou as being any sort of role model for young black women. 

I get the impression that the seedier side of her life will emerge in her next memoir. Maybe that is the one that was given to me in the late 90's that I did not care for. 

Since she is also a poet it comes through in her brilliant writing. 

Again, it is education and caring educator that open up her world. I loved her mentioning some of my favorite books like Jane Eyre too.

The BHAG Photo Update

I had a very productive week!

TOTALLY DONE:

• Christmas Scrapbook 2007-2011
• 2010 Family
• 2010-2011 Michael's Senior Year (see Shutterfly book in a previous post)
• 2012 Carol365 to Day 238

TO DO: 

------To Journal: 

• 2007-2009 ALL 
• 2010 Michael and Paul 
• 2011 Michael and Paul

-------To Put in Book and Journal : 

• 2011 Family
• 2012 Family to March 31

2012 TO DO:

• 2012 Michael and Paul to July 1 - Ready to UPLOAD to SFly
• 2012 Family April 1 to current - SELECTED but need to CULL
• 2012 Michael and Paul 7/1-current - Need to SELECT 

52 in 52 Week 38: The Story of a Ghost Town: Parts I & II by Harry Kinney

These are very short books about my grandmother's hometown, Cross Fork, Pennsylvania, written by a man who was the son of my great grandmother's younger sister (making him my grandmother's cousin who was fourteen years younger).

We visited there on our vacation in July, and it was an amazing trip. I have dreamed of traveling there for 22 years, ever since I went to the LDS Church to research my family genealogy so I could fill out my wedding book (being the youngest of all the grandchildren and getting married later in life, my grandmother was already dead, and I couldn't pepper her with questions).

This town is so out of the way in the Pennsylvania Wilds of north central Pennsylvania, but a wedding of a dear friend in Pittsburgh combined with having saved for fifteen years for a trip to Washington, D.C. and my desire to go to the place of my ancestors, made it the time for us to combine it all together in one plane ticket. SO worth it!



After being encouraged by the person cleaning our room at the Cross Fork Motel, I timidly walked into  Jeff's Store and said, "I think we are distant cousins." I know now that Jeff and I are 2nd cousins, 1x removed. I had corresponded with his older sister, and the last time I heard from her was 2002. I found out that she died that year. She had graciously sent me pictures of my great grandparents and news about her little town of Cross Fork, PA. I pray she is resting in peace.

I cannot describe this experience in words. You can see the videos in Flickr. I filmed the land owned by my great grandparents and her parents before her (The Caldwells owned part of the farmland, but the deeds said other parcels were purchased from a variety of people).

What was so great about Jeff was that he had a TON of pictures! So fun! He also knew much of the history of the town, and his father, Harry L. Caldwell, had written these great books! What an intelligent man for a self-professed "country boy." I have found several newspaper articles written by him also. 

Jeff only had Part II, but I emailed the newspaper in the area, and they sent me Part I. It was thrilling to read all about my Pennsylvania "roots." 

The town of Cross Fork was a BOOM TOWN for the lumber industry in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Then, not long after my great grandparents died (leaving my grandmother an orphan at 11 years old), the town died when the lumber company pulled out. Harry tells the story well!

By the way, I write these post and schedule them once a week. So, I am writing this not long after returning from my trip, but it turns out that it will post on what would have been my grandmother's 117th birthday. This trip was for you, Wardie. Rest in Peace. I will tell your story.

What is Left of the Great Books

1. All the King's Men
2. Catch 22
3. A Farewell to Arms
4. Faust: Part II
5. House Made of Dawn
6. The Plague
7. A Separate Peace
8. Sons and Lovers 

52 in 52 Week 37: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Awesome and brilliant. I didn't realize it was a novel. From some reason, I thought this was a non-fiction book about the meat packing industry in America. It is SO much more. He writes so wonderfully!

Do not get me wrong. This is a propaganda novel for socialism! The last part is very "preachy" on that score, but it  is still brilliant. 

How strange that I would be reading it at the same time I have been doing genealogy research on the Swedish side of my family. My grandparents came as single people in 1923, met, and got married in Chicago, Illinois. What guts. I am sure they experienced great hardship but they ended up millionnaires in the end. 

Sorry Upton, Capitalism rules!

Photo Book

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Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

Update on Photo Book Big Hairy Audacious Goal

Current BHAG of getting my photos done:


Here is my progress, in red, from my list last week:

2007-2011 Carol365 is DONE!

2007 ALL - BOOKED and need to journal 

2008 ALL - BOOKED and need to journal 

2009 ALL - ORDERED at Snapfish (I thought I already had, but I remember I went to Shutterfly to make their deadline and didn't order. I would go totally with Shutterfly but all these photos are either unprocessed on CD backups OR on Flickr. So, too much of a hassle to redo OR download from Flickr and upload to Shutterfly if already in the "bag" at Snapfish.)  

2010 ALL  - ORDERED at Shutterfly

2011 Family - Up to July 18 UPLOADED to Shutterfly BUT NEED TO INCORPORATE MORE SEA
2011 Michael and Paul - PRINTED and waiting to be book

(Should I do books for SEA and Mexico or just order the prints?) - Just ordering prints. Too expensive and a hassle. 

Made book for Michael's Senior Year - Will order on Shutterfly as soon as I can get free shipping

2012 Carol365 to #238 - PRINTED and waiting to be booked 
2012 Michael and Paul to 7/1 - Culled  - Need to upload and order (may wait)

2012 Family ORDERED to March 31 at Snapfish
2012 Michael and Paul after 7/1 - Nothing
2012 Family after 7/1 - Partially processed 

(Should I do a book for our East Coast trip or just order prints? - SO MANY PICS - too expensive. 

2008-2009 Christmas - Ready to scrapbook
2010 Christmas - Uploaded to Shutterfly and will order at next sale
2011 Christmas - Need to process and cull 

Snapfish Video Comparison with Shutterfly

Shutterfly Order Arrived - Comparison

How I Spent My Labor Day

George says that the purpose of Labor Day is to rest from your labors, but I worked all day on pictures!  

Here is my progress, in blue, from yesterday's list:

2007-2011 Carol365 is DONE!

2007 All - Need to journal 

2008 All - Ordered from Snapfish (due 9/5-10)

2009 All - Ordered from Snapfish (due 9/5-10)

2010 Family - Culled - Need to upload and order at next sale
2010 Michael and Paul - Foldered - They need to cull CULLED and PAUL UPLOADED

2011 Family - Culled - Need to upload and order
2011 Michael and Paul - Ordered (Shutterfly due 9/5-10)
(Should I do books for SEA and Mexico or just order the prints?) JUST NEED TO JOURNAL IN SEA BOOK, organize a bit more in Mexico (Still don't know if I want to spend the extra money!)

2012 Carol365 to #238 - Ordered (Shutterfly due 9/5-10)
2012 Michael and Paul to 7/1 - Culled  - Need to upload and order (may wait)
2012 Family to 7/1 - Unsure - will check PROCESSED AND CULLED through April (bulk of day spent doing this because I had not done it for our Hawaii or Spring Break trips. 
2012 Michael and Paul after 7/1 - Nothing
2012 Family after 7/1 - Partially processed 
(Should I do a book for our East Coast trip or just order prints? - SO MANY PICS - too expensive. 

2008-2009 Christmas - Ready to scrapbook
2010 Christmas - Culled - Need to upload and order