Here's the quiz.
1. We went early to bed on this holiday night. For Christmas morning was to be unlike any we had ever known. It began with a blue mirage. We were away at sunrise, driving south, then west to Yaqui Well. Looking east toward the Salton Sea, across the California Painted Desert, we became aware of what appeared to be a range of distant mountains, bluish and banded. As we watched, they altered shape. The higher peaks became lower. The skyline changed. At times, we seemed to see trees and buildiings, all vague and wavering, as though glimpsed through blue water. By the time we turned away, the long mirage had begun to dissolve into vertical bands of lighter and darker blue.
Answer: Edwin Way Teale, Wandering Through Winter
2. On the night of Christmas Eve the Abbey was so still it might have been thought to be empty, or the nuns asleep, but when the bell sounded at ten o'clock, from all corners, especially from the church, silent figures made their way to their station in the long cloister....Voice succeeded voice through two hours until the priests, vested in white and gold, with their servers came in procession from the sacristy for the tenderness and triumph of the midnight Mass. Lauds of Christmas followed straight after, and at two o'clock the community went to the refectory for hot soup, always called "cock soup" because it was the first taste of meat or chicken they had had since Advent began; the soup was served with rice--"beautifully filling," said Hilary in content--and after it came two biscuits and four squares of chocolate. "Chocolate!" "We need to keep our strength up," said Dame Ursula.
Answer: Rumer Godden, In This House of Brede
3. Mother used to send a box of candy every Christmas to the people the Airedale bit. The list finally contained forty or more names. Nobody could understand why we didn't get rid of the dog. I didn't understand it very well myself, but we didn't get rid of him....Muggs lived to be almost eleven years old and even when he could hardly get around he bit a Congressman who had called to see my father on business. My mother had never liked the Congressman....but she sent him a box of candy that Christmas. He sent it right back, probably because he suspected it was trick candy. Mother persuaded herself it was all for the best....
Answer: James Thurber, "The Dog That Bit People"
4. "I wish I had a pink Angora sweater," Anne said. "Marilyn has two. A pale blue one and a pale pink one."
"Two?" Joan said. "Are you sure? They're twenty-five dollars, you know."
"Marilyn's rich," Anne said. "She gets thirty-five dollars a month just to spend on clothes."
Don said, "I can't understand why we let the Russians into Berlin."
Anne said, "Marilyn's going to spend Christmas in Palm Springs."
I said, "Palm Springs is the last place I would want to spend Christmas. Who wants hot weather and palm trees for Christmas?"
"I do," Anne said wistfully. "I'm so sick of rain I could die."
"Me too," Joan said. "Marilyn's going to get her own car when she's sixteen."
Don said, "Of course Russia had the world bluffed and our policy of appeasement, uncertainty and double-talk isn't fooling anybody but ourselves."
I said, "Possessions don't bring happiness. Happiness is something you must find in your own self."
"Well, it would be a lot easier to find if I had a car of my own," Anne said.
Answer: Betty MacDonald, Onions in the Stew
5. But in Raveloe village the bells rang merrily, and the church was fuller than all through the rest of the year, with red faces among the abundant dark-green boughs--faces prepared for a longer service than usual by an odourous breakfast of toast and ale. Those green boughs, the hymn and anthem never heard but at Christmas....brought a vague exulting sense, for which the grown men could as little have found words as the children, that something great and mysterious had been done for them in heaven above and in earth below, which they were appropriating by their presence. And then the red faces made their way through the black biting frost to their own homes, feeling themselves free for the rest of the day to eat, drink, and be merry, and using that Christmas freedom without diffidence.
Answer: George Eliot, Silas Marner
6. December is the first winter month. The ground is often covered with snow. The days are dark and cold and night falls early. Now is the time to be in the barn. There is hay and grain to eat. There are places to play or hide or dream. There are warm straw beds. December is the last month of the year. Now is the time to catch up on sleep. Everyone goes to bed earlier in wintertime.
Answer: Alice and Martin Provensen, The Year at Maple Hill Farm
7. "Well, my last crime was a Christmas crime, a cheery, cosy, English middle-class crime; a crime of Charles Dickens. I did it in a good old middle-class house near Putney, a house with a crescent of carriage drive, a house with a stable by the side of it, a house with the name on the two outer gates, a house with a monkey tree. Enough, you know the species. I really think my imitation of Dickens's style was dexterous and literary. It seems almost a pity I repented the same evening."
Answer: G.K. Chesterton, "The Flying Stars" in The Innocence of Father Brown
8. For all of our twenty-eight years in Switzerland we have had the five-o'clock Christmas Eve Service in Champéry, with over a hundred candles to be put in wooden candleholders made of rough logs, and also fastened on fresh green trees....The Christmas tree has been trimmed the night before, during a traditional time of drinking iced ginger ale and eating homemade Christmas cookies spread out in lovely rows on a tray. The Christmas stockings, filled with all sorts of interesting but inexpensive things, are the old hand-knitted stockings our girls wore the first years in Switzerland. Full of holes, but still usable, they add much in the way of memories as they are pulled out one night and filled and then found on Christmas morning.
Answer: Edith Schaeffer, What is a Family?
9. It didn't matter any more that she had once chased me through the Glen with a codfish--it didn't matter that she had smeared goose-grease all over my dreams of romance....I would never dislike Mary Vance again. I went over to her and kissed her....She got Susan and me a tip-top breakfast and made us eat it, and 'bossed the life out of us,' as Susan says, for two days, until the roads were opened so that she could get home. [The baby] was almost well by that time and father turned up. He heard our tale without saying much. Father is rather scornful generally about what he calls 'old wives' remedies.' He laughed a little and said, 'After this, Mary Vance will expect me to call her in for consultation in all my serious cases.' So Christmas was not so hard as I expected it to be; and now the New Year is coming--and we are still hoping for the 'Big Push' that will end the war....
Answer: Lucy Maud Montgomery, Rilla of Ingleside
10. I do think it's a very uneven exchange of Christmas presents. You'll eat yours up in a week and have nothing left to show for it by New Year's Day. I'll have mine till the day I die--and die happy in the knowledge that I'm leaving it behind for someone else to love. I shall sprinkle pale pencil marks through it pointing out the best passages to some book-lover yet unborn. Thank you all. Happy New Year.
Answer: Helene Hanff, 84, Charing Cross Road
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
All-new Treehouse Christmas book quiz, Now With Hints
Answers are posted here.
If you've ever tried one of our Treehouse Christmas Quizzes before, you know that we like to play hard. But we hope you have fun too. (2009 Quiz. 2007 Snowed-in Quiz, mixed with a Carnival of Homeschooling. 2006 Quiz. 2006 Quiz with helpful hints.)
UPDATE: No guesses yet? Okay, Round Two: I've added hints.
As always: your "mission Impossible, played on jingle bells" (to quote Amy Dacyczyn) is to identify the book or story to which the passage belongs.
Ready?
1. We went early to bed on this holiday night. For Christmas morning was to be unlike any we had ever known. It began with a blue mirage. We were away at sunrise, driving south, then west to Yaqui Well. Looking east toward the Salton Sea, across the California Painted Desert, we became aware of what appeared to be a range of distant mountains, bluish and banded. As we watched, they altered shape. The higher peaks became lower. The skyline changed. At times, we seemed to see trees and buildiings, all vague and wavering, as though glimpsed through blue water. By the time we turned away, the long mirage had begun to dissolve into vertical bands of lighter and darker blue.
Hints: Ambleside Online. Natural History. Seasons.
2. On the night of Christmas Eve the Abbey was so still it might have been thought to be empty, or the nuns asleep, but when the bell sounded at ten o'clock, from all corners, especially from the church, silent figures made their way to their station in the long cloister....Voice succeeded voice through two hours until the priests, vested in white and gold, with their servers came in procession from the sacristy for the tenderness and triumph of the midnight Mass. Lauds of Christmas followed straight after, and at two o'clock the community went to the refectory for hot soup, always called "cock soup" because it was the first taste of meat or chicken they had had since Advent began; the soup was served with rice--"beautifully filling," said Hilary in content--and after it came two biscuits and four squares of chocolate. "Chocolate!" "We need to keep our strength up," said Dame Ursula.
Hints: Author better known for children's books. Nuns. Film with Diana Rigg.
3. Mother used to send a box of candy every Christmas to the people the Airedale bit. The list finally contained forty or more names. Nobody could understand why we didn't get rid of the dog. I didn't understand it very well myself, but we didn't get rid of him....Muggs lived to be almost eleven years old and even when he could hardly get around he bit a Congressman who had called to see my father on business. My mother had never liked the Congressman....but she sent him a box of candy that Christmas. He sent it right back, probably because he suspected it was trick candy. Mother persuaded herself it was all for the best....
Hints: American humorist who liked to draw odd cartoons.
4. "I wish I had a pink Angora sweater," Anne said. "Marilyn has two. A pale blue one and a pale pink one."
"Two?" Joan said. "Are you sure? They're twenty-five dollars, you know."
"Marilyn's rich," Anne said. "She gets thirty-five dollars a month just to spend on clothes."
Don said, "I can't understand why we let the Russians into Berlin."
Anne said, "Marilyn's going to spend Christmas in Palm Springs."
I said, "Palm Springs is the last place I would want to spend Christmas. Who wants hot weather and palm trees for Christmas?"
"I do," Anne said wistfully. "I'm so sick of rain I could die."
"Me too," Joan said. "Marilyn's going to get her own car when she's sixteen."
Don said, "Of course Russia had the world bluffed and our policy of appeasement, uncertainty and double-talk isn't fooling anybody but ourselves."
I said, "Possessions don't bring happiness. Happiness is something you must find in your own self."
"Well, it would be a lot easier to find if I had a car of my own," Anne said.
Hint: Author of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books.
5. But in XXX village the bells rang merrily, and the church was fuller than all through the rest of the year, with red faces among the abundant dark-green boughs--faces prepared for a longer service than usual by an odourous breakfast of toast and ale. Those green boughs, the hymn and anthem never heard but at Christmas....brought a vague exulting sense, for which the grown men could as little have found words as the children, that something great and mysterious had been done for them in heaven above and in earth below, which they were appropriating by their presence. And then the red faces made their way through the black biting frost to their own homes, feeling themselves free for the rest of the day to eat, drink, and be merry, and using that Christmas freedom without diffidence.
Hint: Classic English novel, NOT Dickens. Missing gold.
6. December is the first winter month. The ground is often covered with snow. The days are dark and cold and night falls early. Now is the time to be in the barn. There is hay and grain to eat. There are places to play or hide or dream. There are warm straw beds. December is the last month of the year. Now is the time to catch up on sleep. Everyone goes to bed earlier in wintertime.
Hint: Children's book. Lots of animals.
7. "Well, my last crime was a Christmas crime, a cheery, cosy, English middle-class crime; a crime of Charles Dickens. I did it in a good old middle-class house near Putney, a house with a crescent of carriage drive, a house with a stable by the side of it, a house with the name on the two outer gates, a house with a monkey tree. Enough, you know the species. I really think my imitation of Dickens's style was dexterous and literary. It seems almost a pity I repented the same evening."
Hint: English detective stories, NOT Agatha Christie.
8. For all of our twenty-eight years in Switzerland we have had the five-o'clock Christmas Eve Service in Champéry, with over a hundred candles to be put in wooden candleholders made of rough logs, and also fastened on fresh green trees....The Christmas tree has been trimmed the night before, during a traditional time of drinking iced ginger ale and eating homemade Christmas cookies spread out in lovely rows on a tray. The Christmas stockings, filled with all sorts of interesting but inexpensive things, are the old hand-knitted stockings our girls wore the first years in Switzerland. Full of holes, but still usable, they add much in the way of memories as they are pulled out one night and filled and then found on Christmas morning.
Hint: Wife of well-known 20th century theologian.
9. It didn't matter any more that she had once chased me through the Glen with a codfish--it didn't matter that she had smeared goose-grease all over my dreams of romance....I would never dislike Mary Vance again. I went over to her and kissed her....She got Susan and me a tip-top breakfast and made us eat it, and 'bossed the life out of us,' as Susan says, for two days, until the roads were opened so that she could get home. [The baby] was almost well by that time and father turned up. He heard our tale without saying much. Father is rather scornful generally about what he calls 'old wives' remedies.' He laughed a little and said, 'After this, Mary Vance will expect me to call her in for consultation in all my serious cases.' So Christmas was not so hard as I expected it to be; and now the New Year is coming--and we are still hoping for the 'Big Push' that will end the war....
Hint: Last book in famous Canadian fiction series.
10. I do think it's a very uneven exchange of Christmas presents. You'll eat yours up in a week and have nothing left to show for it by New Year's Day. I'll have mine till the day I die--and die happy in the knowledge that I'm leaving it behind for someone else to love. I shall sprinkle pale pencil marks through it pointing out the best passages to some book-lover yet unborn. Thank you all. Happy New Year.
Hint: Film with Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft. Lots and lots of books.
If you've ever tried one of our Treehouse Christmas Quizzes before, you know that we like to play hard. But we hope you have fun too. (2009 Quiz. 2007 Snowed-in Quiz, mixed with a Carnival of Homeschooling. 2006 Quiz. 2006 Quiz with helpful hints.)
UPDATE: No guesses yet? Okay, Round Two: I've added hints.
As always: your "mission Impossible, played on jingle bells" (to quote Amy Dacyczyn) is to identify the book or story to which the passage belongs.
Ready?
1. We went early to bed on this holiday night. For Christmas morning was to be unlike any we had ever known. It began with a blue mirage. We were away at sunrise, driving south, then west to Yaqui Well. Looking east toward the Salton Sea, across the California Painted Desert, we became aware of what appeared to be a range of distant mountains, bluish and banded. As we watched, they altered shape. The higher peaks became lower. The skyline changed. At times, we seemed to see trees and buildiings, all vague and wavering, as though glimpsed through blue water. By the time we turned away, the long mirage had begun to dissolve into vertical bands of lighter and darker blue.
Hints: Ambleside Online. Natural History. Seasons.
2. On the night of Christmas Eve the Abbey was so still it might have been thought to be empty, or the nuns asleep, but when the bell sounded at ten o'clock, from all corners, especially from the church, silent figures made their way to their station in the long cloister....Voice succeeded voice through two hours until the priests, vested in white and gold, with their servers came in procession from the sacristy for the tenderness and triumph of the midnight Mass. Lauds of Christmas followed straight after, and at two o'clock the community went to the refectory for hot soup, always called "cock soup" because it was the first taste of meat or chicken they had had since Advent began; the soup was served with rice--"beautifully filling," said Hilary in content--and after it came two biscuits and four squares of chocolate. "Chocolate!" "We need to keep our strength up," said Dame Ursula.
Hints: Author better known for children's books. Nuns. Film with Diana Rigg.
3. Mother used to send a box of candy every Christmas to the people the Airedale bit. The list finally contained forty or more names. Nobody could understand why we didn't get rid of the dog. I didn't understand it very well myself, but we didn't get rid of him....Muggs lived to be almost eleven years old and even when he could hardly get around he bit a Congressman who had called to see my father on business. My mother had never liked the Congressman....but she sent him a box of candy that Christmas. He sent it right back, probably because he suspected it was trick candy. Mother persuaded herself it was all for the best....
Hints: American humorist who liked to draw odd cartoons.
4. "I wish I had a pink Angora sweater," Anne said. "Marilyn has two. A pale blue one and a pale pink one."
"Two?" Joan said. "Are you sure? They're twenty-five dollars, you know."
"Marilyn's rich," Anne said. "She gets thirty-five dollars a month just to spend on clothes."
Don said, "I can't understand why we let the Russians into Berlin."
Anne said, "Marilyn's going to spend Christmas in Palm Springs."
I said, "Palm Springs is the last place I would want to spend Christmas. Who wants hot weather and palm trees for Christmas?"
"I do," Anne said wistfully. "I'm so sick of rain I could die."
"Me too," Joan said. "Marilyn's going to get her own car when she's sixteen."
Don said, "Of course Russia had the world bluffed and our policy of appeasement, uncertainty and double-talk isn't fooling anybody but ourselves."
I said, "Possessions don't bring happiness. Happiness is something you must find in your own self."
"Well, it would be a lot easier to find if I had a car of my own," Anne said.
Hint: Author of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books.
5. But in XXX village the bells rang merrily, and the church was fuller than all through the rest of the year, with red faces among the abundant dark-green boughs--faces prepared for a longer service than usual by an odourous breakfast of toast and ale. Those green boughs, the hymn and anthem never heard but at Christmas....brought a vague exulting sense, for which the grown men could as little have found words as the children, that something great and mysterious had been done for them in heaven above and in earth below, which they were appropriating by their presence. And then the red faces made their way through the black biting frost to their own homes, feeling themselves free for the rest of the day to eat, drink, and be merry, and using that Christmas freedom without diffidence.
Hint: Classic English novel, NOT Dickens. Missing gold.
6. December is the first winter month. The ground is often covered with snow. The days are dark and cold and night falls early. Now is the time to be in the barn. There is hay and grain to eat. There are places to play or hide or dream. There are warm straw beds. December is the last month of the year. Now is the time to catch up on sleep. Everyone goes to bed earlier in wintertime.
Hint: Children's book. Lots of animals.
7. "Well, my last crime was a Christmas crime, a cheery, cosy, English middle-class crime; a crime of Charles Dickens. I did it in a good old middle-class house near Putney, a house with a crescent of carriage drive, a house with a stable by the side of it, a house with the name on the two outer gates, a house with a monkey tree. Enough, you know the species. I really think my imitation of Dickens's style was dexterous and literary. It seems almost a pity I repented the same evening."
Hint: English detective stories, NOT Agatha Christie.
8. For all of our twenty-eight years in Switzerland we have had the five-o'clock Christmas Eve Service in Champéry, with over a hundred candles to be put in wooden candleholders made of rough logs, and also fastened on fresh green trees....The Christmas tree has been trimmed the night before, during a traditional time of drinking iced ginger ale and eating homemade Christmas cookies spread out in lovely rows on a tray. The Christmas stockings, filled with all sorts of interesting but inexpensive things, are the old hand-knitted stockings our girls wore the first years in Switzerland. Full of holes, but still usable, they add much in the way of memories as they are pulled out one night and filled and then found on Christmas morning.
Hint: Wife of well-known 20th century theologian.
9. It didn't matter any more that she had once chased me through the Glen with a codfish--it didn't matter that she had smeared goose-grease all over my dreams of romance....I would never dislike Mary Vance again. I went over to her and kissed her....She got Susan and me a tip-top breakfast and made us eat it, and 'bossed the life out of us,' as Susan says, for two days, until the roads were opened so that she could get home. [The baby] was almost well by that time and father turned up. He heard our tale without saying much. Father is rather scornful generally about what he calls 'old wives' remedies.' He laughed a little and said, 'After this, Mary Vance will expect me to call her in for consultation in all my serious cases.' So Christmas was not so hard as I expected it to be; and now the New Year is coming--and we are still hoping for the 'Big Push' that will end the war....
Hint: Last book in famous Canadian fiction series.
10. I do think it's a very uneven exchange of Christmas presents. You'll eat yours up in a week and have nothing left to show for it by New Year's Day. I'll have mine till the day I die--and die happy in the knowledge that I'm leaving it behind for someone else to love. I shall sprinkle pale pencil marks through it pointing out the best passages to some book-lover yet unborn. Thank you all. Happy New Year.
Hint: Film with Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft. Lots and lots of books.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Recycling pretty book pictures: what's in your hand?
I bought this hardcover quotes/journal book at the thrift store, thinking that it was in nice enough shape to slip in with other gifts for a Treehouse Anne fan. Unfortunately, it turned out to have several written-on-in-ink pages that I hadn't noticed--which wiped out its gift possibilities.
Dump the whole thing then?
No way. There were several full-page illustrations of events from the Anne books, and a few of those made nice gift tags, trimmed down and pasted onto card stock. I particularly liked the one of her in her bedroom with her brand-new brown Christmas dress hanging nearby. (Yes, it's supposed to be brown, not blue, if you've only ever seen the movie.) And the non-Christmasy ones will keep for other occasions.
There are also quite a few small illustrations in the book--pictures of baking, sewing baskets, flowers and so on. Good for cutting and pasting here and there.
It may sound awful to rip apart a book like that, but as somebody said, even a hardcover book (not considering its intellectual content) is really just paper between cardboard covers, and this one had no other real use. So I'm good with that.
What are the Squirrelings doing today?
The Apprentice is at the university for a pre-exam review class. She's already written most of her exams but there are still a couple left.
Ponytails is at high school--she's not done until the 23rd of December. But she told me yesterday that there only about twenty school days left in the semester, so that's kind of motivating!
Crayons/Dollygirl has just finished a Plutarch lesson and is now transforming herself and Crystal into big and little Josefinas. She's also re-doing her homemade fashion-doll snow cabin "dupe" that she put together last year. Small wonder that math has little attraction this week. But we are almost done A Midsummer Night's Dream, and we're re-reading Prince Caspian. Re-reading because I'm sure that Crayons has heard it somewhere along the line, but I don't think she remembers it very well.
What are you all doing today?
Ponytails is at high school--she's not done until the 23rd of December. But she told me yesterday that there only about twenty school days left in the semester, so that's kind of motivating!
Crayons/Dollygirl has just finished a Plutarch lesson and is now transforming herself and Crystal into big and little Josefinas. She's also re-doing her homemade fashion-doll snow cabin "dupe" that she put together last year. Small wonder that math has little attraction this week. But we are almost done A Midsummer Night's Dream, and we're re-reading Prince Caspian. Re-reading because I'm sure that Crayons has heard it somewhere along the line, but I don't think she remembers it very well.
What are you all doing today?
Gift baskets and Christmas cheer at the Treehouse: photo post
Crocheted bells hung on the wall; Crayons added the angel.
Gift baskets for extended family members (who I hope aren't reading this before Christmas). The baskets were picked up this week at the thrift store, along with most of the picks, pinecones, and other doodads. The monkeys are handmade.
A bowlful of Christmas, to put on a table in the living room. The crystal bowl was a wedding gift. Mama Squirrel made the origami boxes from an old (thrifted) book of Christmas photos. The ornaments and picks were all picked out of this week's thrift store boxful of stuff.
All photos by Mr. Fixit. Copyright 2011, Dewey's Treehouse.
A bowlful of Christmas, to put on a table in the living room. The crystal bowl was a wedding gift. Mama Squirrel made the origami boxes from an old (thrifted) book of Christmas photos. The ornaments and picks were all picked out of this week's thrift store boxful of stuff.
The four wooden apples on the stove came inside that red and green bucket that we used for one of the gift baskets. The brown angel box also came from the thrift store. The squirrel and acorn salt-and-peppers came from another thrift store several years ago--a gift for Mr. Fixit.
The dining room buffet, improved this week by finds from the thrift store--gold garland and ornaments, candle rings. The candle rings don't match but they're the same colours, so I'll live with that unless I can find something else. Good Mousekeeping isn't keeping tabs here.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Found at the thrift store: Mama Squirrel goes squirrelly with decorations and baskets
What did we bring home from the thrift store this week?
Quite a lot. Some of it, I can't say, because it's almost Christmas. Just say that I had my eyes open, looking out for certain peoples' particular reading interests.
And some of it, I can say, because it's almost Christmas. I earned a bit of pin money last week by sitting through a bunch of prototype commercials with four other ladies and discussing what we thought of them. So I used some of that money to buy several nice baskets, and a whole boxful of trims, picks, bows and other holiday miscellany to dress up the baskets. What we do with the baskets (most years) is fill them with food gifts and other small items, and those are our family gifts for a few of the relatives.
Mr. Fixit is going to take photos later today, so come on back and you can see what the filled baskets look like.
Funniest book I sorted yesterday:
Funny not because of the content, but because of the shape of the book. If you can't see from the photo, the hardcover edition is a parallelogram.
Quite a lot. Some of it, I can't say, because it's almost Christmas. Just say that I had my eyes open, looking out for certain peoples' particular reading interests.
And some of it, I can say, because it's almost Christmas. I earned a bit of pin money last week by sitting through a bunch of prototype commercials with four other ladies and discussing what we thought of them. So I used some of that money to buy several nice baskets, and a whole boxful of trims, picks, bows and other holiday miscellany to dress up the baskets. What we do with the baskets (most years) is fill them with food gifts and other small items, and those are our family gifts for a few of the relatives.
Mr. Fixit is going to take photos later today, so come on back and you can see what the filled baskets look like.
Funniest book I sorted yesterday:
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Books are a movie written down for you? This is serious...
So says an Ontario elementary student, interviewed in an article about a recent survey saying that third- and sixth-graders are "better" at reading than they used to be, but that they don't like to read.
And she was one of the ones who DID like to read.
The most successful teacher interviewed found her greatest success through having students make movies and video games of the novels they read.
What would Marva Collins think of that? What would Dao Ngoc Phung think?
Those of us who hang out in the homeschooled, reading, classical/CM/literature based, "I have two thousand books here" subculture may not even be aware of how big this problem is. Charlotte Mason talked about opening doors into wide places, through books. This youngest generation (in large part) not only hasn't been shown the open door, but doesn't even know there is one. One wonders if many of their teachers are in a much better position.
Our education system is running on fumes, folks. "Get them reading anything" may be today's mark of success; it may get the car out of the garage; but good luck doing more with it than a few laps around the block. What used to be a cruise down Main Street is as intimidating to today's children as a superhighway...or perhaps the problem now is that people just can't be bothered driving much at all--maybe just turning the key and listening to the engine is enough. "We are too easily satisfied," C.S. Lewis said about spiritual matters, and the same phrase can be applied to educational issues.
Life is not a movie. Books are not video games. Fun is good, humour is good, but learning is also a journey, a quest, an adventure, and you take real adventures seriously. As I've said elsewhere, quoting the late Carol Bly--can't we please, please have permission to be serious?
I'm serious.
And she was one of the ones who DID like to read.
The most successful teacher interviewed found her greatest success through having students make movies and video games of the novels they read.
What would Marva Collins think of that? What would Dao Ngoc Phung think?
Those of us who hang out in the homeschooled, reading, classical/CM/literature based, "I have two thousand books here" subculture may not even be aware of how big this problem is. Charlotte Mason talked about opening doors into wide places, through books. This youngest generation (in large part) not only hasn't been shown the open door, but doesn't even know there is one. One wonders if many of their teachers are in a much better position.
Our education system is running on fumes, folks. "Get them reading anything" may be today's mark of success; it may get the car out of the garage; but good luck doing more with it than a few laps around the block. What used to be a cruise down Main Street is as intimidating to today's children as a superhighway...or perhaps the problem now is that people just can't be bothered driving much at all--maybe just turning the key and listening to the engine is enough. "We are too easily satisfied," C.S. Lewis said about spiritual matters, and the same phrase can be applied to educational issues.
Life is not a movie. Books are not video games. Fun is good, humour is good, but learning is also a journey, a quest, an adventure, and you take real adventures seriously. As I've said elsewhere, quoting the late Carol Bly--can't we please, please have permission to be serious?
I'm serious.
Mama Squirrel's Reading List, 2011
I didn't have a particular goal for this year's reading, so the list is pretty eclectic. This is the year I discovered George Eliot and Lloyd Alexander (I read through the Prydain Chronicles twice, once myself and once with Ponytails). It was also a good year for art-inspired fiction. (R) means it was a re-read. § means I actually finished it. A few of the books I didn't finish or didn't like have been left off the list..
Classic-type stuff
On the Art of Writing, by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
Meno, by Plato (and I started reading a couple of other dialogues) §
"Lancelot and Elaine," by Alfred Lord Tennyson §
"Self-Reliance," by Ralph Waldo Emerson §
Parts of Plutarch's Lives (R)
Silas Marner, by George Eliot §
Scenes of Clerical Life, by George Eliot §
Middlemarch, by George Eliot
Great Expectations (R) (re-read with Crayons) §
The Abbot, by Sir Walter Scott §
Guy Mannering, by Sir Walter Scott §
The Incredulity of Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton §
The Innocence of Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton (R) §
The Scarlet Pimpernel (R) §
Candide, by Voltaire §
Science-type stuff
Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory...., by Peter Woit
Theology-type stuff
The Pursuit of God, by A.W. Tozer
Making Men Whole, by J.B. Phillips §
The Call, by Os Guinness (R) §
Serious Times: Making Your Life Matter in an Urgent Day, by James Emery White §
Lessons I Learned in the Light, by Jennifer Rothschild §
One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp §
Parts of the Bible (RRRRR)
Old-favourites-type stuff
Shepherds Abiding, by Jan Karon (R) §
At Home in Mitford, by Jan Karon (R) §
Light from Heaven, by Jan Karon (R) §
The Trail of the Conestoga (R) (re-read with Crayons) §
Meet the Malones (R) (re-read with Crayons) §
Beany Malone (R) (re-read with Crayons) §
Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey (R) §
An Episode of Sparrows, by Rumer Godden (R) §
In This House of Brede, by Rumer Godden (R) §
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, by Anne Tyler (R) §
84, Charing Cross Road / The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, by Helene Hanff (R) §
Teaching-type stuff
Norms and Nobility, by David V. Hicks (R) §
Marva Collins' Way (R) §
"Ordinary" Children, Extraordinary Teachers, by Marva Collins §
Read & Grow Rich, by Burke Hedges §
Homeschooling Only One (R), by Donna Conner §
Schoolproof, by Mary Pride (R) §
Parts of Charlotte Mason's books (R)
Gurgi stuff
The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander §
The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander §
The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander §
The Castle of Llyr, by Lloyd Alexander §
Taran Wanderer, by Lloyd Alexander §
The High King, by Lloyd Alexander §
Madeleine stuff
Walking on Water, by Madeleine L'Engle (R) §
A Wind in the Door, by Madeleine L'Engle §
A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeleine L'Engle §
A Ring of Endless Light, by Madeleine L'Engle §
Two-Part Invention, by Madeleine L'Engle (R) §
More space-and-time stuff
C.S. Lewis: A Biography, by A.N. Wilson §
Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis (R) §
The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis §
Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis §
Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis §
That Hideous Strength, by C.S. Lewis §
Prince Caspian (R) §
Homey stuff
More Make it Fast, Cook It Slow, by Stephanie O'Dea §
Canada's Slow Cooker Winners, by Donna-Marie Pye §
Hooked: A Crocheter's Stash of Wit and Wisdom, ed. by Kari Cornell §
other craft books that I can't remember
Creating a Beautiful Home, by Alexandra Stoddard (R) §
two other books by Alexandra Stoddard §
Flanagan's Smart Home, by Barbara Flanagan §
Does This Clutter Make My B---- Look Fat?, by Peter Walsh §
Miscellaneous
Madam How and Lady Why, by Charles Kingsley (R) §
The Long-Ago Lake, by Marne Wilkins
A Passion for the Impossible (bio of Lilias Trotter), by Miriam Huffman Rockness §
Trial and Error, by Anthony Berkeley §)
Detectives in Togas, by Henry Winterfeld §
Roman Ransom, by Henry Winterfeld §
Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper, by Harriet Chessman §
Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier §
Out of the Storm, by Grace Livingston Hill §
Not Under the Law, by Grace Livingston Hill §
Beauty for Ashes, by Grace Livingston Hill §
Classic-type stuff
On the Art of Writing, by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
Meno, by Plato (and I started reading a couple of other dialogues) §
"Lancelot and Elaine," by Alfred Lord Tennyson §
"Self-Reliance," by Ralph Waldo Emerson §
Parts of Plutarch's Lives (R)
Silas Marner, by George Eliot §
Scenes of Clerical Life, by George Eliot §
Middlemarch, by George Eliot
Great Expectations (R) (re-read with Crayons) §
The Abbot, by Sir Walter Scott §
Guy Mannering, by Sir Walter Scott §
The Incredulity of Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton §
The Innocence of Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton (R) §
The Scarlet Pimpernel (R) §
Candide, by Voltaire §
Science-type stuff
Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory...., by Peter Woit
Theology-type stuff
The Pursuit of God, by A.W. Tozer
Making Men Whole, by J.B. Phillips §
The Call, by Os Guinness (R) §
Serious Times: Making Your Life Matter in an Urgent Day, by James Emery White §
Lessons I Learned in the Light, by Jennifer Rothschild §
One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp §
Parts of the Bible (RRRRR)
Old-favourites-type stuff
Shepherds Abiding, by Jan Karon (R) §
At Home in Mitford, by Jan Karon (R) §
Light from Heaven, by Jan Karon (R) §
The Trail of the Conestoga (R) (re-read with Crayons) §
Meet the Malones (R) (re-read with Crayons) §
Beany Malone (R) (re-read with Crayons) §
Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey (R) §
An Episode of Sparrows, by Rumer Godden (R) §
In This House of Brede, by Rumer Godden (R) §
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, by Anne Tyler (R) §
84, Charing Cross Road / The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, by Helene Hanff (R) §
Teaching-type stuff
Norms and Nobility, by David V. Hicks (R) §
Marva Collins' Way (R) §
"Ordinary" Children, Extraordinary Teachers, by Marva Collins §
Read & Grow Rich, by Burke Hedges §
Homeschooling Only One (R), by Donna Conner §
Schoolproof, by Mary Pride (R) §
Parts of Charlotte Mason's books (R)
Gurgi stuff
The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander §
The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander §
The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander §
The Castle of Llyr, by Lloyd Alexander §
Taran Wanderer, by Lloyd Alexander §
The High King, by Lloyd Alexander §
Madeleine stuff
Walking on Water, by Madeleine L'Engle (R) §
A Wind in the Door, by Madeleine L'Engle §
A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeleine L'Engle §
A Ring of Endless Light, by Madeleine L'Engle §
Two-Part Invention, by Madeleine L'Engle (R) §
More space-and-time stuff
C.S. Lewis: A Biography, by A.N. Wilson §
Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis (R) §
The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis §
Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis §
Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis §
That Hideous Strength, by C.S. Lewis §
Prince Caspian (R) §
Homey stuff
More Make it Fast, Cook It Slow, by Stephanie O'Dea §
Canada's Slow Cooker Winners, by Donna-Marie Pye §
Hooked: A Crocheter's Stash of Wit and Wisdom, ed. by Kari Cornell §
other craft books that I can't remember
Creating a Beautiful Home, by Alexandra Stoddard (R) §
two other books by Alexandra Stoddard §
Flanagan's Smart Home, by Barbara Flanagan §
Does This Clutter Make My B---- Look Fat?, by Peter Walsh §
Miscellaneous
Madam How and Lady Why, by Charles Kingsley (R) §
The Long-Ago Lake, by Marne Wilkins
A Passion for the Impossible (bio of Lilias Trotter), by Miriam Huffman Rockness §
Trial and Error, by Anthony Berkeley §)
Detectives in Togas, by Henry Winterfeld §
Roman Ransom, by Henry Winterfeld §
Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper, by Harriet Chessman §
Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier §
Out of the Storm, by Grace Livingston Hill §
Not Under the Law, by Grace Livingston Hill §
Beauty for Ashes, by Grace Livingston Hill §
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Butterscotch drizzle: stretching what you have
Today I made a double batch of Doreen Perry's oatmeal cookies, using crushed cornflakes and butterscotch chips as the extras. I purposely didn't use the whole bag of butterscotch chips, because I wanted to use them somehow as topping to fancy up the cookies. But there weren't a lot of chips left, maybe a cupful, and the double recipe made five panfuls of cookies.
So I thought about that while the first two pans baked.
And this is what I came up with: I mixed about two-thirds of a cup of icing sugar with a bit of milk, the same way I do when I'm making glaze for pumpkin doughnuts. I melted the butterscotch chips in the microwave and mixed them into the glaze. It was too thick to drizzle, so I added just a bit more milk and then put the whole thing back in the microwave for half a minute, reasoning that sauces and syrups get thinner when they're heated. (You know the old trick of warming up honey or pancake syrup that has crystallized in the jar? It also works with jam, if you want it thinner to pour on pancakes or spread over a cake.)
Expecting a disaster at this point? No, it actually worked. There was enough butterscotch-flavoured glaze to give each cookie a good drizzle.
And now I just have to go figure out what we're having for supper.
So I thought about that while the first two pans baked.
And this is what I came up with: I mixed about two-thirds of a cup of icing sugar with a bit of milk, the same way I do when I'm making glaze for pumpkin doughnuts. I melted the butterscotch chips in the microwave and mixed them into the glaze. It was too thick to drizzle, so I added just a bit more milk and then put the whole thing back in the microwave for half a minute, reasoning that sauces and syrups get thinner when they're heated. (You know the old trick of warming up honey or pancake syrup that has crystallized in the jar? It also works with jam, if you want it thinner to pour on pancakes or spread over a cake.)
Expecting a disaster at this point? No, it actually worked. There was enough butterscotch-flavoured glaze to give each cookie a good drizzle.
And now I just have to go figure out what we're having for supper.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Crayons' photos: our bookshelves, the monkey mob, and Crystal's popcorn hat
Jeanne wanted to know where we put all our books.
Most of the school-related books are on this wallful of bookcases in our downstairs rec room. This is what you'd call a candid shot, because Mama Squirrel did not attempt to get rid of the leaners or the over-stackers before Crayons took the picture. You can see more books in the photos of Crayons' doll Crystal.
Mr. Fixit has a small personal bookcase in his workshop, and there are bookcases in the bedrooms. And a few cookbooks in the kitchen. But that's about it, except for a few boxes of stored books--our living room upstairs does not have a good spot for bookshelves. A few years ago, having an excess of time on my hands, I did a rough count, and I think it was about 1600 books. I cycle them in and out pretty evenly, so I still don't think we have over 2000 total: probably more than the average North American household, but still less than many homeschoolers we know.
Crystal has a new hat to cover up the fact that her back hair is embarrassingly skimpy. It started out to be a potholder, but the sides kept curving up and it just looked better as a hat. Mama Squirrel added chain-stitch ties to each side so that it can be tied under the chin or under her hair. Crayons is making Crystal a red holiday jumper at her Saturday sewing class, so this will finish off her outfit.
A back view--see the popcorn stitch?
I also stitched the monkeys' hands together so that they can hold candy canes. Much more cheerful, I thought. People can snip them apart later if they want.
All photos copyright by Crayons, 2011. All yarns are Red Heart SuperSaver.
Most of the school-related books are on this wallful of bookcases in our downstairs rec room. This is what you'd call a candid shot, because Mama Squirrel did not attempt to get rid of the leaners or the over-stackers before Crayons took the picture. You can see more books in the photos of Crayons' doll Crystal.
Mr. Fixit has a small personal bookcase in his workshop, and there are bookcases in the bedrooms. And a few cookbooks in the kitchen. But that's about it, except for a few boxes of stored books--our living room upstairs does not have a good spot for bookshelves. A few years ago, having an excess of time on my hands, I did a rough count, and I think it was about 1600 books. I cycle them in and out pretty evenly, so I still don't think we have over 2000 total: probably more than the average North American household, but still less than many homeschoolers we know.
Crystal has a new hat to cover up the fact that her back hair is embarrassingly skimpy. It started out to be a potholder, but the sides kept curving up and it just looked better as a hat. Mama Squirrel added chain-stitch ties to each side so that it can be tied under the chin or under her hair. Crayons is making Crystal a red holiday jumper at her Saturday sewing class, so this will finish off her outfit.
All photos copyright by Crayons, 2011. All yarns are Red Heart SuperSaver.
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Holiday decorations at the Treehouse...getting started
We haven't actually gotten any boxes of Christmas ornaments out yet...but we always have a few things put away in the hall cupboard, so I pulled those out and mixed them with year-round decorations.
By the front door...I know there's nothing on the tree, but it was a start.
Six little monkeys, sitting in a tree. I borrowed the tree so you could see how the monkeys turned out...but they're going here and there for gifts. After we took the picture, I got an even better idea: each monkey is going to hold a candy cane.
Another view of the table by the front door.
Six little monkeys, sitting in a tree. I borrowed the tree so you could see how the monkeys turned out...but they're going here and there for gifts. After we took the picture, I got an even better idea: each monkey is going to hold a candy cane.
The top of our buffet, just playing around with some teacups and dolls. (Does it look a bit like Brenda's?) What it really needs is some greenery, flowers, bows, all that dress-up stuff...but we'll get there.
Monday, December 05, 2011
Friday, December 02, 2011
Christmas bookshopping, ca. 1886 (vintage Good Housekeeping)
Some Hints And Helps Concerning Christmas Gifts.
"IN season" is the "sign-manual" before which many a door swings open, and a little forethought saves the futile knocking at many a portal, or, instead of a grating, reluctant opening, secures a magical movement of harmonious hinges. Christmas preparations, to be satisfactory, demand an early beginning. Left until the Christmas stir is in the air, and the Christmas shoppers are in the streets: till the days are shortest and coldest; till the nerves are tense and quivering with hurry and excitement; till the mind is confused with the sight of many beautiful things and tempting bargains; till our reckoning gets awry, and expenditures are sure to slip beyond the bounds of prudence, and we have to show for them, moreover, articles whose utility and fitness we more than doubt, giftmaking becomes a bugbear and a burden. With many of us) gifts must, in large measure, be bought with little savings, made at odd moments, or in the intervals of other tasks, and be determined, perhaps, by the little sacrifices or the labor of love we may find possible to allot to them.
A little careful, generous forethought, a judicious reckoning of what we can spend, and a thoughtful apportionment thereof, will add to the pleasure of giver and receiver, and leave some space, perhaps, at the blessed Christmas-tide for the fellowships, the recollections, the influences, of which gift and greeting are only accessions and reflections. The gifts planned beforehand, too, will be likely to be most valued after Christmas. We are more likely to take account of individual needs and preferences. I must confess to a liking for those gifts which supply some real want, which are more than bric-a-brac, which are meant not only to be admired and treasured, but to be used and enjoyed, to become some real part, however small, of the life and belongings of the one who receives them. Such gifts have a double preciousness, for they reveal the thoughtful love which, only, could have prompted them, and bespeak for it, on the part of the receiver, a grateful recognition and remembrance. Not all gifts can be such, perhaps, but the ideal gift will always be, like the love behind it,
"A simple, fireside thing,—
A thing to walk with, hand in hand,
Through the every-day-ness of this work-day world." Christmas cards are a happy invention of some one, and they serve a gracious purpose, but many times the money they cost might buy something which would be more truly a delight than they. And it may be possible for deft fingers to fashion some dainty or durable article that shall better represent herself and better serve her friend's need.
Never, it seems to me, could one make choice of so many beautiful, expressive, serviceable tokens with but a little "siller in the purse," as now. The lovely little books of daily readings are the choicest of souvenirs. They come in all sizes and at all prices. As I write, there is at hand a late announcement of new books, and I especially note some new books with Scripture texts for one month (E. P. Dutton & Co.), for ten cents: "Sunshine for Life's Pathway," with daily readings, accompanied by poems by Miss Havergal and others, for one month, thirty-five cents; and in Cassell's "Chimes Series," uniquely bound, illustrated volumes, at fifty cents,—"Bible Chimes," "Daily Chimes," and "Old World Chimes," containing readings for every day in the month, and "Holy Chimes," being "thoughts in verse for every Sunday in the year," which last, it seems to me, would be an especially appropriate gift for those dear invalid friends, of whom doubtless we can all count one or two, whose Sabbaths are brightened by no song of choir or words of preacher, and whose sanctuary is home. "Helps by the Way," one dollar (D. Lothrop & Co.), will be a help and comfort evenday of the year to come. And there are many other books, to be had at the cost of a Christmas card, which would outlast and outweigh a score of such tokens. There are two or three of Mrs. Ewing's delightful stories,—"Jackanapes," "Daddy Darwin's Dovecote," and "The Story of a Short Life," which Roberts Brothers, of Boston, issue, with illustrations, and in comely, serviceable bindings at thirty-five cents each. The two books first named, by that English woman whose stories are so fast finding place beside our own best-loved household authors, are, perhaps, best adapted for children. That last mentioned can hardly fail to be full of interest and significance to that invalid friend. The three, bound together, with life of the author, comes at one dollar.
Of other costlier books there is little need to speak. These are specified because of their peculiar fitness for inexpensive gift-making, and the possibility of their commutation for gifts of far less worth and fitness. And what gifts do we give that are so likely to be treasured, so sure of a welcome, so certain to perpetuate the finest part of our friendships, stored with such pleasantness and helpfulness as some coveted or well-chosen volume? How often such a book brings to Our friend wiser and more potent suggestions than the one most loving could!
Of the little gifts one may make with little trouble, it may be well to mention a few, which are to be especially commended to the attention of busy, not over-skillful people, in that they are all very simply and speedily fashioned, and they require, moreover, little outlay. [Directions follow for small gifts such as needlebooks.]
All the things I have named are the simplest and most inexpensive of gifts. They may, therefore, be within easy reach and answer a purpose that richer gifts could not. Or, being simple, it may be possible to remember, with some of them, some weary toiling, discouraged body who, maybe, will not have else even such gifts as these. And to bestow such gifts, to give a bit of gladness, even at a little cost of time or money or effort, to some one no other may remember, some one we ourselves remember only with Christian love and kindliness is to embody the spirit of the day, to express the spirit of Him, "who, though He was rich, yet," on this day, "for our sakes, became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich."—Olive E. Dana.
Original link: Good Housekeeping 1886
Photos copyright Dewey's Treehouse.
Thursday, December 01, 2011
Molly, the 1886 Leftover Queen (one more vintage clip)
Molly, a Victorian housewife, has set herself a challenge to spend only $10 on housekeeping for the whole week. She presents the week's grocery bill to her husband.
"Now, although that amount has been spent this week, you must remember that of several of the articles bought, a little is left, and I have not to begin this week without a scrap in the house as I had last," explained Molly. "We only need ice a week or two longer, but when that need ceases we shall need more fuel, but I think a dollar a week all the year round will average ice and fuel, so I shall allow that. We shall use two dollars a week for a few weeks, but barely fifty cents the rest of the year."Want to read more? Molly's hints and recipes are quite extensive. (Just search at the top for Good Housekeeping, Molly, chicken.)
Molly laid the accounts before her husband as she finished, and he gravely looked them over.
"And if, this month, I come out even five cents ahead, we may count ourselves safe, for buying in the very small quantities I am now doing is an extravagant way. But I wanted to make sure my 'paper housekeeping' would work in practice."
There was rather an anxious look in Harry's eyes as he read over the accounts. He was afraid Molly had sadly miscalculated, and he hated to prove her at fault, although he loved to poke fun at her.
"What's the matter?" asked his wife, starting up and looking over his shoulder.
"Only, dear, if you remember, we had chicken in one form or other several times this week, but there is only one chicken counted, and that is to-day. Also, lamb chops we have had several times." He glanced up at her deprecatingly, for he felt such criticism ungracious yet necessary, but Molly was quite serene.
"The box of chicken in Monday's bill was all I've used; the chops also were from Monday. There's one thing, though, I will call your attention to, and that is, that the most expensive meal we had was the steak, yet people who use steak every day are supposed to live plainly and economically."
"Then we come out wonderfully, I acknowledge."
What to give to the Strugglehards (vintage clipping)
"Of course you have got cousin Sophia Strugglehard on your list?" asked John changing the subject.
"Oh, yes," answered Kitty briskly.(Good Housekeeping, 1886)
"What are you going to send her?"
"Well," hesitated Kitty, "I have bought her a couple of pretty handkerchiefs."
"Two for a quarter ?" queried John relentlessly.
"Now, John, you are too bad," began Kitty.
"No, I am not," answered he indignantly. "If ever anybody needed something pretty and bright she does, shut up in that dull country town with herflock of little children, and not a cent for anything beyond clothes and food. Think how one of your plush banners or painted easels would brighten her shabby parlor, while in Aunt Easymoney's it is simply one thing more too many."
"Yes, but you know, John," said Kitty eagerly, "she often says she wishes people would not send her handsome presents for she can't make any in return."
"Give and take again," answered John, "but don't you suppose a pretty bit of your own work done for love's sake, would hurt her pride less than the two cheap handkerchiefs given, as she knows as well as you do, just to 'give her something ?'"
"I wish you wouldn't say anything more, John," said Kitty disconsolately, " I think Christmas presents are dreadful anyway, and I shall be glad when it is over with."
"The trouble is not with the Christmas presents, my dear, but with the way you make them. The finest things must be given to the richest people because anything else will seem shabby, and because they give handsome things themselves. There is no affection about it. And the presents themselves, look at the heap of trash that gathers in our parlor Christmas week. Ornaments that keep me a week putting up and buying fixtures for, embroidered nonsense of all kinds, things of no possible use nor comfort, to be brushed up, or picked up, or nailed up for the whole year, till they are faded or broken. When I think of the money that goes into them and the care and bother that must go after them, I feel as Kitty does, Christmas is a burden and a bore. It is too bad to have such a beautiful custom spoiled. No, girls, don't waste eyes and time making something nobody wants just to give something. Give to people because you love them, and give them something they want. If they have so much that you must rack your brains to find something they have not got, for mercy's sake don't burden them with anything more. Give food and clothing to some perishing child in their name and tell them of it. Do anything but take all the heart and the blessedness out of the beautiful Christmas time. Remember who gave Himself, not to the rich and full, but to the poor and perishing, and let us keep our Christmas comfort not smother it under bric-a-brac and embroidery." —Mary Blake.
Monday, November 28, 2011
In which I make a monkey of myself with a ball of yarn
Today I tried out the Red Heart monkey pattern.
It went pretty smoothly and came out about the right size--7 inches. That's 17.78 cm for the Canadians.
I got to the end and suddenly realized--this monkey doesn't have a tail.
Since that wouldn't do, I added one. Make a chain the length of desired tail, then single crochet one row into the chains. It will curl a bit, as single crochet into chains does even when you don't want it to. Sew to the monkey's...um...tail-hitching place.
It went pretty smoothly and came out about the right size--7 inches. That's 17.78 cm for the Canadians.
I got to the end and suddenly realized--this monkey doesn't have a tail.
Since that wouldn't do, I added one. Make a chain the length of desired tail, then single crochet one row into the chains. It will curl a bit, as single crochet into chains does even when you don't want it to. Sew to the monkey's...um...tail-hitching place.
What's for supper? Stovetop lasagna
Tonight's menu:
Skillet Lasagna (I'd forgotten how much I like this recipe, especially when there are only seven lasagna noodles left in the box)
Europe's Best Nature's Balance frozen vegetables (Food Basics doesn't carry this anymore, but Walmart does--yeah!)
Grapes, cookies.
Skillet Lasagna (I'd forgotten how much I like this recipe, especially when there are only seven lasagna noodles left in the box)
Europe's Best Nature's Balance frozen vegetables (Food Basics doesn't carry this anymore, but Walmart does--yeah!)
Grapes, cookies.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Stuff-mart comes through. Just don't make me go there too often.
We have had W--t stores in Canada for a few years. They aren't usually my favourite place to shop--too big, too busy. But there's a newish one near us, and we decided to do our Saturday shopping there for a change.
Luckily, it wasn't very busy.
But wow, that is one overwhelming grocery section, especially when you're used to shopping at a discount supermarket with less choice. (The Apprentice found it particularly funny that there was one whole side of an aisle devoted to beef jerky, peanuts, and Little Debbies.) How can there be that much culture shock between stores only a few blocks apart? It actually felt like we had crossed the border into a U.S. supermarket....or into the Stuff-mart on Veggie Tales.
We haven't been able to find original, plain, just-potatoes, in-the-box Idahoan mashed potato flakes for quite awhile, ever since Giant Tiger stopped carrying anything except the flavoured pouch varieties. But there you go--we bought two boxes.
We also found the doll-head-sized beads that Crayons/Dollygirl has been wanting, the exact yarn Mama Squirrel needed for mini monkeys, and a rainbow assortment of tissue paper for crafts and gift wrapping. Also Sally's Cereals, which were new to us but which seemed like a good deal, $3 for a big bag of plain spoon-sized shredded wheat. And Habitant soup on sale for a dollar.
Oh--and a package of red candles for our Advent wreath. (Hoping for pink and purple would have been too much.)
What more could you ask?
Luckily, it wasn't very busy.
But wow, that is one overwhelming grocery section, especially when you're used to shopping at a discount supermarket with less choice. (The Apprentice found it particularly funny that there was one whole side of an aisle devoted to beef jerky, peanuts, and Little Debbies.) How can there be that much culture shock between stores only a few blocks apart? It actually felt like we had crossed the border into a U.S. supermarket....or into the Stuff-mart on Veggie Tales.
"They're in stock! And if you need refrigerators. To keep extra mashed potatoes. Or a giant air compressor. To blow fruit flies off your dresser ..."And speaking of mashed potatoes, guess what we found there?
We also found the doll-head-sized beads that Crayons/Dollygirl has been wanting, the exact yarn Mama Squirrel needed for mini monkeys, and a rainbow assortment of tissue paper for crafts and gift wrapping. Also Sally's Cereals, which were new to us but which seemed like a good deal, $3 for a big bag of plain spoon-sized shredded wheat. And Habitant soup on sale for a dollar.
Oh--and a package of red candles for our Advent wreath. (Hoping for pink and purple would have been too much.)
What more could you ask?
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
What did you do at school today?
Crayons/Dollygirl: "We finished Great Expectations."
Ponytails: Still waiting for an official response. But she did bring home an excellent first-term report card yesterday.
The Apprentice: "We fed caffeine to daphnia so we could watch their heart rate increase."
Doo doo doo doo doo doo, it's just another day.
Ponytails: Still waiting for an official response. But she did bring home an excellent first-term report card yesterday.
The Apprentice: "We fed caffeine to daphnia so we could watch their heart rate increase."
Doo doo doo doo doo doo, it's just another day.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
What's for supper? Baked potato soup, and a toaster-oven tip
It's Benjamin Britten's birthday. Also Hoagy Carmichael's. I doubt they ever collaborated on anything, so I'm giving them both equal space.
Tonight's menu:
We are trying Baked Potato Soup from A Year of Slow Cooking (halving the recipe and cooking it in the 3 1/2 quart slow cooker--cream cheese was on sale this week!) [Update: Wow, I think we have a new favourite soup. I did cut back on the cayenne pepper, though.]
with Beer Bread (sorry about the popup there),
Oranges,
and some banana cake/bread that went in the toaster oven after the beer bread was done.
(A tip for toaster-oven bakers: the biggest dish our current toaster oven can handle is a large casserole dish. When I'm baking anything too big for an 8-inch or 9-inch square pan, such as a banana bread recipe that normally goes in a 9 x 13-inch pan, I put it in one of the large casseroles and just let it bake longer than normal. One caution with this: with the pan being so close to the bottom element, the bottom of the cake or bread may get a bit dark before the top gets brown, so check towards the end of baking.)
Tonight's menu:
We are trying Baked Potato Soup from A Year of Slow Cooking (halving the recipe and cooking it in the 3 1/2 quart slow cooker--cream cheese was on sale this week!) [Update: Wow, I think we have a new favourite soup. I did cut back on the cayenne pepper, though.]
with Beer Bread (sorry about the popup there),
Oranges,
and some banana cake/bread that went in the toaster oven after the beer bread was done.
(A tip for toaster-oven bakers: the biggest dish our current toaster oven can handle is a large casserole dish. When I'm baking anything too big for an 8-inch or 9-inch square pan, such as a banana bread recipe that normally goes in a 9 x 13-inch pan, I put it in one of the large casseroles and just let it bake longer than normal. One caution with this: with the pan being so close to the bottom element, the bottom of the cake or bread may get a bit dark before the top gets brown, so check towards the end of baking.)
Monday, November 21, 2011
'I am affronted,' said Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit (on toddler book apps)
"At the age of 2, Calvin Wang’s son seems to have learned a truism that is already ricocheting around the Internet: A book is an iPad that doesn’t work.I just hope that this generation can eventually forgive us for what we're doing to them.
"Wang designs interactive storybooks for the iPad. He was inspired, he says, by watching his daughter interact with a movable cardboard book. Since then, Loud Crow, his Vancouver-based firm, has turned an array of children’s picture books that take the pop-up concept into the digital age. Books such as Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit now respond to touch by moving, twirling, speaking and noise-making.
"Having experienced the app, he says, his son is puzzled by the fact that creatures in the original cardboard books don’t move. “When he opens the book, the first thing he does is start tapping the creature in the book.”"--"For some kids, a book is just an iPad that doesn’t work," by Ivor Tossell, Globe and Mail
Sunday, November 20, 2011
In which the chambered nautilus flunks the test (a math lesson for Crayons)
Fifth grader Crayons/Dollygirl has been learning a bit of math history from John Tiner's Exploring the World of Mathematics. In this week's lesson I had just intended to finish up the chapter on Number Patterns, but the Fibonacci business got away from me a bit. But that's a good thing.
Here's the lesson as I plan to present it tomorrow, making use of online resources (including one with an unexpected surprise).
1. Review what we have learned so far about Fibonacci numbers: that they run in the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 and so on, with each pair of numbers adding up to the number following right after.
2. Construct squares following the sequence from graph paper--that is, two with sides 1 unit long, one with sides 2 units long, and so on. Colour them and cut them out.
3. Arrange them as if you were packing them in a box, starting with the smallest ones in the centre. See diagram in the book if you're not sure. Then watch this online animation. At the end of the animation, watch the drawing of the spiral. Can you see how that works? This is called a Fibonacci spiral.
4. Places in nature where Fibonacci spirals occur: in spiral galaxies, in your inner ear, in pine cones, in cauliflower. (I'm thinking maybe also in fiddleheads? I'm not sure about those.) But not, according to this blog post and its accompanying slide show, in that classic example (cited in Tiner's book), the chambered nautilus. So much for that. (Maybe it works for some people?)
5. Another use of Fibonacci spirals: in art, what is referred to as the Golden Mean or Golden Ratio. Apparently our eyes just like to follow things that move around in those proportions. Here's a neat blog post showing photographic examples. (According to the post, the photos were not deliberately planned to match up with the spiral: they just do because they're good photos. Or they're good photos because they just do.)
6. So a fun followup might be to find other examples of paintings or photographs that follow these proportions. Or to deliberately create a drawing--or maybe just a colour pattern--that follows it, and see how that works. Do you like the way it turned out--why or why not?
Here's the lesson as I plan to present it tomorrow, making use of online resources (including one with an unexpected surprise).
1. Review what we have learned so far about Fibonacci numbers: that they run in the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 and so on, with each pair of numbers adding up to the number following right after.
2. Construct squares following the sequence from graph paper--that is, two with sides 1 unit long, one with sides 2 units long, and so on. Colour them and cut them out.
3. Arrange them as if you were packing them in a box, starting with the smallest ones in the centre. See diagram in the book if you're not sure. Then watch this online animation. At the end of the animation, watch the drawing of the spiral. Can you see how that works? This is called a Fibonacci spiral.
4. Places in nature where Fibonacci spirals occur: in spiral galaxies, in your inner ear, in pine cones, in cauliflower. (I'm thinking maybe also in fiddleheads? I'm not sure about those.) But not, according to this blog post and its accompanying slide show, in that classic example (cited in Tiner's book), the chambered nautilus. So much for that. (Maybe it works for some people?)
5. Another use of Fibonacci spirals: in art, what is referred to as the Golden Mean or Golden Ratio. Apparently our eyes just like to follow things that move around in those proportions. Here's a neat blog post showing photographic examples. (According to the post, the photos were not deliberately planned to match up with the spiral: they just do because they're good photos. Or they're good photos because they just do.)
6. So a fun followup might be to find other examples of paintings or photographs that follow these proportions. Or to deliberately create a drawing--or maybe just a colour pattern--that follows it, and see how that works. Do you like the way it turned out--why or why not?
Friday, November 18, 2011
I am not an anomaly, I just make dinner
If you live in Canada, this is the time of year that the Milk Calendar comes out--many people get it free with the newspaper.
It's not like I depend on it for recipes (remember when Cardamom Addict posted her recipe reviews?), but it does tend to reflect what is going on in the "typical" Canadian kitchen of the time. (Fun bonus: if you go to the website and hover over "Recipes," you can read all the calendars going back to 1974.)
Note I said "typical."
Well, somebody's idea of typical. The media's idea of typical.
Here's the 2012 idea of typical:
Sweet potatoes are new ingredients??
But that aside...
Yes, I do cook every day, unless I'm sick or we're at the beach or something. Cook, not as in very time-consuming or expensive meals, but as in putting a few ingredients in the slow cooker, or mixing something up in a skillet and putting out a salad or vegetable, and a homemade dessert some days.
Is that now so strange? I KNOW I'm not alone; otherwise there wouldn't be so many homemaking blogs and frugal food websites. If you want to eat potatoes, meat, beans, stir fry, whatever, you do have to cook them. Or somebody does.
I'm not saying we should all revert to the 1979 Milk Calendar--after all, tastes HAVE changed.
But I just wonder when it was that yesterday's normal cook became today's freak of nature.
It's not like I depend on it for recipes (remember when Cardamom Addict posted her recipe reviews?), but it does tend to reflect what is going on in the "typical" Canadian kitchen of the time. (Fun bonus: if you go to the website and hover over "Recipes," you can read all the calendars going back to 1974.)
Note I said "typical."
Well, somebody's idea of typical. The media's idea of typical.
Here's the 2012 idea of typical:
The 2012 version of the venerable Milk Calendar looks a lot different than the first instalment launched by Dairy Farmers of Canada.
In the mid-’70s, Canadian families cooked at home almost every day. The calendar — featuring recipes for entrees, side dishes, desserts and baked goods — has kept pace with the times as more and more families juggle busy lifestyles and embrace new trends, says its recipe developer, Jennifer MacKenzie.
“So we streamlined many of the methods to modernize some of the traditional recipes that once took longer to prepare because we definitely know people aren’t doing that any longer,” she says.
MacKenzie adds that through the years, as new ingredients came on to the market such as chipotle and sweet potatoes to name a few, the Milk Calendar changed to include these newcomers. (Hamilton Spectator, other newspapers)
Sweet potatoes are new ingredients??
But that aside...
Yes, I do cook every day, unless I'm sick or we're at the beach or something. Cook, not as in very time-consuming or expensive meals, but as in putting a few ingredients in the slow cooker, or mixing something up in a skillet and putting out a salad or vegetable, and a homemade dessert some days.
Is that now so strange? I KNOW I'm not alone; otherwise there wouldn't be so many homemaking blogs and frugal food websites. If you want to eat potatoes, meat, beans, stir fry, whatever, you do have to cook them. Or somebody does.
I'm not saying we should all revert to the 1979 Milk Calendar--after all, tastes HAVE changed.
But I just wonder when it was that yesterday's normal cook became today's freak of nature.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Hot and cold: it works out in the end (pudding recipe)
Wednesday seems to be the one day that the Apprentice manages to get home from university at our normal supper hour. (It's a long commute and most nights she gets back later.)
So Mama Squirrel decided to add some extras to the small package of sausage that was waiting for us in the slow cooker. Along with the sausage and a few reheated sweet potatoes, we had hot corn bread and a can of baked beans.
Also some last-minute homemade vanilla pudding, which went into small bowls, still pretty hot. Solution: topping each bowl with a quarter-cup of frozen blueberries, and refrigerating for about twenty minutes. Guess what? It worked. Quicker than you would think, the blueberries were thawed and the pudding had cooled off.
Here's the recipe, in case you don't have one.
Vanilla Pudding, from Betty Crocker's Cookbook
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. salt
2 cups milk (I used a can of 2% evaporated milk, thinned with water to make 2 cups)
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tbsp. margarine or butter (I used less--I don't like it greasy)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in 2-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir at least half of the hot mixture gradually into egg yorks; stir into hot mixture in saucepan. Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in margarine/butter and vanilla. Pour into dessert dishes, refrigerate (and top with frozen berries if you're in a hurry). Makes 4 servings (or 5 if you stretch it).
My note: if you're out of eggs or in a huge hurry, you can skip the egg yolks. But they do give a better flavour to vanilla or butterscotch pudding.
So Mama Squirrel decided to add some extras to the small package of sausage that was waiting for us in the slow cooker. Along with the sausage and a few reheated sweet potatoes, we had hot corn bread and a can of baked beans.
Also some last-minute homemade vanilla pudding, which went into small bowls, still pretty hot. Solution: topping each bowl with a quarter-cup of frozen blueberries, and refrigerating for about twenty minutes. Guess what? It worked. Quicker than you would think, the blueberries were thawed and the pudding had cooled off.
Here's the recipe, in case you don't have one.
Vanilla Pudding, from Betty Crocker's Cookbook
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. salt
2 cups milk (I used a can of 2% evaporated milk, thinned with water to make 2 cups)
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tbsp. margarine or butter (I used less--I don't like it greasy)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in 2-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir at least half of the hot mixture gradually into egg yorks; stir into hot mixture in saucepan. Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in margarine/butter and vanilla. Pour into dessert dishes, refrigerate (and top with frozen berries if you're in a hurry). Makes 4 servings (or 5 if you stretch it).
My note: if you're out of eggs or in a huge hurry, you can skip the egg yolks. But they do give a better flavour to vanilla or butterscotch pudding.
Decorating soap--even little ones can do this
The Deputy Headmistress just posted about a neat way to decorate candles, that even little kids could handle.
It reminded me of something we did a couple of times when our Squirrelings were small--and I mean REALLY small: custom-decorated bars of soap, the same way as Polly's Pointers recommends here. (Shows you how old I am that I remember Polly's Pointers?)
Short version: you need bars of soap, tissue paper/markers/or some other kind of thin pictures, paraffin, and something to melt it in. How to: cut a piece of tissue paper almost as big as the bar of soap, and have the child decorate it (colourful scribbles are fine). Dampen the top of the bar of soap (no, DHM, we didn't spit on it) and press the picture onto it. Then either dip the top of the soap into melted paraffin (parent's job) or brush it on. Let it harden and give to delighted grandparent. The decoration will last a very long time, even if you actually use the soap--the paraffin layer protects the picture.
Or you could use stickers, tiny dried flowers, or something like that instead of making your own picture. But honestly, nothing beats a toddler-drawn portrait of Grandma.
And just saying--paraffin is hot, dangerous, flammable, and everything else, so be careful and keep small kids away from it.
It reminded me of something we did a couple of times when our Squirrelings were small--and I mean REALLY small: custom-decorated bars of soap, the same way as Polly's Pointers recommends here. (Shows you how old I am that I remember Polly's Pointers?)
Short version: you need bars of soap, tissue paper/markers/or some other kind of thin pictures, paraffin, and something to melt it in. How to: cut a piece of tissue paper almost as big as the bar of soap, and have the child decorate it (colourful scribbles are fine). Dampen the top of the bar of soap (no, DHM, we didn't spit on it) and press the picture onto it. Then either dip the top of the soap into melted paraffin (parent's job) or brush it on. Let it harden and give to delighted grandparent. The decoration will last a very long time, even if you actually use the soap--the paraffin layer protects the picture.
Or you could use stickers, tiny dried flowers, or something like that instead of making your own picture. But honestly, nothing beats a toddler-drawn portrait of Grandma.
And just saying--paraffin is hot, dangerous, flammable, and everything else, so be careful and keep small kids away from it.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
On every branch there sat a monkey*
Canadian Living Magazine's holiday issue features lots of gift ideas, including a commercially-produced set of sock monkey tree ornaments.
We have sock monkey fans in our extended family, so I thought that was a very cute idea. But maybe a homemade version?
Red Heart came through with a crocheted version.
My holiday-making-quotient just jumped up a couple of notches.
Now I just have to hunt through the yarn box and see what we have that would work.
*Don't recognize that line? Try this:
We have sock monkey fans in our extended family, so I thought that was a very cute idea. But maybe a homemade version?
Red Heart came through with a crocheted version.
My holiday-making-quotient just jumped up a couple of notches.
Now I just have to hunt through the yarn box and see what we have that would work.
*Don't recognize that line? Try this:
Quote for the day: Listen first, knit later?
Some advice to mothers of young ladies:
"Some people like to live as if they were catching a train. They are really only running after their own tails; they cannot select what must be done this minute, and what can be put off to the next day. Put them where you like; they will still have no leisure. If you want to teach the methodical use of time and orderly habits of mind, you must first learn to show a calm front and have a heart "at leisure from itself." I heard a woman who had many friends spoken of as one "who when you want her advice does not jump up to fetch her knitting before she will listen to you.""--"Girls from Twelve to Sixteen," by Mrs. Hart Davis, in The Parent's Review, Volume 13, no. 2, February 1902, pgs. 81-93
Monday, November 14, 2011
When packaging (and love) make gifts special
Sometimes it's not so much what's in the gift as the concept behind it, and the way you present it. Remember the Dollar Store Santa Dollies at Old Days Old Ways? Even small, frugal or miscellaneous gifts become something special when the creative-giving muse is allowed to run free.
Valerie at Frugal Family Fun Blog has a perfect example of this: "Doll Bath Sets." Anyone can hand a kid some soap, an empty shampoo bottle, and a washcloth, and say "here, go wash your doll." But it takes imagination to put it together into more of a package deal. Valerie is very, very good at this.
Another example: Family Fun Magazine's Hot Chocolate Cones. Mostly hot chocolate mix with a few marshmallows and chocolate chips, but it's the shape of the package (cone-shaped clear bags) that turns it into something fun.
We've had a few successes along that line too: last year's custom Sculpey repackaging, and the clothespin doll kits the girls got a few years ago. Mama Squirrel has also posted gift basket ideas and other thoughts on gift-giving. And don't forget our squirrel's tips on giving "thwifted" books.
Valerie at Frugal Family Fun Blog has a perfect example of this: "Doll Bath Sets." Anyone can hand a kid some soap, an empty shampoo bottle, and a washcloth, and say "here, go wash your doll." But it takes imagination to put it together into more of a package deal. Valerie is very, very good at this.
Another example: Family Fun Magazine's Hot Chocolate Cones. Mostly hot chocolate mix with a few marshmallows and chocolate chips, but it's the shape of the package (cone-shaped clear bags) that turns it into something fun.
We've had a few successes along that line too: last year's custom Sculpey repackaging, and the clothespin doll kits the girls got a few years ago. Mama Squirrel has also posted gift basket ideas and other thoughts on gift-giving. And don't forget our squirrel's tips on giving "thwifted" books.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
It's been a quiet blogging week...how about you?
I find it ironic that in the two weeks of HSBA voting, being nominated in both the Thrifty and Encourager categories, I've managed to post very little of either. It's been a pretty quiet week here, and feels even quieter compared to the lives of those who have been paddling through rainforests or battling evil raccoons. Or writing fifty-plus-page plans for a mission to Mars (the Apprentice). My most exciting thrifty activity this weekend was bagging two trays of clearance tomatoes and cooking them down all afternoon to make puree. (Mr. Fixit helped me put it all through the applesauce mill.) I've been working on some ideas for the holidays, but to be honest, it all feels like it's coming at us a bit too fast this year...same as last year, when we didn't even get the Nativity scene up until New Year's. Last year I had a lot of yarn, a lot of fabric, so I did a lot of crocheting and sewing. This year my stockpile of those things is depleted, and the gray skies and harsh winds are not exactly encouraging my pre-holiday creativity. On the other hand, a trip yesterday to the discount department store (think Christmas Muzak and all that) was enough to make me want to wait a bit longer. [Creativity Boost Update: Check out this November's annual gift-making tutorials at Sew Mama Sew, starting with this post. New ideas every day this month.]
Now if the HSBA had a Tonstant Weader category, maybe I'd have more to say. This week I've been working on lectures by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch ("Q") that I've been trying to finish for way too long (the footer on my printout of the first few confesses a date of two years ago). Like Helene Hanff, I find Q's writing forces me to go slowly, but I'm determined to finish, eventually. I also re-read an essay by Gene Veith, and one of my favourite posts I had printed out from Coffee, Tea, Books and Me. They all tie in together somewhat.
Now if the HSBA had a Tonstant Weader category, maybe I'd have more to say. This week I've been working on lectures by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch ("Q") that I've been trying to finish for way too long (the footer on my printout of the first few confesses a date of two years ago). Like Helene Hanff, I find Q's writing forces me to go slowly, but I'm determined to finish, eventually. I also re-read an essay by Gene Veith, and one of my favourite posts I had printed out from Coffee, Tea, Books and Me. They all tie in together somewhat.
"C.S. Lewis in his classic essay "On the Reading of Old Books" recommends reading at least one old book for every three new books. This is not because old books are necessarily superior but because every age has its blind spots: "We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books." To break out of the narrowness of our own time, in which it is assumed that the way people today think is the only way that is possible, we must enter the thought-forms of other ages. These, of course, have errors and narrowness of their own, to which we are less likely to succumb. But in order to transcend the limits of our own day, we must "keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.""--Gene Edward Veith, "Flex the Brain"
Friday, November 11, 2011
Ten-plus million digits? The ever-changing world of facts
What would we do without the Internet...
I mentioned recently that a quick check on the current population of Burundi--the subject of a French lesson--showed that there were way more people there than even the (fairly recent) teacher's guide suggested. That lined up with the fact that we were heading for 7 billion people on Earth by the end of last month.
Today's math history lesson was about the Sieve of Eratosthenes, and the hunt for very large prime numbers. John Tiner's 2001 book Exploring the World of Mathematics mentioned that the largest one discovered to date was over 4 million digits long, which would take about a thousand pages to print out.
On a hunch that that fact too might have been updated, I looked up "Largest Known Prime Number."
Yes, the 4-million-digits longest prime was correct in 2001.
But as of 2008, we are up to a number that is 12,978,189 digits long.
And you thought your ID numbers were hard to learn.
I mentioned recently that a quick check on the current population of Burundi--the subject of a French lesson--showed that there were way more people there than even the (fairly recent) teacher's guide suggested. That lined up with the fact that we were heading for 7 billion people on Earth by the end of last month.
Today's math history lesson was about the Sieve of Eratosthenes, and the hunt for very large prime numbers. John Tiner's 2001 book Exploring the World of Mathematics mentioned that the largest one discovered to date was over 4 million digits long, which would take about a thousand pages to print out.
On a hunch that that fact too might have been updated, I looked up "Largest Known Prime Number."
Yes, the 4-million-digits longest prime was correct in 2001.
But as of 2008, we are up to a number that is 12,978,189 digits long.
And you thought your ID numbers were hard to learn.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
What's for supper?
Perogy Lasagna
Two leftover cabbage rolls plus a bit of sausage and sweet potato
Leftover coleslaw
Carrot and celery sticks
Blackberry-apple crisp
(Giant Tiger had packages of frozen blackberries this week--something I hardly ever see.)
Two leftover cabbage rolls plus a bit of sausage and sweet potato
Leftover coleslaw
Carrot and celery sticks
Blackberry-apple crisp
(Giant Tiger had packages of frozen blackberries this week--something I hardly ever see.)
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
What's for supper when everyone's here?
Tonight's dinner was going to be a quick pizza and soup, after thrift shop volunteering. But Mr. Fixit had to stay late at the office, and the Apprentice, unusually for mid-week, phoned and said that she'd be home for supper too. So: a gift of time and a gift of people, especially people who could use some cheering after a wet and somewhat discouraging day.
The menu:
Frozen cabbage rolls, baked in the toaster oven
Two sliced-up smoked sausages, sauerkraut, and sliced sweet potatoes, cooked together on the stovetop
Fresh-made applesauce
Fresh-made coleslaw
Reheated peas
Cheddar cheese
Cookies
The menu:
Frozen cabbage rolls, baked in the toaster oven
Two sliced-up smoked sausages, sauerkraut, and sliced sweet potatoes, cooked together on the stovetop
Fresh-made applesauce
Fresh-made coleslaw
Reheated peas
Cheddar cheese
Cookies
Friday, October 28, 2011
Book lovers come in all kinds
Loud and just possibly slightly inebriated thrift-shop customer*: I can't find anything as (expletive) good here as the (expletive) book I just finished, and I don't want anything (expletive) not as good as that, because that book was just the best (expletive) thing I ever read.
Aren't you curious to know just what the book was? But I guess we'll never know.
*Not the shop where we volunteer, another one. We stopped by because they were having a sale.
Aren't you curious to know just what the book was? But I guess we'll never know.
*Not the shop where we volunteer, another one. We stopped by because they were having a sale.
Monday, October 24, 2011
What's for supper? Autumn veggies and leftover pork
What's on hand tonight? Half a package of whole wheat tortillas, leftover boneless pork chops, a bag of grated cheese, tomato sauce, chicken broth, red and green peppers, butternut squash, rice. I could have chopped the meat and peppers and made fried rice, but I went with Pork and Pepper Tortilla Stack instead. I used this very easy enchilada sauce recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking (except I used a can of no-salt sauce instead of crushed tomatoes, since that's what I had).
The menu:
Pork and Pepper Tortilla Stack
Butternut Squash (baked in the toaster oven)
Rice
Grapes
Chocolate lunchbox cakes (bought on sale)
The menu:
Pork and Pepper Tortilla Stack
Butternut Squash (baked in the toaster oven)
Rice
Grapes
Chocolate lunchbox cakes (bought on sale)
Friday, October 14, 2011
No-sugar apricot treats: gluten-free, dairy-free
I found this recipe in a Company's Coming Kids' Lunch cookbook, but the identical recipe was posted on a vegan forum six years ago. So I'm not sure who borrowed it from whom. In any case, these are easy and very good. I did think they were a bit strong on the orange peel--next time I would use just a spoonful rather than the whole thing. Cut into small slices, they would look nice on a holiday cookie plate.
Apricot Logs/Balls/Slices
1.5 cups dried apricots (about 40--or a 300 g bag)
1 Tbsp water
juice of 1 medium orange
Grated peel of 1 medium orange (or less, see above)
1/2 cup flaked coconut
Flaked coconut, for coating
Measure apricots and water into casserole dish or large measuring cup. Cover and microwave on high for 2 minutes until moist and plump. (Lacking a microwave, you could pour a bit of boiling water over them and cover, or steam them briefly.) Put the apricot mixture and orange juice into a blender or food processor. Blend, stopping the blender and stirring often, until the apricots are very finally chopped. Pour mixture into a medium bowl.
Mix in the orange peel and first amount of coconut. Divide the mixture in half. Roll into two 6-inch (15 cm) logs.
Place the second amount of coconut on waxed paper. Roll the logs in coconut until well coated. Cover each log with plastic wrap. Chill about 3 hours. Cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) pieces.
Variation: shape the mixture into 1 inch balls. Roll in the coconut and chill.
Apricot Logs/Balls/Slices
1.5 cups dried apricots (about 40--or a 300 g bag)
1 Tbsp water
juice of 1 medium orange
Grated peel of 1 medium orange (or less, see above)
1/2 cup flaked coconut
Flaked coconut, for coating
Measure apricots and water into casserole dish or large measuring cup. Cover and microwave on high for 2 minutes until moist and plump. (Lacking a microwave, you could pour a bit of boiling water over them and cover, or steam them briefly.) Put the apricot mixture and orange juice into a blender or food processor. Blend, stopping the blender and stirring often, until the apricots are very finally chopped. Pour mixture into a medium bowl.
Mix in the orange peel and first amount of coconut. Divide the mixture in half. Roll into two 6-inch (15 cm) logs.
Place the second amount of coconut on waxed paper. Roll the logs in coconut until well coated. Cover each log with plastic wrap. Chill about 3 hours. Cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) pieces.
Variation: shape the mixture into 1 inch balls. Roll in the coconut and chill.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)