Penelope, switching her tail at the flies and wearing her lighter summer coat, nibbles at the remains of the hay bail.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Hello
Tonight the children and I played a "game" of volleyball. Actually we just tried to get it over the net several times in a row without having to end the play by running half way to the neighbor's to get the ball. The skies are cloudy, so I will not be going out with my telescope tonight, but last night I spent over an hour looking up deep sky objects like M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) and M13 (a globular cluster)--these are objects identified and catalogued by a Frenchman named Messier. Jupiter was beautiful. The cats were a pest while they begged for attention and crawled onto my books and into my bags.
My hubby's eye has remained the same. So now we watch and wait. I've been surprised at how many of you have responded to his macular degeneration with stories of your own. Apparently we are not alone. The rest of us seem to be healthy, but I must say my husband's commute to work and his 4 days away from home each week does not seem to get easier.
I'm spending as much time on lesson plans for this fall as I can. I'm going to have my daughter prepare for college by reading and working out of the Write for College handbook which I will send with her next year. I'm going to buy her a Franklin electronic dictionary, and I'll also get a grammar handbook to send with her. She is not sure where she wants to go to school, but we will try to be ready for it!
When I went out to check the cows today, I found one very sad and loney Penny. All the cows had jumped the fence into another pasture, and my little donkey was all by herself. She heehawed to let me know something was wrong. I lead her through the gate by urging her to follow me. She tried to eat my pants. Silly donkey.
How are all of you? Thanks for your faithfulness to check in on me. I'll try to get here a little more often for you. Blessings!
Jean
My hubby's eye has remained the same. So now we watch and wait. I've been surprised at how many of you have responded to his macular degeneration with stories of your own. Apparently we are not alone. The rest of us seem to be healthy, but I must say my husband's commute to work and his 4 days away from home each week does not seem to get easier.
I'm spending as much time on lesson plans for this fall as I can. I'm going to have my daughter prepare for college by reading and working out of the Write for College handbook which I will send with her next year. I'm going to buy her a Franklin electronic dictionary, and I'll also get a grammar handbook to send with her. She is not sure where she wants to go to school, but we will try to be ready for it!
When I went out to check the cows today, I found one very sad and loney Penny. All the cows had jumped the fence into another pasture, and my little donkey was all by herself. She heehawed to let me know something was wrong. I lead her through the gate by urging her to follow me. She tried to eat my pants. Silly donkey.
How are all of you? Thanks for your faithfulness to check in on me. I'll try to get here a little more often for you. Blessings!
Jean
Friday, July 14, 2006
Shakespeare
This is the compilation of the suggested Shakespeare plays and materials I received from everyone. Although I cannot recommend each item myself, I pass it on to you in hopes that someone can use the information. Jean
Plays
Here is the list of plays that were recommended we read; I followed the title by the number of people who recommended them. Many suggest doing one of each: histories, tragedies, and comedies. One person mentioned that it took 3 to 4 hours to read them out loud.
As You Like It 1
Hamlet 7
Henry IV 2
Henry V 6
Julius Caesar 2
King Lear 4
MacBeth 5
Merchant of Venice 2
Midsummer night’s Dream 3
Much Ado About Nothing 4
Othello 2
Richard II 1
Richard III 2
Romeo and Juliet 3
Taming of the Shrew 5
Tempest 3
Twelfth Night 3
Winter’s Tale 1
Books/School materials
Brightest Heaven of Invention (Christian POV)
Click Notes (good scene explanations)
Cliff’s Notes
DK Essential Shakespeare Handbook (480 pg. book covering all the “essentials”)
Everyman Shakespeare
Leon Garfield’s Shakespeare Stories (Good place to start—easy reader)
Lightning Literature’s Shakespeare units (Hewitt.com)
No Fear Shakespeare books (modern English/ original on opposing pages—cheap on ebay)
Oxford School series (Excellent intro, background info and notes)
Sparknotes
Top Ten Shakespeare Stories (for children)
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare (Short retelling by E. Nesbit for children and teens)
CD’s/DVD’s
Branagh seems to top the list over and over again!
Henry V (Branagh)
Macbeth (Ian McKellen, yes; mixed opinion on the BBC version)
Naxos Jr. Library CD’s
Much Ado About Nothing (Branagh)
Netflix’s Animated Shakespeare
Download Shakespeare plays on iPod for $10-15
Reduced Shakespeare Company Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare (Abridged)--use as a follow up to the unit; great humor
Romeo and Juliet (Zeffirelli version liked; Baz Luhrman, a modern version—loved and hated)
Taming of the Shrew (Liz Taylor and BBC were both suggested)
Hamlet (Zeffirelli version liked; Mel Gibson, mixed reviews—do you like Mel?)
Teaching Company sets: “Comedies, Histories and Tragedies” and “The Word and the Action”
Plays
Here is the list of plays that were recommended we read; I followed the title by the number of people who recommended them. Many suggest doing one of each: histories, tragedies, and comedies. One person mentioned that it took 3 to 4 hours to read them out loud.
As You Like It 1
Hamlet 7
Henry IV 2
Henry V 6
Julius Caesar 2
King Lear 4
MacBeth 5
Merchant of Venice 2
Midsummer night’s Dream 3
Much Ado About Nothing 4
Othello 2
Richard II 1
Richard III 2
Romeo and Juliet 3
Taming of the Shrew 5
Tempest 3
Twelfth Night 3
Winter’s Tale 1
Books/School materials
Brightest Heaven of Invention (Christian POV)
Click Notes (good scene explanations)
Cliff’s Notes
DK Essential Shakespeare Handbook (480 pg. book covering all the “essentials”)
Everyman Shakespeare
Leon Garfield’s Shakespeare Stories (Good place to start—easy reader)
Lightning Literature’s Shakespeare units (Hewitt.com)
No Fear Shakespeare books (modern English/ original on opposing pages—cheap on ebay)
Oxford School series (Excellent intro, background info and notes)
Sparknotes
Top Ten Shakespeare Stories (for children)
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare (Short retelling by E. Nesbit for children and teens)
CD’s/DVD’s
Branagh seems to top the list over and over again!
Henry V (Branagh)
Macbeth (Ian McKellen, yes; mixed opinion on the BBC version)
Naxos Jr. Library CD’s
Much Ado About Nothing (Branagh)
Netflix’s Animated Shakespeare
Download Shakespeare plays on iPod for $10-15
Reduced Shakespeare Company Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare (Abridged)--use as a follow up to the unit; great humor
Romeo and Juliet (Zeffirelli version liked; Baz Luhrman, a modern version—loved and hated)
Taming of the Shrew (Liz Taylor and BBC were both suggested)
Hamlet (Zeffirelli version liked; Mel Gibson, mixed reviews—do you like Mel?)
Teaching Company sets: “Comedies, Histories and Tragedies” and “The Word and the Action”
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Shakespeare Deficiency
I composed a plea for help to my dear friends at ClassEd (Yahoo) requesting they assist my choosing Shakespeare plays for next year's English class. I thought I'd share it here as well. Blessing on your day! Jean
P.S. We are doing well, just very busy!
P.S. We are doing well, just very busy!
O coward conscience, how dost though afflict me? I have decided that I shall no long assume a virtue I do not have...I must admit that my beloved dd is going to be a senior and she has not "done" any Shakespeare yet. (But I suppose that is gone and past help.)
Why has this come to pass? Because it was Greek to me in high school and I've never gotten over it.
There. The damned spot is now out.
I thought I'd include my 16 year old and we would read some synopses, watch the videos, and then choose two or three to read out loud together.
How to choose? A comedy, a tragedy, and a history? A rose by any other word? Perhaps someone here could help me out of my dark ignorance and break some light through yonder window by giving me advice? What 2 or 3 would you suggest? Or am I making much ado about nothing and ought to let the children choose which they prefer to read after we have seen the plays?
Jean
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
For My Faithful Readers
All you dear folks who have been coming here daily to see what is new have been disappointed for way too long, but I’ve been busy! I’ll try to give you an idea of what I’ve been up to:
--I moved the turkeys into a bigger cage. Before we could do that, we had to clean out part of the shed. It took a few days of morning work to get it ready.
--Do any of you remember Kiss Me and Kiss Me, Too? Kiss Me was my daughter’s show heifer. She died shortly after Kiss Me, Too was born. We bottle fed KMII, but one day we found her bloating really badly. The vet said she might never be able to conceive due to complications of the bloating. We’ve waited and waited, we artificially inseminated way to many times for any heifer, but we kept trying. This week KMII calved—and lost her baby. Our best guess is that the umbilical cord got wrapped around a leg while in labor and pulled off before the calf was born. Such a pretty little heifer she was!
--I'm taking my husband to the ophthalmologist again on Friday. We are hoping the injection my husband was given will give him some of his sight back. Time will tell. When the technician asked him to cover his left eye and tell him how far down the chart he could read, he said, “What chart?” That gives you an idea about how much of the center of his vision he has lost in one eye. We hope to recover some of it. We appreciate your prayers.
--I’ve been doing my research for next year’s textbooks and materials. Some days I am waist deep in books. I pulled out a dozen books to see what I had for poetry units. I’ve also had twice that many lying around me dealing with composition—and I plan to buy more. You’d think I’d get my fill of this, wouldn’t you? Our biggest and most exciting news is that my youngest brought up his PASS test scores by as much as 50 percentile points—50 in reading, 40 in math and 30 in language. Since he did not start to read until he was in 4th grade, it has been a struggle to get him up and running in language skills—which is the area he struggles in the most. We are doing the happy dance here!
--My children helped me pick our cherries and I steamed them in my Mehu Mija (a steamer). We are going to make cherry jelly, both frozen and cooked. I like to give these as Christmas gifts.
--Last Saturday we implanted 43 Cedrs in our cows so that they will be ready to be artificially inseminated at the same time. We want to sell some of them next winter and they will do better if they are bred.
--I’ve been going outside and enjoying my telescope! For a couple of weeks I was out several nights in a row, but the last few days have been cloudy. It looks as though I will be able to be out tonight, though. The night sky rocks! Drop by around 10:00 tonight and I’ll give you a tour of the stars!
--My children are getting ready for the fairs that are coming up. I’m nervous about their not getting enough finish on their cattle due to our being busy and their not getting some things done without their dad here to help. Lack of finish is good for us, but really bad for the show ring. The folks who judge cattle want the heifers to be as heavy as a steer should be, but then these animals have trouble conceiving and delivering. Many times we have cattle that are the smallest in the ring, and when we bring them home and have to call the vet to get the calf delivered, she tells us it is because the animal is too fat. One year the judge would not even look at one of our animals in the show ring—he did not consider it big enough to show, and it was one of the biggest animals we had ever taken. The judges say they do not have enough “finish.” My reaction to all of this is pure frustration, but my children and hubby still want to show cattle and so they keep going. We do better when it comes to showing steers. We win the carcass judging contests regularly. That’s fun! I’ve informed my family, however, that I would like to leave the farm for a vacation sometime when we DON’T TAKE THE COWS WITH US. Sigh.
O.K. I need to go. I’m sure I could tell you a lot more, but I need to run over to the other pasture to see how the cows are doing. I’ll check the pond to see if there are any snapping turtles and also check for signs of trespassers who have been fishing there. We’ll run over to the stream pasture to see if the sick calf we medicated is looking any better, and I’ll check to see how the Whitney crab apple tree is doing. I need to check to see if Kiss Me, Too has cleaned, and I’ll offer the donkey a carrot (if I don’t she’ll try to eat my pants). I’ll take my camera with me and add some pictures when I get back. So long!
Blessings!
--I moved the turkeys into a bigger cage. Before we could do that, we had to clean out part of the shed. It took a few days of morning work to get it ready.
--Do any of you remember Kiss Me and Kiss Me, Too? Kiss Me was my daughter’s show heifer. She died shortly after Kiss Me, Too was born. We bottle fed KMII, but one day we found her bloating really badly. The vet said she might never be able to conceive due to complications of the bloating. We’ve waited and waited, we artificially inseminated way to many times for any heifer, but we kept trying. This week KMII calved—and lost her baby. Our best guess is that the umbilical cord got wrapped around a leg while in labor and pulled off before the calf was born. Such a pretty little heifer she was!
--I'm taking my husband to the ophthalmologist again on Friday. We are hoping the injection my husband was given will give him some of his sight back. Time will tell. When the technician asked him to cover his left eye and tell him how far down the chart he could read, he said, “What chart?” That gives you an idea about how much of the center of his vision he has lost in one eye. We hope to recover some of it. We appreciate your prayers.
--I’ve been doing my research for next year’s textbooks and materials. Some days I am waist deep in books. I pulled out a dozen books to see what I had for poetry units. I’ve also had twice that many lying around me dealing with composition—and I plan to buy more. You’d think I’d get my fill of this, wouldn’t you? Our biggest and most exciting news is that my youngest brought up his PASS test scores by as much as 50 percentile points—50 in reading, 40 in math and 30 in language. Since he did not start to read until he was in 4th grade, it has been a struggle to get him up and running in language skills—which is the area he struggles in the most. We are doing the happy dance here!
--My children helped me pick our cherries and I steamed them in my Mehu Mija (a steamer). We are going to make cherry jelly, both frozen and cooked. I like to give these as Christmas gifts.
--Last Saturday we implanted 43 Cedrs in our cows so that they will be ready to be artificially inseminated at the same time. We want to sell some of them next winter and they will do better if they are bred.
--I’ve been going outside and enjoying my telescope! For a couple of weeks I was out several nights in a row, but the last few days have been cloudy. It looks as though I will be able to be out tonight, though. The night sky rocks! Drop by around 10:00 tonight and I’ll give you a tour of the stars!
--My children are getting ready for the fairs that are coming up. I’m nervous about their not getting enough finish on their cattle due to our being busy and their not getting some things done without their dad here to help. Lack of finish is good for us, but really bad for the show ring. The folks who judge cattle want the heifers to be as heavy as a steer should be, but then these animals have trouble conceiving and delivering. Many times we have cattle that are the smallest in the ring, and when we bring them home and have to call the vet to get the calf delivered, she tells us it is because the animal is too fat. One year the judge would not even look at one of our animals in the show ring—he did not consider it big enough to show, and it was one of the biggest animals we had ever taken. The judges say they do not have enough “finish.” My reaction to all of this is pure frustration, but my children and hubby still want to show cattle and so they keep going. We do better when it comes to showing steers. We win the carcass judging contests regularly. That’s fun! I’ve informed my family, however, that I would like to leave the farm for a vacation sometime when we DON’T TAKE THE COWS WITH US. Sigh.
O.K. I need to go. I’m sure I could tell you a lot more, but I need to run over to the other pasture to see how the cows are doing. I’ll check the pond to see if there are any snapping turtles and also check for signs of trespassers who have been fishing there. We’ll run over to the stream pasture to see if the sick calf we medicated is looking any better, and I’ll check to see how the Whitney crab apple tree is doing. I need to check to see if Kiss Me, Too has cleaned, and I’ll offer the donkey a carrot (if I don’t she’ll try to eat my pants). I’ll take my camera with me and add some pictures when I get back. So long!
Blessings!
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Trouble Comes in Threes
Trouble comes in threes (or so the proverb says).
#1: John Mark's splint is off. He is not supposed to use it too roughly for the rest of the summer, and it is slowing gaining some of his thumb's mobility back.
#2: I've finished physical therapy for my back. I now have the "normal" amount of back pain, and the small of my back only whimpers when I try to lift something heavy.
#3: My husband has a broken blood vessel in his eye (macular degeneration from age? severe myopia? a previous blow to the eye?). The doctor injected some medicine into the eye which has the highest chance of improving the lost vision. My hubby will need to be careful to stay away from environments that could irritate the eye and cause infection (i.e.. farm work) for several days. We pray that all will heal without any infection and that the procedure will produce better vision.
Thanks for your prayers!
Jean
#1: John Mark's splint is off. He is not supposed to use it too roughly for the rest of the summer, and it is slowing gaining some of his thumb's mobility back.
#2: I've finished physical therapy for my back. I now have the "normal" amount of back pain, and the small of my back only whimpers when I try to lift something heavy.
#3: My husband has a broken blood vessel in his eye (macular degeneration from age? severe myopia? a previous blow to the eye?). The doctor injected some medicine into the eye which has the highest chance of improving the lost vision. My hubby will need to be careful to stay away from environments that could irritate the eye and cause infection (i.e.. farm work) for several days. We pray that all will heal without any infection and that the procedure will produce better vision.
Thanks for your prayers!
Jean
Saturday, June 17, 2006
In the Month of June
Since we do not feed the birds in the summer, Ruffy takes possession of the bird feeder for her daily siesta.
One of my favorites is Angel food cake made from a whole dozen eggs and topped with strawberries!
Penelope (an old photo, but one I love.)
Breakfast!
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
The Cabin in the Woods
My cousins came to visit today. The boys were down in the woods raising the walls of their cabin a little higher. What fun!
