The Farns: September 2007

Thursday, 27 September 2007

Birthday In The Cotswolds

This past Saturday was my birthday, so I requested a daytrip to the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds is made up of several villages located northwest of Oxford and is known for its limestone cottages, town houses and churches. It is a beautiful area of England.

Limestone cottages in Stow-on-the-wold.

The trees around this church door reminded us of hobbit ville or the shire or something.

The village of Stow-on-the-Wold

Abby and Sammy (my two trouble-makers) in the stocks. This is a punishment for criminals and thieves back in the day. They would sit on the bench with their legs in the holes for the duration of their sentence while passers-by threw things at them or spat upon them.

Our little whino

Tickling Sammy

Tackling Sammy

We put Abby's hair in curlers that night but she had such a hard time sleeping on them that I ended up just taking them all out. It would have been cute though.

Bringing me my birthday cake

Lil' Walker

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Tuesday, 25 September 2007

The Roses In Our Garden

Our camera has a very nice macro setting or close-up feature, so of course we had to try it out on the roses in the back garden. It is so amazing the way you can see every vein of the rose so clearly as well as even the details of the softness of the petals. The bug on the rose in the first picture is my favorite. Very cool! (Can you tell I LOVE my camera??? I would recommend it to anyone!)

Party In The Boot

Everytime I go grocery shopping (ordinarily I am lazy and just order groceries online), Abby and Sam insist on playing in the car while I unload the back. Then when all the groceries are inside, they climb the seat and party in the boot (trunk). They love it. These are pictures of Abby laughing so hard that she cannot climb over the seat to get into the back and Sam eventually following her. It is so funny to watch them that I decided I just had to record the festivities.

Tuesday, 18 September 2007

Close-Ups

Pretty Daddy

This is an old video (from back in April of this year) but its one of my favorites, so I thought I would share.

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Monday, 17 September 2007

Sniffing and Loving

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Wednesday, 12 September 2007

First Day of School

Today was Abby's first day of nursery school (preschool). She will be going to school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from nine in the morning until one in the afternoon. She has been excitedly talking about it for weeks. Her two good friends Avery and Grace will also being going to the same school. I love her school and am so happy with it. She was happy too. It is set up with various stations for the children to learn different skills. There is a snack station where they get their own snack and pour their own drinks. There is a buttoning, zipping, snapping, lacing etc station, a dishwashing station, painting, drawing, reading, numbers, movement etc. There are three teachers to work among the twelve children. Today Abby played with play-dough, ate snacks, had reading time and poured lentils from one pitcher to another. There are also days when they will cook and do special art projects. The picture above, shows Abby all ready for school with her new lunch box and backpack before she left the house.

Walking to school

Walking with daddy on her first day

Walking to school

Posing in front of the school

Above: Doing play-dough with new friend Penny and walking home from school.

Wednesday, 5 September 2007

A Few Pics and a Thought or Two

Abby made herself a bed on the window ledge in her bedroom. She goes up there all the time to read books or just hang out. It looks cozy.

Sammy eating her greens in the back garden (she also eats meat - much to her father's relief).

I was fooling around with our camera and got these two shots. I love this setting on our camera. It even picked up the pink raspberry on Sammy's shirt.

So, I don't have much to say this week, other than GO SEE "Bourne Ultimatum" if you haven't already. Charles and I saw it on Monday night with some friends and it rocked! I don't think I have ever seen so much incredible action packed into two hours in my life. Matt Damon is so awesome! I am definitely a fan. Other than that, I am reading a really good book (one in a series I am working my way through) called "The Constant Princess" by Philippa Gregory. It is about Katherine of Aragon. Each book in the series focuses on a different wife of the infamous King Henry VIII. I read "The Other Boleyn Girl" first and now I have to read them all. The series is historical fiction, so that means that not only are you reading for pleasure and entertainment, but you also might learn something at the same time. Imagine that!

Books I Have Read Recently

(Let me know what books you have read recently or what your favorite book(s) is. I am always looking for a good book. Here are a few I have read.)

-The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

-Pope Joan by Donna Wolfolk Cross
(Definitely one of my favorites)

-Men to Match my Mountains by Irving Stone

-Life of Pi by Yann Martel

-The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown

-Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor of Jordan

--Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
(This is one of my favorite books.)

-Those Who Love by Irving Stone
(This is a book about Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams. It was an enlightening read.)

-I Love You Ronnie by Nancy Reagan

--The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
(I didn't like this book.)

--The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
(I liked this book when I read it several years ago but when I recently re-read it, I did not like it. I guess my tastes have changed.)

-The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
(Begins in 1885, with the British invasion of Mandalay and the capture of the Burmese king and queen, and encompassing over 100 years to modern-day India and Burma (Myanmar). It was a great read.)

--The Peddler’s Grandson; Growing up Jewish in Mississippi by Edward Cohen

-Brick Lane by Monica Ali
(I liked this book a lot except for the middle part where you are reading a bunch of letters written in poor English. I could have done without that.)

-Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks

-Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
(I saw the movie and loved it. It stars Queen Latifah as August and she is great!)

--Power and Glory by Adam Nicolson

--How To Run a Traditional Jewish Household by Blu Greenberg

-Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

-The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

-Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake

-The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
(This is a very thrilling read. I could not put it down. It may not be for everyone though.)

-Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behavior
by Kate Fox

-The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom and John Scherrill

-Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

-Atonement by Ian McEwan
(A very intriguing book and I loved the movie, even though Kiera Knightley was the star.)

-Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

--The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
(Great book about Katherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII's first wife)

--The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
(A book about Ann Boleyn - King Henry VIII's second wife)

-The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
(This one is about King Henry VIII's fourth and fifth wives - Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard.)

-The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory
(This book is about Queen Mary, Katherine of Aragon's daughter, and the Queen-to-be Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn's daughter. There is also a fictional character Hannah. I loved it!)

-Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

-The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
(A great overview of recent Afghan history. Check out the bookseller's rebuttal book published this year.)

-Virgins of Paradise by Barbara Wood
(I loved this book. It focuses on an Egyptian family from the 1940s to the present. It was a really good look at Egyptian culture and politics as they have changed through the years.)

-A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

-The Chosen by Chaim Potok
(This is a good look at Jewish life. I liked reading the history of the formation of the state of Israel and the different reactions of various Jews throughout the book.)

--The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

--The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

-Children: The Challenge by Rudolf Dreikurs, M.D.
(I am still in the process of reading this book)

-The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
(I admit, I skimmed this. It was long with too much political rhetoric for my taste.)

--The Hours by Michael Cunningham
(I didn't like this book, I wouldn't recommend it.)

-The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
(This was an amazing book. I could have read it in one night, easily. I could not put it down. It is about an innocent boy living outside the fence of a concentration camp.)

-David O. McKay and The Rise of Modern Mormonism by Gregory Prince and WM. Robert Wright

-The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
(I loved this book!)

-1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12 by Thomas W. Phelan
(I have been doing this with Abby and it works like "magic!" I even went to a lecture and heard the author speak about the method and it is great!)

-Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

-They Dare to Speak Out by Paul Findley
(A book about an Illinois congressman who lost his seat to the Israeli Lobby.)

---“The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” by John J. Mearsheimer, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, and Stephen M. Walt, a professor of international affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
(This is an excellent paper.)

--A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
(I must admit, I did not finish this book. I found it very slow moving and a bit boring. I read about half and gave up.)

--The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

--Stasiland; Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder

--These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881 - 1901 Arizona Territories by Nancy E. Turner
(This was a great escape. I loved it!)

--Escape by Carolyn Jessop (This is a disturbing book but a good read. It's all about a girl who escapes from a radical FLDS polygamist cult.)

--Tall Grass by Sandra Dallas

--The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
(Doctors took her cells without asking; those cells never died. They launched a medical revolution and a multimillion-dollar industry. More than twenty years later, her children found out. Their lives would never be the same.)

--FREE RANGE kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry) by Lenore Skenazy

--Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam by Asra Q. Nomani
(I loved this book. It is a very detailed account of the hajj and her take on Islam.)

--The Year That Changed The World: The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Michael Meyer
(Meyer is a myth buster. The myth he tackles in this book is Americans' idea that communist regimes in the Cold War fell because of the United States' involvement. He is an excellent historian. I really enjoyed this book!)

--Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb
(This book is now on my list of all-time favorites. It was thrilling and so fascinating. I highly recommend it!)

--Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez
(I loved this book. It was adventurous and inspiring!)

--Someone Knows My Name By Lawrence Hill

--The Great Fire of London in the Apocalyptic Year 1666 By Neil Hanson
(I knew of the great fire in London but nothing else. This was very informative and kept my interest. It did get a little too detailed in parts though.)

--Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue and Unthinkable Choices By Mosab Hassan Yousef
(I like this book)

--Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
(Excellent book on the history of China and how it has changed over the century.)

--Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine
(I would read this to my girls one day. It is a good look at the holocaust for children.)

--The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles by Hala Jaber

--Mengele: The Complete Story by Gerald Posner and John Ware

--Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

--In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson

--The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

--The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

--Faith: Behind The Fences: A True Story of Survival In A Japanese Prison Camp by Kelly Dispirito Taylor

--Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

--We Were Not Alone: How an LDS Family Survived World War II Berlin by Patricia Reece Roper

--The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

--Pillar of the Earth by Ken Follett

--Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

--The Cultural Revolution: A People's History 1962 - 1976 by Frank Dikotter

Books I Want to Read

--Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill by Jessica Stern
--Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown by Paul Theroux
--Through a Glass Darkly: A Novel by Karleen Koen
--Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
--The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones
--Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
--The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter by Jason Kersten
--An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah - A Memoir by Farah Pahlavi
--Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West by Benazir Bhutto
--City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre
--East of Eden by John Steinbeck
-- The Agony and the Ecstacy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo by Irving Stone
--One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
--Year of Wonders, a novel of the plague by Geraldine Brooks
--Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali's autobiography "Infidel"
--Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke by Patty Duke and Kenneth Turan
-- The War against the Jews: 1933-1945 by Lucy S. Dawidowicz
-- Alicia: My Story by Alicia Appleman-Jurman
--Vintage Sacks by neurologist/author Oliver Sacks.
--Helen Keller's "The Story of My Life"
--I Thought my Father was God (a collection of peoples' stories from NPR's National Story Project)
--Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
--I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles