The caravan is home from WholeHearted Mother and I've already gotten to hear several stories (including one involving the hotel manager? You girls know who you are...) about how great the weekend was. I'm already salting away my nickels for next year :-)

It's been another interesting political week. It's looking more and more like it might take Superman "superdelegates" to decide between the two Dems left standing. Hmmm...maybe they'd rather have the Supreme Court decide? And did you get a glimpse of the press conference where Romney endorsed McCain? Have you EVER seen body language like that?

The week is going to be a crazy one for me. I have to get a crown put on one of my teeth tomorrow, and then Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I'll be at the hospital getting my radioactive portraits done again. I'm thinkin' I'm going to get a lot of reading done.

This week I finished Beneath a Marble Sky. I'm going to highly recommend it if you:

*are very interested in India
*want to understand more about the history of the Muslim/Hindu conflict
*are fascinated by the Taj Mahal
*love historical fiction
*appreciate a well-told story
*want insight into the plight of Muslim women

I will caution you that there are some very graphic, disturbing portions, but in my opinion they are tastefully told with no more detail than necessary for the reader to understand the tragedy. I read it very slowly and I'm glad...it's the kind of book to savor and not devour. It was time well spent.

Another huge beef recall today. Wow, it's almost enough to make me a vegetarian even though I am philosophically opposed to the idea of not eating red meat :-)

And if you're interested in and/or appalled by the decline of the intellectual life in our nation and would like a look at how it might be affecting us in this current election cycle, read Susan Jacoby's article, "The Dumbing of America." Never mind that Jacoby would probably dump many Christians in the intellectual trash heap; her observations are valuable nonetheless. She begins:

"The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself." Ralph Waldo Emerson offered that observation in 1837, but his words echo with painful prescience in today's very different United States. Americans are in serious intellectual trouble -- in danger of losing our hard-won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations.

My crazy schedule this week is making it necessary that we call it spring break for school purposes. Which means that I don't have to be sitting at the copy machine tonight running off maps and assignment sheets. YEA!

But for those of you not on spring break, here's my contribution to your science lesson:

A little girl asked her mother, "Mama, how did the human race appear?"

The mother answered, "God made Adam and Eve and they had children and so was all mankind made."

Two days later, the little girl asked her father the same question.

"Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race developed."

The confused girl returned to her mother and asked, "Mama, how is it possible that you told me the human race was created by God and Papa says they were developed from monkeys?"

The mother answered, "Well, dear, it is very simple. I told you about the origin of my side of the family and your father told you about his."

Snip, snip, that's all folks!

hat tip: Jack B.

Labels: Books, Food, Homeschooling, Political Observation, Sundays, WholeHearted Mother