The heat and steam have arrived to stay for half the year in our part of the country. The spring wasn't as cool or as wet as we would have liked, but at least we did have a few weeks of warm and fairly dry breezes. Now I may go a whole day without knowing how wretchedly hot and humid it is, because we're well sealed up against the onslaught of summer. Believe it or not, I'll have most of my Christmas shopping done by the time we open up the windows again...

Do you know how many American World War I vets are left? Take a guess and then go read George Will's very touching article.

Finished: audio version of The Spiritual Brain. Like most books I read on the brain, I was engrossed even when the discussion was over my head. Just sitting in on the discussion was invigorating. I give it four out of five stars. (I gave it five stars until the last 17 minutes of the book.)

Started: the very LONG, unabridged version of David McCullough's John Adams. A remarkable man from a remarkable time, chronicled by a remarkable storyteller. It'll take me a month to get through it and I'll enjoy every hour.

Our church family enjoyed a sweet morning and lunch together today...wonderful worship service with the highlight of Zach K.'s baptism. For a number of reasons it was a moving ceremony and everyone in the congregation who knows this great little guy and his family was in tears. This was all followed by a scrumptious baptismal feast with Italian food that was WAY too good...

I love it when the contents of someone's diet becomes the topic of international conversation. Well, okay, it doesn't happen very often, but if Oprah tells us what she's eating, you can bet it's gonna be on tables all over the world. Sort of the edible version of Oprah's Book Club (which I happen to really like LOL). So this week we learned that Oprah's going to take some of those pounds off by going on a 21-day vegan diet that may or may not become permanent based on how it makes her "feel". And at the risk of your becoming envious of her ability to hire a personal chef and eat whatever she's brought, I give you this list of some of the morsels for the next three weeks: tofu scramble roasted tomato, grilled onion and sweet garlic aioli quesadillas with jicama slaw; strawberry rhubarb wheat-free crepes; steel-cut oatmeal with fresh blueberries, strawberries, chopped walnuts and a splash of soy milk and some agave nectar; and chunky mushroom soup with wild rice and pecans.

(Okay, no cutting in line. I'll get to you as soon as I finish my BLT and milkshake.)

In keeping with our family's characteristic forward-thinking mindset, I wish to announce that we are the owners of two, TWO Suburbans, this week's combined market value $750. Which will buy a tank of gas for each.

Just as I feared, we've seen an explosion of manufactured outrage this weekend over Hillary's comments about the primary timeline. And of course, it would have to be on (or maybe because of?) a very slow long weekend. I can't wait until Tuesday when there's bound to be something new to talk about. At least I'm not alone in my take of how ridiculous this whole thing was!

We finished school on Thursday of this week. It's been a great year, in my opinion, and an especially profitable one for our 6th grader, who finally decided that school wasn't prison and that grammar is so fun he may keep doing it all summer long whether he has to or not. Don't expect that one to last long, but it was nice to hear!

And now, it's time to get the plans finalized for the fall. Most decisions are already made, but I haven't done any of the fine-tuning or scheduling yet. I'll be taking a break for a few weeks to reorganize supplies and books, get rid of a lot of our elementary curriculum, and work on some other projects that have been crying for my attention for years all year long.

Ending the Snippets with lyrics from this morning's hymn...


from "Moment by Moment," lyrics by Daniel W. Whittle, 1893

Labels: Books, Church, Homeschooling, Music, Political Observation, Sundays, TV