Lazy Wednesday

The entertainment of the past month had left my body exhausted. Tuesday was so busy that I can't actually remember all the things I did. As a result, I made the executive decision to keep my children home today from school, and all of us sleep in. We woke up around 9:00 (I was awake by 8:00, but I stayed in bed reading. I love this kind of mornings). We took it very slowly for a while eating breakfast and talking. Then, I felt guilty for not sending the kids to school, so we had three hours of school, mostly math. After a late lunch, we cozied up in the couch reading for hours. Around 5:00 I told the kids it was time for them to play on their own, so I could read on my own. Elijah came home around 6:00 and seeing that I was engulfed in my reading, took care of the kids' dinner and the evening's entertainment. He played chess with them. I had a blast observing the kids'personalities while they played. James surprised us with his strategies (being the younger of the three, sometimes I don't give him enough credit), Jefferson would loose his calm because of his competitive nature, and Gillian would recite the rules of the game if someone was "forgetting" them. Jefferson was the one who took it very seriously and at the same time enjoyed it the most. I stayed in my chair till I finished the book, which was very late, regardless of my promise to Elijah that I wouldn't stay too late and that I wouldn't try to finish it tonight. What can I say, books and I have a very strong connection that surpasses rest, sleep, and even promises.

Speaking about books, it's the end of the month, so here is what I read this month (just for fun I went through the books we checked out this month with the kids, and believe it or not I had possibly read to them around 400 books; that motivated me to teach them how to read better, so I can use half of that time for reading my own books):

1.The Magician's Nephew by C.S.Lewis
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Gillian and I are reading these books separately, and then we take time to discuss them. We do this every month. I choose one or two books that each of us can enjoy reading, and then discuss them. It helps Gillian to know how to discuss a book, formulate opinions, learn lessons and discuss them with me. This particular series is very easy read and very good for all age groups. I have actually started to read them to James and Jefferson.)
3. Seven Miracles that saved America by Chris Stewart and Ted Stewart (I love reading books that show love and gratitude for this great country of ours, as well as strengthen the belief that God had a hand in the making of it. This book is one of them. I really enjoyed it.)
4. Wind, Sand and the Stars by Antoine de Saint Exupery (The author of 'Little Prince" caught me off guard with this book. In the beginning it was kind of slow for me, and it kept being slow till the end, but my attitude changed as I delved into the soul of the author through his amazing words and thoughts. In it, Mr. Exupery retells stories of his piloting years, and that's all it is on the surface just stories of a pilot. However, as you get the meaning of his stories, you understand that are all a metaphor for our lives. I absolutely recommend this book to anyone. Keep in mind, however, that this is not a quick read and you need to take your time to truly enjoy it. Here are some really good teasers from the book:

"He is among those beings of great scope who spread their leafy branches willingly over broad horizons. To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible. It is to know shame at the sight of poverty which is not of our making. It is to be proud of a victory won by our comrades. It is to feel, as we place our stone, that we are contributing to the building of the world."

This one is my favorite:"I looked about me. Luminous points glowed in the darkness. Cigarettes punctuated the humble meditations of worn old clerks. I heard them talking to one another in murmurs and whispers. They talked about illness, money, shabby domestic cares. And suddenly I had a vision of the face of destiny. Old bureaucrat, my comrade, it is not you who are to blame. No one ever helped you to escape. You, like a termite, built your peace by blocking up with cement every chink and cranny through which the light might pierce. You rolled yourself up into a ball in your genteel security, in routine, in the stifling conventions of provincial life, raising a modest rampart against the winds and the tides and the stars. You have chosen not to be perturbed by great problems, having trouble enough to forget your own fate as a man. You are not the dweller upon an errant planet and do not ask yourself questions to which there are no answers. Nobody grasped you by the shoulder while there was still time. Now the clay of which you were shaped has dried and hardened, and naught in you will ever awaken the sleeping musician, the poet, the astronomer that possibly inhabited you in the beginning."

I have to share this one, because it absolutely echoes my very own thoughts on friendships:
"Nothing, in truth, can ever replace a lost companion. Old comrades cannot be manufactured. There is nothing that can equal the treasure of so many shared memories, so many bad times endured together, so many quarrels, reconciliations, heartfelt impulses. Friendships like that cannot be reconstructed. If you plant an oak, you will hope in vain to sit soon under its shade.
For such is life. We grow rich as we plant through the early years, but then come the years when time undoes our work and cuts down our trees. One by one our comrades deprive us of their shade, and within our mourning we always feel now the secret grief of growing old.
If I search among my memories for those whose taste is lasting, if I write the balance sheet of the moments that truly counted, I surely find those that no fortune could have bought me. You cannot buy the friendship of a companion bound to you forever by ordeals endured together."

5.Around the world...in 1800 by Ruth Ashby (Part of the series "Around the world". Simple and to the point, but very informative. If you are reading a novel of a specific time period and you want to be prepared historically, this series will help you greatly.)
6. Bridget Jones -The edge of Reason by Helen Fielding (I had to read the sequel; I actually thought it was better than the first one. Does it happen to you that when you read a book by a British author you read the book in your mind in a British accent? Don't read the book; it's beyond hilarious and romantic, but it has some bad language.)
7. "A" is for Alibi by Sue Griffin (Mystery; Very predictable, good style)

And just to redeem myself for reading Bridget Jones, here is a poem by Kipling (which I happen to find in the Bridget Jones book):

IF
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!