Italians Can Sing!

Today in church, one of our members, who happens to be a nice German woman, sang a beautiful solo. While she was singing, Calvin leaned over and said to me, “I know why she can sing so well.” I said, “Yeah. Why?” He said, “All Italians can sing.” I then told him that this particular lady is German. He said, “Well, Germans, too.” We believe Calvin is basing his theory of all Italians singing well on our listening to opera singer Andrea Bocelli in the car. It really takes very little for a 7-year-old to become an expert on many topics, including apparently, music.

British Academy Awards

I am a confessed anglophile. I love things British. So, even though I am not a big fan of award shows on the whole, I had to tune into the British Academy Awards last night for about 40 minutes, just to see what the “more intelligent” English speakers think is really good entertainment. Not surprisingly, several of the films that won awards in Britain were the ones that have won awards here. But after my brief viewing of the show, I had added the following films to my must-see list for this year:

Girl With A Pearl Earring (I read the book, so I already wanted to see this one.)

Cold Mountain ( I tried to read the book, but couldn’t get into it. So the movie is the next best thing.)

Lost in Translation (The premise is fascinating, and Bill Murray is always good.)

Has anybody who reads this seen any of these? Let me know your thoughts.

Homeschooling in OK

Oklahoma is generally considered a very homeschool-friendly state. There are very few regulations on record that limit home school families. So it is pretty easy to homeschool here as compared to several other states in the country. For instance, you don’t have to register your child in a school here like you do in some other states. However, I just received word of some legislation that seems very biased against not only homeschoolers, but private schooled children as well. Here’s the information I got . . .
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Happy Groundhog Day

The great prognosticator has spoken. I grew up in the rural area of a town about 20 miles north of Punxsutawney. In my adult life, I have often used Punxsutawney (or Punxsy to regional natives) as a point of reference to explain where my home town is in Pennsylvania. I also gave an informational speech on Groundhog Day for my freshman speech class in college. So Groundhog Day always holds a special place in my heart. The thing is, I don’t think the folks in the Groundhog Club at Gobbler’s Knob have yet realized that 6 weeks of winter (what is predicted when the wood chuck sees his shadow) is no different than “spring is around the corner” (what is predicted when Phil is shadowless). I guess the point is that in the dead of winter, we need a reason for a little diversion, even if it comes in the form of a large rodent.