Once again, I am writing a catch-you-up blog. Life just gets in the way of blogging.
I just finished the last of the 3 Emily books by LM Montgomery. Emily Climbs, and the entire trilogy are delightful little books about a young girl growing up and understanding life. Emily is much like Anne of Green Gables, but she is her own person. I think the Anne books are more appropriate for a younger reader (say 9 and up), whereas some of the concepts in the Emily books would be better understood by older readers (11 and up). Regardless, there is no guile in either series, and I wish there were more books like them available for young girls to read today.
Over the weekend, we had visitors from Texas. Mark’s brother, sister-in-law, and “the cousins” made a quick trip up so the kids could play, and then we all went to the installations service of Rev. Mark Balthrop at Heritage PCA in Oklahoma City. My Mark participated in the service by preaching the charge to the new pastor there. Mark’s brother and family wanted to attend the service because they are friends with Mark B. from his days a few years back as the assistant pastor at their church in TX. (If you want to read the charge from Mark H to Mark B, you can click on my link to justMark.)
Things are busy and school is moving right along. We are getting into the swing of things on the homeschool front, but it is still hard to get everything done, ie, the schooling and the housework. We’ve had a few problems as a result of the nasty water in our little town that have added some challenges to housework. Both our dishwasher and our washing machine have been rendered unuseful as a result of all the minerals in our water. So we have been using paper plates and washing the other dishes by hand and going to the laundry mat for a while now. Over the weekend, our on the sink water purifier broke off (and the strainer was filled with sediments). So now we are buying bottled water for nearly everything. I am not complaining, just reporting the facts. In some ways, the trips to the laundry mat every 5 days or so have made me less stressed about getting it done. I just know I don’t have to do a load of wash every day, since I have to wait until I can go the laundry mat. So there are some blessings in it all.
Oh, I am sure that anyone who reads this is bored to tears by now, so I will end the suffering now and hopefully write an entry again when I have more interesting things to say.
Ouch! Is there any hope of compensation for town residents for damages to their appliances? I do like your rationale for seeing the bright side of such a mess — paper plates, etc.
I still haven’t begun the Ann books yet, but am more determined than ever (as if that counts for anything).
Mark’s charge to Mark B. was very good — wish we could have heard it in person.
Mom, that’s “Anne with an ‘E'”. This statement will make much more sense after you have read the aforementioned books!
Thanks, Jennifer and Mark for your wonderful hospitality – we really enjoyed our fun weekend with you.
Oh! The Emily books! They were always my favorite growing up, even over the Anne series. I must’ve read them 20 times from ages 8-18. In fact, I was so obsessed with L. M. Montgomery as a pre-teen that I acquired a collection of her journals from Canada. Not quite as interesting as her books, but still an entertaining read for would-be-writers.
I just wandered over to your blog today and saw this entry and wanted to share my delight as well as recommend _Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm_ and any of Louisa May Alcott’s books. I loved those, too.
And you’re right, there’s not much like Montgomery’s books out there today–though I would offer _Esperanza Rising_ as an example of a modern YA novel that offers themes well beyond its intended audience and introduces its readers to a historical time and place, as well as poetic writing.