Ordinary Time

Our vacation to Michigan was lovely. Everyone was able to make it at least for a little bit except for TM and JH who are in the throws of moving house. We did all the beach house things... played on the beach, ate food, read, played games, napped, read more books, and went into town for ice cream.  My adult children remain master players . (If you've never heard me use that term before, please click on the link.) They found some large pieces of driftwood, created a structure, and proceeded to play games on what they created. I never grow tired of watching my children play, even if they are all grown up.  Kenzie came along, too, and had a great time. His favorite thing in life is to be surrounded by all his people, so he was pretty much in heaven.  Enjoy some photos of the week. Most are taken by K. 

We have just returned from spending the past week up Michigan; you can expect pictures tomorrow. I'll share just one of the many pictures K. took with you right now.  But what I really want to write about tonight is Vienna. My mother reminded me that I had written about her not doing well and never gave an update. Here it is.  She still feels a little sore in her feet, but continues to make forward progress. The lab results on her blood draw showed slightly elevated insulin levels, but nothing outrageous. The vet has put her on a new medication that is supposed to work wonders. We have also started both ponies on an insulin management supplement with the goal of weaning them both off their prescriptions meds and just continuing with the supplement. It will take a little while to get to that place, but it would be wonderful if we could. And I tried watching more House Hunters earlier this past week and had to turn it off out of impatience. That probably tells you more than anyt...

Having finished Moby Dick, I wanted to talk a bit about reading the classics. I try to read a couple books a year that would fit into this category. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, I know there are books out there that I haven't read and I want to. I think Huckleberry Finn will be next on the list. (No, I never read it in school, just as I never read To Kill a Mockingbird. The honors English classes read things such as The Odyssey and Don Quixote.) J. read the book James earlier this year and I want to read Twain's version first.  The second reason is that I find if I read too much contemporary fiction, my concentration and reading skills become... less robust. Sentence length and grammatical complexity are much, much simpler in the majority of books written in this century. While it can be relaxing to whip through an easy book, it is too easy to lose skills if that is all you read. I do worry that older literature, which includes truly excellent books, will beco...

I am happy (thrilled? relieved?) to report that I have finally finished reading Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I started it last year, got about halfway through, then set it aside for the lighter, easier books that were arriving (sometimes daily) at the library. This continued for about a year. Then last week, I had many books that I was waiting for, but none that had arrived, and I looked at Moby Dick next to my bed gathering dust and decided that I was tired of seeing it and needed to finish it. It took me about five days to finish it off.  If you had asked me what I thought about Moby Dick before this week, I would not have been overly excited. There were a few amusing bits, but there were an awful lot of bits that felt like a slog. I was worried that the rest of the book was just going to be a three hundred page slog to the finish line. It wasn't. In fact, I actually ended up liking it. Kind of a lot. And the ending was particularly satisfying. I was surprised by my reaction, ac...

One of my birthday gifts was the book, Art Cure: the science of how the arts save lives by Daisy Fancourt. If you are interested in the arts and also interested in reading about various brain studies, then this book is for you. I will admit, that it is kind of preaching to the choir for me, but it is nice to have it all in one place. Really, I can sum the entire book up into one sentence: Participating in the arts is good for you in terms of physical, intellectual, and emotional health... plus, get some exercise.  To give you a taste of what's in the book, read this exerpt. "What, then, makes some people more resistant to the symptoms of dementia, despite physical evidence of changes in their brains? And why do some people experience gradual decline in their cognition with dementia, like walking down a gentle slope, while others are seemingly fine and then have a rapid decline, like falling off a cliff? The answers lie in the concept of reserve. Reserve comes in two forms: har...

Today is J.'s and my 35th anniversary. I don't know how that number got so large, but it did. The past 35 years have been an adventure. There has been a lot of good times and a lot of hard times. As J. says, when you have this many children, you're going to see stuff. One thing it hasn't been is dull. I can't imagine even attempting our unconventional life with anyone else. J. is the calm, reasonable part to my often reactionary nature. He is an amazing husband and an amazing father who probably does not get as much due here on the blog as he should. So happy anniversary to my best friend and the love of my life. Here's to 35 more.