Friday, September 30, 2016

ISO your favorite movie recommendations


One of my family's favorite rituals is Friday Night Pizza and a Movie. I love having my family together, the cares of the week behind us, the curtains drawn, and plenty of warm pizza and maybe a glass of wine rounding out the evening. Thanks to my favorite library book, Truly Madly Pizza (pictured: fig with cheddar and roasted red pepper; salmon and broccoli; white pizza with kalamata olives and broccoli; egg and cherry tomato), we have no trouble being inventive with the former, but a couple years in, and we are on the lookout for new movies (suitable for a five year old and a two year old, but not so dull as to alienate the adults). We started with the Disney animated films, then their live action movies like Swiss Family Robinson and Herbie, and classics like The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. We enjoyed the Kenneth Branagh Cinderella and are eagerly awaiting the live action Beauty and the Beast, but are looking for recommendations. What have you enjoyed?

St Jerome

Jerome is with the Saints, and I am sure that,
by God's will,
though the hat and the Bible were left behind,
the lion is with him still.
(Rumer Godden)

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Mr Popper's Penguins

At ten o'clock, Mrs. Popper yawned and laid down her mending. "Well, you can go on reading about those heathen birds, but I am going to bed. Tomorrow is Thursday, September thirtieth, and I have to go to the first meeting of the Ladies' Aid Missionary Society."

"September thirtieth!" said Mr. Popper in an excited tone. "You don't mean today is Wednesday, September twenty-ninth?...Why, this is the night the Drake Antarctic Expedition is going to start broadcasting."
(Mr. Popper's Penguins, Richard and Florence Atwater)

Before I had children, I most looked forward to reading chapter books aloud to them. My older son is now five plus, and we have started reading books I really enjoy aloud (no slight intended to all the beautiful picture books in the world, but after years of the same stories, it was nice to have a change). Winnie the Pooh was our proto-chapter book, and then we made our way through the first few Little House books over the course of the summer. But On the Banks of Plum Creek dragged out, and I wanted a break before we continued the series. Enter Charlotte's Web, Mr. Popper's Penguins, Stuart Little, and Mary Poppins. My mother believed it was immodest for a girl to read books written from a boy's perspective, so I have enjoyed discovering Farmer Boy, The Door in the Wall, The Sign of the Beaver, and Adam of the Road as an adult.

But in the midst of all this delight, I am a little wistful, because I picked up most of these books as library discards. I can't but help sympathize with Tuppence:

"Well, that's very kind of you, I'm sure, Mrs. Beresford. Of course, we do have some [special editions for children nowadays] given to us, you know... One does feel it's a pity that they should have to read all those old-fashioned books."

"Oh, do you think so," said Tuppence. "I loved the books I had as as child. Some of them...had been my grandmother's when she was a child. I believe I liked those best of all."
(Postern of Fate, Agatha Christie)

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Good King Wenceslaus

Although people associate St Wenceslaus in connection with the Christmas carol (indeed, your Church Ladies invoked his patronage during many a wintry Rosary around the lakes at Our Lady's University), his feast day is celebrated today, the 28th of September.