Possession (affiliate link) by A. S. Byatt is a tour de force in many ways. At almost 600 pages, this book makes it difficult for anybody to finish in one week. Besides, by the time I read 25% of it, I was thoroughly confused.
The cover of Possession on my Kindle
There is so much poetry and there are two timelines going on at the same time: 1990 and Victorian era. Metaphors abound and lots of British words and destinations. A. S. Byatt is, after all, a Britist woman. Continue reading
Dale Carnegie published How to Win Friends and Influence People (affiliate link) before World War II – in 1936, to be precise. To this day, this book still stands as the best in the self-improvement, self-help category in any bookstore.
Me, listening to “How to Win Friends…,” while waiting during my children’s Science Olympiad exams, at Friendship Christian School in Lebanon, TN
I read this book about 25 years ago and felt I needed a refresher. What spurred this on was the fact that my son, age 15, has found out about this book from Hamza, a YouTuber he watches. My son asked if we had the book. Well, I used to. I moved countries one too many times and left it behind somewhere in Sweden. Continue reading
Back in August, I blogged about 12 Rules for Life and read seven of the 12 rules. Life happened, i.e. the new school year started. I started reading parenting books. I homeschooled the kids. Oh, yeah, homeschooling, remember homeschooling?
My own copy of this title
Four months went by and this book waited for me in a drawer, patiently. Once I decided to read 50 books in 2023, as part of my New Year’s Resolutions, I knew I wanted to finish Jordan Peterson’s masterpiece. Continue reading
What are your resolutions for 2023? Or do you have no resolutions, because you are cool like that?
Here are my 2023 New Year Resolutions: Continue reading
The Power of a Praying Parent is a book written by Stormie Omartian to help parents pray for their children in a systematic way. If you love your prayer habits, keep doing what you are doing. If you need some help in how to pray for your children, then this book is for you.
The book chapters cover different aspects of a child’s life: faith, friends, future spouse, healthy eating, secrets, relationship with other family members, money, future career, school, entertainment choices etc. Continue reading
I hinted in my post about 2022 in review that we have five more years with the kids before they both go to college. Actually, it is five years with the youngest. The oldest is in ninth grade, which means we only have three more years with him at home. I am not counting the next semester.
Our 2022 Christmas tree with some of the gifts for the kids
When our oldest was eight years old, I wrote a post about having him at home for 10 more years. I re-read it recently and smiled. He is 15 now. Where have the last seven years gone? Continue reading
This year, 2022, has been very difficult and stressful for me. Learning how to parent a teenager pushed me to the limit. It revealed things in my character which are not flattering. Starting high school as a homeschool parent – that was another difficult task. Last but not least, we started a new routine of driving to co-op, orchestra rehearsals, violin and harp lessons. That is a lot of time away from home and traditional academics.
The Tennessean Hotel and the Sunsphere in Knoxville, TN – we spend a lot of time in this city now.
In a way, I feel like saying, “Good riddance, 2022,” but that would miss the point. Instead, I should say, “Good lessons, 2022.” Homeschooling is not only for our children. We, the parents, learn plenty in the process, and not just about history, science, grammar, or math. Continue reading
I hope you had a merry Christmas; #merryandbright, as they say in our social media world. We stayed home and enjoyed wrapping gifts for our children on Christmas Eve. When it is -2 F (-16.7 C) outside, you do not feel like going anywhere.
Our children building their respective LEGO kits
Now that they are older, our teens give us a list of wishes. One of the wishes is that we also give them something they do not expect or know about. They like to be surprised. Continue reading
It is not December if our children do not have a violin recital. We have been doing this for nine years and it does not get old. Let me emphasize something: our children are not prodigies and it is a struggle to get them to practice more than 20 minutes a day.
Our son playing at the recital
Somebody once told me that violin lessons (or any music lessons for that matter) are about much more than the violin. Continue reading
We had the flu last week and it stopped the schedule, which I do not like at all. I had milder symptoms than any members of my family, which meant I had to drive to the doctor, the pharmacy, the store, and the dump (to get rid of the trash).
Our daughter made this meme to illustrate our week with the flu.
Plus, of course, make sure everyone is taking their meds at the right time and drinking plenty of fluids. Continue reading