On my TBR pile

On Chesil Beach – Ian McEwan

The Child in Time – Ian McEwan

Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood [group read]

The Forsyte Saga – John Galsworthy [group read]

The Lace Reader – Brunonia Barry [on request at the library, will read when it comes in in July]

Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh [and then I’ll watch the movie]

The Elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barbery [again, in July]

The Mysterious Benedict Society – Trenton Lee Stewart

Stolen – Vivian Vande Velde

Secret Keeper – Mitali Perkins [another July read]

The Rivers Run Dry – Sibella Giorello

The Story About Ping – Marjorie Flack [for G J]

UGH

Bad day today.  Bad night last night.  I hate nagging G. and yelling and just in general not being Jane’s mother.  It depressed me to no end yesterday and today.  I’m tired.  Of everything [please read that correctly and see that it says everyTHING and not everyONE].  I need my house back.  I need my son to behave properly.  I need someone to teach me how to be a good mother because I am failing in that one severely.  I need so many things and I don’t see myself getting any of them in the near future.  BLAH.  I just feel BLAH.  I think a Rosary said for the poor souls in purgatory will help me remember that things in my life are very VERY small crosses to bear.  I’ll have to make some sacrifices to remind myself that nothing in my life is bad enough to feel this way and I should remember that there are many [MANY MANY MANY] homeless, hungry, and suffering people and the minor inconveniences I am asked to tolerate are insignificant.  There.  That actually helped me to put it in perspective.

 

“Remember, O Most Gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone that fled to Thy protection, implored Thy help, or sought Thy intercession was left unaided.  Inspired by this confidence I fly unto Thee of Virgin of Virgins, my mother.  To Thee I come, before Thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful.  O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions but hear and answer me.  Amen.”

 

Current Read Alouds

Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss’ Sleep Book

If I Ran the Zoo

The Lorax

Oh, the Places You’ll Go

Daisy-Head Mayzie

Horton Hears a Who

And to Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street

Happy Birthday to You

The Sneetches

Yertle the Turtle

Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose

Never Tease a Weasel – I can’t remember the author’s name, but a fun book

Big Book of Fairy Tales – excellent stories retold with wonderful drawings

Little Golden Books

Animal Counting Book

Doctor Dan the Bandage Man

Nurse Nancy

The Color Kittens

The Pokey Little Puppy

The Shy Kitten

Cinderella

Three Little Pigs

The Three Bears

Tawny Scrawny Lion [one of my personal favorites]

The Laughing Dragon – originally mine from childhood, destroyed in the flood and repurchased

Andrew Henry’s Meadow – my all time favorite

A Bargain for Frances

Tiki tiki Tembo – another childhood favorite

Duck Soup [Gman loves Bebe]

Harry the Dirty Dog

Harry and the Lady Next Door

No Roses for Harry

Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys [the first Curious George book – I didn’t know this even existed]

Sergio Makes a Splash

I’m looking for new books, something a little more complex with fewer pictures. I think I have to move up a reading level. We went to the library last night and I got a book for G ….. something about a music box mystery. I think we’ll try that one tonight.

Gman at Night

The other night Gman climbed between me and the bed [his mattress is on the floor of our room – my younger sister’s old bedroom as we’re living at Grandma’s house due to The Flood – right up against our bed]. Apparently it formed a nice warm little pocket as he fell asleep there. Before he dozed off, however, he informed me that “It’s nice and cozy and safe. No monster or kangaroos or joeys can get me.” I get the monsters, but I didn’t know we were in danger of imminent attack from a wild band of roving Kangaroos.

The previous night he asked me to recite the Little Golden Book Animal Counting Book. It’s a repetitive little rhyme that counts up to 10 using animals that live in the meadow. I got all the way up to nine before I started to forget. At which point he informed me that I needed to start over. When I refused, hysteria ensued. So much so that I got up and left. After he calmed down a bit he followed me out into the next room [my brother’s bedroom across the hall from my younger sister’s old bedroom :-P] and I chastised him to get back in bed [okay, truth be told, I yelled L] and he started crying again, waving his little hands and said, “But I want to hug you up!!!”. Well who can resist that? So I let him come sit on my lap facing me and he hugged me…..and asked me to please start over with the rhyme. Is it bad that I gave up? I made him get back in bed, told him I’d be in in a few minutes, and when I got back, restarted the rhyme……..after being asked “Are you going to start again, Mama?” Until I forgot at nine again and was informed that I had to start over again. LOL. So I sternly told him that I would start over, but this was the last time, no matter how many mistakes I made. Luckily I made it all the way through without pause the last time. I don’t know which to be more impressed by….. his OCD, his perseverance to get his way, or the imaginative way he managed to stay up way past his bedtime.

G-isms

My favs today------

"I'm boring,......." meaning that whatever I want him to do he doesn't find at all interesting.

"chelihopter" = helicopter

Meet the Mice

So Gman has a whole family of imaginary mice living with us. They chase us around and attack us [he has to ‘protect’ me from them] and last night he got incredibly sweaty running around in circles for a good five minutes with these mice calling out encouragement [in the high pitched voice of his Daddy]. Their names are Pickles [the father], Coonie [the mama], Harry, Choppie, Tutter, and Kercshamal mouse [the kids]. We started with just Tutter Mouse [from Bear in the Big Blue House] and one day Kercshamal mouse [never just Kercshamal] showed up. And last night we were introduced to the whole family along with Dr. Conio [pronounced Cone-e-o] who is a mouse that takes care of other mice. Apparently Pickles and Coonie were killed in a flood and Gman was taking care of the kids. In true childhood fashion, Dr. Conio “cured” Pickles and Coonie and Gman took the kids home so they could be a family together again. It’s fascinating the insight this gives me into G’s mind. I know he’s been worried about our “flood” in that he tells everyone that will listen about our “broken” house and how the pipe broke and flooded our house. And afterward, when we moved in with Grandma, Daddy was still sleeping at home and Gman started having screaming fits. He never has had them before. And they stopped when Daddy started staying at Grandma’s with us. Although, every night he makes sure to ask if Dad will be sleeping with us or if Dad will be there in the morning when he wakes up. I thought he was unaware of how devastating the damage to our house was, but I guess, even if it’s not in his conscious mind, he knows this was a life-altering event. And he deals with by playacting with his imaginary mice.