Little Things

Just the other day, well it was probably just the other day about a month ago - that's how full my May Days have been -

But anyway just the other day, I bent over and picked up a bobby pin and got to thinking about all those small pieces of metal and plastic that clutter our lives.

Tiny, but necessary; yet not valuable enough to actually put away. At least I don't always put away the bobby pins, needles, hair elastics, buttons, Legos (which never should even enter this category as they cost roughly $1 per piece), game pieces, and coins.

By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. A bobby pin or twelve can hold a hairdo up. A needle in the hands of a seamstress clothes the world. Buttons hold the world together.

Strange how casual we are with these little bits of matter. I've read books detailing the anguish women of old felt when they broke a needle. Now when I can't find the package of needles, I just head for Walmart and buy another 50 pack.

Bobby pins fall out all over the place. I think they always have. Hair elastics are slightly longer lived, but ever scattered across table, counter, and floor; pocket, purse, and car cupholder.

And buttons - Who keeps track of buttons? There are always at least two in every store bought outfit, so why bother to have a button jar?

Except I loved my mother's button jar. It had so many amazing buttons. Most of them never to be used, but hours of entertainment through sorting and arranging. There were buttons shaped like gems. metal filigree, oyster shell shiny, round, egg shaped, and every rainbow color. Treasure in a jar.

So I have a button can. It is a very cool can shaped like an old car, to make up for the less than impressive collection of buttons. I rarely sew anymore and the buttons on manufactured goods just aren't what they used to be.

Still I have a button can. And I try to have a bobby pin container with random hair elastics thrown in. But the needles escape me. Currently at least three packages reside in my home. I can't tell you where a single needle is.

Summer Reading Challenge

'Tis the season for summer reading. The libraries always have a program for kids that turns out pretty well, but if they do anything for adults, it is lame. So here is the challenge to my friends (all one of you basically):


Read a book that fits these five categories and make up five more categories of your own. Either make your own post for me to steal your five categories off of or email the list. Together that's ten books. We know that ten books is a small fraction of the amount that we will read this summer. Make a list you plan to read now, but it can change at any time. You can start reading now, because half of my kids are done with school and already crying bored, even if summer reading at every library technically doesn't start until June 1. We are old enough we can make our own rules, so here we go


Friends Kristen & Jeri Challenge

1. Read the book that has been on your goodreads TBR shelf the longest.
2. Read a classic - Grownup or childrens book.
3. Read a book about summer. It can have summer in the title or take place in the summer.
4. Read a book with a color word in the title.
5. Read a book that won a Newbery Award or Honor Award during the years that you have been alive.
6. Read a book that you picked apart until it made you scream in High School English that you haven't read since.
7. Read a book that teaches you something you didn't know before.
8. Read an "Old Friend" that you've read a million times, but never tire of.
9. Read a "Reader's Choice Award" book.
10. Read a book that is on display at the library, i.e. recommended by a librarian.

We have to finish by the time all of our kids return to school.  On a day to be determined later (and after the first day of school), we will call each other on the phone with a lovely dessert at our elbow and talk. Maybe even about the books we read.


Kristen's List

1. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
2. Pygmalian by George Bernard Shaw
3. Mud, Sweat, and Gears by  Joe Kurmaskie
4. Between the Shades of Gray by Ruth Sepethys
5. Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer Holm (2000)
6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Which I picked apart in high school, but never actually read, yet still got the best grade up to that point on the essay, hence encouraging me to not read any more books for that class.)
7. At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
8. Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
9. Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan 
10. This I Believe: On Motherhood by Dan Gediman

Jeri's List

1. An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphey
2. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
3. Beyond Summer by Lisa Wingate
4.  Love, Ruby Lavendar by Deborah Wiles
5. (Here's where I stretch it a little) The Trouble With May Amelia by Jennifer Holm - #5 isn't a newbery, but it's the sequel and I wanna read it.
6. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
7. The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean (I'm re-reading it with the hopes that I understand it more the 2nd time.)
8. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
9. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
10. I don't know

Just Sitting Wasting Time

May was filled with music. Choir concerts, band concerts, piano festivals, jazz festivals, church music...

Here's a list of the songs I listened to. They are heavy on jazz 'cause I spent a weekend listening to it at the festival.

For the Beauty of the Earth (Rutter is still incredible.)
Prayer of the Children by Kurt Bestor (Bella Voce was amazing! This is my new favorite song.)
Sleep (MVHS Accapella did great, but nothing beats the vitural choir Whitacre put together.)
Take a Chance on Me (Sometimes when my bass voiced son sings he still amazes me.)
Army of Helamen (The other three sons kind of amaze me too.)
With a Song in My Heart (That Kim is a cute young man, even if he did hit me in the head with a shoe.)
Route 66 (VP's New Bop version is growing on me.)
Get Out of Town (Amazing how a song can grow and change from the beginning to the end of a year.)
Sing, Sing, Sing (Vocal is pretty great, but the 1937 Benny Goodman Band's tune is the best still.)
In the Wee Small Hours (I love this song. I feel an arrangement appearing.)
That Ever I Saw by Darmon Meador (Do you hear that bass rumble at the end? That is my kid. I know I'm shocked too.)
Proud Mary (I can never chose between CCR and Tina, so I don't)
A Nightingale Sang (I have loved this song for ages.)
Hands of Time (I actually know a person who wrote a song. And she sings too. LeAnne Robinson wow!)
Stained Glass Window (Who know you could love a gravelly voice singer so much?)
Ode to Joy (The standard at any band concert.)
Mission Impossible Theme (5/4 time. Good luck keeping that together, but they did! And on brass instruments. Miss M!)
Sitting on the Dock of the Bay (Otis made a great recording. What a whistler!)

The songs sound a lot better if you go to youtube and watch them. Trust me. I just did...while I was sitting here wasting time.