November 16, 2009

The Sunday Salon, Monday Edition

Literature
Books-Since the read-a-thon I've read two books. My long and not-so-encouraging review of The Hidden can be found directly below. And I read The Diving Bell & the Butterfly, which I loved. Can't wait to get a review up about both the book and the movie, which I also loved. I'm currently reading Breaking Her Fall by Stephen Goodwin. I'm reserving judgment til the end.

Challenges-The Take a Chance Challenge is almost at an end and I still have a few parts to finish it but I will finish it on time. It's all planned out. As for the Clear Off Your Shelves Challenge, it seems I misunderstood part of it, but it works to my benefit. My percentage is now at 70% instead of 50%. What a relief! I've done nothing towards the Really Old Classics Challenge yet; and I have 20 points so far for the Four Months Challenge with another 15 estimated by the end of the week.

Life
Writing-As you know I am doing NaNoWriMo this month. I love my book concept and the progress I've made so far is exciting but I'm way behind in my word count. I need a few 3K word days to make it up if I hope to be successful. But I have some exciting news for you. I plan to share some of the first chapter with you before the end of the month. Watch for it and tell me what you think. I expect honesty but praise and awe at my natural ability are always welcome. :D

Sewing-I have a strict policy against posting photos of my family but with a little cropping I can show off the Alice in Wonderland costume that I made my daughter for Halloween. When we walked down the street a little girl said excitedly "There's Alice!" My daughter was glowing with pride. It's too bad you can't see the black shoes and black headband in her long blond hair but I did leave her beautiful smile. She made the perfect Alice.


Homeschool-We have been learning about the pilgrims. I'm astonished at how much I didn't know about them. I just remember sharing a meal dressed up as Indians and Pilgrims from my school days. Did you know that less than half of the people on board were not in fact seeking religious freedom? They were just along for the ride to help colonize the New World for the British Empire before Spain or France or the Dutch could claim it for themselves. We also learned about the colony that became New York. I didn't realize there was so much history there or that it went back to the same period as the pilgrims. I have gained such an appreciation for learning since I've been homeschooling my children. It's fascinating stuff.

What about you? Are you learning anything new lately?

5 comments:

bermudaonion said...

You've been busy! I can't wait to read part of your novel.

Jenny said...

That costume is adorable - she looks like a perfect Alice! I've been reading about pilgrims lately too, but it sounds like I haven't had as good a time with it as you! :)

Ti said...

That Alice costume is just perfect.

You've been a busy bee. I have The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I've had it for like, 5 years and haven't gotten to it yet. I need to pull it out.

Anonymous said...

LOVE that costume!

Learning: Thank goodness for Discovery and The History Channel. Why weren't they around when we were kids?? THC has a new series, which is fun: Ancients Behaving Badly. I saw what I think is the first one, on Caligula (learned a LOT in that hour), and a bit of the end of the episode on Attila the Hun. Fascinating stuff, and so much more than I ever learned in history class. The boys love those two channels, too, and so have a much better appreciation for history and science than I ever did as a child.

Zibilee said...

I am super excited to see that you will be sharing your writing with us, and can't wait to get a chance to read it! Very awesome!