My End of the Year's Resolution

First a confession: I've got a magazine problem. I subscribe to quite few. I love them. My mom is an enabler, we trade magazines when we're done with them. She has her addiction under control, she actually reads and keeps up with them. I have stacks around the house. The stacks tip over. I say a bad word.

I go on a business trip and stick a couple in my suitcase for reading in the hotel room. I get about half way through, the magazine gets bookmarked and set aside. In a pile. That tips over. I say another bad word.

I counted this morning. I have 48 unfinished magazines in the house (47 actually, I finished the September-October 2009 issue of Home Education Magazine just before I sat down to write this post.) That's actually not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but I have read quite a few in the last 2 days.

So back to my resolution. I resolve to get completely caught up in my magazines by the end of the year. I can even use January 1st and 2nd if need be, since they are the holiday weekend. I think it is doable. I just have to read 6 magazines a day. Work is really slow, we have no family plans, homeschool is on break. I should be able to do it.

I'll let you know how it goes. But I can't stick around online all day, I have magazines to read.

The knitting is improving

I finished my first project: a cozy for my new GPS (an early Christmas present - I'm constantly getting lost!). I didn't want to put it straight into the glove compartment, so I figured out a way to make a cozy for it. I made a long rectangle, sewed it into a pocket with a flap and added a long string to loosely tie it.







Whadda think?

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

Violet and I just finished reading The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum and highly recommend it for your family holiday reading list. It tells the story of Santa Claus and how he came to be who he is. Do I need to mention it is completely secular? I would classify it in the mythology category, although I'm not Dewey Decimal expert and it may be a folk tale.

L. Frank Baum is the author of The Wizard of Oz and the next 13 Oz books. We've been working our way through all the Oz books, and are now in the second set, those written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. Santa Claus is of one Baum's non-Oz books that I really wanted to read. Violet consented that we could step out of the world of Oz briefly to read this book as the holiday approaches. I think she is glad we read it, as it does answer some age-old questions, such as how does he get down those skinny chimneys? She's long wanted to know that.

The book was written in 1902 and like the Oz books written by Baum, it has really stood the test of time. The book is easy to read. Hidden throughout the book are good morals about being a good person. Actually the Oz books are filled with good morals that are rarely "in your face." Baum was a man ahead of his time. He wrote of diversity and acceptance in the early 1900's, topics that still plague us today.

So if you've tired of A Christmas Carol or want something besides Olive the Other Reindeer to read for the two thousandth time (or heck, in addition to), check your library and see if they have a copy. It was re-released in 2003, so if you find that version you'll get to see Michael Hague's awesome illustrations.

My commercial is over. You may now resume your regularly scheduled reading.