Rainy days on Mondays...

No break for soccer players - especially when your school field is an artificial turf.

These photos don't express the joy but I can see it - she's smiling, that Breana...in fact, that all were!

{Breana in the middle wearing all black}
Me? I sought refuge in my vanagon. The vanagon is sweet heaven in the rain - the rain pitter patters on the roof and the space in the middle of the vanagon allows for dumpage of wet clothes without fear of leaving a permanent sopping mess on the floor.

For this hour and a half I had my phone at the ready in case sick-Kaitlin needed anything at home, I had my iTouch playing Anna JiEun Lee's Violin performance of Sarasate's Gigeunerweisen Op.20, No.1 at Carnegie Hall (she was 12) and my most current read "The Horse Whisperer" by Nicolas Evans.

I was absorbed with this book, it certainly is a love story. The love story that gripped me the most was the one that affected Grace & her horse, Pilgrim. Their story was of a trust that was broken, the pain felt to understand it and the process that it took to bring the trust back.

Certain passages stayed with me:

"I guess that's all forever is...just one long trail of nows. And I guess all you can do is try and live one now at a time without getting too worked up about the last now or the next now."

"There were such moments, he knew, when the world chose thus to reveal itself not, as it might seem, to mock out plight or our irrelevance but simply to affirm, for us and for all life, the very act of being."

And finally,

"Sometimes what seems like surrender isn't surrender at all. It's about what's going on in our hearts. About seeing clearly the way life is and accepting it and being true to it, whatever the pain, because the pain of not being true to it is far, far greater."

Good Read

Coming up for air

Kaitlin cracked open the book first. I was having trouble conjuring up the desire to read it, devour it and not come up for air until I reached the end. There was something sad about it being the last book - it was truly saying good-bye to an old friend who you won't be seeing again, ever. No dates to put in the calendar to mark when you'll reunite and stay up to the wee hours with. I also was hesitant in finding out if my suspicions were true...how the end would play out. Kaitlin was always pages ahead of me. That panda was peering over the pages at me - almost taunting me...until I took the plunge and dove right in. I was my old self again. I could not put the book down - holding my breath until, alas, I closed the book for the final time.

Paperback vs Hardback

Breana gets me - she understands the way my mind works!
Yesterday Breana jumped in the car beaming, "I'm reading the best book!" Then she rambled a mile a minute about how it's similar to "Eragon" but wasn't...honestly I tried to stay with her chain of thoughts and drive and breath at the same time but I just couldn't! Until she hit the realization about paperbacks and spoke to my heart.
"I can't stop holding this book!" (her eyes sparkled)
"It feels sooo good in my hands!" (huge smile on her face)
"It's so wrinkly and torn!" :D Attagirl!

I love used paperback books. You can hold, really hold, a paperback book, in your hands. When I purchase new paperback books I treat them with love & respect, no turned up corners or wrinkled covers - no using it as a coaster, but that's just me. However when I fall upon a beautifully used paperback book I appreciate it's past and adore it's 'loved', tattered & rolled up look.


It was hard to decide what to read after finishing the last 2 HP books. I went through a pile I have under the buffet table. I even went so far as discuss it with a friend who was in the same situation as I. What to do?!
After yesterday w/ Breana, I narrowed my choices down to a few paperbacks until I became attracted to one, or two...
We own and read the first 9 of the Series of Unfortunate Events but never got a hold of the last 3. That one night we were at Bookshop there they were - all 12! Ohmigosh! I talked myself out of buying the last 3 then regretted that decision when we got back home. The next day I rushed back and, thankfully, they were still there. I need to finish this series so I can put it to rest. Another set of books that Kaitlin has completed before me. However, Breana, who just recently got into the books, dove in and devoured the first 3 in no time, so I better hurry before she, too, finishes the set before me!
The other book I also purchased used but from on-line. After watching the movie, "Hilary & Jackie" a few times in the course of a few years, I started to research Jacqueline Du Pre. Her husband, Daniel Barenboim, sounds so intriguing. He still lectures and performs but the closest he gets to California is Chicago - a girl can dream, right?
*

I was going to retake the photo of "Dragon Rider" but Breana had taken it to school with her.

Sharing a love with you

We love to read! Many nights, Dan & I have to tell Kaitlin to put her book down and go to sleep!

When I was 10 yrs old, my 5th grade teacher, Mr. Avery, had a reward system for reading books. You received a 'key' for every book you read (This key was cut out of blue construction paper, the title of the book you finished reading was written on it, the keys were strung on a ring and the ring was hung on the wall in the back of the classroom.) After every 10 keys you were allowed to pick a prize from the prize box. It was all too exciting for me! I read a gazillion books that year! Wish I still had that key ring...I still have all my books from when I was a child, though - all you have to do is check out my girls' bookshelves.

One of my favorite childhood memories is my Dad taking my sisters & I to the library every 2 weeks through the summer ~ every summer. We would check-out a huge stack of books every 2 weeks! It was such a treat!

I still borrow books from the library but have to admit not as much as when I was younger. (Don't make me recount the story here! Don't!) I thoroughly enjoy owning my books. When I was a college student I fell in love with used bookstores. I love walking into a used bookstore. I love the thought that somebody else has touched the book before me & turned the same pages I am turning. I love the thought that the book lived in someone else's home before I came to own it. I like the thought that the book could have been carried around in a book bag, or sat at someone's else's bedside table for an evening read, or has maybe traveled to somewhere far-away. Used books are intriguing to me.

There was a time in my life when I stopped reading for pleasure, just textbooks consumed my days. As the years passed I read more & more and acquired more & more. I always dreamed of my own library in my own home. Right now Dan is working on a wonderful 'piece' in our sunroom - pics to come soon - so my books are in boxes. From the books I read last year, these are the books that I found on top of an open box - must mean I acquired them after our books were boxed away...

1) "The Alphabet Sisters" by Monica McInerney.
2) "WonkaMania" by Greg Rasmussen - Great book! I got this for Kaitlin & Breana and had to read it first!
3) "Shopgirl" by Steve Martin - hey, I was curious!
4) "Girls in Pants - The Third Summer of the Sisterhood" by Ann Brashares.
5) "The Second Summer of the Sisterhood" by Ann Brashares. I hope we all have friends like these.

For 2007, so far I have read...



1) "Riding The Bus with My Sister - A True Life Journey" by Rachel Simon.

2) "Waiting - the true confessions of a waitress" by Debra Ginsberg

3) " Bold Spirit - Helga Estby's Forgotton Walk Across Victorian America" by Linda Lawrence Hunt.

4) "Eragon" by Christopher Paolini - my girls weren't interested & I was curious. What made it so enticing to read was Nancy was reading it too! A 'mini-book club' was formed!

...which got me back into...

Let me tell you a quick story then we can go on our way...

Summer of 2005, while we were waiting for the 6th book to be released, Kaitlin suggested (with great excitement) that we re-read all 5 books before reading the 6th book. How can I pass up that challenge!?! I mean, she was 10 at that time! By the end of the summer, she had devoured all SIX books...I was still on the 4th book. On the drive to Tahoe (4 hours) she had started and finished the 4th book! Now the 7th and final book will be released in 5 months. I'm 2 summers late but I'll get there! (I finally understand that commerical, "Travis, your years too late!" :)
This is my second time to read the 5th book, however, for the life of me I can't remember it at all. In fact I'm reading about Harry, Hermoine & Ron bumping into Professor Lockhart in St. Mungo's and my eyes are reading the words for the first time. How can it be that I can't even recall huge chunks of this book! Scary!

Posted by Melissa!