Life via blog in April"
Posts from Living Unabridged This Month:
- What to Read in April
- Make Your Homeschool Days Colorful
- The Heart-Work of Pregnancy
- A Compromise in the Screen Time War
- Likes and Dislikes: A Homeschool Mom Confession
Words on Wednesday Posts:
- What Matters
- The Cure for Boredom
- On Vulnerability
- The Problem with "Follow Your Passion"
- Otherwise Good Stuff
Books reviewed this month: Go Ahead and Like It.
In blog news, I did my first ever sponsored post (it was this one: A Compromise in the Screen Time War).
I was also excited to be invited to add Maestro Classics as an affiliate. My children love these CDs. Our favorites, so far, have been Mike Mulligan, Handel, and Swan Lake, but really, they're all great.
What's Been Happening:
The Great Homeschool Convention from April 9-11 was a big highlight of the month. I heard several excellent sessions and my husband and oldest daughter made it to several more. On Friday of the convention our family spent the entire day downtown.
I took lots of notes and I hope to incorporate some of those into some future blog posts, so watch for that. I also got to meet my blog friend Dawn for the first time, which was great. I think we hit it off pretty well for two introverts.
Philip and I also ran into many friends and acquaintances, and even a few relatives.
Our family welcomed a new nephew on April 20th and our family got to meet this new little man on the 27th and 28th. The girls (and the iBoy) are always glad to spend some time with their cousins and everyone got a turn to hold the new baby (letting even the iBoy get a little experience before his baby brother comes along).
We hosted a game night for friends from church. Philip playtested a few of his new games (you can see his game design blog here: Phantasio Games) and we also broke out some old favorites (Apples to Apples
What We've Been Watching:
I mostly worked around the room while my husband watched this one. (Plus, I completely spoiled the ending for him by pointing out that - don't read if you don't want to be spoiled - the Americans were sure to be the bad guys. Sure enough...)
Glad we didn't see this in the theater because I probably would have walked out. Eventually, I was keeping one eye on this movie and one eye on some blog related tasks while my husband finished the whole thing.
Can we say that Jackson has fallen prey to the George Lucas Syndrome? No one to say no. No one to edit. Over-dependence on special effects. No real understanding of the source material (or, in Lucas's case: the magic of the original trilogy).
As much as I enjoyed the LOTR trilogy (despite the character assassinations of Aragorn and Faramir), I did not enjoy a single one of the three (count 'em: THREE) Hobbit movies. And, in fact, I fell asleep through part of this one.
Turing's genius deserves to be recognized, although I did sense there was a bit of "tug of war" in the telling of this story.
One faction would have us focus on his personal inclinations (and I believe this faction is politically motivated) and one faction wanted to emphasize his contribution to the war effort.
There was some ridiculous story-telling in this: Turing and Cairncross never worked together and for goodness sake, Turing didn't commit treason to hide his personal life. (COME ON, people!)
But despite a few story telling problems in this movie, Benedict Cumberbatch can sell anything, I think. (My husband says he's one of those actors that started out great and just gets better.)
Turing was a complicated, driven, and sometimes disturbed individual who nonetheless made huge contributions to not only the war effort, but to Science in general. To try to turn him into just a caricature, no more than the sum of his sexual preferences, for political reasons is ridiculous (not that the movie does that, entirely).
Favorite Books Finished in April:
The most important thing I have to note is that this beautiful boy:
is two years old today.
I'm not sure how that happened so quickly.
He is all boy: into cars, trucks, and anything with wheels, really. Loves his Mama and Daddy. Pesters his older sisters but he also gives them great hugs and kisses.
He makes all of us smile and laugh. His antics are already legendary. He'd spend every minute of the day outside, if possible.
He thinks he's as big and capable as anyone else. He has a temper but it flares out quickly. (In other words: when he's mad, look out, but he won't hold a grudge.)
Oh this boy. Sometimes the word "love" just doesn't seem big enough, you know?
What have you been up to in April?
I agree with all your movie reviews. The Hobbit movie bored me to tears. Imitation Game was very good. I don't know much about the people outside of what the movie told me, but Cumberbatch was brilliant. My daughter tells me he references Turing in an episode of Sherlock. I watched the movie with my kids, and we talked about how Turing was a man before his time. I like to think about great men and women and their accomplishments in their times. Would Bill Gates be who he is if he had been born 50 years earlier? Would Rockefeller have been so wealthy if he was born now in a time of huge regulation? Anyway, I am babbling! Have a great day!
That's the thing about Turing: I think he would have been kind of an odd duck no matter when he was born. (The same goes for Bill Gates...) Sometimes I do like to imagine what someone from the past would say in our times. Especially enjoy thinking about what Winston Churchill would make of the world these days. ;)
Definitely hit it off well! What a great month you had!