One Sixteenth

Hey! Where did she go?

My apologies to those of you waiting for email from me. Mothering is hard this week. We've been zapped by illness and right now I am spending the vast majority of my time holding sick kids as we watch "The Hobbit" and "Chamber of Secrets" for the umpteen millionth time.

AND the coffee maker quit working. What kind of sick joke is that? There is a Starbuck's right across the street, though. Still not convenient enough for me to bundle up four small children, one quite ill, against temperatures in the teens and cart them across the street, but convenient enough to send my husband across the street to bring me the coffee.

In better news, I finished the Silmarillion last night. Yes I did. Every page, except for the chapter about the geography of Beleriand. I am spatially challenged and could never understand that chapter without a map in front of me. But except for that one chapter, it wasn't nearly as bad as certain of you led me to believe. Either "The Book of Lost Tales I" or "Master and Commander" is up next. On first glance the Lost Tales scares me, but we'll see.

And yesterday, Connor read Geraldine McCaughrean's version of "St. George and the Dragon." This is a major turning point; it means that I can now give him whole books to read, and he will. Or at least he is capable of doing so. It was his idea to read the book himself. Those of you who don't know McCaughrean's work should know that although she writes for children, she doesn't dumb things down and uses a rich vocabulary.

Time to get breakfast for those who can eat.

Posted by Steph at January 28, 2004 09:42 AM