Gift From the Sea

Hello everyone! We had a fabulous Mommy Salon kick-off meeting in September. Thanks to Camille for hosting and providing refreshments and to Kristy for leading our discussion of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift From the Sea.

I found Gift From the Sea to be a profoundly insightful book that is still surprisingly relevant to women's lives, 50 years after it first appeared in print. My #1 take-away thought from our discussion of the book is the principle of intermittency and its manifestations in our lives. We should not (if we want to be happy throughout our lives) expect things to always stay the same. Relationships evolve, talents grow, adversity comes and it goes, children grow up, dreams change and some come to pass, and our very feelings ebb and flow during every day. Staking contentment on an presumed constant is foolhardy, as not much in our lives in changeless apart from God and His unfathomable love for us (which, by the way, Lindbergh did not comment on in her book. I wish she had shared her thoughts on that subject!). I need not despair over departure from one phase of life, for it also signals the entrance into a new phase with its own joys and growth and troubles and triumphs. I don't need to feel guilty that my marriage isn't perpetually honeymoony. In fact, Lindbergh suggests that it shouldn't be! I ought to stop fretting that I'm not going to Europe and doing family history for several hours a week and volunteering at a soup kitchen and writing a novel and keeping up my scrapbooks and running for town council and, and, and, and...because there will be a time and a season for those things, if indeed they still matter to me when their season comes. The tide of our lives is intermittent. The trick (and it is a trick!) is to enjoy the crash of each wave and each peace between them.

In the future, we will have someone jot down the gist of our discussion so we can remember things more clearly--I know there were some gems from last month that have already slipped my memory. For now, please please please share something that touched you during our discussion or in your reading by makng a comment on this post!

Little Britches

Our book for October Mommy Salon is Little Britches, by Ralph Moody. If you find multiple Little Britches books with various subtitles, get the book with the subtitle "Father and I Were Ranchers". Little Britches without a subtitle is also the correct book.

2009-2010 Mommy Salon schedule

Thursday, September 17th
Book: Gift from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Discussion Leader: Kristy
Hostess/Refreshments: Camille
Learning Topic: Music
Learning Leader: Alicia

Tuesday, October 20th
Book: Little Britches, by Ralph Moody
Discussion Leader: Camille
Hostess/Refreshments: Kristie C.
Learning Topic: Knitting
Learning Leader: Stephanie

Thursday, November 19th
Book: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama
Discussion Leader:
Hostess/Refreshments: Stephanie
Learning Topic: Politics
Learning Leader: Katie R

Thursday, December 10th
Book: Poetry night
Discussion Leader: Alicia
Hostess/Refreshments: Katie R.
Learning Topic: Christmas party and recipe exchange!

Thursday, January 14th
Book: I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
Discussion Leader:
Hostess/Refreshments: Alicia
Learning Topic: Refashioning
Learning Leader: Kristy

Thursday, February 11th
Book: World Religions
Discussion Leader:
Hostess/Refreshments: Jean
Learning Topic: Spanish
Learning Leader: Kristie

Thursday, March 25th
Book: The Chosen, by Chaim Potok
Discussion Leader: Cassandra
Hostess/Refreshments: Emily S.
Learning Topic: Interior Design
Learning Leader: Emily S.

Thursday, April 15th
Book: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver
Discussion Leader:
Hostess/Refreshments: Cassandra
Learning Topic: Gardening
Learning Leader: Camille

Thursday, May 20th
Book: The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis
Discussion Leader: Kristie
Hostess/Refreshments: Kristy
Learning Topic: Fitness
Learning Leader: Jean

Walden: a little help

Thanks to Alicia for sending out Jared's suggested sections. :) Hopefully this way we'll be able to get the best of Thoreau without too much hardship!

Jared also sent me a couple of links that might be of help to us. They are: 

http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/

http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden00.html

Both of these websites have full annotated texts of the book with helpful background and commentary.

We'll see you all April Fool's Day!

discussion: teaching children

This Wednesday at Mommy Salon we want to spend some time discussing ways to teach children. Each of us is an expert in our own way (like, I know Thomas listens really well when he's eating Teddy Grahams) and so we hope we can put our heads together and come up with some "best practices" for teaching children, whether they're our own or not.

So keep this in mind for the next couple of days: how do you teach your children, not just how to tie their shoes, but truths? What are some successes you've had, and what hasn't worked for you? How does the teaching happen in your house?

Thanks, ladies! I look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday night at Alicia's.

[And if you know whether or not you're coming, will you either comment here or email Alicia so she can plan? That would be super helpful. Thanks a million.]

Marriage in P&P

I found the essay prompt from an English Lit class for P&P. I think it's a great idea, if you're interested in writing on this topic. Oh, if you haven't finished the book, read no further because this does give some relationships away. Here 'tis:

Your assignment is to write an essay in which you analyze one of the marriages in Pride and Prejudice.

First, you will have to decide which marriage to write about: Collins and Charlotte, the Bennets, Darcy and Elizabeth, Bingley and Jane, Wickham and Lydia, etc.

Second, look back in the text for evidence that will allow you to describe the particular relationship you have chosen. Support each opinion you have about the relationship with evidence from the novel and explain how the evidence supports your opinion. Focus on the powerful words in the text, words rich with meaning and possibilities for meaning.

Analyze the positives and negatives in the relationship you have chosen. Try to determine what you think Austen sees as weakening or strengthening the union.

Your conclusion should consist of your explanation of how the couple you chose illuminates Austen's more general ideas about what makes a good marriage.

(the original assignment called for 4-5 double spaced pages)

Pride and Prejudice

I am having so much fun reading Pride and Prejudice! I hope you all are enjoying it too. We're meeting to discuss the book next week, Wed., March 4th 7pm at my house. Hope you can make it! In the meantime, here are some questions that may spark your thoughts as you read. Please please please jot some thoughts down as you go along, and/or leave your own questions and comments here on the blog before next week.

These are just some things I've wondered to myself on this reading.

• What is all this business about "being accomplished"? What is the value of this cultural phenomenon, and do we have an equivalent today? And why isn't cooking on the list of desirable accomplishments in 19th century British society?
• What are Jane's and Elizabeth's flaws and strengths?
• What makes good "chick lit"? I mean really quality stuff, not smut novels. Why do we (or at least, me!) love Jane Austen? What makes it fun and good?
• Did Charlotte do the right thing in her marriage?
• What can married women (i.e. most of us) get out of this tale? I've had heaps of hilarious and poignant memories of my single/dating life as I've read, but what can we gain from the story now that we've landed our men?! I'm definitely having fun reading it, but is there value in the book beyond the entertainment factor?

I would love to hear your opinions on these ideas, either as comments here on the blog, and/or at our discussion next week. In the meantime, please feel free to post your own thoughts!

Another idea for writing is comparing the novel to a film adaptation of it. I have the Keira Knightly version, if anyone would like to borrow it! Perhaps we can have a movie screening...all for educational purposes, of course :).