Airing Dirty Laundry

Hey there blog friends! We are back from our tour of Arizona and Southern Utah and I just wanted to check in. What is your family up to this summer? Anything you want to share in the comments below?

The books on CD from the library were great, but I'd suggest checking for scratches before you pack them. We couldn't listen to 'A Wrinkle in Time' because it was damaged.

And we started Kira-Kira, but got a few surprises! That book talks about older sisters showing their boobs to boys and has a few curse words in it, although said with a Southern accent, so it was partly obscured, but my kids speak Southern! So make sure you know what you're listening to before it goes in everyone's ears.

I was glad we had all the Magic Tree House books to fall back on.

The family plus my niece (her head is hidden behind Emma's)

I have a tip for feeling loved by your fellow travellers, works every time.

We were at this park in Oklahoma on our drive back (they had a herd of buffalo and a lake, so we stopped and at some pb and j's) and my youngest pooped his pants. I know, that goes against my no-potty-training-anecdotes-on-the-writing-blog rule, but bear with me. When all was cleaned up, I had a bag of really nasty, stinky clothes, so we stuffed these in a plastic grocery bag, tied it to the handle inside my back hatch and shut the hatch. Perfect. The bag was secure and outside the car.

We're rolling down the highway, I'm using another wipe to make sure my hands are really really clean, and this car pulls up next to us, honking and waving (the car, not the people inside. It was very exciting). They want us to know we have a bag on our bumper. We wave, and thank them. Next a guy with a legal pad emblazoned with 'BAG ON BUMPER' does the same. We smile and thank him. We stop to eat dinner, and when we're leaving Taco Pronto, this guy sprints after our car, yelling at us to stop and we explained that there was a real smelly mess in the bag, and it's tied on, everything's fine. 

We had close to twenty people tell us about the bag, and each instance made us laugh hysterically. It felt like we were engaged in some kind of bizarre social experiment. Anyhow, those midwesterners sure are nice. I'm wondering if we would get the same response in New Jersey or Miami. Hmm. 

Now back to work!   

My brave explorers at the Navajo Bridge in the Vermilion Cliffs.

Note the arrowhead necklace pulled up over Eli's ears.

And I just noticed all the silly bands. I love these guys. 

Glutton for Punishment?

Cien Por Ciento

To entertain the kiddoes on our colosal road trip from South Carolina to Arizona, I've checked out some great books on CD.

Anne of Green Gables, The Hobbit, some Magic Treehouse, some Little House on the Prairie, Judy Moody, Stuart Little, *Kira-kira, *The White Stag, *A Wrinkle in Time, When You Reach me, *Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, When You Reach Me.

*books I haven't read. I know. A Wrinkle in Time. How did I miss that as a kid? Apparently every other ten-fourteen year old loved it. My kids WILL have advantages that I did not, so it shall be written. We did read some amazing books and I'll never forget my mom reading Charlotte's Web to my fifth grade class and weeping. I don't actually remember being embarrassed. And I wept when I read it to my kids. And whenever I read them Kate DiCamillo. Must be genetic.
A-hem. On with the blog. My apologies for keeping you here in the fine print.

By some Magic Treehouse, I mean twenty titles. I guess when I was requesting materials online, those looked really good. Over and over.

I've noticed that when we listen to books, there isn't the same behavioral backlash that we get when they watch a movie. Plus, it makes driving more fun than listening to books. Listening to movies without being able to see the picture is kind of annoying to me, esp Popeye. I can watch it, but to listen only makes me want to gouge my ears  out of my head. Hmm. That's not as poetic as gouging one's eyes out. I tmakes me want to throw our portable DVD player out the window? Yes. That.

And in a shocking development in the field, The Hobbit has flopped. Nobody wanted to continue past the tea party with the neverending dwarf names/stories. I thought it was much more fun to hear someone sing the pub songs than to read them. (That was one of my favorite things about the LOTR movies. Hearing tunes to the songs. Especially in the extended version, when Eowyn sings this dirge...OR Viggo could have been my favorite part of the movies. Hmmm. That's a really hard call. Look at this picture and help me decide.)

Back to the Hobbit on CD. I wish the actor was Brittish. That can add a lot to a story- for instance, listening to 'Island of the Blue Dolphins' was cool because the actress had that Tongan-ish accent and it was just beautiful.

We're over halfway through "When You Reach Me" and that's holding their attention pretty well. I read that book earlier this year and didn't remember some of the mild cursing in it. That's the bad thing about audio books versus reading it aloud to the kids- I can't insert milder words like 'heck'. A good discussion will come of this, right?

And just to let you know of a cool resource, I've listened to some good recordings of common domain books, like "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Pride and Prejudice" on Librivox.com, a site where individuals volunteer and record their favorite books. I like to do that while folding laundry or doing dishes.

The Midsummer Night's Dream was great because they had different people reading each part and it was easier to understand than straight reading from the page. I tend to skim over the name of the character speaking, and generally get confused by reading plays. How lazy that sounds. Now you know my secret. I'm a lazy reader.

It's late and we're driving from Little Rock, AR to Veda, TX tomorrow (about 10 hours with a stop planned at the science museum in Oklahoma City, so I'm off to bed. And in case you were wondering, the science center in Birmingham AL was really really fun. We got to pet some sharks and rays and lie on a bed of nails.

Anything to add? Thanks for reading!
Glutton for Punishment?