Book 6 - A Morbid Taste for Bones

A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters is the first mystery in the Brother Cadfael Chronicles series. Brother Cadfael is a man of wide experience who became a Benedictine monk late in life. When his superiors become determined to acquire the bones of a Welsh saint in a tiny village, Brother Cadfael immediately offers his services as translator in order to join the expedition despite his reservations about the justice of the quest. While the ruling bishop and prince are both give their permission to the Benedictine delegation to move the bones of Siant Winifred, the people of the local village are not at all pleased with the idea. The landholder Rhisiart takes the lead in arguing with the prior that the bones should be allowed to stay in their current location and is outraged at the bribe offered to him to change his mind. He agrees to return the following day to discuss the situation again but does not appear despite leaving the house at the appropriate time to arrive at the meeting. A brief search turns up his body lying dead in the woods apparently shot with the arrow of a outlander. Then it is up to Brother Cadfael to assist Rhisiart's daughter in determining who the true murderer is in order to clear the name of the outlander whom she loves.

The first Brother Cadfael mystery is beautifully set in 12th century England and Wales with vivid characters both good and bad within the cloister and without. Brother Cadfael is definitely not a typical 12th century monk, but a man with a deep sense of justice and fairness and enough experience with men to understand the potential legal, cultural, and political pitfalls that might interfere with the pursuit of true justice. In the end, he successfully works out a surprising solution that not only unmasks the offender but attempts to do the right thing for all parties involved. I'd highly recommend this book for ages 13 and up and have already put the second and third books in the series on hold to read later this month.

Book 5 - Antigone

Antigone by Sophocles depicts the aftermath of the war between the sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polynices, to control Thebes. The new king Creon decrees that the former, who died defending Thebes, will be given a hero's burial but the latter, now branded a traitor to Thebes, shall not be buried but left in the open to be destroyed by wild animals and birds. Antigone, one of the two daughters of Oedipus who is to marry Creon's son, as much as she may have disagreed with her brother's action is grief stricken at the thought of him not receiving proper burial and determines that Creon's edict is a violation of the god's will and cannot be obeyed. After being caught in the act of covering her brother's body, Antigone is sentenced to be entombed alive over the protest of her betrothed and the seer of the city. Then the events unfold to punish Creon for his pride and foolhardy defiance of the gods by stubbornly refusing to admit his error until it is too late.

This classic Greek tragedy well deserves its place among the great books of Western Civilization. While short in length it is packed with lessons and points for discussion: obeying man v. obeying the gods, pride and its consequences, and the courage to stand for one's beliefs among others. Of Sophocles's tragedies this one is my favorite and I would highly recommend it for ages 14 and up.

Book 4: Secrets of an Organized Mom

Secrets of an Organized Mom by Reich is a room by room approach to organizing the entire house. She uses a basic 4 step system of purging, designing, organizing, and maintaining combined with some simple common sense rules like storing like things together and storing items where they are used. In each chapter she explains how to apply these rules to the room being discussed, covers the basics of what is actually needed for that area, and provides examples of items that her clients have been hanging onto that should be purged.

I would recommend the book to anyone that needs an extra little push to remove items that are unloved, unneeded, or overstocked. I found her lists of basic supplies needed in each area to be a good starting point when considering which items can be purged. She does encourage having all the same hangers or all the same containers, and I personally don't think that is necessary. Nor do I wish to switch to having all of my financial statements delivered electronically because I am horrible at remembering to look at them online. Still, I consider it a worthwhile read and a good motivator to pare down the excess items in the house.

Book 3 - Phantastes

Phantastes by MacDonald is an exquisitely descriptive ramble through Fairy Land with a young man called Adonos. It doesn't have as much of a plot as other stories to move things along, but tends instead to take a more leisurely path with stunning views of the sights of Fairy land as well as numerous detours through poetry. Along the way Adonos learns about the people of Fairy land, narrowly escapes the plots of the Ash and Alder, twice frees a beautiful lady, lounges in the library of a palace, battles giants, and takes service as a squire to a noble knight. How he escapes Fairy land and what lessons he learns, I'll leave to the discovery of each reader.

Phantastes is an interesting wander through the realm of Fairy land that I would suggest for ages 14 and up.

Book 2: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Bradley is the first book in his Flavia de Luce series. In the summer of 1950, eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce's boring life at Buckshaw, the family's old English mansion, is suddenly turned upside down. First a dead jack snipe with a postage note on its beak appears on the doorstep, and her normally unflappable father is visibly upset. Then she wakes during the night to find her father arguing with a red headed man, whom she finds lying in the cucumber patch poisoned and breathing his final breaths the next morning. Instead of being upset, Flavia, whose passionate about chemistry and most especially about poisons, is intrigued; and being treated like a little girl by the Inspector who arrives to examine the remains is the perfect motivation to set out and solve the mystery on her own. She must work quickly to save her father, who is arrested for the crime, by uncovering part of his past and solving another 20 year old murder.



It took me a few chapters to get into the book. The first chapter or two have more about the back and forth contentious relationship between Flavia and her two older sisters, which I actually found to be a bit of a turn off. Once the story began to focus more on the murder itself, my interest level definitely picked up. I wasn't completely surprised by the ending. I could see where the book was headed, but it still held my interest to stay up late and finish the book on Friday night. I plan on reading the next book in the series. It's a well-written, fun read for ages 13 and up.

Book 1 - The Odyssey

The Odyssey by Homer is the timeless classic tale of the 10 year journey of Odysseus from Troy back to his beloved home and family in Ithaca. At home his wife is besieged by unwanted suitors feasting on the riches of the king's palace, and his son Telemachus now grown to manhood is too far outnumbered to deal with the vultures himself. Still Athena, though she will not confront Poseidon directly, argues for Zeus to order Calypso to free Odysseus so that he might return home and orchestrates plan after plan to see him safely home with rich treasure, victorious over the suitors, and able to rule again in peace.

This is by far my favorite piece of ancient literature and I highly recommend it as a must read for ages 14 and up.

New Year's Resolutions & January's Goals

It's that time of year again, time to make those dreaded New Year's resolutions. I made a little progress last year, but life happened as always so as usual there's still room for improvement. I'll take most of these goals and break them down further in weekly or monthly categories, but here's an overall look.

Spiritual
1. Read through the Bible in one year - I have tried a lot of one year Bibles and they just haven't worked for me. With the chronological Bible, I generally sink somewhere in the midst of Job. It's just to cold and dreary in January for Job. Last year I tried the One Year Bible thinking that more variety might help. Each day had a passage from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. It was just too scattered a format for me. This year, I've decided on a new approach, simply reading through the Bible from beginning to end a little bit each day. I have the free ESV version on my Kindle, and I found a canonical plan that schedules daily readings for a year. Then I made a Word document listing the readings to be done each month that I can fold to show one month at a time and keep in the pocket of my Kindle case.

2. More consistent quiet time - I like to have quiet time first thing in the morning before the kids are up. Unfortunately, I am not always up before the kids; so while I work on consistently getting up earlier, my short term resolution for January is no television or internet until I've had some quiet time even if it's just five minutes to read the day's chapter for goal 1.

Home Management
1. Continue decluttering and organizing following the 52 Week Organized Home Challenge- My kitchen is in fairly good shape already, so I'll probably spend more time in January putting together items for the spring consignment sale.

2. Better implementation of schedule and chores - For January, I need to make some adjustments to our daily schedule to make it more doable, redo the kids chore charts, and work on getting them to complete their chores without reminders. (Although I am resigned to the latter possibly taking all year.)

3. Menu Planning - I made a menu for January during the last week of December and made breakfast and lunch menus for the kids and I. Now I can focus on implementing and finding new recipes for next month.

Financial

Better expense tracking, budgeting, and savings - My goal for January is simply to track spending while focusing on cutting the food bill by better utilizing what we already have. For budgeting, I'll put together a form for next month. For savings, I'll work on doing a better job at coupons.

Health

Lose 15-20 pounds - I made myself an eating plan that I'll be trying to stick with. I'm cutting back coffee to 1 cup in the morning and cutting out soft drinks in favor of water (aiming for 4 cups a day to start). For exercising, I'm going to start at 3 times a week for January and hopefully increase that next month.

Fun / Hobbies
1. Get back to more regular blogging

2. Complete the afghan laying in squares in my bedroom.

3. 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

Self-Education
1. Improve my Latin and Spanish. - Set aside 30 minutes 5 times a week to work on Latin for this month. Come up with plan for Spanish besides teaching DD.

2. Read more Great Books.

3. Read all the way through Bauer's The History of the Ancient World with notes.

Parenting

1. Bring back no TV game nights.

2. Do more cooking with the girls and spend more time with boys.