Well here I am at 3:00 AM up with yet another upset stomach.....seems to be my way of dealing with things lately! Work has been tense and stressful...too much to do and too many annoying people!
Been knitting lots....two sweaters and blankets for the new girls to come and outfits for the girls here for their birthdays...blanket for Zack for college and finally getting back to Mark's blanket! Mark, you will have it by the time you need it, I promise! Also been knitting headbands and belts for various people....they are easy and mindless and finish up quickly. Every knitter needs short, long and future projects to work on....we are very dependent on our moods, we knitters. Short projects for when we need instant gradification, long projects to give you the pleasure of seeing a challenge well done, and future projects to look forward to. The challenge is to get to the future projects before the wool rots!
Been reading lots of books for 3rd gr-middle school for this committe that I am on. It is amazing what gets published. If you have ever thought of writting a children's/youth book, go for it.....seems like the publishing work has gone the way of the rest of the world...pandering to the lowest or most popular level. So get your computers going and watch TV for a few nights. Put it down in sentences that sort of follow the English grammer rules and you'll get published!
Speaking of reading....have I read the new Harry Potter book? No, but a young friend confirmed what I was sure happened at the end! In hero tales, something has to happen to force the reluctant hero to do what they have to do to suceed. In a longer series it usually means someone close to the hero has to die. If that person stayed alive, the hero would still be under their influence or care and they would never move on....kind of like being pushed out of the nest. That is why so many of the writers for children (see Susan Cooper esp.) feel that the hero tale is the one essential tale type that children should read, be read to, often. We all need to know, and the sooner the better, that we can go out overcome something, survive and come back to make the world we live in better. Fantasy puts that in the context of good vs. evil which enhances the message and gives children realistic hope. Yes, you may loose someone in the process, but it is because you and life must more forward. (guess what is my favorite type of literature!) I still want to read the lates Potter book because in good fantasy is not what happens, but how it happens. However, since I have to read 4 books a week for my committee I'll be lucky to get to it by the winter!
Better go to bed....have a bad day tomorrow....lots of hrs on the ref. desk, then home to make my place at least passable for Heather and anyone else who may stop by!
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Well I am finally getting back to blogging. Here are some thoughts.
While up the farm I found a box marked old Lloyd and some Famous memories. In it were old Lloyd family photos. I have been taking pictures of them and will organize and label them over the next year. They can be viewed, along with pictures I took at my father's sister's house, Olive Warner:http://famousfamily2.dnsalias.org/Janet/oldLloydPics/index.html
The drawing of a young girl done in pencils was done by my father and is of his sister. The black and white drawing of a baby was done by his mother. Until I saw that picture I never knew where my father's art ability came from. She died when my father was @12 and no one mentioned that she was an artist. They mentioned that she hated the city. That she died young, but not much about her as a person. That is something we all need to remember when we pass on stories....pass on the person, not just the facts!
I was really glad to find pictures of the shore place (Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island, NJ). My earliest memories are from that place and was glad to revisit it. It was sad as well because no one who when there, except maybe my Aunt Dot, is still alive to share those times with. I wish Judi had brought those out (they were not with her regular stash of albums) so we could have shared those times. I guess in a way, getting them out and in a place we could find them, was her way of doing that....but I would have liked to have done that in person. I have been thinking more and more about going to visit there sometime. It is still a quiet family resort I understand from a friend who has gone there. http://www.shipbottom.org/
I'll post some of my memories on Judi's family memories site.
Well my stomach, which was keeping me up at this hr., is doing better, so I'd better go to bed!
More later
While up the farm I found a box marked old Lloyd and some Famous memories. In it were old Lloyd family photos. I have been taking pictures of them and will organize and label them over the next year. They can be viewed, along with pictures I took at my father's sister's house, Olive Warner:http://famousfamily2.dnsalias.org/Janet/oldLloydPics/index.html
The drawing of a young girl done in pencils was done by my father and is of his sister. The black and white drawing of a baby was done by his mother. Until I saw that picture I never knew where my father's art ability came from. She died when my father was @12 and no one mentioned that she was an artist. They mentioned that she hated the city. That she died young, but not much about her as a person. That is something we all need to remember when we pass on stories....pass on the person, not just the facts!
I was really glad to find pictures of the shore place (Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island, NJ). My earliest memories are from that place and was glad to revisit it. It was sad as well because no one who when there, except maybe my Aunt Dot, is still alive to share those times with. I wish Judi had brought those out (they were not with her regular stash of albums) so we could have shared those times. I guess in a way, getting them out and in a place we could find them, was her way of doing that....but I would have liked to have done that in person. I have been thinking more and more about going to visit there sometime. It is still a quiet family resort I understand from a friend who has gone there. http://www.shipbottom.org/
I'll post some of my memories on Judi's family memories site.
Well my stomach, which was keeping me up at this hr., is doing better, so I'd better go to bed!
More later
