a life beyond running shoes.

caveat: this is summer reading folks. i did try and throw one meaningful read in there but just to make myself feel better. the thief lord by cornelia funke. one more YA read for my summer vacation.  venice, magic realism, orphans, and that element of a story that captures you and intrigues you to the end. it was not the most amazing book i have ever read, but i did enjoy the characters, youthful intrigue and suspension of disbelief. i have heard her inkheart series is worth checking out.... i liked this enough to try her as author again.  and i did love it being set in venice. she captures that element of mystery, an old theater home and just a few adults to help move the story along.  the age of miracles. by karen thompson walker. okay, what?  time is slowing down.  and what happens at the end....oh, wait....you aren't going to tell me. but okay, this is really just a story about coming of age in a tense, challenging time. right? okay........

we galavanted around the southeast visiting family. after months of new friends, it was nice to be with those familiar.

camping at camp fresno. no....not in fresno... thank you, dear lord. not tent camping....but not much higher up on the luxury spectrum. kids welcome to the sierras. dinky creek....not so dinky. smores. redwoods. creek swimming. fishing. climbing. hiking. family. and lots and lots of dirt.  what a great week! i might just need a whole year to gear up for it again!

    then again. by diane keaton i do love her.... her hat wearing, idiosyncratic personhood.  i also loved that i must have said out loud, "i didn't know that" about a million times about her and her life. AND.... oh the men she dated. woody. warren. al.  and the way she writes tribute to her mom.... giving her mom a voice from the journals she wrote that diane discovered after her mother died.   she is personal and candid. it feels very much like diane keaton..... lovable and enjoyable. perhaps not the best memoir i have read.....but it did make me want to go back and see some of her movies from the last thirty years.....including annie hall which i can hardly remember seeing the first time. loud and clear. by anna quindlen i told you i would get around to more of her.  this is a collection of her essays originally published in newsweek and the new york times .  it covers parenting, social issues, politics, 9/11. i love her voic...

a moveable feast .  ernest hemingway part of what the Paris wife was based on in terms of information gathered about Hadley (hemingway's first wife). what was interesting were the "introduction" and "preface" regarding the stories that hemingway kept changing.....or the fact that he could not really decide on a title. i am so glad i read it in light of my fascination with hemingway in the twenties but probably not noteworthy on its own. although, some of his comments on fitzgerald are rather snarky and therefore delightful to read. the sun also rises.   ernest hemingway. still working through some hemingway. okay, but what I loved about this was that I had some biographical context for this story.....if any of the paris wife novel was true...for example, the character that he based brett on and how she caused a scene in pamplona when a group of parisian expatriates went for the running of the bulls. again, in the context of my readings I loved it. h...

please, please one more game of wall ball.....  this is by far the saddest part of school ending.... no more recess. graduates (5th graders and kinders) participate in a "fashion show" and since peanut is in a K/1 combo class he got to participate....... can you tell how much he loved it. and fun visit from a brooklyn friend..... so, glad you let us come meet you!!! (see people we do drive to you if you let us know you are coming!) and fun exploration of more west coast beaches..... the wind & waves were cold! but i got to try a lobster roll.... rated one of the top 5 sandwiches in the US.  bummer i did not get a photo of that.

means lots of new experiences.... - neat art projects using books: the very hungry caterpillar   - being in a play at school. the three billy goats gruff calypso  can you tell how much he enjoyed that! - and finally loosing that first tooth. funny thing, we don't know where it is. it disappeared in the night. daddy tooth-fairy will still visit though. what a big kid. hard to believe he is seven! it is fun to keep learning about him and how he is different from anyone else i know. he has loved baseball season and can hardly wait for soccer this fall. he is a great reader and really loves math. he has four days left of first grade and he has done amazing! peanut, you are an awesome kid!

in the loosest sense of the word, i am a researcher. i like to read multiple things about one thing. the paris wife: a novel . by paula mclain. oh, i loved it. but it took a few things that i happen to have already loved:  the idea of paris in the 20s; ernest hemingway, fitzgerald, picasso; cafes, writers, wine; a different era. it was a world away.  it was hemingway's world in paris, spain, italy, etc.  this is the story of hemingway and his first wife, hadley.  i think it is mostly based on their letters and hemingway's memoir a moveable feast .  i loved living in their tiny apartment, meeting with gertrude stein, and having drinks with f. scott.  having just seen midnight in paris (woody allen film) a few months ago, i was ready to be swept away.  too bad hemingway's marriage is short lived but his stories live on...... i also tried hemingway's boat: everything he loved in life, and lost, 1934 - 1961 by paul hendrickson.  it w...

wow! first grade open house. art show and all.  we got to see his turtle art but he was also super  proud of some things in his classroom. he let us read a story he wrote  that had a beginning, middle, and end. my favorite was his weekend journal which concluded "all in all, it was a good weekend." love it!!! hard to believe he was hardly reading just over a year ago. i think peanut has made the transition rather well. now, if only i could feel as settled.

seems like most have read her.  this is one of my new york finds...... sitting on a stoop, pick up, read. i have a pile of those.  i am trying to get through some of that pile. sometimes you win..... sometimes you don't. this was a win - for me. rise and shine . by anna quindlen two sister, two new yorks. one the media darling of american, one a social worker in the bronx.  they are formed by tragedy of their youth, manage to remain consistent in their relationship but live in different worlds. perhaps i loved the small details of new york that a tourist might miss.... the reference to a grocery store, the way to navigate sidewalks, or the reality that there are multiple cities within new york.  maybe i like the story of sisters. i have one that i love. we are different. these sisters are different.  perhaps, i like that i was caught in a story that concluded.... not resolved or tied up nicely but finished with just a bit of redemption. i enjoy...

it is where we have spent almost every saturday. what is great is that there are three kids in peanut's class.... all the other kids go to his actual school or live on our street.  we actually feel like we are getting to know people.  and frankly, his uniform is just super cute! and his brother, while not playing himself, gets all decked out in his own version of a uniform..... which includes a jeter jersey.  we are merely tolerated but since californians are actually lame sports fans, we get by.

the prodigal god: recovering the heart of the christian faith by: tim keller the parable of the prodigal son.... but really there are two lost brothers. and there is one redeeming father who gives a feast for those who return. to be reminded so eloquently of the father's love for me through a closer look at this parable was not only refreshing for my soul but also amazingly convicting. keller redefinition of lostness shows me the mirror to my soul taking me that much deeper in my understanding how how great my need for a the true elder brother (Jesus) who loves, obey, sacrifices, and pursues perfectly.  some quotes: the hearts of the two brothers were the same...both were alienated from the father's heart; both were lost sons.  they both were using the father for their own self-centered ends rather than loving, enjoying, and serving him for his own sake. this means you can rebel against god and be alienated from him either by breaking his rules or by keeping them dilig...

reading one heavy novel necessitated two fluffy. little bee . by chris cleeve. nigirian refugee at a british immigration center meets british liberal editor of a woman's trash magazine with an insipid husband and a lackluster infidelity. while i can say it is a compelling and intriguing story. what i can also say is that the infidelity bothers me.... it might not bother all but it is a storyline that i find problematic and unsettling. perhaps, it is my moral high ground but i read the synopsis of some of his other books and the topic is repeated. anyway, an event on a nigirian beach bring sarah and little bee together.  the book deals with the atrocities of nigiria as the "black gold" country and the complicated issues of asylum and immigration. the times reviewer said that it is not just a political novel but a story of human triumph.  i found very little triumph in the story actually.  so there  you have it.  not a huge fan of the author but was glad to...

hubbie and i actually got to attend a conference a couple of weeks ago thanks to my  mom for coming up and keeping our kids. kevin twit came and spoke on how songs shape our souls . here is his article titled "why we still need hymns." he was awesome. our hymn sing was a sweet balm to my soul. here was one of the nuggets that he shared with us that i have been attached to ever since: Beams of Heaven ©2004 Christopher Miner Music.  Words: Charles Tindley.  Music: Christopher Miner. 1. Beams of heaven as I go,  through the wilderness below,  guide my feet in peaceful ways,  turn my midnights into days.  When in the darkness I would grope,  faith always sees a star of hope, and soon from all life's grief and danger  I  shall be free someday.  I shall be free someday. 2. Often times my sky is clear,  joy abounds without a tear;  though a day so bright begun,  clouds may hide tomorrow's ...

hiking to turtle rock with daddy. sonoma to train town and olive oil tasting. sausalito for the bay discovery museum.     point reyes for whale watching and elephant seal sightings.  so cool!!! i've been whale watching before but have never actually seen a whale....we saw at least five (or perhaps it was one whale that we saw five times). and lots of movies in jammies for rainy days in between.