Be Honest

What is your favorite book and why?

It's no secret that my favorite book is The Count of Monte Cristo. It is hella long, yo, but worth the three months it could take for your first go 'round. My second reading took a little over a week. No, I didn't have a life. Edmond Dantes was my life.

Why do I like it so much? It is a damn good story. Long and complex, but with a really great rhythm to it. You follow a plot for a while and it leads you off into left field. But don't fret; it'll tie in. Yes, it ever-much surely will. In some gut-wrenching or perhaps brain-exploding way. (I love when books make my brain explode!) There are stories within stories within stories, woven brilliantly. Characters, well-developed and unique, for whom you root besides the protagonist and circle of leads.

And Dumas made sure there was something for everyone: intrigue, mystery, adventure, romance, thrills and chills, moral quandaries, philosophical dilemmas, backstabbing, arcs, concaves, bandit caves, secret mountain holds, carnivals, dead babies, buffoons. And lots of humor, too.

The whole first section, the set up in the Chateau d'If, is inspiring in itself. It made me want to study, like, Greek and Astronomy and stuff, in case I need to get outta dodge or whatever.

And I love the book because it is long. I liked that tv series, Firefly, but then, like, 14 episodes and one feature length later it was over, done, kaput. I need more than that. I want to keep coming back, day after day, always wanting more. Always getting it.

Yeah, I'm pretty much ready for a re-read of The Count. Seriously.

So tell me yours. I mean it. Maybe you can dissuade me from this path.

Balancing Act

via

Hey, I need to level things out here. All work and no play makes Jane a dull girl. Too much studying! I need a pleasure-read. What are some good books you'd recommend, oh dear readers? "But, Lily," you say, "you don't have time to read!" One can always find time for a worthy book, yo.

I like books like, uh, Count of Monte Cristo. There's only one of those, though, and even all of Dumas' other works combined didn't compare to the wonder and glory of that one book, you know? So what else? In essence, I like books that transport me to another world/time/way of thinking. I like to be completely consumed by a fantasy. The best ones follow me around after I put down the book, lingering behind me like a pieces of gauze in the wind, the little scraps settling in my hair when I slow down.

Classics are best, but I like new stuff too. And I'll read non-fiction if the ideas are fascinating enough.

Leave suggestions in the comment section, why don't ya?*

(Rather than through the contact form, you know who you are!)

Back to School

I'm going to be honest and just tell you: This semester has gotten off to a rocky start. I have no doubt that I can totally turn it around and make it my best one yet, as I'd hoped it'd be. But right now? Sheesh!

My mother in law is in ICU with complicated pneumonia, so my disabled brother in law is staying with us and has been for a week. James is not better from all that stuff from two weeks ago, but at least he's done with his round of steroids. The heightened stress in the household has a big impact on the kids' behavior as well as their sleep patterns. All this to give you the backdrop to my school year so far!

I am taking only three classes. That may not seem like much, but to me it is a lot. I mean, it is literally the very most I can manage with these preschoolers under foot from 7am until 10pm or so. Maybe if I stuck 'em in daycare it'd be different, but that would also require a higher income bracket.

Anyway, I have a ton of homework, but I've come up with a tight schedule. Let the learning begin!

My Drug of Choice

Piano! I've been playing it every day. Usually, the kids interrupt me. A lot. But I still manage to go through a few pieces, repeat them a few times throughout the day and work out kinks. Few things in life are as satisfying to me as feeling my fingers speed over the keys,  relying only on muscle memory and a sense of fun. I prefer to memorize each tune I learn so that I don't have to fuss with sheet music.

I'm not great or anything. The pieces I play are fairly simple ones (I'm learning this) and I do mess them up a lot. It takes me forever to get a trill nailed down. But I'm in it for the fun.

Our Overgrown Yard

We've pretty much given up on our yard. The lawn mower is no match for this summer. The rain has made the yard all soggy and the brush grows up too fast. It gets caught in the mower and chokes it up every two feet.

So instead, it is all wind and free, like Klimt's garden. There are so many spider webs that one can scarcely cross a space of 5 feet without becoming entangled. I can see them from my kitchen window, long diagonals across the width of the yard, catch the sun now and again in a breeze. The garden is overgrown, but somehow still faithfully producing tomatoes and watermelon. Clover and various ground covers now take the place of grass in most of the yard.

I can appreciate a well-kept yard. All neat and even, nice for picnics and lawn parties. But this is beautiful to me. There's so much to explore!

It's taking over the driveway!

There's a wasp nest in the fence. Yikes. 

This is a good 6 inches deep.

Uh, yeah, these chairs need to go.

These flowers are loving this moist, shady summer.

Watermelons grown in red clay. Sweet, if small.

Pokeberries. 

This garden spider is almost 2 inches, including legs.

The kids pretty much stay in the driveway.

Clover, snakeberries and grasses mingle.

The inevitable guest. 

Wait, Already?

It's been really hard to blog this week. It's been hard to do anything. There must be some strange alignment of the planets or the cosmic balance has gone all rickety, because it's just too much all at once. And all I want to do is sleep.

School starts back tomorrow for me and, well, I have to go put together an outfit.

Ketchup

This picture is apropos* of nothing. I just like to look at it because my little sister Emma is pretty cute and my brother Justus is pretty dang strong to be able to walk around the yard like that. I don't know, it cheers me up.

It's been a rough weekend. James has been in and out of the hospital. They say it's pleurisy and maybe it is. There's been very little sleep between us and plenty of stress. And tension to be honest. 

The silver lining, I've decided, is that this whole ordeal has taught me how much need I have for a phone of my own. So now I have one. It's smart. Smarter than I am, at this point. 

And I'm on instagram, as you can see in the sidebar. #followback

*Reading anything by Alexandre Dumas will lead to the overuse of this word.