Tomato and Pepper Garden

This is the first year that I'm really happy with the placement of my tomatoes. The basic design of this part of the garden was Bo's idea, with a bit of tweaking from me. In the beginning, I planted my lettuces in this spot, surrounding by the then-tiny tomato plants. On either side of the entrance are two clumps of lemon grass. I think I may add some lavender there, too. The tomatoes are growing very happily along the fencing on three sides, and there are Kentucky Wonder peas on the south side. To the north (the right of the picture) are different types of sunflowers, which are all blooming now. Behind the garden is the rabbit hutch, which provides wonderful ready-to-use manure. I show my thanks by giving the rabbits my cast-off lettuces and all the weeds I can pull.

Summer Love/Garden Party

The Baby loves the garden. In particular, she loves the flowers. Even more specifically, she loves dissecting the flowers. Here, we see The Baby in her natural habitat, my vegetable garden, picking (apart) a marigold.

I love my garden, too. For the first time this year, I have a garden environment I'm actually a little proud of. It's humble, but I feel like I'm on the right track. I'm making improvements in my mind in preparation for next year.

How does YOUR garden grow? Would you like to show the blogging world the fruits of your labor? Would you like to take us on a virtual tour?

Let's have a Garden Party in the blogosphere! Show me your summer garden--vegetable, herb, flower, or weed--and I'll show you mine.

Link back here and I'll list you in my Garden Party Tour post, which I'll keep at the top of Today's Lessons until August 15th. 

You Had Me At Hello

When I was a youngster, my best friend was pretty fickle. Though we spent a lot of time together on and off through high school, I'm not really sure what made her the "best" friend I had. After all, it didn't take much for her to change the dynamics of our friendship. Maybe a new girl moved into town, and I wasn't interesting anymore. Maybe she found beer and marijuana, and I didn't partake. Maybe she found high fashion, and I was too Cyndi Lauper. Maybe she found a boyfriend, and I was too female. Maybe her new friend slept with my boyfriend and I was being unreasonable. Maybe she found religion, and I wasn't saved enough.

And then, every once in a while, she would send me a letter, telling me how sorry she was, telling me how important our friendship was to her, but still, in some backhanded way, blaming the problem on me. And I, hungry for friendship, would go crawling back, thankful that she'd bestowed her attention on one so lowly.

Sometime in high school, after years and years of this silly dance and several other friends who based a relationship on whether or not you wore pink to school on the right day, my thick skull cracked open, my old brain oozed out, a new brain took its place, and I discovered that girlfriends aren't always "all that."

But BOYfriends. Now, THAT was a different story. If you could find a really good one, you could leave all of your mediocre girlfriends in the dust. And that, essentially, is what I did.

At sixteen, I met my first serious boyfriend, who then became my first serious fiance. We had a lot of fun together. It was actually much more fun than any of my girl friendships, even with all of the boyfriend/girlfriend problems. But, eventually, it became apparent that some of these were more than your garden variety relationship issues; we were, in fact, highly dysfunctional. Let's say, for example, he didn't want me to have friends. Especially GUY friends...or coworkers, or next door neighbors, or cousins, or classmates or bosses. Aaaaand...he wanted to date other girls, like the girl who had been his best friend before I met him and had remained his best friend while we dated. It didn't seem very balanced, somehow. Unfortunately, we didn't part on good terms.

It was at that point that my second serious boyfriend stepped into the picture.

Bo and I had first met when I was about 15. We'd come to know each other at a youth group retreat. He thought I was drop-dead gorgeous, and he was floored by my winking. I spied him from across a crowded room. Our eyes met. I winked at him. He swooned and died.* It was all uphill from there. Well, there were a few speedbumps, but that's a story for another blog entry. Nothing serious. Don't panic. It all turned out fine in the end.

At that time, we were both too young for a romantic relationship, according to our parents, but we spent a lot of time talking on the phone. Enough time to find out that we really, really liked conversation, especially with each other. He made me think. I encouraged him to feel. I felt so comfortable talking to him. He enjoyed exploring new topics with me.

But, as fate would have it, we parted ways, due to circumstances beyond our control. He dated his serious girlfriend. I dated my serious boyfriend. It wasn't until years later that we found ourselves talking to each other on the phone again. Our serious boyfriend and girlfriend had fallen in love, or lust, or something like that, and we were trying to figure the whole mess out. It was easy to slip back into conversation with Bo, as if we'd never stopped talking. It was so freeing and refreshing. There was no jealousy, no competition, no suspicion--just an easy, mutually-interesting conversation.

That's what I love about my Bo. He's willing to talk. He's willing to listen. Conversation with each other is our very favorite past-time. Evening will often find us dreaming about our future, solving our problems (or, at least, trying to), evaluating our family's needs, making some kind of home-improvement plans, or just remembering those days when we were first dating and passionately in love, sometimes until we see the sun peeking over the hillside through our bedroom window. There's nowhere else in the world I would rather be than near my darling husband, talking, planning, listening, dreaming, evaluating. I count the hours while he's away. We touch base with each other several times during the workday. He respects me, encourages me, advises me, indulges me, and puts up with me. He. Completes. Me.

Today, I'm going to spend some time with some new buddies, a couple of girlfriends with whom I can laugh and converse and be light-hearted, and I'm very thankful for that. They're women out of whom I hope to make old friends, who don't care whether or not I wear pink on Friday or show up ten minutes late to our brunch date. They fill a need I have to giggle about silly things, like the difficulty of finding the perfect bra and the need for just the right perennial, though our perennial beds are full. Those friends are important to me.

But there will never, ever, ever be a girlfriend that comes close to being as wonderful and as bestest as my very mostest bestest friend in the whole wide world EVER, my dearest Bo. He's completely and totally irreplaceable.

I love you, you weenie. You. Complete. Me.

Now bring me a surprise.

*This was a popular youth-group game which I now inflict upon my children and their friends. It was called "Assassin," a game where one person is assigned to be the killer, and, in a dimly lit room, he or she winks at the others, who, in turn, die dramatically until someone who is still "living" can identify the killer.

The Zucchini are IN!

Three zucchini from my garden so far, and more, more, more on the way. Oh, YES! I can just TASTE the zucchini bread. I think I'll start with this recipe for the Zucchini Bars from Betty Crocker. I may have to alter the frosting, though. It absolutely MUST have cream cheese in it! Amy over at Angry Chicken found this link with a staggering number of zucchini recipes.

Zucchini Bars

2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup shredded zucchini, drained
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Spice Frosting (See Below)

1 . Heat oven to 350F. Grease bottom and sides of square pan, 9x9x2 or 8x8x2 inches.
2 . Mix brown sugar, butter, vanilla and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves. Stir in zucchini and nuts. Spread in pan.
3 . Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Frost with Spice Frosting. For 24 bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows.

Spice Frosting

3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon butter or margarine, softened
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
3 to 4 teaspoons milk

1 . Mix all ingredients until smooth and spreadable.

This one's for you, Sarah K!

Sarah K. asked for the recipe for mint and honey tea, so I'm going to give you ALL the instructions for concocting this very simple, very yummy, gotta-be-good-for-ya tea!

First, you have to grow or have access to your own fresh mint. I have a little mint garden that Houdin and I made by taking some recycled landscaping tubs (the kind that bushes, shrubs and trees come in from the nursery) and digging holes the size of the tubs so that, when finished, the tubs would encircle our water hydrant (which is a country faucet, of sorts). That way, the mints can be readily identified if they're inside the tubs, and they won't be so quick to spread all over the lawn. Plus, being under the hydrant, they'll get watered regularly by the drip, drip, dripping that comes when I water my garden.

In the mint garden, I planted pineapple mint, Kentucky Colonel mint, Robert Mitchum peppermint, chocolate mint, candy mint, and spearmint. There may be a few others in there, too, like apple mint, but I can't remember for sure. In the middle of the ring, I planted mountain mint, which is not invasive like other mints. So if you want to grow mint but don't want it to take over, you can:

• Bury recycled tubs or chimney flus (buy at a place that sells block and brick, or find someone who doesn't need theirs) and plant the mint in that;
• Plant it in big pots on your patio or other sunny location (mints like sun);
• Select a non-invasive mint, such as Mountain Mint, lemon mint, anise hyssop (not a mint, but has a pleasant licorice flavor). You can also make teas out of sages, catnip, bee balm, chamomile, fennel, catmint and other yummies. You can also choose to plant Stevia or another sweet plant along with your tea herbs for a no-calorie natural sweetener.

Now, to make the tea.

1. I go out, or send one of the kids out, to pick a basketful of mint herbs. I don't really pick just one kind; I use a bit of this and a bit of that, but my favorite is a combination of mints.
2. Then, I put a pot of water or tea kettle on to boil.
3. While the water's heating, I rinse the herbs gently with cool water.
4. After they've been rinsed, I put them through my salad spinner. I LOVE my OXO salad spinner, but you can also use a clean pillowcase to dry your herbs, or you can blot them with paper towels.
5. Next, I take a clean quart jar and begin picking through my mint leaves. I just make sure there aren't any renegade bugs or yucky-looking leaves.
6. As I pick through the leaves, I take the good ones and bruise them, which basically means rubbing them between your palms a couple of times, which helps to release the oils.
7. Now, in order to get as much mint flavor as I like, I totally PACK that quart jar to the top with mint leaves.
8. By this time, the water's boiling, so I pour the boiling water into the quart jar, over the leaves, and make sure the leaves are covered.
9. I get a clean spoon (which can sometimes take as long as the whole 1-8 process) and stir the leaves a bit.
10. I put a regular canning lid and band on the jar.
11. Of course, there's always waiting. The tea should steep for about 8 minutes. In my opinion, if it steeps longer, it gets bitter.
12. While I'm waiting, I get gallon my pitcher ready (because this makes a gallon of tea). I put about 1/3 cup of raw honey in the pitcher, or 1/3 cup dehydrated cane juice, but you could use any sweetener you like, and you can adjust it to your taste.
13. When the timer goes off (oh boy! it's almost time!) I unscrew the band, take off the lid, and replace it with a clean square of cheesecloth, replace the band, and USING A CLOTH OR HOTPAD (because a quart jar full of previously boiling water is HOT. Duh.), I pour the tea concentrate ('cause that's what you just made) into the pitcher. This is because I like clear tea. Some people don't strain it, but just leave the leaves right in. You can do that. It's fine with me. You can even use something different to strain it. Whatever floats your boat. In China, Bard says, they leave the leaves (ha) in the tea and when you get one in your mouth, you just chew it up and swallow it. I think they call it "eating tea," not drinking it.
14. I stir up the concentrate really well to dissolve the sugar or incorporate the honey,
15. then I add two to three quarts of cold water,
16. then I fill the pitcher to the top with ice,
17. then I go bonkers drinking my awesome tea.

If you want you can take the concentrate, either with or without the leaves in it, and put it in the fridge for later. When you're ready for tea, just take some out and add water and ice to your taste. Add lemon, if you want. Whatever. I don't, but it's your tea.

If this is beyond your capabilities, see if you can find Sweet Leaf Tea near you. Uh, can I just say, YUM?!? Bard likes the Sweetened Peach , but I'm totally into the sweetened Mint and Honey Green Tea.

Are you still here? Why aren't you making tea yet? Go! Shoo! Scram! Scat! Your life is waiting for you! And don't forget to thank Sarah K. for prompting this post.

In a Pickle

On this day, when it's too hot to do much more than think--and even that's a challenge--I did something so totally wild and crazy that even I can't believe I did it.

I canned pickles.

What better way to spend an incredibly hot and humid day than to add to the heat and humidity by boiling huge pots of water on the stove? I mean, if you're already miserably sticky, there's not much harm in getting even more miserably sticky.

And what could I do, anyway? When life hands you cucumbers, large and green and cool, you make pickles. In this case, it was one of my Amish neighbors who offered me her surplus cukes, a basketful of potential.

Yesterday, I washed, sliced, salted and soaked the cukes, along with onions from the garden and garlic from the store (I attempted to grow my own garlic once and failed miserably. I'll try again someday), and there they sat for the night, their blanket of ice turning me green with envy. I'm not all that interested in being brined, though, so I left them to soak while the fam and I went to friend San's air-conditioned house for the evening (thanks, San!) since ours is still currently un-cool (keep clicking those google ads! I'm already 1/25th of the way there!).

And today, after an adventurous excursion into the deepest depths of the fruit cellar in search of my canning supplies, I came up empty-handed. Funny how every year I have everything to do my canning except that one very important thing, like the canning jars, or the vinegar, or the lids; this year, it was the actual canning pot. The lid was there. The jar rack was there. But the pot itself? Gone. I don't even want to attempt to imagine where it might be and what use it might be serving.

So I packed The Baby into the superheated van (also un-cool due to a bad compressor that would cost half as much as it cost to buy the whole entire vehicle).

Let me say this wonderful thing about Stuff*Mart; it's completely and totally cool, which is to say that as I walked in, a delightful chilly breeze greeted me and wooed me into a false sense of fair-weatherness. While ambling around in there, I actually began to believe that it felt this wonderful everywhere in Ohio.

Of course, I was quite abruptly reminded of the truth the moment I hauled my purchases out to the car. There's no way around it; it's just too doggone hot.

Once home, I started using my mad skills to rinse the cukes, make the syrup and sterilize the jars. Bard and Houdin helped me put the lids on, and soon I was placing water-bath canned pints of pickles on a washcloth on my butcher-block. Just moments after they were out of the pot, I began to hear that incredibly satisfying series of pops that indicate that the jars have sealed. Yes!

We celebrated by making some fresh mint and honey tea, which, of course, required boiling water. But what the heck. It was so very worth it.

Here, for your culinary pleasure, is the recipe I used. Now if you'll excuse me I think I'll go brine myself.

Grandma's Bread and Butter Pickles
from thatsmyhome.com

4 quarts sliced cucumbers

6 white medium onions peeled and cut in thin slices

1/3 C. coarse salt

Do not pare cucumbers, just wash them and cut them in thin slices. I use a crock for these, while preparing. Mix cucumbers, onion (*NOTE: Thicket Dweller added three whole cloves of garlic to this mix) and add salt. Cover with ice. Let set overnight. You may have to add more ice. You want them to stay very cold. When ready to prepare, (REMOVE GARLIC CLOVES) and rinse them very well.

Syrup:

3 C. sugar

1 1/2 t. turmeric

1 1/2 t. celery seed

2 T. mustard seed

3 C. white vinegar

Combine syrup and bring to a boil. When sugar is dissolved, add cucumbers. Heat to boiling. Pack into hot, sterilized jars. Remove air bubbles. Process for 10 minutes in a hot water bath.

Lady in the Water comment

Here is a response I wrote to this review of Lady in the Water. More to come.

"While I agree that some of the plot lines were a bit weak, I completely disagree with the rest of your review. Lady in the Water is original, funny, heartfelt and thought-provoking. There is not a single inconsequential thing here, at least not for the movie-goer who pays attention. Each person in the film has a purpose, just as each part of this film has a reason. It is filled with analogy, metaphor and spiritual allusion. Far more than just a simple fairy tale told to his daughters (Thank God there are still fathers out there spending time with their girls), or a shock-inducing horror film, Lady in the Water is a message of hope, a letter of encouragement, a parable of warning. It's saying, "It's time to pay attention to the Story, folks. It's time to write the Story, believe the Story, care about the Story, protect the Story, remember the Story and retell the Story." If all of us, regardless of our culture or history, embrace our roles in helping the Story along, we can get it off the ground, give it wings, give it freedom and glory.

Good for Shyamalan for keeping it realno matter the cost. The critics hated Serling, too!"

Lady in the Water: A Review from HollywoodJesus

Readers, I submit to you this review of Lady in the Water by HollywoodJesus reviewer Maurice Broaddus. While he doesn't directly discuss the allegory of The Story as a tale that must be told, encouraged, supported, listened to and believed, he does say very much of what I felt about the film.

“Man may have forgotten how to listen.” –Narrator

Lady in the Water is first and foremost a fairy tale. The problem afflicting M. Night Shyamalan is that people go to his films expecting “the twist”. A lot of the reason why his movies have experienced mixed reviews is that the viewer is often promised one kind of movie, but comes out having experienced some thing different. The Sixth Sense wasn’t a horror movie, it was about a boy coming to terms with himself. Signs wasn’t an alien invasion movie, it was the story of a man wrestling with grief and faith. Then Unbreakable and The Village, which brings us to Lady in the Water. The strength (and some would say weakness) of this movie is that it is so intentionally allegorical, however, the key to deciphering Lady in the Water is realizing that it purposefully seeks to tell the story of Christ within our cultural context.

“You have to believe that this all makes sense somehow.” --Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti)

Lady in the Water tells an ancient story, interpreting this story in a (postmodern) cultural context, re-examining this tale by connecting the ancient to the future to find faith. It starts with the Blue World, the spiritual realm that is home to all manner of beings, namely Narfs. The Narfs are guides, sea nymphs-cum-muses, desperate to impart their knowledge and warnings to vessels (mankind). The natural predator of the Narfs are Scrunts, grass-fleshed creatures that prowl around like roaring lions. Should a Scrunt break the rules that govern the Blue World, they are punished by the Tartutic, essentially angels, though not all that different in appearance than their “fallen” brethren, though more simian. Once a Narf has fulfilled her mission, she is carried off by a giant eagle, the Great Eatlon.

“I think we are linked.” –Young-Soon Choi (Cindy Cheung)

Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), once a doctor, spends his time helping those around him in the most mundane of ways, as the superintendent of The Cove apartments. The building is filled with colorful characters, going about routine lives, each allotted their space in The Cove. Enter Story (Bryce Dallas Howard), the tale made flesh. Cleveland believes that he has no purpose, but “all beings have a purpose,” Story corrects. Cleveland personifies that, as a vessel, we want to be known, we want to have the journals of our hearts read. “No one is ever told who they are,” as the movie says, but at some point, someone has to come along to reveal the truth of their natures to them, and the truth about the Story.

“Does man deserve to be saved?” –Mr. Leeds (Bill Irwin)

Though the theme of figuring out what is truly important (and who you are) runs through all of Shyamalan’s movies, the viewer is still tempted to play guess the twist. However, the twist reveals itself midway through the movie: that everyone has a part to play. Everyone has a gift to be used to carry out their mission in life. The biggest twist of all? That the weak, the seemingly useless, are the ones who play the most important roles.

Even Story herself isn’t above the journey. Story comes to give purpose and to provide clarity about the nature of the vessels and the world around them. She wrestles with her own messianic consciousness and with fulfilling her role as a meta-Narf. At one point, the movie doesn’t seem to stick to its internal rules (as the Narfs aren’t told of their own importance), however, Story is the fulfillment of the rules.

“He’s hearing the voice of God through a crossword puzzle.” –Anna Ran (Sarita Choudhury)

After all of their ancient-future examination of the story of Story, the residents of The Cove realize life is about seeing God at work in the ordinary, believing that this is a magic infused world filled with wonder and mystery and that our every action has meaning and eternal consequence. This world is about finding your purpose and joining in the mission, by using your gifts, to bless one another. Only the arrogance of certainty (in the form of the movie critic, Harry Farber (Bob Balaban)) proves to be one’s spiritual undoing. Even the skeptic, Mr. Leeds, stumbling around trying to find meaning in a meaningless existence and wants “to believe in something other than the awfulness.”

The movie is about finding faith. Sometimes we feel like we have to throw out logic, but rather we, like Cleveland, have to become child-like in order to fully grasp the Story. We are all searching for a Story to provide meaning. Obviously, Story is the Christ figure (the movie revolving around her death, resurrection, and ascension being a very big clue). The Eagle landing on her like the Holy Spirit after Christ’s baptism, since rain, as we are told, is a symbol of purification and rebirth. Her return to her home in the heavens leaves Cleveland only capable of saying “Thank You for saving my life.”

This movie has a spirit of magic about it, not necessarily inherent to it, but because it takes pains to grab us by the collar and tell us how magical it is. Thoroughly explaining its magic in case we don’t get it. M. Night Shyamalan’s movies are intentional to the point of being contrived if not heavy-handed. Often accused of making self-indulgent movies (Exhibit E: he casts himself as the writer whose work may not be understood in his lifetime but will affect major changes in the world), either you track with them or you don’t. Lady in the Water is full of his quirky sensibilities and humor, trying to operate on a meta-level of self-aware criticism (again, back to the movie critic). More intriguingly, the movie is full of his faith which tries to convey the power and importance of fairy tales and myth, the power of story, to transform lives. His reverence to the idea of story-telling bogs down the movie, bordering on pretentious; but if you can go with the movie maybe you can join in the glee of his child-like wonder.

Lady in the Water; A Writer's Film

I could feel the awkward silence when the credits rolled. The audience just didn't get it.

But I did.

I was saddened to hear today that Lady in the Water "tanked" (my husband's verbage) in the box office last weekend. Not surprised, of course. Just saddened.

Saturday night, Bo and I were feeling a little restless, trying to think of something to do that involved fodder for both our bellies and our brains. Fodder for our bellies is easy to find. The latter is sometimes more difficult. After spending a bit of time on our current reads, he working through What Color is Your Parachute, and I through Home Cheesemaking, he mentioned that Lady in the Water had been released. I stopped reading.

I entered into a bit of a struggle with myself. Did I want to go? Did I want to risk it this time? Could M. Night ever, ever, ever impress me as much as he did with Sixth Sense? Even though he probably lays awake every night trying to figure out how to top one of the very best films of all time?

M. Night first let me down with Unbreakable, the story of a seemingly average man who discovers that he's a superhero with a stereotypical nemesis. There was no surprise in it for me. I figured out the plot right away.

When he released Signs, I decided to give him another try. I was disappointed to find out that there was no reasonable explanation. There very simply were aliens out to get everyone and rip them to shreds.

I hesitated when it was time for the release of The Village. While I figured the plot out right away, I enjoyed the film much more than the previous, but, of course, not as much as Sixth Sense.

But Lady in the Water looked different. The trailers showed promise. There was intrigue. Suspense. And, more importantly than just about anything else, there was metaphor.

I'm a sucker for a good metaphor. Whether in a song, a story, a film or even a commercial, you toss a perfect metaphor at me, and you've got me, baby.

Bo had read some reviews about Lady. He turned up his nose a bit. He warned me that the critics didn't like it. "Critics. Harumph," I scoffed. The lyrics to Jason Harrod's Kicking Mule popped into my head.

Oh yes it's hard.
Oh yes it is,
When you've got critics criticizing every single thing you ever did.
And there's a pressure, baby, you gotta get away from
And there's a piece of freedom, you gotta get yourself some.

And with that, we were off.

Yeah, there was some silliness and hokiness to Lady. But, most importantly, there was The Metaphor! And The Metaphor kept me holding on.

So if you've been wondering about whether to trust M. Night again, I say give Lady in the Water a chance. Especially if you're a writer, or if you love a good story, whether it's an Ancient Text or a bedtime tale. And if you absolutely and completely loathe the critics, you must see this film.

I'm with you M. Night. You tossed out a wonderful metaphor, and I , for one, caught it with both hands. I still believe in you.

Burnin' It Up

Man, is it hot. I mean, it's like Africa hot. Forget that "women glisten," thang. I'm pouring down the sweat. It's just dripping, almost RAINING off of me. It's just too. dang. hot.

But I had a choice, of course. I could have had central air. I would have had to give up my big bathtub, or my hickory doors, or my hickory cabinets. We were finishing those things when it wasn't very hot. Like it is, say, today. And humid. 77% humidity. That's just wrong.

So, no air conditioning for me. I have the condenser coils, and everything's all hooked up and ready to go. I'm just missing that ever-important unit. I could have had the unit. I was so close. But no. I have to sit in the heat. All the time. Well, not in the winter, per se. But during the summer. Just heat. No air conditioning in my van. None in the Jeep. It kinda makes a person wanna spend their days at Stuff*Mart, or any stupid movie that happens to be playing, or stay in the bathtub all day. It's a nice one, after all. But, hey, my cabinets are nice. And the doors look great. Sigh. Even if they're swelling with the humidity and I can't close them all the way.

Unless...

Do you believe in air conditioning? Do you, dear Reader? If you do believe in air conditioning, just click your mouses. Right up there on the top right hand side of the screen. It's probably advertising something about butterflies, or central air, or Jeeps, or something relevent to my endless ramblings. Maybe, just maybe, if you click, and he clicks, and she clicks, and they click (but not I. I can't click), just MAYBE I can get that $600 I need to make my life less sticky, and less grumpy, and less downright hot.

Remember, everytime a blogger says, "I don't believe in air conditioning," there's a little Thicket Dweller somewhere that falls down dead. From heat exhaustion.

Click. Click. Click.

There's no place like home. If it has central air, that is.

Today's Rhapsody Playlist

Today's Rhapsody Playlist: Summertime cleaning. Chasing away the dustbunnies and the fleas, vacuuming, changing sheets, and sweating.

But good music makes it bearable.

Here's my playlist for today:

"Let Me Touch You For Awhile" - Alison Krauss
"Choctaw Hayride" - Alison Krauss
"The Lucky One" - Alison Krauss
"Caleb Meyer" - Gillian Welch
"Lonesome Wind" - Del McCoury
"I Feel The Blues Moving In" - Del McCoury
"Politik" - Coldplay
"In My Place" - Coldplay
"God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" - Coldplay
"The Scientist" - Coldplay
"Clocks" - Coldplay
"Daylight" - Coldplay
"Beautiful Day" - U2
"Square One " - Coldplay
"What If " - Coldplay
"White Shadows" - Coldplay
"Fix You" - Coldplay
"Talk" - Coldplay
"X&Y" - Coldplay
"Speed Of Sound" - Coldplay
"A Message" - Coldplay
"Low" - Coldplay
"The Hardest Part" - Coldplay
"Swallowed In The Sea" - Coldplay
"Twisted Logic" - Coldplay
"'Til Kingdom Come" - Coldplay
"Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of" - U2
"Elevation" - U2
"Walk On" - U2
"Kite" - U2
"In A Little While" - U2
"Wild Honey" - U2
"Peace On Earth" - U2
"When I Look At The World" - U2
"New York" - U2
"Grace" - U2
"Green Eyes" - Coldplay
"Warning Sign" - Coldplay
"A Whisper" - Coldplay
"A Rush Of Blood To The Head" - Coldplay
"Amsterdam" - Coldplay
"High On A Mountain" - Del McCoury
"Cheek To Cheek With The Blues" - Del McCoury
"The Cold Hard Facts" - Del McCoury
"Give Me The Love" - The String Cheese Incident
"Sometimes A River" - The String Cheese Incident
"Big Compromise" - The String Cheese Incident
"Until The Music's Over" - The String Cheese Incident
"Drive" - The String Cheese Incident
"45th Of November" - The String Cheese Incident
"Sirens" - The String Cheese Incident
"Elijah" - The String Cheese Incident
"Blackjack County Chains" - Del McCoury
"Eli Renfro" - Del McCoury
"Are You Coming Back To Me?" - Del McCoury
"Drifting With The Tide" - Del McCoury
"Loneliness And Desperation" - Del McCoury & The Dixie Pals
"Over Yonder In The Graveyard" - Del McCoury & The Dixie Pals
"Dry My Tears And Move On" - Del McCoury Band
"Let An Old Racehorse Run" - Del McCoury Band
"My Love Will Not Change" - Del McCoury Band
"I Can Hear The Angels Singing" - Del McCoury Band
"The Cold Hard Facts" - Del McCoury Band
"Smoking Gun" - Del McCoury Band
"Henry Walker" - Del McCoury Band
"The First Time She Left" - Del McCoury Band
"I'll Be There" - Del McCoury Band
"Beauty Of My Dreams" - The Del McCoury Band
"That's Alright Mama" - The Del McCoury Band
"High On A Mountain" - The Del McCoury Band
"Whiskey Girl" - Gillian Welch
"Orphan Girl" - Gillian Welch
"Annabelle" - Gillian Welch
"Pass You By" - Gillian Welch
"Barroom Girls" - Gillian Welch
"One More Dollar" - Gillian Welch
"Paper Wings" - Gillian Welch
"Tear My Stillhouse Down" - Gillian Welch
"Look At Miss Ohio" - Gillian Welch
"Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor" - Gillian Welch
"Wayside,Back In Time" - Gillian Welch
"Ode To A Butterfly" - Nickel Creek
"The Lighthouse's Tale" - Nickel Creek
"Out Of The Woods" - Nickel Creek
"House Of Tom Bombadil" - Nickel Creek
"Reasons Why" - Nickel Creek
"When You Come Back Down" - Nickel Creek
"Sweet Afton" - Nickel Creek
"The Hand Song" - Nickel Creek
"The Fox" - Nickel Creek
"Smoothie Song" - Nickel Creek
"Spit On A Stranger" - Nickel Creek
"Speak" - Nickel Creek
"This Side" - Nickel Creek
"When In Rome" - Nickel Creek
"Somebody More Like You" - Nickel Creek
"Jealous of the Moon" - Nickel Creek
"Scotch and Chocolate" - Nickel Creek
"Can't Complain" - Nickel Creek
"Tomorrow Is a Long Time" - Nickel Creek
"Eveline" - Nickel Creek
"Anthony" - Nickel Creek
"Best of Luck" - Nickel Creek
"Doubting Thomas" - Nickel Creek
"First and Last Waltz" - Nickel Creek
"Helena" - Nickel Creek
"I Had A Real Good Mother And Father" - Gillian Welch
"One Monkey" - Gillian Welch
"No One Knows My Name" - Gillian Welch
"One Little Song" - Gillian Welch
"Wrecking Ball" - Gillian Welch
"Revelator" - Gillian Welch
"My First Lover" - Gillian Welch
"Dear Someone" - Gillian Welch
"Red Clay Halo" - Gillian Welch
"April the 14th Part 1" - Gillian Welch
"I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll" - Gillian Welch
"Elvis Presley Blues" - Gillian Welch
"Everything is Free" - Gillian Welch
"Baby, Now That I've Found You" - Alison Krauss
"Every Time You Say Goodbye" - Alison Krauss
"Stay " - Alison Krauss
"I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" - Alison Krauss
"When You Say Nothing At All" - Alison Krauss
"Scratch & Sniff" - Bela Fleck
"Blue Mountain Hop" - Bela Fleck
"Will You Be Lonesome, Too?" - Earl Scruggs
"Wabash Cannonball" - Earl Scruggs
"Ballad Of Jed Clampett (Theme from "The Beverly Hillbillies")" - Earl Scruggs
"Country Comfort" - Earl Scruggs
"Borrowed Love" - Earl Scruggs
"Ring Of Fire" - Earl Scruggs
"The Angels" - Earl Scruggs
"Foggy Mountain Breakdown" - Earl Scruggs
"Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" - Earl Scruggs
"Foggy Mountain Rock / Foggy Mountain Special" - Earl Scruggs
"Earl's Breakdown" - Earl Scruggs
"Blue Ridge Cabin Home" - Earl Scruggs
"On My Mind" - Earl Scruggs
"Dear Old Dixie" - Earl Scruggs
"Pray For The Boys" - Earl Scruggs
"Heavy Traffic Ahead" - Earl Scruggs
"Molly And Tenbrooks (The Race Horse Song)" - Earl Scruggs
"Come Back Darling" - Earl Scruggs
"Jimmie Brown, The Newsboy" - Earl Scruggs
"Till The End Of The World Rolls 'Round" - Earl Scruggs
"Foggy Mountain Special" - Earl Scruggs
"Shuckin' The Corn" - Earl Scruggs
"Cripple Creek" - Earl Scruggs
"Sally Goodwin" - Earl Scruggs
"Buffalo Nickel" - Bela Fleck
"When Joy Kills Sorrow" - Bela Fleck
"Polka On The Banjo" - Bela Fleck
"Home Sweet Home" - Bela Fleck
"The Sinister Minister" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Blu-Bop" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"The Star Spangled Banner" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"The Sinister Minister" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Communication" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Big Country" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Almost 12" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Bigfoot" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Bill Mon" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"The Ballad Of Jed Clampett" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Fugue from Prelude & Fugue No. 20 in A Minor, BWV 889" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"P'lod In The House" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"Rococo" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"Labyrinth" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"Kaleidoscope" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"Weed Whacker" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"Couch Potato" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"the whistle tune" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"Down to The River To Pray" - Alison Krauss
"Gravity" - Alison Krauss
"Restless" - Alison Krauss
"Rain Please Go Away" - Alison Krauss
"Goodbye is all We Have" - Alison Krauss
"Unionhouse Branch" - Alison Krauss
"Wouldn't Be So Bad" - Alison Krauss
"Crazy As Me" - Alison Krauss
"Borderline" - Alison Krauss
"If I Didn't Know Any Better" - Alison Krauss
"A Living Prayer" - Alison Krauss
"Baby, Now That I've Found You" - Alison Krauss
"I Will" - Alison Krauss
"When You Say Nothing At All" - Alison Krauss
"Let Me Touch You For A While" - Alison Krauss & Union Station
"The Lucky One" - Alison Krauss & Union Station
"New Favorite" - Alison Krauss & Union Station
"Let Me Touch You For Awhile" - Alison Krauss
"Choctaw Hayride" - Alison Krauss
"The Lucky One" - Alison Krauss
"Caleb Meyer" - Gillian Welch
"Lonesome Wind" - Del McCoury
"I Feel The Blues Moving In" - Del McCoury
"High On A Mountain" - Del McCoury
"Cheek To Cheek With The Blues" - Del McCoury
"The Cold Hard Facts" - Del McCoury
"Give Me The Love" - The String Cheese Incident
"Sometimes A River" - The String Cheese Incident
"Big Compromise" - The String Cheese Incident
"Until The Music's Over" - The String Cheese Incident
"Drive" - The String Cheese Incident
"45th Of November" - The String Cheese Incident
"Sirens" - The String Cheese Incident
"Elijah" - The String Cheese Incident
"Blackjack County Chains" - Del McCoury
"Eli Renfro" - Del McCoury
"Are You Coming Back To Me?" - Del McCoury
"Drifting With The Tide" - Del McCoury
"Loneliness And Desperation" - Del McCoury & The Dixie Pals
"Over Yonder In The Graveyard" - Del McCoury & The Dixie Pals
"Dry My Tears And Move On" - Del McCoury Band
"Let An Old Racehorse Run" - Del McCoury Band
"My Love Will Not Change" - Del McCoury Band
"I Can Hear The Angels Singing" - Del McCoury Band
"The Cold Hard Facts" - Del McCoury Band
"Smoking Gun" - Del McCoury Band
"Henry Walker" - Del McCoury Band
"The First Time She Left" - Del McCoury Band
"I'll Be There" - Del McCoury Band
"Beauty Of My Dreams" - The Del McCoury Band
"That's Alright Mama" - The Del McCoury Band
"High On A Mountain" - The Del McCoury Band
"Whiskey Girl" - Gillian Welch
"Orphan Girl" - Gillian Welch
"Annabelle" - Gillian Welch
"Pass You By" - Gillian Welch
"Barroom Girls" - Gillian Welch
"One More Dollar" - Gillian Welch
"Paper Wings" - Gillian Welch
"Tear My Stillhouse Down" - Gillian Welch
"Look At Miss Ohio" - Gillian Welch
"Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor" - Gillian Welch
"Wayside,Back In Time" - Gillian Welch
"Ode To A Butterfly" - Nickel Creek
"The Lighthouse's Tale" - Nickel Creek
"Out Of The Woods" - Nickel Creek
"House Of Tom Bombadil" - Nickel Creek
"Reasons Why" - Nickel Creek
"When You Come Back Down" - Nickel Creek
"Sweet Afton" - Nickel Creek
"The Hand Song" - Nickel Creek
"The Fox" - Nickel Creek
"Smoothie Song" - Nickel Creek
"Spit On A Stranger" - Nickel Creek
"Speak" - Nickel Creek
"This Side" - Nickel Creek
"When In Rome" - Nickel Creek
"Somebody More Like You" - Nickel Creek
"Jealous of the Moon" - Nickel Creek
"Scotch and Chocolate" - Nickel Creek
"Can't Complain" - Nickel Creek
"Tomorrow Is a Long Time" - Nickel Creek
"Eveline" - Nickel Creek
"Anthony" - Nickel Creek
"Best of Luck" - Nickel Creek
"Doubting Thomas" - Nickel Creek
"First and Last Waltz" - Nickel Creek
"Helena" - Nickel Creek
"I Had A Real Good Mother And Father" - Gillian Welch
"One Monkey" - Gillian Welch
"No One Knows My Name" - Gillian Welch
"One Little Song" - Gillian Welch
"Wrecking Ball" - Gillian Welch
"Revelator" - Gillian Welch
"My First Lover" - Gillian Welch
"Dear Someone" - Gillian Welch
"Red Clay Halo" - Gillian Welch
"April the 14th Part 1" - Gillian Welch
"I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll" - Gillian Welch
"Elvis Presley Blues" - Gillian Welch
"Everything is Free" - Gillian Welch
"Baby, Now That I've Found You" - Alison Krauss
"Every Time You Say Goodbye" - Alison Krauss
"Stay " - Alison Krauss
"I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" - Alison Krauss
"When You Say Nothing At All" - Alison Krauss
"Scratch & Sniff" - Bela Fleck
"Blue Mountain Hop" - Bela Fleck
"Will You Be Lonesome, Too?" - Earl Scruggs
"Wabash Cannonball" - Earl Scruggs
"Ballad Of Jed Clampett (Theme from "The Beverly Hillbillies")" - Earl Scruggs
"Country Comfort" - Earl Scruggs
"Borrowed Love" - Earl Scruggs
"Ring Of Fire" - Earl Scruggs
"The Angels" - Earl Scruggs
"Foggy Mountain Breakdown" - Earl Scruggs
"Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" - Earl Scruggs
"Foggy Mountain Rock / Foggy Mountain Special" - Earl Scruggs
"Earl's Breakdown" - Earl Scruggs
"Blue Ridge Cabin Home" - Earl Scruggs
"On My Mind" - Earl Scruggs
"Dear Old Dixie" - Earl Scruggs
"Pray For The Boys" - Earl Scruggs
"Heavy Traffic Ahead" - Earl Scruggs
"Molly And Tenbrooks (The Race Horse Song)" - Earl Scruggs
"Come Back Darling" - Earl Scruggs
"Jimmie Brown, The Newsboy" - Earl Scruggs
"Till The End Of The World Rolls 'Round" - Earl Scruggs
"Foggy Mountain Special" - Earl Scruggs
"Shuckin' The Corn" - Earl Scruggs
"Cripple Creek" - Earl Scruggs
"Sally Goodwin" - Earl Scruggs
"Buffalo Nickel" - Bela Fleck
"When Joy Kills Sorrow" - Bela Fleck
"Polka On The Banjo" - Bela Fleck
"Home Sweet Home" - Bela Fleck
"The Sinister Minister" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Blu-Bop" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"The Star Spangled Banner" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"The Sinister Minister" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Communication" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Big Country" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Almost 12" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Bigfoot" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Bill Mon" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"The Ballad Of Jed Clampett" - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
"Fugue from Prelude & Fugue No. 20 in A Minor, BWV 889" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"P'lod In The House" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"Rococo" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"Labyrinth" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"Kaleidoscope" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"Weed Whacker" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"Couch Potato" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"the whistle tune" - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
"Down to The River To Pray" - Alison Krauss
"Gravity" - Alison Krauss
"Restless" - Alison Krauss
"Rain Please Go Away" - Alison Krauss
"Goodbye is all We Have" - Alison Krauss
"Unionhouse Branch" - Alison Krauss
"Wouldn't Be So Bad" - Alison Krauss
"Crazy As Me" - Alison Krauss
"Borderline" - Alison Krauss
"If I Didn't Know Any Better" - Alison Krauss
"A Living Prayer" - Alison Krauss
"Baby, Now That I've Found You" - Alison Krauss
"I Will" - Alison Krauss
"When You Say Nothing At All" - Alison Krauss
"Let Me Touch You For A While" - Alison Krauss & Union Station
"The Lucky One" - Alison Krauss & Union Station
"New Favorite" - Alison Krauss & Union Station
"On "Black Cadillac"" - Rosanne Cash
"On the anticipation of events" - Rosanne Cash
"On "I Was Watching You"" - Rosanne Cash
""I Was Watching You" Pt. 2" - Rosanne Cash
""I Was Watching You Pt. 3"" - Rosanne Cash
"Songs as "postcards from the future"" - Rosanne Cash
"On mortality" - Rosanne Cash
"I'll never write this album again..." - Rosanne Cash
"On "Radio Operator"" - Rosanne Cash
"Dreams" - Rosanne Cash
"Time span of "Black Cadillac"" - Rosanne Cash
"Roses" - Rosanne Cash
"On "Like a Wave"" - Rosanne Cash
"On "The Good Intent"" - Rosanne Cash
"Roots and Tendrils" - Rosanne Cash
"Goodbyes" - Rosanne Cash
"Over My Head" - The Fray
"How to Save A Life" - The Fray
"All At Once" - The Fray
"Look After You" - The Fray
"Heaven Forbid" - The Fray
"Fall Away" - The Fray
"Vienna" - The Fray
"Hundred" - The Fray
"Trust Me" - The Fray
"Little House" - The Fray
"Over My Head (Cable Car)" - The Fray
"Ocean Avenue" - Yellowcard
"Lights And Sounds" - Yellowcard
"Only One" - Yellowcard
"Rough Landing, Holly" - Yellowcard
"Way Away" - Yellowcard
"Empty Apartment" - Yellowcard
"Lights And Sounds" - Yellowcard
"Breathing" - Yellowcard
"Down On My Head" - Yellowcard
"One Year, Six Months" - Yellowcard
"Life of a Salesman" - Yellowcard
"View From Heaven" - Yellowcard
"Sure Thing Falling" - Yellowcard
"Believe" - Yellowcard
"Three Flights Up" - Yellowcard
"Miles Apart" - Yellowcard
"Back Home" - Yellowcard
"City of Devils" - Yellowcard
"Firewater" - Yellowcard
"Two Weeks From Twenty" - Yellowcard
"Holly Wood Died" - Yellowcard
"Inside Out" - Yellowcard
"Words, Hands, Hearts" - Yellowcard
"Twenty-Three" - Yellowcard
"Everywhere" - Yellowcard
"Holy Now" - Peter Mayer
"Holy Now" - Peter Mayer
"World of Dreams" - Peter Mayer
"John's Garden" - Peter Mayer
"Ocean Mary" - Peter Mayer
"Brown County Fair" - Peter Mayer
"Rosa Parks" - Peter Mayer
"Running With The Buffalo" - Peter Mayer
"River Run" - Peter Mayer
"Blessed Disease" - Peter Mayer
"Beat Your Drum Slowly" - Peter Mayer
"Dancing Song" - Peter Mayer
"Magic Beans" - Peter Mayer
"Blue Boat Home" - Peter Mayer
"Elijah Jones" - Peter Mayer
"Awake" - Peter Mayer
"Moon River" - Peter Mayer
"Magic Beans" - Peter Mayer
"Easy Street" - Peter Mayer
"Running with the Buffalo" - Peter Mayer
"Canoe Song" - Peter Mayer
"Molly O'Malley's" - Peter Mayer
"Skyblaster Man" - Peter Mayer
"Scatterbrain" - Peter Mayer
"O Sun" - Peter Mayer
"One More Circle" - Peter Mayer
"Upside Down" - Jack Johnson
"Better Together" - Jack Johnson
"Sitting, Waiting, Wishing" - Jack Johnson
"Banana Pancakes" - Jack Johnson
"Good People" - Jack Johnson
"Never Know" - Jack Johnson
"Broken" - Jack Johnson
"No Other Way" - Jack Johnson
"Breakdown" - Jack Johnson
"Do You Remember" - Jack Johnson
"Flake" - Jack Johnson
"Staple It Together" - Jack Johnson
"We're Going To Be Friends" - Jack Johnson
"Wrong Turn" - Jack Johnson
"Crying Shame" - Jack Johnson
"Situations" - Jack Johnson
"If I Could" - Jack Johnson
"Taylor" - Jack Johnson
"Constellations" - Jack Johnson
"People Watching" - Jack Johnson
"Belle" - Jack Johnson
"Talk Of The Town" - Jack Johnson
"Jungle Gym" - Jack Johnson
"Bubble Toes" - Jack Johnson
"The Sharing Song" - Jack Johnson
"I Don't Think So" - Krista Detor
"Artless" - Krista Detor
"Fishing" - Krista Detor
"Penny on the Road" - Krista Detor
"Under His Skin" - Krista Detor
"On the Water" - Krista Detor
"Buffalo Bill" - Krista Detor
"I'm Still Here" - Krista Detor
"The Hampton Sisters (Glory)" - Krista Detor
"Abigayle's Song" - Krista Detor
"Dancing in a Minefield" - Krista Detor
"Ghosts of Peach Street" - Krista Detor
"Tell Me a Story" - Krista Detor
"Steal Me a Car" - Krista Detor
"Mudshow" - Krista Detor
"A Red Bowl" - Krista Detor
"Salome" - Krista Detor
"Calling Robert" - Krista Detor
"Bus to Indiana" - Krista Detor
"Something Missing" - Krista Detor
"Blue Sky" - Krista Detor
"You Will Be Adored" - The Brothers Creeggan
"Anna On The Moon" - The Brothers Creeggan
"A Vote For Beauty" - The Brothers Creeggan
"Coastline" - The Brothers Creeggan
"Ali Baba's" - The Brothers Creeggan
"I Fumbled" - The Brothers Creeggan
"Rocking Chair" - The Brothers Creeggan
"You Love Fall" - The Brothers Creeggan
"Sometimes" - The Brothers Creeggan
"Long And Slow" - The Brothers Creeggan
"Bye Song" - The Brothers Creeggan
"Grey" - The Brothers Creeggan
"Will You Come Back To Me" - The Brothers Creeggan
"Foups" - Andy Creeggan
"Izzy" - Andy Creeggan
"Prelude" - Andy Creeggan
"Sparrows (excerpt)" - Andy Creeggan
"Attendance" - Andy Creeggan
"Lullaby" - Andy Creeggan
"Viola No. 3" - Andy Creeggan
"Viola No. 2" - Andy Creeggan
"Viola No. 5" - Andy Creeggan
"Ruby Roll" - Andy Creeggan
"Peacock" - Andy Creeggan
"With Dad" - Andy Creeggan
"Dorian" - Andy Creeggan
"Green" - Andy Creeggan
"Brian Wilson (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Some Fantastic (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Adlib (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Maybe Katie (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Alternative Girlfriend (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Upside Down (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"I'll Be That Girl (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"For You (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"One Week (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Pinch Me (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Old Apartment (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Blame It On Me (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Bull In A China Shop (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Falling For The First Time (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"It's All Been Done (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Shopping (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Call And Answer (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"If I Had $1,000,000 (Live) (Seattle 7-25-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Grade 9 (Live) (Portland, ME 02-17-04)" - Barenaked Ladies
"Fall" - Peter Mayer
"John's Garden" - Peter Mayer
"Like A Mountain" - Peter Mayer
"The Dark" - Peter Mayer
"Holy Now" - Peter Mayer
"Charlie Porter" - Peter Mayer
"Africa" - Peter Mayer
"Now Touch The Air Softly" - Peter Mayer
"Magic Beans" - Peter Mayer
"Brand New Harley" - Peter Mayer
"One More Circle" - Peter Mayer
"Ocean Mary" - Peter Mayer
"Awake" - Peter Mayer
"Elijah Jones" - Peter Mayer
"Blue Boat Home (Choir)" - Peter Mayer
"Blue Boat Home" - Peter Mayer
"The Play" - Peter Mayer
"Earth Town Square" - Peter Mayer
"Skyblaster Man" - Peter Mayer
"Crawl In" - Peter Mayer
"Brown County Fair" - Peter Mayer
"Winter Woods" - Peter Mayer
"Astronaut Dreams" - Peter Mayer
"Coming Home" - Peter Mayer
"Straw House Down" - Peter Mayer
"Things I Need" - Peter Mayer
"Rosa Parks" - Peter Mayer
"Running With The Buffalo" - Peter Mayer
"Peppermint Wind" - Peter Mayer
"Angel in the Snow" - Peter Mayer
"River Run" - Peter Mayer
"Blessed Disease" - Peter Mayer
"Beat Your Drum Slowly" - Peter Mayer
"Story of My Life" - Peter Mayer
"Molly O'Malley's" - Peter Mayer
"Straw House Down (reprise)" - Peter Mayer

Interest-Led Education

One morning, Monet, the middle child of our five children, came down to the computer room where I was observing the very beginning stages of a monarch butterfly emerging from her chrysalis. I knew that she would be breaking forth at any moment, because all of her monarch colors were very visible through the casing, and it was the time of the day when monarchs typically emerge. We'd been raising butterflies through the summer, after a fellow homeschooling mom had given us a bouquet of milkweed hosting a half-dozen tiny caterpillars. Though we'd watched the other stages of metamorphosis, the growing caterpillar, the shedding of their caterpillar skins, and the change into a chrysalis, he'd not yet seen the amazing moment when the transformation comes to completion. In the kitchen, a list of the day's goals were sitting on the table--chores, lessons, piano practice, etc. Even though I was standing there watching a miracle about to take place, my mind was on that list of goals. I knew that if we got distracted for too long, the day would run away with us. "Come on, Monet," I said, "let's start our day." He protested, of course, but it wasn't a disrespectful thing. He just really wanted to make sure he didn't miss that moment. "We'll keep checking," I assured him. "We'll only be in the next room." He hesitated, but followed me into the kitchen.

Earlier this week, when a homeschool mother asked me if I would share at Saturday morning's homeschool mothers' luncheon, I was both pleased and surprised; pleased because I'm an attention hog--I love to talk. Surprised because I wasn't really sure what I had to share that would be of interest. The attention-hog me won out, and I told her "yes." Then I did what I normally do under these circumstances--panic. How could I bring all of my thoughts of fifteen years of homeschooling, into focus, and keep it under fifteen minutes? "Talk about your specialty areas, your special interests," she said. Huh. What are my special interests, I wondered. I mean, philosophically speaking, our educational style is all over the map. Homeschooling in the Thicket Dweller household is quite eclectic and, if nothing else, very interesting. At any given time, you might find us looking for formaldehyde to preserve the eyeball of a cat that had been run over by a car, or smearing shaving cream all over the kitchen table to beat the boredom of practicing our letter formations on paper, or recording old time radio drama satires, complete with Rich Chocolatey Ovaltine Bar commercials and blooper reels.

We have a lot of fun with our learning. But I'm never really sure, when someone, say the cashier at Wal*Mart who wonders why my kids aren't in school, asks me to define what we do. We aren't school-at-homers. We tried that for a while, and there wasn't a day when one of us didn't end up crying. We aren't classical homeschoolers, strictly speaking, because, while we read a lot of classical literature and focus on a many aspects of classical education, like art and music and some Well-Trained Mind philosophies, we have many modern interests, like juggling and unicycling and blogging. We aren't unschoolers, because that connotates a completely child-led, structure-free lifestyle, and my kids would be quick to tell you that that's not us. I don't relinquish complete control very easily.

So, while we gleen from many different educational styles, we don't strictly follow any of them. I guess I'm a homelearner of all trades, a master of none. If truly pressed to define our educational style, I would have to categorize us as interest-led learners.

"What does *that* mean," the cashier at Wal*Mart might ask while I lift a bag of potatoes onto the conveyor belt. Well, if she had some time, I'd tell her. Because, if you remember what I said before, I like to talk. I guess talking would be my specialty area.

I'd say, "Well, it's like this. Interest-led learning can be broken down into three sub-categories. We can allow interest, we can express interest, and we can encourage interest." At that point, the cashier would probably hand me my receipt, throw my bag of potatoes into the cart, and send me on my way, but since I have you here, a captive audience, I'll expound.

Allowing interest. I would say that's my biggest priority. To me, allowing interest is God's gift to educating parents. Having five children, ranging in age from three to almost sixteen, it would be difficult to choose one learning style, one out-of-the-box curriculum, and use it successfully with everyone. For me, it's important to be flexible, to appeal to their interest areas for clues on how they learn. Out of my school-age children, I have one child who is a voracious reader, one who is very artistic, one who loves animals, and one who...well...he's easily distracted, a bit strong-willed, and likes to be the center of attention. In other words, he's an awful lot like me. But I think he's the child who taught me the most about the importance of flexibility in our learning environment.

One day about six months ago, I got a call from a homeschooling friend. She was exasperated with her thirteen-year-old daughter. "I can't get her to do anything! She won't write her book reports, she won't do her math, and it's driving me wild! All she talks about is learning how to play guitar. I told her today that I've had enough. No way. I won't stand for it! If she can't handle doing her regular lessons, then she can just forget about ever getting a guitar."

So I told her about my proverbs 22:6 story.

For years, Houdin balked at the idea of learning to read. Reading was something his *sister* did, not him. His sister, who had taken to reading like a homeschooler takes to curriculum fairs, learned to read with very little help by age three. She was reading Pride and Prejudice by age eight. She was off the charts in her language arts assessments by age ten. Houdin, however, showed no interest in reading. As a matter of fact, by the time he was six and still wasn't reading, I went into so much of a panic that I enrolled him in a local private Christian school. By the end of the year, my wallet was quite a bit lighter and he had developed a deep appreciation for recess, but the boy still didn't know how to read. It was about then that I got a hold of Raymond and Dorothy Moore's books and found a bit of comfort, that it was better for a child to be late in reading than too early. Mortimer J. Adler says something very similar, that it will do more damage to force a child to read before he's ready than it would do for them to read after they're ready. So I decided to just stop pushing it.

Proverbs 22:6 says to train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it. One day, I happened to be reading this verse in my Amplified Bible, and I was encouraged to read this:

Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it.

In keeping with his individual gift or bent. That's one of the beautiful things about homeschooling. We can do this--we can make accomodations for kids who are night owls, or kids who communicate better by speaking than by writing, or kids who think they hate to read.

One of my favorite authors on education, Charlotte Mason, says, "The parent who sees his way to educate his child will make use of every circumstance of the child's life almost without intention on his own part...Does the child eat or drink, does he come, or go, or play--all the time, he is being educated, though he is as little aware of it as he is of the act of breathing."

This quote reminds me of a story that John Holt, the father of unschooling, told about walking across a courtyard on his way to work one day, how he envisioned a seminar where everyone talked about breathing. "How are you breathing today?" One would ask. "Oh, not like Joe Smith...doesn't he breath beautifully?" And so on. If we were to witness this type of convention, we'd wonder if the attendants were sick, or had been sick. Why so much talk and worry about something healthy people do naturally? The same might be said, Holt concludes, about how much we worry about learning. Given room, we all have interests. We all have things that motivate us to learn. Aristotle said that the pleasure arising from thinking and learning will make us think and learn all the more.

So I thought about my son's individual bents and gifts, wondered what would motivate him to think and learn all the more. What does he like? Well, he likes magic, I thought, sleight of hand. Illusion. It's an interest he picked up from his great-grandfather, a master magician who has never failed to wow us with his tricks. I took Houdin to a magic shop and let him choose a few things with the promise of more the next week if he did his chores and cared for these gifts. This, not reading, was clearly his talent. But the beauty was that, in order to learn to do these tricks well, he needed to read the instructions. Bam. The inspiration was there. The motivation was there. And as if by some intervention of the Lord, the next time we went, the shop owner, who had taken a liking to Houdin, suggested...GASP!...some BOOKS for him to read! "Do you know anything about Houdini?" He asked. "A little," Houdin answered. "Do you like to read?" the shop owner asked. "Not really," Houdin answered. "How old are you...about twelve?" Houdin nodded. "When I was twelve, I hated to read, too. And then I got interested in magic. I read about Houdini, and then I started reading books like this one..." he handed Houdin a huge book filled with instructions for different magic tricks. "Can we get it?" Houdin asked me. We took the book home, he got some books on Houdini from the library, and by the end of the week, he was reading every night. When the student is ready, the master appears. Now, Houdin takes his magic tricks to businesses to entertain patrons, uses them as ice-breakers, and presents them at nursing homes. And, he still reads every night.

So, after I told my friend this little story, I suggested that she use the guitar as a motivator, not as a punishment. "Have her research guitars. Tell her to take notes and present them to you. Encourage her to save her own money for lessons. You have a gift here, the gift of motivation that comes with her desire to play guitar. It's the best tool you have." I added, too, the benefit of a lifelong love of music, how it will always be a means of meditation and worship, how it will increase her logical thinking.

Last week, the young girl played her guitar for me. She plays beautifully. she has started a teen worship team at her church. And her mother no longer has problems with getting her to do her lessons--she sees the value in research and written communication. Abbe Ernest Dimnet said that children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. I find that by giving my children a little room, a little benign neglect, they educate themselves quite well.

Of course, there are things that we, as mothers, want our children to learn even if they can't be easily motivated by their gifts to learn them. That's where encouraging interest comes in. Listening to her play a new piece on the piano, asking to hear the new story she's written, showing a guest his latest drawing, and, one of my favorite ways of encouraging interest,"strewing." Strewing is a term I picked up from unschooler Sandra Dodd. Strewing, defined, is leaving materials of interest around for my children to discover. This follows the same course of logic as keeping healthy foods in the pantry. Charlotte Mason, in her book Home Education, says, "The more the child shapes his own course, the less do the parents find to do, beyond feeding him with food convenient, whether love or thought or bodily meat and drink. The parents' chief care is that that which they supply shall be wholesome and nourishing, whether in the way of...books, lessons, playmates, bread and milk, or mother's love." Strewing could be as simple as leaving an interesting book beside the toilet, as effortless as playing Edvard Grieg pieces during meal preparation times, or as pre-planned as taking the whole family to a contra-dance. Sometimes these things meet with a bit of resistence, but with some polite discourse, the child usually trusts that I, the mother, know what I'm talking about, that I've rarely steered them wrong, and they comply. I once heard John Tesh say that it takes introducing a food up to fifteen times before a child will like it, so sometimes, I have to keep trying. The important things stick. The superfluous ones slip away.

And, while encouraging interest, I incorporate those modifications I talked about earlier. For a child who thinks he hates to write, I started a mother/son journal, a place where we communicate with each other in writing on a regular basis. Interest encouraged. For a child who thinks he hates math, we get into discussions about pi at midnight, the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle, by measuring every circle in the house to see if the theory holds true. Interest encouraged. For the daughter who doesn't like to keep records of her lessons or do narrations about the books she's read, we created a blog where she can record her educational progress. Interest encouraged. In these ways, we learn, not just during traditional school hours, and not just during the traditional school year, but all the time. Taking every opportunity to learn. Learning like breathing. We breath everywhere. Last week, while on a date to Coccia House in Wooster, my son Monet and I had a conversation about continents. "Are they, like, cities?" He asked. "No," I answered, "let me explain." And right then, that italian restaurant became the world. Each room became a continent. Each table became a country. He caught on. Each plate became a state or province, my pasta, a tangled mass of cities, towns and villages. "I like my teacher," he said. "Because, in a way, I am my teacher."

And while they do teach themselves, I also feel that there are things that I must teach them, things that resist being learned by allowing interest and encouraging interest. These things can almost always be learned by my expressing interest, by my taking the time to learn and become entranced. Frank Clark said, "Every adult needs a child to teach. It's the way adults learn!" And I believe it's the way children learn, too. A well-publicized study by Harvard University in 1997 found that both literacy and school success could be linked to--guess what?--pleasant dinner table conversation about current events. We know that we influence our children with out interests. Charlotte Mason wrote "The child who sees his mother with reverent touch lift an early snowdrop to her lips learns a higher lesson than the print books can teach" and "If [children] see that the things which interest them are indifferent or disgusting to you, their pleasure in them vanishes." Learning together, showing a never-ending interest in learning, is one way that I have seen inspires my children to love learning.

That's how we got interested in the monarch butterflies. After my friend brought us our first batch of caterpillars, I just fell whole-hog in love with them! I couldn't get enough, checked out every book in the library, made a monarch butterfly habitat and a caterpillar feeding jar, and the kids and I went out in search of fresh milkweed when the caterpillars had eaten through their supply. Monarchs monopolated our lives. But they also taught me another valuable lesson in flexibility.

That morning, Monet and I left the monarch chrysalis and went into the kitchen to begin our day. Not two minutes after we'd walked out of the computer room, I peeked in to check on the monarc. There, dangling from the chrysalis, was a perfectly-formed butterfly, spreading her wings. "WE MISSED IT!" I yelled. Monet came rushing into the room, wide-eyed, yet disappointed. "I told you to wait, Mom!"

He was right. I can't remember specifically what drew us away, what we were doing that was so important, but I do remember that we missed an opportunity to witness a miracle. I don't want to make that mistake again. So I try to be open to learning opportunites, to make accomodations, to allow interest, to encourage interest, and to express interest, and in this way, I believe I can witness miracles rather than busy myself with things that I'll probably not remember in years to come.

I want to leave you with one quote by author Borg Hendrickson, words that have encouraged me to trust myself to develop my own educational philosophies:

"The homeschool parent listens to her inner voice, the voice she recognizes as the world's most natural and suitable teacher for her children. She listens to her own convictions, to her life-earned wisdom, to her love for her children, to her hopes for them and she then knows how and to what purposes she wants her children educated. she then knows her educational philosophies and aims. She also knows that nothing else will do."

There's only two things that money can't buy...

Zucchini and cukes, peaches and pears, strawberries and jalapenos, tomatoes and sugar snap peas, mints and balms and other yummy tea plants, carrots and cilantro and basil and dill.

It's summer.

Our garden is growing and producing, and I'm learning so much about what I need to do next year to make things more successful. I need to take some type of proactive...uh...action with the fruit trees. The peaches we got were large and delicious, but they were riddled with worms. I didn't plant a companion for our asian pear tree, so we have all of one entire asian pear this year.

But it feels really good to have yummy stuff growing right on our own little proven ground. We've been drinking goat's milk, straight from our own sweet goats, eating our own free-range eggs and, this week, we'll do our first butchering session of 25 broilers.

Of course, sometimes we get so busy that we eat mediocre food, at best, from Wendy's and Subway. But it's always a reminder to me that food from home is the very best food there is.

Here's to homegrown.

There's nothin' in the world that I like better than
Bacon, lettuce and home grown tomatoes
Up in the morning and out in the garden
Pick you a ripe one, don't get a hard 'un
Plant 'em in the springtime eat 'em in the summer
All winter without 'em's a culinary bummer
I forget all about the sweatin' and the diggin'
Every time I go out and pick me a big'un

Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes
What'd life be without home grown tomatoes
There's only two things that money can't buy
That's true love and home grown tomatoes

You can go out and eat 'em, that's for sure
But there's nothin' a home grown tomato won't cure
You can put 'em in a salad, put 'em in a stew
You can make your own, very own tomato juice
You can eat 'em with eggs, you can eat 'em with gravy
You can eat 'em with beans, pinto or navy
Put em on the side, put em on the middle
Home grown tomatoes on a hot cake griddle

If I could change this life I lead
You could call me Johnny Tomato Seed
I know what this country needs
It's home grown tomatoes in every yard you see
When I die don't bury me
In a box in a cold dark cemetery
Out in the garden would be much better
Where I could be pushin' up home grown tomatoes

~Guy Clark

The more the child shapes his own course, the less do the parents find to do, beyond feeding him with food convenient, whether of love, or thought, or of bodily meat and drink. And here, we may notice, the parents need only supply; the child knows well enough how to appropriate. The parents' chief care is, that that which they supply shall be wholesome and nourishing, whether in the way of picture books, lessons, playmates, bread and milk, or mother's love.

~Charlotte Mason

Home Grown

Nothing in the world makes a sound
Like a carrot being plucked from the ground.

The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio

See it.

I'm Feeling Bettah

Though still cleaning out my intestines, this virus that took over my body seems to have abated to some reasonable extent. I'm back to walking about in the real world, milking the goats on a regular schedule without the help of the wee children, and I actually took an entire shower last night without passing out. That's real progress.

So, I'm off to work at the greenhouse today. (What? You didn't know I took the greenhouse job? Did I forget to submit "Part Four?" Sheesh. My apologies. More on that later. I'm suddenly feeling a bit...lightheaded. ::swoon::)

When we finish our watering responsibilities at the greenhouse today, the older children, Bo and I are heading Up North (read: "The Big City") to take in Pirates of the Carribean. As my daughter Bard would say, "WOOT!"

Today's lesson: Being sick is bad, but it's worse than the alternative. No, not being healthy, silly! I meant being dead!

Not even Solomon, in all his splendor, was dressed like one of these

My mother-in-law took this photo of one of our lilies when she was last here to visit, just after the terrible storms and tornados came through our area. The power was out, so we enjoyed simple things, like conversation and not doing dishes. Thanks, K, for the absolutely beautiful photos.

Bo's IQ Results: So he's smarter than I am. So what?

Your IQ Is 115

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Above Average Your General Knowledge is Above Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

A meme

Nudged by Miss Booshay over at Quiet Life, a Gerund Meme.

Awaking..........Every hour, sweating or freezing.
Missing..........Health
Drinking.........Vitamin Water and Gatorade
Reading..........Guards!Guards! by Terry Pratchett, Traveling Mercies, by Anne Lamott and Growing your Herb Business by Bertha Reppert
Writing..........My lecture for the Arts Conference and poetry in my head
Sending..........Prayers for my in-laws who are going through some difficult transitions.
Hearing..........Daba Dee, the blue parakeet, the sprinkler dousing the hollyhocks and johnny-jump-ups, kids watching the Blind Babysitter.
Weathering.......A messy house and piles of laundry, and the lack of a sister or mom who could come and clean for me during my hours of illness.
Bouncing..........between wellness and utter fatigue.
Breakfasting.....jalapeno poppers. What? They were the easiest thing to make. Don't look at me like that.
Dressing.........Comfy pants and a coffeehouse t-shirt.
Praying.......... For my in-laws who are really going through a difficult time right now. Did I mention that already?
Ironing..........waiting to be done. A pile of tableclothes and napkins which will likely not get used before they need to be ironed again.
Flushing.........Huh?
Measuring........my energy level. Should I go out and weed the garden, or go back to bed?
Cleaning.........my intestines.
Wondering........if everyone else will get this nasty bug.
Reunioning.......with my husband's sister and her family during a 4th of July Camping trip.
Telephoning......my mother-in-law. Actually, she telephoned me.
Eating...........only what will go down.
Watching.........the flashing cursor, and, joy of joys, my husband pulling in the driveway. I love the sight of that green Jeep.
Sleeping.........more than I ever have.