I'm thankful for... Fun!

Day 25 is here! Yay! :)

Today, I am thankful for Family Fun Fridays... which my family and I do when we can. Occasionally we have our family day on Saturday. We try to do something enjoyable together as a family. Board games and movies are usually what we choose.

Tonight on our movie viewing menu is.... well, here's a little hint:

Today I am thankful for family fun! :D Ta-ta now, the movie is starting... :)

I'm thankful for... Surprises!

Day 21 is here! :)

Today I am thankful for surprises. :D I never had a surprise birthday party, (sadly) but I've had my share of surprises. Today we got one in that - our Perry Mason DVD's arrived early in the mail! :) I'm not going to tell you how many hour-long episodes we watched today. You'll think we need to get a life. (oh, ok... we watched 4.)

I love it when God gives us unexpected blessings sometimes in the form of surprises. :) While I also like looking forward to something and anticipating it, sometimes it's refreshing to be surprised with something wonderful, just out of the blue. :)

Blessings!

Interesting Anecdotes in the Life of Me

There! That's a good one. I'm trying to work on thinking up good post titles. This one fits that bill rather well. :D Post titles, to me, are the most difficult part of writing a blog post... how do you express the heart and summarize all the points of a wonderful article in that short amount of space?

(Anecdote: a usually short narrative of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident) 

Anyway, for the first interesting anecdote... my mother has figured out that we save time, money, gas, and energy by only going grocery shopping once a month. So yesterday we made our monthly trip to the great world of groceries and stocked up on everything we will need for the month. Whew! It was a very hot day and it seemed like it took a really long time to get the groceries all loaded into the back of the van... but in reality it only took me, my mom, and one of my brothers 2 hours to buy all our groceries for a WHOLE MONTH. :) We take a special trip back to town whenever meat is on sale to buy it then, which saves even more money - meat is so expensive at full price! And occasionally we will hop back to the store about half-way-through the month to procure a few more fresh fruits and vegetables. But with all the produce we've been getting from our garden that hasn't been necessary the past few months! :D

As for the second intersting anecdote...  

 I've been reading Persuasion by Jane Austen over again. My favorite movie adaptation of this book is the version starring Amanda Root as Anne and Ciaran Hinds as Captain Frederick Wentworth.

 Love that scene ^ where Captain Wentworth unexpectedly enters the confectionery(?) shop in which Anne is taking shelter from the rain.

Look at the pair of them... they just are Anne and Capt. Wentworth!

Confession: I have always wanted to write a letter or journal entry with a *real* quill pen. Like the beautiful one Anne uses in the movie.

 I watched the movie with Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones as well, but it just wasn't the same. the supporting actors weren't as amusing and it was not as true to the book as my favorite version.

 The only slight disappointment for me in the movie is "The Kiss" ergo, the proposal scene. The background was all wrong... a busy street with a circus parading by! In the book, if I remember correctly and will rediscover quite shortly, Captain Wentworth takes Anne into a garden or something and they are quite alone when she indicates by "a word, a look" (or more) that she accepts his offer of marriage.

 Sigh - and that long nearly 8-year separation was all the fault of that annoying Lady Russell! ;) She had the best of intentions but couldn't have been more ill-advising!

Well, I was going to write a bit more and include pictures of the green beans and tomatoes we've been getting from the garden, but that will have to wait for now. Stay tuned! :D

 We will be having a busy Friday as we're visiting a homeschool convention in Altanta for the day and going to Frisbee on the way back home, but on Friday morning make sure you check out the devotional post I wrote for Meditations of His Love!

(and Pssst - there's a giveaway over at Practically Pink for flexi-8 hair clips! And one at Virtuous Girlhood for a curling iron.)

Have a blessed and beautiful weekend!

A Country Girl at Heart

Lately, I've blogged mostly about the more cosmopolitan side of me.
(Cosmopolitan: adj, 1. Well traveled, cultured, sophisticated, urbane, etc...) The part of my personality that enjoys black & white photography, ultra-cute technology, poems, chic interior decor, and shopping trips.

But there's a whole other side of me too. I'm not all girly-girl, photographer extraordinare, and stylish interior designer.

I live in the country on 13 acres of woods tumbling down a rocky hill, in a log home. We raise chickens for their eggs and are considering raising up a batch for meat. We hang our laundry on the line. We've harvested basket after basket of three kinds of lettuce, tons of tomatoes, oodles of onions, and bunches of beans from our garden already, along with a nice amount of green peppers, a pumpkin, and a few squashes.
We can't even see our neighbors through the woods when the leaves are on the trees (about three seasons out of four).
The loudest things we hear are the cicadas buzzing in the woods at night and our roosters crowing in the morning. No road noise or traffic to speak of.

Here are the little darlings... some of our Buff Orphington hens and our 'extra' rooster, Constantine. (Named by my history-loving brother Mark after the great emperor himself) We think he's a Partridge Cochin... he has feathers on his feet. :D

We have another rooster that's a Buff Orphington who isn't in this shot. We called him "Oddly", because we only ordered hens, and oddly enough, he's a rooster. :D

The buffs are known for being 'broody'. They're grumpy wanna-be-mommies and they sit on the nests waiting to peck any hand that tries to steal the precious eggs below them... but we've found that if you grab them from behind you can lift them off with not much trouble. So I wrangle chickens with the best of them. ;)

My brothers Mark and Steven have the main care of the chickens, and go to work landscaping with Dad, while I do the bulk of the housecleaning and helping out with the dishes & laundry and all the cooking. They do the outdoor, I do the indoor. It's a nice division of labor. :)

Our garden is Daddy's paradise.

 He has done an amazing job this year raising up beautiful plants that give off bountiful produce. The tomatoes, especially, have been incredibly fruitful, and the green beans were (and continue to be) great! :) What's coming on now is a jungle of lush squash plants spreading out their broad-leafed vines in a wild ramble across the garden paths. Daddy loves plants, and there is ample evidence of his green thumb in our garden. :)

 Today, we plan on going up to play Ultimate Frisbee with a big group of our friends that play every Friday during the warmer months. It'll be a lot of fun. Frisbee is one of the games that gets me all pumped up and excited ... and oh, dear, very competitive. :D I was super-athletic when I was younger (not as much now) and still enjoy a close game of Ultimate Frisbee. I'll see if I can get one of my parents to take pictures of the game today so I can give you all a glimpse of how much fun it is! :)


And lately, my brothers and I have been highly enjoying this guy:

 Perry Mason! He's a defense attorney in L.A. in the late 50's - early 60's. There are complete videos of almost the whole first season of Perry Mason on IMDB.com (internet movie database) that you can watch for free online with only a few interruptions from commercials. We've been loving it. Perry Mason always manages to pull out a victory over his arch-nemesis, prosecuting attorney Hamilton Burger, and his sidekick Lieutenant Tragg.

My favorite character in the show is Della Street, Perry Mason's secretary. My youngest brother and I think she and Perry Mason should have gotten married, they make such a cute couple! :D But apparently they were just good friends in the series.

Well, I hope you all have a great weekend! I'm off to bake a tasty treat to bring as an after-game snack to Ultimate Frisbee.

Watching "Emma"

Are any of you interested in watching the new Emma Jane Austen movie, starring Romola Garai? *squeals* ;)

I watched it and I must say, I was more impressed than I expected I'd be. I love the Gwyneth Paltrow version of Emma, but there are many things about this new version that captivated me. :) I was pleasantly surprised by how many of the lines from the movie are actually taken straight from the book, and how little the screenwriters changed the plot, characters, and situations. The timing of everything is extremely close to how everything happens in the book. All this I love! :D I like the newer Harriet much better. At first I wasn't sure about Mr. Knightley, but I absolutely loved him by the time the movie was done.

Frank Churchill is much more like I would have imagined him to be... the ages of the actors seem to be closer to the actual book... Unfortunately, I didn't think Romola Garai acted quite well-bred and elegant enough for the part of Miss Woodhouse, and does a few things that I don't think Emma would have done... (i.e, bursting into Mr. Knightley's library, making a short electrifying statement, and immediately running back out) And Miss Bates was not quite as 'bates-y' as I would have liked. Overall though, this is a very well-done, satisfying Jane Austen Movie. :D

The New Sherwood Pictures Movie- Announced!!

I am SO excited about the next Sherwood pictures movie that I checked the website continually yesterday until finally, they announced the plot and the title! I am absolutely delighted with the plot and I think it's something America really needs right now.... now I'm bursting to see it! :D Too bad it will probably take them a year to make it.... sigh.

I signed up for the updates, so they let me see it right away... they said something about not releasing it to the general public right away, but if you click HERE you can find out what the title and the plot of the next Sherwood pictures movie is! There's also a video of Alex and Stephen Kendrick describing their thoughts and reasons for choosing this particular plot and title.

p.s.

My family and I had a great weekend in FL with my grandma! pictures will be forthcoming. :)

The Next Sherwood Pictures Movie is...

Well, we don't know yet! The producers haven't released the name or story line yet.... but there are rumors that they will announce this info on November 15th, 2009. I am very excited and can't wait to see what it is about! :)

By the way, Which did you like best...

Flywheel,
Facing the Giants, or
Fireproof?

Drop me a comment and let me know! :)

We Made It Home from New York!

Hi Readers of this Blog Post...

Just had to let you know we're home now in our small city in Georgia after a long drive yesterday! We stayed the night in a trendy, mod hotel room in southern Virginia... (I loved it, Daddy thought it was weird) and enjoyed swimming in the sort-of-chilly-pool.

I took LOTS of pictures of everything and I will see how soon I get to uploading those to our computer... it's not happening tonight, I can tell you that! We got home at around 5:45 pm, mama whipped up a delicious hot dinner including some handy-dandy-home-canned chicken, and then my brothers and I watched a new-to-us Errol Flynn movie called "The Sea Hawk" and WOW was that good. I love international intrigue. :) We can't wait to watch it with some other Errol Flynn fans we know. *wink-wink*. :D

Anyway, it is getting time for me to go to bed... (yawn!) and get some much needed shut-eye. Maybe tomorrow you can catch a glimpse of some pictures of ... oh, say.... the New York pics I haven't posted yet, Amish Horse-&-Buggies, quilt shops, and the wonderful things we got at the shops...

Toodles!

Night At The Museum, Battle of the Smithsonian - A review

My first impression was - Wow! Great movie. I really liked the first one and this one was awesome as well. There wasn't the initial wonder at the discovery that yes, the museum does come to life, but "Battle at the Smithsonian" captures all the feeling of the first movie.



Things to watch out for-



Amelia Earhart is ...uh, shall we say, a little... forward. She has a rather 'feministic' attitude - but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't stomach it. 2 swear words, but the movie in general was pretty clean, as far as movies go. The mysticism was kept in check, which I appreciated.



Kahmunrah (sp?) was the perfect 'badguy' for this film - he's so funny! He has a slight lisp so even in his most scary moments he's really not that scary. I loved the fight scene between him and Larry (Ben Stiller) - I was like "Wow, they really look like they're dueling!"


General Custer joins the cast in this movie and (Hint-hint!) even gets a chance to redeem his bungled 'last stand'.



Jedediah and Octavius also re-appear in this movie. (They have to be some of my very favorite characters!)

Jedediah gets imprisoned by Kahmunrah in an hourglass and Octavius goes for help while Larry and Amelia Earhart try to figure out how to translate the tablet of Akmunrah. Akmunrah was the Egyptian king in the last movie, and his big brother Kahmunrah stars in this one.

You can see the hilarious trailer video HERE.

And read as much about the movie as you want HERE on Wikipedia.

I Have Returned To My Home Sweet Home

Hi Everyone! I'm back! :) That's my house up there. :) The leaves aren't that pretty right now, in fact most of them are gone. That pic is from last autumn.

Michigan was AMAZING, but home is where my heart is. :) It was so neat walking into my log home and smelling the scent of the logs... a delicious piney-woodsy smell, faint but lovely. Since my family and I breathe in the house all the time, we can't smell the logs unless we've just arrived home from a long time being away and breathing other air. Our visitors can all smell the logs, but we don't, usually.

Here I am... in Michigan!

Well, to give you a short summary of my wonderful trip, here are some pictures and videos. (I won't be upset if you laugh at the sledding... I was cackling my head off watching them back at my Aunt and Uncle's house.) :D

Here I am with Kate in her barn. (I'm the one in the huge coat) :) It was about -5 the morning we were there.
We had such a wonderful time at Kate's house! They served us delicious milky chocolate-hazelnut tea, blueberry muffins, and coffee, and sent us home with homemade goats' milk soap in Candy Apple and Lavender-Sage flavors, and homemade lotion in Grapefruit and Cappucino flavors. All I have to say is WOW. :)

On the way into Michigan we stopped at a rest area with drink machines outside... and there was about a foot of snow on the ground, with a temperature well below freezing...

Cold Drinks? I'll say! :) I'm almost certain they had to be frozen solid!

At one point it was snowing so thickly that it was quite difficult to see where we were going... a veritable 'white-out' (yikes!) .

Here's a picture off my Aunt and Uncle's back porch... it was beautiful with the sun coming up behind the ice-covered trees...

I also discovered that during the night our car got well covered with snow..

Mark and Steven, in their snow fort... ready for battle!

I was so glad for my warm coat and "Eskimo Hood" while up there... it really kept me from getting too cold!I absolutely love this picture...

And here is my brother Mark, having the time of his life sledding...

My family and I at the pier in Grand Haven... you can see the lighthouse in the background, just to the left of Mark's shoulder... It was extremely cold while we were there with a freezing-cold wind, so we didn't walk out onto the pier.

Here we are tubing at "Pando's", on a HUGE hill... that was fun! And all you have to do to get back up the hill is hook your tube to a line that pulls you up the hill while you ride. Very nice. :)

Here's another sledding video... This is how kids from Georgia sled...Yeehaw!

I was so thrilled to be able to meet Miss Jocelyn Dixon and her family in person! We stopped by their house on the way back from Michigan.

We ended up helping push their grandma's car out of a ditch, but I don't think I'll post pictures of that... they ended up not being very...ah, dignified. :) :P

But I had a wonderful, amazing time in Michigan! I may post more pictures later... this seemed enough for now.

Blessings!

Julia

I'm currently: Tired, but Happy. :)

Movie Quiz Answers!

Okay, I know you all have been wondering "Well, is she going to tell us the answers or not?" :) Truth is, we had quite a busy weekend and I didn't have time to post anything! So now I am getting back to my blog and the first thing to do is give you the answers for the movies! :)

1) Pride and Prejudice, A&E (&BBC?) version with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. People can talk all day until they are blue in the face about what Pride and Prejudice version is better than the other, but really I like both...they're just different interpretations of the same story. This version struck me as being much more true to the book and slightly more realistic. And Jennifer Ehle looks exactly like I pictured Elizabeth from reading the book. :)

2) My Fair Lady. A wonderful movie starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. I love the ball scene with all the glorious dresses, and "Eliza" looks absolutely stunning in her sparkly gown and upswept hair. Now, granted, there are parts of the movie that sometimes we fast-forward, usually the songs that Eliza's reprobate father sings...and there are a few instances where "Henry Higgins" (Rex Harrison) relieves his angry feelings by saying the D word, but really this is a lovely movie well worth the watching.

3) The King And I! Not to be confused with "Anna and the King" which I have heard was not good at all. The King And I was a very good Rogers and Hammerstein musical. I found it fascinating to watch scenes inside a Siamese kingdom. I haven't watched this one in a while so I can't quite remember anything objectionable I should mention... Hmm... Oh, there is one scene where the King prays to Buddha, but usually we just fast-forward it. The rest of the movie was great!

4) Wee Willie Winkie!! A Shirley Temple Movie. Only one of you got this right. Somone else guessed "Susanna of the Mounties" which starred the same actor who is with Shirley in the picture I chose, so that was a pretty good guess. After all, this is not one of Shirley's most famous movies, but I loved it. I'm a big Shirley Temple fan...she's just so adorable! :)

5) Robin Hood...the animated Disney version! :) This was too easy because the picture has a reward poster in it that says "Robin Hood" for all to see. :) But I've loved this movie ever since I was a wee little girl of 3 years old! It's still my favorite version of Robin Hood. :)

6) National Treasure. (The first one) Yes, most of you got this. I liked this first one more than the second one because: 1. The villain is way better. 2. Abigail and Ben in the second movie were living together, and broke up, and then go back to living together without bothering to get married. (!) 3. Riley is funnier in this movie. 4. The treasure is So Amazing in this movie!! A Must See!! :)

7) Little Women. This is the only version I've seen of Little Women, but it was really good! They stayed pretty true to the book, and it was lovely. This is the version starring Katherine Hepburn, if you're curious. I loved it!!

8) Facing the Giants : If you're a football fan, and you haven't seen this movie, all I can say is "What are you doing? Go see it now!" :) Wow. Really, this movie has such an impacting message and was such a great story. Considering that all the actors were volunteers, it was incredibly good! :)

9) The Sound of Music. Everyone got this. :) So that means you've already seen it and you love it just like I do! :) What a classic. This, in my opinion, was one of Julie Andrew's best movies. What a beautiful movie! :)

10) Swiss Family Robinson. I love the book, and the movie was good as well. This is the Disney version, and I haven't seen any others. They cut out a lot of the story and added a big part with Pirates in it, but it's still a good movie. :)

11)Night at the Museum. Okay, this was a funny movie! There were a few things I didn't agree with, but overall I think it's worth watching.

12)Sense and Sensibility. By now you may have assumed I'm a big Jane Austen fan. You are entirely correct! :) This was a great portrayal of the book. I loved it. Go see it. Need I say more? :)

13) Pride and Prejudice, 2005, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfayden. Very good! Really, this movie was a good watch, although they portrayed some things differently than the book. It's kind of an 'easy read, large print' version compared to the other version with Ehle and Firth - that felt like watching the book, this one was a bit different. But, I love the Jane in this version and also Matthew was a very handsome Mr. Darcy. :) So watch both versions! :)

Alexandra and Ella tied for first place, with one incorrect answer each, and 12 correct answers. Many of you only missed two! Good job! :)
And so ends the movie quiz! That was a lot of fun.

Julia

My Movie Quiz!

All righty, this looked like so much fun I had to try it myself.

Rules: Leave a comment (by clicking on 'delightful comments' and typing in your answers) with the numbers of the pictures and your guess as to what movie they are from. DO NOT look at anyone else's comment before leaving yours, as they may have answers you don't. (No peeking!)

I promise I'll tell you what they are after at least a dozen people comment. :)

Here we go!

1)

2)
3) (sorry about this picture...her dress looks quite low-cut...it's not quite like that in the movie.)

4) this is actually two pictures of the same movie...
5)

6)7)8) (sorry about the size...look closely!) :) 9)

10)

11)

12)
13)

Have fun guessing!! ;)

Julia