My Favorite Movie

If you’ve read my blogs this month, you know that I don’t really have favorites. I like a lot of things, but there are very few things that are hands down favorites. The same is true for movies. As a child, Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang was a favorite but I think it was because my parents surprised us with a trip to the drive-in to see it.

I was always enjoyed Gone with the Wind. I remember seeing in at the theater. It was the first movie I saw that had an actual intermission. It was an EVENT when it was shown on  network TV for the first time (my family did not have cable). I can remember planning my schedule to be certain I was could watch it on the two evenings that it was broadcast.

Goodbye Girl staring Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason was a favorite when I was in college. I wanted to be an actress in New York City and that movie showed me what living there might look like. Of course, I also loved the happy ending.

As an adult, especially while raising my children, I didn’t go to the movies often. It wasn’t in the budget. We did see several Disney movies, usually courtesy of the grandparents. I do remember enjoying Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. 

Several years ago my husband and I started going to see a movie every Tuesday night – the tickets cost $6 at our local theater. We made it a “date” for almost two years. Many of the movies that we saw were not memorable, and the ones that were memorable did not move into the favorite category.

I am trying to learn how to watch a movie with a more critical eye. I’ve read Through the Screen Darkly by Jeffrey Overstreet and have attended lectures about movies as art. I have not yet acquired a taste for the critically acclaimed movie – I rather read a book.

A Photograph

Favorite Blogs

My friend Sally Zaengle’s blog, Hot Dogs and Marmalade, is a lovely slice-of-life blog. It is thanks to her that I’m attempting this daily blogging challenge.

Tea with Friends was the very first blog I followed. Angela McRae writes about all-things tea from tea instruments to tea-theme kitchen accessories. I’ve been reading her blog for more than ten years.

I don’t remember how I discovered Small Things. Besides being a regular blogger, Ginny home schools her children, raises bees, and dies yarn many lovely colors using flowers and other natural ingredients. The photographs on her blog are extraordinary.

The Rabbit Room is much more that just a blog. It is a way of life. I discovered it eight years ago after attending an Andrew Peterson concert. He mentioned the website and I looked it up several weeks later. I remember reading two or three posts by various and sundry authors and what struck me were the thoughtful and courteous comments. These people didn’t always agree, but there was a graciousness I had not seen on other sites. The website grew and decided to offer an opportunity for these wonderful people who knew each other only digitally to finally meet one another and Hutchmoot was born. I wasn’t able to attend the first one but have been fortunate to attend several over the years.

 

Thoughts on Education

I think education is important, but I’m not sure school is. Too often I think “education” has become synonymous with “school.” Just because someone has a piece of paper that says he has completed the requirements of a certain level of coursework from a particular institution does not mean he has finished his education. Neither does the lack of said piece of paper mean that one is not well-informed.

It’s important to continually learn – new ideas, new information, new impressions. Reading is a wonderful way to continue one’s education, but so is travel and new experiences. Eating in a new restaurant can be an introduction to a new culture if approached in the right way. Listening to new music can be a way expand one’s understanding of a different thought process. There are a myriad of ways to continue one’s education and many of them do not involve attending classes.

My father was a self-educated man. He knew a little about everything. He was very well read and could discuss almost any topic with any one. He didn’t graduate from high school and never went to college, but he was one of the most educated men I’ve ever known.

5 Years Down the Road

I have struggled mightily to answer this question. I’m not good at looking into the future, not because I’m afraid of it, but because I’ve learned it doesn’t really matter. I am a terrific planner when it comes to vacations and trips, but when it comes to life I’m much more of one who takes things as they come. I may be retired in 5 years, but I may still be working. I can think of several options that intrigue me, but in the end I want to be in the middle of the Lord’s will wherever that may be.

3 Healthy Habits?

When I think of healthy habits I automatically think of exercise. I find that I have no time to exercise during tax season, but I do keep a pair of dumb bells near my bed and do several sets of arms exercises at random times over the course of the season. When Tobi, our Maltipoo, was living I would take him for a walk after work if the weather cooperated. It couldn’t be too hot or too cold because one of us was a wimp. Most recently, I was exercising 2-3 days a week at Orange Theory Fitness, but I’ve let my membership lapse. I enjoyed the challenge, but the class times were not convenient and the membership cost was significant – not to mention the sweating. Why does exercise involve so much sweating?

I drink hot tea instead of coffee. I drink it in the mornings, afternoon and evenings. They say tea is a healthy choice, but that’s not why I drink it. I enjoy tea. I enjoy boiling the water. I enjoy waiting for the tea to steep ( or “sleep” as my husband says when he’s made a pot for me). I enjoy sipping it from a teacup – although a mug will do. Getting a good cup of tea in a restaurant is an “iffy” proposition, but that’s a post for another day.

I try to get seven hours of sleep each night, not because it’s healthy – it’s at the lowest end of the recommended range for my age – but because I can’t function without it. Even in college I had to turn the lights out no later than 11:00. I drove my roommate crazy; she would stay up all night studying while I went to bed at a decent hour. I always did better on tests than she did. I never could convince her that adequate sleep was the key to testing well.

 

Refrigerator Contents

For the last few months, my refrigerator has been the home to a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables from our local CSA. Country Gardens Farm has been in the community for years. Mike and Judy previously operated a garden center, and Mike did a landscape plan for me years ago. Our children actually went to elementary school together, but this is the first year I’ve participated in the CSA. A coworker and I have split a large share. We’ve enjoyed kale, carrots, arugula, strawberries, peaches, radishes (Did you know you could saute them? Delicious!), turnips and turnip greens, mushrooms, potatoes (both sweet and red), and beets. We’ve just signed up for the summer session and yesterday they had the first tomatoes and blueberries of the season. It’s been lovely to open the refrigerator and see the variety and beauty of the homegrown food.

My Favorite Childhood Book

I was a voracious reader as a child. I was a member of the Dr. Seuss book club and remember being so excited when the books would arrive in the mail. I graduated to the Happy Hollister book club in the third grade. I received two books each month and my mother would always keep one of them because I would read both books in less than a week if left to myself. Mother kept the series at her house for years. I would borrow a book to read it to my own children, but she wouldn’t let me take the entire series home with me.

I don’t know what has happened to the books. When Mother passed away and we cleaned out her house, I know the books were still on her bookcase, but I can’t find them. They may be in a box in the attic or one of my brothers may have them. While surfing the web looking for images for this post I discovered that the books are being reprinted in paperback. If my copies don’t show up, I may have to put these books on my Christmas list!

Favorite Foods

It might be easier to list the foods I don’t like, than to choose ten favorites. Of course, there are stories to go with many of these choices, but I’ve run out of time.

1. Fresh cherries
2. Strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream
3. Fresh peaches and Oreos
4. Tomato sandwich on white bread
5. Bacon
6. Seven layer dip
7. Roasted sweet potatoes
8. Raspberries
9. Cranberry crisp
10. Cheese

Best Trip of My Life

I don’t really have too many things that I think are the “best thing EVER.” Like my post on my favorite songs, those are just songs that are favorites not necessarily THE favorite. Several trips came to mind when I began to consider this topic:

1. The December I traveled to New York City to sing in the choir for Keith and Kristen Getty at Carnegie Hall
2. The July my daughter and I traveled together to Jamaica for our first international mission trip
3. The September my husband and I celebrated our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary on the Rio Grande Railroad and Michael Martin Murphy sang “What’s Forever For?” in our honor
4. The April our family traveled to Washington, D.C. and enjoyed falling snow and cherry blossoms on our first day there
5. The July that we left our infant son and toddler daughter for the first time and went away with friends for a weekend
6. The August that we first vacationed with our adult children and their spouses

Each of these trips were special in their own way and there are so many others that I haven’t mentioned. Maybe that should be a series of blog posts for a another time.