This Classical Life

i love it when Mollie does these (various categories…)

soars
“everyday friendships” AKA community - neighborhood living

girls making friends, too

the first hints of fall

good books

fun shoots with fantastic clients

hippie preschool, where trees are climbed and barley snacks are consumed

homemade rice pudding

live music

community dinners at community group at our new place

the jcc which provides nursery care for the girls while I lounge and read on long days

sinks
tires going flat on the daily commute to Tuscaloosa

days where M is gone more than 12.5 hours

pain flare ups

traffic going to suburbia

bureaucracy

not having a good cell phone signal in the house

I am pleased to announce that I (as KSP) am offering a Christmas card package so that you can have lovely cards with little fuss. I am going to host three afternoons of “mini-sessions” at various locations (a farm! a beautiful greek revival home! ) where you can schedule a time to come and get your card photos taken. Your choice: just the kids, the whole family, the kids individually… whatever you want your cards to be this year. I am offering some really nice cards to choose from, at an affordable price. $75 gets you a session and 25 cards (on semi-gloss or linen cardstock) with envelopes. Order sets of 25 more for $30 each. You can find more details here, and see one of the designs below. Oh and if you refer a new customer, you both get $10 off.

The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield is one of a host of books that hit the market in this election season, capitalizing on this year’s fascinating candidates. Mansfield has been a prolific writer in the last decade, writing about history, politics and faith, and particularly their overlap. Having written The Faith of George W. Bush Mansfield has direct experience with this type of writing and analysis, and that is well demonstrated. The Faith of Barack Obama is well-written and provides a solid overview of Obama’s life and faith. (more…)

I’m behind on housework, emails, photography stuff, etc. so I haven’t felt inspired to take time to blog here. But, I am behind enough in other venues that I have posted things elsewhere.

Here are:
Some photos taken by Kate and Lexi (and friends.)
Previews on my photography blog.
A wrap-up of Babypalooza on the MCS blog, complete with pictures from my iPhone.

Highs:
My birthday was Friday! I got lots of love from friends near and far. Many facebook messages and phone calls were received. My sweet daughters woke me up with shouts of “Mom, it’s your birthday! Happy Birthday!,” they remembered and were excited. Then the girls and I met LL and Josiah for breakfast. Jennifer dropped off a cake and ice cream. Neighbor and “everyday friend” Lisa watched the girls so Michael and I could go out to dinner and celebrate (at Sol Y Luna!) Thanks everyone for making me feel very special.

I shot another wedding. They are super addictive. I am so looking forward to all the ones I have coming up with Camille.

Our book club met Sunday morning, we had a delicious brunch and it was fun. I like book club!

Low:
Killer, killer migraine last night. May never eat birthday cake again… :(

I loved this article about Amish migration and population growth. I am a religious studies nerd, though. It’s interesting to think about the growth of religious movements like the Amish, LDS and even Islam as their views of children and contraception allow them to grow at a faster rate. As evangelicalism in general promotes couples waiting longer and having less children, conforming to national trends, we are loosing ground. Lest we forget, there is a middle ground between the societal status quo and being quiverfull.

Your 4-Year-Old by Louise Ames & Frances Ilg
This series of child development books has comforted and amused me each year. Though some things are obviously dated, this series adequately provides parents with developmental expectations for their children at each age. 7.5/10

The Quiet American by Graham Greene
I enjoyed reading the Power and the Glory in college, but that was my limited experience with Greene. He is a powerful writer, and this short novel was certainly prophetic in it’s descriptions of American interventions in Vietnam in the 50s and our foreign policy botches in that region and period in general. I enjoyed how well he captured the male rivalry and those characters in general. Not perfect, but it’s a deserving classic and worth reading. 9/10.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Re-read for book club, yet again. I like Jane, I pity her and root for her, and I am glad that I have read this so many times. 9/10

The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Chaim Potok is one of my favorite authors, and this is his most popular book. If you have never read this coming of age story about friendship and fathers and sons set in the orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, you are missing out. 10/10.

The Promise by Chaim Potok
In many ways, this book is satisfying, and ties up many loose ends from the Chosen. There are a lot of great issues raised as far as technical criticism, and belief and practice in a modern/post-modern context. I think it is not *quite* as good as the Chosen, but it’s certainly a good read nonetheless. 9/10

Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry
Berry’s beautiful writing is always a treat to read, it is graceful and filled with life. I can’t give it any higher praise than to say that I wept when I finished, for Hannah and for myself, because it was over. 10/10.