As we were visiting, I told Isaac that he reminded me of Silas Marner. Of course, Isaac had no idea what I was talking about, so I told him the story briefly, while trying not to give away the end. I first read the story in high school and thought it was so interesting at that time. Since then I’ve seen the movie with Steve Martin called “A Simple Twist of Fate” which is a modernized version of Silas Marner.

The story of Silas Marner is one of my favorite novels. On a whim, last night, I said to Isaac, “Let’s Google Silas Marner and see what we find.” Early in our search we found the complete text of the novel online at Bibliomania.com. I started reading the first few lines of the story to Isaac, and before I knew it, we were both hooked. He sat there completely silent and listening while I read the entire first chapter. The story (by George Eliot) was written in 1861, so the language is terribly old fashioned, and the sentences are so long I sometimes can’t figure out where we’ve started and where we’re going. But despite the vocabulary that leaves all of us wondering, and despite extreme wordiness and elaborate descriptions, the story has us hooked.

As I shooed Isaac off to bed last night, he begged me to wake him up early so we could read the next chapter. I told him I’d think about that idea. So this morning, once I had my cup of coffee in hand and realized that my two little morning companions were content eating dry Kix cereal leftover from our potty-training snacks, I went and nudged Isaac. He popped out of bed so fast and was in the kitchen ready to listen almost before I got back there myself!

We read the second chapter, and maybe even the third… I can’t remember… before I finally told him to get ready for the day and start his chores.

As soon as we had another break in our morning, we piled onto the couch and read some more chapters of Silas Marner. By now we had everyone else in our little homechool in the audience, and I wondered how much anyone was understanding of this archaic text, but they sat quite interested, and the younger three played happily (mostly) while I read.

Tonight, once the final chores were done, I agreed to read just a little bit more. Again we slogged through the big words and long sentences, but the story kept pulling us along through the tedious parts. Each time we sit to read, I review with the children what the story has been thus far, and we speculate on where it’s going. Any time I think they might have missed something interesting, I stop reading and explain what was just said. Then I read that part again so they can hear it in the original language. All in all, we’re having a great time! Tonight we found the word diffidence, and Laura asked, “What does that mean?” I admitted that I did not know, but offered, “Would you like me to look it up?” Laura answered emphatically, “NO! Just keep reading!” I smiled and started to take a breath when Luke answered, “Yes, look it up so we can stay up later!” I decided I liked Laura’s answer better than Luke’s, so we just kept reading.

I told Isaac last night that there is a dramatic version of Silas Marner put out by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. Michael told me to go ahead and order it, so I went to my new favorite source for books and audio stuff and made an order. I think I’m going to try to finish reading the print version of the story to the kids before I let them listen to the audio drama, but I must confess that I’m so eager to hear it, I might give in to the temptation before we’re done reading.

Have you read Silas Marner? If so, what do you think of it? If you haven’t read it, let me encourage you to check it out. And if you really can’t tolerate the old-fashioned text version, be sure to watch a movie or listen to the audio drama. It’s a story you’ll never forget.

While we were there, we saw a notice that Kelly’s would be hosting a gingerbread-house-building party that very evening! It only cost $7 per house, which seemed very reasonable to me! If I were to try to make gingerbread houses myself, I would have to mix up the cookie dough, cut out the right shapes, make the icing, buy many different bags of candy, and then create all the mess of assembling the houses and THEN actually think about cleaning up after the project was over. Whew! The very thought makes me quake in my culinary boots.

After getting part-way through our day, I realized it would probably work out to take the children, so I called and made reservations for our party of five: Laura, Isaac, Luke, Amelia, and Hannah.

What fun we had! Kelly had thought of everything! The gingerbread was sturdy, there was plenty of icing, there was a dish of mixed candy for each creator, a cup of graham cereal “roof tiles”, and even a little dish of coconut for the “snow”.

We spent two hours there and the children worked so diligently on their houses. I loved watching them build and create and interact.

Our adventure was worth every penny. Actually, it was worth twice the price. Now that I’ve made gingerbread houses at Kelly’s, I know without a doubt I’ll never make them in my own house.

P.S. Would you like to see a photo album of our adventure? Check out my gallery!

Anyway, here is the e-mail.

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Subject: music practice
Date: May 29, 2006 8:00:08 PM CDT

Dear Mom,

After we got home and unloaded the van, Michael decided to go back to your office to take care of things there. Whatever it is that he’s doing requires completion before your work day tomorrow, and he didn’t want to put it off.

After he left, I put my three youngest children in the bath with luke-warm water. They played for a bit, then one by one I took them out. I started with Judah, toweled him off, then put baby powder all over his clean little body. I had noticed some heat rashes on the kids, so I decided to powder them all over and especially in their crevices. Once Judah was clean and powdered and dressed in a onesie, I let him play on our bed while I put a clean sheet and light blanket on his bed. Then it was Mike’s turn to get out of the tub. He found it intriguing to be powdered. Amelia heard all the commotion involved with powdering and she got herself out of the tub just as I was finished getting Mike dressed. I then toweled off Amelia and powdered her. She wanted to do some of her powdering herself, so I let her do that. Of course Mike wanted to do some powdering of HIMself too! They both have well-powdered tummies now.

Then I put clean sheets on Mike’s and Amelia’s beds. Finally it was time to tuck Judah and Amelia into bed. Mike did the tucking for Amelia while I settled Judah. He was so tickled to have the big-kid job of settling his older sister in bed. Thanks to his very long nap today at your house he’s getting to stay up late.

Once we came downstairs the older kids were eager to play with the violins. I helped Luke review his lesson, and then I gave the same lesson to both Laura and Isaac on the bigger violin that you had at your house. It fits both of them perfectly and they were eager to learn the lesson.

Finally Isaac went off to play his game on the computer and a little while later Laura came downstairs with one of the guitars from upstairs. Before I knew it we had both guitars downstairs along with the pitch pipe and a guitar book. So I gave Laura her first guitar lesson! Thanks to my short burst of guitar learning some months ago, I was able to show her the things I knew. I think the guitars we have will suit her just fine. Her hands are big and her arms are long. She is able to reach the chords on these, so I don’t think we need to get a smaller guitar for her. She’s growing so fast she’ll be perfectly suited to these in no time.

I’m really pleased with our music practice. Oh, and Laura reminded me that she had found a violin in Todd’s basement, so she ran across the street to get it. It’s missing a string and the bow is missing it’s hairs, and it looks like a very old instrument. I’m going to take it to Kidder Music this week and see if they think it’s worth getting fixed up. Our other guitar came from Todd’s basement, and it was worth fixing up, so maybe the violin is worth something.

What a nice end to the day.

Thanks again for making this Memorial Day weekend memorable.

Love,
Christie

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You can view photos of our weekend at this link.

1. We got out the video camera, and Isaac (age 8 ) videoed not only our BibleTelling story, but also the hymns we sang as part of our hymn study. Everyone was eager to ham it up for the camera!

2. I revealed to the children the terra cotta clay and the play doh that I had hidden. Luke (age 6) is creating something to be baked later, and Mike & Amelia are doing fun things with play doh. My rolling pin isn’t available for them to use, so I gave them each an aeresol can (with strict instructions NOT to take the lid off) to use as a roller.

3. Isaac decided to video tape himself doing the dishes. Later we’ll ask his dad to help him import this footage and Isaac will get to play around with editing movies on the computer.

4. Judah (age 1) was way too interested in the play doh project, and he wouldn’t leave those kids alone, so I put him in his high chair with a little pile of cornmeal. He’s having fun rolling things around in it and pushing it around with his fingers. When he decides to taste it, I don’t panic, because it’s just cornmeal! Judah is also strategically positioned near the play doh table so he can watch the activities there.

I don’t know what the rest of the day holds, but so far, no one has noticed that they can’t go outside and play. What do you have your kids do when it’s raining?

I would like to say a big thank you to my dear hubby for making my blog actually appear somewhere in cyberspace.

Now I’m officially in the new millennium with an online journal.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Much love,
Christie