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Monday, March 21, 2011

The Hoosier Schoolmaster

There I was. Desperate for a good book. Craving a truly epic story. I longed to lose myself in a new story--one I had never read before, but an old story--one that had been around for decades and was written in a younger, less-modernized America. I remembered a short story I had enjoyed a few days before from my American Literature book, and I remembered that it had been an excerpt from a larger work--a novel by a man named Edward Eggleston. So, desperate for a fresh story, I typed into the library website The Hoosier Schoolmaster.
I finished the book in only a few days.
The story, originally published in installments in the magazine Hearth and Home in 1871, was innocent, humorous, uplifting, light-hearted, well-written, wholesome, and altogether enjoyable. Edward Eggleston had a knack of creating and defining likable characters that seemed to come to life. The small-town, backwoods dialect added originality to the citizens of fictional Hoopole County. Throughout the story, there were multiple allusions to God and to biblical principles. The tale concluded with an agreeable ending, quite "happily ever after."
The evening after I finished the book, I eagerly opened it again to page one and began reading it aloud to my mom. We have very similar tastes in novels. We have only read the first few chapters together so far, and the story has already evoked much laughter.
Needless to say, I hope to purchase my own copy of the delightful tale. If I have my way, The Hoosier Schoolmaster will adorn the shelf of my bookcase for the rest of my life, alongside my other favorites...the Emily of New Moon trilogy, Jane Eyre, The Scottish Chiefs, Little Women, Christy, and so many more...
If you, dear reader, like me, are a compulsive bibliophile and a lover of old-fashioned sentiment and charm, you certainly will not want to miss The Hoosier Schoolmaster.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

The Rules

(according to C. S. Lewis)

"I hope you will not misunderstand what I am going to say. I am not preaching, and Heaven knows I do not pretend to be any better than anyone else. I am only trying to call attention to a fact; the fact that this year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behavior we expect from other people. There may be all sorts of excuses for us. That time you were so unfair to the children was when you were very tired. That slightly shady business about the money--the one you have almost forgotten--came when you were very hard-up. And what you promised to do for old So-and-So and have never done--well, you would never have promised if you had known how frightfully busy you were going to be. And as for your behavior to your wife (or husband) or sister (or brother) if I knew how irritating they could be, I would not wonder at it--and who the dickens am I, anyway? I am just the same. That is to say, I do not succeed in keeping the Law of Nature very well, and the moment anyone tells me I am not keeping it, there starts up in my mind a string of excuses as long as your arm. The question at the moment is not whether they are good excuses. The point is that they are one more proof of how deeply, whether we like it or not, we believe in the Law of Nature. If we do not believe in decent behavior, why should we be so anxious to make excuses for not having behaved decently? The truth is, we believe in decency so much--we feel the Rule of Law pressing on us so--that we cannot bear to face the fact that we are breaking it, and consequently we try to shift the responsibility. For you notice that it is only for our bad behavior that we find all these explanations. It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves."

~from Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Ordinary Blessings

February has ended just as quickly as it began. There are many things that make each day special. A few of the blessings I enjoyed this February were:
(links in bold print)

Skipper, the professor, and Gilligan

1. watching episodes of Gilligan's Island with my mom--and laughing hysterically

2. singing along with my new Celtic Thunder CD (and, of course, ever-faithful Michael Buble)

3. listening to Charles Swindoll's preaching in the car with Dad

4. Jennifer Erin Valent's books Fireflies in December, Cottonwood Whispers, and Catching Moondrops...now that the series is over, what shall I do? Miss Valent has not yet published any others:(

5. skyping with April, Ladd, Jackson, and Oakley

6. hysterical videos by Julian Smith, introduced to me by my cousin Josiah:
JS: HandbagJS: Britain's Got Talent ParodyJS: Trees Hate You 

7. at long last, donning my favorite Greek-style, gold sandals...the winter weather prevented it for far too long

8. making homemade Valentines for family and friends and kindred spirits

9. a thunderstorm...I have missed the sound of rain clattering against the roof and thunder bellowing in the distance

10. The Best of Ron Hamilton piano book

11. Focus on the Family's audio drama of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, possibly my favorite Narnia book

12. the sprouting up of the year's first happy, yellow daffodils in the yard

13. reading stacks of books to McKenzie in our "book nook" (a disorganized closet filled with crates of the family's old children's books and magazines)

14. practicing homemaking skills with my mom in our "spare time" (hopefully, there will be more of that this summer)

15. sorting through old boxes of keepsakes and finding a few pictures of my mom and dad's college days

16. trying to learn on my own to play the violin on an old, well-travelled violin a kind man at church offered to let me borrow for as long as I would like (if anyone knows of any websites or books that would be helpful in teaching oneself to play, I would greatly appreciate it)

17. my kindred spirit/cousin Jessica's lovely blog, Soli Deo Gloria

18. spending my days and nights with my holy Abba, Father, from whom all of these blessings come