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Hooray for the Swiss Family!

The Swiss Family Robinson, Chapter 2 Part 1 – 37:31

I made really good potato-leek soup last night. I’m going to write down my recipe so I can make it again!

3 potatoes, unpeeled, cut in hunks, sauteed for a couple minutes in butter and then simmered till soft in turkey broth.

2 leeks and one stalk of celery, sliced very thin, sauteed in butter till very soft.

Mash up the potatoes, mix in the leeks. Salt, pepper, add a little water if it’s too thick.

YUM.

Chloe and I did our Jane Austen jigsaw that Grandma gave us, and we watched the Amada Root “Persuasion” and listened to loveline. And then Bob came over and we all watched four episodes of the 2nd season of Breaking Bad. And I worked on Christmas knitting until my hands got too sore to continue.

I loved doing the puzzle. It was just the right difficulty to be fun and a bit challenging but not frustrating. The illustration is very detailed so, if you think about it hard enough, you can figure out exactly where each piece might go. I loves jigsaw puzzles when I was little, and doing this one made me feel really happy :)

Time for our next book. This is one of my all-time favorites! Let me introduce you to my dear friends Fritz, Ernest, Jack, and Franz, and their resourceful and loving parents:

The Swiss Family Robinson, Chapter 1 – 37:31

First published in 1812, The Swiss Family Robinson may sometimes seem old-fashioned to modern readers, especially the family’s attitude toward wildlife (if it moves, shoot it). However, it’s a truly exciting adventure and a timeless story of warm and loving family life.

As the narrator says: “It was written… for the instruction and amusement of my children… Children are, on the whole, very much alike everywhere, and you four lads fairly represent multitudes… It will make me happy to think that my simple narrative may lead some of these to observe how blessed are the results of patient continuance in well-doing, what benefits arise from the thoughtful application of knowledge and science, and how good and pleasant a thing it is when brethren dwell together in unity, under the eye of parental love.”

Written by Swiss pastor Johann David Wyss and edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss (this edition lists J.R. as the author), the novel was intended to teach his four sons about family values, good husbandry, the uses of the natural world, and self-reliance. It’s fun to think of the long-ago author reading his own books of natural history and writing this novel to share his interests with his boys.

(If you can’t wait, download the whole book: http://librivox.org/the-swiss-family-robinson-by-johann-r-wyss/)

Forgot to post this video of the rain out our back door on Monday:

Wild! Yeah, I know this is not unusual for most of you, but it is exciting for me! We might get even more rain tomorrow. Cross your fingers. Except I hope our power doesn’t go out again. It went out for 2 1/2 hours on Monday night. That’s what a little rain does to San Diego ;-)

My little sinus/throat illness was very mild and is already clearing up. I’ve just got a bit of congestion today and my throat is slightly irritated. I’ve been using my neti pot several times a day which really seems to help. Last night I made a double batch of gingerbread cookie dough and today, after piano, Henry and maybe Chloe and I are going to bake cookies!

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

64 As It Shall Ever Be – 1:32

It started raining in the middle of the night and now, at 3pm, it’s still raining. This is amazing. It’s incredibly rare for San Diego to get a few hours of rain, let alone a whole day! I know there will be bad flooding all over (this city is not designed for rain) but we’re high and dry here. I had to drive up to north county this morning but traffic was ok and people were even (gasp) driving slowly and carefully, so it was rather pleasant.

Not feeling great today, really tired and my sinuses seem to be draining down my throat and making it feel funny. I suspect a proper sore throat is not far away. But I’m resting and updating podcast feeds and watching the lovely rain, and Henry made a grilled cheese sandwich and gave me half :)

On Friday look for the first chapter of my next podcast book, The Swiss Family Robinson!

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

63 A New World – 20:00

I just had the nicest afternoon. After I dropped Henry off with his dad for the weekend, I went to Chloe’s house and we set up her tree and then we worked on Christmas knitting and watched “Love Actually” which I’d never seen before. It was so cozy, knitting together on this cold dark day and watching a movie together. And there were about a thousand actors in that movie who looked vaguely familiar (I’m going to have to spend a while with imdb), not to mention the ten or so really famous ones. Oh, Mister Darcy and the Portuguese girl, that was the best bit, just delightful. Although Tim from The Office’s bit was adorable too. So much fun!

And now I’m home and it’s just Dan and me and we’re going to catch up on our TV shows and eat leftover shepherd’s pie and it will be a nice cozy evening :)

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

62 Colonial Expansion and War – 18:09

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

61 Art – 28:54

This afternoon I felt like recording something easy, so I chose a sweet little children’s story by Alice Hale Burnett, “Christmas Holidays at Merryvale”. It’s got 9 tiny chapters and is about 35 minutes long altogether. Henry graciously agreed to do the proof-listening so I could catalog it right away. Enjoy!

http://librivox.org/christmas-holidays-at-merryvale-by-alice-hale-burnett/

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

60 The Age of Science – 10:17

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

58 The Social Revolution – 10:00

59 Emancipation – 15:51

Today (Saturday) is our family Thanksgiving get-together, yay! I’ve been looking forward to this for so long. Yesterday I made a no-bake pumpkin cheesecake, two apple pies, and a big casserole dish of stuffing (we have a tiny oven so can’t bake anything but turkey today). Today I’ll make the turkey, mashed potatoes, grilled onions and asparagus, and cranberry sauce. Mom is bringing a Big Salad. I only have one actual pie-dish so the apple pies are made in cake pans:

After all that baking I was totally worn out, so I played a little WoW and then watched the entire BBC “Wives and Daughters” miniseries while knitting. It’s so good, just so good.

Oh, forgot to say — a couple of days ago I finished my slinky knitted summer nightie:

The pattern is invented and the yarn is the Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece from my old “I Do” shrug, split into 2-ply. It fits perfectly and will be wonderful next summer when it gets hot again. No, you can’t see a picture of me modeling it, it’s far too naughty ;-) The project is here on Ravelry if you want more details: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/kayray/lace-nightie.

I have three audio books to tell you about today.

First of all, today, Nov 24 2009, is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”. Hooray for Charles Darwin! So maybe you would enjoy listening LibriVox’s free, volunteer-read, unabridged recording:
http://librivox.org/the-origin-of-species-by-charles-darwin/ (it’s a little over 24 hours long) Enjoy!

Next, our LibriVox production of Hamlet, which we began in July of 2006 and just finished today! Dozens of volunteers worked on this one. I played Rosencrantz.
http://librivox.org/hamlet-by-william-shakespeare/

And finally, something I’m really proud of — Alice’s Abenteuer im Wunderland (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in German)! Elli and I took turns reading every other chapter. Yes, I recorded half a book in German! Yay me! I guess I won’t podcast this one, but you can download it here, for free, of course. :)
http://librivox.org/alices-abenteuer-im-wunderland-von-lewis-carroll/

Now Elli and I are trying to find something else to read together in German. Alice was relatively easy for me because I know the story in English very well, so another famous children’s book would be ideal. The tricky thing is that anything we read must have been published before 1923, including translations, so we’re pretty limited.

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

57 The Age of the Engine – 19:35

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

56 National Independence – 41:24

I felt a better yesterday and feel better yet today — my energy is back, my appetite is back, and I feel cheerful again. Hooray! I’ve made a start on the next book I’m recording for Ignatius Press: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven by Peter Kreeft. It’s very well-written, and even kind of humorous in spots, so I’m finding it more enjoyable than I thought I would. It’s quite interesting to have more insight into something that so many people have such faith in.

One of our wonderful LibriVox volunteers has begun creating a series of tutorial videos. Here’s his first, an intro to LibriVox:

Isn’t that great? Thanks, @dancapistan!

Oh, and here’s a photo of my handsome wonderful boy, just because:

We discovered last night that he is now taller than Chloe. I think he did a lot of growing while he was down with the flu.

Dan and I have been watching a British comedy series called Peep Show. We both adore it! We finished Series 4 last night and will be on to Series 5 tonight, because we can’t bear to let an evening pass without a dose of Peep Show. We’re looking forward to watching the whole thing all over again when we come to the end. I really can’t remember any show that’s as consistently funny. I frequently laugh until I can’t breathe, seriously. You can find series 1 on hulu, but don’t watch it if you can’t handle a lot of salty language and adult situations. :) Series 1 is good, and then it just gets better and better after that.

I felt amazingly good for several days; lots of energy, good appetite, cheerful, very productive. But today I woke up tired and have felt tired, gray, and unambitious all day. I did manage to get the chores done, feed people, edit some recordings, and help Henry with a project, but mostly I’ve just been doing nothing. Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel good again.

The Story of Mankind, by Hendrik van Loon, read by Kara and Michelle.

55 The Great Reaction – 16:30