Many blogs in one...(VERY long!)

Whenever I get the inkling to blog anymore, I just write it in word and then wait awhile to see if it's something I really want to share or not. I think this strategy might serve my big mouth a little better...we'll see! LOL Of course, NO ONE but my closest friends and family see this anyway so I shan't (like that word--picked it reading children's classics and I love it! I wish people still talked that way! lol) worry about it anyway. Still...

I'll start with a nature post:

For some reason, where we live, even though I do not consider it "rural" or "wild" and no one else would either, but we've always seen the most amazing things in our neighborhood--even in our own backyard sometimes. We've seen white-tail deer, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, beavers and several species of birds--thanks to my birdfeeders, including hummingbirds. They are so cute the way they hover!

Well, I guess the birds have spread the word that my backyard is a sanctuary or something because this year we have had even more excitement! A few years ago, Camp fire made bluebird houses. Kayti put hers up at Clearview with the rest of her group but Brooke brought hers home and we put it in the backyard. We knew it would be a few years, at least, before some bluebirds decided to "rent" the place. Well, this is the year. Jeff saw them first but this past weekend, I got a glimpse of the female.

A robin has also decided to make her home in our yard building a nest in the cove of one or our drainpipes. There were three small blue eggs in the nest but not anymore--this weekend, they hatched! Jeff climbed the latter carefully and snapped a picture--careful not to get anywhere near it. We didn't want the mama to abandon her precious babies. But they are so cute--so pitiful, so helpless. With all the rain yesterday, we could even peek out the kitchen window and watch her passing the time away in her nest with her babies.

In my classroom at work, I had about 30+ chrysalises that hatched into beautiful painted lady butterflies! The preschoolers have really enjoyed observing them, learning about their life cycle and feeding them "nectar" (we squirt sugar water into carnations inside their pavilion). They don't live very long though, unfortunately so if they are still alive when I get to work this Wednesday--we'll have a big "setting free" ceremony, complete with a special butterfly theme snack! I just love preschool!

In my front yard, my azaleas bloomed and are gorgeous. They won't stay long either but I'm still amazed that they come back every year. Who would have ever thought that *I*, Michelle with the black thumb Quick could grow azaleas!

Living things are amazing to watch, learn about and care for! It amazes me how detailed God is--how he cares for even the smallest things and everything is so planned and ordered!

Please share with me what nature you have near you!

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Good and wholesome movies (for the most part, anyway!)

Since we've been doing with cable/dish, I've been on the prowl lately for quality shows. Movies with good content, a good moral context and with good acting. They are regrettably few and far between.

I'm not a prude and I don't min a curse word now and then. As a recovering potty mouth, to me it's actually more realistic. But to have every other word in the script be vulgar? No, that's just evidence of a lack of intelligence.

Here are some viewing treasures I've recently discovered:

The Last Sin Eater---AWESOME!!

I was a little leery of it at first. The cover of it looked like some kind of ghost/horror/sci-fi thing. but then I saw it advertised in the Lifeway salespaper and knew I needed to take a second look. I'm glad I did. It's about a group of people living in Appalachia in the early 1800's (where some of my roots begin, I'm proud to say) who are still holding onto their Celtic traditions, most importantly the sin eater. They believe that when a person dies, the sin eater must come and eat their sins so they may rest in peace. The sin eater is a person chosen by the clan elders and destined to live a life alone and outcast, even though much needed by his peers. peter Wingfield, one of my favorite actors who played Methos in Highlander the Series, stars as the sin eater. When a missionary, played by Henry Thomas (ET, Legends of the Fall), comes to tell them that there has already been a "sin eater"--Jesus Christ, they feel their traditions being threatened.

The Freedom Writers

Also excellent, though there is some cursing and violence. But it's based on a true story of a Los Angeles inner city high school English teacher, played by Hillary Swank, at the height of the Rodney King racial tensions. As a teacher myself, I identified with the character and having also had the experience of working with inner city youth, I am in awe of this real life hero's effort to save a group of kids everyone else has written off.

Luther

Joseph Fiennes stars as Martin Luther, the brilliant man of God whose defiant actions changed the world, in this film that traces Luther's quest for the people's liberation. I'm not a big fan of Fiennes. But this movie is great. it makes me very much appreciative of the freedom we have today to practice our faith and serves as a reminder that all cultures and all faiths, because we human beings, are capable of corruption and when that corruption is met with the truth, it's never a pretty picture. No one likes being shown their sins. Even though sometimes, it is necessary. It also served as a teachable moment for my ten year old daughter to learn that very concept.

Flyboys

Inspired by the true story of the legendary Lafayette Escradrille, this movie tells the tale of America's first fighter pilots. These courageous young men distinguish themselves in a manner that none before them had dared becoming true heroes who experience triumph, tragedy, love and loss amid the chaos of the first World War. What a challenge it must have been to attempt to use a plane as a weapon when it had only been in existence for a few years! I can't tell you more than that without spoiling it for you!

In Love and War

Another war film (anyone sensing a them here? I LOVE historically based stories!), this time based on WWII and the fall of Italy's fascist government and the love between and Italian woman and an English officer on the run. I'm not normally a fan of love stories either. But this one is pretty good.

A few others that I highly recommend are The Wager, starring Randy Travis, Believe in Me, true story about girls basketball in the 60's, Into the Wild, also a true story, and Chasing Freedom (which I will share more about in another blog).

So what movies have you enjoyed lately?