Once Upon a Time III Wrap Up Post

This challenge ended on the 20th June, 2009. I was partially successful with it, completing the books component, but not getting A Midsummer Night's Dream watched. I've been unwell since the 20th April or thereabouts and that impacted on my participation in the challenge. All the same, I'm glad I joined in and I'll be signing up again next year.

My Once Upon a Time III reading list (sadly no reviews as I haven’t been feeling up to writing them lately):

1. The Ordinary Princess - M. M. Kaye
2. Alphabet of Thorn - Patricia A. McKillip
3. The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan
4. The Night Bird - Catherine Asaro
5. Silver on the Tree - Susan Cooper

   Book component completed: 22nd April 2009

6. Giants of the Frost - Kim Wilkins
7. The Initiate - Louise Cooper

I didn’t manage to write any reviews, but I enjoyed the books.

I just loved my reread of The Ordinary Princess, which is actually a junior book, but it is such a lovely tale and it was a delight to visit with Amy and Perry again.

Alphabet of Thorn was another excellent McKillip book that I happily recommend.

I was disappointed with The Forest of Hands and Teeth and Giants of the Frost, neither turning out to be quite the book I was expecting. I was frustrated by the main character in Forest and the action in Giants was split into two locations each with a very different tone and voice – one I liked and the other frankly bored me silly.

Of the other books, two (Silver on the Tree and The Initiate) were very enjoyable rereads and I pretty much always enjoy the adventure in an Asaro title, as I did with The Night Bird.

June 2009 Reading

1. The Warlord’s Daughter – Susan Grant
   Borderlands, Book 2; SF Romance; eBook; 7/10
2. The Empress of Mars – Kage Baker
   SF; Library Book; DNF
3. Shards of Honor – Lois McMaster Bujold
   Vorkosigan Saga, Book 1; SF; eBook; 10/10
4. Inner Harbor – Nora Roberts
   Chesapeake Bay, Book 3; Audiobook; Reread; 7/10

Best book of the month = Shards of Honor

June Reading:
Books read this month = 3
DNFs this month = 1
10/10 reads this month = 1
New reads this month =  1
Rereads this month = 2
% paper books : % eBooks = 0 : 100

May Challenges Progress:
100+ Reading Challenge =  3
Support Your Local Library Challenge = 0 (Stage 1 Completed 3-04-09)
Romance Reading Challenge = 2 (Challenge Completed 25-02-09)
YA Reading Challenge = 0
eBook Reading Challenge = 2 (Challenge Completed 24-02-09)
Patricia A. McKillip Reading Challenge = 0 
Once Upon a Time III Challenge = 0 (Books Completed 22-4-09)

May Non-Challenges Progress:
SF/Fantasy books read = 2
Audiobooks listened to = 1

Sixty Four Blocks

With everything being so mucky at the moment, I’ve been flitting from project to project as I try to find something I can settle into. Knowing it was like this, Dave helped me set up my sewing table in the dining room/conservatory so I could sew up a quilt block or two when I felt like it.

This has worked pretty well in all and today I finished the last of the 64 blocks I need to make the main part of my Triple Irish Chain quilt. I’m really pleased with how it looks (even if I did have to pick it all up again because the cleaners were coming later) and hopefully I’ll slowly keep working on sewing the blocks together.

Depression Update

Since people have been so lovely as to leave me encouraging comments as I’ve dealt with this change in depression meds, I thought I’d post the latest update.

Basically, I went back to the doctor today and we both agreed the new meds haven’t yet done the trick. After talking around the options, we decided to increase the dosage of the current med and hope that that works.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed as I’m totally over this whole experiment already and starting to wish I’d never started the whole mess.

But I say that with my cross stitch sitting beside me as I continue to make slow but steady progress with part 1 of Illuminated Medieval Sampler. I’d pretty much stopped stitching on the old medication, as well as slowing hugely with my reading and stopping patchwork and writing completely. I’m still struggling with the reading, but I’m not at a complete halt, so that’s something.

Hopefully this latest change will be what is needed and things will go up from here.

2009 Cumulative Totals - May

2009 Reading:
Books read for 2009 = 50
DNFs for 2009 = 4
10/10 for 2009 = 3
New reads for 2009 = 41
Rereads for 2009 = 3
% paper books : % eBooks = 54 : 46

2009 Challenges Progress:
100+ Reading Challenge = 48
Support Your Local Library Challenge = 14 (Stage 1 Completed 3-04-09)
Romance Reading Challenge = 10 (Challenge Completed 25-02-09)
YA Reading Challenge = 7
eBook Reading Challenge = 22 (Challenge Completed 24-02-09)
Patricia A. McKillip Reading Challenge = 2
Once Upon a Time III Challenge = 7 (Books Component Completed 22-04-09) 

2009 Non-Challenges Progress:
SF/Fantasy books read = 30
Audiobooks listened to = 4

May 2009 Reading

Better late than never, here are my May reading statistics. Much to my frustration, I’m still struggling to read (and June has been even worse than May) and my totals are significantly down on other months. Oh well, there’s nothing I can do about it but hope that it passes.

1. Monday Mourning – Kathy Reichs 
   Temperance Brennan, Book 7; Mystery; 7/10
2. The Initiate – Louise Cooper
   The Time Master Trilogy, Book 1; Fantasy; eBook; Reread; 8/10
3. Georgette Heyer’s Regency World – Jennifer Kloester
   Audiobook; 7/10
4. Undercover – Lauren Dane
   Romance; eBook; DNF
5. The Penderwicks – Jeanne Birdsall
   Childrens; Library Book; 8/10
6. Cross Bones – Kathy Reichs
   Temperance Brennan, Book 8; Mystery; DNF
7. It Happened One Autumn – Lisa Kelypas
   Wallflowers, Book 2; Romance; eBook; 7/10
8. Madam, Will You Talk? – Mary Stewart
   Romantic Suspense; 9/10

Best book of the month = Madam, Will You Talk?

May Reading:
Books read this month = 6
DNFs this month = 2
10/10 reads this month = 0
New reads this month = 5
Rereads this month = 1
% paper books : % eBooks = 60 : 40 

May Challenges Progress:
100+ Reading Challenge =  6
Support Your Local Library Challenge = 1 (Stage 1 Completed 3-04-09)
Romance Reading Challenge = 1 (Challenge Completed 25-02-09)
YA Reading Challenge = 0
eBook Reading Challenge = 2 (Challenge Completed 24-02-09)
Patricia A. McKillip Reading Challenge = 0
Once Upon a Time III Challenge = 1 (Books Completed 22-4-09) 

May Non-Challenges Progress:
SF/Fantasy books read = 1
Audiobooks listened to = 1

How rude do you think we are?

Marcus’ imaginary friend, Super Bear (aka one crooked index finger), came to the supermarket with us today. She was being very annoying, flying around the vegetables and generally being anti-social.

Dave said something rather sharply to Marcus about controlling Super Bear and that “she was being very distracting.”

The woman at the vegetable stand next to us looked over, worried, and said something.

Horrified, I realised that she thought we were talking about her. I was quick to explain, “We’re not talking about you; it’s our son’s imaginary friend.” (Just how rude did she think we are? Even if she had been distracting – and she wasn’t – we never would have said anything.)

I’m not sure if she believed me or not, but I sure hope so. Especially since we kept meeting her all the war around the supermarket aisles.

Emotional level vs. Academic level

For some reason, I decided it was time I set my mind to writing a blog post. But this isn’t the one I was going to write. Instead, it’s what came to me after following my way around some links.

I’ve just read a fascinating article called “All in the Timing” that suggests that children reading ahead of their age level isn’t always a good thing. Not that it’s bad children are advanced readers, but that by pushing their reading level, they miss out on enjoying books that they are deemed to have “gone past” or read books before they are emotionally ready for them. It’s a very interesting article that I recommend reading, and one with which I mostly agree.

It got me thinking about Marcus. Sure, he’s only five now and still learning to read, but the days are coming when Dave and I, as his parents, are going to need to start helping him read appropriate books, read with him and monitor his reading to some degree.

I can’t help but be proud that he’s in the highest reading group in his class, even if his reading material is still Honey for Baby Bear or Naughty Max Monkey. As a reader (who currently isn’t managing to read, which is the blog post I was originally planning to write) I want Marcus to know the joy of books.

But by that I don’t mean reading at as high a level as possible to show off how smart he is. I mean that absolute joy of getting caught up in a story and having it speak to your heart. I can do that with adult books, YA books and even children’s book and I’m not ashamed of reading any of them. Why should it be different for a child? (Although obviously in concept rather than with regard to the same books.)

And while I wouldn’t consider Marcus to be an immature five year old, he’s certainly still a little kid and I think it’s very important to cater to his emotional level as well as his reading level. Finding books that do both those things may well turn out to be a challenge. I guess it’s time to start making a catalogue of useful links and resources.

Half way along

I’ve been stitching steadily on Illuminated Medieval Samper – I guess one of the few upsides to stabilising on new antidepressants is a need to keep myself busy (or I’d climb in bed by about 7.30pm and hide there for the rest of the night) so I’ve been stitching. I find myself a little intimidated by just how MUCH border there is to this design, but I must say that what I’ve done so far is looking very nice. The photos aren’t great, but here’s my progress for this week.

For all that there’s still an awful lot of empty fabric, I’m starting to feel like I’m making my mark on the project and so long as I don’t focus on the enormity of the border, I’m enjoying myself.

Of course, Chatelaines tend to breed and now that I’ve started this one, I’ve gone and ordered the materials pack for Pompeji Garden. It won’t be started before this is finished, so we’re talking a few years ahead, but I have some money to spend on it now and it’s always nice to have the next project stashed away in a cupboard waiting for its time to come.

More IMS

Here’s my first scroll corner. It looks very impressive, doesn’t it…

 

… at least until you see it in context.

Fixing the Graffiti

This really tickled my fancy this morning: http://editorialass.blogspot.com/2009/05/editing-your-daily-life.html

Latest on IMS

Here’s my latest on Illuminated Medieval Sampler. The square-ish border has been filled in and I’m onto the swirly filigree border next.

I also put it on the scanner to do a close up of all the Rhodes stitches and the sparkly backstitching. The actual colour, IRL, is probably somewhere between the two pictures, but the bottom picture is definitely a little washed. Given scanners, cameras and the differences between everyone’s monitors it is so hard to get an accurate image.

I’m still enjoying myself stitching this, so I shall carry on with it while I am. It’s also been good as I deal with the whole depression medication thing as when I’m feeling less than relaxed, I can usually still manage to sit down and stitch a few stitches in a relatively calm manner.

Regarding the depression, it came roaring back Saturday and I immediately decided against toughing it out any longer. I’m now on a new medication and waiting for it to get up to full strength. Hopefully it won’t be too long. Right now, I’m feeling okay, but I also know that everything is a bit “off”. I figure when I forget to ask myself if I’m feeling better, that’s when I will be.

IMS – second line of border done

I’ve completed the inner line of the border for Illuminated Medieval Sampler.

While watching Doctor Who with a friend this evening (Planet of the Dead – yes, I’m running behind as always) I got started with the rhodes stitches and gold metallic back stitching that fill in the space between these two lines of the border. It looks really pretty, so when I get that done I’ll make sure to include a close up photo as well as the one of the whole thing.

I know it isn’t very exciting to look at so far, but to me it feels fantastic. My enthusiasm for my stitching was just fading away and so to be enjoying myself doing this even (or perhaps especially) when it is just border, it' feels fabulous.

So far on Madam, Will You Talk?

So I’m up to page 94 out of 368. I’ve made my predictions on who are the good guys, the bad guys and the spectators. I know, because I know I can trust Mary Stewart, that the protagonist will survive and most likely end up with a good man (and I’m confident I know who it will be).

There shouldn’t be anything to worry about, should there?

But boy, the suspense is getting to me!