A Quote for Monday: The Children's Homer by Padraic Colum

"Straightaway the mariners took to the oars, then hoisted their sails, and the ship sped on like a strong sea bird. Odysseus slept. And lightly the ship sped on, bearing the man who had suffered so much sorrow of heart in passing through wars of men and through troublous seas--the ship sped on, and he slept, and he was forgetful of all he had passed through."


--Padraic Colum, The Children's Homer.


My 8-year-old son and I have been reading aloud from this book recently.   I think I got the version of the book we are reading when our family was in England last year, but I see it is available on Kindle inexpensively. 


Wow, what an amazing version of the story of Odysseus!  We have read lots of Greek and Roman myths through Usborne books and various picture books, and I had downloaded an App with the text of the Odyssey, but couldn't really get myself into the rhythm of reading the poetry.  This is an excellent introduction of these fantastic classic stories that everyone should know.  Colum's skill with the English language (in I'm sure echoing & translating the original poetry) is just beautiful, as the above quote shows.


After we finish this, we will move on to more Padraic Colum:  The Golden Fleece: Heroes Before Achilles and The Children of Odin.

Favorite Things Friday: Surf Shelf

I feel a wee bit embarrassed to be admitting this, but I truly "heart" my SurfShelf.

Surf Shelf is a little plastic shelf that attaches via sturdy velcro strips to the front of the treadmill.  It essentially turns any treadmill into a treadmill desk, a concept developed in recent years to help workers who spend most of their time writing or on the phone to be active at the same time.

I first learned about treadmill desks a number of years back when I saw on the news (CNN maybe) a story about a Mayo Clinic doctor who used them and recommended them for weight loss and just general fitness.  I thought it sounded like such a cool idea.  Here's a NY Times article describing the trend and the physician, Dr. Joe Levine.  But professional treadmill desks are hugely expensive, and take up a ton of space.  At that time we didn't even have a treadmill, and several of our children were babies, making it way less than practical.  I just thought it sounded like a cool concept.  My dear husband, though I love him dearly, thought it was a goofy concept (and I'm pretty sure he still does), especially in a work setting.

But about a year ago, we finally got a treadmill, and it's actually gotten quite a bit of use at our house from everyone, not just me running on icy days.  A few months later I discovered the Surf Shelf.  I was a little skeptical, but I thought that $40 was worth a shot.  I ordered my Surfshelf  from Amazon since I have a Prime membership (another one of my favorite things), so it shipped free.

The Surf Shelf takes up just a little space in front of the treadmill.  It was a little tricky to figure out the way to attach it to our treadmill (a NordicTrack from Sears), and I don't have it attached exactly the way they describe, but it works fine for me.  When someone wants to walk or run on the treadmill, we can easily slip the shelf out of its plastic holder to provide more room on the treadmill.

Yes, I'm actually walking at a super slow speed on my treadmill as I write this.   I tend to keep it at a 1.5 or 2 mph speed, though many people recommend keeping it at a 1.  I just find I can do 1.5 the same as 1, so why not log more miles while I am working.  I don't usually get sweaty at all, and I just wear whatever I'm wearing and my older pair of running shoes.

I go in cycles of using the SurfShelf and and not using it.  I tend not to use it on days when I run, or just when I'm checking email.   In the summer I barely used it as all as we were pretty busy, but now that the kids are back in school I plan to begin to use it again.   I don't use it for all my writing, and I also usually check my columns for the Catholic Post after printing them out and reading them through.  That must seem terribly 20th century, but it truly is the best way to edit.  Sometimes about those red marks.

For me, running and exercise are essential to keeping healthy both physically and emotionally, as well as sharp mentally.   One of the people quoted in the NY Times article said she found working on a treadmill desk actually improved her concentration "taking care of the ADD thing" and I found that to be true as well. When I want to focus, the walking actually helps me a little bit, so I probably have some ADD.  I also find that when I need to quite a bit of writing, staying on the treadmill keeps me rooted, instead of getting up to do laundry or putz around the house.  Now, if the SurfShelf could only do something about the lure of checking Facebook...

Do you think turning your desk into a treadmill sounds goofy or cool?

To Do with a Book: Homer Price and Centerburg Tales by Homer Price

If you need a good laugh and have not yet discovered the chapter books by Robert McCloskey, please do yourself a favor and acquire Homer Price and its sequel, Centerburg Tales.


McCloskey is better known for his wonderful picture books such as Make Way for Ducklings and Blueberries for Sal, but Homer Price is one that will have you chuckling along and wishing you could go back and grow up in small-town mid-20th century Ohio, as McCloskey did and recounted in such rich and delightfully warped detail.    Homer Price and sequel Centerburg Tales are a series of great story/vignettes, many with a ridiculous twist.

I especially enjoy the Greek names many characters have--Homer, Uncle Ulysses, Uncle Telemachus, and the like--as well as how some of the stories are Greek myth retellings, such as the story "Mystery Yarn," a backwards but cute version of the story of Hippomones besting Atalanta in a race with the golden apples.

What reminded me of these wonderful books was a recent garden "issue" at our house that brought to mind the Centerburg Tales; the story "Experiment 13."  In the story, Dulcy Dooner inherits from his scientist uncle a batch of seeds labeled "experiment 13."  Thinking they might be valuable, Dulcy plants and nurtures all summer several of the precious seeds.  When they turn out to be a giant version of ragweed, the fun of the story begins--how  10-year-old Homer helps to solve the issue is one I won't give it away.

At our house, earlier this summer the gardening duo at our house, my husband and 10-year-old daughter, discovered several small bush-like plants growing. They brought a small cutting to the local nursery, and a worker told them it was "probably mums."  He directed them to cut the "mums" back later in the summer, and they should bloom in the fall.

Well, the "mums" just kept getting bigger and bigger, even after the gardeners cut them back.  When they started to get the beginning of a seed head (nothing like a mum), we started to get suspicious.  We actually talked about Centerburg Tales at the dinner table, wondering if we had in fact giant ragweed on our hands.  After a quick check of Google, we discovered, in fact, we did.  And here's the photo to prove it.   We cut them all down and disposed of them right away, sparing the neighborhood and our family many sniffles, we hope.

Let me clarify here that, what I recommend "to do" with a book like Homer Price and Centerburg Tales is not growing giant ragweed, either on purpose or by accident.

Much better, and more delicious, is making some form of doughnuts, as an homage to the Homer Price story "The Doughnuts," in which the doughnut machine Uncle Ulysses buys for efficiency at his lunchroom won't stop making doughnuts.

When our Girls Book Group read Homer Price several years back, a mom with a fryer supervised making a giant batch of funnel cakes for the girls to enjoy.  Here are just a few of them:

We also had old-fashioned sodas, as you can see in the foreground of this photo, and the funnel cakes were a big hit, as you can see from the girls sampling them:

Have you read Homer Price? What is your favorite of the stories?

A Quote for Monday: Jeremiah 29:11-14

Yes, I know what plans I have in mind for you, the Lord declares, plans for peace, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.  When you call to me and come and pray to me, I shall listen to you.  When you search for me, you will find me; when you search wholeheartedly for me, I shall let you find me.

 

I took this from the New Jerusalem bible translation, but I also like the translation from the New American Bible:

For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope.  When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you.  When you look for me, you will find me.  Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, you will find me with you, says the Lord.

I could spend more time looking up different translations but I'd rather work on memorizing this quote.

 

Favorite Things Friday: Wholly Guacamole 100-Calorie Packs

I love avocados, but for much time I didn't buy them because of price or availability.    I would usually save my time for getting avocados when we would go out to eat, and I could get it on a salad or burger.

But some time back, I decided that I really, really like avocados on my lunch sandwich, and this fruit is really nutritious.  So I started buying individual avocados occasionally. Sometimes it worked beautifully because the ripeness of the avocado was perfect when I cut it, and I could save some of the avocado for the next day's sandwich. (I don't really mind how it goes brown, but I also could have drizzled some lemon juice on it if I did). But sometimes it didn't work out, as the avocado would be too ripe or not ripe enough.

Several times I saw a bag of them at Sam's Club, and they were usually high quality and a good ripeness. I would use one and maybe make guacamole with several others, saving the rest in the fridge for future sandwiches, but I could never get to all of them and there would be waste. My husband would eat some guacamole if I made Mexican food, but the kids didn't and the waste (or me having to eat guacamole day after day) became annoying, too.

So I once again abandoned buying avocados. And then, one day, I was (woefully) passing the beautiful bag of avocados at Sam's Club, I happened to see in just the next aisle over, Wholly Guacamole 100-calorie packs. Wow! I thought. Here's a way to have individual servings for me that don't go to waste. They are freezable, so even if I buy the Sam's Club version, I can save any that are nearing the sell-by date and take them out individually. Joy!

I see at the Wholly Guacamole website that they also have individual packs of salsa, though I haven't seen those available in our local grocery stores.  I don't see individual packs of their queso dip, but that could be fun.

My only request to the Wholly Guacamole people is to make a 100-calorie pack of just avocados, without the guacamole spices.  Sometimes I just want that clean creamy avocado flavor without the guacamole/salsa spice.

Do you like avocados?  What's your favorite way to use them?

Back to Blogging Here

After a very long hiatus, I've decided to start blogging again here at "Let Mercy Lead."  I often have great ideas for sharing things that wouldn't really fit into the blog I write for the Catholic Post, the Catholic Post Book Group.  It always seems like my official writing should take precedence, and so ideas I might have had usually go by the wayside.  In addition, Facebook (and Twitter) has really become the place people gather on the Internet to share ideas and thoughts, but I occasionally find myself writing a status update that is too long for Facebook (and certainly Twitter), and want a way to share.

However, I've had terrible trouble writing and blogging in the last few months.  I'm not going to spend a lot of time writing about that, since it should be obvious that writing is hard work, but for me it's always been enjoyable and satisfying along with being hard work.  That's hasn't been the case recently, even when I write well.  After thinking and talking and praying about how to jump-start things and make writing a little more joyful, I decided that more writing, not less, is in order, but about a different range of things.  I hope it will make me more prolific and better in my "official" writing, as well as just happier all around.  I also hope to find out about more great things from others in the categories I plan to write about. And yet I still need a structure.

So the plan is to blog three-ish times a week.  On Fridays, I want to share "Favorite Things"--random things like food, clothing, places, etc.  On Wednesdays, I plan to share "What You Can Do with a Book," which is really sharing ideas we have used in our family and with the many, many book groups that I've run over the years.  I will enjoy sharing those ideas, and perhaps others will find the ideas fun to use. On Mondays, I plan to share a quote.  Since I was about 10 years old, I've collected quotes, but never been careful about keeping them.  I hope the blog will be a place to keep the quotes.

Later today will be the first "Favorite Things Friday" and over time I will work on re-design of the blog here.

I invite your feedback!