May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor!

Anyone else caught up in the Hunger Games craze?  We are.  

I'm a big reader. I frequent bookstores and our public library, and I've usually got several books going on at the same time.  Novels, history, mystery, how-to, you name it.  Jean, on the other hand, claims that he has not finished a book for pleasure since high school.  Recently I started the Hunger Games series (Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay) on the recommendation of my sister-in-law, Laine, and about halfway through the first book, I had a conversation with Jean that went something like this:

Me: Hey, I'm reading this Hunger Games book, and it's pretty good.  I think you'd like it.

Jean: I don't read.

Me: Yeah, but it's kind of a war-post-apocalypse-sci-fi kinda deal.  You like that stuff.

Jean: Yeah, but I don't read.

A few days later . . .

Me: I'm done, and I put the book on your bedside table just in case.

Jean: Uhhh, OK.

A few days later . . .

Me: Nothing on TV tonight.  Why don't we just go to bed and read?

Jean: Uhhh, OK.

A few days later . . .

Jean: HAVE YOU FINISHED MOCKINGJAY YET?!  I'M DYING TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS!!!

We went out with our good friends the Herders to see the Hunger Games  movie last night.  I won't spoil it for you, but simply suggest that you read the book.  If you've already seen the movie, and weren't crazy about it, read the book.  Especially if you want to see the movie, but aren't familiar with the story, read the book.  Really, this advice holds for pretty much any book-turned-movie (except maybe Angela's Ashes and To Kill a Mockingbird . . . those were fantastic movies).

Oh, and be sure to drink a few pomegranate margaritas, beer cocktails, and
take a lame-o movie theater pictures first, too :)

{The Art and Science of Keeping House - Part I}

"When you keep a house, you use your head, your heart, and your hands together to create a home - the place where you live the most important parts of your private life. Housekeeping is an art: it combines intuition and physical skill to create comfort, health, beauty, order, and safety. It is also a science, a body of knowledge that helps us seek those goals and values wisely, efficiently, humanely. Such knowledge is drawn from practical experience, family traditions, the natural and social sciences, and many other stores of understanding and information.

Some of this skill and knowledge is directed toward keeping the home clean, but cleaning is only part of keeping house, and in modern homes an ever-smaller part. Keeping house has always encompassed knowing and doing whatever is needed to make the home a small, living society with the capacities to meet the needs of people in their private life: everything from meals, shelter, clothing, warmth and other physical necessities to books and magazines, play, facilities for entertaining oneself and others, a place to work, and much more."

-Preface, 'Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House'

How does this look in practice?

How is this applied in the day-to-day workings of a housewife?

What the heck do we do all day?

Stay tuned for Part II!