Saturday, September 02, 2006

The headache continues . . .

I had a migraine last night which was incredibly frustrating. The good news is that some of the meds I'm allowed to take made me tired enough that I fell asleep until the migraine pretty much wore off. I still have a headache this morning, though. I emailed my doctor and she encouraged me to keep going. She told me to stick with all the healthy living stuff - eat your veggies, drink water, etc. C and I took a nice long walk on a trail by the river this morning (nice that we found it since we're living in town now).

Unfortunately, C is really very sad these days. I'm hoping that most of it is because he's had a little fever the last three days and now has a runny nose. When he gets with friends he plays and has a blast and has tons of energy. At home, he complains about being tired and not wanting to do anything. He actually has a friend right next door, so I'm not sure what's up. I hope he just needs a little more time for us to all get adjusted to life here.

C has been working hard on his reading and I'm seeing progress. He has a much better sense of how letters blend together and how words always get sounded out from left to right. He knows a few more sight words. He and I are both encouraged on that front.

One of P's friends gave us a bunch of venison. I cooked a roast the other day, but P and I were the only ones who really liked it. L loves beef cooked that way, but she thought the venison (which was falling apart) was too "tough" for her. C didn't even try it. P and L and I all like venison steaks. All 4 of us like ground venison for meatloaf. But, I don't think we have much ground venison. So, C and L are just going to have to make do when I make a roast, because I'm not going to waste perfectly good, free meat!

Book reviews:
The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. I couldn't finish it. I could blame my meds, but I have been reading tons of other stuff. I really tried to plough through it, but just couldn't do it. I felt like I was watching an old Bergman movie in slow motion. Somehow, I was supposed to understand the plot from all these stilted conversations, but I never got it. I finally gave up. I'm sure I will hear from some of you that if I had just plugged away a little more, I would have reached that nugget of gold that is Hemingway, but I just couldn't do it.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I can't believe that I never read this book in high school or college. Somewhere along the way, I developed this idea that it was a dark and foreboding book. It certainly has it's dark moments, but it is truly a wonderful book. I found it quite a page-turner. Bronte's writing does require something of an educated reader, I found. For example, I always wondered why we use the word "malignant" as and adjective, but never "benignant" but always "benign". Well, it has not always been this way; at least not in Bronte's world. She makes numerous Scriptural references that I was glad to be able to understand. I did read a one page description of the springtime beauty of England that required me to go to a dictionary several times. But, back to the story. C. Bronte has taken what could have been a plain and simple love story and added plot twists that not only hold the reader spellbound, but show the growth of the characters - emotionally and spiritually. I highly recommend it; but make sure you have a good week or two.

Well, now that I have finished Jane Eyre, I got the DVD from the library, so I am off to see how well the BBC interprets it for the screen.

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