One brilliant, hot day in the Levant, two Phoenicians were working hard smashing murex shells.
"I Tyre of this," said the first.
"You'd be done by now if you weren't working at such a snail's pace," sniped the second, whose pile of shells was much higher.
"Don't you want to go home?" whined the first.
"I'd rather dye," replied the second.

Ever since I discovered fanfiction, back in my high school days when I would read in secret in the basement, the glow of the monitor sharp against the midnight dark, my favorite genre has been the crossover. Crossover fiction, which combines two or more fictional universes, is notoriously tricky. To the normal requirements of an excellent story -- ( Read more... )

Elsa, of Frozen fame, is, in our household, the Locker of Doors ( Read more... )

Topic for Thursday's class: The Minoans and Mycenaeans ( Read more... )

"I will praise God's name in song

and glorify Him with thanksgiving." -- Psalm 69:30

( In which I do some last minute analysis for the school encouragement letter )

In which, at the tail end of breakfast, Charlotte (4) brings up an unfortunate subject, I give possibly the worst description of a gun in the history of parenthood, and Elise (2) panics ( Read more... )

*staring at my two children, aged 2 and 4, standing buck naked in the kitchen. It's chilly. There's five inches of snow piled up outside and the wind is howling around the house ( Read more... )

(inspired by Elise stripping strings off her banana and offering them to me like a Magi offering myrhh.)

I offered you my love, and you offered me a napkin.

Upside of Charlotte being in school: new friends, lots to learn academically and socially, daily excitement and joy ("Why is school only five days a week, Mama?")

Downside of Charlotte being in school: it's very difficult to find a pediatrician who takes appointments after 4:00. *sigh* She's two months overdue already for her four-year-old wellness ( Read more... )

Teaching remotely from March to May, then working all summer, I'd forgotten, bit by bit, how much I love teaching. That is, I knew I loved it, but the love was faded by time and nibbled at by the ineffective, frustrating, and uninspiring nature of "distance learning ( Read more... )