Sunday, February 8, 2009

Fun Monday - Indiana Wants You

Pamela of Dust Will Wait is the hostess of this week's Fun Monday adventure. For our challenge, Pamela is asking us, "Show me in pictures or tell me in words what defines the place where you live." The wise and wonderful Pamela is leaving the interpretation of the task up to the participants. (Of course, the generous Fun Monday crowd is always accepting of others responses...after all this is about having fun on Monday.)

This comic strip drawn by our son, Luke, for the Purdue Exponent when he was a college student delineates a definite feature about where I live.


Living in Indiana, we have the opportunity to experience all four seasons and all sorts of weather.


Spring

Summer




Autumn


Winter

(Note: I was planning a blogging special event for Valentine's Day. However, perhaps this should be postponed for another day.)

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Fun Monday - My Reading List


This week's Fun Monday host is the lovely AOJ at The Lurchers. Angela is asking the participants this week some bookish questions. 1. What are we reading currently? 2. Are we enjoying our current read? 3. What one book would we take with us to a desrt island?

My current read may not be a surprise to some regular visitors to Return of the White Robin. I am currently reading Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama. As a huge fan of the current president of the United States of America, I am enjoying reading about this man and the forces that shaped his character. One of the many quotes that I treasure from Obama's book is the compliment that he pays his wife Michelle in the introduction. Complimenting his wife Obama thanks his wife "for her wit, grace, candor, and unerring ability to encourage my best impulses." ( I can only hope for an unerring ability to encourage the best impulses of those that I love.)
Actually, I am reading several books these past couple of days. On Saturday, our son, Luke, and daughter-in-law, Bree, became parents for the second time. The little boy, who is not so little at 9 pounds 5 ounces and 22 1/4 inches long, is our third grandchild and our first grandson. My husband and I are caring for his big sister, Kara, while mom and baby rest in the hospital. Our granddaughter, not quite 14 month-old Kara, is quite a fan of books. For many months, she has been sitting and looking at board books by herself or with an adult. She sits patiently turning the pages of a selected book using the skill of turning the pages from the left to the right. Recently, she has included books with paper pages. With supervision, she treats the paper pages with utmost respect turning the pages one by one carefully so not to bend or tear the pages.
Animal Babies in Ponds and Rivers is just one of the many books that we have been reading with our granddaughter, who is pictured here with her parents the night before the birth of her baby brother.

One day old Nathan.


For the book that I would most like to take with me on a desert island, I am tempted to say The Bible or my favorite book, God is Love, by Philip Gulley or perhaps, a favorite of my youth, An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott. However, since I know little of survival, this book seems more practical.
To see a list of participants or to sign-up to participate, visit AOJ at The Lurchers.