Packing My Library

The battle for book space in my luggage has been raging as I pack for my trip with Kurt. I woke up this morning to the happy thought that I could use the outer pockets of my suitcase for books if I need to. Otherwise I'm restricted to the pockets in the purse I bought and whatever little nooks and crannies are left in my technology backpack. I can hear packing experts beginning the lecture now, and I agree less is often more. The thing is we'll be in one hotel for the entire stay, so I'll only be lugging stuff onto a plane and then off a plane.

Anyway, down to the inventory. I read a little saying from this book every night before I go to bed. She was so compassionate and good.


I've gotten behind on the Liturgy of the Hours, but I'm ready to get back to it. One of my goals is to attend mass everyday I'm gone, and this might be just the thing for waiting for the liturgy to start.
I want to use this time to pay attention to German authors, so I'm finishing up Hegel's Philosophy of History. Enthusiastic optimism is nice in a philosophical work.

I'll be reading Goethe's Faust. I read it at some point in my college career, but I find that I'm missing a lot of the details. It's also a play, and I love reading plays.
Finally, a selection of material from Hildegard of Bingen. I read her biography for the Medieval Women class I taught. She still amazes me. I'm looking forward to hearing her speak in her own voice.
The obligatory guides I'm taking along are a general guide to Germany--Fodor's See It. It's very informative. Boris Becker lives in Munich. Worth the money right there. I like all the pictures. It moves it from a cram fest to a pleasurable, magazine-like browsing experience.

I also got a smaller book dedicated to Munich. I'll be sticking to Munich most of the time Kurt will be working and he will be working most of the time. I've been enjoying it and it's newsprint interior removes all concern about underlining and scribbling in the book. I went with Frommers in hopes of getting a different perspective. It's a good size for dragging around.
I decided I needed a phrase book. Kurt's picked up some German, but I'll be on my own a good bit. This book comes with an audio disk. Kurt's promised to teach me how to load all that on his old I-pod. The I-pod will also allow me to pack the Teaching Company classes I didn't think I could take. You've got to love technology.
Now we get down to the iffier stuff. Harriet research, poetry, and fun reading--not that all of the above aren't fun. I'm reading The Souls of Black Folk. I think the more enlightened characters in this chunk would be familiar with W.E.B. Dubois and he is a strong model for the character of William.
I have several anthologies of poetry, but only the "pleasant" poetry is in a portable form. I tend to buy the complete anthology even though that isn't recommended because I like to read the garbage too. For a place holder until I find time to do better, I'm putting in the way too heavy Norton Anthology of Poetry.
Finally, as a distraction while in flight, I'll be trying my hand at new rhyme schemes. It's a tiny little book, but it might be the straw that breaks the camel's back. You never know.

Chores Galore

For years our family has struggled to find a good method for training the kids in the basics. Countless ideas have been tried and have either quickly or slowly fallen apart. My sister is a crazed fan of Melissa and Doug, so when there is a display of their toys I always check to see if there is something she'd like. Barnes and Noble has started carrying them, so I looked it over and found a magnetic chore chart. Being me, I set it aside and thought about it for three or four weeks. Burned by other systems, I bought one and let Kurt look it over. He liked it, so I let the sample sit for another three or four weeks while I thought about it some more. In the end, Amazon had the best price and I bought one for everybody.
The kids love it. We love it, and best of all things are going better. The feature I was least enthusiastic about--the white board--has become one of it's best assets allowing us to penalize negative behavior and the kids an opportunity to express themselves. Since we bought six boards there are enough disks for each child to have their favorite color, which allows us to use the currently unused disks to reward random acts of goodness and full completion of all required tasks.
Discipline is now much more uniform. It's negative one for disobedience; negative two for physical violence; and negative three for protracted disobedience aka laziness. Everybody knows the deal. Kurt's natural flair for statistics has turned what was a bogged down emotional conflict into a simple set of numbers earning rewards and punishments in a very even-handed way.
Things I like about the board. The magnets dress things up and are more permanent that stickers or check-off write and wipe boards. The white board as I've described above, and it is easy to keep clean and organized. The list of chores includes things my older children do as well as simple jobs for the little ones. There are blank tags for adding your own chores. The price is good value for money. It's available at Amazon, Here.