Friday Night at the Movies

What we're watching this week.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls -- start your engines.  You're about to take an incredible ride with one of the most wonderful family films of all time!

Tuesday Tales

A weekly peek at what we're reading. 
Post your peek in the comments and share your favorite books!


Anne is reading
Happy Birthday, Everywhere! by Arlene Erlbach

Chinese people believe a baby is one year old when it's born.  A Chinese child's second birthday (which would be your first) is an important event.  Some families tell the baby's fortunes at this party.  Actually the baby tells his or her own fortune!  The parents seat the baby among a collection of objects, such as coins, a doll, or a book, and watch to see what object the baby grabs.  A baby that grabs a coin might become rich.  A baby that reaches for a book might become a teacher.  A baby that grabs a doll might have many children.



Holly is reading
Spilling Ink by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter

As a writer, you have to be your readers' eyes.  When they first pick up your story, your readers are totally blind and helpless.  They don't know if they are standing in a grimy Laundromat or the pink-walled office of the pink-faced principal or on the surface of a wind-swept planet with bubbling, mucouslike puddles underfoot.  If you don't bother to describe your fictional world to your readers, or you rush through your descriptions quickly and carelessly, it's likely that your readers will stumble around in this strange, shadowy place until they finally say, "Oh, forget it!  I can't see a thing in this story!  I'm going outside to have a look at that smooshed toad on the sidewalk."




Lily is reading
Gabby & Grandma Go Green by Monica Wellington

At the supermarket they recycle their bottles and shop for some groceries.  The clerk at the checkout counter asks, "Paper or plastic?"


"Not for us.  We brought our own bags!" says Gabby.

Friday Night at the Movies

What we're watching this week.

Jesus of Nazareth

Beginning before the Nativity and extending through the Crucifixion and Resurrection, Jesus of Nazareth brings to life all the majesty and sweeping drama of the life of Jesus (portrayed here by Robert Powell) as told in the Gospels.

Tuesday Tales

A weekly peek at what we're reading. 
Post your peek in the comments and share your favorite books!


Anne is still reading
Journey to the Well by Diana Wallis Taylor

There was a knock at the door announcing that Hannah and several neighbor women had arrived along with two of Marah's friends, Timnah and Atarah.  Behind them came other women of the neighborhood.  They all looked over Reba's preparations with a practiced eye.  Gathering the wedding garments, they exclaimed over them in animated whispers.  One woman counted the coins in the bridal headband.  Marah unbound her hair as they began to dress her.  Since her wedding feast was the only time she would appear in public with her hair down, her friend Atarah carefully combed the rich tresses that tumbled down.

"Such a bride, may this day be the greatest of all days, may she have many sons!"  The women mouthed the expected phrases.



Holly is still reading
The Wicked Enchantment by Margot Benary-Isbert

The weather had turned colder again.  A bitter wind was coming down from the mountains and it seemed almost as if there might be another snowstorm.  At any rate it did not look like the beginning of spring, and the town's oldest people, who had experienced all kinds of weather in their long lives, said that there had never been a March like this one.  And then they looked timidly around to see that there were no eavesdroppers, and whispered that lots of things were happening these days that they never had known to happen before.

From the beehive in Aunt Gundula's bedroom came a low, mournful humming, and the pigeons in the gable of the sexton's house didn't seem to want to fly out at all.  Most of the day they sat on their perches, feathers puffed out disconsolately, and emerged only when Anemone came out to feed the chickens on the roof garden.  Even they stayed inside their coop most of the time.  Only the cathedral pigeons continued to circle above the square, as though they no longer felt safe in their nooks and crannies among the gothic stonework.



Lily is reading
Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel

Owl began to cry.  A large tear rolled down and dropped into the kettle.

"Spoons that have fallen behind the stove and are never seen again," said Owl.

More tears dropped down into the kettle.

Friday Night at the Movies

What we're watching this week.

Image from WHOLESALEDISNEYDVD



Whisper of the Heart

A schoolgirl named Shizuku, who longs to discover her true talents, meets the mysterious Seiji, a boy who is determined to follow his dreams, and The Baron, a magical cat who helps her listen to the whispers in her heart.

The Reference Shelf: A Continual Feast

A Continual Feast:
A cookbook to celebrate the joys of family and faith throughout the Christian year
by Evelyn Birge Vitz
illustrated by Parker Leighton


Easter is a moment of rejoicing.  To some degree, in some places, this rejoicing bears a mark of deep solemnity.  This has been especially true of Eastern Europe.  But the theme of Easter joy is clear in many humorous old customs and superstitions.  It was long traditional that preachers should at some point in their sermons on that day make their listeners laugh: this was "Pascal laughter."  In the highlands of Scotland they used to say (maybe some still do) that on Easter morning the sun dances for joy.

With Easter rejoicing goes Easter feasting.  There are dozens of beautiful traditional dishes from all over the world for this great feast.

Tuesday Tales

A weekly peek at what we're reading. 
Post your peek in the comments and share your favorite books!


Anne is reading
Journey to the Well by Diana Wallis Taylor

Hannah paused, studying Marah's face for a moment.  "It is in the hands of God."

Marah looked up at Mount Ebal.  The hands of God.  Were they like her father Jared's hands, gentle and loving, yet firm when she misbehaved?  Her father had always said, "Doesn't the God of all the earth know His way?"  What was God's way for her?






Holly is reading
The Wicked Enchantment by Margot Benary-Isbert

"Is that so?" Gundula said with her nose in the air.  "Now suppose you take yourself off to bed, Miss Florus.  Little girls have a way of getting pert when their elders let them stay up too late."

Whereupon she opened the door to the adjoining room, which Anemone had never yet seen because she had only come on daytime visits.

There stood a huge bed with pillows piled high, and enclosed with billowing hangings which Aunt Gundula had covered with needlework.  These curtains were more beautiful than the loveliest picture book.  All along the lower hem there were fish, shellfish and all kinds of strange-looking deep-sea creatures swimming about among gardens of coral and green seaweed.  The mid-section was devoted to the solid world of stones and the lively world of plants and animals.  Here gems flashed sparkling colors, flowers of every description budded and blossomed, animals of many kinds leaped or crouched, while above their heads flew glinting birds, butterflies and beetles.  Way up at the top was the sun, flanked by planets and the signs of the zodiac.  It was all so entertaining that Anemone completely forgot how tired she was.  But the strangest part of it all was that high up, at the very mid-point of the canopy, was perched Gundula's beehive, humming incessantly on a deep note.

"The humming puts you to sleep faster than anything," Gundula said.  "And now let's find you a nightgown."



Lily is reading
If Jesus Came to My House by Joan Gale Thomas

And then we'd play with all my toys,
my nicest toys of course,
and He should have the longest ride
upon my rocking horse.

Friday Night at the Movies

What we're watching this week.

Image from MOVIEPOSTERSFORSALE

The Princess and the Frog

New Orleans. Arrogant, carefree Prince Naveen and hardworking waitress Tiana cross paths. Prince Naveen is transformed into a frog by a conniving voodoo magician. Tiana follows suit when she decides to kiss the amphibian royalty. With the help of a trumpet-playing alligator, a Cajun firefly, and an old blind lady who lives in a boat in a tree, Naveen and Tiana must race to break the spell and fulfill their dreams.

Tuesday Tales

A weekly peek at what we're reading. 
Post your peek in the comments and share your favorite books!


Anne is still reading
Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin


Mother Ravenel was intently studying her.  "I'll tell you what, Maud.  I'm going to offer a suggestion.  I want you to go to the chapel now and pray about this talk we have had.  Don't try to figure anything out; now is not the time for figuring.  Just make an offering of it to God and leave it there with Him.  Then go on with your usual activities and trust Him to start working on it.  Then go back to the chapel before you go to bed and stay there until the nuns' Compline at nine.  You may be excused from evening study hall."

"And -- what do I do in chapel the second time?"

"Just kneel in an atitude of prayer, and listen.  See what comes.  Prayer is not always talk, talk, talk.  I want you to get used to being alone with God.  This is an ideal time, the middle of Holy Week.  The whole communion of Christ is in mourning, but we're preparing for his Resurrection.  I will be praying over this, too.  Let's call it your intention.  And we'll keep it between ourselves, shall we, Maud?"

"Yes, Mother."

"I will just say one further thing.  If we both conclude that God wants you to stay at Mount St. Gabriel's, a way will be found."




Holly is reading
Glenda Glinka, Witch-At-Large by Janice May Udry

Glenda thought.  "I haven't made purple ones for a long time.  How about two batches, one purple and one green?"

"That ought to do it," said Kazbo.  "Are you going to put in those little crunchy beetles this time?"

"Of course," said Glenda.  "I want these to be the best P.T.A. cookies there!"







Lily is reading
Crepes by Suzette by Monica Wellington

From the gardens close by come the laughter and chatter of children just dismissed from school.  They all want crepes filled with chocolate.  C'est bon!

Friday Night at the Movies

What we're watching this week.

Image from IMPAWARDS

The Shaggy Dog

Wilby Daniels was just an ordinary teenager until a magical ring accidentally transforms him into a sheepdog ... whose owner is the leader of a plot to destroy the Space Program!