Author Archives: Jennie

The Louisa Challenge: January Prompts

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I got started on the Louisa May Alcott kick after reading Kelly O’Connor McNees’s The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott. I blogged about it here, and suddenly had a group of people signing up to read Alcott’s body of work with me in 2012. That in itself was fabulous, but just as Louisa’s fame grew, so is momentum growing for The Louisa Challenge. I’m honored to have inspired these wonderful readers and writers to join me on a pilgrimage back to the American Renaissance and one of its most revered authors.

The rules are easy; read the book of the month and comment or link up your post. I’ll post prompts the previous week, but you’re not locked into anything. As Louisa herself said, “We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.” I look forward to reading about your response to Louisa and her books.

The Louisa Challenge for January: thoughts after reading an Alcott biography

1. After reading an Alcott biography, how did you feel about the real Bronson Alcott?  How do you think his family and especially Louisa were affected by him? Are there fathers like him today?

2. Louisa May Alcott seems like a character who could be time-traveled to 2012 and still be successful. Why did Louisa need to protect her independence during her lifetime and how would she react to today’s complex and frenetic pace of life?

3. Did you know about Louisa’s relationships with the great American writers living in Concord along with the Alcotts? How did being a part of the informal writers’ colony that included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Fuller (as well as her father) affect Louisa?

4. Is there anything about Louisa’s life that really surprised you? What was it and why?

5. Which Alcott biographies have you read and which would you recommend to readers? Why or why not?

Watch for Mister Linky on Sunday, January 8. It’s going to be fun, friends!

Fever Pitch

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Image via kellyandbradmaxwell.blogspot.com

I’ve been sick. Really sick. Somebody brought some nasty bug with them this year and we all caught it. Cold in the chest accompanied by coughing that makes me think my diaphragm muscles are going to break apart.  I even stayed home from school on the first day back. My Facebook teacher friends got tired of me waffling last night and finally kicked me in the patootie (in writing, of course) and told me to call in sick. So I did.

Unlike some of my social media friends, I did not unplug over the holidays. Over the last four days, my iPhone and computer were lifelines to the outside world — to the New Year’s Eve party I couldn’t attend and to various movie and television sites that kept me from complete despair while sick. I could rationalize that I had a chance to watch all these stupid girlie movies that DH would never watch with me, all for the slim monthly cost of Netflix. BTW, did you know that Netflix has a “strong female lead” category? Are you surprised that those are the movies to which I gravitate? No surprise there, I can hear my family saying.

Anyway, I’m glad my machines were here to keep me company and keep me sane. It’s been a week that I don’t want to repeat anytime soon.

Writer’s Workshop: 2011 in Review

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I have enjoyed being a part of the Mama Kat community in 2011, and for her final link-up this year, I’m writing about number 1. No, not that number 1. THIS Number 1.

1.) This year in blog posts…choose a favorite post from each month of 2011 and share.

January

My favorite post from January is one that I didn’t write; my sister-in-law wrote about wearing a tiara all day in public on her December 26 birthday. She’s a very good writer and I encourage you to take a look at her post once again. Thank you, Suzanne!

February

I love to read, and when I find a book that transports me or energizes me, I am quick to encourage others to read it too. Jan Karon’s romantic picture of a lengthy stay at a country inn encouraged me to book what turned out to be a dream vacation at Sissinghurst Castle Farmhouse.

March

In March, I wrote a post about the opera Carmen that I never published. I don’t know why; maybe I thought it was too personal and no one really cared about opera. Or maybe I saw Carmen in 3D so late that very few people would get a chance to see it. Whatever. I decided to post it anyway because I thought the whole process was  interesting and the Blue Ray disc is now available on Amazon. If you are an opera buff or would like to try to be, I recommend that you keep your eyes peeled for Madama Butterfly in 3D at the local theater near you that streams the Met broadcasts live. Madama Butterfly 3D will be released in movie theaters in 2012.

April

Apparently April was a busy Linky month for me, since three of my top posts were linked up to Vanderbilt Wife or Mama’s Losin’ It.

Why I Still Watch American Idol was a fun exercise in seeing who would comment. After watching the whole season, I think the Randy/Steven/Jennifer panel was very successful and I plan to watch it again in 2012. But I’m confused. I was watching all the X-Factor commercials (but not the actual show) and and couldn’t help notice the hugging at the end of the shows. Did Simon get nice on the new show?

If My Mom Were a Blogger and A Spring Journey were part of Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop and got a lot of traffic. Maybe you’d like to look at them again…

May

In celebration of the upcoming Father’s Day, I blogged about my up-and-down relationship with my dad. He wasn’t always easy to live with, but I miss him every day. This post was also linked up at Mama Kat and I thank you for reading it!

June

Finally, the teachers let the monkeys out and the administrators let the beleaguered teachers out. I was ready for some “teachers’ summer vacation” and some real vacation when I wrote The Tyranny of the Jean.

July

When we got back from vacation, I wrote about some backlogged experiences, including reading almost the entire Armistead Maupin body of work. I truly felt as though I had been living under a rock when many — and I mean a lot! — of my friends were astounded that I had never read his books.

August

In the midst of all the hubbub of the last days of school and beginning an exciting vacation in England, my mother passed away in June. We held her memorial service in August when all of the family could gather together and I blogged about her here.

September

I read at least two fabulous books in September and blogged about them here. Each has its own reason for reading it; are you intrigued?

October

In October I signed on to a 31 Days Challenge with The Nesting Place and wrote almost every day. I decided to do a travelogue of trips I have taken, but rarely got past our 2011 summer trip to Southeast England. My post about Vita Sackville-West’s ancestral home, Knole, got the most hits, but I would also like to share with you the glorious post written by my friend Michele about her trip to Ireland. Thank you, Michele. We were also blessed by a post from another dear friend, who took the time to write about her trip to Italy. Thank you, Kathy.

November

In November, I hit the jackpot again with friends from Mama Kat’s coming by to visit. My eight line post with photos was popular, as was my story about going to Burger Chef for our family night out. Given the bundle that I just spent for a fantastic family dinner in downtown Chicago, it makes me wonder which occasion meant more — or is it fair to make such comparisons?

December

I got all inspired by a catalog I received, and as I looked at the pages, I started writing blog posts in my head. Sick, right? It was actually fun and instead of being a bunch of posts about my boring life, it turned into 31 Days of essays about “things” and how they impact us. My huge hitter was the first day on December 1, but over the month of December I have continued to have many hits per day on most of the posts. Most popular, however, were the posts about the Radio City Rockettes and about the White House Christmas decorations. People seemed really interested in the fact that the Rockettes wear microphones in their tap shoes — I still get search engine hits on that every day!

My most frequently read post continues to be my book review of Frances Mayes’s Under the Tuscan Sun, which I wrote in June 2010, but got the most hits again in 2011. People also often read my 2011 Book List, which I am currently updating for 2011, but will link up anyway.

I want to give a big THANK YOU to Mama Kat. Without her Writer’s Workshop platform, a lot of my readers would never have found me. That being said, I really wish more of you would sign up for notifications or “like” me on Facebook. Just sayin’ — it’s all about the love in blogland. I look forward to seeing you again in a new year — who woulda thunk it would ever get to be 2012?

Opera in 3D and Suspending Disbelief

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My daughter and I got ourselves all excited over seeing the opera Carmen in 3D. We carved out a day when we could get together, convinced her Daddy to go with us (even though he doesn’t much care for opera), and then Daddy and I drove into the city in Sunday afternoon traffic. It was going to be totally awesome.

Image via fullissue.com

First premiered in Paris in 1875, George Bizet’s story gives meaning to the adage, the things we do for love. Free-spirited gypsy Carmen seduces the naive soldier Don Jose, causing him to give up his hometown honey and his promising military career to follow Carmen into the band of smugglers she hangs with. When she moves on to a grander conquest in bullfighter Escamillo, Don Jose murders Carmen. The opera is tragic, yet the masterful writing of Bizet has many comic bits that keep the audience from being buried in melancholy. There’s a reason why it’s considered a masterpiece.

Building on the Metropolitan Opera’s roaring success and sell-out crowds seeing live simulcasts of its operas, this Carmen is the first in a series of operas to be filmed in 3-D, and it was a glorious production. Every song in Carmen is singable and Christine Rice in the title role was seductive and sassy. The problem was I just didn’t like her. I grew up with the film version of Carmen starring Julia Migenes-Johnson and Placido Domingo and I loved it. Although Rice’s version is probably more accurate to reality, Migenes’s Carmen is much softer and it’s more believable that Don Jose would give it all up for her.

Unfortunately, somehow Carmen isn’t aging well with me. It’s not unexpected that my 25 year-old daughter would think Don Jose’s devotion to Carmen was ridiculous. Even on my most obsessive days, I can’t imagine murdering anyone out of jealousy. There’s just not any man or woman worth the consequences. Saving the life of my family members in the face of danger? That I could murder for — maybe. But not for jealousy.

The good news is that Carmen in 3D is spectacular — I flinched when the crowd threw roses at the toreadors. The tavern scene is choreographed ingeniously, complete with acrobats! And if you don’t like what Carmen and Don Jose are saying to each other, you can ignore the English subtitles and just listen to the glorious music in its original French language. Although they aren’t the most fashionable choice, the 3D glasses are wearable and since everyone is in the same boat, it doesn’t make any difference if you look silly.

My internet sources tell me that the term suspending disbelief was originally coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817 as a means to justify his use of the supernatural in the Lyrical Ballads. Since then, literary scholars and academics have taught us that the temporary acceptance as believable of events or characters that would ordinarily be seen as incredible is an important literary tool.  Suspension of disbelief allows an audience to appreciate works of literature or drama that are exploring unusual ideas.

In the case of Carmen in 3D, I encourage you to suspend disbelief and decide for yourself if Carmen has passed the test of time. Even though I’m not a fan of the jealousy plotline, the production itself is worth the price of admission. And speaking of that, if you were to see this cast at the Royal Opera House in London, you would have to pay as much as  £158. In American dollars, that’s $261.00. If you love opera, you’ll love Carmen in 3D.

What Does It Mean to Be a Family?

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My friend Ellie became a single parent in her forties and blogged about it yesterday. After a crazy week of being with family — in its many iterations — I thought you might enjoy an insightful look at what makes a family.

In Consideration of Single Motherhood

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25 Days of Christmas 2011: Christmas Gifts

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A lovely Christmas morning service with darling husband’s brass ensemble playing in a beautiful setting — what a gift to start our day!

Wonderful food and drink prepared by willing hands. Many dishes, wine glasses, and pots and pans washed and put away, some of them for another year. Priceless memories to savor and conversations to replay and remember — the gift of community.

And then there were more tangible remembrances of Christmas. A hand-knit scarf from Mexico, home-made cookies and a spectacular Yule log cake, beautiful  jewelry and fun electronics, and special California-themed foods. I can’t wait to get the Roku box up and running, and my new Kindle holds so much promise. Thousands of movies and books, all obtained at the touch of my fingers. I am overwhelmed by the generosity and thoughtfulness of friends and family.

Today I have the gift of time. Every now and then we wander to the kitchen to do another round of dishes and make another pot of coffee in our new French press, but after three days of non-stop togetherness, it feels good to have a little breathing room. Soon we’ll morph into our Magnificent Mile selves and head downtown to enjoy another day with our children and revel in the beauty that is our home town during the holidays.

Image via forbes.com

Gifts are everywhere.

Christmas Day 2011: Cords of Love

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The other day I got a new insurance card. Someone — it appears it was actually in my school’s administrative office, not Blue Cross — decided that since I clearly was using a nickname on all of my work documents, I should be using my “real” name for my insurance. This person changed my name to Jennifer on my medical insurance documents.

This is wrong on so many levels; how dare someone do this when absolutely nothing in my file says Jennifer? I was named Jennie at birth and have remained Jennie throughout my entire life, except on occasions such as this when someone decided to be helpful.

With this in mind, I’d like to introduce you to the original Jennie, the great-grandmother after whom I was named. I am almost six months old in this photo with Grandma Jennie.

This photo reminds me of what the holiday means. It’s not about the petty annoyances of life such as a bureaucrat renaming me. It’s about the ongoing cords that bind us together. When I look into the face of my great-grandmother, I see glimpses of the beloved mother I lost this year. I can see Christmas ornaments on this simple Christmas tree that were passed down to me and are now on my tree.  Even though my son never met the original Jennie, her hall tree holds pride of place in his home. I just had a rocker repaired that belonged to Grandma Jennie’s parents. I hope to rock my own grandchildren and great-grandchildren in that rocker some day, and I will tell them why my name is “just” Jennie.

Merry Christmas from my house to yours. May your family’s cords of love keep you together and safe in the coming year.

2 Days of Christmas 2011: Christmas Eve Memories

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I don’t know when my father made me a manger.  At some point in my early adult life when I no longer lived at home, Dad made me one just like the manger he made for our little family. We always reverently placed the holy family into the rustic papier-mâché model of the stable where legend and tradition tells us that Jesus was born.

That manger scene has traveled with me through many moves — from Ohio to California to North Dakota and to Chicago, where it has been the focal point of my Christmas decorating for years of Christmas Eves. We always put the baby in the manger when we set up the scene; my brothers and I waited with bated breath to see who would unroll the tissue paper bundle containing the baby Jesus in his manger. Our current church has a tradition of having Mary and Joseph traveling on the road during Advent, and the family of three does not appear in the manger scene until Christmas Eve. I, on the other hand, like seeing the baby in the manger and it reminds me of my family Christmas Eve celebrations.

Last year when I put away the manger scene, I noted that it needed some repair. The papier-mâché was chipping away and the roof had become unstable. I set up the scene, but laid the roof aside and put some brown craft paint on my to-do list.

After I picked up my supplies, I dabbed some paint on the most obvious of the problems, and tried to glue the roof back together. Dad’s original work was pretty imprecise, and there isn’t any way to really fix up the cracks in the roof with taking the whole thing apart and recutting it. And why do I need to? Dad’s gift of love is perfect in its imperfections, just as the story of Christmas and the virgin birth is.

I know that the idea of Jesus being born in a barn-like structure is Western Christianity’s interpretation of the story from the Gospels. If Jesus was born outside of an inn at all, it was likely in a cave. I’m still okay with my dad’s stable to remind me of the importance of family and love without boundaries.

Even though I know that it is unlikely that there were actually shepherds present at the birth of Jesus, there are still shepherds in my manger scene. I’d like to think that gentle shepherds guide us through life.

Even though I know that the kings didn’t really come to visit Jesus until he was a toddler, there are still maji present in my manger scene.

Whether Jesus was born in a cave, an inn, or in a barn isn’t important. What’s important is the gift of this story that fills us with wonder and helps Christians to jumpstart our faith journey again every year.

And because it’s not Christmas until Art or Libby(or both of them together) sings “O Holy Night,” I leave you with Susan Boyle’s rendition. Sadly, neither Mom or Dad will be singing their favorite wailing Christmas hymn ever again on this earth, and I’m going to have to sing it myself today in honor of them.

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=FE9J2MNU

4 Days of Christmas 2011: The Holiday Bathroom

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When you’re expecting guests over the holidays, it’s easy to spruce up your guest bath to make it more festive. Given that you’ve seen my mostly traditional decorating style, you will probably guess that this is not my bathroom. It’s from HGTV, who I just discovered today has many of their recent years’ holiday specials on demand.

Image via HGTV

Even if you don’t want to go quite this crazy, you can easily put together a simple holiday bathroom decor without a lot of work or money.

Step 1: Buy some red towels.

Step 2: Buy a holiday shower curtain. Mine has embroidered ornaments on it. Or just change your rings to red plastic; they even have Christmas shower curtain rings.

Step 3: Get out that secret collection of pitty-pat towels that your mom or grandma gave you. Now’s the time to use them. Or buy some at Kohl’s; they’re cheap.

Step 4: Unearth the ceramic Christmas tree that you’re embarrassed to tell anyone you either made or kept from your family’s heirlooms. Your family’s version might be the Mickey Mouse Christmas statue or the Christmas flamingo. To each his own; I’m certainly in no position to judge anyone else.

Step 5: Buy a holiday-themed rug. I didn’t take a photo of mine, but it’s a homey small-town scene.

Step 6: Dump your liquid hand soap into the Christmas dispenser that someone gave you and you couldn’t quite bear to give away.

Step 7: If you have a light bar above your sink, put a fake evergreen spray on it.

Step 8: Buy a plug-in scent warmer; I have a fancy Scentsy one because my niece hosted a party and I had to buy something. It makes the room smell nice.

Step 9: Buy a box of holiday-themed Kleenex.

Voila! You have a pretty bathroom ready for guests. Once you actually do the nine steps, then at the end of the season you put all this stuff away in a single plastic bin and label it. It should be the first thing you get out after Thanksgiving so that you can enjoy your decorating throughout the season.

Last year, we were excited about the births of a couple of new babies, and this year, we have enjoyed the first birthdays of those lovely little children.  Grand-nephew David will be beside himself as he learns to celebrate Christmas at his Poppy and Nana’s house. Little Claire is going to have a brother in 2012, and I wish both of these families the best as we once again honor the Christ child whose story never grows old.

5 Days of Christmas 2011: Holiday Candelabra

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Yesterday, you visited my wine bottle candelabra, and I should have rightly called it a candelabrum. The term candelabra correctly applies to a pair or group of matching candelabrum. Today I’d like to celebrate the many beautiful candelabra that are available for purchase to upgrade your holiday experience.

Since it’s Hanukkah, I thought I’d start with one of the most interesting menorahs I have ever seen. This one is covered in Swarovski crystals.

If you celebrate Christmukkah, as some of my friends do, you can buy this nifty crossover ornament at Target.

If you’re more into traditional candelabra, here’s a nice one from Victorian Trading Company. For my more modern readers, you can buy beautiful glass candelabra at CB2.

Don’t forget that drippy candles will ruin your table and your table linens, so investing in a set of bobeches is a good thing. Here’s a handy little lifesaver from Victorian Trading Company.

And what was I doing last year five days before Christmas? Going to the doctor, the same thing I’m doing today. Last year I encouraged my readers to get a colonoscopy, and this year I’m seeing the allergist to find out why my throat’s been bothering me for ten years. I guess it’s about time…

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