Hot

 It has been hot today. Too hot to do much of anything but sprawl and be grateful for air conditioning. Last night, despite reservations, I went to my Zumba class. I Zumba-ed, but afterwards I thought I might just die. But I didn't. Tonight after dinner I tried walking (because I wanted to listen to my excellent new audiobook, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris and also because I wanted a break from my adorable but contentious children) but after two rounds (or .8 miles) I gave up. There wasn't even a waft of breeze. Yuck.

The kids played in the pool for a while today. It isn't bad in the shade. But it's better inside.

Our next Netflix movie came today. Teddy Roosevelt: An American Lion.  The second disk. The first part was very good (Ed found it restful.) Travis was less than enthusiastic. Here he is looking on the computer to see if Stephen Fry has any more documentaries (Stephen Fry in America was a very mixed bag)we could watch on Instant Streaming instead of my Teddy Roosevelt. He didn't find any more Stephen Fry, but he did find that the new Sherlock Holmes are available on Streaming*. So I guess that's what we'll watch. While drinking icy drinks.

I did make a little progress with my book selections today. Silas Marner will be my replacement for Jane Eyre for our expanded version of Windows to the World (a literature program which includes quite a few short stories and poems, but which uses three novels. To Kill a Mockingbird, Hamlet, and Jane Eyre were the suggested titles, and Jane Eyre was the only one I thought the boys would find sloggish.

And I'm still working on the list of eleven books to accompany our writing program, Lost Tools of Writing II. I need books for the boys to write persuasive, etc. essays about (after, I'm sure, stimulating and scintillating discussion!). So the books need themes and conflicts that eighth and ninth grade boys (with hormone addled brains) can figure out. The level of subtlety in Animal Farm and Fahrenheit 451 is probably just about right. Still, better to be walloped with a little heavy handed allegory or theme and have the kids enthusiastic than choose stuff that goes over their heads and frustrates them and me!

*Turned out he was wrong about it being on Instant Watch. So we watched Teddy! So interesting!