Monday, December 26, 2011

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and happy New Year's to all of you!

It has been a great Christmas season so far for us, with temperate weather and the ability to see many of our family and friends. Hopefully we'll see even more of you before the New Year has begun.

We continue to enjoy our home in the Swede Hollow neighborhood of St. Paul. Idris (now 8) and Arken (3!) keep us very busy with activities.

Idris finished first grade and began 2nd this year at Nova Classical Academy in Highland Park. He reads about a book per day when he has the liberty to do so, and has done a good job dedicating himself to homework and schoolwork, even when he'd rather have more freedom with his time. Aside from reading, he's enjoying flash games on the computer and video games on the Wii and NDS; playing with Legos; hanging out with a few good friends, and he also likes being involved in whatever adults are doing. This year, he's trying out chess club and fencing as well.

Arken has continued to grow in size and vernacular. He talks quite a bit, usually with actual words, and enjoys clarifying the little details of life for those around him. He has also grown to enjoy games and anything else his brother shows interest in. Arken has become so active in jumping around and climbing on things that he broke his leg in his sleep this summer after climbing up to a top bunk bed and falling out! He recovered in a few weeks, though, and continues to climb on or jump from everything in the house. Arken has begun pre-school this year and has proven to be very social.

Jenny and I have managed to keep doing what we have been doing for a while now and added a few new pursuits. Jenny has delved into jewelry making and pursued other crafts, and I spent much of my free time publishing a book. The amount of work that ends up going into the process of publication has been staggering, but we've been able to work on much of it together, and found a good amount of time to spend as a family as well.

I hope to see you all sometime this coming year and that your lives are blessed.

Happy New Year!




Saturday, December 17, 2011

Authorship and Publicity







Much of this year's spare time was spent in final re-writing, editing, publication, and publicity for "The Masque and the Dagger", a fantasy novel written under the pseudonym Benjamin Truant. It was taxing, tolling, and tiresome, but it was great to see the book in actual print in September. The pictures included here are of the novel's cover, two "publicity" photos for a book signing, and a "map" created for website publicity. Publicity, in all its forms, is an alien concept, so while working on a website has been enjoyable, the various rewards and value of this kind of work is elusive to me. The writing itself is significantly superior...

Random Pics... and Herb Brooks





Home Improvements





We've been busy from getting a new roof to gardening to fine touches on our house this year. For all the work gardening- notably, composting (an excellent makeshift bin, in my opinion) and hedge managing (shrubberies, not hedge-FUNDS managing)- we spend a majority of time in the great indoors...

To the Library...






Pics in and of the central library on Rice Park...

Costumes of all Kinds






We've dressed in a few costumes recently for Halloween, 2nd grade school presentations and Star Wars book signing!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!













Today we continue the ancient Christmas day tradition of posting a Christmas card on our blogsite.

We say "Merry Christmas" from Shell Rock Iowa at the Kaus Haus, where we celebrate our third (and final) Christmas along with Jenny's family. We celebrated with my family on the 23rd and at home last week. Each has been a very very white Christmas.

This year has been busy for us with Idris now adding more events to our agenda. He finished kindergarten in June and is now mid-way through his first grade year at Nova Classical Academy. Jenny and I have been thrilled with the classical education model and have found a few ways to get more involved this year with the school; Jenny accompanies Idris to "Lego League" each Thursday evening, and also hosted a Vietnamese egg roll- making event at our house. Idris enjoys most of school, but prefers reading to almost anything. He also spends hours each week with video games.

Arken plays with Idris and his elder cousins more and more. His rambunctious attitude is sometimes ingratiating and occasionally alienating to his playmates. Arken especially enjoys jumping (up and down or place to place) and naming/playing with letters. As a 2-year-old, Arken alternates between very active jocularity- jumping from the couch and running around with a dart gun- to cuddling with his blanket and sucking his thumb like Linus does on Charlie Brown specials.

We continue to make our home on Saint Paul's east side. Our Swede Hollow neighbors have been especially helpful this season with snowblowers and trucks that pull broken-down cars out of snowbanks during blizzards. Incidentally, we have a new (used) car, also... Jenny has continued selling books at Barnes & Noble, heading women's Bible studies at church, and working on numerous creative projects throughout the year which decorate the house, invigorate our children's birthday parties or are just fun. I continue to redecorate Best Buy stores and travel a little. I look forward to our annual New Year's party next week and meeting the new year within the good company of my friends.

Merry Christmas to all of you!