Karli’s Comments (group member since Feb 23, 2010)

Karli’s comments from the Busy as a Bee Books group.

How's it going in your camp? Gabe's coughing - and it's that yucky, croupy sounding cough. At 8 one would think we could be past some of this stuff...had Kasia in yesterday for her tummy problems...probably would have kept Gabe home today because of his terrible cough, but it's the Pinewood Derby, and he CAN'T miss that...and so it goes.

ooo!!! Please post the Katy List here!

Yes, it is true. You may be a book nerd. However, you are in EXCELLENT company!

Tonight I am thinking as I am reading...

I'm reading and I also read a post from a Kindle user in Denmark who was stating that she paid $18 USD for a book, and that this is fairly typical for her as it's hard to get a good selection of books in her country.

and so I am thinking...

I'm thinking about how lucky we are.

My husband talks (sort of jokes) about the "birth lottery" that made him male and born in the USA. But really...how lucky are we?

We live in a country with millions of books at or fingertips. Many are free via our library system. The ones we pay for we choose to purchase, and the author receives remuneration allowing him/her to continue with their craft and offer us more books.

We live in a society free to discuss our views, hold our opinions and be who we are.

I am lucky enough to live in a home I built with my husband, in which I can raise my children and send them to the school only 6 blocks from our house. And in that house I have hundreds of books. These books have countless ideas. This is all just HERE. And most days I don't think about how lucky I am to make the choice of WHICH book I'm going to pick up today.

But today, I'm thinking about that. And I am feeling blessed.

I don't think Pierre has ever had a secure place. He was a bastard, then becomes the count and is legitamized...so I think his "place" was never well defined and he relied on whoever was with him to lead him to his next decision - right or wrong. I agree, it'll be interesting to see if he grows into a mature man capable of making his own destiny, or if he continues in the same manner, allowing the big things in his life to happen more due to the action of others than any of his own.

I finished Part 1 of Volume 1 today - and basically I agree with all that's been said above. I like Pierre, and was CERTAIN he'd be disinherited and was fairly surprised when it didn't get pulled off. Andrew and Lise are a pitiful couple. I wonder - how old are they? What did anyone really gain by these marriages? Proof that money doesn't make one happy...

Molly - thanks so much for the post. I really appreciate it - and I appreciate the books recommended too! It's so hard to know which ones to pick up, I hate the preachy stuff, and then there is so much that's just crap (Jenny McCarthy gives parenting advice...really?!?!)

Ack, Middle school! :( Boohiss. Not ready at all!

Gabe and I just spent 45 minutes on his homework tonight. There's too much. BUT, his wouldn't have been so bad but he didn't work on spelling last night because he was running a low-grade temp and I sent him to bed early. So! Meant more for tonight.

My mother is also trying to empty her house of anything that used to be mine or my sister's. BUT, she kept the Cabbage Patch doll clothes that she made me and gave them to my daughter, plus she'd also saved the hand-made wooden doll beds and wooden high-chairs that she had given my sister and I as children. My daughter's American Girls sleep in the same beds my My Child used to! (I'm not sure what happend to my My Child...she used to be one of my favorites.)

OK - I was just reading, and I REALLY love this book. :)

I'm actually at chapter 18 of Volume 1 at this point.

Yes, Petra, I was too lazy to go figure out where I was at. I think I'm around chapter 13. I know I'm not through a volume yet.

I did laugh at the bear, and I totally saw it as a big college frat thing - here's the bear, here's the drinking game, oops, there are the cops!

I've read quite a bit of Edith Wharton and this reminds me a lot of her society books (like The Age of Innocence. I'm not to war yet. So far I'm still in the drawing rooms.

(smirk) Little bit!

OK, I'm 5% in, and since Petra wants me to discuss.... :) (Thanks, girl. Made me feel good!)

I think that so far what strikes me most is how very little basic human behavior has changed over the past 200 years. Moms are MOMS. Some husbands are asses. Teenage girls think they know everything and can be major pills. Drunk guys act stupid...

It's a little comforting that this is just fundamental, and not a recent evolution.

It was a good day. Unfortunately though the TV ended up on, so my husband and the other guy ended up sucked into football, and the trivia box didn't get opened. And then Mike pouted that he didn't get to play trivia. (smirk!) So, turn off ESPN and join the rest of us in the kitchen! Oh well, guess he knows for next time!

I just shoveled out our walk - Mike has to work today, and I don't use the snowblower. That thing scares me. But, shovelling 3 - 4 inches of snow is a workout! I'm going to shower and call my day good. :)

Home together for Martin Luther King Jr Day. Kasia (age 5) said,

"Martin Luther King had friends with peach skin and he wanted to play with them, so he changed the world."

May we live up to his dream and the expecttations of our children and live in peace, changing the world!

yeah, I'd say lucky as opposed to strange. It sounds kind of familiar, but I haven't had the experience either recently or vividly enough to say, Yeah! Me too!

But, if you're having Edward dreams, I'm a bit jealous. *though I do think Taylor Lautner's Jacob is yummy. I'm pretty sure he became legally yummy at some point in the last year, right?

Ugh- that combination is scary. :( Kasia got that way when she was really dehydrated. Take care of your little guy, and take care of you too!

Garrett was a great character. It'll be fun to see how a story driven by him works.

My husband is the musician. He was in a band while we were dating, and has been in 3 or 4 bands total in our 13 years (so far!) together. His latest outlet is our church band, which is GOOD because the las band he was in could have driven us to divorce. :P He too has a day job, so I started to royally resent the whole band becoming the 2nd job leaving me with the house and kids and my own job thing.

I learned to be the ad hoc "sound guy" for Mike's bands, as I'd be who would tell them which mics/amps needed to go up or down. It was fun to do together.

Good luck with the piano! What a great "resolution" for the new year.

Phooey! :( So sorry Tara! Kasia had a tummy ache this morning, so I was concerned too, but she seems to be doing better now. Keeping my fingers crossed for you that nothing spreads!

I know Loretta, I felt the same way - and wondered how it could possibly be a series. I'm very interested to read his next installment. Maybe he'll have found a thesaurus by then?