Annie made a scavenger hunt for the girls to find their final Christmas gift. We made it into a great race and included an appearance from own version of the villain Glanni Glæpur. It was filmed by Annie on our new Flip Ultra HD (Merry Christmas).sorry for the poor video quality...still working on formats Read More

Here is the continuation of my memories from the past year of reading: 5. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - The word I would use to describe this book is "moving". The story is heart-wrenching, tragic, and redemptive. I was sad to leave the characters when I had finished it. It is the best of Dickens that I have read. 6. Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton - For someone who spent an educational degree exploring the subject of Christian Apologetics I thought I had at least sampled all the Read More

Thoughts from my husband: Over the past year you have read a few stories about our chronicles of language acquisition. We have mistaken food for a foot, bought a children´s book that was really about a mole trying to find out who s#!t on his head, and told stories in language class about the abundance of sperm that Johnny Appleseed spread through the countryside of middle-America. It has not been a pretty process, but a rewarding one nonetheless. I have never learned to speak another language Read More

Books are a lot like people to me, only a bit easier to get along with. I can never figure out what exactly I like about them, but each one offers something a bit different from the other and I find it a delight to get to know them. I sat down to write this blog thinking I would decide what were the top ten books that I read this year, but I have never been good at rating things this way. So, instead of trying go through my year in a systematic way I thought I would share the books that have Read More

I'm not going to review the album or anything overly boring like that, but I cannot help but recommend my favorite new (at least to me) Christmas music. Friction Bailey, The Silent Night, is arresting. I discovered it listening to Sufjan Stevens on Pandora. At least five times over the past week I have heard an arrangement of a traditional Christmas song that was so good I stopped what I was doing to go and look at the screen and find out who it was. Five times out of five it was Friction Read More

Many months ago I wrote of some of our early language comedy as we began studying Icelandic. We have made quite a bit of progress, but I still have some stories to share from along the way. I cannot remember when this happened, but it happened all the same and was quite funny for us.During the early part of the summer we were walking through a park near our home when an exuberant young boy peddled up to us on his bicycle. He was beckoning us to follow him and spitting out a mixture of phrases. Read More

Randy Alcorn's book The Treasure Principle is a gold nugget. It is a concise, readable, inspiring, and challenging message about the source and practice of generosity. It is full of challenging anecdotes and colorful points to ponder for anyone who wants to experience the joy of breaking free from the bondage of materialism.Well for our faithful blog readers (actually only for those with a U.S. address) ... We have a deal for you! The first 30 people to send an e-mail with there address to Read More

 A few weeks ago, not long after the miscarriage, we were having a family picnic and enjoying a day of relaxation. As we were sitting around a picnic table Haley spotted this apple and said, "Mommy, the Apple reminds me of you..." I thought I knew what she was referring to, but I wasn't convinced that my four year old had the capacity for such abstract thinking. I looked at Haley, "Well, what do you mean?" She gave her classic smile of embarrasment and replied, "Oh, nothing." Intrigued, Annie Read More

...And may be better than ever. Over the past day or so Annie has come alive again. Last night we went for a run and she did great. Today we went to an outdoor museum, something like an Icelandic version of Colonial Williamsburg but on a smaller scale. Annie decided to give the stilts a try and flashed a classic face which I managed to catch in a photo. Read More