Matthew gave me a writing assignment 20 minutes ago

“And Yes, I give you permission to blog about this, Mom.”  He said over his shoulder as he left to take his shower.

Oh, yes.  Blogging about homeschool life with teenagers, a thing I keep meaning to do as long as it’s not embarrassing for anyone, and I’m not distracted by marketing my knitting patterns.

Matt finished ‘Til We have Faces this morning.  He stayed up until after midnight reading almost to the end, then woke up too sleepy to finish it before tea and Cheerios.  Then he wasn’t completely sure what the ending was about, but the poetry of the narrative stuck in his head.

So having discussed which if any of the gods or humans were Christ figures, how much we loved the insult (description?) Greekling, and I nattered on (and on) about my relationship with my Dad (who until I was 13 urged me regularly to read ‘Til we Have Faces and the book of Proverbs, until I did, then started on The Good Shepherd, which I read while my Grandmother urged me to join the extended family in board games, but how could I leave the captain in the middle of his submarine hunt when the poor man was running on coffee and duty with no sleep?  I think I did get up when some one agreed to play a game with numbers in it so I didn’t have to spell anything.) Matt still had nothing to read next.  We tried to nail down what he wanted by describing what he didn’t want: plot holes, heavy, sad, or childish.  Which turned my brain off (How do librarians do this?)

So we started over with books recommended by Redeemed Reader, and read a lot of plot summaries.  Once we found one that sounded cool, I used the Library Thing app on the sidebar of our library for books that were similar.  It turns out looking for cool is easier than avoiding heavy or trite.  There, some new books to look forward to that Matt will like, what a relief!

I heaved a sigh, “Why is picking out books for you so hard?

Matt looked at me, laughed then said, “Mom, you were thinking, ‘Oh no!  He doesn’t like my book recommendations, he doesn’t like me!'”

He left for the bathroom, then returned to say, “And yes you can blog about it, you were going to ask my permission, right?”

Well, actually, I’ve been forgetting to blog, but that’s not a bad idea…