John Adams Mini-Series

One of my birthday presents last month was the new John Adams mini-series DVD set. My husband and I were both disappointed that we did not have HBO back in March of this year when it was first aired, so I was thrilled to receive it the day after it was released on DVD.

We are both history enthusiasts and we have ancestral links to the Adams family through my husband. His "branch" of the Adams family left Braintree, Massachussets, and settled in the town of Riga, New York. There is a tombstone in the family cemetery there that references the same nobleman (a knight, if I remember correctly) from Somersetshire, England, who is mentioned in David McCullough's book about John Adams, on which this mini-series was based. We're not sure of the exact link we might have to John Adams or Samuel Adams. Some family members are trying to better establish the family tree so hopefully we'll find out someday! Three of our four children share the names of characters from this miniseries. We also share John and Samuel Adams' strong beliefs in personal liberty.

My children enjoyed watching this series as well, though my oldest son was the only one to watch it in its entirety. There are a few spots that I would not recommend allowing children to see. Among them are the tarring and feathering scene (distant nudity and somewhat violent), the scene where a man's leg is amputated, a scene showing Benjamin Franklin sitting in a bathtub with a woman he's not married to, and we skipped over the scene showing Nabby Adam's mascectomy because it looked like it was going to be on the graphic side.

I would say that Samuel's favorite part was the theme music, which he was singing within a few days after watching it! I may get the soundtrack as everyone else in the family seems to like the music as well. Samuel also got a kick out of watching Samuel Adams. What child wouldn't find it interesting to see someone with their name on-screen?

A particularly interesting feature of this series is the ability to select, in the special features menu, a way to watch it with historical facts shown on the screen. It's similar to "pop-up video." We did not use it the first time we watched it, but have been going through the series a second time with it. I found it to be very helpful in answering some of the questions that I had after watching it the first time.

I really like the actors who play John and Abigail. I had seen Laura Linney in "You Can Count on Me," which I didn't particularly like, but I didn't realize all the other things she has been in and the critical acclaim she has received. I really like how she portrayed Abigail in this series. I had never heard of Paul Giamatti, who played John Adams. I think both actors did a superb job and I look forward to checking out both of them in other films they have been in.

I also look forward to reading David McCullough's book about John Adams. My husband got it a few years ago but I have not read it yet. Some neighbors of ours read it out loud together as a family. I think that's a great idea and I think we'll give that a try after I finish reading the kids some of the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

What on Earth?!

Today was about the craziest day that we have had in quite a while. It started with a bit of a different twist, Samuel's personal attendant came a little earlier and was only scheduled to stay for a few hours. Samuel had asked for Banana Bread yesterday, so I thought he would enjoy helping me make some this morning. He likes cracking eggs, so I let him do that (silly boy, he said "ouch, I'm going to die!" when he cracked them!), he mashed the bananas, and got to measure out flour (which he played with more than he measured!).

Anyways, with the different start to our day perhaps Samuel took this to mean that he would not be doing school work today. I didn't put any school work on his schedule until his personal attendant was due to leave, and Samuel had a fit when he saw the "work time" icon on his schedule. I had scheduled "Lite Brite," a toy he has recently taken an interest in before "work time" which I had thought he would enjoy. No such luck, he protested that too and was caught up in some major scripting during this activity. I cut it short and we gave Samuel lots of run around and playing time down in the playroom. Samuel requested a "break" before I started his school work and he spent much of it crying and talking as though he was depressed. Sometimes when Samuel is in a mood like this he will borrow a term from one of his favorite TV shows, "Wow, Wow, Wubbzy," and he will say "I have the bluey blues!" He didn't say that today, but he was sure acting it!

The second session of school work was preceded with another break, equally as teary for Samuel. I got out his Wilbarger Protocol brush, something I haven't used in a long time, and tried brushing him. He was a bit sensitive to it, ticklish, but he seemed to like it and that calmed him down a bit.

I saved Samuel's favorite subjects, Religion and Reading (from his reader) for last late this afternoon. It took longer to get through the work, but we eventually did it. Good news, I have been able to use the Religion textbook with Samuel recently, and haven't had to re-type the lessons on "Writing With Symbols". That is such a big help! It takes lots of time to re-type lessons. Samuel was in a much better mood tonight.

I have told Samuel we are going to take a vacation from his videos and DVDs in a few weeks. He is scripting them way too much and he is just way to absorbed with them. When this happens he gets very ornery and doesn't want to be "bothered" with anything. Before we start the "vacation", I'll start putting some of them away. He has collected over 20 of them and tries to look at them throughout the day.

Oh, in between dealing with Samuel today I had the "pleasure" of an equally ornery 5 year old boy, son number three. He is very particular about the clothing he will wear these days. He protests everything except for shorts and short sleeve shirts, in the middle of the winter?! He was also very unhappy today when I sat him down for some school work, at a time he wanted to go play with another of Samuel's personal attendants (who he thinks are there to play with HIM, not Samuel!).

My oldest son was a little tired today. We let him stay up late last night to watch "Life After People" on The History Channel. I watched a portion of it as well. It was fascinating, but kind of creepy, watching how all signs of human civilization would decay and slowly disappear if men were no longer on the Earth. I got caught up in wondering, "Well, how would all people disappear?" They did not get into that on the show, people were just already gone.

I'm glad today is over, this was a rough one!

Lazy Sunday

I have a billion things I could be doing today, but I'm trying to make today a day of rest, like Sunday should really be! My husband and oldest son are away this weekend. They have a racing event up in Sodus, New York. This is relatively close to where my husband grew up, so he invited a bunch of friends and relatives to come watch. This is a different type of event than they participate in. They have been away a little longer, and when I have talked to my husband on the phone it sounds like it has been a lot of work. They are very tired.

My youngest boy is playing playstation and Samuel is playing out in the back yard. I can see him out my window.

There is an awesome lineup on the History Channel later this afternoon, awesome for our family anyways. There are three "Mega Disaster" shows on in a row.. first there's "East Coast Tsunami", then "Asteroid Apocalypse", then "Yellowstone Eruption." My oldest son will be so upset that he missed these! Then after that there is an "Ice Road Trucker" episode! My husband and I really like this show. (I bet if my husband wasn't so busy with everything else in his life he'd go up to the Northwest Territories this winter to try his hand at ice road trucking! Either that or he'd be up in Alaska on one of those "Deadliest Catch" fishing boats!)

Coming soon..I have been tagged by "Bishops Wife" to share 8 random facts about myself.