The Friday Four, Part 10

~1~

With all the bad news this week with the Boston Marathon bombings, ricin in letters to senators, a fertilizer plant exploding in West, Texas, and just now gunfire on the MIT campus, I needed some fun and/or good-hearted items for this Friday Four.  So here are some gratuitous pictures of my cute kids and their cute chicks (that seem to be doubling in size every time I blink):

Will & Josh holding (L to R) Rhody, Redhead, Buffy the Third, and Brownie.

Evan smiling next to Niner and Charger.

~2~

We just finished reading On the Banks of Plum Creek, the fourth in the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, last night. As I do with every book we read together, I asked the boys what their favorite part was.  I was expecting they'd say the cool dugout house, or the gross bloodsuckers in the creek, or maybe even the devastating grasshopper infestation.  But both Will & Josh chose the church Christmas party when Laura received a fur cape and muff.  You see, the spoiled bully Nellie Oleson only had a fur cape, and it wasn't as pretty as Laura's.  They were sooooo glad that Laura got the chance to one-up Nellie and even reenacted the scene where Laura walks past Nellie on her way out of the church and says, "Merry Christmas, Nellie."  Though I'm not sure Laura pulled it off with quite as much smug glee and sass as my boys did...

~3~

I've been rewatching the TV series Alias on Netflix.  I'm drawn to shows with strong female characters and Sydney Bristow is one of my favorites; she's tough, smart, resilient, loyal, a creative problem-solver, and has a deep commitment to doing what's right.  I was hooked when Alias first aired back in 2001 and I've been a big fan of Jennifer Garner, Bradley Cooper, and Victor Garber ever since.  But I think the folks who really should get props for the series are the hair, makeup, and costume designers.  Thanks to them, Sydney Bristow has thousands of distinctly different looks.  This fun youtube mash-up demonstrates several dozen of them:

~4~

A while back I read The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. (You can read my brief review on Goodreads here.)  And then for a recent book club, the host chose Another Place at the Table by Kathy Harrison.  (Again, Goodreads review here.)  Both books deal with the foster care system.  The first is a fictional account of a girl turning 18 and aging out of the system.  The second is a memoir from the perspective of a foster mother of hundreds of kids.  Both books were moving and at times heart-wrenching when describing the incredible odds against these kids.

Vanessa Diffenbaugh co-founded the Camellia Network to help kids who were aging out of the foster system by providing the support network that is currently lacking.  If you're searching for a way to reach out and make a difference to a specific person, take a look here.  You might feel called to help one of these young people: