May Wrap-Up

It's been an interesting month. So many things have happened that I kind of have whiplash, and also why is it the end of May already, and can it please go back to being February when there were like six months between me and college? Thanks. On the bright side, though, I got my first COVID shot! And also, I convinced Galadriel to read Ranger's Apprentice, and she LOVED IT and started reading the next one immediately, and you guys do not know how big a deal this is. Galadriel's usual reaction to my book recommendations (honestly, her usual reaction to me in general) is "thanks, no". (There's a reason why she doesn't feature on my blog very often. XD) So I'm very proud of myself. And her. 

Blog
My Posts:
Send Me Your Questions + Recommendations!
Epic Blog Party Tag
Blogaversary! ft. Me Answering Your Questions
Good, Better, Best: Spring Books
Review: "A Branch of Silver, A Branch of Gold" by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Lewisian Musing: Literary Criticism...Don't Criticize What You Hate
Catholic Blog Week is here!
Review: "I Am Margaret" by Corinna Turner
The Liturgy of the Hours: A Crash Course
The Catholic Blog Week Tag

Around the Blogosphere:

• MovieCritic did the Narnia tag, and it was great fun, despite her allegation that she is Jadis.
• Christine Smith talked about book series that shaped her growing-up time, and it was so relatable!
• Allison @ A Farm Girl's Life did a post where she showed a bunch of pictures in her Bible Verse Lettering journal, and it was BEAUTIFUL and also very intimidating.
• Bernadette Benda talked about how not creating can be draining too, and YES.
• Megan Chappie talked about the One-Woman Formula, and please go read this post immediately because it is excellent.
• Jenelle talked about movies that are better than or as good as their books, which was fun and controversial, to say the least.
• Julian @ Saver of Memories did a spoof about what LOTR would be like as a YA novel, and it is HILARIOUS.
  
• Kenzie started a new tag! It's about genres! And she tagged anyone who wanted to do it! So go check it out! It looks amazing!

Books
Thank you all for your awesome book recommendations for my blogoversary! I had an excellent reading month, and it was in large part due to y'all! My reviews of those books are too long to fit in an already-long wrap-up, but they'll be my first post of June, I promise. :)

*The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
The Habit of Being by Flanner O'Connor
Paint Everything Blue by Lena Donellan
*A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Consecration to St. Joseph by Fr. Donald Calloway
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Red Rope of Fate by K. M. Shea
Badge of Infamy by Lester Del Rey
House Arrest by K. A. Holt
*The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
*Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
*The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer
All My Sons by Arthur Miller
The Lost Princess by George MacDonald
The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
My Man Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
*Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
*The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland
How the Reformation Happened by Hilaire Belloc
Cur Deus Homo by St. Anselm of Canterbury
J. R. R. Tolkien, Artist & Illustrator by Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull
The Firethorn Crown by Lea Doue
Visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary by St. Alphonsus Liguori
The Eight Doors of the Kingdom by Fr. Jacques Philippe
Eugenics and Other Evils by G. K. Chesterton
Pemberley: Mr. Darcy's Dragon by Maria Grace

Movies
(Warning: minor spoilers for Ant-Man and The Wasp, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Chosen, Avengers: Endgame, and a couple episodes of WandaVision.)

Ant-Man and The Wasp

I don't think this franchise will ever be one of my FAVORITE parts of Marvel, but I did enjoy this movie!

I really liked the healing between Hope and Scott, especially how he actually apologizes. Hope in general is just really cool.

(Also, there are consequences for the events in Civil War, and I am a fan.)

As always, I ADORE the relationship between Scott and Cassie! (Especially the game they play at the beginning!)

Luis is the absolute best, and maaaaaaayyy be my favorite Marvel sidekick. 

The special effects were really neat!

I loved Ghost and her father-figure. It's a really good exploration of how one can be a "villain" for other reasons rather than hatred/love of money/etc...she's terrified, and needs help, and so she's trying to get it however she can. And her father-figure, whose name I am conveniently forgetting, is awesome. I liked him better than Hank, if I'm being totally honest.

The part where Hope's mom takes over Scott is HILARIOUS and I love.

I really didn't like, though, how Scott kept getting off scot-free (haha, see what I did there) from breaking house arrest. Not. Cool.

Dang, that after-credits scene hit hard. Thank you to everyone who told me NOT to watch this movie before Infinity War. I appreciate it.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

(MC, please stop squealing. I can't hear myself think. ;) (And yes, I've been keeping the fact that I watched this a secret.))

Okay, I really, really, liked this movie. Actually, quite a bit more than I expected! It was really funny, though, because Legolas totally identified with Peter, whereas I was totally in sympathy with Tony. Which made for interesting exchanges.

But seriously, Tony is amazing. I love him very much. He's trying to be a good mentor, but trying to keep Peter safe, primarily, but he's being so very T and not taking Peter's feelings into consideration, so he's just being like, "STAY SAFE DANGIT." And I love it. He cares so much. (The part where he's inwardly like "I kinda wanna hug him but that's weird" and then opens the door...phenomenal. So very Tony.) (Oh, and the part where Peter says "If you really cared, you'd be here in person", and then...)

AND THAT PART AT THE END WHEN PEPPER SHOWS UP and Happy's like "Yeah, I've had it since 2008", and I am dyyyyying.

*looks up* *realizes she's only really talked about Tony.* #oops.

Ahem.

Yes, so I like Peter a lot, too! His impatience to actually do something, married with his realization that superheroes actually legit have a harder job than one might think. And then his choice at the end...which may or may have led to Pepper and Tony getting engaged, I'm guessing. (WHY was the engagement not one of the after-credits scenes? I ask you.)

Zendaya as the misfit loner is my favorite thing since sliced bread.

The Captain America stuff at the school, and "I mean, I think he's a war criminal, but..." and please excuse me while I laugh my head off.

Peter and Ned's secret handshake! I liked that a lot. Partially since Legolas and Gimli had a secret handshake like that before COVID, but they would add to it every time they saw each other, and it was very entertaining for the rest of us. 

The villain was perfect and surprising and perfect, and the way Peter dealt with him was beautiful.

(Image credit to owner)

The Chosen S1:E7

I really enjoyed this episode! Jesus's meeting with Nicodemus is the Best--I absolutely LOVE that bit in the Gospel of John (partly because of the Greek puns--yes, we have a nerdy pastor who preaches on things like that, this is why I love the Dominicans) and I love having it in context, and seeing John out on the steps taking notes...XD

Also, the calling of Matthew! That was so awesome! 

And Peter being so...Peter. I see so much of myself in Peter--I want to protect the people who I love, From Themselves And Other People if necessary. (It's a little scary, honestly, how much I relate to Peter. XD)

Avengers: Endgame

Yes, you read that right! I watched Endgame this month!!!!
And...my screaming about that is thoughts on that are so long that they get their own post. XD Sorry for the bait-and-switch. But keep an eye out on June 7!

WandaVision S1:E1

Okay, WHAT. Wanda and Vision are living in a sitcom? And...Vision still has the Soul Stone? And is...alive? And...they don't remember getting married? Even though she's CLEARLY in a wedding dress at the beginning of the episode? 
I did really enjoy all the drama around the boss's visit for dinner, and the dynamic between Wanda and Vision (that phone call! XD XD XD) and Agnes. It's just that confusion was my main emotion about this episode.

WandaVision S1:E2

So, here's where things get SUPER interesting!! (Legolas and I have been philosophizing about this episode NON-STOP. It's been a lot of fun. :))

One thing at a time. 

First of all, time! It seems that there are three "times" in the show: internal time, in which it's been a couple of days/in which days pass; internal-external time, in which the show is changing film periods; and external time, in which an agent of some sort within the show is watching WandaVision. (If that sounded confusing, I'm sorry. But the whole thing is confusing, so...)

It was honestly the part where Wanda puts the beds together that first slightly tipped me off to the internal-external time thing--it was originally "up to Code", if you'll pardon my pun, in that the beds are separate. And then Wanda moves the beds together and it's not up to Code, because the internal-external time has passed the Code. And the internal-external time keeps moving quickly until it turns into color, at which point the whole thing made sense...internal-external time is moving super fast! (Thank you, MC, for talking about the Code so much, so that I would know what the heck was going on. :))

Okay, and then the radio thing? "Wanda, who is doing this to you?" IF THAT'S NOT SUPER CREEPY I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS. (Also: I have a theory, or maybe it's more of a hope, that that was Hawkeye on the radio?? Please??) 

So, of course, this prompted a whole bunch more speculation, which encompassed both "how is this a thing" and "when is this a thing"...Legolas and I rejected the idea that it might be all in Wanda's head, because she's obviously not omniscient within the show, but then how does one explain her winding the tape back, later? But Vision still has the Soul Stone...so how on earth is this happening? (We didn't come to a good conclusion. Although I am of the opinion that it's after Endgame, and not in an alternate reality, for reasons I'll get to in a moment.)

Okay, Dottie? Is the worst. The magic show? Amazing. (Sorry. The actual events of the show interest me less than the theorizing about what is going on. XD)

So, Geraldine seems to either be hiding her true identity OR have forgotten a bunch of stuff, just like Wanda and Vision. And I, my friends, have a theory. I think she's actually Monica from Captain Marvel. Time will tell, I suppose. 

(Also! The Hydra watch commercial????? Do the commercials have significance??? I mean, there was a Stark Industries one in the last one??)

The creepy beekeeper, I am convinced, is Red Skull. Although I'm confused about why he's a beekeeper. (I'll have you know, though, that I totally called it being a beekeeper the moment his head shows. Takes one to know one, I guess.) Which, I think, means that it must be after Infinity War, at least, because until then, Red Skull was trapped on Vormir. So. (Unless it's in an alternate reality? Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because with the stones back, there is no alternate reality, dangit Marvel, c'mon, be consistent. *glares at Old Captain America*) (more on my beef with the end of Endgame in my June 7 post. XD). And then Wanda just...WINDS BACK TIME? WHAT?

Also. So, the fact that Wanda is pregnant (which is exciting, imo!!) brings up a whole bunch of questions about Vision. In the show, it shows that he's mechanical on the inside, somewhat, but he is quite a bit made of organic material... (I can't remember if there were robotic parts involved with him when Ultron made him??? oops. But I guess there were, given that his gears got jammed, AND that he doesn't need to eat?) But would Ultron have programmed the requisite chromosomes, etc., for him to be able to reproduce? (When I raised this issue with Legolas, she pointed out that Tony was involved in his creation as well, and he would have probably made sure that he had the requisite etcetera to reproduce. At which point Samantha (metaphorically) left the chat. XD) So. I have questions. 

Oops, that got SO long for a ~20 min long episode. I did overall enjoy it, and I'm looking forward to watching more!

(Image credit to owner)

The Chosen S1: E8

Finished the first season! Yay! 

There was SO much to love about this episode! 

The dynamic between the apostles--especially with Matthew, and with Mary Magdalene--is my favorite!

The moment where Jesus is telling Eden that he understands that it's hard to stay home when Simon is traveling with him--and that he sees her, hearkening back to Nicodemus's conversation with his wife! <3 

Also, when Jesus heals Eden's eema, and she gets up and is immediately like, "Drinks! Fruit! Does your guest like goat cheese?" 

So many good lines, especially the ones about Simon. XD

I love how Jesus's sense of humor is very, very evident--especially about Peter! I am very much of Chesterton's opinion that he had one (or at least, from what I've read of Chesterton, I think that's his opinion? I may be misconstruing), and I like that they worked that in.

And then the meeting with the woman at the well! It's pretty much verbatim, but it's so much more, what with his expressions, and her lack of faith--until she is full of faith. And "I Am He." YESSS!!!! (I did think that the stuff about her husbands was a little...something. One should probably technically construe from that passage that it was her five husbands who divorced her...and not necessarily that she had left them. Anywho. Small quibble.)

(Also, how excited Peter gets that they can finally tell people who Jesus is... I love Peter, and relate to him very much. Especially his flaws.)

WandaVision S1:E2

First thing: I was 100% correct about Internal-External time being moving through the history of film. It's a clever device. Even if it makes everything 10x more confusing. 

Did anyone else notice that EVERYTHING IS HEXAGONS? Every framing device that's used in the "TV show" is a hexagon. And I have a feeling that this is significant?? 

"Small towns...hard to escape." <<UM NOT CREEPY AT ALL.

Okay, so I LOVED Wanda's pregnancy and birth! In the way that one loves something that gently gets wrong a whole bunch of things about a thing that you know a lot about, while still actually showing something that you know a lot about but don't get to see very often. (Okay, look. I was bored. I'd read most of the books in the house. Can you blame me for moving on to the pregnancy, birth, and lactation books? Can you really?? In any case, I know more about pregnancy and birth than most people my age, I'd venture to guess.)

ANYwho. Poor Vision...the moment when he's trying to figure out the logarithmic formula of development...XD Love that dude. And he's just...freaking out like every father freaks out the first time his wife is giving birth, and then he names the first baby "Tommy", and Wanda saying "Do you want to meet your son as yourself?" and I think my heart is going to melt onto my diaphragm just about now.

But seriously--they did some things *right* with Wanda's labor. Like the fact that the Lamaze method DOES NOTHING and actually MAKES THINGS WORSE (*cough* yes, well, with me, to know about something is to be passionate about it, what can I say?) (Seriously, every time she tried to do "hee, hee, hoo", I just about lost my mind. My poor family.) And also, they showed transition! In a way that I could identify it! (And weird out my parents! ("How do you know so much about labor, Samantha?" Um, did you expect to have a book in this house that I didn't read?) So that was fun.) And women making noise during pushing, and that fraternal twins do run in the family, and so on. But then, seriously, you tell the woman who's in labor to push? DON'T YELL AT HER TO PUSH! STAHP. And then the baby comes out fully clothed?? Cuz, sure, that's the way it works. (And usually it takes a lot longer for the second twin to make its entrance. Just saying.) (Also--the placenta?) (And the new mom WOULD NOT feel like getting up within fifteen minutes of giving birth?) (And also, generally people don't give birth fully clothed? (Although I do understand the rationalle behind that one...)) 
Now that you've been treated to "Samantha is nitpicky about the representation of labor in a way that's suuuuper uncharacteristic for a seventeen-year-old"...on to more interesting (for you) thoughts.

So, what is up with Geraldine? I mean, that symbol wasn't from SHIELD, Hydra, or the Avengers, so...who is she? What is she? And HOW ON EARTH did Wanda send her out of Westview?

Also, Wanda did another wind-back, and something WEIRD is going on, guys. I'm super confused. And, with the neighbors?? Um. 

Okay, so it's after Age of Ultron...does that mean it could be *before* Infinity War? That, of course, would mean that my Red Skull theory was wrong, but would explain how Vision is alive... And then, where are the kids, in Infinity War?

The moment where Wanda started singing to her babies in Sokovian...<3 <3 <3

My dad has a theory that everyone else knows what's going on, and that Wanda and Vision have powers, i.e. they know that they're not in the real world? I'm not sure if I buy that, but it would explain some things...

You know what would make this show better and less confusing? Hawkeye. This show has 100% too little Hawkeye so far. (But I'm still convinced it was him on the radio. Fight me.)

Life

One smol cousin in the woods. We spent a lot of time in the woods.

My grandparents, aunt, and cousins came to visit! My grandparents didn't know that my aunt and cousins were coming, so they were able to give them the BEST surprise, and the expressions on their faces were priceless. In addition to hanging out and hiking and playing laser tag and other fun things, I discovered that my cousins had somehow reached the ages of 7, 6, and 6 without reading Narnia? Which I remedied immediately by cramming The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe into a three-and-a-half day visit. It was great fun! The best moment was when Aslan came back--you know how there's that part before the girls see him, where he says, "Yes, it is more magic"? At that part, I dropped back into the voice I had been using for Aslan, and they LOST THEIR MINDS. "It's ASLAN!" "ASLAN IS BACK?" It was excellent. 

Him saying Mass at our parish!!

Our good priest friend Father JJ came to visit for several weeks! It was so lovely to see him again--we haven't seen him in ages--and hug him again, because he's vaccinated for COVID! He's a great spiritual father and friend to my entire family, it it was a joy to have him Around. 

This is hard to see, but if you zoom in, you can see the bees!

Speaking of beekeepers (but hopefully not the creepy kind), our bees died over the winter. Both hives. (This is not the end of the story! Please hold your condolences!) But this month, a swarm moved into one of the hives!! Which, like, never happens! Or at least very rarely. And my dad actually saw the swarm! (I am very jealous.) So, I'm waiting a couple of weeks to let them get some brood established, and then I'll inspect, and see what the deal is with them! (So, so excited to be a beekeeper again! Don't know if you can tell. XD)

(My dad, for some reason, didn't want anyone to take actual pictures of us burning books?? So here's another, different, picture involving our pastor and fire. XD) (Image credit: Frodo)

So, when our pastor became our pastor two years ago, he came into a huge amount of sacred stuff that needed to be burned, but he didn't have a good way to do it, because it's kind of hard to have a bonfire at an urban parish. (For those who don't know: for Catholics, things that have been blessed have to be burned (or buried), once you're done with them, not thrown away). However, now that my family has our nice property in the mountains where we actually have to make a bonfire twice a year to burn our own fallen wood, he suddenly had a way to do it! So, on one of his days off this month, he drove up for the afternoon with an entire wheelbarrow full of blessed things to burn, including vestments, altar cloths, palms, five various lectionaries/books of outdated rites, AND holy oils dating back to 2007 (!!). It was great fun--huge fire, pouring sacred oils onto altar cloths and having hands that smelled like Chrism for a couple days after, throwing books on the fire (which felt wrong, but wasn't XD), and then having Mass and dinner after.

See, aren't the glasses adorbs? (Also, that is some ADVANCED piano music she's playing.)

Legolas got glasses! I'm honestly kind of jealous, because they look sooooo cooool on her, but I really don't need glasses, and I'm grateful for that...it's just that they would complete my nerdy bookworm look so nicely. :) Funny story, actually--the way we found out that she needed glasses was that we were driving the baby goats up to get disbudded, and I read a freeway sign out loud (I think the street name amused me? Idk) and she said to me "How can you read that?" And I was...understandably surprised, since it wasn't at a distance that was hard to read. For me, at least. So, this month, the optometrist confirmed my hunch that she's nearsighted! But she's optimistic that if Legolas wears the glasses, she might be able to correct it and not wear glasses forever. So that's good, I guess. :)

Eomer got Confirmed! Yep, that's him, and one of our priests was his sponsor! Which is pretty cool! (Although, Father has his hand on the wrong shoulder. XD At least it's the correct hand. This amuses me, because it is so Father TA.) (Also, Eomer informed me that he and Father were trading eyebrow raises throughout Mass. Which surprises me not a whit.)
The archbishop came and had a wonderful homily, and I loved hearing all the prayers and the exhortations of the homily again, because it reminded me of my own Confirmation, and the ongoing mission that I have from that. It was epic. :)
Oh, and if you're curious, he took the name Vincent de Paul! The priest actually just confirmed him "Vincent", not "Eomer Vincent", which is different from when I was confirmed (I was confirmed "Samantha Benedict Therese") but which I thought was cool!
It was also an especially neat Confirmation because Eomer's best friend also got Confirmed, and Pippin & Gimli's dad was his sponsor! This isn't the first crossover from our and Pippin & Gimli's family to Eomer's friend's family--Eomer's best friend's parents are Gandalf's godparents, and his dad was Pippin AND Legolas's sponsor. I love spiritual family. :) 

June Plans

• Celebrating Gandalf's birthday!
  
• Finally finishing Spring Quarter and being DONE WITH HIGH SCHOOL WHAT EVEN
• Registering for my first semester of classes at U of I (!!!!) Aka, trying to sweet talk my counselor into letting me take second-year classes my first year. XD
• Having our first Youth Group back in person (YAS)
• Going on a family stay-cation where we go up to our house in the mountains and stay there for a week.
• My graduation baccalaureate Mass is happening! And the best part is, I get to share it with two of my very good friends (Merry being one of them) who are also graduating this year.
• Not actually having a Graduation party-ceremony-thing (homeschooling is weird) until July, because it has to be outside, and Juneuary is a thing.
• Finally being fully vaccinated for COVID--thank you, Jesus!
• Getting at least one other vaccine, because #college
• Also, stressing about getting my transcripts submitted to U of I. That'll be fun.
• Selling the last two baby goats. *sad face* (But they're going to a good home! So, *happy face*!)

How has your May been? Have you watched any of WandaVision? Have you ever gotten to read one of your favorite books aloud to someone for their first time experiencing it?