Famous Last Words: Week 5

AHHH...I'm so glad that this week is about over!  I had so many issues with getting my Portfolio Folder set up correctly for this class.  For some reason, my brain just couldn't wrap around the instruction on how to do it correctly.  At last, I think I have finally gotten it working now!  Thank goodness.  Lol

My other classes (and other family stressors) have calmed down a bit, so that is definitely a plus.  I'm actually doing better in my classes so far than I had originally thought.  Yay me!  That makes me feel better about actually graduating at the end of this semester.  I'm still worried about my Trigonometry class, but I'm taking it slow & steady.  Baby steps, right?

One thing that I'm actually looking forward to this coming weekend is my daughter's adoption party.  We adopted her on February 2nd, but with our crazy busy schedules we haven't been able to have a party for her yet.  Lots of people are coming and I'm looking forward to the distraction.

I'm also really looking forward to Spring Break next month.  I'm hoping to take the family on a road trip to see some sights around Oklahoma that I haven't been to in a long time.  It will be fun to take a family trip and "get away" for a while.  I think we may even go visit my family in Tulsa too while we are out adventuring as a family.  I think I'd like to go to some children's museums, Arbuckle wilderness, Frontier City and maybe some other places that I've heard of recently.  I think there's a place in Oklahoma that you can dig for crystals or diamonds.  That sounds like fun.

Anyway, even though some of this week was stressful, I have some great things to look forward to doing in the very near future!  Gotta love a large family and all the (good & bad) times that it brings into your life!

(Personal Photo: Our adoption hearing day!  Our new addition, Jacqueline, is the girl in the middle. February 2015)

Extra Reading Diary--Turkish Fairy Tales

Today I chose to read the first half of the Unit called Turkish Fairy Tales.  My favorite stories were The Fish-Peri and The Fish-Peri (cont.).  This was an interesting story about a man who lost his family and didn't know what to do with himself after that loss.  He ends up catching a fish that turns into a beautiful maiden.  This story may have a sad beginning, but it turns out to have a very happy ending.  The fish maiden helps out the man with every task the King throws at him.  I like how the fish maiden was loyal to the man because he had spared her life when he found her.

My favorite character would be the fish maiden.  She is very beautiful, kind-hearted, forgiving, loyal, and helpful to the man and I admire those qualities in a person.  I like the fact that she chose to help him by cleaning his house and helping him with all the difficult tasks that the King threw at him to do.  I also admire the quality that she possesses with helping someone in need.  I can identify with this character because of her qualities.

The illustration is a perfect picture of the Fish-Peri and the man.  I think it is a beautiful picture and I think the font of the title is perfect.  The chosen font is wavy and flowing like the water and a fish's tail.  Tome, the picture also looks like it depicts a castle in the background.  In the story, one of the difficult tasks that the King asks him to do was build him a beautiful, golden castle.

Fish-Peri

Storytelling Week 5: The Psychic and the Magical Leopard

One day, a magical leopard decided to go to a psychic to find out what his future held for him.  The leopard's power was being able to speak in whatever languages the people around him were speaking.  So, the leopard traveled far and wide to find a psychic who would not be afraid of him and would tell him about his future.  He was a fierce-looking leopard with bright colored spots, large muscular body, huge paws, and long, sharp fangs.  Many people were afraid of him, so finding a psychic proved to be a difficult task for him.  This magical leopard dreamed of one day marrying a princess who was as beautiful in personality as she was beautiful in appearance.  After traveling quite a long distance, he finally found a fortune teller who would tell him about his future. 

Fortune Teller

The fortune teller was slightly afraid as first, but then realized this was a great opportunity to make some money off of the magical leopard.  As the leopard approached the fortune teller, he said, "Be not afraid...I will not hurt you IF you tell me about my future."  The psychic said, "I'm not afraid and I will be glad to tell you your future if you provide food for my family for one year."  The leopard agreed for he was desperate to know about his future.  

The fortune teller said, "Very soon, you will come across a river that is very wide and deep.  You will go to take a drink and will be swept away by the current."  Looking horrified, the leopard tried to sit still while listening to the rest of the story.  The psychic continued on by saying, "At the point when you think you are about to die, you will be rescued by a sweet, loving princess whom you shall marry."  The relief on the leopard's face was quite obvious by now even though he was still afraid of the thought of nearing death.  

So, the leopard thanked the psychic and promised that once he found the princess and married her, he would bring the psychic food every day for the next year.  The leopard began his journey, but it took him almost two weeks before he came across a flowing river.  He wondered if this would be the river the fortune teller told him about in his vision.  The leopard bent down to get a drink and lost his footing on the river's bank.  He fell into the river and thrashed about while trying to gasp for air.  He knew he must be nearing his end.  Right when the leopard was about to draw his last breath, a beautiful princess scooped him up out of the river with the greatest of ease.  She caressed his face and fell instantly in love with the leopard.  The princess vowed to stay with the leopard until he regained consciousness.

Once the leopard regained consciousness, he gazed into the eyes of the most beautiful princess he had ever seen and whispered, "Thank you for saving me.  How can I ever repay you?"  The princess said, "Marry me and I will love you until the day I die."  The leopard hurriedly agreed and they were wed the next day.  From that day forward until one year had passed, the leopard provided the fortune teller's family with food just as he had promised.  The psychic, leopard, and the princess smiled because each of them had gotten their wishes fulfilled.

Leopard

Author's Note: The story,The Raibar and the Leopard, is part of the Santal Folklore unit. Story source: Folklore of the Santal Parganas by Cecil Henry Bompas (1909).  This story is about a raibar, which is also known as a matchmaker, who meets a leopard while traveling to arrange some marriages between several families.  He doesn't want to be eaten, so he basically promises to find the leopard a mate.  The raibar ends up tricking the leopard into getting into a sack and he beats up the leopard in the sack and throws him in the river.  The raibar goes about his business of arranging marriages and forgets all about the leopard.  The leopard gets rescued by a leopardess and they end up together.  In the end of the story, the raibar runs into the leopard again and the leopard spares his life because he had found his mate.  
My story is quite different from the original storyline.  I decided to keep the leopard as one of my main characters, but chose to change the rest of the story to be more modernized.  However, I did use the part of the story where the leopard is rescued by a leopardess and the fact that they end up together.  The picture I chose is of a beautiful, regal-looking leopard.  He just looks so majestic that I thought it would be perfect for my storyline.  It also looks like to me that he is sitting near the water's edge.  The second picture is of a fortune teller.  It is a picture of a beautiful woman who looks like someone the rabiar might meet during his travels.  I also decided to use the words psychic and fortune teller interchangeably throughout the story, so I wasn't using the same word repeatedly.

Reading Diary A: The Praying Baker

The Praying Baker in the Unit Persian Tales would be my favorite for this week.  This story was one of the few stories that had a happy ending.  Most of the stories in this unit had horrible endings with people getting eaten, killed or hurt in some way.  This story was about a baker who was asked by a King to find his ring or he would have to give his life if he didn't find the ring.  The King gave him 10 days to find it.  Upon the tenth day, the baker's wife found the ring in the belly of a fish while she was preparing it for dinner.  The baker presented the ring to the King and the Kind ended up making the baker his favorite person and gave him a huge reward.  There was quite a bit of trickery in this story as well on the part of the King.  This story had several plot twists which I thought made it more interesting.  The picture that went with the story was of a fish and I thought it was quite appropriate for the story.

I guess you could say that I wasn't really a fan of this unit overall because most of them ended up with people getting hurt in the most horrible of ways.  This main character in this story threatened the baker with death if he didn't find his ring, but he lived at the end because he had found it.   The story leads you to believe that it was because of his faith in God that the ring was found by his wife and his life was spared because of that.  I also like the fact that in this story that the man's wife is the one who found the ring.  In general, all the stories in this unit make the females out to be stupid or unworthy.  In this story, the baker's wife is the actual hero because she was the one to find the ring and told her husband to present it to the King.  The only thing that has me puzzled about the stories in this unit is that they always end with "and the sparrow never got home".  I'm not exactly sure what to make of that last comment.  It almost seems like it doesn't belong in the story, unless there is some meaning to it that I'm not comprehending.

The fish & the ring