Hi everyone,

You know it always amazes me how much things go in cycles. Some weeks I get mountains of letters and can't fit them all into the digest, and other weeks I get hardly any at all. :-)) This week has been one of the latter. I imagine though that many of you have returned to school and teaching and so don't have a great deal of time to write. Never mind. I seem to have been very busy too.

This is actually our last week of school for term 3 this week. We have two weeks break after that and go back to school at the beginning of October. Goodness it won't be long until the Christmas holidays are here again.

I'm really looking forward to the break this time. I had the week off school last week with a virus (no voice, chest and ear infection). The family commented just how quiet things were! Well I'm pretty much back to normal again though and I'm off to work tomorrow. It's been very hectic at work lately because we've been getting a new computer in the library, getting a new library management system and are also connecting to the Internet. Do you think I'll get much work done at work from now on? I'm the only one there who knows much about it so I'm in charge of teaching everyone how to use it.

I'm really excited about finally being able to introduce the internet to the children though. Most secondary schools have really good computer set ups out here these days, but the primary schools are somewhat behind. Mine so especially! However there is about to be a lot of money put into information technology in the primary schools here and it's great to be able to be a part of it.

Well I've probably rambled on a fair bit now, so I'll put you out of your misery now and move onto your letters. Talk to you all again next week.

Goodnight everyone,

Karen.

TALKING POINT: What is you favorite episode from season 3?

Hi Karen, what a tough choice for season 3 of the Waltons. I guess I have 3 favorites that stand out. I like "The Birthday". When grandpa has his heart attack and they finally move him out in the tent so he can see the beauty of the mountains. Then John Boy barrows the slides to show grandpa.

I also like "The Shivaree". I just like watching the old mountain traditions.

But my favorite of all-time would have to be "The Conflict". Then again the old mountain traditions meet the new traditions. Plus how the family sticks together. Martha Corinne is a favorite of mine.

Lisa

The Shivaree was in the third season I find but I didn't know that another episode occurred in the third season and that was The Lie. It was about Ben's crush on Nancy Madden which led to Ben taking her in John Boys car to Charlottesville to see her mother even though Ben did not yet have his license. Ben left his keys in the car and the car got involved in a hit and run. Ben was forced to lie because Nancy was deathly afraid of her father Eustice. Ben was forced to say he couldn't explain why he went to Charlottesville, but Nancy eventually told the entire story. Ben was cleared and Nancy was able to lead a more normal social life.

Donald F Nelson

KAREN'S COMMENT: Well as you can see, we only really got a couple of letters about this one. Please feel free to add some more next week. There are quite a few worthy episodes in season 3. I particularly like The Conflict, which was apparently based on fact. I also especially enjoyed The First Day, where poor old John Boy seems to stick out at college like a sore thumb and doesn't seem to be able to do a thing right. The Marathon is another worthy nominee, where John Boy defies his mother and goes ahead to dance in "that trashy event" and of course The Choice, the episode dealing with Jason's dilemma. It definitely is hard to choose just one favourite isn't it?

I must tell you that the other day while watching some Walton's videos, my children got into a big discussion about who their favorite Walton was!! Kirsten (age 9) thinks John Boy is cute.. James(age 9) likes Jim Bob...Kaylee (age 8) likes Elizabeth and Noah (age 5) doesn't know yet...he still needs to think about it! It is so much fun watching the Walton's with the kids.

They enjoy it as much as I do!

Cindy

PS. See you at the reunion!

KAREN'S COMMENT: It's fun to hear what the children think about the show isn't Cindy. I agree with Kirsten...John Boy is very cute. It's such a great show to be able to share with the kids. Unfortunately Cindy, you won't see me at the reunion, but I do look forward to hearing all about it. How many of you are going? It's just a little bit far for me I'm afraid. :-((

Hi,

This is really just for U.K. people. Alison is not mistaken. Channel 4 got muddled with the order - they did announce this before they showed 'The recluse'. I agree that it was really annoying of them - there seems no reason for it. Unfortunately I recorded over my copy of 'The Heartbreaker' just a few days ago - typical.

Mary

KAREN'S COMMENT: I find it so frustrating when things like this happen. At one stage we had Mary Ellen pregnant before she was even married. Can you imagine what a scandal that would have caused amongst the Walton family and their neighbors. Grandma would have been mortified!

Hi Karen,

Rob, my husband, and I just found out that the child I'm carrying is a boy. This will be our first child. Granted I'm only five months along so I still have a lot of time to think about this, but I'm already getting scared about being good parents and raising good kids. Actually I'm getting more nervous every day. I know you have two boys and they're really nice young men.

I was wondering how you and other people do it? Maybe the members of the digest have some suggestions? I guess watching the Waltons is a good beginning (for me and for them). If you or anyone else has any advice or information to offer, we're more than willing to listen and learn!

Thanks for not laughing too hard at me :)

Larissa

KAREN'S COMMENT: What wonderful news Larissa. Congratulations to you and Rob. You must be due sometime around Christmas are you? Yes my boys are growing into nice young men, although some days I would say that they drive me to distraction. :-) It's hard to believe that they are nearly grown up. Tim finishes high school next year, then will be onto University. I can still remember when I was first pregnant with Tim. The time seems to have gone so quickly.

Someone with much older children than mine once told me that talking to them is the key. She said that even if they are yelling at you at least they are still talking and that is what's important. I'm sure that the Walton family would say the same thing because they always seemed to find someone to talk about their problems to. I always thought they would have been so lucky living in the house with all of those people. They could choose to talk to either their Mum or Dad, either of their grandparents, or one of their brothers or sisters. Surely one of all of those people would have understood their problem. I would have loved a brother like John Boy.

I'm sure you'll have lots of suggestions Larissa, but it seems to me that communication and time spent with your children are the most worthwhile things. They are little for such a short time, that we really do need to treasure them each and every day, and rest assured that any bad times will eventually pass and things will definitely get easier as time goes on.