Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by June Chang

I can not stop thinking about this book. It was very well written and it was organized in such a way that you can get a bigger, more complete picture of the History of China back three generations. There is this really powerful awful leader called Mao Zedong that is worse then Hitler! Why doesn't the world know this? He is responsible for over 70 million deaths during peacetime in China. He did some really horrendous things in China and was a master of brainwashing an entire Nation! I didn't know this until I read this book. What is even more surprising is that I was alive while this was happening in China or at least my parents were.

I never really understood Communism and how people could fall for such a bad plan but from the insight in this book, it helped me understand that there can be something worse then communism and that would make it seem better then whatever there was to choose from at the time. Communism was better then what they had! What a weird thought! Oh, and if you didn't know of anything better then communism then you could completely embrace it and feel no guilt. That is what her father and mother did but in the end it turned completely around and bit them on the tail, so to speak. This is awful! I can't comprehend so much evil and hope I never experience it in my lifetime.

I have never starved. I have never worn the same outfit because I didn't have anything else to wear. I have never lived in fear of all my neighbors. I have never been tortured or even had a gun pointed at me. I have never been denied medial attention. I have never been married to a stranger. I have never been hated by others or spit on because of the class my family is labeled in. I have never been afraid to speak my mind or write a story or even read any book I want. I have never had to walk really far and I have never planted rice. I have never seen someone tortured or killed. I have always had clean water and clean food. It was never rationed. I take so much for granted!

This book gives a very good and honest portrayal of China in the 20th Century. I thought it was worth reading. It is long but worth it to understand History a little bit more and the world around us.

Whole Book

October is done!

It was fun while it lasted! I am so glad November is here. It is getting colder and the little kids have colds...the candy is too much and now we move into SUGAR season... Next up is Thanksgiving, Birthdays and Christmas! I need a vacation! This week I will make it to the temple no matter what, that is the only place where I can just forget the crazy world and think.


Doesn't he look cute all chubby and warm?
I am so glad these two get along so well.




We have been studying Art with the cousins for Day School together once a week. Here is a bit of the kids pointillism paintings. Each dot is placed next to another dot of a different color and your eyes then blend the colors together creating a true color instead of mixing the colors before painting...hmmm, maybe we need to work on it a bit more but it was still fun. We were studying Seurat




All the leaves have almost dropped...we had a big raking day. Of course we also had to play in the pile of leaves! The yard looks great! The oldest did a great job dumping the loads in the compost pile. He also got paid for this job because he struck a deal with his dad ahead of time! Sometimes the kids just need the right incentive.

We finally picked the apple trees at our home. Yesterday I got out there and with a lot of tender loving care topped both trees. I almost fell out of the tree a few times and I have quite a few scratches on my arms. Also a little sore on my sawing arm but I am so glad the trees are chopped shorter. They were quite out of control this year. Next year we will spray and hopefully get a quality and manageable crop in the Fall. They are really good apples. Two different kinds, but I am not sure what kind...red and red yellow.

Delicious Apple Pie!

Caramel Apples!



YES IT ALREADY SNOWED THIS WEEK! Luckily it melted by Saturday so we could go Trick or Treating without snow boots on.



Indians are the rage this year! Princess never go out of style for 3 year olds! AND if it is pink it doesn't matter what costume it is, it will be great!

Who let the kittens in? Just kidding. This was a fun treat to make for our Halloween party with the cousins. Kitty Liter Cake. It tasted great!

After we came home from Trick or Treating the neighbor way down the street called and said the neighbor further down the street had two of our kittens. They must have followed a few Trick or Treaters and got lost. Those kittens aren't very careful with the busy street in the front. I wish they would stay in the backyard and play.

And finally...
I am at the end of the tomatoes. I cut these off the vine about a month ago right before the nights turned to freezing. They were all green and I forgot them in the laundry room till yesterday, they turned red! I will try dehydrating them. Anyone ever do this with cherry tomatoes? Should I add spices or something? Garlic?



Baby O my goodness is starting to cruise around on the furniture! Dangerous!!


That is it for October...apples, Art, food storage/preserving and educational fun!

The Quiet Little Woman: A Christmas Story by Louisa May Alcott

This was actually three short stories about Christmas by Louisa May Alcott! They were just right to get me thinking about Christmas...it snowed today even thought we haven't had Halloween yet.

I like her stories because they always treat children as real people. Children have hopes desires and sorrow too. In these three stories even thought he main character is always poor in a bad place they rise above what could have brought them down and make the best of things. They are honest and hard working. They demonstrate charity for others despite not being treated the same way. Anything can be overcome by following Jesus example and trusting in His love.

I thought the stories were sweet and educational. Makes me want to give something more for Christmas then a toy from Walmart...I hope our family can do something really nice for someone that really needs it this year...and everyone does need love.
Whole Book

Lessons from the Varsity fo Life by Robert Baden-Powell

This was a great book! I was surprised. The autobiography of Robert Baden-Powell the founder of the worldwide organization Boy Scouts. (22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) He is British and some of his words are unfamiliar but if you imagine Monty Python it kind of makes it come together for me. 316 pages of his sketches, a few photos and his take on his childhood through military service, to being an old man touring the world organizing Boy and Girl Scout clubs! Surprisingly only 90% of the book is about Boy Scouts and the rest is what he calls, "life number one", all about his time in the military or before that just growing up. Scouting was "life number two" and he was getting on in years by then yet he fit so much into this part of his life. (He also wrote a bunch of other books about the scouting part of his life so I think he didn't want to repeat all of them here.)

The book starts out with an apology. He didn't want to write about himself but someone convinced him saying, it might be helpful to young fellows (including girls) in aiming their lives. So he didn't make it a formal biography starting from baby to whatever but he rather wanted the book to be a "sort of hotch-potch or plum-pudding". Then he says something like good luck finding the plums but they are somewhere in the stodge! So right from the beginning you are put at ease and you start to chuckle. He has a good sense of humor and never really gets full of himself. He just tells stories about the things he remembers, the places he has been and how he got there.

His education was traditional only he didn't fit the traditional mold. He gives his mother a lot of credit. He said, "It was her influence that guided me through life more than any precepts or discipline that I may have learned at school." He didn't get very good marks from his teachers and he wasn't very good with mathematics. He hated learning Greek and Latin and still thinks it is a waste of time for young people. He has some pretty strong opinions about the public school system too. He said that his biggest education came from a variety of things, home, school, sports (like big game hunting)and traveling... He said, "The secret of sound education is to get each pupil to learn for himself, instead of instructing him by driving knowledge into him on a stereotyped system."

BP loved theatricals. A teacher encouraged the boys his age to do "play-acting". and they learned public speaking and self-expression. All this helped later in his career as a spy. Also he would sometimes hide from his teachers out in the woods and trap rabbits and climb trees. He would learn to be really quite and creep around to get close up to a bird or squirrel. All of this without knowing it was an invaluable education for later in life.

BP loves the sea. His brothers did too. They were always having some adventure cruising round the coast of Scotland and England at all seasons of the year. They were always getting in to trouble but this helped them gain useful experiences for life. He learned discipline, endurance of hardships and faced dangers while at sea.

BP was very talented. He performed in quite a few plays and he liked to draw. He even tried a bit of sculpture but said he just didn't have enough time to pursue this pleasure. He played the flugel horn and violin. He could also sing. He also like to make others laugh, or what he called, "giving amusement to others".

He liked to fish and shoot. He tells some really good stories about some of the adventures he goes through chasing after Pigs and killing them with a stick. Very dangerous! He always said this about Pig Sticking, "Don't knock it till you try it." I think I will pass. My favorite stories are the ones about the elephants and the Hippos. He has a great respect for Elephants and is always in awe at their abilities and intelligence. One time he was hunting a hippo in Africa. The Natives were very hungry, in fact near starvation. When hunting hippos you need to be very patient. They always come up in the same place for a breath of air. He was lying on his back to get a steadier aim and so the natives gave him the nickname "M'hlalapanzi", which means - the man who lies down to shoot. Anyway he got it right in the eye and the bullet went straight to the brain. The hippo sinks down to the bottom but eventually bobs to the surface dead. First the natives "cut a square hole in his side, just big enough to admit a man, and one man accordingly went in with a knife and fetched out all sorts of tit-bits in the way of chunks of liver, hear, etc., which he handed to his friend." He was covered with blood from head to foot. They then chopped out large chunks of raw meat and hundreds of natives came to get their piece. Many were to hungry to wait and cook it so they ate it raw. Blah!

Hunting isn't as popular now as it was back then, luckily later in life BP enjoyed Big Game Kodak-ing, for taking a picture of the animal was a very recognizable form of sport too. I like this also. Now the big game hunter can be a naturalist and can still learn invaluable lessons in the jungle. You need to be just as sneaky and quiet and patient to get the best shot on film.

BP was a scout (spy). While in the Army he would go out ahead of the main body and gain information about the enemy. To be a scout you need to be plucky, hardy, resourceful and rely on your own ability to make your way without help from others. You also need to be be courageous, energetic, cheery, hopeful, trusted and never really seeking applause for your work or service. It was very dangerous for BP to do this. Most of his scouting career was in Africa and India. He loved disguise, and learned about this in his short acting career.

One time the American press put out a story, "BADEN POWELL SHOT AS A SPY". 1916 - shot to death by English soldiers on his return to England as a German Spy. He got a big kick out of reading his epitaph. He had such a great sense of humor even about this!

Spy's need to notice the small things and reading a meaning from them: Observation and Deduction. He had a lot of fun as a soldier working as a spy. He proved to be so good at this that it helped in his career in the Army. He learned valuable lessons that he later was able to teach to others and also to young boys in the Boy Scouts program. Observation and deduction can come into use in all sorts of times in ones life.

BP records in this book all kinds of great stories about the natives and fighting or working with the people in Africa and India. He talks about the wonderful leaders he served under and how he learned something important from each one of them. He is considered a national Hero for his actions during the Siege of Mafeking in Britain. He later becomes a Inspector General of Calvary. This was a great honor and only those that work really hard and are well rounded get this position. He was in a position to make changes and help soldiers have better skills and even living conditions. He made a huge difference in many lives. After his retirement he starts the Boy Scouts and with the blessing of the King Edward VII, who thinks he can accomplish a lot more serving the young people of the world when staying in the military, he makes an even bigger impact on the world.




So in his Life Number Two the Boy Scouts are organized. There was a need, like there is today, for the youth in our nation to have Character Training. He said, "He had young men and women that could read and write and were well-behaved and smart looking in a parade but without individuality or strength of character, utterly without resourcefulness, initiative or the guts for adventure." These typed of youth would not be ready to really be good citizens of any nation. Too wimpy. "Civilization is driving Nature farther and farther out of reach of the majority, until realization of its beauties and wonders and our own affinity with God's creations, is becoming lost in the materialistic life of the crowd, with is depressing conditi9ons of work and hectic search for pleasure among man-make squalid surroundings of bricks and mortar...our sons will grow brains instead of brawn." This realization inspired BP to write the book, Aids to Scouting and then Scouting for Boys.

The Aim of the Boys Scouts is: to improve the standard of our future citizen hood, especially in Character and Health. The Attraction: Plan it around principles of being an educational Game. An education in which the boy would be insensibly led to educate himself. The Code: The Scout Law- Honor, trusted, loyal, useful, friend to all, courteous, friend to animals, obey orders, smiles and whistles under all difficulties, thrifty, and clean in thought, word and deed. The Promise:Do his duty to God and King, Do a good turn daily, Obey the Scout Law. Organization: Troops the Patrols and Packs for Cubs. I find all of this very inspiring and hopeful for our boys today too! He talks about the uniform and the Garters and the scout Badges. The Motto "Be Prepared" and the significance of the fleur-de-lys, all very facinating.

The Scouting movement just took off and Scout Troops were forming on their own all over the world by 1920's. Also BP got married and his wife was a great help in the Scouting movement. I learned that an organization was also started for girls called Girl Guides, which later becomes what we know today as the Girl Scouts.

Baden-Powell said and I paraphrase it here...that he was so lucky to live in the most interesting evolutionary epoch in the world's history, with its rapid development of motor-cars, aeroplanes, wireless, Tutenhamen, the Great War and the World convulsion and so on...and he has met with a remarkable amount of kindness everywhere, not only from friend but strangers as well. Also to have the luck to live two distinct lives, one as a soldier and bachelor and the second as a pacifist and a paterfamilias both having the common attribute of Scouting, and both intensely happy. That doesn't mean that he didn't have difficulties and trials to face, but those have been like the sprinkles on top of the icing on the cake.

Overall I have found this book surprisingly fascinating. I haven't thought about the era he lived in and the wars he fought in. I didn't realize there was so much done by British Soldiers in Africa and India so far away with such different cultures and traditions. Baden-Powell had such a rich life because he was happy. He made the best out of every situation and found the humor in situations that others would just be overcome with. He had a vision to help the young people in the world and he was in a position to make a difference so he did, despite being very old, slightly crippled and retired. He could have just sat down and drank tea but he got up and went!

This book also helped me realize that even though this is 2009 we also have a need for Scouting in our Nation. Boys are surrounded by technology and things that make life easy. They can read and write but what do they do when something is hard or challenging? Are they prepared to lead and make a difference? Are they brave and creative enough to use skills to figure hard things out in times of emergency? Scouting helps them with the things they aren't learning in a public School, it gets them out in nature and it provides opportunities to stretch a little through camping, leading their patrol or organizing service projects and carrying them out they are learning what it will take to be be a good citizen and the leaders of tomorrow. They are our future and Scouting helps them prepare!


Whole Book and I recommend it to everyone that is raising children especially if you have boy that will be a Cub Scout soon!

Kittens

I can't remember if I mentioned we have kittens. Not one but THREE!
Yesterday we finally installed the cat door so they could come and go in the garage. They won't go through the door yet but our chickens are very crafty and they seem to think the garage is their home. Silly animals.
Here they are! I can't tell the two orange ones apart yet. I think their names are Russell, Taco Spice and Pepper Tiger.

cabbage

What do you do with a purple cabbage? Science of course and then we eat it!

I pull out the handy dandy cardboard box and lots of twisty ties! I should be McGyver.

Well of course they are to hold the test tubes!

oohhh so purple... Do you know the difference between a red cabbage and a purple cabbage?

They are the same for this experiment. Which is to make a red cabbage ph indicator for acids and bases.
The purple is about a 7 and it is neutral. Add it to the other things and it changes the color. Then we compare it to a chart with a number and color.
We used common stuff around the house and placed these in the different test tubes, labeled them and gave them a number. Like lemon juice, baking soda, dish soap, spit, Tums and apple juice.. Did you know that apple juice and lemon juice have almost the same amount of acid in them? They are both not good to have sitting on your teeth.

This is the before picture.

This is the after picture.
Notice the change in color. OHHH,AHHH!!! My kids were very impressed. It gets better!


What do you do with all the cabbage after the experiment? We had only used the cabbage juice and had all the cabbage left.

Make a chocolate cake of course!


It has the same texture as coconut and you really can't even see it. You can't taste it either.

We decorated the cake for Halloween and the baby turning 8 months old and anything else we could think of to celebrate in the middle of October!

It was yummy. I swapped applesauce for the oil in the recipe because we have quite an abundance of the that stuff in the fridge at the moment so the cake was very dense.

I had lots of cabbage left STILL so we made Spring Rolls or Egg Rolls or the kids just call them Chinese food!

Yummy!


The official taster!

PIE APPLES!!!

HOW crazy are we? Super Crazy about apple pie!

This is my sister on a stool working hard for pie!


Like soilders all in a row! I can't believe how much work goes into canning!

Stayed up till 1:30am. Was it worth it? We will see on Thanksgiving day when we break open the first sealed jar of apple pie filling and savor the delicious taste.

APPLE MANIA

First convince children to pick apples! They love climbing trees!


Next try to keep them on task!


These are from the favorite tree but there are 5 trees! Saturday and Monday my brother's family and my sisters Kim & Pam mostly juiced the apples with the apple press. This time we are making applesauce and pie apples.


There are so many baskets of apples these pictures don't give the project the full prospective. PLus we cut everyone open to see that it is without worm and mold.

This is our best inspector. Apples make him drool because they taste so good!!!


At least someone was having the time of their life!

Emily Carr

What do you do when you want to paint? Invite everyone to paint! Look at these budding artists masterpieces!

We are having fun studying artists and art with our homeschool group. We took a field trip to a local neighborhood artist, around the corner from my house. Yes she is in our ward and is so very nice. We were amazed and awed at her beautiful art work. She actually has a gallery and studio in her basement! She showed us all kinds of fun things and even how she makes her famous textured ice cream cone paintings.

Then we came home and learned about Emily Carr. My favorite artist of the week...I love her paintings of the large trees in Canada! So we tried to copy her work and mostly we got a lot of paint on a lot of kids. It was fun!

Of course one of the mom's (I won't mention her name because we all know who that is and she is probably plotting ways to get back at me for blogging her picture), painted the closest thing to anything resembling Emily's trees. Fun Fun Fun!