Wayne Thiebaud The Dessert Artist

Thieboud is pronounced TEE-BO. He lives in Sacromento CA and is 90 years old. He still paints and plays Tennis!





Yummy!

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza

This was an incredible true story about surviving the worst thing ever, genocide. I don't think I will forget this story for a long time. A young woman named Immaculee Ilibagiza tells about how she survived the 1994 idyllic killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million in her country of Rwanda.

For over 3 months, she and seven other women huddled quietly together in a tiny bathroom while hundreds of killers with machetes looked for them. They were being hunted and their families were slaughtered by their neighbors and friends but they couldn't do anything but hide or else they would meet the same fate. Usually the women were raped and other evil things and when you die by a machete usually it is torture by getting your limbs chopped off and bleeding to death. It is so sad and so overwhelming I don't know how anyone could do such horrible things unless they were possessed with a bad spirit. Nazi Germany stories are bad and this story is bad.

The best part about this story is that during the time she had to go through unspeakable frighting things she was able to discover the power of prayer. She was able to be brave and prepare herself for the future. She came to know God and His great love for herself and everyone. She discovered the meaning of true unconditional love—a love so strong she was able seek out and forgive her family’s killers later in life. She was also able to help others by her example.

I was so impressed with her story. She lived through the darkest and worst things ever yet was able to not blame God but praise His name. She lost so much but gained such a unique perspective on this life and the after life by the experience. I don't know if I could do what she did and I never want to have too but I hope that I learned something from her story she was left to tell. I cried so hard reading it and I don't understand how it was allowed to happen in world we live in. I would have been graduating from Highschool going to college and then on my mission while this was all happening in Africa in her small country of Rwanda. I never heard about it. Why was it kept so secret and ignored by the world? It should have never been allowed to happen. Just like the holocaust in Germany. So sad.

Healing Book

To Kill A Mockingbird

This is a wonderful and unforgettable classic story of a little Southern town in Alabama during the 1960's. There was still so many problems with peoples behavior when it comes to equality. Black or white, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, you name it and there was problems.
The story was told by a little white girl. Her voice it so innocent yet wise as she learns about kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, and how unjust human beings can bee to each other. Where does dignity come in and the unity in the human race? The little girl grows up and learns to walk in others shoes before judging.
I love this story. I saw the movie a while back and it was pretty good too. I will look for it at the library today and view it again. This is a book you can read again and again and still get so much from.

Healing and Whole Book

Strawberry juice runs in my blood!

Today I received a flat of Strawberries for an outrageously low price. They were the biggest, reddest, Californian fresh strawberries sold by Bountiful Baskets!

So after everyone ate as many as they could for breakfast, I started making Jam.

First the freezer jam then the canned stuff. I don't know which one I like better. I like having both. My oldest son helped me make it and thinks he is entitled to eat most of it.


The next day after eating as many more strawberries as we could and having them on french toast we decided that we should make a pie. So we made two! One for the neighbors to thank them for helping me replace the section that flew off the barn this last storm and one for our family.



This strawberry pie making business brought back so many childhood memories. During strawberry season in CA my mothers fingers were always stained red.
It is from the secret ingredient in the strawberry glaze for the pies.

We would make so many pies to earn money for Scout Camp and Jamborees and whatever else the Scouts needed money for. I think we must have made over 500 pies. I didn't make them myself but it sometimes felt like it. Mountains of KFC boxes to fold, stacks of pie shells, huge vats of bubbling red glaze and of course so many flats of strawberries to wash, sort and pluck. It was pie heaven or slave labor, you decide. All done because my mother loved all her Boy Scouts and wanted them all to succeed. I liked it best because my brother would be gone for so long and not around to tease us.

These pies were special because ward members and community members bought them for 3 times the price it was to make them. I think they sold for $8.50. Now days that is nothing. They also didn't last, you either ate them fast or they would get so soggy and the strawberries would turn to rotten mush you had to chuck the whole thing. Never wait till the next day to eat. So all the pies had to be delivered immediately. My mom was really in business.

Looking back it is all like a dream. Did we really spend all that time and effort making strawberry pies? Someone pinch me quick!

The Shortstop by Zane Grey

Baseball fan? This is the book for you! Written in 1909 Zane Grey the author takes you back to the beginnings of baseball. A young boy age 17 had to quit school to earn money for his family. He worked in a factory but was getting no where so he quit and goes on a journey to follow his dreams of becoming a professional baseball player.
He catches a train and has some hard breaks but eventually finds a manager that believes in him despite his appearance. He learns the ropes of playing on a minor-league team. Wins the hearts of the town and falls in love.
The book uses a lot of the old baseball jargon and sometimes I have no idea what they are talking about but you kind of get swept up in the excitement of the game so it doesn't matter. I wish baseball today was a little like baseball back then. Now it seems to be so easy because everything has been done. Back then it was all new, the curve ball the home runs, the umpire calling a game or kicking someone out...exciting.

classic
Whole Book

The artist we just studied was? Henri Matisse

Collage by Matisse

by Matisse

by Matisse BLUE HAIR

by Bec-ster

by Child #1

by Child #2

by two super cousins

by Aunt Kami

Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn

Scary! I liked this ghost story even though I NEVER read scary books. My sister said it was worth the time to read. It was. BUT I am still scared! This was a short read, took me a few hours in two days. I think it would be good for 10 or 11 yr. olds.

I thought it was very clever how the author told the story from a little girls point of view about another little girl who see's the ghost first. The whole family is going through a hard transition. The mom remarried and the new dad has a mean daughter working through her own baggage of emotions. Everyone has to learn to love and trust each other but then there is this ghost girl! Okay I won't give it all away.. AND I love happy endings so this was a feel good book despite being so scary! Did I mention it was a scary one?

Healing Book

An Actor and a housewife by Shannon Hale

I actually liked this book. I really loved her humor. Of course it wasn't as good as her fantasy fiction type books but this one was, relate able. Not the part about the screenwriting or her husbands cancer or even being best friends with a famous Hollywood star BUT the parts where she is a housewife with kids and the day to day part of getting through it, being pregnant and post postpartum stuff... That I can relate to. I also liked how the book really made me think about my own values and what I think would be the right thing to do. I didn't agree with her on quite a few levels but at least I liked the ending. I usually don't. The funniest parts actually came from her take on utah mormons. She isn't mean just humorous and mostly right with her stereotypes. She did ramble on a lot but if you can get through that she has a good story!

Healing Book

Art class - Artist Geogia O'Keefe

Since this was the month of St. Patrick's Day I picked an American artist with connections to Ireland. Georgia O'Keefe's dad was Irish. She also died in March after living to be almost 100 yrs. old. So we kind of celebrated an anniversary. She is a wonderful artist that likes to paint it the way she sees it not the way anyone else does or wants it to be painted.




She is famous for her Large flowers painted bigger and brighter then you normally see them. She made the blossoms so big so that everyone in New York despite being in such a hurry couldn't miss them. She also liked to paint cattle skulls in the dessert. I liked these. They were very well done and actually beautiful.


Here is our art around the one picture in the book that is hers.





She also liked to draw the dessert in New Mexico where she lived most of the end of her life and she painted shells. Here is the nephew's shell drawing. I loved it!


I really enjoyed learning about this artist. She was famous before she died. Many people told her to give up, she was a girl, she was poor and she had a controlling husband BUT she didn't loose her dream to be paint what she loved and make something of herself. She did that and did it fabulously. You can learn more about her here. I love to just look at all the images of her paintings when you google her name. She inspired me so much I bought my own pastel oil paints.

Okay just one more because the colors are so brilliant!

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

This was a pretty good book. Very feminist and a murder mystery. I rarely read mystery and steer away from murder stories. This book was based on an actual murder of Grace Brown in the North Woods of Maine in 1906. It is in the voice of a young girl named Mattie and she loves words.

I love this part of the book. She has a word for each day. She then finds a way to use it despite it being abstract or super long and almost unpronounceable. She has a hard life. She is only 16 yet has to do the tasks of an adult because her mother passed away. The farm and her siblings need looking after but finds time to write and learn new words.

She has a wonderful school teacher that goes out of her way to help her academically and inspire her to see further then just living on a farm the rest of her life.
I love how the author writes about the quirky realities of woman's roles at the turn of the century. Mattie works at a resort to earn extra money during the summer, there is a nasty pervert man that all the waitresses can't stand. They can't tell on him because then they would loose their jobs or be forced to quit. They all take advantage of the opportunity to earn extra money in tips by putting up with him. Yuck! When they get back at him later he can't tell anyone either. Too weird too funny and I am glad I don't have to deal with such things.

There is a young black character who is bold and smart. He has his own problems to deal with and the consequences to face. I really like his spunk. He doesn't let his color hold him back.

There is also a family with so many children. They are poor and hungry. I felt so sorry for them. And as the story unfolds even more sorry for the position their mom puts them in. Mattie helps them whenever she can.

Mattie also has to decide about marriage. AND the same old question comes up, does he really love her or is it a marriage of convenience? Young people can be so wooed by passion. Everyone wants someone to love and to feel special. Mattie is no exception.

The murder part of the story is bizarre yet intriguing. It was a story all in itself and I liked the parts that didn't have anything to do with this story best. There is a great lesson to be learned from the dead girls life so because of that I'm glad it was in the "story" even though it was supposed to be the story.

Broken Book, Healing Book

Sapphire Flute: The Wolfchild Saga By Karen E. Hoover

This was such a good book! My 12 year old son and I both read it and enjoyed it! I can’t wait for the next book to come out and this book wasn't released yet when I read it! I received an advanced reader’s edition from Valor Publishing Group and was asked to just tell what I thought about the book on my blog. I am not getting paid to do this but I kind of feel like I should pay them for giving me this sneak peak because it was just so much fun to read this book ahead of everyone!

Karen Hoover's novel, The Sapphire Flute, is the first in The Wolfchild Saga. It was released on March 16, 2010, so you can get it on Amazon here.

A brief overview of the book by the publisher: The world of Rasann is dying. The mages in the land have been working together to weave their magic into a net to hold the world in one piece, but those cords are breaking down. They need a white mage, the rarest of them all, to step in and take over where they are falling down, but there hasn’t been a white mage for over three thousand years. Their only hope lies in finding the magic keystones, long hidden, which will bind the world together.
Kayla has been given charge of one of those keystones, the Sapphire Flute, and been told not to play it. Along will come another, destined to play the flute and bring the magic within it to life. She has never met this player, and has no idea where to find such a person.
In the meantime, Ember has discovered a secret – her father had the ability to shift himself into the shape of a wolf, and she has that gift as well. When she takes upon herself her new appearance, quite by accident the first time, she discovers a family she never knew she had.
Lurking behind it all is C’Tan, the sorceress. She wants the keystones for herself, and she will stop at nothing to get them.
“The Sapphire Flute” is Karen E. Hoover’s first publication, and is the first of a series of seven. A new book in the series will be published each spring.

My review...

I think the book was definitely written for teens. It was complex in its own way yet has a simple innocence to the characters. It is basically a Fantasy Fiction book about two girls. One girl comes of age to get her magical powers. She has all kinds of problems with her mom, ends up going on an adventure far from home and luckily meets some people on the way that become her friend and help her get to the right place at the right time. She finds out interesting things about her father and mother which really change her world. I like this character the best. She is set up to really do some interesting things. I can't imagine what but can't wait to find out in the next books...

Parallel to her story is the story about the other girl. She plays a flute and wants to be important in society. She is really talented and has a handsome cool boyfriend. She is also spoiled in many ways. She receives something from the king that changes her life. Can you guess what it is? She also meets up with some interesting, people that help her on her dangerous journey. She really needs some help because she doesn't know much when it comes to ruffing it on a dangerous adventure in the outdoors!

I found the book to have MANY side characters. They had such different and imaginative names that I had to make a list to keep track. The book went back and forth each chapter between the two girl’s adventures. This was a bit annoying but I stuck with it. They have different cultures. There was some new terminology for their native lands, plus all the people around them were interwoven into the story in their own complex way. This book really moved along. This really kept it interesting for me. My advice, pay attention or it gets all mixed up in your head.

This first book in the saga seemed to have a lot of foreshadowing for stuff that will come later in the series...A little hint here and a tad bit there. I think the two girls will eventually meet up so they can accomplish their goals, which possibly is to take out the bad guys and save the world. BUT that didn’t happen in this book yet, maybe it won't. Anyway that is just my guess. There will probably be a few more characters to meet up with and of course there are some smaller bad guys to defeat along the way. One main evil magician, of course needs to be annihilated in the end, but we will see!

I really can’t wait to read what with unfold next! I loved the book! Imagination has no limits. I hope you will love this one too!

Here is the site where you can order a copy of the Sapphire Flute and one to learn about the author here.

Almost Super - A Novel by Matthew Buckley

Matthew Buckley's third book!

I really am excited to read this book. If anyone has ever read a book by this author then you know what I mean when I say it will make you roll on the floor laughing! They are funny, creative and full of imagination that both children and adults love. The first one was Chickens In The Headlights and the second was Bullies In The Headlights. This third book needs a little help getting published. Please take some time to check out the links and listen to a part of the first chapter.

Weekly Art class With the Kids

We love to learn about art and then create. We never know what the kids will come up with after we have learned about the artist's life and their creations.


Here is the time we studied Dali.



We learned about Egyptian Art.

The kids had fun with clay.




Grandma Moses! This was very interesting. She painted very flat and simple yet way more complex then you would think. We found this out as we tried to make our own landscapes.




This is Grandpa Tom's backyard with the row of grapevines down at the bottom of the hill. Painted by child #2.

And here is the delicious Apple Pie (homemade preserved filling) that number 4 child helped me make. We forgot to take a picture when it was cooked. It was delicious!


These are called Tuna Twirls. The recipe is a favorite old time college casserole. The kids like to make it and actually eat it because by the time it is made they are so hungry they would eat anything.



Tuna Cheese Twirls
3 Tab. Chopped onion (can used dried)
1 teaspoon Salt (I leave this out)
1 1/2 cup milk (this was too much)
1 can tuna drained
1 Cup peas or other veggie
1 Tab. Butter melted
6 Tab Flour
2 Cans chicken or mushroom condensed soup

Saute the onions. Combine sauce ingredients and pour into 9X13 casserole pan. Mix Biscuits. Roll dough 1/4 " thick. Sprinkle wtih 1/2 C Cheese. Roll up like a jelly roll. Cut in to 1/2 " slices. Place over sauce in pan. Bake 350 F for 30 min. or until browned.

Biscuits:
2 C. Flour (add a bit more when rolling out.)
1/2 Tsp. salt
1/4 C. Butter
3/4 C. Milk or less
3 tsp. Baking Powder

Bountiful Baskets

I have been meaning to share this for a while. There is this crazy food co-op in Utah called Bountiful Baskets. I think it is produce from Arizona or something. It only makes sense to buy fruits and veggies with BB instead of at the grocery store if you have a drop off really close to your home otherwise it is a waste of gas. Luckily mine is just down the road about three miles without any stoplights.

Every 2 weeks (some drops are weekly) we make a mad dash to register for a basket online. The area I am in it fills up in less then 20 min. so I usually miss it. BUT luckily my visit and teacher sits at her computer and as soon as it is open to register for our area she buys a basket for herself and one for me!

Here is what we got the first time around:

We Loved the strawberries! And the huge Pomelo's were pretty good! They are a Thailand citrus fruit.

This is what we got the second time:

My kids were excited about the asparagus. We had Salmon and the asparagus spears with potatoes and fresh lemon squeezed on eat bit.

I liked the food co-op we did in Berkeley when we lived there. It always had weird veggies to add to a stir fry. And with this Bountiful Baskets co-op I also had some weird things to make a stir fry with. My kids of course make a lot of noise about this but most of it gets eaten. This time we had Swiss Chard. I would have never bought this from a store but since it came in the box, it went in the stir fry!



Yes we did use chop sticks and this makes a stir fry tons of fun. I spend half the clean up time picking up the rice on the floor but that is okay.

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Fantastic, which honestly was a surprise to me.
Tarzan was a little more savage then the old television shows portrayed. He ate raw meat and murdered cannibals mercilessly. The girl part had a bit more the the story too. I always thought she had taught him to speak English but he actually doesn't speak English but French and was taught by a guy he rescued in the jungle.
Some of the story just doesn't add up. Like teaching yourself to read and write but never hearing the language before. I don't think so. And then the whole going to
America thing...well that was a bit much. Anyway the book did have a bunch of interesting things about the jungle and a whole lot of adventure.

Healing book

The View From The Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts

oohhh, a mystery! I haven't read one of these in a while. This one was scary and better then a Nancey Drew! (I loved her books when I was little.)
My sister recommended this book. I think she has good taste in murder mystery books. My son liked this one too, he is 12.
So how would it feel to be the only witness of a murder and NO one will listen to you or take you seriously when you try to tell. The boy in this story is smart and always overlooked, except by the old lady neighbor. His sister is getting married and he has had enough of wedding planning and stressing. He hides in the cherry tree out of the way and his cat is his only friend. I like that he keeps his head in the end and the jar of spiders came in really handy.

This was a short read and a page turner!

Healing Book

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney

This was a fast read and very suspenseful. A girl is just minding her own business eating lunch at school and looks down at the little milk carton. The girl pictured there was kidnapped and it is herself! She is about age three wearing a little spotted dress. She remembers the dress and all kinds of memories in tiny pieces start coming back to her. Yikes! What would you do? She doesn't know who to believe. Are her parents really her parents or just lying to her? Should she call the hot line and ask about the little girl?
She has a neighbor boy that she falls in love with and sadly this is where the story goes downhill. She is only 15 and he is 17 but they can't get sex out of their heads. Really the story could have been so much better if they weren't so fixated on this during the whole mess she is going through. Luckily he was a true friend and helped her to the end.
oh and talk about the ending! I hated it! Still the story was hard to put down and it was an enjoyable book to read despite being a bit juvenile and girlish. My son hated it.

broken, healing book

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This was an amazing book! I loved the way the author told the story in the voice of a colored women in the 1960's. She brought the whole mess in Mississippi to new light. This was such an inspired story about Blacks and Whites living in the same town yet living in two different worlds. Their is an an imaginary line drawn between most of the people in Jackson Mississippi and a few courageous women attempt to erase that line.
The best character in the book is Minny. A 50 year old colored lady that has been taking care of white peoples babies for years. When they get older she finds a new family because she loves the babies. She is a Maid and like the other Maids in the story she usually has to walk on pins and needles and do everything right or she will simply get fired. In the story she helps a little girl that has a mama that doesn't love her very much feel important and loved.
I also liked the one White lady, Miss Skeeter that puts her whole life on hold to stand up for what she believes is an injustice. She writes a book that crosses the line but makes a powerful statement about how we are all just people and need to get along.
The book really made me think about the past that wasn't so long ago and prejudices that I never have had to deal with in my life. It is hard to imagine a time when colored people had to use separate bathrooms and weren't allowed to eat at the same places as whites. It is hard to imagine people thinking it is just normal to talk down to someone or think of themselves as superior to another human being just because of color. It is ridiculous to me. But it really did happen and really does happen and I think it is evil.
I couldn't put this book down for three days it was so intertwined with the story of about a dozen women all living in the same place yet all having a different perspective as their lives intertwined.

Whole Book, Healing Book

Letters From Rifka by Karen Hesse

This book won the National Jewish Book Award. It was well written and had great details from a little girls perspective of her family fleeing Russia. It is written in small letters to her cousin literally in a poetry book on all the empty pages and on the edges. So it comes through like a journal.
The girl Rifka doesn't get to board the ship to America so her family has to leave her while she recovers from her sickness. She is very compassionate and makes friends easily. She is also gifted with language and learns to speak a few different ones including English. She has so much courage and perseverance despite all the hardship a little immigrant girl has to go through.

Whole Book, Healing Book

Speaker For The Dead by Orson Scott Card

This was a complex Science Fiction book written as a sequel to Ender's Game. This one isn't for children because it has a few more adult themes. (Really adults don't want to read about these things either!) Anyway despite it being a bit graphic when it comes to "murder" in the alien part of the book it was interesting to imagine the world Card creates for our reading enjoyment. Where does he come up with this stuff?

So in this book, without giving much away, Ender is thousands of years old but because of space travel is only 35. He travels to different worlds populated by humans to Speak the truth for the dead. He finds out everything he can about a person that died and then spells it all out, the good, the bad and what the person could have been but didn't. This is in place of a eulogy.

He wrote a book about the Hive Queen (the alien leader whose world he blew up without knowing he was really doing it or destroying a whole alien race). This story is the truth and people all over the Hundred Worlds in the universe read it and kind of start a following or religion. They don't know Ender wrote it because he just signed it Speaker For The Dead. Anyway, he gets invited to a planet that has another alien race and saves the day! (can't give away the story here). He also finds another alien and becomes friends with her.

Overall the book was complex and mysterious. I think it should have been called Ender Holmes Science Fiction Mystery. But it is just classified SF. I think it would be really weird to live on a planet other then Earth.

HEALING BOOK

Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton

A Story of Comfort in Desolation - Copyright-1948. This was a very good, old book, but a true feel for the place and time it was written. The author is African. It is hard at first to read because of the Zulu words and the broken English yet it still flowed enough to keep reading. I am glad I did. It is full of religion, culture and tradition. The feeling you get right from the beginning is of mourning and sadness. It doesn't get better for a long time. A man, a humble priest, takes a journey to gather his family and finds heartache around every corner, not only for his family but for his nation.

He discovers his sister is without her husband and has a child. She is involved in prostitution and making illegal alcohol. Her friends are not good for her or her child. He talks her into leaving that life and letting him take her and her son back to his tiny village. (She doesn't end up going but the child does.) Then he tracks down his son but in the process finds sad realities of poverty and crime all around. They are in Johannesburg, South Africa and to this man, who is getting old it is a very big city and full of confusing new things. Really nice people along the way go out of their way to help him on his quest. The city has so many people living there that houses are not made fast enough so people live in shacks and near the sides of railroads. He finds his son finally and an unmarried girl with child. The son gets arrested for murder and the child that he got pregnant (she was only like 13 or something) goes with him back his village and his sweet wife so he can help her and the unborn grandson. Before they leave he arranges with friends in the church to have his son marry her. But the story now gets more complex because the man's son murdered coincidentally the son of a rich white man that lives near their village. They know each other. This is when the story really gets good because we see how lives can change and the power of forgiveness in each person, when given the opportunity to make something right, can make a difference. Despite prejudices and broken hearts healing can take place. The rich man is touched by some of the writing his dead son had been working on and had a dream that the rich man tries to make a reality. He helps the people in the humble village and tries to help his grandson see what South Africa is really like not what other white children learn. He wants to show compassion and love through serving all men not just white men but black men too.

I really liked this story. I think the author did a great job making us understand individuals and choices that connect us together despite being strangers in the same world. We are all connected and children of God, white, black, rich or poor, uneducated or learned. We also see how the consequences of an action have effects on generations to come. They can't be fixed overnight but take time and love. Also it takes people to speak out and take a stand when they know something is wrong or right.

The book was written at a time of great political problems...There was no equality between white and blacks in South Africa, boycotts on buses and strikes in the mines were attempted. Shanty Town was erected and gold was found in Odendaalsrust, which made the economy turn upside down for a while. Also people were out of work and schools were not big enough to hold all the children that needed an education. Gangs were started. There was no common belief or bind to hold the people and families together after they left their small villages ruled by a chief and drifted to the cities that were too full to notice another hungry person. A complete break down in society right under everyone's nose. The jails were full and times were hard. BUT their were churches and Christians trying to make a difference. Followers of these faiths and missionaries continued to try to make a dent in the lives of God's children. They put aside color. They reached out to the poor and lifted the hearts of the people they touched. Even though I am not catholic I was impressed with the change in others when they found Christ.

This is a WHOLE and HEALING book. I recommend it for reference if you are studying Africa or apartheid or interested in gaining a testimony of the atonement of Christ.

Degas

We studied a little bit about Degas. He sure liked ballerinas! It was fun using the oil paints and cotton balls to blend and smear.

I know it is nothing like the master painter but the kids had fun. That is what I call a successful lesson on art. Where else will they get to do this?


Of course the little beggar boy always has fun! He is so smiley lately. Sometimes he just starts cracking up at the littlest things. His laugh is of course contagious and then everyone is having fun and is happy!

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

This is the third time I read the book, only I didn't read it this time. I listened. We got it from the library on CD. It was very very well read...had the voices and stuff. I loved it again! I think I understood a few more parts this time because when reading it in my head I get everyone all mixed up sometimes. The different people reading made them different people so it was much more entertaining and understandable to me.

My daughter listened too and we made Hemp Bead Bracelets and ignored the little kids. She didn't get everything and said there was way too many bad words. I think there was bit too much potty humor but they were little boys so what do you expect.

I think I will read, Speaker of the Dead. It is the sequel or at least the second book. There are so many I am not sure which ones I already read. And since we are talking about it...I think I might read Empire again. That was a really good one that recently came out by Card.

Ender's Game: Almost Whole and Healing book

Monet

I sure learn a lot when I teach a class about something I didn't know anything before I started. Thursday I taught a little class on Monet and Impressionism. I have looked at all kinds of websites and checked out a bunch of books and now my dreams are filled with reflection of light and waterlilies! I really have not ever had a chance to study the great artists before. I always pursued singing and sports over drawing and painting. The more I learn the more fascinating it all is to me.



These are a few of the finished products. We used sponges and taped off the bridge, that is why it is so white. It would be fun to try this again with what we learned from this first time attempt. The kids of course painted as fast as they could and then ran off to play.

The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck

My 12 yr. old son read this book the other day when he ran out of things to read. He said it was so sad and he cried. So I finally got around to reading it. Each time I took a break from reading to get a snack he reminded me how sad it was. Okay, It was Sad! I cried too but there was also this really important happy part about the book...forgiveness and love. So just because it is sad don't pass on this book...just like life work through the sad parts and get to the happiness just on the other side of the cornfield! AND never treat homemade gifts lightly.

Agent In Old Lace by Tristi Pinkston

This was a really good book! I wasn't sure at first because it was LDS Fiction but I was happily surprised at how fun it was to read. In fact I couldn't put it down because it was quite suspenseful and a bit scary. It also had a little romance in there too.
The story starts out with a kidnapping, which alone was really scary and makes you take a look at your own life. Today I even looked around suspiciously at people in the Wal-mart parking lot wondering if they were following me or going to stuff me in their car at gunpoint. I also thought through some made up scenarios in my mind on getting away from a bad person. I wondered if I would be able to keep a cool head and not just panic or freeze out of fright. In the book the lady that was kidnapped, Shannon, does keep her cool and she is scared but still is able to escape. She has a lot of trust in God and prays that she will be able to get through some tough parts and be inspired to know what to do. She remembers things that she has read or learned about what to do in case of the type of danger so she is prepared. Most of the things didn't work but she doesn't give up and eventually something works.
I really like Shannon because she isn't like the oh so popular Belle in the Vampire books which everyone can't seem to get over lately, who is so helpless and silly relying on someone else to always save her. Unlike her Shannon in Agent In Old Lace is self confident and smart. She does what she has to do and keeps her head. Yes she does have a handsome guy that saves her a few times but it doesn't cripple her or the story. He even teaches her some self defense moves so she can even feel more empowered just in case she needs to fight off a sociopath of course.
The story moves right along, it is a bit predictable yet it is written well enough so you get caught up in the story and you don't spend time second guessing the mysteries too much. When I was close to the end I gave a great sigh of a relief when a part came together yet it wasn't the end yet...there was a few more chapters clearing up a few left over details that were intertwined throughout the story from the beginning. It was a like a little bonus.
As for the author doing her homework on the Utah gun laws, well I'll have to give her credit for coming a long way to know what a clip and a magazine were but I am pretty sure you don't need a permit for a shotgun or even to use a firearm on your own property, especially in self-defense. I could be wrong but anyway, minor detail. The FBI in the story sure aren't very professional sometimes also.
Like I said, this was a fun, easy and imaginative book to read. I am looking forward to reading more books by Tristi Pinkston. She has a few historical fiction books out. They look really interesting and I will let you know when I read them!

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Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt

Wow, this was a good book about the Civil War. It was told by a small boy's perspective but it was far from simple. I learned a bunch from reading this about the war and about Pres. Lincoln and what the people thought of the leadership of Generals making good and bad decisions. So many people died! It is a good crash course in American History-Civil War era. The book was written from old letters and researched very well, it is a bit of family lore and historical fiction all together. It covers what communities and families went through as their sons and husbands were sent off to fight. Sometimes they fought against each other, one brother on the Confederate side and a brother on the Union. The political and economic mess was really intense. Five years is a long time to fight a war. Unlike today the news sometimes takes a long time to get to families and into the papers. Most of the people waited and waited for letters or word from someone, anyone, telling how their loved was were.
The young boy in the story is really very intelligent. He is too young to go to war but he grows up really fast as he takes on the farm work left by his brothers. His dad gets sick and he has to take on even more. He has learned to read and takes an interest in following the war through the newspapers. He tracks the war on a map and can explain things to his mom and family.
The book was a bit hard to get into because of the authentic dialect from down Illinois back in the 1860's but it was worth getting over that and reading to the end.

HISTORY CLASSIC - WHOLE BOOK

The Promise by Chaim Potok

Well, this 2nd book is nothing like the first book (The Chosen). I did enjoyed it but not as much as the first. So if we don't compare them then I would say it was a good book, not great but educational and interesting. The Promise helps you understand Jewish culture more and psychology. Yep, therapy and the mind...all in a story about Jewish boys growing up in the USA (Brooklyn) right after WWII. The characters are older and going to college now. They have to make choices that effect their lives but also their families and surprisingly their communities. They take a look at their own standing in the religion they grew up in to make some hard choices about the future! I think this is a good book but not exactly on my classics list like the first one.

HEALING BOOK

The Dred Scott Decision by Bonnie Lukes

I picked this book up at the library after reading about the ridiculous way British parliament went about abolishing the slave trade in Britain. Well, seems the court systems in America at the time was just as ridiculous. It took 11 years for Dred Scott to finally get his freedom and it wasn't from a court decision but because he changed owners and was set free.
This book was from the Famous Trials series. The authors take a case and go over the history, include newspaper clipping, time lines and pictures to help it make more sense. Then as you walk through the case step by step. After all of that I conclude that it is a fact that America has a really shoddy history when it comes to common sense and equal rights. Sure it wasn't anything new but to be reminded of stupidity always makes me mad all over again.
The Supreme court was full of wicked greedy men and the lawyers were biased because of being from the South. So many people suffered and yet everyone drug their feet. Sad, very sad. Happily the Civil War was full of courageous people willing to step forward in the name of Freedom for everyone, not only the whites but all colors. Sadly the Civil War was full of death. Happily we can look at history and not repeat the mistakes of the past.

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Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery by Eric Metaxas

If you liked the movie then this book is the rest of the story! The movie really down plays Wilberforce's relationship with God and the influence it had on the decisions he made in life. It also leaves tons of interesting things out but the book helps fill in the gaps. One thing I didn't like was how all the other people that helped Wilberforce like the Champlain group, they were kind of skimmed over. I bet they each have an inspiring story to tell all by themselves. Abolishing the slave trade in Britain was a group effort. Wilberforce was a key player but he wouldn't have got far without his connections and the hard work of so many others.

The Book takes you all the way from Wilberforce's childhood, schooling, friends and then helps you understand why he didn't just give up on his life long pursuit of abolishing the slave trade in Britain despite a lot of defeat and disapointment. He literally changed the world by his actions, letters and speeches. He rallied countless people to good causes and changed the way society thought not just changing a law here or there but actually changed a way of thinking and the old wicked traditions around him. He didn't only go after slave trade but also prison reform, animal rights, and really gross things like hangings, burnings and public dissections.
His faith was strong and unshakable. He truly wanted to walk in Jesus footsteps and found that he could do this best by serving in politics at a time when parliament was dirty and self promoting. He changed this too!
This book wasn't just interesting historically it was also makes you really look at your own life and realize maybe you could be a change for good in your own community. He never lost sight of the goal and even to the last he hoped that he had done enough to make it to heaven.

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The Chosen by Chaim Potok

This was a great re-read! Potok is such a good writer! I enjoyed the book all over again and learned new stuff about Jews and the history.
The novel takes place in Brooklyn. Too boys of different Jewish sects meet while playing baseball. World War II has just begun. The boys should have been enemies but they become BEST friends. They are almost opposite when it comes to home life. Their dads both love them but raise them so differently it is hard to imagine. They both love to read but one does it in secret and one does it without a second thought. The story takes you through the tough times in each of their lives and brings them together through their education and the study of the Torah. I highly recommend this book for a new perspective on Jewish life in America.

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My 2009 completed books!

My goal is to read 50 books each year. Here are all the books I read in 2009. I wanted to make sure I didn't just read children books but a few hefty classics and politics/history/biographies... Well, I got a few of those in but still read a lot of great children books! I also really enjoy the book groups I belong to. They help me to get some variety into my reading too.
Last years list.2008

This Years...
2009 Reading list

1.A Town Called Charity by Blaine and Brenton Yorgason
2.Forest Born by Shannon Hale
3.Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom
4.Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
5.Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
6.We The Living by Ayn Rand
7.Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by June Chang
8.The Quiet Little Woman: A Christmas Story by Louisa May Alcott
9.Lessons from the Varsity of Life by Robert Baden-Powell
10.re-read: Pride and Prejudice by Austen
11.re-read: An Assembly such as this by Aidan
12.Bullies in the Headlights by Mathew Buckley
13.Chickens in the Headlights by Matthew Buckley
14.The Blue Sword by Robin Mckinley
15.HOST by Stephanie Meyer
16.Julie of The Wolves by Jean Craighead George
17.The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour
18.5,000 year leap by Skousen
19.re-read: Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
20.Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
21.Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
22.The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
23.Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
24.I Don't Have to Make Everything All Better by Gary Lundberg and Joy Lundberg
25.The Law by Frederick Bastiat
26.A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana by Haven Kimmel
27.The Case Against the Fed by Murray N. Rothbard
28.Empire by Orson Scott Card
29.History of Hyde Park in Utah's Cache Valley, 1860-1990 by Dale Z Kirby
30.These Three Remain: A novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan
31.Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan
32.Sarah by Orsen Scott Card
33.The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread DiCamillo, Kate
34.Daddy Long Legs Webster, Jean
35.The Hero and the Crown McKinley, Robin
36.For One More Day Albom, Mitch
37.Hush Woodson, Jacqueline
38.The Littlest Angel Tazewell, Charles
39.The Walking Drum L'Amour, Louis
40.Jonathan Livingston Seagull Bach, Richard
41.The Redheaded Princess: A Novel Rinaldi, Ann
42.Princess Academy Hale, Shannon
43.The Omnivore's Dilemma Pollan, Michael
44.The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
45.The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
46.Christmas Oranges retold by Linda Bethers
47.One Special Star by Anita Mcfadzean
48.The Littlest Christmas Elf by Nancy Buss
49.One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth
I am still reading the last book but should have it finished before the New Year!
50.The Chosen by Chaim Potok

A Town Called Charity by Blaine and Brenton Yorgason

This was an interesting book of short stories about making decisions. I found a few of them to be very profound and thought provoking. I picked up this book at the DI for my son but read it before I passed it to him.
The last story in the book was about a Town Called Charity. You would have thought a town with a name like that would be very charitable but when a "tramp" comes to town we learn what is really in everyone's hearts and minds. The town learns a lesson and in the end Charity is found again.
I like books with moral lessons and things that make you take a look at your own life. Even thought these were simple and very LDS they all were unique and interesting.

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Forest Born by Shannon Hale

This is the fourth book in the Goose Girl Series. I liked it a lot! It wasn't as dark as the one before. It also had all the characters from the books before but this one was written from the perspective of a new character, Rinna. It was also pretty humorous in some parts. It was also very unpredictable.


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Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom

I thought I already blogged this book but I guess I didn't. It was a good one for Christmas month. I liked the fact that Mitch wrote about his thoughts on being a Jew and his ideas about Christian faiths from the point of view different then mine. I also liked that he wrote about a man that changed his life around, completely around and became a priest helping others that were just like him before he changed. It was also interesting to find out more about the Jewish faith.

Whole book.

The Christmas Spirit

The Christmas Spirit

Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien

Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien



This one is a page turner! It was so scary! The end of the world and you don't get to pick who you are stuck with, or do you? I don't want to give anything else away. If you like reading about the end of the world -- well this one is a good. It is written from the prospective of a teenage girl. She is very innocent and naive.

I think there is a movie out too...anyone seen it?

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Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

This book had a lot of flaws when it came to planned home birth with a midwife in this century but it certainly had a page turner story to tell.

The events are laid out by Connnie, an OB/GYN Doctor and daughter of Sibyl Danforth, the midwife who is on trial. She is remembering what happened when seh was 13. The event was to be a normal home birth of Charlotte Bedford's second child. A few things in the birth process changed for the worst, and Sibyl, unable to get to the hospital due to a snow storm did an emergency cesarean section to save Charlotte's baby. Charlotte's husband, and Anne, the inexperienced assistant were present during the unfortunate incident but had different opinions to what happened. The jury must now decide if Sibyl Danforth performed the cesarean section while Charlotte was alive, thus killing her because of a massive hemorrhage or if she was already dead before she saved the babies life. Hero or manslaughter?

I think the author did a good job trying to tell what it was like to give birth and from a girls perspective too, but he failed to knock out some stereo types. Midwives and their clients are not all hippies wearing long dresses and hugging everyone. In fact most now days aren't at all like that. Not all teenagers smoke weed behind their parents backs and they don't all drink, smoke and think about sex all the time! I guess he just doesn't think very highly of that age group or women that don't follow the crowd to the hospital.

The trial was interesting because it kind of helped me get a sense of the different strategies lawyers use to stack the jury and time things just right for psychological dramatic effect in the courtroom. So many small details go into each trial. The lives of the people on trial are changed or destroyed by what seems like powerful people...the lawyers. They are either defending or prosecuting and if they make a mistake lives are changed forever. The lawyer in this book seemed really on top of things but so did his opponent. I really didn't know who would win until the very very end of the book. Suspenseful!

For fictional light reading I think the book was okay but to learn about midwives and home birth, I think I would stick to the real thing. The truth about birth goes much deeper then a murder trial or a teenagers perspective on the world. I have used midwives with three of my babies births and have found the whole experience to be enlightening, peaceful, and educational. I was very thankful for the wonderful midwives that have passed through my life and helped me find joy in the process of getting my little ones here. I wouldn't have done it any other way despite the pros and cons that can sometimes seem scary. I think the risks would have been greater for me to have my babies in a hospital. Thank goodness we live in a time where Medical professionals and midwives have so much technology at their fingertips. Birth is a natural thing!

Healing Book, Broken Book

We The Living by Ayn Rand

Another communism book but one worth thinking about. I think the whole love triangle thing was a bit much but I found her political views to be very enlightening. She not only goes after the Communist but all dictatorships, socialist schemes and fascists in the world. It is a book about Man against the State. I am always so surprised how much was hidden from the rest of the world, especially Americans, when the communist parties came into power. They sure got away with a lot of evil things in the name of something supposedly grand and better. I think through books like these we can remember the past and be prepared not to fall into the same traps in the future.

Leonard Peikoff gives an excellent introduction to the book. Here are a few ideas that were interesting. The three forms of destruction that Ayn Rand gives to the characters in her book are: The higher and stronger individual is broken, but not conquered. The one with less resistance is broken and untouched. Those who believed in the ideal are broken by the realization of what that ideal really means.
One character gave his life to a lie and commits suicide. One lives for his values but in the end his life is so unendurable and he can't find the balance between mind and force. He ends up drowning in his mind and doesn't care or know what is being done to him. That is like a living death, a drawn out suicide. The third is to flee. This is what the main character eventually is able to do just as the author did in her own real life. (she imigrated to America from Russia in 1926.)

I also loved the way the plot was twisted, usually the virtuous girl sells herself to the villain in order to save the hero. Ayn Rand thought: Wouldn't it be interesting if the man to whom the girl sells herself is not a villain but a hero and the man for whom she makes her sacrifice is a villain in the end? hmmm, very unpredictable when reading along then wham that isn't how you think it will be. BUT I would like to add that Ayn Rand's standards are not the highest nor does she have a reputation for Christian morals or anything like them so what I find even more ironic is the fact that the virtuous girl isn't even virtuous but in Rand's world maybe she was. In my real world she is way below the virtuous mark and I wouldn't have put her in that category or even used that word to describe her. I certainly wouldn't want my girls to aspire to be like her. So my point...the book is a bit on the BENT & BROKEN side. Bad is good and good is bad.

Ayn Rand said that she wrote the book so that it "might do it's share in helping to prevent a socialist America".

Broken - Bent-- Healing

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.

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