It's beeeen a looooong tiiime....

Old country.... warms the soul.

So, does this thing still work? Do people still blog? Is anyone out there?

2012: Mission Complete

We did it!!!!! We made it!!!!! What an accomplishment!!!!!
The one real resolution I had for this past year was to read one book a month. I also had the intent of having a happiness focused mindset and living in the present. I really did accomplish a change in my mindset. That has been life changing. But, I am most proud of my book list....

2012 Book List

*Percy Jackson Book 1, 2, 3, 4- great read aloud series with the boys!! Educational, moral lessons, and exciting. Even Leyton likes them!

*My So-Called Life as a Proverbs 31 Wife by Sara Horn- felt redundant, reads like a blog- a really long winded blog. Take away: Focus on God and everything else will fall into place. Pray to be the wife and mother that God wants you to be, without your own agenda or selfishness.

*Matched- very well written story. I enjoyed this more than other fiction I’ve tried to read recently (Mortal Instruments, Vampire Diaries)

*Crossed (Matched book 2)- couldn’t get into the story. It was slow and pointless. Had it for a month from the library and didn’t even get thru it. Returned it and will try again another month…

*Things I Wish I’d Known Sooner by Jaroldeen Edwards—good, with some interesting reminders & ideas

*The Secret Holocaust Diary – This book was a really good read. It was very difficult because of the reality of the brutality of the war. Its eye-opening and historic perspective make it a must read. It is not the “happy ending” type of memoir. It is well written which makes it heartbreaking.

*Pride & Prejudice – made it half way through… I don’t know what it is about this book, well, maybe I do know… I already know the story! They did such a great job on the movie --it mirrors the book so closely-- I can’t stand to read the book!! It feels like a waste!! I have the same issue with the first Harry Potter book. I can’t seem to get through the first few chapters because it is word for word the same as the movie. Bleck! But, I absolutely LOVE the story! I love the change in both Lizzy and Mr. Darcey. I love the way Lizzy’s parents remind me of my own. There is so much about this story to love, making it a classic.

*No One Can Take Your Place- eh. Good premise, not a favorite.

*Believing Christ- Excellent book, so many poignant truths that I need to be reminded of often

*Leadership 101 series by JC Maxwell- (Leadership 101, and Attitude 101, Mentoring 101) are excellent!!!!

Les Miserables- currently reading. Known as a tremendous story of grace and love. The part I have made it through has detailed the sacrificial life of the bishop and has inspired me already to live off of less and look more to the needs of others.

*Escape by Carolyn Jessops- oh my heavens. This was an eye-opening and fabulous book!! She has such amazing strength of character to be able to see the truth of the situation she was in and to seek a way out. I literally could not put this book down. It is the first one in a long time that I stayed up until 1:00 am to read. This is a book that will reveal details of the truth within a horrible cult and remind you that when you reach out to face your biggest challenge, you can always find support. It was not easy for her, but she knew she was doing the right thing and I cannot even bare to imagine the end result had she been so brainwashed to have accepted the lies she was being told and submitted to her husband’s selfish will.  Truly a great story.

*Triumph by Carolyn Jessops- This book is very redundant to Escape. I wish she had provided something new or different in this book, especially considering so many of the people involved she knew personally. It simply felt like the same story, the same details, the same perspective repeated.

*An Unlikely Friendship by Ann Rinaldi- Good. I did not like the shift of narration in each section, but overall a very interesting read. Chronicles the lives and friendship of Mary Todd Lincoln and her servant Elizabeth Keckley. I have on my ‘to read list’ the full biography of Elizabeth Keckly as I saw it at the library recently. Should prove to be quite interesting.

*The Parenting Breakthrough by Merrilee Boyack- excellent book of suggestions and ideas that have inspired me to be more of a teacher to my boys in every single way.

*The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis- I consider this to be a heavy read because it takes my focus and attention more than other books. When I just breeze through it, I find myself lost, but when I put forth the effort to think about what is NOT being said but implied, it is incredibly very applicable! It is a perennial reminder of the snares the surround us.

*Mormonism: A life under false pretenses- eye opening although poorly narrated. Great resource of FULL Mormon history. Considered anti-mormon literature ONLY BECAUSE IT TELLS THE WHOLE STORY! Mormons are only told one side of the history and taught that anything more is evil, of the devil and to be avoided. That is where the ‘life under false pretenses’ comes in, if the church would accept the schetchy parts of the history, apologize, and then look forward, it would be completely different. Ignoring, condemning and falsifying the true history is where deceit takes over. The truly sad part is that so very many are clueless to the full history or accept it as ‘mistakes made’ without asking their leaders to acknowledge it as well. The leaders of the church force silence on the matter and that is wrong.

*When Godly People do Ungodly Things by Beth Moore. Excellent book. I love love love her conversational tone. I think she bases her opinions on scripture and she hits the nail on the head. Her perspective on seduce proofing your life is timely and useful and applicable. A must read for everyone; particularly those who are seeking God, as the title indicates.

*Crazy Love- describes the true meaning of being a disciple of Christ. Now to align my life every way that I can.

*The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale- great story, captivating, unique. Grabbed my attention and never let go.

*Enna Burning- not as good as goose girl, but an interesting read

*Third book of Bayern- did not finish, too boring

*The Book of Mormon Girl by Joanna Brooks- excellent memoir which chronicles her conflict between her beliefs in true equality of human rights vs. the outdated yet highly funded dogma of a church she also believes. NOT anti-mormon literature. Open your mind a little if you instantly judge it as such.

*The Mysterious Benedict Society – What a fun book! The author draws you in with an omnipresent/ 1^st person point of view, the story unfolds at just the right pace to keep you anticipating the next chapter and the characters are just unpredictable enough to keep you guessing. The premise of the story is a group of talented young children are brought together to stop a madman. I can’t wait to start the second book!

*Guys Read; Humor Edition- We started this book, advertised as a selection of short stories with the interest of boys as the highest priority, on a long car ride. I was disappointed that many of the stories were debatably appropriate for adults, let alone children which are the intended audience! Overall, I view it as a waste of money and I will not so much as look at additional books in the series as their ideal of appropriate material is sub-par.

_____

Sherlock Holmes- Read an abridged version with Bryce. So fun!

Moby Dick- Began reading as Zackary did, neither of us finished! It was booooring!

The Boxcar Children Book- Started the first book with the boys, did not get all the way through but they have enjoyed the series independently.

So, I did it. More than one book a month. Many enjoyable hours of reading, learning, and discussing. My list for 2013 is already too long!! This is one resolution that I look forward to keeping for another year.

If I had to pick a favorite... I would say Crazy Love because it has stuck with me the most. The ideals and themes of this book are life changing. I think about it daily and try to live my life differently because of it. I encourage anyone who has not, to pick it up and give it a try. Maybe it will be old news to you, maybe you are already on that path, but as a human, I keep hopping off of that path and need to be reminded to get back on! Anyway, I highly recommend it for anyone with out hesitation.

My favorite fiction has been the Percy Jackson series, but I believe I am behind the crowd on that one. Maybe this year I will find the 'next new thing' before anyone else, but I doubt it!  Second to Percy Jackson is Matched, but I was so disappointed in book two that it is hard for me to suggest it at all.

Ann Rinaldi is a perennial  favorite of mine and I look forward to reading more from her this year. Finally, I will also continue the Mysterious Benedict Society series as it has been entertaining and compelling. 

Happy reading! 

where dh and i hope to live the rest of our life....

Over the summer, Dh and I stopped in a model home and fell in love. We also learned how low interest rates are and that we could feasibly move into our 'permanent' home with enough space for three growing boys and all their friends and space for family celebrations... and just everything.

So we put the house on the market

and it sold really quickly!!!

We found a rental and watched as they began to build our new home.

 The boys picked their rooms and wrote their names on the studs....

 He got to pick last... which wasn't *really* picking... and he wasn't happy about it. Since then, we've discovered that his window is open to the rising sun and now he is really happy that he gets to face the sun every morning!

 They put the bricks on!

 Textured the walls, installed the baseboards and trim around windows, shelves in closets, etc...

 And PAINTED the trim and walls..... (haven't done the final touches on paint yet)

Then yesterday, we stopped by on a whim and found THIS:

Which a few short hours later looked like THIS: 

Kitchen!

Master bath!

Upstairs bath! (it has zero light and my flash on my phone isn't perfect so it's a little fuzzy)


AND:

A GARAGE DOOR!


It has been so fun to go and see all the progress. It literally has taken my breath away to walk through and see each addition. There is always the chance of it falling apart and we end up homeless... but if that doesn't happen--- this is will be our HOME>

Skarface

I took a tip from Michelle Duggar and started writing the boys' names on the paper plates we've been using for dinner (don't judge!)........ Then that just got boring so I started putting nicknames to make them laugh..... TO ended up with a fun name that will most likely stick....


Let's go back to last fall.

We were up on the Blue River, in a lovely recessed camp site. We had other families there and the boys were all playing near a stream. There was somewhat a steep hill to get down to the stream and the boys were going up and down back and forth and having a great time exploring. TO found a wonderful walking stick and was using that going down the steep hill.... in a jog. That's when he lost his footing and fell. The way he fell, the right side of his face hit the top of the walking stick. And it punctured it pretty deeply.

He knew it hurt. When he came up to the camp site, he had a stream of blood down his cheek and it alarmed me... Dh took it pretty hard.... we got the first aid kit, cleaned it up, and tried to bandage it as well as we could, hoping it wasn't going to need medical attention. We still decided it was time to go home for us and packed up and made the long drive home.

Later that night, when the wound was still bleeding, we decided it was time to see a doctor. I took him to a pediatric urgent care where they inspected it, cleaned it and derma-bonded it right up.

 It healed well enough. It actually opened up again and left a chicken pox like scar,  but smaller than the original injury. Sometime this spring I realized it wasn't an indention anymore, but more even with the skin and I thought that was a good thing....

Over the summer, I noticed it was starting to form a bump... raised from the skin. Interesting...

Over the past month or so.... I watched it get larger and begin to change to a dark color... almost black. EEEKKK!

I was still in the stage of considering what was going and watching it more closely (daily, instead of weekly) to decide what was going on... when DH saw it.... and FREAKED OUT.

Of course it was a Saturday and this is something that I adore about DH-- when he gets worried about the boys, it CANNOT WAIT. It has to be addressed IMMEDIATELY> >> So, off to the pediatric urgent care we go again.... (it almost looked like an abscess, only black but hard to the touch).  They looked and tried to open it to relive the pressure, but couldn't. It was almost like scar tissue, not really an abscess at all. They said we needed to see a dermatologist.

Monday afternoon... I took all three boys to see Dr. Skin.... who told us that it all needed to be removed! :0

After a lot of talking TO into it, they numbed the area, sliced it open, cut out the ball of skin, pulled out a small black pea sized something that looked like a rock, cleaned it all out and stitched it up.

Oh the fun things we get to do when we have kids....

He was a champ through it all! He did not want to do it and kept telling me it was fine and didn't need to see a doctor.... 

They sent everything off to be tested..... and the thing they removed came back as "piece of wood". 

Hmph. 

A few days later, they removed the stitches.... and put a sticky bandage to hold it closed so it would leave a small scar...

I haven't taken another picture of it yet... it is a little bit of a wide scar... but at least he's not carrying around a piece of wood in his cheek!!!

baseball!!!!!!!!!

I love love love love love watching the boys play baseball. I just love it.

challenge accepted

My friend Tersea is very inspiring to me. Here are two examples:

1) I've had my new camera for almost two years. I've taken TONS of photos and scrap-booked and love it.... but, I haven't ventured into learning the manual settings. Teresa is constantly posting the most amazing pictures of her kids and giving hints and tips that are written in a voice that makes it sound like something I can actually do! So, I decided to really give it a shot. It has been a lot of trial and error, but here is my favorite 'learning' moment.

The Boys were all doing homework.

Double L was in a good spot, with the light behind me as I faced him. I didn't have to change the setting at all. 

 Skarface (I have another story to tell you...) was the opposite. He had the light behind him, but he was a little ways away from it.

You can tell how dark this one is and it wasn't how the room really looked filled with natural light. With a higher f/stop, this is the result:

 Caught the moment perfectly!

Then, I went to find B-man. He was trickiest because he was directly in front of two windows....

Well, that wasn't what I was going for at all! So, I upped the f/stop and finally found the perfect setting:

The next thing I think I should work on is holding the camera straight.... I find lots of pictures that are leaning... maybe my right side is that much shorter... but probably I just need to be more aware of holding the camera straight!
So..... Go play with the f/stop on your dslr and see how your pictures change. 

Here is the second way that Teresa has inspired me.

These were taken in front of the new house! (another post... ) B-man wasn't there... he was at baseball practice. But, later that night, after my run (=red face) and after his practice, I grabbed him.

Skarface jumped in and asked if he could take one since I was having a hard time getting a good one of me and B-man. Other than how old and tired I look... he took a good picture~! 

Of course, Double L wanted some more....

So, the second challenge is to go take pictures with YOU, the MOMMA, in them! Our kids deserve to see in pictures that we were there too.