What I Read in September -- "Required" Reading

The book club I'm in chose to read  "One Glorious Ambition" by Jane Kirkpatrick for September.  I had never before heard of Dorothea Dix ( a reformer from the 19th century), so I initially enjoyed learning about her. Her mission in life -- what she called her one glorious ambition -- was to bring to light the plight of the mentally ill. She never married, never had a real home, and very little family. She spent her years travelling, visiting the prisons that held the mentally ill alongside criminals --  there was no separate place for them.

In each state, she met with the officials and in many cases, convinced them that a facility for "the least of these" was a necessity. She met with many setbacks along the way and also battled severe illness throughout. I admire her vision and her absolute focus on relieving the suffering of so many.

However, about halfway through the book, I started to lose interest. I don't know how much information there was out there about Dorothea as a woman, but her personality in this book really fell flat. She came across very strong when dealing in the area of her work, but extremely needy and annoying in her personal life.  I am glad I read it, and learned a lot about the subject, but felt it could have been shortened considerably.

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I also read a book along with my daughter, for her literature class. The teacher decided to start them out with something easy -- "Wonder" by R.J. Palacio.  I am not sure if I would have picked it up and read it on my own, but it's become one of my favorite books of the year. I think it should be required reading for every middle schooler. It's about a boy named August Pullman,  who was born with a major facial deformity. He is beginning 5th grade and attending school for the first time in his life.

The book is written primarily from his perspective -- his thoughts and feelings about how people react to his differences. There are also chapters from the other characters points of view:  his older, protective sister, her new boyfriend, and a few of his classmates.

I laughed and I cried and I didn't want it to end. It also led to great discussions with my daughter about how we treat others, based on their appearances. I plan to read it with my 5th grade son next. And my younger three boys when they are old enough.

Highly, highly recommend this one!

A New Start

I have tried and tried to get my blog caught up. Mostly for my family, so they have a record of our days. You know, since scrapbooking has gone totally by the wayside. Silly me, back when I had 3 children, thought I'd make a book for EACH child as well as a family book per year. And now that I have 7 children, I laugh at the silly mom I was. I barely managed to "mostly" complete a book for Conner when he graduated in 2012. It hit all the highlights anyway, even if it wasn't the perfect chronicle of his life I'd envisioned back when he was a preschooler and I began scrapbooking.

Anyway -- back to my point. I am still going to try to get caught up. But in the meantime, I'm going to just jump back in. If you know me, you know one of my passions is reading. To me, it's as necessary each day as eating, brushing my teeth, or hugging my kids. I simply can't fathom life without it.

I get nearly all of my books from the library. However, I keep seeing these great sites where you can request advanced readers copies of books if you agree to review them. To do that, you have to have a blog. An, ahem, active blog. Yet another reason for me to jump back on the bandwagon.

So I'm going to start posting book reviews on here. As well as recipes, and just life in general. Wish me luck!

Summer 2013 -- Week 3

June 10 - June 16


This week both Chase & Brenna were gone, at the high school camp, for our church. This year it was held in Ft. Collins at the CSU campus. These pics are of one of their day trips, to Fort Fun:

While they were gone,  we went to two cheap summer movies: Parental Guidance and Madagascar 3. We also took the little guys to eat at Fuzzy's Tacos one night. So strange to only have kids young enough to order off the kids menu again! And sooo much cheaper!

Last weekend at a garage sale, two friends and I went in on a HUGE lot of Legos. So one day this week, we got together for the boys to go through them. My boys were thrilled with their haul, and spent the rest of that afternoon, and evening, building away.
















Aiden also started track practice. Most summers he does baseball, but he thought he'd try something new this year. He has practices M-W-F mornings. Early mornings -- 8 am. Scott and I are taking turns driving him (guess there's one perk to Scott being out of work right now). It was super hot the first morning, but thankfully cooler since then.

Other fun stuff this week: I got to have lunch with a friend, Scott played tennis, we went to a sand sculpture festival, and I won tickets to see Monsters University. I took Zane, and he loved it.

Sunday was Father's Day so we spoiled Scott for the day.

Summer 2013 - Week Two

June 3 - June 9


We took Conner up to Ft. Collins so he could meet his group from Young Life. He is a leader there, and they had camp all week in the mountains.

Zane had tball practice and games began. Scott is helping out the coaches, as they are both new to the league.

He absolutely loves playing, and takes it very seriously. Their team is comprised of 4, 5 and 6-year olds, many of whom are playing for the first time. So it's great fun to watch. They often sit down to play in the dirt or run off the field for a potty break. Not Zane, though, -- he is laser-focused. He is all about the game. Reminds me of his older brother, Conner, at that age! Even more so, though.

Also this week, Brenna had her last night at middle school youth group, and will join the high school group next week. Waaah!  I am excited for her, but sad for me that she is growing up so fast. The cheap summer movies began -- we saw "Hotel Transylvania" on Thursday, which really wasn't terrible as far as kids movies go.

We also met my friend Kari and her girls for a park day. There was a skate park there that kept Aiden & Zane occupied the whole time.

It started to rain, so we left and met Scott, Chase & Brenna at Lamar's for National Doughnut Day. They were giving out free doughnuts, as was Krispy Kreme. So we decided to hit both and decide whose was the best.

Scott & I preferred Lamar's, but the kids are still partial to Krispy Kreme. Finished up the week with a Cub Scout rocket launch for Aiden, a haircut for me, and golfing for Scott.

Summer 2013 -- Week One

We enjoyed looking back at what our summer was like last year, so I thought I'd try to do a weekly recap again this year.


May 27 - June 2

We always finish with school by Memorial Day so that begins our official summer. This year we visited a couple new parks and had a picnic lunch.

Conner wasn't able to be with us for Memorial Day, but came home on Tuesday. Later in the week, we celebrated Liam's birthday. TWO! We spent the morning and the zoo and the afternoon with friends at a park in Golden. I think he had a really good day.

Two years old

BIG ball was a gift from a brother

Fun at the zoo

With Mom

With Dad, making silly smiles

birthday cupcakes

Brenna hadn't seen her friend Anna for 2 years

SIX

Our 5th-born, Zane, turned 6 on February 16. He was so excited and counted down to his big day for about a month.

When it arrived, we celebrated him all day, with his choice of breakfast and gifts sprinkled throughout the day. His big one was a bike. It had training wheels, but within days his big brother, Aiden, had taught him to ride without them. The joy of older siblings!

We took him to Chuck E. Cheese, his choice, for lunch. I think you can tell by the smile on his face how excited he was.

Air hockey with Dex

Zane is our rule follower. He loves order and routines. And he really doesn't like it when we deviate from them. He also loves to play baseball and to read.

Another Sweet Sixteen

 Our 2nd son, Chase, turned 16 on February 4th. He wants to take a few friends to either paintball or bowling, but we haven't fully worked out the dates and details, so that will be later this month. On his actual birthday, he wanted me to make homemade biscuits & gravy for breakfast.

Only I don't do gravy. I do not have the patience for it. So he made his own. :) Hey, I did make the biscuits from scratch, though.

For lunch, he wanted to try Pho. We went to a place recommended by a friend. I kept it simple, but he wanted to really be adventurous and ordered the one with tripe. Even though I told him what that was.

Yeah -- it ended up on another plate. :) But at least he tried it.

That night, instead of cake, he requested fudge. Hard to get candles to stick into that!

We weren't able to go out to dinner on his actual birthday, so we went a few days later. He chose Yak & Yeti -- yum!!  

He ordered the Lamb Masala and Scott had Chicken Masala.

I had Shrimp Korma, and I think we all agree mine was the best! :) And of course we had lots and lots of Naan bread. I LOVE that stuff!

Chase's main gift was a new Ipod Touch. His old one wasn't working properly anymore and he couldn't add any new apps. His siblings bought him a case for it -- a Marvel one of course!

I'm really loving this age. He has his permit, but not his license for 6 more months. So we get to spend lots of time together and that's the way I like it. Soon enough, he'll be gone all the time -- with a job, and places to be.For now, I'm going to treasure the next 6 months.