Summer Reading!  Suggested Book List

I always want to broaden my kids' minds  when it comes to reading.  There are so many amazing books out there, but also a lot of fluff ( not that I'm knocking fluff reading, sometimes you need a good comfortable read!) and a lot of trash, too.  I want my kids to start with Les Miserables, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Summer of the Monkeys, and To Kill a Mockingbird.  So I asked for suggestions on Facebook and my wonderful friends gave me so many ideas that I couldn't list them on facebook and decided to put my list here.  Since I'm obviously not using this page for anything else at the moment!

So here we go, with my occasional comment.  Just a disclaimer, I haven't read all of these books.

-The Giver by Lois Lowry [and I have to add the other books in the series: Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son] 
-The Road Home By Rose Tremain
-Wonder by RJ Palacio  [one of the best books I've read in a long time.  I love how the other gives us the story from many points of view]
-The Alliance by Gerald Lund [End of the world book written before it was cool to write those]
-The Trial by Lindsey Dew
-Lonesome Gods, Last of the Breed, Haunted Mesa by Louis L'amour [If you are turned off by a 'cowboy writer', read Last of the Breed, then Haunted Mesa, then Lonesome Gods.  He's really quite good]
-anything by Pat McManus [adventurous books that take place in a small town where some people are a few cards short of a full deck]
-The Princess Bride by William Goldman [Of course I love the movie, but the book is better]
-The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
-The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis [If you've only read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, you're missing a lot of the adventure!  An amazing series]
-Sign of the Beaver and The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare [and I have to add, The Witch of Blackbird Pond]
-Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks [Toy Story for children of the '80s]
-Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery [I read and reread all of her books. Read the whole Anne series, including the last one about her daughter, Rilla of Ingelside.  Try the Emily books and the Story Girl books, and my favorite is The Blue Castle]
-Septmis Heap (Series) by Angie Seap
-To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee [also, read Go Set a Watchman.  Made me think]

 [This is where my cousin shared a HEAP of books.  I stopped adding the authors, you have google, too ;)]
Lord of the Flies
The hobbit
Grapes of wrath
Great expectations [One of my favorite Dickens.  Not that I have read them all, but this one is good.  Everyone should have a favorite Dickens book]
The jungle [Not The Jungle Book.  Although that one is interesting also]
The dollmaker
The secret garden [And I would add from the same author, The Little Princess]
Any Mark Twain [Have you read his autobiography?  This guy was a character]
Canterbury Tales
Brothers Grimm
Hitchhikers Guide
The Good Earth
Lost Horizon
The scarlet letter
Pride and prejudice
Emma [anything by Jane Austin, and then reread them again!]
Wuthering Heights [I hated the main characters.  I know, this is a book on every list, but I hated the characters]
Dantes inferno
Lost symbol, angels and demons, etc
Silent spring
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams
Wild at heart
Anatomy of Peace
War and Peace
Anything by Brene Brown.
Bridge at Andau (about the 1956 revolt in Hungary against Soviet rule and about the State Secret Police there)
Finding Ultra, Born to Run, Eat and Run [These are ultra runner books, if you are interested in getting started!]
 -The Book Thief [This book does have language]
-The Kite Runner [This book is hard to read emotionally.  It has some graphic parts too, not one I would advise for youngsters, read it first as a parent and decide for your kid]
-Okay For Now by Gary Schmidt
-Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
-The Giant Slayer by Iain Lawrence
-Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander [I love these ones!  A great adventure]
- Fahrenheit 451
-  Lincoln Hypothesis and Washington Hypothesis by Timothy Ballard

Wow!  That's quite a list!  But I have to add some of my own: 
-The Rangers' Apprentice and Brotherband series by John Flanagan.  Great adventure, great writing and great characters.
-League of Princes series by Christopher Healy. We had never heard of these books, just stumbled on them in the library and we all really enjoyed them.  They are a fun take on fairy tales, told from the view of the Princes Charming.  Good adventure with lots of laughs. 
-If you like mysteries but don't like gore: Aunt Dimity series by Nancy Atherton
-Masie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear Most of the series takes place between WWI and WWII in England.  She is a  psychologist and an investigator, fascinating time.
-Christmas Bells by Jennifer Chiaverini.  About Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and how he came to write I Heard the Bells on Christmas day.  If you like historical fiction, this author has some really good ones. If you like Christmas Bells, read Forever and Forever by Josi Kilpack, too. 
-Unbroken  by  Laura Hillenbrand about Louis Zamperini.  An amazing true story about tragedy and then finding God.
-The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.  Because this should be read by everyone!
-Mrs. Mike by Benedict Freedman and Nancy Freedman

Happy reading!

After an almost two year recess, I bring you...

I was talking with a friend the other day, we were complaining about Facebook.  We like that we can keep up with things in our ward and friends we live far from, but it's harder to put in the details our close friends and family want to hear.  She said she was going to start writing in her family blog again, and I thought, yup.  I should do that.  Then the other day Joseph was doing math homework.  I love my Joseph, but that boy can be distracted come homework time like nobody's business.  He was supposed to be figuring out Improper Fractions, and part of that was drawing it out.  I left him to draw an improper fraction and came back to this:

   I loved it, took a picture but he would not let me post it on Facebook.  So here it is, an Improper Fraction for those of you who didn't know what they look like.

I don't want to go back and tell all that has happened the last two years, because, hello, that would be a long post.  So recent past:  Farris and I went cross country skiing on President's Day earlier this week.  I wish I had pictures but we left Farris' cell in the car.  Which was a good thing because neither of us stayed upright for very long.  I was so overly confident!  I'd only been once before, at the Trickler's house, we went down their frozen canal.  Easy, fun, flat.  So I strapped on those skis and I felt like I was going back to my days of downhill skiing, I was so excited!  Just the feel of the poles in my hands and the mountains...and then I realized that the trail was not a nice flat canal bed.  No, it was more like a series of bunny hills with turns. And people and trees to avoid.   Downhill skis? No problem, I would be whipping around.  But cross country skis act different than down hill and two feet down my first hill I was on my butt sliding gracelessly down to the bottom.  Over and over again.  I did start to get the hang of it, but it was a challenge.  And I loved every second of it.  I think I need a back yard trail, I could definitely get up every morning and go skiing instead of jogging.
No promises, but I will try to write in here about once a week...I'll try!

A few more funnies from the kids

--On my birthday (of course, they had to make it memorable!) I was upstairs when Felicity came into the room leading a sludge-covered, slightly stunned looking Abby.  Well, I didn't know what it was, just this green slime that was throughout her hair, dripping down her face, shoulder, and arm, and her hands were covered as she tried to keep it from getting into her eyes.  My first panicked thought was that it was some kind of cleaner, but Felicity told me that Seth had dumped some shampoo on her. I managed to get it off without getting any in her eyes (whew) and then I interrogated Seth. Apparently, and this is filled with some details that I'm guessing at because he was a little embarrassed and not keen on talking, they were playing hide and seek and decided to hide in the bathtub downstairs together. They were waiting quietly when Seth saw the shampoo sitting there and thought he could wash Abby just as well as Mommy could.  This is where he stopped talking, but I've figured it out with some help from Felicity.  He dumped about a third of the bottle on her head when he realized this wasn't as good of an idea as he had thought and  he was probably going to be in trouble.  So he got out of the bathtub, turned out the light, shut the door, and went to tell Felicity that "Abby is in the bathtub with the lights out."  Felicity ran downstairs to find Abby who was forlornly and quietly waiting for someone to rescue her. She smelled Rain Forest Fresh the rest of the day.
--Abby loves my chapstick in my purse. One day she grabbed Felicity excitedly and told her, "I show you something!" She triumphantly pulled out the chapstick, and told Felicity, "This makes me happy!"
--At dinner sometimes we play an animal guessing game where one of us will think of an animal and everyone else asks questions until someone guesses the right animal.  Tonight, Seth's three guesses were: A dinosaur.  A dragon. And Captain America.

I'm sure I'll have more to add to the collection soon.

A Sethism

I have to write this down now so I don't forget his exact wording:  "It's not a chair, it's a one human couch!". And when I laughed, he explained his logic by pointing to the couch and saying "See, that's a three human couch.". Makes sense, Sethy-boy.

Searching for Joy

This morning Abby told me she wasn't a baby, she was a girl. Then tonight she fell asleep at dinner so I was able to snuggle with her after I had carried her to bed and put her in footsie pajamas.  It's a little scary letting go of the baby phase--I mean, I've been in it for 12 years! So I'll snuggle her while I can.
While I was curled up with her in the tiny toddler bed Farris made years ago, my mind was busy.  I was thinking about how nice it was to listen to the quiet (in my house! Amazing! --Joseph was gone) chatter coming from the kitchen as I held my mostly angelic 2 year old. A blog post (Pinstrosity) I recently read was about picking a Word for the year, a simple theme or focus.  The author talked about how she knew someone who had picked Joy.  And I had thought, that would be good idea for me.
I tend to be very pessimistic. And skeptical. And easily annoyed. And too caught up in unimportant details, with less focus on the simple, beautiful things in our world.  Such as yelling at a kid about a backpack on the floor (for the eleventith hundred time) instead of enjoying having five healthy kids surrounding me. How blessed have I been in my life? And how often have I forgotten that?  
Joy is good for me.  I love that word, it's a major reason Felicity is Felicity instead of Ruby.  Well, maybe not Ruby, but you get the idea. Joy is good for me because it's hard for me to get through a day without yelling or remembering something someone once said that made me feel bad and having that resentment hit me again, or feeling like I just don't quite make it to who I'm supposed to be. I'm hoping that a year of searching for joy can help change me, even just a little.  
So I'm going to try it.  And I'll even try to document it on here every now and again.  Since I'm soooo good at documenting things here...last blog post? NOVEMBER. But maybe by putting it in here I'll remember a little better and you guys can even remind me a little.   Think Joy, DeeAnna.  Joy.

PS, I might be able to catch up a little on the whole documenting thing when we get our laptop back.  We sent it to be fixed so I'm trying to get used to the tablet, and I'm not finding much joy in that.  Hmmmm, maybe I should say I remember our laptop with joy.  

I have to post pictures of Halloween quick so family can see, plus I'm exhausted after all those Halloween activities, so I want to sit down for awhile!  I am blogging about something that happened the day after it happened.  Ha!  How's that for a novel idea?  But before we get to Halloween, there's a few more pictures to show.

In Cub Scouts the boys made milk jug masks.  Their leader told me that sometimes she worries about doing crafts with the boys because they might think it's lame.  But I think they love it, especially when they can make things that look gross.

The leaves our falling! Our happy linden tree keeps the kids entertained for a long time.  And it's nice and warm outside, I just can't make them do chores or homework when I know they'll be stuck inside once the really cold weather hits.

Caleb wanted to be a zombie coming up from the leaves.

 

Brushing off the aftermath.

What a happy picture!  I might have to frame that one.

Abby wasn't as sure about getting buried as the rest of the kids, but if they were doing it so could she.  That's pretty much her attitude about everything right now.

Abby prepping for Halloween.

And the pumpkins!  We went up to Idaho for Farris' mom's annual pumpkin party, which we always love.  We were going to stay the whole weekend but Farris was asked to speak in church so we had to leave on Saturday afternoon.  It was probably for the best anyway because Farris wasn't feeling very good and ending up sleeping after he gave his talk and staying home from work on Monday.  

But back to the pumpkins.  Judy always has about forty or more pumpkins for the kids to choose from  and all the cousins have a ball together.  We also did family pictures this year which is great because it's been awhile since we've had them with Farris' side.

And I keep wandering away from the pumpkins.  We carved our jack o lanterns on Monday for Family Home Evening.  Felicity found a pattern with the Headless Horseman riding his horse so she drew that on hers, minus the horseman.  It turned out really good.

Caleb was going for Spooky and wanted to leave the knife in ti.  I vetoed that idea, so he settled on sticking plastic spiders all over it.

Abby was just cute.  I carved in Minion into hers.  A word of advice, unless you're a better artist than me (as most of you are) do a two eyed minion, because the one eyed minion on a pumpkin looks a lot like Mike from Monsters Inc.

And Seth wanted to "marker" his, he just drew a face with the markers.

Joseph using his top as a shield.  Farris carved a vampire for him.

On Halloween morning, I hosted our joy school Halloween party.  The best thing about Halloween is the little kids in their costumes.  Cute.

We played Spider Web, where they kids threw plastic spiders onto the tape web.

Here's our picture of the whole gang.  At least I thought it was until the pictures were done and I realized that Seth had slipped out.  He has his own idea of what he wants to do.

But here's Abigail with her little friends.

Then we played another spider web game where they had to walk along the web collecting spiders until they got to the center where they could pick a prize.  We also had ghosts made out of plastic cups that they had to avoid.  Then we played with pumpkin spice playdough and had treats, like eyeball cookies (Chocolate chip cookies with a mini marshmallow with a dot of food coloring for the pupil) and popcorn with candy corn and apples and pretzels with Pumpkin Pie dip.  Yummy!  I had another craft planned, but the kids were having so much fun with the playdough I just let them go.  Preschoolers are easy to entertain.  Sometimes.

After joy school was done we ate lunch and then hurried over to the school for Joseph's party.  Because I was doing so much for the joy school party, we just brought twister.  But I did it Hallooweenish by calling it Bone Bender and we made up monster names for the colors: Frankenstein's Head, Troll Spit, Alien Guts, and Vampire Drink.  2nd graders like a little gore. 

Right after his party was the Costume Parade.  I like this picture, not just for Joseph, but because the girl following him looks like she's levitating.  What a great costume!  Joseph was a stick figure, after going to through a dozen different ideas that he changed until about five minutes before he left for school.  I had painted a white circle around his face, too, but he rubbed it off.

Caleb was Percy Jackson.  My favorite kind of costumes are from books!

Felicity was a detective, and her friend Becca the Happy Darth Maul is next to her.  Becca is the kind of person who can't stop smiling, even when she's supposed to be an evil Jedi.

After the costume parade we went to the sixth grade classroom for more Twister--err- I mean Bone Bender.  And I'm proud to say that my daughter and her closest friends had no issue with too short of skirts during a twister game.  Oh sixth graders!  You don't have to grow up that fast!

Seth and Abigail were getting bored by the time the third party was done.  We ran home and got dinner in the oven.  I decided to try Dinner in a Pumpkin for the first time.  Pretty tasty, except pumpkins aren't the tastiest of squash.  I think next year we'll do it in a sweet meat instead.

Abby fell asleep sitting up before dinner and when I finally coaxed her awake she was not happy.  Three parties and a costume parade?  Too much Halloween for one little girl.  But I love these pictures, how many Halloweens are really like this?

Oh, and I didn't introduce Seth's costume. It was actually a dragon, but he told people all day long he was an alligator with wings.  And Abby was SuperGirl, complete with a cape (thank you Cindi!) and a tutu (thank you, Tasha!).

By the time we got to the Trunk or Treat, she had recovered her spirits and spent the rest of the night shouting "Hey! Candy! Hey!"  Yes, that's verbatim.

Our alligator and detective.

Stick Figure and Percy Jackson.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Llamas. Yup.

Yes,  llamas, but before we get to that...

 When the kids had their fall break from school we weren't able to do any big trips, but Farris did get Friday off work.  In the afternoon we decided to hike up the back of Timpanogas just as far as the waterfall.  So very pretty, but a little chilly. This was the first time I'd been on this hike and I really liked it.  When my feet heal up Farris and I want to climb the whole thing together.

 There's the waterfall, isn't it beautiful?  And doesn't that picture just look cold?

 Joseph kept telling me, "Mom!  Take my picture here!" I could have had twenty different pictures of him, my funny kid.

 Made it to the waterfall!

 Abigail made it, too.  Lucky girl gets packed everywhere.  But she's the one who really got cold.  Farris hurried down the trail so he could get her back to the van quickly.

 My Caleb, such a sweetie.

 Another view, I love the fall colors mixed with the wispiness of winter.

 Felicity picked leaves to press the whole way. 

 

Goofiness.

 More pictures of my photo hog.

 Sethy.

*******************************

 Saturday was the BYU Homecoming parade.  We like to watch it next to the duck pond so the kids can play before it starts.  And those ducks, especially the baby ducks, are well loved.

 Abigail was excited and was running all over.  Thank you Felicity for being responsible enough to watch her while I set up for the parade!

 Farris couldn't help because he was running the 10K (He did great, 1st in his age group).  

 Part way through the parade the kids started chanting with the crowd "Go, BYU!  Go BYU!"  So Abby had to get in on it and of course it was really cute.  She was really saying "Go Bye U! Go Bye U!"  but she was loud and persistant and when a car went by with a couple who had won a service award the woman was impressed and threw her blue pom pom to Abby.  She knows how to work that cuteness angle really well.

 And the Llamas!  Farris is the advisor for the student council in his college and instead of making a float they decided to rent llamas. That's a meeting to sit in on.  Just tossing around ideas and someone randomly says "Hey!  Llamas!"  If you want to rent llamas for any function, the Krishna temple rents them along with a trailer to haul them in.  So Farris borrowed our neighbors truck and picked them up.  They were a hit and were the slowest in the parade because so many people wanted them to stop so they could take pictures with them.  We waited until we were loading the trailer to take pictures.

 The little ones enjoyed sitting on the llamas.

 We decided Caleb and Felicity were too heavy for the llamas.  But I don't know if Caleb would have gotten on one anyway, I love how he's as far away as possible from it.

 And then when we were driving home with the trailer Farris decided to stop by our house to see if any of the neighborhood kids wanted to meet a llama.  When you got'em for the rest of the day, share'em.  So we had our Random Llama Day and many kids were happy.

And now I want to go watch The Emperor's New Groove, 'cause it's just funny.