Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry

This has become our favorite poetry book! We have checked it out of the library three times; enough that it will be appearing under the Christmas tree, I do believe! A great mix of poetry styles organized by category (Animals, Nature, Times of the Year, People, Feelings, etc.). Funny, thought-provoking, or peaceful, this one has it all! We can find a suitable poem for most topics we can think of.

Here are some of the favorites my kids have picked out: (is it legal to type these up? If not I'll remove them...)

Who Has Seen the Wind? by Christina G. Rossetti (we memorized this one)

Who has seen the wind?

Neither I nor you;

But when the leaves hang trembling

The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?

Neither you nor I;

But when the trees bow down their heads

The wind is passing by.

I Am Running in a Circle by Jack Prelutsky

I am running in a circle

and my feet are getting sore,

and my head is

spinning

spinning

as it's never spun before,

I am

dizzy

dizzy

dizzy.

Oh! I cannot bear much more,

I am trapped in a

revolving

...volving

...volving

...volving door!

I Eat My Peas with Honey by Anonymous

I eat my peas with honey,

I've done it all my life.

It makes the peas taste funny,

But it keeps them on my knife.



The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck

Holy Hannah, I. LOVE. IT. I didn't think it would tickle my fancy - using drawings to tell part of a story. I like words, and making my own images. But it is AWESOME! The pencil drawings are detailed and gorgeous. It is the perfect combination of art and story and I have been enthralled. I can't wait to start reading it with my kids. All 500-whatever pages (the drawings make it less daunting, and the text pages are actually text centered in a frame and really more like half-paged). I know they will love it! They love all things orphan, after seeing the play "Annie". (T is actually an orphan for Halloween - us adults are seeing the humor as she shouts, "I am the best orphan EVERRR!") The history and culture in the story is very lovely, and I've enjoyed the glimpse of early-1900s Paris very much, and the images of clocks and mechanics of the period.

AND I am STOKED to find out there is a movie coming out next month! I didn't even know before I started reading it. And even better, it's going to be a 3D movie! Which for some childish reason I love. I think they're so fun. I'm a little silly about them, I admit.

I bought the second similar book by Brian Selznick, Wonderstruck, at Costco the other day but wanted to read them in the proper order, of course. The second book has 2 story lines, one told in words and one told in pictures, that eventually begin to interweave. Man, I can't wait.

(Please excuse the heavy use of caps in this post. A little enthusiastic.)

Southern Camping

I have discovered the greatest thing ever. It's called camping! More specifically, TRAILER camping.

I will never go back to tents again. True convert here.

We got a truck a couple months ago - old, beat-up Ford.

In the truck on the way home

Well, once you have a truck you need something to pull behind it. No way was it going to be a boat. My ever-researching husband found the perfect deal on the perfect tailgate accessory: a beauty 1978 camper trailer, complete with brown and avacado-green stripes. And who can forget the ruffly curtains imprinted with roosters? It's only proper.

I'm too lazy to go take a picture of ours, but this helps you get the idea.

We got to take it for a spin the very next week! Sure, we were only doing 30-35 mph on those 2-lane mountain passes, which might have caused a little road-rage and some life-risking, illegal passes on the part of other cars behind us, but we made it! We stayed at Green River campground with 7 other families from our ward.

I have never, ever, had so much fun on a camping trip. I had heat at night. I had a fabulous mattress (possibly better than my own). I had a toilet, if I needed it! (We didn't, we used the flush toilets across the road from us, but next time we'll give the potty a whirl!) I had a stove and oven and I freakin' baked cookies. And hubby might have only taken 3 work calls the whole time! It was amazing!

We walked a trail of exposed dinosaur bone fossils. They were for-real fossils, still embedded in rock. It was cool! It's hard to see but the gray streak to the left of Davin's head is one fossil.

 Then we went to Arches National Park. I can't believe no one has ever told me that we need to go there. It was phenomenal! Amazing creations of nature. We all thoroughly enjoyed it and vowed to take Gummy and Poppy there next time they come! We know they'd love it too!

 That's Dave and Caden on top of the arch. Yeah, I need a better camera.

 Busted eating Cheetos for breakfast. Another perk of camping life. Especially when you're the only kid who doesn't get to go on the early-morning fishing trip (never mind that it's because you scream and throw rocks in the water). Davin reeled in a fish that morning ... he was horrified, terrified, and oh-so-proud, all at once!

The kids in the camping group. What a great bunch! They were so fun and were very considerate and helpful to each other. It was a great group.

 We hiked through a slot canyon called Little Wild Horse. I think it was my favorite thing of all. Beautiful rock formations and fun little climbing parts.

 Caden being Spiderman.

 Then we went to Goblin Valley, so named for these crazy little rocks that look like fat little creatures. This was the kids' favorite spot - they could climb all over and pretend certain clusters were their own castles. Dave got a cute video of Davin giving a castle tour, but video doesn't seem to upload well on my blog. The funniest part was when he said, "This is my pillow, but it's locked up so no one can get it."

Palace Beautiful

I still really like reading juvenile/young adult fiction. I read them to screen books I think my kids would like, but they're also cleaner, quicker reads that I find enjoyable. Palace Beautiful was a precious book! Darling story line of a girl and her sister who move to Utah and become friends with their neighbor -- gloomy, creative, self-named "Bella" whose family life is less than ideal. Together they discover an old diary in their attic, written by a child who lived in their home years ago. As they read through the journal they explore similarities between their lives and the life of the author, and many sweet lessons are shared about death, life, and family.

My favorite things were how the artistic main character never used plain names for colors, but rather "Far-Far-Away Blue" and "Wide-Awake Red". Also the friend Bella was very imaginitive and creative, and had I been 9 years old I would have totally spent a week trying to be as melodramatic as she. (I was able to restrain myself at my current mature age.) There was no direct reference to the LDS church through the modern characters, but the journal contained several references to "the Bishop" and going to church, giving blessings, etc. Which is OK in my book!

The only things that would, in my mind, limit the audience for this book were the several references to where babies come from (never saying it out loud, only mentioning an understanding) because the mom is expecting. We haven't quite had that talk yet with my kids and I'm sure they'd wonder about those parts. I can just see it now - "What is she talking about mom?" Bella also has a fascination with spirits/ghosts and a few parts were kinda spooky, but nothing too bad.

I felt that internal swelling of joy/sadness as I finished reading and know I'm going to miss these characters.  Enchanting book by Sarah DeFord Williams.

Reading

I really like to read. A lot. If I could do anything, it would be reading, pretty much all day. Every day.

Sometimes I don't get much reading done, like when I have a new baby. But other times, I do.

I've been reading a lot lately.

Both with my kids and alone.

Problem is, I don't have good retention. I can look at a cover and know I read it, but forget what the story was about until I have a little refresher. One time my friend recommended a book, so I bought it, and was on page, like, 24 when I realized -- oh, I know what's going to happen next! I've read this before! DUH! (This happens to me with movies too. My hubby is always saying, "You have SO seen it!" Sorry.)

So how to help this little problem. I was thinking, notebook? Nah, I'll never do it. Book club? Hit and miss. Goodreads? Haven't gotten into it. A-ha! Blog! Maybe if I blog. You know, write a little summary and post a picture. Maybe then I'll actually remember! AND maybe I'll get to pass along some good recommendations! (I am always looking for recommendations, by the way.)

So ya. That's what I'm going to do. At least this week ;)

Wonderful weekend!

What a nice weekend we had last week!

Friday night: Aunt Ruthie + family came to stay with us on their Mormon trek vacation (which ended in Las Vegas ... hmmm ;)). So fun to catch up with them! My aunt is awesome!

Saturday morning: Made a delish crock-pot breakfast casserole. Holy Hannah, I'll never go back to doing it in a pan Christmas morning! Overnight cooking is the answer - hot and ready when you are! (Don't even go there with the "That's what she said" joke, K? :)) Then all watched conference together.

Such a great conference! The best part was how much the kids loved it. Seriously, I was hearing "When is conference starting? WHAT? 2 whole hours? Nooooo..." and "Oh, it's over. Now we have to wait 2 more hours again!" Such words have never been spoken in this house. Did my kids suddenly become spiritual child prodigies? Or did it maybe have something to do with this ...

(This is not my picture, but we did a similar thing.) Each treat or activity has a picture of one of the 12/First Presidency on it, and when they spoke they got to do or have that thing. Last year we memorized the order of the 12 apostles by learning this song, and we have a poster of the general authorities by the TV, so they did a great job of recognizing the apostles before their names flashed on the screen. I remember doing that as a kid too! Anyway, it was really fun and positive and awesome.

Saturday afternoon: Watched conference again, then went to ladies night (yes, all of us) at Roberts Craft where they had everything 50% off and the kids got to make some crafts. I slipped in a few things I've had my eye on for Christmas, so I was pleased! It got a little hairy with antsy kids at the end and I was glad to get home, but an overall success.

Sunday Morning: Got up bright and early to take Caden to his first conference session in the Conference Center! You have to be 8 to attend so this was his first opportunity, and he was very excited. The other kids went to Grandma and Grandpa Greene's house, which they were also thrilled about (except for Koen, little crybaby).

We had to drive around a bit to figure out where the parking entrance is for the Joseph Smith Memorial building now, and as we were entering I said, "Hey, is that Deiter? Nah..." Dave looked over on the sidewalk and said, "Yeah, that is! And he's talking to Bob Bennett! (Utah Senator)" We were in a line that was standing still, so a few seconds later I was like, "Caden, should we go meet President Uchtdorf?" We grabbed our tickets and scrambled out of the car and raced over. He was just going up the steps of the Relief Society building, so we called to him and he turned around and said hello. I said, "This is Caden's first conference! He just turned 8," and he said, "Welcome! Nice to see you!" and then was scuttled inside. We didn't have time to take a picture, but it was really awesome! Caden was thrilled.

So we headed up to the Conference Center, weaving through throngs of people holding signs begging for tickets (it was quite a sight and made you feel horrible for not giving yours up) and got in line. As we neared the doors they were scanning the tickets with little machines that were going "bong, bong, bong." Caden gave them his ticket and it went "uh uh uh." She scanned it again, and again the noise was not affirmative. I said, "Caden you have a fake ticket!" and he looked at me in horror (oops, sorry kid, just kidding.) After several moments she pointed out, "Oh, this ticket is for the afternoon session." WHAT???? Crud. I quickly realized there would be no mercy, with the throngs of people wanting to get in, so we made our hasty exit. We saw Dave in line and ran up, saying, "Hey, did you ever look at these tickets?" Caden was devastated. We hustled over to the standby line but the guy there said our chances were definitely not good.

We decided to watch the session in the Tabernacle, pointing out that this was where both Dave and I had also seen our first session of conference. As we sat in the Tabernacle, Caden said, "We can stay here now but we're going to the conference center for the next one." Dave said yes, we could try to come back in April for another session. Caden said, "No, I mean today!" We explained that we were about to watch 2 hours of conference, then we'd have to wait 2 more hours, then sit for the 2 hours of the last session! That was a long time, and the other kids were at Grandma's and we weren't planning on being gone all day. Caden did not budge in his opinions. I pointed out that we didn't bring lunch so it would be like he was fasting and he'd be really hungry, and he said, "That's fine. I'll do that. I really want to go to a live session!"
Well, what can you say to that. I was so proud of my boy. Grandma and Grandpa said it would be fine if we stayed, so Caden got his wish!

I had brought some grapes and animal crackers for the ride home, so we headed back to the car between sessions to eat some of that. On our way we passed a room in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building with cooking smells wafting out. Turned out there were several vending machines stocked with sandwiches, frozen dinners, drinks, and microwaves. After briefly considering whether it was breaking the Sabbath to purchase from a vending machine, then realizing the blessing being presented to us, we had a much nicer lunch than we had supposed! :)

Sunday Afternoon: It was wonderful to sit in our lovely seats for the afternoon session and be in that magnificent space. It was touching to see Caden stand and watch the prophet enter the room, and as it became completely silent, he whispered, "Wow." He later said you could feel the Holy Ghost at that moment when the prophet came into the room. He did so great, staying reverent and listening. It was a joy to be there with him and feel so proud of his righteous desires. What a special boy! I am blessed beyond belief to have him as my son. Sometimes I can't help but think, "How do you parent a child who is your superior in so many ways?"

Great weekend.