A Happy Mother's Day, What I Read, and What I'm Reading Next

There are two things I really, really like to have for Mother's Day: Breakfast in Bed....

.... and a Book. A book to sit and read all day with no interruptions, no guilt, and nothing else to do. It's awesome :) This year, I chose to read "Hatchet," a Newberry honor book by Gary Paulsen for young readers. My husband suggested it, as it was "the book that changed his life" in 5th grade.

The official summary is "After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the wilderness, learning to survive initially with only the aid of a hatchet given by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce."

I really liked this book. It is an easy read, I read it all today. It is adventurous, suspenseful, and enlightening. You feel like you are there, with him in the wilderness. It's awesome to see him learn to survive and live off the land and it's actually a little unbelievably sad when it comes to an end and you think of how outside of living in the wild, how easily all these crucial things come to us: fire, food, shelter, that we all take so much for granted.

My next book is "Spirit Animals" by Brandon Mull. I haven't read any of his books but heard they were good. This one was recommended to me by my third-grader, who reads at about a 2 grades higher level :) I have already read the first 2 chapters and am intrigued.

I hope you had a Happy Mother's Day!

I Just Read: Michael Vey The Prisoner of Cell 25

I joined a book club a few months ago. So far we've read Divergent by Veronica Roth, Little Men by Louisa May Alcott, and this one by Richard Paul Evans.
I recommend this book because it is current but completely decent and clean with minimal violence and no dumb love scenes. It reminds me a bit of Xmen First Class. I love the humor and wit of the characters and finding yourself easily relating to them. So I recommend this book!
Have you read anything good lately?

101 Things I Hate About Your House

I just got a present in the mail! I won a giveaway from the wonderful ladies over at The Skirted Roundtable. They talked about the new book by premier designer James Swan, 101 Things I Hate About Your House. Intrigued, I listened to their interview and left a comment. Good thing I did, cause then I won this:

A brand new and signed copy of the new book. I already read the whole thing! It is a quick read, but good info for those who need help. Most of it was common sense to me, but hey, I realize not all people think about these things and that's ok!

Interested? Good! Cause I am selling it to one lucky person through my ebay shop! Take a look here.

To learn more or listen to the interview, or to just check out the great blog The Skirted Roundtable, you can check that out here.

Come back and tell me what you think!

Father' Day

Check out my mad package decorating skills. Did you do this when you were little? Who knew there were so many great words describing "dad" in the Target ad?

Last summer, I stumbled across this super cute book at an antique store. I am always on the lookout for good Golden Books at garage sales, and given it's cheap price for a couple bucks, I had to get it. I wrapped it and gave it to my husband when my son was born. I thought I'd share it in honor of Father's day.

"Daddies All About the Work They Do" by Janet Frank A Golden Book

What do daddies do all day?

They go to work to earn their pay.

They work in offices and stores,

in factories and out of doors.

Farmer daddies keep us fed.

They grow the wheat we need for bread.

Dads build rockets.

Others fly

or drive the trucks you see roll by.

Daddies fix the shoes we wear.

Barber daddies cut our hair.

Dads are sailors dressed in blue.

And daddies are policemen, too.

Daddies paint and daddies sell.

Doctor daddies keep us well.

Daddies sit at desks and write

the books we read in bed at night.

A daddy might deliver mail.

Some teach science.

Some teach Braille.

Dads make steel and daddies sing.

Dads do almost everything.

But when they've worked the whole day through,

what do they really love to do?

By taxi, train, by car and bus,

daddies hurry home- to us!

Have Happy Father's Day weekend!

Mother's Day Recap

This time, I didn't set the table so fancy considering there were kids involved! But that's ok- lots less stress. All my recipes came from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. I wanted a nice, light menu with my mom's request of fresh strawberry pie for dessert. It was delicious!

Childhood Memories

Do you remember Holly Hobbie? I love her. My mom just brought this book home from the library for my daughter who LOVES horses and when I saw it I gasped, grabbed it, and immediately fell in love. It's about her real life move to the country when she was a girl. It has the most awesome, beautiful illustrations with that classic Holly Hobbie talent and vintage country feel. I want to frame them all for my daughter's room! If you are a Holly Hobbie fan, you should definitely check this out!

What I am reading about: Healthy Eating

Every time I see an article on fake sugars, I read it and every time I read it, I find my suspicions are true: they are NO GOOD. I know from personal experience: my mom gets migraines from Aspartame and my children get diarrhea from Sucralose.
Then my mom gave me this book to read: Sweet Deception: Why Splenda, NutraSweet, and the FDA May be Hazardous to your Health; by Dr. Joseph Mercola. Just a few pages in this book and it was enough to convince me to never eat these chemicals or give them to my family ever again. The most frustrating thing to me is that because of politics and money, the FDA who is supposed to be keeping us safe from this stuff, turn a blind eye and approve it for us to eat in our everyday food.
Here is just a very small portion of the long list of complaints reported from aspartame consumers: cancer in animals, headaches and migraines, dizziness, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, seizures, swelling, speech impairment, sleep problems, breathing difficulty.... and the list goes on and on. I highly recommend this book, if just to get the word out. It is something the general population really needs to know. Start checking all food labels and make it a goal to banish these artificial sweeteners from your life for good!
While I am on the subject, I thought I would share with you four other books we have read in my home and that we highly recommend to others. Not only have we read these books, but we have tried at least one or two recipes in each of them that we have continue in our everyday life. Of course, sometimes we are "healthier" than others, but the point is that knowledge is power, right? One other thing: it is important to keep in mind that this is NOT about dieting. It is about creating a healthy LIFESTYLE by changing habits and being aware of how you must take care of your body for the rest of your life. And in my case, trying to raise and teach my children these habits from the beginning. So, here they are:

Eating Well for Optimum Health, by Dr. Andrew Weil
We never buy margarine anymore, always ground turkey instead of beef, and we love his recipe for preparing broccoli until it's cooked crisp tender with a little olive oil and red pepper flakes.

The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood, by Dr William Sears, his wife and sons.
This pumps you up to get your kids eating healthy and we like the Chocolate Oatmeal Flax Cookies, they are much like the ones made by Kashi.

You on a Diet by Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz
Great for jumpstarting your new, healthy lifestyle! And overall great knowledge of how it all works.

The Abs Diet by David Zinczenko
This book was recommended to my husband by a good friend who is an Olympic-level skier from Lake Tahoe. It is very informative and we love every single shake recipe we have tried from this book.

I LOVE PRETTY TAGS: Christmas

BEFORE: Plain wooden gift tags from craft store with 40% off coupon

AFTER: Cute collection of tags for my family that will last forever for those special presents!
Materials used: wood tags, leftover scrapbook paper, ribbon, and other scrapbooking supplies, glue stick and hot glue. Santa picture and words- computer clipart.

AN OLD-FASHIONED THANKSGIVING

I just watched a movie I had never heard of. It was released last year and based on this book by Louisa May Alcott, one of my most favorite authors. I LOVED it. And I highly recommend it. It really made me think about what is most important in my life and what I am grateful for. A really great family movie, my two little ones sat and watched the whole thing with me. I think I have found a new Thanksgiving tradition! I think I will get the book and then decide if I want to read the book every year or watch the movie. Check it out!

I JUST READ

I've always wanted to read the "Narnia" series. I've had this book, which is the first of the series, on my shelf for years. I made myself promise that I would not get any more books from the library until I'd read the ones on my shelves. I finally started this one and I really like it so far. Even thought it's written for "children," I think as an adult, there are many threads sewn throughout the stories that we can pick up on and help us understand the world around us better.
Post Script: one good thing about children's books is that they dont take long to read! I just finished it tonight. I can't wait to read the next one. It really was magical, adventurous, had the classic contrast between good and evil, and many parallels to Christian faith. I recommend it!

FAVORITE TIME OF DAY

One of my favorite times of the day in my house is "quiet time." My girls bring me a stack of any books of their choosing and we cuddle up on the couch and read together. And then we do it again at night when they are in their jammies and ready for bed. I just love those vintage children's books with the original artwork, don't you? One of our house's favorites is "The Fire Cat" about Pickles the Cat who has big paws and wishes to do big things. Then there's my personal fav: "Where the Wild things Are" among about a thousand others. I'm grateful my parents always read to me. And I think my daughters love it as much as I do :)