Books I've Read: July 2014

My pile of "books" read this month.  I would guess next month's stack will include some actual paper books, but this month was all electronic.

Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson. I read this book on my phone using my free trial of Scribd.  I used to follow the blog this book is based on, but I stopped reading it after awhile because, while I love the general concepts of a zero waste home and life, the actual content was things like appetizers made with pate and capers, and a lot of resources that are available in southern California, but not near me. The book was pretty similar.

I liked that each chapter had a list of the steps you could take based off of the 5 Rs (refusing, reducing, reusing, recycling, and rotting), and most chapters also had alphabetical lists of suggestions for steps you could take.  The book is good at inspiring a mindset of wasting less, and working to find alternatives, but not necessarily great at the specifics that will work for everyone.

"Natural resources are running out, but we buy petroleum-based products. The economy is weak, but we indulge in foreign products. Our general health is declining, but we fuel our bodies with processed foods and bring toxic products into our homes. What we consume directly affects our environment, our economy, and our health, by supporting specific manufacturing practices and creating a demand to make more."

Wither by Lauren DeStefano. I read this book on my phone using my free trial of Scribd, in one three-and-a-half hour interrupted chunk one day. I was ready to read a good dystopian work of fiction that would be fast-paced and different from the non-fiction that I had been reading. This was that mostly. It got a little slow at points, but I did wonder how it would turn out so I kept going.

I like the main character, Rhine. She kind of reminds me of Katniss in The Hunger Games, coming from a challenging life, being thrown into a world she doesn't like but also has very conflicting feelings about after awhile.  (Mild spoilers) I want to like Gabriel and the romance they're trying to create between the two of them, but it feels a little forced right now. Maybe as they continue to spend more time together it will feel more natural?

The one beef I had with this story was that the crisis of people dying at a young age from genetic mutations was never really explained. Science came up with an answer to cure cancer and deformities, but then everyone in the next generation started dying young. My hope was that the next two books would help with that (they didn't really). Overall this was a good light read, and I was able to get through it quickly, which I like from my fiction

Fever by Lauren DeStefano. I read this book on my phone using my free trial of Scribd, another one in one afternoon.  I really didn't enjoy this one. I get that it was the middle book in the trilogy, but it was such a downer. Even the few triumphs the characters had were immediately cancelled out by about five more challenges.

The other part that bothered me was that in the first book, Rhine was set up to be this strong female heroine, and in this one, she got dumb. In the first book, she was strategic and had a plan for everything, and in this one, she spent the entire time reacting to things that happened to her because she didn't consider them beforehand.

Sever by Lauren DeStefano. I read this book on my Kindle (and I actually paid for it so I could finish the trilogy!). This book was a big meh. I was hoping things would pick up after the second book, and they did, kind of, but everything resolved just a bit too perfectly, without characters even questioning things as much as they should have. They just accepted things that didn't make sense for them to accept based on what they had believed for the rest of the series.  I kept waiting for some big plot twist, or some startling turn of events, and there really wasn't anything.

Overall, the trilogy started out as an interesting concept, but I don't know that the author fleshed it out as much as she could have, and the characters were inconsistent. Definitely not my favorite, but an easy enough read to pass the time.

Uglies by Scott Westerfield. I read this book on my phone using my free trial of Scribd (can you tell I'm really trying to take advantage of this free trial?).  This is the first of a four-book series, another dystopian future one.  This time around everyone gets an operation at 16 years old to change them from "ugly" (i.e. normally flawed) to "pretty" (evolutionarily desirable).  This one focused on Tally right before her 16th birthday, and the group of rebels who don't want to be pretty.  This is another interesting concept.  How do these authors come up with these? I also appreciated that he went into detail about how some oil-mutating virus spread and made all petroleum products explode when they came into contact with oxygen.  Cool!

I didn't necessarily relate to Tally all that much, because, go figure, at 15 she's a little immature.  I'm old.  I was interested to see what happened next, and the author did a good job of keeping things moving most of the time.  Most of the characters are well-thought-out.  I didn't necessarily like or relate to them, but they were consistent and fit in the story, so that's better than some other books I've read.  Overall, the book was a decent read and I wanted to know what would happen next.  All four books were available on Scribd when I signed up, so this was another series to fly through quickly.

Pretties by Scott Westerfield. I read this book on my phone using my free trial of Scribd.  This was the sequel to Uglies, and it moved the story along.  I don't know, it wasn't as exciting as the first one.  And the pretties...they're just dumb.  They speak dumbly. They act dumbly.  And since most of the story was focused on pretties, there was a lot of dumb to get past to get to the plot points.  If you couldn't tell even from the books in this post, I usually don't enjoy middle books of trilogies/short series like this.  They seem like they lean too much on the surrounding stories and aren't strong on their own.  On to the next...

Specials by Scott Westerfield.  I read this book on my phone using my free trial of Scribd.  This was better than Pretties, although this series as a whole has not been as strong as some of the others I've read in a similar style.  It wrapped things up nicely, so I think the fourth book was not originally planned? I like that the author took Tally through the different categories of people, and I felt bad for her, because it seemed like any time she tried to fix something it backfired.  I didn't exactly like her though, and I got really annoyed by the character Shay, so that maybe made it harder to read these books.  I was curious to see if the fourth book would tie in the characters from the first three though, so I read that one too...

Extras by Scott Westerfield. I read this book on my phone using my free trial of Scribd.  This felt like a completely different story than the first three (I think it may have been an addition to the original trilogy, but I'm too lazy to go find out).  Some familiar characters eventually showed up about halfway through, but I didn't really like or connect to any of the new characters, so this was definitely a slower read than the first three.

Overall, I wasn't the biggest fan of this series.  I think the basic ideas were really cool, and I liked that some explanation was given for what happened, but I didn't really like any of the characters, and that makes it harder to get through a story.  That being said, I think this series would make an awesome summer teen movie.  There's plenty of action and opportunity for special effects, and the "pretties" part means plenty of opportunity for attractive teenagers.

Book Total for this month: 8 books read.  Total this year: 13 books read.

Iron Craft Challenge #15: Embellish

Once I read the challenge theme, I knew I wanted to do something with flowers.  I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to crafts with flowers, after all, but I haven't done much with any of those ideas.  So I went with a simple felt flower like this one.  I sewed a button in the middle, and hot glued the whole thing to a small doily. (Side note: I have several doilies and embroidered linens from my Grandma Winter, and I haven't come up with good ideas for using them, but this worked out really nicely for the random little doily!)

 I put a safety pin on the back and voila!

And here's the flower in action.  Yes, my phone matches my shirt today. Black and white stripes are my favorite. I am a big nerd. Also, can you spot my helper in this photo? He was very curious what I was doing.

I really like how it turned out, and it will embellish lots of shirts!

On Planning For Homeschool On The Cheap

Even though we had been going back and forth on homeschooling for awhile, we didn't actually jump into the decision to do it until mid-July.  That means a little over a month of time before our tentative starting date of September 2.  A little over a month to find curriculum to use, to plan everything, to pay for everything, to figure out schedules and routines.

That's not a lot of time.

I started out by making a list of the big subjects I needed/wanted to cover (the first four are the subjects required by the state; the last three are my additions):

• Reading/Language Arts: This includes read-aloud time, letters, grammar, phonics, spelling, handwriting, and maybe foreign languages later on.
• Math: This will also include calendar/weather time.
• Social Studies: This includes history, geography, and cultural concepts. Jesse will probably include some sociology in here at some point.
• Science and Health: This includes science, P.E., and what we call life skills (cooking, gardening, etc.)
• Music/Hymnody
• Art
• Bible History and Memory Work

Once I had that list, I started going subject by subject to find curriculum, a mixture of pre-K and Kindergarten materials.  Some I had an idea:

• Reading: I want to make a list of read-alouds from several lists I have saved, and do a chapter a day, potentially with extra activities to go along with the stories.
• Language Arts: I want to do Letter Of The Week to start, and have Handwriting and Art projects that coincide with that, as well as more reading with books that go with that letter (apple books for A and so on).
• Art: I want to do seasonal art projects as well, which are easy to find on Pinterest, or projects that go with our Science units, or our Bible stories.  Basically art will supplement our other activities most of the time.
• Bible History: I want something similar to Christ Light (I was going to pick Christ Light, but I'm trying to find a cheaper option), something that has Bible stories, along with activities and memory work to go with each story.

Some I had no clue:

• Math: I need a curriculum for math, because while math in Kindergarten isn't hard, I don't know which concepts need to be covered or what order to go in.
• Science: Ugh. My science and social studies background is not strong.

And then I went down the rabbit hole.  The Internet is a wonderful place to find everything you could possibly imagine for resources.  When you're just starting out though, you want to save everything that might be useful because you don't know yet what might be useful.  And you can't possibly save everything.  And some things only have half the material available right now and you have to come back each week for the next piece, and who is going to remember all those different places?

I want this to be inexpensive.  I am willing to spend money on curriculum that we will use, especially knowing that it will probably be used four times over (various learning styles taken into account, of course).  But right now, money is tight.  So I'm trying to find cheap and free resources for the things that I know better, so that I can spend the money on the things I don't know.  (And I know we will need plenty of paper and toner for the printer for all those free printable activities!) 

We did find several helpful resources at the library, and I'm sure there will be plenty more as we get into things.

So I'm making my lists.  Must buy this.  Would like this when we can afford this.  Will ask for this for birthdays/Christmas.  

For example, there's a fun-looking handwriting series that includes letters to trace and pictures to color, and starting in first grade, Bible verses to copy.  Each year is about $18.  But there are also many free online printables for letters, some with coloring pages, and I hope I am competent enough to find Bible passages.  So those sets will go on my "Would like this" list, but we probably won't buy them right now.  

And then there's my list of "next steps" for each subject.  Print this free planner and put it in a binder.  Get all of my links saved in one spot (or two - bookmarks on my computer and Pinterest).  Download these files.  Buy this curriculum.  Each time I accomplish something on my list I add about three more things.

Does all this seem like a lot?  My brain is overwhelmed.  Planning is hard.  If someone could just hand me the teacher's manuals and tell me to plan out the weeks, I could do that easily.  But that kind of defeats the purpose of finding the best fit for your family, one of those things I like about homeschooling.  So I soldier on.  

Once I have my curriculum set in stone, I plan on posting a listing of what we will be using, knowing that it very well may change a few weeks/months in, if we find it isn't working for us.  And my homeschooling updates should get more fun once we actually get started, hopefully with specifics about what we're doing, and what is working well (or not!).

What I'm Reading...

Today is our 7th anniversary.  It is amazing to me how much we have grown and changed in the past seven years.  I wouldn't trade them for anything!

The Homeschooler's Little House On The Prairie Site Tour Guide. I don't think I've ever read completely through this series (although I've read the first four or five books several times).  We went to the pageant in Walnut Grove one year when I was younger, which was fun, and all of the sites listed here look cool! (Simple Homeschool)

Enough Is Enough. "But we already have enough. Once we train ourselves to recognize this truth, we are freed from the pursuit of more, we are liberated from the bondage of discontent, and we begin to experience true freedom in our lives." (Becoming Minimalist)

Inconsistent.  I agreed with so much of this post. I am most definitely inconsistent too. (Holy Hen House)

How I Learned To Care Less About My Family And More About Myself. "Why does he get to sit on the internet for hours at a time? Why does she get to play on her DS and I can't? It's obviously not their faults, they do their best. But they are lucky in that there is a balance for them between caring for themselves and caring for others, and they are awesome because they can both do it flawlessly and without any effort. I, on the other hand, cannot." (Offbeat Home And Life)

Nine Questions To Help You Unclutter Your Recipes.  The one that especially struck me was the one about keeping recipes that you will never use for sentimental reasons, because I have a recipe box mostly full of my Grandma's handwritten card that I keep for that reason. (Unclutterer)

On Why We Are Choosing To Homeschool This Year

Now that we've officially decided to start homeschooling, several people have asked me about our decision.  Here's my answer.  We chose homeschooling because we don't have a Christian day school at our church.  The closest one is about 10 minutes away (not super far, but figuring out dropping off/picking up with other kids could get tricky), and I'm not sure of the cost, but it would cost something.

We aren't set against public schools by any means, but the focus there is so much on getting ready for tests, and starting that so young that it just seems to me like I'd rather start teaching my kids a joy for learning right away than have it drilled into their heads that they need to learn these things to pass a test.  It also allows us to include "Jesus-y" things like Bible History, hymnology, and memory work that wouldn't be in public school.

And I can do it.  Several of the bloggers I follow write about homeschooling, along with other facets of life, and some of my friends homeschool.  From the examples I've seen, and from what I know about myself, I can teach my kids.  I know them better than anyone else knows them.  I can give them semi-one-on-one time (or at least one-on-three or -four time), which is a pretty good ratio, I think.

The hard part here is that, as an introvert, I know I need a certain amount of time each day to myself.  A few minutes in the afternoon for a cup of coffee and some mindless Internet scrolling do wonders for my day.  That will be a challenge for me to work around.

There's also that whole "having a baby in November/December" thing.  I'm hoping that by then, we'll at least kind of have a routine, and subjects at least partially prepared ahead of time, so that we can keep going without taking a break.  But if we need to, one of those benefits of homeschooling is the option to choose your breaks.  So maybe we'll take a big Thanksgiving break and a shorter Christmas break.

Obviously there are pros and cons to all the schooling options, but those were the big ones for us. Cost. Distance. Love of learning vs. reiterating facts.

So now I move on to planning.  Planning is hard.  There are so many options online, which is both good and bad, because starting out is overwhelming trying to pick things, but once I get my basics covered, I think finding supplemental stuff will be really fun.  And luckily I know a few people who are farther along than I am who have been giving me great advice and guidance for figuring some things out.

From here on out, I hope to update periodically with what we're doing, and how it's going.  This first year will definitely be a learning process for all of us!

On Prayer, Positive Thinking, And Gratitude

I remember the first time Jesse asked me to pray with him, out loud, just the two of us.  I almost started giggling as he spouted off what sounded like a very formal, very "church-y", prayer.  He was studying to be a pastor, after all.  When he was done, I asked him if he always prayed like that.  He does.

Maybe that's normal for you, but for me, most of the time, my prayers are big long conversational rambles to God.  I talk about life, about my struggles, about things I hope for the future.  And I make sure to always start with thanks.  

This was not always habit for me.  For a long time, my prayers were mostly my complaining to God about things that had happened differently than I wanted, and wishes for things to change.  And then I read one of those "cute" little quotations that went something like this: "What if all you had tomorrow were the things you thanked God for today?".  I get the idea.  And even though I think the quotation is too broad, the meaning is perfect.

So I start my prayers by thanking God for being my Savior. That's pretty important.  I thank him for my husband, and for each of my children.  And I try to think of a specific thing for each person, whether it's something they did or said, or a new accomplishment, or a lesson they taught me - because they teach me all the time.  There is always something, usually more than one something, to be thankful for, for each one.  

And I eventually move on to general thankfulness for things that happened that day, or requests for everyone to please sleep well tonight, or prayer requests for friends or family members, or whatever else comes to mind.  But the thankfulness comes first.  

Since this happens in bed with the lights out, sometimes I drift off to sleep mid-prayer.  My rambles take awhile, and I am easily distracted by other thoughts.  But that's okay too.  I usually at least make it through my thanks, and even if I don't, God knows my thoughts.

Maybe not everyone reading this is religious.  Maybe you don't pray.  But I think this way of remembering the good things each day, this act of being thankful for specific people, for specific things from that day, is a perfect way to end any day, even the hard ones.  It puts me in a positive mindset for peaceful sleep, for waking up to start a new day at an earlier time than I might like.  It helps me remember that even though things may not be perfect, there is so much good in my life.

My prayers won't ever be mistaken for those recited in front of a church.  They might even make Jesse laugh if he were to listen to them. But they help me focus on the important things, the abundance of good in my life. And they remind me that I am so blessed.

What I'm Reading...

I like to include the kids' art as part of our decorating, because it's cute, and it makes them feel included.  This week I finally put up a few big ribbons with some push pins, and attached their pictures with some extra clothespins.  Easy to put up, and easy to change out the creations!  Both Jonah and Matthew are just starting to draw things on their own - happy faces, suns and clouds, houses...it's so cool to see the way they put those things onto paper!

The Problem With Little White Girls, Boys, And Voluntourism. This was an interesting take on charity/mission trips that I never really considered, but is probably really accurate. (Huffington Post)

Confessions Of A Non-Classical Reader.  I won't say I grew up reading the classics, but now that I'm an adult, there are many I can check off my list.  But I've definitely read my share of fluff too!  It's a good balance. (Simple Homeschool)

Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing....Poorly?  You won't get anywhere without taking some risks and failing a few times. (The Happiest Home)

How To Build A Successful "Shopping Hierarchy".  I know that if I start my grocery shopping at Aldi, and then move on to Walmart (especially with price matching), I can usually get the best prices for most things.  (The Simple Dollar)