BOOKS I FINISHED - OCTOBER 2015

Counting by 7s, written by Holly Goldberg Sloan
I saw this title on the Oregon Battle of the Books 2016 Division 6-8 list, looked it up on Common Sense Media to see if it would be good for the big boys, and realized I wanted to read it for myself. The narration of the chapters alternates between the main character, a brilliant girl named Willow who is suddenly without parents or any family who can take her in, and a third person voice. I have mixed feelings about one of the characters, but really enjoyed the book. I walked away from it not just entertained, but challenged to be more aware of ways that I can make a difference in someone's life and encouraged to meet people where they're at.

Here is a link to the Oregon Battle of the Books site, in case you're wanting to see other titles that made the cut in various divisions, but I'm warning you that it's not very user-friendly for someone who just wants to see book lists. However, the whole thing is run by volunteers and my gratitude for the time they put into compiling these lists far outweighs any inconvenience their site presents. Our library has bookmarks with the lists printed on them, which is how I found about about the book.

Walk the World's Rim, written by Betty Baker
A young boy, a grown slave, and three Spaniards walk from Tampa, Florida to Mexico City. It's a neat story of loyalty and betrayal, integrity and selfishness, pride and humility, and coming of age. I read it for school with Naomi and liked it as much as when I'd previously read it.

Top Dog: The Story of Marine Hero Lucca, written by Maria Goodavage
I saw this on the shelf of large print new books at the library and promptly reserved a regular print copy. Silas and Devon loved a fictional book called Cracker!: The Best Dog in Vietnam so much that I read it a couple of years ago. I knew they'd love this true story. They did, as did I.

The Beginner's Goodbye: A Novel, written by Anne Tyler
Sharon recommended mentioned this on a book list back in 2013 and I finally got around to reading it. It's a sweet story of a love, grief, and friendship, of a man trying to find a way to keep going after his wife dies unexpectedly.

One Small Boat: The Story of a Little Girl, Lost Then Found, written by Kathy Harrison
Tami mentioned a different book by the same author, but our library system doesn't have it. I chose this one instead and loved it. I've always had an interest in foster care, which is what this non-fiction book is about, and we even went through all the classes several years ago. Although the timing will obviously never be perfect, it's clearly not been right yet. So this book tugged at my heartstrings and motivated me to look for non-fostering ways to support foster kids and families, something I used to be better about than I am now.

Humans of New York, written by Brandon Stanton
I don't remember when I started following the HONY Facebook page, but I love it. The variety of interests and skills, challenges and accomplishments, hurts and dreams ... it's awesome. Stanton's new book, Humans of New York: Stories, came out this month, so I put an advanced hold on it at the library and checked out his original book, which I enjoyed. It's primarily photography, so it's easy to read through a few pages here and there when you have a little time to spare.

"Just because you're an adult doesn't mean you're grown up. Growing up means being patient, holding your temper, cutting out the self-pity, and quitting with the righteous indignation."

"Why do so many people seem to love righteous indignation?"

"Because if you can prove you're a victim, all rules are off. You can lash out at people. You don't have to be accountable for anything."

BOOKS THE KIDS LIKED
Blue Chameleon, written and illustrated by Emily Gravett
We love this book and have checked it out multiple times. With hardly any text and really fun pictures, it's a great book for early readers. However, it's also a fun book for other people as well because the pictures of a lonely chameleon changing his appearance to try and make friends with the things around him are totally entertaining.

Lots of books illustrated by Marla Frazee
It all started with her book, Roller Coaster. It was a random pull from the shelf by Teebs a few weeks ago, but we've read it countless times already. He loves the story of a group of people preparing for and going on a roller coaster ride, but we've both enjoyed all the detail Frazee puts into the people in the pictures. We liked the illustrations in that book so much that I got on the library site and reserved a whole bunch of other books that she's illustrated.

So far we've enjoyed The Seven Silly Eaters (a humorous book by Mary Ann Hoberman about how ludicrous it is to try and accommodate picky eaters, but with a fun,"happily ever after" ending), The Farmer and the Clown (a sweet wordless book), Harriet, You'll Drive me Wild! (Mem Fox's book about a daughter and mother loving each other through their not-so-pleasant moments), and Mrs. Biddlebox (Linda Smith's book about a woman's solution to having her day not start out very well).

Our library bags still have All the World (written by Liz Garton Scanlon), God Got a Dog (written by Cynthia Rylant), Hush, Little Baby, Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? (a compilation of panswers to that question by a variety of illustrators), and Stars (written by Mary Lyn Ray). We haven't cracked any of those open yet, but I'm sure we'll like them as much as the other books Frazee has illustrated.

This Equals That, written by Jason Fulford and Tamara Shopsin
The first time we checked this book out I couldn't figure out what do to with it. Each page spread has two photographs, one on each side, that at first glance don't seem to have anything to do with each other. When you turn the page, the picture that had previously been on the right side is now on the left and a new picture is on the right. That pattern continues through the whole book. Devon had to explain to me that each set of pictures has something in common and you have to figure out what it is. It's actually a pretty awesome book and we've checked it out again since that first time. Kids will enjoy the photos and trying to figure out the relationship between the two things (shape, color, number, etc.), but adults will also enjoy it because nothing about the photographs is childish. It would make a good coffee table book.

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10/29/15 - THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for rain.

What is something that you're thankful for?

APPLES AT BEILKE - 2015

We've got a stretch of rainy days coming, so I made a spontaneous decision to go pick apples with the little Ws today. Tim was subbing in town, so I sent him a text to see if he wanted to come with us after school or if we should go without him in the morning. He wanted to come, so we all headed to Beilke Family Farm in the afternoon. 

Teebs walked for most of the time, but managed to get a wagon ride for a little while.

Devon took off to get an extra bucket and came back with it on his head.

Silas juggled some of the tiny apples he found.

Naomi insisted on pulling a wagon.

I insisted on a family picture.

We threw in our standard silly face pose.

One shot of the little Ws.

One shot of the big Ws.

And that was it. Our first apple picking trip was fun!

WHEN THE BIG BOYS DO THEIR THING

 Devon has been spending quite a bit of time whittling and listening to Sailaway Stories lately.

He made this set of chopsticks last week.

Silas recently read a new Bear Grylls book, Extreme Food: What to Eat When Your Life Depends on It and decided to try one of the suggestions.

He fried worms. And ate them.

Now we'll have to see if the utensils Devon makes ever get used for the food Silas prepares.

Sidenote: There's actually a process that makes frying the worms safe, so don't just throw some in a skillet and call it good. If you're crazy enough to eat fried worms, then at least be wise enough to learn how to do it first.

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10/22/15 - THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for vacuums.

What's one thing that you're thankful for?

CLOTHING DIFFERENCES

I headed out to a clothing exchange a few days ago and came home with this pile of blue and green solids (ok, there are two prints .. but the truth is I'll probably never actually wear them) and some flip flops. I'm happy.

I also snagged some unclaimed things for Naomi at the end of the night. Two pairs of yellow and purple heels for her to dress up with around the house and a pink purse. She's happy.

She loves all things fancy and girly while I prefer things that are practical and plain, but the differences are fun. It takes all kinds, right?

2015 - WOODEN SHOE PUMPKIN FEST

Saturday was our annual trip to a pumpkin patch/corn maze with Dad. We headed to Wooden Shoe Pumpkin Fest for the fourth year in a row and spent five hours going through corn mazes, searching for clues and learning about the farm, shooting arrow-ish things in a game, going down slides, walking pumpkins getting launched, eating lunch, going on a hayride, swinging, sliding, climbing, and running around. It was pretty fun, as usual.

We always kick things off with the group pictures so that we don't have to try and regroup later on in the day. So here are all 6 Ws and Dad.

Then just the 6 Ws.

The kids all hopped on these bikes and were riding around, so I asked them to line up and smile.

Then I asked them to look like thugs. One of them thought that was funny.

We all hopped on the Pumpkin Fest bus for one more planned shot.

Tim and I took a break while the little Ws ran around.

Dad looked like this for much of the time, which I appreciate because it means there are lots of pictures of our family in his blog post about our outing. He also used that camera to make two "funny to us, but serious to Nomes and Teebs" videos.

10/16/15 - WORTH REPEATING

In every job that must be done / There is an element of fun / You find the fun and ... snap! / The job's a game

~ Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins

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Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find it out.

~ Frank A. Clark

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

~ Sir Winston Churchill

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It doesn't take strength to hold a grudge. It takes strength to let go of one. 

~ man in Oprah audience many years ago

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The sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal.

~ C. S. Lewis

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10/15/15 - THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for clothing exchanges.

What's one thing that you're thankful for?

WHEN SCIENCE IS MORE THAN SCIENCE

This was my view as I planned a menu a couple of weeks ago. Nothing particularly special, just a kid doing their science. Except that it was the first day Naomi had done her science on her own. Ever. The following week was the first time she did a whole week's worth of science on her own. Ever.

I don't really give a rip when a kid starts reading well. Barring a learning disability, all kids eventually get it and I've never met a single person whose life was forever changed because they started reading at 3. Or 5. Or 10.

So when Naomi struggled to read I just figured she was just one of those kids who took a while for it to click. Yes, she knew her letters and their sounds. Yes, she new how to read. But it took a lot of work for her to get through a whole sentence, paragraph, or page. She definitely was not reading with the same skill as her older brothers had at the same age (that's fine because they're each their own person, but they were my reference point), would often guess at words, and was resourceful enough to look around the page for contextual clues when she got stuck on a word.

Somewhere around kindergarten or first grade I wondered if she was dyslexic or had vision problems, but I realized she was still well within the normal range of reading skills and decided to just let her blaze her own trail. We'd take things at whatever pace she needed them to be, which meant I was doing all her school work, except math, with her for years past when the big boys were working independently. Time consuming and inconvenient? Sure, but that was fine. It's what she needed and so it's what we did.

Then she got a tic over the summer. At least that's what it looked like. It was something new and odd, a facial behavior she was oblivious to until I secretly made a video of her doing it. We decided to get her eyes checked because the only time the tic thing appeared was when she was reading a book or at the computer. Anything else, like brain tumors or something, would have made the tic happen any old time.

Sure enough, she needed glasses. It figures that the one time I decided to be all go with the flow was the one time I should have been my usual Type A, get the job done self. Oh well. What's done is done.

She's not the first W to need glasses, but it wasn't blog-worthy before because the vision problems weren't debilitating. This time was different. Now this girl of mine is picking up the pace in the reading department. She's not reading huge chapter books on her own yet, and that's totally fine, but she is doing her science independently, along with some other parts of her school work. It's pretty awesome to see her progress over the last two months!

What's funny is that she's wanted glasses for a really long time purely for cosmetic reasons. This is the same girl who punched out the lenses of some cheap sunglasses before we went on a run one day in the hopes that people would think she was wearing real glasses with black rims. She thinks glasses look awesome, so this was like a dream come true. Bonus points for the fact she got pink ones. In a purple case. It doesn't get much better than that!

MOVIES I WATCHED: 4/8/15 - 10/11/15

Crooked Arrows, starring Brandon Routh, Chelsea Ricketts, and Crystal Allen
Fairly predictable sports movie about an underdog Native American lacrosse team whose new coach used to be a star player.

Fiddler on the Roof, starring Topol and Norma Crane
I haven't watched this since I was a kid, so all 6 Ws watched it on a recent Friday night. It's a great story about family and friends, tradition and change, love and hate, faith and humanity, plus it has a healthy dose of humor.

Flywheel, starring Alex Kendrick
The Kendrick brothers have now produced several movies, but this was their first one and was intended only for local viewing. While it's not the same quality as their later films, the lessons taught about honesty and integrity through the lens of a used car salesman are important and our family enjoyed it.

The Help, starring Emma Stone and Viola Davis
Silas and I watched this together (Tim and I saw it a long time ago). It's the story of a story, how a book about what life for black maids was like during the 1960s came to fruition. Simultaneously heart-breaking and heart-warming, it's a neat story of bravery and cowardice, kindness and cruelty, and a strong reminder that people matter more than politics and that character matters more than social standing. I haven't read the book by the same title and written by Kathryn Stockett, but I'm sure it's good.

Hotel Rwanda, starring Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, and Nick Nolte
Tim and I saw this a long time ago, but watched it with Silas and Devon one night. The older they get, the more important it is for them to understand the real suffering people experience. We thought this movie was one good way to expose them to the horror of genocide and the heroism of those who do whatever they can to save lives. I've mentioned it in a former book list, but An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography, written by Paul Rusesabagina with Tom Zoellner, is a great book about the man the movie is about.

The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson and May McAvoy
This movie was referenced in another one we saw and I thought it would be good to see it for the historical value of being the first talking picture. I thought it had more talking than it did, as it's just "synchronized dialogue" for the songs and one conversation, but Naomi got to snuggle while we watched it.

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, starring Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman
This is one of my all-time favorite movies and we've watched it multiple times over the years. It's magical and sweet, the story of an awesome toy store, it's eccentric owner, two people who love both the shop and its owner, and one person who seems too uptight to fully appreciate the wonder of the store. It's a family friendly movie that adults will enjoy as much as the kids.

McFarland, USA, starring Kevin Costner
I'm a sucker for underdog movies and loved this one that's based on a true story. It's about a cross country team in California that was comprised of a bunch of non-runners in a poor and predominantly Hispanic community. Great lessons about the value of hard work, family, and friendships. The community reminded me a lot of our own town with a demographic made up largely of families from Mexico who leave early in the morning to work in the fields that surround us and come home late at night to put food on their tables.

Miracle of the White Stallions, starring Robert Taylor, Lilli Palmer, Curd Jurgens, Eddie Albert, and James Franciscus 
I found this movie after reading White Stallions of Lipizza, written by Marguerite Henry and illustrated by Wesley Dennis, for school the third time. It's the true story of how the Lipizzaners were saved during the bombings of World War II. The bigs and I watched it and enjoyed it, perhaps more because we've read the book than we would have otherwise.

Paddington, starring Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, and Julie Walters
This is a fun movie that we watched for a family movie night. A young bear travels from the jungles of Peru to London and ends of living with a family there. It has plenty of silly antics, but also has the love of a family trying to help a bear they care about.

Philomena, starring Judi Dench
This movie is about the true story of a woman who became pregnant while young and unmarried, was sent to a convent by her parents during her pregnancy, and eventually had her son placed for adoption without her consent. She then spent fifty years looking for him, eventually finding answers to her questions with the help of a journalist. It's not really a "happily ever after" kind of movie, but I liked it because I think it's important for all of us to remember that we never know someone's whole story. We don't know what they've experienced, all their hurts and losses, the courage and forgiveness they've chosen or anger and bitterness they've clung to, the kinds of people who matter to them ... so we need to be kind.

Singin' in the Rain, starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds
This is one of my all-time favorite movies and I realized I'd never had the little Ws watch it. They loved it, laughing throughout the whole thing and replaying a couple funny parts. It's the story of a movie star who finds himself in a jam because talking movies have just come out and the beautiful woman he always co-stars with has a horrendous voice. Romance, friendship, business, comedy, singing, choreography ... it's perfect.

Unbroken, starring Jack O'Connell and Domhnall Gleeson
I'd heard such great things about this movie, but I was so bored watching it. I think the story is great and the man it's about is admirable, but the movie just seemed to go on and on and on. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it. It's the true story of Louis "Louie" Zamperini, an American Olympian and soldier whose plane crashed in WWII, leading him to spend nearly seven weeks adrift on a raft and over two years as a Japanese prisoner of war. The movie is based on Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, written by Laura Hillenbrand.

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A DAY IN THE WOODS

We spent last Saturday out in the woods with a few other families. It was a great day of relaxing, playing, riding bikes, sitting around a campfire, going on walks, hanging out on the river, sitting under the trees, chatting, eating, and laughing.

Most of the older boys were down at the river for a while and I asked Tim to go check on them. What he discovered upon his arrival at the water was some kids livin' off the land with a fish they'd caught ... without a pole. He only had his phone on him, so he went back down with the regular camera and got this shot.

Here's their triumphant arrival back at main camp.

Here are all three of the boys who played some part in the catch.

We'd planned on grilling hot dogs, but the men ended up putting some fresh fish over the fire instead.

The big girls spent much of the day together.

As did the big boys.

Actually, they all played together and didn't separate by gender at all, but I just happened to bust out the camera when they were grouped that way.

I didn't remember to get a picture of all the women who were there until after one had left, but three out of four is better than none. Right?

The littles were a bit oblivious to each other for quite a while, but eventually bonded over stick fights and the bike pump they took turns making farting noises with. Oh, the giggles!

It was such a fun day!

10/8/15 - THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for the first foggy morning in a long time.

What is something that you're thankful for?

JOB SHADOWING - WOODBURN VETERINARY CLINIC

~ Guest post by Devon, who I snapped this picture of as he headed out the door on 9/24/15

MY TIME AT THE VETERINARY CLINIC

I had sent out multiple letters to veterinary offices asking if I could volunteer and so far I’ve only received one answer. Woodburn Veterinary Clinic said that I couldn’t volunteer, but I could job shadow for a few hours. So we planned a time and I went over and watched them work.  I watched them do a surgery on a dog and spay and neuter a couple cats. They had a big wall of medicine.  I got to pet one of their cats while eating candy they gave me. I had fun and I hope I can go again.

!!!Trivia!!!

Q: Did you know that a normal cat temperature is 102-107 degrees? 

A: I bet you didn’t. 

Q: Did you know if you touch a cat where its back ends and its tail starts the tail will twitch?

A: I bet you didn’t know that either.

PICTURES WITH THE PADRE, WHO IS ALSO PAPA

Not only did my dad stop for a quick visit on his recent trip north, but he also took the little Ws and I out for lunch on his way south a couple days later. I wanted a picture of just he and I, so Silas snapped one for me. Me and the padre.

Then Teebs chimed in with, "I want to take a picture with Papa. On his lap. But just me. No one else!" So, I granted his request.

Naomi didn't want to miss her opportunity, so she also requested a picture with Papa. Although Dad had taken off his glasses because of the glare in the previous pictures, Naomi asked him to put them on for her picture with him so that they could be matching.

The big boys didn't have the same burning desire for a picture that the rest of us had, but that's fine. They love him just as much as their younger siblings do.

Getting two quick visits in one week was pretty awesome!

10/1/15 - THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for laughter.

What's one thing that you're thankful for?