Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Define Success, if you don't mind......
I guess I just want everyone to love Julie Bogart as much as I do. She makes me think.
So a couple weeks ago, I posted her article called "Prophecies of Doom". And this video clip is her reading it out loud and then discussing it. And I was so stimulated by what she had to say at the end.
Our goal with homeschooling is to raise successful adults, right? But what does that even mean?
How do you define a "successful adult"? Go ahead, list off your requirements. "My child will be a successful adult if".....what?
-They graduate from collage?
-They get an amazing, well-paying job that they love?
-They can support a family?
-They stay out of debt?
-They travel the world?
-They have skills that allow them to serve others?
-They become parents?
-They have a healthy, active life-style?
And I guess that begs the question: Am I a "successful adult"?
I do not have a collage degree. I can't remember how to do 5th grade level math. I don't play a musical instrument. I earn ZERO dollars a year. I only speak English. I cannot cook a dinner that pleases the eight people I live with simultaneously. I had to look up how to spell 'simultaneously'. And I haven't traveled outside the US since I was in 4th grade.
If any of my kids grow up to be just like me, will I think they are failures? Will I think that they failed me; or perhaps will I think I failed them?
Or maybe nobody is failing.
I don't feel like a complete failure...
My dad must have told me a bajillion times, to finish collage before I got married; or, in the very least, if I had to get married, to put off having kids until I had a degree. And on top of that, he always told me that if I wanted to be a success I really should go into the field of architectural engineering, because that's where the money was going to be. But if I decided not to be an engineer, than I should for sure be a lawyer. And then I should work so hard and so smart, that I became the best in my field. So good, that I would be in such high demand that I could work for myself, set my own hours, and run my business from home while being a wife and stay-at-home mom. ***
My mom thinks I have too many kids, and that they are spaced too closely together. When I told her I was pregnant with baby #6, the response I got was a stunned silence, followed by a "So....was this on purpose?" She doesn't think I should homeschool, and asks me every year if this is the year I'm going to put my kids in school, and if not this year, then surely for high school, right? ***
Basically, I've done very little along the lines of "turning out" how my parents envisioned me turning out. And it's not even that the things my parents dreamed up for me are bad. They aren't! They wanted good things for me, they wanted me to be happy. The same as I want good things for my own kids, and I want my own kids to be happy. And it's not even that my parents think I turned out bad. I think, at least I hope they think, that I've done well. I hope that they consider me to be a 'successful adult' even if I succeeded differently than they thought I should.
Which brings me around full-circle.....
What is a "successful adult"? I'm sure I don't know; or at least, I believe the answer varies.....but I sure do spend an awful lot of time fretting about how my kids won't be one if they never learn xy or z.
And I need to stop.
I need to trust more, that my kids were given the gifts they need to fulfill their life's mission. And that their life's mission doesn't require mastery of ALL skills. Don't the tools we need to succeed differ slightly depending on what it is we're trying to accomplish? And do we really KNOW what our children's life missions are? Maybe it doesn't include an in-depth understanding of ______ (insert any subject or skill set in the world here), OR maybe it hinges on it. It'll be different for every person.
I am feeling this need to spend my time with them differently. I do some things well. But other things I try to force....or I get impatient. Or I forget why we started learning it in the first place.
We just finished listening to "The Red Pencil" and in that story the main character plays a game with her father called "What else is possible?" They come up with a scenario, and instead of jumping to negative conclusions, they continue to ask "What else is possible?" To expand their view of a situation, or practice thinking outside the box. I need to start asking that to myself with our schooling. "This is one way to do school work, but what else is possible? How can I broaden, or reshape a certain subject or topic? How can I come at it from another direction?"
Anyways, quite a lot of thoughts spilling out here, but not a lot of answers. Just a rumbling ramble, today I guess. Listen to Julie's podcast if you get a chance. What do you think of her philosophy? Does any of it resonate deeply in your soul? She definitely has the advantage of hindsight, since all five of her kids are homeschool graduates, who are "successful adults" off having amazing adventures. Maybe some day I'll be able to look back too, and see that we mostly headed in the right direction, and were able to course-correct when we wandered off too far. It's hard to tell right now, in the thick of it all.
*** I need to note that both of my parents are wonderful amazing people who I love dearly. They helped me be who I am today in many, many ways. I used the examples above not because I think they are bad parents, I don't think that at all. I used the examples above to show that kids have ideas and inspirations of their own, that might go against the best intentions of the parents AND THAT'S OK.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Taming the Beast
A couple weekends ago it was a beautiful, balmy 54 degrees out.
In January. *eye roll*
I wouldn't mind, EXCEPT that my trees, particularly my fruit trees, have started to bud out. If they blossom now, and then we get a freeze (which, hello, we will because it's JANUARY!) it's bye-bye fruit for the year. No bueno.
Also, you are supposed to prune your trees while they are still dormant. Usually you are okay doing this is February/March, but if my trees are budding in January, there's a chance I'll miss their dormancy period, and my pruning window.
That wouldn't be horrible. But my trees are already WAY over-grown....my guess is that nothing in my yard has been pruned for at least two years. For example, check out this apple tree.....
I was so confused by it in the fall because it produces yummy, sweet apples (in other words not a crab apple) but is looks just like a bush. There is really no "trunk" part.
I had to get on my homesteading facebook page and ask about it. An arborist on there told me that the tree looked like it used to be an espalier but that it had been badly neglected, and that it would be impossible to get it back to what it used to be. For $100 he would have come out to look, and helped me come up with a plan of where to take the tree next. I was tempted.
I would LOVE to learn how to prune from a professional. But, in the end I decided that I am not $100-worth attached to this tree. So, I'll do my best with it on my own, and if it doesn't work and we end up ripping it out and planting something else instead....that's the way it goes. Now, if it was a peach tree....it might have been a different story. Peach trees are "my preciouses".
The other tricky bit, is that with pruning you can only take off about 1/3 of the tree (or less) per year without risking damaging the tree. So getting this one under control is going to take years of work. All my trees are.
So on that temperate January Saturday of a few weekends ago, I rolled up my sleeves, got out my pruning sheers and went to work in the orchard. And, oh! How incredibly gratified I was to be outside working among my trees. Rejuvenation. Renewal. Nature and my soul.
I wasn't the only one out working in the yard either. At my insistence, the whole family was. :) Aaron was trying his hand at taming our willow hedge.
Have I mentioned our willow hedge before? So, the previous owners decided to plant a "living fence" because the lot is a corner lot and we are technically not allowed to have a fence, or at least there are restrictions on what kind of a fence you can have. But there are not restrictions (apparently; I haven't actually looked up the code, I'm just going on their say-so) about things growing next to the fence, so if you can make a living fence, you get your fence and you comply with city code.
I love the idea of a living fence for two reasons, 1: It feels like breaking the rules but it isn't. 2: LIVING fence!! This resonates with every fiber of my being. It goes hand-in-hand with my other belief about edible landscaping. No, my willow hedge isn't edible. But to take something generally non-living and replace it with something living seems to fall under that same paradigm for me. Not sold yet? Get on Pinterest and search for "willow hedge" or "living fence". The idea of it is just too cool to pass up. It's one of my favorite things about our new house.
But, like every other plant on my half acre, it's been neglected and overgrown. I don't want the fence to be unruly. I want it to enhance the curb-appeal of the house. Especially because we are boarder-line rule-breaking, if our neighbors ever called to complain the city might get very technical with us. And I don't want that. But if it looks nice and well-maintained, I don't see how anyone would have a problem with it.
So we topped it. At about 12 ft high. I would say it was close to 20 ft in places. I only need it to be high enough to keep the deer out, and I don't want it tall enough to block my view of the mountains. Plus the idea is, if the willow can't grow tall, then it will focus on growing out, making the bottom thicker and providing us with more privacy. :)
Another aspect of managing the willow hedge is to bend down the branches to train them where you want them to go. The previous owners started the rounded, bent-over look, so we'll stick to that form; but you can do just about anything you can imagine with the shape when starting your own hedge. I really like the diagonally trained ones that create a diamond pattern. If I were ever going to start from scratch with a willow hedge, that's what I would do. But I like the rounded off look of what we already have as well. So now it's just a matter of continuing on with it.
I'm a fan of Instagram, and I was playing around with their Stories feature and talking about my willow hedge. The only downside is that Insta only allows videos in 15 second segments, which, honestly, is SUPER annoying, and probably why I don't do Insta-Stories more often. But I also like them, because it feel almost like having a short conversation with someone. Anyways, like it or not, here is my Insta-Story about my willow hedge, inconveniently spliced into eight fifteen-second segments for your viewing pleasure. If nothing else, it allows you to see the willow hedge more clearly than you can in a still photo.
So what do you think of willow hedges? Kinda fun, right? I'm just super grateful the previous owners decided to try one out, because I don't know that I could ever convince Aaron to do one out-right (he's never very certain about all my wild ideas and the amount of work they might entail)....but inheriting and maintaining one that's all ready there is a different matter completely.
Also, can we all just pray for some snow, for the love!
In January. *eye roll*
 |
| One of my cherry trees :( |
I wouldn't mind, EXCEPT that my trees, particularly my fruit trees, have started to bud out. If they blossom now, and then we get a freeze (which, hello, we will because it's JANUARY!) it's bye-bye fruit for the year. No bueno.
Also, you are supposed to prune your trees while they are still dormant. Usually you are okay doing this is February/March, but if my trees are budding in January, there's a chance I'll miss their dormancy period, and my pruning window.
That wouldn't be horrible. But my trees are already WAY over-grown....my guess is that nothing in my yard has been pruned for at least two years. For example, check out this apple tree.....
I was so confused by it in the fall because it produces yummy, sweet apples (in other words not a crab apple) but is looks just like a bush. There is really no "trunk" part.
I had to get on my homesteading facebook page and ask about it. An arborist on there told me that the tree looked like it used to be an espalier but that it had been badly neglected, and that it would be impossible to get it back to what it used to be. For $100 he would have come out to look, and helped me come up with a plan of where to take the tree next. I was tempted.
I would LOVE to learn how to prune from a professional. But, in the end I decided that I am not $100-worth attached to this tree. So, I'll do my best with it on my own, and if it doesn't work and we end up ripping it out and planting something else instead....that's the way it goes. Now, if it was a peach tree....it might have been a different story. Peach trees are "my preciouses".
The other tricky bit, is that with pruning you can only take off about 1/3 of the tree (or less) per year without risking damaging the tree. So getting this one under control is going to take years of work. All my trees are.
So on that temperate January Saturday of a few weekends ago, I rolled up my sleeves, got out my pruning sheers and went to work in the orchard. And, oh! How incredibly gratified I was to be outside working among my trees. Rejuvenation. Renewal. Nature and my soul.
I wasn't the only one out working in the yard either. At my insistence, the whole family was. :) Aaron was trying his hand at taming our willow hedge.
Have I mentioned our willow hedge before? So, the previous owners decided to plant a "living fence" because the lot is a corner lot and we are technically not allowed to have a fence, or at least there are restrictions on what kind of a fence you can have. But there are not restrictions (apparently; I haven't actually looked up the code, I'm just going on their say-so) about things growing next to the fence, so if you can make a living fence, you get your fence and you comply with city code.
I love the idea of a living fence for two reasons, 1: It feels like breaking the rules but it isn't. 2: LIVING fence!! This resonates with every fiber of my being. It goes hand-in-hand with my other belief about edible landscaping. No, my willow hedge isn't edible. But to take something generally non-living and replace it with something living seems to fall under that same paradigm for me. Not sold yet? Get on Pinterest and search for "willow hedge" or "living fence". The idea of it is just too cool to pass up. It's one of my favorite things about our new house.
But, like every other plant on my half acre, it's been neglected and overgrown. I don't want the fence to be unruly. I want it to enhance the curb-appeal of the house. Especially because we are boarder-line rule-breaking, if our neighbors ever called to complain the city might get very technical with us. And I don't want that. But if it looks nice and well-maintained, I don't see how anyone would have a problem with it.
So we topped it. At about 12 ft high. I would say it was close to 20 ft in places. I only need it to be high enough to keep the deer out, and I don't want it tall enough to block my view of the mountains. Plus the idea is, if the willow can't grow tall, then it will focus on growing out, making the bottom thicker and providing us with more privacy. :)
Another aspect of managing the willow hedge is to bend down the branches to train them where you want them to go. The previous owners started the rounded, bent-over look, so we'll stick to that form; but you can do just about anything you can imagine with the shape when starting your own hedge. I really like the diagonally trained ones that create a diamond pattern. If I were ever going to start from scratch with a willow hedge, that's what I would do. But I like the rounded off look of what we already have as well. So now it's just a matter of continuing on with it.
I'm a fan of Instagram, and I was playing around with their Stories feature and talking about my willow hedge. The only downside is that Insta only allows videos in 15 second segments, which, honestly, is SUPER annoying, and probably why I don't do Insta-Stories more often. But I also like them, because it feel almost like having a short conversation with someone. Anyways, like it or not, here is my Insta-Story about my willow hedge, inconveniently spliced into eight fifteen-second segments for your viewing pleasure. If nothing else, it allows you to see the willow hedge more clearly than you can in a still photo.
So what do you think of willow hedges? Kinda fun, right? I'm just super grateful the previous owners decided to try one out, because I don't know that I could ever convince Aaron to do one out-right (he's never very certain about all my wild ideas and the amount of work they might entail)....but inheriting and maintaining one that's all ready there is a different matter completely.
Also, can we all just pray for some snow, for the love!
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Give Me Saturation; Or Give Me Death
I'm dreaming of color, and texture, and wood grain, and patterns.
As much as I love the layout of my house, and the way the space is arranged, and how much space there is; I'm struggling with it's...blank-ness. Everything is very light and airy and that beach-style color pallet that looks like the color has been leached out of it.
And then I show up with my dark stained wood, and rich-brown leather chairs, and mustard vases and candles. My rooms are feeling starkly juxtaposed. Are we open and airy or saturated and cozy? Everything is unsettled. I want to change it all right now, in a big way. But of course that would kill off my husband in one fell swoop. Plus, I promised him we could focus on one project at a time; and Ollie's room is the top priority, and then Lincoln and Ivan's room.
But I have plans! Oh boy, do I have plans. I need some warmth, and character in my space. Give me texture! Some saturated colors! And for the love, some stained wood! So today I'm dreaming.......
Look at this kitchen/dining room, I can't stop drooling over it. Those brick-colored hexagon floor tiles! Teal cabinets! And the butcher block counters and white subway tile, which I already have in my kitchen. Swoon, swoon, swoon.
Actually, the kitchen island has been on my mind quite a bit. As I mentioned, we have butcher block counter tops. The previous owners sealed all of the counters, except the island. Sealing the island needs to be done, and fairly quickly. So it's legitimately closer to the top end of our to-do list. And if we're going to seal the top anyway, we might as well take the opportunity to redo the island to our liking. Whether or not we paint ALL the kitchen cabinets teal, I REALLY want to paint the island teal, probably a teal on the richer end of the spectrum. Right now the sides and under the bar part of our island are just flat. Aaron and I have talked about, and both agree, that we'd like to add some bead-board and thick trim, and possibly even extend the sides of the island like in the last picture.
I also really fancy the idea of staining the butcher block a dark walnut color......Aaron is not so keen on this idea; not because he doesn't like how it looks, but because he doesn't want to have to sand down, stain, and reseal the butcher block that's already been sealed. But I love the dark walnut color.
I hate the current tile we have in our kitchen. It's purple and blue. Yup. A very washed out purple and blue, but purple and blue nonetheless. It reminds me of the early 90s. And it's uneven like cobblestones, so it's REALLY hard to sweep, and impossible to mop. But in my daydreams I always wonder what I'd replace it with. I like wood flooring, but since I have wood counter tops, I don't know if that's too much of a good thing? Can't decide. But it doesn't matter because I've pretty much fallen head over heals for the red hexagon floor tiles from the first picture. I have no idea what something like that would cost. But since I'm dreaming, here it is in a few more pictures.
And these bar stools, and Mason Jar lights for over the kitchen table.
I think I'm really feeling that deep turquoise/teal color right now. I want more of it in my life. I've had this picture in my head for a dining room ever since we moved in.
I don't know if my idea for a kitchen and my idea for a dining room will necessarily go together, and I might have to reconcile with that when we get to that point. But for right now, I like both. :)
Other ideas I'm drooling over, but not really sure if or how to incorporate them into my own home:
Someone who is a talented water color artist, please just paint me these seasonal produce pictures, I am so in love!
As much as I love the layout of my house, and the way the space is arranged, and how much space there is; I'm struggling with it's...blank-ness. Everything is very light and airy and that beach-style color pallet that looks like the color has been leached out of it.
And then I show up with my dark stained wood, and rich-brown leather chairs, and mustard vases and candles. My rooms are feeling starkly juxtaposed. Are we open and airy or saturated and cozy? Everything is unsettled. I want to change it all right now, in a big way. But of course that would kill off my husband in one fell swoop. Plus, I promised him we could focus on one project at a time; and Ollie's room is the top priority, and then Lincoln and Ivan's room.
But I have plans! Oh boy, do I have plans. I need some warmth, and character in my space. Give me texture! Some saturated colors! And for the love, some stained wood! So today I'm dreaming.......
Look at this kitchen/dining room, I can't stop drooling over it. Those brick-colored hexagon floor tiles! Teal cabinets! And the butcher block counters and white subway tile, which I already have in my kitchen. Swoon, swoon, swoon.
Actually, the kitchen island has been on my mind quite a bit. As I mentioned, we have butcher block counter tops. The previous owners sealed all of the counters, except the island. Sealing the island needs to be done, and fairly quickly. So it's legitimately closer to the top end of our to-do list. And if we're going to seal the top anyway, we might as well take the opportunity to redo the island to our liking. Whether or not we paint ALL the kitchen cabinets teal, I REALLY want to paint the island teal, probably a teal on the richer end of the spectrum. Right now the sides and under the bar part of our island are just flat. Aaron and I have talked about, and both agree, that we'd like to add some bead-board and thick trim, and possibly even extend the sides of the island like in the last picture.
I also really fancy the idea of staining the butcher block a dark walnut color......Aaron is not so keen on this idea; not because he doesn't like how it looks, but because he doesn't want to have to sand down, stain, and reseal the butcher block that's already been sealed. But I love the dark walnut color.
I hate the current tile we have in our kitchen. It's purple and blue. Yup. A very washed out purple and blue, but purple and blue nonetheless. It reminds me of the early 90s. And it's uneven like cobblestones, so it's REALLY hard to sweep, and impossible to mop. But in my daydreams I always wonder what I'd replace it with. I like wood flooring, but since I have wood counter tops, I don't know if that's too much of a good thing? Can't decide. But it doesn't matter because I've pretty much fallen head over heals for the red hexagon floor tiles from the first picture. I have no idea what something like that would cost. But since I'm dreaming, here it is in a few more pictures.
And these bar stools, and Mason Jar lights for over the kitchen table.
I think I'm really feeling that deep turquoise/teal color right now. I want more of it in my life. I've had this picture in my head for a dining room ever since we moved in.
I don't know if my idea for a kitchen and my idea for a dining room will necessarily go together, and I might have to reconcile with that when we get to that point. But for right now, I like both. :)
Other ideas I'm drooling over, but not really sure if or how to incorporate them into my own home:
Someone who is a talented water color artist, please just paint me these seasonal produce pictures, I am so in love!
Monday, January 15, 2018
Talk
Aaron and I had were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting yesterday, no big deal. I don't usually feel the need to post my talks on this blog, but I shared a couple of experiences in my talk that I thought I had written down elsewhere, but couldn't find when I went to look for them; so, in the name of record keeping, I will put them here, along with the rest of the talk for context:
Good morning Brothers and Sisters. My name is Krystal Swan, my husband Aaron and I and our family are still fairly new in the ward. We moved in at the beginning of September into Skyler and Lena Christensen's old house. We have six kids: Lincoln 10, Ivan 8, Adelia 7, Ollie 4, Ruby 3, and Cal almost 18 months. I'm sure everyone in Sunday school is as excited as we are for him to graduate into nursery. :)
We have a bedtime routine at our house, that we started when our kids were very little. After we read scriptures and have prayer and read stories, and after we've tucked the kids into bed, we stand by the side of their bed and sing them songs. Usually primary songs or hymns we want them to learn. One of the songs we've done recently is Have I Done Any Good in the World Today. It goes like this:
Have I done any good in the world today?
Have I helped anyone in need?
Have I cheered up the sad?
Or made someone feel glad?
If not I have failed indeed.
Most of the time I love that song. But I have to admit there are nights when I sing it, that the phrase that stands out to me most is 'have I done any good in THE WORLD today? I think to myself, did I even leave my house today?
In the church we often hear the phrase "Go forth to serve" and sometimes my mind tricks me that "doing good IN THE WORLD and GOING FORTH to serve, mean that my acts of service need to be given somewhere other than where I already am and need to be bigger and greater acts than what I'm capable of, or else they don't count.
About a year an a half ago, our ward at the time belonged to the newly dedicated Provo City Center Temple district. Our ward was given an assignment to clean the temple, which I've heard is a really neat opportunity, you go at like 12 o'clock at night, right? And you get to help keep the temple beautiful. We had small kids who couldn't stay home by themselves, and since I was 7-8 months pregnant with baby number six at the time, it was decided that Aaron would be the one to help with the cleaning. And for whatever reason, I felt like such a failure. I felt like once again I was missing out on an opportunity to serve. Isn't Satan good at making us feel worthless? I had to wrestle with these feelings for awhile.
President Monson encouraged us to trust in the Lord as we serve. "Occasionally discouragement may darken our pathway; frustration may be a constant companion. In our ears there may sound the sophistry of Satan as he whispers, 'you cannot save the world; your small efforts are meaningless. You haven't time to be concerned for others.'
"Trusting in the Lord, let us turn our heads from such falsehoods and make certain our feet are firmly planted in the path of service and our hearts and souls dedicated to follow the example of the Lord. In moments when the light of resolution dims and when our hearts grow faint, we can take comfort from His promise: 'Be not weary in well-doing. ...Out of small and simple things proceedeth that which is great.'" (Doctrine and Covenants 64:33)
"By small and simple things great things shall come to pass."
I realized eventually that I have been looking at my situation all wrong. I had been look at it as sort of an individual measurement of sorts. "Oh, Aaron cleaned the temple, Aaron gets a gold sticker on his service chart. I didn't clean the temple, I don't get a sticker." It's sounds so stupid when I say it out loud, right? But don't we sometimes do this? Instead I should have been looking at it as a team effort. It didn't actually matter which one of us was physically doing the cleaning. If I hadn't stayed home, Aaron wouldn't have been able to go. And if he would have stayed home, I would have felt he was doing me a great service by providing a way for me to go. Because we worked together, and both put in an effort....(as well as all the other ward members who put in their efforts)... the temple was cleaned. Sometimes the services we offer up won't look exactly the same as the services our neighbor is offering up, but if in the end the job gets done, then it doesn't really matter who specifically did what. The Lord sees our efforts, and He smiles on them.
Sometimes I think we need to expand what we initially think of as service. When you hear the word 'service', what immediately pops into your head?
I'll tell you what comes to my mind, 3 things: 1. Plates of cookies. 2. Loading and unloading moving trucks. 3. Laying sod.
All of those are wonderful things, I have been the giver and the recipient of all three many many times. But there are so many more ways to serve. I think sometimes it's the intangible acts of service, the things that can't be seen or touched, that we often forget are ways of serving.
Sister Linda K. Burton teaches us that charity is just another word for 'observing and serving'...so I'm going to freely use that definition here, in this thought from President Monson:
"Charity --or observing and serving-- is having patience with someone who has let us down," said President Thomas S. Monson. "It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others."
Wow! I can do all of these right in my own home. Shoot! I can do them right inside my own head. Really, I don't have to "GO FORTH" to anywhere to serve. I can start with my own thoughts, and then let my thoughts lead to actions. Because if my thoughts about other people are loving thoughts, then I will see them in a positive light, and will have a desire to lend a hand when needed.
Along those same lines Sister Esplin teaches us:
"All of us can incorporate some service into our daily living. We live in a contentious world. We give service when we don't criticize, when we refuse to gossip, when we don't judge, when we smile, when we say thank you, and when we are patient and kind."
She continutes: "Other kinds of service take time, intentional planning, and extra energy. But they are worth our every effort. Perhaps we could start by asking ourselves these questions:
Who in my circle of influence could I help today?
What time and resources do I have?
In what ways can I use my talents and skills to bless others?
What might we do as a family?"
I love this list of questions! I think it helps bring things back down to scale for me on those occasions when I blow service up in my mind to be something huge and impossible.
And of course, we need to include the guidance of the Spirit. We need to pray for and seek out revelation and our Father in Heaven's will for us. Because guess what? We don't always see the bigger picture, or know how the puzzle pieces fit together; but God does.
Once when Aaron was in grad school, and our two oldest boys were babies, I was reading something about a disaster that had happened in a third world country. I remember having so much compassion for those people, while at the same time feeling completely useless in regards to helping them. We were barely making ends meet as it was. There was no way I could go to that country to help out, and I had nothing monetary to give. It was frustrating! So I prayed to let Heavenly Father know the thoughts of my heart. This is the answer I received:
"What these countries need is that gospel. What you can do is raise your boys to be missionaries -- to go out into the world and teach."
There are so many ways to serve. At that time I hadn't even considered teaching the gospel as a service, I'd been so concerned about physical needs. But again, "By small and simple means, great things shall come to pass." And so we've been trying our best, since then, to raise our boys -- and our girls too, now that we have them-- with a knowledge and testimony of the gospel, so that some day they can go out into the world and share that knowledge.
To end, I want to read a quote from Elder Jeffery R Holland. It's a bit long, so bare with me, but too good not to share in it's entirety. He doesn't actually say the word 'service', but listen to the things he is grateful for:
I have struggled to find an adequate way to tell you how loved of God you are and how grateful we on this stand are for you. I am trying to be voice for the very angels of heaven in thanking you for every good thing you have ever done, for every kind word you have ever said, for every sacrifice you have ever made in extending to someone—to anyone—the beauty and blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am grateful for Young Women leaders who go to girls camp and, without shampoo, showers, or mascara, turn smoky, campfire testimony meetings into some of the most riveting spiritual experiences those girls—or those leaders—will experience in their lifetime. I am grateful for all the women of the Church who in my life have been as strong as Mount Sinai and as compassionate as the Mount of Beatitudes. We smile sometimes about our sisters’ stories—you know, green Jell-O, quilts, and funeral potatoes. But my family has been the grateful recipient of each of those items at one time or another—and in one case, the quilt and the funeral potatoes on the same day. It was just a small quilt—tiny, really—to make my deceased baby brother’s journey back to his heavenly home as warm and comfortable as our Relief Society sisters wanted him to be. The food provided for our family after the service, voluntarily given without a single word from us, was gratefully received. Smile, if you will, about our traditions, but somehow the too-often unheralded women in this church are always there when hands hang down and knees are feeble.1 They seem to grasp instinctively the divinity in Christ’s declaration: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these …, ye have done it unto me.”
And no less the brethren of the priesthood. I think, for example, of the leaders of our young men who, depending on the climate and continent, either take bone-rattling 50-mile (80 km) hikes or dig—and actually try to sleep in—ice caves for what have to be the longest nights of human experience. I am grateful for memories of my own high priests group, which a few years ago took turns for weeks sleeping on a small recliner in the bedroom of a dying quorum member so that his aged and equally fragile wife could get some sleep through those final weeks of her sweetheart’s life. I am grateful for the Church’s army of teachers, officers, advisers, and clerks, to say nothing of people who are forever setting up tables and taking down chairs. I am grateful for ordained patriarchs, musicians, family historians, and osteoporotic couples who trundle off to the temple at 5:00 in the morning with little suitcases now almost bigger than they are. I am grateful for selfless parents who—perhaps for a lifetime—care for a challenged child, sometimes with more than one challenge and sometimes with more than one child. I am grateful for children who close ranks later in life to give back to ill or aging parents.
And to the near-perfect elderly sister who almost apologetically whispered recently, “I have never been a leader of anything in the Church. I guess I’ve only been a helper,” I say, “Dear sister, God bless you and all the ‘helpers’ in the kingdom.” Some of us who are leaders hope someday to have the standing before God that you have already attained.
Brothers and Sisters, that was an apostle of Jesus Christ, a mouth-piece of the Lord, thanking you for the acts of service that you give. Our Heavenly Father sees the things you do, big and small, and He accepts your offerings.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Good morning Brothers and Sisters. My name is Krystal Swan, my husband Aaron and I and our family are still fairly new in the ward. We moved in at the beginning of September into Skyler and Lena Christensen's old house. We have six kids: Lincoln 10, Ivan 8, Adelia 7, Ollie 4, Ruby 3, and Cal almost 18 months. I'm sure everyone in Sunday school is as excited as we are for him to graduate into nursery. :)
We have a bedtime routine at our house, that we started when our kids were very little. After we read scriptures and have prayer and read stories, and after we've tucked the kids into bed, we stand by the side of their bed and sing them songs. Usually primary songs or hymns we want them to learn. One of the songs we've done recently is Have I Done Any Good in the World Today. It goes like this:
Have I done any good in the world today?
Have I helped anyone in need?
Have I cheered up the sad?
Or made someone feel glad?
If not I have failed indeed.
Most of the time I love that song. But I have to admit there are nights when I sing it, that the phrase that stands out to me most is 'have I done any good in THE WORLD today? I think to myself, did I even leave my house today?
In the church we often hear the phrase "Go forth to serve" and sometimes my mind tricks me that "doing good IN THE WORLD and GOING FORTH to serve, mean that my acts of service need to be given somewhere other than where I already am and need to be bigger and greater acts than what I'm capable of, or else they don't count.
About a year an a half ago, our ward at the time belonged to the newly dedicated Provo City Center Temple district. Our ward was given an assignment to clean the temple, which I've heard is a really neat opportunity, you go at like 12 o'clock at night, right? And you get to help keep the temple beautiful. We had small kids who couldn't stay home by themselves, and since I was 7-8 months pregnant with baby number six at the time, it was decided that Aaron would be the one to help with the cleaning. And for whatever reason, I felt like such a failure. I felt like once again I was missing out on an opportunity to serve. Isn't Satan good at making us feel worthless? I had to wrestle with these feelings for awhile.
President Monson encouraged us to trust in the Lord as we serve. "Occasionally discouragement may darken our pathway; frustration may be a constant companion. In our ears there may sound the sophistry of Satan as he whispers, 'you cannot save the world; your small efforts are meaningless. You haven't time to be concerned for others.'
"Trusting in the Lord, let us turn our heads from such falsehoods and make certain our feet are firmly planted in the path of service and our hearts and souls dedicated to follow the example of the Lord. In moments when the light of resolution dims and when our hearts grow faint, we can take comfort from His promise: 'Be not weary in well-doing. ...Out of small and simple things proceedeth that which is great.'" (Doctrine and Covenants 64:33)
"By small and simple things great things shall come to pass."
I realized eventually that I have been looking at my situation all wrong. I had been look at it as sort of an individual measurement of sorts. "Oh, Aaron cleaned the temple, Aaron gets a gold sticker on his service chart. I didn't clean the temple, I don't get a sticker." It's sounds so stupid when I say it out loud, right? But don't we sometimes do this? Instead I should have been looking at it as a team effort. It didn't actually matter which one of us was physically doing the cleaning. If I hadn't stayed home, Aaron wouldn't have been able to go. And if he would have stayed home, I would have felt he was doing me a great service by providing a way for me to go. Because we worked together, and both put in an effort....(as well as all the other ward members who put in their efforts)... the temple was cleaned. Sometimes the services we offer up won't look exactly the same as the services our neighbor is offering up, but if in the end the job gets done, then it doesn't really matter who specifically did what. The Lord sees our efforts, and He smiles on them.
Sometimes I think we need to expand what we initially think of as service. When you hear the word 'service', what immediately pops into your head?
I'll tell you what comes to my mind, 3 things: 1. Plates of cookies. 2. Loading and unloading moving trucks. 3. Laying sod.
All of those are wonderful things, I have been the giver and the recipient of all three many many times. But there are so many more ways to serve. I think sometimes it's the intangible acts of service, the things that can't be seen or touched, that we often forget are ways of serving.
Sister Linda K. Burton teaches us that charity is just another word for 'observing and serving'...so I'm going to freely use that definition here, in this thought from President Monson:
"Charity --or observing and serving-- is having patience with someone who has let us down," said President Thomas S. Monson. "It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others."
Wow! I can do all of these right in my own home. Shoot! I can do them right inside my own head. Really, I don't have to "GO FORTH" to anywhere to serve. I can start with my own thoughts, and then let my thoughts lead to actions. Because if my thoughts about other people are loving thoughts, then I will see them in a positive light, and will have a desire to lend a hand when needed.
Along those same lines Sister Esplin teaches us:
"All of us can incorporate some service into our daily living. We live in a contentious world. We give service when we don't criticize, when we refuse to gossip, when we don't judge, when we smile, when we say thank you, and when we are patient and kind."
She continutes: "Other kinds of service take time, intentional planning, and extra energy. But they are worth our every effort. Perhaps we could start by asking ourselves these questions:
Who in my circle of influence could I help today?
What time and resources do I have?
In what ways can I use my talents and skills to bless others?
What might we do as a family?"
I love this list of questions! I think it helps bring things back down to scale for me on those occasions when I blow service up in my mind to be something huge and impossible.
And of course, we need to include the guidance of the Spirit. We need to pray for and seek out revelation and our Father in Heaven's will for us. Because guess what? We don't always see the bigger picture, or know how the puzzle pieces fit together; but God does.
Once when Aaron was in grad school, and our two oldest boys were babies, I was reading something about a disaster that had happened in a third world country. I remember having so much compassion for those people, while at the same time feeling completely useless in regards to helping them. We were barely making ends meet as it was. There was no way I could go to that country to help out, and I had nothing monetary to give. It was frustrating! So I prayed to let Heavenly Father know the thoughts of my heart. This is the answer I received:
"What these countries need is that gospel. What you can do is raise your boys to be missionaries -- to go out into the world and teach."
There are so many ways to serve. At that time I hadn't even considered teaching the gospel as a service, I'd been so concerned about physical needs. But again, "By small and simple means, great things shall come to pass." And so we've been trying our best, since then, to raise our boys -- and our girls too, now that we have them-- with a knowledge and testimony of the gospel, so that some day they can go out into the world and share that knowledge.
To end, I want to read a quote from Elder Jeffery R Holland. It's a bit long, so bare with me, but too good not to share in it's entirety. He doesn't actually say the word 'service', but listen to the things he is grateful for:
I have struggled to find an adequate way to tell you how loved of God you are and how grateful we on this stand are for you. I am trying to be voice for the very angels of heaven in thanking you for every good thing you have ever done, for every kind word you have ever said, for every sacrifice you have ever made in extending to someone—to anyone—the beauty and blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am grateful for Young Women leaders who go to girls camp and, without shampoo, showers, or mascara, turn smoky, campfire testimony meetings into some of the most riveting spiritual experiences those girls—or those leaders—will experience in their lifetime. I am grateful for all the women of the Church who in my life have been as strong as Mount Sinai and as compassionate as the Mount of Beatitudes. We smile sometimes about our sisters’ stories—you know, green Jell-O, quilts, and funeral potatoes. But my family has been the grateful recipient of each of those items at one time or another—and in one case, the quilt and the funeral potatoes on the same day. It was just a small quilt—tiny, really—to make my deceased baby brother’s journey back to his heavenly home as warm and comfortable as our Relief Society sisters wanted him to be. The food provided for our family after the service, voluntarily given without a single word from us, was gratefully received. Smile, if you will, about our traditions, but somehow the too-often unheralded women in this church are always there when hands hang down and knees are feeble.1 They seem to grasp instinctively the divinity in Christ’s declaration: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these …, ye have done it unto me.”
And no less the brethren of the priesthood. I think, for example, of the leaders of our young men who, depending on the climate and continent, either take bone-rattling 50-mile (80 km) hikes or dig—and actually try to sleep in—ice caves for what have to be the longest nights of human experience. I am grateful for memories of my own high priests group, which a few years ago took turns for weeks sleeping on a small recliner in the bedroom of a dying quorum member so that his aged and equally fragile wife could get some sleep through those final weeks of her sweetheart’s life. I am grateful for the Church’s army of teachers, officers, advisers, and clerks, to say nothing of people who are forever setting up tables and taking down chairs. I am grateful for ordained patriarchs, musicians, family historians, and osteoporotic couples who trundle off to the temple at 5:00 in the morning with little suitcases now almost bigger than they are. I am grateful for selfless parents who—perhaps for a lifetime—care for a challenged child, sometimes with more than one challenge and sometimes with more than one child. I am grateful for children who close ranks later in life to give back to ill or aging parents.
And to the near-perfect elderly sister who almost apologetically whispered recently, “I have never been a leader of anything in the Church. I guess I’ve only been a helper,” I say, “Dear sister, God bless you and all the ‘helpers’ in the kingdom.” Some of us who are leaders hope someday to have the standing before God that you have already attained.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Simple and Unintended
We shall be spokesman of the year's last word.
It should surprise us both, since it will be
simple and unintended, hardly heard
above the traffic of the falling snow;
ample enough, like old calendars, to contain
whole histories of our apt or inept gestures;
yet, like the fall of a felt hat, remain
almost elegant for it's silence.
-John Talbot, New Year's Eve Poem
My Instagram "Best Nine" for the year 2017. (Meaning the nine posts on my account throughout the year that got the most likes.) My family. My home. And a sassy Pintrest meme. That seems to be the sum of a good year. I'll raise my glass to it. And while I'm at it, to the adventures 2018 is sure to bring. Here, here!
What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of the year.
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox, The Year
As far as resolutions go, I haven't many. I don't want to keep my nose to the paper: planning and replanning, and re-replanning, because life never does what I tell it to anyway. I want to keep my head up and my eyes wide, and I want to see -- really see -- what comes my way. And I want to greet it, head on, with fearlessness and every sense. I want to listen, and taste, and smell, and touch, and live.
I may not have a plan, but I do have a large garden plot, a TBR stack I'm excited about, and, AND an airplane ticket to New York City!!!!!! (Eek! I wasn't going to tell that last part yet, but it squeaked out. I'm SO excited.)
Prophecies of Doom
For Christmas one of the kids gave me the book A Gracious Space - Fall Edition written by my favorite, Julie Bogart. Each short chapter is a short piece meant to encourage the homeschool mom in the trenches. As I've been reading through, chapter 15 stuck out to me, and I want to put it down here. So here it is:
Day 15
Prophecies of Doom
We've all made them -- those pronouncements that let our children know that the perilous choice they make today will land them in a low-paying ditch of a job, eking out a half life, regretting that they didn't master the proof for right angles on the third Thursday of September.
The slow decent to adult failure begins when the precious cherub who suckled at your breast defies your plan for his life.
You see him happily writing poems instead of completing math tests (yes, that would be my son Noah) and declare: "How will you get into college if you never advance in math?"
He plays around with sign language, studies Klingon, and never takes chemistry.
Dire predictions follow: "You must complete high school. You can't expect colleges to make exceptions for you. Without a college degree, you won't ever earn enough money to live."
Except that colleges do make exceptions, and they make them for your son, who they told to put Klingon on his transcript for his foreign language requirement, and apparently the linguistics department doesn't care whether or not he took chemistry in high school.
You proclaim to your daughter that she must study U.S. history because no college will accept her without it on her transcript. She never musters the interest. U.S. history study lags and flags and sputters. When it's time to apply for college, she does a six-week crash course and is accepted into the scholars program at the university of her choice.
You declare that no one can live on minimum wage -- and then your adult child does, somehow (maybe not to the standard of living you'd want for him, but he makes it work because it's his life and this is what he wants for now).
We tell our kids they will get lost if they don't print directions; we tell them they will lose all their teeth if they don't brush them; we warn that if they don't sleep eight hours a night, they won't be able to think straight the next day.
We predict that no girl will ever kiss our son if he doesn't learn to shower. We declare that online friends aren't real friends and so our child is friendless.
We make sweeping statements our of fear and love, I know. We all do it.
Last night a mother I spoke with told me that her nine-year-old son had just begun to lie to her, for the first time in their precious intimate close self-aware relationship. It stunned her. She launched into the parental "never lie to me" prophecy of doom: "How can you lie to me? We will never have trust again if you don't tell me the truth. You are ruining our relationship."
But that's not what's happening. A nine-year-old boy is avoiding something, has figured out that if he tells half the truth, he may only have to do half the work. It's not likely he intends to destroy the parent-child bond -- but we frame it that way. We get big and dramatic and huge and sometimes even loud and lecture-y and oh how we love to go for length in those moments.
Parents aren't stupid. They have made so many mistakes in their 35-50 years on the planet, they only want one thing: for their children to not make any. Parents can see further down the time line. Sometimes that's an enormous advantage! Kids do well to heed parental vision!
But not every time. Not about every thing.
Not all the choices your kids make today need to match the ones you would have them make.
In fact, I'll go further. Our biggest job isn't to prophecy doom or to spell out impending disaster or to nudge, nag, and coerce cooperation with our vision for their lives (or even what we are convinced is their vision for their lives).
Our job is to be pointers. It's better to say stuff like: "Hmm. You don't want to take more math? I wonder if UC will accept you into their program if you were to apply without it. Let's call to find out. What if you don't call and don't take the math? How would you feel if they didn't accept you because you didn't take pre-calc? Would you take it then? Where?"
We need to help our kids thing about the choices they are making, not tell them the outcome of the choices before they've made them. We can point our children in the right direction -- suggesting they find out what they don't know and honestly, what we may not know either.
When Noah stuffed his transcript into the application envelope for college, he said the following: "I'm going to be so mad at myself if not taking chemistry keeps me out of college."
That's what you want to hear! Noah knew it was his choice, one he made with full information -- that most kids need chemistry in high school to qualify for college.
The main reason you don't want to prophesy doom is because you don't know how things will turn out. You really don't. But you do have valid concerns and some perspective and a slew of ideas about how to make a satisfying life. Your best bet is to engage in conversations, point out things to consider, and even to prophesy a little hope: "I would hate to study chemistry too. In fact, I never did! We didn't have to take that class in high school when I was your age. I wonder if there is a way to get around it. I wonder, if it is required, if there's a way to do it so it's less annoying. But I know you. You're smart! You'll get to where you want eventually, and I want to help you get there. Shall we do a little research before we abandon the traditional path? Just to be sure?"
Resist the temptation to prophesy doom.
Establish the habit of research and considering all options. Give support, faith, and love. Then see what happens.
Day 15
Prophecies of Doom
We've all made them -- those pronouncements that let our children know that the perilous choice they make today will land them in a low-paying ditch of a job, eking out a half life, regretting that they didn't master the proof for right angles on the third Thursday of September.
The slow decent to adult failure begins when the precious cherub who suckled at your breast defies your plan for his life.
You see him happily writing poems instead of completing math tests (yes, that would be my son Noah) and declare: "How will you get into college if you never advance in math?"
He plays around with sign language, studies Klingon, and never takes chemistry.
Dire predictions follow: "You must complete high school. You can't expect colleges to make exceptions for you. Without a college degree, you won't ever earn enough money to live."
Except that colleges do make exceptions, and they make them for your son, who they told to put Klingon on his transcript for his foreign language requirement, and apparently the linguistics department doesn't care whether or not he took chemistry in high school.
You proclaim to your daughter that she must study U.S. history because no college will accept her without it on her transcript. She never musters the interest. U.S. history study lags and flags and sputters. When it's time to apply for college, she does a six-week crash course and is accepted into the scholars program at the university of her choice.
You declare that no one can live on minimum wage -- and then your adult child does, somehow (maybe not to the standard of living you'd want for him, but he makes it work because it's his life and this is what he wants for now).
We tell our kids they will get lost if they don't print directions; we tell them they will lose all their teeth if they don't brush them; we warn that if they don't sleep eight hours a night, they won't be able to think straight the next day.
We predict that no girl will ever kiss our son if he doesn't learn to shower. We declare that online friends aren't real friends and so our child is friendless.
We make sweeping statements our of fear and love, I know. We all do it.
Last night a mother I spoke with told me that her nine-year-old son had just begun to lie to her, for the first time in their precious intimate close self-aware relationship. It stunned her. She launched into the parental "never lie to me" prophecy of doom: "How can you lie to me? We will never have trust again if you don't tell me the truth. You are ruining our relationship."
But that's not what's happening. A nine-year-old boy is avoiding something, has figured out that if he tells half the truth, he may only have to do half the work. It's not likely he intends to destroy the parent-child bond -- but we frame it that way. We get big and dramatic and huge and sometimes even loud and lecture-y and oh how we love to go for length in those moments.
Parents aren't stupid. They have made so many mistakes in their 35-50 years on the planet, they only want one thing: for their children to not make any. Parents can see further down the time line. Sometimes that's an enormous advantage! Kids do well to heed parental vision!
But not every time. Not about every thing.
Not all the choices your kids make today need to match the ones you would have them make.
In fact, I'll go further. Our biggest job isn't to prophecy doom or to spell out impending disaster or to nudge, nag, and coerce cooperation with our vision for their lives (or even what we are convinced is their vision for their lives).
Our job is to be pointers. It's better to say stuff like: "Hmm. You don't want to take more math? I wonder if UC will accept you into their program if you were to apply without it. Let's call to find out. What if you don't call and don't take the math? How would you feel if they didn't accept you because you didn't take pre-calc? Would you take it then? Where?"
We need to help our kids thing about the choices they are making, not tell them the outcome of the choices before they've made them. We can point our children in the right direction -- suggesting they find out what they don't know and honestly, what we may not know either.
When Noah stuffed his transcript into the application envelope for college, he said the following: "I'm going to be so mad at myself if not taking chemistry keeps me out of college."
That's what you want to hear! Noah knew it was his choice, one he made with full information -- that most kids need chemistry in high school to qualify for college.
The main reason you don't want to prophesy doom is because you don't know how things will turn out. You really don't. But you do have valid concerns and some perspective and a slew of ideas about how to make a satisfying life. Your best bet is to engage in conversations, point out things to consider, and even to prophesy a little hope: "I would hate to study chemistry too. In fact, I never did! We didn't have to take that class in high school when I was your age. I wonder if there is a way to get around it. I wonder, if it is required, if there's a way to do it so it's less annoying. But I know you. You're smart! You'll get to where you want eventually, and I want to help you get there. Shall we do a little research before we abandon the traditional path? Just to be sure?"
Resist the temptation to prophesy doom.
Establish the habit of research and considering all options. Give support, faith, and love. Then see what happens.
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Books of 2017
One of the book clubs I'm in (okay, okay! I haven't been to an actual meeting in WAY too long, and I don't read a lot of the books they pick, but I love the ladies, and appreciate their discussions, thoughts, and recommendations, and the association of other reading-minded people, so I still facebook stalk them) does this awesome book questionnaire at the beginning of every year and they share it with each other at January book club. I love it as a way to sum up and reflect on what I read the previous year. First, here is a list of the books I read or listened to in 2017, and the rating I gave each one:
1. Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace
by Sarah Mackenzie
4 stars
2. Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America (Funny in Farsi #1)
by Firoozeh Dumas
3 stars
3. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two (Harry Potter #8)
by John Tiffany (Adaptation), Jack Thorne, J.K. Rowling
3 stars
4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot
5 stars
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
4 stars
6. Salt to the Sea
by Ruta Sepetys
3 stars
7. The Orchardist
by Amanda Coplin
2 stars
8. Roots: The Saga of an American Family
by Alex Haley
4 stars
9. Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel
5 stars
10. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (Mr. Lemoncello's Library #1)
by Chris Grabenstein
2 stars
11. Love Ruby Lavender
by Deborah Wiles
2 stars
12. The Green Ember
by S.D. Smith
2 stars
13. Where the Red Fern Grows (reread)
by Wilson Rawls
4 stars
14. Esperanza Rising
by Pam Munoz Ryan
4 stars
15. Wolf Hollow
by Lauren Wolk
4 stars
16. The Girl Who Drank the Moon
by Kelly Barnhill
4 stars
17. A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles
5 stars
18. Farmer Boy (Little House #3)
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
4 stars
19. The Burning Point: A Memoir of Addiction, Destruction, Love, Parenting, Survival, and Hope
by Tracy McKay
4 stars
20. The Secret Zoo (The Secret Zoo #1)
by Bryan Chick
1 star - abandoned
21. The Things They Carried
by Tim O'Brien
4 stars
22. Flight Behavior
by Barbara Kingsolver
3 stars
23. Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer
by Kelly Jones
3 stars
24-27. Harry Potter books 1-4 by JK Rowling (reread)
And now for the questionnaire:
1. Best Book of 2017? I had three 5 star books in 2017, Station Eleven, A Gentleman in Moscow, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and I would say all were exceptional, but Station Eleven was my very favorite. It caught me by surprise. I started out super skeptical of it, and picked it up solely based on my faith in whom the recommendation came. And it ended up being my favorite this year. Talk about not judging a book by it's back-cover synopsis. :)
2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t? I have two for this category. The Orchardist and Flight Behavior. The Orchardist was kind of a gamble, I didn't know anything about it but wanted to love it and then didn't. But Flight Behavior I was holding way up high on a pedestal because I like Barbara Kingsolver and know that her writing is good. And lots about the book was good...but just not enough to meet the highest of high expectations I had for it.
3. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you? Probably Burning Point. I was a little leery of a memoir about divorce, to be honest. But I loved it. It was beautifully written and so full of hope and forgiveness and love. I'd recommend it to anyone.
4. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2017? Station Eleven, and The Things They Carried
5. Book that had a scene in it that had you reeling and dying to talk to somebody about it? Teaching From Rest. And not a scene, because it's not that kind of book, but more of a philosophy or a frame or mind that I wanted to bounce off of someone else. I would really love to chat with someone about this, and see how they implement her ideas/suggestions into their day-to-day, in-the-trenches homeschool life.
6. Favorite relationship from a book you read in 2017 (romantic, friendship, etc)? A Gentleman in Moscow is a book about relationships, and I loved that about it. So many good ones. And also in Burning Point, I love the relationship of grace that Tracy develops with David, it's rocky and complicated and hard won, but she could have been so bitter and angry --really she had every right to be-- and yet she was not, and she creates a space for him.
7. Most memorable character in 2017? Count Alexander Rostov. Hands down.
8. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2017? Wolf Hollow's cover is beautiful to me. You can't see it well in the tiny picture, but in real-life, the tree is sculpted using words from the opening paragraph (I think?) of the book, and the words are made in shiny green foil.
9. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2017 to finally read? The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It's been on my TBR for years. I had no idea what it was about. So eye-opening.
10. Favorite book you re-read in 2017? I didn't reread a ton this year, only Harry Potter books 1-4 and Where the Red Fern Grows......and how do you choose between those?
11. Book you read in 2017 that you would be most likely to recommend to others? A Gentleman in Moscow. It's clean, uplifting, beautifully written, and deep without being heavy. I can't wait to read it a second time.
12. Favorite underlined passages of 2017? Sooooo many......I could basically just copy and paste the entire text of a Gentleman in Moscow; but, I won't :)
“Hell is the absence of the people you long for.”
― Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
“Survival is insufficient.”
― Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
“Like I’m always telling my brothers, if you gonna go into history, you can’t do it with a hate attitude. You got to remember, times was different.”
― Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
“We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph. —ELIE WIESEL from The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code”
― Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
“After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
“I’ll tell you what is convenient,” he said after a moment. “To sleep until noon and have someone bring you your breakfast on a tray. To cancel an appointment at the very last minute. To keep a carriage waiting at the door of one party, so that on a moment’s notice it can whisk you away to another. To sidestep marriage in your youth and put off having children altogether. These are the greatest of conveniences, Anushka—and at one time, I had them all. But in the end, it has been the inconveniences that have mattered to me most.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
“Alexander Rostov was neither scientist nor sage; but at the age of sixty-four he was wise enough to know that life does not proceed by leaps and bounds. It unfolds. At any given moment, it is the manifestation of a thousand transitions. Our faculties wax and wane, our experiences accumulate and our opinions evolve--if not glacially, then at least gradually. Such that the events of an average day are as likely to transform who we are as a pinch of pepper is to transform a stew.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
“And I decided that there might be things I would never understand, no matter how hard I tried. Though try I would.
And that there would be people who would never hear my one small voice, no matter what I had to say.
But then a better thought occurred, and this was the one I carried away with me that day: If my life was to be just a single note in an endless symphony, how could I not sound it out for as long and as loudly as I could? (p228)”
― Lauren Wolk, Wolf Hollow
“Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
“On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard. I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.”
― Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
“I want my name to mean me.”
― Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
“It was a fine thing indeed, Luna thought, being eleven. She loved the symmetry of it, and the lack of symmetry. Eleven was a number that was visually even, but functionally not - it looked one way and behaved in quite another. Just like most eleven-year-olds, or so she assumed.”
― Kelly Barnhill, The Girl Who Drank the Moon
13. What is the next book on your TBR pile? I'm half way through Johnny Tremain with my kids, and Aaron and I are 400 pages into Watership Down, and after that......A Gracious Space: Fall Edition, I think....or my newest homesteading book. :)
by Sarah Mackenzie
4 stars
by Firoozeh Dumas
3 stars
by John Tiffany (Adaptation), Jack Thorne, J.K. Rowling
3 stars
by Rebecca Skloot
5 stars
by Mark Haddon
4 stars
by Ruta Sepetys
3 stars
by Amanda Coplin
2 stars
by Alex Haley
4 stars
by Emily St. John Mandel
5 stars
by Chris Grabenstein
2 stars
by Deborah Wiles
2 stars
by S.D. Smith
2 stars
by Wilson Rawls
4 stars
by Pam Munoz Ryan
4 stars
by Lauren Wolk
4 stars
by Kelly Barnhill
4 stars
by Amor Towles
5 stars
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
4 stars
by Tracy McKay
4 stars
by Bryan Chick
1 star - abandoned
by Tim O'Brien
4 stars
by Barbara Kingsolver
3 stars
by Kelly Jones
3 stars
And now for the questionnaire:
1. Best Book of 2017? I had three 5 star books in 2017, Station Eleven, A Gentleman in Moscow, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and I would say all were exceptional, but Station Eleven was my very favorite. It caught me by surprise. I started out super skeptical of it, and picked it up solely based on my faith in whom the recommendation came. And it ended up being my favorite this year. Talk about not judging a book by it's back-cover synopsis. :)
2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t? I have two for this category. The Orchardist and Flight Behavior. The Orchardist was kind of a gamble, I didn't know anything about it but wanted to love it and then didn't. But Flight Behavior I was holding way up high on a pedestal because I like Barbara Kingsolver and know that her writing is good. And lots about the book was good...but just not enough to meet the highest of high expectations I had for it.
3. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you? Probably Burning Point. I was a little leery of a memoir about divorce, to be honest. But I loved it. It was beautifully written and so full of hope and forgiveness and love. I'd recommend it to anyone.
4. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2017? Station Eleven, and The Things They Carried
5. Book that had a scene in it that had you reeling and dying to talk to somebody about it? Teaching From Rest. And not a scene, because it's not that kind of book, but more of a philosophy or a frame or mind that I wanted to bounce off of someone else. I would really love to chat with someone about this, and see how they implement her ideas/suggestions into their day-to-day, in-the-trenches homeschool life.
6. Favorite relationship from a book you read in 2017 (romantic, friendship, etc)? A Gentleman in Moscow is a book about relationships, and I loved that about it. So many good ones. And also in Burning Point, I love the relationship of grace that Tracy develops with David, it's rocky and complicated and hard won, but she could have been so bitter and angry --really she had every right to be-- and yet she was not, and she creates a space for him.
7. Most memorable character in 2017? Count Alexander Rostov. Hands down.
8. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2017? Wolf Hollow's cover is beautiful to me. You can't see it well in the tiny picture, but in real-life, the tree is sculpted using words from the opening paragraph (I think?) of the book, and the words are made in shiny green foil.
9. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2017 to finally read? The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It's been on my TBR for years. I had no idea what it was about. So eye-opening.
10. Favorite book you re-read in 2017? I didn't reread a ton this year, only Harry Potter books 1-4 and Where the Red Fern Grows......and how do you choose between those?
11. Book you read in 2017 that you would be most likely to recommend to others? A Gentleman in Moscow. It's clean, uplifting, beautifully written, and deep without being heavy. I can't wait to read it a second time.
12. Favorite underlined passages of 2017? Sooooo many......I could basically just copy and paste the entire text of a Gentleman in Moscow; but, I won't :)
“Hell is the absence of the people you long for.”
― Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
“Survival is insufficient.”
― Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
“Like I’m always telling my brothers, if you gonna go into history, you can’t do it with a hate attitude. You got to remember, times was different.”
― Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
“We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph. —ELIE WIESEL from The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code”
― Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
“After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
“I’ll tell you what is convenient,” he said after a moment. “To sleep until noon and have someone bring you your breakfast on a tray. To cancel an appointment at the very last minute. To keep a carriage waiting at the door of one party, so that on a moment’s notice it can whisk you away to another. To sidestep marriage in your youth and put off having children altogether. These are the greatest of conveniences, Anushka—and at one time, I had them all. But in the end, it has been the inconveniences that have mattered to me most.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
“Alexander Rostov was neither scientist nor sage; but at the age of sixty-four he was wise enough to know that life does not proceed by leaps and bounds. It unfolds. At any given moment, it is the manifestation of a thousand transitions. Our faculties wax and wane, our experiences accumulate and our opinions evolve--if not glacially, then at least gradually. Such that the events of an average day are as likely to transform who we are as a pinch of pepper is to transform a stew.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
“And I decided that there might be things I would never understand, no matter how hard I tried. Though try I would.
And that there would be people who would never hear my one small voice, no matter what I had to say.
But then a better thought occurred, and this was the one I carried away with me that day: If my life was to be just a single note in an endless symphony, how could I not sound it out for as long and as loudly as I could? (p228)”
― Lauren Wolk, Wolf Hollow
“Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
“On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard. I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.”
― Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
“I want my name to mean me.”
― Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
“It was a fine thing indeed, Luna thought, being eleven. She loved the symmetry of it, and the lack of symmetry. Eleven was a number that was visually even, but functionally not - it looked one way and behaved in quite another. Just like most eleven-year-olds, or so she assumed.”
― Kelly Barnhill, The Girl Who Drank the Moon
13. What is the next book on your TBR pile? I'm half way through Johnny Tremain with my kids, and Aaron and I are 400 pages into Watership Down, and after that......A Gracious Space: Fall Edition, I think....or my newest homesteading book. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)