Book recommendation

I'm a huge believer in the power of habit, but still haven't figured out how to kick all the bad habits or establish the good ones. I love that this book talks strategy for that, but only after an examination of personality differences that impact the way people make these changes.

I'm not writing a full review yet, because I'm still only about  halfway through, but I can already tell this will be one of those books that I evangelize. :)

Posting about it is conveniently allowing me to keep at least one habit going for yet another day...

V Day

This year I helped with the Valentine's party in Joey's class—I made scones, which were a big hit.

Here are the kids with their Valentine boxes. Poor Robbie, no parties, notes or candy in Junior High.

Luckily he loves our family tradition of books for Valentine's Day.

And crepes for dinner. New this year is a low carb recipe that I found on Pinterest—they're surprisingly good!

My Reading Life: 2011

There's a new blog called Shelf Actualization that I love. I really liked this post. It motivated me to add up my reading totals for the year (thank goodness for goodreads):

42 books/9549 pages + 9 audiobooks/4603 would-be pages = 52 total books/14,359 total pages.

16 literature/Classics

22 young-adult books (failing to keep up with my kids there)

1 commercial fiction

1 poetry

6 non-fiction

5 biography

Hard to pick my top ten, but my some of my favorites were:

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig

City of Thieves by David Benioff

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Rawhide Down by Del Quentin Wilber

The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins

Increase in Learning by David A. Bednar

and the Harry Potter series on audio

My list isn't 100% accurate, I'm missing all the books I read in January somehow, and doubtless a few more that I forgot to record. Still, it was fun to see the breakdown.

I decided I could probably improve my shelf this year, and even came up with an idea for a new blog, readthe100.com, to share the adventure of reading acknowledged literature. I flaked out on this (I can't even keep up with the blogs I'm writing), but a far better writer than I took on the challenge, so you should check it out.

Next Generation Book Group

"There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all." — Jacqueline Kennedy

If any of my kids make it to adulthood without a passion for reading, I think I can honestly say it is not my fault. I don't see that happening. And the girls have now had their first experience at a book group. They loved it, with good reason.

We read The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schultz, aloud, a chapter or two a night. They would beg me for just one more chapter, and Ellie secretly read ahead and finished, but still loved listening to me read. My good friends Deyanne and Virginia planned the book group, and I was happy to help a little.

The girls were encouraged to dress like fairies, and when they arrived, picked out their fairy name. Ellie went with "Rosebud" but Ainsley knew that she already had the perfect fairy name, and she stuck with it.

Two of my favorite people, Virginia and Deyanne, leading the discussion. Virginia is an avid reader and a librarian, and Deyanne is an amazing English teacher and education expert. It would be an understatement to say they know what they're doing.

The girls were really engaged in the book discussion, even though they knew that crafts and treats were next.

They remembered characters, and setting, and told about their favorite parts. They made connections about forgiveness and selflessness and courage.

When the discussion ended, they split into groups to do some fun crafts. I helped them make a cute little fairy-sized bookmark (that I found on Pinterest!). I wish I'd taken photos, but sort of had my hands full...here's the inspiration photo:

You can see the top end of the book marks that Ellie made, sticking out of the notebook, decorated with a cute fairy card. And that necklace? A real acorn, with an eye screw and ribbon attached. In addition to the crafts, the girls had their pictures taken by my friend Christianne, who is an amazing photographer, in front of the beautiful pond in Deyanne's yard. Again, I'm kicking myself for not taking more photos, but will hopefully get the copies of Christianne's photos soon, and will add them here.

The snacks were mini-cupcakes, and rainbow sherbet, served in these cute cupcake cups I found. I'd hoped to get some of those sample-sized spoons from Baskin Robbins, but I was informed that they no longer give them out, since their corporate headquarters decided they had no way of knowing what they would be used for, and didn't want their brand sullied. :(

I feel so lucky to have such amazing friends, who share my passion for reading and are helping me to pass that on to my girls. May their lives be filled with great books and good book group friends, as mine has.

Baptism, blog book, blues & browns, Busath

Alright, maybe I was trying too hard for the alliteration on that title.

We went to Parker's baptism (and Logan's blessing—way to consolidate, Cara & Rob!). Ellie has two Riley cousins born the same year she was, and it was fun for her to get to experience their baptisms before her own. The blog post about Ian's baptism is actually the second most-viewed post on my blog (right after Tex-Mex Egg Rolls). Probably people searching for prom pictures, since those are words in the title—I bet they're disappointed when they see it's really just a couple of kids, all dressed up. I wanted a similar photo of Ellie and Parker, and thought it turned out cute.

I looked through my photos, and have found that although there are 1,324 photos taken since this one, I really only have about a dozen things I want to blog about, so I'm practically caught-up! My plan is to not take one more photo until then, so I really need to be done before Joey's birthday in nine days. I'm feeling pretty motivated to blog after finally completing this:

Supervising From the Couch by Michelle Marsh | Make Your Own Book

All along, my purpose for this blog was a printed family "scrapbook" of not just the big events in our lives, but the day-to-day memories. I do like keeping in touch with the few people who read it online, but really envisioned a book that my kids could thumb through. I purchased a groupon for two Blurb books a few months ago, and found myself scrambling when I realized that the deadline was August 3rd. I finished Robbie's book first, on July 25th, and spent the next week madly working on the first year of my blog. Luckily I posted less frequently then, and I managed to finish and order on August 3rd! Rob told me that should be a lesson to wait and order the groupon AFTER my book is finished, but I'm pretty sure that without a deadline it just wouldn't happen. So it's time to order another one and get working on 2009.

One resource I found while working on Robbie's book that I wanted to share is Kuler. I've always loved colors, and it's been way too long since I played with oils or watercolors. This site allows you to browse or create great combinations. I used this photo of Robbie:

And it automatically generated this palette:

I tweaked it a bit to make the lighter colors readable:

Then I imported the colors into InDesign and used them for the text on the cover of Robbie's book.
I ended up not even using the photo, but love playing on and exploring this site. I recommend viewing the demo to see all the cool features if you're into that sort of thing.

One last thing. I got our Busath photos back from the frame shop early in July, and finally got them hung by the end of July. I love them.

These pictures capture a stage of life that I love—our family is complete, we have no babies (not that I didn't love that!) and no teenagers (I hope that will be great too...). All the kids can buckle themselves in, shower, get dressed and fix themselves something to eat. But they're not yet embarrassed to be seen with their parents, and like to hang out with the family. We love to play games, have family movie nights and travel together. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of bickering and chaos too, but this is the stage I think I'll miss the most when they're grown.

Thirteen!

It's now September 11th, and I'm still trying to wrap up summer here. This is my last post for July—yay! I really want to get caught up and stay that way, because it's a lot harder to write something meaningful as time passes.

This was a big milestone—we have a teenager now!

Robbie's birthday was on a Sunday this year, so it was pretty mellow. After church he opened his presents. When I had asked him what he wanted, he said, "I don't know, anything you get me would be great, Mom." I said, "Okay, socks and underwear it is." And then he said, "Actually, I could use some new socks and underwear." He's always been pretty easy-going that way. I didn't actually buy any socks or underwear, but he did get some much-needed shorts and shirts that work for the strict dress code at his junior high.

He got a book or two,

a new watch,

plus an iTunes gift card and a cover for his new iPod Touch. He has been working and saving all summer to earn enough money to buy this, and he was finally able to buy it just before his birthday. He worked hard and passed up many opportunities to spend his money, and we're proud of him.

I saved my favorite gift for last. It's a book of letters, written by family and friends who were kind enough to reply to my last-minute request. I wanted to share advice that would help Robbie through the sometimes-difficult teen years, but even more, I wanted him to know how many great people love and support him. This book exceeded my expectations on both counts.

Over fifty people responded, even some friends who were on vacation in Europe. They covered a range of spiritual, social, financial, educational and practical matters. There were stories, poems, book recommendations, quotes, and many expressions of love and confidence. I was overwhelmed with gratitude as I compiled this book.

I wasn't really sure this was something Robbie would appreciate immediately though. I figured it might take him a few years to realize what a treasure he had received.

But as the day went on and he ignored his new iPod to read, he kept stopping to say, "Thanks, Mom, I really love this." Since then he has tried to thank everyone who contributed, and refers to it often. I think he gets it.

There are no photos (so unlike me—I just didn't have time!), and the text might be too small to read (edited: you can read it in the full-screen view), but here's the entire book:

Listen to Your Parents by Family & Friends of Robbie Marsh | Make Your Own Book

That evening, we were invited to dinner at Ralph and Judy's, which was sort of a present to me more than Rob & Robbie, but they're always happy to eat a delicious dinner with great company too.

Robbie was super-excited to wear the birthday hat. ;)

We're looking forward to great things from this teenager. Love you Robbie!

Brandon Mull Fans

Although I went to the Fablehaven launch party with the boys last year and the year before, and I loved them, I had already made plans for tonight, so we let them go on their own. They had a great time, and even handed the camera to a nice mom sitting behind them to take a photo, per my request. Many thanks to Brandon Mull, for making reading fun, for my boys, and for me! I'm looking forward to reading Beyonders, but I'm third in line.

Valentine's Day Recap

Luckily we only had to make one box this year—Ellie and Ainsley made envelopes at their class parties, and Robbie didn't care, so he just collected his in a Ziploc bag. Nice.

Years ago we started giving books on Valentine's day, and it's one of our favorite traditions.

We also have a tradition of eating crepes and strawberries for dinner (this was not well thought out—we should probably switch to something with no sugar). We found out at the last minute that Ralph and Judy didn't have plans for his birthday, so we invited them and Jake to join us, which was a treat.

If you want to see our new books, just click on the photo to see the enlarged version:

FHE Guests

After homework, scouts and dinner, we generally have a hard time fitting in anything more than a quick lesson, treat and game for family home evening. Tonight was an exception. Stan Tanner, a retired doctor in our ward, and one of the nicest guys ever, offered to show us his 1st edition Book of Mormon. So we invited him to join us for dinner and family night—we had the Healeys over too, since they're book nerds like us. :)

Stan also brought a DVD of his great-great-great? grandfather, John Tanner, which was really well done, and such an inspiring story.

The top book is a British Isles 4th edition, and the one on the bottom is the 1st edition. It's probably worth around $80K, and should be handled with gloves in a sterile environment, but Stan has it to show, and we got to hold and read it. It was very cool.

Let Me Count the Ways...

Yes, I know I've posted many times about my love of books and book groups. I can't say it enough. Tonight it was at my house, so reason #157 I love book group is that it gives me a great reason to clean my house. :)

I served homemade orange rolls, which I've never made before, so now I've got a new skill too. This month we discussed Opening Skinner's Box, Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century by Lauren Slater. This is the third book group I've been in that has covered this book, and each time it's been a great discussion. I found the entire book online, so if you want to read it, click here.

My favorite PTA job...

...is the Beehive Book Awards Committee. Each year the Children's Literature Association of Utah nominates books in five categories: Fiction, Poetry, Informational, Picture Book and Young Adults, then kids get to vote for the winners throughout the year. At our elementary school, volunteers from the committee read a book (or two) in each category and then rotate through classes to tell the kids about the books and get them excited to read. Two weeks ago I went to all the 4th grade classes (Joey), last week I did the 2nd grade (Ellie) and this week I got to go to the 6th grade (Robbie). It's a relatively minor time investment (3 hours in class, plus time to read the books, maybe another 2-3 hours) that pays big dividends. I like any excuse to read, and I like going into the different classrooms—it's amazing how much you can tell about a teacher in 15 short minutes. The sixth grade was really fun, I recognized most of the kids and they are good kids.

Here are the books I presented:

This already won a Newberry, so I expected it to be great and was not disappointed. It's the story of a young girl in China who lives in a poor village and spends all day working in the rice fields with her parents. Her mom is malcontent because they are so poor, but her dad tells her stories about dragons and tigers and the man on the moon. Minli believes his folktales and decides to leave home to search for the man on the moon, so he can change their fortune and her mom will be happy. Her quest is full of adventure and learning, and her parents learn a lot while she's gone too. The writing style is simple and engaging. I loved it.

This poetry book reminded me a little of Pablo Neruda's Odes to Common Things, in premise if not style. She writes about articles of clothing. Socks, pants, even underwear. I read the poems Bob's Bicycle Helmet and Clyde's Costume. Some of the classes asked to hear Emily's Undies and I complied. They are fun cute poems.

This informational book is a true story about the Maasi tribe in Africa. The author is a member of the tribe who received a scholarship at Stanford and studied there to become a doctor. He returned to visit his tribe and a child asked him if he had brought any stories. He told them the tragic story of 9/11, and they responded with sorrow and a desire to do something. They give a gift of 14 cows, because to the Maasi "the cow is life." The artwork in this book is amazing, the writing is beautiful and the story is moving. I love the last line: "Because there is no country so powerful it cannot be wounded, nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort."

I saved the picture book for last each time I presented the books, and it was by far the favorite, even in the sixth grade. It's a fun book to read aloud although it's short and comical, it has a great message about perspective. I picked this book because I had seen some of Amy Krouse Rosenthal's other projects on youtube and loved them. Here's the first one I saw, check it out. Very creative.

Hopefully I didn't embarrass Robbie too much when I asked his class to pose for the daily photo. I told them all to say "Poor Robbie has a photo-crazy mom" instead of cheese.