Spiritual Sunday

There is nothing sweeter than listening to your 6 year old say his prayer.  Children are so open and honest with their prayers.  Along with the regular things we are all thankful for:   home, family etc.  he has no problem adding to the thankful list his angry birds or other toys.  And along with "the usual" blessings he asks for things like "bless that I can go to my friends house" or "bless that I can get the "Angry Birds Toons" video." (Yes, he loves angry birds)

I often find myself censoring my prayers, thinking "I shouldn't ask for that" or "I won't have that prayer answered if I pray for that."  But the scriptures tell us:

Matt 21:22 And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. 

 I'd like to pray more like my son.  Open and honest and faithful.

Book Worm Wednesday

"Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand is not the kind of book I usually read.  But the title caught my interest so I thought I'd give it a try.  I was surprised how similar it was to A Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling (which I didn't like see my review here) and yet how very different it was.

The book opens with a death.  The death of Major Pettigrew's brother.  And the visit early in the day by a Mrs. Ali, a Pakistan/English woman who owns a shop, who catches him in his wife's flowery house robe a little shaken by the news.  The book is a study on a small English community  where some people, like the Major, cling to the proper way to do things and how other idea's creep in and change things.  The main story is of how the relationship between Major Pettigrew and Mrs. Ali, both older and alone after the death of their respective spouses, grows and affects the people around them.

Even though not everyone's life was perfect and problem's happened, the book felt light hearted and was filled with that lovely dry English wit.  Most of all I appreciated that there were no scenes I needed to skip and I think I counted maybe 2 swear words.

It was nice to read a book in a genere I don't usually read and thoroughly enjoy it.

Moaning Monday - Nothing Ever Goes According to Plans

I recently saw this post and I have to say it hits the nail right on the head.

The New Year was approaching.  I was looking forward to it with plans.  Lots of plans.  It seemed as if my life would slow down a little and I could actually make plans.

Let me back track.  We moved in June of 2012.  For three months the kids and I stayed with my parents while our house was being built.  J...was/is working in California (another story for another time) We moved into our house in September 2012...D and A both started high school so I felt like I hit the ground running.  There was no time to "settle it" to get things organized.  And if you have kids in high school you know that they are busy.  So I spent the school year attending high school events, keeping track of kids, carpooling them and I was also trying to homeschool E who was in the 3rd grade and N who was in preschool but pretty uncooprative.

Summer was full of swim lessons, my mom and dad's 50th wedding anniversary and D getting her mission call to Argentina.  Then school started again and I put the two little ones (sadly..again another story) into two different schools.  So now I had 3 kids in 3 different schools and a daughter getting ready for a mission.  Life was crazy.  Between driving and picking up kids several times a day, N is in afternoon Kindergarten.  We were looking for and buying a year and a half worth of supplies for D.  Every time J got to visit it was for an event...taking D to the temple, Thanksgiving, Christmas etc.  We'd be busy the whole time he was here doing activities.

So D entered the MTC Dec. 4.  I was getting ready for Christmas and looking forward to the new year when I'd only have 3 kids at home.  They'd be in school most of the day and I could "get some stuff done"  Get caught up as it were.  Organize files.  Really get my bedroom set up (it just the junk dropping spot now)  And maybe even get the kids organized into some kind of chore schedule and morning/evening routines.

Well here it is nearing the end of January.  And what have I done... So I haven't done any of it. K, my daughter who was pregnant with triplets, and her husband moved in.  They don't really make my life any busier.  But for some reason it feels like it.  Now the babies are here it's going to get a little more chaotic.

Then I had the two littles with coughs and colds and then A with the flu. Then E. got a different flu and I had a sinus/lung sort of reaction to the flu shot and I feel like yucky.

It took me 3 weeks to get the main part of the house (we have one great room with living room and kitchen and hallways) all the way cleaned from after Christmas.  No, it wasn't never cleaned...just not clean all at once.  I'd clean a part of it and then do and errand or fetch a kid from school, and then the next day I'd try again.  It took 3 weeks and finally I had everything clean, vacuumed, mopped etc and that's when N decided to eat so much salt that he barfed all over everything...yup, the living room carpet, the tile in the living room, my bed (dry clean only bedspread) my bedroom floor (which still smells despite all of my carpet scrubbing and Fabreeze efforts. )

I love my kids to the moon and back but if you have kids...unless you are a lot meaner than I am...make plans and set goals, have dream and work toward them, but know that kids will interrupt and take priority and your plans by need to be modified.

Fun Friday

Grandma came by for a minute and N. was cutting up paper.  He wasn't making anything specific just cutting paper in to tiny little pieces.  Grandma asked him for some of the scraps and scissors and said she'd show him something.  At first he wasn't interested but then he saw what she was doing. So he got another piece of paper and started gluing the letters onto it.  Well, he started in the middle and had to get another piece and he was gluing white on white so then N decided he needed his whole name and he glued it onto colored paper. Then he wanted them hung on the wall.

Who'd have thought such a simple thing would be so fun.

Book Worm Wednesday

                                     "Casual Vacancy" by J.K. Rowling

I don't know if you were as curious as I was as to what kind of book the author of Harry Potter was going to write for adults but I anxiously anticipated it.  And I hate to say this but I can't get through it.  I check out books from an online library and after three weeks they are no longer available for me to read on my iPad.  And I've gone through 2 checkouts of this book: a.k.a 6 weeks and I read a total of 200 pages or the

I guess I really should have read the Goodreads reviews  or the Amazon reviews before I started but I like to go at a book with fresh eyes and form my own opinion.

I don't know where I heard the rumor but I thought "Casual Vacancy" was supposed to be a mystery.  I love mysteries!!!  A good  who-done-it can keep me busy all day.  And just like a good mystery this book starts off with a death. But the death is not mysterious and there is nothing to solve.

"Casual Vacancy" is a character study.  It's a study of a lot of characters.  18 to be exact.  It explores their lives and how and why they are who they are and what they want from life.

I didn't finish the book, not because it wasn't well written.  I didn't finish it because, and I'll just put it right out there for whoever wants to judge or criticize me,  I read books for entertainment.  I read them to get away from real life, to go on a mini vacation without leaving my house.  I have enough drama and problems in my real life I don't really want to read about or explore the problems and/or motivations of others.

I will say that if I were still in a book club or taking a class, this book would be a great one to read and discuss.  But for me it wasn't a book I just wanted to read.