out with 'cloudsplitters' and in with 'the shipping news'

I pride myself with the fact that I always, and I mean always, finish a book once I have started it.  It may take me 6 months to a year in some cases, but I finish it.  Even if I don't necessary enjoy the novel, I will finish it.  I hate leaving novels unfinished.   Have you every started a novel that you didn't finish?  If so, which one?

Almost a year ago I purchased a book called Cloudsplitter and was very excited about the prospect of reading it.  An historical fiction novel written from the perspective of the son of abolitionist John Brown.  So in January when I flew to Las Vegas with my mom and sister I took the flight as an opportunity to break into my new book.  Off to a good start I was excited to continue. Now, after 150 pages I can't decide if I like it or not, but have decided for sure that I need to stop.  I need to set it back on the shelf and go onto something else for awhile and maybe in a year or more I will be at a point to go back and try again. 

I have been trying to decide what it was about the book that I just couldn't get through and I conclude it was my inability to sit down for long periods of time to read.  Working full time and busy in the evening with kiddos, husband, laundry (always laundry), I often only have 10-15 minutes to read at a time.  This is not enough time for this book.  This is the kind of book you need a couple hours at a time to really escape into the novel. I felt like every time I sat down to read I had to reread what I read the last time I sat down.  I found I wasn't moving forward in the novel.

The book is back onto my shelf and I am starting on another.  I perused the selection on my bookshelf and have decided to read The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx, a Pulitzer prize winning novel originally published in 1993. 

Be watching for a review.



Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt has been quoted as saying "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

What an amazing thought. To believe that we hold the future in our dreams. Our individual futures can only be as big as we can dream. The bigger we dream and the more we believe in our dreams, the more amazing our futures can be. We all need to grab ahold of our futures with full force and dream, dream, dream.

I leave you all the following thought provoking question. Do you allow yourself to believe in the beauty of your dreams?

May's Question of the Month.

I can't believe it is May already, especially with our upcoming Disneyland trip just around the corner. Wow, time is just flying by and there really isn't anything I can do to stop it or even slow it down. I just have to enjoy it as much as I can each and every day.

Another month means another question. Seeing as we will be going on our first official family vacation just the four of us, I thought I would focus this month's question around family vacations.

What is your favorite family vacation story either from when you were a child or from a vacation with your own children? I look forward to hearing the stories and if you have any vacation advice for traveling with children I can always use more.

April's Question of the Month

As a mom, I have many titles. One of these is laundry queen. In honor of my most recent laundry issue as previously posted, I thought I would ask a laundry question to all of you out there who have opened the washing machine and wondered what happened. The question for this month is, "What is your favorite laundry related story?" I look forward to hearing.

Question for March

Every Thursday evening I lead a small group of girls that get together and talk about our faith and what it means to us and how we can go out into the world and share that faith with others. The last few weeks we have been reading through the Book of Faith Lenten Journey : 40 days with the Lord's Prayer. So far this book has proved to be an inspiration to us all in different ways and we are very much enjoying the insight we are getting from it. I encourage you all to take a look at it if you can.

The question for this month is for you to ask yourself what does Faith mean to you? How does your Faith define who you are as a person? Let me know what your thoughts are as I would love to hear.

January Question of the Month

This is my fourth attempt to get this post up. Each time I sit down to write a post something distracts me or pulls my attention away. It is usually my beautiful girls and because of that, I don't mind being pulled away. They are so precious and growing so fast. The little things they say or the expressions they have.

That said, lately we have waging a war against the whines. We have discovered that our youngest has quite the sweet tooth that was made worse over the holidays. Because of this we have decided that there will be no more sweets. No candy, no cookies, no cake. She was to the point where she wouldn't want anything and wouldn't eat anything and then begged and begged for the goodies. Not gonna have it. We are slowly pulling her out of the abyss of addiction that she was finding herself in, poor little thing. She isn't too happy with us when she wants a goodie, but she is quickly realizing that the fits don't get her what she wants. That is a hard thing to do though, to be the parent. To hear your child being upset but still standing firm in what you know to be the best for them. They don't always like it and a lot of the times truely hate it, but making the decision to stick to it is one of the best decisions a parent can make. The following through of punishments is tough, but in the long run very worth it.

I remember a couple books that were really helpful for me when Olyvia was young were the What to Expect and The Girlfriends Guide books. I definitely suggest them to anyone pregnant or with young children.

This month I want you to think of one of the times it was really hard to "be the parent" and what helped you get through. You don't necessarily have to have children for this to apply to you. If you have babysat children before or have grandchildren, nieces and/or nephews then this applies to you as well. I look forward to hearing.

Question for December

We are in a new month. Any of those well used sayings about time flying by fast would fit in here. "Life is too short" or "The older you get the faster time goes by". In truth, time doesn't actually go by faster as we get older. It is that as we get older we busy our time more. There are more responsibilities, bills to pay, children to feed. We start to realize that no matter how much we do, we will never be able to do everything we want to by the time we die. I have recently come to the realization that there are just too many books out there to read and not enough time to read them all. This said, what I do know is that it does in fact seem like time is going by faster. Because of this I think it is our job to make sure that we are spending our time wisely. We need to be doing things that are important to us and leaving our mark on this world in the best way we can. I am constantly asking myself this question. When encouraging my children or when teaching them I ask myself what mark I want to leave on them and then proceed accordingly. How we speak to others, to our children, to our family, to strangers or how we react to situations, how we serve others and ourselves and what we occupy our time with all comes together to make up the mark we leave on this world.

My questions for December are these:
What mark are you leaving on this world?
Is it the one you want to be leaving?