Book #4 of 2015

I really haven't been reading that much this year.  I am finding it hard to jump from World War II to Mr. Darcy to post apocalyptic life...I need a few days in between to refocus to the real world I guess.  This was a great ending to a great series.  Easy reads-vacation books.  Veronica Roth sure has her characters biting their lips and cheeks a lot (can't they do something else when they get nervous or mad?  Crack their knuckles or something?) but other than that annoying point I really enjoyed it.  I won't give the ending away if my great grandchildren read this and then stumble upon my copy of this series...but it didn't make me mad, like it did so many others I talked to.  It seemed to me to be pretty brave of Ms. Roth to end it this way.  Very fitting....Now I need to get Jake to talk a picture with the pile of books he has read so far in 2015.  He is such a book worm. :)

C.S. Lewis is a genius. I know this because I read: The Screwtaper Letters and Til We Have Faces

C.S. Lewis is a genius.  Imagine me saying period at the end of the sentence not just typing the "." itself.  I can't wait to read his other books after reading this one.  Besides The Chronicles of Narnia (which are obviously amazing), The Screwtape Letters  and Til we have faces, A myth retold are the only books I have read by Lewis.

The Screwtape Letters is letters written to a brand new tempter from his uncle Screwtape.  Screwtape is leading his nephew in his new job as he tries to claim the soul of a young man for their boss The Devil.  It is so interesting and I couldn't stop reading.  Here are just a few of the quotes that I loved from the book:

"Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,"

"They anger him because he regards his times as his own and feels that it is being stolen.  You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption 'my time is my own'. Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours.  Let him feel as a grievous tax that portion of this property which he has to make over to his employers, and as a generous donation that further portion which he allows to religious duties.  But what he must never be permitted to doubt is that the total from which these deductions have been made was, in some mysterious sense, his own personal birthright."

"The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils.  That would be 'undemocratic'.  These differences between pupils-for they are obviously and nakedly individual differences-must be disguised.  This can be done on various levels.  At universities, examinations must be framed so that nearly all the students get good marks."

"Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma-Beelzebub, what a useful word!-being left behind." 

"In a word, we may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when I'm as good as you has fully had its way.  All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish.  the few who might want to learn will be prevented: who are they to overtop their fellows?"

Til We Have Faces is a myth retold.   I have never really gotten into studying Greek mythology so I hadn't heard the story prior to reading Lewis's version, so I really don't have anything to base it on...but I really enjoyed it and loved the lessons and morals it teaches.  I am not going to retell the story here but if you want more information on it Amazon gives you all the information you need.  All I can add to what they say is there is just something about the way Lewis writes that just makes you want to read, and learn, and soak it all in.  If I were to make a list of people I want to meet in Heaven C.S. Lewis would definitely be on it.

I know, I know this post doesn't exactly give a whole lot of info. but I just had to get the word out how much I enjoyed these books and I only have a few minutes!!!  I thought if I put some words from the author rather than my own you may actually be interested enough to read them!  (I had a couple quotes form Til we have faces but the book marks got pulled out.)  Just take my word for it: you will love these books!!!

Have you read any books by C.S. Lewis that you think I should put on the top of my list to read next? 

These are a few of my favrorite things...

Things I LOVE, Love, love....

*Raindrops on...(no I am not going to say roses-although that is nice too) on evergreens.  We (Jake and I.) went on a walk in the woods with the dogs and it had rained the night before.  It was so fun to lightly touch the cool raindrops that hung on the evergreens needles.  Simple pleasure....

*Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.  I love a book with a happy ending and this one is oh so very happy, after some shocking twists and hardships...which makes the ending even happier!  Read it, you will love it.

*The wonderful feature on my laptop on which I can write little notes and they look like post it notes on my screen.  Right now my screen is home to song lyrics that I want to frame.  You know type them up in a fancy way like you see on Pinterest, frame them, and put them up everywhere because words make me happy.  Some of my favorite quotes are from songs.  Example: Matt Scannell, from Vertical Horizon wrote: "All I want is for you to have a life you love and live. Take from me all I have to give 'cuz you are in my heart."  Love it.

*Pinterest...love it...
*The fact that the more classics I read the smarter I feel.  It's a fact.  Try it and I am sure you will agree.

*My camera.  I love to document things like Jake getting his cast off.  :)

*Bare minerals make up.

*Annie Sloan chalk paint. I find the concept to be genius: painting things without having to sand them first....and it actually works.  Wonders never cease.

*The fact that the neighborhood we are living in is having a yard sale on Saturday and I am going to hunt for cheap things I can paint with my Annie Sloan paint. :)

My Name is America...

Have you read any of the books from the series My Name is America?  If you haven't you should.  I just finished reading one called: My Name is America: The Journal of William Thomas Emerson, A Revolutionary War Patriot.  I am so excited to go to the library and get more to read (I got this one at the Homeschool Store-the consignment store in our area) because this is such a great way to relive American History.  The book is written in the perspective of a boy (Will who was 10 at the beginning of the book) who was orphaned and ended up living in Boston with a writer for the revolution and a widowed inn owner.  It brings American history to life and makes you understand the years of trials that the early Americans went through before they actually declared Independence from England.  I am so excited to start our Unit Study on George Washington and U.S. History as The United States of America became a free nation!!  This book is a quick and easy read (I started it 2 nights ago but only read for about 15 minutes that day.  I read a little last night-Jake has a friend from church over to spend the night because his parents and older siblings were all going to the Temple-and just finished it.  It took a couple of hours total to read) but full of history written in a way that I think will really keep children (and adults!) captivated as they read what it would have been like for someone their age to live during the time period.  When I studied U.S. History my junior year in high school it happened to be the year of the election campaign between George Bush and Bill Clinton (yes I am that old...) so it turned out to be more of a Social Studies class than history.  I am excited to finally learn all about our founding fathers and the true patriots that made this nation great and free!  Read this book and series-you will love them!

A Book Review and a good lesson for me...

What can I say I got this book for free so I read it?  Our library is taking part in "The Big Read". Apparently people don't read anymore so the National Endowment for the Arts (does that mean taxpayers are paying for this? I really hope not.  I need to look into that.  I may give my copy back to the library...AHHHH!  I just looked it up.  The NEA "budget" for 2011 was $154...I am taking this book back to the library and telling them to keep it TODAY.) give people a book for free and  the library has book clubs, art exhibits, movie viewing (the Sci-Fi channel made this book into a mini series-which the author had no part in and didn't like at all how they changed her characters and basically took out the important parts and just added violence...Why would I watch that?) and even dance/singing recitals to get people to read again.  I kind of wish I looked into a little more ahead of time ("the big read" and Ursula K. Le Guin) because if I had, I probably wouldn't have bothered to read it.  The book is...okay?  I am not a Science Fiction fan (yes I loved Harry Potter and Twilight, but I honestly don't think they truly fit into that category...at all) but the word FREE is hard for me to pass up.  I have come into the habit of reading for too long at night on the nights Aaron is at work and  I actually only had around 10 pages left in the book last night and at 10pm (that isn't a late night reading by any stretch of the imagination...) I was literally falling asleep so I had to stop reading.  I finished it this morning.  It wasn't a boring or bad book, it just isn't my kind of book.  It is about a wizard named Ged and his journey to becoming a true wizard and defeating a dark shadow he released as a boy because of his pride...yada yada yada (I LOVE that this came up to spell check and gave "Yoda" as a choice to correct it!)...That is all I can muster to explain what it was about.  I didn't dislike A Wizard of Earthsea, but I didn't really like it either.  That is the best I can do.  In the beginning I thought I would like it.  At times I even really enjoyed it.  But then I just read it to see what would happen.  I read a little about Le Guin and decided I wouldn't bother with any more of her books because she is a liberal, feminist (in the worldly "burn your bra" kind of way.  I believe in feminism in a very less worldly way-read this if you want to know what I mean.) that writes about gender neutrality, anarchist, and other things I just think are kind of stupid.  None of these themes were in this book and it is a safe read-other than the creepy "dark shadow" he had to destroy...take back...I am not even sure what really happened because it went from describing the encounter with the shadow that Ged was having, to what his friend that accompanied him on the last leg of quest who thought was a battle but couldn't really see what was happening...Blah, blah, blah...I am getting sick of talking about it.  If you are a huge science fiction/Le Guin fan and you happen to stumble upon this post through the world wide web-don't take offense.  I am more of a classics kind of girl.  Anne of Green Gables, Sense and Sensibility, and Little Women are all in my top 10 favorite books.  If you are a sci-fi fan you will probably love this book.  Me not so much-though at times I did get sucked in.  So, I guess that means it is good if a non-sci-fi fan liked some parts of it enough to think in the end this may be a favorable review.  Now I really am going to go back to my lists of classics.  I said I was going to do that after finishing the Help (which I liked 95% of and the other parts were too much for this sheltered, conservative).  This time I mean it.  I am thinking some Mark Twain (never read anything but quotes by him...sad I know) is sounding good right about now...

 ***Update***  When we homeschool we start with our "morning routine" (pledge, morning prayer, scripture study...).  In the Thomas Jefferson Education book I read, it says right after this (but before you get into studying secular things) you should take the time to teach something "that is your own".  Something I have learned in my studies that I can teach him.  They called it "kid school", but we are calling it "Mommy school" because it makes more sense to us...and yes Jake does still call me Mommy and I am soooo glad.  I decided to start doing Mommy School today so I could teach him the lesson I learned just this morning.  Jake and I had a great discussion today about the fact that we need to learn about our government.  We can't complain about the way things are run if we aren't willing to study it and take part in changing what it wrong.  So, we decided we are going to start studying, more in depth, the branches of the government and their responsibilities.  We discussed why we monitor what he reads, plays on the Wii, and watches on TV.  I told him about the things I learned about the author of this book (how she writes in later books in this series about gender neutrality, feminism, and anarchy...) I just finished reading and what other books in her series start to talk about-things that we don't believe in.  I told him about the National Endowment of the Arts and the founding for the "Big Read".  Long story...shorter...we had a discussion about researching before jumping in to something.  We talked about "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" and how we know that our gender is an essential characteristic that we were given by Heavenly Father (when I was explaining why I wouldn't read any more of her books).  We talked about our roles as women and men-fathers and mothers.  I told him that there may come a time that he does like the fact that we won't let him read certain books or watch certain shows but that I hoped he would always remember why we did it. We talked about so much and it was so AWESOME!  When we were done I told him that was what I wanted to talk to him about for "Mommy School" (I am not sure that is the name we will stick with...) today.  To this he said: "That was Mommy School?  I thought we were just talking!"  We were.  And that is why, even though it is Hard (notice the capitol H), we homeschool.

2 for 1 Book Review

I just finished reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George and The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  I read one for Jake's blog book club and another for a woman's group book club.  Can you guess which is which? :)  They are obviously at 2 ends of the spectrum and one I would suggest everyone should read and the other I would not!

My side of the Mountain is about a boy who decides to run away to his great-great-(I think it was 2 greats) grandfathers land in the Catskills and live off of it.  He manages to make it through a winter, make some wonderful new friends (human and not), and even trained a baby hawk to hunt for him.  It is a great book and there are 2 more in the series that I can't wait to read.  He lives in a large old tree that he finds a rotten spot in and digs and burns it out to make an impressive home.  He makes clothes out of deer skin and rabbit fur and works to get a supply of food and firewood that will last through the winter.  Jake wants to go camping and live off the land for a few days...We will bring back up because the amount of research this boy did to survive would take us months to do!
And I don't love the idea of not using a tent at least.  This book really did make me think about what I truly need to survive and what I think I need.  Could I live without my Kindle? Yes, but I really don't want to.  Could I live in a hollowed out tree?  I would like to say yes if I had to, but that is probably not true.  I have some work to do before I can live off the land...or even without electricity!  Read this book-you will love it!

Have you read the Help or seen the movie?  I wanted to see the movie...but now I am not so sure.  There are some parts in the book I am afraid may be in the movie and I don't really want to see them!

I really did like the book. It is crazy to think that people believed they could catch diseases from using the same toilet that black people used.  What is even crazier is to think it was only 50 years ago!  We have come a long way since that time. 

I loved that different chapters were from the perspective of different characters.  I loved each of the characters and their flaws.  They were all so courageous and inspiring.  I don't really have to get into the plot because unless you live under a rock you have heard about this book/movie. 

This book has great lessons in it.  For that reason I would say it is a good read...But there is some language and one part that is pretty vulgar.  The language, although not something I enjoyed, is understandable (for the time period, culture, and "worldliness"...for lack of a better way to put it...) but the vulgar part (although probably a realistic representation, unfortunately, of things that happen in this crazy world...) could have been left out in my point of view...But at the same time it was important to the story...I won't go into detail but it basically is about Minny (a black lady that is "the Help" for a rich white lady named Miss Celia. Celia married "up" and is from the country so she doesn't have the walls between the races built up that all the other characters do) defending the white lady that she works for.  Then Miss Celia ends up defending Minny and saving her life.  Let me put it this way-not many people would have defended their "help" against an attack.  I am torn.  I don't want to tell you to read it because there are definitely parts that are offensive.  But it is a wonderful reminder of where we were as a country and how far we have come. Use you own judgment on this one.  I almost hate to admit I liked it...but I did.  It is our history.  Will I read it again? No. Once was enough for me so that means it doesn't make it to my list of classics (books you want to read over and over).  Have you seen the movie?  If you have let me know if you think I should see it.  I have heard it was wonderful and a must see.  I am just wondering if the one scene is in the movie-though I don't know they could have done it without giving it an R-rating.

One classic and one good read.  Not a bad week for reading!  My problem now is what to read next.  I am reading to study (Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis...I came back to this one.  I had to give my brain a rest because the guy who wrote this is way smarter than I am and The Book of Mormon)-I just need a reading for pleasure book.  I think I will be reading the next Anne Shirley book...I need a little bit of innocence and joy after reading the Help. :)

You have to read "Little Women"!

I finished reading Little Women ,by Louisa May Alcott, a couple of days ago and it is a new favorite. I am starting to realize that every classic I read becomes my new favorite book. A classic is a book that is worth reading over and over again.  They are so full of truths, morals, and goodness.  Little Women is one of those books were you can take anyone in your life and compare them to one of the main characters and you will see that person in a new light, because all the characters are so likable.  Kind of like Winnie the Pooh: everyone knows a Rabbit, Owl, Tigger, (etc.) and you can't help but love them all.  From now on if I come across a person that  is hard to get along with I am going to think of what character from Little Women that they would be and learn to see the good in them.  I won't go into the plot-I am sure most of you saw the movie (or have heard of it) when it came out years ago.  It was an awesome movie, but it doesn't compare to the book at all.

Whenever I read a classic I am also reminded just how spoiled we are in this day and age. Hard work is in some ways a thing of the past.  I also feel a longing to have lived back then (in some aspects-not all).  They talk in the book about being children when they are in their mid to late teens.  I wish we still considered young people to be children.  It seems like in our culture we give up playing so early.  Jake is 10 and often mentions he wishes he had a friend that knew how to play-not video games-imagination play.  They also spend their life working on their talents and gaining knowledge-and they had to make dinner from scratch every night!  They must have been amazing time managers....that is probably why I didn't live back then.

There are so many quotes from it that I love!  I love my Kindle for holding my quotes-as you read you just highlight and go to it later with no problem. This book is full of wonderful life lessons and mothering lessons but I narrowed it down to these 7....I know that is a lot but you will love all of them as much as I did I promise:

"It's highly virtuous to say we'll be good, but we can't do it all at once, and it takes a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together before some of us even get our feet set in the right way."  

"You have had the bitter, now comes the sweet. Do your best and grow as happy as we are in your success."

"Why should I complain, when we both have merely done our duty and will surely be the happier for it in the end? If I don't seem to need help, it is because I have a better friend, even than Father, to comfort and sustain me.  My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning and may be many, but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father as you do that or your earthly ones.  The more you love and trust Him, the nearer you will feel to Him, and the less you will depend on human power and wisdom. His love and care never tire or change, can never be taken from you, but may become the source of lifelong peace, happiness,and strength.  Believe this heartily, and go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come to your mother."

"Into each life some rain must fall, some days must be dark and sad and dreary."

"Have regular hours for work and play, make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life become a beautiful success, in spite of poverty."

"..but it does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants, doesn't it?"

"Don't you feel that it is pleasanter to help one another, to have daily duties which make leisure sweet when it comes, and to bear and forbear, that home may be comfortable and lovely to us all?"

Oh, I just want to go read it all over again as I type these quotes!  I want to be just like Jo, Meg, Beth, Amy, and especially Marmee (their mother, Mrs. March).  It almost makes me wish I raised Jake to call me Marmee instead of Mommy!  :) Marmee and Anne (of Green Gables) are neck and neck for my all time favorite book characters...I shouldn't think to hard about that or I will start adding more names to the list...READ IT!  I know you will love.

Finally Done

I finally finished:

It took me a month or so.  It is long five hundred and something pages, but I don't usually take me any where near  that long to read a book.  It was a definite departure from what I have been reading lately (Anne of Green Gables), and I think more of a boy book. It is a Cowboy and Indian book.  It is a book about lose and starting over.  It is a book about growing and learning who you are and what you are capable of.  It made you feel like you were in the desert with Johannes, the main character.  He endured things not many people I know could.  Read this book.  You really will enjoy it and find many life lessons and wonderful quotes...That I don't have time to talk about right now because Jake is dying to play the Wii with me and I said I would hurry.  He just spent the day with me at Bi-Lo (from 7am to 3pm...I am working one day a month to be kept on the payroll, that way if I need to go back I can.), so I promised to play some Lego Wii...whichever one he feels like!  I just had to tell someone I finally finished Lonesome Gods!  I think  anyone 12 and up (Jake started reading it but lost interest.  I am glad he did because I think some of the things that happen later in the book when Johannes grows up, are things anyone under 12 wouldn't understand.  A few outlaws have plans to assault a young lady.  Of course their attempt is fouled, but it is a concept my almost 10 year old would not understand-thankfully.), girl or boy, could read this and enjoy it.  Especially if you like Cowboys and Indians. Dad I think you would like this one. 

After reading a  more "boyish" book , I am in the mood for a real girls book again.  So, I am reading:

For the first time!  Can you believe it?  I am I the only female out there who adores the movie (the new and old version) but has never actually read it?...Or any of Jane Austen's other books either for that matter...Tell me I am not the only one...I am so excited to read it!  After I finished Lonesome Gods last night at almost 1 o'clock in the morning I couldn't help but read a few pages of it and I love it already. :)

Read " Anne's House of Dreams"-you will love it!

I finished Anne's House of Dreams last night and I loved it!  If you haven't read the Anne of Green Gables books you have to.  They are so amazing!   When you read it, you feel like, if you looked up you would be sitting in the garden or the sweet little home by the sea that is being described.  You will fall in love with the characters and wait with anticipation to see if their dreams are fulfilled or if tragedy will strike.  Both happen in Anne's House of Dreams, but as they all do, this book ended on a high note as Anne gets ready to enter a new chapter of her life.  In this book she and Gilbert are married and starting their family in a little town by the sea where Gilbert is taking over his uncle's medical practice.  In their "home of dreams" they make many memories and wonderful friends that will last a life time.  Read these books.  You will LOVE them! 

I finally finished "Laddie, a true blue story"!

I finally finished Ladie, a True Blue Story by Gene Stratton-Porter and it was so good!  It was much longer than I thought it would be at 564 pages (on Kindles is doesn't tell you the page number it tells you the percentage you have read so I had no idea how long it was!).  Not that it seemed too long, it just the list of books I want to read this month is long, so I anticipated being done quicker.  I was hoping to finish it last night because the last few chapters really answer all the questions that you have through out the story, but at 12:30 I couldn't keep my eyes open in a longer.  After I dropped Jake off I came home and read for about 10 minutes and was done.  I wish there was 564 more pages!

  This book paints such a picture of the farm it took place on that I wish I could live there too...or at least visit in more than just my imagination!  READ THIS BOOK!  You will love it.  It takes place after the Civil War and is about what I would call as close to perfect a family as you could ask for!  It teaches the importance of having God in your life and the joy it brings.  Father even gave up some of his land to build their church on.  It teaches how important family is.  I love this quote that from the book when Shelley (one of 12 children the Stanton family was blessed with) is going through a hard time over a broken heart:  "Of course you do, child," said mother. "Families were made to cling together, and stand by each other in every circumstance of life-joy or sorrow.  Of course you need your family."

This book also teaches about the importance of education.  Little Sister (the little girl who is the narrator is nicknamed this by her beloved older, perfect brother, Laddie) loves to be outside and puts off going to school for 2 years and then has a hard time wearing shoes (she goes barefoot everywhere but church and school), and sitting still in school.  She is truly educated at home and her parents don't push her to go to school until she is ready.  She knows all there is to know about the world around her on the farm and seems to learn even less in school.  Of school she said: "Schoolhouses are made wrong.  If they must be, they should be built in a woods pasture beside a stream, where you could wade, swim, and be comfortable in summer and slide and skate in winter.  The windows should be cut to the floor, and stand wide open, so the birds and butterflies could pass through.  You ought to learn your geography by climbing the hill, walking through a valley, wading creeks, making islands in them, and promonotories, capes, and penisulas along the bank.  You should do your arithmetic sitting under trees adding hickory-nuts, subtracting walnuts, multiplying butternuts, and dividing hazelnuts.  You could use apples for fractions, and tin cups for liquid measure.  You could spell everything in sight and this would teach you the words that are really used in the world."  That sounds like the best kind of school to me! Mother tries to explains to a grumpy neighbor, Mr Pryor, how it is their children seem to have been so well educated.  She explains how they did it by saying: "By educating ourselves before their coming, and with then afterward. Self-control, study, work, joy of life, satisfaction with what we have had, never-ending strife to go higher, and to do better."  At one point in the book Father is talking to Dr. Fenner (the local doctor) and is concerned that Mother doubts she can ever teach Little Sister to sew or become a housewife. To this Dr. Fenner says:  "She isn't cut out for a seamstress or a housewife, Paul.  Tell Ruth not to try to force those things on her.  Turn her loose out of doors: give her good books, and leave her alone.  You won't be disappointed in the woman who evolves."  It seems Little Sister was born early and I spent the whole time I was reading thinking how intelligent and observant she seemed, but not really knowing her age (maybe I just missed it.  It says she put off going to school 2 years..Back then they didn't go until they were 7 right?  Maybe she was 9 when the book starts?  I am going to have to go back and see if I missed it somewhere..). I found myself wondering if she had a learning disability based on the discussion between the Dr. and Father.  I doubt it though. Maybe she is just a late bloomer...She seems SO bright and full of life, but there are parts that make me try to diagnose her with today's childhood issues, rather than just assuming she is just a little different from the other girls in her family.  You have to read this book and let me know what you think!!!   If you read it, you will love it.  It is a true classic! 

Read it and tell me what you think!  I haven't even gone back to reread this so sorry if it makes no sense. I was just too excited to wait.  Now I have to get ready in record time to make it to work!!! :)

I am over here today...

I am loving an amazing blog called "Welcome to the Madness". I stumbled upon JRobert's (is is okay to put your first name here, J? I should have asked you before...Today you will be "J". :) ...I am paranoid I will put someones name on my blog that doesn't want it out in cyber space...) blog a few weeks ago and have been reading it ever since. She is AMAZING! She is a home schooling, canning, book reading, mama! I am pretty sure we would be BFF's if she didn't live so far away. :) But that is okay because blogging buddies works for me too! A couple of weeks ago she asked me if I would write a book review for her blog. I immediately said "YES!", because any one who wants to here me ramble on about something I love always gets a yes. :) Then I began to stress out a bit when I realized I am not so hot at book reviews...My wonderful husband then reminded me that J wasn't expecting some incredibly intellectual review from me. He said "If she reads your blog and likes it, she probably wants you to write it like you write your blog-just like you are talking to her." I shouldn't use quotes because I don't remember exactly what he said...but it was something like that. So, I thanked him for reminding me not to stress and typed my little heart out...Then I sent it...And now I am biting my nails hoping I don't sound like a total idiot and that someone will comment that indeed I am not! I am just realizing that maybe I should have been a little offended when Aaron said J isn't looking for something really intellectual from me...What are you trying to say Aaron? :) J/K!

So, PLEASE head on over to "Welcome to the Madness" (that's the link you click on Mom.) to check out my book review on "Anne of Green Gables"...And while you are there check out all the other amazing posts J has. She is my "Home Schooling Mom-Inspiring Hero Of The Week"-SERIOUSLY!