Book influence

What are the books that have changed you? Besides the Book of Mormon and the Bible, those go without saying. What have you read that with the closing words you look in the mirror to see the changes wrought? But with the inspection you find the same lines, the same color, the same you in your reflection. The changes must have happened inside your sinews, in your blood, in your very organs. There is a warmth that wasn't there before. It is real yet invisible from the outside. A few books have done this to me, for me. I think you change when you recognize truth or beauty or ideals, even love. Here are my changing books.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
This book is about the astounding attributes of the human spirit, the magnitude of harmful intent, and the power of self sacrifice and love. Wow. This book should be on every reading list there is.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The power of that one action that truly defines your character! This book explores courage and how we use the many facets thereof. Dickens is a genius and I am better for it.

1984 by George Orwell
What an astounding force is the kindness of man, or the implications of the hardhearted world. This book takes on the difficult task of painting a world without compassion and the consequences of hate. One soft light in the din of darkness makes a difference somewhere.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Timid countenances do not equate weak character. Jane's example of honesty and forthrightness is inspiring. We can rise above that which we have been giving in this life. We can rise above and soar.

I may have to have a part II to this entry. This is just too much fun:)

Signs of sickness

Like a loving family should, my children have shared the love, if you will, and passed on their sickey germs to me. I'm not quite as sick as they were but I've come up with a few tell tale signs to let me know that I'm sick.
1. I have slurred speech and dizzy spells and I haven't taken any drugs yet
2. I'm hungry but my stomach vetoes every thing I want to put in my mouth
3. When my mouth and stomach finally agreed on some simple breakfast cereal and I went to put the stuff away, I put the box
of cereal in the fridge and put the milk on the counter.
4. My kids were still asking me 45 minutes later to get them some hot tea. I kept forgetting.
5. I just want to watch junk t.v. and snuggle up in a blankie.
If you have any of these tell tale signs yourself, let me tell you, YES, you are sick. If time and naps permit, snuggle up with a nice blankie until the kids come home from school or your little ones wake up from their nap. Because, as you know, we don't really get sick days. But I wouldn't trade this job for anything else, nonetheless.

Trials of Motherhood

I have received many blessings since becoming a mother. Like, even though I feel like fainting when I see my children's blood, I realize that I'm the only one who can help so the Lord helps me to stay on my feet and clean wounds. Or I have almost mastered the art of pretending like I'm listening to sweet unimportant chatter while I'm really doing something else. Or, take last night, for instance. Before being a mother, seeing someone throw up would instantly trigger my gag reflex and I would be in danger of throwing up myself. But last night, as Eira, my one year old, proceeded to throw up on my lap, my neck, my arms and my hair my only thought was of her. It didn't bother me that I had to change three times or that before each change I had to sit in sweet Eira's recently upchucked dinner for approximately a half hour. My point is, before you have to stifle your own gag reflex, is that I am truly blessed in the motherhood arena. I have wonderful children and the Lord has blessed me with great tools. Now, I'm off to have some lunch:)

"Ringing in" the New Year

Our Christmas activity

For Christmas, we got the girls' each a K'Nex amusement park ride to assemble and play with. This particular ride took them over two hours to build. Geoff said that you'd have to be an engineer to put it together. Good thing he is quite brilliant. We had a great time with this.

Blog Day

Yes, it's that time of week where I will attempt to blog. The bad part about sharing this info, about Thursday now being the official day for me to blog, is that I still may not blog on Thursday sometimes and now you'll know. I guess I'll just have to take that chance.