Sunday, November 30, 2014

Sunday Salon


After anticipating the Thanksgiving holiday, our four day weekend is coming to an end.  We are fortunate to have family close by, and our Thanksgiving day meal consisted of having my mother and my in-laws over for lunch.  

I served the traditional green bean casserole and scalloped corn, but tried out a new recipe for sweet potatoes and crack potatoes that went over well.  I also baked a cinnamon roll cake that was extremely sweet, but gobbled up by my children.

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself and the self-control I exhibited during lunch. However, after I came home from my evening Black Friday shopping spree I ate whatever I could find.  Disgusting. 

The annual after lunch Thanksgiving Day puzzle party


We managed a trip to Des Moines to visit my sister and her family and last night went with my brother and his children to see Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day.  My mom joined us and my sister-in-law stayed home with one sick baby. I really liked the movie, which aside from its title had little to do with the book by Judith Viorst.

Today we are finally working on decorating the Christmas tree. We didn't get out any decorations last year because of our kitchen mess, which makes it a little more exciting.  It also might explain why we have had to throw a few things out that have broken while in storage. 

The highlight of my weekend was stopping to see one of my former students at his apartment in Des Moines.  I had tried emailing and calling but got no response, so on our way back home we tried to find him. He and his parents were home and my mom and children all came in for a visit, too.  His family always is happy to invite guests in, serve us tea, and try to have a conversation with us.  (My Burmese is non-existent and their English is still a little rough).  Taking the time to do this was well worth it; I was happy to see Pyae and know that he was doing well and that his parents have secured better jobs.


Tonight I've got to plan some meals for the week, and organize myself for tomorrow. The girls all have dental appointments bright and early tomorrow and I need to get into a routine.

I hope you all have had a relaxing Thanksgiving weekend. Enjoy what's left!


Saturday, November 29, 2014

Winter Street

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I feel like I can read a holiday book and not feel totally ridiculous.  Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand is my first (and maybe my only) holiday book I have read this Christmas season.  (Just for the record, my intentions are always good, and I have a stack of Christmas books that I have accumulated and still not read). 

Winter Street is a fast and entertaining read.  Set on Hilderbrand's trademark Nantucket, the Quinn family take turns narrating this story that develops over one Christmas.




Kelley, the patriarch, runs an inn on Nantucket with his second wife Mitzi.  Mitzi has just revealed that she has been having a holiday affair with George who has played Santa for them at their yearly Christmas party. 

Ava, Kelley's daughter, has been trying to keep a relationship alive with a boyfriend who gives her the bare minimum of attention or affection.

Patrick the oldest son son of Kelley and his first wife Margaret is having his own crisis.  Although he has made a lot of money, it has not been entirely ethical and he is now facing criminal charges.

Keith has struggled after his divorce from his high school girlfriend.  His life has consisted mostly of marking time on Nantucket and tending bar. Now that he is dating he finds it hard to make a commitment.

All of the stories were interesting, and although I found it difficult initially to feel connected to the characters, I was totally invested in the story after I took a few minutes to sit down and read without distractions.  

Winter Street is not as lengthy as Hilderbrand's other novels but this holiday novel is a first, and I am hoping there will be a follow-up as there is a bit of a cliff-hanger at the end.

Friday, November 28, 2014

Friday Five

After a night filled with Black Friday shopping - real shopping and virtual shopping - you would think I'd be all over this Friday Five thing.  But, alas, it is not so.  

My Friday Five is a bit of a hodge-podge-  those things that I spent money on last night for gifts.  Maybe you will get a few ideas from this variety I have listed.


1.  Romper Stompers- We have a pair of these at our house that my four year old nephew loves.  I ended up getting my four year old niece a pair. She lives far away, we don't know what she already has (but I am betting she doesn't own any of these), and she is quite active, running around all over the place.

2.  An oldie but a goodie.  My daughters have seen a few episodes of this show and right now Target has seasons one and two on sale.  I have also purchased the first season of The Wonder Years, and seasons five and six of The Brady Bunch for my kids.



3.  Since it doesn't appear that the Frozen craze will ever end, I bought these Frozen temporary tattoos for my niece.  

4.  I needed one or two more things to finish off Little Sister.  I decided on a fishing pole since she went fishing last year and loved it. And it's not more junk to bring in the house.



5.  No shopping spree would be complete without finding something I just have to have.  This year, Beats headphones.  Target has them for just $97 right now.

There was a lot of clothes purchased.  It seems that my teenager is wanting some new clothes to wear and my eleven year old is right behind her in wanting clothes, too.

Today we're off to Des Moines to visit my sister and family.  The girls want to do some shopping which I am sort of dreading. The mall is going to be quite busy, and since I am mostly done with gift purchases, braving the crowds doesn't seem that fun.


Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.



This week's pick:  A Touch of Stardust by Kate Alcott
Due out:  February 17, 2015




Product Information taken from Amazon:

From The New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmaker, comes a blockbuster novel that takes you behind-the-scenes of the filming of Gone with the Wind, while turning the spotlight on the passionate romance between its dashing leading man, Clark Gable, and the blithe, free-spirited actress, Carole Lombard.
 
 
          When Julie Crawford leaves Fort Wayne, Indiana for Hollywood, she never imagines she'll cross paths with Carole Lombard, the dazzling actress from Julie's provincial Midwestern hometown. Although the young woman has dreams of becoming a screenwriter, the only job Julie's able to find is one in the studio publicity office of the notoriously demanding producer David O. Selznick—who is busy burning through directors, writers and money as he begins filming Gone with the Wind.
     Although tensions run high on the set, Julie finds she can step onto the back lot, take in the smell of smoky gunpowder and the soft rustle of hoop skirts, and feel the magical world ofGone with the Wind come to life. Julie's access to real-life magic comes when Carole Lombard hires her as an assistant and invites her into the glamorous world Carole shares with Clark Gable—who is about to move into movie history as the dashing Rhett Butler. 
     Carole Lombard, happily profane and uninhibited, makes no secret of her relationship with Gable, which poses something of a problem for the studio as Gable is technically still married—and the last thing the film needs is more negative publicity. Julie is there to fend off the overly curious reporters, hoping to prevent details about the affair from slipping out. But she can barely keep up with her blonde employer, let alone control what comes out of Carole's mouth, and--as their friendship grows - soon finds she doesn't want to. Carole, both wise and funny, becomes Julie's model for breaking free of the past.
     In the ever-widening scope of this story, Julie is given a front-row seat to not one but two of the greatest love affairs of all time: the undeniable on-screen chemistry between Scarlett and Rhett, and off screen, the deepening love between Carole and Clark. Yet beneath the shiny façade, things in Hollywood are never quite what they seem, and Julie must learn to balance career aspirations and her own budding romance with outsized personalities and the overheated drama on set. Vivid, romantic, and filled with Old Hollywood details, A Touch of Stardust will entrance, surprise, and delight.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The Walk On

I love John Feinstein's writing.  After years of reading his non-fiction books on a variety of sports topics (and I'm not even really a sports fan) and enjoying them, I was happy to read Feinstein's tween/middle grade The Sports Beat series featuring two kids who managed to solve crimes at various high profile sporting events.

Feinstein's new series The Triple Threat begins with with the first book, The Walk On.  From the first page, I was interested and intrigued by this story.



Alex Myers is the new kid in town, wanting to make the high school varsity football team.  Even though he is only a freshman, he is an awesome player and knows it.  However, the coach's son is the starting quarterback, Alex's position.  
All season he struggles with finding playing time and a coach who doesn't want him on the team since it is taking away from the recognition his son gets.  

I didn't much like Coach Gordon from the first time he is introduced, but my dislike grew immensely by the end of the book.  There is more to Feinstein's novel than just a coach who does not like a player, and the twist Feinstein throws in which includes drug testing of the athletes as they make the play-offs added a lot to this book.

Although the ending may be wrapped up a bit too nicely for me as an adult, I don't think tween readers will have the same reaction.  

This is a new series, but I loved the fact that Feinstein included a character from his Sports Beat series as well.

Feinstein's series is off to a strong start.  I can't wait to read the next installment.

Monday, November 24, 2014

The Train to Crystal City

I still remember calling my mom during my freshman year of college, completely upset and confused by a book I was reading that claimed that Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during World War II.  Had this really happened, I asked her?  How had I managed to never know about this? And why was Danielle Steele the person to teach me about it?

In the many years since I first learned of this black spot in our country's history, I have done a lot of reading about the Japanese American experience during World War II.  There are a lot of books out there that cover this topic fairly well - and even many geared toward the middle grades (which would have totally helped me out when I was growing up).  

However, Jan Jarboe Russell's new book, due out in January, The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II adds another layer to the history of internment camps in our country.



In addition to Japanese Americans experiencing internment camps, Germans and Italians were also sent to Crystal City, an internment camp.  For some wives and children going to Crystal City was a way in which they could be reunited with their husband or father who had been (wrongly) accused of supporting his country of origin.  

Crystal City's internees were unique in that they were in a camp with the idea that they would be repatriated to their own country in exchange for American prisoners of war.  Although this was not explained to them, years later some of them realized that their repatriation helped rescue others from near certain death.

Russell's book is a work of non-fiction, but the narrative reads like a story as Russell tells about several of the Crystal City internees, and their lives both before and after World War II.  

I absolutely loved this book. I will admit to being stuck on the topic of World War II, so this one was high on my list of things I wanted to read, and it is now high on my list of books I will be recommending to others to read.  

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Sunday Salon: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Less Like Christmas


Overnight the snow has mostly melted. Thank goodness!  In fact the temps managed to get into the 50s yesterday, which felt like an absolute heatwave.  

Earlier this week my drive to work looked a lot like what I expect of winter driving.  


And despite there being no real weather to worry about, our electricity went off in our neighborhood on Monday night, not to be repaired until after we ate breakfast, dressed, and left for work.  The house was a chilly 58 degrees when we left for the day. 

I have also been busy with the book fair this week.  Busy is perhaps an understatement. During our family night the book fair was so full of customers I couldn't even walk around.  It's exciting to see, but I was ready to pack it in on Friday.

Little Sister had the thrill of being taken to the Mall of America in Minneapolis with a friend and her parents for the weekend.  They also visited the Macy's Christmas display downtown, stayed and swam in a hotel, and had a lot more fun than the rest of us left at home.


Of course, she's the child who likes to have me right next to her at all times. We've only received one rather tearful phone call. I legitimately believe her friend's mom when she says she is fine (I have seen her turn the tears on for me many times when she has been just fine moments before).  I will be interested in hearing what she has to say about her big adventure.

Without Little Sister, I have found time to read a little more.  It still doesn't begin to touch the stack of books I have waiting for me, but I am happy to X a few off my list.

The work week is a short one - just three days for me, two for my daughters.  I am ready for a little break, a little Christmas shopping, and some tasty, not so healthy food.

Happy Week Before Thanksgiving, everyone!

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Blizzard

A week ago we saw our first small snowstorm.  Thankfully, this weekend it should hit  a balmy 40 degrees.

However, even though I'm not very excited to see snow in person, I was thrilled to receive Blizzard by John Rocco in the mail the other day. I had pre-ordered this one long ago after having fallen in love with Blackout by Rocco.




Rocco's latest picture book is based on events in his own life- a 1978 snowstorm that hit his Rhode Island hometown and left drifts fifteen feet high.

I will readily admit that often I focus more on the story than the illustrations, but in Blizzard I loved both.  I loved that the snowstorm begins with just one flake.  I loved the fold-out showing where the boy walks when he is sent to get supplies.  I loved tracing his path.  I loved that this was based on a memory from Rocco's own childhood.

Both my eight year old and I exclaimed over this book.  Tonight she is already planning to read it again, this time with her father. 

Sometimes I am disappointed in a book after I have anticipated it for such a long time.  This is not the case with Blizzard.  I can hardly wait to read it to my classes, press it into the hands of my students and give it as a gift to my nieces and nephews.

Rocco has created another winner.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Friday Five

  



This scarf drew my attention right away as I was looking through the Boden Christmas catalog.  It is almost a sure thing that I will enjoy anything that features London.


So maybe you aren't Christmas shopping yet, but I am starting to pick up stocking stuffers already. This pen is something I found on the Marbles The Brain Store website.  It reminds me of the four color pens of my childhood that all the girls loved to have.


A few years ago my girls had a subscription to Little Passports that they loved. At the time I only purchased it for three months, and I have heard Little Sister ask for this to come again over and over ever since it expired. I have finally relented, because the "stuff" they send is good stuff.  I have had magazine subscriptions that no one reads, but this is something that my girls looked forward to receiving in the mail.  And I loved seeing them working together, heads bent over their maps, enjoying the artifacts and activities that allow them to learn more about various countries.


I have not a creative bone in my body, but my high school co-op is great about trying to help me carry out some of my ideas.  I have already showed her this tree that I'd like to have in the library for Christmas.


I am still trying to decide on a winter hat.  The girls have pretty much taken over any of the winter stuff I have, and I can't pretend that I can just go the entire winter without it.  It was 30 below zero the other night (with windchill).  I really like this hat from Eddie Bauer, and today they have 40% off.

The book fair has kept me busy this week, so the internet browsing hasn't been as easy.  We'll see what I can come up with next week.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Crooked River

I read a few reviews of Crooked River by Valerie Geary and the more I learned about this book, the more I wanted to read it.  

I was not disappointed.


Sisters Ollie and Sam are dealing with the sudden death of their mother and have been reunited with their father, Bear, who lives a minimalist life, shunning most of the conventions of everyday life.

Bear's appearance and lifestyle put him on the radar of law enforcement as most people don't understand his way of living.  When the sisters see a dead body float down the river near their teepee home, the two don't mention it to their dad. But, when the police show up  to ask Bear questions and later find evidence that Bear killed this young reporter, the girls can't ignore the fact that they don't know the entire truth about what went on the night this woman was killed.

The girls take turn narrating chapters, which is interesting since Ollie hasn't spoken since their mother's death.  She is able to see spirits that seem to communicate with her.  I don't much go in for spirits and communicating with the dead, but Ollie's story was still interesting and she reveals more as she narrates than she might if she were able to speak with her sister.

One thing both girls have in common is their steadfast belief in their father's innocence.  Even when all evidence points at their father, Sam continues to try to find out the truth about what happened the night the reporter was killed.

The tangled web she uncovers - about Bear's past, the tragic death of a young girl, Bears disappearance from their lives, all play a part in what occurred with the reporter and who is trying to cover it up.

The end wasn't a big surprise, even though I'm not usually very good at solving mysteries, yet I was totally intrigued by the twists and turns of the story and appreciated the suspense of it all.

I loved this book and will be awaiting more from Valerie Geary.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.



This week's pick:  A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
Due out: February 10, 2015



Product Information taken from Amazon:
From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author--now in the fiftieth year of her remarkable career--a brilliantly observed, joyful and wrenching, funny and true new novel that reveals, as only she can, the very nature of a family's life. 
     "It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon." This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she fell in love with Red that day in July 1959. The whole family--their two daughters and two sons, their grandchildren, even their faithful old dog--is on the porch, listening contentedly as Abby tells the tale they have heard so many times before. And yet this gathering is different too: Abby and Red are growing older, and decisions must be made about how best to look after them, and the fate of the house so lovingly built by Red's father. Brimming with the luminous insight, humor, and compassion that are Anne Tyler's hallmarks, this capacious novel takes us across three generations of the Whitshanks, their shared stories and long-held secrets, all the unguarded and richly lived moments that combine to define who and what they are as a family.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Althea and Oliver

Althea and Oliver by Cristina Moracho is a young adult book, but it easily crosses over into the "adult" category, with an appeal wider than just the teen readers I initially envisioned.



Althea and Oliver have grown up together and always been best friends.  They both come from single parent homes and rely on each other for companionship.  However, as they get older and are in the midst of their high school years, their relationship is changing.  Althea wants more than to be "just friends," while Oliver isn't sure yet.  Although this is not a unique plot, Moracho does a great job of creating two characters that seem so real and human that I was invested in this story from the beginning.  

The addition of Oliver's struggle with Klein-Levin Syndrome, a sickness that causes him to sleep excessively for sometimes weeks at a time with little or no time awake, adds another layer to this story.

Most people will be able to relate to Althea and Oliver and their relationship, and will love this story of a friendship that has grown and changed over a lifetime.

Monday, November 17, 2014

The Chance You Won't Return

Alex appears to be just like every other high school girl: thinking about boys, learning how to drive (although this is more of a struggle for Alex than it is for most teenagers). But there is a lot more going on in Alex's life than anyone else can imagine.  


Alex's mother appears to sinking further and further into her delusions, believing she is Amelia Earhart.  Aside from the fact that Alex is amazed by her mother's knowledge of Earhart's life, she is also appalled to have anyone else know about what is going on at home.

However, although things are going badly for Alex's family, Alex is finally enjoying dating a boy she likes and who appears to like her back. Keeping him separate from her family life is difficult, and Alex is dealing with a lot all by herself.

When I first started this book, I very nearly put it down.  I felt like this story might be just not something I felt like reading.  But once I was a few chapters in I was hooked.  I'm not sure someone could really suffer from a delusion like Alex's mom did (but I also admit I'm not in any way well versed in psychiatric disorders) but I was intrigued by this premise a lot. 

I also really liked Alex.  She tried to hold everything together even though things were not going well at home.  When she finally finds a boy who likes her I couldn't help but root for her and hope that she would find the support she was missing out on from her parents.

This is a first novel from Cardi and I'm excited to see what else she has in store.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Sunday Salon: It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas



For all of you who don't live with true winter weather, I would be happy to switch places with you for a while.  November 15 just seems waaaaaaay too early to have snow, especially when you know this is what life will be like for the next five months.  However, despite my lack of enthusiasm about the snow, it is beautiful.  And it does get me in the Christmas frame of mind.

Right after church this morning Middle Sister and Little Sister headed outside to enjoy the snow.  


The rest of us stayed inside, nice and toasty warm.

I still need to head out to Sam's Club and get a few essentials, and Little Sister has a birthday party this afternoon.  And when she returns there will be some chili to enjoy along with the Packers game.

Yesterday we celebrated my nephew's birthday and my niece's birthday.  Since the grandchildren won't be together again until Christmas my sister-in-law and I (really my sister-in-law since I am really good at thinking of ideas and she is really good at actually getting them done) directed an art project to give my mother to use for the holidays.




Although our tree doesn't quite look like the one I found on pinterest (below),


it is still pretty cute. Right now we are just waiting for the paint to dry and the star to be added on.  

This week at school is going to be super busy since by book fair runs the entire week.  I stayed late on Friday to get it all set up and the students are excited about it.  Wrestling practice begins tomorrow for my husband. This year Big Sister is a wrestling manager so she will also be busy after school during practices.  And volleyball season has also begun for Middle Sister.  I enjoyed the few weeks we had off between soccer and the busy-ness of winter sports, but now we are right back at it.  

I'm hoping that while everyone else is busy watching the Packers I can find a few minutes to snuggle up with a good book and organize myself for the week.

What's up for your Sunday?

Friday, November 14, 2014

Friday Five: It's Definitely Getting Closer to the Holidays





I hate the mess of winter hats, mittens and scarves.  But, the weather for those items has arrived here in Iowa.  I am almost wishing I could be a kid again and get away with wearing these hats I found on Garnethill.com.  Love the one with the beard especially.


Growing up, our air popper saw a lot of use. My dad would make a batch of popcorn several times a week in the evening as he was watching basketball games on television.  Microwave popcorn is so easy that we don't own a popper at all. But I love this retro popper from Target, and wouldn't mind having one for our family so that we could enjoy the taste of air popped corn on some cold winter nights.

These mittens from White Sierra seriously remind me of marshmallows.  Soooooo cozy!  I needed  pair of mittens and I am most generally freezing cold all the time, which is a little problem when you get to experience winter in Iowa.  I don't mind the white side of them, but when I get sick of wearing marshmallows on my hands, I can change them over to the brown side, which is pretty much perfect for me since almost everything I own is some shade of brown.


I've got this journal x 3 in my Amazon cart right now. I fell in love with it the other day when the girls and I were shopping for a present for my one-year-old niece, but it is hard to buy presents for the girls when they are with me.  I am planning on giving each girl their own Q & A journal for Christmas.  The questions are for kids: "Have you ever been in trouble?"  "What animal do you feel like today?"  I hope my girls find these books as a treasure (or I may have to force them to write in them daily), because looking back at them after they are grown will be so much fun.


I love these Steve Madden shoes. They've been marked down once already, but I'm waiting a little longer to see if they are further reduced.  These would perk up a lot of my brown clothes that just need a little jolt of something.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Telephone

I remember playing 'telephone' a few times as a child.  You know. The game where someone whispers a message to you and it is passed down to many listeners. The last person to hear the message repeats what he hears, often very comically different than the original message.




Telephone by Mac Barnett is the perfect book to read aloud with your children. And once that is done, you will spend the rest of your day playing 'telephone' with them.  

The first message from one bird to another as they sit on a wire, is to tell Peter to go home for dinner.  From there the message changes to all sorts of humorous rhyming things: "prop planes are for fliers," "lobsters are good hiders," to name a few.  

And yet, the very last bird sends the correct message to Peter.  

Funny stuff.  I couldn't help but laugh as I read this book to myself. And my girls had a great time with it as well.  We finally had to call off our own telephone game in order to get a little homework and cleaning accomplished.  I can't wait to read this to kids at school after we play telephone ourselves, of course.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.



This week's pick: The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer

Due out: April 7, 2015



Product information taken from Amazon:
From the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of The Dive From Clausen’s Pier, a sweeping, masterful new novel that explores the secrets and desires, the remnant wounds and saving graces of one California family, over the course of five decades.

Bill Blair finds the land by accident, three wooded acres in a rustic community south of San Francisco. The year is 1954, long before anyone will call this area Silicon Valley. Struck by a vision of the family he has yet to create, Bill buys the property on a whim. In Penny Greenway he finds a suitable wife, a woman whose yearning attitude toward life seems compelling and answerable, and they marry and have four children. Yet Penny is a mercurial housewife, at a time when women chafed at the conventions imposed on them. She finds salvation in art, but the cost is high.

Thirty years later, the three oldest Blair children, adults now and still living near the family home, are disrupted by the return of the youngest, whose sudden presence and all-too-familiar troubles force a reckoning with who they are, separately and together, and set off a struggle over the family’s future. One by one, the siblings take turns telling the story—Robert, a doctor like their father; Rebecca, a psychiatrist; Ryan, a schoolteacher; and James, the malcontent, the problem child, the only one who hasn’t settled down—their narratives interwoven with portraits of the family at crucial points in their history.

Reviewers have praised Ann Packer’s “brilliant ear for character” (The New York Times Book Review), her “naturalist’s vigilance for detail, so that her characters seem observed rather than invented” (The New Yorker), and the “utterly lifelike quality of her book’s everyday detail” (The New York Times). Her talents are on dazzling display in The Children’s Crusade, an extraordinary study in character, a rare and wise examination of the legacy of early life on adult children attempting to create successful families and identities of their own. This is Ann Packer’s most deeply affecting book yet.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Christmas at Tiffany's


When I signed up to be a part of the blog tour for Christmas at Tiffany's by Karen Swan I had no idea that in early November we would already have snow on the ground. The cover of this book alone has definitely put me in a holiday frame of mind - and the snow outside has just added to it. Although this book is not set only in the winter, Christmas at Tiffany's, is a great read for this time of year.

Cassie is in a bit of a rough spot. Her life has fallen apart in just one moment as she discovers her husband's infidelity.  Her three best friends are there to pick up the pieces as Cassie tries to rebuild her life.  Each friend lives in an amazing city - New York, Paris, and London, and Cassie takes a turn visiting and living with each of them.  There are romances, struggles, and a variety of ups and downs as Cassie finds herself and who she is now.

Swan's novel is entertaining and fun.  It is more than just a fluff chick lit read, with some real messages to be considered.  There were a few times that I was a bit frustrated with Cassie's inability to see what was right in front of her the whole time, but that didn't deplete my enjoyment in the story - it just made me root for her even more.

Christmas at Tiffany's is a book you will want to curl up with while drinking hot cocoa in front of a warm fire.



* Thanks to TLC Book Tours for providing a copy of Christmas at Tiffany's.  Although the book was given to me, the opinions expressed are my own.

Monday, November 10, 2014

The Family Romanov:Murder, Rebellion and the Fall of Imperial Russia

When my own children are looking for non-fiction books to read, I always tend to pick books that have intrigued me in the past.



I must have been ten or eleven years old when I caught a program on television about a woman claiming to be Anastasia, the czar's fourth daughter who had been killed in Russia in 1918.  I was hooked.  No body had ever been found for Anastasia or her brother, although remains were located for the other members of her family.  Numerous people stepped forward over the years claiming to be Anastasia, although it is most certain that she was executed along with her family.

In Anastasia's Album there are photographs of this young girl and her sisters and brother.  Her very privileged life is shared with the world.  

Now, Candace Fleming has provided another look at the Romanov family going into detail not just about Anastasia, but providing a backdrop of what life was like in Russia during Czar Nicholas' rule.  


If I had read anything about Nicholas before, I certainly didn't remember it, and appreciated Fleming's portrait of a leader who seemed extremely out of touch with the peasant's way of life in Russia.  His vast wealth amazed me, yet also shows how little he understood the way most people were forced to live.

Fleming introduces other historical figures like Lenin and Rasputin who are important to the Romanovs - and to Russia- and provides accurate and detailed information about the imperial family.

I was hoping for a book that was about more than just Anastasia, and was happily surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.  History is not always dry and boring, and Fleming provides a fresh look at this portion of history.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Sunday Salon: Winter Preparation



Yesterday I had the girls dig out boots, mittens, scarves, and snow pants and assess what we had that fit and what we needed.  We managed to get everything we truly need, except for Middle Sister's boots.  That is on the agenda today for me to order from Zappos.

The word is that we are getting snow tomorrow.  November 10th seems awfully soon for snow.  And that just makes it seem like winter is going to last forever.


Bad photography aside, the picture above is from Big Sister's XC banquet.  I was prepared for a meal and short little speech.  Not two and a half hours of fun.  The coach is awesome and she was able to speak about every runner individually, but there are 49 runners, so that took a long time. And the only thing I could think about while this was going on, was the fact that my throat was getting sorer and sorer (is that a word?!) by the minute.  I went right to bed once I returned home. Although I didn't miss any work, I didn't go to my exercise class very much this week and my darn nose is still running constantly.

The forecast of snow has me thinking of Christmas, so today I am going to run a few errands and hopefully pick up a few things for the girls for Christmas.  I need to put a strict limit on spending, but I would love to get the shopping done early.

For lunch I've whipped up some egg noodles with chicken, some different cheese soups a little chicken broth and garlic, pepper, and salt stirred in.  It is just warming in the crock pot and seems like the perfect comfort food for cold weather.

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone!