reading

Book ClubZ | Intro

INTRODUCTION

I’m excited about this new blog series! Reading is another favorite thing of mine and I love it when I can share that love with my family and/or friends. Each month, I’ll choose a book to read, then I’ll plan out a fun night for my family/friends, and then share that night with all of you! I hope that you will be able to use the ideas to have a great night with your book clubs!

Each month will include:

a book review with questions
themed dinner or treat ideas
themed activity ideas
some new products, inspired by the book

So this blog series will be on the 4th Saturdays of each month – starting in January! I hope you will join me in this new adventure filled with books and fun!

What do you think?

Join me in January for the book: Mary Poppins
and feel free to send in your ideas for what we should read next!

Ideas for a great book club night!

Fourth Saturdays

Family History TuesdayZ | Reading

Journal prompt: Do you enjoy reading? How many books do you usually read in a year? Do you have a favorite genre and/or series?

My Journaling:
I absolutely adore reading. There is nothing like stepping outside of your own life and immersing yourself into another world through books. I have loved reading for as long as I can remember and I am happy that I have handed the love of books down to my daughter. And thanks to the wonderful invention of the audiobook, I feel like I have been getting through so many more books and I love that. I would have to say that I read at least 20 books a year – I would love for it be more than that, but life prevents me from more.

Before I was married, my favorite genre would have to be LDS Fiction (especially the romantic ones). At that time, that was pretty much the only thing I would read. But thanks to a wonderful book group that I was able to join when I first got married – my world of reading grew. I started reading books of all genres and realizing that there is so much more to read about and enjoy. Now, I still love my LDS fiction books, especially The Work and the Glory Series by Gerald Lund and any books by Anita Stansfield and Rachel Nunes (and many many many more authors) – but I would have to say that my favorite books now happen to be Young Adult Dystopian Novels, things like The Hunger Games and Divergent. I can’t seem to get enough of it and I *almost* jump at the chance to do housework just so I can listen to an audiobook!

I love that there are always new books and new adventures to explore! It never gets old!

Each Tuesday, I am going to be offering prompts or ideas. If you don’t write in your journal regularly – I am going to encourage you to write just ONCE A WEEK and answer the question/idea that I give on Tuesdays. These ideas hopefully will spark a memory and you will be able to capture that in what you write/record so that it can be left for your children/grandchildren/family/friends. Give as much detail as you can when answering.

Will you do this for me? Will you do this for your families? You can write it down in a journal, you can type it up on a computer or journaling software, you can take a recorder and talk, you can videotape your answers, you can even scrap a page with the journaling. It doesn’t matter how you do this – it’s just important that you do it. The memories, the dates, the information is the only real thing we can leave to our families when we are gone.

Life 2012 | So Interesting!

My daughter loves to read. That should come as no surprise to my family since her parents are both read-a-holics. I have really enjoyed seeing Beth come into her love of books. She has her favorites – she’s really into the Rainbow Magic Fairy books and the Magic Treehouse books right now. But she also loves when a new issue of the Friend comes and she basically reads it from cover to cover.

But there is something that she doesn’t enjoy reading as much – Baggie Books. Her school has a reading program where they achieve different levels of reading by bringing books (in ziploc bags) home to read to their families. She gets a new book every weekday to bring home and read. These are small readers that get harder/longer as they level up. Actually Beth is on the higher achievement now and brings home 2 books to read every day. Anyways, she’s never really too enthused by these book choices. She still reads them out loud and does a good job and sometimes she does enjoy some of the stories. But a few weeks ago, she brought home a book that interested her so much. It surprised me a lot – enough for me to stop what I was doing (making dinner) and actually sit down next to her and discuss it.

The name of the book was Telling Stories Through Art and she kept reading it and exclaiming things and showing me the pictures. Almost every paragraph ended with “Wow. That’s so interesting!” It was adorable to hear that coming out of her mouth. I probably shouldn’t have been so surprised that the history and paintings of indians would interest her. Growing up, many of my family vacations were to visit historical sites and indian ruins. It’s something that my Dad really enjoys and I always enjoyed it too. But its also something that I haven’t really shared with my children before. I’ve never really visited with them about historical sites and stuff and obviously its something that I need to remedy. Beth hasn’t stopped talking about the indian carvings and paintings and how she wanted to see some “for real.” I am definitely going to have to do some research and see if there is some places we can visit. How neat to see that Beth is experiencing a new interest in history. I can’t wait to visit some new places with her and I hope this love just grows. I think it will be really fun for her to learn and grow through the history of our country and the history of the people on earth and even the history of the people in the scriptures. I’m excited to share more of this with her!

Life 365 | Week 43

Monday, October 18, 2010

I love seeing the progression in JJ’s reading ability. It has been very slow in coming, but he is finally reading. It’s fun to see him want to read to his sister too!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

JJ’s loves the special activities and the motivational things they have in his classroom. He loves earning his little prizes!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The kids ditched school today and we went up to Salt Lake City to watch Lane, Colby, and Clint in the State Cross Country. Colby did amazing and got 3rd place. Unfortunately, Lane didn’t do as well as usual and he didn’t place. It was kind of a bummer – it being his senior year – but he did earn Academic All-state and that’s wonderful. It was fun to be with all the family.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

The kids have enjoyed doing Halloween artwork this week at school! Holidays really make everything so fun!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Although, its late in the season, I have been wanting to go for a nice Fall Drive and see the colors and leaves. I finally decided tonight was the night. After the kids got home from school, we headed up the canyon – and even though it has better colors earlier in the season – there was still lots of beautiful leaves to gather and enjoy! The kids really enjoyed it.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Joey is spending the weekend in Salt Lake City with Pete doing podcasts and fun guy time. So tonight, pizza was just the thing for me and the kids!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

The kids were so excited when Joey got home tonight – they really missed having him home this weekend and couldn’t wait to have him join in their playtime!

Life 365 | Week 33

Monday, August 9, 2010

JJ and Beth’s favorite way to play is to grab all of their toys and scatter them across the living room and the kitchen. I dream of the day when I can have a whole room just for their toys so that we don’t have to spend every waking hour picking up toys. So usually I get upset and the kids grumble about having to pick up. But then their are those special moments when I actually get caught up in watching them use their imaginations and the mess doesn’t bother me so much. I hope I can remember these moments more and not lose my temper because I really do love that they are learning, growing, and having fun together.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

We took a trip to Costco and Walmart today to fill our cupboards. The kids were really great and it was just a fun outing! But it always makes me tired and its nice to finally make it home and have everything put away.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

JJ got to go fishing for Scouts today and he loved it! He actually caught 2 fish and he shared one with a boy who didn’t catch one. He was so excited to bring it home and show us. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to eat it and he kept saying he wanted to keep it as a pet (of course it was dead – so that’s not happening). I think I need to get the kids a goldfish or something!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

A trip to the Orem library was our fun outing of the day. The kids got to bring home some Curious George and Arthur books and I brought home my book club’s book, The Time Traveler’s Wife (which I can’t wait to read again – love it) and a Nancy Drew book. I thought it would be fun to read Nancy Drew again.

Friday, August 13, 2010

We really need to get a sandbox for the kids someday. There is a small dirt area in the back of our yard by the tree that the kids just love. It’s not that great of dirt, but they dig and play and build in it anyways!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Grandma Smith took a day trip and came up to see us today. She brought some fun cans that she had decorated and filled with treats and fun stuff for the kids. They LOVED IT! They did stickers and played. We picked up Uncle Aaron and had pizza together before Grandma had to go home. Thanks for coming and being with us today Grandma!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Uncle Lane came up and spent the night with us. He is headed to tour colleges tomorrow. I can’t believe he is going to be a senior this year! Crazy! The kids love it when he stays with us!

Life 365 | Week 28

Monday, July 5, 2010

We woke up to another fun morning at Sink Valley. We played on the tire swing and I finished my book. We had breakfast and lunch and visited. We rode on the Gator and we went up to the Sawmill. JJ got to ride on the Cat with Grandpa and haul a log to the mill and we all watched that log become boards! We then had some lunch and headed to Orderville one more time. We picked up some hamburger and some sleeping bags that my parents had for us and then we started on our long drive home. We stopped in Nephi for dinner at the Flying J Restaurant and then got home at about 9:30pm. It was a nice weekend – despite all the traveling – and I’m so glad we went. But it is good to see home too!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Beth started Science Camp today! She got a bright yellow shirt and got to do tons of projects! She was so excited! They talked about birds, ducks, and frogs today and they got to make all kinds of nests and fun things. I’m so glad we got her in this program for the next 2 weeks!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Its amazing how with all the kids’ toys and things that they have – that sometimes just a couple colored strings is all they need to play and have fun!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

While my son was in school and my daughter was in science camp this morning, I glanced through my Freecycle emails and found one for a movie today! So I snatched it up and the kids and I went to Enchanted! Yes, we have the movie, but it’s so much fun to go to the theater! I packed a lunch and we ate and watched the movie together – and it was for FREE!

Friday, July 9, 2010

We finally cut open the watermelon that my mom sent with us last weekend. It’s pretty big so I’m sure we will be eating on this all weekend. There’s just nothing like watermelon in the summertime! Pete came for dinner and it was nice to just take out the frozen enchiladas that I had made for my dinner exchange and stick it in the oven. Someday I am going to have a large freezer so I can just do the Dinner Once a Month thing and cook most of my meals in one day and then just can pull it out for dinner every night! But at least I will have a week’s worth of meals every month through my dinner exchange!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

JJ and I loved Toy Story 3 so much that we decided to take Joey and Beth to it today. As we were finding a parking place at the movie theaters, a guy backed into our van. No one was hurt, but it was just so inconvenient since we had already paid for the movie. So Joey stayed out to wait for the police and to do all the swapping of information and the kids and I headed into the movie. Joey missed the commercials and the little cartoon that they do before the Pixar Movies (Night & Day) – but he did make it back in before the movie started! The van still works – we just can’t open the driver side door from the outside – we can from the inside. So now we have to deal with all the paperwork and insurance – but it could have been worse. See my good attitude LOL. Anyways, the movie was just as good as the first time. Not sure why – but it just affects me emotionally – I can’t even talk about this movie without crying. I just love the Toy Story movies – I really need to get my kit made for it! Anyways, after the movie – we just had a casual evening at home!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

We watched Emperor’s New Groove for Family Movie Night. This is one Disney movie that both my husband and I ALMOST never watched. It was horribly advertised and just looked so stupid – but somebody told us that we should watch it and we did – and it’s so funny! We haven’t watched it in awhile even though we have the DVD, so we thought it was fun to watch it again. We had “llama burgers” [really just hamburgers – but we added the llama to make it fit the movie] and homemade french fries for dinner!

And here is my weekly layout:
I used my Apothecary DreamZ & Digital 365 to create this layout!