Library Advent Follow Up

As I wrote in this post, we do a library advent calendar every night leading up to Christmas beginning with December 1st. Not being particularly knowledgeable when it comes to Children's literature, this has been a learning experience! As I mentioned, we do a mix and match of books about the Christmas season in general (winter, Santa, etc) and then we start zeroing in on Jesus as the day gets closer. The kids call these "Jesus books" and "non-Jesus books," so that's how I have referred to them below. Here are a few of my favorite titles:

Non-Jesus Books:

Santa Duck by David Pilgrim

This book was super cute and fun. I enjoyed the artwork and it was a $1 in the Scholastic Book Order, so bonus there! Brother especially loved this book.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Brett Hellquist

I actually ordered this one after we had started our advent, but it's definitely going in the rotation for next year. It's unabridged, so the language will require some explaining, but the artwork is SPECTACULAR! I took it to school and read it to my 7th graders. I may or may not have cried during the reading.

The Nutcracker from the story by E. T. A. Hoffman, illustrated by Valeria Docampo

Every year, my niece dances in the Nutcracker, and every year, I'm like, "What the heck is going on?" I don't get it, so I don't know how to explain it to my kids. So this year, we ordered this book. It was $9 something, but totally worth it because it is BEAUTIFUL. This one has been repeated already!

There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow by Lucille Colander, illustrated by Jared Lee

We loved There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves, so when we saw this one in the Scholastic Book Order ($2), I knew it was a must-have for our advent library. One thing I love about these books and the others like it is that Sister can "read" this book pretty much by herself since the book follows a pattern. As Brother reads every other book, it's nice to have one she can do herself.

Jesus Books:

The Birth of Jesus Activity Book

Sorry for the horizontal pic :)

I bought two of these for $2.99 at Hobby Lobby so each of the kids could complete their own. Inside are stickers, dot-to-dots, mazes, and much more, all revolving around the Christmas story. This was fun and a nice break from just reading.

The First Christmas Night by Keith Christopher, illustrated by Christine Kornacki

This book was also $1 in the Scholastic Book Order, but this one surprised me, because rather than simply telling the story of the first Christmas, it followed the pattern of "The Night Before Christmas" poem. So rather than:

Twas the night before Christmas/When all through the house/Not a creature was stirring/Not even a mouse

it was:

Twas the very first Christmas/When all through the town/Not a creature was stirring/There was not a sound

We had just read the other night before Christmas a few nights before and the kids made the connection. It was fun.

The Big God Story by Michelle Anthony, illustrated by Cory Godbey

I LOVED this one. I got it as part of the literature that came along with the spiritual parenting class I took at church this rotation. I hadn't read it through until we did it with the kids a few nights ago. It tells the "whole" story of scripture, beginning in the garden and ending with the promise that Jesus will return. It is fantastic, and definitely one we will pull out often.

The Tale of Three Trees retold by Angela Ewell Hunt, illustrated by Tim Jonke

I have had this book since I was young and it makes me tear up every time, especially hearing my son read it this year. It tells the story of three trees and the big dreams they had, only to be cut down to form a manger, a boat, and a cross. It was so special to listen to Brother read it and make the connections - "Hey, that's the boat Jesus was in when he calmed the storm!" "That's the manger they laid Jesus in when he was born!" It was precious. This is another one we will read all year long.

What fun this has been! I'm already looking forward to next year :)

Book: Kill the Boy Band

Kill the Boy Band
by Goldy Moldavsky

Length: 320

Format: eBook
Price: Free -downloaded from Overdrive

How I heard about it: it's on the book list I made from my YAL conference

Basic Premise: The Ruperts are coming to the US and four of their biggest fans (Strepurs...Ruperts spelled backwards) are not missing this opportunity to see their idols in concert. But when one of them goes to get ice at the hotel and she runs into a real live Rupert, she isn't quite sure what to do. So she knocks him out and drags him back to their hotel room, where the pandemonium begins.

My Take: 8 out of 10 (scale here)

This book was SO FUN. I read it in four days, which is pretty remarkable considering how busy I am this time of year. It's told in first-person from, arguably, the sanest member of the fangirls. It took me by surprise in several regards. First, there was much more mystery than I anticipated. Once the story got rolling, the plot became deeper and more and more twisted. It's another one of those stories where one bad decision leads to another, much worse decision, and the whole thing starts to spiral. Secondly, this was the first novel from this author, Goldy Moldavsky, and I think she did a great job. I am interested in reading more of her stuff. Lastly, and sadly, I cannot have this book in my classroom. Now that I think about it, I remember that the presenter said it is a book for high schoolers, and I would agree. Between the language and sexual content, it's probably a book suited for older readers. But it was super fun, and the first one off my list!

1. Scythe by Neal Schusterman
2. Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
3. Seeds of America Trilogy by Laurie Halse Anderson
4. Front Lines by Michael Grant
5. Steeplejack by AJ Hartley
6. The Girl I Used to Be by April Henry
7. Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
8. The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
9. The Reader by Traci Chee
10. Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story by Nora Raleigh Baskin
11. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
12. Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavski
13. The Distance to Home by Jenn Bishop
14. The Best Man by Richard Peck
15. Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart
16. Ghost by Jason Reynolds
17. This Is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
18. The Bitter Side of Sweet by Tara Sullivan
19. The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

20. The Serpent King by Jeff Zetner

Library Advent

Last year, I tried something I read about on Pinterest - a library Advent calendar. Each night of December leading up to Christmas, the kids open a wrapped book. The book can be anything, but I chose books that were mostly Christmas or winter-themed, with a few of our favorites thrown in. This year, my selection is as follows:

This year, since I had more than a few weeks to prepare, I collected all year. I also bought a few new books from the Scholastic book order that came home with Brother. We are not Santa people, but we do treat Santa like other fictional characters in our household, so we do have a few Santa books. However, most of our Christmas books focus on the actual story of Christmas - Jesus. The books in the pile above are arranged so that the books in the front will be first and the books in the back will be last. The last week's worth of books are all about Jesus.

Last weekend, I got them all wrapped, and tomorrow night we will open our first book!

We also have another special Christmas count-down tradition at our house. Last year, I saw this picture on Pinterest and asked my mom if she could make something like it:

Challenge accepted...and guess what? Her's is WAY better than the Pinterest version!

So every night, we move the marker closer and closer to Bethlehem, until, on Christmas morning, it finally arrives. We bring out Baby Jesus and stick him in the manger. And then we read our last Christmas book, which is all about that day!

New Book List

I went to my amazing Young Adult Literature Conference again this year! I wrote about it last time I went...this woman reads like 400 books a year! It was so good and I wanted to read every single stinking book on all her lists. Instead, created a Google Slides presentation of titles I thought my kids would most enjoy, shared it with them during our reading hour at school, and then I narrowed my own personal list to these 20:

• Scythe by Neal Schusterman

• Walk on Earth, Stranger by Rae Carson
• Seeds of America Trilogy by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Front Lines by Michael Grant
• Steeplejack by AJ Hartley

• The Girl I Used to Be by April Henry
• Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
• The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
• The Reader by Traci Chee
• Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story by Nora Raleigh Baskin
• Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

• Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavski
• The Distance to Home by Jenn Bishop
• The Best Man by Richard Peck
• Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart
• Ghost by Jason Reynolds
• This Is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
• The Bitter Side of Sweet by Tara Sullivan
• The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

• The Serpent King by Jeff Zetner

Scythe was one kids were really excited about, so I ordered it on Amazon and am starting with that one. It's set to arrive today!

Book: AD 30

AD 30

by Ted Dekker

Length: 432

Format: Paperback
Price: Borrowed from a friend

How I heard about it: ^recommended by the same friend

Basic Premise: Set in (you guessed it) 30 AD, the illegitimate daughter of the sheikh of Dumah is commissioned by her father to journey to Palestine and ask for the aid of Herod whose Roman ties make him a powerful ally in the war against the Nafud. On her way, she encounters Yeshua, whose teachings and miracles she can't seem to reconcile - or escape.

My Take: 6.5 out of 10 (scale here)

I enjoyed this book. I liked the writing style and the feel. I also liked the time period, because although I feel like I know quite a bit about the time and place, there were things I hadn't considered - like how much of the area was DESERT. That said, the story itself was a little too...military? for me. It was hard to follow the strategy and even harder to believe that what was happening was at all likely, or even possible. I read the afterward by the author, who obviously went to great lengths to get his research right, but parts of it still felt pretty unbelievable. What I DID like, though, was the telling of a story during a Biblical time with Biblical characters that wasn't the Bible. The last book I remember reading like this was Unveiled about Tamar (which was fabulous) and I forgot how much I liked it! There is a sequel to this one - AD 33, but I have a feeling I'm really not going to like that one...

Salad-In-A-Jar...

I recently attended  a Salad-In-A-Jar Party. Did you know that was a thing? It's like a 31 Party or a Norwex Party or a LuLaRoe Party. Except it's way faster, way less expensive, and what you get is actually very practical, as you are going to eat it that week. Here's how it works:

• Every person commits to bringing 5 empty mason jars and 3 toppings. I brought cucs (seeded and sliced), cherry tomatoes, and chicken. (The host provides greens.)
• Set up your table so your hearty veggies are at one end and your leaves are at the other, with the "wetter" veggies in the middle. Here's a great graphic for how to design your table.

• Begin at the end with the hearty veggies and fill until your jar is about half full. Then stuff with greens.
• You are done and so is lunch for the next five days!

A few observations:

• This was fun and super fast. I told Husband I'd be about two hours (because that's how long 31/Norwex/LuLaRoe last) and I was done in 45. I would have been done sooner if I hadn't stayed around to chat.
• I really loved that the host picked DARK GREEN GREENS. I really hate Iceberg, and though I can tolerate Romaine, Spinach is my go-to. So I was happy.
• SOME people put dressing in their jars first. I chose not to for a number of reasons:
1. I was afraid it would make my salad soggy.
2. It meant I had to commit right then to the type of dressing I wanted, which I was not prepared to do.
3. I don't use much dressing and I'm not sure I could get the dressing to come out with the salad very well without a spatula, which I don't keep at school.

• Next time, I will not fill the toppings up to the halfway mark as I did in the first two in the picture above. The second salad from the right looked like this when I dumped it:

It looked like this when I was done and I should have stopped several bites beforehand...because it was too big for one meal.

I've had three so far and my favorite has been what I'm calling an Asian chicken salad. It's the one in the middle of my picture up top and it contained:

• broccoli
• celery
• chicken
• oranges
• grapes
• golden raisins
• sunflower seeds
• slivered almonds

I paired with Annie's Shiitake Dressing (to which I added some honey because it was too salty for me) and it was AMAZING! I mean it. I'm totally making this one again!

And maybe the best part was getting to spend time with new friends. The four women on the left (including me) all met last year when our kids were in the girl in the plaid's kindergarten class together. It was super fun getting build salads together :)

Review: Think Dirty

One day, I was out to lunch with a friend and she introduced me to this app. I am not a huge app user - I usually download them, never open them, and then delete them when I get that screen of death that says I'm almost out of storage.

We were talking about eating clean and such, and she whips out her phone. Our convo went something like this:

Her: Wanna see something gross?
Me: Hi, I'm Randi. Have we met?
Her: It's this app that tells you how dirty all your stuff is.
Me: Huh?
Her: You type in the product you want to check and it gives you a rating on how "dirty" it is.
Me: That sounds awful.
Her: It's GREAT. (Pulls out her phone, displays app.)

Her: See? Now, what do you use to clean your face?
Me: (proudly, because I have recently graduated from the drug store stuff to the DEPARTMENT STORE STUFF) Clinique.
Her: (typing it in) So, here you go:

Her: The five its its rating out of then. The higher you get to ten, the dirtier it is. So yours is about half dirty. So, not terrible. What about your laundry detergent?
Me: (snapping my fingers) I know this one is clean. I use Meyer's. (Remember this post all about Meyer's?)
Her: (sad face) Oh, friend. I'm sorry. I'm about to burst your bubble about Meyer's.
Me: What do you mean? It can't be dirty - the whole point of it is that it's kinder to the environment and made with clean chemicals. That's their whole advertising campaign!
Her: That's what I thought too, so I bought a bunch of it. Are you ready for this?

Her: NINE?
Me: NINE? You have to be kidding me!

The rest of lunch was spent in a similar vein (we were at PSub so the kids were happy coloring and watching TV): me thinking of products and her scanning them and me getting all depressed. One ironic thing we found was that the laundry detergent I had given up to use Meyer's, All Free & Clear, was actually very clean:

Go figure.

Another cool thing about this app is that, if it doesn't have a product you are looking for, you can add it. They didn't have my shampoo, so I scanned the barcode and submitted it. Surely this is fine, right? I mean, it smells so good and it's so pretty!

Anyway, I really kind of feel like this app ruined my life. I also feel like it's okay if all my stuff isn't ones and twos. I think it's okay if I work up to that gradually. Most of my cleaning stuff is Norwex anyway, which doesn't even use chemicals, so I'm at least doing that part right, right?

Fourth Birthday

My Dearest Lucy Jean,

I can't tell you how crazy it is to think about how you are FOUR YEARS OLD! How did that fly by so quickly? When I look at your little NICU picture, I can't help but be amazed at the miracle of you.

You are such a joyful little girl. You pop out of bed every morning (and I do mean EVERY MORNING) with a smile on your face and ready for the day. You want to dance, or play, or read books, or come snuggle with your dad and me, which invariably leads to your dad tackling you because, even though you promised to be quiet, somehow you just couldn't swing it. This year you learned to POTTY IN THE POTTY, which I thought might never happen. I bribed you with every means I could think of (including taking you to get your nails done), and yet somehow you just learned it in your own way and in your own time. I think that's going to be the way you roll, my dear: you aren't going to let anyone rush you or slow you down - you are just going to be YOU. And although that can be frustrating in small ways, it is best for sure in the big ways. You have developed a love for girly things - you love nail polish, pink, scarves, purses, clothes, boots, and shopping. This year you have loved Star Wars and Shopkins. You also love to read books and, at bedtime especially, you love to listen to stories about Juicy Lean. Juicy Lean is a lot like Lucy Jean, except that she often makes bad decisions and needs Lucy Jean's help to make them right. And sometimes her brother Barley is in the stories, too. You also love the game where you list three things and I have to weave them into a story. You are pretty good at that too when it's Mommy's turn!

This year has been challenging for your Mommy and Daddy. We have affectionately (or in frustration) dubbed you a "threenager" - you definitely know your own mind and are fiercely committed to fulfilling whatever it is that's in there. Another trait that will serve you very well in the future.

My dear, God has used you to teach me so many lessons about Him this year. Parenting puts the Gospel in perspective like few other human experiences. But the biggest one is and will continue to be that as much as I love you, God loves you more. He loved you enough to give up His own Son. We talk about this often, and though you don't quite understand just yet, I pray that God continues to draw you close, and when the time comes, you will lean in and begin to fulfill all He has planned for you.

Because girl, it is BEAUTIFUL.

Love,

Mommy

Another YAL Book List Down!

Back in March of 2015, I decided to read from this list, which I originally saw under the heading "26 Books That Should be Taught in Today's Classroom." Several of the books on this list rank among my very favorites, including The Kite Runner, and The Glass Castle. Some of them were deeply profound, like I Am Malala and The Poisonwood Bible, and caused me to stop and ask hard questions about my own beliefs and convictions. And then there was Bossypants, which was just plain hilarious.

However, I did abandon FOUR books on this list. That is not my norm. But they were just...not good. And, as I always tell my kids, life is too short to waste time on a bad book. There are too many good ones out there, waiting to be read!

1. I Am Malala by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai review here
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky review here
   
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood review here
4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher review here
5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls review here
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving review here
7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver review here
8.  Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah review here
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddonreview here
10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (read before I started blogging)
11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz *abandoned* 
12. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie review here
13. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (read before I started blogging)
14. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood *abandoned*
15. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer review here
16. Bossypants by Tina Fey review here
    
17. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey review here
18. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read before I started blogging)
19. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (read before I started blogging)
20. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen *abandoned*
21. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell review here
22. She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb *abandoned*
23. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - can we have a moment for whoever created this list? "Harry Potter" is not a book. It's a series of books. Sheesh.
24. Looking for Alaska by John Green review here
25. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak review here
26. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini review here