That time I accidentally read a Sci-Fi novel (a book review)

I like to read. I love to read. The struggle for me is finding the time/energy to do so as well as finding great books to read. My motto when it comes to reading is that if I can put a book down, I'm going to, and I'm probably not going to pick it back up again. The book has to suck me in or I'm not going to spend my time on it. I read both fiction and non-fiction. I read a lot of young adult dystopian novels, books about education and parenting, memoirs and stories about women living in ancient China or Japan. In recent years, I read a lot of just general fiction, I guess you would call it.  I also spend a ton of time reading books out loud to my kids.

The other day, my friend (thanks Rachel!) posted a link to a list of Kindle books that were on sale for $1.99 each. Lydia was sick and it was raining so I decided to splurge on a book. I had read and enjoyed many of the books on the list already so I was excited to find something good to read.

After reading reviews on Amazon, I settled on The Martian by Andy Weir, downloaded it, and began reading. I finished it in two days.

The book is about an astronaut named Mark Watney who accidentally gets stranded on Mars. He and his crew were supposed to be working there for about a month, but after a few days, something goes wrong and they have to abort the mission in a rush. Just as they are leaving, Watney is injured, and the crew, thinking he is dead, leave without him. The story is told primarily in log format as Watney tries to figure out how to stay alive and somehow, make it back to Earth.

So, I think I need to tell you at this point that this book is hard science fiction. Hard science fiction, I've learned, is science fiction that is logical and scientifically accurate. Humorously, I did not know this about the book until I was about 1/3 of the way through. How is that possible, you ask? Well, I am kind of slow, apparently. 

I was talking to Tim about it and commented that the book talked a lot about the mechanics of space travel and "a lot of other science and mathy stuff" and he replied that it sounded like science fiction. In case you haven't figured it out by now, that's a genre I don't typically read from. He quickly looked it up and told me that not only was the book science fiction, but it was categorized as hard science fiction, which I think should be called hard-core science fiction, because that sounds cool. 

Anyway, the point is that I'm kind of a dumb dumb. And I probably would not have bought this book if I had known what I was getting myself into, because I like to read as a relaxing experience and I don't always want my brain to be overly involved. I'm tired at the end of the day! I get into the habit of reading books that are similar to each other because if I liked one, I'll probably like the others, right?

I'm glad I read it though. It definitely required more brain power than watching Friends reruns (what doesn't?) but I feel good about it. The scientific details challenged me because I've forgotten/never properly learned or understood physics or chemistry very well, but the dictionary and Google helped me whenever I got stuck. The author did a nice job of explaining concepts and writing in a way that was clear and easy to follow. The book was a real page turner, and I found myself racing to the end to see what would happen to Watney. I was on the edge of my seat (more like, I sat up in bed instead of laying down) during the last 10% of the book and found the ending pretty satisfying. I love a book that I can't put down.

I'm glad I bought the book as a Kindle edition, because I found myself looking up scientific terms (and other words I should probably know by now) pretty often. Since my Kindle has a built in dictionary, that was as easy as pushing on a word until the definition popped up. It would've been annoying to have to look things up with a paperback. I feel like I actually learned a lot about space and science in general from this book. There were some parts that got a little slow, but Watney is a funny character and I appreciated the laughs. I found his will to live despite all odds beings against him inspiring, and he was a super smart and innovative character. Later in the book, there are some changes in perspective that I found to be refreshing.

They are making a movie out of this, starring Matt Damon. It comes out in October. I'm interested to see how they can translate it into an interesting movie since a lot of the book is detailed description of "sciencey stuff", and plan making. Might need to grab it at Redbox.

All in all, I give the book 4 out of 5 stars. I'd recommend it if you like sci-fi, or even if you don't. Now that I know I can read and enjoy sci-fi, I think I will do so more often. In fact, I just downloaded another sci-fi novel off the $1.99 list, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Look at me being all adventurous! So far, I like it, but I'll let you know how it goes.

Bottom line: don't judge a book by its genre. Read outside your comfort zone! 

End of Summer Goals Update

It has been a while since I've updated this so I figured it was about time. Here's how I'm doing with my 2015 goals...

Creative Goals:

• Finish the girls' quilts  Ok so Lydia's is done and I actually sewed all the pieces of Lexi's together. Now I just need to sew the backing on and then do some top-stitching. Not too shabby.
• Sew a quilt for baby Isaac before he turns 1.  Sorry buddy. This is not going to happen without a time machine and some extra cash :/
• Complete 2014 photo book I have not worked on this since the last time I updated. Maybe today? I did buy some new photo paper and most of the ink cartridges are full...
  
• Publish a minimum of 2 blog posts per month Yeah not so much. I have posted twice since the last update in May. Having trouble finding a topic to write about that is worth reading...What should I write about?
  

Healthy Goals:

• Walk or run 3 days per week minimum  I stopped running and started a different exercise program which helped me to lose 15lb...then I started falling off of that bandwagon as well. Dang it! It is hard to maintain stamina, especially now that our school year has started and I am allergic to fall. This week I've been cutting out extra snacks and just trying to get more steps in.
• Find an exercise partner to hold me accountable
• Complete a spring/summer 5k and a fall 5k I did a spring 5K and a summer 5K and I believe that will be it for the year unless it begins raining money.Calling it done since I did two.
• Eat a fruit and a vegetable every day (embarrassing but it doesn't always happen) Not doing too badly here. I eat a salad almost every day. I'm surprised to find that I am eating more veggies than fruits, I was always the opposite in the past.

Reading Goals:

• Read about 2 books per months but at least 24 per year I am doing well! I have read at least 4 or 5 adult books since my last update, listened to several more young adult audiobooks, and am reading tons aloud to the kids. I discovered Good Reads and I am enjoying all the recommendations on there.
• Read the Bible every day Doing ok. Finished my long term Bible study and participated in another short term one and am now kind of hovering in between waiting for a new one to start.
• Find a new Bible study to participate in after current one is over  I participated in a short term study over the summer and am now looking to start a new study next month. Good job me.
• Find or start a book club and attend regularly I went to a book club meeting. I don't know if it was a good fit. I might try another meeting or keep looking. Or I might just watch more Netflix ;)

Parenting Goals:

• Have a one-on-one date with each child once per month Hmm. I bet I've done this monthly. Nothing super special. All they really want is to be heard without competition :)
• Spend one-on-one time with Lydia every day This one is hard. We had a lot of one-on-one time while Lexi was at camp but I think we bored each other ;) She always wants to play pretend but I am terrible at following the rules so we read a lot together. She does make a great shopping buddy though!
• Develop some kind of routine that involves the kids cleaning The kids have daily jobs! They pick up the living room, help unload the dishwasher, water the flowers, feed the cats, and help pick up their rooms.

Marriage Goals:

• Go on at least one date per month Doing pretty well. Looking forward to Awanas starting up so we can have more time together. We have been watching Brooklyn 99 together and I am not watching ahead without him..so that's impressive..
  
• Fill in the couples journal together every week Oh geez it has been months! Should be fun when we actually sit down and do it.
• Cook Tim a special birthday meal

Home Goals:

• Organize the basement It is looking much better! I posted pictures of the school room we created. I have rearranged my side a little bit. The unfinished side needs more help.
• Paint the kitchen 
• Donate the girls' old clothes  I donated a lot and am just participating in my first consignment sale ever. Looks like I've made about $80, which is definitely more than I make when I donate, so that's a plus. 
• Go room to room with a trash bag and purge as much as possible, selling anything decent on Craigslist Yeah, this needs to be done over and over again. But I have done it once, so that's good, right?

Goals are hard! I have a tendency to lose interest in projects and move on to other projects. I'm more of an ideas person than a follow through person. What stuff have I done this year that wasn't on this list? I need to add it so I can check it off ;)

Back to School

I've been awful about writing regularly, mostly because I don't have anything all that interesting to say. I've started a few posts (7!) and then abandoned them because if I got bored writing them, I figured surely you would get bored reading them. I decided now would be a good time to give a general update on our lives and what the girls are doing in school. I've also got a goals update coming soon. (Spoiler Alert: Not doing so hot)

 My last post was in June! We had a busy summer. We spent a lot of time at the pool, had a lot of play dates, and went to Branson for the weekend with my parents, brother and niece. Lexi played softball and both girls did some camps, swimming lessons and VBSs (what's the plural of VBS?). We celebrated Lydia's 4th birthday and my 29th and it rained. A lot. Overall, it was a good summer. I had intended to keep some school going during the summer but we really didn't do much other than read a lot. I haven't decided if I want to keep taking traditional summers off or if we are going to do a more year round approach with breaks off as needed. We shall see.

The girls started school at the beginning of August. I started with just math and writing the first week, then added reading the next week, and this week I added science, social studies and spelling. And then last night they begged to do art so we did that too. It was a rough transition back to school at first since we pretty much did whatever we wanted this summer, but 3 weeks in, we are getting used to our routine again and moving right along.

What are we doing in school this fall?  

I always enjoy reading what other homeschooling families are doing and what curriculum they use, so here's what we are using and doing this fall. Lexi is in 1st grade and Lydia is in preschool. I linked to most of our curriculum in case you wanted to know more.

Lexi
Reading-  Learning Language Arts Through Literature Red Book (2nd grade). She left off halfway through this in May and that's where we are picking up.

Math- Singapore Math, book 1B (halfway through 1st grade). I think we will finish this book in a couple of months and move on to book 2A. We are also using a cool program I found on Teachers Pay Teachers called Kicking It that helps kids learn their basic facts. It is karate themed and she likes that.

Science - Noeo Science, Biology 1. We started this in the spring and the girls love it. Right now we are learning about desert life, and we will move through different biomes, the human body, plants, and more. This will take us most of the school year.

Spelling - All About Spelling Level 1. We will be done with this about moving on to Level 2 in a few weeks.

Social Studies - Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times. We did several months of this last fall and while she enjoyed it, I felt she would get more out of it if we waited til she was older. So we are starting over from the beginning. We are also reading tons of American Girl books.

Writing - Essentials in Writing Level 1.One of my main goals for Lexi this year is to build her writing skills so she is able to write longer and more independently, so I picked this up. It has videos that teach a component of writing and then practice pages. It's nice to be able to set her up with that so she can work independently for a while. I am going to mix it in with Draw Right Now books and just free journal writing. She enjoys telling stories a lot so I am wanting to help her have the skills to write more on her own.

Art - Artistic Pursuits K-3 Vol 1. I picked this up at a sale and we're going to just throw it in and see how it goes. Both girls absolutely love art. I was planning to wait until next year when Lydia has more skills, but they were begging to start so we did our first lessons last night and they enjoyed it.

Music - Piano lessons with my mom once per week. Thanks Grandma Diane! She is also learning sewing from my mom.

This looks like a lot when I see it all typed out like this, but we don't do every subject every day and most days we are done before lunch.

The cats are always very helpful

Lydia
In January, Lydia started showing interest in doing her own school and she worked 2/3 of the way through All About Reading Pre-Reading. She was begging to do school every day, even on weekends, and loved this curriculum. We got through 2/3 of it and then stopped for summer. When we picked it back up, she wasn't super interested and it had gotten kind of repetitive. So I picked up Level 1 from a friend and sat down with her, but she was NOT having any of that. She could do it but was very against it. So I have decided to wait on that for a while until she is interested. I don't want her to hate learning and she is just 4 so we have time. We might try Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons  (which I used with Lexi) finish the Pre-Reading curriculum, or try Level 1 again after a while. Or maybe we will keep waiting!

This past week, I set up some activities for her on ABC Mouse just to see how it would go and she is really enjoying that!  It's an online preschool program that has little books, games, puzzles, coloring activities and songs. I set her up on my Chromebook with her headphones on and she just goes. It's adorable to hear her singing to herself. It's kept her interest for a bit while Lexi and I are working on subjects that require my complete focus.  I think we will keep using it as long as she enjoys it.

I also purchased Spielgaben (in short, a giant box of loose parts for building with) and she has been playing with that every day. She's a super creative, hands-on girl and I can see her using this for quite a while. I've printed out some of the curriculum that came along with the set, but right now she is just playing with it on her own and having fun. I'm going to keep things pretty laid back for her this year since she is young.

I believe this is a fairy wedding.

Other Stuff

We do venture out of the house now and then. ;) Lydia just started gymnastics and appears to love it. We go to my mom's every week for piano, sewing and some grandma time. Every Thursday afternoon we attend Park Day with our homeschooling friends and have several hours of play time. Lexi wants to start karate. We've checked out one place and are going to look at another soon to see which would be the best fit. We read from our devotionals most mornings and are excited that Awanas will start up in September!  Tim and I are excited for since it means we'll get alone time every week without finding a sitter. We have play dates with friends and hit up the library about every week. (We read a lot. My voice is tired.)  Honestly, I find that socializing tends to get in the way of school more than the reverse. We're blessed to have awesome friends and family on this journey with us

Back to School Pool Party with friends!

So now you know what we are doing in school this fall.  I need to take more pictures. Hope everyone's school years are off to a great start!