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!

Roadblock

This lovely piece of furniture has been stuck in our basement for 5 years.

When we bought our house in 2010, we were surprised to discover this love seat hanging out in the basement as we moved in. "Free furniture? Cool!" At the time, we did not realize that the reason the love seat was left behind was that they remodeled the basement around it and it was literally stuck down there because it was too big to fit through the renovated doorways. 

So for the past five years, we've been shuffling it around the basement room where it was trapped. It's not an uncomfortable piece of furniture. The kids enjoyed building forts with the cushions and jumping on it like a trampoline. It was a little irritating that it was stuck there, but not a big deal.

Then one of the cats peed on it.

Then the other cat peed on it.

Needless to say, it was time for the love seat to go.  Not to mention, the kids (and their ever-growing multitude of possessions) were outgrowing their shared room and play/school room. We needed to better utilize the basement. 

I sprayed the heck out of it with a variety of chemicals and sprinkled essential oils on it (one cat in particular can't stand the smell of oils) and we tried to come up with a plan for evicting our uninvited upholstered guest. We talked about taking a chainsaw to it and just removing the pieces, but we don't have a chainsaw. 

Tim started moving it toward the doorway to try squeezing it through one last time and discovered that the feet came off! With a bit of shoving, the removal of the railings on the staircase, and a little lost paint, he and I were able to squeeze the love seat out of the house and onto the curb. Victory!

Totally worth it.

We quickly listed it on Facebook and craigslist (for free, mind you) and hoped someone would take it off our hands. It got a little rained on but I honestly think that helped because when someone finally came to take it away and Tim helped them load it up, he said the smell was gone. 

It's funny. The love seat has been in our home since the beginning but it was not until it was finally gone that I realized how much of a burden it had been. It was a relief to see it go. With it gone, we were able to move our school stuff to the basement and split the girls into their own rooms. Just getting one piece of furniture out of the house inspired us to purge a bunch of other stuff that was cluttering up the garage as well as the kids' bedrooms. I honestly feel like we've gained a ton of space, which is a big deal when you're living in a small house with growing children.

Lexi's room. I think more purging is in order ;)

Lydia's room

Our new school area

It kind of made me wonder what other baggage or burdens I need to purge my life of, physically and metaphorically speaking. Sometimes there are roadblocks in your life and you don't even realize it until they are gone. Hmm.

April Update, posted in May...

So, you may have noticed that I have not posted an update of my goals in...a while. Oops. I thought it might be a good time to check in and hopefully jump start my motivation a little bit...Seems easiest just to go down the list and comment on my progress for each goal.

Creative Goals:

• Finish the girls' quilts (I'm going to call Lydia's done. I did quite a bit of topstitching and she's using it all the time now. I really need to work on Lexi's and I'm pretty sure I'm never going to do any more to Lydia's, so I might as well try to move on.)
• Sew a quilt for baby Isaac before he turns 1.  (Has not happened yet. Sorry Isaac! I've got until August 1st.) 
• Complete 2014 photo book (I have about 10 or 12 pages in my photo book for last year. I have gotten through May, so that's not too bad!)
• Publish a minimum of 2 blog posts per month (Oops)

Healthy Goals:

• Walk or run 3 days per week minimum (This is going pretty well. Been busy lately but I am finding myself doing a pretty good job of getting moving)
• Find an exercise partner to hold me accountable (DONE! Thanks Jacqueline!)
• Complete a spring/summer 5k and a fall 5k (Spring 5K complete! Signing up for another run at the end of May! Good job me ;))
• Eat a fruit and a vegetable every day (embarrassing but it doesn't always happen) (I am doing better at this! I definitely eat vegetables (usually salad) most days and now that decent looking fruit is appearing in stores, that's getting better too. )

Reading Goals:

• Read about 2 books per months but at least 24 per year (Ok. So I've read 3 adult books cover to cover this year. But I have also read two Animorphs books and probably half of the works of Tomie dePaola aloud, along with others. And we are almost done listening to the 2nd Penderwicks book on CD (we Franzen girls are loving the series!). And I've skimmed the majority of a book about cat care as well as a book about essential oils. So I'm consuming books...but I'm a messy eater ;) I need to find a novel that is impossible to put down. Cuz if I can put a book down, I usually just do.)
• Read the Bible every day (I can't say that I read it every single day, but I read it most days, and I have been doing a bit better staying caught up in my Bible study. Not gonna lie, it calls for 5 chapters some days. That is hard!)
• Find a new Bible study to participate in after current one is over (Pretty sure I am going back to Hello Mornings when my current Bible study is over. We shall see.)
• Find or start a book club and attend regularly (Well, I found a book club but I have not attended)

Parenting Goals:

• Have a one-on-one date with each child once per month (So far so good!)
• Spend one-on-one time with Lydia every day (Not doing as well as I should. I read to her every day but Lexi likes to listen in most days. Sorry Lyd!)
• Develop some kind of routine that involves the kids cleaning (No routine yet)

Marriage Goals:

• Go on at least one date per month (Can't remember if we did anything in March other than just hang out while the kids were at Awanas. But we've done well all the other months!)
• Fill in the couples journal together every week (Hahaha. The last time we filled it in, we were two months behind. It was kind of fun though.)
• Cook Tim a special birthday meal (His birthday was in February. I made lasagna, green beans, garlic bread and brownies and we saw a movie.)

Home Goals: So we have decided NOT to move! At least, not for a while. I'm glad. We're going to wait until we can afford a more significant upgrade. It's a relief! Looking at houses is exciting, but moving is a lot of work. And there are a lot of things I really do enjoy about our home and our location. So if we are going to go through the trouble of moving, we want it to be worth it. 

• Organize the basement (Hahahaha. Ha. Nope. We set up a desk for Lexi down there, so it's even more crowded.)
• Paint the kitchen (Done! Got the walls and the cabinets painted and new hardware installed. Looks MUCH better!)
• Donate the girls' old clothes (I want to check this off before we've done it, but the truth is, there will always be more old clothes...so I am crossing it off but it probably needs to be re-added and re-crossed...)
• Go room to room with a trash bag and purge as much as possible, selling anything decent on Craigslist (Well, we've bagged stuff up for purging but have not actually purged. We've sold a few things on CL.)
• Get the house ready to put on the market this spring!  (I'm crossing it off. It's not a goal anymore at this point. Boy, that feels like progress.)

What else have we been up to? 

Well, we got another kitty. Her name is Luna and she's pretty sweet. Arya alternates between licking her nonstop (like, uncomfortably long. it's awkward) and attacking her. It's a weird relationship. We planned to adopt a kitten from a rescue (we even named him Hiccup, awww) but he wasn't ready to go home yet. The rescue needed some foster homes ASAP for a few of the cats they had, so we offered to foster Deuce/Luna. When we realized how sweet she is and that she and Arya will tolerate one another, we decided to adopt her. It's interesting having another cat around. She's pretty scared of Tim. She actually runs to the kids when they are crying, which is sweet. She meows, which is weird for us because Arya is mute aside from her loud purrs. We're glad she was such a good fit! Little Hiccup will have an easier time finding a home since he's just a baby. 

I've cut back on my TV watching, in case you were concerned ;) The nice weather has helped with that. My current shows will be having finales in May, so that will help too. Actually, that just makes me a little bit sad.

The kids are doing well with school. We are about midway through most of our curricula (we started at a weird time of year! and we go year round) and just chugging along. The reading thing has clicked for Lexi and she is really enjoying that. I am too! It's fun to listen to her read, to have her stay up late to read, and for her to be able to do things independently while I do things with Lydia. Things will continue to get easier once she is a fluent writer. I'm planning to do a post on a Day in our Homeschool sometime soon, so I'll save other details for then. We will be taking some breaks this summer, but we'll also keep working too. 

So long for now :)

Joy!

Well, it finally has happened!

After about 18 months of hard work in phonics and the craziness that is the English language, checking out stacks of audiobooks and beginning readers, reading aloud til my voice is tired and just gently, gently encouraging her...Lexi IS A READER, BY CHOICE!

She's been able to read at about a 2nd grade level (by my calculations) for a while now but for the first time, she has confidence in her skills and has been reading stacks of books to me by choice. Oh, happy day!

Last week, Lexi disappeared for a while at the library and came back to me with an armload of beginning reader books and a questioning look in her eye. I considered limiting the number of books we checked out (since we owe the library over $9.00 in fines right now due to that time we filled a suitcase with books and misplaced some of them, oops) but then I stopped and said, "Sure, throw them in the bag!"

I'm so glad that I did. She is eagerly picking up the books and reading fluently with little help. I knew she could do it, but now SHE knows she can do it, and that is just so cool. She's reading me books about the sun, amphibians, mammals, the planets, and even tried out a beginning chapter book this morning and discovered that she could read it. I can tell she is proud of her new skill.

"Mom, can we add this to school? Like every day, I pick out a book and read it to you?" she asked.

Um, of course kid. OF COURSE!

We're taking a hiatus from reading lessons to just dive into the pleasure that is reading for enjoyment.

All of her (and my, I guess) hard work has paid off.

I have a reader!

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to teach her.

10 Exercises in Willpower

Willpower.
I can't do everything.
But I can do this one small thing, which makes me wonder what other small things I can do.

I've been a nail biter for over 20 years, thanks to The Berenstain Bears and the Bad Habit. In the book, Sister Bear nibbles her nails and has a really hard time stopping. My 5-year-old self decided to try biting my nails to see what the big deal was. Commence bad habit that would continue nonstop until a few months ago. Pretty sure that's not what Stan & Jan Berenstain had in mind.

Over the years, I'd often bite them out of frustration or anger. Boredom. Habit. I managed to leave them alone for a little bit before our wedding, but then I went right back to gnawing them off afterward.

Then one day I made one tiny choice- painting them with ridiculous purple glitter polish out of Lydia's stocking- and I have not chewed my nails in over two months.
This is the longest I have gone without biting them since the habit began 23 or 24 years ago. I wasn't even trying to quit biting, I just looked at that crazy glitter and thought how gross it would be to bite it. And all the sudden, I'd stopped biting altogether. Now I have to keep them polished or else they look tempting. But so far, I've been successful.

I have to wonder, what else can I do that I never thought possible?
That I've never even considered trying?
It sounds silly, but it gives me hope.

It's not really about whether I bite my nails or not. In the end, I don't think that really matters.
For me, it's about willpower. I didn't think I had it.
But I surprised myself.

I guess change doesn't have to be some huge monumental choice, like swearing off sweets for the rest of my life.
Maybe it's one tiny decision, like choosing to skip dessert in favor of a glass of Crystal Light (fruit punch is where it's at!) that leads to more tiny decisions that leads to change over time.

What tiny exercise in willpower can you make today?
Who knows...maybe it will turn into something.