Pouncing at the Park

Growl included

Yonanas is Yo-mazing!

Lindsey got us this for Christmas

To say  this is a neat little machine is an understatement.  We just took our frozen fruit from the freezer and pushed it through this machine.  Stir it up.  And it was so yummy.  100% fresh fruit.  We are all happy over here.

Not pictured:  Mommy, Daddy, and Sammy's delightful fruit-filled faces.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

high school, cancer, true love, death

I think this sums it up.  

I'm not trying to say this is all the book is about.  But, ya know.  It's predictable and tragic, and lovely, all wrapped together in this best-seller book.  I was interested in the story line, but I felt like I was transported back to high school ... and maybe that's a good thing when reading a book like this?  I'm still trying to figure it out.  There were some good lines.  Here's the thing.  I liked the book.  It was fine.  But I'm struggling coming up with anything to say about it.  At all.  Maybe because before this I read A Wrinkle in Time.  I don't know.
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All right...I took some more time to think about it.  And, I did really like the book.  I mean, I must have because I didn't put it down.  I read until it was 2 hours past when I was trying to convince myself to just go to sleep.  So, here's the thing.  I like Hazel Grace.  She was a great character.  I liked her attitude.  I liked her spunk.  I liked her.  Augustus.  I liked him.  But not as much as Hazel.  The whole putting a cigarette in his mouth but not smoking it as a metaphor yadda yadda yadda.  I thought that was dumb.  But, see, when I read...I get really invested and really enter this world that the author creates.  So, I didn't think it was dumb of Green to write that, I thought it was dumb of Augustus...and if I were there, I would have told him that that is just way too dramatic.  I loved how Hazel wasn't friends with anyone there, but then, one day it just clicked.  Doesn't it happen like that?  All the time?  Marcus and I lived in the same apartment complex all year and I didn't even know it until I met his roommate.  And then, we clicked.  And got married.  Just like that.  So, there was something about how Hazel, Augustus, and Isaac all just were friends.  I really liked it.

It was entertaining, and I enjoyed that.  But the only real enduring thought that is still going through my mind after reading this is that I really never want to get cancer.  I want to avoid that.  Completely.  Don't want it.  So, yes, the book was good, but I didn't walk away feeling like something in my had changed...and I think I went in expecting that.

So, apparently this is going to be a movie.  I think it'll be a good one.  One that a lot of high school kids will like.  And if cast properly, the girls will swoon over Augustus.  And I think that's fitting, because it is a good story.

I am in the minority I know.  I read some other reviews, and people LOVE this book.  It is a best-seller after all, and I am just me.  So, who knows?      

Helping Hands

A couple years ago, our Relief Society took pictures of people's hands doing many different things...serving, praying, helping, working, etc.  I wasn't there for the presentation, but my understanding was that it was supposed to show us all that our hands do...and tie back to Christ.  His hands.  And, are we doing what His hands would do if He were here?  Are we serving like He would?  Are we remembering His sacrifice for us...are we remembering His hands?  Though I wasn't there for the evening, the concept has stuck in my mind and I've thought about my hands a lot.  

I have also thought about my children's hands...all they do, and what I learn from them.

Since she was young, Callie has been a helper.  She likes being intimately involved in a task, especially when it comes to mothering.  Helping me with Samantha was something she took part in as an infant.  Callie has always been very observant and interested in what others are doing.  And while still an infant, when I needed a diaper for Samantha, Callie would go and get it for me and bring it, proud to be Mama's helper.  Callie has loved taking care of her baby dolls, but it has never compared to being able to take care of her sister, and for years she has done so.  She knew how to feed her cousin, Nate, through his G-tube months before I did!  Her curious, ever-wanting-to-learn mind and attitude keep her hands busy.  

When Micah came into the picture, this was thrilling for her.  She continued to help with Sammy, but Sammy has become a little easier, and now there is a baby in the house who needs extra care.  Callie has come, with her helping hands, time and time again to jump in to assist.  Whether it is to practice walking while he was young, or learning to use a fork, she is right there.  She is continuing to learn as she goes, learning the different types of hands she needs when being there for someone.  And though he may not always appreciate Callie's hands all over...I think he 100% understands that her hands mean love...and he absolutely is in love with her.

Teaching Hands

Careful Hands

Mothering Hands

Learning Hands

Loving Hands

Helping Hands

Christ-like Hands

After School Sammy

One of my favorite times of the day is when Sammy comes home from school.  We wait for the bus to come down our street and stop, right in front of the house.  It makes me so happy.  When the bus doors open up, it's the same everyday.  I walk enter the bus, walk up the 3 steps, turn to my left, and there she is...sitting on the left side, front seat, all strapped in.  There hasn't been one day that has gone by that she doesn't give me a big 'ole smile when she sees me.  I unstrap her, take her back pack, wish our bus driver farewell and inside we go.  On our way up the driveway into the house, I give her kisses and ask how her day was.  She just smiles and leans in as I carry her up.  Then, she sits for her after-school snack.

It's my favorite.

Daddy's Boy

Micah is all about Daddy.

Sure, he loves me.  He really does.  He cries for me, comes to me for comfort, often favors me over others.  We play together, cuddle together...he's a normal little boy who loves his mama deeply.  I could elaborate to really allow you to understand how much he idolizes me, but let's talk about Marcus.  Because there is surely something he adores about Daddy.  And I l-o-v-e it.  Even now, he sees this picture on the computer and is incessantly saying, "Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy" while pointing to the screen.  And there's not even an actual picture of Daddy on the computer.

Sammy and Callie love their dad.  They do.  But they are definitely Mama's girls.  Micah.  That boy.  It's clear he is a Daddy's Boy.  If Micah is awake when Daddy leaves for work, he cries.  And it's not just a whimper.  No.  He is distraught.  I have to take him to the window and we wave as Daddy drives away.  And Micah just keeps saying, "Buh-bye Daddy.  Buh-bye Daddy."  Even when his car is out of sight, "Buh-bye Daddy."

I look at Marcus with his son and am so grateful.  I see how this incredibly important and deep bond will save Micah.  I do not envision Micah to be a rebellious, crazy teenager (goodness, I hope not anyway).  No.  The saving I am speaking of is deeper than that.  I'm referring to the quiet moments Micah will have one day, when he contemplates his place in this world...his plans for the future...how to find solutions to his problems...how to treat his friends, girlfriends, and wife...the type of father he wants to be...what it means to be a Man.  Is "save" a little too dramatic of a word?  I don't think so.  I think it's our relationships that do save us.  Save us from poor decisions and unnecessary pain.  And when we do make those poor decisions and experience that unnecessary pain, it's those deep connections with people that save us by pulling us through those dark moments.

Yep.  Micah's a Daddy's Boy.  And I love it.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

When I was in 3rd grade, I saw this book in my house.  A flying horse-person, a green head with red eyes in a crystal ball, by an author I couldn't pronounce.  It looked way too science-fictiony to me, but I tried.  I don't think I made it past the first 3 pages.  I tried again a couple years later.  Eh.  Not my thing.

I am now 20 years later, I decided to give it a try.  And hoooooly mama.  I LOVED this book.  I loved loved loved it.  Loved it.  I loved this book.  Let's just make this clear, it was good.

It may have helped that my expectations were low.  But I don't think so.  I have so many things marked and highlighted, notes made in the electronic margins of my Paperwhite.  I'm not going to summarize at all, just point out some things that made my heart leap with joy as I read!

I have come to realize that one thing I love in literature is what my mother-in-law loves...the good vs. evil and the nobility and justice of Good overcoming Evil.  A Wrinkle in Time  was that for me.  Good vs. Evil.  There were so many obvious connections and references to God.  L'Engle was not shy about referring to God by name, stating that they needed His help in this journey.

"We were sent here for something.  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

Yes!  And the journey may be really difficult and scary and painful.  But, there is a purpose and we have help.

"Good helps us, the stars help us, perhaps what you would call light helps us, love helps us.  Oh, my child, I cannot explain!  This is something you just have to know or not know. [...] We look not at the things which are what you would call seen, but at the things which are not seen.  For the things which are seen are temporal.  But the things which are not seen are eternal."

Isn't this beautiful?  What helps us along our journey is goodness, light (as in the light of Christ); it's something that you know and feel.  It is not seen, but eternal.  Faith.

Meg, after searching for her father and finally found him, still faced life-threatening danger:

"She had found her father and he had not made everything all right.  Everything kept getting worse and worse.  If the long search for her father was ended, and he wasn't able to overcome all their difficulties, there was nothing to guarantee that it would all come out right in the end.  There was nothing left to hope for."

Ok, so my heart didn't leap for joy when I read this, but I did understand!  I grew up surrounded by faith.  I grew up knowing how to pray and felt that He was there.  But just because we find our Father, capital "F", doesn't mean that everything is immediately resolved.  We are still tried and tested.  Sometimes if even gets more difficult as "evil" can try to intervene and keep us from our mission...from our purpose...from His (our Father's) purpose.  So, what do we seek for help at those moments?  Do we rely on good, light, and things which we cannot see and are eternal?  Or do we look for the easy answer and rely on what we can see, which is temporal?

In A Wrinkle in Time, that temporal answer is It.  A pulsing brain that controls everyone and everything in Its power.  It's the easy way.  People see it, feel it, and either passively allow It to take over, or choose to let It take over because it's easier...it's less work...It may seem like the answers are there for you, but It only fails you, leaving you empty and hopeless and even more afraid because you DON'T have answers, or even agency to choose.

I loved this book.  My book is littered with my commentary.  I can't recommend it enough.  A week later, I'm still thinking about it.