Books Read in June

Continuing with the 2010 100+ Reading Challenge, here are the books I read in June:

54. So Not Happening by Jenny B. Jones
55. The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction by Jeff Gerke
56. Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
55. Katy's New World by Kim Vogel Sawyer
56. Missing Max by Karen Young
57. Healer by Linda Windsor
58. Motorcycles, Sushi, and One Strange Book by Nancy Rue
59. Boyfriends, Burritos, and an Ocean of Trouble by Nancy Rue
60. Perfectly Dateless by Kristen Billerbeck
61. Courting Morrow Little by Laura Frantz
62. Tomorrow We Die by Shawn Grady

Fern and Shadow Falls

Seasons around here seem to follow the calendar pretty closely. Except for winter, that is. Winter comes early and stays late. But summer is usually right on time. This past weekend we had the first "real" summer weather of the season and we took advantage of it by going camping and hiking.

One of our favorite hiking trails is "up the river" to a small, but oh-so-lovely set of waterfalls. We've had more rain than usual this spring so the creeks were still plenty full.

The sunny, warm day was just perfect for enjoying the cool, refreshing spray of the water and the lush greenness of the moss and ferns along the banks.

Fern Falls is first along the trail. You probably can't tell from this picture, but there are ferns growing upside down on the rocks that form the "wall" and "roof" of the falls.

The kids wondered what it would be like to stand behind the falls. Since the water is pretty shallow, they decided to find out. Look closely at the picture above. You can barely make them out behind the shower! They got splashed a little bit, but they weren't soaked.

Here's another shot with a faster shutter speed. I used the "action/sports" setting on the camera.

Then, there were bluffs to climb and explore. Lots of interesting nooks and crannies.

Shadow Falls was at the end of the trail.

Well, I didn't mean exactly the "end"...It was the end of the hiking trail, but there was a well-worn climbing path up the side of the hill, leading to the top of the falls. So Lyle and the kids went on up. I stayed at the bottom to take pictures, of course. You'll have to look closely again to see them at the top of the picture above. All three got their backsides dusty coming back down, which made me happy about my decision to be the photographer.

According to my daughter, "That was super fun!"

Twenty-five years ago today...

...I was a bridesmaid.

It was a beautiful wedding... and it's been a beautiful marriage!

Happy anniversary, Rachel and Philip! 

Wishing you many more happy years!

Stripeys

For the past several weeks I've been enchanted with the lovely granny-stripe blanket that Lucy @ Attic24 is creating. Her colors are just so delicious... and she's been keeping us posted on the progress as she goes along. When she started it, I was still working on the ripple afghan that I showed you earlier this month. I had to finish it first because it was a gift for my niece's graduation. I was very tempted to go see if I could find some light-weight soft yarn in the colors that Lucy is using, but my frugal side kicked in and I decided to use up some yarn I already had first.

I had just enough of these random colors of cotton yarn to work up a nice little lap blanket. Obviously, I had more of some colors than others, but I was pleased with the result. I really enjoyed working it up, because it's such a simple pattern that I don't even have to look at what I'm doing most of the time. I got a lot of it done as we drove over the mountains coming back from Seattle last weekend. It was too curvy to read without getting carsick, but with this I could keep my eyes forward out the front window.

I'd still love to do a larger light-weight blanket in the bright colors, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to justify more yarn purchases. Maybe I better finish the quilt for my bed first.

For more creative projects visit the Creative Share blog hop @ Trendy Treehouse.

Influenza Bomb - review

I just received my review copy of The Influenza Bomb by Paul McCusker and Walt Larimore, so I haven't had a chance to read it yet. However, the blog tour was supposed to be last Thursday... so I wanted to go ahead and post about it. I did start reading it last night, and I am very intrigued with the historical information about the 1918 flu epidemic. Here's the blurb that made me want to read this book:

Influenza killed 20-100 million worldwide in 1918. We never discovered why or how to stop the virus. Now, it's back and the Time Scene Investigators (an international team that probes past medical disasters to prevent future outbreaks) must solve the riddle that has gone unanswered for nearly 100 years - before millions more die.

Great prizes!

The first 99 bloggers to promote the Rayovac Powers Your Summer Promotion win a prize package from Rayovac... maybe I'll be one of the 99? They are sponsoring a 30-day giveaway with different prizes each day for answering the daily question. Today's question was, "What's your camping style?" My answer was: "My family has a travel-trailer, which makes it so convenient to just hitch up and go any time we have a free weekend." We love to camp! There will also be a Twitter event for this promotion on June 30, 2010. Just thought you'd like to know... Have fun!

Summer Reading Challenge

As you probably realize, reading is not a challenge for me. However, I've decided to participate in the Summer Reading Challenge hosted by A Southern Daydreamer Reads because I want to read more YA books this summer. You see, I have aspirations of writing a YA novel, and I've decided it would be good to immerse myself in the genre! So... between now and September 21 my goal is the read (or re-read) the following YA novels:

• Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
• Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery
• Betsy was a Junior by Maud Hart Lovelace
• The Road to Memphis by Mildred D. Taylor
• Katy's New World by Kim Vogel Sawyer
• Katy's Debate by Kim Vogel Sawyer
• Motorcycles, Sushi, and One Strange Book by Nancy Rue 
• Boyfriends, Burritos, and an Ocean of Trouble by Nancy Rue
• Perfectly Dateless by Kristen Billerbeck
• Final Touch by Brandilyn and Amberly Collins
• Catwalk by Melody Carlson

A Love of Her Own - review

A Love of Her Own by Maggie Brendan  is the third book in her Heart of the West series. It is a fairly typical "prairie romance" novel, but an enjoyable read all the same. The heroine is April McBride, sister of Josh McBride who is the hero of the second book, The Jewel of His Heart. I didn't like April very much at first because she is pretty much a headstrong and spoiled "little rich girl." However, the circumstances that caused her to look beyond herself and mature into a more generous and loving person are what kept my interest throughout the story. Another fun, light right for summer

Washington Homeschool Convention

This weekend I will be hosting the Sonlight booth at the Washington Homeschool Organization convention in Puyallup, Washington. I will also be speaking on Friday at 2:00 on Raising Kids Who Love to Learn. As a special "thank you" to conference attendees, Sonlight is allowing me to offer a $15 coupon to each family who stops by my booth! Also, if you bring a friend who is new to Sonlight, I will have an extra small gift for you. Or mention that you read about this conference on my blog! These gifts will be available while supplies last, so be sure to stop by early. You will also have a chance to win my drawing for a nice basket of books and other goodies! If you homeschool in Washington, I hope to see you there!

Sing - review

Sing, by Lisa T. Bergren, is the second in her Homeward trilogy. I found it a little hard to get into, perhaps because I haven't read the first book, Breathe. There are actually three main characters, all in different places geographically, as well as spiritually. That made it somewhat hard to follow as well. However, the story is very well-researched and the characters are believable. Here's a synopsis of the story from the publisher:

Award-winning author Lisa Bergren’s latest novel, Sing, explores the lives of two prodigals who must decide if they are willing to pay the price their dreams demand. Moira and Nic St. Clair have both defied their father’s desires for them and instead travel to the edge of their dreams and find themselves standing upon the precipice of decisions that will alter their lives forever.

Bergren first introduced the St. Clair family in the novel Breathe. Maintaining her strong and well-researched story line in Sing, she immediately transports readers to the end of the 19th century and weaves the plot amid scenes from Europe, Brazil and Colorado. Moira St. Clair takes center stage in this dramatic saga, as the reader follows her on a treacherous journey across the Atlantic into a lifestyle that proves to be even riskier and more daring than her life upon the stage of the European opera. Believing the promise that she could become “the perfect specimen of modern womanhood,” Moira travels farther and farther away from her family’s heritage of faith. When she encounters a deadly nemesis from her past, she must quickly decide what she values most in her life, before it’s too late.

Bergren takes the reader on a suspense-filled and arduous spiritual journey as she weaves the lives of the three St. Clair children into an unforgettable prodigal story. Her award-winning prose is a strong voice showcasing God’s mercy and grace in the lives of defiant believers, and her characters and their trials will be remembered long after the final pages. Sing is a brilliant addition to Bergren’s Homeward Trilogy, and fans will be eager to learn what comes next in the lives of the St. Clair family.

Weekend Update

It's been a busy weekend! I didn't have as much time to work on my blog for the Bloggiesta as I had hoped, but I still got a good bit done in little snatches of time. I didn't even try to keep track of how much time I spent. Here are some of my accomplishments this go 'round...

• Completed the Blog Improvement Challenge.
• Scheduled some upcoming review posts.
• Visited some of my old favorite blogs and quite a few new-to-me blogs.
• Added a Blog Button page to share some of the great blogs I enjoy.
• Added a Daily Fun page to remind me of some of the "theme" days I enjoy participating in.

You see, for the past few months I have found myself getting caught up in (and wasting a whole lotta time on) the Facebook community. Then I began to realize that rather than being a healthy diversion and an encouraging environment for me, it was actually having the opposite affect. Blogging is much more uplifting for me, so I've decided to let Facebook go, for the most part, and focus more on my writing and the things that truly interest me. Hopefully that will be reflected in better blog posts in the days to come. No promises, but that would be the goal!

Besides puttering around on my blog this weekend, I also enjoyed a lovely coffee date with my sweet husband on Friday evening. Yesterday afternoon we attended our niece's high school graduation along with other homeschooled students in our area. In the evening, we joined in a celebration hosted by her parents in honor of her graduation and her younger sister's birthday. This afternoon our family went for a back-country drive and a bike ride on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes.

With all that fun and frolicking, can you believe I didn't take one picture? What kind of blogger am I, anyway? I'm going to have to do better than that if I hope to make improvements around here!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Heading Home - review

Author Renee Riva had a booth at one of the homeschool conventions I went to this spring. I recognized her from having downloaded Saving Sailor (for Kindle) at Amazon. I don't own a Kindle, but I've been using the free version, Kindle for PC, on my netbook... and Renee had kindly offered her first book for free for a time. I hadn't yet read it when I met her, but I thanked her for making it available... and I did read it the first opportunity I got. It was a very enjoyable coming-of-age story about a funny little girl and her faithful sidekick, Sailor the dog. Since I had perused Renee's booth I knew there were two more books in the series, and I was eager to read them.

Much to my delight I was offered the chance to review Heading Home, the third book in the series. It's the one with the romance in it, and I'm a sucker for romance, so I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first one. I loved the vintage feel of the story being set in the 1960s/early 1970s, and especially got a kick out of the quirky characters. It's a great book to tuck in your tote-bag to have with you this summer when you want something light and fun to read!

Me 'n' Pedro

This weekend I am participating in Bloggiesta hosted by Maw Books Blog. "What is Bloggiesta?" you might ask. Well, it's a blog challenge. A weekend set aside where bloggers focus on maintaining and improving their blogs.

Our mascot is PEDRO -->
Plan.  Edit.  Develop.  Review.  Organize.

This is perfect timing for me... as I have wrapped up a year of homeschool reviews for the TOS Crew, and I'm scheduling in some fun summer reviews. I also want to work in regular "slice of life" posts as well as some vintage silliness.

So that's my goal for this weekend... to get my blogging schedule for the next few months worked out. Another goal is to archive my homeschooling posts on my secondary blog: Roads to Learning. I also have a graduation and a birthday party to attend this weekend, as well as normal family busy-ness, so I won't be at my computer all weekend, but maybe I can get a good bit accomplished. I'll be back on Sunday evening to let you know how I did.

Missing Max - review

As an avid reader, I love the option of listening to audiobooks when I have other things I need to be doing besides reading a book. The latest book on my MP3 player is Missing Max by Karen Young. It's the story of a family whose baby was kidnapped, and how each of the family members learns to cope with it. I haven't finished it yet, but I am thoroughly enjoying the story. (Hmmm... maybe I'll go for a walk a little later, so I can listen to more of it! Yeah, I can see where this might be a very good thing!) It is read by Laural Merlington who truly has a gift for voice acting. She has different voices for each character, and has the Louisiana accent nailed.

"Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this audiobook free from Oasis Audio as part of their Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

My Latest Project

Crocheting is so relaxing for me. I saw this pattern in an ad on the back of a Crochet! magazine this spring, and loved the lacy ripples. I was excited to notice that the pattern was a free download at Bernat.com.

It's called "Then and Now" because it is actually a vintage pattern that Bernat has re-released in modern colors. The original was in very-70's-shades of orange, yellow, and brown. Bernat's recommended colors are softer creamy and peachy shades... but Bernat yarn wasn't available at the store where I was shopping, so I went with shades of pink in a different brand instead. I also chose to leave off the fringe. After all, there is such a thing as being too retro, right?

I Am Hutterite - review and giveaway

World cultures are fascinating, and lately I've been intrigued to learn more about alternate cultures right here in America. I've read books and watched documentaries on such diverse groups as the Amish, the Shakers, hippies from the 1960s, even an eclectic group of people currently living "off the grid" in Arizona. So when I was offered the opportunity to review Mary-Ann Kirkby's memoir, I Am Hutterite, I was very interested to learn more about this sect of people. I had heard about them before, but didn't know a lot about their beliefs and customs.

Mary-Ann Kirkby was born in a Hutterite colony in Canada. When she was 10 her parents chose to leave the colony. I Am Hutterite tells the story of Mary-Ann's years with the Hutterites, the challenges of adapting to the "outside" world when they left, and then her journey back to her heritage as an adult. It is a very interesting book. I received an extra copy to offer as a giveaway. If this is something that intrigues you, leave me a comment and I'll put your name in the drawing. I will draw a name on June 20. Mention that you follow my blog to be entered twice. US addresses only, please.

I also enjoyed watching a half-hour documentary about the Hutterites that was made in the 1960s. I believe there are Hutterite colonies not too far from here in Montana. I have seen the ladies in their polka-dot scarves occasionally. While I don't feel called to follow a similar lifestyle, I do admire their strong work ethic and their willingness to follow what they believe the Bible teaches.

Backyard Fun

What kind of wild critter is this that has invaded our back yard?

Oh! Never mind! I recognize her... it's just silly ol' Tabitha-the-cat!

I just thought this was a fun couple of shots that I came across when I was downloading pics off the camera one day. The kids had been snapping pictures. It's always interesting to see what they come up with in the way of subjects. Visit Camera Critters to see more fun pics of animals. 

Idaho Homeschool Convention

This weekend I will be hosting the Sonlight booth at the Christian Homeschoolers of Idaho State convention in Nampa, Idaho. I will also be speaking on Friday at 12:45 on Raising Kids Who Love to Learn. As a special "thank you" to conference attendees, Sonlight is allowing me to offer a $15 coupon to each family who stops by my booth! Also, if you bring a friend who is new to Sonlight, I will have an extra small gift for you. Or mention that you read about this conference on my blog! These gifts will be available while supplies last, so be sure to stop by early. You will also have a chance to win my drawing for a nice basket of books and other goodies! If you homeschool in Idaho, I hope to see you there!

Truck Repairs

This is the story of the job that consumed our entire holiday weekend.

One day last week Lyle noticed something wonky going on with the steering of his truck. After further research he determined that it was time to do some front-end work before we set off on our trips in June. Memorial Day weekend was supposed to be cool and rainy anyway (not good camping weather), so that seemed the ideal time to get this "little job" taken care. Actually, he knew this wasn't going to be a little job, but if we had known at the out-set that his unseen partner was going to be Murphy... you know, of Murphy's Law?... I think we would have been highly tempted to just take the truck to the nearest dealer and trade it in!

Lyle is a skilled mechanic but it is not what he does for a living so he doesn't have a full range of auto-shop tools at his fingertips. He made a list of the parts and tools he thought he would need for the job and diligently went on "hunting and gathering" trips to the various "man stores" in the evenings last week. He knew it was likely to be an all-day job, and he didn't want to have to waste time on Saturday running after parts. His plan was to get it done on Saturday, and then be able to relax the rest of the weekend.

I know very little about auto mechanics myself, so I can't describe to you the work that needed to be done and the problems he ran into.

However, every step along the way it seemed he needed another tool he didn't have. You see, a 1-ton truck has really BIG parts... and after 100,000+ miles they don't want to come apart!

I tried to be the "gopher girl" but it got to the point where he didn't know what to tell me to get... so in spite of his best planning, he spent 2 1/2 hours driving all over Spokane looking for tools. Tools that ended up not working, or breaking...

By 8:30pm on Saturday it was obvious that there was no way he could finish the job that day. But the truck was up on jacks with a wheel off and it was sticking half out of the garage. We were concerned that someone might just stroll into the garage during the night and take who-knows-what. We live in a pretty safe neighborhood so that scenario was not likely, but still, we didn't like to leave the garage open all night. Lyle thought maybe he could just sleep on a cot in the garage that night. I had a "better" idea! I built a "security gate" of whatever rattly clutter I found laying around the garage... a couple of dollies, a folding table, a rack, a couple of brooms and rakes... and then I bungie-corded it all together on either side of the truck. Yes, I know, any half-wit could move the stuff and get in, but they would make an awful lot of racket doing it and it would wake us up. We laughed at our high security measures, but it did make us feel better!

On Sunday Lyle rounded up a couple more tools, but mostly he observed a day of rest. Early Monday morning he was back at. This u-joint was the main "problem child"... no amount of penetrating oil, banging, or pressure from the hydraulic press would loosen the parts.

Finally, Lyle took a grinder to it, to separate the part he was replacing. Having it in pieces made it easier to bang it apart, but it still took all the strength of the hydraulic press and several mighty blows of the hammer.

We were so relieved to finally begin to make progress... and by 9:00p.m. last night the truck was back together and running smoothly. We took down our "security gate" and thanked God for His help in getting us back on the road!