Top 5 Books Read in 2012

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Here are some highlights from the books I read in 2012. I read a total of 37 books. Not as many as I read in 2011 (43), but I read some heavies this year. I read both Les Miserables and Great Expectations, so those should count as two books each!

If you're curious, here's my review of the books I read in 2011.

My favourites:

1. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

What else can be said about this book  I was engrossed in this book for a few month. I listened to the audiobook and read the book. I loved it. There are so many interesting characters and Jean Valjean is a terrific hero. I wish that HBO or the BBC would make a miniseries of the book. A movie just isn't long enough to capture the complete story. Since I enjoyed this so much, I tried to start reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame (also by Victor Hugo) but it didn't pull me in same way. Maybe I'll try again someday.

2. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

I loved this memoir but it isn't for everyone. I had such mixed emotions while reading this. Jeannette's parents lived in terrible conditions, most of the time by choice. One house they lived in was literally falling down. Her parents were pretty creative in making lemonade out of lemons, as the saying goes. Her mother at the time of the writing of the book was *choosing* to live on the streets of New York.

3. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I listened to this book as I drove in the car. After I finished I watched a few film adaptations. I think my least favourite was the one where Jillian Anderson played Miss Haversham. Not the best casting, in my opinion.

4. Lit: A Memoir  by Mary Karr. I would recommend skipping the first couple of chapters. I listened to this book. It was a bit confusing since she starts each chapter with a quote from a poem. When you're listening, it is hard to know what is a quote and what is actual content. Mary Karr is a very funny woman. She overcomes alcoholism and becomes a Catholic which was quite surprising. Her writing is amazing. I plan to read another memoir of hers - The Liars' Club which concerns her childhood in Texas. Warning: contains some bad language.

5. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser.

This book could be called a tragedy but I was amazed how it pulled me in. Carrie is a small town girl ruined by moving to the city and Hurstwood is a man ruined by his obsession with Carrie. The books details Chicago of 1900 and the lack of options available for single women. There is a lot to discuss so this would make a good book club selection.

So, my favourites of 2012 were memoirs of people in gritty circumstances, and thick classics.

I read two books by Eric Larson this year - In the Garden of Beasts and The Devil in the White City.

Both are non-fiction but read like a novel. In the Garden is about the American ambassador and his family who lived in Berlin, Germany during the time of Hitler.

The Devil in the White City is about the principal architect of the Chicago Fair paired with the story of a murderer (also in Chicago during the World's Fair) who eluded the authorities for a long time.

I also read a whole bunch of Barbara Pym books this year - Quartet in Autumn, A Few Green Leaves, Some Tame Gazelle, No Fond Return of Love, Jane and Prudence, and Crampton Hodnet. These are cosy books that don't require too much thinking. Predictable but in a good way. I don't recommend Quartet in Autumn - it was the most depressing one.

What do I hope to read in 2012?
I think I need to read a few non-fiction Christian books. Orthodoxy by Chesterton and Don't Waste Your Life by Piper are a few ideas. I'd like to read something by Dietrich Bonhoeffer since I so enjoyed the biography of him that I read in 2011.

I hope to read some more classics. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (I just saw the movie), The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and The Warden by Anthony Trollope (I loved The Way We Live Now). My to-read list is over 200 books! My problem is deciding what book to read next when I finish one.

What did you read in 2012? What were your favourites?

I'm linking up with Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books (Special End of Year Edition).

UPDATE: I'm also linking to Jones Design's What I'm Reading Link Party.

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Merry Christmas to all!

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{this moment}

This week's memorable moment isn't warm and fuzzy with twinkling lights and the scent of gingerbread. Life is much more real, eh?

My hubby discovered a water leak last weekend and we've been dealing with it ever since. Thankfully, it is outside - between the house and the water source. We've been turning the water on in the morning and off at night and when we go out for an extended time. Instead of paying thousands of dollars to have our yard dug up to find the leak, J opted to do the digging himself. Here he is digging in the front lawn and the boys are helping. They loved getting dirty.

A few of my plants had to be dug up. We are hoping to find the source of the leak soon and we are also hoping that the leak will be found before he gets to the cement driveway. Ugg. That would be a big deal (digging up the driveway). Sometimes home ownership isn't much fun.Pin It

Surviving Winter

bad photo of my sons and a friend

I know that winter doesn't officially start until tomorrow but it sure has felt like winter, at least the Pacific NW variety, the last few weeks. Rain, rain, rain, cold, wind, even a little snow.

The boys are off from school for Christmas break. They have a lot of energy. What to do? Well, today we went to a new place to let off some steam -  Elevated Sportz in Bothell.

Here's my review.

Pros:
- lot of seating area for parents (much better than Jump Planet)
- a large space including a basketball area for big kids, a foam pit to jump into, a huge trampoline area, trampoline dodge ball, and an area for little kids.
- food and drinks available for purchase
- very easy to find. Just off Bothell Everett Highway, north of Thrashers Corner, south of 164th.

Cons:
- the price - 12 dollars per child for 60 minutes of play. They do have passes but they don't save a lot of money.
- the building is pretty chilly for the people who aren't jumping.

Will we be back? I think so. There is a Living Social deal right now that I'll probably buy which would make a visit half price.

It is always good to have places to go in the wet weather.Pin It

What's this red book?

Something funny happened tonight that I wanted to remember. We were at church this evening to hear from our missionary friends, a couple who do medical missions in Africa and another friend who works in linguistics in southeast Asia. Our pastor was handing out hymnals that were red (so that we could sing Christmas carols). My son asked me, "what's this red book for?" I had to chuckle realizing that he doesn't know what a hymnal is! We do sing hymns at our church but we have the words up on the screen and before that the words were printed in our bulletin for singing. A little sad, perhaps, that they don't know about hymnals. :)Pin It

{this moment}

Getting ready to cut our Christmas tree at Farmer Brown's Christmas Tree Farm last weekend. It was raining a bit and A decided to stay in the car.

All I want for Christmas........

Such sad news today from Connecticut. I'm resting in the knowledge that God is in control.Pin It

Hockey - how Canadian!

As a family, we went to our first hockey game together on Saturday night. The game was between the Everett Silvertips and the Vancouver (BC) Giants. My hubby was quietly cheering for Vancouver. The Silvertips are in the Western Hockey League (major junior) and all of the players are Canadian except for two Europeans. :) The Giants players are almost all Canadian as well. It was fun seeing the score board listing other games and seeing names like Swift Currant (Saskatchewan) and Red Deer (Alberta).

Our son's cub scout troup went as a group and we sat together. I explained what a hat trick was to several parents. We had great seats and it was a good game. The Silvertips won 4 to 1. They had lots of fun things going on in between periods including a race of radio-controlled cars on the ice. During the game there was a short fight between two players which the boys loved.

I wish I had some fun photos to share of the kids cheering and dancing to the music but the arena wouldn't let me bring my camera in saying it was a "professional" camera.

Hockey is exciting to watch and easy to understand. The fans liked to ring cowbells to cheer so you might like to have earplugs along. I recommend going to a game!Pin It

{this moment}

My sons at C's Christmas concert on Tuesday night. Note that C has lost a tooth in the front so he can sing "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!"Pin It

Our trip to Victoria

Well, I'm back to blogging, knock on wood. I'm now using Amazon cloud services for storing photos. It involves an extra few steps so it will take me a little big longer to update my blog. Patience please, dear readers. :)

Before we left home I created a list of things to do while in Victoria on this trip and we actually did ALL of them!
- Victoria Bug Zoo - great for little boys.
- a visit to a favourite consignment store to look for American Beauty (ironic name) china. I found 2 plates! Victoria is a terrific place to find china.
- Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse

- Hatley Castle

- the Festival of Trees at the Empress Hotel
- Murchies Tea
- supper at Swiss Chalet - known for roasted chicken dinners
- a visit to our favourite bookstore - Bowlen Books
- visit Munro's Books

My parents and the boys.

Our weather was good overall. Not too much rain or wind. We were able to go on two outdoor outings - Fort Rodd Hill and Hatley Castle, both located northwest of Victoria.

On Saturday the weather was gorgeous. J and the boys had breakfast outside in the warm sunshine at Village Restaurant in the Oak Bay neighbourhood.

Amazing for late November! According to J, the food was delicious, albeit kind of pricey. They provided blankets for patrons to put on the metal chairs, a nice touch. There was a cute gift store across the street called Bungalow where we found a lot of TinTin memorabilia, including a book not available in the US which we bought for A.

For our return trip on Sunday we weren't able to take the return ferry from Sidney, BC (pictured below)

to Anacortes. That ferry was booked up in advance so we drove a little ways to Swartz Bay and took the BC Ferry to Tsawwassen, BC (just south of Vancouver) and then drove south on I-5 to return home. We were thankful that this option was available and since the wait for the ferry was short we were able to leave at the same time as the other ferry left. We saw a pod of whales on our trip. It was funny. The ship's captain announced that whales could be spotted on the port side. J and I wondered if the very large ferry would tilt to one side with everyone going to see the whales. :) It didn't.

Going through the lower BC mainland meant we could make one more trip to Tim Hortons before we returned to the USA. The boys love the donuts and J loves the coffee. It was good to be back in Canada again.

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Our Nontraditional Thanksgiving

As many of you know, my husband and I are Canadian, born and raised. We've lived here in the US only since 2000. Therefore, American Thanksgiving isn't something we grew up with. (In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated in October.) For many of the last few years (not all) we have travelled to Victoria to visit my parents during Thanksgiving break. The main reason is that the kids have time off from school and J has time off from work. We don't have a traditional thanksgiving meal with turkey and all the trimmings. This year one of my kids had a bit of a hard time reconciling this fact. We assured him that he would still be eating well and the main point of thanksgiving is being with your family and being thankful. Don't you Americans get exhausted by making a big meal in November and then another one only one month later? :)

I plan on blogging more about our trip (including photos) but Blogger says that I've reached my limit for photo storage. Boo! I've been blogging for seven years! I hope to find a way around giving money to Google in order to solve this problem. :)





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Silhouettes

I recently told my husband that as a Christmas gift idea for me, I wanted help creating silhouette images of our boys. I thought it would be possible to do using some photo editing. I was so surprised to find out (by reading the upcoming events listed in Red Tricycle's e mail) that silhouette artist Karl Johnson was coming to our area.

Our appointment was at 4 pm on Friday afternoon in Bellevue and it was raining. Not the best time to be driving! I was very glad that I made the effort and I also think they were worth the price. They were $42 dollars each, including mounting and framing. I especially love how he did C's glasses! Also note that he did A's eyelashes.

He was amazing to watch. My kids took turns sitting for their portrait and Mr. Johnson just took a black piece of paper and his scissors and cut out a silhouette in less than 5 minutes. No drawing. He told me that this is his main job, that he travels 7 days out of every month.

You can e mail him a photo to have a silhouette made. For more information, see his website. He's also on Facebook - "Karl Johnson Cut Arts."

I treasure my silhouettes and may even get new ones done when my boys area few years older.Pin It

{this moment}

My oldest son with his original writing which he read aloud in language class. All the kids read their stories (over 2 days) and parents were invited to the classroom for "Author's Chair." His story is called Northwest Trek Adventure. I blogged about that trip here.  The compliment he received from his teacher was "A is a mature writer with an amazing vocabulary." :)Pin It

Halloween 2012

For my alter identity this year I was a flapper.

I found the dress and headband (with the feather sticking up) for less than $20 at JoAnns. I had planned to wear a bobbed wig but when I took it out of the package, it was obviously cheap and would need a LOT of styling to make it look right and I don't think you can style plastic hair very much. :)

J's work had a Halloween party during the day so I went to it. Unfortunately, the participation level, aka people wearing costumes, was pretty pathetic. There was one exception. J's colleague Chris was a "wookie monster," a cross between Chewbacca and the Cookie Monster.

Here is J carving a pumpkin.

He carved a mosquito which ties in with the company's work fighting malaria.

Here are my cuties in their costumes:

I made A's big bad wolf costume. I found the idea here. The felt pieces were hot glued onto the hoodie so it wasn't too hard. When we first talked about what he was going to be, he said he was "too old for Halloween." ?? He's only nine! I'm glad he changed his mind.

I made part of C's costume. I used iron on letters to spell SWAT on the front of the black turtleneck. I had a little trouble figuring how to iron them on but I'm a pro now. The helmet came from the party store's Halloween section. C already had the gun (a rubber band gun) but I painted it black. Our neighbor/friend N's costume was also a swat policeman.

J put together a costume (for going trick or treating) at the very last minute. No pictures, sorry. He wore his black trench-like coat, his fedora hat, and added some black sunglasses. He was a spy.

The boys joined their neighbour friends to go to a few houses on our street before supper. After supper we joined some friends who live in a nicer neighbourhood than ours and trick or treated with them. One of the kids was a sumo wrestler which was pretty funny. You can see him in this photo - he's on the right.

Here's C with our friend J:

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One Thousand Gifts #266 to #271

I have a short list this week but I continue to count my gifts and give thanks.

266. Cuddling a soft kitten at The Farm.

267. My favourite fall cup.

268. I'm in a book club again! We just finished reading our first book - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. We had an amazing turn out for the meeting.

269. My son's soccer team won a game! They had lost a few in a row so this was a good boost for them.

270. Greenlake, especially this time of year with the carpets of leaves everywhere you look.

271. New boots. Tall, leather, stylish and only $60!



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Fall mantle

I'm finally getting around to posting a photo of my mantle decorated for fall. I was waiting for a sunny day to take a great photo but today it wasn't raining so that had to be good enough.

The details from left to right:
The white pitchers came from Home Goods, the foliage in the pitchers is from JoAnns, the stuffed pumpkin is from Home Goods, old books from flea markets/antique stores, and the milk glass urns are from Ruffles and Rust Square (a store in downtown Snohomish).

The pumpkins I bought at the dollar store and decoupaged them with old book pages (last year), the apothecary jar is filled with fake acorns from Hobby Lobby, and the autumn banner I made last year.

Instructions for the autumn banner are here. The wheat in a planter came from a thrift store. The grapevine pumpkin came from Michaels I think. The leaves garland I found at Ben Franklin in Monroe. The old window (in the background) I bought at a vintage flea market.

If you're wondering, yes I'm already planning my Christmas mantle in my head. :)Pin It

Targets

On Saturday we took a quick road trip up to Fire Mountain Scout Reservation (aka Scouts Campground) near Mount Vernon. They had a Stampede which was a chance for cub scouts to try out various activities. Unfortunately we didn't see anyone else from our pack.

My cub scout had a lesson in firearms safety and then tried shooting a large BB gun for the first time.

Unfortunately, he's just a little too small for that big of a gun.

He had an archery lesson and tried that as well.

He got some arrows on the board which many other kids didn't achieve. The archery brought back a lot of memories for me since I spent many summers at Camp Chestermere as a camper (and a couple as a junior counsellor) where archery was one of the many activities.

I think BB gun shooting and archery will get easier when my little scout gets a bit older and stronger.

The weather was super chilly (I think in the 40s) and we didn't come prepared. When we left home my oldest son wanted to wear his soccer shorts! It was a good thing we insisted he wear pants. My other son forgot to bring a jacket. Here he is borrowing J's fleece.

Due to the cold we didn't stick around for the fishing which was also offered.Pin It

{this moment}

This photo is actually from the previous week. I didn't take many photos this past week.

On Sunday October 7th, we participated in Life Chain which is a silent prayer vigil to communicate opposition to abortion. It is held across the USA and Canada on the first Sunday of October. We held pro-life signs on an overpass of I-5 in Seattle for about an hour. We got lots of thumbs up and honks and also lots of rude gestures. It was a very hot and sunny day. I'm proud of my boys for their participation.Pin It

One Thousand Gifts #256 to #265

If you are new to my blog, you might be wondering what is One Thousand Gifts? Well, it is a book and a concept. The simplest way to explain it is counting one's blessings. I'm recording things that I'm thankful for and they aren't always big and usually they aren't things! You can read more about One Thousand Gifts at the blog of Ann Voskamp (A Holy Experience) or read her book One Thousand Gifts.

256. My oldest son wasn't seriously hurt nor was anything broken when he fell off his bike about 10 days ago.

257. Spending time with our friends S and B along with their kids J and K.

258. Going to Ruffles and Rust - twice! I was able to go on Saturday (as well as Friday) due to a cancelled soccer game at the last minute.

259. Listening to children belting out "I Am Bound for the Promised Land" at church yesterday.

260. A's face is healing up nicely from the fall off the bike.

261. Having friends who appreciate Ruffles and Rust (Mary and Denise) with all its vintage treasures.

262. Teacher in-service days.

263. An old friend has moved back into the area. Hi Shennay!

264. (Ducking from the thrown tomatoes) I'm thankful for the rain because I can plant bulbs now that the ground has softened up. :)

265. On the topic of weather, the amazing run of dry sunny weather we had from August until a few days ago.


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Picking our pumpkins

My boys had Thursday and Friday off from school and the weather was about to change from weeks and weeks of sunshine and warmth to the more usual overcast and wet fall weather. So, given those two things what does a mom do? Take those boys to the pumpkin patch, quick!

This year we went to The Farm. Great name, eh? Ha ha. I guess the full name is The Farm at Swan's Trail. Since we went in on a weekday afternoon and there weren't any field trips going on, it was nice and quiet. No other people in the background!

Note: that is NOT dirt on my son's nose.
He had a nasty fall off his bike last week.

We just picked out some pumpkins, the boys posed for some photos (thankfully without any fuss)

and we explored the place a bit. Check out the texture on this pumpkin.

I loved the zinnias which were still in bloom.

We found a kitten to love on too.

I'm glad my boys don't think they are too old for the pumpkin patch yet. We'll probably visit a corn maze later this month since that is their favourite fall activity.

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{this moment}

My oldest son won the student of the month award for the character quality of respect. This is his teacher handing the award to him at chapel.

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One Thousand Gifts 242 to 255

Wow, no thousand gifts posts since July! Time to count my blessings again.

242. A fantastic summer.

243. A visit from my father in law.

244. Visiting my mom for her 85th birthday.

245. Free time during the day now that my boys are back in school.

246. My funny kids.

247. Glorious sunny days without any rain that have lasted for weeks and weeks.

248. A new book club that has formed. I'm excited to be a part of a book group again.

249. The heart-breaking beauty of a sleeping child.

250. My youngest son's enthusiasm for cub scouts, including wearing his uniform as often as possible!

251. My camera and zoom lens. I was able to get some really good photos at my son's soccer game on the weekend. The kids on the team were oohing and ahhing over my camera which is about 6 years old and certainly not all that fancy.

252. I had a great year in the garden. The best year ever for tomatoes and zucchini.

253. Friends. I'm so thankful to have a few friends that are, ahem, close to my age and like the things that I like. Mary, Linda, Andrea, and Beth.

254. Our neighbours/friends who are so hospitable.

255. Having a parking ticket payment returned to me in the mail, saying the infraction was cancelled!


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