Finally Done

I finally finished:

It took me a month or so.  It is long five hundred and something pages, but I don't usually take me any where near  that long to read a book.  It was a definite departure from what I have been reading lately (Anne of Green Gables), and I think more of a boy book. It is a Cowboy and Indian book.  It is a book about lose and starting over.  It is a book about growing and learning who you are and what you are capable of.  It made you feel like you were in the desert with Johannes, the main character.  He endured things not many people I know could.  Read this book.  You really will enjoy it and find many life lessons and wonderful quotes...That I don't have time to talk about right now because Jake is dying to play the Wii with me and I said I would hurry.  He just spent the day with me at Bi-Lo (from 7am to 3pm...I am working one day a month to be kept on the payroll, that way if I need to go back I can.), so I promised to play some Lego Wii...whichever one he feels like!  I just had to tell someone I finally finished Lonesome Gods!  I think  anyone 12 and up (Jake started reading it but lost interest.  I am glad he did because I think some of the things that happen later in the book when Johannes grows up, are things anyone under 12 wouldn't understand.  A few outlaws have plans to assault a young lady.  Of course their attempt is fouled, but it is a concept my almost 10 year old would not understand-thankfully.), girl or boy, could read this and enjoy it.  Especially if you like Cowboys and Indians. Dad I think you would like this one. 

After reading a  more "boyish" book , I am in the mood for a real girls book again.  So, I am reading:

For the first time!  Can you believe it?  I am I the only female out there who adores the movie (the new and old version) but has never actually read it?...Or any of Jane Austen's other books either for that matter...Tell me I am not the only one...I am so excited to read it!  After I finished Lonesome Gods last night at almost 1 o'clock in the morning I couldn't help but read a few pages of it and I love it already. :)

Read " Anne's House of Dreams"-you will love it!

I finished Anne's House of Dreams last night and I loved it!  If you haven't read the Anne of Green Gables books you have to.  They are so amazing!   When you read it, you feel like, if you looked up you would be sitting in the garden or the sweet little home by the sea that is being described.  You will fall in love with the characters and wait with anticipation to see if their dreams are fulfilled or if tragedy will strike.  Both happen in Anne's House of Dreams, but as they all do, this book ended on a high note as Anne gets ready to enter a new chapter of her life.  In this book she and Gilbert are married and starting their family in a little town by the sea where Gilbert is taking over his uncle's medical practice.  In their "home of dreams" they make many memories and wonderful friends that will last a life time.  Read these books.  You will LOVE them! 

I finally finished "Laddie, a true blue story"!

I finally finished Ladie, a True Blue Story by Gene Stratton-Porter and it was so good!  It was much longer than I thought it would be at 564 pages (on Kindles is doesn't tell you the page number it tells you the percentage you have read so I had no idea how long it was!).  Not that it seemed too long, it just the list of books I want to read this month is long, so I anticipated being done quicker.  I was hoping to finish it last night because the last few chapters really answer all the questions that you have through out the story, but at 12:30 I couldn't keep my eyes open in a longer.  After I dropped Jake off I came home and read for about 10 minutes and was done.  I wish there was 564 more pages!

  This book paints such a picture of the farm it took place on that I wish I could live there too...or at least visit in more than just my imagination!  READ THIS BOOK!  You will love it.  It takes place after the Civil War and is about what I would call as close to perfect a family as you could ask for!  It teaches the importance of having God in your life and the joy it brings.  Father even gave up some of his land to build their church on.  It teaches how important family is.  I love this quote that from the book when Shelley (one of 12 children the Stanton family was blessed with) is going through a hard time over a broken heart:  "Of course you do, child," said mother. "Families were made to cling together, and stand by each other in every circumstance of life-joy or sorrow.  Of course you need your family."

This book also teaches about the importance of education.  Little Sister (the little girl who is the narrator is nicknamed this by her beloved older, perfect brother, Laddie) loves to be outside and puts off going to school for 2 years and then has a hard time wearing shoes (she goes barefoot everywhere but church and school), and sitting still in school.  She is truly educated at home and her parents don't push her to go to school until she is ready.  She knows all there is to know about the world around her on the farm and seems to learn even less in school.  Of school she said: "Schoolhouses are made wrong.  If they must be, they should be built in a woods pasture beside a stream, where you could wade, swim, and be comfortable in summer and slide and skate in winter.  The windows should be cut to the floor, and stand wide open, so the birds and butterflies could pass through.  You ought to learn your geography by climbing the hill, walking through a valley, wading creeks, making islands in them, and promonotories, capes, and penisulas along the bank.  You should do your arithmetic sitting under trees adding hickory-nuts, subtracting walnuts, multiplying butternuts, and dividing hazelnuts.  You could use apples for fractions, and tin cups for liquid measure.  You could spell everything in sight and this would teach you the words that are really used in the world."  That sounds like the best kind of school to me! Mother tries to explains to a grumpy neighbor, Mr Pryor, how it is their children seem to have been so well educated.  She explains how they did it by saying: "By educating ourselves before their coming, and with then afterward. Self-control, study, work, joy of life, satisfaction with what we have had, never-ending strife to go higher, and to do better."  At one point in the book Father is talking to Dr. Fenner (the local doctor) and is concerned that Mother doubts she can ever teach Little Sister to sew or become a housewife. To this Dr. Fenner says:  "She isn't cut out for a seamstress or a housewife, Paul.  Tell Ruth not to try to force those things on her.  Turn her loose out of doors: give her good books, and leave her alone.  You won't be disappointed in the woman who evolves."  It seems Little Sister was born early and I spent the whole time I was reading thinking how intelligent and observant she seemed, but not really knowing her age (maybe I just missed it.  It says she put off going to school 2 years..Back then they didn't go until they were 7 right?  Maybe she was 9 when the book starts?  I am going to have to go back and see if I missed it somewhere..). I found myself wondering if she had a learning disability based on the discussion between the Dr. and Father.  I doubt it though. Maybe she is just a late bloomer...She seems SO bright and full of life, but there are parts that make me try to diagnose her with today's childhood issues, rather than just assuming she is just a little different from the other girls in her family.  You have to read this book and let me know what you think!!!   If you read it, you will love it.  It is a true classic! 

Read it and tell me what you think!  I haven't even gone back to reread this so sorry if it makes no sense. I was just too excited to wait.  Now I have to get ready in record time to make it to work!!! :)

I am over here today...

I am loving an amazing blog called "Welcome to the Madness". I stumbled upon JRobert's (is is okay to put your first name here, J? I should have asked you before...Today you will be "J". :) ...I am paranoid I will put someones name on my blog that doesn't want it out in cyber space...) blog a few weeks ago and have been reading it ever since. She is AMAZING! She is a home schooling, canning, book reading, mama! I am pretty sure we would be BFF's if she didn't live so far away. :) But that is okay because blogging buddies works for me too! A couple of weeks ago she asked me if I would write a book review for her blog. I immediately said "YES!", because any one who wants to here me ramble on about something I love always gets a yes. :) Then I began to stress out a bit when I realized I am not so hot at book reviews...My wonderful husband then reminded me that J wasn't expecting some incredibly intellectual review from me. He said "If she reads your blog and likes it, she probably wants you to write it like you write your blog-just like you are talking to her." I shouldn't use quotes because I don't remember exactly what he said...but it was something like that. So, I thanked him for reminding me not to stress and typed my little heart out...Then I sent it...And now I am biting my nails hoping I don't sound like a total idiot and that someone will comment that indeed I am not! I am just realizing that maybe I should have been a little offended when Aaron said J isn't looking for something really intellectual from me...What are you trying to say Aaron? :) J/K!

So, PLEASE head on over to "Welcome to the Madness" (that's the link you click on Mom.) to check out my book review on "Anne of Green Gables"...And while you are there check out all the other amazing posts J has. She is my "Home Schooling Mom-Inspiring Hero Of The Week"-SERIOUSLY!