Half-Year Update on 52 Books in 52 Weeks

How is it already halfway through the year?! As most of you know, I have been flying through books trying to reach my goal and have been having a bunch of fun doing it!

I wanted to give you a little update of how I'm doing so far. So this is week 26 (exactly halfway to 52) and I have read 36 books. However, only 26 of those books have fit into one of the categories on my checklist.

So, basically that means I'm right on track with the checklist but I will most definitely read over 52 books this year. I am also making a TOP 10 list that I update as I read a new book. I will be sharing that at the end of the year!

Here's my updated list of which categories I've already crossed off! Below is the category with the book I read to complete it.

• A childhood favorite - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A novel that is considered a "classic" - Emma by Jane Austen ⭐⭐⭐
• A mystery novel - Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A biography - Shoe Dog by Phil Knight ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A book that challenges your viewpoint - This is Where You Belong by Melody Warnick ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A book you can read in a day - Beyond Basketball by Mike Krzyzewski ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A book that has been made into a movie - A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle ⭐⭐
• A book chosen solely by its cover - The Temple Mount Code by Charles Brokaw ⭐⭐⭐
• A book on theology - Power to Become by David A. Bednar ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A celebrity memoir - Becoming by Michelle Obama ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A book with a six word title - The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs by Betty G. Birney ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A book set in a country you want to visit - Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A book that makes you laugh out loud - Eleonor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A book you read in school - Holes by Louis Sachar ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A book with a green spine - Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A book with a character that shares your name - Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory ⭐⭐⭐
• A book published in 2018 - Educated by Tara Westover ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A book recommended by a friend - Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly ⭐⭐⭐.5
• A book recommended by a librarian - When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A books that makes you cry - I'll Push You by Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• An e-book - Make Your Bed: Little Things that can Change your Life...and Maybe the World by William H. McRaven ⭐⭐⭐
• A book set in Africa - The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A Historical non-fiction book - The Lincoln Hypothesis by Timothy Ballard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A book that's been on the New York Times Bestseller for more than 10 weeks - A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A book about travel - The Road Home by Richard Paul Evans ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A book about a current world issue - That We May Be One by Tom Christofferson ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The books I highlighted are the ones that are currently on my TOP 10 of the year. The only one that didn't fit in a category is The Other Side of the Bridge by Camron Wright.

If you have any book recommendations  for the rest of the categories I have left or if you have read one of these and want to share your thoughts, please leave a comment! 

book review: emma

Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively comedy of manners among her characters. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." Emma, however, is also rather spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.

Classics are such a doozy to get through, but it is always so rewarding once you've finished! Emma was one of those books that took me an entire MONTH to get through. Not because I wasn't reading it, or because I didn't enjoy it, but just because if I read for 20 minutes I would get through a maximum of 5 pages. I promise I'm a faster reader than that! It was one of those books that because of the language, it took a good page or so to really get immersed back into it, remember what was going on, and also start to understand the language again.

I was told before I read the book that a lot of the things that happened involving dating definitely still applied to today and I totally agree! Those college dating days were filled with fun, awkwardness, over-zealousness, and heartbreak and it turns out that this regency period was filled with pretty much the exact same things. Humans are human, I suppose.

I enjoyed the book, but I wouldn't list it as one of my favorites. I definitely wouldn't read it again (I hardly ever do read books again). I didn't feel like anything really exciting happened until the last 50 pages!! There was a major plot twist (I'm also horrible at predicting things ha!) and then I was hooked for the last little bit. But the rest was just your typical travel to the neighbors and gossip sesh for literally the entire book.

I did and always do enjoy our book club discussions though. We really analyzed the character of Emma. Apparently Jane Austen wrote her as a character that was not supposed to be loved. She is a little bit self-centered, speaks her mind when she shouldn't, and even though she may have had good intentions, she got herself in a lot of trouble because of things she said or did. Some of the other characters are not easy to love either! Their lives were simple, yet also superficial.

As per usual, Jane Austen is amazing at creating a swoon-worthy male lead that makes you believe in true love and in perfect matches. Mr. Knightley is no exception to that. He might have been my favorite character in the book as well.

I've also heard that watching a rendition of the movie is super helpful in keeping the characters straight and understanding the story line.

How Harry Potter Changed My Life

As with most people who were born in the 90's, the release of Harry Potter completely changed my life! Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was published in the U.S. in 1998 when I was 6 years old. I don't remember when I first started reading it, but it had to be not long after it first came out. I specifically remember each one after that being published and often counting down the days! Life is really hard when you have to wait a year or so for the next book in a series. I also remember getting a little antsy when I would get to the end of each book. Loving every minute obviously, but also not being very patient to finish the often very long books!

I also have very fond memories of going to Borders books for the midnight release of each of the books. I was never one to dress up in my best witch attire, but it was always fun to see what costumes other people came up with and enjoy the activities that were abundant throughout the store.

The waiting and the midnight premieres continued as the movies started being made in 2001. It is always so interesting to me to compare what I thought the characters looked like, the setting, and how I imagined different scenes playing out in my head to how they are in the movies. We can all laugh about this now, but my elementary school self definitely envisioned Dumbledore's "half-moon spectacles" to be vertical, NOT horizontal. Horizontal obviously makes more sense ha!

Although I feel like they did a great job with each of the movies, they never quite lived up to the books. I mean, how could you include ALL of the details that J.K. Rowling so intricately weaves into her books.

My first read through the books, I loved Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was my favorite out of the seven. I would say my favorite movie might have been the first one.

After 12 years, I finally decided it was time for a re-read of the entire series. I started in May of last year listening to the audio books which are incredibly read by Jim Dale. Unfortunately, school ends in May so I was in my car a significantly less amount of time. This meant that it took me until January of this year, so 8 months to complete the series.

I have a horrible memory when it comes to the details of books that I've read. I remembered the overall idea of the story line, but there were definitely some surprises throughout! This time, I think #4 was my favorite! And #1 is probably still my favorite movie! There is something so magical about it! Sadly, I didn't feel extremely that way about the books this time. It's just not the same as reading them the first time when the story is new and you don't know what to expect! But I did still love the refresher!

Have you ever wondered what makes a book so good that it completely captivates the entire world? What is it about Harry Potter and his life that not only allows us to identify with him, but also leaves us wanting more? How can you not fall in love with Hagrid and his genuine love for all creatures? Do you not wish that you had Ron and Hermione for friends? Did you ever not know how to pronounce Hermione's name? haha! Or Dumbledore and his wisdom? How can you  not totally loathe Snape and his detest for Harry?  How can you not sympathize with Harry over his sad background of parents he never knew and being treated so horribly by the only family he has left?

Ahhh, I could go on and on! Coming to know the wizarding world was a complete adventure that I never wanted to end! Thankfully we have the new Fantastic Beasts movies to keep us connected to all things magic.

As much as I could go into deep themes and analyzing characters, I think I'll end by saying that I am grateful to J.K. Rowling for her contribution to literacy and inspiring readers young and old! Thank you for persevering when it wasn't easy, when the story wasn't coming as naturally, and when people told you you couldn't make any money writing children's literature. Thank you for following through with "just an idea" that became a sensation this world has never known before.

For now, I'll just keep hoping that Hogwarts letter comes in the mail :)

Dr. Suess

I decided to go all out for Dr. Seuss week this year and it was a blast! It took a little bit of extra prep work, but I think the students really enjoyed having activities each day to remind them about this special week and reread some of their favorite Dr. Seuss books.

My school does a family literacy night on the Monday of Dr. Seuss week filled with activities for students and their families to do. It is always a hit! We also have dress-up days for the whole week which of course, the kids love!

Also, each teacher picks a Dr. Seuss book and has their class do some sort of art or writing to go along with the book to put in the hallway. It makes the school look so festive!

Here's some of the activities that we did throughout the week!

One fish, Two Fish Jello Science Experiment

Redesign The Cat in the Hat's Hat

If Thing One and Thing Two Came to School

Horton Hears a Who Art

Oh, the Place You'll Go Balloons

Moral of the Story

We also did Dr. Seuss Trivia, a timeline of his life, and finished our week with a read-a-thon complete with our PJ's and popsicles. It was a great week!

book review: a bend in the road

Miles Ryan’s life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident two years ago. Missy had been his first love, and Miles fervently believes she will be his last. As a deputy in the North Carolina town of New Bern, Miles Ryan not only grieves for Missy, but also longs to bring the unknown driver to justice. Then Miles meets Sarah Andrews. The second grade teacher of his son, Jonah, Sarah had left Baltimore after a difficult divorce to start over in the gentler surroundings of New Bern. Perhaps it’s her own emotional wounds that make her sensitive to the hurt she first sees in Jonah’s eyes, and then his father’s.

Tentatively, Sarah and Miles reach out to each other. Soon they are both laughing for the first time in years . . . and falling in love. Neither will be able to guess how closely linked they are to a shocking secret—one that will force them to question everything they ever believed in . . . and make a heartbreaking choice that will change their lives forever.

I read this book for the first time in 2009 as a sophomore in high school. I was on a Nicholas Sparks kick and this was by far my favorite of his books. I was so disappointed that they never made a movie out of it! 

Reading it 10 years later for the second time, I still loved it! I was surprised by this book though due to the fact that it does not follow suit with the rest of Nicholas's novels in being full on romance, because this one was more on the side of thriller/murder mystery with some love thrown in. 

I could NOT stop turning the pages trying to solve the mystery and I had forgotten over the 10 years and I will admit that I did walk around my house for a couple days being slightly paranoid turning the corners or walking up the stairs in the dark.

Our book club discussion was filled with deep conversation analyzing the character of Miles and the mysterious narrator of the story, who is guilty of hitting Missy. As you can imagine, due to the nature of the incident, there is plenty of room for deep-seeded emotions to take over the demeanor of the individual characters as they deal with both love lost and guilt. 

I don't think we can blame Miles for how he reacted in multiple scenarios throughout the book or blame the narrator for how they responded to the accident. Everyone had to deal with the event in their own way and longingly search for a way to move on, seemingly without any answers which is an unbearable thing to do.

The theme I loved the most was that love really does change everything. It affected Miles' decision to keep searching for answers, it was the love that Sarah had for her student to take the extra time to tutor him which eventually led to her relationship with Miles, and it allowed for Miles to forgive Sarah and come to terms with her connection to the accident.

This was a great read!

A Year of Reading

This is one of my goals for 2019 and I'm so excited about it! As soon as I decided on my list, I started filling in all the books. I kept a few slots open so that I could fill them in with any of the books for book club we read in the fall and any others I might happen upon.

Here's a list of books I plan on reading in case you need some ideas. 

1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
2. Chasing Freedom
3. Emma
4. This is Where You Belong
5. Beyond Basketball
6. A Wrinkle in Time
7. Power to Become
8. Becoming
9. The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs
10. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
11. To Kill A Mockingbird
12. Educated
13. The Lilac Girls
14. When Breath Becomes Air
15. Divergent
16. Wuthering Heights
17. I'll Push You
18. Where the Crawdads Sing
19. Catcher in the Rye
20. Bridge of Clay
21. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
22. And Then There Were None
23. The Lincoln Hypothesis
24. The Smartest Kids in the World
25. The cask of Amontillado
26. A Bend in the Road
27. My Own Words
28. The Keeper of Lost Causes
29. Lord of the Rings
30. The Read Aloud Family
31. The Kite Runner
32. Honor Lost
33. The Great Gatsby
34. 1984
35. The Pelican Brief
36. At Home in the World
37. The Alchemist
38. The Rest of the Story
39. Bread and Wine
40. Just Mercy
41. Make Your Bed
42. Happy Like Jesus
43. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
44. Orphan Monster Spy
45. The Great Alone
46. I'd Rather Be Reading
47. Shoe Dog
48. I Owe You One
49. Peter and the Starcatchers
50. As You Wish
51. The Bright Hour
52. Girl, Wash Your Face

You are totally invited to join in with me!

You can download a printable copy of this list HERE. 

And if you've read any of them or if you read any of them with me, please let me know!! Comment on this post, email me, text me, whatever! I LOVE talking about books! I also keep a running list on the reading list page on my blog so you can look at what I'm reading there.

I can't wait! Happy reading!

book review: before we were yours

So far we are 2/2 for amazing books this book club year. If you haven’t read Before We Were Yours, it is a must-read! It’s been on my list ever since it came out last year. Historical fiction has always been one of my favorite genres and this captivating story made my love for this genre grow even stronger, I felt like I was flipping through pages so quickly because I just couldn’t wait to find out what happens.

It is taken from a real-life scandal that happened in Memphis, Tennessee where Georgia Tann would take children from poor families and adopt them to wealthy families all over the country. It is shocking that this went on from 1924-1950 and the records were not opened until 1990. She treated the children horribly, killed some of them, and would have mothers sign papers while they were sedated in the hospital, telling them their children had died and taking them instead.

So some of it was a bit difficult to read but it switches back and forth between a modern day story and the historical story of Georgia Tann with a little bit of mystery so it's not all devastating.

At our book club meeting we talked about how it was possible for Georgia to get away with this and how she even had the audacity to do it, but then realized that selling of children who may or may not have parents has happened numerous times throughout our world’s history.

Similar stories include The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright and the movie Lion which both tell about children taken in India and adopted to other places in the world.  Human trafficking is also  prevalent in our world today. You can learn more about Timothy Ballard's mission to end trafficking here.

We also talked about the resilience of children and how adaptable they can be to new situations and overcoming horrible things.

It's crazy to think about how because of this scandal, there are so many people who don't know who their real ancestors are or that they are even adopted at all!

That's why journaling is so important! Keeping a record of our lives and the lives of our families helps to preserve memories and understand links between generations. There is something so powerful about knowing where you come from and who you belong to.

book review: the gifts of imperfection

I don’t know if I love the genre title “self-help” but I love books that inspire you to be a better version of yourself. Our first book for book club this year was The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown and I loved it! It was very thought provoking and allowed for self-reflection. I also loved it because she made each of her points seem doable.

The tag line of the book is a guide to whole-hearted living. She doesn’t trick you into thinking this is some easy fix. She shares her experience and research in embracing the gifts of imperfection and stresses how this is a life-long work. We constantly have to be mindful of it and changing our thinking.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to live more intentionally and be more authentic.

We each picked one of the guideposts to work on for the next month. Mine was creativity. I feel like my schedule is always so jam-packed full of things that I never get to sit and create. I wanted to be more conscious of how I was spending my time and choose to produce more things for the internet instead of just being a consumer. It is so easy to waste time on social media getting good ideas that you never actually put any of them to use! I am currently working on a gallery wall for my downstairs and a guide to Disneyland at Halloween. These are my goals for being more creative! They are definitely still works in progress but they are coming along!

I would love to work on a different guidepost each month!

book review: boys in the boat

What a good read!! I am absolutely fascinated by this time period and Daniel James Brown does a phenomenal job at making a narrative in a nonfiction, historical context. 

We always share a little bit about the author in part of our discussion and I loved hearing about how he even heard about this story.

His neighbor was the daughter of one of the crew members and he had been reading one of Daniel's other books. She asked if he would mind meeting her father and he agreed. As Daniel talked to Joe Rantz, he learned about his life and said, 

“It was when he tried to talk about 'the boat' that his words began to falter and tears welled up in his eyes...Finally, watching Joe struggle for composure over and over, I realized that 'the boat' was something more than just the shell or its crew. To Joe, it encompassed but transcended both - it was something mysterious and almost beyond definition. It was a shared experience - a singular thing that had unfolded in a golden sliver of time long gone, when nine good-hearted young men strove together, pulled together as one, gave everything they had for one another, bound together forever by pride and respect and love. Joe was crying, at least in part, for the loss of that vanished moment but much more, I think, for the sheer beauty of it.” 

Of course when you devote yourself to something so fully you are bound to have attachments with it, but these boys beat the odds in so many different ways that the boat truly became a part of them. Growing up in the Great Depression, they had so little but were more determined and hardworking than anyone I know.  It is truly remarkable everything they accomplished especially as college age young men. I truly think that people were made out of different stuff back then! It’s so hard to find people that are willing to work and to persevere through broken families, working all through school, not ideal living conditions, playing a collegiate sport, nurturing relationships, and keeping up with school. Joe Rantz and many of the other crew members are amazing examples of these attributes and the inner desire to keep moving forward and accomplish goals, while working as a team. 

The process of the teammates being chosen and then learning to trust one another and work seamlessly on the boat was captivating. Being a Washington native, I also had a personal connection to the book and loved being able to recognize names of places and even picturing the beautiful University of Washington campus. I can’t wait to go back home and check out the boathouse and take in the lake where they practiced! 

There are an insane amount of books written about this time period (about three or four of our nine books this year were around the time of WWII) which makes for amazing stories of incredible people. I love that at the same Olympics, Jesse James competed and won three gold medals. The United States was well represented at the 1932 Olympics in Berlin. This is incredible all on its own because with rising political agendas and prejudice building, the US almost dropped out of the Olympics. If you have the opportunity to watch the movie, RACE, you will get a little taste of what it was like to be in these Olympics and the discussion that ,ed up to them. Also, with both of these stories you get to learn about what it was like to be a collegiate athlete at this time. I absolutely ate it up! 

Overall, I highly recommend this riveting story of the 1936 Olympic crew team.

book review: i am malala

If you don’t already know the story of Malala, you MUST look it up!

She is amazing! I knew a little of her story, but absolutely loved reading the whole thing! I also read the children's story when I was babysitting and loved that as well! Especially the illustrations. You can find it here.

Since I am a teacher, a lot of her words deeply touched me. I even shared her story with my students because I was constantly in awe at how much she valued education insomuch that she would have given her life for it. Because she lived, she now has more power to make a difference in the lives of others and to provide them with education. We take so much for granted here in America where we have endless materials, books, desks, and teachers whereas in many places around the world only boys can go to school or they have to walk such far distances or don't have the proper materials to learn.

I hope that we can all have an attitude like Malala where we cherish the opportunities that are given to us and are grateful even for homework because it is a sign that we are gaining an education. When her family was taken from their home, she couldn't even imagine a world where she couldn't take her books.

She did an interview on The Ellen Show that I loved here

In the interview, Malala talks about how going to school really allows you to learn about yourself and opens your eyes to what talents you have, your strengths and weaknesses, and how you can then go on to bless your community.

I wholeheartedly believe in this! Brigham Young University's motto is:

I feel so grateful to have gone to a school that embodies this as well! The things we learn really do influence who we become and the influence we have on the world. We can be such a force for good if we remember what we have learned and share that with anyone that crosses our path.

Our discussion during book club revolved a lot around education in all forms. As a room full of GIRLS that are all college graduates, the life that Malala lives seems  so far distant from anything we have ever experienced, but we talked about how there are those who earn a college degree to get a piece of paper and don't do a lot of learning and there are those that earn a college degree and come away with an education.

However, education can take on many different forms. It is not just sitting in a lecture hall taking notes about economics or writing papers about personal philosophies of psychology.

Education can be
-reading good books
-traveling and seeing different cultures
-having conversations with others
-going to museums and admiring art
-taking art or cooking classes
-trying something new
-hiking a mountain
-going on tours of government buildings

The list could go on and on! There are so many valuable skills we can acquire! I think it really is more about being open to new ideas and using what we learn that really qualifies someone for being educated. And sometimes learning from life can teach us far more than a formal degree ever could.

I think it is important for us all to be advocates for education and to support our government in allowing its people to become educated, as well as taking opportunities for ourselves, and inspiring our children to do the same.

Having an education is by far the greatest asset any of us can have as we use our knowledge to further our success and character, as well as contribute to society.

As a side note, there was also a political side to this book. I find that it is just as important as the education part because the government was the reason for Malala's fight for education. The law restricted girls from attending school.

When I was in Jerusalem, I grew such a love for the people there and for their commitment to their religions. However, I know that in other parts of the Middle East, there is no freedom. I was very humbled as I read Malala's side of what was happening in her world as the War on Terror ensued. I saw that America didn't always do that right thing and that even though their end goal was justified, they way they went about it was not right. The people in Pakistan had nothing to do with Sadam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, yet their world was being turned upside down, their cities destroyed, their houses abandoned as our country fought so violently to have these men destroyed. Majority of the people in these Middle Eastern countries were completely innocent bystanders. People who loved their country, the lives, families, and even their culture despite some of the restrictions based on gender.

I just hope that we can see people for who they are and to focus more on individuals, rather than clump whole races of people together and claim that they all believe the same things and would act radically. Mostly, we just need to L O V E and come together as we fight for things that really do matter in this world.

book review: mere christianity

I had an old, old copy that used to be my grandpa's and I loved reading it because the pages were yellowed, they were falling out, and it had markings from my grandpa which was so cool to see what stuck out to him!

This has been on my reading list for yeeeaarrrss, so I was beyond thrilled to finally be reading it and it totally lived up to all its expectations. Bryan gave a talk in church last week about the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants that says, "And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith." 

He spoke about the first phrase in this scripture which implies that at times we all lack faith and that it's OK. And rather than letting our questions go unanswered or losing our faith altogether it is our responsibility to seek diligently and gain more knowledge. Ultimately the best resource is the scriptures where the words of our Savior and His prophets are written. 

But I also believe that there are many books that contain words of wisdom and that as we listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost guiding us, we will be able to find truth.

A member of the high council got up after and started talking about how C.S. Lewis is the most quoted non-LDS member to be quoted in General Conference.

As I was reading this book it was very evident to me that this is a man who knows of God. He was inspired and sought out truth. I am grateful for all those who promote faith and share of their knowledge throughout the world regardless of what religion they belong to.

I know that this book is one of the "best books" and that words of wisdom and found throughout. I truly felt like my faith was strengthened as I read about topics that are very near to my heart and the spirit testified of the truth I have come to know. i am also grateful for the additional knowledge that I have by being a member of Christ's true and living church on the earth and that there are a multitude of books that we can seek learning from. 

I highly recommend this book to anyone.

My favorite part was his explanation of the atonement which can be found in Book 2 Chapter 4.

book review: man’s search for meaning

My favorite thing about book club this year is that I've been crossing off books that have been on my list forever!! It has been so nice to make the time to finish them each month. You really feel so accomplished!

This book was definitely a thinking one. Once you hit the psychology part it starts to totally go over your head unless you really pay attention to what you're reading. 

I just think it is so fascinating how our minds work and that we really do have so much power over how we react to circumstances and situations that life throws at us. I don't think I could've done what Victor Frankl did but I love reading about these amazing humans who overcome so much. They are such great examples of how to rise up and fight for life no matter what. It still blows my mind that such a tragic event happened in our world's history. I honestly cannot fathom how the whole thing even transpired. But, I'm thankful for the documentation we have of it so we can learn from it and come to know people who made a difference. 

“Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you 

are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only 

does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than 

oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself."

hoops at school

We had a March Madness competition at school and it was a total blast! 

Each teacher got to pick one students that had been an awesome reader that month to participate. 

They got 5 shots and could either do them all themselves or invite 4 other friends to shoot with them. 

The shots started with a layup and then went back to the "3 point" line.

They had one minute to make all the shots and could win up to $8!!

Ridge had originally asked me to do the layup, but then when he saw how far back the last shot was he asked me to do that one. Pressure was on!! I didn't want to mess it up for him. But the other 4 kids made their shots and then I swished mine on the first try! It was awesome! 

Yay for reading and yay for basketball!

grateful six

Today I am grateful for children's books. Being an El Ed major is wonderful, mostly because we just get to act like little kids sometimes. But really. We have a blast. At often it's so much fun that it doesn't even feel like school! So whenever I have to check out a picture book, I'm basically in heaven. Walking through those book shelves is a dream! I just wish I had all the time in the world to read them all! Yesterday, we did get to read them for a whole two hours during class and it was pure bliss. Good literature is one of my best friends. It's a way to learn, a way to experience the world in a new way, and of course is just entertainment :) Illustrations, good stories, laughter. There's nothing quite like it.

Edenbrooke

Yes, I've only been home for 4 days and I've already finished a novel. Being able to read whatever I wanted was something I was definitely looking forward to as I returned home and the first one I chose did not disappoint!

Edenbrooke is one of the most delightful books I have read in a long time. I absolutely loved everything about it! It is comparable to Pride and Prejudice but in my opinion, a lot easier to understand. It has the most exciting plot that has you turning pages as it grows in suspense. I also love the main characters! I think a book can mean so much more to you as you connect with it and can see parts of yourself in it. I've always thought I belonged in this time period where everything was so proper and you could sit around all day and do nothing with the ones you love, where you could read books, enjoy nature, attend balls, wear beautiful dresses, have a maid, live in a large estate, and be called upon by dashing gentleman. Especially a gentleman like Philip, he is perfect!

I highly recommend this book and am actually quite sad that it had to end.

Thrown Off

Everyone has those things that they just do every day. You brush your teeth in the morning, you walk the same way to class, you come home and eat a snack. Whatever it may be, if it doesn't happen your day is kind of thrown off. Here at BYU there is a huge bell tower.

Very picturesque wouldn't you say? Anyways, it can be heard all the way across campus, playing Come Come Ye Saints at the top of every hour and a nice little chime at the half hour mark. It's very loud and because I live so close to it, there's not a day that goes by that isn't affected in some way by the bells. Whether it's waking me up, interrupting a good song I'm listening to, or even letting me know the time as I walk up the path to my house. It's sometimes very annoying but completely out of my control so the other day when I was coming home and didn't hear the bell I was very confused. Throughout the day I proceeded to listen for it but it never played. I realized how much I rely on it to give me a frame of reference and how much I appreciated it despite of how loud it is. 

Today I finished an amazing book! The second Hunger Games book, Catching Fire. I didn't even want to read this series but now I love them! I'm so excited to read the last one and see what surprises await me. I seriously could not put this one down and was shocked at the turn of events. Out of all the books I've read, this series is definitely up there with Harry Potter. I'm so glad the movie comes out soon!

Choices

I have A LOT to do this weekend but this random commercial came to my mind as I was reading a textbook last night...

You could get with this

Or you could get with that

You could get with this, cuz this is where it's at!