Sunday, February 27, 2011

Book Review - Tarzan of the Apes

I finished reading the 1st Tarzan book last week.  I had no idea that there was more than 2 when I picked it up from the library.  And I only knew there were two because there was another one on the shelf.

It was pretty good.  I can understand why it was so popular, and why he ended up writing more than one.  Do you know how many Tarzan books there are?  Well, if my memory serves me right, there were 22 written!  Twenty-two!!  Needless to say, I will not be reading them all.

Don't get me wrong - I liked the book, and am happy to say that I've read it.  But it just wasn't superb enough to make me want to read more.  Although it does kind of leave you hanging at the end, because he has come to America to get together with Jane, but she agrees to marry someone else (and the guy's even a relative of Tarzan's!). 

I thought it was great.  It explained things in an interesting way, as well as a believable way - so that it didn't seem to be too far of a stretch that a man raised by apes could teach himself to read, and be the perfect specimen of physical perfection. 

I would recommend this book to any reader - there's a little bit of violence (he grew up in the jungle!), but it's not graphic. 

Monday, February 21, 2011

Book Review - Unbroken

This month I finished reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.  It is about Olympic medalist Louis Zamperini's experience during World War II, when his airplane was shot down and he ended up in a Japanses POW camp.

It is so good!!  It is very detailed about the Japanese side of the war.  I have read many books about World War II, but most of them talk about the circumstances in Germany; I can only remember one that talked about life in a Japanese POW camp.  I found it really interesting in this book that it focused on the Japanese belief's of their superiority over the rest of the world, and how much they despised those who ended up being captured (it was their belief that anyone who surrendered or was captured were the worst of the worst - they would rather kill themselves than be taken captive).  So they felt they could do anything to those they captured.

Louis was not put on the Red Cross registry, so no one knew that he survived.  And he ended up being the most hated prisoner by one of the camp leaders, known as 'The Bird.'  After reading the unthinkable things that they all endured, and many were able to survive, it's amazing to read about the way many of the former POWs were able to work through their trials and later forgive those who held them captive.

This book is incredible.  And Laura Hillenbrand does a wonderful job of bringing the story to you.  Read it.  You'll love it.

President's Day

I've decided to try and do a sort of
Mommy School with my daughters (ages 3 and 0).
Obviously, the younger will not
be doing much in the beginning.

Although she is really good at being cute and talkative,
and screamy!

I tried to do this last fall, but we only did a couple of things before we decided to
move across the country (again).

So I started today.  We talked briefly about president's, 
mainly George Washington & Abraham Lincoln.

We made a few crafts (shown below), and tried to clean money.
Tried being the key word.

Picture 1, the money before the cleaning.





Picture 2, after.  The pennies are a little more shiny, but the nickels and quarter didn't change much.

We soaked the pennies in a small amount of lime juice with a couple drops of water, then rinsed.  The silver ones were cleaned with a cotton ball and baking soda/water paste.  The paste didn't work too well, BUT the cotton balls did get a little dirty.

Here's pictures of our crafts:
Lincoln's log cabins (we didn't have brown construction paper, so we used black)
Washington's cherry tree (drew a pic of a tree & dropped hole-punch cherries on glue)
And the other small one are coin rubbings.  We taped some coins
on the table and rubbed over with crayons.
And we also did silhouettes - but I think it makes our baby look like she's
a 2-year-old boy.  
Daddy & I also did those, but they are on the back.  And not as cute as the kids!


Saturday, February 19, 2011

Scripture Power

I made a bag for Tooty's scriptures a couple weeks ago.
We picked up a Book of Mormon for her from the building library
(they had a big pile on a table that said 'free to good home').


It's just the right size for small hands and one book.
It wasn't until then that we realized why they were getting rid of them - 
the first page in her book is 1 Nephi 8.
So it's missing about 15 pages.
But since she can't read yet, it's okay.
They are available under her chair in primary when we sing her favorite song,

When I was done and gave it to her, she was so excited.
"Thanks, Mom!!  Thanks to make my scripture power, Mommy!"
She thanked me and thanked me, about 20 times
through dinner and bedtime.