February & March Reading List

 I feel like I am off to a slow start this year in terms of reaching my goal of reading 52 books this year. I am hoping that as the year progresses I can get back to spending more time reading and less time focused on the things that are currently taking up my time and energy. 

 

I really enjoy reading about the family life in Middle Eastern society. Although this book is set primarily in the United States, I enjoyed reading about the author's visits to the Middle East and the culture there. I don't know that I would read this book again, but I am glad that I read it once. 

This is the second or third time I have read Wild. There is something about a woman going through a hardship and dealing with her sh%t in her own way that is appealing to me. To see the author struggle and triumph, to grow and learn about herself is a genre of books that I will never tire of reading again and again. 

I am in the beginning(ish) stages of a significant weight loss journey. When I reach my goal, Bobby has told me that he would take me on a trip of my choice. I decided that I would like to revisit the Grand Canyon, but this time I would like to journey to the bottom of it and explore its trails and wonders there. After reading this book I definitely want to still do this, but I don't think I want to venture onto Havasupai lands. I can handle remote nature, but this seems like this is too remote for me. We will look into other routes to get to the bottom of the CG. 

I have a huge interest in marathon runners, particularly ultra marathon runners. There is something wildly appealing to me about people who have the mental ability to overcome all of the anguish and pain that comes with being an elite runner. I admire people who can do this. This was a good book. It is one that I am glad I read and may even read it again just because I have not found a ton of books on marathon runners of this caliber. 

The Lakota Sioux Indians are my favorite Indigenous tribes to read about. This book was suggested by another author I was reading, and so I requested it from the library and read it. It took me a while to get through it because the content is so think with information and history. I most likely will read this book again as it was so informative and is about a topic that interests me greatly. 

Again, another book about running. I enjoyed this book and will look into reading Adharanand's other book(s). I enjoy his writing style and find him to be an easy, light-hearted read. 

Had to finish out the series that I began to read in January...

Books Read:

January: 5

Feb/March: 8

Total: 13

A Trip To The Indianapolis Zoo

 The kids and I have had the opportunity to visit a good number of zoos over the years. Each one of them has their perks, but I think that my favorite zoo by far is the Indianapolis Zoo. The exhibit sizes are the biggest (for the animals) that I have seen in any zoo, and the animals seem much happier as they are consistently the most vocal, active, and interactive animals that I have come across. Because zoos are so visual, Sarah normally does not enjoy going to zoos; the one exception is the Indianapolis Zoo because the experience with the animals is as much auditory as it is visual. 

Our zoo membership expired back in October which is when these photos were taken. (I am a bit behind on posting some stuff.) I plan on renewing our membership if we end up staying in Indianapolis for one more year because we used it so much. The zoo's proximity to our house and its ease of use make it a much loved day trip. (We are waiting on Bob's employer to release us to a location of our choosing now that he is being converted to a full time work from home employee. If we get released before April we will be moving out of state in May when our lease here expires. If we don't get released in time then we will be here for one more year.)

Elizabeth and I took the trip below together and had a blast that day. The zoo wasn't too crowded, the weather was amazing, and it was nice to spend some alone time with her. The animals were so talkative that we spent quite a bit of time just hanging out at each exhibit watching them do their thing. 

We went just Halloween. The zoo was decorated for the occasion. They did a great job. 

These monkeys were SUCH chatterboxes when we were there. We probably spend 20-30 minutes just watching them move around their exhibit and talk/yell at each other. We even recorded the sounds they were making for Sarah to hear later on in the day because it was just so neat to hear them go on and on for such a long time. 

We had so much fun feeding the birds. It was just Elizabeth and I in their exhibit and you could tell that no one had been in for a while by the way they congregated around Elizabeth's food. 

I love the display the zoo has upon entering the African exhibit. 

You cannot tell in this picture, but these gals were running towards the water when we got to this part of their exhibit. It was pretty neat to see them run. 

The orangutan exhibit is by far the best exhibit I have ever seen. They have three stories of area to move around in and a TON of interactive items in their home. The window seen here is where the staff has their daily meetings. Often when we would come to the zoo the orangutans would gather around the window to watch the meeting. (Another really cool thing about this exhibit is that the animals have a ton of outdoor space as well. They have the ability to climb two stories in their outdoor space and it spans the perimeter of the entire building - which is huge).

January 2021 Reading List

I got off to a solid start this new year towards achieving my reading goal of 52 books a year. Here are the books I read this January:

I really enjoyed Kristin's follow up to her first book The Dirty Life. I would definitely read both books again. I really enjoy reading books about people who farm land themselves. I have a huge amount of respect for people (not corporations) that do so. 

I am not a huge fan of Bill O'Reilly's politics, so I have avoided reading his books for years. I figured that they would just be an extension of his political beliefs instead of facts about history. I cannot tell you why I picked up this book, but I did, and I can say that I actually enjoyed it for both the story it told and the way it was told. 

I don't know if it is just me, but I thought based on the title of this book that it would be all about Crazy Horse and the Sioux Indians. Wrong. Crazy Horse does not show up in this book until about 2/3 of the way through it. The book is mainly about Indian wars throughout the country - which is cool and all, but I felt that the title was very misleading. I don't like being bamboozled by an author especially when I feel that he used Crazy Horse to sell more books. I was willing to read this book because I enjoyed O'Reilly's Killing Lincoln - I don't know that I will pick up another one of his books now because this book had so little to do with Crazy Horse. I felt like I was misled. 

I cannot tell you why, but I had an itch to read this series over again, and so I am. I am pretty sure I will be team Jacob for ever. 

Total Number of Books Read: 

January - 5

A Walk In The Woods

"And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul." - John Muir

A general overcast mood seems to be hanging over our house. It happens every year around this time, but it seems exponentially worse with COVID showing no signs of relenting. I remind myself that these feelings are only temporary while I simultaneously try to motivate the troops. It has been a bit difficult in our house. I know it has been in your house, too. 

So, I pull out the ace in my back pocket and tell the girls we are going for a hike. (To them my ace seems like a joker, but I have kids that are kind enough to humor me.) There are minimal groans, and I think we are all just happy to get out of the house. To be doing something other than the day in and day out here. Over and over. It feels like Groundhog Day. 

The fact that it has snowed has made the hike all the more worthwhile. It is our first snow of the year and is only about two inches, but it will work for us. Beggars cannot be choosers, or so the saying goes.  We head to a state park about 30 minutes from here. While on our hike it begins to snow some more. The snows feels good on my face. And the quiet of the winter woods soothes me. The girls enjoy themselves until tiredness sets in. Then they just want to go home. We get a bit lost on our trail and add time that they don't anticipate. The grumbling crescendos. My legs begin to protest a bit too. 

Despite the girls unhappiness and my legs aching I cannot help but feel thankful that there is a place that can lend me some sense of hope that everything will be all right again. 

Shaking trees so the snow will fall on them.

2020 - A Year In Review

 Wow! What a year it has been, eh?  

Like you, I never, ever would have imagined that 2020 would have turned out the way it did. I truly hope that this was a once in a lifetime year. I swear that sometimes the only thing that kept me sane was the fact that I knew that just about everyone on this planet has been affected in some way by the goings on of this year's multitude of events. 

I know that a lot of the press coverage has been pretty negative this year, and to be honest, it probably should have been. There was a lot of awful stuff going on, but I also want to acknowledge that from these horrors have also come some blessings. 

For our family personally there have been some hardships, but there have been so many good things to come out of this year. 

In 2020 - 

Joshua graduated from high school.

Andy and Josh began their freshman year at college.

Sarah made the decision (after much thought and consideration) to become a traditionally homeschooled student for the remainder of her high school career. 

Elizabeth completed her 7th grade year and began her 8th grade year of homeschooling. 

Bobby came home in March to work from home where he continues to be until July of 2021, but may become an indefinite situation. 

Elizabeth turned 14.

Sarah turned 16.

Joshua turned 18.

Andrew Timothy turned 20. 

Bobby and I turned 41.

Both boys were eligible to vote and voted in their first election.

We lost our sweet dog, Lily, to cancer at the end of March.

We brought home an incredible train wreck of a rescue dog (who is now doing so much better) in June.

Sarah took her first solo flight this fall (before COVID got really bad again) and spent a week in Portland, OR at Sky View Horse Ranch.  

We explored the state a bit more and explored several new state parks. 

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I think that the most important thing that happened in 2020 for our family was a sense of awareness. We became more aware and paid attention to causes like Black Lives Matter. We talked a lot about how the color of our skin gives us an unfair and unjust advantage in life and why that was/is and what we can do to level the playing field. (We also realized how little we knew about social injustice.) 

As a family we talked a lot about voting and causes and parties and political beliefs. We talked about rights and civil liberties. 

We also realized and became acutely aware of just how fortunate we are to live the lives we live. COVID rocked our world as a collective whole.  It turned families upside down and inside out. Our family life wasn't all that changed. Our kids came home for schooling, but they were used to that since all were homeschooled for most of their schooling years. Bobby began working from home which we considered a bonus. My life didn't change much either. I realize that we are in a minority when I look at our family situation, and I am thankful that we were/are in the place in our lives where we had minimal shake ups in terms of home/work life situations. My heart goes out to all who have had to finagle jobs and day care and schooling. 

The hardest part for our family has been social distancing. We take that pretty seriously in our house and not being able to visit friends/family or go to certain places has been hard, just like I know it has been for everyone. 

We became more aware of what's important in our lives. Being together is important. Protecting each other, loving one another, creating memories with one another, carrying one another, celebrating one another - all of these things had a spot light shown on them this year cast by all that seemed so bleak. I hope that as we move forward we never forget how awful this year has been, but that we take with us all that was good and use that to propel us into 2021.  

As Glennon Doyle is known for saying, "We can do hard things." 

We certainly can because we did. All of us each in our own ways. 

December Reading List

 I spent two weeks of this month trying to slog through Moby Dick. I like to read as many classics as I can both with my kids and by myself, and I almost always am glad that I did so. I also have a hard time not finishing a book I start. I spent a week of the two that I pushed through Moby Dick trying to talk myself into (and out of) finishing the book. In the end, I realized that I was being insane. It is okay to not finish a book. Maybe I will come back to it at another point in time, but for now it wasn't a good pick for me. 

That being said, I only got through 3 books this month, one of which I have read multiple times, but I wanted to leave this year reading a book I loved and I will. I anticipate finishing my current read on New Year's Day, so I am including it in this month's 'read' list. 

This month I read: 

This was an interesting read. I had no idea how unsupported the Revolutionary Soldiers were in terms of lodging and (more importantly) food. It makes me realize just how deeply that this country wanted its freedom from the British when I understood how our soldiers were basically starving through most of the war with no lodging and not enough supplies (like clothing, etc...)

I ended up reading this book (and the one above) because Andy purchased them as part of a class he thought he was going to take (but ended up dropping). I wanted to see what professors were requiring their kids to read in college classes these days. It was interesting to read a book from someone just visiting this country from Europe. To get Fanny's take on the way Americans did things during that time period was enlightening. I definitely won't read this book again, but I am glad that I took the time to read it once. 

I have read this book twice (maybe even three times) this year. I just love, love, love it. The Sioux and Comanche Indians fascinate me. I wish there were more good books on them that I could get my hands on because I would read them all.  

Well, I reached my goal of reading 52 books this year. 

I wasn't sure if I was going to make it at one point, but I ended up finishing the year up with 54 books read. I was going to try and come up with a new goal this year to top last year's goal, but I think instead I am just going to stick with trying to read a book a week again. Here is the monthly breakdown - January - 7 February - 8 March - 7 April - 2 May/June - 5 July - 5 August - 3 September - 5 October - 4 November - 5 December - 3 2020 total - 54