Book review: The Heroine's Bookshelf: Life Lessons from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder

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This was a great book!  I knew I would love it when I saw the books that it talked about because they are some of my favorites.  The author does a really good job of talking about classic books as well as their authors and what we have to learn from them.

With each of the books and authors that are discussed, the author chooses a character trait that they exemplify.  Here are the characters and their character traits:

• Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice - self
• Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God - faith
• Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables  - happiness
• Celie from The Color Purple - dignity
• Francie Nolan from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - family
• Claudine from Colette's novels - indulgence
• Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind - fight
• Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird - compassion
• Laura Ingalls from the Little House books - simplicity
• Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre - steadfastness
• Jo March from Little Women - ambition
• Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden - magic

This is a wonderful book that made me revisit some of the wonderful books I've read and made me interested in reading some of the other books that I haven't read yet.

Revisiting our honeymoon

I FINALLY printed out the pictures from our honeymoon so that I can start scrapbooking our trip.  I'm picking them up later today and can't wait to get started!

My husband cracks me up

This is the Facebook status he put up tonight:

Me, to my car, earlier tonight, and set to a certain song you might know..."I'd like to drive 'round town, but I can't get in," so I'm like, "F*** you!"..."Oh, my keys don't work, and I lost my remote, at the gym. F*** you, oh, and f*** keys too!"

At school today:

• Four students were caught drinking alcohol at school (seriously!) and taken away in police cars
• The school went on lockdown because we had to catch the students that were drinking
• A student threatened another teacher during my class and was suspended pending expulsion
• A student and I argued about his texting on his iphone during my class.  He said he wasn't.  I said he was.  I took his phone for the rest of the day
• A student and I argued about my giving him a lunch detention for skipping out on my class the day before.  He ended up skipping the lunch detention and ending up in in-school suspension.  Then he ended up skipping out of in-school suspension so who knows what's next.

Why did all of this happen?  Because someone mentioned in our staff meeting on Wednesday that it had been a quiet week so of course the week couldn't continue to be quiet.  We always manage to jinx ourselves.

Book review: Belong to Me

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The book Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos was every bit as good as her first book.  I listened to both books and I know that part of why I like the books so much is because I really like the woman who reads them Julia Gibson.  The characters are wonderfully written.  They are believable and sound like people you would want to know in real life.  Besides that, they have wonderfully unique names, which

The book is actually a continuation of her first book, Love Walked In, told from the point of view of the main character, Cornelia, and two new characters, Piper and Dev.  Cornelia and her husband Teo have moved from the city to the suburbs, which she's not sure she likes at first.  She meets her neighbor, Piper, who seems completely perfect and put together and judgmental of everyone who isn't also perfect and put together.  Piper does reveal a softer side of her character when she's spending time with Elizabeth, her best friend who is dying of cancer.  Dev is a teenager who is much too smart to be popular with the other students in his school.  The connection between Dev and the other characters doesn't become clear until later in the story, but it's interesting to hear part of the story narrated by a teenager as well as a boy, which contrasts nicely with the narration of Cornelia and Piper.

The plot has enough twists to keep things interesting without feeling forced.  And I was completely surprised by how everything came together in the end.  I would definitely recommend this book!

Soup-a-Palooza

I'm linking this post to the Soup-a-Palooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dishsponsored by Bush’s Beans, Hip Hostess, Pillsbury and Westminster Crackers

My mom is known for her love of entertaining, but not so much for her love of cooking.  Sure she'll cook when she and my dad are having people over, but she'd much rather spend her time making crafts than food.  So most of the recipes I learned from her are simple to prepare and completely delicious.  Her chili recipe is no exception.  I served it at our housewarming/meet our puppy party and got all kinds of complements on it.

My mom's chili recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 large can V8 juice
• 1-1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
• 2 cans red kidney beans
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• any other spices or additions you'd like  (We've been known to add onion, noodles, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, etc.)

Combine in a large Crock pot and cook on low until warmed through.  I usually let it simmer for most of the day.  Then I serve it with cheese and sour cream on the top.  Mmmm...

One trick to this recipe?  It's ALWAYS better the next day.  I have no idea why but everyone I know swears that it's true.

This weekend involved:

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• taking a trip to the library
• going to bed early and sleeping in.  (Andrew and I have officially decided that we're old.)
• taking long baths with lots of candles
• finding out that my dad bought an ipad two weeks ago that I'm just finding out about now!  I think I'm addicted to the fruit ninja game now.  Have you ever played it?
• playing with Schmoo
• a Valentine's date, which I posted about yesterday...
• lots of reading.  I'm in the middle of five books at the moment so I'm trying to finish at least a few of them!
• finishing the audio book I was listening to
• singing at church
• going to three open houses with my mom (two of which were in our neighborhood) and deciding that I wouldn't trade our house for any of them.
• snuggling Butterball while watching TV