January Books.

This is probably my most exciting month of books. I do not know how I went so long without reading the Divergent series, but I am glad I started.

The Daughters Take the Stage by Joanna Philbin - This is the second book in the series. It was good, nothing awesome and I started the third and left it about a few chapters in. I do like how the author gets you connected with each character as each character is kind of the star of the different books, which is really good because when I started it was sad that the same person was not the main character. For me to like a book there needs to be one of two things, either a good love interest which the first in the series had, or relatable characters.

Divergent by Victoria Roth- If you have not read this series I would highly recommend you do. I might have spent my day off in the bathtub for 4.5 hours reading. It was that good! It is a movie in March and I am all about reading the book before seeing the movie. It was a great book. Not at all what I was expecting, but great none the less. I did make the comment however after a few chapters that I really hope there is a love interest in the book because I am not sure I would have been hooked otherwise. On that front it completely delivered. It is however so much more. I would compare it if I had to, to the hunger games, in that it is a world that is somewhat like ours, but futuristic (set in Chicago) and really looks at the other side of human nature in a lot of ways. It was a wonderful book and I would totally recommend the read.

Tiffany.

Tiffany is one of those friends you consider yourself lucky to have. We met Tiffany about a year and a half ago at a gathering in the summer at a friends house. We then got thrown together a number of times after and gradually became good friends. I don't really remember how it happened, but I honestly thank God that it did. I believe our friendship grew even fonder as we spent a week on a road trip to NYC last summer and after spending about 15 hours in a car in the dead of summer with no air conditioning, you either leave the situation loving each other or hating each other. I am glad our friendship survived and became stronger in the end. 

December Books

This month was a fluff month for reading. I quickly got addicted to a few teen series and actually might have spent the entire first day of my Christmas vacation starting and ending one of the books.

2013 in a Nutshell.

So I got this from Rage Against the Minivan (here), who got it from someone, who potentially also got it from someone else. But I liked it and was struggling to write something about 2013. I have a lot of mixed feelings about it as with most of my lows, I have been able to see many positive things come from them. I have big dreams and big goals for the year ahead, but also know that it will be an emotion and difficult year. Regardless I am excited for what the year might hold. 

Fall Fun Completed.

As winter and the Christmas season are right around the corner, I figured I would see how well I did in accomplishing my fall goals. It was a good list I feel, check it out here, however time and life got busy. I did worlds better completing tasks off of my fall to do list than  I had in the past with my summer list..

1. Corn Maze - That was completed one evening with two of our wonderful friends. We bundled up and had a wonderful evening getting lost in the corn. The highlight of the evening however was not the corn or the great time with friends, ok that was up there, but this huge dome shaped trampoline really was pretty epic. Yes, it was a gigantic, yellow and red rubber dome that you could jump on and fly in the air. They let us have 'adult jumping time' on it, which really made me feel old and I felt a little guilty have the kids get kicked off, but it was totally worth it.

2.Rake Leaves- Not going to lie, kind of sad that this did not happen. Maybe next year someone will take up my offer on free manual labour.

3. Caramel Apples- Another big fail. There were however lots of festive fall treats made, but caramel apples did not make the cut.

4. Fall Crafts- Again, no time for anything. Fall crafts were not completed, well a yarn wrapped wreath was made, but fell as soon as I put it up and before I could take pictures, it broke. Then my niece broke it two more times, I gave up on it and it ended up in the garbage. I have however made up for it with the number of Christmas crafts created. Just wait to see the awesome thing I got a group of kids to make.

5. Pumpkin Pie or Apple Pie - So looking at this list again makes me realise that I was probably hungery when I made it, cause there are some serious junk food going on. I did make some pumpkin tarts with home made crust, filling and whipped cream, so I am calling that winning.

6. Try new Fall Recipes- Well I made the pumpkin pie tarts. I also did some yummy apple sauce cookies (recipe here) and pumpkin cookies (recipe here). Both were a big hit with the pumpkin cookies being the winner. I just loved the icing.  I used the same icing for both. Next time however, I will not store them in the same container, it became hard to know which cookie was which.

7. Carve Pumpkins - This became a family affair as a few of my cousins and I helped our second cousins (? Cousins kids? Feeling old) and my niece carve some pumpkins at thanksgiving. They helped de-gut them, then draw or explain the face they wanted, and then we went to town cutting them out.

Not on the to do list, but always wonderful, spending time with family. We went to Firefest (a local fire truck thing) as they are one of Little J's favourite things. 

My brother re-enacts the war of 1812, it was the bicentennial, so we went as a family, spent the day and watched the battle. 

Family pumpkin carving. 

The best picture (out of like 20) of the little kids with their pumpkins.

Baxter dressed up for Halloween and the pumpkin cookies in the background. 

Little J was a bat, she loves Baxter.