Sunshine Award: Wednesday Bonus Post

Allison tagged me for a Sunshine Award and so I thought, why not?

The "rules" for the award are as follows:

• Use the award image in the post. 
• Link to whoever nominated you.
• Write 10 pieces of information about yourself.
• Nominate fellow bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere

Alright I've got the first 2 rules followed already. Now 10 things about myself. 

1. I loved going to summer camp. I learned life skills and who I was at camp. I really believe camps are a safe space to grow and develop away from home, which is crucial. Not that my home wasn't great, it was! But it was good to get out and explore too. I am not biased either, I loved day and overnight camp from 3 days to 1 month. Loved it. Working as a camp counselor taught me a lot too. Husband hated camp but I am firmly sending C to camp when he's the right age. 

2. I don't drink coffee or tea. I think tea tastes like sticks. I like the smell of coffee but I only like it if it's doctored with sugar and chocolate. That kind of coffee is expensive and it's probably been 3 years since I've had any. I try to stay away from caffeine but sugar pop is my weakness. We don't usually buy it but when we go out... I will most likely have a Coke. 

3. My earliest memory is of coloring while watching Oprah. Because of this I always liked Oprah. I don't agree with her politics or everything she says or stand for, but I did like her show a lot. 

4. I would only ever use paper plates if I had my way. I loathe doing dishes. It's the floating food particles. I don't care if it's bad for the environment or our bank account, the splendor of paper plates beckons me when plating food. I am thinking of giving up paper plate for Lent, it would truly be a sacrifice for me. Which sounds dumb but it's true.  

5. I was a terribly messy child but now I get all excited when I clean and the house looks great. 

6. I like to cook and bake but Husband likes it more so often I don't have to. I read somewhere that baking banana bread specifically is one of the most stress reducing things you can do and I have claimed that as my own. Husband can bake and cook anything he'd like but banana bread is mine. I guess it's something about the counting and following a recipe plus the scent of bananas. I'm sure you could Google it if you're interested. 

7. I read very fast and still to this day hate reading aloud as a group. (Syllabus reading on the first day of class made me want to claw my eyes out.) 

8. I very often look up endings to movies (never books though) because if I don't know what is going to happen it stresses me out. I never look up endings to romantic comedies though because I generally know they'll end to my satisfaction. My family hates this about me but I can't help it. 

9. I love the Duggar family. I love them. I liked them when they were just a one hour special. I have their books. My brother met Jim Bob once and I am totally jealous. I can name them all in order. I just think they are the nicest people. 

10. I eat ribs with a fork and knife. I don't know why. 

Okay so with that fun list of stuff you may or may not care about. 

I nominate:

Hafsa at The Peace of Christ 

Laura at String of Pearls

and anyone else who may stumble upon this and want to play! (Because I am a rule bender!) 

WWRW: Bomb

Not like this week's book was so bad that it was a bomb. But that is the title. Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon. By Steve Sheinkin. Winner or nominee of pretty much any award a book can get. Including the 2013 Newberry. In my book clubs "unofficial let's only pick WWII books" this is the new pick.

It is a book, which I am sure you can gather from the title, is about the process of creating the atomic bomb. The book is supposedly geared towards a YA audience though I am really starting to think that line has been blurred in the book world because it's about building bombs, and science and spies. I wouldn't say that the book is really intense, though SPOILER ALERT: the scientists succeed and the bombs are used against Japan. (I was being sarcastic about the spoiler alert, clearly.)

The story weaves all the elements of the bomb's creation. It simultaneously follows scientists in the US working on building the bomb, scientist solders in Norway trying to prevent Germany from building the bomb and the USSR using spies to steal information so they could also build the bomb.

Bomb gets down to the nitty gritty of the science and the secrecy behind everything. Although this is a non-fiction book about spies so let your conspiracy warning alarm go off in your head as you wonder how much more to the story there really is. The direct quotes from the Presidents (Roosevelt and Truman) as well as others taken directly from their writings make it at least as accurate as it can be.

Even though the book takes place during WWII almost entirely, it is much less about war than it is about science. As a good discussion point, the ethics of the bomb and how it changes the world are absolutely touched upon. (Also the punishment of spies is a good ethical talking point.) I think if you have a homeschooler in upper middle/high school this would be a good book for science, history and ethics curriculum. Even if you don't homeschool this book would be a good one for your older child. The last chunk of book is copies of primary sources so it really is an approachable book that is not over the heads of many.

It does make you wonder whether it was a good idea to go down this path at all and what else the government is working on secretly. I am certainly not the scientist they'd be recruiting so I'll probably never know. Bomb also reinforces my belief that I would MUCH rather perish in nuclear fallout than survive. From a purely internal ethics thought process I found the book to be deeply fascinating so I would recommend especially if you've got a budding physicist, philosopher or politician on your hands.

I am looking forward to my book club discussing this book and would really love to discuss it with any of you WWRW/blog readers as well.

Linking up with Jessica for WWRW because that's what I do.

Trudging Along

Trudge:

1. Walk slowly and with heavy steps, typically because of exhaustion or harsh conditions.

I feel like I am trudging through this week. And it's only Tuesday. I don't think it is because I am exhausted. And while it is supposed to snow another delightful round this afternoon/tomorrow I don't know that it is because the conditions are particularly harsh.

The trouble with trudging is that it's so easy to continue once you've started. If trudging is getting you where you need to be why would try much harder than that?

My parents were here this past weekend. It was fabulous. It was restful and relaxing. Cozy even. My dad even made me my favorite breakfast ever, the incomparable Jelly-Rollups. He was unimpressed with my frying pan and spatulas as it happens (frying pan too deep and spatula not the right kind) but they were wonderful. And even after they left my house smelled like Jelly-Rollups and that made everything okay. But when the smell dissipated that left me with real life once more and the trudging began.

But today is a good day. It is February 4. Which not only marks 8 years since Husband and I started dating but also the very day that Husband got his first cell phone. There are many things to be thankful for and I just need to put a little pep in my step to really enjoy.

So I am going to! I am going to ignore the fact I'll need to shovel in a few hours and I am going to just enjoy the afternoon. I am going to Tigger my way through this week--that means I am going to bounce. Probably more figuratively than literally but you never know.

It's a good week ending in THE OLYMPICS and a free delicious work dinner. That's pretty snazzy. (We are going to miss the opening ceremonies for the dinner and we don't have DVR but NBC is going to replay it starting at 12:10 AM so I'm just going to pajama party it in bed and watch it anyway!)

My Random Opinions of Important News Stories (Not really)

I have to get this off my chest.

I know that J.K. Rowling wrote the books and that they are essentially her characters. But she is wrong. Wrong I tell you.

I can accept that maybe Ron and Hermione might not have made it in real life, but there is no way that Harry and Hermione would have been any better. Harry and Ginny are an excellent match up and it allowed him to really become a Weasley, which is all he wanted the entire series. Oh and I think adult Ron would serve Hermione positively as a "stop taking everything so seriously" kind of guy. Or maybe Hermione would have been great with Krum in the long run. Or someone else not at Hogwarts. But it's not relevant because Harry and Hermoine would NEVER have happened. That would have been disastrous!

Furthermore I think (which of course makes me the foremost expert here) that J.K. is just crazy over thinking the books this many years later and wanted to cause a stir. Because, at the end of the day, she wrote the books. She controlled all of their fates. So just buck up and deal with the ending you created.

Okay, Philip Seymour Hoffman. What a sad thing. Why do people feel the need to do drugs? It's just such a waste of talent and life. This is pretty much why I can't bring myself to watch Breaking Bad. Yes, Walter is going to die, but does he have to take down others with him? Drugs are bad. The end.

The Super Bowl. Here's what you need to know about me: I don't love football. But when I watch football I love it when players make a safety. It's my favorite. So imagine my shock when the Seattle Seahawks made a safety within the first 15 seconds of play and I HADN'T turned on the television yet!!! Bummed is the only thing I can say.

Alright. Thank you for listening.

7 Things I'm Sure You Were Dying to Know

1. My parents are coming to visit this weekend. I am excited! It was a total whim of theirs and I'll take it!

2. We had book club last night to discuss Code Name Verity and Tallgrass. It was not a very well attended meeting but the discussion was actually really good because of it. It's much easier to have a group discussion in a small group. If you're curious about our next book pick, check back on Wednesday for WWRW. We moved past WWII (Though one of the possible choices was still safely in that territory) but it is still connected to war. And spies.

3. If you have ever thought to yourself "Self, I would like to make the potato soup with the recipe on Clover Lane." Well I would like you to know beforehand that it makes a lot of soup. Like a lot of soup.

4. So I would also like you to know that if you make the potato soup and then have a lot leftover. You know, if you have only two adults and a toddler to feed. You might want to freeze the extras. It's possible you will also have the great idea to freeze the soup in muffin tins in little pucks so that when you want to make a bowl, you can defrost as much as you need and not the whole batch.

5. That could be a really bad idea. If you decide to do that you should probably not overfill the muffin tins. Because getting frozen potato soup off the bottom of the freezer isn't challenging but it is a pain.

6. PLUS you should probably plan ahead if you were intending to make banana muffins for a snack. Because your muffin tins will be in the freezer with potato soup in them. Luckily you have a mini muffin tin and that works well too.

7. Have a good weekend!

Theme Thursday: Barn

You're probably expecting something like this:

My mother gave me this pack of note cards for Christmas as a big joke because it's hysterical that I live in Iowa. While I could have planned a field trip to take a picture of a barn... I didn't. I did however go outside on the 3 season porch on a very cold day with wet hair and no shoes so I could get this precursor picture for you.

Because, I Madeline, have a tendency to stretch Cari's themes to the limit. So I will not just give you a picture of note cards. Or even the Fisher Price Little People Barn. (Besides I totes used that for animals last May and while I like to stretch Cari's theme I also try to stretch myself.)

Instead I will give you a lesson on the virtues of Noway and their "Children's Gardens" or, in their native tongue "Barnehage." It's basically their preschool and kindergarten over there in the fjords. It's been pretty cold here and I think it's possible a fjord has developed with all the snow drifts we've had lately. So why not have a Barnehage of my very own?

I have hereby named our home school Murray's House of Learnin'. Okay so it's a line stolen directly from Gilmore Girls but still that is the name of my Barnehage and we are off to a great start. All the cool home school families have named their school and I am a copycat. I don't think we'll be homeschooling for all the years but I still wanted a name. At the very least it's nice to have a name for our pre-preschool curriculum.

I have SLOWLY gathered different things into a few smallish plastic bins and keeping them in a cupboard with all of our learning activities. It's where I am keeping the crayons/markers/watercolors, the math manipulatives, the play-doh and the other "learning things." I creatively call it The Learning Cabinet. (See Below.)

It's organized-ish and the things that would be really bad to just have out and about have an extra layer of security in those bins. Read: Play-Doh in my carpet would not make me happy.

Now, I'm not crazy, I realize that toddlers primarily learn by unschooling because when you can count your age in months you're pretty much going to learn something just by being. And I am a HUGE proponent of free play, exploration and helping me with tasks but we do try to spend about 20 minutes in "learning time" daily.

Some days the activity goes well and we will do it for longer and some days it totally flops. This learning activity is of course separate from what I lovingly call "Literacy"  because it sounds more fun than "Reading the same 6 books over and over and over again."

Thank you for peeking into my barnehage and humoring my flimsy theme participation. Link up your own barns with Cari.

WWRW: Orange Grass

Do you have Netflix?

Have you watched Orange is the New Black? It's intense. It's crazy. It make you laugh. It makes you  cry. It makes you think. And it makes you sick to your stomach. Because it seems so insane that somewhere things like that are going on. The corruption in the name of justice? The crazy? It's just intense. I could go on but you get it. It is not a show for the faint of heart. I can't even believe I watched it all but it sucks you in. 

So I was telling my friend Kathryn about it, and she had some time to kill in Barnes and Noble while she got her oil changed and wound up buying the book it's all based off of. Then after she read it she passed it to me. What book? Well... I know this may surprise you but it's called, wait for it now, Orange is the New Black. 

The book is every bit what you'd expect. There are times when watching the show that you just can't believe that Piper (the main character) would get into such a mess. Situations that seem just a little too ridiculous to actually happen. (The final moments of the season anyone?!) And the book reassures you that in fact, that's just Netflix making it dramatic. 

Piper for real, in the book Piper, acts every bit the way you'd imagine her. Fumbling through minimum-security prison keeping her head down. That's not to say there aren't interesting anecdotes in the book or there aren't moments of injustice that will make you rethink the justice system in America. Quite the contrary. 

What the book lacks is the disgust and nausea that the dramatic visualization brings, but it is not lacking in heart and insight. I honestly don't know if I would recommend the Netflix Original Show. But the book? I can safely say is for adults only but one worth reading. There are some moments that seem out of place or out of order but I imagine after 13 months of doing literally the same thing it all kind of blends together in the memory and that makes it way into the writing style of this memoir. 

So apparently when I pick Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet for November's book club we got on some sort of WWII kick. The January book (we took December off) was supposed to be Code Name Verity which I wrote about here. 

If you don't want to click over I will sum it up as not a happy book but brilliantly written. Anyhow, our host picked the book without reading it, but it was recommended by the librarians. Apparently it had made the rounds through all the librarians and they could just not stop talking about it. There is a lot to say and discuss. A good book club choice then right?

Nope. When the host read it she realized that a lot of the people wouldn't like it (I'm sure she's right) and picked a second book. So Sandra Dallas' Tallgrass. It has similarities to Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet as it is about the Tallgrass Japanese Interment camp and how it affects the neighboring town. 

I could not get into this book. It usually takes me about a day to read a book. I kept falling asleep when reading this one. (That is about as thumbs down from me as it gets.) It was slow to start and then because Dallas had apparently reached her page count the book wrapped everything up with a bow very quickly. It wasn't terrible and there were some strong moments but for the most part I'm mad that I am stuck with this non-lendable Kindle version that was expensive for a not great Kindle book. ($8.89!!) 

If you're especially a fan of Sandra Dallas you may really like this one. If you were on a long road trip and a companion had a copy/you find it at the library and you've got nothing else to do or read I wouldn't turn you against it. But please don't run right out and buy this, there are so many great books out there, this isn't one of them. If we were handing out grades it's a solid C.

Linking up with Jessica and her snazzy new blog design. Odds are good she's got a snazzy new book to hear about too!