Hodgepodge

I did not know when we got married that the Rocket Scientist is good at winning things. Seriously, he is. Last year he entered a contest at work to design a new logo for some program with missiles. His design won and I got an extra few hundred dollars tacked onto my paycheck. Later in the fall our insurance's health newsletter called for original whole grain recipes. I told him to submit his red bean and rice soup recipe. And it won too! He scored a $100 Amazon gift card.
So with $100 burning a hole in my pocket I turned to Amazon. I'm supposed to be keeping it to buy all the gifts that we have to buy over the next few months but I can't help but look for all the children's books I would like to buy. Then Rachael started posting about books and now I'm really itching to buy some.
We don't have a ton of books but we do have some great ones. Right now, Handsome Face's favorite book (and so his bedtime story EVERY night) is Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett. Ours came from a Cheerios box via Uncle John. We love that he saves all the cereal books for us! The book is so cute and our copy is also in Spanish so we read it in both languages simultaneously - me reading the English and the Rocket Scientist reading the Spanish. My kids love yelling pinguinos! at the top of their lungs.
And Rachael inspired me to track down a book sale. I got a whole bag full of books for $5.50. I couldn't even get one on Amazon for that price!

Early Morning Productivity

I have felt incredibly productive of late. Well, at least in the mornings anyway. This sudden change seems to have corresponded with Conference. I love Conference. Twice a year my life gets a kick start.
The Rocket Scientist and I performed our post-Conference discussion on what in our life needed changing/improving and we decided that I needed to get up at 5:45. (Notice that was an I, he already did that.) Together we would read our scriptures, say our prayers, and then I would repeat that on the personally side while he got in the shower. And then I would take care of my kiddos so he could get out the door on time. It used to be that my sweet husband would take care of the babies while I was lazy and slept in til 6:30 or later. But no longer. And good thing, too, because with the sun coming up early, so do my kids.
With this new little routine, I get the kids and I dressed and fed by seven o'clock or so, then I get to go running. Love running! I'm currently using our bike trailer that converts into a jogging stroller. If we can keep this up I'll eventually get a new jogging stroller, but that's in the future.
And in the past few days I've gotten even MORE productive. Can you believe that? My current reading material is a finance book by Jean Chatzky called Make Money, Not Excuses. I love her books and I love playing with money. Her books have more than just financial advice though. This book is targeted directly at women, and the reasons they don't deal with their money so it has a lot of good "just life" advice. One part I read yesterday talked about making to-do lists. I liked her approach at it - simple but effective. I've always made to-do lists, but mine don't work quite as well as hers. So I switched to her way and I've liked it. I feel so productive!

...That is until about 3:30, when my kids turn into little monsters. Then it's all-bets-off 'til Dad gets home.

Our collection of bedtime stories bore me. I am tired of them. So I'm going to buy new ones. Because I'm the mommy and I can. But I need suggestions. What are your favorite books?

Here are a few of ours:

His books are just pretty. Some of the stories are better than others. For instance, Cute Girl really likes The Tiny Seed, probably for the pictures, but I find the story a bit dull. And long. We like all of her books. We also have The Runaway Bunny and The Big Red Barn.This one comes from the library. We actually have Olivia helps with Christmas. Very true in its portrayal of sassy little girls. The Rocket Scientist counts this as one of his favorites.Just good ol' fun.

Ditto on the fun. And it's got a great last page.

The Woods are one of my all time favorite author/illustrator duos. Another great one is The Napping House.

Full of clever rhymes and historical figures. Check out the mini portraits on the first and last pages.A classic.

Puddn'head Wilson

Adam was but human - this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake; he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent. -Puddn'head Wilson's Calendar

-Mark Twain

Book Club

So the end of the month is almost here and the means Online Book Club! For all of you ex-85th Warders - you'd better be reading!!!! For anyone who hasn't heard of it, Kristin started up a blog so we could continue the much loved tradition that got abandoned when everyone moved away. Now, I know you all probably have tons of friends with new book clubs, but I don't! So I hope you participate. Besides, that original group was one of the best book club mixes I've ever seen. Here's the link, if you haven't seen it already.

eightyfifthwardbookclub.blogspot.com

Our book is The Bronze Bow. I like it so far. I don't have a car and going to the library is a pain sometimes, so when I saw that the library would let me do an e-check out, I jumped on it. I love audiobooks, especially really good recordings and this one is. But it hasn't been as convenient as I thought. I don't have an mp3 player, and so I have to listen to it at my computer in my room. Well, I don't often have the chance to do that so it's taking me forever to finish it. If I just got the book I'd probably be done in a day or two. What I really need to do is get an ipod or something so I can listen to my books while I do housework. Maybe someday when I find an extra $100 in my coat pocket. Like that's ever going to happen.