Valentine's Day

We decided last year to make Valentine's a family holiday,

where we celebrate the love that we share together.

It was not the most loving day around our house this year, I'll admit that.

We had quite a few issues pop up throughout the day.

But the food was great.

For breakfast we had eggs in a basket with heart cut-outs.

Lunch was going to be grilled cheese hearts and some tomato soup, but

the kids were driving me crazy so they had pb&j since it was 

faster to get ready.

For dinner we had heart shaped pizza.  I picked up the 

dough from our grocery store, and for some reason the second one wouldn't 

stretch out any bigger.  So we had one thin crust and one that was 

ultra-thick.  But bother were delicious.

 I grabbed a fondant cutter and made the pepperoni festive.

We had the sister missionaries over for dinner, and since it was a holiday,

we went all out.  We used cutie paper plates and cups that were covered in hearts,

had some red sparkling cider along with our water/milk; and ended the evening

up with some ice cream & your choice of toppings.

The toppings were Valentine m&m's, cinnamon lips, conversation hearts,

and chocolate or caramel syrup.

It was a day of great food!

New Favorite Spot

Sour Cream has a new favorite spot to color.

While the girls prefer sitting on the opposite side of the table from where

they eat, he has decided it's better to go to the corner of the kitchen.

 I tried to sneak a picture while he was coloring, but he was turning 

around at every noise I made, and then once he saw the camera,

he had to get close and smile.

 And the closer he got, the more his smiles turned into this.

Book Blitz Results

Did you participate in January's Book Blitz?

I really enjoyed being able to read so many books.

I think my final total was 13.

Nope, it was 12.

I read quite a few great books.

John Grisham has some newer books out, which are

teenage law novels all about Theodore Boone.

He's the child of lawyers and has always loved the law.

He lives in a town of about 75,000 & a there's a 

big murder trial starting.  He winds up finding some information about

the suspect, but since the trial has started, he's not quite sure what to do about it,

especially since he promised the person who gave him the info that he wouldn't tell.

 I have read several John Grisham books over the years, and

many of them have things that I'd rather not read.

But this was clean, entertaining, and a quick read.

It's also the first one in a series.  I'm not sure how many there are,

but we own 1 & 3, so there's at least that many.

I'm waiting on #2 from the library.

Of course, I loved the newest Ann B Ross book about Miss Julia.

She's trying to help out, but of course gets into the middle of

everything and finds herself in quite a quandary because she never

goes to the source of her questions and simply assumes she knows what is going on.

If you've never read one of these, I highly suggest it.

Miss Julia is filled with southern spunk and I think

it'd be pretty fun to know her.

I read two books by Phoebe Stone, about a girl who comes to 

America during the early part of World War II & her parents

 leave her in the States with relatives that she's never met.

They are excellent.  On the back, they claim to be

targeted to 5-7 graders, but I really enjoyed it & look forward to more in the

life of Flissy McBee Bee Bee.

(not her real name)

And if you enjoy reading and the tv show The Bachelor,

then you'll probably really enjoy the trilogy that starts with 

The Selection by Kiera Cass.

I will warn you, though, that the third book has not been released yet,

so if you can't stand to wait between really good books, you might

want to put these off for a month or two until the third one is available.

Again, it's a YA novel (my book club seems to read a lot of these).

The story revolves around a girl, America Singer, who lives in 

the country that used to be the USA.

It briefly gives a history of how their new land came to be; China called in 

their loans and since we couldn't pay, they took over the country & we all

had to start working off the nation's debt.

After a while, Canada, Mexico, & Central America all joined with us

and sent the Chinese packing during WW3.

So they've all joined as one nation and now have a monarchy.

Any time that there's a prince, they have one girl from each 'state' come to the 

castle and 'compete' to become his wife.

It's pretty good.  I've heard a few people say that it's 

The Bachelor meets The Hunger Games, but I don't agree with that.

Society is quite rigid like in The Hunger Games; when the king came to power, he started

a caste system that left a lot of people in the bottom of society & once there, you 

don't really have much hope of moving up.

I would recommend it.

So were you able to read a book this month?

Or more than one?

Any that you'd recommend?