Books of 2015

This was a BIG reading year for me! I discovered audio books on Hoopla, so I could listen to books while I cooked, watched the kids play outside, or whenever. I looove audio books, but before this year I'd only ever listened to them on road trips. Yay technology!

I read 29 books, or 9,296 pages. Here's the list, as copied from my Goodreads account:

title	author
For a Breath I Tarry	Zelazny, Roger
The Hero of Ages (Mistborn, #3)	Sanderson, Brandon *
Steelheart (Reckoners, #1)	Sanderson, Brandon *
Mitosis (Reckoners, #1.5)	Sanderson, Brandon *
Firefight (Reckoners, #2)	Sanderson, Brandon *
The Fault in Our Stars	Green, John *
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)	Maguire, Gregory
For the Children's Sake	Macaulay, Susan Schaeffer
Bringing Up Boys	Dobson, James C.
It Starts with Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways	Hartwig, Dallas
The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)	Sanderson, Brandon *
The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1)	Stiefvater, Maggie *
Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)	Collins, Suzanne
Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3)	Stiefvater, Maggie *
The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, #2)	Stiefvater, Maggie *
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up	Kondo, Marie
Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)	Collins, Suzanne
The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)	Collins, Suzanne
The Martian	Weir, Andy *
Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables, #2)	Montgomery, L.M.

Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)	Montgomery, L.M.
Alice in Wonderland (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #1)	Carroll, Lewis
Anne of Windy Poplars (Anne of Green Gables, #4)	Montgomery, L.M.
Anne of the Island (Anne of Green Gables, #3)	Montgomery, L.M.
Anne's House of Dreams (Anne of Green Gables, #5)	Montgomery, L.M.
Anne of Ingleside (Anne of Green Gables, #6)	Montgomery, L.M.
Rainbow Valley (Anne of Green Gables, #7)	Montgomery, L.M.
Rilla of Ingleside (Anne of Green Gables, #8)	Montgomery, L.M.
The Santa Papers: the unofficial autobiography of St. Nicholas of Myra	Metts, Wally *

Several books this year were re-reads, including The Hunger Games trilogy and The Santa Papers. I honestly don't know if I've read Anne of Green Gables before, but I think I've just watched the movies.

I read a few non-fiction books this year, which I'm not always into. I would highly recommend Bringing Up Boys to anyone with sons, and think it's especially good for dads to read.

The worst book I read was The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. The author is -literally- insane. She had some good concepts, but I just can't get past the crazy. Thankfully, it was short.

The best book I read... is harder to pick. I read a LOT of great books this year. I just love the Anne of Green Gables books(evidently, as I read 8 of them)... they are just lovely and every girl should read them. The Raven Boys was different and fun and I'm anxious to read the next book in the series when it comes out. The Hunger Games hurt so good. Steelheart was fun and horrible and wonderful and exciting.

I don't feel the need to flesh out a review for each of these books, but I'll just say it was a year of really good books, and I'm so happy to be back into the groove of reading. And I'm really thankful for audio books and the library! If you want to know any more about any of the books I read this year, please ask.

I have a few books on my "to read" list for 2016, but I need more recommendations! What should I read this year?

A Very Merry Unbirthday Party

We spent an afternoon at our Alma Mater, Spring Arbor University, with our closest friends to celebrate our collective 30th birthdays! Jennifer planned an Alice in Wonderland themed party and it was SO much fun. It was great to celebrate together, as well as catch up with a few long-lost friends and professors. Thanks for a great party, Jennifer!

Kissin' on the bench where we started dating 10+ years ago!

Baby Projects: Done, doing, and to do

 Every fall our church hosts "Heavenly Hand-Me-Downs," a free yard sale type event. This last fall I picked up a bassinet with a folding base even though it was kind of dirty and really ugly (I'm not a frills everywhere person)... but free is free, right? I bought some fabric that wasn't gender specific and got to work. Well... I finally finished it today, about six months later! It didn't really take that long... I just kept putting parts of it off ;) Anyway, this is the result:

It's far from perfect, but in my opinion it's a major improvement!

The stand can rock or sit on casters and has a handy basket underneath for sheets and such. The whole top bassinet part can be snapped off, and the canopy also comes off.

We actually prefer it without the canopy, so we may use it that way unless the bathroom/living room light starts waking up Cecelia.

A close-up of the fabric. Isn't it sweet?

This is a project/activity we've been doing throughout my pregnancy but I somehow didn't get a picture or think of mentioning it until now! I made a paper chain using images from thebump.com representing how big the baby is this week. I've been using it as a countdown with the boys- we tear one off at the beginning of each week so they can see how big the baby is getting and how few weeks are left til she is big enough to come out.

This is a project we've started but have been unable to complete quite yet. We got this dresser on Craigslist for $15, and it's in pretty rough shape! It needs major sanding, first of all...

Also, someone replaced the hardware and drilled extra holes, so we need to fill those. I think we'll end up painting the whole thing a fun color to make it look new and happy once it's all prepped. For a $15 dresser we're willing to put in some elbow grease!

Next up: crib bedding! I couldn't really find any bedding for Cecelia that I loved that wasn't CRAZY expensive, so I decided to take the plunge and make my own. From the patterns I've looked at it doesn't look difficult at all, so here's hoping!! If you can't tell, this fabric is aqua and two shades of coral. Can you tell I have a thing for bird motifs?

Smart

Around Christmas, Nathan's phone finally kicked the bucket after breaking bit by bit over the couple years he had it. After doing a lot of research and with the help of birthday money, odd jobs, and selling things on Craigslist/Amazon, he was able to buy a smart phone (I jumped on the bandwagon a month later when our tax return came in)! We didn't think we could afford to have smart phones because the data plans are crazy expensive ($30-$40 a month, typically), but Nathan discovered a company called Republic Wireless that offered plans for $10 a month! The apps that require internet only function on WiFi, but we get unlimited talk and text anywhere, and no limit to data on WiFi. Obviously we had an initial investment in the phones themselves, but we're paying less monthly than we did with our "dumb phones!" Anyway, we're thrilled with these new gadgets that can do practically anything! I've been having a lot of fun with Instagram and other apps... I even used an app to make the collage above! I know a lot of you are probably thinking it's adorable that I'm so enthralled with this new tech because you've been carrying the world in your pocket for years, but I'm still amazed by this magic machine! I know this sounds like an ad... I'm just excited :)

Our last turtle died recently, so Nathan put a LOT of effort into cleaning the aquarium up (we have really hard water and it had terrible mineral deposits) and we were able to sell it on Craigslist for more than we originally paid for it! Nathan surprised me by using some of the money and buying and assembling a new bed for us! We've never had our own bed frame, so I'm pretty excited :) We ended up having to go back to Ikea to get slats to hold up the mattress (it was way too high with the box spring), but when we got there they were completely sold out of slats in the size we needed! We were so bummed out (Ikea's not exactly down the road), but devised a brilliant solution: go to Home Depot. We just looked up the size of our box spring (betcha didn't know Home Depot has WiFi!) and had an employee cut boards for us. We figured out that we could get one and a half bed widths out of each board, so we did some math and I think we ended up getting ten boards cut, and it only cost about $20. The cheapest Ikea slats were around $50, so our misfortune turned to our advantage! We simply laid them out in the frame and stuck the middle ends of the half-width boards down with glue dots so they wouldn't slide, and voila! Bed slats! Bonus: we got the cool art shown above on our trip to Ikea, so it wasn't a total loss :)

Overall, I'm feeling pretty smart. Heh heh... ;)

Heffalumps and Cheese

This weekend we trekked down to Nashville to visit Nathan's sisters and our niece, Ellie (who's staying with Allie while her parents vacation). On Saturday we wanted to take the kids out to do something fun and decided on Chuck-E-Cheese. This was the boys' first experience there, and of course they had a blast. It was super crowded and we were ready to get out of there by the time we used up our tokens, but we had fun and I'm glad we went!

One of the kids' favorite games that they kept playing around the house was one they invented... one of them would catch a "Heffalump" (I guess Ellie has been watching Winnie the Pooh) by tying a fabric belt around the other and lead them around the house. They kept switching rolls... it was really funny!

We also celebrated Nathan's birthday while we were there, too! His birthday is tomorrow, but since we were with most of his family we thought we'd take the chance to have a proper party. He and I went out to The Pharmacy for amaaaazing burgers, then to a Fresh Market to buy fancy cakes. We ate lasagna, sang, ate delicious cake, he opened some presents, and we had a good evening together. Happy 29th, Nathan!!

Other noteworthy happenings:

-Desy went pee on the potty for the first time last week and has continued doing so whenever asked! He surprised me the first time because he's always liked to sit on the potty but his body has never known what to do, so when he got up there and did his thing like a pro I really cheered for him! I don't know if potty training is in the near-future or not, but it's nice to know we're headed in that direction.

-We had a belated Christmas celebration with our friends Andrew and Kayla and their daughter last week (which was interrupted by a mild Craigslist fiasco trying to pick up a dresser for the baby. It all worked out), and then yesterday we visited our friends Shawn and Michelle and their kids who all recently moved back to the area after living in Hawaii for a while. We love spending time with friends! The picture above is Orion and Des with Ava and Nathan, two of Shawn and Michelle's children. They all had a GREAT time; so did we!

-This isn't actually noteworthy at all, but this is just a good pic of everyday life. This is how our kids play with Play Doh. You roll out the dough long to make a road (sometimes bumpy), add some cars... you're good to go. Boys.

-Finally, a word from my niece. On Sunday after we left Nashville, Allie was explaining to Ellie that mama kangaroos carry their babies in a pouch on their bellies, and Ellie said, "Just like Aunt Rachel!" Haha!! Four year olds are awesome.

Books of 2013

I've been keeping track of my reading on Goodreads the last couple years, and it's fun to look back at what I read each year! I don't have a good memory for that stuff (in fact, in writing this post I realized I'd left out 3 books), so if I didn't have it all collected somewhere I'd lose track of what I read when. I read 13 books this year (5927 pages). Nathan read a CRAZY amount... check out HIS Goodreads account. I'm ashamed of my meager list. ;)

 

 Most of the reading I did this year was Orson Scott Card books from the Enderverse. I read Ender's Game (for probably the third time) at the very end of 2012, and continued with rereading Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind. I read Ender in Exile as well as the Shadow series for the first time, including Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant. I just discovered that there are a couple more. I enjoyed reading the Shadow books, but for me the original four books can't really be topped. I'd read those four (especially the first two) again and again, but I'm not as compelled to keep rereading the rest. I think Ender's Shadow was the best by far. If you've never read Ender's Game, it's certainly one I'd highly recommend!

My husband is the BEST and likes to read books aloud to me. He's been wanting me to read Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles for quite a while, so when we caught up on our backlog of TV shows, he decided to read them to me. They were So. Good. Honestly, I'm pretty sure having someone read to you is one of the best ways to experience a book (Nathan does the voices, accents, and everything. I love it.), but I'm sure that reading it myself would have been awesome too. These books are HUGE... each one is like three standard novels... but even so, I was sad when each one ended. There's a third in the works, and I'm anxiously looking forward to it. If you like adventure or fantasy books, these are a great pick for you. However, I do need to give a couple disclaimers: both books have a good deal of swearing, and the second book has some uncomfortable-to-read sexual stuff. You've been warned. Again, I really loved these books, and I'd give The Name of the Wind the title of my favorite book of 2013.

I read two non-fiction books this year. The first one was The Strong Willed Child by Dr. James Dobson... because... let's be honest. I have one or two of those. It was really great... his style is so easy and fun to read, and I just love how realistic he is. He doesn't have qualms about calling a child a brat for behaving in a way that warrants it instead of making excuses for the behavior and making all children out to be perfect, innocent little angels. Ha! His views on discipline are sound, and I love how much personal and professional experience he included (real-life examples are great!). The version I read (above) was really outdated, though... I would like to read The NEW Strong Willed Child to see if it becomes even more relevant to parenting today.

The second non-fiction book I read was In on it, a book about supporting family and friends who have adopted or who are planning to. I have several friends who have/will adopt, so it was really nice to get some perspective and information on a subject I don't feel terribly educated about. Most of us don't realize how daunting the adoption process is! If you know someone who's going through the process of adoption, I'd recommend this one.

Green is the final (NOT first, thank you very much) book in the Circle series by Tedd Dekker. I listened to the Circle Trilogy on audio book a couple years ago and loved them, so when  I finally got around to reading Green I was somewhat disappointed. It was a good enough book, pretty standard for Dekker. I just really didn't care for the ending, and especially for the claim that it could be read as the first in the series. NO! Don't do it! I'm not saying this is a bad book at all... in fact, if you haven't read the rest of the Circle series (Black, White, and Red), you should! It just relies too heavily on some of Dekker's other books set in the same world (leaving the reader confused if they haven't read the Showdown series, for instance) and seems too contrived at the end. I may not read this book again even if I read the rest of the series.

It was a pretty good reading year for me! I'm already about half way through a book right now, and I'm hoping to hit 15-20 books this year... but with a newborn making its entrance half way through the year, that may be lofty thinking ;) What have YOU been reading??

Glamo

Every year for the past 4 years or so, Nathan and I have headed up the annual Youth Christmas Party at our church. We always try to think of a creative theme... the last few years have included the Rock Awesome Christmas Sweater Party, Masquerade, and Pajama Jammie Jam.

This year, our theme was glamo. That's glam camo, for ye less informed. One of the students suggested a camo theme (we have several who hunt), but we decided to give it a dressy twist... somehow... sort of. It was fun to see everyone's interpretations on the theme!

We had a runway show so those who came dressed up could strut their stuff and compete for prizes (Smoothie Bean cash!). The walks were HILARIOUS, and we had so much fun cheering and laughing!

Our top 3! Their outfits were awesome, but their walks really won us over. Great picks, judges!

Before this portion of the party started, the youth group spent a couple hours singing Christmas carols to many of our church family's shut-ins... they LOVE being visited and sung to every year, so I'm really happy so many of the students showed up!

Every bite of our nine-foot party sub was devoured, as well as about a hundred cookies and I don't even know how many chips and 2-liters.

Nathan told the Christmas story and reminded us of the true gift of Christmas (it doesn't stop at the manger scene!). We had a White Elephant gift exchange with lots of ridiculous presents. ...overall, it was just a super fun night with lots of awesome people. Thanks for letting us hang out with you!

The Silver Screen

This week we took the boys to see the new Disney movie, Frozen, for Desy's first movie theater experience. The boys did great, especially because the theater provided booster seats. They only got restless the last ten minutes or so, and we just let them stand up and walk a little bit down the row because the theater was pretty empty. The movie was really enjoyable- I was worried the boys might be afraid of the big snow monster, but they were ok. Orion really liked the snowman :) We tried to take a selfie picture of all of us, but it was not a pretty site... this one would be better if Desmond's eyes weren't closed ;) Nathan even treated the boys to McDonald's after the show, which just made the day extra special for them.

 

Apparently I didn't post about Orion's first movie theater outing on here, so let's flash back! I took Orion on a date to see Planes in August while Des napped and Nathan worked on school at home. O had to sit on my lap the whole time because the seat tried to eat him, but he did great anyway and watched the whole movie. We shared an orange pop which just thrilled him. We ended up getting Orion the Planes DVD on his birthday, the day it was released :)

It's really fun that they boys are old enough to go to the theater and enjoy movies with us! Of course, we only go on $5 Tuesdays or to the cheap theater or else we'd go broke ;)

Thankful

This November, I posted something I'm thankful for each day on facebook. I wanted to record them here too, so I've collected all of my posts together. Some are simple, some are deep, but I tried to be very thoughtful about what I'm truly thankful for... there are so many things! I'm really, really blessed.


Day 1: I'm thankful for God's love demonstrated in Jesus. "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." -John 3:17. It's really awesome to have hope and peace in the midst of a sometimes chaotic and difficult existence.

Day 2: I'm thankful for my in-laws who take us on fun family outings to the park and Sam's Club ("I wuv Sam's Clubs!") and watch my kids all the time for free... not to mention giving us room and board. I hit the in-law jackpot for sure

Day 3: Today I'm thankful for my husband. He works, goes to graduate school full time, teaches Sunday School and helps with other things at church, mows our huge lawn every week, etc., but still makes time to spend with the boys and me, especially to help me out when I'm not feeling well. I'm super blessed and SO spoiled. I love you like crazy, Nathan!

Day 4: Today I'm thankful for my parents (who are visiting me this week)! I had such an awesome childhood and they continue to support me and make my life awesome now. My kids got awesome grandparents out of the deal too! So yeah... they're awesome.

Day 5: Today I'm thankful that my generous mom likes to take me shopping I miss our girls days out!

Day 6: Today I'm thankful for my kids' teachers at church. Be it Sunday School or Awana, they are learning SO much! Orion is memorizing scripture for Cubbies at home, but his teachers are showing him and his brother awesome Bible songs, the days of creation, Bible truths, and reinforcing everything he learns at home. Thank you so much, teachers, for giving your time to my children!!

Day 7: Today I'm thankful that I get to go to the YMCA three or four times a week. The boys get to play with other kids and I get to have fun and stay active and healthy. Thank you to those whose donations to the Y make the financial assistance program possible!

Day 8: Today I'm thankful that my boys have become such good sleepers. Some people aren't naturally good at falling/staying asleep so it was a bit of a journey to get to this point, but that makes me all the more thankful that they (and I!) get a full, healthy night of sleep every night.

Day 9: I'm so thankful for my close circle of friends. In middle school-high school I went through periods of total friendlessness and some bad friend relationships (with a few amazing friends sprinkled in!)... I never could have imagined at that point that just a few years later I would meet people who COMPLETELY love me for me and actually LIKE to be around me... the people who will truly be my friends forever. We've already supported each other through tragedies and happy-danced together in celebration, and we have many more years of leaning on each other to come. I love you guys like crazy. I won't tag everyone, but I'm sure you know who you are :)

Day 10: Today I'm thankful for my church. I know there are people there who love me and will support me when I need it. They're a group of people who like to help each other and people they've never met. I'm happy to have a place to learn and grow. I'm thankful we have a church family.

Day 11: Today I'm thankful for the brave men and women in our armed forces who have sacrificed so much to keep us safe and free. Sure, our country has a lot of issues and it's easy to complain, but we are SO blessed to enjoy the freedoms we have. I'm incredibly humbled that so many have surrendered their own comfort, safety, and even lives to protect the rest of us. You are AWESOME and I could never thank you enough.

Day 12: Today I'm thankful that I live in an area that experiences all four seasons to their fullest. I'm happy my kids get to grow up with the colorful crisp beauty of fall, the magical glittering snow of winter, the fresh newness of spring, and the clear simmering days of summer. Each season has its own beauty and tone, and though we get tired of long icy winters or smouldering summers, change is always near. God made a pretty amazing world!

Day 13: I'm thankful that we've never really had to worry about our finances. We don't make much money, but thanks to support from family(!) and taxpayers (the miracle of Medicaid and WIC), we're able to pay cash for Nathan to do graduate school full time, take care of our family, and even afford fun activities sometimes. We have to be very careful most of the time, but never despair and have been able to stay debt-free. Thank you for supporting my family- we're investing in our future and hope we can repay the favor someday!

Day 14: Today I'm thankful for modern medicine. The treatments and medications we have available to us today save lives that would have been lost not so many years ago. We have amazing tools for diagnosis and treatment at our fingertips!

Day 15: Today I'm very thankful for a healthy pregnancy and baby! I am very fortunate to have had easy and healthy pregnancies so far :)

Day 16: Today I'm thankful for books. I'm a sucker for TV and other entertainment too, but books are magic.

Day 17: I'm thankful for unlimited access to clean water. I can't imagine the thing that keeps us alive also making us sick, as is the case so many places. Indoor plumbing is a super huge bonus.

Day 18: I'm thankful for technology that we have technology that allows us to communicate with friends and family around the world instantly, and tech that allows us to travel hundreds of miles in just a few hours. It's incredible.

Day 19: Today I'm thankful for my firstborn son, Orion Lawrence Lambes, who turns FOUR today! He's funny, brilliant, adorable, sweet, energetic, opinionated, and crazy! I love him more than I can say. Happy Birthday, Orion!!!

Day 20: Today I'm thankful for my second son, Desmond Daniel Lambes (AKA Desy Doodle Bug). He's silly, bull-headed, smart, industrious, rough, social, and SO CUTE.
He spent most of the morning building a Duplo monolith with me while his brother slept in... he gets so focused and refuses to do anything else while he's in the middle of building.
One of the funniest things about him is that he gets SO mad and throws fits, so we'll send him off to sit in a chair until he stops crying... he'll cry hard for a couple minutes, then suddenly be quiet, and then walk into the room with a huge smile on his face. We'll ask him, "are you done crying?" and he'll giggle, "yeah..." :D Every time!

Day 21: I'm thankful for my brothers and sisters (both natural and ...unnatural). I'm so lucky to be tied to a group of people whom I get along with so well! We have lots of fun together and I wish we could somehow all live closer. Love you guys! 

Day 22: I'm thankful for my Sunday School class. Because they are awesome. Also, they're a bunch of nerds. We should definitely hang out more.

Day 23: I'm thankful for a warm house on this cold cold day.

Day 24: I'm thankful for education. I can't imagine not being able to read or do simple math. If I get to the place in life where I need to work outside the home again, I'll (probably) be able to get a job because I'm educated.

Day 25: Today I'm thankful that I get to be a stay at home mom. When I was younger, being a homemaker certainly wasn't on my list of ambitions... our culture simply doesn't glorify "just" being a mom. Now that I actually have children, I could never imagine choosing to do anything else. I'm very blessed to be in a position where I am ABLE to stay home with my kids. Every older mother I've talked to about it has encouraged me, saying, "Staying home with my kids was the best decision I ever made. You'll never regret it." Here's hoping I can make the most of it.

Day 26: I'm thankful I have the use of all parts of my body. Eyes that see, ears that hear. Feet and hands that work. Organs that do their jobs. So many things can go wrong with the body... I have had it really easy so far.

Day 27: I'm thankful for the simple pleasures in life. Some that come to mind are Chipotle, brownies, flowers, pretty leaves, TV/movies/games, art, pop, warm tap water, the smell of fresh cut grass, clouds sliding across blue sky, candles, and a good laugh.

Day 28: Today I'm thankful for those who work in customer service (such as cashiers and waitresses). It's HARD to be a friendly face all day, but some people seem to do it with joy. Thank you for working so hard to help me and make my life easier.

Day 29: I'm thankful for stability in my life. The same place to sleep every night, always food on the table, a family that will never abandon me, absolute truth, and soul-deep friendship. Life can be chaotic and scary; it's wonderful to have a steady foundation.

Day 30: Today I'm thankful for a clear mind and the capacity to learn. I still have a lot of growing to do, and I'm sure life will teach me. I'm plenty stubborn, but... here's to being a life-long learner.