Active. At the gym and ice rink. Saturday play. Learning and growing in so many ways.

It's been a while since I posted last. First there was the surgery and then the ongoing intermittent internet issues and finally, last week my mother-in-law was here for three days while Ern and his dad went hunting. I also had a brief crisis in which I got very frustrated with stores like Ikea that try to make cheaply made stuff look good and charge too much for it, outsourcing products and appealing to the throw-away, superficial, impatient society we live in. I wrote a whole essay on it, but tossed it after I got it out of my system.
Lici has been begging to put up the Christmas tree so we finally did this past Friday. It's just our little artifical one this year, at the kids' urging. They pretty much decorated it all themselves and we don't have to worry about dropping pine needles or needing to water.
My teen class and I decorated at church too and the teens and kids and I have started practicing our Christmas play, which I adapted from Lucado's children's story, The Crippled Lamb.

I just got two books to review from Bethany House Publishers and though I had Lasik surgery a week ago and still find extensive reading somewhat wearing, I sped through both of them. Unending Devotion by Jody Hedlund is fast-paced, intense and exciting. The passionate, endearing protagonist has you rooting for her and concerned for her so that it's very difficult to put the book down until all is well. I did roll my eyes sometimes (also painful) at her over-the-top stubborn, sometimes very insensible though well-meaning antics. The story's romantic element is enchanting. Connell is continually saving Lily but she's quite feisty and capable herself. Although this book deals with a really sobering topic, sexual exploitation, it does so surprisingly tastefully and in an inspiring way.
Elizabeth Camden's characters in Against the Tide are fascinating. Lydia and Bane's banter is fun. She is a smart, strong, compellingly-drawn character and he is as well. They're characters I could read more about. The spy/overthrow-the-opium-trade plot keeps you reading until the resolution and Lydia's personal struggle with opium makes her a more winsome, lovable heroine. I like her rational, intellectual approach but appreciate that she's not devoid of passion either. She seems aware of her own limitations and strengths in a way that is believably depicted and commendable. However, all the lying she does when she's "undercover" poses problems for a Christian, as you may wonder if it's truly justifiable.
I really enjoyed both of these books.

Happy birthday, Felicity! We had a garden fairy party but the fairy of the hour ended up getting sick before the day was over!

Still, it was fun while it lasted.

 

 

 Flower piñata on the counter and lots of "flowers" hung from light fixtures and cabinets

 

 Wearing crowns, wings, wands, found hidden fairies, walked across a purple paper pond on "lily pads,"opened gifts, made paper bag puppets, played Pictionary with sidewalk chalk on a chalkboard in the basement

You only turn seven once.

 Dorothy and the Tin Woodman

 Then the Tin Woodman decided to take karate (yes, that's me in the background with the tower of discarded snow cones)

and we found an archer and a cute little bee in Oz (aka trick or treating with us at the mall).