Wild Swans and Carl Bloch

I finished my book Wild Swans about a week ago and have been in my usual post book depression (which is where I don't want to start a new book or project for about a week while I process the book). This book touched me in a way similar to Uncle Toms Cabin, opening my eyes to things that I never even conceived of before. The author of this book is amazingly honest and open about her own life and the life of her family and those close to her which gives the book a beautiful and sad authenticity. I absolutely recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about China and anyone who enjoys biographies. Although I devoured the book, I had to watch when I read it: too close to bedtime it gave me bad dreams. I loved the book but also loved when I finished the book because of the harsh realities it contained.

Today, my family went to the Carl Bloch art exhibit. It was breathtaking!!! He was an artist in the mid to late 1800's who was criticized in his time of painting women and Christ in the same setting and showing Christ as a loving empathetic being instead of more like an idol. You can see his website here. The paintings were amazing and showed moments of Christ's life that I had never seen before. I love, love, loved it! It will be at BYU for a few more months and is definitely worth the time and the free ticket. My favorite paintings were "Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane" which shows an angel comforting him, and "Christ after the Crucifixion" showing some of his followers kindly wrapping his body in cloth after just removing the nails and the crown of thorns. Beautiful!

Henry and Ribsy

As a family, we are always reading a few books at a time:

-An audio book in the car

-The scriptures

-A fun reading book for family reading time

-Several other picture books for smaller kids

Right now we are reading the second book in the Little Britches series, Man of the Family, by Ralph Moody. If you haven't read the series, it is a must! It is so entertaining and has so many valuable teaching moments. We are almost finished with The Book of Mormon and are in the book of Ether.

The absolute highlight of the week though, was today while on our weekly Friday treat run to the gas station. We have been listening to Henry and Ribsy by Beverly Clearly, and just finished as we pulled into our garage. I know it's a good book when my kids are begging me to turn it on and shushing each other so they can listen. When I was younger I read most of Beverly Cleary's books, but this one I never read. My kids laughed out loud several times, and even cheered and clapped at other times! Yay for books!!!! Even my 3 year old little boy was engaged and interested, and using his imagination! Love it! Henry and Ribsy is a definite thumbs up!

I am feeling in such a mood for Beverly Cleary (and feeling a bit under the weather, I'm supposed to run 6 miles tomorrow- might have to put it off till Monday) we stopped at the Redbox and rented "Ramona and Beezus" to watch and lay around the rest of the day. Thank Goodness It's Friday!

I can still have fun without a camera...

I have been using my iphone's camera since mine is out of commission and heres a few of the events I captured:

My little angel is really into permanent markers lately.  He decided make himself look more like Daddy and draw a goatee (that's how it's spelled- I looked it up) and some eyebrows- what a little jewel he is.

The girls and I had a fun time doing this little art project one day during homeschool last week.  I saw the idea in a magazine and decided to do it ourselves.  We got a few different kinds of wrapping paper and I drew love-birds and hearts and the girls cut them out.  This is one of my favorite wall hangings now because it makes me think of my sweet girls and their effort to cut it all just so.  I love the little imperfections when I look up close- I think this might be a keeper year round instead of just at Valentines.

Simeon wore the tie I made him to church last week and I got a cheesy picture before we went out the door.

My wonderful Father-in-law painting the island in my kitchen- I adore the color!

Here is the finished product from the other side- it looks so clean and nice now!  We do have a drawer issue though- somehow we can't get that one drawer to straighten up- I think it must be in the wrong place- hubby to the rescue!

We got to go to the most wonderful night at the Symphony.  We felt so fancy- we got to go to a reception before the show and the Hotel Monaco and eat some goodies.  Then in the lobby they were auctioning off these amazing painted violins- the front and the back of all of them were decorated with amazing artwork.

We had AMAZING seats! 1st tier, 2nd row- we could see everything so well.  It was a great date with Olivia in tow.

The Symphony was fabulous and we all really enjoyed every minute of it.  There was  a cute couple sitting next to me- they were probably in their 70's and being so sweet and affectionate with each other.  I of course (if you know me you won't be surprised) leaned over to them and mentioned how cute they were and asked how long they had been together (beforehand I was imagining that they had this romantic relationship over several decades or something) "two years" was their answer!  I was a little surprised and said "Well, you're keepin the love alive!" If only we can all be that way after 30-40 years- that's my goal.