A really cute giveaway link

I don't know about y'all, but I'm a sucker for aprons. I've always wanted one, but never got around to buying one until last year. My friend is giving away aprons on her blog. Adult or child size. They're adorable! Check it out!

Boys and Girls

Now, I know everyone is an individual and slightly different from everyone else, but there are stereotypes for a reason. I've always thought it was funny when people said boys and girls come exactly the same and are conditioned to be different. While this can be true to some extent, have they ever watched little kids?!

Someone recently told me of a study done on small children. Not having read the study, I'm not sure of the age group, but I got the idea that they were somewhere in the crawling/barely walking stage. The researchers would put a blockade between mother and baby. The girls reacted by crying piteously. The boys reacted by trying to crawl through or around the blockade. I thought that was an interesting study.

Today, while I was watching a little boy (just crawling), a toy of his rolled under a chair. He never once looked at me to complain, he just tried and tried to get that toy until finally he was successful! He's done it multiple times in the past few days and never looks to me for help. I thought that fit very well with the study results.

Anyone have any examples that agree/disagree with this?

Book Challenge Checkup

So, how's everybody doing on their book challenge reading? So far, I have 265 points. Don't be disgusted. I like to read. Here's the list of ones I liked:

The Healing Touch series by Hannah Alexander
"Mirror, Mirror" by Judy Baer (as well as a couple of her other books)
The O'Malley series by Dee Henderson
A Prairie Legacy series by Janette Oke
"Dragon Slippers" - Jessica Day George
"Daddy-Long-Legs" and "Dear Enemy" by Jean Webster

Can you tell I'm on a Christian fiction kick so far this year? Not to mention, I should have joined Austen Knows Best in the series challenge. :) I'm obviously more of a fiction reader than a non-fiction reader. However, I have three non-fiction under my belt so far this year. (Impressive , I know.) And I even enjoyed two of them. But I'm going to brag that I made it through "His Excellency: George Washington" by Joseph Ellis. (Not one of the ones I enjoyed.) Acknowledging that Ellis has done MUCH more research on the subject than I have, I still found myself violently disagreeing (okay, not really violently) with his interpretation of many, many things. He never proved himself in the book to be enough of an authority to make some of the claims he did without backing his assertions with lots of evidence. But I did learn more about George Washington. And I'm still trying to decide whether or not I liked "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss. I'm just not a prescriptivist. Hmm... Based on her book, I actually would have used different punctuation in a few of these sentences. But remember, this is my blog. I get to punctuate how I want to. :)

So tell me, how are you doing in your reading? Any good books to suggest? You don't have to give a score, but I always welcome recommendations.

Some good jazz

I'm not a jazz connoisseur (which I didn't even come close to spelling correctly. Oi) or anything, but I think this is some great jazz. Or at least very nice-to-listen-to jazz. (Like I said. Not a connoisseur. Forgive my ignorance.)



The funny thing about this song is I don't always agree with its sentiments. Sometimes this is the answer and sometimes the answer is "It's okay to cry today." But this music makes me smile. A bit reminiscent (which I did spell correctly - hooray! I know. It's not that hard a word) of Glenn Miller to me.

It's You

I've debated posting this, but decided I'll just do it. Morgan and I saw "Music & Lyrics" and while I actually wouldn't recommend it for various reasons, I did very much enjoy the music from it. Especially this song:



I don't know if this song makes much sense without having seen the movie. But I think it's one of the sweetest, most romantic songs I've heard. My husband has heard me say this many times and endured listening to the song even more.

When we were engaged, he wrote me a really wonderful song. We put a few of the lyrics on a bookmark as a keepsake at one of our open houses. "You are the verse that I write. You are the song that I sing." He surprised me again this month with another song he had written while I was away working. He said he wrote it in the style of one of my favorite songs. [see above] Here's part of it:

Have you ever stood still and watched the clouds roll by?
Or closed your eyes and listened to the rain?
Have you ever been embraced by a summer breeze?
Or seen the perfect sunset end the perfect day?
Well, I have, and I do, and it's you.

Great Music

Last night, someone asked us to send them a list of good classical music. Oh, boy! Oh, boy! Well, we took about an hour and put together some of our favorite pieces. It was not at all comprehensive, but we had a lot of fun putting it together. I thought I would post a piece right now that is one of my all-time favorites.



Just so you appreciate this performance a little more (or at least understand my appreciate, I suppose), the men's portion of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir recorded a version of this piece (Wagner's "The Pilgrim's Chorus" from Tannhaeuser, in case it doesn't show) several decades ago. My dad loved that recording and when I was introduced, I loved it too. My husband and I found another recording that had an orchestra behind it (how it was originally written) instead of an organ (MoTab's version). The singing was lower quality, but we loved the strings! So we longed for the day when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir would get together with the Orchestra on Temple Square. Then we found this! We were so excited!

My friend over at Austen Knows Best found the coolest quiz. I think most of your know I LOVE the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. Here's my results.

Which Betsy-Tacy character are you? Your Result: Tacy Kelly Tacy, though bashful with people she doesn't know well, can be just as merry as Betsy and the others in the Crowd. Remember the Irish Colleen and the brogue accent? Tacy is a true friend who both sympathizes with and understands Betsy whether she is sad, happy, obsessed with a certain boy, etc. Although Tacy doesn't lose her heart easily, when she does it's for keeps (Harry Kerr!)
Betsy Ray
Emily Webster
Carney Sibley
Tib Muller
Julia Ray
Irma Biscay
Winona Root
Which Betsy-Tacy character are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

It's not terribly accurate, but Tacy was always my favorite character, much as I love Betsy. If you've read Betsy and want to take the quiz... Here it is.