Lately Isabelle has started singing along to songs we sing her. This is one we sing at bedtime.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Ch..ch..ch..changes!
Friday, August 08, 2008
Breaking Dawn
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie MeyerMy review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
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What I liked about this book:
Bella and Edward were married and had a baby. Since I'm married with a baby this was easier to relate to then the former highschool angst. I liked that Bella skipped over the newborn stage of vampirism and that she was super strong and helped in the big fight and that they all won out in the end and lived happily ever after.
What I didn't like:
Bella and Edward were married and had a baby. The highschool angst was kind of what the series seemed to be about and this really changed the entire tone of the story to me. It was as if they were no longer the same people that we had been reading about to this point. I know characters are supposed to grow and change, but they seemed completely different to me.
Bella became a vampire. I did like that she skipped over the whole newborn thing, but I was sad for her/Edward because on their honeymoon she had finally decided to stay human for awhile. She was going to attend Dartmouth and see her family at Christmas. Once she got pregnant everything changed and she had to become a vampire or die in childbirth. That kind of sucked. I mean it's nice that she took to it so well, but at that point the book ceased to be about humans at all and became an entirely 'monster' book. I liked having a fragile human main character even if it did mean someone had to save her all the time.
Jacob's storyline. I mean it's great that he imprinted and can finally move on...and I know it would have been silly to continue to pursue this triangle thing after Bella was married, but I really enjoyed that aspect of the books before.
Total immersion into fantasy. This book more than any of the others represented a total immersion into a fantasy world to me. Now if the books start out that way that's one thing, but I liked this series in that Bella still lived in our world and still had everyday concerns such as showering, bad breath and homework. In this book all of that suddenly becomes irrelevant. I guess it's nice to see more fully into the supernatural realm that Meyer has created but I enjoyed Bella's human challenges.
Honeymoon. Okay I know the author is LDS and these are "teen" books, but come on! All this build up to them finally having sex..will they be able to? Will he hurt her? and then...NOTHING! I don't think of myself as voyeuristic or anything, but I found this very annoying to be constantly getting nothing but morning after scenes.
All the other vampires. I really liked how Meyer showed there were so many other covens and went to the trouble to give each of these new vamps a personality and hints of their own storyline. What I didn't like is that this is apparently the last book and we may never know more about these vamps than this. If she was going to introduce fully developed characters at this point she should be willing to continue the series with some of them playing a bigger role.
There's probably more if I think about it, but I'll stop there. So overall I did enjoy the book. I felt it was a bit of a departure from the other books, but I still enjoyed reading it and had difficulty putting it down this week, as my children can attest. ;)
View all my reviews.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Why I'm a Stay at Home Mom (SAHM)
I’ve often told people how I never planned to be a SAHM and have always planned to work. I believe this decision was greatly influenced both by my mother who worked our entire lives and by my patriarchal blessing which admonishes me to: “Continue to seek an education that you may be able to gain for yourself a source of livelihood that will be helpful to you as you raise a family. You will have the financial ability to help sustain the family as they grow and you will be able to help supply their needs as they progress here upon the earth.”
When Patrick and I were dating he asked me if I would be willing to support him if he stayed at home. I told him that if that was his plan he better tell me now because I did not want to be in that sort of position. My dad stayed home with us while my mom worked, and though I now realize it was a blessing to be able to have at least one parent at home I still have had a very hard time respecting my dad for his apparent laziness and willingness to live off of his wife’s hard work. I then asked if Patrick would be willing to support me if I stayed at home. He said of course. I told him I would probably be bored out of my mind and he said that ‘children are never boring.’
Fast forward a couple of years. I am nearing the end of my master’s degree and pregnant. The plan was that I would finish school a month before the baby. I would then nurse for about 7-8 months before returning to the workforce. Well, those seven months came and went. I felt like the baby needed to nurse longer and it would be difficult if I was working. I also didn’t find any interesting jobs online or in the paper that I felt would be worth the hassle of daycare. I had read several articles about how many two income families would actually be making more money if one of the parents were to stay at home and watch the children rather than paying for daycare.
When we were visiting some of Patrick’s armour associates in Chicago we stayed at this one couple’s home. They had a three year old and three month old. Both parents worked and the children were in daycare. This was because the wife could not stand to be home all day alone with the babies, not because they were in dire financial straits. I could totally understand her point of view, but as I observed their family interactions it kind of soured me on the idea of the whole daycare/work thing. They would get their kids up at 6am, feed them and get their bags ready for the day. They dropped them at the daycare by 7:30am so they could make it to work by 8. The children were picked up around 6pm, fed dinner, allowed about and hour of play/family time and then put to bed by 8pm. Making it a grand total of three waking hours the parents actually spent with their children. I thought this was deplorable. I didn’t see how the children could be at all influenced by their parents when they never saw them. So seeing this situation also put me off of going back to work for a while.
I finally stopped nursing when Isabelle was 14 months old. Two months later I was pregnant. I didn’t see the point of getting a job when I was pregnant as I’d just have to quit (most likely) a few months later. I didn’t see that anyone would want to hire a pregnant lady knowing that they’d only get me for a few months. Plus all the jobs I was looking at had some lifting and stair walking and driving all over, which I wouldn’t want to do while pregnant. Then I had the baby…and now I’m nursing and can’t leave. See it’s a vicious cycle.
So now I’m a SAHM. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing as one. I don’t really like playing with my kids and they, well Isabelle at least, spend most of the day in front of the television while I do my best to ignore them while still providing for their needs. This is why I think they’d be better off in daycare sometimes. In daycare they’d have structured activities including learning time, which they don’t have here. They’d also get a chance to interact with other kids their age, which Isabelle loves to do. But I’ve heard how expensive daycare is and I’ve never seen a job that I qualify for that I might actually enjoy while paying enough to put the kids in daycare. So I’m thinking that maybe when they start school or something I’ll either get a cool job or possibly work on my PhD and be a college professor. That may be cool ‘cuz I’d get summers and holidays off and it wouldn’t be a 9-5 all day job since I’d probably only have a couple of classes I taught so I could still be home for the kids. I’m just hoping my blessing didn’t mean that something horrible is going to happen to Patrick and I’ll have to support the family. I’m leaning towards not as it says I will help supply their needs, implying that someone else will be doing this as well.
So I guess I’m a SAHM because I haven’t found the right job to take me away from my family and because I’m too lazy to look too hard for one…and daycare is expensive….oh yeah and the prophet said my children would benefit from it. I really admire those women who love to be SAHM’s and look forward to the day when they can just have babies and revel in their company. I am not one of those people and I don’t know if I ever will be. But in the mean time I do try to be a good mother even though I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing most of the time having no example but my father to fall back on….and his was not an example one should strive to emulate. So I guess I try to read the blogs of other SAHM’s and listen closely to the other women at church to hear what I should be doing and fight against my instinct to ignore them and do my own thing all day. So any of you SAHM’s whose blog I read, feel free to post about how your day goes to give me a better idea of what a typical SAHM does with her time. :) Hope that answers your question Tammy.
When Patrick and I were dating he asked me if I would be willing to support him if he stayed at home. I told him that if that was his plan he better tell me now because I did not want to be in that sort of position. My dad stayed home with us while my mom worked, and though I now realize it was a blessing to be able to have at least one parent at home I still have had a very hard time respecting my dad for his apparent laziness and willingness to live off of his wife’s hard work. I then asked if Patrick would be willing to support me if I stayed at home. He said of course. I told him I would probably be bored out of my mind and he said that ‘children are never boring.’
Fast forward a couple of years. I am nearing the end of my master’s degree and pregnant. The plan was that I would finish school a month before the baby. I would then nurse for about 7-8 months before returning to the workforce. Well, those seven months came and went. I felt like the baby needed to nurse longer and it would be difficult if I was working. I also didn’t find any interesting jobs online or in the paper that I felt would be worth the hassle of daycare. I had read several articles about how many two income families would actually be making more money if one of the parents were to stay at home and watch the children rather than paying for daycare.
When we were visiting some of Patrick’s armour associates in Chicago we stayed at this one couple’s home. They had a three year old and three month old. Both parents worked and the children were in daycare. This was because the wife could not stand to be home all day alone with the babies, not because they were in dire financial straits. I could totally understand her point of view, but as I observed their family interactions it kind of soured me on the idea of the whole daycare/work thing. They would get their kids up at 6am, feed them and get their bags ready for the day. They dropped them at the daycare by 7:30am so they could make it to work by 8. The children were picked up around 6pm, fed dinner, allowed about and hour of play/family time and then put to bed by 8pm. Making it a grand total of three waking hours the parents actually spent with their children. I thought this was deplorable. I didn’t see how the children could be at all influenced by their parents when they never saw them. So seeing this situation also put me off of going back to work for a while.
I finally stopped nursing when Isabelle was 14 months old. Two months later I was pregnant. I didn’t see the point of getting a job when I was pregnant as I’d just have to quit (most likely) a few months later. I didn’t see that anyone would want to hire a pregnant lady knowing that they’d only get me for a few months. Plus all the jobs I was looking at had some lifting and stair walking and driving all over, which I wouldn’t want to do while pregnant. Then I had the baby…and now I’m nursing and can’t leave. See it’s a vicious cycle.
So now I’m a SAHM. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing as one. I don’t really like playing with my kids and they, well Isabelle at least, spend most of the day in front of the television while I do my best to ignore them while still providing for their needs. This is why I think they’d be better off in daycare sometimes. In daycare they’d have structured activities including learning time, which they don’t have here. They’d also get a chance to interact with other kids their age, which Isabelle loves to do. But I’ve heard how expensive daycare is and I’ve never seen a job that I qualify for that I might actually enjoy while paying enough to put the kids in daycare. So I’m thinking that maybe when they start school or something I’ll either get a cool job or possibly work on my PhD and be a college professor. That may be cool ‘cuz I’d get summers and holidays off and it wouldn’t be a 9-5 all day job since I’d probably only have a couple of classes I taught so I could still be home for the kids. I’m just hoping my blessing didn’t mean that something horrible is going to happen to Patrick and I’ll have to support the family. I’m leaning towards not as it says I will help supply their needs, implying that someone else will be doing this as well.
So I guess I’m a SAHM because I haven’t found the right job to take me away from my family and because I’m too lazy to look too hard for one…and daycare is expensive….oh yeah and the prophet said my children would benefit from it. I really admire those women who love to be SAHM’s and look forward to the day when they can just have babies and revel in their company. I am not one of those people and I don’t know if I ever will be. But in the mean time I do try to be a good mother even though I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing most of the time having no example but my father to fall back on….and his was not an example one should strive to emulate. So I guess I try to read the blogs of other SAHM’s and listen closely to the other women at church to hear what I should be doing and fight against my instinct to ignore them and do my own thing all day. So any of you SAHM’s whose blog I read, feel free to post about how your day goes to give me a better idea of what a typical SAHM does with her time. :) Hope that answers your question Tammy.
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