Five Favorites (Vol 12) & What We’re Reading (Vol 4)

By bobbi
September 10, 2013
3 Comments

Today I’m linking up with Hallie’s Five Favorites (guest hosted by Grace) and Fave #5 is linked to Jessica’s What We’re Reading Wednesday. Enjoy!

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Classic Movies

When I am in the mood for a classic movie, I usually watch one from the 30’s or 40’s but I couldn’t resist watching this 1958 movie Nowhere to Go because I wanted to see this awesome actress when she was only 24. Recognize her?? It is none other than Maggie Smith, aka The Dowager Countess of Downton Abbey. 🙂

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The Clash

Speaking of classics, Brian just picked up the newly released collection of The Clash called Hits Back. I borrowed it and downloaded it to my ipod. Tomorrow when I take my morning walk I’ll be rocking the Casbah. 😉

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Washi Tape

I love washi tape (which is basically a decorative craft tape that can be removed easily). It is an easy way to decorate and add color to a number of things. 🙂 (Oh and the photo is from the Planner Addicts Photo Challenge because I’m nerdy like that.) 😉

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This Guy

With the kids in school, Matthew and I have a lot more time together. This morning I was upset because the strap on his car seat was broken and I was having a hard time fixing it. Seeing my frustration he patted me on the hand and said, “Don’t worry, Mama.” I looked up at his cute face and kissable cheeks and melted. I kissed him then snapped a photo to savor the moment. 🙂

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What We’re Reading Wednesday:

21 Days to a More Disciplined Life

I first heard about 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life by Crystal Paine from Jen at Suscipio’s. She is doing a book discussion and it just started on Monday. If there was anyone that could use some more discipline in their life, it’s me!! So I downloaded the book (it was only $4.99) and joined the online group study. So far I love it! Usually, I try some kind of “resolution” and either lose interest or burn out but the book is set up so you work on one project for only 10 – 15 minutes a day and it slowly helps you to build a positive habit and grow more disciplined. It is short and concise and effective. I highly recommend it. You can read more about it on my post about Day 1 of the program – here.

Okay, it is officially Wednesday, which means Ive got to get to bed pronto. Have a great day!

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉

What We’re Reading Wednesday – Vol 3

By bobbi
August 6, 2013
6 Comments

I’m linking up with Jessica over at Housewifespice.com for What We’re Reading Wednesday.

Before I read the featured book of this post, I saw the trailer for the upcoming movie City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments). I was intrigued with the idea of supernatural demon hunters and a seemingly ordinary girl who could see the invisible hunters and the demonic activity that other normal humans could not. I decided to read the book and see if it was any good.

I will admit that I enjoyed the adventure and suspense of hunting down demons but there were too many negative points to make it worth it. I debated between giving it one or two stars on GoodReads because there were moments I was swiping the screen in a hurry to see what would happen next and other times I was rolling my eyes at the writing.

From a Catholic point of view, there were definite problems, most notably, that the characters are fighting a war of good vs evil with demons, yet God is viewed as non-existent at worst or disinterested at best. I also hated the plot twist at the end, so all in all, it was a let down.

The following week I read a positive review from The Curt Jester/Jeff Miller about Mysterious Albion (Vatican Vampire Hunters) (Volume 1) by Paul Leone. Vatican Vampire Hunters?? Wow, sign me up! (To read, not to hunt.)

Here is the Amazon description:

Lucy Manning just wanted an ordinary life. But surviving a vicious vampire attack has put the young American in the middle of a holy war between a secret society of vampire hunters loyal to the Catholic Church–and an ancient and powerful vampire queen who has awakened from a long slumber with dreams of blood and conquest in her demonic mind.

Lucy may not want to do battle with a ruthless, eternal evil, but evil has other ideas….

While other vampire books may make vampires seem attractive, there is no mistake that in this book vampires are evil and closer to being demonic. Lucy’s world is turned upside down when her friend is attacked by a vampire and Lucy barely escapes. Lucy is eventually recruited into a secret society of vampire hunters operating unofficially for the Catholic Church. She goes from an inexperienced novice to a skillful hunter fighting a devastating war.

I enjoyed the description of British locations and culture and I loved the suspense and the battle scenes and the integration of the Catholic faith. However, it was not the slightest bit “preachy.” On the contrary, it seems completely natural, even for non-religious people, that when you are dealing with evil/demonic creatures, the Catholic Church provides the big guns.

The only negatives were a few plot aspects that seemed confusing (ie. Why was a vampire killed with holy water at the beginning of the story but holy water wasn’t used on any of the others?) and there is a bit of language. Lucy can be praying to God in one scene and then dropping some f-bombs in a battle scene. So be forewarned if you’re sensitive to that.

I still gave the book 5 stars because I couldn’t put it down while I was reading it and now that I’m done I can’t wait for book 2. 😉

Five Favorites (Vol 9) & What We’re Reading Wednesday (Vol 2)

By bobbi
July 23, 2013
5 Comments

We’ve got a lot of linking today for one small post.

This is Day 3 of Jen’s 7 Posts in 7 Days Challenge.

This is linked to Hallie’s (guest hosted by Grace) Five Favorites

Lastly, Fave #4 is linked to Jessica’s What We’re Reading Wednesday. Enjoy!

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New School Supplies

Fall may still be a couple months away but it seems a lot closer with all the back to school supplies in the stores. As a kid, picking out new school supplies ranked up there with opening Christmas presents and decades later that hasn’t changed. Happily, my daughter shares my enthusiasm for journals, notebooks and cute pens. Bella and I went to Target the other night and we were giddy picking out new school/ office supplies. It was a lovely mother daughter bonding moment. 🙂

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Photo Challenges

I love those daily photo challenges you see on Instagram and Facebook and I’m currently participating in two – #fmsphotoaday on Instagram and #31dayfunphotochallenge on Facebook.

A friend of the family, Carole, created the FB one so I made the cover shot for her. 🙂

Here are a few other photos I’ve posted so far.

Day 1: Black & White (As long as he stays out of my house we’re good. 😉

Day 2: Something that starts with the first letter of my name – Brian & Beach.

Day 5: Tiny – It is amazing that a tiny round piece of gold can hold so much meaning.

Day 10: My Favorite Color

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My Kindle

Our house is filled with books on numerous book shelves and I do prefer to read non fiction books in paper back so I can highlight and make comments in the margins. However, when I read fiction it must be on my Kindle (or Kindle app on my iphone) or I’ll never get any reading done. I love that I can read a few pages on my computer or my Kindle then open the app on my phone later in the day and it will sync to where I left off on my other devices. I don’t have big chunks of time to sit and read so I fit in a few pages when I can. And if I’m reading a “I-can’t-put-this-down” book then you’ll see my reading on my phone as I’m folding laundry and stirring spaghetti sauce or scrubbing the shower. (Who am I kidding? I cant remember the last time I scrubbed the shower, but I digress.) The point is I love having my current reads at my fingertips at any time!

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What I’m Reading/ Fave Book of the Week: Angela’s Song by AnneMarie Creedon

I love my reading list on GoodReads.com and I have been trying to alternate reading a “regular” fiction book and a Catholic fiction book. Since I did Austenland last week, this week it was Angela’s Song by AnneMarie Creedon, available in paperback or on Kindle.

Amazon Description:

Angela ‘Jel’ Cooke is a widow and mother of three who stays busy so as not to have to face the fact that her marriage was damaged and her husband, Devin, died before it could be repaired. Her good friends realize that no amount of home made lasagna, volunteering at church or late night games of Yahtzee can heal Angela from past regrets. When she meets Jack, the teacher of a class she is taking, he challenges her to face her demons. What follows is the poignant, yet often hilarious saga of how Angela overcomes her guilt and learns to love herself and others.

Many of the stories I read have a lot of action and tension that forces me to keep turning the page but that wasn’t the case with this book. There wasn’t a big, dramatic story arc but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. There was an easy pace of getting to know Angela and her story and watching a romance unfold. There were times when I thought Jack, the boyfriend, was a little too perfect but then again, he reminded me a lot of my hubby, just an unbelievable man of God. The writing is well done and this is a great novel for those who like their books to be very “Catholic.” Catholic elements and teaching were entwined throughout the story. For some that is a good thing, for others it’s a turn off.

Personally I could go either way but I will say that some of what was written was speaking to me directly. I happened to be reading the end of the book after I had an argument with Brian. As I was sitting there reading one of the character’s words about marriage and sacrifice and carrying the cross, I rolled my eyes and muttered something like, “Yeah, but wait until the honeymoon is long over…” As I kept on reading the Holy Spirit was at work and the words touched my heart I could see how silly and selfish I was being by staying angry at Brian. I swallowed my pride and apologized and in the end was happy to make up with him. 🙂 If a book could do that, that’s pretty good. That gave it a grade of 4 out of 5 stars. Go check it out.

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“Angela’s Song” Playlist

Author AnneMarie Creedon gets major kudos for creating a playlist for her book on Spotify. It contains all the songs mentioned in her book – from Frank Sinatra to Lady Antebellum to Black Eyed Peas. Pretty cool.

Have a blessed day!

PS – Don’t forget the Pinterest Party Link-up runs until Aug 6 and you can use a new or old post. 🙂

Five Favorites (Vol 8): Summer Edition & What We’re Reading Wednesday

By bobbi
July 10, 2013
6 Comments

Today I am linking this post with Hallie for Five Favorites and Jessica for What We’re Reading Wednesday. (Scroll to #5 for that.) 🙂

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Beach Bonfires & Multi-Weinie Roasting Stick

This weekend we went to a beach party with two other Catholic families and we had so much fun! (And Catholic style, 3 families equaled 14 kids. ;-)) We had a bonfire and I tried my new hotdog roasting stick that held 4 hotdogs at once. (Which I picked up at Target, natch.) It worked great and kept tiny hands in the sand and out of the hot fire pit. Although, I relented and let them roast their own marshmallows when they promised they wouldn’t use it as a flaming light saber. 😉

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Black-Out Curtains

On those days when we aren’t watching the sun set over the Pacific, the boys are in bed and lights out by 8:00 PM. However, it makes it hard when it is still bright and sunny outside. We bought some denim black-out curtains similar to these and they are an answer to prayer. They really block out the light and make it feel more like a dark night so the boys can go right to sleep.

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Imagine Dragons – Night Visions

So far this album has been my soundtrack of my summer. On those occasions when I get to go to Target and Costco solo, you’ll find me driving down Highway 1 singing along. Here is my current fave of the album.

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Link-ups!

Summer gives me a little more time to spend on the blog but I must admit that lately the majority of my blog posts are link-ups to other blogs. Heck, even this post is being linked TWICE. So which are my favorite link-up’s? Here they are…

Five Favorites by Hallie (Wed) – Of course!
What We’re Reading Wednesday by Jessica (This is my debut contribution. Scroll to #5.)
Theme Thursday by Cari (Thurs)
{pretty, happy, funny, real} by Like Mother, Like Daughter (Thurs)
7 Quick Takes by Jen (Fri)
Catholic Woman’s Almanac by Suscipio (Mon)

I don’t have a place to play on Tuesday so I stay home and have my own link-up – A Pinterest Party. (Yes, that was a shameless plug and here are accompanying photos!)

Link-up your post! (Old or new.)

This week’s post: Pinterest Party & Link-up (vol 7): Dinosaur Kits for Your Little Paleontologist

What are your favorite link-ups??

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I love that summer also allows me to stay up late reading and not worry about an alarm clock in the morning. (Well, unless you count the two year old bouncing on my head in the AM.) I love to read but I have a habit of starting five books at once and only finishing one or two, months later. Plus, I love to read fiction but I am never sure which books are worth the read and which are a waste of time (or worse, immoral.) Then a friend told me about Good Reads.com and I love it. Imagine it as Instagram for readers. Instead of looking at your friends photos of the day, you can see what books they are reading, how they rated them, and any comments or reviews they had about them. I love it. You can check out the books on my lists here: https://www.goodreads.com/bobbi_rol

Which brings me to Housewifespice’s new link-up What We’re Reading Wednesday.

I just finished two books this week.

Austenland by Shannon Hale

Amazon.com Description:

Jane is a young New York woman who can never seem to find the right man-perhaps because of her secret obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Predjudice. When a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-obsessed women, however, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become more real than she ever could have imagined. Is this total immersion in a fake Austenland enough to make Jane kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?

This was a fun summer read. I am a big Austen fan and when the author talked about the BBC adaption of the book fans know the scenes she mentioned by heart – Darcy after his swim, Darcy and Elizabeth exchanging looks at the piano, etc it reminded me of years ago when my sister and I would watch and swoon together. I was eager to revisit the P&P love. I’ll admit that at first it was a little hard to get into it because the premise seemed a bit unbelievable but once I got into it I was thoroughly enjoying it and rooting for my favorite characters. If you aren’t looking for anything terribly deep, are an Austen fan, hopeless romantic and love a love story (no matter how improbable) then you’ll want to check it out.

The Night Sky: A Journey from Dachau to Denver and Back by Maria Sutton

Amazon.com Description:

This extraordinary and unflinchingly honest memoir takes us on a riveting journey into the hearts and souls of three enigmatic people whose destinies are forever changed by the events of World War II. The secrets of misguided love and passions are revealed as the author journeys between the past and the present to solve the mystery of a handsome Polish officer with piercing blue eyes and sun-colored hair. Maria Sutton takes us to the dark green hills and valleys of the ancient Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine, where the woody fragrance of birch trees and new-mown hay fills the fresh, crisp air after a heavy rain. Vicariously, we see a sunrise over Poland obscured by brightly colored swastikas on warplanes and then we will be taken into suffocating cattle cars, lice-infested stalags, and to the Dachau death camp. Further down a country road, the hearty laughter and beer steins clinking with each salute to the Fuhrer s astonishing victories can be heard. As Maria takes us on this odyssey to solve a decades-long mystery, she learns the family secrets of untold heroism, quiet courage, and a mother s love and of tragedy, disillusionment, and heartbreak. At the end of her long journey, Maria uncovers a shattering and painful truth. But the secret, however heartbreaking, would also become the greatest gift she would receive.

I don’t often read non-fiction books for “fun” but I received a free copy of this book and thought I’d give it a try. I was intrigued by the author’s journey and how it personalized history lessons of the past. I was especially interested in the refugee camps since Brian’s family spent time in a refugee camp after the war and before immigrating to the United States. There were a few parts when the story dragged and jumped around a little but as the author got closer to the truth I could not put the book down. I was excited and heart broken as she learned the truth about her father and other family members. In the end, I loved how the experience strengthened her and gave her peace. Well worth the read.

Well, that’s it for this week! Thanks again to Hallie and Jessica for hosting!

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Tag Archives: what we’re reading wednesday

Five Favorites (Vol 12) & What We’re Reading (Vol 4)

What We’re Reading Wednesday – Vol 3

Five Favorites (Vol 9) & What We’re Reading Wednesday (Vol 2)

Five Favorites (Vol 8): Summer Edition & What We’re Reading Wednesday