Stickie

Your Secret is Safe with Me!

All I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother.

~Abraham Lincoln

Relapse

I am ashamed to admit this, but I, Angela Iva Thomson, am an adolescent literature addict.
I was doing so well, but then I fell off the wagon. My library account has FIVE YA novels on request right now.

Adolescent Literature
known on the streets as “YA Lit,” “Newberies,” “berries”, “Printz”
classroom name: “fluff,” “quick reads” and in rare circles “reading assignments”

what's awaiting for me at the dealer library.

Progressing ...Slowly...

I was inspired by Geneva’s post and decided that maybe I should work on the Nursery. We don’t call it Caleb’s room because it is the official nursery, we really should install a revolving door. We are trying to keep it gender neutral as possible.
A) An ordinary over-the-door shoe rack from Target is now a trinket and stuff animal holder.
B) Finally, I got around to using the frame Brittanie got me (thanks Britt!) I took a bunch of action shots of Caleb, and Photoshop-ed them.
C) My parents gave me the wooden rocking horse my nephews use to play with.
D) The sign was designed by Mike (the walls are a lighter hue of the green on the sign) and was made by Shelly at Say Anything Expressions.

Hopefully, by the time the next little one comes along (whenever that may be) he’ll have a beautiful nursery to come home to.

Grown-Up Book #1

One of my resolutions this year is to read more “grown-up” books. I kicked off the new year the best way I knew how- with C.S. Lewis.
I had wanted to read The Great Divorce for awhile now and I found the opportunity through my resolution. I am a Lewis-enthusiast. My favorite, up until now, was The Screwtape Letters.

The Great Divorce is what I call a bang-for-your-buck-book (even if you are borrowing).
bang-for-your-buck-book, n.
a book of 100 or so pages that is of quality writing, not to be confused with flash fiction.
Busy mothers appreciate bang-for-your-buck-books.
Steinbeck’s "The Pearl" is a bang-for-your-buck-book.
Angela needs to find another phrase to describe a “bang-for-your-buck-book”.

Anyways.

The Great Divorce is now my favorite C.S. Lewis novel (sorry Wormtail). Lewis craft fully (as always) interlaces Christian theology with temporal application and literary allusions. If you disagreed with Blake’s conception (ha, pun) of Heaven and Hell, Lewis has got your back. If you liked Dante, you’ll like this journey. If you found Dante callous, you will appreciate the grace described in this book.

Of course, the novel is allegorical. And, although Lewis’ works speak to the majority of Christianity, not all aspects of his writings apply to all churches.
S. Michael Wilcox is a favorite speaker in our household, he recently released Of Lions, Dragons and Turkish Delight: C. S. Lewis for Latter-day Saints which is great is you are LDS and a Lewis fan, I recommend it and I’ll even let you borrow it.

Okay. With that said. How about another phrase for “bang-for-your-buck-book?”
Maybe… smile-for-your-while-book? I don’t know. Help me out.

Rookie Mom Mistake #56

Leaving a wipe dispenser unguarded.

2009 Resolutions

Michael will…
start grad school this fall, not break his nose, read a book (not related to engineering), completely read through the 2 general conferences Ensigns that come out this year,
get the basement entirely free of its musty smell, and set up electronics "workshop" down there.
Angela will…
try to read more ‘grown-up’ books, incorporate more family history into our home, settle our home, get back to basics in the kitchen, maybe get pregnant again? Possibly.
Caleb will…
turn ONE, walk, grow hair, sleep through the night regularly, look more like mommy and less like daddy, obtain Nursery status, branch out from potatoes, bread, meat, and fruits and try new cuisine.

New Year, New Look

Since I've been helping everyone else with their headers, it's about time I spruced up our own blog!

So, some things I've been meaning to post but haven't gotten around to:

Goodnight Moon. A classic bedtime story, you've probably read it.

What Mike and I want to know is: Does this book give you the heebee jeebies?

Heebee jeebies n.

A feeling of minor fright, anxiety, nervousness, apprehension, "the willies", phobic

"Goodnight Moon" gives the Thomsons the heebee jeebies.

Because, if you can't tell by the example sentence above, it sure gives us the heebee jebies and I'll tell you some things we noticed about this book...

the illustrations… above the bookshelf there is a rabbit fishing. And what is he fishing for?... a bunny. What is scarier than a cannibal rabbit?
the story…. Mike is convinced (and by ‘convinced’ I mean mocks) that the book is about death. (“Hello? Goodnight air? Who says goodnight to the air? DEAD PEOPLE, that’s who!”... and the room progressively get darker.)I usually skip over the line “Goodnight nobody…” FREAKY!
Although we think the book is morbid, we still read it as part of Caleb’s bedtime routine. It freaks us out, but not that much.

Word. Caleb can say “ma ma” now, but it doesn’t mean “the woman that gave birth to me, whom I adore” it means “I want something, gimme.”
Food storage. Dry foods rock. I bought some barley the other day, totally going to make some beef and barley soup. If I hadn’t set the goal to be more daring in the kitchen regarding food storage, I would be missing some great bargains during this economic slump.
The Millis Lights. One of the few things Millis is known for, one of the largest Christmas displays in the U.S. And the Thomson review for it, “Meh.” I mean, we will totally go and see it every year, it is free and meets our Christmas light fix, but we wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. It was a parade of vast displays including trademark characters, Santa’s workshop, reindeer stables, and *really* nice cars (“Big Boy Toys”) and much, much more. No real theme besides “glitter.” The light display play leads you around the owner's property, you drive behind their house- which is huge. I guess they own the local truck dealership.
Neighbors. We live next door to a really nice elderly couple. He is very knowledgeable about our town’s history and is on the historical commission.

Did you know Millis was home to the first major ginger ale factory in the U.S.?