Dads & Daughters

 My Reading Reviews: Dads & Daughters, Authored by: Dr. James Dobson

**This book review was started in the fall of 2018 and I never finished it until now.**

Dr. James Dobson is a fairly well-known Christian author and psychologist. He is probably most well known for the organization that he founded in 1977, Focus on the Family, as well as various radio shows that he has had. Dr. Dobson has written a plethora of books on a variety of topics relating to family, marriage, kids, etc. This book was given to Jason from his parents shortly before Little Pumpkin was born. Getting Jason to read a book that is not for school, a Star Wars novel, or a literary classic, pretty much doesn't happen. I almost begged him to at least try to read this book. Just because I didn't think it could hurt anything, and maybe he could learn something that would be helpful down the road. The other month, when I was trying to stay on track with my "read a book a month" program, I needed a short book to read. So I decided to read this one. I figured not only might it contain useful information for Jason as a dad, but that I could quite possibly learn something, too.

This short book is a compilation of short excerpts from Dr. Dobson's book, Bringing Up Girls. It is written in almost a devotional-type format that would be easy to read one a day for about a month. It has 27 "readings," if you will, each relating to as specific topic. The flow of the book kind of starts with topics relating to the younger years, and progresses through the growing up years. There are even some topics that I think can relate to parenting in the adult years.

(April 19, 2020) As I come back to finish this long-past-started book review of mine, I cannot remember a lot about this book. I don't think it was that earth-shattering for me. It wasn't a bad book at all, but I think for me it was about so-so. I actually just tried to find this book to re-acquaint myself with it so that I could do a better job of finishing this review. And, I can't find it! I am pretty sure we still have some of our books packed up from moving last year, and I didn't exhaust my search options tonight.

On that note, I don't feel like I can say "yes" or "no" as to whether I would highly recommend this book. I know some people really like Dr. Dobson's writings, and other people not so much. I would say if you are looking for a quick, easy, kind of devotional-type read regarding the Biblical daddy-daughter relationship, than check this book out. Otherwise, maybe you should go find his original Bringing Up Girls book.

How about you? Have you read either of the books mentioned here - Dad's & Daughters, or Bringing Up Girls?

A Birthday Celebration!

 **I'm cleaning out my "Drafts" box and trying to get some old, already started posts posted. As such, this post, and event, are over a year old!**

A few weeks ago, our Little Pumpkin had her 2nd birthday! The little girl is growing, learning, and maturing at a rapid speed these days. She is a real joy and a lot of fun to have around, even though both she and I are not perfect and sometimes have conflict. These past two years with Little Pumpkin have been a learning experience for both of us, and I am sure the learning will never stop for either of us!

To celebrate her 2nd birthday, we had planned to have Jason's parents, and his sister's family, over for a meal and cake. I wanted to have a meal of Little Pumpkin's favorite foods, but also wanted to keep it simple. Keeping it simple, for me, eliminated having home-made pizza, which is by far her favorite food! I decided to have lots of fresh fruits, which ties as her favorite food, and then make Pig's in a Blanket. That seemed simple and pretty kid-friendly to me, and was food she would enjoy. I was also planning to have Pumpkin help mix up her birthday cake because making things in the kitchen is one of her favorite things; she loves to measure and stir! As it turned out, hardly any of what I had planned actually happened.

A few days before the party, Little Pumpkin and I both woke up feeling a bit crummy. She had a runny nose, and I had some slightly vicious bug that included a horrid sore throat for close to two weeks. As the course of events would have it, we canceled the party, and I did not make the cake with my little helper. I did get a cake made, and ended up decorating it late the night before her birthday. Even though she and I were feeling under the weather, I was determined that she would have a nice (hopefully!) cake and 2nd birthday!

The morning of her birthday, we had the fresh fruit for breakfast. I made her a banana and peanut butter caterpillar, along with mandarin oranges.

When I was a kid, whenever we had bananas, we would sometimes make these caterpillars out of them using peanut butter in between the slices. It was a fun snack, at least in my memory. (I mostly remember making them with my sister, L., but I don't know where we got the idea.)

Since Little Pumpkin really does love fresh fruits, and peanut butter, this was a great breakfast for her. Not to mention all the healthy vitamins we got to help boost our immune system while sick! After breakfast, we gave her her birthday present.

With everything else that happened, getting her present actually in a box and wrapped was the least of my concerns! Hence the stylish blanket wrap.

[caption id="attachment_610" align="aligncenter" width="667"] Special thanks to the little girl who so kindly gave Little Pumpkin one of her baby dolls when we visited several weeks ago! Baby goes everywhere with Pumpkin![/caption]

I do believe this little kitchen set is the most sought after item this year! I had been searching since this summer for a nice, quality toy kitchen that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I searched Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and buy and sell groups on Facebook. Every time I would find one and inquire about it, it was already taken. This fall, I started searching for a small trampoline as my back-up plan. The week before Pumpkin's birthday, I saw this almost like-new kitchen set that was just posted for sale, and I immediately asked the seller if I could pick it up the next day. It was a bit more than I was hoping to spend, but it also came with some toy food and kitchen accessories. Providence was with me, as I managed to be the first of a long line of people that wanted to purchase it!

After getting the little kitchen home, and going through all the accessories that came with it, I do believe I got my money's worth! (Don't tell Little Pumpkin, but she will be getting all of those accessories for Christmas!!) Because we didn't give her the accessories with the kitchen, I pulled all of her current kitchen toys out of my kitchen drawers and arranged them in her kitchen before giving it to her. She has been enjoying her kitchen, and her 'frigerator - she stashes random things in there, along with baking pies and washing her hands with "soap" in the little sink. I have been quite pleased with my second-hand score!

Later in the evening, after having a meal of Pig's in a Blanket (I had purchased the stuff to make them, and I didn't feel like making anything that took much effort!), we finally had Little Pumpkin's birthday cake.

This cake was not what I had originally envisioned but, considering the circumstances, I thought it turned out well. My intention was for it to be a dog that looked like our Gunther. Hence the two-toned "fur."

I think Jason may have told her that it was a dog; I don't think she quite saw the "dog" in the cake when she first saw it. (I don't blame her - it kind of looked like a cross between a bear and maybe a dog!)

There was a bit of confusion when I sent the picture to family. Yes, there are three candles on the cake, but she only turned two. Last year I had decided that one of the ways that I wanted to make birthdays special for Little Pumpkin was to have a special, big candle that we could use every single year. I wasn't able to find a candle last year, but thanks to my sister Jul's great internet searching, I was able to get this cute teddy-bear candle to start using this year. (Jason requested a teddy-bear candle based on his nickname for Little Pumpkin.)

The dog cake was tasty and enjoyed by all three of us, even though we didn't need that much sugar when we were sick! But, it was a special occasion, so exceptions had to be made!

(April 17, 2020)   At this point, I don't remember all of the juicy details that I was going to share about the "after birthday" happenings except this one specific incident.

Though I don't remember exactly how it happened, it was a few days after Little Pumpkin's birthday when Jason and I both heard a crash in the kitchen one morning. When we walked into the kitchen, we couldn't see anything that had caused the noise. Until we walked around to the other side of the table...

This pretty, still sick with a cold, little girl was trying to help herself to her birthday cake! It had been sitting on the table and she somehow got the lid off, had gotten a table knife to cut the cake with, and was ready to dig in when it somehow crashed onto the floor! I believe she was a little unsure of what we were going to do upon our discovering her covert, secret birthday cake mission, but we were more impressed than anything! (She still surpasses my expectations in her abilities, even to this day!) I cannot remember if we salvaged the now pitifully-sad doggy cake at all, but this event still sticks in my mind as the most memorable part of her second birthday! And with that, I will finish this very-past-due post about our birthday celebration for Little Pumpkin's second birthday!

Books on My Nightstand

 A long while ago, as in a year or two, I decided to try and read one book a month. I succeeded for several months and actually wrote my personal review for each book I read. I think I almost made it an entire year, so I read about 12 books, I'm guessing. Then life got busy with the moving stuff and I didn't keep up with the book reading. I've thought about it a few times, but never got it picked back up again. I've actually started a few books over the past year, but have yet to finish any of them. And, they are piled on my nightstand waiting to be finished. So, I thought that maybe if I started doing my little book reviews again, I would get motivated to finish all the books I have started!

These are the five books I have started over the past year, or more. I don't think there is really any "theme" going on - it is quite a varied collection. There is only one book in the stack that I do not own and was loaned to me by a friend. The rest have either been purchased or given to us.

This Charles Dickens collection of stories is from Jason's personal library. I started reading this either in November or December of 2018, I believe. I had never actually read any of Charles Dickens, though I am familiar with some of his works. One thing that I clearly remember while reading in this book was that I was working at the Christian bookstore in Kansas during that time. And, an older customer came in looking for "a book that is kind of a Christmas story similar to "The Grinch," but it's not the Grinch." There were other key words that she used which made me positive she was looking for Dickens A Christmas Carol. I also remember being slightly shocked that she had never heard of it before and was looking for it based on someone else telling her about it. Anyways, back to my personal reading of this set of three books by Dickens....

I completed A Christmas Carol, and The Chimes, and only got part-way through The Cricket on the Hearth. I honestly can't remember a ton about the books, other than I thought they were a bit darker than I was expecting. And I remember telling Jason that at that point, I couldn't quite figure out what The Cricket on the Hearth was really about. I have yet to read up on Charles Dickens and his purposes for the books he wrote, which is something I tried to do with each of the books I was reading and reviewing here on my blog. I have not opened this book since 2018, so I think I will have to re-read most of all three books if I am going to write my little review.

I acquired this book, Gay Girl, Good God, while I was working at the bookstore in Kansas. Several of my co-workers had read it, lots of people bought it, and it sounded intriguing. I will confess that I flipped through it and read a little of it there at the store before actually buying it. And, I have picked it up to read a couple of times. I don't know that I have gotten past the second chapter at all. And, at this point, I cannot tell you exactly what it is about, nor can I tell you anything about the author. I do think that I should be able to easily finish this book within a month....once I start it!

Is God Anti-Gay? is a small little book - kind of pocket-sized, almost. Again, I purchased this book while living and working in Kansas. The reason behind getting it? I had one customer tell me all about it, gave it raving reviews, and we were almost always sold out of it. I have started this one a few times, but again, I don't think I ever got much past the second chapter. The author, Sam Allberry, if I remember correctly is a pastor, or was a pastor. I clearly will need to do my research if I'm going to share anything worthwhile about this book! I also believe that this book could be easily read within a month.

This book, How to End the Autism Epidemic, was loaned to me by a good friend in the middle of 2019. I was pregnant with our second kiddo, she has three kiddos, and we were talking about various doctor visit experiences with our kids, vaccines, people's opinions, our perceptions, etc., etc., and she gave me this book to read. It is about infant and childhood vaccines which can be quite a controversial topic. I flipped through the book and saw lots of charts, graphs, scientific mumbo-jumbo and thought, "There's no way I'll ever get this book read." But, I took it anyway because I respect my friend and cracked it open sometime in the middle of last year. And, much to my shock, I got at least half-way through it!!! I thought for sure I would get bogged down and bored of the scientific mud (for lack of a better word, as science is far from my strong subject!). And, while I did just skim some of the graphs and scientific study inserts, I was surprised at how engaging I found the book! It is a book that I do want to finish. Since I have gotten over half-way in it, and I need to return it to it's owner, I will be picking this book back up to complete before any of the previous books.

Building Better Humans is the most recent book to enter our library. It was a gift from one of Jason's students right when Pumpkin #2 was born. For some reason, Little Pumpkin fell in love with this book and has asked multiple times for me to read it to her. She has also sat down and pretended to read it several times herself!As a result, I have read the first two or three chapters more than three times!!! I think the last time I picked it up to read on my own I was around chapter 8. It is a fairly short book, but I have yet to complete it. So far, I have liked what I read and didn't have any complaints about their child-rearing philosophy or strategy. Again, though, I know nothing about the authors. Yet. Because I am the closest to finishing this book, and it is pretty easy reading, I am choosing to start my reading program with this book.

Well, now you know what I have sitting, waiting on my nightstand for me to read! And, if you like knowing what I think about books, hopefully I can start writing my monthly book reviews again. For curiosity and conversations sake, which of these books, if any, would you choose to pick up and finish first?

Ch-ch-ch-Changes!

 **I started this post sometime in 2019 and decided to go ahead and try and finish it now, and post it, regardless of it's out-dated-ness!**

Moving always brings about change, and a life without change is really impossible. So it should come as no surprise that over the past four months there have been a lot of changes in our life. And, adjusting to changes can take time whether you like to admit it, or not.

I've recently been thinking about all the changes we have been through, both this year and over the past few years. Some changes we specifically chose and pursued, other changes were not something we would have chosen if given the choice. There have been really big, major changes, and there have been tiny, minuscule changes that most probably would never know about. And, just for writing's sake, I thought I'd share some of these changes in our lives with you; some big and some small.

You probably already know that a major change this year was moving back to Wyoming from where we had been living in Kansas. (If not, you can check out this blog post for a little background info.) A subsequent change to our moving has been that our social life, and sometimes I think most specifically Jason's social life, has increased by 100%. We literally had no social life in Kansas, aside from getting together with family a few times a month for birthdays, Easter, just because, Christmas, etc. Well, let me back up. Jason had a bit of a social life because he made friends through his work, and occasionally I was able to go along on one of his social outings. And I think we had one of his co-workers over once or twice before they moved away. Outside of that, we were literally hermits with no life outside of our four walls.

In the four months that we have been here, though, I sometimes have wondered if maybe we are too sociable! We have gone camping with friends twice. We had a 4th of July party. We have had friends over for a few meals. Jason hosted a get-together of some of his old co-workers and friends. We have gone out to dinner with friends a few times. We've gone to friends' houses for meals. We babysat for friends so they could go on a date, and then they kept Little Pumpkin while we went on a date. Little Pumpkin has had two play-dates. Jason and I have each gotten to go out separately with friends at least a few times. And there always seems to be discussion of the next meal, or the next event, or the next adventure to be had with friends. I once told Jason that I feel like all we do sometimes is have a social life!! I have not been using my camera very much until just recently, and I don't have hardly any pictures of any of these events. But we have had fun, and have memories! One of my most memorable social events, if you can call it that, since moving back was going mountain biking for the first time. I think that it even tops the most recent camping trip which was the birthday party camp-out! Having a social life has been fun, and sometimes tiring, and is probably a very healthy change for our family, I think.

Another major area of change has been even more recent, and has to do with food. If you read any of my blog last year, I did a lot of cooking and baking and was in the process of trying a lot of new recipes. You probably also knew, or figured out, that I tend to try and cook and bake from scratch. Over the last year, I made some delicious foods, such as:

Blueberry-Strawberry Shortcake Orange Glazed Chicken Stir-fry

Sourdough Bread

And I could go on and on. Not every recipe that I made was a winner; there were some really not-so-good dishes that we tried. But, it was kind of fun trying new, and sometimes not new, recipes that I have kept in my over-flowing cookbook collection for the past 12 years!

The small food change in my life, and maybe is insignificant, is that I cleaned out my recipe books and got rid of some that I had literally never used. My hair-brained idea to try every single recipe that I had in my cupboard was almost a pipe-dream. I'm sure I could have accomplished such a task, but it would have taken years! And I seem to always be acquiring new recipes that I want to try, so I decided to get rid of the books that I almost never crack open, if ever.

The other food change is a bit bigger and comes from Jason. He has chosen to pursue a keto food diet, and did a lot of research (and talking to his friends) about what that entails. I knew a little bit about the basics of the keto food-style, and have my own ideas and opinions surrounding it. (I think it has it's pros and cons, basically.) Jason bought a keto cookbook and decided to jump into it in July. Little Pumpkin and I are working hard to eat  keto-friendly as much as possible along-side him, and try to make keto approved meals. (If you read in between the lines, that means the meals that Pumpkin and I eat without him are not strictly keto!) I am not opposed to the lower carb, lower sugar food-style, but I really really like my fresh fruits!!! And I like my bread, however that is the one food that has probably seen the most cut-back for all of us.

Cooking keto meals and finding keto-friendly options for breakfast and snacks that fill the bill has been interesting. I have been cooking completely from his new cookbook, although he searched the internet for a good keto-pizza recipe. We have been making, and trying, foods such as:

Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie

I think we have tried almost all the smoothie recipes in the cookbook. Little Pumpkin asks for a taste every morning (Jason has requested smoothies for his breakfast food), and some smoothies she wants to drink it all, and others she makes a face after her taste-test. Jason really likes about 3 of the smoothie recipes, and tends to not like the ones that have greens in them.

Roasted Pork Loin with Grainy Mustard Sauce

Some recipes are winners, and some are losers. This was a half-and -half recipe: the pork itself was great, the mustard sauce was not so great.

Keto Ham & Spinach Pizza

This recipe made Jason happy! He really likes pizza, and he quite liked this keto version. It is apparently a little tricky to get the crust perfect, as I have messed it up both times I made it after his first one turned out perfect! There's not a whole lot of keto desserts that we have tried; I have made one recipe, actually. Pumpkin Spice Fat Bombs. Jason says they are good, I do not like them. I also made Parmesan Crackers and those received raving reviews from everyone! We have tried a lot of other recipes, but while Jason eats his meals in his office, Little Pumpkin and I eat some less-strict foods....

Leftover Grilled Cheese Sandwich and fresh fruit!

While I do really try for us all to eat the same as what Jason's eating, sometimes I just need something a bit more. And Little Pumpkin is not the biggest fan of lots of meat right now, so sometimes I just make food I know she will eat because it is just easier. This big change in food-style is definitely throwing a learning curve and providing lots of new recipe opportunities!

Another change in our lives which may seem kind of silly, but I think it's pretty significant, is that as of last week we have an actual bed frame! We have never had a headboard-and-footboard bed frame in the almost 7 years we have been married. Our bed has either been on the floor, or just on metal rails. Jason has wanted a "real bed," I always said to get a used one, and we just never actually did it. (In reality, we may have never agreed on the bed frame whenever one of us found one we liked!) Since we bought our house, Jason has been perusing furniture for sale online, and last week he found a bed. And he bought it, and the people delivered it!

We have a "real bed!"

Jason was pretty excited about his purchase, and said it was my birthday present. It is quite a nice, solid wood bed frame with only a few dings and scratches, but nothing some Liquid Gold won't help. Jason stated that it might actually be the first time in his life that he has had a headboard-and-footboard bed frame. And that he has always liked the "sleigh bed" style. I've never been sure how I would like a footboard, but it seems to be fine. And, I'm enjoying the idea that our bed rails won't collapse in the middle of the night! I think that has happened at least once before!

A different sort of change that I was not expecting has to do with making a mental choice. With no air conditioning, I have had to try to maintain livable indoor temperatures by shutting all the windows and curtains during the day. (It helps; sometimes not a lot, but it does help.) When we moved to Kansas two years ago, I discovered that I do not like being in a house with the windows, curtains, and doors all closed up, locked, and the shutters battened down. Ok, so maybe there were no shutters battened down, but it kind of felt like it. In some ways it was kind of claustrophobic to me, and I don't know that I have ever really had issues with claustrophobia. But, for some reason, two years ago I noticed that closed up houses felt suffocating, and I didn't like it. Now here, two years later, I'm having to shut up all the windows, draw all the blinds and curtains, and batten down the shutters every single day unless I want it to be 90 degrees in here. And I don't like it.

(4/9/20) To pick up this post from where I left off last year....

It took me a while to realize, or come to terms with, the fact that life for me in 2017 was pretty dark. And the only way to not smother in the darkness was to make sure the sun could shine and the fresh air blow in as much as possible. So being in a house with all the windows closed, curtained, doors locked, etc. just made the darkness even more suffocating, I have realized. I needed the sunlight, fresh air, and openness to survive. I found that taking walks, and then running, and just making myself get outside and do physical activity was very imperative to my well-being and an effort to get out of that darkness.

After I realized why being in a closed and shuttered house bothered me so much (to the point that I actually called one of my sisters and complained about it after being in someone's house one day), I realized there was more. Even though I didn't entirely comprehend what was happening then, I also needed the Son to keep shining into my life. (See what I did there?) It was super hard to go to church after we moved to Kansas. With Jason's then work schedule, and the way I was feeling, it would have just been easier to not go to a new church, or any church, at all. It would have been easier to stay home. But, I knew that we HAD to go, even if none of us really wanted to. And, thanks to God's providence, the first church we tried was where we, or at least I, needed to be. We may have failed at integrating and socializing, but keeping the Son shining into the darkness of my life that year even by just going to Sunday church kept the darkness from completely overwhelming me. Thankfully, as the year (and now years) have progressed since 2017, the darkness has lifted. Yes, the battened and shuttered windows last summer to try and keep the house cooler was far from my preference, but it didn't completely overwhelm me. And, while I have been able to enjoy wide open curtains (and even windows!) for the past six months or more, I am curious to see if battened and shuttered windows have any subconscious effect this summer.

Through all of the changes in life, one thing I am certain of is that having and keeping Christ in your life is imperative to surviving. It's easy to go through changes that are exciting and seem to be great for you, but when something changes that you were not expecting, or prepared for, or have no idea what's even happening, relying on the faithfulness of God is the only way you can make it through.