Eragon

Jim has been telling me for years to read the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini, and this year I decided was the year to start it as I want to study different fantasy books to learn and write one myself.

Jim knew I would enjoy this book and he was not wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed delving in the the world of Alagaesia and following Eragon as he steps into a life he had never expected. A poor farmer boy raised by his uncle, Eragon finds a large blue stone while he's out hunting in the Spine and his life is forever changed. 

While I thoroughly enjoyed the world and the complexities of making your own world and magic system, the book was very predictable. I know there is a general outline for story telling and even more so for fantasy stories, but this was highly predictable and I definitely called much of the story as it happened. I'm still waiting to see whether some of my predictions are true as the story unfolds in the rest of the series, but most of the ones I made in the first book came to pass. 

That being said, I still enjoyed the story and will probably read this again in the future, especially if our children want to read it. For a first book written by a teenager, it is definitely well written and well thought through. I definitely felt with the characters and found myself cheering and booing internally as I read. It even brought tears a couple of times. 

If you enjoy fantasy books, I definitely recommend this one.

4 Stars 

Reading Challenges:

I'm using Eragon in the 2021 Reading Challenge by Tim Challies as a Book by an Author 30 or Younger in the Committed section

A Fiction Book for Fun in level 1 with 2021 Intentional By Grace Reading Challenge

A Book Chosen by Jim in the Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Life Challenge.

Five True Dog Stories

This delightful short read is part of our Core A curriculum with Sonlight.

This book, as the title indicates, has five stories about dogs who did heroic deeds to help humanity throughout the years. Each story had its own flare and you see how different types of dogs are geared for different things. It's neat to see dogs doing what God created them to do to help humans. One fought crime another worked to protect people crossing the Swiss Alps. It was a vast array even in five stories. 

Our children enjoyed these stories a lot with many laughs and a few tears. Each chapter was a quick and easy read so everyone could sit through a chapter without issue. This was a great read for the whole family to enjoy. 

4 Stars for this family read.

Reading Challenges:

I'm counting this as a book I've read before in the 2021 Intentional By Grace Reading Challenge. 

Our Seven Year Old Sam

 

Seven years. And what a seven years it has been since we welcomed our precious Sam into our arms!

This spunky, energetic boy has been a blessing from the start. His life brought about a new era in our family with God using Sam to push us into a deeper faith. God is still using him to do this. 

Sam loves life and loves everything in life. He wants to be a part of it ALL. When asked what he wants it is likely to change a dozen times in five minutes because he wants everything and enjoys everything. He wants to be in the middle of the party. He loves people. He loves making people laugh and Sam does this on a regular basis. His desire is to be happy and to make others happy.

Sam loves to watch anything and everything he is allowed to and then turn around and act it out for you. His memory for films is astounding and he quotes movies and educational videos left and right. He loves to learn and is growing in all his skills with books, but if he can watch it to learn it, he would rather do that. 

Right now Sam is growing in his reading skills and comprehension, basic math and writing. In the past couple of months he has really shown a deep desire to read and write and understand. It's so fun watching him put things together and get so excited that he figured it out. He is also really into schedules and calendars, desiring schedule and order, which is amazing to see in him. Sam also asks questions about anything and everything. He wants to know it all and his mind is a whirlwind of wonderings and musings and we enjoy hearing him come up with some funny ideas. He's so creative.

Sam is learning Bible and wants to know the things of God, though we have not yet seen salvation. He reads his Action Bible and talks through the stories with us. He is memorizing Scripture and growing in this. Right now he's working on James 1 and knows verses 1-8, along with other Scripture from catechism and Sunday School. It's amazing to see God working in him.

Some of Sam's preferred activities outside of movies are LEGOs, playing games and being outside. Being outside is at the top if the weather is nice. He loves to explore, pretend and imagine as he goes about our property. He does also enjoy playing in the rain when it's not storming. He loves being out in God's creation. 

Sam has a deep appreciation of food. There is not much this boy will not eat. From fish to chicken, apples to lemons, asparagus to zucchini, not to mention sweets he enjoys it all. And he loves to eat all the time. Food is definitely one of his favorite things. 

Sam keeps us on our toes and we are so thankful for this sweet young man that God has given to us. 

Father, thank You for Sam and how You have already used him to touch others. Please continue to grow him in wisdom and knowledge of You and bring him to Yourself. Continue to give him a deep love of people and of life and use that to show him yourself. Thank You for all You are doing in Sam and through Sam. We are so blessed by his life. In the Name of Jesus I pray these things. Amen!

Stories from Around the World

This delightful story collection is part of our Core P with Sonlight.

Stories from Around the World is a collection of stories that are based in different countries, just as the name suggests. This is probably our third time reading through this book and we all have enjoyed it every time. These stories give you a peek into different cultures, what they believe and value or they have life lessons like Aesop's Fables. 

This time around my oldest noticed themes and said with one of the later stories, "I knew they were going to get married." He found a common element among many of the stories. This is good for finding connectivity but I think he was also a bit annoyed by it. 

That being said, most stories valued hard work, doing what is right and looking out for others. While many of these stories are not even close to Christian, they did provide opportunities to talk about what God's Word says about the idea of the story. 

I would give this story collection 4 stars.

Reading Challenges:

I'm counting this book as a Book that Looks Easy to Read Level 2 in the 2021 Intentional By Grace Reading Challenge

The Mission of Motherhood

I have been trying to read this book for several years. I'd started it a couple of times, but because of the reflection questions at the end of each chapter I kept getting bogged down and not completing it. After realizing I just needed to read it, I finally sat down and did just that! 

The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson is a book every mother needs to read. Nothing in this book was new to me, but her soothing tone along side her direct statements allowed me to receive these messages fresh and anew. Sally does a beautiful job of walking you through your roles as a woman, wife, mother and homemaker, grounded in Scripture. 

Sally lets you into her life. She talks about her struggles, her victories, her successes and her heartaches. She shares her work both at home and on the road and how she prays over what she does. Her children were still at home when this book was written, so it was definitely written from a more practical perspective.

One hard thing in this is some of her fun suggestions do feel a little overwhelming in my current child rearing stage of life. I love the ideas and I hope to work on incorporating them, but I also know that I can make these types of things work for our family that is twice the size of hers. 

On the whole I really enjoyed this book. I'm thankful for her candid view of motherhood and pointing to the eternal work that we are doing in raising our children. Since I read this over a few months I don't have excellent notes on everything but I do remember a couple of things bothering me from a Scriptural perspective, though I'm not sure what they are at this point. 

I do like that each chapter has Scripture and questions to think through as well as suggestions. This can be very helpful in any parenting season.

I would give this book a 4.5 star rating. I do think all mothers would benefit from it, but it wasn't quite five stars in my book.

Reading Challenges:

Tim Challies 2021 Reading Challenge I'm using this as a book on parenting in the Obsessed section of the challenge

Christian Reading Challenge 2021 with Jami Balmet I'm counting this as a book on Parenting/Family Life

James Herriot's Treasury for Children

This children's story collection is part of our Core A Curriculum with Sonlight.

This book was a delightful read for the entire family. We read the stories over lunch and had such fun thinking about what was going on with the people and animals in the stories. It is neat to see how different animals are and how they can help humans. As soon as we finished one story I was asked for another. 

This book is simple yet compelling in it's story telling and we were easily drawn in to what was happening. The pictures were lovely and picturesque taking you to the farm, city or countryside area that the story took place in. 

This was also fun as a couple of our boys have interest in having animals or small farms and they enjoyed hearing how to care for them. It definitely stirred curiosity and gave them desire to know more. 

It was humorous in one story that was told from the animals perspective, all of my children said, "how does he know what the lamb was thinking?" This allowed for a good dialogue about imagination and also the differences between animals and humans.

I'd give this story treasury 4 stars

This book does not fit into any reading challenge this year unless it is a book of my choice.

Johnny Appleseed The Story of a Legend by Will Moses

This book is part of our Core A curriculum through Sonlight.

I'm really not a huge fan of this book. I read it because the children like hearing about Johnny Appleseed, but personally it's not my favorite. In fact after reading this book, I'd wonder if Johnny Appleseed even existed!

Aside from the clear biographical information at the beginning and the end, the vast majority of the book is pure speculation. "Maybe he thought this." "Perhaps he wanted that." These kinds of statements flood this book with no real knowledge of what he did and why. It's also unnecessarily repetitive. 

It is a picture book and some of the pictures were nice and enjoyable to look at. But there were some that were just odd. There's no other word for it. 

I can't say it's a horrible book and it may be your style of book. As I said my children enjoyed it so I think it has some merit in that respect.

I'd give this book 3 stars.

This book does not fit into any of my reading challenges this year unless I were to use it as a book of my choice.