I love this snack so much. Caprese is the absolute perfect combination of flavors. The juicy tomatoes, the savory basil, the soft mozzarella cheese, and the sweet balsamic glaze. Yum!
For guests, I’ll make the cute little kebabs. When it’s just for me, I’ll eat it ‘deconstructed’ in a bowl.
It’s a quick, easy, healthy and delicious snack. What more could you ask for?
Review: This book is extremely informative. The authors address many things parents want advice on, including:
technology use,
anxiety,
learning disabilities,
standardized tests,
college decisions, and more.
I took lots of notes, but here are 4 points from the book I loved:
Make enjoying your kids a top parenting priority. Your kid needs to feel the joy of seeing your face light up when you see them because you are genuinely happy to spend time with them. This has a powerful effect on his/her self-esteem. It helps your children become JOY-producing people. If you don’t enjoy your children, reflect on why. Are you angry? Under pressure from work? In a difficult marriage? Reflect and do you best to work on the barriers that are keeping you from enjoying them.
Look for opportunities during the day to let your mind wander. This could mean just sitting quietly for a few minutes looking out the window or at the clouds. It could mean engaging in activities you do mindlessly.
Talk as a family about the importance of going off-line and giving yourself truly free time.Tell your kids that it’s only when they aren’t focused on anything in particular that they can really think about others and themselves.
Always know your kids passwords to their device(s). If you are paying for the phone, make it contingent on them being respectful online and putting it away at night.
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When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I couldn’t stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.
Review: A novel about hockey. The setting is a hockey town; the characters live and breathe hockey. I recommend this book to those of you who…(shocker) love hockey.
Review: This is one of my favorite books of all time. It’s the biography of Corrie Ten Boom. Her family helped countless Jews during WW2 and ended up in a concentration camp. It’s a beautiful story of survival, forgiveness, and redemption.
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What have you been reading this month? Leave me a comment!
The boys and I took advantage of a day off in winter to explore SEA LIFE at the Mall of America.
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They’d be asking to go to this aquarium since our first visit to the Mall of America in 2018, and we were excited to finally get inside and explore.
Sea Life is well organized with a “trail” that leads you through the entire aquarium.
I was surprised by how many different ‘creatures’ lived at Sea Life. I mean, it’s inside a mall, how big can this place be? Well, apparently VERY BIG! There are literally THOUSANDS of creatures. Two that I enjoyed seeing were the BLUE dart frogs and the alligators.
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They also have the only sawfish in Minnesota. Those fish are COOL! (Duke and Duchess are their names)
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Sea Life also has the only glass tunnel in Minnesota – and it was incredible. There were different types of fish, turtles and sharks swimming over and around you. We’d never experienced walking through a tunnel like that, and we all enjoyed it.
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Upon exiting the tunnel, there was a tank of starfish and sea anemones that we were allowed to touch. They were beautiful and felt so soft.
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There were also sting rays to observe and feed.
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Next we entered a room of tall tanks filled with jelly fish. They were mesmerizing. I could have watched them for hours – but I was pulled away by my boys who wanted to keep moving.
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The boys liked the exhibit with a surf board that had been bitten by a shark.
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Did you know that sharks think surfers are seals or sea turtles and that’s why they bite?
For lego lovers – there is a lego play area.
My boys said their favorite part of the day was the “Scavenger Hunt.” Upon arrival, there are books available with things you need to find throughout Sea Life. When you find them, you look for the stamper nearby and “punch” your card. When your card is full, you show it to a staff member in the gift shop to receive a sticker and a medal.
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Scavenger Hunt Guide
What kid doesn’t want a medal? They all wore theirs proudly.
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There were several shows, talks, and exhibits throughout the day.
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An interactive movie
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There are also fun ‘fin’ facts throughout the aquarium, as well as games to play.
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If you are in a hurry, you can go through the entire thing in 30 minutes. If you take your time, you can wander and spend about 90 minutes.
Sea Life is a place I’d recommend checking out. Writing this post makes me want to go back. I need to spend more time with those jelly fish. If you are local, you may want to get a season pass so that you can enjoy Sea Life throughout the year.
Thank you to Sea Life for the fun experience! They gave our family free tickets in exchange for this post. Being a blogger has benefits. 🙂
I was introduced to 3 fantastic authors this month, and I’m so grateful to have read their work. I’m looking forward to reading more books by those authors.
The first book I read this month was written by a fantastic author, who is also a friend. Power of a Place was a great book to start the new year.
Review: This author is someone I admire and respect. He went to school with Ted, and I worked with him in Colorado. He’s a great teacher and a fantastic writer. I loved his first book, Chasing Wisdom, and his second book is just as good. The Power of Place is about the value of putting down roots and investing in the place you call ‘home.’
Review: This book was so engaging, I did not want it to end. It shares the beautiful relationship that develops between CS Lewis and Ms. Davidson. They were pen pals, and later met and became great friends, and eventually married. I already loved CS Lewis, but this story makes me love him even more. This author did a fabulous job of re-creating their love story. I highly recommend the audiobook because the narration brings the story to life. It’s free on the Hoopla app.
Here are two quotes from the book that I loved:
God does not love us because we are lovable but because He is Love.
CS Lewis
Sometimes we want to stay and goof off in a mud pit when God has an entire seashore for us to play in.
Review: This was a wonderful book that I read with my 12-year-old son Clark. It’s the story of a young boy coming to live with his aunt in Minnesota to escape his war-torn country of Sudan. The author writes brilliantly and expresses such beautiful and deep emotion in very few words. This book can be read in a day but will stay with you for much longer. I felt the wonder, optimism, fear, sadness and hope through the eyes of the main character (Kek). This book gave me a glimpse into what it might be like to be a refugee. I HIGHLY recommend this book! Great for parents to read with kids ages 8 and up.
Review: I read this book with my 14 year-old son and we both enjoyed it. It’s a novel about a boy who went to work with his dad on September 11, 2001. The book does an excellent job recreating the environment from that day. You feel like you are in the Twin Towers that morning trying to escape. This book allowed George and I have to have some great conversations about what happened on September 11.
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Thanks for reading! Please share which of these books you’d like to read or a great book you’ve read recently.
A visit to the Bakken Museum has been on my bucket list since moving to Minnesota in 2018, and we finally made it happen.
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The beautiful home was orginally built by Mr. William E. Goodfellow, who owned Goodfellow Dry Goods in Minneapolis. Later, the home was purchased Earl Bakken, the inventor of the pacemaker and founder of Medtronic. He used this mansion not as a home, but a place to display things he’d collected over the years. In time, the mansion became the Bakken Museum, with a mission to nurture a love of science in all who visit.
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The museum is filled with hands-on exhibits that teach kids about science and electricity. The activities are entertaining for a wide range of ages.
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Upon entering the museum, the staff offered my boys a scavenger hunt. This kept them all engaged and allowed us to explore the entire museum. My boys were looking closely at displays they may have missed if they weren’t on the ‘hunt.’
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There is a Frankenstein show that combines history, art, and science. The show takes about 10 minutes. It’s not super- scary, but I don’t recommend it for kids under six. My older boys thought it was cool.
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The grounds outside the Bakken museum are beautiful. I could have spent a couple hours in the garden area if I’d brought a book to read (and didn’t have four busy boys in tow).
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The museum takes about two hours to explore, and parking is free.
Bakken Museum Address: 3537 Zenith Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55416
This is not a book about sales, though it would certainly help if you are in sales. It’s really a book about how to get the most out of life and how to be the best version of yourself.
It’s about man who inherits 10 ancient scrolls that are the ‘secret to success’. Each scroll has a powerful message.
I loved this book. I felt like I was listening to my grandfather describe his life from a beautiful, bygone era as I read about the simple life of Jayber Crow.
Jayber Crow is a book you want to read when you can sit back, relax, put your feet up and just enjoy a good story.
Erwin shares one phenomenal story after another, connecting what God teaches in the Bible to real people putting that into action, and the POWER that action had in their lives. Here are a few of my five favorite points from the book:
You need to act like your life depends on it because it’s never just your life involved. The world desperately needs everything you can bring to the table.
You will never sustain greatness or fulfill your God-given calling if you see people as an obstacle to your destiny rather than as essential to fulfilling God’s purpose in your life. An old African saying: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. We are more powerful when we walk together, and we are more vulnerable when we walk alone.
Fear is like a leprosy that eats away at us. Fear will lead us to build fortresses that look like security and safety. Fear convinces us that we have locked out the dangers, but it hasn’t locked the world out at all. Instead, fear has trapped us inside. It was never a fortress, it was a prison.
I do not believe anyone is born average but I do believe that many of us choose to live a life of mediocrity. To be above average demands a choice. Average is a safe choice and it’s the most dangerous choice we can make.
Do not lose sight of the fact that just because it’s time to move forward, the things in the past did not have great value for the time in your life. Appreciate the past, but live IN the present and FOR the future.
I’d heard of Clara Barton in connection with the Red Cross, but never knew what a fascinating life she led!
Reading (or listening to) stories like this gives me hope for each human. Clara was a simple girl that noticed a gap and problem, then filled the gap and help solved the problem. We can do great things by starting small.
I’m thankful for women like Clara because she carved the way for a woman like me, She was a leader before women were allowed to lead. She was hard-working, creative, respectful, but bold.
I listened to this book on my free Hoopla app and recommend it for moms and their daughters to listen to together.
As I closed this book, I hugged it in deep appreciation. Oh, how I needed to hear those beautifully written words.
I recommend this to someone new in town, who may feel ‘anonymous,’ or to someone whose dreams haven’t been realized.
Here are 5 points from the book:
Why would Jesus announce the birth of his precious son with a full angelic choir, then hide this priceless gift for three decades? Because what is hidden is not unimportant.
God’s first public words to Jesus were not directional (go there) or instructional (do this) it was relational: THIS IS MY SON! God spoke affirmation before Jesus had ever done any good works.
Every day, we invest in a future we cannot see. Time is not really spent, it is invested in a future we cannot see.
Jesus could stand strong in public because he stood still in private. He intentionally pursued quiet places.There is healing in stillness.
Savor the anonymous season. Respect it’s potential.
This is the best marriage book I’ve ever read. I picked it up, not because I was ready to ‘split,’ but simply curious on the advice she’d give from the perspective of a divorce attorney.
I had no idea how truly insightful and helpful this book would be to EVERY SINGLE MARRIED PERSON!
Here are 5 take-aways:
Your marriage can go from that bad to this good. No matter how troubled or even chaotic your marriage may seem, you have more control over its future than you think.
Ask yourself and people you trust: “What is it like to be on the other side of me?“
Your spouse can’t make you happy. Happiness is something you bring to a relationship, not something you get from it.
There’s danger in allowing the emotions you’re experiencing right now to lead you to make long-term decisions. Yes, your emotions are real. Examine them. Learn from them. But don’t give them the lead role.
Find friends who will help you WIN in your marriage. Surround yourself with WISE, trustworthy, and objective friends who help you make better decisions. Your friends help you lean into or away from your marriage.
This book was captivating because it shared so many different stories of the people who were directly impacted by the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.
I read this book twice this year – first reading the book, then listening to the audiobook. Both were excellent, but I loved that the audiobook contained REAL RECORDINGS from that day. It was powerful.
This book is so entertaining, you won’t want to put it down. My son kept asking: “Can we read another chapter?”
It’s the story of a girl and her parents who moved to the US from China. They get jobs at a motel in California. Mia, only 10 years old, runs the front desk. The book tells interesting stories about the guests who come to the motel, and gives insight into what it’s like to be an immigrant. The stories are endearing and you will fall in love with the characters!
Because Clark is such an active kid, he doesn’t usually want to sit and read. This is one of the first books where he actually loved sitting with me and reading together. It was one of the sweetest memories of the summer.
My son said: “I wish this book would never end.” I felt the same.
Parent tip: Keep trying new books until you find one your kid loves!
I’ve heard of and even quoted this author many times, but didn’t read his book until this last year. It’s a beautiful and hard book to read. Victor Frankl is a psychologist who survived Auschwitz – partially by using the techniques he taught his clients. One thing I loved was that he tried to find a way to laugh every day while imprisoned. He and another Jewish man would think up silly stories to share. Finding humor in the worst situation helped them survive.
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Here’s a picture snapshot of my Top Ten Books from 2021:
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There you have it! My favorite books of 2021.
What was your favorite book of the year or which book from this list do you want to read in 2022? Leave a comment by clicking on the box by the TITLE of this post.
I finished 58 books this year. Occasionally I’ve been asked how I find time to read. Here’s what I’ve said:
First of all, I love to read. You find time for things you love.
Second, I keep books all over the place. I have several next to my bed, a couple by the couch in the family room, another in the car – a physical book and an audio book.
I take a few minutes to read when I first wake up and before I go to bed. If it’s a really good book, I stay up too late to read.
If I have to wait for my kids at practice or an appointment, I read.
I read WITH my kids. I usually read one chapter per day with each of them.
The free HOOPLA app allows me to download excellent books for no cost, so I will listen to books while doing household chores or exercising.
Before I read any book, I look it up on Goodreads to see what my friends have rated it and what their reviews say. I find that well-written books are easier and faster to read. Click here to follow me on Goodreads.
Review: I’ve heard of and even quoted this author many times. I don’t know how I haven’t read his story until now. It’s a beautiful and hard book to read. He’s a psychologist who survived Auschwitz – partially by using the techniques he taught his clients. One thing I loved was that he tried to find a way to laugh every day. He and another Jewish man would think up silly stories to share. Finding humor in the worst situation helped them survive.
Review: I really enjoyed the beginning of this book where the author shared her conversion story.
However, the chapters on her specific denominational preferences was not really relevant or necessary for this book, and for me, it took away from her powerful personal story.
Review: This was one of my favorite books from childhood. I re-read it to find inspiration for some children’s books I’m working on. Each chapter of this book contains a story from a grandmother’s childhood and includes a lesson she learned.
Review: This is a book that’s stood the test of time. It’s the story of an orphan girl named Anne who gets adopted and the book shares her adventures, and mis-adventures, in a warm and endearing way.
I’ve watched the movie a dozen times, and even starred as Marilla in our high school play, but finally read this book for the first time. I’d recommend that mothers read or listen to this book with their daughters.
Review: Clark and I read this book together. It’s the third book of a series about a young girl who moves to the US from China. In this book, she goes back to China and shares how much it’s changed. Clark said at the end, “I wish there were more books in this series.”
Review: I had this on my list of books to read this Christmas season, then walked into a thrift store – and there it was on display, for only 75 cents! This was a great book to read over my quarantined Christmas. If you haven’t read it, I’d add this classic to your list.
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Thanks for reading. I’ll be listing my favorite books of the year very soon. Subscribe so you don’t miss that post!
Thanks to every single person who took the effort to put up Christmas lights this year or send out cards. It definitely brought Christmas JOY to our family.
My favorite tree!And this house!
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The new Hawkeye series on Disney Plus
When Ted asked me to come watch Hawkeye with him and the boys, I brought a book to read. I’m not really in to the “Hawkeye” character, and didn’t want to watch this new show, but I did want to hang with the boys while they watched it.
Little did I know how much we would ALL enjoy it. The storyline was so engaging and the characters were endearing. We just finished the final episode on Disney. I said to Ted. ‘Let’s watch that series again’ (I never say that. It was truly THAT GOOD)!
Wrigley is the SWEETEST DOG. However, when he’s outside and not on his leash, he doesn’t always come back when you call him. If he’s not done playing, he will run AWAY from you when he sees you coming toward him.
This became a HUGE problem two times in December. Once when I had to go to work and couldn’t get him inside. Another time when he ran onto the pond and we weren’t sure if it was thick enough to hold him. Paul was a wreck thinking his dog might go through the ice and there was nothing we could do.
Enter the world’s best invention. A collar that beeps, vibrates or shocks. (We don’t use the shock)
The very first time I gave Wrigley a gentle vibrate and beep and said “COME,” he immediately came and sat next to me. I was shocked and overjoyed how well it worked then, and how will it continues to work. I only needed to use the vibrate twice, and now he obeys when he just hears the BEEP!
This device is usually $50, but they are currently 20% off. This was the best $40 I ever spent.
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YouTube videos the whole family can enjoy
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There are so many ANNOYING YouTube Channels. However, there are a handful that we can all enjoy together.
Mark Rober – a former Nasa scientist who makes entertaining videos by creating gadgets and fun experiments.
Dude Perfect – a group of guys that met at church and now make trick shot videos and a ‘game show’ called Overtime.
Fantastic 2 – I can’t NOT mention the channel my son’s created. 🙂
Last year, to save time, I just put a clementine in each bag. This year, I bought oranges and dried them. If you want to make these pretty orange slices, here’s how to do it.
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How to Make Oven-Dried Orange Slices:
Preheat oven to 175° F.
Slice oranges about ⅛-inch thick.
Set slices in a single layer on baking sheets with wire racks (this will allow oranges to dry on both sides).
Cook for 4-6 hours, until dry to the touch. You may want to rotate halfway through for even cooking.
