Lost in Translation: A Book Review

Lost in Translation by Ella Frances Sanders is a beautiful little book. I was expecting a large coffee table book, probably paperback. Instead I opened my package and found this adorable hardcover book that is not much bigger than a steno pad. The cover really describes it well when it says it is "an illustrated compendium of untranslatable words from around the world."

Each two page spread is set up the same. The first page is a solid block of color with a short paragraph describing what the word means and the language the word comes from. The second page contains original artwork from the author with the word and the definition. It is very interesting to see which languages feel it necessary to have words for certain things like a third cup of coffee or the way your heart beats before leaving for an exciting adventure.

This is a great coffee table book, and it won't even take up your whole coffee table. You will enjoy the artwork and learning a little something about the languages of the world.

 

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I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Dear Luke: A Book Review

Dear Luke, We Need to Talk, Darth is the long and crazy name of the book I am reviewing today. Written by John Moe, it is a satirical collection of letters, e-mails, and other communiques from many notable areas of pop culture. You would be hard pressed to find an adult, and it is very much a book for adults, that does not find something that makes them laugh. Whether it is the journal of Bruce the shark (from Finding Nemo) falling off the bandwagon and inadvertently becoming the shark from Jaws, the CIA log of Gilligan studying the effect of stranding people on an island, or the Welp reviews of such notable stops as Moe's Tavern, Bates Motel, and Bronto Burgers in Bedrock.

This book will be a hit if you enjoy dark comedy. It is quite cynical most of the time. As I tried to think of a way to describe this unique book I began to think of The Stinky Cheese Man. For those who aren't familiar with it, it is a picture book which sheds a cynical and comedic look at popular fairy tales. Dear Luke is like a grown up version of the popular 90's picture book.

Overall I would have to say that I truly enjoyed about half of this book. The book is clever and well put together. I do like a good dark comedy from time to time and this was no exception. At times it went a little too far, funny to uncomfortable in a matter of sentences. The other half of the book I was not familiar with the references to or were completely uninteresting to me, like the numerous Super Bowl Half-time ideas that peppered the entire book. The thing that bothered me the most was the gratuitous foul language. I am an adult, the book is for adults, and a little language here and there isn't necessary but not a deterrent. There are times, like in Dorothy's letter to Glinda, that the "F" word shows up several times in each paragraph. I thought the idea for Dorothy's letter was hilarious and witty, but the over use of swearing destroyed the youthful innocence of the character instead of playing upon it.

I am happy I read the book. I had many a good laugh. My recommendation is to enjoy the sections that are funny to you and simply bypass the stuff you don't get or don't like.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

 

Upside-Down Prayers for Parents - A Review

Upside-Down Prayers for Parents by Lisa Bergren is a wonderful parent's devotional. Inside its covers are 31 devotionals. Each devotional starts with something you should pray for your child. These are not your run of the mill prayers for happiness, safety, and wonderful spouses. These are prayers that will result in great spiritual growth, for example:

I pray you will...

• suffer loss so you can see how God can use all things for good
• face hardships so you can see how the Lord provides
• get so weary that you will give up and learn that through submission to God comes great strength

After this short prayer suggestion is a short bible verse. Then it gets to the meat. Lisa spends roughly 2-3 pages discussing the reasons behind the prayer. She writes in a way that is completely relatable and I saw myself in nearly every page of this book. Next is a prayer to pray. I noticed right off that these prayers are just as much for the parents as for the children, if not more.

God put this book in my hands today. It could only have been His timing as it has been sitting on my dresser for about a week.. It was a rough weekend and Monday. God used this book to speak to me today. That's right, today I went through the entire book. Nearly all of the devotions and prayers related to the specific difficulties that I have been struggling with over the past 3 days. I needed this book today and am grateful to have had the chance to read it. It may have made its way onto my exclusive list of books to bring on our mission trip.

That is not were the devotion ends though. There is a small area to record your thoughts on the questions about the theme of the day's devotion. Also, there are questions to ask younger kids or older kids to help them understand the topics and help apply them to their lives. This is a book I plan on returning to time and again. I highly recommend it!

I would like to thank Water Brook Multnomah for providing me with a free copy of this book to review as a part of the Blogging for Books program.

March Goals

Happy leap day! Today only comes once every 4 years. I will spend this extra special day sharing my March goals. I normally take a look back at how the goals from the previous month went. That won't be happening this month. We'll just sum up with, not so well. I am not going to dwell on how poorly February went though. I am going to go into the next month with optimism and resolve!

• Exercise - It went way down last month and I am going to stick with the goal of 120 minutes a week. It worked well before and I can do it again.
• The Crazy Elephant has been growing, a lot! Adam is giving me Wednesdays as a "work" day and evenings as computer time and it is working very well. The goal is to list at least 25 items per week with a long term goal of having a steady 250 items in shop by the end of the year.
• March is also the soft start of spring cleaning! I am going to be doing a kind of prep cleaning before the big clean in April. I am also going to be posting a weekly spring cleaning post on the Moms in Step blog. Feel free to follow it if you want to spring clean with me!

I hope everyone has a great March and feel free to share some of your goals in the comments section. You never know when you might inspire someone.

Goals for July

It is time to come up with goals for the month. So, here goes...

Family: Spend more time together and try to take things a little more slowly. Also we are going to WI Dells for 3 days next week with my family.

Home: Just stay on track. Keep extra good care of the garden. Stay on top of the vacuuming to keep down on the earwigs. We don't want another invasion like last year! So far the cleaner house and weekly vacuuming is really helping.

Homeschool: Keep working on setting up Jayne's school year. I have 3 months ready to go. I would like to get a minimum of 8 weeks put together this month. Also, keep plugging away at head of the class.

The Crazy Elephant: Keep up with my 4 listings a week (not including the holiday and vacation weeks) and set aside at least one hour a week to create.

Blogging: The plan is to make my homeschool fun, stretch it, and collection posts a weekly thing with other posts (TCE updates, meme's (mommy to Jayne) day, and handmade finds, ect) mixed in.

Work: Attend

Money: Keep making it and paying down our bills. We are so very close and have worked so hard to get them down. We are also going to try to keep our vacation spending to a bare minimum. I will definitely update you all on how that goes...hopefully well.

What kinds of goals do you have? Feel free to leave a comment and share. Writing it down for others to see is a great way to keep yourself on track. You can also comment with a link to your own post about goals. Good luck everyone and stick with it!