The Meandering Thoughts of Jan

I found this post tucked away and found I had never published it, until now. It is reviews of books I read at the beginning of the year. I haven't read anything over the past couple of months with all that has been going on. I think I went on a bit of a hiatus from reading, because I wasn't having much success on finding a book I really enjoyed, as you will see below. I've been craving the need to get lost in a good book. I'm hoping to check out our library in our new town soon, so perhaps I will make my hope of a good read a reality in the near future. World War Z by Max Brooks World War Z is a book of testimonies compiled of the survivors after World War Z aka the Zombie War. Stories are shared from military, political, medical, unethical and everyday people's perspectives of how they survived the zombie invasion and how the horrific disease spread. Out of all the books in the post, I liked this one the best. It was really interesting. I'm not a huge zo...

Now that we have lived in 2014 for like 2 weeks, let's talk about the New Year.  I know, I'm way behind on  blogging things. That's life.  I recapped last year in my last post, but that was kind of a sad post about 2013.  Last year , I predicted that 2013 would be another year of "even more patience and endurance testing." Check, this is true.  (Read my last post about that.)   I also predicted I would turn 30.  Umm, correct, that did occur.  I also predicted "change was in store."  In some ways yes, Danny graduated, yay!  And he got a new job, yay!  So I guess there was a lot of change for Danny.  As for my life, I didn't feel like there was as much earth shattering changes.  While my last post focused on sad things, I want to now focus on the fun things of 2013, because we really did go on a lot of exciting outings, had some great family and friend gatherings and had very adventurous trips.  So here are the notable ...

Boy, oh boy has Christmastime taken our lives by storm.  It has been one busy, joyful month so far.  So much so, that I'm just going to throw a tinsel and cup of Christmas cheer bomb of a post at you, jammed pack with everything Christmas that has occurred over the past couple weeks. Christmas Advent Calendar My sister Michele and I made these Christmas advent calendars while I was at her house for Thanksgiving. She found the idea on pinterest (of course) . This is probably one of the more time consuming crafts we have taken on, but I was pleased with how it turned out.  For each day of December there is a Christmas related picture to put up and a scripture or quote pertaining to Christ's life to read on the back. Christmas Ornament Trading Party My friend Lauren put on a fun little party, where a group of us came together with a batch of homemade Christmas ornaments and then we all traded.  It was so cool to see how creative everyone was!  The...

I use "lately" very loosely here.  I should say, what I've read over the past 6 - 8 months, which is how long it has been since I've posted a bookish review post.  Since it has been so long, I have a whole slew of books to talk about, so let's get crackin! Beloved Emma - The Illustrated Life Story of Emma Smith By Lori E. Woodland Danny gave me this book for Christmas.  It had been on my bookshelf for awhile and one day, while looking for something new to read, I picked it up and I'm so glad I did.  I've been fascinated with Emma Smith's life and have wanted to learn more about her.  The book covers from Emma's childhood to her death and uses firsthand accounts, letters and other sources to describe what her life was like.  There is plenty of church history and stories about Joseph Smith as well, to give context with what Emma was facing at the time. The author, Lori Woodland, is a religion professor at BYU-Idaho and she has done her resea...