Books and My Garden

I just finished another round of books so here is my take on them.

Bringing Up Boys by James Dobson

This book is an excellent one to read for anyone who has, knows, or even thinks about boys. Dr. Dobson is the head of an organization called Focus on the Family which by its title provides information about how important the traditional family is. The book has lots of insights of how traditional families and roles of mother and father influence a growing boy. While reading the book I thought Dr. Dobson took parts straight out of The Family: A Proclamation to the World. He's not LDS but the insights into the family are so close and he gives lots of facts to back them up. I whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone to read, I know I gleaned a lot of information from it even though as of right now I only have girls.

Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

As you can tell by the author's name, this is a novel based in India. This is kind of a chick book but I'd compare it to Jane Austen, a little more modernized and of course based in India instead of England. I got hooked on this book and couldn't put it down because I wanted to see how the characters Sudha and Anju fared in the book. The girls are cousins but raised like sisters, born on the same day and very much attached to each other as sisters should be. I guess it struck a cord in me since I have a very good relationship with my own sisters, even though we're many miles apart. The story talks a lot about traditional Indian culture with matchmaking and the role of women in their society and I enjoyed learning about that. If you want more about the book, just look for it on Amazon but I recommend it for those women looking for a good, quick read (at least it ended up being a quick read even though it's over 300 pages).

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

Call me totally ignorant but I had no idea they chased after John Wilkes Booth for one day, let alone twelve. I guess I didn't really know the story behind the assassination of Lincoln but this book tells the story very well. Obviously they catch the murderer but only after he ran from Ford's theatre in front of 1,000 people, camped out in the woods, and hid in many barns. Did you also know that the assassination was one of three attempted that night? The group Wilkes put together planned to kill the vice president, Johnson and the secretary of state, Seward too. They attacked Seward but the guy that was supposed to kill Johnson chickened out. I listened to this book on CD so at times it was hard to follow but I'm sure reading it would be a lot better but I would recommend this one to anyone who likes a bit of history in a well-written manner.

Someone Not Really Her Mother by Harriet Scott Chessman

This was a book from my book club and a quick read. I didn't quite get into it as much as some of the others I've reviewed. The book's premise is a grandmother/mother who has alzheimers I think and keeps confusing the present with the past of WWII and her experiences of being sent from France to England while her family dies in the concentration camps. It jumped around a little too much for me and had a part or two that didn't seem to fit. No real resolution came at the end for me so I only give it an okay recommendation.

Enough about books, on to my Garden

I'm learning more about gardening everyday. Did you know crushed egg shells will keep snails and slugs away from lettuce and strawberries, or anything for that matter? I also let my tomato plants rot over winter and now I have little tomato plants growing up from the seeds left by the rotted tomatoes. I love the square foot garden boxes I have as I've eaten some spinach and lettuce from it already. My strawberries are up in abundance and it's fun to go out and pick a bunch for dinner every night. Hopefully it survives my 10-day trip to Simi Valley, I'll put Eric in charge of watering. Here's a picture. The front row is strawberries, the middle row is zucchini and cucumbers, and the last row is my boxes and tomatoes.

The Great Smoky Mountains

For those of you on the West coast, here are the mountains we have on the east, the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Appalachians. The highest point is only 6,600 feet, a pittance compared to most of the places in California, but it is so lush and green. It was definitely worth the drive to go see the park. Here's what us crazy parents did with two small children.

We left town Friday morning and the trip down took about 6 1/2 hours with the girls surviving for the most part. I don't know how our parents did long road trips without a DVD player to keep two-year-olds entertained. We picked out our campsite in Cades Cove, set up and then got some ice cream. For dinner we had our traditional foil dinners and then we drove the Cades Cove loop which is known for its wildlife. We saw deer and horses and beautiful scenery with an open vally.

Saturday morning was a little slow because Rachel had a tough night and we slept in. We found two secrets to camping--air mattress and ear plugs. I don't rough-it all the way, sorry dad. Eric made Mountain Man breakfast and it was yummy. One good thing about camping is that Eric did most of the cooking since he's had so much practice cooking with the Scouts. After lunch we went for a drive and then a 1.2 mile walk to Grotto Falls, the first picture above. It was cool because you could walk behind it and after a 1.2 mile walk carrying kids, the falls were a natural air conditioner. We drove back through the city of Gatlinburg, a tourist attraction right on the outside of the Smokies. I felt sorry for the people who were among the masses walking the hotel and shop infested streets instead of the beautiful nature area just a stones throw away. I'd rather vacation in our campsite than Gatlinburg anyday. In the afternoon we found a good swimming hole and then got some more ice cream at camp. We went on an evening walk together around the campsite and just relaxed.

Sunday we found a church in a neighboring town called Maryville. Thank goodness for internet and good directions (these were found at home, not in the primitive Smokies). After church we went on a little drive and then took much needed naps. After our rest, we went on a little "walk" or maybe it was more of a hike for a Sunday to Laurel Falls, the second picture. The path was paved so we could take the stroller up and everyone made comments on our girls and wished they could hitch a ride with them. The falls were beautiful and very cool, again a natural air conditioner. I could have stayed there forever. Obviously I didn't since I'm writing this so we dabbled in our feet and walked down back to camp for dutch oven pizza and smores. Food is so important when you're camping and it tastes so good with the fresh air as an added ingredient!

Monday morning we started taking down camp and I went for a bike ride on a rented single gear bicycle on the 11-mile Cades Cove loop. I beat a couple of cars through the loop because they kept stopping to look for wildlife while I just wanted to ride and get back to camp. When you have deer running through your campground, you don't need a car to go find them. We finished taking down camp and then went for another swim which felt so good. Then we started what turned out to be a very long road trip home. We ran into a car accident right outside the park that shut a road down so we turned around and tried another way. That way was busy with holiday traffic which was soooo slow. Then between Lexington and Cincinnati another car accident shut down the freeway for probably an hour, I wasn't looking at the clock by this time. So we learned our lesson about holiday weekend travel. Take Tuesday off instead of Friday and maybe we can beat the traffic and get Monday night to ourselves in the campground since everyone leaves on Monday to get back to work.

Well, there's the events of our trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. Did I mention that Eric and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary while we were there? I can't believe it's been that long! I think we're starting a tradition of camping to celebrate, which is fine with me.