It's Here

It’s Here!

Winter can’t last forever

Spring is on it’s way.

Easter will be here shortly,

In fact, it begins today!

When Boy and I moved to Michigan, I learned through the example 
of my Catholic pals,that the Easter holiday has a season and it begins today.

Ash Wednesday

Lent rest in the top spot on my list of favorite holidays for many reasons.

In an effort to keep you awake, I’ll BRIEFLY list two…
...I mean three, of those reasons.

One

The longevity of the fast.

Give something up for 40 days and I might actually stand a

chance to stay the habit after the fast is broken.

Two

It is much easier for me to give something up

when I have a reason outside of myself to do so.

Three

Even though the fast may not be spiritual,

(saying no to food after the kids are in bed isn't exactly...spiritual),

the focus on one event [Christ’s 40-day fast in the wilderness]

for that amount of time is likely to bring inspired thought.

Yes, I am aware that I can use the same idea behind Lent to help me 
kick any bad habit and at any time of the year however I allow 
Lent to provide a crutch to my instability

and I like it.

Oh and

Four,

Lent

is a countdown to Easter…

…and spring…

…and a reminder that winter will

END!!!

A Symbol

Sneak Peek into one of the battles I'll be picking at book club tonight...

I finished Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" at precisely midnight and consequently fell asleep to my brain retrieving archived “thought files”. The last one I remember before falling asleep was this:

“...the lives of our people must become the most meaningful expression of our faith and, in fact, therefore, the symbol of our worship.”

This quote, coupled with the subplot of “The Lost Symbol” led me to one of my ever developing, thinking points which is that so long as we come to obtain truth (or something that is good), does the well from which it is drawn matter?

What say you?

WHO (do I think) I AM(?)!

In this the overcrowded blogoshere, where not just one but potentially millions of blogs share the same M.O., who do I think I am to add anything to this overpopulation?

ME!

And in my book, that is more than enough! 
(Except on days when I blog browse and I’m reminded that the world is FULL of CRAZY TALENTED people! Nice work CRAZY TALENTED people…I’m glad my blog is out here to offset the balance of superiority on the web.)

Hi. I’m  Gwenevere.

Wife to one. 

(I call him Boy)

Mother to three 

(Ren, Fish and Roo)

photo courtesy of www.amyjophoto.com

and Friend to….whomever will keep me.

(I go looking for trouble more often than I should and anyone willing to put his or her comforts on the line, in order to discover something new is welcome to join me. Do be warned however that if you do or say something that I don’t understand, I’m going to ask you to explain yourself and then I’ll probably follow up with a lot of questions. Just remember, I’m not attacking you, I'm just trying to understand you.)

For those of you who have followed me here from our family site, you know why I had to move and you know what Mom's Review was all about. What you don't know is why I chose this place.

To understand that, you must first know that I am a woman divided. I have many hobbies and interest and I just can’t seem to get to all of them fast enough and in trying, I often come out left feeling exhausted, stretched and broken which is far from the joy of accomplishment I am shooting for.  I’m living and learning and trying desperately to give proper attention to all of the things I love.

I do so LOVE many things.

Sew Many Books is an attempt to fix that and bring together all of what I love into one place. (I'd use facebook but they don't allow enough characters for me to get my point across) Although the title suggests that the focus will be on sewing and reading, don't be fooled….it is more than that.  Sew Many Books is a reminder that everything good can be found in One place. It’s my way of saying A LOT with the use of only a few words (a phenomenon not likely to be repeated on this blog, anytime soon.)

read ya later,

Gwenevere

P.S.  Consider this new blog to be a supplement to our family website. If you are only following one, you may miss something important.

The Big Reveal

Extreme Makeover:

WEB EDITION: The Big Reveal

Ok, true.

A switch to a NEW URL may not be THE BIG REVEAL anticipated,

but don’t give up on me yet,

this is just the beginning!

I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve and

they don’t all consist of smoke and mirrors. J

Archived book reviews, from “Mom’s Review”, can still be accessed though the link just under the site header. New book reviews, along with commentary on what I’ve been reading, tutorials on crafts and cooking, discussions on life and anything else I feel so inclined to share will all be posted here.

Even though there isn’t a whole lot to see here yet, go ahead, copy the address from your web browser, add a new subscription to your Google Reader, bookmark it, post it to your family blog side bar, sign in as a follower or do whatever it is you do to keep your finger on the pulse of the world and come back to visit.

The next post is the last of the “explanation” posts (oh wait there will be one more, but that won’t be posted for a while) and then after that all the pieces will be in place and the regular posting will begin.

Until then…

Gwenevere – fka: Mom (from Mom’s Review)

Obama tax breaks -circa 2008

Some of you may remember that I posted this on another blog (that has since been deleted) back in 2008 during the presidential. I'm posting it again because I need it for a discussion I'm having on facebook about how conservatives don't care about SAHM but liberals do.

Sorry the links have all expired, you'll just have to take my word for it.

************

Money talks:

How Obama bought his way to the white house

(and how its more disturbing than how the other guy tried.)

It’s no secret that politicians buy and sell votes everyday with the bills they sign and the deals they make. So why is Obama any different than anyone else? Perhaps he’s not and I’m just now noticing how crooked politicians really are, but something inside, tells me Obama is not the run-of-the-mill politician. No, he’s marching to the beat of a different drum and because American’s are desperate for change, they believe that any change is better than no change, so they march too.

I thought I’d march for a bit, give him the benefit of my doubt. I visited his website and was a little bothered that there wasn’t a biography, section. Ok…I probably wouldn’t want my personal stuff on a professional website either, I can let that go. The next thing that caught my attention was the calculator. I LOVE to crunch numbers. I have filled up pages and pages of notebooks with all sorts of numbers. Financial, time management, predictions, percentages….ohh I just love it. I often wonder why I’m not an accountant, a mathematician, or a cashier. Anyway, I saw that little calculator and couldn’t resist. Go ahead, Obama, show me my tax break. So I answered these questions:

1.     Annual Income

2.     Filing Status

3.     How many dependents

4.     If you are over 65

5.     If you have child care expenses

6.     Saving for retirement

7.     Outstanding balance of your mortgage

8.     Do you have college expenses

Not too painful. And now ladies and gentlemen, may I have a drum roll please? Rat-a-tat-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a…..

(Now before I go further, I want you all to know that his post is not about the dollar figures you see on this post. It’s about what these numbers MEAN. So please don’t stop reading once you see the numbers, there’s more.)

….tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a!

Obama tax savings                           McCain tax savings

$2155                    $397

Not too bad Obama…that’s a lot of money and what’s up with Tightwad to the right? Oh, what was that? I answered one of the questions incorrectly? No problem let me change my answer and lets get the REAL number.

Obama tax savings                           McCain tax savings

$1619                    $932

Dollars and cents say, no matter what, I get more if I vote for Obama…so…GO Obama !! Right? Well perhaps many of you were like me and although the money says it’s a better savings to vote for Obama, something, just didn’t quite seem right. So you find yourself taking a closer look. Does anyone see what I see? Or am I reaching here?

Ok enough I’ll just get to it.

Why did McCain’s numbers get higher on the recalculation and Obama’s fell?

On the first quote I answered that I had childcare expenses. Believe you me I have three kids I have childcare expenses! Diapers, food, clothes, cleaning supplies, etc. On the second quote, I realized that when they asked if I had childcare expenses what they meant to say was, “Do you pay someone to take care of your children for a significant part of the day, while you work or do whatever it is that you do”? Well I don’t so I changed my answer.

Obama’s numbers tell me that he wants to reward parents who work outside the home and contribute financially to the countries economy or to make it possible to support a family in our unstable economy.

These numbers also tell me that McCain chooses to reward families who keep one parent home in the hope of strengthening their families and supporting their children rather than building their personal wealth or financial security.

Who is right? Well I’m not going to pretend to know. But whether right or wrong, I can tell you which side I believe in. I believe the family is central to God’s plan. And any effort made to separate parents from each other and/or from their children is contrary to God’s will and is aligned with the efforts of The Great Deceiver.

Perhaps I’m oversimplifying a complex issue but this is what the numbers above say to me. And it irritates me that Obama is essentially buying the middle class vote with the promise of tax relief. It’s bad enough to know that politicians buy each other, but he stoops to a new low when he buys off the American people. So, go-a-head, check it out. How much will Obama being buying your vote for?

Obama Tax Cut Calculator

Infidel-Review

INFIDEL

By: Ayaan Hirsi Ali

 (This is my original review from June 25, 2008. 

To view comments generated by this post click here 
to go directly to the review on my goodreads page

 www.goodreads.com/sewmanybooks) 

Synopsis

The author tells her account of how she became an Infidel in the eyes of Islam. She was raised Muslim and after an abusive childhood and adolescence she began to question her faith. She ran away from an arranged marriage and was granted refugee status in Holland. While there further questioning and more education eventually caused her to turn away from Islam and God.

Review

Although this book was quite intriguing I can only give it 2 ½ stars (at best 3). A book must be much more than intriguing to get 5-stars. I wish it left me with more than a knot in my stomach. I wanted there to be a solution, a guide for what the world can do to help those who are held captive by dominating tradition or family honor. It just wasn’t there. Instead I was left feeling like, it may be okay to uphold stereotypes that all Muslims are violent and potential terrorists…and I’m just not ok with that.

Another item I took issue with was seeing Ayaan slowly question her faith and turn away from God. No matter how backward you may think Islam, or any religion, it is unsettling to me to see someone turn away from God.

In my reading I also found many parallels between Islam and Mormonism. I really wasn’t exciting about possibly being labeled by others as one of the “radical” religions of the world so I then began searching for differences. My favorite difference is that Latter-Day Saint (LDS) doctrine teaches its members to seek truth and find confirmation. We are not encouraged to keep questions bottled up. This then is in stark contrast to Ms. Ali’s account of Islam that any question to the Koran or it’s teaching is unholy and punishable. As a Latter-Day Saint, we believe in continual, constant revelation for our entire church down to each individual member. When we have questions, we are encouraged to ask God. How thankful I am for that and for my own personal witness of many truths.

To a Muslim, this book would probably be classified as what Mormons call “Anti” literature. And as many of us know, we are encouraged to stay away from such things. In order to find out about a religion we should go to the source not to the deviant account. Although I believe the authors account to be true, I hope it is the deviant account. We may never really know. While the majority remains silent, the loud minority will always be the managing voice of the group.

Rebecca-Review

Rebecca

By: Daphne Du Maurier

(This is my original review from June 25, 2007.

To view comments that may have been generated by the original review

click on the link above  to take you to the original review or click here

to go directly to the review on my goodreads page

www.goodreads.com/sewmanybooks)

Synopsis

When a young woman marries an older, widowed, gentleman from the upper class, her problems begin as she attempts to fill the shoes of her husband’s first wife, Rebecca. 

My Review

I really struggled with what rating to give this book. I was quickly drawn into the story and wondered how the plot would unfold however I was sincerely bothered by the main characters lack of…character! That is why this book receives three stars; the story was great but then the main character had a serious problem. I was stuck wondering if people like this really existed OR if perhaps, I was actually like her but was too “into myself” to realize I had such obvious character flaws. Perhaps a book that initiates that kind of self-reflection and thought deserves a higher rating…I’m not sure.

I spent the book trying to rewrite the main character and vow never to be like her. So how would you rate such a book? I chose middle of the road because it was partly a 5 star and in others it was only 1. I chose to average them but even now I wonder if I’ve done the book an injustice by only giving it three stars. I read this book as a book club assignment and I think I was the only one who was as deeply bothered by the main character, so perhaps this is one you’ll just have to read yourself in order to draw your own conclusions. Rest assured, if do you choose to read the book, I don’t think you’ll walk away thinking you wasted “x” amount of time reading it and should have done something else. I give Rebecca *3-stars.

*Indicates that the book was rated before February 2008 when I implemented the use of my book rating calculator.