Apparently it's harder than it seems... 365/ 3-4-5

SO... apparently remembering to write a blog post every day when you have 4 children around you all the time is easier said than done!  I have taken pictures, but I haven't remembered to actually load them on and share them.  So here I go...

365/3   Kara and her dogs.  She is the only reason we have animals and they mean the world to her.

365/4   Fresh Homemade Blueberry Bread.  YUM.  Made with Wild Maine Blueberries, none better!

365/ 5  The best picture I've been able to get of Darien for years.  She was having a great day!!

The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan is a companion book to her first YA novel The Forest of Hands and Teeth.  It is a continuation of the story but not so much a sequel.  It is the story of Gabrielle, Gabry for short, and her life living with her mother in the lighthouse on the ocean where the mudo (unconsecrated from the first book) wash up on to the shore and must be decapitated before they 'wake up' and get into the village they live in.  This is the job of Gabry's mom, Mary... Yes, this is the same Mary from Forest of Hands and Teeth, many years later, I'm guessing at least 25 years... we never actually find out.

Gabry is the opposite of Mary, she is quiet and shy and has no desire to see anything outside of their village.  She believes in the rules that are set and follows them knowing it keeps her safe from the mudo.  One night, after succumbing to peer pressure from her best friend and many others, they climb the wall built to protect the city so they can go to an amusement park just outside that was long since abandoned to the undead.  Things start out mild and chaos quickly breaks out which leads to several teens being bitten and many more being held by the local autorities for breaking very strictly enforced rules. 

The rest of the story leads through a roller coaster of emotions as well as issues of loyalty, love and abandonment.  I found that I enjoyed Dead Tossed Waves much more than Forest of Hands and Teeth, mostly because I loved the protagonist.  Gabry was so much easier to empathize with and want to follow than Mary was.  This book actually allows us to open up and understand Mary a little more and see a different side of her. 

Overall the book is written well and moved along allowing the characters to grow and adapt to different situations.  I would recommend this to people that enjoy post-apocalyptic style YA books, but I would definitely recommend reading Forest of Hands and Teeth first if you haven't already.  There are references to the first book in this second one, nothing that requires that you read it but it would just fill in a few gaps for you in the story telling.

For my Christian friends that read my reviews for either yourself or your daughters here is my opinion on that matter.  Unconsecrated or Mudo, depending on the book you're reading, are Zombies.  They are walking dead that are infected with a virus that takes over their body and keeps it "alive" while the person is actually gone.  Definitely not a Christian theme.  You'll have to use your judgement on your own child reading these books.  There are a couple of instances where Gabry kisses a guy, nothing intense and nothing more sexual than that.  There is a lot of physical altercations and injuries while dealing with the undead.  There is a cult in the book that worships the Mudo because they believe they are the way to everlasting life... definitely not a good thing. 

Project 365...

So I just heard of this whole 365 thing (yeah, I'm kinda slow... I know it), and I was thinking that since I use my camera almost daily anyway, I might as well turn a few of the pics into blog posts.  To start it off I took pictures last night while my boys were playing.  They can always make me smile (and scream, but last night it was mostly smile).  So here's the picture I was feeling last night of my beebee.  My youngest and cutest, mostly because he is the youngest.

Next is today's picture.  In honor of the momentous occasion of making my very first smoothie all by myself without a little frozen kit, I took a picture of the stuff thrown into it.  I have to say that it actually tasted pretty good after I added a little agave nectar to sweeten it up a bit.  It's gonna take some practice to actually make it taste good enough for Kara to drink it, she's a tough one to please lately when it comes to snacks and stuff.