Really, it was only six days, but who’s counting? Bennett’s third birthday was this weekend, but Jeffrey really likes to celebrate stuff (which is how we ended up having an all-day “Yay! It’s Summer!” Party on June 21) so he started celebrating Bennett’s birthday on Wednesday. He decided a Varsity hat made a good birthday hat, so Bennett wore that for several days.

At one point, Jeffrey announced, “It’s a birthday banana!”
Very cleverly, I replied, “Um, what?”
“Wait. I think I mean bonanza.”

There was a little confusion involved in the extended celebration. We went to Toys R Us on Thursday to see what could be seen and make a mini-wishlist. While we were in the store, an associate made an announcement about a little girl who was in the store (apparently a member of the Geoffrey Birthday Club thing) who was having a birthday on that day. She signed off with, “Happy birthday!” Bennett yelled, “Thank you!” Which is just odd because his usual response when someone says, “Happy birthday!” is “Happy birthday!”

You’d think that by the time we actually got around to the birthday, they’d both be tired of it, but no. Bennett walked around all day, saying, “I’m three,” and “I’m Birthday Boy.” In fact, I made the mistake of calling him, “my big boy.”
“Mama! I Birthday Boy!”

His brother and sister-in-law came over and brought some much-appreciated dinosaurs and a very cool two-sided dinosaur puzzle. We got him a V-Tech Bugsby pen to go with a book he’d gotten for Christmas. He LOVES that pen. The first thing he said when he woke up yesterday was, “Where my Wubbzy book and pen?” Uh, yeah, it probably helps that it’s Wubbzy.

He looks a little stunned. Or tired. It *was* almost 9 PM.

He also got new “noclars”. He uses them to search the shelves to find which puzzle he wants next.

A Call to Arms by Frank Methven isn’t a book I’d normally pick up. I did choose it, though, just because it kept catching my eye when I’d go to the Dorrance Publishing site to pick my next review book. A Call to Arms is a novel about the experiences of four childhood friends in WWII. The book summary sounds as if we’ll get more information on the three women left at home, but we only get glimpses of them from letters the men share with each other.

I didn’t exactly dislike this book, but it won’t make my list of favorites. The writing was very descriptive, and I able to picture the excitement and fear of these young men as they fought with bombs and bullets flying around them, but it was choppy. Four years were condensed into 178 pages, so obviously, there were going to be large chunks of time where we didn’t get details, but it was more than that. It was that months passed from one sentence to another, within the same paragraph, and it was only after I’d read several more sentences that I realized that we’d moved on. This happened all through the book, as well as flashbacks that were stuck into the middle of the action, and seemed more disruptive than informative. Some of it was information we needed, but I think it could have been told in a more linear fashion, so as not to be quite so confusing.

I also still haven’t figured out why, at the very beginning of the book, the author tells us about the impending death of a specific character. There was absolutely no reason for it, it was just one sentence, thrown into the middle of a perfectly normal paragraph. It was rather odd.

I did enjoy the historical aspect of the story. I love historical fiction, and I haven’t read much about WWII, so this was interesting.

I received a complimentary copy of A Call to Arms as a member of the Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team.  Visit dorrancebookstore.com to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.

A disadvantage to having so many trees in the yard is not being able to see much of the sunset. I did get a couple of decent pictures tonight. I like the one with the leaves in the foreground.

I’m not entirely sure I’m going to publish this post. I’ll finish it and see what happens.

I don’t watch the news, although I do pick up bits here and there when my husband has the TV on. So when posts about Casey Anthony started showing up on my Facebook feed, I didn’t know who she was. I didn’t even know if it was a “he” or a “she”. Finally, I did an online search. When I saw the article, I did remember hearing about it when Caylee disappeared. A child is missing for a month and no one in the family reports it? I’m not a lawyer or a cop, but it sounds like some kind of criminal neglect to me. But what do I know?

So I was surprised as everyone else when the verdict was “Not guilty,” not just for murder, but for neglect, as well. Jurors have since come forward saying that though they believed Anthony was guilty, the prosecutors did not present enough evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s what our justice system requires, folks.

I wasn’t going to blog about this; I haven’t even commented on Facebook. I was just going to hide until it all passed. Not because I don’t care, but because it’s done. There is nothing I can do about the verdict or anything that has to do with the Anthony family. (Also, I really don’t know much about it and I try not to sound like an idiot any more than necessary.) Then I heard a radio DJ say yesterday, after the article quoting the jurors came out, that she would have voted for a conviction anyway. I was floored. Yes, I’m disgusted by the verdict, but I’m one of those people who would rather see a guilty person go free than see an innocent person wrongly convicted. No, the justice system isn’t perfect, and guilty people do go free. Usually, there are large amounts of money involved. In those cases, we’re almost expecting it, but that doesn’t make it any more right.

I can’t comprehend a mother who would kill (or even just want to get rid of ) her child so she could party (or for any reason, really). Like many moms, I’ve had moments when I think about jumping off the Mommy-train. I could go where I want, when I want. I’d have a paying job, and the money would be mine to spend on myself. On weekends and vacations, I could sleep all day or read, get massages and manicures. I’d have time to work out whenever I wanted. But those moments are rare and don’t last long.

Everything I do with and for my kids, I do because I love them and I want to do what’s right by them. In reality, I’ve spent a total of two weekends away from my kids. Two days at a time is more than enough. How can a mother not ever want her child around at all? Even if Anthony didn’t kill her daughter, she didn’t seem to mind that Caylee was gone. I can’t even wrap my mind around that. So I’m not saying that I’m happy with the verdict. But the jurors did what they were supposed to, people. They looked at the evidence, or lack thereof, and did what they had sworn to do. If we start expecting jurors to vote their feelings (and I’m sure it happens) instead of looking at the evidence, we’re starting down a slippery slope with no end.

I finished A Place Called Blessing: Where Hurting Ends and Love Begins a few days ago and I’ve been thinking since then. Some books are like that. Sometimes, I finish a book and I can immediately sit down and write about it. Other times, I have to give it a day or two to sink in, or to think about what I want to say. Honestly, it’s a good book. I just can’t say unequivocally that I liked it. It made me cry too much. I don’t like books that make me cry. I read to either escape or learn, not to be sad.

The book is based on a previous book by Trent, The Blessing. According to Trent, the blessing “involves looking for specific ways to move toward others and provide them with five essential elements:

• Meaningful touch
• A spoken message
• Attaching high value
• Picturing a special future
• An active commitment”

Trent says we are called by Jesus to do this as his followers. Obviously, we need to care for others and take care of each other, but the verses noted only speak of God’s blessing to his people and say nothing of these elements. I’m not saying these aren’t Biblical principles; God does attach a high value to us (Matthew 10: 29-31), and we do have a special future, not just in Heaven, but here on Earth (John 10:10). I guess I’m saying the author should have used verses like these to demonstrate his point instead of only the ones he gave (Gen 12:2, 1 Peter 3:9).

The story itself is heartbreak after heartbreak, with some love and a little hope thrown in. As a small child, Josh lost his parents in a drunk-driving accident. (Not that they were doing much for him and his brothers anyway, but they were his parents.) Then a tragic mistake separates him from his brothers. So I cried for the first 30 pages of the book. Eventually, he grows up, and meets Mike at work. Mike and his mother, Anna, become Josh’s new family and he finally experiences all the love, nurturing, and “blessing” he didn’t get as a child. That part of the story is wonderful. It’s not all sunshine and roses, and there are some rough patches, but Josh learns that he really is worthy of love and families aren’t always related by blood.

Then I cried for the last 30 pages. I won’t tell you more because it would spoil the story. But, really, it’s only 159 pages and I cried through 60 of them. That’s almost 40% of the book. That’s too much “sad” for me. But if you ignore that, this really is a good book.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. All opinions are my own.

Construction is still underway on the new additions at our library. Bennett loves seeing the bulldozers and crane, and today we sat in the parking lot for a few minutes so he could see what they use the crane for. I only had my phone because I hadn’t planned on taking any pictures of anything today, but they’ll work. Isn’t the sky pretty? 🙂