Tuesday, February 28, 2017

February Highlights

February seemed to go by pretty fast for me. I'm pretty excited that spring is almost here!
All of the snow that we had finally melted. We had snow for two months! We've had some spring weather the last few weeks. We have gotten a couple more snow showers though, but it always melts really quickly.



Some of my highlights from February are:

~The book club. Last month I mentioned that I started a book club for young girls 8-12. Well, last month was mostly a get-to-know-you day. So the meeting this month was our first"official" one where we discussed the book, did some activities that related to the book and some other fun things. :) I've been having a lot of fun with it.

~This event actually happened in January, but I forgot to mention it last month. I hosted a movie party. I had a couple friends over and we watched Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. We also had dinner and, of course, visited.

~I really enjoy English Country dancing and I usually go dancing once a month, but this month I was able to go a couple of times. It's always a lot of fun.

~Valentine's Day. My family and I really didn't do much for Valentine's Day, but I did give Valentine candy to everyone in my family.

~When Calls the Heart Blog party! My friend Faith and I hosted a When Calls the Heart blog party. It was a ton of fun!! :D



~When Calls the Heart season 4 has started!! It has been super good so far, but that is all I'll say because I don't want to give anything away to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. ;)


I didn't get as much reading done this month as I did last month, but I still read some fun books. I read:
Courageous Love by Susan K. Marlow
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
The Measure of a Heart by Janette Oke
The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk by Carolyn Keene
Ellie by Mary Christner Borntrager
To a Tea by Vera Dodge

My favorite would have to be Courageous Love. It was SO good! I just love the Circle C books. The rest of the books were great too.


How was your month? Did you do anything fun?

I'm looking forward to all that March will bring. :) I'm super excited for our flowers to bloom!


Monday, February 27, 2017

Iditarod 2017

The Iditarod is coming up really soon! I'm super excited! The ceremonial start is on Saturday, March 4th, and the re-start is on March 5th. The Iditarod is a sled dog race that takes place in Alaska each year that starts on the first Saturday of March. Last year I did a post on the history of the Iditarod. If you're interested, you can read that post here.
This will be my 6th year following the Iditarod. It is so much fun! The first year I did it was for school. My mom had my siblings and I do it. I'll admit, I thought it sounded pretty boring to follow a sled dog race. Well, I was definitely wrong! I had so much fun and I've been following the Iditarod each year since then!
Each year I always choose a couple of mushers to follow throughout the race. I check and see how they're doing through the race and everything. The Iditarod usually lasts about 11 days for everybody to finish, but the winner usually only takes about 8 days.
If you've never heard of the Iditarod or have never followed it I highly recommend that you do! To learn more about the Iditarod you can visit their website here.



Saturday, February 25, 2017

Priceless // Movie Review

About the Movie:
Desperate and at a crossroads, James agrees to drive a box truck on a shady, one-time trip cross country for cash – no questions asked. But when he discovers what he is delivering is actually a who, James is compelled to help two frightened sisters who are unaware of the danger that awaits them in this inspiring tale of love, strength, and redemption.
Rated PG-13

You can see a trailer to this movie here.


I had somewhat high hopes for this movie after seeing the trailer. Plus I really like the song Priceless by For King and Country. :)

Well, a little ways into the movie I wasn't as sure if I'd like it or not, but after it was over I ended up liking it.
I would not recommend that young teens watch this movie without a parent because it deals with human trafficking and prostitution. For older viewers though, this is a good movie that you should watch. It deals with a topic that is not in the mainstream news, but is an issue that people deal with in our world on a daily basis.

I give this movie 8 out of 10 R's.



Saturday, February 18, 2017

When Calls the Heart Blog Party! ~ Day 6

Toady is the last day of the When Calls the Heart blog party. It has been so much fun!!! :)



I hope you all enjoyed mine and Faith's posts! I know that we both had a ton of fun as we partied like Hearties! ;)

Now I am going to leave you with a bunch of fun, random, When Calls the Heart pictures! Some of the pictures have a little caption and others don't.


I love how a lot of the episodes always start and end with Elizabeth writing in her journal. 


Frank and Cody praying for Becky's recovery. 





Moving in

Dinner in the jail! This part was so sweet!

Rosemary directs the children in the Founder's Day Play.



Elizabeth's cake that she made for the miner games and auction. I love how Jack and Billy Hamilton had a bidding war over her cake. 

Elizabeth giving Jack and Billy a talking to after they completely embarrassed her.

















"Keep your man busy so he isn't in a tizzy."

Rosemary and Elizabeth presenting their chicken fried stake dinners to Jack.





Bill helping Cody grip the baseball the right way. 






I love this scene! Frank and Abigail are playing a game of darts and Frank's helping Abigail hold the dart right. Little does he know she's a pro at the game. ;)


"I never said I was a beginner."








 Finding the "Wanted" poster on the cafĂ© door. 











Jack and Rip



 






Abigail: "Rosemary, you're stunning. Trust me"
Rosemary: "Really? Because I was going for breathtaking. I guess stunning will just have to do."









I hope all enjoyed this week as much as Faith and I did!! :D


Friday, February 17, 2017

When Calls the Heart Blog Party! ~ Day 5

Welcome to day 5 of the When Calls the Heart blog party! Today I will be doing a review/overview of the episode Troubled Hearts from season 3. When this episode aired on TV it was two episodes. Troubled Hearts and A Time to Speak.
I really like this episode. :)



~Elizabeth bought a house! She decided to move out on her own after having been living with Abigail since her arrival in Hope Valley. (Well, aside from the short night she spent in the teacherage before it burned down. ;))
It was getting a little crowded for Elizabeth at Abigail's. With those two plus Clara and Cody, there just wasn't a whole lot of space for everyone. So, Elizabeth decided it was time to have her own place.



~Jack takes Elizabeth to dinner. They go to the jail where Jack has things all set up. It's so sweet, but they don't exactly get all the quiet that they're looking for.



~Jack wants to build a house. He's kind of thinking long term for him and Elizabeth!

~Jack gives Elizabeth housewarming gift!

~Rosemary has taken it upon herself to redecorate Lee's office. Later she assumes he's not doing well financially and decides to help him save money by cutting costs.

~Cody is adjusting to being without his sister, Becky, and with living with Abigail. In this episode he is a bit bratty. He has been through a lot but still. He's late to school, not doing his assignments, and he broke the vase that Jack gave to Elizabeth!! Jack ends up having a little talk with him and things start to get better.

~Jack takes the boys on a camping trip. The girls want to go too, but the trip is just for boys. So Elizabeth decides to take the girls camping. They all end up in about the same place and after all the children go to bed Jack and Elizabeth talk by the campfire. It's so sweet!



~Mr. Gowen sells his share of Abigail's Café! I would've thought that that was good, but this new guy is horrible. He wants Abigail to get this and that and replace things that don't need replacing. He's just awful. Mr. Gowen was actually better.
Well, Abigail ends up not having this man as a partner because someone else comes in and buys Mr. Gowen's share.....Bill Avery.
Abigail's not too sure about this arrangement at first given her and Bill's history, but it ends up working out great! I love it when Bill tells Abigail that he bought her share. She comes downstairs and there's Bill in her kitchen making eggs! I just love their little conversation!

 Abigail: "Bill, what are you doing here?"

 Bill: "Making breakfast."

 Abigail: "With my pans and my eggs?"

 Bill: "Actually, they’re our pans and our eggs."

 Abigail: "Excuse me?"

 Bill: "I’m your new partner. I bough Gowen’s share of the cafĂ©."





~Jesse is trying to get Frank to come back to the gang. The leader of the gang, Jake Garrison, wants to get Frank back and goes through a lot to try and make it happen.
This causes Frank to draw away from Abigail a little.



~Clara and Jesse start spending some time together.



~Elizabeth is getting her new place all fixed up and ready to move into. Jack really wants to help, but Elizabeth wants to do it on her own. While at the store getting supplies, Elizabeth, who is just a bit overwhelmed, runs into Rosemary. They start talking and Rosemary says that she thought that Elizabeth would be letting Jack do a lot of the repairs. Elizabeth still isn't sure because she wants to be able to do things herself. Rosemary tells her that "men are peculiar creatures. They like to feel needed, and important". Then she says:



~Later, Elizabeth is at her new place working and Jack comes by. He asks again if Elizabeth needs help. Elizabeth, remembering what Rosemary said, decides to give Jack something to do. Jack catches on to what she's doing and as he's heading off to do what she asks he says:



~Mr. Gowen and a few other people decide to fire Frank as pastor. Abigail gets upset because of the secret meeting and they vote again. This time they vote yes and Frank stays!


This episode is just filled with such great stuff!! I really like it!
Have you seen this episode before? What's one of your favorite episodes of season 3?

Please don't forget to check out Faith's super fun post!