Monthly Archives: May 2013

Kindle Joys

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When I first purchased my Kindle Fire, I thought I would use it for reading.

Actually, I never thought I would own one at all.  It was kind of an accidental purchase.  I already had a Sony Reader, which I liked but was very limited as far as book selection.  One day, we were on what my husband refers to as a family vacation to Wal-Mart (he doesn’t get out much), and we passed the electronic s department.  I stopped just to look at the Kindles.  My husband about shocked me into a heart attack when he said, “Why don’t you get one?  You read enough.  I am sure you will use it.”

So yeah.  That’s how I got my Kindle.  Fire, actually.  First generation.  Handy little gadget.  And I soon found that I could get TONS of books for free for the little machine.  I probably have more stored on there than I can read in a year.  Well, I could read them all in far less than a year if I didn’t have to do those pesky daily tasks like cleaning and cooking and schoolwork and taking care of my family’s needs….  And I am constantly adding new books to my Kindle library.  I can’t help it.

My name is Lynn and I am a book addict.

And thanks to my Kindle, I don’t have to throw out my husband’s possessions in order to add to my book collection.

One thing I didn’t expect, however, was that I would share my Kindle reading with my sons.  The oldest are 12 and 9.  They are more than capable of reading on their own.  And while there are some books that all three of us enjoy, they are just now reading books I have already read.  Harry Potter was great and all, but I’ve read them and seen the movies.  I don’t want to put them on my Kindle to read again, especially since handing my Kindle over to one my son’s would mean less time for me to read.  As for the six-year-old….  Well, let’s just say I am in no hurry to add Dr. Seuss to my Kindle library, either.

But after we watched The Wizard of Oz together, the boys were amazed to learn the movie was based on a book.  And I had to admit, it was a book I had not read.  So I searched and found it free for Kindle.  We started reading it together in the mornings before school.  The boys would sit quietly in the car and listen as I read to them until the doors opened and they could go in the school.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get all three to sit quietly at the same time?

When we finished, I started thinking of other classic books they might enjoy.  This week, we started reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The boys love it!  And I love how that little hit of reading time with them energizes me for the start of my day.

It’s better than coffee.

Not that I am ready to completely give up my morning coffee just yet….

Book Reviews

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I haven’t done a good job of keeping up this blog.

Yeah, big surprise.

I mean, it’s not like you couldn’t figure that out on your own, right? There was a post in January, somewhere around the 8th, I believe, and then nothing again until May 28th.

I think it would have been a greater shock if I’d tried to tell you that I had done a good job of keeping up the blog.

I’m not going to try to make excuses for it. Mainly because I don’t think that I can. The only excuse that I have is laziness. I’ve gotten into a funk, and just haven’t been able to think of anything to write. And sometimes, it’s too much work to try to force myself to think of something to write. In those times, it’s easier to just not write. So I take the lazy way out and I don’t write.

It’s not good. It’s not right. It’s just what is.

I’d like to say it won’t happen again, but I don’t want to insult either one of us by making promises I don’t know that I can keep.

My funk has not completely lifted. For reason I cannot explain to myself, let alone to anyone else, I still feel really down. I want to write, but I don’t know what to write. But I have been reading a lot this year. So in an attempt to get myself back into the habit of writing a little something every day, I am going to start reviewing the books I have read.

And I must say, I have read some pretty interesting books!!! Hopefully you will find something that you’ve never read but you might like to give a try.

Where Have I Been?

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Boy do I wish I could answer that question!

In January, I decided to go back to school. I all honesty, it’s something I’ve thought about for a long time. My biggest regret in life is that I never graduated from college, despite the fact I have attended three different schools. Right out of high school, I enrolled at Indiana Wesleyan University. My plan was to study secondary education. I wanted to teach English and history. Only I didn’t have the financial aid that I thought I had, so I only made it one semester before I had to come home. I think that is where my depression first came into play, actually. That’s the first time where I was confused about my future and about what God might want for my life. When I left for Indiana, I was sure I was doing what He wanted. When I had to come home… Yeah, I was confused and felt like I had let down not only myself, but my family and God.

From there, I went to Jackson Community College. My plan was still to teach. I wasn’t concerned with getting an associate degree, though in hindsight I think I should have worked toward that. Instead, I was looking to transfer to Eastern Michigan University. EMU was close to home and had an excellent teaching program. I thought it would be a good fit. But then my future mother-in-law had a series of strokes. I gave up on school to help take care of her. Then I married her oldest son and we started out family. School just got pushed aside.

Until our second son came along. By then, I was working part-time at a local credit union. I was really starting to think that something was missing, really feeling the shame of not having finished college. I just wasn’t sure anymore that I wanted to teach. I wanted to do something with my writing, something creative. After researching a few options, I decided on marketing and enrolled at Baker College, which was just down the street from our apartment. The classes were rougher than I anticipated, but I held my own. Right up until an unexpected pregnancy ended in an even more unexpected miscarriage. I was taking a basic accounting class—numbers really are not y thing anyway—and the class just didn’t seem to matter after I found out my baby was gone. Not much of anything mattered just then. Remember that depression I talked about earlier? Yeah, it was nothing compared to what I felt after the miscarriage. School (in many ways, life itself) was just too much for me, so I dropped out again.

I decided that I wasn’t going to go back at all until I found a degree I would actually use (by this time, my husband had graduated with a marketing degree that he wasn’t using) and until I was sure that I would finish. Just before Christmas 2012, I saw an ad for an undergraduate Creative Writing program. “Wow,” I thought. “Now THAT sounds like something I would enjoy!” I looked into it and found that I could get enough financial aid to cover the course. Even better, I could do the whole thing online. So I can go to school from the comfort of my own home. I can finish my college degree and still take care of my family. Yay me!

And do you know what is even more amazing to me? The school I have enrolled in went back nearly 20 years to the classes I took at Indiana Wesleyan and transferred as many credits as they could. They transferred so many that I should be able to graduate in June 2014. I am so excited!!!!

Not that earning my undergraduate degree will be the end for me. I am considering going on for my master’s degree in creative writing. That will allow me to teach. It kind of brings me back to where I started—teaching. At the same time, I will still be using my creative side, because I will still be writing. And one thing I know for sure—I do NOT want to give up my writing. Even if all I am writing are blog posts and book reviews, I am happier when I am writing. Teaching will bring in money, which will make my husband happier. Writing will keep my creative juices flowing, which will make me happier. Seems like that is a good thing for the whole family!