The Hunger Games - A Mom's Review

Perhaps you are aware that I am a huge fan of the books The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins.

I feel strongly that this is a series that should be read.

That said, when my twelve year old son's sixth grade class was informed they would be reading this series, I went to the teacher and said I was concerned and did not think they should read it.  He asked me if I had read them and I said I had JUST finished reading them all and they were too adult content for the kids to read.  He assured me he knew what he was doing.

I wish I had fought harder about that.

S1 read the book and loved it.  And here is the thing, I didn't want him to read the rest of the series.  But the class started to and he couldn't wait for them so he read them all.  We talked a lot about the series as he was reading them.

And then I found out it was going to be a movie.

Now I have a choice here.

As someone who knows fully what will be in the movie I have to decide if my child should see it.

But he read the books.

And I think in a book you spend so much of your time in a book the movie is not as powerful. There is, however, something to be said about an IMAGE sticking with you.

I decided this was a great teachable moment.

And it was a great mom and son bonding time.

So, my two friends, Alicia and Korene, and I took our boys to see it.

I'll not lie, we were giddy as could be.

I wanted S1 to feel it was a real special moment.  I wore heels to be taller than him. :)

 He wore his best camouflage.  

 Korene had not read the books and Alicia was the one who had told me to read them.  All our boys had read them in the same class.  I sat between Alicia and Korene, and it was interesting to be in between my friend who knew what was going to happen and my friend who had no idea what would happen.

In the movie, the children have to fight to the death.  There is no getting around that.  The movie follows the book rather well, of course the book is better.  The book is also much more bloody, much more painful to read.

When we left the movie, Korene was reeling.  We stood in the parking lot as the boys played catch and talked over the movie and the symbolism of it.  Alicia loves it for the story.  Korene was in shock that her son had read the book and she didn't know it was about THIS.  That evening Korene, Alicia and I were messaging more ideas about the movie and themes and so forth.

It's just that kind of book.  It's just that kind of a movie.  It does not leave you.

S1 and I chatted about the movie versus the book on the way home.  I asked him why it was he thought the movie was so popular.  He shrugged, "The love story in it, I guess."

"Is that why you like it?" I asked, quite surprised, I'll admit.

"No," he stopped to chew some of the fried chicken I had picked up for him after the movie at his favorite place to eat, KFC.  "I liked the book because when you read it you felt you knew that character and why she did what she did.  Some books you read, you read about the character.  This book you really felt you knew the character.

And I liked all the woods scenes.  How she had to think fast and act."

I asked him what he thought about the kids killing each other.  And this is when we began to discuss the underlying parts of the book.

As a mom reading/watching this, I could not ever fathom being able to watch my child's name being pulled out of all the names to be sent to near certain death.  I would protect them from all harm.

But the book and the movie portrayed it so well....the people had no hope.  None.

I cannot fathom it.

It scared me, the parallels it made.  My heart broke for those who have gone to war.  It pierced me to think of a world without any hope in a God to save them.  It concerns me how easily a large group of people can look to one dictator to think for them unquestioningly.

All this my twelve year old son and I talked over.

When we arrived home, he wandered off to hang out with his brothers and my husband and I chatted.  "Good movie?" he asked.

"Yes...and no.  Yes, because it's what I expected.  No, because I shouldn't have taken him to it.  Because he should have never read those books."

I know, shocking because I love them so.  I fully understand why someone does not want to read them.  I fully can appreciate the outcry against it.

For me it was because it took just more of my son's innocence.

And yet, I am thankful - so thankful - that he and I have a relationship that we can talk the books and movie over.  That we have that open dialogue.

I would rather have done what we did...see it together, not just pretend it wasn't the biggest most talked about thing in the entertainment news right now, made it a special mother son day, and made it as fun and memorable as possible.

But the rest of my boys?  No. Not a chance.  S2, who is nearly ten, would have nightmares.  And I will be more adamant he will not read it in sixth grade, I believe.

If it's not this book, it will be another.  And every situation is different.

But S2 I know could not come close to handling this.  And I feel terrible for the kids who may have struggled with the book.  Because it is just that kind of a book.  It's just that kind of a movie.

I had just read this quote before we went to see the movie. "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." - Bonhoeffer

Katniss acted on what she knew was right.  Peeta refused to let "them" dictate who he would be.  There are amazing lessons to be learned in the book and movie, amazingly GOOD lessons that make their point poignantly well.

If you loved the books, you will like the movie.  The scenes are beautiful in the mountains. The music is touching (can't wait to get the soundtrack!) and when it comes out on dvd, I'll buy it.  I'll watch it again because I like it so.  It's a powerful movie and I can't wait to see what my husband thinks of it as well, especially him knowing what a fan I am of it.



And, on a totally different soap box rant, SERIOUSLY, did a bunch of us need to see a movie trailer where the couple is undressing each other before the movie began?   My son was more scarred by THAT scene than anything in the entire Hunger Games movie.  Heads up on the previews....

A Trip to Kalamazoo Valley Museum

As you know, I work at a library.  I am super blessed to work with Alicia.

In planning our summer reading program (Dream Big - Read theme, focusing on night and Brian Lies' artwork), Alicia and I talked about how cool it would be to tell the kids about the stars in the sky and how to find the different constellations - but pretty much impossible on a summer morning for our library kiddos. That's when Alicia found a link for the Kalamazoo Valley Museum's Planetarium.  They were showing a winter sky special.  We decided we would take our boys out of school for the afternoon and bring them to the museum ourselves.

Seven boys. Two country girls. 

We could do this.

I baked the boys, and Alicia's boys too, some chocolate chip cookies.

When I went to pick them up, S1 mentioned that Miss Alicia's cookies are better than his mama's.

He is now forever regretting that statement.

He's pretty sure his mama isn't making him cookies for a good long time.

But armed with chocolate chip cookies and lots of excitement, we headed to downtown Kalamazoo.

My boys can't recall ever being in downtown Kalamazoo.

It was a bit of shock to my country boys.

And when we DROVE INTO A BUILDING to park...they were shrieking.

Seriously, I could have just driven to the parking garage and it would have been a field trip.

 Because the parking garage was sooooo cool, we needed a photo.

 The planetarium was impressive.  At one point, S4 leaned over and said to me, "Mama, is it night time right now?"  We were the only ones in the planetarium which made it more memory making.  Will I be able to find the stars in the sky now? I believe I will still struggle.  But did I learn a lot?  I surely did!

Outside of the planetarium there was a tornado machine.  I so wished I had taken a picture of that because the boys were enthralled with the tornado.

We headed upstairs and came onto the how to produce Energy race track.  Really, this drew the boys in and we could hardly get them away.  They worked to build a car like the demo.  With an electric type engine, they could race the cars around the track.  

 Even my husband, when I told him about this, thought it was cool.

 The boys had all kinds of fun modifying their cars to race them.  Well, everyone had fun but S4 who you can see crying.  He wanted to make a car, he wanted to race a car and he really needed nap.  Fearing a breakdown, I suggested we go explore.

 Honestly, we didn't know anything about the museum and thought that the little section we were in might be it.  Oh, no!  The museum took a turn and suddenly we were engulfed in Kalamazoo history.

 The boys could not believe they got to pretend play these instruments at the Gibson Guitar section.

 The speakers played the music of the play wooden instruments and the boys acted as though they were the professionals playing.  S2 has always dreamed of playing the banjo.  I am not even joking.

 S1 looked mighty fine.

 This picture of S4 cracks me up.

 S3 was ready to write his own music.

 We wandered farther and came to the General Store.  S4 was more than slightly ecstatic that there was a checker board and didn't want to leave until he had successfully beaten his brother.

 But when we found this.......

 Everyone had to be a newscaster.  The weather was a lot of fun, the boys love watching the weather on Fox 17, as you know, and they just had so much fun playing with the weather map.

The desk?  I mean, how fun was this?!

 They were able to move the camera and pretend they were Mike Davis so to say they had a blast here would be an understatement.

The part of the museum they loved the most though, shocked Alicia and I a bit.

It was the diner.

 I don't know if it is because they don't have play kitchen sets or what, but the boys were enthralled with this diner set up.  I don't think we will be eating any food they make for awhile but, seriously, the boys had fun making up food and taking orders. 

 Even baby Callisto was in shock at their silliness.

 I mean, they were so animated it was hilarious to watch.

 You can see S2 laughing hysterically.  They all were but S2's face cracks me up.

 We had to move them away.  They were having waaaaaaaay too much fun.

There was another flight of stairs.  And at the top of the stairs was a mummy.

 To be honest, this sort of freaked S4 out a bit.  This was an ACTUAL dead person?

Yup.  Yup, it was.

But it is a dead person mummy with a TWITTER ACCOUNT!!!! Seriously. You can follow HERE.

And the boys did find this mummy to be amazingly cool.  

We headed off to the disease section and just as the boys were thinking this was going to be grossly enthralling, we heard the announcement that the museum was closing.  Where had all the time gone?

We hurried out of the building, soaked in some more glorious sunshine of the day, the boys wanted to know if New York looked as cool as downtown Kalamazoo (really, Alicia, we need to take the boys out more) and drove our suburban out of the building (aka parking garage) to head for home.

This was a small miracle.  I usually always get lost but I followed Alicia to the museum without a bit of problem and I drove home without even thinking I may be lost (Siri was there to help).  Easiest trip to and from.

We stopped at Plainwell Ice Cream for some of the world's greatest ice cream.

The boys (and their mama) arrived home exhausted but happy.

S1 emailed me.  "Sure had a lot of fun today.  Thanks."

I think that pretty much sums the whole day up.

As a mom, I was so thankful that all the exhibits were kid interactive.  The museum wanted to kids to be a part of the history, this makes it sink in even more for them.  Had we had more time, the "phones" you could pick up and listen to tell you the back story of the display would have been something the boys would have learned so much from.

When you are so used to saying, "Be careful! Don't touch that!" it was great to just let the boys explore.  THAT made the day fun.

Already the boys are wondering if we can go back again soon.  And yes, I think we shall descend upon the Kalamazoo Valley Museum again in the near future.

There is no cost to visit the museum

There is a three dollar charge for the 45 minute planetarium show

INFO

Monday - Thursday, Saturday 9am-5pmFriday 9am-9pmSunday and Holidays: 1-5pm (Closed Easter,

Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Day)

230 North Rose Street | Map + ParkingKalamazoo Michigan 49007800.772.3370 | 269.373.7990

museumstaff@kvcc.edu

What NOT to Wear

If you are boy/man...do not read this.

It will make absolutely no sense to you at all.

It will make women look silly.  I can't have that.

Women....read on.

I meant to take a picture for you of the outfit with the issue and the problems I had today, but I needed comfy jeans on just as soon as I walked in the door.

And I love you all, but I couldn't put that outfit on again.

Let me start at the beginning....

Yesterday it was sunny and warm and brilliant spring like.  Grand weather.  Today it snowed.  Not much, but the snow turned to drizzle and ick.  Today was also my day to work and I am just tired of wearing corduroy pants every time it is cold out so I decided to wear my favorite long jean skirt.

I found this jean skirt at Goodwill and it has never fit great but I love it so much I can't give it up.  It has the slit in the front and I find that all retro and cool looking but it is cold out, remember, so I had to wear tights.

The tights I own I bought the year S1 turned one.

I'll let you think on that.  

Yes, you are correct.  The tights are over eleven years old.

I purchased them from L.L. Bean.  Their tights just don't wear out.  I keep waiting for them to get a hole or a snag or something but the keep holding in there for me.

The only thing that is wrong with them is that the elastic is gone in the waist.

This sorta causes a problem but since the tights go with EVERYTHING I usually can improvise to pull off the look.  Today I decided to wear the tights with my spanx.

I just recently became the owner of a pair of spanx.  I bought this AMAZING black dress this winter and it needed a little help.  So Morg went out and purchased me my first pair of spanx.  She was also in awe I have never owned a pair.

So, I pulled on the spanx shorts, pulled on the tights, tucked the tights into the spanx.  I buttoned the skirt and pulled on my tall knee high boots I love so much.  I looked in the mirror.

I looked good.

Well, as long as I didn't walk too fast because you could see the spanx under my tights.  Remember I mentioned the slit was in the front of the skirt?  That meant that knee length spanx were longer than the above the knee slit.

But...really, who would notice?

So I took off for work...and when I sat I realized I may have a little issue.

The spanx totally would show!  At this point I was on my way to work and there was nothing to do about it and I was thankful for a desk with a big computer hiding me from patrons.

I arrived at work not wearing the same outfit as Alicia.  We often unintentionally dress the same.  We did, however, both wear our hair in a pony tail.  Since I really can't recall a time I wore my hair in a high pony tail at work this really made me giggle...and there is no point in telling you this.  I just had to share it.

It soon became apparent that the tights were not staying tucked into the spanx.  If my tights weren't staying tucked in, then I get that whole penguin feeling where the tights are falling and I can't walk.

Also, I kept having problems with my spanx.  They were super high in the back and not as high in the front and I could tell, this day was going down as a fashion mess.

When I went to go pee later, I noticed what a problem I had.

I had put my spanx on backwards.

I debated a moment, but really, what was there to do?  I had to take off my boots, take off my tights, take off my spanx, switch the spanx around, put on the tights, tuck the tights into the spanx, put on the boots and hope I looked okay.

The effort had me nearly sweating I was so hot and that made me think - again - how I need to get walking again because I can't run for fear of falling.

Seriously, if I fall and hurt myself, how is this family going to function?  They aren't.  So I don't run.

I think I just need new tights.

Anyhow, I tried to breeze back out of the bathroom and not appear all hot and disheveled but I don't think I did a great job at that.

I went back to work but now my problem was the spanx were higher in the front than the tights.  I had yanked the spanx up high on my legs so that they didn't show but now they were cutting off the circulation to my legs.  Seriously, digging into my nonwalked, unrunning thighs.  The spanx would fold over and I would suddenly have this weird looking fat roll on my tummy.

Sausage popped into my head as reference.

And anyone could see the weird looking fat roll because I had to take my sweater off from being so hot from changing so fast.

Because the spanx were so high my tights, of course, would not stay tucked in either so I was constantly trying to hitch them back up.  There is NO graceful way of doing this.

So at the end of the day I peeled off the clothes and put on my comfy jeans and sneakers and said, "I have to blog this."

Now you all know what not to do.  You are welcome.

The Deliciousness of A Good Book

When I was a little girl, I loved to read.  My nose was buried in a book any day, often all day.  If I was not buried in a book, on little pieces of orange notebook paper my uncle brought home to us in bulk, I would write out stories.

When my brother and I would play for hours at our creek or out in the neighbors hundreds of wooded acres across the road from us, I would make up amazing stories that we would be the hero and heroine of.  We lived many great adventures.

On days my mom and dad would have us helping with weeding, stacking wood, shoveling manure, helping with canning, etc I would make up stories in my head to make the time go faster.  Often I would tell made up stories to my siblings...especially my brother.

My brother has an incredible oral story telling ability.  He amazes me.  He can have me on the floor laughing or scared to death to get out of my vehicle at night...and I'm a grown woman!  I, on the other hand, am the writer of my days (pretty obvious, I know) but a speaker?  Not so much.  Public speaking scares me insanely much.

When my boys were being born and little, it occurred to me one day for some reason that I could not even remember the last book I had read.  When I dug around the house I found some book I had read...the year before.  Since then I have tried to be much more conscientious of reading.  Back when S2 was a baby, I had no computer (can you imagine!), no cell phone, no cable tv, no facebook, no twitter, no blogging (but journaling sporadically) and I was not reading.

Now my time is being pulled in every direction.  The boys are older and one would think that would make life easier and while, yes, I'm not changing diapers anymore, I am also busier.  The amount of food I make in a week is startling to me.  School keeps us hopping.  Work.  The farm.

My husband feels reading is about as thrilling as watching paint dry.  And me curled up with a good book can be annoying to him...if all he did was sharpen chainsaw chains when I wanted to spend time with him, I would be annoyed too.  (Chains for cutting wood...that sounded slightly odd, didn't it?) So we find some tv series we love to watch on Netflix and spend our time at night cuddled on the couch watching tv.  We love it.  Who doesn't love to cuddle with the love of their life?

Alicia introduced me to Goodreads and while I am not very good at keeping it up to date, I do find it helps immensely.  You can make a reading goal for the year and this year I decided to be brave and say I would read 26 books this year.  Considering I had a hard time reading ONE book a month last year this was a huge commitment to me.

Alicia?  She thinks she can read 75 books this year.  She's a reading machine.  I love this about her.

Last night, Jake had to go plow.  I was not happy about this because we had a night planned - nothing  big but still.  I mopped floors, cleaned the kitchen, blogged...I know, I am thrilling...and when I crawled into bed I thought, "Gasp! I could read for a bit."

I snuggled into bed, pulling my special Strawberry Shortcake blanket around me and propping pillows. It was eleven.  I'd been tired all evening, I'd suffered a severe headache on the right side of my head that had set my eye brow to twitching and while I was feeling fine now (and in large part because I refused to look up my symptoms on the internet, it would have me dead by morning, I was sure) I knew I shouldn't read too late.

I had read the first chapter a week or so before and thought it so so.

About four chapters in I was hooked.

I couldn't put it down.  I had to know what happened.  I heard a vehicle rumble and thought Jake was back from plowing perhapes...but it wasn't him. No, it was my neighbor.  Leaving. For. Work.

That's right...it was nearly five in the morning.

I had no idea, and I was *this* close to finishing.

At five thirty, I finished.  I closed the book and rubbed the cover.  It was a delicious evening this book and I had had.  I sent a text to Alicia, who I knew was just waking up.  She was the one who told me to read The Hunger Games series, I shouldn't have doubted that she would know I would like this book that normally I wouldn't even bother to look at twice.

After a few hours of sleep and a *few* cups of coffee, I am still thinking over this book.  That's the fun about the books - even when you are done reading you aren't done living the story.

I was thrilled and pained to see there is a second book coming out in May.  

This post - rambling long as it is - isn't to tell you read this book (although I would recommend it in a heartbeat), it's just to remind you to read.  A book.  Not just your computer or a magazine but a book where you live with the characters.  

It's a delicious thing, a good book.