Review: Unbroken

Last night I went with a friend to see the movie "Unbroken."

I read the book a couple of years and LOVED it- I really think it should be required reading for high school students. I knew the movie couldn't possibly live up to the book, and unfortunately I was right. If I had not read the book, the movie would have been good- but having read the book, it simply couldn't compete.

Here's my ratings (out of 10):

Book: 10

Movie- having read the book: 6.5

Movie- if I had not read the book: 7.5

**Spoiler Alert**

I very highly recommend the book. It is incredibly depressing, but such an unbelievable true story of survival, heartache, forgiveness, and redemption. You read it and keep thinking, "It can not possibly get worse!" But then, it keeps getting worse.

When watching a movie based off a book, I understand that many elements must be left out. But there were so many poignant pieces of the book that I found changed the entire premise of the book and were missing, and that was depressing.

For example:

-Louis actually shook Hitler's hand at the Olympics, Hitler was so impressed by Louis' last lap that he asked for Louis to come over and shake his hand. Knowing that Louis would then go on to fight against this evil man whose hand he shook was powerful.

-In the movie, we don't get to see just how heinous the Bird was to Louis. It was actually a daily beating that Louis got from him, for absolutely no reason other than the Bird had some sort of sick fascination with him.

-As they are going to crash in the plane, we don't get a sense of the fear that the men had- they all thought they would die, and yet they appear pretty calm in the movie. Perhaps the fear of death is difficult to act out.

-The most important piece of the entire book was the last few chapters- and this was only barely hinted at in the movie. When Louis came home he had severe PTSD. He had horrific nightmares every night- waking up shaking, sweating, disoriented, and in complete fear. He turned to alcohol and quickly became an alcoholic to try and get rid of the pain. He did get married, and his wife was about to leave him.

But, then one night his wife went and saw a traveling preacher speak. His name was Billy Graham. He was in town for two weeks, and she told Louis he needed to go and hear him speak or she was leaving him. He begrudgingly went, and this changed his life.

After hearing Graham, he decided to accept Christ in his life. He quit drinking cold turkey. He learned to forgive those who had tortured him. He found peace, and he went on to live a wonderful life with his wife.

You see, the importance of this book- and why it is so sad that Angelina Jolie completely missed the point- is that Louis Zamperini WAS broken. He was beyond broken- he was a shell of a man who could not function in the world. But, Christ healed him. Christ made him unbroken.

That was missed in the movie- the very point of the whole story. And so, I recommend the book. It's definitely worth the read! But not the movie.

Funny Story

The other day I was watching some football (which, by the way, is pretty much all I will be doing starting on Saturday and going for 72 hours), and Claire and Camille grabbed a blanket, curled up on the couch, and started watching with me instead of playing.

I said, "Why are you watching this? You don't even like football."

Claire quickly replied, "Yes, I do. I like it when they hurt each other."

Yup, that sounds like my Claire.

Puzzles! Puzzles! Puzzles!

The girls love puzzles, and thankfully they got a bunch of them for Christmas. Today they had a lot of fun putting them all together:

Gearing Up For Second Semester...

As every teacher knows, you never really have a break. It's always about the next semester, or week, or lesson plan. It's never finished.

The same is true for home school teachers. I'm always thinking about ways to improve and researching ways to help the girls learn more effectively. On Monday, we start semester 2. It is exciting and daunting at the same time.

As we continue on this journey, I have been asked a lot of times what our days look like. People are very curious- as was I before I started! In order to answer those curious minds, here is what a day in our  homeschool life looks like:

(I am not including times. We don't have so much a schedule as a routine. I'll discuss this more later):

1. Devotional- we start the day off with a song, prayer, story from The Friend or the scriptures, and a review of memorizing both a scripture and an Article of Faith. We spend about two weeks on each A of F and scripture.

2. Math- we do math next. I figure that if the only things we get through are devotional and math we are good. (for the record, I never count just doing those two things as an actual school day, but during Christmas break or a day off for whatever reason, or a field trip I still like to do those two things)

3. Language Arts- grammar and comprehension reading

4. Reading- Teaching Claire to read

5. Handwriting

6. Lunch

7. Read-A-Louds (this is all of our favorite time of the day. We snuggle on the couch with a blanket and do our daily reading out loud. This includes history as our read-alouds are about history)

8. Sporadically- science

9. Sporadically- Art

10. We are usually done by 2. Then the girls play, we go to the library, we run errands, head to the park, or whatever we feel like.

The trouble is that no day seems to be "normal." One problem this last semester is that I have been baby-sitting a lot for a friend who went back to school. It was fine to baby-sit, and she paid me which was great. It was also great to have one of Claire's good friends coming over to play so often. So I don't regret it in the least- I am glad we did it. However, it did break up our day a bit and cause interruptions in school. I am learning that I need to do a better job of not over-scheduling our days to ensure that we get everything done that is needed. I also need to hold the "school time" a little more sacred and work on not getting distracted by phone calls and such.

We also have a lot of co-ops and field trips. That is part of homeschooling. I think they are important, but again- they do break up the day, and I haven't quite figured that part of homeschooling out yet. Sometimes I think I need to let go and realize that I am not tied to a standard school schedule- we don't really take Christmas break or spring break, we work through those. So if we don't get grammar or reading done, I need to relax and know that we will make it up over those break times. (at the bare minimum, we won't be taking three weeks off of school for state testing, so just that adds a ton to our learning schedule) I want this to be successful, but I need to remember that I don't need them to learn everything right now. It's an interesting process.

This semester, however, there are a couple of things I want to try:

First, I want to wake up at 6:30 to get the day going. I am not looking forward to this- I am not a morning person. But, I work out every morning- which takes about 30-45 minutes. This last semester I didn't wake up until about 7:30, so we didn't get started with school until about 9, and sometimes later if we had chores to do first. It wasn't a huge deal, because we could still end by 1:30 or 2 each day, but the kids are at their best in the morning. I think if we can start by 8-8:30 the day will go better for them. That is one of my goals for this year- get up at 6:30 and have a fresher start to the day. We'll see how it goes.

Second, I want to do science and art every day instead of sporadically. If we start earlier, we should easily be able to fit them into the routine on a more consistent basis.

Lastly, I want to try and include more actual recess time. In the winter it is a little more difficult because we can't go outside much of the time, but we can go to the local rec center where they have a field the girls can play basketball and such on. This would make our days longer as it would add about an hour or hour and a half to the day, but I think it will be worth it.

I am pretty happy with the curriculum we are using. I am really liking Miquon Math which I have started with Claire. This uses a lot of Cusineaire rods, which are fantastic manipulatives to help kids really get math. They are awesome!

The kids are definitely learning! It is really fun to see, and I am happy with their progress. There is always room for improvement, however, as all teachers understand. But, I am happy for this journey. It is going really well. The kids both say they love it as well. Hopefully things will continue to go well.

2015 Predictions

I am absolutely certain that none of you really care about my predictions, but nevertheless it is very fun for me, so I am going to do them again. Here's my 10 Bold Predictions for 2015 (and, seriously, how did we get to 2015? Wasn't Y2K just yesterday???):

1. Broncos and Seahawks in the SuperBowl. It is a Disney Movie waiting to happen- Peyton Manning finally gets his second SuperBowl ring after defeating his nemesis Tom Brady and the team that crushed him last year, The Seahawks.

2. Audra and Claire will join 4-H and have displays in the state fair (more on this later- I'm very excited about this new development)

3. Audra will do basketball again.

4. Homeschool will continue-with us getting more involved in the homeschooling community and enjoying continuing on this journey.

5. We will finally do some much needed remodeling of the basement and kitchen. Here's hoping!!

6. I will finally finish Camille's cross-stitch stocking that I have been wanting to do since before she was born.

7. This election will suck, but we will win back some of our school board seats.

8. No emergency room visits.

9. Ben will get released from having to work in primary (he has an assignment at church where he is in charge of teaching little kids. He hates it)

10.Besides Bear Lake and Seattle, we will go someplace else fun for a family vacation.

2014 Prediction Results

Here's my results from the predictions I made last January:

1. Seahawks vs. Broncos in the Super Bowl! Man, I really hope this happens- it would be a dream come true! But, Denver needs a better defense, and Seattle needs more consistency for this all to work out. We'll see! It did happen- with the Seahawks winning. Not a great game, but still a lot of fun for me!

2. Ben gets a promotion at work. He's due for one, so hopefully that will pan out. He did! Yay for Ben!

3. Three separate family vacations. Ben doesn't like this prediction at all, but I LOVE it! We did it! One to Seattle, one to Bear Lake, UT, and one to Mt. Rushmore. 

4. Audra will be able to read chapter books, Claire will start easy readers, and Camille will be talking up a storm. All true! It has been a big year for reading (it has finally really clicked with Audra and Claire is doing a great job starting to learn to read). And, Camille is talking, and talking, and talking. It is super cute!

5. No major natural disasters in Colorado (this would be a true miracle, but Colorado is due for a break from all the weather craziness!) True!

6. I will find some new talents to develop.Cooking? Photography? I don't know. That's what helps to make this year so unpredictable. Not true. I haven't really started any new talents.
7. Audra will try t-ball and Claire will try Landsharks. Will they like them? I don't know. I kind-of hope that Audra doesn't like t-ball because I can't think of a sport I would like to watch less than t-ball, but we'll see. Neither is true. No Landsharks, no t-ball. Audra did try basketball, though.

8. I will keep off all the weight I have lost- I had better! So far, this remains true. But my current diet of cookies and Christmas treats may derail my weight loss for 2015.

9. Another government shut down and continued hate/anger in DC that results in nothing getting accomplished. No government shut down, but definitely continued hate/anger in DC.

10. Kaley Cuoco (from the Big Bang Theory- our favorite show) and her new husband the famous tennis player will get a divorce. I don't see this relationship lasting. Not true- they are surprisingly still married. Good for them.

Sledding!

We finally got some snow on Christmas Day and the next couple of days after that. It actually has been quite a mild winter, but this last week we have definitely had the cold (yesterday I think the high was -1) the last while.

Because yesterday was so cold we hunkered down and didn't go anywhere. When it gets that cold it hurts to breathe. Today was warmer (high of 27) so Ben took Audra and Claire sledding. Camille and I joined them for the last few minutes. After 2 1/2 hours of sledding, the girls still whined about needing to come home for lunch- I think they could have stayed all day. We only have one cracked sled- and there are absolutely no sleds in town to be bought as everything is sold out- so Ben is on Amazon seeking a good quality sled or two for the kids to enjoy.

 Camille refused to ride down with Claire, which was a little sad for Claire. She really wanted Camille to go down on her lap.

I did not go sledding. I hate being cold.