Valentine's, Book Clubs, & A Music Concert

For Valentine's Day we went to dinner with some friends.
My sweetie gave me some flowers and a BlendTec. I love it!

My Sis did these cute Valentine's for Shelbs.

I went and helped at Kenadi's class party. We made cute cards, decorated cookies and exchanged Valentine's. I think Valentine's Day is one of the funnest for school kids. I still have fond memories and making Valentine boxes when I was a kid. In fourth grade, Mr. Davis, my favorite teacher of all time gave the winner of the box decorating contest a King sized Snickers bar. No, I was not the winner, but I still remember what the winning box looked like.

At the beginning of the year Kenadi decided to join the school orchestra. She had never even picked up a violin in her life. She has persevered and is learning. She likes it so much that we've decided to put her in private lessons. Anyone know of a good teacher? I'm happy that Kenadi had the courage to try something new.

For the youth book club this month we read this book. It was written by a BYU grad. It was good, but not my favorite. My girls had a hard time getting into it. I noticed at the book club most of the boys we very engaged in the discussion.
Maybe there wasn't enough romance for us girl. :)
It was full of great leadership principles though.
I love the opportunities book clubs give for
new exposure to books, people, and discussions.
What a great way to learn and grow.

At the ladies book club we read Jane Eyre. Yes, I loved this book. Out of curiosity I got the Cliff Notes to read too. I was so shocked and disappointed at the way it describes this book. Jane Eyre was a morally strong person who turned to God often for guidance. It seemed that the Cliff Notes wanted to say anything but that. It describes her spirituality as a mix between Pagan and Christian because like nature her God is full of bounty, compassion, and forgiveness. (Is this not a Christian view of God?) It also says she rejects the Christian characters in the book but fails to say that these characters have very few if any Christian attributes. Jane has the moral courage to leave the man she loves after finding out he is a married man. The Cliff notes say this, "Jane needs to walk away from the relationship until he has learned self-control and until she can enter into the relationship on a more equal footing."
SAY WHAT?! How about HE IS A MARRIED MAN!!
I used Cliff Notes a lot during school. I think many kids do. It's sad to see that the Cliff Notes conveniently left out the whole moral of the story.