The Talens' Tales

Events from her past keep seventeen year old Molly a prisoner inside her home, hiding from what happened. She longs to escape from everything holding her back and begin life anew in this tiny tourist town she and her mother call home. Will the chance meeting of a friend from her past give her the courage to step outside? When Hanna was twelve years old, she was a victim of some horrible events that lead to the death of her father and being separated from her mother for several weeks. When she is finally reunited with her mother, she is a very different girl. She no longer speaks, and doesn’t want to leave the house. One day Hanna sees Claire Rodriguez in the park and is drawn to her because of the cross necklace Claire wears. A strange relationship develops as Claire is the only person Molly will talk too. Claire is struggling as well. She is still grieving over the loss of her own children in a car accident years back and her marriage falling apart in the wake of her grief. Cl...

Joash received many lovely presents for Christmas. We have enjoyed playing with all of them. One things Joash received was a nice collection of jungle and farm animals, which he has really enjoyed playing with. Here are the animals helping with a puzzle.  Today, Joash and I made a zoo. It is certainly not up current zoo animal welfare standards, but our building supplies were limited. Plus Joash has never actually been to a zoo yet, so he doesn't have a lot to go on. Joash placed all of the animals in each enclosure. And the little man on the side is looking at the animals and he also going to give them water from the sink. It is certainly fun to have a few new things to add to our playtime.

As Joash continues to talk more and more clearly, some of the things he says are really funny. Here are a few of our recent favorite quotes. The other day, Joash had a new treat at snack time, marshmallows. When Wilbert asked what he had for a snack after nap time, Joash said, "Mushrooms." We took Joash swimming yesterday. The pool has a few different toys and things for kids to play with while swimming. One item is a whale that flat and sinks to the bottom of the pool. We showed it to Joash, who said it was a dolphin. Then while inspecting it, he flipped it over the back side, which is a black speckly pattern and declared, "Dirty dolphin." We then asked him what colour the other side was. Joash looked at it, saying, "hmm.." Then he touched it with his hand, closed his eyes and said, "red" with a confident nod of his head. It was red and we both thought his process was a bit funny. After swimming, Wilbert was drying Joash off, and Joa...

After the Christmas tree went up, Joash spent the next couple of days rearranging the ornaments. Now, he pretty much leaves it alone. This branch must be really special. It has five ornaments on it and I had to be pretty persuasive to keep Joash from putting anything else on it. If he had his way, all 12 of the ornaments that look like this would be on this same branch.

The Respect Dare by Nina Roesner was an interesting in challenging book. It is broken up into 40 “dares” and it is intended that the reader will do one dare per day until finished. Each dare has a verse, often a little story as an example and then a set of questions that lead to the dare for the day. While I did not use this book as intended, the book still had an impact on me and my relationship with God and my husband. I know there are things that I can do better and things that I can change to deepen my relationship with both God and my husband. It also did edify a few things that I am doing right, so that was nice as well. My biggest critique of the book is the stories that many of the chapters have in them. While the author says they are true stories from women she has worked with, I found them a little too perfect and simplistic. Maybe that is the result of keeping them short for the book, but I found it difficult to place myself in many of the little stories that were s...

We had a decent snow fall over the weekend and today turned out to be a lovely day. After morning coffee time, Wilbert decided it was time for Joash to make his first snowman. And Joash was really excited it about it! He got all bundled up... And headed outside with Dad. Joash understood the basic snowman building concept and after making one snowman that eventually fell over, he decided it was much more fun to have Dad make big snow balls and roll them all over the yard to where Joash wanted to place them. This one needs to go right by this tree...  We eventually decided to make Joash a little chair, which he thought was really nice. He spent quite a while pulling out all of the "sticks" from his chair (they were actually the stems of the leaves from the snowball picked up while it was being rolled around. Joash liked all of the snow fun quite a bit, so we hope for a bit more snow this winter to do other fun things like sledding.

We got our Christmas tree this week and Joash was so excited! He loved putting on all of the decorations and lights. He helped by putting on some ornaments that I chose specifically for him to put on the tree. We decorated the tree yesterday and he has moved a few of the ornaments around this morning. I guess he is trying to get it just right. It is quite fun to see how excited he is about all of it. We will be keeping the presents hidden though. After his birthday, he thinks every present is for him.

The story was shocking. A young girl walked into the moving propeller of a plane and lost her left eye and hand. Yet, so many things were left out of the news story the media told. Now, a year after the accident, Lauren Scruggs and her family tell the entire story and share how their faith has held them through it all in Still Lolo . On December 3 rd , 2011, Lauren Scruggs experienced a life changing accident that not only challenged her ability to do normal every day things, but also her faith. But, this accident not only impacted her, it also had a profound impact on her family.  Lauren, her parents and her twin sister are all narrators in this book. Her parents tell the story of how they met, their marriage and how their twin daughters are miracle babies. They also share the story of how their marriage fell apart and then how, through God’s grace, it was restored. The family’s whole lives are a testament to God’s grace and faithfulness. After the accident, Lauren has a l...

I don't know what it is this year, but I have gone into a Christmas treat making frenzy. I think it is a combination of wanting to start some fun traditions with Joash and coming to grip with the fact that if I want my favorite Christmas treats, I am going to have to make them myself. So, we have made Peanut Butter balls and Christmas Cut Out Cookies so far. I am keeping a few out for right now and freezing the rest to spread out over the rest of the month. Today was Christmas cut out cookie day. We just did a half batch. Joash's favorite shape to use is the star, followed closely by the angel. So you guess which shapes dominate our cookies. I really had to be sneaky to get a few snowflakes out of the deal. Joash certainly liked the cookies, as I know he took at least one cookie off the table while they were cooling after I had already given him two. After nap time, it was time to decorate. Joash decided we would use white and green frosting. I gave him the job of putt...

Joash is increasingly interested in doing things like games and puzzles. While waiting for your turn and other important parts to actually playing a game are a ways off, it surprises me how well he does. One of the first puzzles he learned to do was a matching puzzle. Each puzzle has two pieces that fit together. So you have to find the two pieces with raindrops on them and then slide the pieces together. We started small with me giving him the two pieces that went together, but he was quickly able to pick out the matching pieces on his own. So I decided to try a simpler version of "Memory." We lay out all of the cards on the coffee table and Joash picks out the matching pairs (most of the time). It is also a great time to practice identifying animals. Of course, one quickly develops a certain routine. This game goes like this: Joash picks up a piece, says the name of the animal on it and looks for the match. Once the match has been spotted, he says, "found it,...