2016

Happy New Year!!! Here's to a 2016 filled with fun sister projects. Thank you for your readership, and God's blessings on your holiday!

Love,
Katie and Sarah

Book Review: Phoenix Rising

Hello friends!

This week we are discussing the book Phoenix Rising by Karen Hesse. The first thing you should know is that this novel is not fantasy, which is what we were initially expecting based on the title. Rather, it is set in the modern day, with a realistic premise. The story is about a girl named Nyle and her grandmother, and how their lives are affected by an accident at a nearby nuclear power plant. 

Sarah's opinions: I found this book to be thought-provoking, but it was too depressing to be called enjoyable. Granted, this is not the measure by which books should be judged; I think I may have been in the wrong frame of mind to read it. In addition, I never really felt a strong attachment to any of the characters. However, there are things to be said in its favor: the writing was well done, and it was clear that the author had done her research. All in all, it was a decent read, and it brings an important issue to light.

Katie's opinions: I too felt that I never developed strong attachments to any of the characters. I'm not quite sure why I experienced this disconnect, because the events of the story definitely felt real. That said, I did end up liking the book, especially as it drew to a close. Though it was set amidst depressing circumstances, I think the overall tone was one of love, hope, and personal growth. Upon reading the inside cover, I discovered that Karen Hesse is also the author of a book I read several years ago called Letters from Rifka. I now plan to revisit it and see how it compares to Phoenix Rising.

Thanks to Alyssa for the recommendation! Have you read Phoenix Rising? Share your thoughts with us in the comments, and feel free to give us your recommendations for future book reviews!

Christmas Movies

Christmas is coming! The goose is getting fat. Except I think we're having turkey, and it's already dead, so it's not currently gaining weight. But you get the point.

Our dad has asked us to make a list of Christmas movies to watch this year, so we decided to share that list on our blog. Obviously, we won't watch every single one of these this year - we don't want to spend our entire Christmas break in front of the television - but we should be able to get through all the priority movies plus a few extra.

Movies to watch:
(Underlined titles get the highest priority. Titles in bold are movies most or all of us have never seen before.)

• It's a Wonderful Life (If our family watches only one movie on any given Christmas, it'll be this one! Add it to your own "to be watched" list if it's not there already.)
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated version)
• The Nativity Story
• National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
• A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Veggie Tales Christmas
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• The Santa Clause
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Eloise at Christmastime
• The Little Drummer Boy
• A Christmas Story
• Home Alone
• Holiday Inn
• STAR WARS: The Force Awakens (!!!)

If you are unfamiliar with these titles, give them a try, and let us know what you think. There are probably a lot of good movies we didn't include here, so please give us recommendations in the comments section! Happy movie watching, everyone!  

Acorns and Pilgrim Hats

We've been a bit short on time this past week, but Sarah found some cute, simple Thanksgiving treats that we were able to assemble in short order. We're probably not the only ones with full schedules during this time of year, so you may want to whip these up yourselves!

Ingredients

 Links for the ideas:

• Pilgrim hat cookies
• Acorn treats

We adapted the acorns slightly: instead of piping melted chocolate on for the stem, we used the melted chocolate to attach a small chocolate chip.

Also, we couldn't find chiclets at the store, so our pilgrim hats are without buckles. (Our little sister was happy, though - she hates gum.)

Hats and Acorns

Both treats are easy to assemble, but a lot of our hats looked sloppy whereas all the acorns turned out well. We're going to make more acorns to take to our relatives next week.

Let us know in the comments what sort of treats you're making and/or eating. Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your holiday!

And enjoy this random picture of our cat.

Guess what today's topic is?

It's November, guys. You know we're gonna talk about NaNo.

Unless you don't know what that is...

Okay, we'll start with a brief explanation. NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month is an event that takes place every November in which writers and aspiring writers from all around the world set forth to complete a challenge of epic proportions: writing a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. If you'd like to know more about this craziness, visit nanowrimo.org.

Now here's some advice for you current and future NaNo'ers:

• Firstly, get involved in the online and/or local NaNoWriMo community, if you haven't already. You need people who understand what you're doing, and who better than people who are doing the same thing? A lot of people in your life who aren't writers won't really "get" NaNoWriMo. Fellow writers who are attempting the same challenge will be better able to encourage, commiserate, and give advice or feedback. That said, it also helps to tell people who you see frequently in real life about your undertaking so that they can hold you accountable.
• Get some rough ideas figured out before you start writing. Even you "pantsers" (people who write by the seat of their pants rather than having a detailed plan) will benefit from having some basic things figured out, in your head if not on paper. It'll save a lot of time and frustration. If you start out totally directionless, you will end up with random spastic scenes, wooden characters, and cheesy dialogue. This advice comes from previous experience, so... just trust us.
• Do writing prompts to get creative juices flowing. Search Google, Pinterest, the NaNoWriMo forums... there are billions of inspiring prompts out there.
• Participate in word wars (in which you write as much as possible in a designated amount of time) and word sprints (in which you write a specified number of words). These help you stay on track and bump up your word count.
• Listen to music while you write. We often go for instrumental tracks since lyrics can be distracting, but it all depends on who you are, the scene you're working on, and your current state of mind. (Katie wrote her most recent words to Porcupine Tree's Deadwing album.) In the same vein, the music you listen to can really affect what comes out on the page. Basically, what we're trying to tell you is that if you're going for a lighter tone, you probably don't want to listen to metal.
• Find a roleplaying thread on the NaNo forums, or roleplay elsewhere. It may sound like a silly or nerdy thing to do, but it can actually be very helpful for character development.
• Take breaks to walk around, eat, and just do other things. You don't want to feel like you've been sucked into a spinning vortex of words.
• Let go of any perfectionist tendencies you might have. It's a first draft. It's gonna suck, and that's okay. Wait with the editing, and don't get so worked up about writing something awesome that you never write anything because it won't be good enough. Once it exists, you can mold it, shape it, fix it. If you never write that crappy first draft, you'll never have anything to improve on.
• Just keep writing! Don't get hung up on a scene with which you're having trouble. If you need to, skip ahead to a different scene. You can write your novel forwards backwards, upside-down - do whatever works for you. Just don't give up, even if you get so far behind on your word count that you have no hope of catching up. The real point of NaNoWriMo isn't reaching 50K, it's writing. So grab your laptop or college-ruled notebook or typewriter or other writing tool of choice and get cracking.
• Since you don't want all that hard work to be for nothing, please, please, back up your novel. E-mail it to yourself, upload it to the cloud, put it on a flashdrive - whatever works for you. Sarah was really glad she did this last year, because her computer went screwy halfway through the month.
• And finally, if you're having trouble writing your novel, go and write a blog post giving advice to other people on how to write theirs. *laughs nervously and hides*

Happy NaNo-ing! 

Beautifical (-ish) Bookmarks

Here's a project for crafters and readers alike: paint chip bookmarks! We made these together yesterday, along with our little sister.

All you need for this craft are paint chips (or other colorful paper), scissors, and sharpies and/or rubber stamps. Optional supplies include contact paper (for laminating your masterpieces), a hole-punch, and ribbon.

Unfortunately for us, our rubber stamps have either been lost or given away, which meant we had to rely on our drawing abilities to make these bookmarks. This wouldn't be so bad if our drawing abilities didn't leave quite a bit to be desired. 

With that said, here are our finished bookmarks: 

All the bookmarks

A closer look at some of our favorites
(left 2 are Sarah's, middle 2 are Katie's, right 2 are Angie's)

Although we wish we were more artistic, we're still happy with the results of this craft - and, as always, we enjoyed having some sister time!

Since this project is so quick and easy, we encourage you to go to your nearest home improvement store and abscond with all their paint samples. ;) If you'd like to share your finished craft with us, please comment below or e-mail us at sisterprojects.ks@gmail.com!

Children's Books

As we've mentioned in a previous post, we believe that truly good children's literature must appeal to all age groups. The same person who loved The Chronicles of Narnia at age ten can re-read the series at age thirty and come away with an even deeper understanding of these beloved stories.

The main quality that makes a book rise to this level is intelligent content and writing. An author need not write in such a way as to make their story too difficult for a child to comprehend, but children don't need their stories dumbed down, either. Not only are kids smarter than we often like to think, they will also be encouraged to grow even further if challenged by sophisticated narratives.

We've already used C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia as an example of this sort of sophisticated literature. Other examples include Roald Dahl's various books and A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Though the books by these authors are very easy to read, they are also full of deeper content that you might not expect from books written for kids. Dark humor abounds, and many parallels can be drawn between the exaggerated characters portrayed in the books and people in real life. 

Other gems to be found in the children's section of the library include Beverly Cleary's ever-relatable Ramona and her sister "Beezus", E. B. White's tales of friendship and loyalty, A. A. Milne's beloved stories of Winnie the Pooh, (who, for a bear stuffed with fluff, is extraordinarily wise) and L. M. Montgomery's beautifully written Anne of Green Gables series.

What we are illustrating here is that you should never judge a book by what section of the library it's shelved in - even if it's a picture book. After all, Dr. Seuss's books are marvelous examples of great children's literature, full of fantastical illustrations, funny characters, and sound life lessons. Some of Seuss's best include: Horton Hears a Who, The Sneetches and Other Stories, and Oh the Places You'll Go.

In the end, all literature, no matter what age it was written for, should work to expand the imagination through such tools as multi-faceted characters with complex emotions, as well as compelling story lines. Too often children's books are overlooked, or thought to be beneath anyone over the age of twelve. But the fact is, these books can be learned from and taken to heart, no matter who you are, and no matter what stage of life you are in.