The Sparrow Found a House (Book Review)

The Sparrow Found a House 
By: Jason McIntire
Rating: 2-ish stars (It was okay; I kinda liked it)

What if your new stepdad was a Bible-toting Army Sergeant? Fifteen-year-old Jessie Rivera is living every teenager's nightmare. Her widowed mom has married a man who wears his heavy Christian values like his sergeant's stripes - on both sleeves.

Glenn Sparrow is persistent, immovable, and not afraid to be firm. Worse than that, he's loving, kind - even fun - and he has Chris, Moe, and Katie completely won over.

But Jessie is determined that she won't be won over, or give up her "freedom" without a fight. She knows what she wants, and it isn't what they've got.

Or is it?

The book was two-ish-star for me mostly because it was not really exciting. It was just okay for me. There wasn't much action or adventure, which I find I like in books. Also, it felt like it tended more towards legalistic Christianity at times. That opinion of mine being said, I think the group that Mr. McIntire has written this book for will enjoy it's similarities to life (conservative Christians who homeschool). It has good morals and messages which resonate with everyday life. It also had a different cast of characters - not really stereotyped, like jocks or geeks. (Hah...yeah, those stereotypes. ;))

My favorite of the characters? Probably Chris Rivera. I think it was because he was so willing to change, and he was kind. He's so completely different at the end from the person he was when the book started. I especially liked the fact that he even started working out later on in the book (I know, that sounds weird, but it showed that he truly did want to become a better person. It was the change on the inside showing on the outside!). :) I also agreed with the video game section of the book. My family has always been into video games (me the least of all the siblings), but we stray far away from violent video games. We play Mario Party and Lego games and the like. ;)

My favorite message of the book? Probably when Katie, the youngest sister, was about to go to the spelling bee, I believe, and her mom talks to her about our talents being for the glory of God. This was impressed upon me the most because I can struggle with what Katie was struggling with, even though I am quite a few years older than her nine years. Everybody can struggle with wanting to be praised for their gifts. It was a nice reminder that God gave us our gifts and talents, so His glory should be our focus.

Everything was played out pretty realistically in this book. Especially when God intervened (won't name the situation, but it had to do with homeschooling). Because HE DOES THAT. God is a good God, and He is right by our sides. He really does intervene for us!

Overall, however, this book was just okay for me personally.

*Thanks to the author for a free review copy! I was not obligated to right a positive review. The feelings above are my own.*

View all my reviews

The Liebster Award

 

I was nominated by Mikayla from The Bubblegum Ballerina to do the Liebster Award. Thanks to her for the tag!

The rules? 

~Rules~

1) Link back to the person who tagged you

2) Answer all 11 questions

3) Tag 11 bloggers who have less than a thousand readers

4) Ask them 11 questions

5) Let them know you've tagged them through social media

Let's get started! Here are Mikayla's questions (and my answers, o' course! ;)):

What was the last thing you wrote?

In a book... 

“Honest, I am not. The moment you appeared on the docks I knew that you’d be a joy to have around – and my guess proved correct. You’re a good girl, Madeline. Very brave and determined, though you don’t seem to see that yourself. At your age, I’m surprised to see you taking this journey with no family aboard except an uncle you had barely met once before, and that when he wasn’t truly himself.”

            I laughed, lightening a bit. “You were all the family I needed, and besides, I knew when I met you that you would be a joy, if you were happier.”

But, if it's just the last thing I wrote in general, it was a text to a friend. 
 

What is the last thing you ate?

Macaroni and cheese.

What is the last thing you listened to?

Prodigal from Sidewalk Prophets (though, I did hear a song in The Lion King II). ;)

What was the last book you read?

Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott.

What was the last blog you visited?

Yours, Mikayla! ;) But, before that, this blog, written for and about the TV show Heartland.  

What was the last game you played?

My niece and I kinda played Don't Spill the Beans. She just had fun spinning the pot and having the beans fall off. XD The last video game I played was Kirby's Return to Dreamland with my siblings. :) 

What was the last Bible verse you read?

Isaiah 59:1-2, which says: Surely my arms are not too short to save, nor My ears too dull to hear your prayers. But your sins have caused me to pull back from you. 

It was in a devotional... ;)

What was the last thing that made you laugh aloud?

Hmm... I laughed watching Toy Story 3 last night (I adore Toy Story), but I probably laughed about something cute my niece did. Probably. 

What was the last thing you said?

UH...at the time I wrote this, it was: "Stephanie, Nathaniel can watch too." Haha! Yeah. ;) I'm babysitting my niece and nephew, and Steph was not wanting to let Nathaniel watch Clifford with her. ;) 

What was the last gift you received?

Well, my dad bought me a Nook the other day. Does that count? If not, my grandma sent some candies and detailed coloring books and colored pencils for Valentines day. :)

ANNND that's all! 

(I officially tag Julia Ryan from A Barefoot Gal, but otherwise, you're also tagged if you're reading this right now!)

My questions:

1. Letters to Juliet - have you watched it? (It's ADORABLE.)

2. Have you read Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott? If you did, did you enjoy it?

3. Are you more of an early bird or a night owl?

4. What is your absolute favorite place to go to?

5. Have you ever gotten a book signed by its author? If so, which book?

6. Would you rather watch a comedy, a drama, or an action/adventure movie?

7. What is your favorite type of book to read? (Adventure, historical, western, etc.)

8. Chocolate or vanilla ice cream? (It's vanilla for me. ;))

9. Have you seen any Star Wars movies?

10.Who is your favorite musician? (And your favorite album from them?)

11.Do you like the Toy Story movies? (Also, which of the three movies so far is your favorite?)

Did you all know they're making a FOURTH Toy Story film? I'm excited... (because those movies are soooo much fun!) ;)

Happy blogging! (And reading.)

~Micaiah K.~

The Advenutres of Rock Climbing

Isn't the valley beautiful?

This post has been sitting in my Draft section on Blogger for...a long time. A really long time. Like, a year.

That's probably due to the fact that... I never thought the rock climbing outings that my family and I went on were worthy of a blog post. (That's just...me, I guess. ;))

However, a few weeks back, we took a trip to Vantage, Washington for one of the longest days I have ever spent hiking and rock climbing. It was pretty crazy. Adventurous. Plain standing-on-the-edge-of-a-cliff. Yeah, that last one...

I finally thought: This day is worthy of that blog post.

This blog post. The one you're reading right now.

This is it.

The story? Here goes:

5:36am on Sunday, January 31st, I woke up. (From this horrid dream about dinosaurs and Star Wars and robots all mixed into one. If you spend enough time with me, you'll probably find out that I do not like dinosaurs and robots. They kind of freak me out.) Anyways. I woke up and just stared at the clock, mostly, until 6:00am, the set time to get up for the soon-to-be-crazy day. I got ready, made sandwiches to take along, and at about 7:00am we marched out the door to drive to my brother's house.

8:30am: On our way to Vantage. It's a two hour drive. But it didn't feel that long. (I don't mind drives so much as I used to. 45 minutes used to be a long time to me. ;))

Random (not so random): I occasionally make notes of funny bits of conversation that happen among my family. This was one on the drive to Vantage:

Passing by a bunch of junkyard-worthy items and a trailer in a field-ish area:

Mom: "What a dump."
Ashley: "What an eyesore!"
Jeremiah (oblivious to our surroundings because he was playing a game on my mom's iPad), head popping up: "What?"
Mom: "All those campers and old trucks."
Ashley: "And a boat!"

Hahaaa!!! I just had to record that. ;) (The Memo app on my phone rocks - at least, to me. I use it quite frequently. You would find bits and pieces of scene ideas for my book on one of the note-pages. And many other random subjects...)

So, we're almost there (we arrived between 10:30am and 11:00am, I think). Most of what we were seeing was rolling hills and snow-capped mountains in the distance. But, THEN, we took a few turns and came upon this huge area that looked like a smaller version of the Grand Canyon. I think everybody was pretty surprised! It was beautiful there. We even passed by a waterfall quite a few hundred yards to the right beyond a wide valley. We were driving on the end of the canyon, a railing and a deep drop between us and the valley floor.

This was Vantage.

Long story short, we parked off to the side of the road, hiked up a short hill and through two rock walls, and did three climbs on the other side of those walls (after checking it out beforehand and using the restroom a little ways down the road. Worst bathroom experience of my life so far. That is all.). ;)

I ended up finishing one route on that wall. But this wasn't really what we came for. There was a rock wall called the Sunshine Wall (thus named because it stays in the sun all day long. Except when it's cloudy. More on that later.), and that was where Jesse had been planning on going before he ever even brought up this excursion. So we packed up, drove about one minute down the road (literally), and parked.

This was where things got crazy.

Since no one in our group had ever been to Vantage to climb or hike before, we didn't know exactly where we were going. Thankfully, a buddy of Jesse's (who also climbs) had a book on Vantage, which included climbing routes and the hiking trails. But, even so, we got lost! Took a wrong turn.We were right by the trail that actually led to the Sunshine Wall, but didn't realize it. (The trail was not incredibly visible from where we paused.) Hence us getting lost. Jesse found a trail in front of us a little ways and thought that was where we were supposed to go.

The cliff-trail. (That's actually me in the distance, followed by Jesse, and then Jeremiah, who's smiling off to the side.)

 But the trail was on the side of a cliff. It was pretty much a foot-and-a-half wide. (Yeah...)  We hiked on for a bit, assuming we would arrive sooner or later. Jesse finally stopped, looked at the book, and told us we had to turn back.

When we had made it back to where we originally were confused, some hikers came down from a trail on a hilly area and told us this was the way to the Sunshine Wall. There would be a tunnel through rock walls that we would climb through, and then five feet of down-climbing out of the tunnel you could 'shimmy' down (that
was the word the hiker used), then another bit of down-climbing.

So on we went, stopping for 20 minutes or so to make and eat oatmeal with my brother's new camping stove he had brought along. Then came the tunnel. (pictured below) Through it we went, having just enough room to make it through with backpacks still on our shoulders. (I got a new hiking/camping/climbing backpack from Jesse for Christmas. I gotta say, it's really cool having my own! And this was the first trip it had ever made. ;)) The down-climbing went all right, even with the fact of having to pass my niece, nephew, and our dog down.

Did I mention we brought our dog? ;)

Through the tunnel.

Around another bend and we had made it to the Sunshine Wall. We were walking along the side of a steep, steep hill with broken shards of rock all the way down. Looking out, what you see is a huge, horseshoe-shaped valley leading out to the snow-capped mountains with slowly moving windmills sitting atop. It was amazing. The climbing routes were all about eighty-feet tall. I attempted one, rated 5.8. I didn't make to the top. I think that was a mixture of the fact of me never having been up that high before, never having climbed a route that tall, and being a bit worn out from the day already. But I made it about halfway. AND THEN...

Jesse, Jackie, Ashley, Travis (the buddy of Jesse's that lent him the book), and I all went back to Vantage this last weekend. And it was fun! Although, it was rather cold... I didn't plan on it being cold - it as the Sunshine Wall, right? But it was cloudy, and windy, and brr-worthy. And I had dressed semi-light. Fortunately, Jackie had pulled out an extra winter coat and we had brought it along. All three of us girls shared two jackets, exchanging them when one of us went to climb. We finally sat next to each other with a rope bag on our legs - a windbreaker, people! ;)

This time I finished two climbs. *happy dance* A 5.6 rated chimney climb that wasn't too bad, and I conquered that 5.8 I hadn't finished before! I was so happy (and really proud of myself) when I got back down from that one. ;) I also cleaned it - my first time - which means I took down the anchor. Granted, it was really easy to do (slip the rope into two clips on the anchor, take the clips we had been using to hold the rope up off, clip those to my harness, and come down), but I was really nervous! I triple-checked it - and I was so nervous that, though I had already checked it probably two times, when I told Ashley, who was belaying me, to lower, I then shouted "Wait!" and checked it again. Yup. 

Climbing the 5.8 (the first time around)!

But I made it down safely.

The funny thing was, that I wasn't nearly as nervous about the height of the climb and the cliff as I had been the first time we went. I was actually pretty relaxed (climbing up to the actual climb - the belay spot - and just sitting when everyone else was climbing), and when I climbed I didn't really think about how high I was getting or even was at the moment. 

Overall, Vantage was an adventure I won't ever forget. 

And the sunset, back at where we parked. Gorgeous, isn't it?

(We came back from the second trip and ate steak and rice at my brother's house with the kids and my younger brother and mom, who babysat, and watched Antman - which, actually, pretty surprisingly, was a lot less dorky and ridiculous as I had at first made it out to be. I mean, a guy who shrinks and can take out people when he's the size of an ant!? But it was...sorta funny, and definitely not as intense as, say, Man of Steel was. Though Man of Steel is by far my favorite superhero movie. I got to watch it in theaters a few years back, and I came away amazed and totally hyper! Hehe...yes. I was soooo hyper. ;)) 

I plan on being back soon with a tag-post... So, be on the lookout for that. ;)

~Micaiah K.~

More tunnel.

The first view you get of the valley after exiting the tunnel.

The climbing walls! The climbs are either on the face of these pillars or in-between them - either in the crack next to it, or literally between two climbs.

My Top Ten Albums of 2015

SURPRISE! I got this post done! (Yes, it was late, and, yes, it took me a few days to get it all pieced together once I started...but it's HERE.)

I love listening to music. And over the past two years I’ve found quite a plethora of Christian artists whose music I’m a fan of. Just in this last year we’ve accumulated quite a few more albums, some of which I really loved, some of which I enjoyed, and some of which have made it on this list of the top ten albums from 2015. 

Hopefully you’ll find some new music from this list that will brighten up your January!

Note: The below ‘ratings’ are semi-accurate. I say ‘semi’ just because I had a bit of trouble really deciding which albums deserved which place. ;) The two that I am absolutely positive on? Places #1 and #2. 

10. Casey Darnell

This album has an almost-country track titled ‘When You Smile’ that became one of my favorite songs from Mr. Darnell. It’s a completely adorable love song. And this CD is full of fun and deep songs about God’s grace.

9. Chris August: The Maker

When I think of Chris August’s The Maker, I remember four songs in particular: Superhero (a hilarious love song with lyrics that remind you of Superman/Lois Lane and Mr. Incredible), I’m in Love with You (THIS SONG is just so cute), Find You to Find Me (a lovely song describing how, in order to find out who we are, we have to find God), and He’s Still Here (depicting how Jesus is still working among us. He’s still as near to us as He was when He lived as a man). 

 

8. Rend Collective: The Art of Celebration

Can we talk about incredibly joyful? Rend Collective has taken praise music to a whole other level. They have this fun, quirky style that is kind of endearing. ;)

7. Unspoken

All the songs on this CD are good. That is all. (Okay, fine. Two favorites? Good Fight and the second rendition of Tomorrow.)

 

6.Francesca Battistelli: Hundred More Years

There are so many tracks on this album that are just fun, upbeat, and touching. Hundred More Years is a particular favorite, as is Trampoline. (And Francesca has a beautiful voice!)

 

5. Among the Thirsty: Who You Say I Am

When I first heard these guys, we were traveling many miles to visit my grandparents’ in Iowa. Sitting in the car, hearing their tracks depicting God’s grace and life’s goodness, I started tearing up some. The whole CD is good. Literally – every. single. song. From slower, very deep songs to a few simply about doing good and life’s beauty, I loved Among the Thirsty’s newest album.

4. Hawk Nelson: Diamonds

There are many lovely songs on this one. When I heard for the first time, I was slightly surprised. Hawk Nelson has never been this good, and I was taken aback. (The lead singer changed…and the difference in the type of music they play is pretty amazing.) Live Like You’re Loved fast became a favorite on the album.
 

 

3. MercyMe: Welcome to the New 

Can we just stop a moment and grin? This was not my first taste of Mercy Me, but it was the first time I really, really liked them. They’ve  grown in their music. I mean, this CD is so fun (many of the songs are impromptu-dancing-material), but the message is so profound. This album is just about grace. That’s the root of every single one of the songs. And it’s beautiful.

 

2. Stars Go Dim

This is one of my current favorite albums (and bands). I love this CD! It has songs with this fun, happy feel that is just so enjoyable to listen to over and over again. I really like so many of the tracks on this album…I’m just not going to pick a favorite! And I love the lead singer’s voice.

 

1. Sidewalk Prophets

So incredibly great. This was the first album from Sidewalk Prophets that I’ve bought. And I was not sorry in the least. Songs on this CD are simply fantastic. Everything in Awe, Prodigal, If You Only Knew, Come to the Table (which reminded me of Narnia), and Impossible are all songs I highly enjoyed, among…well, almost every song on the CD. Just buy it. ;) (So good!!!)

And...that's it! All of these CDs are good and come recommended! Enjoy your newly found music... ;)

Happy reading (and listening, o' course)!

~Micaiah K.~