It's all down hill from here.

"It's all downhill from here." Isn't that a funny saying? It is supposed to mean that you have reached the crest of the hill and are on the easier journey down. In reality walking down a steep slope can sometimes be harder than climbing up it. Usually when I'm on hikes it is on the downhill trek that I take tumbles or almost sprain an ankle. So that is where I am right now, I've made it to the crest of the hill and have started my journey down. Seems like an appropriate time to make some updates about resolutions (especially the ones I've been ignoring in recent month's posts.) So here goes!

Starting with the biggies:

#1: Be Fearless....No matter what, don't be afraid to do anything that makes me happy.

This is by far the hardest of my resolutions to tangibly judge my success. Am I happy? Yes. Am I always happy? No. I've found that sometimes when I step out of my box and be fearless it doesn't always end with me being happy. I guess that is why the entire resolution sentence doesn't really make sense. The whole point of trying to be fearless rests on the fact that you might end up pretty unhappy with your decision. So after all that rambling I can say that I have attempted to be more fearless since the beginning of the year, sometimes it has made me happy, sometimes not so much. Hows that for a vague update on a vague resolution?!

#2: Travel more.

A slightly less vague resolution, with a simple update! Arizona for a week in April. We had a blast! I'd say right now I'm about even with how much I traveled last year. But! I am beginning to count down the days until our North Sea/ Baltic Sea Cruise in August! I also want to plan a camping trip again this year! My Dad and I went down the Oregon Coast last September and had a blast!

(Phoenix International Raceway)

#3: Read 100 books.

The one resolution that I feel I've kept you in the loop! Just finished book 51 last night. My pace has really fell off in recent weeks, but I am still ahead of schedule! I wish I could take a solid week off of work and sit in my backyard next to the creek and just read read read!

#4: Drink more water.

Also known as: drink less soda. This is the one resolution I thought I would have the hardest time with! After the first couple of weeks of getting out of the habit of grabbing a soda, it got a lot easier. I only crave the carbonation every once in a while. It has helped that I no longer stock my fridge with the 36 pack of Diet Dr. Pepper from Costco.

In my next post I'll include updates on my secondary resolutions.

Update Book 50: The Sky is Falling by Kit Pearson

This is another entry into the Kid Lit section! I loved this series when I was about 12 years old. I discovered Kit Pearson while on a camping trip in Langley, British Columbia. We had walked through the town and found the cutest book store. I don't remember exactly, but I think I must have purchased the entire series that day. Pearson is a Canadian writer, which at the time didn't mean anything to me. That was until I went to find other books she had written. This was in the time before Amazon.com when we really didn't trust buying things on the internet. So I was devastated when I couldn't just go into Barnes and Noble to pick up any more of her books! I can't remember if we had to special order the others or if we picked them up on our next trip north, but I went on to read more by Pearson (and I loved them all). In each of her books I felt like I was the main character. When I originally read these (I reread them that same summer) I was so completely captivated. That is how all books should be.

At some point these books all disappeared from my bookshelf, so I had to again search. This time around it was as easy as a few clicks and it arrived on my doorstep.

I still enjoyed the books with my adult eyes, but they are honestly written for a young girl who is just on the brink of being a teenager. I wouldn't recommend it to my twenty something friends, but I would to a girl who is about 11 years old. These books are timeless.

"The Sky is Falling," is the story of the English children, Norah and Gavin. They are 'guests of war' in Canada during the Second World War. Norah is ten and Gavin is only five when they make the journey from England to Canada. The story is from the perspective of Norah who has an incredibly difficult time fitting into her new surroundings. The ensuing books go on to tell about their life in the following years during the war, and finally the difficulty of leaving after the war was over.