Another BookSneeze book. The Portable Patriot, edited by Joel Miller and Kristen Parrish, .

This book looked interesting, collecting documents, speeches, and even sermons that “compose the American soul” as the subtitle says. The book is small (hence the portable title) with the ragged cut pages that make a book feel older.  Before each entry is a short description of the person or the event, placing it in context of the history of the nation.

The contents are broken out by time period, from the Mayflower and other beginnings, just before the revolution, during the revolution, the founding, and the first documents of the republic. They have fit a lot of information in here. Of course the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, even some selections from the Federalist Papers. Plus any other writings not as well known. I see us referring to this book for years. As a former home schooler, I can see it being a cool resource for American History.

But I must admit some disappointment. I didn’t think portable would mean it had to be quite so small. Everything runs in together and the descriptive text is really only a few sentences. It is all about the actual documents, but the font and page size doesn’t even make reading the documents easy. I’m not saying it had to be a text book, but I think a different format would have been more pleasurable to hold and read.

**********************

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I haven’t posted in awhile. I decided I’d just write about what we’ve been up to.

Memorial Day weekend we had C & D over here. I can’t believe they are 14 and 13 now. Sunday night we had a joint birthday party with some friends, a total of 6 birthdays celebrated. Anthony took the boys out on his jet ski with a tube – I get the impression everyone had fun. I stood on the dock and watched much of it. They experimented with various ways of riding the tube and eventually decided on their back with their head toward the jet ski was the best to avoid water up the nose or early tumbling. They also provided advice to the driver on how tight the circles could get before it was impossible to ride. It’s so fun to see how big they are getting!

That week was hot and humid, as usual, but I still got in 3 runs in the mornings. Saturday was workday at church, cleaning blinds is not fun but was certainly necessary. Lots got done in a pretty short time.

Monday morning Anthony left early for the Synod meeting. As I helped him pack the truck I realized it was 60 with 51% humidity – the perfect running day and I wasn’t running. Tuesday when I did run it was back up to 76% humidity, and by Friday we were back to the normal 91% humidity. I still managed to run 5.75 miles!! Woohoo, my longest run yet.

Friday afternoon A was back in town and we went out for sushi with our friend Val. It’s always fun catching up with her and the sushi is yummy! Before meeting Val we went out on the jet ski and I totally remember now why I don’t go out on the water. An area of growth for me this summer I guess.

Saturday was down time – catching up on some errands and spending time together. Monday night we had dinner with friends. It takes some effort to fit these dinners in, but it is so much fun!!! Next time they will come to our house so we can show off the patio out front and on the side.

I have set a running goal – I want to do a 10k in September in Davidson. I am adapting this plan from Runner’s World to up my mileage and work on my speed. I did the fartlek run this morning. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I did adding the bursts of speed and recovering well.

We were talking to Val about running and it is exciting to talk about how far I’ve come in the past year. My breathing is easier, even on the humid days, and my endurance is certainly up. I ran one race so far this year and the heat was brutal so I’m avoiding races this summer, but September and maybe a Turkey Trot in November certainly seem doable.

That’s it for now.