April Book Club- Sipsworth

 We had another great online book club with our daughters.  We discussed the book Sipsworth.  This is a short, sweet book that deals with depression and loneliness in the elderly.  People need people.

March Book Club: Theo of Golden

 We love our monthly google chat book club discussions with our daughters.  We always start with everyone reporting on what is happening in their lives.  

At our Thanksgiving gathering, I gave each of them a copy of my new favorite book: Theo of Golden.  They all usually only listen to audiobooks.  At that time Theo wasn't available on audio, so I bought them each a copy and challenged them to read it.  They all did and loved it.  All five of us loved it.  I have read hundreds of books in my life.  Right now, I would say this is my favorite book ever.  We had such a good discussion.  Ken had just finished it and shared many excellent quotes from the book.  Everyone provided amazing insights.  We love discussing books with our daughters.

If you haven't read or listened (it is available on audio now), we highly recommend it!   

January Family Book Club: The Summer of Yes

 We recently held our virtual family book club.  Shonna was in charge and chose the book, The Summer of Yes by *Courtney Walsh.  It was a good discussion about the story which taught the importance of saying yes to ourselves instead of always saying no (which is so my nature- I'm not very adventurous.)  We had a good discussion on the book as well as getting caught up with each other.  We love these times with our precious, insightful daughters.

*Courtney Walsh is committed to writing "clean, no spice" books.  She is a "safe" author.

Family Book Club: Conference Talks

 Michelle was in charge of book club in September.  She asked us each to choose a favorite general conference talk from the April, 2025 General Conference.  We then all read all five and then we discussed them.  It was a great book club discussion and a great idea.  I'm sure we will do this again.

We are now reading The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh for our next book club discussion.

Book Club- The Berry Pickers

 It was my turn to be in charge of our online bookclub this month.  I chose The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters.  Though none of them would say it, I could tell that Ken and none of our daughters liked the book much.  It was really sad.  I appreciated the fine writing and how it made me think.  It did give us some deep and interesting things to discuss.  I always love their insights.

But we still had a fun book club discussion and chat. Our next book club will be general conference talks.  We will each choose one and discuss it.

June Book Club: Crucial Conversations

 We recently had our June Google Chat book club.  We discussed a self- help book: Crucial Conversations.  We each took a section of the book and led the discussion on that part.  There is a lot of good information in this book.  The takeaway for me:  Learn to look- tune into how others are feeling as you are in a crucial conversation and then help everyone feel safe in that conversation.

I so enjoy these book club meetings.  We always start with giving updates on our lives.  It is so good to be together- even if it just on the computer!
Our next book is The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters.

March Family Book club

 We met online for our March family book club.  We discussed the book The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh.  It is a powerful book about a part of history I knew nothing about.  We all really appreciated this book and had a great discussion about it.

We so enjoy this special time with our daughters.  Our next book is Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson.

Family Book Club: November

 On November 11th, we had our family book club g chat meeting.  We love getting together to chat.

We discussed this book:

It is historical fiction that is clean and intense.  A good book found by Kristen.

Family Book Club

 We recently gathered online with our daughters for book club.  We were to discuss this book:

It was an excellent book that helps restore faith in humanity.  
But truth be told, most of our time is spent visiting and catching up with each other.

Shonna recently had extensive jaw surgery.  So it was especially good to talk to her and hear her voice.  None of us had talked on the phone with her since communication is hard, but we could understand her just fine on this call.  She was still quite swollen and numb.  We are praying earnestly that she will recover quickly and completely.

We love these "book clubs" with our core family.  How we love these daughters!

PS  We did discuss the book for a few minutes.  I think we all recommend it!

May Book Club

Our family: Michelle, Kristen, Shonna, and Ken, and I recently met for our May book club discussion.

We discussed the book The Bicycle Spy.

 

We had a good discussion about this sweet book about a boy that helped in the French resistance.

We try to keep our book club to about an hour.  It is a most pleasant hour of being together each month.  

Book Club

  We had not had one for a long while, but we recently had an online book club discussion with our three daughters: Kristen, Shonna, and Michelle.  I so wish I had taken a picture.  Remind me to next time!

We discussed a truly delightful book:

Isadora sets out to prove an article she reads in a magazine on happiness is wrong.  Instead, she makes a lot of friends and finds that she is worthy of happiness in her life.  The article suggested several things that could make you happier.  I will list a few of them:

1. Smile more

2. Compliment someone

3. Get enough sleep

4. Exercise regularly

5. Breathe deeply

6. Interact with animals

7. Leave notes of encouragement

8. Eat chocolate

9. Spend time with quality people

10. Get out in the sun

11.Be brave and get out of comfort zone

12. Accept who you are

13. Focus on the good, even in hard times.

14. Self care

15. Plan a trip (you don't have to go on it, just plan it)

16. Spend time with friends

17. Let go of grudges

18. Confront whatever makes you unhappy

Thanks, Shonna, for recording the list.

This is not a self-help book; it is a wonderful novel.  But you can see that the list Isadora set out to prove wrong is very full of helpful ideas.

We decided that a great take away from this book is Christ-like ministering.  People loved Isadora and believed in her and never gave up on her.  I think all of us Hinton girls would strongly recommend this book.  It is really good.

It is pure joy to spend an hour with our daughters virtually.  They are such great conversationalists, have great senses of humor, and great insights to share.  I can't wait until our next book club!

Facetime Piano Recital

 Michelle and Brian and their family drove to Logan to have dental work and to spend New Years with the Camerons.  They had a wonderful time together.  On Saturday morning, they put on a piano recital and we got to participate on Facetime.  I am so proud of these grandkids.  They all did so well!

Caleb

Hannah Rose

Lily Kay

Gabe

Kenny

Gabriella

Jaron also is doing great on the piano.  In the rush to leave their house, they forgot his piano book, so he didn't participate.  But we heard him when we were at his house.

William had been playing downstairs.  When he realized what had happened, he wanted to participate too.  He played Johnny works with one hammer.  It was so cute.

Family Book Club- Outrun the Moon

 

On Monday, August 22nd, we had our family book club meeting on the book, Outrun the Moon.  It is an inspiring story of determination and perseverance amid prejudice.  It is set at the time of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.  We had such an inspiring discussion.  We love meeting with our daughters and getting their insights, which are always many.  With most of the kids back in school, it was nice to meet during the day.  We love our family book club meetings.

Family Book Club

 On Tuesday evening, June 7th, we held our family book club on Zoom, discussing the book, "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata.

If I had a list of my top ten favorite books, this would be on it.  We all enjoyed it and had a wonderful discussion about it. 

This was during the time that Ken had COVID, so he was downstairs, and I was upstairs when we met.

I love the insights everyone shared about this powerful book.  We love reading or listening to the same book as a family and then discussing it together.  We are thankful for the technology that makes this possible and for the Daddies that hold down the fort while we meet.  Thanks guys!

Family Book Club

 On March 14th, we held our family book club.  Ken and I gave each of our daughters and their families the book Patty wrote about our Peterson grandparents.  We all (Kristen, Shonna, Michelle, Ken, and I}read it in preparation for the book club google chat.  We find it works best now to hold these meetings during the day when the kids are at school.

Libby Fox and Charles O Peterson

We all loved this book.  It was so sweet to hear each of our daughters express their love for their great -grandparents after reading this amazing book.  We invited the author, my sister, Patty, to attend this meeting, but she and her husband were attending the funeral of Hal's brother that very day.  It would have been fun to have her insights.  She so diligently writes these histories.  We are all so grateful for her service.

It was fun to meet together for an hour and discuss my grandparents.  We all were filled with the spirit of Elijah and a love for our heritage and each other.

"The Things of My Soul" Zoom Meeting

After reading Elder Rasband's October, 2021 general conference talk, "The Things of My Soul," I invited my family to do a Zoom meeting and share their 8th, 9th, and 10th things of their soul, as Elder Rasband suggested.  We met with our daughters one recent morning and had a wonderful discussion.  

Elder Rasband explained what he meant by "things of my soul:"  Nephi wrote, “And upon these I write the things of my soul.”²

Nephi’s words raise the questions “What things do you ponder?” “What things really matter to you?” “What are the things of your soul?”

May I share with you some of the things of my soul? These things apply to all who seek to be true disciples of Jesus Christ. Ten would be a good, round number. Today I am giving you seven with the hope that you will complete eight, nine, and ten from your own experiences:" 

Elder Rasband then suggested the first seven things of my soul:

1. Love God the Father, and Jesus Christ, our Savior.

2. Love thy neighbor

3. Love yourself

4. Keep the commandments

5. Always be worthy to attend the temple

6. Be joyful and cheerful

7. Follow God's living prophet

We discussed each of these seven, then each of us shared a number 8, 9, and 10 as Elder Rasband suggested we do in his talk. With their permission, I will share each of our lists:

Ken

8  My testimony

9. Gratitude

10. Going to the temple

Shonna

8. Live in gratitude daily- see the Lord's hand in my life

9. Keep a personal history- Instagram

10. Attend the temple frequently

Michelle

8. Studying and working on how to best care for my family

9. Choosing how to best spend my time

10. How to connect with others

Kristen

8. Connection with heaven- personal revelation

9. Gratitude

10. Openness and humility- seek for peace in my heart and soul

Kay

8. Teaching- it is high priority to me

9. Gratitude

10. Personal revelation- learning to hear the Holy Ghost

 It was such a sweet meeting.  We kept it to under an hour, but it was so sweet to connect in this way and to have a peek into their souls.  I sure love my family and learn so much from them.

Hinton Sibling Gatherings

 I don't know why I haven't posted about these gatherings in the past?  Once a month, the Hinton siblings that live in this area gather for an evening.  We usually go out to dinner, then back to the host's home for dessert and visiting.  Five of the eight siblings live around here: Dave and Gerri, Don and Ada, Lorene and Mark, Mark and Kathy, and us.  The other three couples live in Arizona.  The Arizona Hintons also meet regularly, though their agenda varies according to the host.  Jim and Leslie, Rick and Sherrie, and Clark and Nan.

Despite explosive Covid numbers, we met on January 21st.  Dave and Gerri didn't come because Dave had Covid.  But the rest of us met at Mark and Kathy's clubhouse.  Rather than go out to dinner, we each got take-out and met there to eat and visit.  Don and Ada provided the dessert.  Unfortunately, we have since found out that Lorene (back to us on right) had been exposed to Covid (by her daughter) for a couple of days before that night. She tested positive a few days later. 😓   It was folly to meet, I guess.

We also meet with all of Ken's siblings each month on a Sunday  evening via Zoom.  I didn't take pictures of our meeting on Sunday, January 23rd.  I will have to try to remember to next time.  We take turns speaking at those meetings, each of us reporting on what is happening in our lives.  The meeting on the 23rd was fraught with technical difficulties, but usually it goes pretty smoothly.  It is nice to see and hear everyone.  It helps us stay close.  

May Family Meeting: Tell a Parent's School Day Experience

 Our May family meeting was held on May 2nd.  It was fast Sunday and many of our precious grandchildren were fasting and struggling, so it wasn't as cheery of a meeting as we have had in the past.  But it was still good.  We all told of a school experience one of our parents had.  We heard some great stories.  This time, I remembered to snap a few pictures, but forgot to record the stories.  Maybe someday I will get it all together.  We sure love our family!!!