Divergent by Veronica Roth

Welcome to this week's first guest blogger, Courtney Gale! We hope you enjoy her review of Divergent, and if you haven't already read it, you will be inspired to do so!

If you are up to date on the most popular books currently being sold, the name Divergent has most likely reached your ears. Yes, Divergent is one of those dystopian novels, yet the plot is fascinating and will make you want to read it all in one sitting.

             

     Divergent follows the journey of Beatrice, a member of the faction Abnegation. Each of the five factions of Beatrice’s society revolves around a single trait. The Abnegation embody selflessness, the Dauntless represent fearlessness, the Candor value honesty, the Erudite have intelligence, and the Amity symbolize peacefulness. As a sixteen-year-old in her society, Beatrice is faced with a choice to leave the Abnegation, her home, and family to join the faction of her choosing. Although allowed to pick factions, it is universally understood that as a transfer, you will likely be an outcast from the faction you used to call home. Beatrice’s decision to join the Dauntless will not be the only tough decision that she has to face throughout the novel.

As she transforms from Beatrice of Abnegation to Tris of Dauntless, she learns of uprising and errors in the seemingly flawless society, and her newfound skills are put to the test. She must risk everything she has gained to save the people she loves.

I don’t think I’m the only teenager out there who has grown weary of dystopian novels. They were intriguing for a while, but I’d personally like to read about something other than a future government takeover. That being said, I did thoroughly enjoy Divergent, and it was a quick read taking just about three days. I’m one of those people who always has to read a book before seeing the movie, so if you are planning on going to see the movie coming out on March 21^st, go read the book. You still have time, and it will be worth it.

Released March 21st in theaters!

3 Main Positive Points

·      Features a fierce, headstrong heroine who isn’t afraid to take her life into her own hands

·      Intriguing view of dystopian Chicago with the factions and technological simulations

·      Action packed and exhilarating

3 Main Negative Points

·      Value of friendship is overlooked in portions of the novel

·      Lack of clarity in the history of the factions

·      Little character development

Spring Break Guest Blogger Week!

Hello, readers! Get ready this week to hear from guest bloggers on their favorite books to enjoy during your spring break! Stay tuned!!

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Frozen Birthday Cake

Want a cake that tastes like summer but looks like Winter? Than this is the perfect cake for you. My friend absolutely adores Frozen, and who can really blame her. So I decided that for her birthday, I wanted to make a cake since we were already planning on having a sleepover. Why shouldn’t we get to make her a wicked awesome cake right? Only what to do?? Well, Frozen of course. So my other friend and I joined forces to make the best-Frozen-cake-made-by-best-friends-for-an-informal-party-EVER!! Want to recreate our masterpiece? I don’t blame you, so here’s your instructions…

What You’ll Need:

2 cans Vanilla whipped frosting

Strawberry cake box mix

Blue Gel writing icing

4 Dowels

Filling:

1 pkg (16 ounces) frozen sliced strawberries , packed in sugar and thawed

1/3 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Ice (Glass Candy):

Corn Syrup

Sugar

Water

Neon Blue food coloring

Lemon extract

Olaf (marshmallow fondant):

A bag of mini marshmallows

2 lbs of confectioner’s sugar

Butter

1 dowel

Step 1 (Which we didn’t and should’ve done)

Make the marshmallow fondant the day before and let it refrigerate over night so that it’s nice and stiff to work with the next day. 

Step 2  (Strawberry filling)

Drain strawberries; reserving liquid. Add enough water to liquid to equal 1 1/4 cups. In large saucepan, combine strawberry liquid, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice; mix well. Heat and stir until mixture boils and thickens. Cool completely. Stir strawberries into the cooled mixture. Refrigerate until ready to use. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Step 3 (Obviously)

Make the cakes following the box instructions. You’re making a two-tier cake, so you’ll need four layers. Ours came out a little round on the top, so we just shaved off the excess just so that it would lay flatter. 

Step 4

Lay out Cake 1, spread filling over top, then set Cake 2 on top. If need be, go around the edges with a spoon (or your finger depending on who’ll be eating the cake later on) to collect any drippage.

Step 4

Ice this layer. I didn’t use any special tool for the main cake icing, just a knife. Make sure the icing is spread out evenly. Good. Then just to add extra decoration, we used a neat tool, but you can easily decorate with a plastic bag. 

Step 5

Place Cake 3 on the bottom tier. Make sure it’s centered before setting it down. Spread filling on top then set Cake 4 to finish it off. Again, go around to collect any excess and make sure the red filling doesn’t drip on the white icing. Evenly stick in four of the dowels for support.

Step 6

Ice top tier. Again, make sure it’s even. It’s okay if you mess up a little bit of the bottom tier. Just go back with your icing and fix it. 

Step 7 (the fun part)

So you have this long, thin brick of glass candy right? Well, now it’s time to make it ice. Typically, when you let it drop out of the cookie sheet, it’s cracks a little bit on its own, but now it’s time to make ice shards. These will be going around the bottom tier. Make them varied—fat, skinny, short, tall, dull, pointed. The works. But don’t use it all. You’re going to want three, tall, bigger shards to serve as “walls” or “backing” for the top tier. Once all your ice is cracked, (good job Cristoffe), place it around the bottom tier. Make sure they’re all touching, but just decorate it to your liking. 

Step 8

The age of the recipient of the cake will determine what you write, but this girl, who is the spitting image of Elsa, loves “Let it Go.” So we wrote “Let it Go at 17!” around the top tier of the cake with the blue gel writing icing. 

Step 9 (now life gets hard…sorry)

Time to bring Olaf to life, ladies and gentleman. You’re gonna need a warm hug after this one. But I’m not going to attempt to write out all the instructions and confuse you. So I’m just gonna let you follow the pictures: http://puckycakes.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/pap-modelado-de-olaf.html

Voila!

Snow Day Check list

Happy snow day from East Tennessee! Those of you up north might be wondering, "why's this such a big deal?" Well, you see...I go to a school where for the most part, we never get out for snow. Conditions have to be uber-bad for us to be released, even when every other school system in the surrounding area is cancelled the night before. Well, for us, six inches of snow that covered the road proved to be bad enough conditions. We do not get these days often (even though we've had several this month), so today I decided to take advantage of it and make a snow day check list. These are must do's--you'll regret it if you just lay inside all day!

1. Make a mini-snow man/woman -- Check! I think they're harder to bring to life than the big ones! 

2. Make Snow Cream--here's a recipe:

     Needs: 6 cups of fresh, untainted snow (don't eat the yellow snow!)

                 A cup of milk

                 1/2 cup of sugar

                 1/2 tsp of vanilla

    Combine the milk, vanilla, and sugar and mix until the sugar is dissolved. Then mix in to snow a cup at a time. You might need to add some extra milk and vanilla depending on your taste. Freeze until ready to devour!

3. Sledding! Duhh

     The fine, powdery snow is preferable. But if you have the thick, packed snow like we did, that'll work too. You're just going to have make a path before you can get some real speed. 

My dog enjoyed the cruise

4. Snow angels. Does anyone know a trick to getting up without getting footprints in your wings?? 

5. Do You Wanna Build a Snowman? Of course you do! We built Olaf...well, a likeness of Olaf...before Elsa brought him to life. Just...do the best you can! :)

6. Snowball fight!!! Recommendation: Wear a couple shirts under your jacket. Or zip your jacket up. Unless you want your torso to go numb. Oh, and in regards to the hard packed snow, no face shots people--they hurt! 

7. And final. Hot chocolate! Once your gloves are soaked through and your little fingers are frozen to the bone, trudge inside, kick off those boots and winter wear, mix up a nice cup of hot cocoa, and warm up! You deserve. Now just enjoy the rest of your day!

I hope, if you haven't already had one of these days, you have one before the weather starts warming up and all hope of snow disappears! If you have any suggestions to add to the snow day check list, hit up the comment box! 

Wearing Your Heart on Your Sleeve

Love. Hate. Joy. Sorrow. Pleasure. Fear. These are powerful emotions, dangerous even. We all experience emotions--it's how we were made. Some people are simply better at hiding their emotions or ignoring them all together. Then there are those people that cannot ignore their emotions. They feel  love and hate and joy and sorrow one hundred times stronger than everyone else. They cry at silly movies. They breakdown at the heartbreaking ASPCA commercials. And to add to their own emotions, their hearts go out to the people they care for, taking on a double load of love and hate. Wearing your heart on your sleeve can be a wonderful blessing. These are the humanitarian people that build Habitat houses, work with the disabled, volunteer at homeless and animal shelters. They make the world a better place by sacrificing themselves for the betterment of the community. But when those on the receiving end, those that see the heart on the sleeves, do you understand what these people are risking? A Sleeve-heart is like a rose left out uncovered in the frost. Without the proper care, it will eventually freeze. If you slice a dagger across the palm of your hand, the wound is exposed, bleeding, and painful. It will eventually heal, but you will always have a scar to remind you of that dagger. Hearts are just like skin. They will heal, but not in the same way. The scars will slowly begin to collect until the person is no longer who he or she used to be. That's why these hearts have to be protected. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I don't have a choice in the matter-I was born that way. I know my emotions can become overwhelmingly unbearable for those dear to me, and that's something that I have to learn to control. However, the people around people like us must realize the effect that their words and actions have on our exposed hearts. We're easily wounded and not easily healed. I speak from experience in the most literal way...a wound is temporary, but a scar lasts forever.

I typically do not write about myself or my personal beliefs on this blog, but I felt this was a subject I needed to comment on. Many writers can empathize because they too wear their hearts on their sleeves. I am now coming to terms with who I am in this respect and I am proud to wear my heart on my sleeve. I know I have to control myself, but I should not, and everyone else who can relate to this, should not be ashamed of their hearts. They are beautiful, like the rose. So keep the frost away.

Installment 4 of Christmas Around the World: S-Z (minus W, X, & Y)

Sweden: December 13 - St. Lucia's Day is celebrated by a girl dressing in a white dress with a red sash round her waist and a crown of candles on her head. Small children use electric candles but from about 12 years old, real candles are used! A popular food eaten at St. Lucia's day are 'Lussekatts', St Lucia's day buns flavoured with saffron and dotted with raisins which are eaten for breakfast. Presents are normally exchanged on Christmas Eve. 
Families sometimes have goats made of straw in the house to guard the Christmas Tree! Straw is used as a decoration in homes, to remind them that Jesus was born in a manger. Presents might be brought by Santa called 'Jultomten' or by gnomes/elves called 'Nissar' or 'Tomte'. They're called Nisse' in Norway. In Swedish Happy/Merry Christmas is 'God Jul'.

Trinidad and Tobago: A special Trinidadian music, Parang, is played. Parang is an upbeat Venezuela-Trinidad hybrid. This is the time that most people buy new electrical appliances and furniture. Trinibagonian Christmas meal include apples and grapes, sorrel, ponche-de-creme (a version of egg nog), ham, turkey, homemade bread, ginger beer, pastelles (a version of tamales) and local wine.

UK: Christmas Trees were first popularized in the UK by German Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. Children believe that Father Christmas or Santa Claus leaves presents in stockings or pillow-cases. These are normally hung up by the fire or by the children's beds on Christmas Eve. Children sometimes leave out mince pies and brandy for Father Christmas to eat and drink when he visits them. In Scots Happy/Merry Christmas is 'Blithe Yule'

Venezuela: Some traditional Christmas music in Venezuela is 'Gaita' music. This is a type of folk music played on several instruments including the 'Cuatro' (a guitar with four strings) a 'Tambora' (a Venezuelan drum), the 'Furro' (a type of drum but it has a stick coming up through the middle of the skin of the drum) and the 'Charrasca' (a ribbed tube that you rub a stick up and down). In Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, there's a tradition of people rollerskating to the early morning church services from 16th to 24th December. The roads are often closed to traffic by 8.00am to make it safe for people to skate! In Venezuela presents are brought by 'San Nicolás' (St. Nicholas) & 'Niño Jesús' (Baby Jesus).It was also a tradition for people to paint their houses two to four weeks before Christmas, so it was ready to be decorated for Christmas.


Zimbabwe: A lot of people put their stereos out

side the front of the house and play their favourite music very loudly! It is not only Christmas music that is played, but also the latest pop tunes and old African favourites! The special food eaten at Christmas in Zimbabwe is Chicken with rice. Chicken is a very expensive food in Zimbabwe and is a special treat for Christmas. This is often eaten at the Christmas Day parties.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!!

German Blown Glass Christmas Ornaments.

Mine

If you have been following my Christmas Around the World Installments, I have a fun connection to Installment 2. I'd mentioned how handblown glass ornaments are very popular in Germany. I received a present tonight from three lovely little girls, and in my box, I found a GORGEOUS handblown glass ornament. My mother's family is German, and receiving MY first ornament prompted me to do a little research on these unique decorations. 

A History: The handblown glass ornaments were first created 60 miles north of Nuerenberg in the German village named Lauscha. Then, it was a cottage industry craft--the ornaments were blown and finished in a workshop attached to someone's home. All members of the family helped paint and finish them. A normal work day was 15-16 hours, six days a week. Depending on size and complexity, 300-600 balls a week can be produced. In the 1820s, Lauscha came upon economic ruin. Some glass blowers began to refine the craft and make it into Christmas balls, called Kugeln. The first written record of the Christmas tree balls was in 1848. This became Lauscha's economic salvation. 

This is a tradition that my own family follows. Every year, a glass pickle is hidden in the Christmas tree, and the first child to find the pickle receives a special present. As the children get older, the pickles get smaller.