#BookWorm: Unbroken

Hello fellow readers,

I’ve been working on the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand for a bit now and while we were on our big trip, I finally finished it! It didn’t take me a long time because it wasn’t a good read, it’s just been a crazy couple of months for us! This book is a biography (a favorite genre of mine) about Louie Zamperini who was an Olympic runner. This is the story of his life. What draws people in, is that he was drafted into World War II and served as in the Air Force. While working in the Air Force, his plane crashed and he survived on an inflatable raft for 46 days. Yes you read that right, FORTY SIX!! After that he was taken by the Japanese and became a Prisoner of War for over two years. He was beaten, lived in horrendous conditions and almost starved to death at times. It definitely makes the message never give up resound even more. 

His story is incredible. If you are a Christian, it is even more so incredible. I highly recommend this book. It is hard to rank someone's life story, so this rating is more just about the way it read than the content as obviously the content was amazing and so inspiring. Overall I’d say it’s a 9/10. It’s not a full 10 only because at times different names were used for the same person and it got a little confusing. It also was at times repetitive as far as one situation begins told and then the same exact part of his life being retold again later. I won’t give away too much, but it is really really good. The movie for this book came out in 2014, which my family saw on Christmas Day that year, but I wasn’t with them. I’m looking forward to watching it! 

Have you all read this book, watched the movie or heard the story of Louie? I would love to discuss with some people. Let me know if the movie is worth watching in your opinion! Next I’m heading back to read some YA stuff before I jump into another few heavy books that are on my list. I’m looking forward to utilizing the library a lot this summer! Keep giving me books to borrow and sending me suggestions to read! I love it!!

Thanks for reading with me,

- Olivia :)

Wifey Wednesday: Roomba 690

Hi all,

Since we are getting into spring (I mean summer? Dang where did the year go!!) cleaning, I wanted to talk about robot vacuums since many people have asked me about ours. So last Black Friday I kept seeing roombas go on sale and was like would this be worth my time? They are so expensive. Can I rationalize spending $300 on a vacuum? Well, after moving to a townhouse that has faux dark wood floors on the lower level, and watching my hair and Nike’s hair collect only a few hours after I spent so much time sweeping and swiffering, I decided let’s try it. Here are my thoughts on the Roomba 690:

Pros: It really does make your life easier.

This roomba can be programmed to your smartphone and you can set days and times of when you want it to run. I set mine to run every other day, and have barely seen any dog hair out in the open! It saved me an hour of my time sweeping and swiffering every few days to only be frustrated that it wasn’t keeping things clean. You can also just hit “clean” on your smartphone and it will run at home! So if you unexpectedly have guests coming over, you can run it while driving home. A lot of people wonder about owning one with a dog: YOU NEED THIS IF YOUR DOG SHEDS. It works well, every few days I clean it out and clean the filter and that’s it! It holds a lot of hair y’all. 

Cons: You do have to replace items on it more frequently than a regular vacuum. I had mine about six months before needing to replace the filter and one of the rollers. The roomba does come with one extra filter in the box. I also thought it would be a little quieter. I’m sure some of the more expensive models are quieter, but Roomba is still more quiet than a regular vacuum. And I typically run it when I’m not home. You also have to still clean little areas like corners and behind places that roomba can’t reach, I do wish it had a hose attachment, but that is why I kept my regular vacuum also! 

So there you have it. The pros and cons of the roomba 690. Does anyone else have a robot vacuum? What have you found that you like/dislike about it? If you’re looking to buy I would suggest waiting til Black Friday. I ended up getting mine online at target for $270 which included tax. Not too shabby!

Happy spring cleaning,

- Olivia