Whatcha Readin’?

I love to read. Love, love, love it. I love books. I have SO many books. The only hindrances to my reading time are 1.time and 2.energy to keep my eyelids open. Maybe you can relate? ;)

Anyhow, just thought it would be fun to share a little about books I’ve read this year, new authors I’ve come to love, and books I have on my ‘to read’ list.

Books I’ve Read this year {since Jan.} :

FICTION

1. Beverly Lewis – The Thorn

2. Wanda Brunstetter – A Merry Heart

3. Wanda Brunstetter – Looking for a Miracle

4. Wanda Brunstetter – Plain & Fancy

5. Andy Andrews – The Heart Mender

6. Andy Andrews – The Traveler’s Gift

7. Beverly Lewis – The Judgment

8. Jodi Picoult – The Plain Truth

9. Nicholas Sparks – The Last Song

NON-FICTION

1. Katrina Kennison – The Gift of an Ordinary Day

2. Francis Chan - Crazy Love

3. Patsy Clairmont – Kaleidoscope

I know it doesn’t seem like that many books coming from someone who LOVES to read – but honestly most nights I’m so tired as I go to bed that I may only get through a page or two before falling asleep!

Ongoing books I’m still reading:

James Dobson – Bringing Up Girls

Sarah Young – Jesus Calling {devo}

Andy Andrews – The Noticer

Kelly Minter – The Fitting Room

A couple authors have been new to me this year and I’m thoroughly impressed with them all. Andy Andrews was a speaker at the Women of Faith conference I attended back in the fall. So while I was there I picked up one of his books and my Mom picked up a couple too. He’s a FANTASTIC writer. It’s so hard for me to explain but he takes real events and creates a fiction story around them. And now that I’m on my 3rd book of his I’m seeing a great pattern where his books ALWAYS point you towards being a better person and maintaining a proper perspective of life. One thing I don’t really like about his writings is that even though he’s a wonderful Christian and speaker, his books say little to nothing about Christ. Just feel like he could use his gift as a platform to reach other for Christ and he doesn’t. Don’t get me wrong, his books are very encouraging and uplifting. Just not really ‘Christian’.

Another new to me author this year is Wanda Brunstetter. I’ve been enjoying Amish Christian fiction for years now from author Beverly Lewis, but decided to give Wanda a try and have been very happy with her books. They are very similar to Beverly Lewis and so far I’ve liked everything I’ve read.

And lastly I read my first Jodi Picoult book this year and it was great! Since I mostly read Christian fiction it caught me a little off guard when she used some language that I don’t prefer, but overall the story was great and the ending totally surprised me.

 

So what’s next?

Well for my quiet time I will continue with my Jesus Calling devotional and The Fitting Room. When I’m done with that, I have preordered Grace for the Good Girl by Emily Freeman from Chatting at the Sky. I’m VERY excited to read this! I also ordered a book called Playful Learning that I hope will give me some fresh new ideas into bringing fun into our homeschool days. And for my fun reads, I’m sure I will keep picking out more and more Christian fiction from the library. Those are my very favorite thing to read each night before I go to bed. =)

 

Sooooo, what have you been reading lately? Anything newsworthy that I should check out? I’ve heard ‘The Help’ is fantastic and want to check it out when I get a chance.

My Window Watcher

My Gracie girl is always on high alert. She likes to think she’s the neighborhood watch around here. She has a really loud bark and she’s not afraid to use it … at every person, animal, bird or blowing leaf that passes by her watch site. I think she’s so funny how she watches out the windows.

Sticking her head further and further out the window …

And she does the same in the front windows …

‘oh no, is that a neighbor I see getting into their car?!’

 

I guess I’ll never have to worry about someone breaking in!

Beach Day!

We are VERY blessed to live in Connecticut, where even though it may be cold many months of the year we still have WONDERFUL, HOT summers. And we have gorgeous beaches too! However, most of our local beaches don’t have too many waves. We are sort of blocked from the big waves by Long Island, NY and Fisher’s Island, NY. So even though our beaches are gorgeous and fun, we do mostly swimming or floating, not surfing at them. But if you go just a little further away into Rhode Island – you are no longer blocked by the NY Islands and you get to experience the fun of the bigger waves! So, we have driven out there a few times this summer and each time we have an absolute BLAST! I’m talking about me boogie boarding in the waves with the kids for HOURS on end!

Yesterday was one of those days. Bob decided to take the day off from work because we knew it was supposed to be a gorgeous day. And since we’re trying to take advantage of every last ounce of summer it was a good day to do it.

 

I’m trying to make myself be more intentional about noticing things around me. Like sights, sounds, etc. To stop and enjoy the beauty of life and not just rush through it. So as we stepped out of the car I turned on all my senses and made myself pay attention. I was not disappointed! From the parking lot you walk up over the dunes, past the little trailer where they make all sorts of fried foods and goodies. Walking over the dunes I noticed the smells that came at me all at once – the salty air, the french fries, the suntan lotion … and as soon as you step over the dunes and onto the beach it’s the sounds that come at you – the crashing waves, giggling children, squawking seagulls … and let’s not forget the things you feel – hot, soft sand beneath my toes, cool, crisp ocean breezes, the warmth of the sun on my shoulders. I felt like I wanted to just stretch my arms wide and say a great big ‘AHHHHHHH!’

 

We had a fantastic day. We arrived mid-morning and I was just craving coffee and baked goods. So the girls and I walked across the street to this cute little shop and got a muffin and an iced coffee which I then enjoyed on the beach. We spent HOURS on our boogie boards, ‘surfing’ the waves. The water was a little seaweedy, not my fave thing, but we managed to find places where there wasn’t too much and swam in those areas.

A couple times I stepped out to dry off and warm up and take some pictures of the girls. They were having the time of their lives!

It was a wonderful, amazing day …. when we headed home around 4pm we stopped for ice cream, then the girls came home and swam in the pool for awhile. When I showered later at home I noticed my swimsuit was FULL of sand – I had to laugh, just the result of a fun, full day at the beach! When it’s January and I’m sitting in my house watching the snow fall I will remember this day and count the days {months?!} until we can do it again!

Bible Study for Girls

In my last post I mentioned that I was looking for a good Bible study for girls ... well I'm happy to report that after doing some searching on Amazon I found {what I think will be} a great one!

It's called Between God and Me: A Journey through Proverbs by Vicki Courtney. I have a devo from the same author and I love it so I hope and pray that this will be a great choice for the girls. And I LOVE the book of Proverbs so I think all of us will enjoy going through it together!

Just thought I'd share in case someone with girls that are similar in age to mine might be interested!

Curriculum 2011-2012

OK friends I have FINALLY decided on all of our curriculum for the coming school year – whew! Feels like it was such a weighty decision and I’m so happy to have it all figured out now!

This year I’m planning to take us in a different direction, mostly because I’ve been working with my kids for the past few years and am finally figuring out what works {and doesn’t work} best for them. So here it is:

Hope – 5th grade

Math – Teaching Textbooks

Language Arts – Total Language Plus {Charlotte’s Web, The Cricket in Times Square, Caddie Woodlawn, & the Wheel on the School}  --This program covers:

• Spelling
• Grammar and punctuation
• Vocabulary
• Analytical and critical thinking
• Comprehension
• Writing
• Listening
• Field trips/projects

But since it’s new to us and we haven’t seen it in person yet, we can supplement with other things if we find that it’s not enough. Evan Moor is one of my favorite publishers and they have almost all of their products at my local Education Works store. So we can always pop in there and pick up a daily spelling practice book or whatever we might need.

Joy – 3rd Grade

Math – Teaching Textbooks

Language Arts – Total Language Plus {The Courage of Sarah Noble, The Whipping Boy, The Sign of the Beaver}

BOTH

History/Geography – Confessions of a Homeschooler’s Road Trip USA curriculum {It covers some US history, but if we find it’s not enough we’ll get some History Pockets by Evan Moor}

Science – finish up Apologia’s Astronomy from last year and then we’ll do Considering God’s Creation {which I already have} – we’ll cover Rocks & Minerals, The Plant Kingdom, and The Animal Kingdom.

Spanish – still slowly making our way through Hooked on Spanish – this is just NOT my strong point! I’m laughing as I’m looking up the link online because it says it’s for 4-6 yr olds! hahaha … well like I said, Spanish is not my strong point so we’re not great about working hard on it around here.

Art – the girls take art lessons through my Father in law and we’ll visit several local Art Museums

Music – piano lessons from my awesome friend Jessica and they will hopefully be joining the Praise Kids choir at church this year

Activities – Awana at church, soccer for Hope and swimming for Joy.

Bible – Christian Heroes by David and Neta Jackson {love these authors!!} as well as Awana memory verses. Looking into some kind of daily devotional for girls as well.

Well, that’s all for now … I’m sure I’ll tweak things or come up with some other stuff as we go along. Right now I’m just thankful to have the big decisions made!

The past two weeks …

The past two weeks have been a couple of the most insanely busy weeks ever! I’ve hardly taken any photos, but figured I’d give you a little bit of an idea of what it was like…

2 full days of scrapbooking with my dear friend Julie

40+ scrapbook pages done

2 full days of sewing / prepping / last minute details to get ready for the craft show

1 night going to the car races to see Hope’s bestie sing the National Anthem

8 hours sitting in the extreme heat for the craft show – which even though it took me MONTHS to prepare for and even though I didn’t make much money, was still worthwhile because it was a great experience and I got to share it with my good friend Jen.

3 hours setting up at church for VBS

{10 awesome helpers to help me get it done!}

5 nights of Vacation Bible School

12 kids who made professions of faith {makes it all worthwhile!}

15 amazing helpers on my VBS team – I could not have done any of it without them!

1 lovely afternoon to enjoy a ‘date’ to the beach and for ice cream with my honey – a welcome time of rest in the midst of a busy week

10 – approximate meals on the run we’ve had this week

10 – approximate number of times we’ve had unhealthy treats in the past couple of weeks

11 – days I’ve had a yucky head cold

0 – days I’ve exercised in July/ Aug. {horrible, isn’t it???}

3-5 approximate number of pounds I’ve gained with all this unhealthy eating and non-exercising :( My own fault, I know … I guess it could be worse!

1 morning of picking blueberries

approx 6 pounds picked

1 blue Smurf movie attended

3 – old friends I got to visit with

2 of which I haven't seen in almost 10 years!

1 full day cleaning up my house which looked like a tornado had torn through

 

And after all of that …. I’m still smiling. Yes it was insanely crazy, but I’m sort of learning that summer is meant to be spontaneous and fun. Even though we have the Summer Fun List – we’ve only crossed off a few things from it. But we’ve done a TON of different, spontaneous things this summer that we didn’t even plan on. And I kinda like it! I’m not typically a spontaneous person, and during the school year I find we do better on a routine, but for summer – why not? But now that the two big things are done {the craft show and VBS} I finally feel like the month of August will be my chance to sit back, relax and just enjoy myself until we start school again. Now the only ‘task’ left is to choose and purchase our homeschool curriculum!

I will be back with more posts and pictures soon!