What We’ve Been Reading

I’ve been reading through a few Christian authors to the limits of my library. I previous mentioned Lisa Samson. We’ll I’ve read six of her books this summer:

Embrace Me
The Church Ladies
Club Sandwich
Strait Up: A Novel
Quaker Summer
Women’s Intuition

Most of them were real page turners for me, although they didn’t always surround any big mystery or controversy. Sometimes, they were just about women trying to get through the day. What I really liked was the Christian overtones, and my ability to identify with so many of the characters. It was also neat that the books overlapped to some degree. For example, the main character in Women’s Intuition is a sub character in Quaker Summer. Embrace Me, which was actually the first one I read, has several books around some of the sub characters (some of which I’ve not read) including The Church Ladies. Samson has many other books out there, so I’ll probably try to get a hold of some through inter-library loan. Yeah, I like her that much.

Another author I’ve enjoyed is Laura Jensen Walker. I’ve read two books:

Reconstructing Natalie
Dreaming in Black and White

Walker’s characters in both of these books are single Christian girls in their late 20s. They are not as well written as the Samson books, but light and interesting in ways. She ties things up neatly at the end and honestly has to dive bomb to get there sometime. But I liked them and am waiting for another book of hers to become available at the library.

What My Boys Are Reading

Bump’s latest:

Meet Our Flag, Old Glory – by Barbara Reid – A nice little book that introduces the flag and some of the interesting things about it via a rhyme. A section in the back of the book shows the first flags and provides details for parents to share with little ones about the origins of the flag.

Bats at the Beach – by Brian Lies – We picked this up right before our beach trip. It’s a great story of bats heading out under the full moon to hang out at the beach…don’t forget that moon-tan lotion!

Platypus – by Chris Riddell – We’ve also read Platypus and the Lucky Day. It’s just a cute little story about a platypus and his trip to the beach to collect things. After all, what 4 year old boy doesn’t have a “collection” of his own. Plus, it’s introduced the platypus to us for further scrutiny.

Little E’s Obsessions:

Bears in the Night by the Bernsteins – We randomly scooped this one up at the library and boy do we love it. It’s just perfect for his age and his eyes shine when we read it. At the end when the bears are all sleeping again, he pipes up with “night, night.”

The Snowy Day – by Ezra Jack Keats – Little E’s just latched onto this one in the last two days. We have the board book version, and he loves to see the snow. A true classic.

My Dog Rosie – by Isabelle Harper – Yes, we still have a Rosie thing going on. I find that book everywhere. At bedtime he calls for Rosie and I have to go off and figure out where he last had her.

What are you reading???? I’m look for some fiction recommendations, so pipe up in comments if you’ve read anything good!

 

What We’re Reading These Days

What is my family reading these days? Favorites come and go for the boys. For me, it’s what do I have time for. Here’s a list of the latest in Shelly’s house:

Zach
The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boyton – Still hasn’t let this one go. Gosh he loves this story. All I have to do to get him to stop crying is say…The sun has set not long ago…

Baby Einstein – Poems for little Ones – I love this book of poetry. We also have the DVD. The book presents 6 classic poems – or pieces of poems along with a picture of the object. Zach loves the kitty, and especially when mommy makes the kitty noise as she opens the page – over and over and over again.

The Nose Book by Al Perkins – Bump loved this one, too. I don’t know why or what for, but the pictures and the rhyme are just golden.

Zach actually sits on his bed with his books and looks through them and I recite the text. Sometimes he keeps to the right pages, and sometimes he doesn’t. I even find him in his room sitting in a pile of board books and laughing.

Bump
Can’t You Sleep Little Bear? by Martin Waddell – I remember the first time around with this one. We read it over and over and over. It’s a pretty cute book, and I’ve worked up a good cadence with it and some commentary to go with the pictures. Little Bear is a fun little guy!

The New Adventures of Curious George - Since George has become such a hot shot in this house, so have his books. I actually like the new stories a little better. They are shorter and not so hung up on details. Great for this preschooler.

The Story of the Statue of Liberty – Step 1 book – Picked this up at a used bookstore last week. Bump really likes the story. Of course, he’s only fond of the Statue because Rocket from Little Einsteins happens to fly past her in one of the stories, but I’ll take enthusiasm however I can get it!

Shelly
Serve God, Save the Planet by J. Matthew, M.D Sleeth- I’m just getting ready to start this one. Picked it up at the library. I also have a couple of posts coming up on the “green” thing.

The Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola- I’ve had this for about 2 years and am enjoying it. It’s very long and detailed. Almost like reading Charlotte’s writing yourself, but more grouped into categories. It’s the story of one woman relating her CM homeschooling experiences by writing like CM. Some great ideas here, but I know that our house is just a wee bit different in approach.

Runners World Magazine - Yeah, I love this magazine. It’s great for a quick read before bed. There are lots of inspiring stories and different approaches. I’ve always enjoyed this magazine and am happy once again have a subscription.

1 and 2 Kings – My Bible study is covering these books in our weekly lessons. We’re still in 1 Kings – the introduction of Elijah and Ahab. It’s really powerful stuff!

As for Gil, he’s not much of a reader these days. He listens to the Bible on CD and I’m not sure where he is now. Last I knew, he was in Kings as well, but that was a few weeks ago and he may have moved on!

What are you reading these days? Do you have any good books on your nightstand?

 

Insanity Check

How was Busch Gardens? That’s the question I’ve been asked this weekend.

To answer it correctly, I’ll say we had a blast. It had it’s challenges.

I used to go first thing in the morning to avoid the heavy afternoon crowd push. But, with Zach’s nap schedule that wasn’t going to work. Instead, we left the house about noon and were in the park by 12:30. Temps in the low 60s. Sunshine. A little wind. Zach needed a light jacket, but other than that, we were good to go.

I went with the double stroller/carrier option. I took my sit n stand since the running stroller just doesn’t fit into my car trunk without tools (mini van coming soon to this house.) And I discovered the greatest thing. The Ergo backpack – a backpack that can hook onto my Ergo Carrier – is perfectly set up to hook on a stroller handle. It has these short little loops on the backside that put the zipper top up near the handle. It was a dream, really. Also, I wore my little Ergo Front Pouch. It has a strap to wear it like a purse. When Zach was in the stroller it was a purse. When he was in the carrier, I velcroed it onto the carrier. It really worked well.

It was very inconvenient moving Zach back and forth between stroller and carrier. But to take Bump to some of the places – like the big tree house – it just needed to happen. Also, parents are supposed to put their children in the rides, so I did some of that as well. Zach took it in stride, but since I haven’t gotten used to wearing him on the back yet, it was difficult to maneuver with him on the front.

Bump only went on a few rides – the boats, red barron planes and then the tree house. We saw all the roller coasters – including the Griffon – a coaster set to open Memorial Day Weekend. I’ll tell you that first drop is a big one. I can’t believe the car stays on the track. The track is fully assembled, but they still have work on the ground to do. During our train ride around the park, we got a birds eye view of it.

Bump said “hello” to all the coasters and his other favorite rides. We ate our popcorn and drank lemonade while watching Alpengeist. We rode on the slides about 10 times. This involved me walking up and down the 35 steps to the slide area each of those times with Zach in his pack.

When we finally made it back to the car, we were exhausted and happy and ready to go home.

And then I slammed my Ergo buckle in my car door, breaking it.

Great day otherwise. Happy, happy boys. And I didn’t quite lose my mind.

 

Being Blessed

I was blessed today by a very special blogger.   My mailman delivered a box with these inside.

 

There are some homemade goodies – a tool pouch for Bump and some fabric cards (see tutorial here).  Plus a pattern for some Amy Butler bags.  This all comes courtesy of Linda the Craft Apple.  Her site alone has blessed me tremendously – now she does this!  Thanks Linda for being such a giving person.

Here's a closeup on the cards.  They look like a great project!  Check out how here! 

 

Did You Ever Notice

Did you ever notice that in the Charlie Brown comic strip and videos, most of the time he is actually called Charlie Brown rather than Charlie. No one else has that distinction. Peppermint Patty and Marcy call him Chuck, and occasionally when his name is in too many places at once, a plain old Charlie will pop out. But even his “best friend’ Linus (not Linus Van Pelt) calls him Charlie Brown.

Just something you notice when you watch a Charlie Brown video every day for a month.

 

Trivecta of Favorite Ornaments

I think that Rebecca was the one originally asking about what your favorite Christmas ornaments are. I have three pictured here. I’ll tell you that since Gil and I are fresh faced newliweds (almost), we don’t have a lot of old ornaments. All the ornaments his children ever made hang on someone else’s tree. But we do have some fun things.

From Right to Left -

1) Red heart. If you ever doubted that we really call our little guy “Bump”, here’s the proof. We made heart ornaments for everyone on our tree the first year we lived in this house. Even the dogs, and the dog we were safehousing at the time, got a heart. When we added Bump to the clan, his heart went on the tree, too.

2) Winnie the Pooh and the fir Tree – This is an old Sal ornament from my college days. I’ve been a Pooh-head for a long, long time. One of my college friends gave it to me. Now that I think about it, it may have been after I graduated. I can’t quite remember though. I’ve always liked it, since it seemed so much more real, and much less hokey.

3) GB Packers Ball – My old boss gave this to me back in Green Bay when I worked at the Hall of Fame. Everyone in Green Bay need a Packer ball on their tree. It’s Bump’s favorite this year. He keeps pulling it off and walking around the house with it. The Packers are in serious contention for the Reggie Bush Award this season. With the firm beating they took last night, I’m just hoping they can hang on for a few more losses – and the Texans can swell up for a few more wins. I’m a little worried because Gil’s team (NY Jets) is also a stone’s throw away from that award. Some serious competition going on in this house!!!!

Go and check out the whole list of favorites at Rebecca’s!

 

Too Funny

You have to check this video out. It’s great.

HT: What Would Jesus Blog?

 

Across the Country

Are you a visual person? If I’ve seen it, I can usually remember it. Now I can visualize where I’ve traveled to in these United States.

create your own personalized map of the USA

HT: Mrs. Happy Housewife

 

A Fun Little Comic

Paula at Listen In had a link to this cute little online comic strip. It’s called Dog eat Doug and it’s about a dog whose life changes when a little baby comes to live with him. It’s quite amusing for me considering I have two dogs who went through the trauma in the last year.

The strip is very new. It started up in January of this year. You can easily go back in the archives and read where the story all started.

Enjoy!

 

Best 100 Children’s Books

Rebecca has been doing top 100 lists all month. Today she had the top 100 children’s books (from a survey of teachers) and did a recap of what she has read. So, I followed suit. I found that I’m not very well read in children’s books. Only 48 of the 100 on the list. But with a 14 month old, I’m sure I’ll make up quite a bit of ground in the next 10 years or so….

Thanks Rebecca for this great list. Also, here is the top 100 children’s choices.

I think the Trixie Belden Mystery Series is blatently absent from this list myself!