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Showing posts from August, 2011

Book Review: The Corruptible

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I have a fondness for mystery novels, especially the series kind. You know the ones where it is the same character in every book who solves the mystery but each book is a different mystery.  When I read the information about The Corruptible by Mark Mynheir and I saw the words “a Ray Quinn Mystery” I knew I needed to know more.  After reading the information from the publisher, I eagerly requested this book for review. From the Publisher About This Book How m u ch money would it take for you to betray the truth? Ex-homicide detective Ray Quinn never had glamorous thoughts of the life of a private investigator—but being cornered in a bathroom stall by the enraged philandering husband of a client? That’s something he could live without. Retired from homicide and living with a painful disability, Ray’s options are limited. Stick to the job, keep impetuous sidekick Crevis alive, and spend quiet evenings with trusted pal Jim Beam, that’s about the best he can hope for. As a new client e

A midlife crisis?

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This past Friday night I did something I didn’t think I would ever do.   Last night I told my mother about it: Me:  “I got a tattoo.” Mom: (shock in her voice) “You got a tattoo?” Me:  “It’s ok mom.. It’s a henna tattoo.  It’ll only last 2-3 weeks.” Mom: (relief in her voice) “Oh, ok.  so what does it look like.” I felt so YOUNG and so GIDDY.   I felt like a teenager again breaking the news to my mother about my hidden rebellious streak.  It felt good to feel like that.  (Hmm.. what does that say about me?) I’m enjoying my henna tattoo and my girls love it.  Tailorbear wants to get one.  I’m not sure that I’m ready for my 12 year old to experiment yet but I will say this falls into the “you know you’re a homeschooler when” category: You know you’re a homeschooler when your 12 year old describes the henna tattoo that she wants to get based on her studies of East Indian Culture and explains about how they use henna tattoos to prepare for their wedding. Wanna see what it looks like? 

Read Aloud Challenge 8/18

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Every Thursday, Debra over at Footprints in the Butter hosts a Read Aloud Challenge link up.   You can read about how it became a link up here    I’ve chosen to participate on Saturdays or whenever I can <grin>. Though we did not read aloud every day this past week, we did get some things started. . We did start reading Mara, Daughter of the Nile this week.  This is scheduled as a Reader (Read Alone or read by the student to himself) but we’ve decided to do it as a read aloud. (I posted about that in a previous Reading Challenge Post .).  Though targeted for Tailorbear, both BooBear and Turtlegirl are listening in as well.   They’ve both read the book on their own.  We do have to admonish Turtlegirl to not tell us any details.  I’ve not read the book before and this is Tailorbear’s first exposure as well.   Sometimes she or I would make a comment and we could clearly see Turtlegirl just dying to tell us key information to confirm or deny the comments. We also started listeni

Five Question Friday 8/19

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It’s time for Five Question Friday, hosted by Mama M at My Little Life. 1. Do you close the bathroom door when you are home alone? Nope.  At least not usually and (prepare yourself) I don’t always close it when I have company either!  But I have a valid reason.  I use the bathroom that can only be accessed through my bedroom. *IF* I use the “main” bathroom I tend to close the door whether there are others home or not.  That bathroom just feels more open and exposed and is positioned directly across from the window.  No one can see in but still I just feel better if that door is closed! 2. You have to walk around with a word on your forehead. That word describes you. One word. What is it? Striving.  I want be known as the woman who is striving to enter in at the narrow gate. I  want to be known as the woman who is striving to be more and more Christlike. 3. What store do you refuse to shop at and why? Well there is one store (and in particular one branch of that store) that I will

I love my Crock Pot

This past Monday, I reminded myself how wonderful having a slow cooker can be.   I knew that I had a busy day and I knew I would not want to cook dinner after being gone all day. I have to confess that I do not use my slow cooker/ crock pot appliance thing nearly as much as I could/should.  Once upon a time I had a 6 week rotating menu plan that was mostly crock pot cooking.   So many recipes called for cream of something soup and we stopped using cream of something soup in a can.  I could never get the home made version to work as well.   Back to Monday.   I decided to make “Chicken Spaghetti”.  We hadn’t had that for a very long time.  It’s my simple version of chicken cacciatore but I stopped calling it that because I tired of my husband’s well worn joke “But I don’t want to catch a Tori.  I already caught a Tess”.  Yes for awhile I would answer, “Fine.  We’re having Chicken Cacciatess for dinner.” I don’t have a real recipe for you and I don’t have any pictures but here’s what I

Read Aloud Challenge week of 8/11

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On the one hand this was a pretty good read aloud week for us.  On the other hand, we didn’t read aloud as much as I planned or wanted. We did switch some things up a bit. I’ve stopped reading aloud The Golden Goblet.    Tailorbear is now reading that one on her own.  I’ve read it aloud before so I have mixed feelings.   Why? Because I was getting into the book and I’ll have to add it to my reading pile for myself!  I think having her read it as a read alone is a good choice though.  So instead of The Golden Goblet ,  I’ll be reading Mara, Daughter of the Nile aloud to Tailorbear.   I think this is one that Turtlegirl and maybe BooBear will listen to as well.  Both of them have read the book but neither of them have had it read to them.   In Sonlight’s World History in Dept part 1 program this book is a reader, but even in the Instructor Guide it states that you may want to substitute or switch the reader and read aloud books.  Considering that I have never read Mara, I think it will

Tears, Surprises, and More Tears

A couple of days ago I woke up from a nightmare with this panicked thought:  What is today’s date?   I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized the “dreaded anniversary date” had already passed.  I assume some subconscious awareness of the date triggered the dream. What was the dream about?  Well there were doctors, and military people and hospitals and lots of paperwork for transfers and consent forms.  I remember vividly sitting at a desk flipping through the paperwork and asking about the consent form.  Did we sign it?  Where was it?  Did the consent form signed at the first hospital transfer to the second? August is a bittersweet month for me. In August we celebrate the birth of our Twins, Supergirl and Turtlegirl and we celebrate Honeybear’s birthday.  But that week of birthdays.(yes the twins were born just 8 days before Honeybear’s 26th birthday.) is also the anniversary of the beginning of the worst time of life.   14 years ago this week we lived in limbo.  Supergirl needed t

Book Review: Life Everlasting

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From the Publisher: Though Alexia's client's life no longer hangs in the balance, eternal questions linger. The music stopped, the room emptied, and Baxter Richardson opened his eyes for the first time in months. He should have died from his involuntary plunge off a cliff. But he's alive, and mortal danger remains. Familiar enemies stalk him. New ones hover close at hand. Meanwhile, haunted by accusing apparitions and the tightening dragnet of criminal investigation, Baxter's wife, Rena, is losing her patience. And quite possibly her mind. Caught in the middle of it all is Alexia Lindale, a lawyer forced to find her way through deceptive alliances, uncertain romances, and courtroom intrigue. It's a struggle of life, death . . . and life everlasting. My Take:   I thought this book was a series like other lawyer/detective books where the main characters are the same but each book is a separate case and can stand alone. This book is actually a sequel and picks

Goal Planning Monday 8/8

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Before I set goals for this week, I want to touch base with how I did last week.  Here’s my blog post from last week Goal Planning Monday 8/1   Here’s what I did for my last week goals: Goals 1-4 were Reading Aloud related goals.   I posted a Reading Aloud Challenge post for Footprints in the Butter and you can read that here . Goal # 5.  Was to finish writing and schedule to post the two book reviews I started .  One review posted.  You can read it here. Goal #6.  To spend a minimum of 10 minutes daily working on the mountains of paper clutter .  I did fairly well with this.  Decluttering not done but I made dent and it made cleaning for dinner guests easier.  7.  To get back to reading more books *for me*.   I finished a book that I had started on the Nook and I went to the bookmobile and picked up three more books.  I’m in a “brain candy easy read” mood so the books I’ve chosen are light and fun rather than deep and intellectual.  I liked setting goals last week so I’m goin

Read Aloud Challenge for 8/4

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Last week I didn’t really do a read aloud challenge but I did make a list of goals that were mostly reading related.  You can read about those goals here .   I did link that post to Debra’s Read Aloud Challenge over at Footprints in the Butter . So this week we did actually get back to some reading aloud!  We had set aside In Search of the Source which I was reading to TailorBear and Dooryard Stories .  I posted about these two books in a reading challenge post from last May!  You can read that one here .  I did read aloud from both of these books this week.  Dooryard Stories is the ebook that I had been reading to Supergirl when her sisters were having piano lessons.  We had an unplanned break from piano for the month of July.  We’re back to piano and so we’re back to Dooryard Stories. We also decided to start back with some of our school studies.  The weather had not been summer like for most of June or July.   So that means for Tailbear starting Sonlight Core 6 (now called Core

Five Question Friday (8/5)

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I haven’t participated in a Five Question Friday in months and months and well a really long time.  I decided to take a look at this week’s questions and decided I could do these.    1. Do you have siblings and are you close with them?   Yes, I have siblings.   Am I close to them?  Certainly not geographically.  And no not really, but they’re blood and I love them.   I’m just really lousy at being a sister. 2. Would you rather be slightly UNDER weight or slightly OVER weight? Hmmm, tough question.  I think I’d go for slightly overweight.  Maybe I’m just settling since I am more than slightly overweight but if I choose slightly overweight then I don’t have to lose quite so much as I would if I were to be slightly underweight. 3. What's your favorite State Fair food to splurge on? Growing up and attending the Minnesota State Fair, I would have to say the little Tom Thumb doughnuts.  I love those mini donuts.  Those aren’t really an option at my current State Fair.   Must have’s

Book Review: Marvels of Creation: Breathtaking Birds

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A few weeks ago I received the book Breathtaking Birds (part of the Marvels of Creation series) from New Leaf Press.  This book is the perfect size for children to hold and look at themselves. (It’s 8 X 8 • Casebound • 80 pages)  Supergirl has carried it all around the house and flipped through it over and over again.  I’m pretty sure she’s taken it to bed with her as well. It’s the gorgeous full color photographs of the birds that have  captured her attention.     The book begins with an introduction and ends with a section on Intelligent Design.  In between the reader learns about 30 different birds.  Each bird has a two page spread.  The left hand page is a full page photo of the bird.   The right hand page contains several paragraphs of engaging text.  Also included on the right hand page is a short “Fact Box”. I love this book!  I love flipping through the pages and seeing the photos.  There is just enough information in the text to satisfy my Supergirl and yet on the o

Goal Planning Monday—Aug 1st

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I’ve stumbled across a new-to-me Blog Meme called Goal Planning Monday.  I thought I would give this a try this week.  Goal Planning Monday is hosted by Mama Manuscripts . So what are my goals for this week? (Oh.. Bunny Rabbit Trail.. how cool is that I’m setting goals on a Monday that just *happens* to be the first Monday in a new month?  Oh that makes me so happy!!) I could make a gazillion goals but then I’d feel like a failure when I didn’t accomplish anything at all! Starting tomorrow (that would be Tuesday.. oh hey another bunny trail.. Granny’s birthday… she’d be um… 98… Memory Eternal Grandma Julia) I will: 1. Read to TailorBear everyday .  There I said it.  This has been an *unspoken* or er um unwritten goal of mine for the entire summer.  I didn’t read to her today but I handed a her a book to read to herself and she’s nearly finished it. 2. Read to Supergirl everyday .  see above.  No I’m not making a goal to read individually to each of my four girls.  But I do have