A is for Armadillo

a is for armadillo sbh

A colleague of mine through the Schoolhouse Review Crew (Marcy at Ben and Me) has done a “Blogging Through the Alphabet” series several times now, and I’ve never remembered to start when she’s back at “A.” She’s since decided not to do the series, but I think it’s a great idea, so I’m going to give it a go. Alphabet posts will happen once a week in addition to anything else I have to write about that particular week and may or may not relate to each other. Some will be about our homeschooling journey, some will be recipes, and some will simply my thoughts for the week. Enjoy!

So . . . A is for Armadillo. Pretty random, no? Not for our home this week. We just started a unit study on Wild Animals: Small Mammals (from the set of My First Reports by Hewitt Homeschooling) in our homeschool, and the first animal we’re studying is armadillos.

Here’s what’s on tap for this week of our study. [Read more…]

Gone Girl: an {unsponsored} review of the book and movie

I mentioned last week that I was reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and that I hoped to finish it over the weekend to be able to see the movie on “$5 Tuesday” at the local (and by “local” I mean “only one town over”) Regal Cinema.

I almost made it. I finished Monday evening.

So now I’m going to try to focus my thoughts on the story into a blog post – without giving too much away. Because I’d hate it if you read this post and then didn’t feel the need to read the book because of it.

Let me start by giving what’s become my general feedback about this story to anyone I know who’s considering or planning to read it. The book is written in three parts. Part one is a quick jog. From the final paragraph of Part 1 clear up until the last word of the last sentence of Part 3 is a full on sprint. There’s no break in the action. Just when you think there should be some falling action, and it feels like you might be entering some, you find out that you’re wrong. You can see on the cover of the book (in the image above), that it’s been called “Thriller of the Year.” I think that’s a pretty great description. This book was a wonderful read. Outside of sponsored book reviews and read-alouds with the boys, it’s the first book I’ve finished in a long time. I like reading, but I’ve been having trouble finding something “worth” reading recently, so I think my finishing this book is pretty high praise.

[Read more…]

Wednesday Chat #13

chatsonthefarmhouseporch

There’s still no new questions from Patrice, so I’m going to answer questions from her “Farmhouse Chat #153,” which I didn’t do when it posted new.

What are you most looking forward to in the remaining months of 2014?

Well, I love the cooler temperatures of Fall, but what I love the most about the last few months of the year are the holidays. I positively adore Thanksgiving and Christmas. I would like to try some new home decor this year, but I don’t know if that will happen or not.

Tell us the last movie you saw, or book you read. [Read more…]

Simplicity: To Top it All Off . . .

simplicity copy

My wardrobe post from this past spring is my most-read post of all time, so I thought I’d take a day this week to discuss changes we’ve made to our current clothing selections.

We each have a few more clothes than we did in May, but certainly nothing approaching “normal” American levels of attire. You’ll remember from last week that we all now own rain boots. These are in addition to our regular shoes. Also, I purchased a pair of sneakers for myself earlier this summer because we like to play tennis; doing so in sandals is, while not impossible, not practical. Munchkin recently had a birthday, and he received as gifts new undergarments, two pairs of jeans (so the old ones went away – they were really ratty), two shirts, and a pair of shoes (slip-on sneakers). Earlier this week, Will traded his sandals out for a pair of black sneaker-esque shoes. His goal was shoes that would be comfortable for walking and go with both jeans and more dressy attire. He’s very happy with his choice. Seahawk is the only one currently still only in sandals and boots. His birthday is later this month (can you believe it’s already October?!!), so I’m sure he’ll end up with new shoes then, if not before. [Read more…]