Wordless Wednesday

I am doing this meme for the first time.   Wordless Wednesday  My Daughter

Sorry I Have been neglecting this Blog

I feel that I have been neglecting this blog as I have been mainly work on my book blog A Room without Books is Empty.  I have been busy finding books to review and of course reading and reading other blogs about books and feel I haven't been giving this blog as much attention as I should.  I will be posting a few cross over posts between my other blog and here. 

I just finished  review on Living the Resurrection by Eugene Peterson that you can find on the other blog. 

I went to the Rite Aid Drugstore yesterday to get my refills.  I had called to see how much they were.  wow could you believe that they were $150 for the month.  Since we are in between medical coverage now that left us without coverage for my pills.  I requested that they just give me one weeks worth.  When I went to pick them up I was pleasantly surprised that the pharmicist had done some math and figured out if I signed up for they prescription savings card I could get my full months prescription for only 8.99 per prescription for a total of $27 dollars.  Wow what a difference.  If you are interested the plan is outlined here. 

Easter is this Sunday and for school this week Hannah is doing a unit study on Easter.  She is reading scripture and listening to Handel's Messiah and learning about Handel.  She is also learning about the history of Easter.  We got the unit study from The teaching Home Magazine in their newsletter they send out.  You can sing up for the newsletter here.

Hope everyone is haveing a good week.     

The Book Blogger Hop

Check out Jennifer over at Crazy for Books and check out some of the blogs listed there.  You may find a new book and even a new blog to read.

Boys, Beauty & Betrayal by JC Conrad-Ellis

Tanisha Carlson is a typical 14 year old girl. Well really not so typical as she is in Honors classes in middle school and is a good athelete. Tanisha lives with her mother and three brothers in a suburb of Chicago but not in one of the fancier parts of town. She is very much aware of her position in life and is constantly trying to make herself seem to have more than she actually does.


Tanisha seems to have a good relationship with her brothers (as much as a teenage girl can have with brothers) as there seem to be an us against them mentality fo the children against the mom. Tanisha even goes as far as calling her mother by her first name behind her back.

Tanisha has a secret at the beginning of the book that she doesn't want her friends to find out about. This situation is later resolved in the book and her friends don't find out.

Her mother also is hiding a secret that she doesn't want anyone especially Tanisha to find out about but seems to come to a good conclusion later in the story.

Tanisha and her friends are constantly worried about what others are thinking of them, what the boys are thinking of them, how their clothes makes them look.

While I read this it made me remember those days in middle shcool and high school when I thought I would die because I didn't have the right clothes or I wasn't wearing the right makeup or that I wasn't popluar enough. I thought that the author captures the whole teenage angst thing very well.

I read this book with the intention of handing it over to my 14 year old daughter to read . There is some mild language and some mild sexual innuendo so I will discuss that with her before I let her read it but I am sure that she will enjoy it. Tanisha does tell quite a few white lies and I will discuss that with my daughter as well.

Excited about Review books

I have started to receive books in the mail for me to review and blog about them on my other blog A Room Without Books is Empty.  I am really excited and have been finding alot of other bloggers out there that have the same addiction to books and reading that I do.  

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

See my review fo this excellent book here

Spring Has Sprung

Spring has really sprung here in Southern Lancaster County.

What a difference a month can make

What a good looking bunch of people!!  Only would thing to make it better was if Dave had been home.

We had a mini cookout yesterday

It was definetly driving with top down weather

Justin and Faith driving off to hang out with their friends

Feeding my Addiction

I have been busy signing up and joining book reviewers programs and blogs.  This is a great way to get free books to read and all I have to do is read them and comment on them.  WOW!!  I hope to find some gems in the lot and also meet alot of great people along the way.   If you are interested I have several badges on my sidebar that you can click on and join. 

This weekend is suppose to be beautiful.  Unfortunately Hannah was sick yesterday and I am not sure if she will be much better today.  She suffers from tonsilitis but it never makes it to strep throat which it needs to do to get them out (I think 3 times in one year).  So she has to put up with this several times a year.  I think Spring and Summer are the worst times to be sick.

I made bubble pizza last night.  It is just hamburger and spaghetti sauce poured over biscuits and baked at 400 degrees for about 10minutes then add cheese and baked for another 5 minutes.  (in a 13 x 9 pan)  make sure you grease your pan.  

Tonight is pork chop bake.  I plan on cooking out tomorrow when my two oldest come to visit.   

Sickness in the spring

I think that spring and summer are the worst times to be sick.  Hanna woke up this morning with a sore throat and stuffy nose (she was running around yesterday without shoes on outside before I caught her).  she has also been around more people than usual this past week.  No wonder kids in public school get sick so much.  My kids have usually been pretty healthy.  Except when they are exposed to more people than usual.  So today is a take it easy day for Hannah.  She will spend the day watching educational tv and dvds and reading.   

A trip to Susquehannock Park

While Dave was home last week we took an afternoon and went to a local park to watch the birds.  This particular park has an overlook so you can view the eagles, ospreys and turkey vultures.  We think that most of the birds we saw were turkey vultures.

This was taken by Hannah.  She has a good eye.

Definately a Turkey vulture!!

 

200th post

According to the little counter this is my 200th post.  I know that some blogs give away things etc for various anniversaries but unfortunately I cannot afford to do that right now because of the recent situation with my husband.  I can direct you to a fabulous giveaway from Tyndale house though.

If you have a facebook account you can go to www.facebook.com/NewLivingTranslation and click on the sweepstakes tab and enter win some really great prizes.  If you don't have a facebook account you can go to http://biblecontest.newlivingtranslation.com/index.php and enter to win a trip to Hawaii.  Just for entering you get a free mp3 or Bible study

Good luck if you enter. 

Day to myself

I will have the majority of the day to myself today because Hannah will be going to the church to help make Chocolate covered Easter Eggs.  I plan on reading for most of the day. 
David is doing well with his orientation and found out from the doctor yesterday that if he had remained in the other job that he would probably be looking at a hernia operation within the next couple of years.  god has made what was bad into a good thing like He so often does. 
I spent a good bit of time yesterday looking into other peoples blogs and looking at different ways to get books to review.  Blogging for books is a great way for me to feed my addiction to books without costing me anything but time. 

Chronological Guide to the Bible

See my review for this book here

A Praying Life by Paul Miller

See my review for this book here

And so the new adventure begins

My hubby got a new job!!!  He made the decision on Friday and all the arrangements were made for him to go to Columbus Ohio for his orientation.  He took a bus yesterday morning.  We had to go up to Reading, PA to pick up his ticket.  After Christmas I started buying gift cards for various restaurant (it is difficult for us to go out for a nice dinner if we have to come up with the money all at once but if I pick up a gift card here and there it isn't so much of a dent).  So we went to TGI Friday's as a celebration, only paying out $5 to go toward the tip, using the left over balance on the cards for the rest of the tip.  Afterward we went up to visit my husband's sister who we really enjoy visiting. 
Daughter will be spending much of the next week at the church making chocolate eggs.  They make peanut butter and cocoanut and sell them to benefit the youth group mission trips.  They are really delicious.   

Patience

That is something both my husband and I are learning. He with the looking and process of job hunting.  Me with him.  It is difficult when Hannah and I are in a routine and someone comes along and decides to "help" and turns our world upside down.  So we are in the process of finding things after he has cleaned.  I do appreciate him doing this for me but it takes awhile to get back into a rhythm.  He has gone out for the morning at least to give us back a part of our routine.     

a Major Upheaval

Without going into too much detail my Husband finds himself looking for a new job this week.  We have  had several ups and downs this weekend and he finds himself  going through the whole process of applications and interviews.  I have no doubt that he will have a new job by the end of the week at the latest and that things will  be semi back to normal by the beginning of next month.   The circumstances that lead to this change are both ridiculous and actually a blessing in disguise.  The blessing part is that his job was taking a major toll on his body but he would never have left it on his own.  I won't get into the ridiculous part other than it is a product of the way the current legal system makes it so easy for someone to sue (which we could do twice over if we wanted to but have chosen just to let it go).   All prayers for our current situation and for the upcoming transition would be greatly appreciated.

As I have confessed  here to being a major book-a-holic.  I got my weekly email from Heart of the Matter (which you should subscribe) and the main subject was how to cultivate a love of reading in your children.  Some of the advice I have done with my children and you will find that you may already know but it just nice to see others using it with success.

Cultivating Readers,   Free children's books downloads, Encouraging a love of Literature were some of the articles I found interesting.

Another article was about setting a goal for ourselves to read great literature.  That article is here.

As a mother of a child who has always read way beyond her years I found this article about keeping up with an accelarated reader very interesting.  I always found it difficult to find books that Hannah would find enjoyable at her reading level.  (She has read at aobve 12 grade level since 3rd grade).

  

A Challenge ahead of Us

Without getting into to much detail my husband will be starting a new job on Monday.  It will be a bit hard financially for a week or two but then once we are over the bump we should be okay.  We are going to have to postpone our Disney trip probably until October because we will need the money we would have used for it to help get us over this bump.  Oh well I will keep planning. 

Disappointment

Just got a text from my hubby telling me that he won't make it home until tomorrow.  He has been gone for almost two weeks now and I was really looking forward to him making it home for some quality family time.  Oh well He will be home by lunch tomorrow hopefully and he won't have to leave again until Sunday (crossing my fingers)  such is the life of a truck drivers wife.    

66 Love Lettes by Larry Crabb

See my review A Room Without Books is Empty

A little frustrated.

I am a little frustrated with my youngest today.  I had quite a long talk with her about her responsiblities around the house yesterday, as a matter of fact the subject was brought up several times throughout the day as I brought up examples as they presented themselves.  I asked her to do a certain chore as I left for work last night and I had told her I wanted her to do this chore earlier in the day before she went to bed.  When I got home from work the chore was still not done.  She is 14 and quite capable to do what I had asked her to do.  So I guess that she will not be going skating with her friends tonight, will not be going online for personal use today and not watching tv tonight.  Sigh.  I hate when my children force my hand and need to be disciplined.

I have several homeschooling links to share with you today.

Currclick's freebie is quite an extensive unit study on the Human body. You  may have gotten this if you ordered her bargain last week in the link I posted but if not here is a chance to get a really great unit study .  The link is here.

Becky over at Homeschooling at Hospitality Lane posted a great link for vocabulary.  It can be found here.  Check out Becky's blog too.

Hannah is reading Treasure Island so I found this link very interesting.  I got it from Home school freebie of the day newsletter.  The direct link is here.  The homeschool freebie are several links for audio version of old radio shows , a pdf of the book and the unit study.    While you are there why not sign up for their newsletter.

If your child is an audio learning your may be interested in some link for audio books.  Florida has a program called Lit2go.  Here you will find and abundance of poems and books just waiting for you to download and listen.  It gives you listings for grade and reading level.  The link is here

LearnOutLoud.com has just recently added a listing of over 1000 books from Librivox.org.  Librivox records public domain books and has them available for download.  These are done by volunteers so the quality varies but this list will give you plenty to sift through.  The link is here.

I have other links that I will list in another post but these should get you started.