Books: May and June

Our library opened up for curbside pick-up and we began participating in mid-May.  We can look at the online catalog and either email our choices or use the online system to reserve the books, then we're notified when the books are ready to be picked up.  We drive to the parking lot and call the special number with extension and they deliver the books to the back of our car.  We get to keep them for more than two weeks and aren't assessed any fines during this time.  When we return the books to the outdoor book drop, they're kept in quarantine for 4 days before being checked in.  We aren't assessed any fines during that drop-time either (just in case we turned in the books on the date they were due, but they weren't checked in til 4 days later).  The boys and I have really enjoyed perusing the online catalog and selecting fun books.  I include a book or two for Avery on my library card's order.

Both boys kind of stick to a theme when ordering books.  Noah usually looks up police officers, school buses, fire trucks, and garbage trucks.  Michael sticks to Pokemon, Super Mario, or Dog Man.

I sometimes include books that I've read before in case I'm in the mood for a sure ending to the story.  I also pick out new (to me) books and I recently found out that the library stocks cook books so that will be fun to try this summer. 

In May, I checked out The Flatshare and The Cat Who Talked Turkey.  I finished The Flatshare in a day.  It was super cute with just the right amount of intrigue to progress the story along at a quick pace, but not too much to make the story too suspenseful.  I began reading The Cat Who Talked Turkey prior to our weekend beach trip in May and brought it with me, but didn't really find time to carve out and read during that trip.  Usually, I get through books in that series quickly, but this one wasn't moving fast enough for me to want to renew it.  I checked out several other books I've read before, but with the trip and preparing for the construction crew, I didn't read the ones I'd read in the past (Summer Rental and Beach Town.)  They were both by Mary Kay Andrews-- one of my favorite authors.   

In early June, I was in the mood for historical novels and historical fiction so I checked out Dutch and English on the Hudson, a historical account of the creation of towns along Long Island.  It was fairly intriguing at first, but was slightly difficult to decipher due to the old English spelling of various words. 

I also got into a theme myself and checked out Magnolia Table Volume 1, Home Body, and Capital Gaines. It was fun to read through Joanna Gaines' family recipes and learn more about how she likes to cook for her family (they hardly ever go to restaurants, which was inspirational to me).  I also enjoyed Home Body because I had already been thinking of how I could continue to make my home an enjoyable resting place for my family, and had some ideas floating around for how to maximize space, etc.  The ideas presented in Home Body really lined up with the thoughts inside my head, so it was refreshing and fun to realize that I really have what it takes to spruce up my home without spending so much money.  Capital Gaines had interested me for a while and I wanted to see what Chip Gaines had to say about his career in real estate flips and how we should pursue our dreams without fear.  It was a fun, quick read; I finished it in a day.

While researching books by author name "Gaines," the catalog recommended a book by Ernest Gaines called A Gathering of Old Men.  The story line sounded entertaining, so I checked it out too.  It was about a shooting of a Cajun farmer in 1970 Louisiana, and about the sheriff who had to figure out who the shooter was since a women and several old men all claimed to do it.  It was a very entertaining read since page one and really captured my attention.  I finished it in a day or two.  The author told the story from the perspective of several different people in the book and it all took place over the course of one day.  It was very interesting to read about the perspectives of different people and the story line ended honorably. 

This week, I put in a request to check out some light fiction reads and a historical non-fiction about the wife of a US President in the 1840s.  Hopefully those will be ready for check-out early this week.

I plan to check out Magnolia Table Volume 2 in July and probably another Cat Who book. 

Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba

A Day in Photos

On Wednesday of this week, I took pictures throughout our day to somewhat show a daily routine.  I'm not really making the kids stick to a strict schedule of "do math from this time to this time, then do history, etc." I let them have their normal early-morning routine of watching a show while eating breakfast and kind of bum around for a bit.  This was how we functioned during regular school days also.  My kids are all early risers (will this ever change?!?) and it was very out of the norm for me to have to wake anyone up to get ready for school, but even if I had to do that, we would all be up by 6:30.  My kids are still waking up right around 6:00 so I'm letting them have their slow start to their day and I don't make them to any type of school work until 8:00-- just as it would be if we were in regular school. 

Since home-schooling takes less time than going to regular school since we can cut out lots of the major time takers (transitions between classes, structured break and lunchtimes, going at the pace of the last one done, etc.) elementary aged kids can really get their school work done in 2 hours or less. 
We do our school work in the morning, eat lunch, then attempt to watch some type of non-fiction show (nature shows are our favorites) while Avery naps.  Some days though, let's just be real-- I make everyone take a nap instead.  The boys' school is so on top of their game, and they had resources divided up by grade level on their website starting the first week we were out for "extended Spring Break" before finding out that we'd really be out the rest of the school year.  I printed off the resources (mainly they're topic lists) and we've been working through those.  Next week, their teachers will have some Zoom calls (video calls) with them and will also assign a steadier  schoolwork load.  I still anticipate being finished with school in less than 2 hours' time.

But for this week, this is how our typical days are played out.

I try to get in at least one cup of coffee before we get rolling.  If I drink my coffee at the table, I peruse two of my favorite copies of HGTV magazine.  I had the subscription last year, but gave all but two of my magazines to my mother-in-law for her to put on her coffee table.  I saved out these two because they're my favorites of the bunch. 

I also try to prep the work that I want the boys to work on for the day.  I'll write down a sentence or create some basic math problems for them on these legal pads.  They each have one and it's kind of nice for them to have their own. Yes, the paper is pink but it was given to me by a friend so I'm not complaining and I'm certainly not going to waste it. 

We made some "Hearts for Workers" to hang up in our window to show our support for those who have to continue working during this time like my mom, brother, sister-in-law, and father-in-law.
Avery thought cutting looked like such fun, so I let her cut our scrap sheets of paper while she sits next to me at the table.

Here's a typical view of the living room during these slow mornings.

When I finish prepping what school work they'll need to do that day, I go to the living room and try to read while finishing my coffee.  I got this book on sale from Lifeway.com and I intended to read it on my spring break vacation.  I'm really glad I bought it because our libraries are closed and I'd be extra super bored if I didn't have something to be reading. To be honest, the book is kind of slow.  I bought two other books at the same time, but I don't want to dive into those until I finish this one.  So I'll press through.

I retreated to my room to do a little laundry and clothes sorting while the boys worked on school things and Avery watched a show.

When Noah was doing his math work, he used pennies to help him with addition and subtraction.  Avery felt that she needed pennies too for her "home erk" and she worked on counting while Michael did his spelling test.

We took a break outside for about 30 minutes.  It was surprisingly cold on this day!  55 degrees outside around 8:30 in the morning!  We've easily hit 70+ degrees on other mornings by that time.

At 9:30, we loaded up and went to the elementary school to wait in a carline to receive free lunches.  They do this twice a week and we go twice a week because it helps us get out of the house, the boys have a chance to wave at their teachers, and it makes them feel excited to have a "special lunch."

We have eaten lunch under the table twice now because it's a free activity that the kids really love!
Avery is being a "snowman" at lunch.

Noah is being a walrus.

After lunch, we have some unstructured time where we can play or color or watch a show (we did "Schoolhouse Rock" on this day).  This gets us in the frame of mind to be winding down for a nap or for quiet time. 

This day, the boys took naps in their room and I had a moment of quiet in the living room while eating a Mississippi Mud Brownie. Sometimes, just these little breaks mid-day give me the boost I need to press on in a better attitude. 

During snacktime, I stepped away for a few minutes to work on lesson planning and returned to find Avery's orange all over the floor.

At least she was happy to clean it up!

I took this up-close shot of the TV to show that perspective changes everything. 

Here's the actual view. 

While playing outside in the afternoon, the boys told me the door handle was loose.  I didn't think too much of it until I actually touched the door knob and it came off in my hands!

After Aaron came home, he carried Avery around on his shoulders after all the kids had baths.  She liked her view of what the world would look like if she were tall!

After this point, I kind of forgot to take any more pictures.  I had a Zoom call that night with my Bible Study group, and I did some more lesson planning before watching a few episodes of Longmire on Netflix with Aaron.

Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba

Book Review

Since completing my internship on April 25th, I have been able to do some serious leisure reading and I love it!  Of course, now I'm studying to take a statewide teacher test for a subject out of my field of expertise to prove I'm highly qualified to teach that subject, so my leisure reading is suspended until June 15th, but I made a good run while I had the time.  All of these books except for the last three which I own and chose to read again, were checked out from the library.  I got the ideas to read the first four books from Zulily when they had a book sale, but I chose to look them up at the library instead of buying them for myself.  I've read several books in "The Cat Who" series and they are always a fun read, so I randomly grabbed one during a trip to the library and followed it up by re-reading some of my own copies of the books that I already had at home. Here's what I read from April 25th through May 21st:

Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger.  I really love Lauren Weisberger's style of writing.  She's witty and current, and her books follow several characters throughout them and this keeps it interesting. Chasing Harry Winston is about three friends who all wonder about their love lives (one is engaged, one wants to settle down, and one is always known as the "good girl."  It's a tad racy at times and there's a little language throughout, but it's quite an entertaining read with a good storyline.


Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty. I've read Big Little Lies by Moriarty before and it was so suspenseful that I didn't even realize how quickly I was going through the book!  I read a caption of Truly Madly Guilty and thought it looked interesting enough to grab at the library.  I was engrossed once again in Moriarty's work.  It's almost like an inner battle in myself because the book is so suspenseful that I don't really want to keep reading it, but at the same time, I need the closure of finding out what happens at the end!  If you like suspenseful books, this is a great read.

13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don't Do by Amy Morin. (I skimmed this one). I thought this book might help me out as I work on becoming a teacher.  I'm always eager to learn classroom management styles, and as a parent, I find many similarities between running a classroom and parenting.  I skimmed over this book, but it didn't offer enough revelations for me to commit to reading it cover to cover.

The Southerner's Handbook by Editors of Garden and Gun. (I skimmed this one). I thought this one would be a mix of design and Southern recipes.  It was almost more geared toward men though with information on hunting and bar-be-que.

The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare by Lilian Jackson Braun.

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun.

The Cat Who Saw Red by Lilian Jackson Braun.

The Cat Who Played Brahms by Lilian Jackson Braun.

I've read several of these Cat Who books.  They are all able to be picked up and read in any order (each book's storyline is completed within that book), but if you wanted to start from the beginning and try to go in order, then start with The Cat Who Could Read Backwards. "The Cat Who" series follows along with a newspaper journalist and his two Siamese cats (one who is extra-sensitive to what's going on around him).  The books are mysteries, but not gory or very suspenseful.  They are light-hearted and easy reads.



If you have time to leisure read this summer, I absolutely recommend these books!


Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba