(Last) Week Review

Ahhh, yesterday I had the day off...after church we ate beans from the Crock Pot and then headed out to our local flea market. We bought some local honey, a Barbie doll, and some mini horse shoes as party favors for Ashlyn's birthday this weekend. Afterwards I napped, Shane cooked a great dinner and I read the rest of the evening! So nice!

Last week was pretty busy with school, Hope's allergy test (she's mildly allergic to a whole slew of things-soy, peanuts, oats, yeast as well as several trees, grasses, dust mites & molds). Shane saw a cardiologist for chest pain (we follow up later this week with more testing) and of course we had some party planning going on for the about-to-be 12 year old.

I have taken a friend's kick in the pants recommendation and cut back some computer time in favor of reading. I have so much I want to learn right now that I want to just stop the world and catch up on my book list. I'm plowing through Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and seriously loving it. May become one of my favorite books of all time. Pretty good ranking since it's written by an evolutionist who is so talented in her writing but doesn't even know Who gave her the gift.

Shane just read The Lord of the Flies to see if it was appropriate for Ashlyn to read. Boy is it dark. He was disturbed by the mental darkness in this book and the quick recap he gave me was enough to keep it off my book list. Ash won't be reading it yet...but isn't it wonderful to read? To get into the imaginary world of another person via the written word. To experience a world far away or a lifestyle unattainable just by cracking the spine of a book? Even if we don't enjoy the book, I believe we are better for reading good literature.

Here's what we're currently reading in our house:

Audrey-she gets into the pose of reading often-on my lap as I read books to the girls. One day she was wearing a onsie with the ABCs on it while facing outward on my lap during read aloud time. The younger girls thought it was great that she was "doing school".

Jaika-Our bird ID book is her favorite. She crawled into bed with Shane today and "read" every page to him. She loves birding!

Bethany-anything all over town or in the house that starts with the letter B. Kinda like Sesame Streets letter of the day...except the letter never changes!

Hope-I'm reading The Year of Miss Agnes to her (about a school teacher in Alaska who really reaches out to the kids with her sweet teaching style) as well as Little Pear (another read aloud about a little Chinese boy). She grabbed her Bible (which is a story Bible she reads to me as practice each day) this weekend, stole away under the covers and read until 11pm (before the time change!) just to finish it.

Ashlyn-In addition to her books she's reading for school, we're reading 2 read alouds to catch up (one during school time & one in the evenings) but every other moment she has a chance, she's reading her horse books. Her obsession with horses is only growing.

Grown ups-I'm not sure what Shane will pick up next now that he's done with The Lord of the Flies, but I have several gardening books on my side of the bed. I'm about a week behind in my Chronological One Year Bible and I'm pre-reading Ashlyn's next reader. We are a bookworm family!