love to paint

I am in the process of putting together my children's curriculum lists for the fall.  I went to the post I wrote about reading comprehension units.  When I clicked on a few links for the leaping into 5th grade website, I discovered that the author has taken them down.  If I were a betting person (which I'm not), the author has probably taken down her units and placed them on a site like Teachers Pay Teachers and is likely selling them for a fee now.  I realize that many teachers have done this. But, this is the reason that when I put together my reading comprehension plan, I printed off the units I wanted for the future.  When you find something on the web, there's no guarantee it is still going to be there tomorrow!

A while ago, I read the first book in Jen Turano's Christian fiction series that began with A Change of Fortune.  I enjoyed it.  It just fun to be lost in a book for a little while.  I don't usually follow a series, but I did end up reading each of the books in this series.  It was just light Christian romance fiction.  Last week, I finished reading the last one, A Match of Wits .   This story centers on Agatha Watson and Zayne Beckett.  Many books within a series are written as stand alone novels.  Others need to be read within the series in order for the reader to understand and know the characters.  That is the case with this book.  Read the books before it first.  Each one adds details that you'll need to know in order to understand the interactions and dynamics of the relationships between the characters.  Agatha is a spitfire and Zayne is the recovering scorned former beau of another.  Agatha gets herself in mes...

You might have heard this... I know it's going around.  My husband said this to me as we walked outside to throw a ball around with our kids... Sitting is the new smoking. Yes, I think it is.

This morning I finished another romantic Christian fiction novel.  One might wonder why I read so many of these given that my reviews are often what might be considered 3 star reviews.  Well, my mom loves them and so I search for good ones to pass on to her.   Ann Gabhart is one of the authors I have enjoyed more than others.  Her latest, Love Comes Home is very clearly a romance.  It's funny to me that it's labeled "Historical Fiction".  It should really just be labeled "Christian Romance" in my opinion. This latest novel by Ms. Gabhart is about a family of sisters after World War II finding their way to love.  There's pain and suffering in the novel.  The recovery of the men from the war is only touched upon and not delved into.  The story focuses more on the role of love in each of the sisters' lives and their trials, travails, healing, and blessings.   Picture four sisters ranging in age from 14 to 25 years old (I think). ...

I hate writing reviews before I've finished the book.  But, this time, well...I'm running out of time.  So, I'm writing this book review with the caveat that I haven't finished it yet. I've shared before that sometimes I pick up books and think they'll be interesting, but then just can't seem to get motivated to read them.  That's the case with this book.  It sat on my desk for several weeks without me opening it.  My daughter happened to pick it up, though, which started an interesting conversation... Mommy, what's Anorexia? Hmm... Hmmm!  Well, sweetie, that's when people choose not to eat. Why?  Do they not have food to eat? No.  They have food. You mean--they diet? Yes, they diet.  But, they choose not to eat. They starve themselves? Yes, they do, sweetie. The conversation went a little longer as I tried to explain in 10 year old terms why. My daughter, my sweet daughter who talks to me about everything, was connecting the do...