The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs by William Joyce My rating: 4 of 5 stars This story had some dark moments for my taste in picture books, but the illustrations were fantastic, my kids loved the plot line, and it came full-circle beautifully. Three cheers for Louisiana authors! View all my reviews

Miss Nelson Is Missing! by Harry Allard My rating: 4 of 5 stars My girls thought this was fantastic. They loved the lightbulb-turning-on feeling when they got the twist in the story. View all my reviews

Lucy and her friend were practicing multiplication tables this morning (not my idea – I love having extra kids around sometimes!) and they decided it would be fun to make it into a Go Fish! game.  So they did.  And spent half an hour or so playing 6 Times Table Go Fish. Just caught Clare […]

Thomas: “Penguins aren’t poisonous!” Agreed. Lucy: (not in the same conversation) “I think college just slows you down.” In her defense: they were playing The Game of Life. Not sure they’ve ever made it far enough to see the difference between the pay scale for the lawyer vs. the mechanic. Anyway.

So it’s been a while…like almost three years…but yesterday morning was too much fun not to record. Samantha was up before 7 asking for paints to finish the canvas she’d drawn on. (It’s a split image of a Holy Spirit dove and a crucifix.) We got dressed, had breakfast, etc. Then came the morning routine […]

🙂 You should read The Courage of Sarah Noble.  You should read it because it is about a little girl named Sarah Noble and she goes into the woods with her father to build a house near Indians.  She had to leave the rest of her family behind because there wasn’t enough room to bring […]

This book is about three little children.  There names were Amanda, Jemmy, and Meg.  They sailed on a ship to go to America and to find their father in Jamestown.  Their father had a door knocker that people thought was made of gold.  Dr. Crider is a doctor that helped them get to the boats […]

I liked Trumpet of the Swan.  You should read it.  It is about a swan who doesn’t have a voice, but gets a trumpet and learns how to play it. The swan’s name is Louis. Louis’ dad robbed a music store to get a trumpet. It is also about a little boy named Sam.  Sam […]

A true confession: we were given two spaghetti squash by a friend from church months ago.  I dutifully cooked one right away, very simply, and I’m sorry to say, most of it ended up in the trash.  The other squash has been waiting very patiently in the onion-and-garlic bowl ever since, tossing me sad, neglected […]

I just have to say, I am so glad we are homeschooling.  Lucy informed me last week that the picture books I had been getting from the library were “getting boring”, so I thought, “fair enough- we’ll move up to the 3rd-5th grade reading list.  I started her with Charlotte’s Web.  She is reading it […]