Calaveras Big Trees

We visited a state park with several families from our church.  

This was most of us, before our hike.  

An obligatory, "we were here" photo.  I got in the habit of taking pictures of the kids when we went somewhere, just in case I needed to be able to describe what they were last seen wearing.  

We had a lovely 2ish mile hike/walk through the giant sequoias and other evergreens.  We saw some very Big Trees indeed at this pleasant recreation area.  

There were trees you could walk through.  

We spotted wild strawberry plants, tiny waterfalls in a flowing stream, and even some snow in the very shady spot where snow plows had piled drifts.  

The weather was warm enough to be comfortable in short sleeves.  

And at the end of it, there was a little gift shop and museum (tiny museum).  I took this picture of the separating arrow for Hannah, since she was hanging out with the teens and wasn't with me in the museum.  Hannah is fascinated by weapons, so I thought she would appreciate this.  

Since the park was a couple hours away from where we live, we listened to a book.  Hannah and I are reading/rereading the Susan May Warren books in order this year, so we were listening to her The Heat Is On.  Watching my long suffering husband as he was subjected to Christian romance was quite amusing.  

Sunrise Book Review

It's no secret that I enjoy Susan May Warren's writing.  I've reviewed several of her books, and read as many as I can get my hands on.  Today, I want to share her latest work with you.  Sunrise is the first book in her new Sky King Ranch trilogy.  

Sunrise is the story of Echo Yazzie, who's had a rough childhood and carries some hurts from that time in her life. She also has some unfinished business with Dodge Kingston, who took off years ago, and has come back to small town Alaska because his dad crashed an airplane he was piloting.  

Now, I'm not supposed to give spoilers, which makes it really hard to gush about the book as much as I would like to, but let me just say that this book contains, hands down, the best awkward hug scene I've ever read.  I cringed.  

Sunrise is suspenseful without being scary when it comes to the action scenes.  There's danger, yes, but there's not darkness and evil, if that makes sense.  When it comes to romance, Susan May Warren creates tension and sweetness, never anything explicit.  

If winter weather has you wanting to curl up with a good book, look no further than Sunrise.  

Have Yourself A Christiansen Christmas #bookreview

 

You ever read a book and wish it would never end?  You just want to keep reading about these characters you've come to know so well?  Back in 2014 & 2015, I reviewed some of the books in Susan May Warren's Christiansen Family series.  So when she asked for reviewers for Have Yourself A Christiansen Christmas, I jumped at the chance.  

I got a few pages in and thought, "I barely remember who's who.  Maybe I should just start over."  

So out came the whole series.  (Almost.  I couldn't find my copy of Evergreen, so I requested it from the library.)  Very little else got done around here as I devoured them all over again, remembering why I enjoyed them so much, even though they made me cry.  The Christiansens are a strong, close-knit family with a good balance of faith and humanity.  

The next time I picked up Have Yourself A Christiansen Christmas, it was with eager anticipation to catch up with old friends.  HYACC takes place after a gap of about 7 years since the last Christiansen Family book.  The babies are kids, and the kids are teens now.  The young adults are (mostly) mature married folk now.  

One of the things I liked about Have Yourself A Christiansen Christmas, is that the characters are more mature than your typical romance.  A lot of books have all the fireworks of initial attraction and how a couple comes together.  This book shows the longevity of deep relationships and the hard work of living out that togetherness.  I think I appreciate that more because I'm no longer in the fireworks season of life, and while I still appreciate a good fluff romance from time to time, this book resonated with me more.  

The 7 couples (including Ingrid & John, the parents) deal with a variety of issues in this book.  Blessings, losses, good and bad surprises, misunderstandings, secrets, and opportunities.  But they face these challenges with a strong family support network.  I'm not supposed to share specifics, so as to not spoil anything for you, but I really enjoyed the book, and I hope author Susan May Warren will update us again in the future.  

Our Week

We've progressed from wind to rain here.  I'm trying not to think about it being dark and drippy from now until March.  I do much better with the sunshine.  

Over the 5 day weekend last week, I read an entire Susan May Warren trilogy, and started another one.  I was lamenting that I wouldn't hit my Goodreads goal this year, but I forgot that I tend to do a lot more reading once the weather gets yucky.  I may make it (or come pretty close) after all.  

I took this picture to remind me to make a shelf marker to divide the biography section from the Dewey section in picture books.  I've emptied out yet another tote this week in the library, and finished processing the October books I ordered last month, and received a bag and box of donated books.  All that to say that the additional book volume necessitates some adjustments to our shelves.  I'm getting close to having enough room for another half sized bookcase in the library, under the white board.  --Not that I *have* another half sized bookcase, but one can hope.  

Miss Fiona had to check out the empty tote I brought home.  Grumman considers such antics beneath him.  

The middle school flag football team had a scrimmage game against the high schoolers.  Having kids on both sides, we didn't really care who won, so it was fun to watch.  I somehow missed getting a picture of Katie in her uniform. 

So here's a picture of the uniform in the laundry.  She's got 2 games coming up this week.

Jack Jack lost his glasses at a shoot last summer, and we didn't manage to get him in before school started.  Getting both Jack and Hannah into Costco optical center was Top Priority for fall break, and this week the glasses were ready to pick up.  

Hannah's new glasses are about an inch wider than her old ones (which she broke a couple days before the new ones were picked up).  

I did guided spider web drawings with a couple classes in the library this week, and thought it would be fun to do them with the girls over the weekend.  At home, we used black paper and paint markers.  

Our Two Weeks

Since I did the Easter picture post last week, I never quite got to our regular weekly wrap up post, so this will be a little longer.  

I posted we'd made the Bird Nests, but we hadn't tried them yet.  I wanted to report back that I liked them, but they were kind of messy to eat, as they crumble easily.  These lasted in the kitchen much longer than I expected them to (but Paul and Sam are both off sugar right now).  Josiah and Jack weren't really interested in them, even though peanut butter is usually one of Jack's favorites.  All that to say, we probably won't make these again, even though I liked them.  

What's this?  A back to school picture in April?  Yep.  Jack is back on campus again, after more than a year away.  He was struggling with virtual school, and is very happy to be among humans outside the house again.

Oh Grumman.  

I was looking for a particular book in the school room and ran across something else entirely (please tell me I'm not the only one who does this!) so we have used God & the History of Art a couple times this week.  I have leftover student pages from when the older kids were homeschooling.  This may be my last chance to use some up.  

Books, books, books.  I'm surprised they let me take more out this week.  This business of holding them to let the cooties die before checking them back in has the effect of making it harder for us to see a drop in the total number of books we have out.  Because I returned books 3 different days, and picked books up 1 day, and we've only had a net drop from 102 to 97.  

More Chinese stick puzzle brain teasers

Origami tulips

Red pandas

Because our curriculum has ended, and I'm cobbling together enough stuff to fill our days, we're doing a brief return to Grapevine Studies with a free sample I downloaded recently.  The girls vaguely remembered using it a few years ago, because of the drawings.  That's my very impressive Chief Priest paying Judas 30 pieces of silver.  

Forward arm circles!  Backward arm circles!  High knees!  Side shuffle!  We didn't do our exercises every day, but we're starting to get into the swing of things.  I keep forgetting to take pictures while we're out there.  

Really loving the cones and handle tubes the most out of all the equipment we received.  

Also, while I was riding slowly alongside Hannah as she jogged, I spotted a wallet on the ground.  After trying a couple houses nearby and not getting any response, I posted looking for the owner on NextDoor, where everyone said, "Take it to the police station."  So Jack and I did that when I picked him up from school.  

There's a dish I made when we studied Turkey, that we all liked well enough to add to our regular rotation.  Only, it uses 2 pounds of diced lamb, which is pretty pricey.  This week I tried it with pork instead.  (Photo is of dish in progress, not the finished product.)  Saved about $10 bucks, which makes me happy, and while different, was still tasty.  

The book I'm currently reading was pictured weeks ago, but it's really interesting.  Presumably, it's about the Faberge eggs, but it's really covered so much more than that.  A good overview of Russian history during/after the last 2 czars.  It's sad that King George (the 5th, not Elizabeth's father) rescinded his offer of sanctuary to his cousin.  I wonder what the world would be like today if the Romanovs had not been executed.  

Speaking of royal families, and history, I feel like the recent passing of Prince Philip marks the beginning of the end for Queen Elizabeth.  He's really the last person who knew her well before she was queen.  After 73 years of marriage, his passing is bound to leave a gaping hole in her world.  

No study of Nepal could be complete without a mention of the animal in every animal alphabet book:  The Yak!  I used the faux fur I bought for the gnomes we never made when we studied Norway.  I showed the girls how to only cut through the backing, and not through the fur.  

 

Finished multimedia project.  Paint, 8x10 canvas, construction paper, fur, and wiggle eyes.  

More books.  We're down to 74 checked out now.  I've got a pile going for our next country, but I haven't started requesting books for the one after that yet.  I'll just have to hope those can get to us in a timely manner, once I do.  

Dove drawings

Sea turtle drawings

This pickup included some of Hannah's research books on a woman she's doing a report on.  A butterfly and moth scientist, apparently.  

A local church is closing their library and giving away all their books, so I went and picked up a wagon load for the kids' private school.  (I also plundered a few Susan May Warren and Terri Blackstock books for when I need some fluff reading.)  The bookends and book stands will be helpful in the school library, too.  

The only time this wagon gets any use is curriculum fairs, so it was nice to pull it out of the garage and see it in action again.  

Katie's origami fox

Hannah's plant life cycle project

Katie's bird project

I told the girls they could choose any project from a "How to draw..." book.  Hannah's deer/antelope/gazelle, and Katie's golden eagle.

A shark project from a library book.  

Josiah made pizzas one night.  He's discovered bacon ranch dressing, which he used for the sauce on the bacon chicken one.

And pepperoni & olive for the more traditional.  

Katie's bag puppet, from a repurposed library bag.  

Whew!  So that covers Nepal and the Galapagos Islands.  We'll be off to Ireland next, which was Katie's choice.