Monday, June 27, 2011

Photo Fun

We had fun taking pictures 
after church a few weeks ago.  

  
We love our Pumpkin & Princess!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Bugs Can Be Cool

Remember when you were little 
and bugs were so cool.

Then, when you got older they 
were no longer cool anymore.

Well, I think it is really fun (as an adult) to take 
cool pictures of bugs!  Enjoy!

Common Eastern Firefly

Widow Skimmer (Female)

13-year Cicada (aka by the kids: Monster Bug)

Widow Skimmer (Immature Male)

Eastern Pondhawk (Male)

Common Whitetail (male)

Garden slug- not an insect, but an invertebrate none the less

Saturday, June 25, 2011

The Princess & The Raspberries


Princess loves to eat raspberries.
She loves them both plain and with sugar.
She loves to put them on her fingers.
Yummy in her tummy!







Saturday, June 18, 2011

Fiction Recipes. . . .


. . . . an odd combination.  Don’t you think?  But truly amazing together! 

I finished read my fourth book of the summer last night and was blown away.  How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O’Neal is a story about motherhood and food. 


Now life is not easy, and this book is full of twists and turns along life path- some good and some bad.  Rough patches in life build character and make us stronger.  The book also illustrates that sometimes things do happen for a reason, if we do not discover that reason until many years down the road.    We just have to have faith to move on and do the best we can. 

The most amazing part of the book is the recipes that are scattered throughout.  The main character has a bakery and a handful of the recipes can be found within the books pages.  I was just beaming when I discovered the first one.  The smell and taste of bread is so comfortable and just screams simpler times. 

We did go to the library earlier today, but I kept the book here at home for a bit longer.  I want to take the time to jot a few recipes down before I return the book.  Most of the recipes sound just scrumptious!

I was so thrilled with Barbara O’Neal’s book that I requested the other two books that she has written through out local library.  I cannot wait until they are available!  My next book will be a classic, Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Paper Airplanes

Pumpkin is into paper airplanes.  
So pumpkin, princess and I made some a few weeks ago.


First we color the white paper.


Then we fold in half long ways.


Then we make two triangles on one end.


Then we fold the wings downward.  


Add a bit of tape to reinforce.


Then it is time to fly!

Nothing Like A Good Book!

I just finished my third book for the summer by one of my favorite authors, Marcia Muller.  The book is entitled Coming Back and is the newest book of the Sharon McCone mystery series.   


The main character is a female private detective, Sharon McCone, that owns her own investigation company. This particular book is about the search for a friend of Sharon McCone's that totally disappears as Sharon deals with rehabilitation of her own from an injury sustained in the previous book.  Of course typical of a mystery book there is suspense, intrigue, murder, and eventually discovery.

I always love these books and each page keeps you guessing to what will happen next.  I discovered this series when I was in high school and would check Marcia Mueller's books out from the small country library in the neighboring town.  Even though my mom was a romance book person, she also enjoyed borrowing my Marcia Mueller's books after I read them.

Marcia Mueller has written 36 mystery novels so far and I own all but that last two, but I am looking forward to getting them soon.  Oh, I am also looking forward to the 37th book that will hit the shelves in October, City of Whispers.  Yay!

Hmmmm . . . . . my next book will be How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O'Neal.  It looks like it may be a good one!  

Sunday, June 5, 2011

That Was Fast

I just finished reading book number two in my quest to read ten books during the months of June and July.  Letters to Juliet by Lise Friedman & Ceil Friedman took less than 24 hours to read. 


I was disappointed at first.  I thought that since a movie had come from the book that it would be a good fiction story.  Instead it is a non-fiction book about the legend, history, and actual letters written to Juliet.  It is an amazing book in its own right.   

The authors traced back the roots of Romeo & Juliet in an effort to discover and tell the real story behind the legend.  The legend goes that Juliet died in 1303 in Verona and scholars believe she was born on September 16, 1284.   

The most fascinating part of the book for me was snippets of letters from all over the world.  Letters to Juliet have been answered since 1937 first by the custodian of Juliet’s tomb to the current “Secretaries of Juliet” at Club di Giulietta.  

The book is a tour guide through the history of this Veronian story, the love that it has evoked, and the tourist attraction that has resulted over time.  It is definitely worth reading.

It might be fun to write a letter to Juliet, but I don’t think that it is really my cup of tea.  But for anyone that would 
like to try, I have included the address:
Club Di Giulietta
via Galilei 3
37100 Verona
Italy

We are also reading to Pumpkin and Princess.  The children’s reading program consists of six different check-ins.  For the final check-in they get a book to take home. Yay!  This will be Pumpkin’s third year, Princess’s second year, and my second year in the reading program at our local library.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Time to Read

The summer reading program has started at our local library.  Pumpkin, Princess and I are participating this summer.  Maybe we can get daddy to join in too! 

This summer’s theme is “A Midsummer Knight’s Read.”  Our local library is recommending that we should learn more about William Shakespeare, King Arthur and the Dark Ages.


I have just finished reading my first adult book Crossroads by Nancy Moser.  It was definitely an intriguing book.  The main character, Madeline, is an eighty plus year old woman with spunk, determination and spirit.  In a modern day version of the Great Land Rush, her plans are to revitalize her dying town with a free land & house giveaway evoking the pioneer spirit and hoping to save her town’s centennial celebration.  You can find tidbits of everyone you know woven among the many characters in the book.  It is an amazing book about determination, love, faith, and the pioneer spirit that draws you into the book in suspense of what may happen next.  It also brings small town American home.  This book plays with the exodus of people moving from small rural towns to large cities by reversing the roles.  What would happen if people started moved from the large cities back into the small towns?  I for one miss living in the country and the connectedness of the small town where I attended school. 

I became introduced to Nancy Moser’s books by chance in January 2010 as I was browsing the adult fiction section.  I picked up a book called The Good Nearby.  God works in amazing ways; I finished reading that book a week before my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  I found the Bible verse (Romans 11:33) that has helped me through the past 18 months contained within its pages.  The book illustrates, through quite a few characters, that we are all connected and that even though we cannot see it God does have a reason for everything, a good for everything.  Other Nancy Moser books that I have read since my first introduction are Washington’s Lady, How Do I Love Thee, Just Jane, Mozart’s Sister, The Sister Circle, ‘Round The Corner, An Undivided Heart, and  A Place To Belong

The next book waiting in the wings is a book that has been transformed into a movie:  Letters To Juliet by Lise Friedman & Ceil Friedman.  I have yet to see the movie, but I think it would be interesting to watch it after I have finished the book.