Month: May 2021

This Week – An actual event

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Highlight of the week… We went to an actual live event as a family. We’ve been so careful, especially with Gage, but spring and sunshine are here and outdoor fun is a must. A local charity that gets books in the hands of local kids celebrated their 5th birthday with a parking lot party with a magician, a DJ, a balloon twister (notice the sword and scabbardish belt), food, a book and swag to each kid, and, of course, a chance for the adults to spend some money on things. I brought home a mystery book date…
“Beautifully Ambiguous. Tragedy & Comedy” If you want to guess what it is, I’ll let you know if you’re right 🙂 It was nice to be doing something normal and while we don’t wear masks outside normally, the fact that they required masks made me feel safer in going there.

The rest of the week was your normal end-of-school year stuff. As a homeschooler, Gage needs to take a standardized test OR have a certified teacher sign off on his progress for the year and write a letter. We chose the teacher route. I’ve got 90% of what she wants to see in, but need to decide on the last things. All I really want to do is send her a box in the mail of what he’s done this year and tell her to look through it until she finds what she needs 🙂 Unfortunately, that’s not the way it works. We have decided to do one more year of homeschooling though. It has pros and cons, but in these crazy times, it’s so nice to have more control (and to be honest, I’m loving this time together). And he can still join in the district’s extracurriculars, like chess club, so that’s a big plus.

Currently reading…

Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 …
Runaway Train (Runaway Train, #1)The Truths We Hold: An American Journey…Savage Intrigue (Savage, #29)

If you want to see what I finished or my favorites for April, click on the links.

On the TV…

We finished the Netflix series Ginny and Georgia and started and old season of the British Bake-off series and Amazon’s Counterpart. I’m a fan of all three 🙂

My thoughts on April’s movies are here. Please add your two cents. It’s been a quiet month for my movie watchers.

Plans for the rest of the weekend… Remember when we gutted half of our house three years ago? We’re finally putting in the last of the flooring, lol, so we’ve got prep work to finish.

April Wrap Up & May Intentions

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I read 39 books in April, the most of them picture books, 8 fiction and 5 non-fiction. With 3 more kids non-fiction, that means my total ‘adult’ reading was 23 books with my top three genres being mystery/thriller and fiction with 5 each, and non-fiction with 4. The rest of the categories were inspirational, plays, historical fiction, and poetry. I also watched 1 bookish movie, Fences (I read the play in January).

In my quest to finish a book a day this year, by the end of April I’d finished 140 books and 3 bookish movies in 120 days. Obviously, I’m thrilled that this has been doable. It felt like such a huge goal at the beginning of the year and at this point it feels like a way of life 🙂 Picture books have been such a fun surprise for me. The more we read for homeschool the more I fall in love with them. Go check out a stack of kids books from your library and (I recommend putting everything by Virginia Hamilton on hold that they have) and spend a day being a kid again. I read 5 of her black folktale picture books this month and they were entertaining and educational.

My 5 Favorites in April

Win by Harlan Coben
Because I pretty much love everything he writes. This was the first in a series about Win, who we know from the Myron Bolitar series. It’s a fast, witty read that was hard to put down. More here.
The Push by Ashley Audrain
This was our book club pick this month and I loved it. So many triggers to turn people away, but if you love dark and twisty and are willing to feel uncomfortable this is a great debut thriller about motherhood. More here.
Leaving Coy's Hill by Katherine A. Sherbrooke
I loved this historical fiction about Lucy Stone the 1800’s fighter for African-American and women’s rights. A great look at the trailblazers of the time told with heart. More here.
What Unites Us by Dan Rather
A series of essays about America and the values its citizens share. An uplifting book for divided times. More here.
The Wisdom of Sundays by Oprah Winfrey
I used this book of quotes from Oprah’s interviews for my morning reading for the month and always felt a little more centered and ready to tackle the day. Would make a great gift 🙂 More here.

At the beginning of every month I compile a stack of books for the month. I don’t always stick to it (in April I read 20 of the 30 – not bad), but I feel better with a smaller stack to choose from on a daily basis. It also makes me add some healthy reading, not just all fluff. This month I put them on my new office rug. I got it from Etsy and it makes me happy 🙂