This Week – Sunny Days Ahead

This Memorial Day weekend feels more somber than celebratory after 19 4th graders and 2 teachers were gunned down in their classroom this week. I am choosing to keep some of the sadness there as a reminder that change will not be easy and it will take a lot of people just as heartbroken as I am to make change happen. This photo is from the church just up the street from us.

We have a picnic with friends planned today and the Memorial Day ceremony and parade in our town tomorrow and then 4 days left of school! The days will be easy as he finishes up his online Outschool classes and his last days with his reading tutor with no difficult work with his mama, just some fun little projects.

My computer now shuts down randomly around a dozen times a day, which is why posting and commenting hasn’t happened. Hoping to make this quick and get it posted before I see the evil blue screen.

Read

How To Draw Cool Stuff: A Drawing Guide for Teachers and Students by Catherine V. Holmes. 4/5 stars, 255 pages, pub. 2014

I loved it and will be using it with our homeschooling next year, something that Gage and I can do together for art. There are lesson plans and detailed instructions. The first section was all about defining and practicing the elements of design with lessons on shading, foreshortening and more. I love how each of the cool things to draw is broken down and perfect for easy, no planning, lessons. This is the first of a series and plan on checking out some of the others too.

I was on a TLC Book Tour with this book this week, but my computer frustration stopped me from posting here.

Three fantastic kids books this week! We loved all of these. I included one shot of each book in the order they’re pictured.

Rock by Rock: The Fantastical Garden of Nek Chard was a great picture book biography about the Indian Chard who secretly changed the landscape in his town. We watched some of the videos on YouTube since it is still a thriving tourist attraction in India. He died in 2015.

Colors in Nature is such a beautiful book about color. Definitely one to have on the bookshelf.

Wait, Rest, Pause: Dormancy in Nature. Fantastic photos and short, easy to understand information. Perfect for every classroom.

We’re trying to read our way through the Dewey Decimal system (by 100s), so when we browse the shelves the number one thing we’re looking for is length, the shorter the better. This is not something I normally recommend, but when your challenge is 100 books you do what you have to do 😁

I’ve read 155 books so far this year.

Watched

We watched the new Lincoln Lawyer series based on the Michael Connelly books on Netflix and really liked it.

All Good Things, 2010. We watched this knowing it was based on a true story and by the end we were wondering how the movie makers were sued. So, we spent some time reading about it after the fact. Interesting story with great actors.
Senior Year, 2022. I watched this during a night of insomnia. Silly.

Puzzled

Loved this dual puzzle from Galison. They are both so beautiful and worthy of being gifted to wine loving friends. Or a perfect summer activity with a friend over a glass of Rose. They were both individually bagged and around 250 pieces each. 
Another fabulous piece of art from Art & Fable. I’m in love with anything trees and this puzzle with the matte pieces was a joy.  This was from my puzzle subscription service, Completing the Puzzle, and they’ve not let me down yet. 

2 thoughts on “This Week – Sunny Days Ahead”

  1. Deb Nance at Readerbuzz says:
    Reply

    I was having so many problems with my laptop just before we headed to France. While I was there, the whole computer crashed. I took it to the Apple store to get it repaired, but it would have cost a fortune for a five-year-old computer. Instead I was happy to trade it in on a new computer. It’s wonderful to have a reliable one again.

    How to Draw Cool Stuff looks like a wonderful book to use for teaching and learning art. I am also interested in Wait. Rest. Pause.

  2. Lesley says:
    Reply

    That’s a powerful image of the chairs on the church lawn. I’m still feeling heartbroken for the families and friends of those killed in Uvalde. I know that even though it happened last week, Memorial Day weekend will never be the same for any of them. Yesterday marked the 17th anniversary of our daughter’s death and this holiday weekend is always tough. We need to change the process of obtaining guns in this country…

    I hope you can get your computer repaired or get a new one. It’s frustrating when our devices decide to stop working without any good reason. We rely so heavily on them, don’t we?

Leave a comment