This week Gage had the top part of the Herbst appliance put in and it’s been tough. There is a bar across the top of his mouth that makes talking, eating, and swallowing are a struggle. And there is so much drool and sores on the cheeks. It’s been a week for the little man and he gets the bottom half and connectors in two weeks 😦 *The white coming out of his mouth is nor part of the appliance, just the only pic I took.

The day after he got it ‘installed’ he was especially miserable so instead of school we spent the day doing good deeds like trying to remove graffiti that had been spray painted on trees and rocks at a local park and using the Little Free Library app to find LFLs to drop off books. The app itself wasn’t the best navigator for us, but being able to see where they were was very useful.

Books

I’ve read 7 books, all of them kids! Five non-fiction and two fiction. Here are a few standouts…

The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees With Dreams of Crossing the Border by Juan Pablo Villalobos. 160 pages

This is labeled as a teen book, but most stories could be shared with younger kids. So important for kids (and adults) to understand the why of the kids that are coming to America. I liked the individual stories. told in the voices of the children. Want to work on empathy with your kids? This will help them see through another kid’s eyes.

Journey through Ash and Smoke (Ranger in Time series) by Kate Messner. 160 pages

We read a few Iceland books this week, but this one, geared toward ages 5-8, was so well done. It’s our first Ranger in Time book and I was happily surprised at how well Messner incorporated historical facts into the story with additional info and pictures of her visit there.

Full disclosure, I’m not a fan of the Magic Treehouse series 🤷🏻‍♀️ But this series I can get behind! When we did our additional reading, so many of the things she included ended up in our timeline and fact sheet.

Varenka by Bernadette Watts. 32 pages.

This was first published in 1971. It’s a lovely Russian folktale and the illustrations were fabulous.

I’m currently reading a lot of books, too many really but they’re all so good! Stay tuned.

Books read this year- 81

Movies

Jason and I both really liked this one. It definitely brought back the 1980s for those of us of a certain age 🙂

Puzzles

A little video of the one fun puzzle we did as a family…here

Plans for today

I’m the coordinator for our library book sale and it starts this Thursday and runs through next Sunday. I love it and will work pretty much the whole time plus Wednesday set up. Today will be spent emailing reminders to volunteers, redesigning our receipts, and getting though all of our signage and seeing what needs fixed and what we’re missing.

What are your plans for the day?