I just sewed on the seventh different council patch on my son's scout shirt. If I even knew where they all were, I'd take a gigantic photo. There should seriously be some kind of merit badge for moving. The last place we lived had great local leadership, but the district level kind of had an attitude of weeding out all but a few when it came to ( Read more... )

By FAR the first thing you notice (if you're me, anyway, coming from tree-starved northern plains) is the TREES. They are so huge! So beautiful! It's obviously not with my ears, but I swear I can hear them somehow. It just FEELS different here. The trees are ginormous, too. Everywhere you look, there are 100-foot pines. (Pictured.) Also sweetgum. ( ( Read more... )

My very polite, very respectful 10YO daughter got talked to sternly today while in the pick-up line after school today.

"Is that your car?" the older teacher asked.

"Yeah."

"Yes, ma'am."

Daughter raised her eyebrows, confused. Maybe the teacher didn't hear her? "Yeah."

"Yes, ma'am," the teacher reprimanded ( Read more... )

We've been in Alabama for a week, now. Wow. It's extremely much like moving to a foreign country! Once upon a time, we lived in the south, but it's been a looooooooooooooooooooooooong time. Here are some thoughts ( Read more... )

Oh, it's cold! We had a very warm December, with little snow. January is trying to catch up. My teenagers are all off sledding at the park tonight. Yes, it's -5 with a refreshing breeze. Yes, we have another blizzard warning on for tomorrow. We're busy plugging holes and trying to keep the cold out of the house, but when your house is 135 years old ( Read more... )

And now to the category I read most of. Trends I noticed: lots more interstellar sci fi, lots more contemporary books that aren't so much about plot as about rooooomance, some parallel world books, and a number of books with the identical plot of wanting to fill a dead friend's bucket list. A lot of books that I read in YA this year, it turns out, ( Read more... )

I lean more towards YA than MG, but this year, the MG books I encountered at my library just had a lot more variety in story, voice, character, and general feel than the YA did. Buying trends? Publishing trends? I don't know. In any case, I read a LOT of them.

Egg and Spoon, by Gregory Maguire. MG, no matter what the publisher and library say. ( Read more... )

I used to do a post listing every book I read all year. Now I think I have too many--not *quite* as many as last year (which, with moving, was a rather stressful year, and the books helped me keep it together), but still, a lot. So I'm just going to list some standouts, by genre. Since everyone has different kinds of books that appeal to them, it ( Read more... )

I am still alive, but I haven't had very many interesting photos lately, and we are in the same routine as last year--I spend a ton of time driving kids to school and various extracurriculars, and now that we've entered the cold season, I also spend a lot of time shivering. So it is not from lack of interest in posting--it's just that I don't want ( Read more... )

I've been trying so hard to write lately, and I have ideas crowding my head and rising up in my insides and wanting to get out. But at the same time, it's that pre-school runup where schedules are insane and each kid has a unique time and date for registration, dentist, etc. Add in tons of cross country practice and a track meet to the schedule, my ( Read more... )