The little lapbook meme this month is penguins. My K just loves penguins and got a life size stuffed penguin for Christmas, so this theme is perfect for us. I went a little crazy and designed a whole lapbook for the kids to do. My 5 and 7 wanted to do this lapbook so pics should come later. Anyway you can find the lapbook files at lulu.com. And here is the line http://www.lulu.com/content/1828361
have fun with this theme.
There is something magical about straws. L who is three has decided that chocolate milk isn’t the same without straws. In fact she won’t even drink chocolate milk without a straw. Not just any straw, but a straw that she has picked out herself. It doesn’t matter that she picked out the same color or even the same straw that I had just offered her just moments before. If she picks it out it hers, and hence better in her mind. Straw magic isn’t lost on my 14yo either, she says that ice water taste alot better when you drink it with a straw. M loves to tie his bendable straw into a knot and then drink. Of course he is 7yo, but I understand that he learned the trick from P who is 14 ( or will be next week.)
Wow the magic of a simple straw, and if it is a bendable straw even better.
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I love books. I used to go to the library as a kid every week and the school library every other day. My first job in college was in a bookstore. Did I mention I love books. My home library probably rivals the library of many small towns. I manage to find more books at yard sales because frankly I must really need a book to pay full price and I will still try to get a better price on amazon. Yet I still go to the library. Where else can you borrow a book for a few weeks and then beg for more to take home. Oh thats right begging isn’t allowed at our library. Good thing those librarians understand us book junkies. Oh I think they may be book junkies themselves and are supporting their habit. All I have to do is show them my book junkie card and they let me take home books. The down side of my book junkie habit is those pesky late fees. Yep I try to look noble and say I am just supporting the library with my fees, but those librarians look down on you when you do that. Yep right over their eyeglasses from behiend that tall counter or leaning back in that library chair. Being the shrinking violet I am I plop down my quarter a day fine and mumble about supporting the library or forgetting what day or year it was at that moment. You have to understand I sometimes have 15 or 25 books out at any one time. I tried to only go once a week, but I book I ordered would always come and in and I would just have to have it for a unit or project we where learning about.
Does this sound like you. At least the part about overdue book and fines? I found a solution or at least something good until the library will due home pickup.
Drum roll please…….
This cool site will not only check my library card but all library cards that I enter and will send me notices when things are due, when things are being held. It will even due rss feeds and send text messages to your cell phone, not just plain ol email. At first my library wasn’t part of the system, but I emailed them and they had my local library added within 24 hours. Sweet City! Best of all it is free. So how do they make a living. Amazon ads. But they don’t seem intrusive. I will probably but a few books through their amazon link. Doesn’t cost me anymore with Amazon and will keep the service going. And no I don’t get kick backs from this review, I just think this is the next best thing since, I don’t know, libraries.
Ever looked up into the sky and wondered where the big dipper was hiding? Sometimes looking at the stars I start thinking they all look alike. Or I wonder just what I should be looking at since I am in the city and surrounded by lampposts that wash out the night sky. Of course that also make it great for the kids to play in the front yard after dark. Especially now since it is dark at what 5 something. God created the heavens for the signs and the seasons, but sometimes in our modern world we forget to look up to the heavens. Sometimes we forget to ask our heavenly Father for our needs, wants, and desires. Now I am not saying that God is going to give you want you ask for, and He does know without being asked what those desires are floating in your head. But I know that sometimes I just like my kids to ask my for what they want. I think God is the same way, He like to be asked.
Of course I digressed. Back to ever wondering what that bright light in the heavens might be? Ever had a munchkin hanging on your leg awed by the sight of so many bright lights? Well have I got a website for you. night sky website
It will teach and then test how to find some of the more bright constellations in the night sky. And not just from one perspective but under different circumstances. Show your kids what the sky would have looked like hundreds of years ago without all our light pollution from city living. And compare it to how the sky looks in a typical city, while trying to find the constellation betelguise or the big dipper. Way cool.
A book review on Square Meals – America’s Favorite Comfort Food Cookbook
You never know what kind of book is going to fall into your hands at a yard sale. Last Saturday while taking our daughter P to a church event I stopped at a yard sale, though technically it should of been called a driveway sale, though I doubt I could have fit the driveway or even the yard into my van. But I digress, I picked up and paid the nice lady 2 quarters for a cook book called Square Meals. I love to peruse a good cookbook. Of course my oldest K later rolled her eyes and asked why since she seems to think my cooking repertoire is repetitive. It might be but she will never know since she rarely eats at home and seemingly never with the family.
This cookbook has no color pics for those of you who grew up with the instant gratification of cell phones, dsl, and ipods. But the book does have this great nostalgia feel for an era of hot cocoa and homemade meatloaf. The pages are rife with retro pics and nostalgic prints. Recipes are not for the faint of healthy hearts, it is comfort not calories that counts in this book. To give you a feel for the types of recipes I will mention a few of the chapters. Where else could a person find recipes for Nursery Foods, Victory Dinners, Ladies Lunches, to name a few. Ending with the final chapter being the Cuisine of Suburbia. This book reads less like a cookbook than a tourbook of the kitchens of yesteryear.
The recipes are basic and down to earth and who knows maybe I will even give the recipe Queen for a Day Noodleburger Casserole or the Purple Poodle Drink a try, but more than anything I enjoyed the trip through culinary time. This book has earned a place on my library shelf.
Angela