Random Thoughts

 I told myself to start blogging again, and it seems I have a million different things to write about in my head, but when I sit down...nothing. Not one topic jumps to the front and demands my attention. Instead of walking away, I've decided I'll just do a random stuff post. Maybe a weekly or monthly catch up, things we have going on, things we have done...whatever.

--We went to Space Day at The Wilderness Center today. I posted pictures on the Facebook page. The girls had a blast, especially Lilly, since she wants to be a scientist and astronaut. We identified constellations in the observatory, made rockets, moon-walked, took a tour of our solar system, and made star gazing charts. It really is an awesome place to go. I grew up visiting the place, and it's nice that they offer a wide variety of programs, even homeschool ones!

--Winter stinks! I am over it. This is our first full winter in the house (we officially moved in March 2016). We are on a hill, with lots of farm fields around. It's always windy, the windows leak, we don't have enough seasoned firewood to utilize the fireplace as much as we would like, propane gets expensive, and the mud in my hallway at the backdoor is caked to the floor. I can't wait until it warms up, but the mud in the hallway never goes away...

--Our reading goals. So far we haven't done so well. The older two girls have read some of their books, but we have yet to do family reading. Hoping we can get into the swing of things soon.

--Speaking of books, we are suckers for books. The Wilderness Center had a table of books they were selling for a $1 each. Lots of nature and science stuff, thankfully we only spend $9!

--Lowe's Build & Grow. Something we've gone to for the past several years when they have a kid's clinic. Unfortunately their website says that they have enjoyed providing it over the past 10 years, but they have currently stopped them. Home Depot still has theirs, but we've never attended one there, so it's something I will look into. Unfortunately the only one they list is for next Saturday, which is Muggle's Day for Girl Scouts.

--On the subject of Girl Scouts, we just handed in our initial orders for selling cookies. All 4 girls are in scouts this year, so we had a goal of 200 boxes per girl. Initially we sold just a touch over 300, but I ordered the full amount of our goal and we will sell them at cookie booths. It's tricky this way, because we are financially responsible for those cookies since we ordered them and not the troop. I am hoping we sell them all and sell most of them the first weekend of cookie booths at the end of February. We have 515 boxes of cookies to get rid of. We did close to that last year (we only had 3 girls to hit goals, so we did less booths). Honestly though, I'm sick of cookies already, and we don't even have them in hand. The girls want those prizes though, so we'll be standing out in this Ohio weather selling cookies!

--Now that my entire post sounds like a rant I needed to unload, I leave you with Freya. I think she wants one of my hens!!

Picking Books...

This may surprise you, but Luke and I both dislike reading. My mom was always on the couch with a book, I was always in my room with music, movies, and video games. My parents never required me to read, and since I was a straight A student, I guess they assumed I read on occasion, but even most of the assigned books at school I merely glanced through, very few did I actually read. Even now, sometimes it's very hard for me to just sit down and read. I can glance through articles all day, or even read some fan fiction short stories online, but to pick out a book, and dedicate time out of my day for it, and actually enjoy it, is rare. I want that to change. Thankfully Lexi has no problem sitting down and reading. Lilly does OK with it, as long as it is something that is really interesting to her. Avery can read simple books, and enjoys being read to. Henna doesn't care. She has a short attention span, so it is hit or miss or her to sit down and look at a book and listen.

So the family goal is for myself, Lexi, Lilly, (and hopefully Luke) to pick a book, and to read at least 30 minutes each day. Avery will pick an early reader book that she can read to me and Henna sometime throughout the day. I will also pick out an easy reader/kid book that I will read to Henna. I am hoping that this one on one with her will have her become more familiar with the alphabet and the proper sounds they make. Her speech still needs a lot of improvement. Finally, we will pick a book to read aloud as a family. I did this with the book Wonder, reading a few chapters every night to the girls before bed, and it was a great experience.

I've spent the week trying to distract myself from losing Athena by re-organizing the library. We added more shelves, so I've separated books by reading level, and we now have a place for board games, Legos, coloring items, and other miscellaneous stuff. We haven't really left the house much this month because of Athena, but we start back with our activities in February. We haven't made it to the library to look at books, so for this first pick we will look through our own library for something to read.

Here are our picks.

Family Story: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Lucas: The Martian

Holly: Storm Cycle

Alexis: Weetamoo

Lillian: Rem World

Avery: Clifford's Loose Tooth

Henna: The Good, The Bad, And The Krabby

Yes, I am trying out Amazon's affiliate links. I know I don't get the traffic for it to really make a difference, but some of the books we have are older or obscure and having a link to show you the book helps.