Read Aloud Thursday has been published. If you blog or just enjoy reading aloud with your family, come and leave a comment. I'd love to hear about what you're reading aloud together!

It's the Year-in-Review and To-Be-Read-in-2009 edition, so if you blog or if you just like to share your ideas, head on over and leave a comment! Here's the link------>Read Aloud Thursday. Have a happy new year!

Oooh, I voted! How does one join this group?

on my blog. . . care to join in? If you blog, link us to a page where you review, summarize, or otherwise comment on your family's current read-aloud. Here's the link---->Read Aloud Thursday!

Here's one of my favorite cookie recipes-->Andes Mint Cookies. I posted it on my blog some time last year. I make these cookies for one of my friends every year for her birthday.

Oh, this is so funny! My girls are enamored of the Little House books (well, audiobooks, actually). They call me and dh Ma and Pa, call each other Laura and Mary, etc. I even blogged about it! My girls are much younger, so there's not that sense of loss, etc. I remember feeling this way myself often as a child. I LOVED L.M. Montgomery's books as a young teen and spent lots of time acting out scenes, etc., from the Anne stories. I would actually cry when I finished reading them. I think it is a combination of feeling out of place in the current century and the sense of sadness over being through with something you so thoroughly enjoyed.

I like the third one where their faces are all close together. :)

Thanks for the responses, link, and ideas. :001_smile: The problem with using the closet in the playroom is it's the one where I keep my clothes. The closet in the master bedroom is small, so only dh's clothes fit in there. We have an armoire in there that really is not being used to its fullest potential in terms of bins and other storage inside. Right now both girls still sleep in a toddler bed/baby bed. Obviously, my 3 year old needs to be in at least a toddler bed, but she's never tried to climb out in the present arrangement; I think she feels secure in there. Anyway, I'm thinking me might go with bunkbeds to save space. As I type, the girls are going through the stack of books and puzzles I culled during naptime (to sell in a toy consignment sale coming up) and finding old favorites. Sheesh. It doesn't help my feelings of ******the walls are closing in on me********** that dh has been out of town since early Tuesday morning. The girls and I are going out for a jaunt around the block and maybe my head will clear a little.:tongue_smilie:

Light and Tasty (or whatever the new name is) Family Fun Scrapbooking and Beyond Family Handyman I think that's it right now. My girls have had a subscription to one of the preschool magazines in the past, too.

So glad to find some others who enjoy this amazing writer.:D

Scrapbooking with the $1000s worth of untouched stuff I have.

My house is about to drive me around the bend. My girls have a toy room and of course, the toys rarely stay there. I'm really mostly okay with that; I don't want them to have to play only in one certain area. However, what is driving me batty is the sheer amount of stuff they have. It's not really that they have that many toys; my four year old dd just collects EVERYTHING. She loves to write, draw, and cut, and inevitably all of the little pieces of paper end up in purses, etc. I'm a softie about the stuff they make, though, so I find it hard to just throw it out. On a related note, we are thinking about doing away with the toy room and turning it into the school room. Does anyone have an opinion or any BTDT experience with doing this? This would mean their toys would have to be housed in their bedroom (which they share) and therefore we would have to do a clean sweep and have some pretty good routines in place. HELP!:willy_nilly:

So glad to find other fans of this awesome writer! Classical Cajun--thanks for stopping by my blog before!:tongue_smilie: One would think I would remember to do something simple like underline the titles of the books in my posts, huh? I just now noticed that the response box has this as an option. :confused::tongue_smilie:

As a part-time English instructor at a CC, I can tell you that nothing in that article could possibly surprise me.

I have never been much of a reader of nonfiction (:blushing:) for pleasure, but I can imagine that I would enjoy his. I might have to find a copy of the book you suggested. I have been thinking about how I would like to add his novels to our book list for freshman composition at the CC where I teach.

I am just in awe of his ability to help me see how wonderful an ordinary life is. His writing is beautiful. I'm just finishing up Hannah Coulter and I've read Jayber Crow. What's your favorite and why? If you've never read any of his books, I have a review on my blog http://hopeistheword.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/book-review-jayber-crow-by-wendell-berry/

Just noting the irony of my HAVING to read this thread (to find out how NOT TO LOOK, y'know?) instad of just.logging.off.:tongue_smilie:

:lurk5: I always get my girls at least one new Christmas book each year. I put them away after Christmas so that we don't "over-read" them and find them blah and boring. I can't remember which titles we have so far, but I know one of them has the refrain "Guess who's coming to our house. . ." throughout. The surprise guest is the baby Jesus. One of our fellow WTMers will surely know. It's a sweet little picture book. Does anyone know a good book about St. Nicholas? (the real saint, I mean)

Shoes are definitely something about which I believe you get what you pay for. I like Merrells ('though the last pair I bought seemed to stretch out a bit and are now a little too big for me) and I'm wearing some Teva mary janes right now. I like the Tevas--they're light and comfortable. I've had Danskos, and while I really like them, they are a little heavy. I know this says nothing whatsoever about Keens, but this has been my experience with other such brands.

I haven't read all the responses, but let me just say that I have loved most of the ones I've read. It is so encouraging to read happy marriage stories. I do love my dh more than I did when we first fell in love, which is hard for me to imagine. Neither of us is really a "breathe each other's air" kind of person, but I believe we have that in our own way. DH is a wonderful, kind, and loving husband, and he is a terrific father. I am so blessed and I often think I don't deserve him. He is the strongest evidence of God's hand in my life for sure.

I've been to England, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium. Since I am an English teacher, I LOVED England, of course. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by Germany. We stayed in a castle along the Rhine River, and it was beautiful. I would love to go back there. Of course, we traveled to the French Alps, and I would have to say just for the landscape alone, I would vote for any of the countries where you can get a view of those breathtaking mountains! Waah! I wanna go!

We just finished My Father's Dragon last week and it was a hit. We've also done Charlotte's Web, Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, Stuart Little, and The Wind in the Willows. We've listened to Mr. Popper's Penguins on CD. Of all of these, I would say that Charlotte's Web, Mr. Popper's Penguins, and My Father's Dragon have been my girls' favorites.

Have you guys been spying on my freshman composition classes at my local CC? :tongue_smilie:

This might deserve its own post, but after reading this thread, I'm curious--how does one go about finding a quality co-op group? My girls are still preschoolers right now, but we are wading into the waters of kindergarten next year. I teach English part-time at a local cc, and I have graded my fair share of poorly written and edited compositions. This is one of the things I hope to avoid by educating my children at home. I have taught a few homeschool graduates, and I would say they were on par with the ps school graduates I have taught. One of my homeschool graduates always forgot to put his name on his paper and often turned it in what I would call half-way (i.e. not in the proper format, etc.) I'm sorry--I'm rambling. I guess my question is how do I find a good co-op?

Thanks, Beth. My problem is knowing when I need a time out. Often, I find myself pushed to the limit without even knowing I'm close to it. :tongue_smilie: I'm just feeling really discouraged and defeated in my parenting right now. I think I need to get off here and pray. I'm still open to suggestions and encouragement, though!:bigear: