The Lego ones are great. They follow the movies with lots of quirky scenes thrown in for good measure. They are easy enough for kids and entertaining enough for adults.

I've never sorted laundry.

We take sick days, beach days, I can't be bothered days. One of the great things about homeschooloing is the flexibility. It's not a disaster if you miss a day, a week or even a month off school.

They were barely noticeable today. I'm quite relieved.

After months of pestering him, dh finally gave in to allowing a dog into the house. Before we left to get him, dh said I'd would regret it. Lol, by the time we got home, dh was totally smitten. We bought a standard poodle and named him Padfoot. I had bad allergies and asthma so that was part of the reluctance to get a dog. So far I haven't been to bad. The first night was rough on me but I'm taking 24 hour allergy meds and my preventative inhaler and each day I have less of a reaction. He's so cute. He seems really relaxed for a puppy and other people have said the same. After one brief spat with the cat, Padfoot now sits down and lets the cat pass him before continuing on his way. He stays calm until he knows it's time to play or we let him outside. I've always wanted a dog so this is a dream come true.

I finished The Eyre Affair last night. I loved it. It reminded me of Douglas Adams' work. I started The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan and I'm finding it be an easy read so far.

It's hard to ignore the elephant in the room. Especially when it's being used to justify stamping on human rights on a daily basis. I talk about religion a lot and I could probably classify myself as an angry atheist. Here's a good blog post about why that's okay.

Agnostic atheists here. Don't believe in gods but can't say they absolutely don't exist until science proves it. I do think organized religions on earth are all created by normal human beings and that an intelligent creator is the least likely scenario. My family is technically Anglican. All this means to them is that they pray when convenient. They are not involved in our lives at all by my choice. Hubby's family is also not really involved. None are religious but one who is muslim and I have definite opinions about why she converted. She's the only one that has made comments to us about religion in the vein of "your kids are going to hell". She lives overseas and contact is via Facebook so she's relatively easy to ignore. Religon never came up before moving to our rural location. I couldn't tell you the religion of any of my friends from other places because it never comes up. Here in Nova Scotia, it's the first thing people ask. Regardless almost all of my friends here are not religious.

This is my favourite pic of our cat Tootsie Noodles. It's from when he was a kitten. He's a hardened rat killer now.

I'm halfway through The Eyre Affair and I'm loving it. With names like Braxton Hicks and Jack Schitt, pet dodos and literature detectives how can one not?

It was okay. It did make me laugh out loud a few times. I don't like memoirs or biographies though so I'm a bit biased.

No, not healthy. And yuck because it tastes all chemically.

In week two I finished; The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood Bossypants- Tina Fey Howl's Moving Castle - Dianna Wynn Jones I'm not sure what to start this week. Maybe The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Eyre Affair. My 52 weeks blog post.

In case you haven't seen it, io9 has a list of upcoming scifi/fantasy books for 2013. Looks like there's lots of interesting stories coming out.

I finished The Handmaid's Tale the other night and then watched the movie. The movie changed a lot and if I hadn't read the book, I would have been really confused about everyone's motivations. I'm halfway through Bossypants for the Dewey Decimal Challenge and will probably start on the ultimate in fluff reading, a Mass Effect novel that dh bought me for Christmas.

Here's what I came up with so far for the Dewey Decimal challenge. 000-Bossypants-Tina Fey 100-The Demon Haunted World-Carl Sagan 200- Universe From Nothing-Lawrence M. Krauss 300- The Roving Mind-Isaac Asimov 400-? 500-? 600-? 700-? 800-The Epic of Gilgamesh 900-? Any recommendations for the unfilled categories?

Insurance, home and auto not life.

I started The Handmaid's Tale last night and now I'm in a feminist rage. It's not even a shocking book as most of the views I've heard expressed in the American news last year and in posts here on the forums. In other news I'm going to join in the Dewey Decimal challenge. I used to read non-fiction all the time before I had kids so this will be a nice push back into it. I'll come up with a list later today for that.

I haven't yet but if I like the writing on either of these, I'll add that series to my list.

I finished my first two books this week. Here's the list so far. The Deathly Hallows- J.K Rowling The Friday Society- Adrienne Kress Leviathan- Scott Westerfeld The Chrysalids- John Wyndham The Eyre Affair-Jasper Fforde The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood The Tar-Aiym Krang- Dean Alan Foster The Woman Who Died A Lot- Jasper Fforde Changeless-Gail Carriger I was not really feeling The Friday Society in the beginning when I thought it was just a steampunk detective type novel. It's hard to describe but the speech was too modern and I felt like the author had a feminist checklist she was trying to fill which made some of it feel a bit cliche. At some point it became apparent that this was actually a superhero origin story. Once I realized that, it became much more enjoyable. I look forward to reading more from this series. I think I'm going to go with The Handmaid's Tale next. I may put in a rule for myself where I alternate fluff with more serious stuff. Maybe.

I first read Island of the Blue Dolphins as a child and I've read it many times since. It's a keeper.

I finished my first two books this week. Here's the list so far. The Deathly Hallows- J.K Rowling The Friday Society- Adrienne Kress Leviathan- Scott Westerfeld The Chrysalids- John Wyndham The Eyre Affair-Jasper Fforde The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood The Tar-Aiym Krang- Dean Alan Foster The Woman Who Died A Lot- Jasper Fforde Changeless-Gail Carriger I was not really feeling The Friday Society in the beginning when I thought it was just a steampunk detective type novel. It's hard to describe but the speech was too modern and I felt like the author had a feminist checklist she was trying to fill which made some of it feel a bit cliche. At some point it became apparent that this was actually a superhero origin story. Once I realized that, it became much more enjoyable. I look forward to reading more from this series. I think I'm going to go with The Handmaid's Tale next. I may put in a rule for myself where I alternate fluff with more serious stuff. Maybe.

I finished Deathly Hallows last night at 1:30 am. The bit with Snape at the end and Harry's final sacrifice always makes me cry. Now I'm on to The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress. It's a YA steampunk novel. Something light before I start The Handmaid's Tale.

After a decade of loving brown, I got sick of it as well. When we moved in we painted the walls blue to go with the brown furniture we still had but I ended up not liking it. The walls are grey now and I've added colour with furniture and art. I highly recommend scanning through Houzz and noting what attracts and repels you about the different design styles. My pics are here. littlehomesteadinthevalley.blogspot.ca/2012/11/living-room-mostly-done.html?m=1. And the newest painting is here. http://littlehomesteadinthevalley.blogspot.ca/2012/12/abstract.html?m=1

I gave up on regular blenders years ago. They only last a couple of months in my house. I use an immersion blender for everything and it works fine. My first one lasted 10 years before I had to replace it (for $15) For cookies use an electric hand mixer.