Absolutely no idea how any of this works with an iphone but you can buy free/cheap books and simply leave them in the cloud, as in sitting in your amazon account but downloaded nowhere. For me that means I buy them, let them be delivered to a device, then hit the "remove from my device" button. When I want them I search my items (for the cloud choice) on the device I want them on and download. The main amazon account with multiple devices connected means its really easy to share with dd so might be useful for you. This is totally not technical (ds would cringe) but I know my devices function best when I keep things between 20 and 30 books downloaded. When I go over that number some little problem seems to appear and not necessarily with the books.

I have that same problem! Lately I have had some success with using Goodreads monthly newsletter of new books. It segments the authors I have read so I can look at those first. It tells me that 35 or whatever authors I have read have new books this month with links. It helps although the letter frequently doesn't arrive early enough for me to be first in line on holds lists! I hope you are feel better soon. I loved the Dinotopia movie and tv show! I wonder if I would like the books. Pick up is later today! I am so excited because I have been just using overdrive since before Christmas. I have all sorts of great stuff in the stack, lots of cozies, Scandinavian mysteries, Craft stuff, and even The Plover. Can I use that as my recommended by a friend because all of you keep recommending it? Speaking of new books in series I recently noticed a new one in that series. I need to give Slow Horses another try. I went back to the library untouched. I just want to add my thanks for the map link. I'm looking forward to playing with it. It appears to be quicker and easier than a couple of other services I have tried.

Oh no! I hope they turn up. Total curiosity but was it a well known delivery service that lost them? They lost Dd's SAT subjects one year. Apparently they decided the prepaid postage was incorrect and returned them somewhere that doesn't exist. Unfortunately they didn't notice until after scores were released and I was demanding hers. Two language exams for languages she had quit the minute the exam was done.....

Unfortunately I won't be able to go because it definitely sounds like something I would enjoy. Central London especially is still very much a family outing for us and a big deal one. Can't imagine my guys at that event! The Kevin Hearne book looks interesting. I recently checked the library to see if there was a new one....usually in the spring a new Iron Druid appears. This explains it. Ethyl, you really do need a like button. So does Rosie!

Fwiw, we continued on with Singapore after 6a and b (both dc's went quickly through but don't regret doing it) using NEM (maybe you can find it used) or whatever the replacement is. My dd loved NEM.....

Sometimes there is an announcement if there is someone highly allergic on the flight and it's banned by the crew, I guess. The announcement was pretty clear. Yes, this happened on our last international fight.....

My mom was in her late 70's when I was pregnant with ds. She came and stayed with dd who was 18months while I spent months in the hospital with my problem pregnancy. The first time she was with me by herself I tried to give her directions to the cafeteria but since I had never actually been there they weren't very good. While waiting for the elevator she was busy clarifying things, she mentioned she was visiting her daughter in antipartum and the doctor she was talking to corrected her, granddaughter. My mom let him have it....she knew exactly who she was visiting! She was still furious an hour later!

Thanks for the link. I picked one the reviewer was a bit ambivalent towards but I think I will find interesting. She said it was slow. Post WWII in the UK was fascinating from my perspective. I grew up on my parents stories of their lives during/after the war and enjoy that time period. I finished Ways to Disappear https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25746685-ways-to-disappear earlier today as my book set in Brazil for Amethyst. Parts of it were fascinating in terms of page layout, poetry intermixed, etc. Some of it I liked but parts were just plain odd and I had a hard time getting beyond that. It jumped around. A few people here have it marked as a want to read on Goodreads. I will be curious what others think.....

My mom was 41 when I was born. I was an oops but wanted after they got over the shock. I was the lucky one with a stay at home mom who was active in my stuff. She was my best friend who just passed away last summer.....I miss her so much. Want to add I worried constantly about my parents dying as a child, partly because I knew they were older. I knew the plan and was OK with who I would live with etc. My dad died when I was 34. I was happy to give my kids parents in their 30's because of that but my kids worry far more than I ever did. Almost all their close friends have had a parent die or incredibly ill in recent years. Age doesn't really matter when your buddy's 37 yo mom dies of cancer. I could make a huge list. Somehow being a bit younger didn't make my kids worry free.

Welcome Happy! Stacia, I hope you are feeling a bit better today. Since my Y books for Amethyst did not seem to be arriving I went looking for a new book and found something rather different from what I normally read. The Year of the Hare is a Finnish translation with a great cover https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11859561-the-year-of-the-hare. As someone who shares a pet bunny with my neighbour the cover was enough to try this one. At the book's start a journalist is riding in a car that injures a baby hare. The journalist gets out of the car and rescues the bunny and finds himself abandoned by his associate sitting on the side of the road. This is the start of his quite unbelievable comedic journey with a hare. The parts about the bunny companionship I fully get because I have spent a great deal of quality time with my bunny pal. One warning, there are two oddly out of place scenes of animal related cruelty that don't fit the rest of the book. The first one I hope is a translation issue but bothered me quite a bit and the second involved hunting but didn't fit the book. Liked this one greatly,without the animals being hurt it might have been a five.

I have already read Mrs. Tim of the Regiment and thought it was absolutely lovely. That's the only proper description! Looking forward to trying another one. Regarding Patricia Wentworth and Miss Silver I have apparently read the first and the last books for sure but believe I may have read others years ago. I read The Girl in the Cellar https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1711160.The_Girl_in_the_Cellar back when we first moved here and was on my Agatha Christie kick. It was beside Christie in a mystery display. My family has visited many of the branch libraries in three different systems because I used to combine a tour of a library with another field trip like a walk from a guidebook. I liked The Girl in the Cellar well enough to go intentionally back to the branch where I found it in order to check it out for dd when she was reading mysteries. My Overdrive has many Miss Silver books and I did read the first one like you. I liked it but have been sort of saving them...... My dh chuckle for the day was when he informed me that I have a hold available at the library. You should have seen his face when I told him that hopefully the other thirty would be there this weekend so need to wait to pick up. More emails to come.....

When we first moved here we went to a big home ed event held in the county we border. While there she met one of her now best friends. Since they were 9 and lived 45 minutes apart they decided to be pen pals and exchanged addresses on their own in their fanciest handwriting. Lots of curly bits....lol. Two days later a letter with an envelope with pretty much everything wrong except dd's first name and village arrived. We couldn't beieve that it arrived. Her new friend received hers also which was a bit amazing.

Happy Birthday Alice! Amy, I made a new to me Flufferton find this morning. Since I finished Witch Miss Seeton I went into Amazon hunting for my next free prime book. My next Miss Seeton is not a free option so I put DE Stevenson in for fun and I found books. Prime has some DE Stevenson romances for free! I picked Amberwell https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27205699-amberwell. My dd loves Pratchett and Death is her favourite character by far. When I picked Wee Free Men from reviews here to try she told me I wouldn't love it that I needed to read Mort. I suspect she was right because it was OK but I didn't feel the love everyone else seems to feel.

I've been working on my Birthstone Challenge this week. So far I have the following letters. A.....Snow Angels, James Thompson M.....Witch Miss Seeton, Heron Carvic E.....Echoes in Death, JD Robb T.....The Time of the Clockmaker, Anna Caltablano H.....The Ice Beneath Her, Camilla Grebe Y..... S.....A Summer to Remember, Mary Balogh T.....A Terrible Beauty, Tasha Alexander I started reading Ways to Disappear https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25746685-ways-to-disappear which is set in Brazil. Amethyst's are mined in Brazil. I am waiting on two holds for my Y. Also a book by Phyllis Whitney with Amethyst in the title.

When we first moved here people used to see us getting in the car to go on our field trips.....the dc's were little still and we spent almost every afternoon out enjoying our local sights. It really upset me when people asked where we went and did we have fun days later when walking to the butcher's etc. I felt people were watching every thing I did in my more paranoid moments. Eventually I realized I wasn't being judged as skipping my school obligations that people were fascinated by what that kids were learning and seeing at museums etc. They were actually thrilled we were out all the time. People still like hearing what the dc's are doing, it's nice.

I think people will be pleased you sent a thank you. I can't imagine judging you, personally I would find it pretty clever.

I forgot next month's theme was Scandinavian mysteries. I just finished Snow Angels by James Thompson and liked it, although I knew who did it pretty early on. I found a new Iceland mystery in my libraries new releases which is now in the stack. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29939301-snowblind I will try and hold off until March to read it! Dd's best friend is on a holiday in Iceland right now so we are all looking forward to hearing her adventures.

Congratulations! I am an older mom so I made several friend's babies keepsakes before my dc's were born. The most popular appear to be quilts which I made fairly large in bright colours, more lap size. A couple are still moving around with the adults that own them. Others have worn out but were loved. I did cross stitch birth announcements too. Those lasted awhile on walls but I think are all put away. U

I read them all with a long break between the first and the second. I read the second mainly because I had it confused with a different series but liked it quite a bit. Read the third shortly after and did not like it. I wouldn't bother..... I'm deep in reading my second Scandinavian police procedural of the week, Snow Angels. This one is actually written by an American who was married to a Finnish wife and lived there for many years. The author died a couple of years ago unfortunately. Enjoying it so far but the crime descriptions are pretty brutal. The cultural parts are interesting and pretty accurate I suspect. I particularly liked the discussion about the darkness at midwinter. We have about 6 hours of light here at that time of the year. People do consume more alcohol when it's darker, I watch it every year. The main character is a Finnish police chief who is recently married to an American woman and livng in a small town in the Artic Circle. I read some Goodreads reviews and most were very positive. The negative one was actually more why I like the book....the couple seems at my 25% mark to be very real. The wife has been living in Finland for 18 months. She is finding the language difficult to learn and just learned she's pregnant. She is scared and a bit whiney. I know I would be! The negative review disliked the wife because she whined and hadn't bothered to become fluent in Finnish. As someone who has moved to a different country I can totally understand, and I speak the basic language. Medical terms are actually one of the harder things for me because things are called different things like mono is glandular fever. A funny one which is apparently very local is the chill sickness....best we can figure is it's an achy cold.

I know I live in England and that's where my dc's are currently going through the application process but here it seems to be more about the diplomas etc not the transcripts. You may need proof of exam scores, by that I mean things like GED, AP and SAT subjects but when I mention doing a transcript to anyone including friends in the home ed world they look rather amazed. I am pointing this out because I think I am hearing more about showing a diploma in the US. I think in 10 or 20 years your formally homeschooled adults might be really glad to have that piece of paper.

The current popularity of Scandinavian mysteries could be it. When a character was studying for her GED because she hadn't finished high school I really wondered. You can take the GED in Sweden, google told me so, but I don't think it's something Swedish people necessarily do. Even if it is something they do it was the it was phased, American like. The UK has SAT exams but they are essentially to be placed in 7th grade. Same name but very different in purpose. Ikea was mentioned constantly. People meeting for coffee at Ikea which seemed odd. If one piece of furniture was from ikea it was mentioned...The murders were brutal which is what I would expect but the edges nicely smoothed. I'm a bit afraid to read your Hidden Figures review. I think I will wait until after I give the book a try since I already put it on hold. HP definitely becomes more as you read through the series. For me that was fortunate because I read the first couple in he haze of home with a new baby with the book by my chair. I keep reading and admiring everyone here who is working on reading in a foreign language. This week (we'll see how long it lasts) I have been hitting duo trying to dust off my high school French so maybe I can tackle HP in French in the future.

:grouphug: Sending lots of sympathy because hugs probably hurt right now too. I hope some of your boys are up and waiting on you continuously! :grouphug: Penguin, your whole experience sounds very scary. Glad you are fine now. I've been busy reading the new JD Robb Echoes in Death. It's good but have to agree with Robin this one is a bit darker then normal. Definite rape trigger warnings also spousal abuse. It's just that slight bit more violent and much less of the beloved extra characters. This one has been all Eve, Rourke, and Peabody so far. The cat and Summerset have been spotted breifly and I'm at 60 %.

:grouphug: Julie I feel a bit embarrassed to admit this because of all the problems people are having but we got an email yesterday asking if ds wanted to take any exams at the school we have always used. They had Statistics this year so we signed him up. The review book just arrived! :lol: For the record last year was not easy.....we had been told they would order and administer things they didn't normally offer so we were planning on Latin and Calc BC. Neither happened due to policy change.

I am really not trying to turn this into a craft thread but when I saw the Little House on the Prairie Quilt Along I had to post it. Apparently the mom who designed it is aiming it at her second grade dd. https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/during-quiet-time-9907881/little-house-on-prairie-sew-alongtake-two-5413174365. I haven't looked at the how to bits but from glancing at the photo of all the blocks this is a great starter quilt for anyone with a book connection! You should be able to save the instructions for later years so a perfect future home ed project potentially for those with little ones. Eta Here are the detailed tutorials http://duringquiettime.com/little-house-on-the-prairie-sew-along Kareni, thanks for the Hidden Figures link. Not sure why but I had been resisting even looking at the description of the book. I've requested it now.

I just finished The Ice Beneath Her which is a Swedish police procedural by Camilla Grebe. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30184856-the-ice-beneath-her. This is the first book by this author to be translated to English. It felt different from the other Scandinavian police procedurals that I have read, a bit more American than I really liked, possibly because of the translator. The story had quite a surprise ending and I did enjoy it. It just was missing the edge I am used to I think. It was more of a book set in Sweden than a Swedish author. I have another Scandinavian author planned for my Birthstone challenge this month with Snow Angels for my A so I will be able to compare. I had a long post lost during the night about Jenn's quilting ladies. ;) My taste in books definitely doesn't match my woman friends here, an occasional fluffy historical fan but I normally only connect with best seller's like Gone Girl which is probably why I keep reading them. Oddly enough I get to talk books with dh's friends. One loves paranormal's especially Kim Harrison and the other is reading Scandinavian Police Procedurals right now.