Yes, Dd has always helped her brother quite a bit. She tends to be his first stop for help partly because she knows what it feels like to be trying to learn how to do that problem. She gets through to him far better than I do, they tend to speak a very concise language when doing this. I go on and on. I rarely ask it , is just how things work around here. ;)

Shukriyya- the starlings are beautiful. Thank you. I have been going to post for a few days to let you know that I always think of you when I look out and my duck friends are doing destructive things to my lawn or sleeping on top of our fence. Could be worse Shukriyya had them visit her living room! Of course we have to be careful of our doors......or we will have them too!

I spent over three months in the hospital while pregnant for Ds. I was extremely stressed and on some pretty heavy duty meds for contractions which made concentration hard. Pretty sure she will need to stay pretty flat and on sides so craft wise that means tiny work. Cross stitch was what I occasionally worked on. Books were frequently hard to hold so I loved magazines. Dd was allowed to visit and someone brought some new books to read to her which was really good for both of us. Baby clothing would have completely upset me but my roommate for most of my stay adored baby presents.... Most of my friends had toddlers so they didn't visit. With older dc's which roommate had several it depends on how well she knows them and if they can sit politely and visit -- sounds like yours could. If they really want to see her take them and offer to take them down to the waiting room after they visit a few minutes. That way if she wants to talk more privately she can. I think the gifts you have already picked sound great. She might enjoy some home ed product catalogues if you have any laying around.... Everyone brought chocolate which was hard to give away (diets) but hard candy was enjoyed. I loved lunch brought in.

VC- I hope you have a lovely time on this year's Scottish Adventures. May the wee girl eat many Jaffa Cakes (my Dd loves them dearly) and skip the Iron Bru( yuk!). If you journey in my direction.........

:grouphug: praying for you.

Thank you for the wonderful update. I will keep praying! :grouphug:

Dh is still trying to manage to watch all the Harry Potter's because he is a sweetheart and takes us to the studio tour at least once a year http://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/en/tour/tv-advert which is pretty boring if you don't "get" things like the Night Bus, Dumbledore's office,..........I think it took at least 20 attempts for me to get him through the Sorcerers Stone. We cuddle up with me on the computer or crafting and try to keep him awake through the next bit. I can't let myself sleep because I have rather odd dreams when I sleep with the tv on and the second I turn it off Dh wakes. :lol: So if I am feeling nice I occupy myself and try to enjoy the film. I am really enjoying quilting my Japanese Bag. I don't know if I will ever finish knitting that baby sweater but the bag is fun. Sort of exciting because I have no idea how the colours will come together. Each hexagon is so much fun to study when I am done. The fabric I am using has very rich tones with a Japanese print and some metallic gold going through it. Very not my normal. Now that sweater has been done for at least three other babies in the same exact yarn. Not exactly exciting. Anyway a Harry Potter fest with Dh is fine. I can get a few more hexagons done!

We don't go to theatre's for movies often. We saw the last Harry Potter opening day which was our last movie out. Much of that is because Dh falls asleep and it seems pointless to pay more than the cost of the DVD and still need to buy him the DVD later. :lol: He sleeps through rentals too, we always just buy so he can watch and watch ..........which is why I am on here complaining occasionally. I end up watching a movie many times frequently so Dh can find out what happens! Not sure how Instruments of Darkness found its way into my stack but it is a suspense series book set in the 1780's in Surrey. It took me awhile to really start enjoying it because it switches between two locations in 1780's and Revolutionary War Boston. After I had the characters sorted I started liking it. The team of sleuths was different Harriet, who is the wife of a sea captain and resides on his Surrey estate, and Crowther, a mysterious anatomist who is obviously gentry. Edited: another interesting correctional by my spell check :lol:

Phoenix-- I have been very good up until now and not looked up Winter's Tale. I am trying really hard to slow the flow of books into the house until several are read! Well I just looked and discovered in the UK the title is A New York Winter's Tale which set off a connection. Yep already in the pile thanks to the rather oddly erratic search engines at one of my libraries. I typed in tale as part of another title a few weeks ago and got 3 fabulous sounding books, not what I wanted but they looked so good I requested all of them. This was one of them and the first to arrive. The original appeared with author...so now I have to read it. ;)

Beautiful embroidery Onceuponatime!

I liked your post, then realized what I had liked. Consider it to be a sympathetic yuk! Four separate types, wow!

:grouphug: Glad you are on the mend.

I have mathy kids but dh and I both have mathy degrees so I have attributed it to our enthusiasm to some degree. We have always done math in some form daily, especially when they were younger. We had tons of math manipulatives and jigsaw for them to play with when littles. I set up 6 or 7 stations around a big rug in the living room most mornings with the manipulative s and throughout the day they would do those when bored. Things like pattern blocks with a puzzle fill in. Through elementary I normally had 3 curriculums going, a beka, Singapore, and minquin/key to. The purpose of that was broad exposure but the real benefit was they never were given the impression it was hard. If they weren't catching on to a topic quickly I rotated that curriculum out for a few weeks while prepping the problem area discreetly. When the book returned they sailed through and generally commented that it was easier then they remembered. ;)

You aren't the last one on the planet because I haven't read or seen! ;) Jane, Thank you for the detailed review. I think she is probably mature enough and she has expressed a resize to read it because it arrived here last week. Because it had the classic look she immediately thought it was hers and was highly disappointed and a bit incredulous when I told her that Jane needed to finish it first before a mom potential decision happened! :lol: She doesn't even know the Jane Erye connection! I am still behind on HotAW and somewhat stalled on Monuments Men. Plan to catch up this week. I finished a couple of books that I haven't posted about so.... Ru by Kim Thúy which was a Floridamom recommendation. Really fascinating. Very worthwhile read. It also did great things for my geography challenge! To Shield a Queen by Fiona Buckley on my kindle. This is a 16th century cosy type mystery series set in the midst of Elisabeth's court. Lots of intrigue and a flowing read. I will be reading more. The SJ Parrish thrillers are meatier but this was also enjoyable. I haven't picked a new paper book yet but have refilled my night stand. I was actually close to empty - only 4 books! I started the next Chicagoland Vampire series book on my kindle.

I should not have looked this one up! It looks fun and India, which I still need. The review I read compared it to Jane Austen in India. :lol: Since the library had the first one I ordered that one.

I can't resist telling those who have never read The Bobbsey Twins that they are available on the kindle for free. They are OK, more of a Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, and Trixie Beldon fan myself.

http://www.japancrafts.co.uk/uploads/3/6/0/7/360764/s742281843915882896_p218_i1_w803.jpeg I finally started my hand quilting project. When I get done I will hopefully have a pink and blue bag that looks like the picture! I have 2 hexagon s done so far. Jane :grouphug: I had wondered if your Ds would arrive here in time for bank holiday. I hope his weather is nicer then ours. Downpours mixed with Sun, I never know what to expect. My poor laundry!

I had a really hard time implementing anything where I didn't have every single book available. That made pretty much everything hard. Five in a Row stresssed me beyond description. Long lists for choice like SOTW were hugely stressful because frequently my library didn't have a single one and substituting something similar was horrifying. That is what drove me to SL. After a year I had some sense of perspective and was able to use some of the other stuff I had purchased along the way!

Ok, I am a bit slow. Rewatching the episode now. :lol: I knew there was more..... Yes, it was that Noddy Shukriyya. But Noddy joke within episode. We missed Blyton. They were too old to like them when we moved here. They are the Happy Meal prizes right now......pretty horrifying that I know that! :)

We watched Noddy too but Dr.Who actually had a larger educational impact. ;) Ds actually decided to finally learn to read so he would be able to pick out Dr. Who VHS tapes to watch. Dh and I had one of those huge blue Rubbermaid bins full. If he could read the back to us he got to watch it. He spent many hours sorting his bin.

:lol: Your son's quote put this episode of Dr. Who in my brain and I have to share. It's a YouTube clip of The Unicorn and the Wasp. Not sure how many fans we have here but this is one of my favourite episodes ever. :) We are huge fans of all the doctors not just the new ones.

I have joined what appears to be popular opinion here and have given up on Wolf Hall. It sounded like the perfect 16th century read but just was not enjoying it. I just read the reviews on goodreads and couldn't find a positive one. Can't figure out how it won the Booker? I moved on to a series by SJ Parris that I know I enjoy and am much happier. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/04/prophecy-sj-parris-review. This series is billed as Elizabethan Thrillers and that is probably accurate. I am 15% in and lots of intrigue has already happened, definitely not the slow build up of many books. The main character is an excommunicated monk who seems to be spying for all sides but really is just concerned with his own scientific interests. Fun! :)

Please don't quote because I will be removing later. DH and I in Kent the other day.

http://www.murielofskye.com/index.html We did 2 years of her courses when the dc's were younger. Dd loved it and is planning to discover Irish Gaelic on duolingo when it starts in December. The books don't seem to be at Amazon so I couldn't verify they are the same but reasonably sure.

I have read a couple of art themed books this week while traveling. I finished the third Iain Pears mystery, The Bernini Bust. It was entertaining. Honestly pretty much like the two others from this series that I have read with a good combination of interesting storyline and a bit of action. I also read the first in a new series for me which I really enjoyed. And Only to Deceive is first in Tasha Alexander's Lady Emily Ashton series which many here would enjoy. It is a mystery set in the Victorian Era primarily in London where Lady Emily, a rather young widow, is trying to entertain herself during her mandatory two year mourning period. She dislikes being in society where she can't dance and is forced to converse about her husband whom she barely knew. He died shortly after their marriage while hunting elephants in Africa, she wasn't overly impressed while he was alive. She starts reading the Illiad and develops a love for Greek artifacts. She starts exploring her husband's collections and reading his journals. Slowly falling in love with her dead on an African adventure husband who was much more interesting than she had realized. Forged ancient artefacts and quite a bit of intrigue began. http://austenprose.com/2011/05/06/and-only-to-deceive-by-tasha-alexander-%E2%80%93-a-review/ I have the next book in the series ready to go because there is a bit of a cliff hanger. Dd is reading and loving it. Due to a Library issue trying to finish Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourne first.