@Violet Crown Before I forget Paddle to the Sea was a movie school children in the Great Lakes area watched multiple times growing up. I loved it...........it can be watched for free via a Canadian website someone on WtM linked recently. MaybeWee Girl would enjoy the movie.

I am checking in........I finished listening to Poppy Redfern https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44057135-poppy-redfern-and-the-midnight-murders which I actually ended up quite liking. @aggieamy both you and Dd would probably like this one. I wasn’t crazy about the narrator so the actual book might be better! Anyway I finish cutting out pieces for a quilt while listening so my internet break was productive!

I have no idea how it all turned out but when my kids were young they spent a great deal of time with a little boy(he was around two) who was being taught, in his case living in, three languages. He was a sweetie who happily gave me a new word for what he needed if he was using his Portuguese. He went to school in the US for elementary then moved to Quebec for the rest of his education. So I know he is fluent in terms of reading and writing in two of his languages. His mother was a translator and worked using five languages.......

I pulled my mini hexagon project out for tv watching with my family is just doesn’t work with mom under a huge quilt that she needs to constantly move! I save my scraps that are big enough to cover a half inch hexagon ..........originally the plan was what is called an “insanity quilt” but have become more realistic and am now thinking a nice bag. Anyway super portable and uses English Paper Piecing techniques.

@Dicentra and @Mothersweets Yes, I have read all the Ruth Galloway mysteries. I really enjoy them and have read them since the first one was published....I found them by accident. I think there is a new release soon. Dicentra I hope you enjoy it! I got my sewing machine out today and finished a quilt top for a friends grandson..........and listened to my audiobook. I had sort of a normal me day which felt good. Started a contemporary romance called The Austin Playbook by Lucy Parker. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42279630-the-austen-playbook

Great article discussing fabric for mask makings it discusses filtration abilities. I am trying hard to stay away from the corvid19 threads as I need to sleep so if someone knows which one to repost onto please feel free! https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/best-materials-make-diy-face-mask-virus/

🤣 I am rationing paper towels too.....Ds spilled something yesterday and was reaching for paper towels when both Dh an I called out to use the dish towel and throw it in the laundry. Years of preserving my dish towels from odd stains gone! I am reading Smoke Bitten too! That smoke monster is so creepy! I finished a Sharon Sala romance in her Blessings Georgia series. I have read the first four in the series and enjoyed them all. @Violet Crown Wee Girl’s reading has really taken off! I suspect she is working very hard to win the contest, great idea mom and dad. 🙂

Oh wow! So incredibly Cool!,,, Is there a completed dollhouse , the house, to share?

@Negin Thank you for sharing your pictures! Blackie is a cutie and my don’t your parents look wonderful for their ages.......would never guess 90! @Junie I also read all the Artemis Fowl’s back in the day. Brings back memories. Both kids enjoyed them and for my son the first was quite the challenge......he was 7 and it was a travel book when we moved to England. I was packing and commented that we would leave it behind because he wouldn’t be able to read it and we only wanted things everyone could read. That’s all it took!😂 I have been curled up trying very unsuccessfully to ignore the world this week reading cozy mysteries and am moving on to romances......and the new Patricia Briggs! I revisited 4 series that I read years ago and thought might be worth revisiting and catching up on. Thought I would share my opinions!😉 Knitting Mysteries by Maggie Sefton.........This was probably my Favorite. I know several of you are into fiber arts and this series has knitters, crochet eras, weavers, spinners........covers it all. I ended up using it for my Creative Bingo 😂 I read Fleece Navidad because I am pretty sure that is where I left off many years ago but would recommend starting at the beginning if you are able. This series has a good mix of fun characters that made the wait for the crime entertaining. I did know who did it but catching her was entertaining! Definitely will start working my way through these. Savannah Reid Mystery by GA McKevett...........Almost tied with the knitting mysteries. Death by Chocolate was my book. This was the earliest in the series my library had and I think it might have been a reread. Once again entertaining mix of characters. Fwiw The Who did it was a serious surprise but made sense....as much as they ever make sense. Going to read as many of these as my Overdrive has.......no particular need to read them all. Background was filled in. Tea Shop Mysteries by Laura Child’s..........not nearly as engaging as the above books. I had an early one Shades of Earl Grey and plan to try a later in the series one for my Book Chain Challenge. A Hannah Swenson Mystery by Joanne Fluke........I actually read two, Christmas Carmel and Banana Creme Pie and neither were as good as I remember. This is probably the most popular series I tried but definite disappointed. I did check the next out to get off the cliff hanger. I fear it won’t be a 10 page read to find out what happens but if I can I may just stop. To think I actually made cookies out of this series at one point....they were not great so I no longer read the recipes!😉

I will check it out. I have been doing my Duolingo again. If anyone feels competitive doing the levels in Duo is oddly ......as in I really enjoyed it. It’s a productive way to use your time! I think you are automatically in bronze and there are many levels beyond. Ends with Diamond which I have been working hard to stay in.

I always love working with yarn that blends. A few years ago I made some baby blankets using patterned sock yarn that was made to have a fair isle effect. I loved seeing what would happen next!

I did decorate/make for St. Patrick’s Day. So Happy belated St. Patrick’s day!

Going to be honest and say I haven’t done much compared to normal as I seem to be glued to the news. I might get the sewing machine out and finish a quilt top for a friends grandson in England that is almost done.......that said the in England and mailing it right now does not seem like a bright idea. When I combine mailing internationally with the fact it is going to a home with a medically fragile toddler and a newborn I know it is staying here for now but might as well get all the binding attached! I have been doing a bit of hand quilting on a quilt I hand pieced a couple of years ago. Maybe I will actually finish it during my isolation....that would be quite a surprise.

I actually have read some of those thanks to my husband. They are why I thought I would probably enjoy listening to his book. He is fascinating. I really love the entrepreneurial spirit that that generation has/had. Another one I enjoyed is by the ChickFilA founder Truett Cathy......just looked at Goodreads and I have no idea which one I read as it was quite awhile ago. The how he started that super popular chain is such a great story and at least two of the books he wrote appear to be about that. I recently read someplace that the average CFA location makes 5 million a year which is significantly more than other fast food restaurants average and only open 6 days a week....... @Violet Crown I love your system! 😀So how often do the exceptions occur and you chose again? @Robin M Authors with a last name starting with E have overall not been favorites according to my Goodreads. Have you considered Janet Evanovitch? I have read almost all of those.......I cannot resist!

I am sad for my kids. They really have/had 😉 a great group of friends and were having such a good time. Now they are back to school online and hanging out with the parents. Their friends had been having sort of a monthly themed dinner club and tonight should have been Southern Night.......I felt so sad for them while I was preparing a pretty typical mom meal for dinner. Btw, most recent U.K. news on A levels and GCSE is they plan to use mocks and coursework so far. Retakes in the fall if student contests grade. Uni there finely canceled, I am saying finally because many foreign students can longer find a plane as borders are closing. Friends are taking in their daughter’s roommate for who knows how long. Ds has been getting reports on the attempts to get the roommate home.....every time she gets a flight it connects through Germany and that is apparently why it gets cancelled.

37 hours! Oh my! I put that on hold when you started reading it. I think I had better cancel that.....I can’t seem to even finish a10 hour audio book. I just had to renew, I haven’t done anything crafty in days......just not in the mood.

@NeginHappy Birthday!!! 🎉 @Robin M Hugs, glad you will still have customers!

The plan was to go back to the U.K. at the end of April. I really don’t think that will be happening now.

Hugs! I really thought I read I Capture the Castle during Brit Tripping because you loved it . Now I suspect it was because @JennW in SoCal loved it!🤣. It was good and I promise you will like it. So my reading is turning towards cozies thanks to Overdrive while I attempt to continue some of my challenges without stressing myself further. I finished Shades of Earl Grey by Laura Childs and was willing to try one more for the sake of my bookchain. Shades was not well done for kindle as it had many typos.......and was published professionally. I discovered the next several were never released on Kindle and I am wondering if the typos is why. Anyway I moved on to cooking mysteries and just finished the Banana Creme Pie Murder which Wes crammed full of recipes but did’t enjoy it as much as remember liking these. Ended on a cliffhanger so I will start the next one.........Now reading Death by Chocolate by McKevett which is part of another series I read many years ago......no opinion yet!

Another farmer’s daughter here. I grew up working on the farm and was always amazed at how just plain bad outsiders were at damaging the harvest. Fast but careful which takes time to learn. That said I put in a hour or so a few years ago to see if I still could, my back hated it but I could still keep up with my big brother who just sold the farm.......that said new crew happen all the time. They learn, some quicker than others. My brother took on several kids of former workers for a season or two over the years and it worked out. Last night Ds mentioned going hunting........he never has because there has never been time or desire. Then he had this lightbulb of a moment with what to do with his game and looked at me.......yeah, gahhhhh mom is well versed. Please let this not be real!!!!!

I just want to send all of you hugs! All I can say is we were overseas for a dozen years. A volcano canceled travel once but I never expected something like this. I always functioned with it’s a plane ride away! My family is currently back in the US......when my kids decided that they wanted to go to grad school in the US we all moved because the sun sounded wonderful to all of us. My kids were pleased that we decided to join them but are incredibly grateful now! Universities in the U.K. have now closed and their friends are all scrambling to get home today. One has an international roommate who can no longer book a flight out that actually departs.....the email was long and complicated.......so the roommate is going home with the friend.

For those with Garage Door Opener anxiety as you have freezers full of food and other supplies stored in your garage my sweet husband hooked our garage door up via a surge protector so we can switch the little lighted switch off and the door can not be opened by remote. When we want to raise the door we hit the switch and we have a functioning opener . Dh sort of likes it and that might continue being hooked up! I am embarrassed to say that I was having toilet paper nightmares as I had it in the garage so I moved it into my closet. With the tp in the house and the garage door turned off for sure I am sleeping better.

Thanks Kareni! I couldn’t resist a free book with a Centaur so it has been added to the virtual stacks! One of the other books mentioned in that article is already in my stack An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris. Anybody read it? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38136877-an-easy-death?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=xUvQoCuMTd&rank=1

I just abandoned A Girl’s Guide to Murder https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40916679-a-good-girl-s-guide-to-murder. That said I quit reading it more because I had accomplished my goal, a good look at the set up of this rather unique book. I think a younger person......ie a girl in high school would possibly love it, I didn’t notice any huge red flags btw in the pages I read. My kids did Capstone projects for their Uni degrees and I knew there was a Capstone AP exam class at some high schools......this book is a fictional high school seniors record of her capstone project. She hopes to discover who murdered an area teen several years before. So the book is her notes with commentary in between. It wasn’t bad and if I was totally bored I would have finished it but I am not that bored yet. I also read the second in a historical romance series that I know @Kareni read one of. The author Mia Vincy is I believe new on the HR scene and her books are not quite to the typical formula which I am enjoying. A Beastly Kind of Earl was filled with smile worthy twists and turns into the slightly unexpected. A young lady who’s father was rich but common was publicly proclaimed ruined(she wasn’t) by two dastardly young noblemen then disowned by her family. She went off to plot her revenge and appears two years later ready to make those dastardly creeps pay............in the process she finds herself married to a Duke but with her sister’s name on the license.........that is just the start of the chaos she creates. The Duke is making his own as he was also wronged.........what can I say other than I will be reading the next as soon as it is published! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48525662-a-beastly-kind-of-earl

Mealworms can be raised in oatmeal pretty easy. Dh used to raise them as a child. My dad was a fisherman and worms are pretty easy in a styrofoam cooler and garbage peels. I stayed far away from that project but remember he had his worms for months before having to clean it out.