Great links! Yes, we have tried Turkish Delight from a few different sources and really don't like it. My kids decided Edmund deserved it all for liking something so icky! I wonder if that was the point? I now know I will not be listening to The Goblin Emperor. Maybe I will try the book eventually but similar names drive me nuts! Currently happily reading Carola Dunn's A Mourning Wedding which is nice and fluffy. Btw, set in Cambridgeshire.......

Well I posted on the other thread about my elderly neighbour. She did great with her roughly $ 2 million. Each of her children received a significant gift, some charity, and she had a really good time with the rest. She still plays automatically the same numbers twice a week. They have never hit again but she feels an obligation to support the lottery because it was so good to her! Btw, she planned to spend it all.

Great news!

Thanks to Kareni’s lists I have just put a really odd graphic novel on hold. The title is My Boyfriend is a Bear, and they mean a bear not a werebear. Since the library has it I couldn’t resist! Thanks! I also increased my holds list with a few others. I also finished Horowitz’s The Word is Murder and loved it! At first I thought it was strange and way too much about Horowitz but when it all came together it was 5 stars. I frequently give books five stars on Goodreads that I want to remember in my best books lists at the end of the year. I think Magpie Murders made last year’s list.........

Thanks for the review of the Idyll series. I discovered it a couple of weeks ago and marked it as something I wanted to try. Looking forward to it now I know it is good! My library only has the Goblin Emperor in audio format. Now that I know about the narrator I doubt I will be able to resist for long but I do wonder how he will sound really fast! ?

Generally, when asked, I say we are/were classical home educators but that isn’t really accurate. Eclectic all the way, I have always attempted to use the best curriculum available for each subject for each child. To be honest we really like things to be a bit different. The Amish Pathway Readers were a huge hit with Dd. We spent hours sorting out the different horse drawn carriages names so she could do the phonics workbooks. She didn’t really need the phonics as she was reading quite well but being able to identify those pictures in the workbook..........Ds hated those books as he had learned the carriage names with dd, so the challenge was gone. He needed the phonics and we used MCP for him. I haven’t placed many filters on the curriculum’s origins, Christian or secular, if it stimulated some great discussion and we were learning, we generally went with it. I really just wanted things that worked well in the home, not designed for the classroom, so frequently the choices have been Christian. That is what was available 15 years ago. I have always been a curriculum collector except for our first year in England when I designed my own SL style from the library and shipped in one very expensive box of mainly math books. When we moved to England everyone seemed to be free range with constant field trips. I needed to explain that we actually did serious lessons most days and saying I was a Classical educator seemed to work best in terms of not hurting my new friend’s feelings when we didn’t have time to go pond dipping......my kids laugh about how that is all we ever did on those field trips! The WTM has been my spine for lack of a better description, it centered me. I have loaned extra copies of that book to so many people who wanted to find a better way to home ed. It was constantly my go to book when I needed to take the next step with the kids. I would spend a few days immersing myself in the book, look at some catalogues, and be able to move forward with a plan. I wonder how many times I have read the WTM! Dh bought a copy of the first edition for me when dd was 2 and I have been lugging it around every since!

I finished Dracul! A bit of power reading today because it returns tomorrow. Overall I liked it, but don’t feel the urge to now read Dracula to see how well they match up but think they will if you don’t get too obsessive about it. As I said before Bram had the spookiest nanny ever. There were a couple of ick bits but much of the book was actually rather sweet. Not Dracula but others ?. I gave it a four star but please remember I am a Dracula fan and I also really like vampire books......The Historian is much better but this was pretty good. Brit Tripping.....I did finally make it to London! It went very quickly through Liverpool(Mercyside) and Manchester on the way to Whitby, Yorkshire. A majority is set in Dublin.

Frequently I listen without headphones if I get to have a room to myself and the men in my family comment about my chipmunk books. I go as high as 1.75 depending on the narrator. Going at recorded speed bores me. Dd keeps her headphones on an I suspect she is speeding through her podcasts. ?

I just wanted to send lots of hugs. My only experience with RAD is watching a close friend who had a foster daughter with RAD. It was not a good situation, total understatement. I am so glad you were able to find a conselor with RAD experience. Hugs! Rose, was the name of the other board mom. Pretty sure she is Canadian. Somewhere there is a long thread .....

Sleeping all the time and height growth were the first indication. Pimples came shortly after. Those really were the main indication at about 12. His voice only cracked when singing so only noticeable in church. Regarding hair on the face my son was almost 17 before that was noticeable.

No personal experience but Dd read the whole Alchemyst series at around 14yo and adored it. I know the father of one of her friend’s was buying them for his daughter so he could read them! I don’t think I ever read Rebecca as a teen but I am certain I watched the Hitchcock movie more than once! I have read Rebecca 3 times in the past decade. Once for me and I loved it, once as a preread for Dd who really enjoyed it, and once more recently when I was attempting to read all the author’s books. The last time I read it I found the first 100 to 150 pages slow and irritating, I still liked the last part. ?. I totally understand it ‘s dragging and doubt it would be an audio book I would enjoy. Have you tried speeding it up? I frequently listen at 1.5 speed......I tend to read fast so consider listening fast to be totally acceptable! I had to abandon Plain Fear, my Amish Vampire spooky book. It becoming a really bad horror movie.........I started the new Anthony Horowitz, The Word is Murder, and am totally entertained. Still reading Dracul.......

Hugs! I hope it heals quickly!

Well, I missed it on my quick search last night too! So glad that you can get it the easy cheap way. How did you like Victoria Cottage? It was one of the first Stevenson’s I read and I loved it!

Ok, I just went and looked at her blog to verify no new posts from last week. I was really hoping she would post but here is an update...... She is all done with treatment and is basically really good. She has a wig that is totally adorable. Long curly hair, super cute. She is halfway through the first semester in college and really busy doing her mid term projects and exams. I am so happy for her!

Congratulations !

What am I reading this week........I am still behind in KL so am grateful for the catch up week. I am somewhere in the middle of the second section. I am also still reading Dracul mainly because I don’t read it during the night I am not managing to finish it. Lately most of my reading time seems to be around 5am when everyone else is still sleeping and I am hoping to fall back asleep so I try for light easy books on my Kindle for that hour or two. Which leads me to my “what was I thinking book” ...... I noticed my Amish Vampire spooky is going to expire tomorrow and have now read a couple of chapters. Plain Fear, Forsaken, by Leanna Ellis seems to be quite good so far and I think I will keep the kindle off for a couple of days while I decide. I really needed another book I can’t read during my main block of time for reading! Pounding head! Warwickshire is our Brit Trip county this week which I visited at the start of these adventures with A Test of Wills by Charles Todd https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/129561.A_Test_of_Wills. I have passed through Warwickshire a couple other times. I hope to read the next book in a few of my ongoing cozy series for Brit Tripping which I think might give me a couple of the counties that are left undone! Robin Paige, Carola Dunn, and Charles Finch are all in the stack along with a couple other books I am excited about. I also have Mary Stewart’s Rose Cottage for Durham waiting for me! ?. I love Mary Stewart! Robin, I hope you love Rivers of London!

Your experience is exactly why I haven’t picked that particular book up. I fear I won’t like it. I thank you for the honest review because it appears it is OK if I don’t try reading it for a few more years! Every time I look there are more Stevenson’s on kindle so I suspect your patience will be rewarded. I have Transcription on my holds list currently...... Woot, to reading in Latin! Dd had just gotten beyond Winnie the Pooh and Harry Potter to the good stuff when Latin needed to be done for her. She never really was able to explore the way we had planned so I hope middle girl has a blast with her cool new skill!

50M would even more than pay for a new leaded roof on the 900 plus yo village church. I think the cost was roughly 200K when the lead was stolen about 20 years ago........I wouldn’t tithe to one I would give to many churches through a charitable trust. Share the money much more efficiently and anonymous. Cannot even imagine what havoc announcing a win like that would create in someone’s life. I think the number to tithe on would be off of what was actually received.

I have been reading and enjoying all the responses. Definitely the cash option. First we would take a really awesome cruise around the world for the whole family. Then we would probably buy multiple nice homes in places we loved and move between them at will. The hotel idea sounds great but my back is an issue and I need my own matress. I would take my matress brand on the cruise, I know I sound like a really old lady with the mattress but more than about three nights away from home and I am in pain! Beyond that I would stuff a charitable rust account with as much as possible before paying taxes. Dh and I had fun the other night talking about all the great things we could do with that trust! There would still be plenty of money for the practical trust funds etc. For perspective my elderly neighbor actually won and received close to $2 million about 25 years ago. She has now spent pretty much all of it but she is in her 90’s and spent very intentionally. First she gave each of her adult kids roughly 100 thousand dollars.....I think she had 7. Then she donated to a few really specific things in the community that needed to be done, she bought new gates for the village church and repaired a wall for instance. The big needs like stained glass repairs were beyond her funds and eventually done with grants, she did realistic giving where she could accomplish completed projects. Then she got on a cruise ship and traveled on and off for like 20 years on the same ship. She went all over the world coming home for a couple of months at will. She loves her lottery money story right down to her numbers. Still plays them btw. ?

Happy Birthday, Emily! My youngest turned 18 earlier this year.

I just finished Hidden Depths by Anne Cleeves https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1632546.Hidden_Depths which is set in TYNE AND WEAR and Northumberland. I really enjoyed this one, it’s the third book in the series and really well done. It seemed like all the characters were great potential suspects and I really loved Vera’s interviews with them. The atmosphere was spot on and her descriptions were just right, I felt like I was there. Obviously part of a series but this one is pretty stand alone.

I think it stems from the birth registration process in the UK. I left the hospital in the US with birth certificates for my kids so they had to have a name etc. In the UK you have at least 3 months to register births and home births are not uncommon which means some odd place descriptions to on birth records which in turn become listed on passports. Totally self reported and I think only the mother can do it, probably tied to child benefit payments. I have known a couple of people who try out different names every time you see the child. Our locations were simply t taken from birth certificates.

I actually know about the Lancashire Witches book but forgot it earlier. The one by William Harrison Ainsworth right? It is in the Kindle Store for free. I actually just bought it. In England people tend to put exactly where they were born on their passports, so things like Ward 27 Is not that unusual of a answer on passports apparently. Where my kids were born sounds like I gave birth in a pub(the town is a really common pub name)....twice. I am sort of embarrassed about that, should have picked a different hospital location. My husband was born in the same hospital so it kind of looks like a family tradition.

Lancashire’s main town is probably Blackpool. I will confess and say I thought Lake Windermere was in Lancashire when we started this adventure. It is an area with a whole bunch of moving county lines with Westmorland disappearing. My family was originally from one of the disappearing counties that ended up in Yorkshire. Mary Barton (Gaskell) and Woman in White are both partially in Lancashire apparently. Woman in White, I think it was just a quick mention.

Kelly, I am so sorry to learn of this latest diagnosis. I don’t know what to say beyond you are amazing. I will keep praying for you and your family!