I let Dd hold her brother, she was 22mo. I had planned to let my friend’s daughter hold him but she watched how much he was spitting up the day she visited and elected to stay clean. I think I changed 3times while they were at my house so she had a point!

Kareni, Thank you for the Microhistory link. I have to admit it’s timely because it’s one of the Bingo Squares I am searching for. Sadly I can’t find Mauve.......I plan to hunt for a few of the others later. I finished The Mayor of Castorbridge last night. I enjoyed quite a bit. I have moved on to a Jacqueline Winspear for my next audiobook. I checked out the Patricia Briggs short story book again so I could start Moon Called when my hold arrives. I read three stories this morning and quite enjoyed them. I really liked one called Gray.

We run two dehumidifiers (our brand in made in Durham England) fairly constantly, one on each floor. Dh empties them twice a day. Our dampness problem seems to be typical England compounded by my drying racks for laundry. They work so well our neighbor bought them too!

I am glad you weren’t grossed out by The Black Dog. I was........so far I like the second book. I really want to like this series. Regarding the Anne Cleeland books, I am not sure you made it into the series but they become rather addictive. I can’t explain why but they are a great page turning escape. Also Doyle seems to charm every male she meets so I have ceased to feel she is trapped in a weird situation. I think I just read your new Indridason, The Shadow District. It was good! ELO, What a fun birthday getaway! And now look at this fossil that my DS carried a very long way and up a hill. I learned how to wash my photo via email on my iPad and it appears to have worked. What does your son think it is? ETA.....It worked.......for people who aren’t fossil hunters looking at this the rock, it needs to be split. It is in the garage until we have a chance to get a friend to do it. I was thinking of it as a garden ornament but the boys put it in the garage. Here is a link to how I resized my photo https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8271601

I have read and enjoyed a few of the books in the Animal Magnetism series. I suspect doggies on the cover does sell books....I like doggies on covers myself! I need to get back to my Patricia Briggs reread so I can finally read Burn Bright. I decided to save it as a reward for the reread...... ? well my rejects were either too fluffy (nice way of saying x rated )or in modern foreign languages. I finished Murder in Containment which was my latest Anne Cleeland. I have to say this series has grown on me. I will be reading the next but plan to intentionally take a break. It would be very easy to read them all in a row! When I returned Murder in Containment to the Prime library I was able to check out Melissa Olson’s Shadow Hunt which I am looking forward to. It’s still too warm to quilt so I haven’t been listening to my audiobooks. Dh and I enjoyed taking our recycling to the tip because we can make the temperature cold in the car for a few minutes! I have several books started and can’t seem to settle on one. I think the photo posting issue has to do with the size of the photo. I was able to post directly from my iPad far larger photos than the now required .49mb since the new board ?My problem yesterday appears to have been too many existing attachments, that cache is cleared, now my size is too large.

Sending prayers........also thanks for posting the 3D ultrasound. I never had one and find it really cool!

I took a photo today of DS and a giant fossil we found at Runswick Bay today and can’t seem to post it in the easy new board way. I hope they didn’t change that feature. I can’t remember how I was doing it but know I was posting giant pictures without a url which appears to be needed now. ? I can barely move the huge hunk of stone and the lad carried it out in the Sonlight tote bag I had my iPad in. They really were sturdy bags! We think it is an ammonite or something similar. I finished my Miss Silver, number 4, In the Balance is the title my copy has https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/51042385 I enjoyed it. It was a lite cozy and pretty predictable. Quite a bit of knitting seemed to happen. I gave it a 3 but would have done 3.5 if that had been a choice.

I remembered the password but couldn’t find the blog. Thanks to the page 11 tip I just got into the blog. PM me if anyone needs the password, I believe that is how Hornblower wanted us to share it. Hugs and Prayers Hornblower!

VC and her random number generator solved my how to pick a random book on Overdrive issue although I did it 3 times........ I went into Subjects, the first time I picked fiction and fantasy, plugged the 8000 plus books into the random generator, turned many pages to reach book 2121 and got something I was never going to read. There wasn't anything on that page I was going to read to be honest. Second try...fantasy....an area where I would love to expand my horizons, this time my number was 51, and I was looking at the 9th book in Karen Marie Morning's Fever series. It has fae which I generally skip so sort of expanding but no way can I start with 9th in the series. I went ahead and checked the first book in the Fever series out. Robin, you like these I think?https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6283272-darkfever Third try...Sci Fi for my subject......this resulted in Island in the Sea of Time on audio https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/99702.Island_in_the_Sea_of_Time?ac=1&from_search=true. This one takes the current day Nantucket back to ancient times, as in BC. I love time travel but in my version people end up as a lady in waiting on a Tudor Court. Ancient history would never be my choice so I picked it. Out of my comfort zone.......the reviews are really mixed, so not sure he it will go.

So what am I reading now....... I am slowly reading the next book in the Anne Cleeland series that Kareni recommended to me. Murder in Containment is the fourth in the series featuring Doyle and Acton. It’s been a couple of months since I read the first 3 back to back but I seem to remember all. Enjoying it.....I was able to get it through the prime lending library for free. It pops up occasionally and that particular day I had not used my monthly allotment. I am listening to The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy as a read (listen) along with VC. I made it to chapter 27 yesterday with no progress today at all. It’s far better then I anticipated, my other Hardy exposure was Return of the Native for a class decades ago. It wasn’t a favorite. ?. That being fully disclosed I am totally entertained listening to Simon Vance (a preferred narrator) read this book to me. Selling your wife seems to bring ?very bad karma....... I just finished Death Comes to the Fair by Catherine Lloydhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29429246-death-comes-to-the-fair. This is a series that I have been enjoying but for Brit Tripping it’s been an odd trip. The location of the Manor house seems to move...... Originally a local article I read said it was set in Nottinghamshire so I placed it there on the master list. The bus arrived in Notts and I read the book.....I was in Essex or Suffolk, the estate sat on the border. I corrected things and kept reading the series. Today I notice Hertfordshire keeps being mentioned, then a nearby village is named. Same exact estate has apparently been transported magically to Hertfordshire. One more book to go and I am wondering if the Estate will be in Notts this time. Lol. I have several other books in my immediate stack and am not sure which I plan to read next.

Robin, What fun, I always enjoy the random book challenge. As I am feeling hot and lazy I may just adapt it for overdrive! I just saw......Happy Birthday to James! He will love a few surprises. I enjoyed the Great Library series also. So Derbyshire.....I am going to try and read Stephen Booth again. Someone here is going to cringe when she reads this........a few years ago I posted an incredibly enthusiastic description while reading the Black Dog which is the first in the series. The setting was one I know and the descriptions in the book very true to reality. The mystery compelling....I was in love with a new series. I had People here reading that book within a day! Yep, I wrote a grand review before I finished the book, oops! Well, the end of that book takes a violent turn that was distasteful for me and everyone else. One of those eye popping ewwws. This is a warning....I never expected it because he is an incredibly popular author here. Sweet little old ladies read all his books, I checked them out when I worked in the library. Probably our most popular author locally. He is an incredibly accessible author and promotes libraries and bookstores with appearances, lives somewhat locally apparently. We have a new used bookstore that everyone is in love with in a nearby small town and he has been supportive. Has another appearance there soon and I might go if I make it through Dancing With the Virgins. ? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/522367.Dancing_with_the_Virgins. I want to add that the one library reader I asked about his books did not consider them to have the ewww factor but they thought they had skipped The Black Dog, that may be the Secret. I will report when the book is done!

Going to add this to the conversation although I think now the Cty etc might be what the counselor was referring to..... When I read your initial post I immediately started thinking more of opportunities within your country which SAT’s open for Americans, which would mean you could perhaps utilize them too. For instance, my DS applied to UK universities at 16 using the 3 SAT/ AP and the ACT/SAT that are traditionally required of American students applying here. He applied as a Brit using US qualifications which is apparently becoming more common among the UK home ed community because it is so hard to get traditional British A levels as home ed. The qualifications were never the issue. His age was his main problem for some programs and they deferred him until 18 for those programs. Interestingly the programs that deferred him all stated that they anticipated their age requirements to be altered soon. Since then we know of a few home ed candidates who have been accepted at 14+ (not sure of exact ages......at least 14) to Open University degree tracks. These candidates were all accepted via interview I believe. I have no idea about cost but OU does serve worldwide. Here it is significantly less expensive than an on campus degree.

Apparently my Miss Silver is also known as Danger Point.....I checked out In the Balance but apparently it has two titles. ?. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2886947-danger-point I am stuck reading it in my browser so haven’t started yet. Have you read it? The first 10 or so in the series are only available in ePub form or browser from my library. The later ones are kindle. Too lazy to figure out how to make ePub work on my iPad. Upfield......success, I have an old large print copy of The Bone is Pointed coming from a local library’s archive. Who knows what shape it will be in but I will be able to try it. ? Dd received a book in two pieces from that archive once and she read it very carefully sitting at the table. ? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1350311.The_Bone_is_Pointed. They actually have several but this one is 20 years newer than all the others which seemed like a good reason to choose it. Lots of Goodreads fans too!

Katie, I am late to the thread but wanted to add my support. I also want to add my voice to those who are still helping their kids past 18. My dc’s certainly haven’t became completely independent on the eve of their 18th birthdays and I never expected them to. We give them the support they need to complete their education. For them that means they are welcome to live in our home, eat their meals with us etc........This is what works for us and them. Your kid needs to see how to do it and you are showing him. It’s all part of the journey.......also it’s wonderful that you have experience in animal care and training.

I am glad your packing is going well. Have you sold your present home or are you still preparing for the sale? I hope things work out so you can celebrate Christmas in your new house. In my search for Arthur Upfield I discovered that one of my libraries has Michael Inness’ Inspector Appleby series now on Overdrive. I can’t wait! They have been recommended to me via Goodreads etc enough for me to be quite curious. I haven’t found Upfield yet but have a few more places to look. It ‘s always interesting to see where rabbit trails lead.....https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1360734.Death_at_the_President_s_Lodging I haven’t started it yet but I have the fourth Miss Silver on my Kindle. ? @ErinE I want to add my good wishes to your job hunt. Please keep us updated if you are comfortable sharing because I know I would love to be part of your cheering section!

Before I had my kids one of my niece's (about 6at the time) had some behaviour and quotes that came from the Simpson's that were super inappropriate and embarrassing when I took her places. I banned it for our kids even though dh loves it and he totally agreed. When my youngest was about 15 dh started introducing it in season order. They love watching it together and rewatch favourite episodes frequently still. The exchange student one is pretty funny I have to admit......... They have some fabulous discussion topics that come from that show that I miss out on but a little Simpson's goes a long way with me. ? It's not a cartoon. We own the DVD 's and have a huge stack, not sure how close to current they are.

At 6 both of my kids loved Greek Mythology. So things like Usboune and Padraic Colum were part the assigned/ read aloud for my oldest. She loved it but my son did not enjoy the hard books. A wise friend who had done HE before me saw that I was ramping things up at 6 and gave me a recommendation that I have always bee grateful for. At 6 .....reading needs to be fun no matter how high a level your kid tests into. In order to be fun it needs to be relatively easy at 6 for much of the time. Let the child choose except for a short period during school. A bit of twaddle during free time is fine. She purposely steered her kids towards easy books for independent reads.....below ability by a level or two. ?. This advice worked best with my son and I think helped keep me from completely killing his enjoyment in independent reading. We used Sonlight for our main curriculum at that time so through those read alouds and many others chosen by me literature was well covered. He loved being read to. Btw he loved the Usbourne Book of Greek Mythology and carried it with him for his book for about a year.

We did experiments using books from Usbourne and other publishers when the my kids were little. They loved doing the experiments on their own one afternoon a week ( Dh or I did our own thing in a connecting room, supervision very lite) with a kit we constantly added to......the basic one was purchased from Sonlight. My dc’s grew up to degrees in math and Cybersecurity......so not engineers. My kids are 2 years apart in age and did the same science always, basically the younger was accelerated.

I hadn’t thought of that but suspect that the Corn Laws must play a role now that it has been pointed out to me. The story is quite good because I was surprised to discover that I was listening to chapter 18 when I stopped for the day. I spent longer than planned while waiting for an Amazon delivery that still hasn’t arrived. For the moment much of the sensational storyline has resolved itself and the grain business seems to be the focus. So I will wait for the Corn Laws.......... One odd question that I can’t figure it out......Do you have any idea Donald “cleaned” the grain so it was improved for sale? I know nothing about grain farming! I keep mulling over the wife’s acceptance of being sold/bought. It just seems unreal that she took her little girl and disappeared into the greater world with a complete stranger without complaint, although not having to listen to Michael anymore must have been appealing at that moment!

Ice cream, lots of ice cream....... ? @Violet Crown Since it appears to be just us reading Hardy I am wondering if it’s OK with you if I just speed through it until done. I should be able to listen for at least 2 hours a day, looking at the Simon Vance narration which just arrived (woot) and it’s 11 hours long so I should be done in 5 Days.....

Happy Yorkshire Day to all(especially the Brit Trippers)......yes, it really is a thing. Actually a big deal. ? Here are a couple of links https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/01/yorkshire-county-day-marked-with-fanfare-probably-tea-and-wilfra-tart Some recipes https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/celebrate-yorkshire-day-countys-best-recipes-curd-tarts-fat/ Curd tart is awesome btw. Now for books! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77661.The_Daughter_of_Time. I finished The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey last night. I totally enjoyed all the drama of Richard the Third one more time......this is my second book about Richard this year. As feared the action in this book all takes place from Inspector Grant’s hospital room in London but for Brit Tripping it is Leicester. Not sure if we will make it to the new museum this week or not. If I have time today I will start The Mayoe of Casterbridge........

I would say Cavapoo’s, Springer’s, and assorted small terrier breeds are the most common. Lots of labs and bull dogs too. We really have a huge range of dog breeds but those are the really common ones where we know of more than a couple. btw, A mini Airedale lives nearby and sits by his gate most afternoons waiting for his dad to come home, so cute!

I have lived in ten different houses since I have been married (30 years) so I would not be surprised if we move a few more times. ? We aren’t thrilled with where we are right now which is unfortunate because I thought it might be a forever house when we bought it. I still love the house and my immediate neighbors but some current local zoning issues mean this can’t realistically be long term, unfortunately. I would love to stop moving At this point we are waiting to see where the kids actually go to grad school because they have a deferred acceptance at our local Uni and plan to live in this house while attending. They love it here. If they go here we will move when they figure out where they will be for at least the first couple years of their careers........not necessarily by them. Someplace with reasonable transportation to both, I guess. We are in a holding pattern really.

I hope the smoke has died down for you today. It rained all day yesterday, woot! Cooler today but the heat is supposed to return later this week. Dh is outside cleaning up my dead plants (I just can’t) and we may start replacing later today depending on what’s available. No more high maintenance garden for me. Btw, we loved the new Shada. I plan to watch it again just as soon as I figure out who took the dvd. I have the third Becky Chamber’s book on hold so I was pleased to read your review. The first one is my favorite so far. I haven’t had a chance yet but I am interested in All our Wrong Today’s. It sound like something I would enjoy. At this point my library picked for us because Hardy appears to be a very popular summer read and most are checked out. I do have an audio (not Simon Vance unfortunately, but it’s on hold) and hard copy for Mayor of Casterbridge checked out. So if that’s OK........I need to listen to my Richard III for Leicester first because it will return itself at the end of the week. I will start listening to Hardy on Wednesday or Thursday most likely. Yorkshire Bracken is close to Dundee Cake except it doesn’t have nuts. I also think it has more fruit in it. Both are lovely. Just wow! How cool! What more can I say.........SWB and DC’s....She had the best tour guide ever, lucky her! How exciting about your son! I am glad you are enjoying St. Cyr, btw. Obviously I need to investigate Circe which seems to be a popular read for many right now including @madteaparty. So many positive reviews! Off to clean up hubby’s garden work so I can hang my wash out!

I think I am about 50 on the wait list for the Horowitz book but with multiple copies it goes quickly occasionally . I think I can get it quicker if I go for a paper as opposed to Kindle version. Glad to hear it’s good. I haven’t seen Laura either. Creekland, who has also been missing, posted on a thread last week. I forgot to say that I have been listening to Dorothy Sayers Strong Poison and am almost done. This is a book that I am really loving on audio. I think I gave the book 5* originally so I feel a bit silly saying it is so much better when someone reads it to me, but it is! @ZebraI really enjoyed Ready Player One. I still need to see the movie but am a bit afraid it won’t compare well. It was a book that I really related to at the time I read it. I was a teenager when many of those games were out plus Ds wanted to be a game programmer at that point and was taking a class where he had to make the code for many of those basic games. Every time he got a game to work we played his a whole lot! Fun!