Finished The People of Sparks (Jeanne DuPrau). I think this series is hitting a sweet spot of suspenseful enough without being too scary for my kids, or at least DD#1. Maybe DD#2 as well, but I might have her wait a bit on it. Reading book 3 in the series (The Prophet of Yonwood) now - my first time checking out an ebook from the library! I got myself a Kobo ereader with Christmas money. 😄 By the way, if you're my friend on Goodreads, sorry for filling your feed with lots of "Amanda wants to read" updates the other day - I had a bunch of stuff in my Google Play Books that I needed to add to Goodreads once I got the Kobo set up. I'm also working through a commentary on Mark for personal devotions (The Victory According to Mark by Mark Horne) and another book that's for a monthly ladies' book study at church (All Things Made New: John Flavel for the Christian Life).

I also haven't participated in these threads before (that I can recall!). Is it okay if I'm aiming for a smaller number? I may well read 52+, but my goal is 40. Also, is it okay if I don't participate in the posted challenges and just share what I'm reading? Assuming both of those things are okay... I just finished reading Herodotus's Histories yesterday and Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock today. (The latter is too short to really be called a book, but Goodreads has it, and I have an ebook of it, so I'm counting it.) Next up is The People of Sparks, a pre-read for my kids.

We go to the skating rink at least once a month, but I don't skate with my kids. I wish I could work up the courage to! I had knee surgery a few years ago and my knee still acts up on me. I know skating is a lower-impact workout than walking, but I'm terrified of falling and injuring my knee again. (I wasn't particularly *good* at skating even as a kid...my kids are way better at it than I was.) I hope your soreness improves soon, and I agree with @happysmileylady that the best plan for your muscles is to keep going back and skating more!

I have a sister who does that sort of thing and lives in Maryland (she works with clients nationally though). PM me if you'd like her contact info. 🙂

I sold mine at a consignment shop, pretty soon after the wedding. I'd had zero interest in wearing my mom's wedding dress (dated, not "me," and I think it would've been too small), and I figured the same would be true for my own daughters (and at the time I didn't even know if I would have any daughters). I didn't want to pay to have it preserved, and I didn't want it to take up space in our small apartment. It made sense to go ahead and consign it while it was a current style. I will accept my award for least sentimental poster now, lol.

I'll be happy to add people as Goodreads friends. Here's my profile, and if you get friended by someone with a quilt block for a profile picture, that's me. :) I was also feeling kind of lost before I was able to set my 2019 goal yesterday! So glad the new challenge finally showed up!

Our stuff came down on the 26th, lol. We decorate on the early side (right after Thanksgiving), so I am ready to return things to normal once Christmas is over.

Agreeing completely with @happysmileylady about Stargate SG-1. You may want to prewatch the first (two-part) episode in particular in case there's anything you want to skip over for the boys, but after that it settles into being a really excellent show. Did anyone mention Numb3rs? I would say it fits the bill as far as smart+kind goes. I haven't evaluated its appropriateness for kids though - it would definitely be too much for my kids, but they are younger than yours, and I'm not sure where the line would be.

When I was growing up - ham and what my parents call chocolate cake (actually yellow cake with chocolate icing). In my house - pigs in a blanket and what I call chocolate cake (chocolate cake with white icing).

For digital gifts, we tend to print out a picture of the game/album/whatever's cover art and wrap that up. Not sure if that's a helpful idea for you, but I thought I'd mention it.

I am thinking of entering. If you go to vitamin water's website and look at the fine print, it shows how they will score entries to determine who the potential winner will be. I have realized a couple of other things I would really miss... * YNAB app - I am so accustomed to entering each transaction on my phone, and sometimes I don't bother getting a receipt because I'm entering it in YNAB right then. I would have to adjust to taking receipts home and entering transactions on the computer. * Calendar - I use my Google calendar for everything, and it's nice to be able to pull it up on my phone when I'm with friends to arrange plans or whatever. So either I'd have to use a paper calendar, or I'd always have to say "I'll get back to you" about scheduling things. * Chick-fil-A app, lol. I usually have DH and/or kids with me there, so I could probably just have one of them be responsible for scanning the app. I also use store apps for coupons at Hobby Lobby & Joann's. Of course, $100,000 is quite a bit more than what I save with those coupons...

The first one. You enter via Twitter or Instagram, and on/around Jan 22, they will select one person to go a year without a smartphone or tablet. If the person makes it the full year, he or she gets the prize (a smaller prize if the person makes it 6 months but not a year).

It just says no smart phone, not no phone. As long as a dumb phone with calls & texting is allowed, I could do it--though I admit that I currently use the smart phone too frequently for other things so it would be an adjustment! I use it for GPS as well, but I could work around that. Let DH use his phone, or let DD#1 use mine if DH isn't there, or print out directions beforehand if I'll be by myself.

I found pitocin to be quite helpful with all three of mine. 😉 But seriously, I hope baby decides to come out very soon! ❤️

Amazon has shipped things to me that same way. Items tossed into a box way bigger than necessary, with little or no packing material. I've had to return multiple items that were damaged because of the careless packaging.