Adventures in La La Land

I'm leaving for girls' weekend tonight, so you're getting an advance edition of the Saturday 7! 1. We didn't do an iota of school this week. This is why I can't homeschool. I get bored and give up. Ha. We have  been reading a ton, though. I found a few Christian chapter book series that are perfect for Lucy. (The Cul de Sac Kids by Beverly Lewis and The Three Cousins Detective Club by Elspeth Campbell Murphy) Reading is a perfect substitute for learning, right? Oy. 2. I've been reading a ton as well. This week I read the Ransome Trilogy . I actually read both books 2 and 3 on Wednesday. And I read another Becky Wade book ( Undeniably Yours ). I'm loving everything by her, but she's a new author and only has 3 books out. (The 4th is coming out in April!) I did read one other book, but it was such a cliche Christian romance I'm not even going to share the title because it's embarrassing. Lol. I got into the bad habit of reading until 1 or 2 i...

1. I got all ambitious with my cooking again this week. I made two new meals . . . and didn't like either of them. This is why I just stick with what I know and love. Haha. First, was white cheese and chicken lasagna that was incredibly labor intensive and time consuming. 3 pots on the stove and the kitchen-aid! Way too much work! I thought with the amount of  cheese that I added to it, it would have to taste amazing. No such luck. Bland and a little icky. The other meal I tried was roasted chicken and veggies with a McCormick sauce packet. I think it was butter garlic herb or something like that. Again - bland and gross. I didn't even eat it. Fail. 2. The one good thing I made this week was homemade chocolate cake. Lucy's new youtube obsession is watching baking videos. For school this week, we're working on the long a sound so we did a little worksheet about "-ake" words. I decided to run with the cake theme and told Lucy we were going to b ake...

Amazon Link I found this book while scrolling aimlessly through the library's available e-books. It didn't really stand out to me except that it was a mystery (the genre I've been trying to get into) and it was written by J.K. Rowling - under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith.  Let me just start my review with my confusion about her pseudonym. First of all, how very un-feminist of her to choose a male name. My feminist friends must surely be all up in arms over this. Secondly, what's the point of a pen name if the description ne xt to the book says, "By Robert Galbraith: pseudonym for J.K. Rowling"?? I'm wondering if her pen name wasn't revealed until later? This book was published in 2013, and the first few Amazon reviews say nothing about J.K. Rowling. Regardless, I wasn't that impressed. Granted, I've never read Harry Potter, but with all the acclaim it received, I figured Rowling must be an incredible author. I had a really hard tim...

1. Since selling our house, we've been trying to really stick to a budget. A long time ago, I started an account at budgetsimple.com, but I gave up quickly when we continually went over budget. Haha. Now that we've paid off a lot of our debt and don't have such huge bills looming over our heads, we're much more capable of staying within budget. It's much more fun this way! Although the most fun would be no budget at all . . . 2. I made a couple good meals this week. On Tuesday, I used some leftover ham in a quiche. I got a recipe from allrecipes that turned out so well! And on Thursday I tried a new McCormick sauce packet. It was called "Sesame Chicken," but didn't actually taste much like the sesame chicken I get at the Chinese place. It was still pretty good! A little bland, but mostly delicious. 3. I read another inspirational fiction book this week. ( My Stubborn Heart by Becky Wade) I think I'm going to e xclude all the inspirationa...

Amazon Link After my string of books about arranged marriages, I decided to get away from the romance category and try out a mystery. I've read this author before, and it's categorized "inspirational fiction," so I knew there'd be some romance, but I figured it wouldn't be the central story. I was wrong. Haha. I think this is the first of my 30 Before 30 books that I didn't like. It was wayyyy too long. Like 100 pages too long. And while I admire the author's incredible research, it was too much for me. The first few hundred pages were about Bryce and his coin collecting business. Henderson includes tons  of details about rare coins and how they're minted, preserved, priced, sold, transported, etc. And then Charlotte comes into the story and it's all about her business and dividends, estates, lawyers, and trusts. I hate to admit it, but it was way over my head. Haha. And then . . . they had an arranged marriage. Lol. I couldn't beli...

1. I've been a reading fiend this week. When we were at the hotel last weekend, I spent like two hours browsing the library's ebook selection and picking out books I wanted to read. Unfortunately, instead of "branching out" as was my intent with doing my "30 Before 30," I've backslid into my old ways. I think I read 5 or 6 Christian romances in the past week. I'm starting to realize it's not healthy, though. They make me super emotional. I really need to stop. 2. I've been feeling incredibly guilty about the amount of screen time my girls get, lately. So I decided one day this week that we were going to have a basically screen-free day. Lucy and I each got half an hour in the morning to check facebook and watch YouTube videos, but then the plan was to be done for the day. The morning went fine. We usually don't do much screen time between 10 and noon anyway. We did a little bit of school, played, and did chores. But the girls always hav...

1. I've been watching a ton of Property Brothers on Netflix lately. In case you're unaware, the premise of the show is that Drew and Jonathan (twin brothers) sell couples a nasty/rundown house and then completely renovate it. But at the beginning, they always show the couple their dream home that's way way over their budget. I hate that part. The couple always gets excited about the beautiful dream house and then the brothers say "but this is $500,000 over your budget!" The poor couple is always heartbroken. So I've started fast forwarding through that part. Haha. Here are my observations from watching that show: a. Each couple is given a choice between two houses. One is almost always well below their max budget, while the other maxes it out. Without fail  the couple always  chooses the house that maxes out their budget! It drives me crazy! b. When the husband wants one house and the wife wants the other, the wife always  wins. Stinkin' feminism. c....

Amazon Link How am I doing with "branching out" from the inspirational fiction genre? Haha. Justin and I went on a one night getaway to Auburn Hills this weekend and I took the opportunity away from my distractions to read to my heart's content. I read "3" books in 2 days. I say "3" because one of the books was a novella and I didn't realize it 'til I reached the abrupt ending (the downfall of reading on a Kindle). There was an "arranged marriage" theme in all three books. I told you that's my favorite. Haha. This book doesn't really need reviewing. I told Justin exactly what would happen before I even started. They'll get married in name only because they both need each other for something. It'll be awkward for a while. Then there will be a tragedy that draws them together. They'll be close to consummating their marriage when some secret will come out or something will happen that drives them apart. Hope wi...