Adventures in La La Land

This is my plan for this year in case you're looking for ideas (includes affiliate links): Dec. 1. Unwrap a “First Day of Advent” gift.   Adventures in Odyssey Countdown to Christmas  - my goal is to listen to these at night during dinner Dec. 2. 7th annual Birthday Party for Jesus Dec. 3. Get and decorate Christmas tree Dec. 4. Open special ornament and put it on the tree Every year I buy each kid an ornament that is indicative of something they enjoyed or did that year Dec. 5. Buy presents for your siblings Dec. 6. Write/color/make something for Judie (our Compassion International child) Dec. 7. Paint/decorate ornaments  Buy cheap clear ornaments, squirt paint inside, swirl around - hours of entertainment Dec. 8. School Christmas program Dec. 9. See The Star movie Dec. 10. Church Christmas program Dec. 11. Make tea light snowman ornaments Dec. 12. Dinner with Great Grandma and Grandpa, see the trees and trains at Frederick Meijer Ga...

1. You guys. A celebrity commented on my blog last week!! Remember I wrote about the Pepper Basham book I read and didn't like as much as some of her others so I didn't leave a Goodreads review? She commented on my blog! Pepper, if you're reading this, I love you. Not only because you're an incredible writer, but also because you have an awesome name. I've been a Dr Pepper devotee for over 20 years and have an affinity for all things Pepper-related. My local library is part of a collective with 19 branches. If you can't find a book in their system, you can request they buy it. You can thank me for all of these being added to the collection: 2. We had a nice Thanksgiving with Justin's side of the family. I made a delicious sweet potato casserole full of sugar and marshmallows. We had all the traditional Thanksgiving favorites. But I think my favorite thing was a cheesy Brussels sprouts gratin. I heart Brussels sprouts. We had an intense Wizard tournamen...

Affiliate Link 2.5 Stars (Rounded up to 3 because I hate giving bad reviews.) I loved Dani Pettrey's Alaskan Courage series, but for some reason The Chesepeake Valor series just isn't doing it for me. I think part of it is that they're best read one right after the other. The characters' relationships build and develop throughout the books. And because I'm reading these as they're released, by the time the next book comes out, I've forgotten the details of the last one. I read Christian fiction mainly for the romance element. I love a good suspense story, and I appreciate learning new things, but if I'm honest, what makes or breaks a book in my opinion is the romance. And romance was sadly lacking from this book. Of course there was an attempt. And maybe if I went back and read book 2 of the series, I'd remember the foundation of Tanner and Declan's relationship. But in this book, it fell totally flat. After apparently loving each other...

1. Lena read her first book this week. Her school is awesome, and since she has mastered naming and pronouncing her letters, she gets to move on to the little Kindergarten readers. I love watching the wheels turn in her brain and seeing her learn to read before my eyes. It's adorable. 2. I'm getting into high Christmas planning mode. The packages are starting to arrive . . . My gift closet is getting full! I've also planned out this year's birthday party for Jesus and figured out what we're going to do for Advent activities. We're getting in the spirit!! 3. I read Pepper Basham's newest book this week: Charming the Troublemaker . It wasn't my favorite by her, but still a solid work with the humor and character development I've come to expect from Basham. So here's a little confession. I almost always review the books I read on Goodreads. But Pepper has liked or commented on every one of my reviews of her books. Since I didn't lik...

Affiliate Link I stayed up until 1:00 am in order to read this all in one sitting, so it obviously wasn't a dud. But it also wasn't my favorite. The Amazon synopsis: Mary Davies finds safety in her ordered and productive life. Working as an engineer, she genuinely enjoys her job and her colleagues—particularly a certain adorable and intelligent consultant. But something is missing. When Mary’s estranged childhood friend, Isabel Dwyer offers her a two-week stay in a gorgeous manor house in England, she reluctantly agrees in hopes that the holiday will shake up her quiet life in just the right ways. But Mary gets more than she bargained for when Isabel loses her memory and fully believes she lives in Jane Austen’s Bath. While Isabel rests and delights in the leisure of a Regency lady, attended by other costume-clad guests, Mary uncovers startling truths about their shared past, who Isabel was, who she seems to be, and the man who now stands between them. Outings are ...

1. Every November, we try to do a "Thankful" activity with the girls. Usually we have some kind of tree and add a leaf to it every day with something that we're thankful for. In an effort to branch out (ha ha - pun) this year, I decided to try something different. Thanks to Pinterest, I came across the idea of "Thankfulness A-Z." For 25 (we're skipping x) days leading up to Thanksgiving, we're thinking of things we're thankful for that start with each letter of the alphabet. Some days it's been really hard (E, anyone? Eggs, elephants, exercise??), but other days we've had tons of ideas (B: babies, blankets, binkies, balls, etc.). It's been fun to see what the girls come up with. For F, Lucy said forgiveness. For H, she said hands. Haha. Lena pretty much just blurts out whatever she can think of that starts with that letter (butterflies, flying, kites). And we all try to come up with something that Levi would choose if he could (binkies, c...

I cranked out a long, detailed Saturday 7 yesterday afternoon. As I was proofing it, I tried to erase one sentence that didn't fit . . . and somehow deleted my whole post!! I frantically pushed ctrl z, ctrl z! But nothing worked. It's gone. So here's the re-write, which will not be nearly as thorough as the original. Stupid technology. 1. We had a great Halloween despite the dismal weather (drizzly rain and 38*). Some of my friends do the bare minimum so their kids get the experience of trick or treating without hordes of candy. But I'm all about the candy, so we made the rounds. The girls picked their own costumes. (Zebra and mermaid) I found Levi's (monkey) in a bin of hand me downs from a friend. Win! Halloween in Michigan: hats, coats, gloves, boots Our wonderful friends. Believe it or not, it's hard to get a good picture of 12 kids at one time . . . We made a stop at Aunt Niki's for bags full of candy and a visit with Baby Nova. ...