What I'm Into (Mostly)- May 2014

Happy nearly June! I wasn't sure if I was going to create one of these posts this month. I kept trying to make it happen, and then...it didn't. Then, I "made up my mind" (yes, in quotations!) that I would go ahead and just do it, only to stop half way and decide that the world would be okay without knowing what I did in May. (I mean, right?) But then I remembered I had already worked on editing some photos for this post, and thought maybe, just maybe, I'll type up a slightly modified version of What I'm Into. And here we are! 

May was an eventful month. I launched back into blogging after a long, unintentional hiatus. I'm happy to report that I managed to publish something almost every week this month. I've been busy with trying to figure out how it is that we're supposed to promote the blogging these days. So much has changed! I've decided to venture into the land of Twitter! You can follow me there too (no, really! You can!) ;-)

Books- I'm currently very close to finishing Beyond the Sling by Mayim Bialik. Yes, I'm a crunchy mom. Well, mostly. I think I fall in the mid-range of maternal crunchiness (if you didn't gather that already). This is one of those books that has me nodding in agreement most of the time. Lots of good research about birth and infancy and beyond. It would have been awesome to read when I was expecting for the first time (so, you know...look into it, if you are going to have a baby soon!)

Also read: The Year of Learning Dangerously by Quinn Cummings. I really, really related to this book, a memoir of a woman's first year homeschooling her elementary-age daughter. She humorously looks at many different approaches to homeschooling, sharing her different experiences trying to find her "tribe". She sometimes goes to great lengths to immerse herself in the lifestyles of certain kinds of homeschoolers with hilarious results. One thing I did not appreciate about this book, however is the author's criticism of certain sects of Christianity. If you're also sensitive to that kind of thing, there are a couple chapters in which you will want to "chew the hay and spit out the sticks". If you are just starting out on your homeschool journey, or even if you've been at it a while, I think you will enjoy this book. I was utterly surprised at how quickly I got through this one! (Being that I've been reading most books at a snail's pace lately!)

Want to Read- A big ol' pile of books! Including Hands Free Mama (I impulsively grabbed this one from the library, because...well, it was there!) I think I may need to return it and come back to it later since it seems so involved and meant to be read slowly to take everything in. I also found an old copy (like from the 1930's old) of How to Win Friends and Influence People at a library sale a while back that I really want to read. I read the paperback version while I still worked at the church, but it's definitely a good book to re-read from time to time. This printing of it includes a chapter on marriage, which I'm looking forward to reading.

Television- Umm...let's just say in an earlier draft of this post, I realized that I probably need to re-evaluate my viewing habits! It's not that I've been watching total trash or anything, just nothing particularly edifying! 

In other media-related news, we observed a Screen-Free Week for probably the third time. It was so awesome. The children actually loved it, and we were inspired to get outside and savor the last of the lovely (Sonoran Desert) weather until probably October or later. The children enjoyed a nature scavenger hunt in the park (found items pictured), and also found a new passion for card games- more specifically the game "war". 

Learning with the Family (AKA homeschooling)- This month, we've revisited the beauty of lapbooks. We've done Five in a Row (as I mentioned in another post) and some of them go along with that, but I found a wealth of free resources for other titles (lapbooks as well as unit studies) in Homeschool Share. I love that it's all laid out for me. No real planning required (yippee!) We love exploring all the little avenues of learning opportunities that present themselves in children's literature. So much fun.

One of the books we read was Make Way for Ducklings. We later had an awesome visit to a riparian preserve in our area- I knew there were ducks there, so I hoped we'd get a chance to sit and observe them for a bit. They were so cool! We brought along some bread crumbs and we made instant friends (pictured). Apparently the sound of a Ziploc bag opening is to ducks what the sound of the can opener is to cats! My children named them Mr. and Mrs. Mallard after the ducks in Make Way for Ducklings. We later walked along one of the lakes and found even more ducky friends. 

Other News- We celebrated a birthday- my oldest is now seven! (Note to self: find some way to slow this down a bit!)

Next Month- More birthdays! This guy is turning TWO! Hardly believable! I blinked and he sprouted up into a toddler. 

Well, those are the highlights! What have you been up to? Share in a comment!

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