Here's Another One

I haven't been getting out for walks as much as I'd like lately but I did the other day so here's a picture of the sky, mountains, and me.

Aren't I cute?

Can You Tell They're Related?

 

Can you tell he's related to Jeremy? See the last blog post I published.

I'm Cute

Why won't the seasoning come out?

 

Oh.

Book Lovers Love Books

August 9 was National Rice Pudding Day. Nobody in the family cares for rice pudding so I made rice and pudding to go with dinner.

It was also Book Lovers Day so let me tell you about a reading challenge I took on in August.

In preparation for her book, So True a Love, that was coming out on September 3, Joanna Barker hosted a read-along for her book, A Heart Worth Stealing, which is the book that takes place before the new one. The read-along was simple, a chapter a day. I enjoyed it and there were definitely times I was excited to find out what would happen the next day/chapter.

Once school started, I did a lot of my reading in the van waiting to drop off or pick up kids.

I am looking forward to reading So True a Love, but I can't be in too much of a hurry because I also have several books to read for the Adult Reading Challenge at the Orem Library, including the Orem Reads book for October, Fahrenheit 451. I enjoyed reading Frankenstein with other readers for Orem Reads last year. 

Lemon Tart by Josi S. Kilpack came in at the library while I was reading the other two books. It's one that counts for the library reading challenge.

During this read-along, Joanna Barker also had some games and things online. One of them was to "describe a book badly." I described Esther Hatch's book, There Goes the Groom, this way (since I had recently finished it):

"A couple spends their engagement delivering packages."

I tagged both Joanna Barker and Esther Hatch on Instagram. Esther Hatch got a kick out of it and reached out to me about how the main character in her first book was "Lord Telford." Of course that immediately became my next book to read.

 

Then I shared this experience on Instagram and both those authors thought it was cute:

Too cute not to share.

My four year old couldn't find a little tiger eraser he was playing with. I told him, "I'm sorry. I don't know where it is."

He told me, "I dropped it in Mommy's bag."

Oh. I started pulling out items from my bag- shopping list, etc.

I pulled out The Roses of Feldstone by Esther Hatch because she told me one of the main characters has my surname so of course I have to read it. By the way, her most recent novel, A Proper Facade, released recently.

As you do with four year olds, I held up the book and asked, "Is this your tiger?"

"No," he replied.

"What is it?"

"It's a book."

Next I held up A Heart Worth Stealing by Joanna Barker whose next novel, So True a Love (sequel to this one), comes out September 3.

Again I asked, "Is this your tiger?" to which he replied, "No. That's Mommy's chapter."

I am participating in a read-along of that book with Joanna Barker this month, a chapter a day. My son hears daily, "I need to read my chapter," or "I read/finished my chapter," always referring to that book.

I think it's adorable that he picked up on that and associated the book with my "chapter."

In case you're wondering, we did find that tiger eraser at the bottom of my bag.

August was a good reading month.

Another Barbecue

July 20 was National Hot Dog Day. Jeremy grilled us up some polish sausages and then we made s'mores.

That's all I have to say about that.

 

Except for something cute. When Jr. Jr. was little, he misheard when we said, "polish sausages." He called them "polar sausages." Even now when he wants one he will ask for a "polar sausage." It's cute. I'm trying to think if he ever even calls them "polish sausages," though he does know that's what they're called.

Cuteness and Accomplishments

I do "Baby Cuteness" posts often on this blog. It's time to share some cuteness and accomplishments from the other children.

In no particular order:

Jr. Jr. got silver medal in the Read-a-thon for his class at school (It was Olympics themed). He came home and was so happy to show me his medal and to say how happy he was for the student who got the gold medal because that boy put a lot of work into reading so much during the event and he deserved it (Jr. Jr. put a lot of minutes in himself).

Jr. was a student of the month for November at the junior high. His English teacher praised him for helping out so much in class (helping other students, straightening desks and chairs up without being asked) besides doing so much more than the required work.

The youth in our ward put on a talent show. They wanted to show both performing arts and visual arts. Nichole brought some of her drawings. She made a coloring page for people to have. 

She also juggled and she and Jr. put on a puppet show with her crocheted puppets. Those two together put on some entertaining puppet shows.

 

The Young Women collected recipes then asked the girls to make one of their dishes to share when they got copies of all the recipes that were collected. Nichole sculpted a cheeseball. Well, she started with one cheeseball that turned into three fairies. She expressed that cream cheese is a lot easier to sculpt than clay.

When we were in quarantine, Lucky missed out on some projects at school so he colored a hinged skeleton at home and hung it on a door. It looked really good.

 

Jr. wanted to support a friend in the school play so he went to watch it and had such a great time. His friend played the Grinch in "Seussical Jr."

I mentioned that Nichole is taking a digital photography class this semester. One of the things she needed to do was get pictures of water splashing/flying through the air, that sort of thing. I was her helper. At one point I tried to throw the water straight up but I ended up throwing it more back than straight up. Oops. I guess that is more "cuteness" on my part but hey, Nichole was taking the pictures.

Baby Cuteness

 Mwah ha ha ha.

Whatcha doin' there? Huh? I can do it, too.

 Boxes are fun.

Milk or water? Why not both?

More selfies!

Just like brother.

Daddy is so fun.

Make me cute, sister.

Peek-a-boo.

Ahhh. Relaxing.

 

Why don't you carry me around in the basket anymore, Mom? I can still fit.

Thanks for peeling an apple for me, Mom. Thanks for peeling an apple for me, Lucky.

Typical toddler. From ecstatic to meltdown in two seconds.

Helping with laundry and trying on Daddy's pants.

 

You know that part in Monsters, Inc. where Sully is trying to get Boo to go to sleep? He does actions while telling her, "You... go... to... sleep," then the snoring noise. She laughs then conks out. We do that with Jet when it's bedtime. Actions and words. He loves things like that so now he will repeat us with the actions, too. He doesn't fall immediately to sleep, though. Oh, well. One day in the middle of sacrament meeting, Jet decided to say it even though we were being quiet and hadn't said anything ourselves. So there was this little voice saying, "You... go... to... sleep." So cute. He also tells people in class, "Bye," when he wants me to take him somewhere else.

Open the cupboard, slam the cupboard so it bounces open again, laugh hysterically.

I love nature!