Linky Flight

Much Like A Flight of Beer.  I thought I would do a linky flight. Some things are better read together.

Reading and Testing of Kids
Encouraging a Love of Reading in a Culture of Assessment
Dear Schools, Please stop the AR Test and Reading Logs
Are We Thinking About Reading Comprehension All Wrong

Parenting or Adulting
My Adult Sense of Justice - love, love, me some Teacher Tom
10 Insights about Remarkable Parents from a Family Therapist

Self Care
Running a Mile Every Day for a Year
What Self Care Really Means - oh so good and it isn't chocolate cake and bubble baths

GUNS 
Why do you like/own a Gun?
Gun Reform: Speaking the Truth to BS, Practicing Civility and Effecting Change - Brene Brown really spoke to me in the camp of not wanting to allow guns for everyone and allowing guns for some.
When Students are Traumatized, Teachers are Too

Wordy Wednesday

Sometimes, I just want easy not complicated and difficult.  Can I get an AMEN!

Olympic Linky Love/ President's Day

Adam Rippon to Work the rest of the Olympics for NBC

Booking It - February

I am linking up to Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit. Check out what everyone else is reading. My reads have been few and far between. 

The Major's Daughter by J.P. Francis

This book is set at Camp Stark a German Internment Camp located in New Hampshire.  The camp housed 150 captured German Afrika Korps . The prisoners worked as loggers bring out pulp for the Brown Paper Company

The story is fiction but Camp Stark did indeed exist. However, the characters in the book are all fiction. The story is about Collie the Major's daughter. The Major is the also the commander of the Camp Stark. Collie aids her father by being a translator. Collie finds herself falling  in love with  a imprisoned German Soldier. Overall, I enjoyed the book but I did find myself in the last 1/4 of the book jumping ahead to the ending.  But ever the rule follower, I ended up going back and reading the last 1/4 of the book. Many of us are aware of Japanese Internment Camps but few us realize that there were German Internment Work Camps in the United States during the war.  I loved the author's attention to detail and how they described how the US soldiers tried to show compassion and fairness to the imprisoned German Soldiers.  The history was fascinating to me.  I wish the story was a bit more compelling.

This was an enjoyable quick read.  I was once again taken in by the "Hot Picks" table at my library. My son is taking French this year in school and my husband's grandmother was French so I could relate a bit to that. It was interesting memoir and I liked the recipes interspersed throughout.

Happy Valentine's Day!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

We got a small gift from mother nature in the form of SNOW!  It is a little over a dusting of snow.

On Monday, I got my OFFICIAL Loveland Valentine from the Sweetheart City of Loveland, Colorado.  I loved this year's Valentine.

My Homemade Valentine 2018

trial elements

I knew what I wanted to say this year long before I knew how to execute it.  Some years, it takes a creative evolution or trial and error to come up with a design.

front

My design concept this year was Peace and Love. I purchased heart confetti from Walmart (.99) and a Peace Stamp from Hobby Lobby.  I am calling my design -graphically simple valentine. The saying for the back was from a tea tag.

back

Valentine Linky

Need some Valentine Inspiration.  Check out the links below

suncatcher

Rainbow Heart Suncatcher I  tried this out.  I don't think I could get my babysitting kid - 8 year old boy to do this.  It is a lot of gluing.  I used only red and pinks.  The method works but it might not be for every kid

Printable Valentine Cards

Valentine Ice Cream Dessert - this looks so doable

Valentine's Day Watercolor Floral Tutorial 

Everything is Coming Up Hearts

I did a bit of  Valentine decorating.  Every year I try to reuse and re-purpose last year's decoration.  I have quite a bit of stuff. These shelves are next to my fireplace.

I have a permanent LOVE Gallery Wall up in my upstairs hallway. This wall is evolving. It is difficult to get a good photo. You can see the beginnings of this wall here in 2012

I have so many favorite things hanging on this wall.  Of course, everything has a story.  Details about some DIY's below

String Heart
Wooden Shot Up Heart
Embroidery of Tree Heart Carving

It makes me smile when I walk by here.

Wordy Wednesday and BACON

Yesterday, I picked up 40 lbs of BACON from Zaycon.  Everyone should have a bacon stockpile, right!  Happy Wednesday!

Bacon Stash

Super Bowl Linky

Well this linky is getting posted late but just in time for those of us who only watch the big game for the commercials. Click away my friends, click away.

Memory-Making Meals for February - love me some Life as Mom!  Some good suggestions there.

Pressure Luck's Super Bow Menu - Hey it isn't too late to whip up some pressure cooked meal for today's big game.  I just got an Instapot myself so I am all about learning some new recipes.

Mysterious Lost Maya Cities Discovered in Guatemala - It is so fascinating what they can do with LiDAR now days . I looking forward to the National Geographical Special

Hunting for the Ancient Lost Farms of North America - This is just really interesting.  Who knew there was such a thing as archeobiologist? 

What is Saving Me 2018

I am linking to Modern Mrs Darcy's , "What is Saving Me".  Please check out what is saving everyone else. It is officially the halfway point of winter.

Rainbows are the only good part of rain

It is so dark here in the Pacific Northwest.  I often dread this part of the year. I feel like this year I need more saving than usual. These little things are saving me.

Letter Board Wars

I love putting up sayings on my letter board.  It has been my way to put out a little positive energy in my house.  My youngest son has frequently though has been sabotaging my board.  He placed the sounds good on my board.  "Sounds Good" is a pet peeve phrase of mine. Later my son came back with the "Wrath of God"

My board was a purchase from Walmart 9.99 and came with the letters as well.  My husband modified it with a custom frame.

Local Coffee

Coffee is life.  Loving these local beans - Bellingham Coffee Roasters.  Good coffee can make life bearable.


Project Life App

I love love using the Project Life App for scrapbooking.  I find it such a relaxing experience to get my photos scrapbooked.  I do this from my phone. This is such an easy way too and fun.  I can easily scrap a page in just a few minutes. If you haven't given it a shot, you got to purchase this relatively cheap app.  It is so awesome!

Better Late Than Never

This TV show with William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman, Henry Winkler, and Jeff Dye cracks me up.  I have actually laughed out aloud.  So that is has been my guilty pleasure. My husband and I were trying to decide what the female cast would look like - Goldie Hawn, Sharon Osborne, etc,  Anybody else do that kind of thing?

Genealogy Cold Case

I am a very very amateur genealogist and I have been researching my great grandfather and his possible criminal pass.  It gives me another reason to hang out at the library for the Library Ancestry Edition.  However, I had a eureka moment and found out most of the details of his case and it was just so satisfying. I found it with a relative simple google search.  IT seems like it seems like the only win in a long winter.