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