What We Are Reading

We have read several really good books lately. We finished The Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright and we all loved it. It was the second book about the Melendy family. They moved from the city to a big old house in the country and love their new and unusual home. They very soon become involved in country life and learn a secret about the old house they are living in. It is a heartwarming story and we all liked it better than the first book of the series. 

We are now finishing the next book about the Melendy family - Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright. This book is wonderful. It takes place in the summer and the kids have many adventures and try new things like canning and making jelly. My girls really enjoyed reading about the canning and jelly making and decided they want to make jelly this summer and maybe even try to can. We absolutely loved this book. I think it is the best so far in this series. The Melendy kids spend a beautiful summer just being kids and having fun, but also discovering that not everyone has as happy a life as they do. Everyone voted this book as wonderful. We only have one chapter left which we will  finish tomorrow and we all hate for this book to end.  This would make a wonderful book to read this summer. 

We are also reading The Great Wheel by Robert Lawson. It is a fairly interesting book and we like it, but it is not one of those books we love. We are mainly reading this as it goes along with the time period we are studying in history. 

The girls continue to make troll clothes. Since our new felt arrived they have made all kinds of stuff. Tess was working on pants and a shirt for one of the trolls today. She said she was thinking of making an entire box of clothes for them. They are having a lot of fun doing this. Bethany also made a dress for Piper's doll that she got for Christmas. It turned out very nice. This is a great winter project. 

So, today after school they made troll clothes and baked cookies. They were going to make a cherry pie, but realized they did not have time as it was getting late and it takes them quite awhile to make a pie. So, that is what they plan to do tomorrow. 

The Weekend

We had a nice weekend. The kids played outside a lot - swinging, on the see-saw, jumping rope and all the other things they think of to do. 

The new fabric came on Saturday and Bethany and Tess were really happy as they were ready to make some doll clothes. The felt was kind of a disappointment as it was different from any felt I have bought before. It was rather stiff and thin and not very soft. It wasn't really that great to make troll clothes with but they did manage to make one outfit with it. I'm not sure how I ordered this felt, but I obviously wasn't paying attention and reading the description. I have ordered more and this time, hopefully, it will be nice and soft. The fabric I ordered was nice and both Bethany and Tess used it. Bethany actually ended up working on a dress for Bella after she made some troll clothes. It is turning out really cute. 

We woke up to snow today and it was so beautiful and so peaceful to watch as Bill and I had our morning coffee.  I do love to watch it snow - don't like to go out in it much, though. It didn't last long and it rained and washed most of it away, but it was so pretty for a few hours. 

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend - ours was really nice. 

 

 

I made homemade vegetable soup on Saturday and we had it for dinner with grilled cheese sandwiches. 

The kids loved it - they are so easy to please. Anyway, I think it was Tess that asked me to light the candles for dinner so I did. We just started doing this occasionally - actually an idea from my older son and daughter who both started lighting candles every night for dinner. The kids think it makes dinner really special even if we are only eating soup and sandwiches. 

Pizza And Trolls

This evening we got a delivery of pizza and breadsticks and brownies from my daughter, Megan. She is always sending dinner or snacks or something special to the kids and they love it - and when she sends something she goes all out. She sent so much pizza and three different kinds of breadsticks and then the brownies for dessert. It was great and the kids were thrilled. They ate dinner and then asked if we could read while they had their brownies and I, of course, said yes. It was a nice evening and the kids went to bed full of pizza and dreaming of summer at The Four Story Mistake - the book we are reading.  

This week Bethany started trying to knit clothes for all the troll dolls that the girls have - we have a bunch of trolls here the kids have gotten over the years. Bethany got this idea to start making some clothes for them when I told her that I used to make doll clothes when I was a kid - really simple and not very attractive clothes at that. It made her start wondering if she could knit some clothes so she has been trying to figure out what and how to make them. All the girls were excited and wanted to watch - though they soon realized that the clothes were not going to appear in a matter of a few minutes. We will see how this project will turn out. She will be working on them this weekend and she also asked if I could order some material so she could try sewing a few things so we have fabric arriving tomorrow. I think this weekend will be filled with making doll clothes and maybe we will finish our book. We are really enjoying it a lot and they ask me to read whenever we have any free time. I think it will be a very pleasant weekend - and they are calling for snow which has all the kids super excited.

In The Kitchen

It seems lately that my girls are in the kitchen all the time. We used to have special days we would bake together and maybe make something special for dinner, but now baking is just what they do almost every single day. They have gotten good at it, too. I think in the past week they have made gingerbread, gingerbread cookies, chocolate chip cookies, a chocolate cake, oatmeal cookies, pudding and a cherry pie. They are always making something. It's actually kind of nice - we have plenty of snacks.  

I had to make this picture black and white as I took it in the evening and the light was awful. The only way to save the picture at all was to convert it. Tess is not in this picture, but she is the first to ask to bake - she loves to bake and cook and make anything in the kitchen. If anyone goes in the kitchen to make something, Tess is right there watching. When she first came I realized cooking was a good way to bond with Tess as she was always ready and willing. It really worked for us. 

What We Are Reading

We are reading two books right now - sometimes we do that. We read one during the day with our history since it goes along with it and the other one we read in the afternoon or evening. We are almost finished with Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink. We really like this book and I'm sure most people have read it and know what it is about. This is the second time we have read it, but we do that all the time. Our second book is The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright. We are also enjoying this book. At first I think the kids were uncertain if they were going to like it, but by the second chapter they said it was a definite winner. I think we are going to read the next book in the series after this one is finished. This book is about the Melendy family. The children decide to pool their allowances and then each one takes a turn doing something special on a different Saturday. Then there is a chapter about how each child spends their Saturday. It doesn't really sound that interesting, but the kids do like it. 

Also, again, we got a special delivery from my older daughter. I say it all the time - big sisters are great. Megan, surprised us this week with a delivery of all kinds of ice cream, chocolate syrup, cherries, whipping cream, cookies, snack bars, burritos, lasagna, and so many other things. The kids are always so excited as they have no idea what kind of things she will pick to send. It is kind of fun to get surprise groceries for no special reason. 

The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas - Day 17

Today our special thing was to make gingerbread houses. We do this every year but usually much earlier. They had fun and we have a lot of gingerbread houses - most of them decorated. Claire ate most of her candy and only has a few pieces on her house so it basically doesn't even look like she decorated it. We usually have a house full of kids when we do this, but this year we just did it alone since we are not supposed to have any gatherings with more than 10 people. It was sad to not have all of our family and friends, but the kids still had a great time and it was definitely less hectic! 

We finished our chapter book and started a new one - The Special Guest-A Christmas Story by Lee and Donna Allen. This book is a little different than most we read - mainly as it is not geared towards kids - but, I think they are going to like it. We actually had two books in our canvas bag today to read - Christmas Magic by Michael Garland and Alabaster's Song by Max Lucado. Both were loved.  

The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas - Day 16

Today was a very rainy, messy day. We spent most of our day inside looking at our tree and listening to Christmas music and making fudge - three batches. It was nice and cozy and the kids looked at their gifts under the tree and talked about what they might be and what they still had to wrap and buy. Basically, it was a do nothing day. So, our special thing for today was pretty simple and easy. We watched an old home video of Christmas 2012. The kids love to see themselves so young and little. It is actually one of their favorite things to do and because they love it so much I have tried to make an effort to record a little more this year because one day they will want to look back on 2020. So, our special thing was not very creative, but it was fun and suited us today. 

We also continued reading our chapter book and the book that was in our bag to read today was The Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren. It was a good day to read and we did a lot of that. It was a very nice day even with all the rain - of course, I actually kind of like rainy days.