If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better  for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing.  I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun!  Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry

New:  If would like to do a review but Tuesday is not good for you please feel free to link up to Mr. Linky any day this week, we would love to read your review regardless the day you post it!

I thought it would be fun to review Tiany's new projects.  What a gift her and her husband have on the internet!  They have started a couple of things and I LOVE them both!

The first one of course is the Homeschool lounge, I know most of you know about this great resource but I thought I would share for the ones out there that haven't taken the plunge yet and made a page.  The homeshool lounge is for homeschool parents only, which makes sense of course.  It reminds you a lot of myspace without the bad stuff that comes with it.  You can create your own page, decorate it with the colors that you love and truly make it personal using your own pictures and putting in some of your own music in.  Tiany has thought of everything, for the ones who aren't creative in the designing sense (like me)  she has all kinds of things you can chose to decorate it with.  For the ones who are super creative in that area can do their own thing.  You can add lounge sisters and chat and join fun groups just for us moms, how fun is that!  She even has little buttons you can add to your blog, you can see mine on my sidebar.  This is also great for the ones who don't have a blog and really don't want to put the time in that a blog takes.  It is so much easier and your can write blog posts right on it.  If you do have a blog you can link your RSS feed and people can read your current blog right on your page.  This is great fun and you can meet so many people over there.  I am the leader of the My Fathers World group so if you are a MFW user come over and join the group!

The newest thing these creative minds have come up with the homeschoolbar. You just go to the site and download it and it will be your toolbar.  Its WONDEFUL!  It has blogs(you can get your own added) news stories about homeschooling,  great sites about homemaking, frugal tips, homeschool resources and more.  It has things for the children in your home as well.  Educational sites, library button, activities and fun.  Make sure you stop over and download the bar for your own computer.  You won't regret it!

If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better  for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing.  I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun!  Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry

I find most women either LOVE or HATE bath n body works.  I think for the ones who hate smells and perfumes this isn't the store you run to but the ones who love fragrance and soaps and lotions in fancy bottles usually have a great time in this store.  Even if you feel this line is too pricey for you, its usually a really fun store to just go in and INHALE!  I love it, my budget doesn't usually allow too much spending here but it is a fun thing to get in my Christmas stocking and fun small gifts to put on list people ask me for at Christmas time!  One of my favorite things in the store is their soap, but not just any of their soap-what I LOVE is the gentle foaming one.  This one just lathers so much and so good, it comes in a great pump and big white suds just pour out into your hands.  It doesn't have the constant drip like their other soap either, so you don't end up with a glumpy mess on the sink.  You can get this in many fragances and colors.  If you haven't tried the foaming one, pamper yourself just once and stop in and get one, actually you can get 3 for $10.00 always and if you blessed enough to have a factory outlet near sometimes you can get them much cheaper!

When I review toys I only like to review the ones that we really LOVE around here!  And this is one of them.  The Littlest Pet Shop.  They have a zillion pets (dogs,cats, ducks, rabbits, mice, etc.)  They are small and easy to carry around.  My daughter really loves them.  You can also get towns, amusement parks, the bakery and hospital.  There are so many extras you can get buy my daughter's favorite is the pets themselves.  She takes them everywhere.  She does have a couple of the buildings that she received for Christmas and I will tell you they are so much fun.  They have seats that move around by magnetics, they spin and move and even my boys will play with these with her. Okay I will admit, mom loves them too!   Each pet usually comes with a dish of food, a pet toy, something that a pet would love!  I would recommend this if your looking for a gift for a little girl in your life, they are great fun! 

If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better  for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing.  I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun!  Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry.

Today I am going to review the new Old Schoolhouse Planner!  Heidi from ReviewsbyHeidi has given me a planner to review on my blog and the website.  I am so excited!  This was on my wish list for sure!  The best part is I also get to give one away in a contest!!!  I'm going to review it here and my next entry will be the contest details, I hope you all try to win!  Its such a great planner.

The first word out of my mouth as I opened my planner was WOW!  I heard how great this was but I don't think I realized how great it could have been until I saw it.  It is AWESOME!  This planner is by far the greatest one I have ever seen!

This planner is an ebook.  The great thing about that is you can print off what you want and leave what you don't, the cover would be great to print off and put in a 3 ring notebook and you could put the rest of the book inside and have a great planner for school time.  It has 247 pages in it, it's also interactive so you can work on the pages in your computer and print them off, wow-thats great. 

It has everything you would imagine a planner to have.  Calendars, charts, address pages, and dates to remember BUT it has so much more!  So much more!  It has field trip planning, sheets on your garden, the US Presidents and their wives, State and country capitals, budget, vacation planning, chore charts, Bible reading schedule, and  prayer journal.

It also has some wonderful tools to help you at home.  Menu planning, daily schedules, monthly homekeeping reminders, family health records, a sheet for the babysitter and through out your will find some great recipes.  I'm telling you it has it all!

Of course no homeschool planner would be complete without pages to help you with your homeschooling.  It has sheets on your curriculum, your schedule for the year, a measurement conversions sheet, a sheet on famous composers, and even a timeline of inventions.  Throughout the whole planner there are teaching tips, anything from why its good to teach a foreign language to solving your science struggles. 

 If you have this planner you will have a homeschool and house notebook in one.  The ones who put this together thought of it ALL!  You can tell this was made from homeschool homemaking moms!  They left nothing out.  I can think of no better gift for yourself then this, it will help you be more organized and efficient and you will be able to keep all your records in one place.  You don't want to miss out on this one.

This planner sells in the Old Schoolhouse Store for  $39.00

I will have a post right after this one on how to win one for yourself! 

If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better  for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing.  I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun!  Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry.

Today I am going to talk about my Flylady Calendar.  This is one of my favorite things, its one of those things I ask for every Christmas.  I know there are many calendars out there but this one is a great for your Family Center to put all your important dates on for everyone in the family to see.  I love it because it has huge blocks and you can fit several engagements on one date.  It comes with stickers where you can label your cleaning zone by week and all of your special dates.  I love this, you can get it at www.flylady.net.

I can't believe all the books that I have received lately with paperback swap!  I have been organizing as you know and have donated some books as well as listed some on paperback swap so I have been getting several credits lately.  I have a two page waiting list for certain books and some have been on there awhile.  They are finally starting to pay off, I have really been getting several lately on my list.  I know most of you are familar with paperback swap but for the ones that are not you list 10 books you are willing to get rid of and you automatically get 3 credits for books that are listed, you get them for free.  The ones you request them from pay shipping and when you receive the book you mark it as received and the giver of the book gets a credit for a book.  When you send a book you pay shipping.   So the more books you have listed that get requested the more credits you will get.  I just LOVE it!  Here are some books I have received this year.

If you sign up because of my blog please put in my email and I will get one free book.  You will find my email at the top of the page.

If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better  for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing.  I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun!  Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry.

THE HORSE AND HIS BOY

CS LEWIS

Well we just finished The Horse and His Boy in the Narnia Series.  I LOVED it!  Of couse what Narnia book don't we like, right?  We listened to this on audio CD, which was just so great-we had it in the car and just couldn't wait to go somewhere so we could listen to what was going to happen next.  Audio books are such a great way to get some of those classics in that you just don't have time for.  My husband enjoyed this so much that he decided we should have a couple of nights that we listen to a great book together as a family, like the old days of sitting around listening to the radio because its all people had.  I bet so many memories were made that way!  We want to start Prince Caspian so we can go see the movie!

I found this book a little harder to understand at first, I tried to play this for my son quite awhile ago and he just didn't seem to be getting any of it so I took it back to the library and we tried again recently.  It made all the difference!  I think its slower to get into at first unlike the two before it but once it gets moving I think its quite thrilling.  I loved the characters in it, Shasta  (slave boy)and Avavis(runaway girl) and the talking horses from Narnia.  They brought so much to the story, learning about each ones background and past and why getting to Narnia was so important for each of them.  There are many suprises in the story which I won't reveal in case you haven't read this one yet.  There are also some exciting battles and many other characters they meet along the way that add so much to the story.  And of course no Narnia story would be complete without Aslan himself, just like in the others, some great parallels to Christ.  I love when Bree the talking horse just can't believe that Aslan is really a lion and Aslan is telling him, "Touch Me. Smell Me. Here are my paws, here is my tail, these are my whiskers.  I am a true Beast."  It was like hearing the story of doubting Thomas! 

The owners of Sonlight say this is their favorite in the Narnia series, you don't hear much about this book compared to the others and there may never be a great Motion Picture of it but in my opinion there should be.  This is an excellent story, make sure if your reading Narnia-you don't miss it!

If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better  for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing.  I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun!  Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry.

I LOVE this mop, we bought it from the clean team.    Its called the sh-mop. It has a cloth over the bottom and you can rewash the cloths after you are done mopping.  The mop turns and swivels, so its easy to get under the cabinets and furniture.  It has a really wide bottom so it covers a lot of floor in one swipe!  The clean team sells a cleaner that is all natural, free of chemicals to use with the mop as well, however you can use whatever cleaner you like.  They recommend stopping up the sink with the stopper and dipping the cloth in that since the mop is so wide and won't fit in a standard bucket.  Even my husband loves this mop, you know when you get a man to love a cleaning tool, it has to be good.  LoL.  This is what their site/catalog says about it!

New 22" of molded foam on handle provides unparalleled user comfort.

Ideal for virtually any hard floor: vinyl, urethane-finished wood, tile, marble.

 Use it on walls, windows, ceilings, cabinets.

Rugged design lasts and lasts.

Large surface area quickly covers more territory than conventional mops.

Cleans without streaking. Sh-Wipes can be machine washed and sanitized after every use.

It's like having a new, sparkling clean mop every time you clean. No need for a bucket. 

If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better  for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing.  I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun!  Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry.

Today I am reviewing my digital camera, I LOVE this camera.   The reason I love it is its perfect for what I want in a camera.  I want a zoom lens but it doesn't have to be a huge one, I want a camera small enough to be able to easily carry and one that takes great pictures!  I also needed one that wasn't outrageous in price.  This one ranges from $300-$350, not cheap for us homeschoolers but if you really want a nice camera thats not bad compared to most!  Anytime I am going to spend $100 or more on anything, I do a lot of research.  I look at reviews everywhere I can and ask friends and family as well.  A creative memories customer I once had told me about this camera, I just loved her pictures.  I started reading about it and I couldn't believe the reviews-every site that sells it has it at least 4, mostly 5 stars.  People LOVE this camera-I was feel like its a camera you don't hear of much, very under rated in my opinion but I was happy to see it was rated as one of the best cameras in its price range in a poll I saw on AOL not too long ago!

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18K 8.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - They have it in black or silver!

If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better  for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing.  I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun!  Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry. 

Today I am going to review a game.  I love to play board games and card games, they are so much fun and what a way to bond as a family! 

This is a game my mother in law LOVED, before she passed away she taught my oldest son to play, they used to play all the time.  What a memory for a child to have with his grandmother.  After she passed early this year my father in law started getting it out for us, he started to LOVE it too and now we are all hooked.  Your lost loved one will always be a part of your family, some of their traditions live through you, some of their looks(my niece looks so much like her), their faith and on and on.  When we play this game I feel that way, another part of her that will go on!  My children will probably teach their children this game and that is just a wonderful thing! 

Mexican Train Domino

A double twelve set of dominoes is used. This contains all possible pairs of numbers from 0 (blank) to 12, giving 91 pieces in all. In addition you use trains!  Everyone picks a color.  The dominoes are shuffled and each player takes a number of dominoes and stands them on edge so that their faces are visible to the owner but not to the other players. Up to 4 players take 15 dominoes each, 5 or 6 take 12 each, 7 or 8 take 10 each, and 9 or 10 players take 8 each. The remaining dominoes are left face down in the boneyard. 

You can get a great set of directions at this site.  http://www.websitelink.com/mexicantrainrules/

This game is so much fun, one of the things I love about it is its simplicity.  Its not hard to learn, even though my younger children don't quite understand it all they can easily help an adult and they really do enjoy it!  They look for the right color and the right amount of dots.  Its so much fun with a large group, last night we had family over-there was 9 of us-with the two younger ones helping adults and coming and going when they wanted.  We had a blast, laughing and competing-my father in law was there teaching my brother, sister in law and my mom.  He seemed to really enjoy it and we had a great evening, it was truly hard to quit!  If this is a game you don't own yet, you have to put it on your wish list-you won't regret it!

If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better  for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing.  I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun!  Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry. 

This week I'm reviewing a 90 calorie pack snack.  I have never liked rice cakes, ever!  But I will have to say Quaker has brought them a long way, they have so many varieties now!  I know for some of you who only eat organic or total healthy things these may not be for you but I really enjoy the quaker minis.  They come in all kinds of flavor, the carmel drizzle is my FAVORITE!  They come in mini bags with 90 calories so they are great to throw in your purse or bag when you go out.  They are also great if you want a little something that isn't terrible for you but has a little sweetness.  You can read the labels on this site. 

If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better  for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing.  I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun!  Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry. 

Today I'm going to review a book I'm just about done with.  I am really enjoying it.  It's called A Wife After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George.  If you have read anything by her you will know she is an incredible woman who has read through the whole Bible to see what it specifically says about women.  Then she has made it her goal to become that woman.   She has wrote, A Woman After God's Own Heart, A Mom After God's Own Heart and even A Little Girl After Own God's Heart.  All the ones I have read I love!

Wow, if I have ever been convicted by a book, this is it!  I have been feeling so bad as a wife lately-I know I have been failing in some many areas of my marriage.  With the loss of mom-in-law, a broken ankle, kids being sick all winter and on and on I feel like life has had me in a turmoil lately.  I will say its been the most stressful last six months ever!  With all of that I have just really struggled in being the wife I really want to be, I have let the stress of the world impact me more then I like to admit.  This book is wonderful, a book on truly being a wife that not only is pleasing to her husband but to her Lord.  Each chapter talks about different things in the marriage and at the end of each one there is a list, a to do list I guess you would say.  I love these lists, they are simple and direct and you can keep a journal on what you want to accomplish becoming a better help mate for your husband.  I really love the idea she does for her husband in praying for him three times a day.  Before he wakes up, at noon, and before he comes home from work (that way you can remember)  How many times do we pray for our husbands, the one we want to spend our whole earthly life with?  The book talks about communication, finances, children, it truly covers it all and she reminds you throughout the whole book what God has to say about all of it!  This book is even for the wife that is married to an unbeliever so if that is you, don't say no to this book, she covers that as well.  Her husband has written A Husband After God's Own Heart.  My dh and I have both committed to reading these books, and using it as couples bible study together.  I was able to get his on paperbackswap for free!  I'm excited about all that we are going to learn!

You may want to copy this graphic over last weeks that doesn't say Tuesday Review, I just totally forgot to add that on there, it looks much better this way!

 Join us for Tuesday Review, sign Mr. Linky below so we can check out your review, also please link your post back here so others can join us!

I have to tell you ladies how much I love this shaver.  My sister in law made me up a birthday basket with all kinds of goodies in it and this was in there.  She loved hers and wanted me to try it.  If you are like me and hate shaving you will love this shaver.  It has soap all around the blade so it lathers while you shave so you don't need shavng cream.  Its a close shave and has never cut me, I just love it.   The pink one is for dry skin and the aqua one is for sensitive, that is the one I have.  If your looking to make your shaving experience better you have to try this!

My first meme, I'm so excited about it!  If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better  for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing.  I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun!  Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry. 

The first thing I thought I would review is our spelling program.  Its called Sequential Spelling and we love it.  Most spelling programs are very expensive, this one is 13.95 and 4.00 for their workbook which you don't even have to buy if you don't want.  I can't believe how this program has taught my son to spell, it is just great-its hard to believe it cost so little.  They recommend you to start when your child is a 3rd grader but if your 2nd grader is a great reader you could probably start then.   This was a great chart to show you the differences between this program and other ones.  This chart is from their website.

What Makes AVKO’s Sequential Spelling Program Different:

The man who started this program made it for children who had dyslexia, it is now helping children with or without disability learn to spell.  We have loved it and it is so nice that my son doesn't have to study all of these words, he just does his list I read off to him, corrects one he misses right away and finishes when the 25 words are done for the day.  It seems hard to believe that this works but it DOES, I'm amazed how much he has learned and how few mistakes he makes as he goes on to the next days.  The words just keep building on themselves as the week goes on.  Your child will spell words like "beginning" right from the start, they will learn almost all their contractions in one year.  This is a great program, if you have any questions feel free to ask me!

 Jennifer has decided not to do the Tuesday Review anymore and has asked if anyone would like to take it over.  I told her I would love to.  I love to review products!  So starting next week I will put up the mister linky and I would love for all of you readers to join us.  You can review anything (decent of course)  I hate to throw that in there but you never know here on the web.  It can be products that you love to use (I have a great shaver that I got for my birthday that I'm loving), books you have read, curriculum choices, homeschool supplies, things your pet loves, something that makes your day go more smoothly, toys that your children love,(anything that you think others would love to hear about) I'm excited about my first meme, I think its going to be lots of fun.  Please if you can share it on your blog to get the word out, I know sometimes it takes awhile to get these things going.  Thanks so much!

Angela

There were some great things at the Cincinnati Homeschool Convention this year!  There were several great speakers and a gym full of vendors.  I was able to work the My Fathers World Booth for my friend who was sick and that was exciting.  I loved helping others and answering questions women and some men had about the curriuculum.  It was a great learning experience! 

There is always one or two booths or speakers that really seem to make an impact on me and this year I would have to say it was generations of virtue with Julie Hiramine.   She did a talk the first night called Setting a Paradigm for Purity.  In this talk she told about what you need to be talking about with all ages and things you need to address with boys or girls.  It was excellent!

 Sex and Purity and body image and all those fun fun topics are not easy to share with our kids.  A lot of us come from homes where we were just handed a book and told to read it and ask if we have any questions and some of us were not told ANYTHING!  Some really felt they were on their own.  Some of us may not have come from Christian Parents or real convicted ones in this area and so you don't know how to present this information to your kids.  Well this group did such a great job in addressing all of this.  I have never felt this educated in this topic and I learned so much to be able to share with my family.  I thought I would share the list of books that they recommended for different issues.  I know they have more resources and you can check out their site here.  I will mostly be talking about things that will effect me now or soon to be.   Our children are BOMBARDED with so many bad things in this generation, you can not escape it unless you are a hermit.  I want my kids to have a pure heart before their future spouse, I want them to know how obeying God in this area will do nothing but bless them but we have to be more equipped then ever before to help our children make healthy choices for their lives and even then we have to pray, pray and pray some more.

These are great stories to read to your young children with story lines about saving your heart for your future mate by making it a fairy tale story and learning to follow the scroll (God's word)  even when its really hard and being very blessed by it!

Princess and the Kiss  A wonderful story about purity and saving your first kiss!

Squire and the Scroll  Join the young squire as he learns valuable lessons about purity on his journey to retrieve the Lantern of Purest Light. Great for boys and girls, no matter their age.

This book tells about where babies come from, the front of the book for young children (only information they can handle, nothing graphic and the back of the book for older ones)  She reads this once a year.  For the ones out there that do circle time, these resources would be great, however some topics should be one on one with each child.  Prefer.  mom with daughters, dad with sons.

The Wonderful Way Babies are Made  This entertaining, colorful book is full of wonderful real-life illustrations and age-appropriate text to teach your children about God's creation. Great for families with kids of all ages.

Some special time with your daughter-I love the idea of having a regular tea party with her growing up-they have so many devotionals to do with your daughter starting with this one at 5yrs old!

Just Mom and Me Having Tea  You and your daughter will love this special, tea-themed study. Full of creative craft ideas and discussion topics, this study is sure to make the most of your mother-daughter time.

Julie talked about how boys should be taught right off the bat about how he should treat women!  The book that she loves for this one is by Rick Santoriums wife Everyday Graces.  She reads a little of this during lunch.  Covers all kinds of manners.

Everyday Graces  From good sportsmanship to thank you notes, good behavior in everyday situations and special occasions, the classic stories found in Everyday Graces make this compilation a comprehensive resource on etiquette for the whole family.

This one is a great one to read to remind our children that anything under the bathing suit is private and that no one should be touching or looking at them there, its an awful subject to have to address but we want our children to know how to react and tell us if there is a problem with anyone.  This book shows this in a real gentle non scary way.

The Swimsuit Lesson  Mark and Lisa’s summertime fun turns into a valuable lesson every child should learn!

The next one teaches 10-12 yr old boys about all the weird things that are going to go on with their bodies soon.  We are fast approaching this book.

Lintball Leo's Not-So-Stupid Questions about Your Body  A must-read for every coming-of-age boy about to be experiencing, or already in the midst of, puberty. Includes sage advice and encouragement about how to honor the Lord with your sexuality

And last the three book set that helps a girl going through her first menstrual cycle.  I have quite a while before this one but I loved the ideas Julie has for these.  The 1st book is given to the daughter when she is 10-12 before she starts so that she can prepare and not be scared when it does happen, the 2nd one is for when she does and Julie who has 5 girls says when this happens she takes her daughter out for dinner and gives a present full of fun girl things, a shaver, bath gels, candles, and this book-she also encourages her to pray about this new part of her life now and give it to God.  I thought that was great.  The 3rd book is for mom who will be parenting a young woman now!

Beautifully Made!  Written by Generations of Virtue, this is a wonderful, yet practical set of books that celebrate womanhood! The time comes in every girl's life when she transitions into womanhood. Let these resources help you explain these changes in a way that is positive and even fun!

You don't NEED any of these resources but they sure could help you get through difficult topics and do it by teaching your kids in a God honoring way.   I learned a lot and look forward to getting some of these great books to help us through our journey.  She really stressed that we don't want to wait until they are 16 if we can help it.  Telling them our expectations and what God has planned for them young (age appr things of course)  will help prepare them when all their emotions come full force.

Angela

 In Jennifers Tuesday Review I thought I would review one of our favorite toys.  I mentioned earlier how I would like to review some of our favorite toys once in a while so I thought I would tell about one today!  These are Fisher Price Snap N Style Dolls.  They are great for 2yr olds and up.  The clothes are big enough to pop on easily for small hands unlike dolls like Polly Pocket which are also a choking risk for small children.  My daughter is now 4 and she still loves these.  I have to admit so do I.  They come with different outfits and you can buy separate outfits as well.  They have different hats, shoes, dresses and other fun accesories.  Here are some pics of them.  These would be great idea if you have to buy a little girl a gift and not sure what to buy.

I love doing reviews on products and books so I thought it would be fun to partcipate in Jennifer's new Tuesday meme for Tuesday Review.

This week I was going to talk about a book I just finished on my MP3 player during my trip.  I am not a fiction reader except for the classics that I read to my children.  I usually love non fiction for myself but I thought it would be great to have some great fiction books to download for when I travel or walk.  Books on CD, (mp3) are great to walk to, you start a book and you don't want to stop walking. 

I have always been interested in Beverly Lewis's books but have never picked one up.  She writes alot about the Amish and the Mennonites, she grew up in Lancaster County.  I am so intriqued with their life, how they do everything without electric, cars and so on.  So my library now has downloads you can check out, its so cool, you just download hem on to your MP3 player and you have something you can listen to.  This one was one of the first in a series called The Shunning.

I got so involved I could hardly stop listening, she is a great author.  The book takes you on an adventure of a simple Amish woman who feels like her life is so different then the rest.  She longs for femine things and music (which is forbidden) except for the hyms.  She is missing the man she loved who was beginning to tell her about Jesus and how the man made rules were not as important as God's grace before he drowned.  An Amish man who had started to go to Bible Studies and was beginning to actually study the Scripture which was also looked down upon.  As she is planning her wedding to another she stumbles upon a secret that will change her and her parents lives forever!  I won't tell what that was so you can read for yourself.  The book is so good and I can't wait to get the next one in the series.  I could walk forever with a book this good!

Angela

I thought it would be fun once in a while to share about some of our favorite toys.  You know how it is, our kids get toys for birthday's, Christmas and everything else-but how many of them really become a hit with them, how many do they continue to play with after the new ness is gone?  I thought I would share some of our favorites-some will be educational and some will be just for fun.  I still have a lot of kid in me, these are fun for me too!  The first one I will share are Lauri Puzzles- My Fathers World suggest using these for preschool.  I bought my first sets for school a couple of years ago!  My kids love them, they are great to occupy toddlers while schooling and even the older kids enjoy them.  They are bright, colorful, light-weight puzzles with kid appeal. All Lauri puzzles are made from a unique crepe foam rubber material. The pieces are easy to grip, and they won't chip, curl, separate, crease, tear or crack.    My kids love to sort them by color, build things with them and work the puzzles.  I put mine in a rubbermaid container and they can just get them down to play with.  I have taken these to my preschool and K classes at my coop as well, the kids always get so excited to see them.  They are a big hit!

Well we have finished The Sign Of The Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare.  Wow, what a great read aloud.  I know many of you have read this great classic Newberry Honor book but this was our first time.  My 8yr old son LOVED this book, its so cute-he says its totally his favorite but of course he says this after a lot of books but as of today its his favorite.  If you are learning about the Native American Indians this would be a great book to read.  Its about a white boy who gets left in a new cabin his dad has built for his family.  His dad sets off on a journey to get his wife and the rest of the family and leaves 12 yr old  Matt to take care of things.  His father is delayed and he has to learn to survive on his own, it is not easy and Matt finds himself in trouble when he is attacked by swarming bees, lucky for him someone is looking out for him and what a suprise to learn its Indians.  He becomes friends with an Indian boy named Attean and they begin a summer full of adventure.  Attean teaches Matt to hunt and how to build different things, how to stay warm and how to find his way around the woods.  They form a deep friendship and you learn so much about both of them and where they come from.  I won't give away the ending but this is a MUST READ.  I had a hard time putting it down myself and my son seemed quite disappointed that is was over.  I heard one of our libraries has a movie version, we are going to see if we can find it. 

This is one of the books on my  Fall into Reading list so one down and many to go!