Family Movie Night - Who is Simon Miller?

What a great idea! I just found out about NBC's upcoming family movie night feature "Who is Simon Miller". It looks like a lot of fun.

The Millers were an ordinary family living an ordinary life. That is, until the day Simon Miller went missing. Now wife Meredith, daughter Sarah and son Kevin must embark on a perilous mission to find him. But what they soon discover creates more questions than answers. This heart-pounding thriller takes you on a family's journey and tests the limits to which the Millers will fight for each other—putting their trust, loyalty and forgiveness to the test.

http://www.vocalpoint.com/SimonMillerBlog

http://familymovienight.com/who-is-simon-miller/

Paranormalcy: A review

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
borrowed from library
Description from Goodreads:
Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie’s always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal

Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal

My thoughts:
There has been a lot of hype around this book.  I've had it on my YA to be read list for a while and I finally got around to reading it this weekend.  As with many YA books, it is a fast read. Personally, I like a fast read every once in a while.

The main character is Evie and she is cute, smart and funny. She also has the unique ability to be able to see through all the glamours of paranormals. This makes her extremely useful for the International Paranormal Containment Agency. Evie has grown up within the IPCA and this life is all she has known even though she wants to go to high school and have a (somewhat) normal life. She thinks she understands what the IPCA is about and why she works for them. Things are called into question when a shapeshifter appears in the agency and events cause Evie to begin questioning what she has always accepted as the truth.  I was happy to see that Evie is able to learn from her mistakes and takes her friendships seriously.  When Evie is presented with the opportunity to attend a high school for a day, she is downright giddy with the lockers, classes, the students, etc. It was quite amusing and endearing. 

I thought the way Evie's perceptions of the various paranormals is called into question and how she manages to start changing how she thinks about them is well done.  Since this is the first book in a series, I am hoping that exactly what Evie is and her role will be explained in the next books. The story is interesting enough and Evie is a charming enough main character that I will read the next book. I am curious to find out where White is going with the plot line as well as what she plans to do with the paranormals.

This book is pretty tame regarding boy/girl relationships and language and I would have no problem with my daughters reading it. In fact, one of the funny and endearing things is the way curse words are replaced by "bleep" and why. It is quite cute.

My Planner and stuff

We have been homeschooling for eight years. We started when my oldest was in third grade and the younger two were a preschooler and a toddler. My oldest is now finishing up tenth grade. I have tried several different planners and a couple of different computer based school tracking systems.  I find that even though I now use Homeschool Tracker for keeping our records and printing daily lists, attendance, transcripts, etc., I still need a paper planner to visualize our schedules and various activities and to make notes on the run. 

This year I bought The Well Planned Day and I have been filling it with my schedules and plans for the rest of summer and next school year. I really like the format and that there is plenty of room to write notes and keep track of all the things my kids are involved in.  The only thing I think might be a useful addition would be pockets for loose papers, stamps, etc. I really like the shopping lists, the fact that there is room for four children and the holiday organization section.

I just recently found The Checklist by Cindy Downes at Oklahoma Homeschool.  It is exactly what the name implies -- a huge checklist of so many things I couldn't possibly list them all here.

I purchased the pdf version and printed it all out and put it into a binder. There is also a printed book format available.  I am finding it extremely useful now that I have a high schooler and we are looking ahead to college. This is a handy format for making sure I have covered everything I had planned. Now, of course, no one will cover everything on the list, but it is nice to have a way to see at a glance what still needs to be covered.

All products discussed were purchased by me.

From my garden

The strawberry plants are blooming.

The catmint is beatiful. As promised, the ants hate it and stay out of the raised bed. The neighbor cats love it.

Potted marigolds.

The lettuce looks okay -- not great, but okay.
I am hoping the beans and potatoes do well.  Not much to look at yet, so no photos.

The Homeschool Mother's Journal - 1

This is my first ever The Homeschool Mother's Journal entry! This lovely meme is hosted by The Homeschool Chick.


In our homeschool this week…
We are enjoying a slower pace in our homeschool. Even though we do schooling year-round, we are finishing up and taking time for fun stuff too. My oldest is in jazz camp for half a day for two weeks, so it's been kind of quiet around here.


My favorite thing this week was…
Due to our more relaxed pace, I have had so much more time for my own reading. I love that.

Questions/thoughts I have…
I've been thinking that I need to focus more of my reading time on reading the classic books I have been meaning to read and just haven't. It's time.


Things I’m working on…
I've been working on our school plans for next school year. 



I’m reading…
I'm reading A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin and The Priest's Graveyard by Ted Dekker.

Need more space!

I need more space to work on my homeschool planning, grading, etc. Our house is pretty small for a family of our size and I have no place of my own anymore for working.  I have been looking for ways to consolidate our books and supplies and make room for a desk for myself. I am thinking about this one.

It isn't too big and it looks simple and classic.  Now I just have to talk the husband into it and find a place for it.

Summer!

Summer is almost here - despite whatever the weather happens to be doing.  There will be lots of reading and some finishing up of curriculum, but I also hope to be doing a fair amount of just sitting outside and enjoying the sun.

I also expect that we will be doing a fair amount of hiking on some of the wonderful local hiking trails.

What do you have planned for summer?