Everyone Loves a Good Book

Reading has been a passion of mine since I was small, thus leading me to the education field with a certification to teach reading. I always have a book in hand, while reminding everyone else in the family to pick up their own. This week's links explore the reading in our home and some fun sites that I've discovered. Hopefully, you might find something to help spur those readers in your home.

What I'm reading:

I just finished reading Little Bee. Great book, but sad.

Currently, I'm reading Found. Ryan (my reluctant reader) has attached himself to this series. We started reading it together, but he loved it so that he went ahead and then encouraged me to finish it. It is a well written book with plenty of suspense.

Next up on my list will be The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Andy:

Just finished reading The Art of Racing in the Rain. He typically reads thrillers and spy novels, but I really encouraged him to reach out of his comfort zone for this selection. He was glad he did, as he thoroughly enjoyed this read. If you are a dog lover and have ever thought about what your dog was thinking, this book is for you.

He is currently reading The Road. Again, I encouraged him to select this one. It took me a long time to get my courage up to read it myself, but after much prompting from my brother, I went for it. I'm glad I did. Even though it is profoundly depressing and sad there is the message of hope. It made me realize how lucky I am to have my family.

Matt:

As with both boys, I find that they are on reading overload during the school year due to New York State Standards so that reading during the summer is in the form of magazines and graphic novels. Matt had to read two books over the summer and he chose two quick mysteries just to finish the assignment. But don't get me wrong. He loves to read and will have many books next to his bed waiting in the queue.

Currently he is finishing up The Battle of the Labyrinth. This is the fourth (?) book in this series. This series still continues to hold his attention (which is hard to do in series' books) and he looks forward to reading each night.

Next up will be The Hunger Games. This was a choice for summer, which he started, but wanted something lighter. He bought this the other day with hopes of reading it slowly and digesting the author's message. This too, is in my queue.

Ryan:

Ryan is currently reading Sent. He proclaims that is is just as good as the first book and is already talking about the third book in the series.

Over the summer he read John Grisham's new book for YA. Ryan really enjoyed the action of the boy lawyer and the situations that he fell into. I'm glad Grisham has decided to write for the middle school readers. I hope his action and mystery genre will hook those reluctant readers.

Many of these book choices have come from a few sites that I've discovered as of late. Enjoy your exploring and remember, don't forget to read!

5 things...macro style...

I popped on my macro lens this weekend for a photo shoot at my friend's home. She asked me to take a few pictures of her garden before the frost took it from her. I've been thinking about some pretty heavy stuff this past week that involved a bit of soul searching and just plain reflecting. So I guess my macro lens served as a metaphor for my life this past week.


1. Helicopter parents, or how not to become one, has been on the brain. How much to advocate for my boys vs. to let things ride and see where it takes us. I'm not too interested in the later, but know enough (I think) to step back and let the boys figure things out.

2. Helping my boys take a risk. How much do I nudge them out of the nest? Far enough to make them feel uncomfortable and scared or just enough to know that I will be right along side of them for this crazy ride? Matt made a decision this past weekend that I was proud of, I guess. But wonder, if he had pushed himself out of his comfort zone would he have made a better decision. We'll see how this all plays out on Wednesday, when he heads back to school. (yeah, you got that right. we still have one more day off!)

3. The boys' fashion decisions. For the most part they are fine with the clothes they wear. Although, Matt has an AWFUL flat rimmed baseball hat that he wears constantly. It drives my husband nuts. I try to calm him by telling him that his red hair, A+, Opie look-alike son will not be turning gangsta anytime soon. He's not so sure.

4. Respect. There's none of it anywhere, or so it seems. This bothers me...period!

5. Entering the teenage years. Enough said.

Knitting Never Stops

It's a new week and that means new sock knitting.! No special pattern, no fancy stitch patterns. Just letting the yarn speak for itself.

Yarn is from sKNITches. Syncopation. The colorways are always fun to look at. This one is called Handsome Devil.

  As I was wandering through Ravelry today it seemed to me that many were knitting hats, scarves and socks. We all must be in hibernation mode.  And then, I came across this and it immediately went into my queue. This is a sweater that I could live in all winter.

Then one click led to another and I discovered this fantastic site. Check it out! I'm at awe over all the amazing design work that's being created.

Now I don't know what to knit next!  Do you?

5 things...

All sorts of cleaning and sorting has been happening around here. I must be getting ready to hibernate for the winter. It feels good to purge and get rid of all the crapola that hasn't been used in awhile. The old toys are what gets to me the most. Not sure what to keep and what to give away. Every time I look at the box of Rescue Heroes I remember our trips to the toy store to buy the newest and coolest hero. My boys would play for hours with those guys and I was happy to purchase them. I was sad to see them disappear from the toy market.

Anyway, enough of my reminiscing. On to the five!

1. I've been thinking a lot about travel lately. I have a fear of flying and feel that it's holding me and my family back. I need to get over this.

2. I need to get the boys passports. See item 1.

3. Wondering about a trip to London this summer with the family.


4. But would also like to do a hiking, climbing, kayaking trip out West.


5. The geese are gathering and flying in the morning and the evening. Maybe migration has me thinking about this....mmmm...I'll have to reflect on this a bit more!

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Link Love...

I haven't done one of these in awhile. Hope you all had a productive and happy week. We are in full gear with many activities: hockey, cross-country, middle school play and the never-ending homework. Enjoy your weekend everyone!


I saw this great photo assignment and really wanted to start it...then thought about it again and realized that my boys would not want a camera in their face for 180 days. Maybe if they were younger. It's a great project though!

Trying to make different types of cookies for the boys other than chocolate chip. These look delicious.

Love this little cake topper.

These two are simply gorgeous. love, love ,love everything about them.

For all of you with little ones, I thought these were really cute. When the guys were little, I would carry flashcards around in my bag. They enjoyed playing with the cards and looking at the pictures. And hey, any exposure to the letters were an added benefit!

I'm sure everyone has seen this. But, I just love jcrew and this just gets me excited for Fall.

Finished!

Socks for my mom!

The colors remind me of her!

What's not to like about a new pair of fall socks?

Specs:

60 stitches

2x2 rib

Lang yarns

Aktion

colorway 132.0214

Stay dry all of you on the East coast! It's a soaker out there today!

5 Things....

The signs of Fall started to appear everywhere this past week. Cool evenings and warm days have made the trees start to turn many shades of orange and red. The boys are falling into a routine and the days are ending sooner. Comfort foods are taking the place of salads and grilling and the warmer blankets have been placed on the bed.

1. I keep meaning to get out into my garden to cut it back, but something always keeps me away...probably laundry!

2. Made more muffins this past week. We used the blueberries we picked back in the summer.

3. A view from Community Day. We had the biggest attendance ever. Old time crafts, wagon rides and square dancing. So much fun!

4. My guys like to hike to the top of this hill. At the very top, is a pond with a canoe that can be used for enjoyment. It's a beautiful walk that my friend intorduced me to last year.

5. I'm looking for some new tv shows to watch. What are your favorites right now?

Lest You Think I'm Not Knitting

I've been doing a lot of knitting as of late. Way back in July, when Andy and I celebrated our anniversary, I gave him a new knitted sweater. Well, it wasn't actually knitted, just the promise to be knitted. I had just the right sweater pattern in mind and have been eager to knit it. So after all the baby sweaters were completed I went to work on the gray blob below.

It's Jared Flood's Cobblestone. I originally bought this yarn for it, but decided that it might be too squishy for a man's sweater. While on vacation, I went to the Old Forge Hardware Store ( yes, this hardware store has a yarn shop in it!) and bought an old workhorse yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted. I'm about to the armholes and plan on working more on it since I just finished the socks below.

These are just basic stockinette socks. I'm trying to knit through my self-striping yarns before I buy any more, so I'm not looking to get fancy with the design. Again, just workhorse socks for a special person.

Specs:

Lang Jawoll color: Aktion.

Colorway 132.0214
60 stitches

2x2 rib at cuff

5 things...

Well, I thought I would be here more once the boys went back to school. That's not happening, but the house is sure getting a good dousing of all the crud that accumulated over the summer. Today is supposed to be beautiful, so I'm going to pop on some music and get to work outside.

1. I'm planning on cutting back the garden today and picking what's left of the tomatoes so they can ripen before the frost arrives. It was 44 degrees when I got up today!

2. Matt ran for vice-president of his class. He lost, but he had a taste of the political process. He was recruited to be on a "ticket" which probably didn't have the best choices available. He didn't really want to win, just take votes away from the popular choice. It failed, she won.

3. The above picture is not the one I wanted to upload, but I'm too lazy to redo. We had a beautiful sunset on Friday and this is my attempt to record it, with my iphone, as I was driving. Yeah, not a good idea.

4. We went to my mom's on Sunday to celebrate her 70th birthday. The whole family bought her an ipad. I'm in love with it...and so is she. I think she sat for hours after we left personalizing it and adding apps. It was the perfect gift!

5. We started watching "Boardwalk Empire" the other night on HBO. Not sure about it yet? Anyone else watch it and have opinions?

Have a great week everyone!

Back in the Saddle...again.

Hello! It's seems like forever that I was here. We enjoyed a wonderful week in the Adirondack Mountains. It was year number twelve for us and probably one of the best Adirondack vacations we've enjoyed in a long while. The weather was perfect, the activities were plenty and best of all there was very little fighting.

School is now in session, and the homework wars have commenced. Eighth grade has thrown Matt for a loop. Much more homework which eats into his relaxing. He's not use to going, going, going, and then going to bed. It's a nasty pill to swallow.

I hope all of you are doing well and autumn routines are falling into place. As I was waiting for the alarm to go off this morning (why I set it, is beyond me. I'm always awake before it goes off) I realized that autumn is here. There's a chill in the air, the wind moves differently, there are no birds singing in the morning and best of all the roosters are gone from next door.

Here's to crispy leaves, warm sweaters, football games and routines. I'm ready, are you?

Sunkissed

I'll be back soon!  

Until then, I hope these pictures of our vacation bring you some late summer goodness.