Home-y Things (or if you live in England, "Homely Things")

  Did you know that in England  homely means home-y? That does not translate in my brain because here in America homely means ugly. As in, "To bad the poor thing is so homely." Although, in parts of America you "hang wit yo' homies," so, I guess it is confusing no matter what sort of English you speak?
 So, I have been hanging with my homies making home-y things that are not homely...or are they? Anyhoo, here is a peak into our life lately.
  On Friday, my mom, sis and little niece came up for a quick visit. I took zero pictures! Too much happening, i.e. keeping a 21//2 year old from tearing down the house. Whew, how quickly I forget what a workout that season of life is! But, we had a fantastic visit. Heath even took our boys up to the mountains for some sledding so I had a few hours of true girl time. That was lovely. My sister made scones and clotted cream which were to die for. I think I gained 10lbs while they were here.
 

I should note: This was not a wise choice for a bedtime read. Both boys were very into the story, but were creeped out by the part about the petrified bodies buried in ash...yep, not a bedtime story.

  On the home educating front there has been much reading of fine literature. We have turned a corner and I am ecstatic. Pretty much since Graham was born I have been looking forward to the day we could read chapter books together. But, my little man has held very firmly to the belief that a book without pictures is not a book at all. I get that. In fact, I was that way until I was right around his age and then Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume entered my life and the fire was lit. I was a reader and the love only grew stronger with each passing year.
  Lately, I have felt like I should try to gently encourage Graham to give very small chapter books a try, mind you I still read them to him, but I don't care about that at all. I had the brilliant idea to scour the Sonlight Catalog for their book recommendations and instead of buying them just check the ones that were available out at the library. So, we have been making multiple trips to the Library as of late to pick up the incredible amount of books that I have on hold for him. And, let me tell you it has paid off big time! So far, we have enjoyed The Bears on Hemlock Mountain and A Lion to Guard Us. Graham has been so into the stories and wanting to find out what happened next that we have stayed up late into the night finishing them. I don't care about bedtime, if he is interested and wants to keep reading, I am not going to let a little thing like bedtime interrupt learning!
  Liam is not as thrilled about this new reading extravaganza. He either falls asleep or asks repeatedly when is reading time going to be over. But, he is very interested in learning his letters and especially likes an alphabet app that lets him practice tracing letters and shapes with his fingers. I love it! His favorite letter is H. :)
   In an effort to foster the imagination that is blooming in our home school Heath and I have also decided to ditch our Wii and xbox. And, that means we packed both machines, games, and equipment up and put them on the highest shelf we could find in the house. The usage was getting out of control and when they weren't playing it they were asking to play with it. It was just too much. And, so far, I haven't missed it a bit. There has been way more "real" playing (with bickering, of course).  I don't think they miss it that much either. Liam has asked for it a few times, but he moves on to other things after we tell him it is still packed away.

  Since we have said bye, bye to the video games toys have been making a huge comeback and Transformers are the big hit currently. The boys just used some money they have received to buy these guys. They are sort of like the  Polly Pockets of the boy world. They love 'em. I think I might have to add one or two to their Easter baskets this year :)
 

 And, now for some girly things! I have been making a lot of my homecare/home cleaning products lately. My newest additions are homemade deodorant (in the Tostitos jar) and homeade face cream (in the Pesto jar). The jars are driving me crazy because they aren't exactly pretty but they work okay to hold my concoctions. But, having pesto and dip jars in my bathroom is just weird looking. I will be looking for better containers for sure! A lady's cosmetics table should be pretty after all!

   While my Mummy was here she and I got to go to a couple of  estate sales. They weren't really that good, but I did score this beautiful 1960's coat with a removable fur collar for $5! The picture doesn't do it justice but think Doris Day or Jackie O and you've got it. I am just not sure about the fur...I think it is beautiful but I don't want to be egged by some PETA person. My question is, why is fur taboo but the fact that I eat meat and wear leather would never be questioned?

 Another fun little find are these Sunset magazines. This is quite possibly my favorite magazine except for perhaps Victoria magazine. But, they aren't cheap. So, I get them free at the library. There is a magazine exchange where you can pick up some great publications. It is fun to dig through the piles and score some good magazines.

And, I have to share about this serendipitous find. A while back I was looking on amazon for some books by Gladys Taber. Susan Branch mentions her all the time and I have been dying to get my hands on one of her books. They are hard to find because they are mostly out of print. So, on one of our runs to the library just as we are leaving I look backwards over my shoulder at one of the shelves of used books for sale and I see the spine of this book. Seriously. I was like, "Wh-whaaat?!?!" I snatched it up for a whopping $1. I had literally been looking at the very same book on amazon the night before and almost bought it. Serendipity folks, I tell you, s-e-r-e-n-d-i-p-i-t-y. It is a delightful read. I just love it. A cup of tea and Gladys Taber. Bliss.
   Well, I really must be going. I think we need to take advantage of the sunshine today. This weekend we had snow! I didn't stick but it was pretty coming down. You never know what February is gonna throw at ya'.
  I must say this post has been very disjointed. I guessed it could be summed up with saying, spend more time at your local library? Which doesn't match the post title at all. But, I am nothing if not inconsistent!
TTFN! Ta Ta for now!