Jolly Days at Shady Nook

Monday, April 17, 2017

Easter 2017

We had a lovely Easter Sunday.

Chris led the music at church and left early.

The kids and I had a nice time taking pictures around the yard before church,

and no one fell in a creek this year.

Josiah's apple tree is busting out all over with blossoms for the first time ever!

Even though it's our first spring with Eleonora's cherry tree, it already has a couple blossoms.

She's proud.

Caleb's apple tree has about 20-30 flowers, about like last year,

but it is HUGE, and the tag said it was a dwarf.

Love these babies!

Friday, April 7, 2017

I published a little interview with Caleb this morning to go with his pictures from a couple of posts back. You'll have to go back and read it, although now that he can read, he wasn't liking any of my embellishments as I typed his answers, so this year I had to stick to just the facts.

Now, as for my March books, I read 5 this month, so I'm up to 17 for the year. At this rate, I think I can make it to 50, no problem.

I read 'All-of-a-Kind Family' by Sydney Taylor with the boys. We loved it and we are on to the second in the series. The books follow a Jewish family with lots of kids growing up in New York City in the early 1900s. There are fun stories woven through descriptions of all the holidays they observe - both Jewish and plain old American. I recommend these even to a grown-up who hasn't read them yet.

Heather let me borrow 'The NAZI Officer's WIFE' by Edith Hahn Beer. This was my only page-turner of the month. It tells the story of how one Jewish woman survived the Holocaust - I bet you can guess how.

I also finally finished 'The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science" by Richard Holmes. Now this was a dull book, Burt, but I felt like I learned some things about some famous people whose names you are always hearing and feel like you should know - people like Sir Joseph Banks, Mungo Park, Mary Shelley, Caroline and Frederick Hershel, and many, many more. My favorite parts included the hot air balloons and the explorers.

Next I read 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up' by Marie Kondo. According to this lady, if you follow her method completely the first time, which she made up and named (Kon-Mari) after herself, you will never be messy again. Her method includes getting rid of about 75% of your possessions. That would help, eh? Ha! I'm afraid my nickname could still be Messy Jessy, but I did get rid of 387 things this month, in my quest to get rid of 1,000 things this year, so I'm on track for that goal as well. (I have a bit of a problem with counting things, you may have noticed.)

And last, and probably least, I read 'Scotland Yard's First Cases' by Joan Lock. You may be wondering about this motley assortment of books I've been reading. I will tell you, I've been reading whatever I can find for free on my Kindle and I'm not looking too hard. This book featured a lot of murder by throat-slitting.

So there you have it, my March books. Try All-of-A-Kind Family or The Nazi Officer's Wife, and leave the rest alone, would be my advice to you. Happy April!