Recent Posts

I drive a 12 ½ year old Honda CR-V, which we affectionately call Plucky 2 (our first car was a Honda Civic, which we dubbed ‘Plucky’).  Plucky 2 has served us so well over the years.  We bought her when we needed a second vehicle because my husband could no longer take the bus to work (the commute was just too long).

It’s hard to believe that I’ve had Plucky 2 that long.  She still runs fantastic and only has a teeny tiny spot of rust here and there.  Alas I know she will not last forever, and we will need to get a new vehicle in the next few years to replace her.

Grayson Hawkes learns how imaginative and elaborate Walt Disney World is when he accepts an invitation from a trusted friend landing him in a world he never knew existed. Suddenly unraveling a perplexing puzzle and trying to solve a mysterious disappearance, Hawkes navigates through the kingdom where knowledge of seemingly unimportant Disney facts and some divine help are the only way he can discover the answers and get out. In this world Disney trivia is no game…And the ancient key is the only way out.

Soon the lines between right and wrong begin to blur, and telling the difference between real and unreal become nearly impossible. Loyalty to faith, family and friends are stretched to the extreme in the pulse quickening adventure through a magical place where dreams really do come true.

Eating Healthy.  Growing Strong.

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation and the American Academy of Pediatrics have joined with the best-selling children’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle to help families learn about healthy eating habits.  More than 17,500 pediatrician offices will receive free copies of a special edition of The Very Hungry Caterpillar books, growth charts and parent handouts to encourage doctors and parents to have meaningful conversations about the importance of healthy eating.

Yesterday I shared how we use our e-Readers for homeschooling.  I do quite a bit of searching for supplemental activities online.  One of the best websites I’ve found for that is Curriki.  It’s a non-profit site where educators share curricula that they have written themselves.  Some of the resources are already in a PDF format, but other times I create PDF files from them if they are uploaded to the site as a Word Document.  Other times I like to take a web page and convert it. 

At some point in the last year and a half, we have come to realize that our e-Readers are invaluable for homeschooling.  The hundreds of books that we are able to find online and borrow through the library system as well as the vast array of material from sites like Curriki, has increased the value of these devices in our home.  Yes, I said e-Readers, because we have three.  While all of the e-Readers that we own have the ability to import PDFs, only our Sony Reader can read Word Documents, which allows us to carry around a large amount of schooling material in a small 6×9 space.

The Third Chronicle of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon

An excellent medieval whodunit by the author of The Unquiet Bones and A Corpse at St Andrew’s Chapel

Some valuable books have been stolen from Master John Wyclif, the well known scholar and Bible translator. He calls upon his friend and former pupil, Hugh de Singleton, to investigate. Hugh’s investigation leads him to Oxford where he again encounters Kate, the only woman who has tempted him to leave bachelor life behind, but Kate has another serious suitor. As Hugh’s pursuit of Kate becomes more successful, mysterious accidents begin to occur. Are these accidents tied to the missing books, or to his pursuit of Kate?

Homeowners renovate for two reasons: because they have to or because they want to.  Or, more precisely, they work on home improvements to maintain the value of their home, or because they want to enjoy their house as much as they can.

We’re in the hate group, and can I say hate with a capital H.  Our first home was a house my dad built.  For the most part it was well constructed, there were some issues, but Daddy was always a phone call away to come over and help us out.

“Oh Brother!” Comic strip illustrator and writer Bob Weber, Jr. offers kids and parents step by step instructions on cartooning

Bob Weber, Jr. draws pictures for a living. He draws the children’s comic, “Slylock Fox and Comics For Kids,” and he also writes the jokes for the daily strip, “Oh, Brother!” Role Mommy asked Bob Weber, Jr. to share his advice and best practices with any budding cartoonists out there, and this is what he had to say:

I’m a little late on getting a post up this morning because my sister and her family came to spend the night.  They had been vacationing down in Phoenix and were making their way back home to Canada, and made a pit stop here for a few hours.

It was great fun seeing my nephews (ages 4 and 18 months).  They stopped for a few hours on their way down, but other than that this is the first time I have seen the boys, since the younger one was born.