February Wrap Up

Welcome to my February wrap up. I realize that my TBR was a little ambitious. I once again didn't get to two books, but I also felt like the shortness of February was going to hender my reading time anyways. I also fell into a little book hangover after reading book 3 of the Millennium series. I am hoping to get back into a good reading habit for the month of March, but I doubt it will happen because the end of the school year is coming and I have alot to get done with the girls, and also keep preparing Adalyn for Kindergarten. But enough talking, on to my wrap up.

1. The Ersatz Elevator: Lemony Snicket

2. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest: Stieg Larsson

3. Witches Don't Do Backflips: Debbie Dadey
4. The Vile Village: Lemony Snicket

5. The Travelers: Chris Pavone

6. Skeletons Don't Play Tubas: Debbie Dadey

7. The Hostile Hospital: Lemony Snicket

8. The Girl In The Spider's Web: David Lagercrantz

9. Mrs Piggle Wiggle's Magic: Betty MacDonald

10. Cupid Doesn't Flip Hamburgers: Debbie Dadey

11. Angels & Demons: Dan Brown

I read a total off 11 books this month. Two less than last month and I know that if February was 30 or 31 days long or 29, I would have met or surpassed the 13 I read last month.

Freebie Haul 2/20- 2/25

Sorry that this post is late everyone. I got some bad news at the beginning of last week that just put me into a blogging funk. I really thought about quitting it but then remembered that I enjoy it too much and I wouldn't be getting the stuff I do anymore, if I did quit. I am going to be taking breaks here and there because the break I took last week, did take some stress. It allowed me to re-evaluate what I want to do with this blog. I will still be posting my normal content, but I won't be posting everyday, only a couple times a week. Sorry for the rambling.. now let's get onto the haul.

Monday: NO MAIL. President's Day

Tuesday: Not much, and I was glad because this was my worst day last week.

March 2017 of Better Homes and Gardens

Go4Life exercise DVD 

that I am going to give my grandma

Wednesday: Today my mood was a little better and these freebies made me perk up a little.

French's Dijon mustard crowdkit from CrowdTap

bought the kitty cats a bag of food and it came with a free cat food meal inside

the friskies cat meal

Thursday: coupons and Pinchme samples

Redplum coupon insert

Just fir men control GX shampoo, Olay body wash from my Pinchme box

Friday: my next book review copy from Blogging For Books

This Too Shall Pass from Blogging For Books

Saturday: I got another freebie from Marlboro that Cayce begged to have. If I would have gave this to him, he would lose it in less than a week!

Majority Rules win: Zippo lighter from Marlboro

February 28, 2017 issue of Forbes

March 2017 issue of Southern Living

So, that's my haul from last week. I will be back to regular posting this week. I will be have a book review up next, so be on the look out.

School Week 27 Photo Diary

I am not going to be going into much detail this week because this week was just bad all around. We had a great school week, but home life just really sucked.

Monday: This was a very hectic day because my day started off shitty. Luna was in heat and meowing like crazy to go outside. It was hard to focus on anything and do anything. We watched the Magic School Bus to start the week off.

Tuesday: We worked on Easy Peasy and watched more Planet Earth today and started reading Mrs Piggle Wiggle's Magic.

Samantha also worked on her adult coloring book.

Wednesday: they both did reading time today and they both got some much needed Reading Eggs lessons done.

she made her own little treasure map for Reading Eggs

Thursday: We had such a late night on Wednesday that we took the day off from school.

Friday: We watched the first episode of Planet Earth 2 and then we started watching Frozen Planet

Saturday: We had such a busy day and had to run errands and the kids talked to the people we ran into and helped with shopping. Then we came home and finished reading Mrs Piggle Wiggle and watched some more Frozen Planet.

Amazon Pool Supplies Haul

I start buying pool supplies in the off season because they are cheaper. Since we got the pool last year, I spent way too much money on pool cleaners. I am buying in bulk this month on replacement parts and chemicals. I am also starting to buy Samantha's birthday presents. Her theme this year is going to be Pokemon.

1. Intex Pool Pins

Cayce and I had spent two weekends now, taking down the pool because it was full of leaves and it is so green. One weekend, we took out all the leaves and hung our pool cover and solar mats out to dry. The next weekend, we had heavy winds and it flipped our pool over. It was a good and bad thing. It got the rest of the leaves out, but it also broke some of the vital pins that hold the pieces together.

2. 2 Intex Filters (twin packs)

Last summer, our second most expensive and hard to find purchase was pool filters. Whenever it stormed badly and the pool cover blew off, the pool turned green and when we cleaned it, filters had to go. I think we went through 4-5 filters last summer, so I will be getting another twin pack.

3. Chlorine Tablets

I still have a little bit of chlorine tablets left from last summer and they are tiny. These are a little bit bigger and will go a long way and hopefully last all this summer and next. I am hoping these will help keep the pool cleaner since they are bigger. 

4. Pokemon DVD

This is present #1 for Samantha's 8th birthday. The girls are so into Pokemon. Sammy LOVES Meowth, so I am going to be getting her a lot of Meowth merch and some other Pokemon stuff. We are watching the Indigo League on Netflix and it is taking me back to my childhood because that is the beginning.

I am thinking of making a post all about Pokemon through all the generations and which is everyone's favorite. That will be coming soon, I'll have to get all the info this weekend or next week.

XOXO

Review: The Girl In The Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz

Time for another book review. This is the "fourth" book in the Millennium series and it is a continuation of Stieg Larsson's first 3 novels. I enjoyed and disliked this book at the same time. It was a great story line, but the characters were not the same at all whatsoever. It was a really quick read for me, I read it in four day whereas the first 3 novels I spent a week reading each one. It must have been the font size or the lack of details.

This new author copied the same format that is Stieg Larrson's style and he left a lot of questions. There was the beginning that said a year earlier, but throughout the book, it felt like sometimes it was more than a year ago and talking in way past tense.

I did have some issues when Blomkvist was talking with Palmgren and they mention Ronald Neiderman who is Salander's half brother. How the hell did Palmgren know that he was her half brother. It was implied that Salander was the only one who knew and that information was never revealed in her trial. This is during the Camilla conversation and I also had a problem with how it seemed like Bloomkvist was asking questions about Lisbeth and this information he already knew from the trial. This conversation piece between these two characters was a bad filler and not needed because it mentioned Camilla slightly.

ALSO, I doubt that Salander would tell Palmgren ANYTHING about Plague and Hacker Republic!!!

I ended up giving this novel a 3 out of 5 stars. It just mentions past characters and brings them back and then does no character building and then the motorcycle club is brought back and not used for ANY REASON!! The prosecutor Eckstrom..... WHY IS HE STILL A PROSECUTOR???? He fucked up royally in The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.

Last of all, why did the author leave a Camilla cliffhanger and then try to create a little Salander- Bloomkvist romance at the end. Salander would have went through hell and high water to try and find Camilla and kill her.

If a book 5 is written in this universe by this author, I will probably not read it. I was so disappointed with most of the characters story lines.

Freebie Haul 2/13- 2/18

Here comes another freebie haul guys!! This is really small, but it is all appreciated. The freebies are starting to slow down again and I am getting notifications late on freebies that I want, but it's all good.

Monday: I got a Rejuvenate Restorer Wipe and 25% off code.

Tuesday: I got a 10 Sephora gift card through Kellogg's Family Rewards, and I chose to get a mini Ciate nail polish, and I also got three free perfume samples. Cayce also stopped by to redeem a coupon for the kitty cats

Meow Mix brushing bites

Wednesday: No Freebies

Thursday: Cayce got his free Rejuvenate sample and another magazine

February 23- March 9, 2017 issue of Rolling Stone

Friday: Risque magazine cover graced Cayce's eyeballs and the mail lady....lol

Winter 2017 issue of Sports Illustrated

Saturday: Hugh magazine day and got my Smiley 360 cat litter mission kit

$10.00 Walmart Gift Card from Smiley 360

March 2017 issue of Fast Company

March 2017 issue of allure 

March/ April 2017 issue of Seventeen magazine

February 27, 2017 issue of Us Weekly

March 2017 issue of Elle magazine

I just did a magazine purge this morning before I got my mail and now this pile has somewhere to go. I am not expecting a huge haul next week, but I might be wrong. Did ya'll get any good freebies this week, if so let me know down in the comments.

XOXO

School Week 26 Photo Diary

We are almost done with the school year. Only a handful of weeks to go and then it will be summer. We are getting a lot done and we are taking our time on everything. I am going to be reassessing everything this weekend and make a list of what else they need to learn before the end of the school year and then everything else, will be learned and reviewed during weekends and on summer break. I have a lot I want to accomplish with them.

Monday: The day started off with morning work and doing lessons on Reading Eggs.

When they got done alternating between Reading Eggs and their reading time, they asked to watch Planet Earth. This has confirmed my theory that my girls are visual learners. They watch something and they discuss it with me, talk about it and pretend to be whatever it is while playing. I know that sounds confusing, but it's true.

We finished the day with reading Skeletons Don't Play Tubas. It was funny and it is now a favorite of ours in that series.

Tuesday: It's Valentine's Day. They started their day with morning work and then watched the Magic School Bus. They love drawing pictures and discussing after each episode.

After we watched 4 episodes of Magic School Bus, they had their reading time and then they watched a video on YouTube on the origins of Valentine's Day. While that video was playing, I was putting together little Valentines worksheets together and they worked on these packets for a good chunk of the afternoon.

To end the already late day, we read the first two chapters of A Series Of Unfortunate Events: The Hostile Hospital.

Wednesday: We started the day with reading 4 chapters of The Hostile Hospital to catch up to where I wanted to be. After we got done reading, they wanted to do some more of the Highlights Puzzle Buzz books, so they got to do those.

When they got halfway done with those books, Samantha had reading time while Ariana worked on Easy Peasy lessons and then they switched to end their school day.

Thursday: Today was a good and productive day. We focused on history. I am throwing it back to Thanksgiving time, but I believe this should be learned whenever during the school year. They started the morning with morning work and finished their Highlights puzzle books. Then they watched a YouTube video which was a little interactive field trip to Plimouth Plantation. They learned about the pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock. I want to go to Plimouth Plantation one day. (NOTE: Plimouth Plantation is spelled with an I and not the Y.. it's explained in the video)

After the video, they got to do a girl pilgrim craft and they then watched another video on the Wampanoag Homesite at Plimouth Plantation. After they had their reading time and then we finished the day with reading more of The Hostile Hospital.

Friday: We were ready to start the day and get to our much needed weekend. We are starting to get the burnout again and this weekend will be just a relax weekend. They wanted to watch two more episodes of Planet Earth and the Ice Worlds episode was their favorite. Addy loved seeing the penguins.

It has been a full and productive week. I love seeing my planners this full

After we got done watching Planet Earth, we watched a video on Squanto and the pilgrims he met. Then we ended the day with reading the last four chapters of The Hostile Hospital.

of course Ariana had to blink..... 

We have 56 more days of school. I have the countdown written down and I think that was a mistake because it is making me anxious.... AHHHHH!