April Wrap-Up

It is surprising how fast April has gone by. I got to most of the books on my TBR but 1. I already have it requested from the library and should be getting it this week. This book has been on my TBR the past two months. 

1. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

2. The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket
3. The City & The City by China Mieville

4. Friendship According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney
5. The Dinner by Herman Koch

6. The BFG by Roald Dahl
7. The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket

8. The Walking Dead. Book 1 by Robert Kirkman

9. Inferno by Dan Brown

10. Trouble According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney
11. The End by Lemony Snicket

I also read one less book this month. I want to keep my reading in this range for May because I am going to be taking a a semi reading break during the summer. I am not going to stop reading, but I have a big chunky book that I want to read. It's Stephen King's Under The Dome. I am planning on it being my only summer read along with a couple of books for the kids, and maybe a few books from Blogging For Books.

Freebie Haul 4/24- 4/29

Just when I was starting to have big freebie weeks again, this one turns out to be a good small one. I have a lot of freebie coupons that I will be redeeming tomorrow and I may include them in next week's post if I do have the chance to go by the store tomorrow to do so.

Monday: No Freebies

Tuesday: No Freebies

Wednesday: No Freebies

Thursday: Magazine day!!

May 1, 2017 issue of Sports Illustrated

May 4, 2017 issue of Rolling Stone

Friday: No Freebies

Saturday: CrowdTap crowdkit day. I can't wait to redeem these Dunkin Donut coupons tomorrow. I need some coffee. I'm running low on K-Cups. 

Dunkin Donuts Crowdkit from CrowdTap

Hawaiian Tropic crowdkit from CrowdTap

I am so appreciative for the freebies and samples I received this week. 

School Week 35 Photo Diary

Only two more weeks left. This week went by so fast. It was mainly a reading week because I had boos that were due back this weekend and we did a lot of workbook pages and finishing history lessons.

Monday: We started the day with morning work and then reading time. Then I had Ariana work on Reading Eggs while Samantha caught up on some Easy Peasy math worksheets.

When they were done with that, we read two more chapters of The End. We finished the day with watching a YouTube video on The Middle Passage.

Tuesday: No pictures today. We did morning work. Watched four episodes of Bill Nye the Science Guy. We read together for an hour and we started reading Trouble According To Humphrey.

Wednesday: We started the day with morning work and had another reading time session. After reading time, Samantha did some Reading Eggs and Ariana worked on some Easy Peasy math worksheets.

When that was done, we read some more of The End. We ended the day with watching a final YouTube video on slavery.

Thursday: I only took a couple pictures today. We had a very late start. Samantha had her 8 year checkup today and I planned on starting Ariana early, but it didn't go the way I planned. After their morning work, I had them work on Samantha's Pokemon puzzle because I am ready to get it off my kitchen table.

The rest of the day was spent watching more Bill Nye the Science Guy, reading time together and then reading more of Trouble According to Humphrey.

Friday: We had a big reading day. We finished The End. Samantha cried and was upset. I think it ended amazingly. After I got through reading, I had to take a break from talking, so I had them do reading time.

After our reading time, we spent an hour working on workbook pages. They love math and so we did math work. We finished the day with finishing Trouble According to Humphrey.

I am so ready to get to next week. I have a lot of stuff for them to get to. I am also ready for the summer break, but I am not ready for the year to be over.

Review: Inferno by Dan Brown

This 4th book in the Robert Langdon series is my favorite so far. It was so much better than the other 3 on so many levels. I love that he didn't have Langdon acting completely dumb about things, like he was in the third book. My favorite is that the girl companion in this novel was a sort of villian, but then she had a complete plot twist.

It is really scary to think that something like the vector virus mentioned in the story could really be figured out and made. It also has some completely true facts, that the world is overpopulated and everything else will be going extinct in the near future.

I enjoyed the setting of Florence and Venice, Italy. But I would really love to have a setting somewhere else besides Europe and the US. The whole world has symbols and it seems that Dan Brown is only focusing his character on European and American expeditions.

April Book Outlet Haul

Back in February I made a lot of purchases on BookOutlet.com. I love this website, but it is something competitive about it. You gotta be quick to buy those new releases. This is the second box of goodies that I order and I am going to be sharing them with you all.

I had to get the cut bear. He is sitting on my shelf, riding a turkey candle holder from Bath and Body Works.

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

Burned & Smoke boxed set by Ellen Hopkins

I decided to get all the books in this little collection from Puffin Chalk because the covers are absolutely gorgeous and they are affordable.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I can't wait to share with ya'll the third box of goodies I got next month. And I may throw in a couple other books that I may get next month.

Have a great day ya'll.
XOXO

Cooking With Samantha #2

I planned on having this up way earlier than this, but RL is definitely getting in the way. The second recipe Samantha made was meatballs and rice. This was the 2nd of 5 recipes that we got from the Ben's Beginner's program from Uncle Ben's. We also had company over and he tried one of the meatballs and enjoyed it.

Samantha wanted to try to cut an onion by her self, but she didn't make it past a good slice before she had tears in her eyes. I shower her out to cut them and she couldn't handle it.

We added the onion to our bowl and then the mince garlic and the spices.  I have the recipe linked above if you want to make this with your kids.

Then came to part I can't stand about making meatballs. I mixed it by hand, and started making the little meatballs.

Then came time for us to make the sauce. I definitely didn't have enough sauce and next time, I will be using crushed tomatoes instead of the recommended diced. I did add a little bit to much onion, but the girls and Cayce and his friend enjoyed it.

We didn't have any leftover rice, because it went into the meatballs, so Sammy suggested pasta and it was delicious. Next time, I will be making a few alterations to the sauce to make it saucier and to have more.

Sammy is still loving this cooking lessons and she loves hearing us tell her thank you for the meal. I can't wait until we continue with different recipes during the summer.

Freebie Haul 4/17- 4/22

It was another great freebie week. I loved everything that I got. I got 3 free books that I can't wait to read and more magazines. I also got more goodies to go into Cayce's birthday bag.

Monday: Starting off the week with a free book.

Zane and the Hurricane from Kellogg's Family Rewards

Tuesday: This magazine cover had me craving ice cream for the rest of the week, and I still didn't get none yet.

May 2017 issue of Better Homes and Gardens

Wednesday: Got a lot of personal care items today and a BBQ seasonings that I can't wait to try when we get our grill finally set up

La Roche-Posay Double Repair Moisturizer

Twisted Q Magic Mojo seasoning

Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine Zero shampoo and conditioner

Men's sample pack: Degree deodorant, Axe energy body wash, and Dove Men body wash

Thursday: I got another free book that I won.

Goodreads Giveaway Win: Then We Came To The End

Friday: Got my next review copy from Blogging For Books

Dark Matter from Blogging For Books

Saturday: Today was the biggest freebie day yet. My mailbox was stuffed.

Card holder for the back of a phone from Black & Mild. 

Mrs. Meyer's Crowdkit from CrowdTap

Lil' Critter Fruit N Honey gummies from Smiley360

May 2017 issue of Fast Company

May 2017 issue of allure magazine

May 2017 issue of Southern Living

April 24, 2017 issue of Us Weekly

A freebie and magazine purge is in store for tomorrow for sure. Along with organizing my hair care freebies and skin care freebies. 

School Week 34 Photo Diary

I am finally getting this post up on the right day. I got all my work done for the day and I got some tunes on, so let's get to it. We have 17 more days of this school year, and I am trying to cram as much as I can, but also having long days to make sure they understand it as well. We also had our last scheduled day off for the year this week. It is blowing my mind that I am almost done with my third year of homeschooling. Every time I think it's going to be easier next year, I remember that Addy will be starting Kindergarten!

Monday: We started the day off really late. I had a crappy sleep all weekend and it affected my Monday morning. We did our morning routine, and they reviewed spelling words. Samantha reminded me that they didn't do Easter stuff the Friday before, so I printed off some worksheets, and let them have at it.

After they got done with their worksheets, they had reading time together. I took this time to plan the week out for the slavery unit. I wanted to get through the different types of enslaved people. Egyptians, Mayans, Incans, Aztec, and the Africans.

After reading time, we read chapter 6 and 7 of The Penultimate Peril. We are almost done with this series. It's sad times.

Tuesday: We started the day of with watching The Prince Of Egypt. It was a cute movie and it was the perfect introduction on Egyptian slaves. The girls enjoyed the movie and they weren't that upset by it, but I could tell they were thinking about it through the day.

These were the only two pics I took today, but after the movie, I had them do reading time. After reading time, We watched YouTube videos on Egyptian builders who were slaves. We finished the day with reading two more chapters of The Penultimate Peril.

Wednesday: We did morning routine and then reviewed spelling words. Then I had Samantha do Reading Eggs and Ariana did reading time.

After an hour, we watched more YouTube videos on slavery in the Mayan, Aztec and Incan civilizations. Then after that, I had Samantha do reading time and Ariana worked on Reading Time.

We finished the day with reading more of The Penultimate Peril and I was ready for our last off day.

Thursday: No School. Happy Birthday Samantha!!!!

Friday: I knew starting the day, it was going to be a long one. But it was actually fun. We started with our morning routine and then they had a 30 minute review of spelling words and then test time. After the spelling tests were done, I remembered that Bill Nye's new show was released on Netflix.

We watched four episodes. I realize that this is mainly for adults, but I am watching it with them.

After we watched Bill Nye, they had reading time and then we watched YouTube videos on African slaves. We ended the day with reading the first two chapters of the final book in the A Series of Unfortunate Events series.