Review: Bonfire by Krysten Ritter

I did not plan on reading this book this month. I have been looking at my bookshelves because I am going to be re-arranging them soon and this book was on the top shelf and I realized that this book and another book that I am going to be reading next month, were the only two unread books on that shelf. I immediately grabbed it, wanting to read it so I could have a shelf of read books.

This book was written by the actress who plays Jessica Jones on Netflix and she played the character Lucy on Gilmore Girls. This is her debut novel and it's exactly what you would expect from a first book from a new author. It wasn't that great. The plot wasn't original at all. I would say it's like The Simpsons movie and Under the Dome combined. Small town that has a company doing illegal dumping that is contaminating the water and there is cover up of a murder.

The main character Abby is an environmental lawyer who has gone back to her hometown after 10 years to solve and figure out whats going on with the water. Right off the bat, she starts seeing buildings and playgrounds that have been donated by the company Optimal. She runs into old bullies. She has constant flashbacks and then she starts focusing on.. more like obsessing on a girl named Kaycee Mitchell.

This girl was the biggest liar and attention seeker.. or so everyone says. Everyone says she ran away after she "faked" being sick to try to get a payout.

This story was all about corruption, cover ups, trafficking, blackmail, alcoholism, and murder. I ended up giving this a 3 out of 5. I enjoyed it but it was not great. The ending was super rushed and I wish the reservoir scene was a little longer and more action packed.

School Week 36 Photo Diary

This week had to be one of our busiest weeks. We also had a day off on Thursday because they were supposed to have a dentist appointment, but Cayce forgot to let his work know, so we had to reschedule. As I am writing this, they have had their appointment and Ariana has to have some major dental work done. She has to have some baby teeth removed because her permanent teeth are not coming in or they are coming in behind her baby teeth. Her mouth is so tiny and the dentists always have a hard time and I don't think they have been able to get an x-ray of her teeth yet. Anyways, back to this school week.

Monday 4/23: We had a 10AM start time. A little later than I wanted, but it was a good long and productive day. After their morning work, I had Addy work in her workbook. Ariana did Easy Peasy lessons. Samantha worked on phonics worksheets. Addy also watched some YouTube videos and then she watched a new show on Netflix called Ask the Storybots. While she was watching that, I had Ariana and Sammy do reading time together.

Ariana worked on Reading Eggs today. We read more of The Wizard of Oz and ended the day with a YouTube video on Thomas Jefferson.

Tuesday: We had the latest start of the week today. We were barely awake by the time we started doing our morning work after breakfast, so we watched Wild Arabia on Netflix. Gave me a lot of Aladdin vibes. After, Addy did some more workbook pages. Ariana read to herself and to me and Sammy worked on phonics worksheets. Ariana also worked on more Reading Eggs Mathseeds lessons while Sammy and Addy did reading time together and Sammy read out loud to Addy.

We finished the day with reading chapter 15 and 16 of The Wizard of Oz.

Wednesday: No Pictures. We had another early morning start. Morning work, Netflix and finished read The Wizard of Oz. That book is way different than the movie. After I got through reading the book out loud and we discussed what were our favorite and less favorite parts and what was different between the book and movie. Then we played Candy Land because Addy had been on a Candy and kick the whole weekend. We ended the day with watching a documentary on YouTube about Thomas Jefferson's life.

Thursday: No School

Friday: No Pictures. We started the day around 10:30. I was ready to get the day started because I hated giving them a day off. I considered Thursday a wasted day, but oh well. We watched another Netflix show called Wild France. It wasn't as good as Wild Arabia. Sammy worked on phonics worksheets. Ariana did reading time. Adalyn did workbook pages. We ended the day with watching another hour of the Thomas Jefferson documentary.

Saturday: No Pictures. Today was the make up day for Thursday. I have to get in my 180 days, so I will makeup a day on the weekend to keep my school end date the same. When I count my 180 days out every year, what ever day is 180.. I will stick to that day and not change it for nothing. If something happens and we have to make up days, I will do every weekend and do holidays if I have to. To keep it short and sweet and fun, we finished Wild France. We finished the Thomas Jefferson documentary and discussed it. Then we finished the day with more Candy Land.

Review: The French Girl by Lexie Elliott

I wanted to enjoy this and at some parts I did, but it is VERY predictable!! There was no character building what so ever. It was fast paced but it seemed to drag on forever. It mainly consists of their jobs and getting drunk on wine. Whenever it was talking about the French girl, it was always the same thing, no new information. I ended up giving this book 2 out of 5 stars and have nothing else to say about it, except that it was very bland and boring. It's classified as a thriller and that is not the case at all. I wouldn't even call it a mystery. More like speculative fiction or juvenile fiction.

Review: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Like everyone else, this book will be going on my favorites list for 2018. The first words out of my mouth when I read the last sentence and closed the book were "WHAT THE FUCK"! This book reminded me so much of Black Panther, a scene from Star Wars and multiple other things. Zelie is now part of the bad ass girl squad in my book.

We meet Zelie praying to be chosen by her teacher to be given a chance to show her fighting skills. Her people, the maji have been slaughtered, and disrespected by the king. The Maji are very easily distinguished by their white hair and that makes them a target. They used to have magic until the king raided their people and killed all the Maji adults including Zelie's mother.

There are a three points of view, those are Zelie, Amari- the princess, and Inan- the king to be. I usually don't like different points of view because they all seem to have the same voice and are not differentiated but Tomi Adeyemi did such an amazing job making these characters seem so real. I wanted to cry at times because the emotions and memories from these characters were so raw.

I understand the one thing that people don't like about this book is the insta-love, but I didn't have a problem with it. It doesn't last but I am hoping that she doesn't make a love triangle in the next book.

Review: The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris

This is one of the cutest middle grade reads that I have read in a while. I love that Neil Patrick Harris wrote a great story about one of his favorite hobbies or jobs and that is magic. My kids love him as Count Olaf and that is how I found out about this book. I first heard about it from his website and then this was one of the books given in an Owlcrate Jr box last year. It also helped my kids be interested by the blurb from Lemony Snicket. While reading this book, there was a lot of similar sayings and scenes that reminded us of A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

It's about an orphan boy who runs away from his thieving uncle and goes to this town called Mineral Wells. He stumbles upon a traveling carnival who has some shady employees. He goes to the carnival the first night he is in town and he accidentally gets the attention of the boss of the carnival and gets threatened. He also meets a magician who lives in town.

This story was very heavy in stranger danger, be mindful of your belongings and you can find a misfit or two in the craziest of ways. I can't wait for the second book coming out in September.

School Week 35 Photo Diary

I have been thinking about these posts non stop and it is making me want to get them done and posted. it also helps to keep the girls school planners open on my desk and taking up space.. lol. I want my desk space back!! This was a 4 day week for us because Samantha's birthday was on Friday.

Monday 4/16: Started before 9am. We were ready to get this school week done because we were all ready for Friday. I was just ready to get all those present out of my closet, so I could walk back into my closet. I am not thrilled that she is already 9, but can't help that. Anyways, they had their morning work and chores. Addy worked on more pages in her workbook after. Ariana worked on some worksheets that were in her white binder and Sammy worked on phonics worksheets.

When they worked on worksheets for a good hour and a half, I had Addy go watch Little Einsteins. Ariana had been doing reading time because she finished all of her worksheets, so she ended up doing Reading Eggs Mathseeds. Sammy did her reading time and then she also worked on Reading Eggs.

Tuesday: No Pictures. We started the day close to 10:00 and we had a discussion and research time to start the day. We were outside on the porch calling for Luna and we saw a caterpillar on our flowers. The girls wanted to know what type it was so we googled it and we realized that this caterpillar we were seeing is actually a moth. I was surprised and we also learned the name. It is an Eastern Tent Caterpillar. Once we got done reading some more fun facts about it, we started actual work. Addy worked on her pink tablet that I fixed. Ariana did Easy Peasy lessons. Sammy worked on Phonics worksheets. We ended the day with watching two more episodes of Egypt on Netflix.

Wednesday: Morning work and then more of Egypt on Netflix. After, we read 4 chapters of The Wizard of Oz. The book is so different from the movie. Addy did some more workbook pages for the rest of the day. Ariana started her Reading Eggs Eggspress lessons and loved them.

Sammy worked on Easy Peasy worksheets and she finished her day with reading time. Sammy worked on time and adjective worksheets and she did super well.

Thursday: No Pictures. I was surfing Hulu the night before and realized that they have a movie that I have been wanting to watch for years and that there was now a part two coming out, so I decided that the movies would be part of our school day, for two reasons. We all love penguins and Sammy especially loves them. They are one of her favorite animals. We watched March of the Penguins 1 and 2.

Friday: No School! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMMY!!!!

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Ariana Cooks! Pt. 2 April 13, 2018

I am slowly but surely getting these posts up. This is the second one I am doing today. This meal was a favorite among the girls but I didn't like it as much as they did. The crust was a little too hard and my favorite part were the vegetables on top. The size of the pizzas weren't enough for all 5 of us, so we made a salad to go along with it, so it was a veggie night. This meal was the Veggie Pizza wit Crispy Rice Crust

Ingredients We Used:

1 cup, cooked according to package directions UNCLE BEN'S® Flavor Infusions Garlic & Butter Rice

1 egg

½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese

½ teaspoon dried oregano½ cup prepared pizza sauce1 ½ cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
fresh vegetables
We made two pizzas, so we had to double the recipe. 

School Week 34 Photo Diary

I know this is beyond late, but we are finally done with our school year and I am going to be working on these back to back to have them up before the end of this month. I will not being doing these types of posts next year. I am going to be doing something completely different that will be personal for just our family.

Monday 4/9: No Pictures. I had Sammy start early this morning with Easy peasy, then her sisters started their  morning at 9:10AM with morning work and chores. After, I had Addy work on Easy Peasy lessons while Ariana did Reading Eggs worksheets. Sammy did some reading time and then they watched a new Netflix documentary called Saving Sirga. We finished the day with reading Peter Pan

Tuesday: We had a late start to the day. They got their morning work done and then we watched another two episodes of Saving Sirga. It's about an abandoned lion who follows the dude who saved her everywhere and he is trying to get her to adjust to the wild again. After we got done watching that, Addy worked on Easy Peasy lessons. Ariana and Sammy summarized what they watched and that was their writing time.

When Addy was done with her Easy Peasy lessons, she watched Super Why while Sammy and Ariana did reading time together. We ended the day with reading two more chapters of Peter Pan.

Wednesday: No Pictures. We started our morning at 10:10AM with morning work and chores. We watched episode 4 and 5 of Saving Sirga. Addy got her new workbook yesterday, so she did some pages and she was super happy and did so good. Ariana and Sammy worked on Reading eggs worksheets. Addy watched more Super Why after she got done with her workbook. We finished the day with a chapter of Peter Pan.

Thursday: We started the day at 10:00am. We finished watching Saving Sirga and it was so good. We read three chapters of Peter Pan. I had Sammy work on phonics worksheets after. Ariana had reading time and Addy did more pages in her workbook. Sammy finished her day with reading with Addy and Ariana finished her day with Reading Eggs worksheets. 

Friday: No Pictures. We had another 10AM start. I wasn't feeling that great and was really sluggish and tired, so after they got done with their morning work and chores, I had them play several rounds of Candy Land with Addy. After they played that for a little while, we finished reading Peter Pan. The girls were asking about Egypt the night before and if we were going to do anything more with Egypt this year and I found a documentary on Netflix that we hadn't watched and it was a retelling of when King Tut's tomb was discovered. It is called Egypt. After we watched two episodes of that, Sammy and Ariana worked on Reading Eggs worksheets. Addy spent the rest of her day with me doing number flashcards. Sammy finished her day with finishing up some worksheets for Easy Peasy math. 

Review: The Girl From The Train by Irma Joubert

I am in the mood to read all of my WW2 books that I own and this one has been on my mind since I won it on Goodreads. It is all about a little girl named Gretl. She is a German Jew and we are introduced to her right off the bat escaping from a train that it taking her and her family to Auschwitz. She is eventually found by a man name Jakob, and he takes her as is responsibility for the next 4 years. After the war is over, his family voice their opinions that he should take the child away because they can't afford another mouth to feed.

To save her from going to work in a Polish factory at the age of 12, he gets her into program that takes German war orphans to loving families in South Africa.

This book definitely tugged at my heart because Gretz went through so much in her short life. She went through so many name changes. She had to hide her past because she was a Catholic German Jew. The ending was absolutely amazing. The relationship between Gretz and Jakob at the very beginning reminded me of Cosette and Jean Valjean in Lis Miserables.

Ariana Cooks! Pt.1 April 7, 2018

I know I am a month late with this post and the sad thing is, is that she only got to make two of the recipes that we chose for the month. Dinner plans changed and also we couldn't find what we needed at the end of the month or it was just to expensive where we were shopping. I budget when I shop and I do meticulous planning of every shopping trip. She had fun the two meals she made.This meal was called Country Style Turkey and Rice Casserole.

Ingredients We Used:

• 1 box UNCLE BEN’S® COUNTRY INN® Chicken & Vegetable Rice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1 can low-fat condensed cream of chicken soup
• 2 cups frozen peas and carrots
• 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
• 6 cups diced cooked turkey
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 pkg stove top stuffing

Review: Girls In Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares

When I made my Buzzword TBR video, I said that I was caught up on the story line because I have been watching the movies over the years. I last read the first two books of this series back in middle school. BOY WAS I WRONG!! I start reading and then I realize that I know what is going to happen because a storyline from this book was in the second movie.

I decide to wiki it and then I found that the second movie has some story lines from the fourth book and second book as well. I was kind of disappointed with that, but once I got into reading it and put the movie from my mind, I actually enjoyed it and finished the book quickly.

What I didn't like was the birth part from Carmen's mom. She was completely dumb and acting like she had never given birth before. Giving birth is something that you do not forget and she had already had Carmen 18 years before. She was saying that she didn't know that she was in labor and she was completely hysterical about the baby coming. I feel that her character was too babyish and stupid.

Review: Things I Never Told You by Beth K. Vogt

I am going to start off by saying that I CAN NOT wait for the next book in the Thatcher Sisters series. I read this book in 4 days. It is a real page turner. It follows a family of 4 sisters but mainly focuses on two. One of the sisters is a twin, whose twin was killed in a snowmobile accident 10 years ago. She has lived with the guilt and a huge secret from her family all that time. One of her older sisters, has been diagnosed with breast cancer and has to have a mastectomy. The awful thing about the timing of the diagnosis and surgery is that it occurs during her engagement and wedding planning.

Payton is constantly being visited in her dreams by her dead sister Pepper who wants her to tell the family the truth. She also gets a surprise visit over and over from a guy named Zach who was the host of the party where Pepper died.

This book is a cute and heartbreaking contemporary that has religious aspects. I ended up giving this book a 4 out of 5 because whenever the character Zach talked about his religion, it was very repetitive and it got old real quick.

TYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHERS HAS PROVIDED ME WITH A COMPLEMENTARY COPY OF THIS BOOK! Thank you Tyndale House.

May TBR + Buzzword Readathon?

My May TBR is a couple days late and that is because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to read this month. I am going to try and take part in my first read a thon this month which is being hosted by Booksandlala on YouTube. The buzzword is GIRL, so we have to read books with the word GIRL in the title. It is taking place next week which is the last week of school for us and it is going to be hella busy. Also, one of the books for this TBR is going to be my classic and nonfiction for this month.

I haven't read this book since I was in middle school and I have been wanting to read all of my WW2 fiction and non fiction books, and figured this would be a good starting point.

Then I have two more books that I want to try to get to but they might get pushed to June. It depends.

April Wrap Up

I read a total of 9 books in April. I knew that my count was going to go down around the end of the school year, but I am anticipating that it will go back up in the summer months. I read some decent books this month. Some were expected 5 stars and some were straight spoilers. I completed my challenges of read 1 classic and 1 nonfiction per month. I read 4 classics this month. 

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

2. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
3. Sirens by Joseph Knox

4. The Walking Dead Book 10 by Robert Kirkman
5. The Walking Dead Book 11 by Robert Kirkman
6. The Kremlin Conspiracy by Joel C. Rosenberg

7. Happy, Happy, Happy by Phil Robertson

8. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

9. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Past Owl Crate Unboxing: May 2017: Comic Explosion

The reason that I bought this box is that the theme called to me. Also, the book is highly loved and has some amazing reviews. The items in the box are spectacular and might be my favorite box I have purchased. I can't wait to read this book. 

The kafe coffee candies were disgusting

Exclusive Owl Crate cover.

The wonder woman candle is my second favorite thing in this box.

My number one favorite item that I got in this box. 

The Captain America funko pop.

I am not a huge fan of Captain America but Cayce is and he took it straight away and placed it beside his Effie Trinket funko pop.

I had to get the Owl Crate planner. I want to start tracking my reading on paper. I did plan to start in April, but life got in the way and so I am thinking about starting in June or July.