Review: Before I Saw You by Amy K. Sorrells

Before I Saw You is a book about this woman named Jaycee. She lives in this little town in Indiana that has the worst heroin epidemic. Her life has seen nothing but tragedy. She never got to meet her father and she had a loving, caring mother turned heroin dealer and junkie. She had a little baby brother name Jayden who died tragically and she feels responsible for his death.

A few years later, she has an abusive boyfriend and her mother is in jail. She is always yalking about God with her neighbor and closest ally Sudie, who is a cemetery caretaker and wildlife rehabilitator. She meets a new employee at the diner she works at and she quickly becomes friends with him.

I read this book in two days. The first half of the book was thrilling, angsty, heartbreaking, and annoying. There is a lot of Jesus and religious and bible talk and alot of repetitiveness in the second half and I was not into that. I ended up skipping over the scriptures and bible stories. I wanted more about the relationship between Gabe and Jaycee, and it ended up being that cliche that the non local guy swoops in and saves the girl from an abusive boyfriend and helps her out of her shitty situations.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book by Tyndale House Publishers and all opinions are 100% my own.

THANK YOU TYNDALE HOUSE!!

Review: City Of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

I finally read the second book of the Mortal Instruments series and I liked it. In the past few years, I heard and read that this one wasn't people's favorites. I am in the middle. When I would put it down, I would pick it right back up again 3-5 minutes later. It was enjoyable, but it did have me huffing and rolling my eyes at times.

I was annoyed with Simon and did not like his character what so ever. I liked him in the first book, but was turned away in this one. He basically forced a relationship with Clary and was jealous of how she felt towards Jace. I am still disgusted by the Jace and Clary romance going on.

My favorite character is still Magnus Bane. He is just silly and has the best sarcasm. As for Alec, he just needs to come out of the damn closet already to his parents. He can fight and kill demons for fucks sake, but he can't tell his mom and dad that he is gay when everyone else already knows.

The ending has me confused.. where the hell is Maia?? Also, why did Simon not go poof??

PAST OWL CRATE BOX: JANUARY 2017

Hey everyone. Sooo it's been a while since I lasted posted on here. I will be doing a post on the future of this blog and what I will be doing. I will share all of my thoughts and feelings in that post, but I just wanted to share this with you right now. I know I have readers on Bloglovin that follow me on there and I think would enjoy this post.

Last month, I purchased another past box from OwlCrate. If you don't know, I subscribed to the Owl Crate jr. box for the girls and we unbox those over on my YouTube page. I wanted this box because one of my favorite movies is Phantom of the Opera and it was the first movie that I had Cayce watch with me and he loved it as well.

My Favorite items in this box has to be the soap and The Little Prince inspired tea.

Review: The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman

It has been 7 days since I finished reading this book and I have no idea what to think about it. It was an odd story about a boy who finds a friend with an odd magical family at the end of his lane. This book reminded me of Bridge to Terabithia because of the magical elements.

I found myself a few days ago, thinking about this book and what I wanted to say about it before I realized that I hadn't thought about it at all in the previous days. It was forgettable. I have read in other reviews of this book that it is best to listen to the audio book, so if I ever want to re-read this book, that is going to be the route I take.

School Week 38 Photo Diary

The last week of school and the last of these posts for the time being. I went on a picture taking roll and took way to many. I think I was trying to make up for all the days I didn't take pictures of. This week was very productive. We got a lot done.

Monday 5/7: We started at 10am. I had Sammy start her day off with writing about her beach trip with my mom and dad. They took her to Beaufort for her birthday trip. While she was writing that, I had Addy work on more workbook pages. Ariana started her day off with reading. We read more of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Once we got done with our two chapters, we watched an hour of a Thomas Jefferson documentary on YouTube.

Samantha ended her day with reading. Addy did Easy Peasy lessons and also reading time with Samantha. Ariana did some pages in her workbook.

Tuesday: NO Pictures. Sammy started her day with reading time. Addy did workbook pages and Ariana did reading time with Sammy. Next, Sammy did some pages in her Big third grade workbook. Ariana started some new lessons on Reading Eggs in worksheet form. Getting them ready for summer. We finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the kids loved every minute spent of reading that book. We ended the day with watching another hour of the Thomas Jefferson documentary.

Wednesday: No Pictures. Earliest start of the week. Mainly because I woke up early to watch the new episode of The Handmaid's Tale. I am OBSESSED with that show. It affected me so much that I had to choose a new show on Netflix for them to watch while I got my shit together and stopped crying long enough. They ended up watching A Night On Earth. We then started reading a new book. The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris. When I got done with reading two chapters, they went and did reading time together and Ariana read out loud to Sammy and Addy and it was so cute. Sammy finished her day with phonics worksheets. Addy worked in her workbook and Ariana worked in her scholastic 2nd grade workbook.

Thursday: We had a late start to the day. Morning work. Ariana started her day with Easy Peasy lessons. She did two days worth of lessons. Addy watched Leapfrog videos one more time this year. Sammy did phonics worksheets and then she did her Easy Peasy lessons, while Ariana started more Reading Eggs worksheets. When Addy got done with her videos, I had Ariana do reading time together while Addy did her Easy peasy lessosn. Sammy did Reading Eggs worksheets to catch up with Ariana.

We ended the day with reading three chapters of The Magic Misfits. I love that Neil Patrick Harris took inspiration from The Carnivorous Carnival and that it was also blurbed by Lemony Snicket!!

Friday: LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! We had a late start to the last day. Not what I wanted, but couldn't help it. We did morning work and our annual picture taking. My girls are getting so big. #sadface! We spent a good portion of the day watching the new season of Bill Nye Saves the World. We love Bill Nye.

After we got done watching Bill Nye, Ariana wanted to read out loud and it gave me the perfect opportunity to get this beautiful picture and a video of Ariana reading so well.

Ariana finished her year with Reading Eggs worksheets. Addy finished with doing workbook pages and Sammy did Reading Eggs worksheets as well.

I am glad that the year is done, but it seemed to fly by. I officially have a 4th grader, 3rd grader and 1st grader.

We are going to be doing a summer school of sorts. We are going to be reading, doing Reading Eggs worksheets. Math and a lot of science lessons.

June TBR

I had such a great time reading in May that I want to keep it going this month. I have all of these books at the moment. Two of them are library books, so I will be reading those two first. That is The Ocean At The End Of The Lane and Lemony Snicket. I will be reading a book or two with the kids this month as well. 

School Week 37 Photo Diary

I am almost done. The second to the last one. I enjoy looking back on these posts and I am happy that I do continue them and get them all up, but they are tedious and they get boring. I will be trying a different format with my pictures next year.

Monday 4/30: Started our day at 10:30. Addy did more workbook pages. She is flying through that damn thing, so one thing I know I ave to do this summer with her is review, review, review. Ariana and Sammy did reading time. While I was still sleeping this morning, they were in Sammy's room reading to each other, so I decided to keep them going on that. When that hour was up, we watched another Netflix documentary. Once we got done watching and learning a little about the Polar Sea, I had Addy work on Easy Peasy lessons.

I had Ariana and Samantha summarize what they watched. Then we ended the day with reading the first two chapters of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Tuesday: No Pictures. Morning work and Netflix are our normal.. don't be surprised. After we got through with our Netflix watching, Sammy and Ariana did another summary for me and Addy worked on more workbook pages. Then she went and watched a couple episodes of Little Einsteins while it was still available. While she was watching that, Sammy and Ariana wanted to sit and read their books, so they had reading time. We finished the day with reading more Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Wednesday: We had a late start to the day. We watched two more episodes of The Polar Sea on Netflix. After, I had Addy watch Super Why. She loves singing along with that show and yelling out her name and the names of animals or letters. Ariana did reading time while Sammy did phonics worksheets.

Addy finished her day with more workbook pages. Ariana worked on Reading Eggs Mathseeds lessons. Sammy finished her day with reading to herself.

Thursday: No Pictures. Morning work, Netflix and summarizing for Samantha and Ariana. And more workbook pages for Addy. Sammy worked on Easy Peasy lessons after she got done writing. Ariana did reading time. Addy had her own quiet time today because she wanted to read too. We ended the day with reading two more chapters of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Friday: Sammy went on her birthday trip with my parents, so she had the day off from school. Ariana and Adalyn had a school day. No pictures were taken though. Ariana was in charge of getting me up this morning, well we both slept in a little. She loves her sleep. They finished The Polar Sea after their morning work. I had Ariana summarize what she watched and Addy did 2 days worth of easy Peasy lessons. Then she did workbook pages while Ariana wanted to read the rest of the book she had been reading all week. She then finished her day with Reading Eggs math seeds lessons. Addy finished her day with looking at her own books, and paying attention to what Ariana was working on.

May 2018 Wrap Up

I had a great reading month in May. I read a total of 11 books. I participated in my first read a thon and I started re- reading The Hunger Games. 

1. Things I Never Told You by Beth K. Vogt

2. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

3. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

4. Girls in Pants by Ann Brashares

5. The Girl From The Train by Irma Joubert

6. The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris

7. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

8. The French Girl by Lexie Elliott

9. Bonfire by Krysten Ritter

10. Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

11. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collina