Our House in the Middle of Our Street

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Lukka's Birthday Interview // 15

Happy 15th Birthday, Lukka! You are becoming such a wonderful young man. This past year you had a part-time job (and now a nearly full-time summer job!), got even more involved in volunteering at church and youth group, and have honed your stand-up comedian skills. You still love music just as much as you did when you first started, and take it very seriously. You've excelled in so many things and have made great strides academically. You're a hard worker and are excited about your summer internship (and the first week was great). We love you, and we can't wait to see what's in store for your 15th year. Lukka and his calabi yau made completely of meringue! What is your favorite color? Blue one of the little buns we got to spend time with from our friend's litter! Who are some of your friends? Matthew, Joshua, Mattias, Kate, Cole, Jeremy, Gabe, Zack, Lukka showing off some co-op coffee bean artwork What do you want to do when you're an adult? some sort of

March + April Titles // 2022

The last year of homeschooling was more intense than expected as far as reading aloud books to my teens. We've always done a lot of reading together, but now that the kids are older, the books are longer, more dense, and reading for my own gets pushed to the back burner because we are on a timeline (!) with finishing their books for Language Arts, Socials, and Science. I'm four months late, but want to keep tracking books every other month for a record of our days, so here we are-playing catch up. I can't actually remember when I read all these titles; the school books are clearer, but the others, I'm just guessing as to when they fell in either March or April. So many books I've abandoned or wasn't able to finish before the library due date (looking at you The Island of Missing Trees !) and I'd be remiss not to mention my attention just isn't what it used to be. I find it much harder to really sink into a book. It was nearly impossible for me to do d

January + February Titles // 2022

The most recent stack Although this post might say it's March 1, 2022, I am currently sitting half-way through March while trying to get this done in the next thirty minutes that I have to myself. It never lasts long enough! Only half of this stack got finished, though I've completed a few since this photo was taken, my reading has mostly been for the kids' school book stack. That is just the reality these days as they are reading novels (or I am reading them aloud) and to keep up with all of it just takes most of my (slow) reading time. I'm a quarter of the way through my most recent Plough magazine issue, and have high hopes for reading Joy Clarkson's Aggressively Happy over the course of the next month, but even my book club reads are suffering. January The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah - This was my book club's January pick and it was long and not my favorite Hannah book. If I never read another Dust Bowl book I'll be happy (I think this was #4...). It

Anikka's Birthday Interview // 13

Anikka on the Vancouver Island ferry Anikka has fully become a young lady this past year. She is no longer a kid who likes to play, and that means my baby's 'childhood' is a bittersweet memory. I will always miss her chubby elbow dimples but the young person she is transitioning into is such a beautiful mixture of her little self and the horizon of the future dreams she has. She is a goal-setter and a quiet achiever. She takes care of people, and shows affection by spending her time and art skills making things for others. She knows what she likes, and what she doesn't, and trusts me enough to take my advice if she's hesitant but feels I might be right about a new experience I'm gently pushing her into saying "yes" to. She loves just about any TV show I tell her about from my childhood (love that!). She's a strong introvert that needs hours of downtime a day, which works for her because it's helped her become accomplished with her art! We

November + December Titles // 2021

Only half of these were completed, while the bottom two played the game Library Chicken November and especially December were probably two of my best reading months since the entire pandemic started! Why is this of note? Because I thought the lock down would mean so much more time and reading, it actually dramatically cut my attention span and I couldn't finish paragraphs, let alone books, without falling asleep or becoming distracted! I have lots of little books (under 300 pages) on this list that were certainly easier to get through than say, a 500 page tome, but every little bit helps, and I'm taking the win. I can't particularly remember which books were completed in November and which in December, so I'm plugging them in together, in no particular order. All books with the (*) beside the author name can be found at the little bookshop I work at, Classical Education Books. It's a great way to support a local (BC) "mom and pop" shop that I love! 30

September + October Titles // 2021

One of my favorite spots to stop and take a picture in Ft. Langley: Brae Island on the right hand side I had every intention of getting all my titles together before the end of October and...here we are on November 10th. Ideally I'd love to catalog and share my two vacations from this prior year; our family one in Sooke, BC, and my girls' trip to Albuquerque I did in September. Here's hoping! One thing I've noticed is that around the middle of summer, my book reading became 'easy' again. I had such high hopes when the lock down first started, but my attention span quickly grew frizzly within a month. My sleeping took a turn for the worst and anytime I sat down to read I just couldn't get anywhere with it. Apparently, it was a common thing with lots of book readers. The low-grade stress eked into my favorite hobby, and I wasn't pleased. Thankfully, my book reading seems to have really had a kick start these last few months, and I've been happy with