Thursday, July 30, 2009

My Black Hole

A black hole is an area of space where gravity is so strong, nothing can escape. The internet is my black hole. I get sucked into blogs or comparison shopping or craft projects and time just zooms by.

Facebook and Twitter are other factors in my black hole. I have been on Facebook for awhile and I find it is a great way to stay connected with extended family and old friends. Twitter is something new for me and I am still figuring out how it works, but I enjoy reading about internet shopping deals at @coupontweet and different "famous" people like the Jonai (Jonas Brothers) and Christian artists like Steven Curtis Chapman and Mac Powell. Then I have my three blogs to update: Bring on the Books (book reviews), this one, and a new one coming in August, Bring on the Books for Teachers.

It is a good thing we only have one laptop in the house. My husband uses it in the evenings to work on his blog so I don't use it often. If we each had one, we probably wouldn't speak to each other at all - just tweet back and forth about what we were doing on the internet!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Love Life

One of my favorite blogs is [i] LoveLife by Kal Barteski. This is the first blog I check every day - and there are quite a few that are on my "check daily" list. She makes amazing art like this and this. We did a custom poster for my son, and I love how it turned out!

I also love reading about Kal's family and her parenting journey. She is transparent and honest about the ups and downs of being a mom and adjusting to the changes in the family as every person in it grows and changes. She and her husband named their daughters Pilot and Penn and I love the reasons they chose those names.

Kal is also an advocate of the "bulletproof positive attitude" which I know I need more of in my life. So, I hope you will check out Kal's blog.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

You've Got to Look the Part

My son decided that he needed an official "bowling shirt" for when he goes bowling (which is seldom) or when he plays Wii Bowling. So, we bought two t-shirts at Hobby Lobby when they were on sale and I cut one into strips. I used Heat N Bond to put the shirts together and then added dimensional paint to finish it off. Turned out better than I expected for something thrown together on a whim!


Thursday, July 23, 2009

Love Equals....

I do not "sew." I haven't sewed on a machine since I was 13. But I do sew by hand, so if I can find something simple enough, I will do that. It started with travel pillows for my son, and then a pillow and blanket for his stuffed monkey. Now we have graduated to pillows and blankets for my nieces dolls, and a sleeping bag for the monkey. They aren't beautiful works of art, and they take a lot longer than they would if I used a machine. But they are made with love.

Love = sewing by hand.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Something Fun




Found this on Twitter this week - a little something fun from one of my favorite shows, Psych on USA. Season 3 comes out on DVD today, too!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Addiction

I have an addiction to the printed page. I read all the time. I love magazines, mysteries, non-fiction books about education and psychology and faith. I also love reading books for kids. I have a book review blog where I write about the books I am reading. I have an entire bookshelf (three shelves plus the top) stacked with books that I bought but haven't read yet. Why not?

Because of the library....

I love the freedom of buying a book and taking wherever with me and not being worried about due dates or dog-earing the pages. But the library allows me to read books I wouldn't normally buy, either because I know I will only read them once or because I am not sure I will even like them. We often have over 50 books checked out of the library in our household at any given moment.

But this week was going to be different. I have planned a Harry Potter review session for my book review blog at the end of the month. I want to review the series and several commentary books I have. But I need to read the series again in order to read the commentaries, so I need to focus on Harry for awhile. I took cell-phone pictures of the library books I wasn't done with so I could check them out later and my son and I loaded all of the library books up to return. My son, who is six, had also decided to return all of his books. He has plenty to read on his book shelves, too.

We were just going to go in, drop off all of our books and pick up the three I had on hold. Just three books. No more....

Did I mention I have an addiction to books? They call to me, filled with potential - inventive stories, interesting characters, reams of information. I couldn't resist. Two bulging book bags later, my son and I checked out of the library. I shook my head as we walked to the car like a couple of pack mules. So much for only checking out my three on-hold books. We have no will-power at the library. But it warmed my heart to realize that my son is as addicted to books as I am. That isn't a bad quality in a person, in my opinion.