The Hole Story is a children’s story written and illustrated by Kelly Canby.
Summary: Charlie finds a hole, but he soon finds out that a hole can cause a whole lot of problems. Unable to find anyone else who wants the hole, he eventually leaves it behind…..just where it needed to be all along.
My Thoughts: This book is truly delightful. The story line is unique and fun. The illustrations use just the right amount of color and detail to enhance the story, and I loved the title and the clever shop names in the background-so, so good!
This is a great book, and I really enjoyed it. This would make a wonderful present for any small child in your life, and I have already purchased a hard copy for my family, as well as one for my nephew!
I would like to thank Star Bright Books for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my review. Thank you!
The Thing About Home is a contemporary novel written by Rhonda McKnight.
Summary: Former model Casey Black has it all: a thriving social media business, a devoted husband, and a beautiful home.
Or so she thinks.
When her husband suddenly demands a divorce in the most public way possible, Casey’s life begins to come apart.
She flees to South Carolina in an effort to find the family she’s never known.
Can she find a way to put her life back together, or will bringing up the past cause problems of its own?
My Thoughts: I liked this book. The story is well-developed with plenty of drama right from the start. I really enjoyed the complicated and thoughtful relationships between the characters, and the strong emphasis on family.
I am not usually a fan of stories that follow two different timelines, as often times there is not a clear delineation between the past and the present, or the switch is abrupt and I have a hard time adjusting back to the other timeline. This book does have two timelines, and while it is really important to the storyline, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up had I known because it makes the book harder for me to read. This is really just personal preference, however.
Overall, I found the story to be well-written, poignant (I even got misty-eyed towards the end), and full of heart.
I would recommend this book especially to those interested in the history of slavery, and those that enjoy stories of finding oneself in times of struggle.
I would like to thank Thomas Nelson for providing me with a digital copy of this book for my review. Thank you!
Supplies: Stamps and Dies: Lawn Fawn; Distress Inks: Tim Holtz
So, this card is a pretty big departure from my normal cardmaking style, but it’s right up my husband’s alley, so it’s going to be his birthday card. 🙂
I hope you can join us for this month’s challenge. You have until June 9th, so there’s plenty of time!
The Indescribable Activity Book for Kids was written by Louie Giglio and illustrated by Nicola Anderson and Lynsey Wilson.
Summary: This activity book is designed to complement the Indescribable devotional series. It contains more than 150 fun activities and includes scripture, puzzles, word searches, crosswords, drawing activities, STEM experiments and more.
Many of the activities also include page numbers at the top directing readers back to a corresponding devotion from Indescribable, How Great Is Our God, and The Wonder of Creation for a more in-depth study on that topic.
My Thoughts: We are very big fans of this entire devotional series. We have used each of the devotionals as part of our daily homeschool devotional times over the years (we’ve done Indescribable twice!), and they are wonderful. In fact, we just finished The Wonder of Creation this past school year. If you are interested, you can see my review for that book here.
Adding an activity book to this series was such a fantastic idea. My nine-year-old son is really enjoying the book so far, and I absolutely love some of the drawings he has done!
There are so many fun projects in this book too. Here are just some I am looking forward to doing with my son soon: -making a pizza that shows all the Earth’s layers -the ten second marshmallow game -crystal snowflakes -a glow stick experiment
And I absolutely love the missions where kids practice having a heart like God’s and doing things to bless other people.
This book is packed with a great variety of engaging activities, fun and colorful illustrations, and best of all, it points kids back to God and His Word.
I highly recommend this book. It is a wonderful companion to the devotionals and would be perfect as an addition to any child’s devotional time, homeschool science activities, and just for fun!
I would like to thank Thomas Nelson for providing me with a digital copy for my review, AND an actual physical copy as well! Thank you so very much!
And, just for fun, here is a picture of one of my son’s drawings from page four of the book:
Collage Your Life: Techniques, Prompts, and Inspiration for Creative Self-Expression and Visual Storytelling was written by Melanie Mowinski.
Summary: Various collage techniques are covered in this book designed to give prompts, ideas, and help readers develop their own collage style.
My Thoughts: This book just wasn’t for me. I had thought from the description that a beginner could dig into this book, but I was quickly overwhelmed.
The book starts out with a list of supplies that can be used for collage, along with tips on how to use them. There was SO much information in this section.
I think it would be a good reference section for someone who has been doing collage for a while, as I am sure the tips discussed would be great for problem-solving issues, and learning more about collage.
I just felt I was already lost from the beginning, and it made me feel like the book was just too advanced for me.
If you have experience in collage, this might be the right fit for you, but I unfortunately, just wasn’t able to get into it.
I would like to thank Story Publishing for providing me a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my review. Thank you.
The May challenge is as always Anything Goes, and our twist theme for this month is embossing (dry or heat.)
I have been having a ton of fun scrapbooking lately, so I decided to make a layout.
I knew I had some embossed paper in my stash and decided to pull it out and use it for my project.
Here is my layout:
Supplies: Patterned Paper: Fancy Pants (gray), Studio Calico (peach, brown, white, cream), Crate Paper: Woodgrain; Embossed Paper: Co’ordinations Black Magic; Letter Stickers: Jenni Bowlin; Label Sticker, Chipboard, Puffy Sticker: Studio Calico; Word Stickers: Tim Holtz; Star Punch: EK Success; Other: Cream Card Stock
I like all of the white space on this layout. It really makes the black circles stand out. I also like that I used paper scraps for everything except the background paper. Yay for using up scraps!
Well, that’s it for me today.
I hope you are inspired to create and we would love to have you join us at this month’s challenge!
Here are my reading goals for 2023: 1. Read 250 books. This includes the books I read to the kids, audiobooks, and anything I read for myself. 81 DONE 2. Read twelve (new to me) classics/award-winners. 3 DONE 3. Read twelve self-help/education books. 6 DONE 4. Re-read thirty books. There are so many good books I have been meaning to re-read, so this is my goal to help with that! 10 DONE
A few formatting notes: 1. I have inserted pictures as well as Amazon links to the books I enjoyed most for the month so that it is easier to read more about each book if you are interested. Hopefully, your local library system will carry most of these. 2. If I completed a more detailed review of any of these books, I included a review link after my comments. 3. If a book is not available yet, you will see the publication date in parenthesis after my comments. 4. I have rated each book using a bold numbered star after each comment.
The rating system is as follows: *5-This book was so good, I either bought it, or think it is worth buying. I am pretty picky about the books I buy, so this is as good as it gets! *4-This book was worth reading, but not necessarily worth buying-look for these books at your local library *3-This book was just OK. I wouldn’t need to read it again. *2-Don’t bother *1-There probably won’t be any of these, because if it was THIS bad, I wouldn’t finish it. 🙂
Well, I broke my foot in April.
One would think that would mean I read a ton more books, right?
Nope.
The first half of the month (before the break), I was scrapbooking up a storm.
The rest of April, I mainly listened to audio books while lying down. And, since audio books take a LOT longer to get through than reading the actual book, I didn’t get very far. 🙂
I did also finish up the rest of the school read alouds with the kids, and we are all done with school for this year-yay!
Here is what I DID read in April:
1. What Was the Battle of Gettysburg? by Jim O’Connor-read to the kids for History. It was pretty good. *4
2. Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swenson #1) by Joanne Fluke (audiobook)-one of my favorite Hallmark movie series is based off this book series, so I decided to read them. Very good! *5 3. The Wonder of Creation: 100 More Devotions About God and Science by Louie Giglio-this was our homeschool devotional for this year-good! *4 4. Strawberry Shortcake Murder (Hannah Swenson #2) by Joanne Fluke (audiobook)-very good! *5 5. Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule by Harriette Gillem Robinet-read aloud to the kids for History-pretty good *4
6. Change Your Brain Every Day by Daniel G. Amen (audiobook)-life-changing. I learned so much from this book. The only downside was that it was SO long, it was difficult to finish before it had to go back to the library. I might recommend going through the book instead of the audiobook on this one, just because it’s faster! *4 7. Escape to the Hiding Place (Imagination Station #9) by Marianne Hering-read aloud to The Little Guy-good! *4 8. Challenge on the Hill of Fire (Imagination Station #10) by Marianne Hering-read aloud to The Little Guy-good *4 9. Write On, Irving Berlin! by Leslie Kimmelman-very interesting! *4 10. Dolly! The Story of Dolly Parton and Her Big Dream by Robyn McGrath-good! *4 11. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson #1) by Rick Riordan (audiobook)-good, as always. *4
This month I read five books to the kids, and I read/listened to four books just for me. I also read two picture books to myself for review.
For the year, I have read eighteen books to the kids and forty-four books just for me. I’ve also read nineteen picture books to myself for review.
That’s it for today. I will share my May books the first Tuesday in June!
Slow Down, Enjoy, and Create Part 2 