Book Review: Mercy Come Morning

Mercy Come Morning is written by Lisa Tawn Bergren.   I have read a few of her non-fiction works and her children's books.   I really liked Mercy Come Morning.   It is well written and interesting.   The characters are deep and real.   I read the book in two days because I had a hard time putting it down.  It is a sweet story of forgiveness and love.   The book centers around Krista Mueller and her mother, Charlotte.   Charlotte is afflicted with Alzheimer's and dying of congestive heart failure.  Krista is called home by a close friend to spend a few final days with her Mother .  I learned more about Alzheimer's from the book.   The book was well researched and did not take literary licence when it came to dealing with the facts of Alzheimer's.   In short, as Krista deals with her past, she is able to heal and look to the future. 

I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who would like to read a great story of forgiveness, grace, and redemption.  I would categorize this author as one who consistently writes good books. 


This book was sent to me for the purposes of review from Waterbrook Multnomah.   All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

New School Year

My daughter is very excited to be in 2nd grade.   Second grade sounds so OLD to me because I when I taught school I always taught Kinder and 1st.  I would tell my students about becoming big second graders.  Now, I am the parent of a big second grader and I'm still in disbelief.   Of course, I remember graduating from college and getting married like it was yesterday.    That was a short 12 years ago.  Enough of my ramblings, here's the picture.

My daughter heading to second grade and my son heading to one final year of homeschool Pre-K. 
For the grandparents:
The report from school is that she LOVES her teacher.   She LOVES her classmates.   She had a blast, went to P.E., had recess before lunch, finished all her work, started a book she hopes to finish in the next couple of days, and brought home homework for herself and me.  She is now working on her "me" bag due Wednesday.   She is put items in it that represent herself.   So far, she has added a play camera because she loves to take pictures.   She also added a miniature violin to represent her playing.  Buttons and fabric were added to represent that she likes to sew.   She is bugging me for pictures.  School is good and she is a big school nerd like her Mom. 

My son and I continued our year round homeschooling.  He got new sight words today.  We started a new Bob book.  We patterned using unifix cubes.   I somehow forgot to do this.   He enjoyed it and now there are trails of unifix cube patterns all over my living room floor.  I'm skipping Handwriting until all my materials come in from Handwriting without Tears.   I need to add back in our literature study which is science based and this will complete our curriculum. 

I'm off to get my daughter to practice violin.   We usually do within the first hour she is home from school or we don't have a good practice session. 

Happy First Day of School 2011!

Trip to the Homeschool Store

I've schooled the kids through the summer.   My son finished his math book a couple of weeks ago.  I knew I needed new something for math.   I used Singapore Math with my daughter.   The store didn't have much for K and I couldn't find what I used for my daughter.   The owner told me the US edition was not published.   You could get the International stuff.   I looked at International edition and then looked at Saxon and Horizon.   I decided Horizon was the direction I wanted to go with him.  I found a used Teacher's Edition for Horizons (K) Math yea!   I bought a new workbook. 

After looking into Handwriting programs, I liked Handwriting without Tears.  I found a used TE for Handwriting.  Yea!  We already have every Bob book ever written for reading.  We are plugging along with sight words.   The new books gave us what we needed to keep going with school.  I feel very blessed to have a homeschool store within a reasonable driving distance, so I can go and kick the tires of various curriculum.   They also have a great used section. 

My son looks forward to starting Kindergarten next year.   This year we'll enjoy homeschooling. 

Thifting and Repurposing

Once school was out for the summer, I started helping the kids clean out their rooms.   My daughter LOVES dress up stuff.   Most of her dress up clothes were getting pretty small for her.   I bargained with her that if she would clean out the too-small stuff, I would replace it.  The plan would be to go to my favorite thrift store and buy small ladies dresses or larger girl dresses.  My inspiration came from a memory I have of childhood.   Both my parents worked full time and summer days were spent at my Grandmother's house.   One cool thing about Grandmother's house was Great-Grandmother lived with her.  Both ladies were sweet about encouraging creativity.   They gave me a couple of old muumuus to play dress up with.   If I still had those things, I totally would restyle them and rock them...but they are long since gone to the Goodwill.  *Sigh* Lest I digress, I loved playing with these muumuus because they were long, soft, and silky.  

In June, the kids and I made a trip to Value Village in search of dress up clothes.  I gave my daughter a budget of $7-8.   As we walked into the store, I also pointed out that everything marked with an orange tag was 50% off.   Our first stop was the Ladies small dress section.   My daughter found a couple of dresses that she loved.  They were only about $1.50 each because of the orange tag.   Next, we moved to the girls section and looked in the 10/12s.   These would be huge on my tiny seven year old, but would be wonderful dress up clothes.   We found a couple there of dresses in that section too.   She got 5 dresses for under $7.  All the dresses but one had orange tags!   Sweet!   While looking through the ladies dresses I found this:

I had visions of shortening it, throwing on a skinny white belt and loving my new summer dress.   I love the New Dress A Day website.   Marisa makes some super cute stuff out ugly old clothes.   I was hoping to pull a Marisa transformation.   Princess Kate also crossed my mind a couple of times.   The dress was a classic Kate-like print.  I checked for holes, tears, and stains and there were none.   Unfortunately, in my zeal, I broke a very important rule of thrifting...I forgot to check the zipper.   I washed all of the clothes when I got home.  Then I discovered the zipper on my dress was stuck.  I tried unsticking it, but had no luck.  I thought about putting a new one in, but the dress was made from a very light fabric.  Replacing the zipper would be a mess, so I needed a plan B.  

In the end, I decided to shorten it into a skirt.  I measured how long I wanted the skirt and measured from the bottom up.  I added a couple of inches for attaching to a waistband.   Next, I made a waistband that was flat in the front and gathered in the back on elastic.   This helped me avoid a zipper again.  I originally was going to make the waistband to match the rest of the skirt from the scraps, but I kept having problems with it bunching under my machine.   After rethreading my machine and promising to buy a new machine, I finally looked at the settings on my machine.   I realized little hands had taken my thread tension from 2.75 to 9.   Those same hands also made my presser foot pressure 100%.   There was not enough fabric to try again for a matching waistband, so I just used some white muslin I had leftover from another project.   Once my machine was behaving again, I gathered my skirt, attached it to the waistband and finished it.  

I threw on a tank and jacket I already had with my new skirt and added a cute blingy belt my sister-in-law gave me.   Ahh, cool summer skirt, all due to a broken zipper. 

Fourth of July sewing...a bit late

In my zeal to finish the ladybug quilt, I never posted the Fourth of July dresses I made for my daughter my and niece.   My sister-in-law and I love matching stuff for the kids, not us!   Unfortunately, my daughter and her daughter have enough years between them that finding matching outfits is difficult.   I found a cute nautical print when Sew Crafty was going out of business in the spring.   I bought enough to make two pillow case dresses.  When I started to make them, I realized that I wanted to modify the pillowcase dress so that it would not have ties that run through the neck.   Those can pose a strangulation hazard.   I used this tutorial to make a cute and safe dress.   I finished them off by finding matching butterfly clips at a local trade fair.  And the finished products...

Here is my daughter and her cousin:

My daughter pausing/posing for a quick picture for the full effect. 

For the boys, I took navy t-shirts and appliqued on some of the scrap fabric in the shape of a flag.   I really wanted to make matching shorts, but that will have to wait until next year.   I ran out of time. 

Here are all the kids:

Happy Fourth of July, a bit late!

Book Review: Prayer Walk

My new book to review from Multnomah is actually non-fiction.    I reviewed PrayerWalk by Janet Holm McHenry.   Prayer walking was pretty popular ten years ago and I haven't heard as much about in recent years.   When Jason and I went on a short term mission trip to Guatemala ten years ago, we prayer walked several villages.  I was surprised when I was asked to review a book published ten years ago.  I am reviewing the re release with an epilogue added. 

PrayerWalk was a well written book.   The author is a high school English teacher who knows how to write a book.    I found that it was interesting.   Her personal anecdotes, mixed with practical advice, and know how made it very easy to read.  If you want to start prayer walking, she is very through in her advice.   She describes how prayer walking helped her physical and mental health.   She gives you practical advice on beginning, having a friend join you, and the blessings that flow from prayer walking.   I found the book encouraging as a book about the benefits and blessings of prayer.  I found the author real and forthright.   I enjoyed the book.

I received this book free for review purposes from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers.   All opinions expressed in the review are my own.