Is this not the coolest thing¹ ? I ran across a blog last night² that had this cute³ little feature on it and I had to have it⁴. It will add so much more to my blogging skills⁵.

If you have no clue what I am talking about⁶ , hold your mouse over the little numbers

1. no it doesn’t take much to amuse me [↩]
2. I should have been preparing for today’s school lessons [↩]
3. cuteness that’s how I determine what goes on my blog or not [↩]
4. i don’t know why, just have to have it [↩]
5. just another way for me to give you useless information [↩]
6. don’t feel bad, most of the time I don’t know what I am talking about either [↩]

we’ve been busy this week.
we started school on monday.
we went and helped my grandmother clean her house yesterday.
sarah started running a fever last night.
i have not been feeling well the past couple of days.
david, emily & audrey are all doing well.

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Try Darkness

(Center Street - July 30, 2008)

by

James Scott Bell

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
JAMES SCOTT BELL is a former trial lawyer who now writes full time. He has also been the fiction columnist for Writers Digest magazine and adjunct professor of writing at Pepperdine University.
The national bestselling author of several novels of suspense, he grew up and still lives in Los Angeles. His first Buchanan thriller, TRY DYING, was released to high critical praise, while sis book on writing, Plot and Structure is one of the most popular writing books available today.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Ty Buchanan is living on the peaceful grounds of St. Monica’s, far away from the glamorous life he led as a rising trial lawyer for a big L.A. firm. Recovering from the death of his fiancée and a false accusation of murder, Buchanan has found his previous ambitions unrewarding. Now he prefers offering legal services to the poor and the underrepresented from his “office” at local coffee bar The Freudian Sip. With his new friends, the philosophizing Father Bob and basketball-playing Sister Mary Veritas, Buchanan has found a new family of sorts.
One of his first clients is a mysterious woman who arrives with her six-year-old daughter. They are being illegally evicted from a downtown transient hotel, an interest that Ty soon discovers is represented by his old law firm and his former best friend, Al Bradshaw. Buchanan won’t back down. He’s going to fight for the woman’s rights.
But then she ends up dead, and the case moves from the courtroom to the streets. Determined to find the killer and protect the little girl, who has no last name and no other family, Buchanan finds he must depend on skills he never needed in the employ of a civil law firm.
The trail leads Buchanan through the sordid underbelly of the city and to the mansions and yachts of the rich and famous. No one is anxious to talk.
But somebody wants Buchanan to shut up. For good.
Now he must use every legal and physical edge he knows to keep himself and the girl alive.
Once again evoking the neo-noir setting of contemporary Los Angeles, Bell delivers another thriller where darkness falls and the suspense never rests.
If you would like to read chapters 1 & 2, go HERE

“Bell has created in Buchanan an appealing and series-worthy protagonist, and the tale equally balances action and drama, motion and emotion. Readers who pride themselves on figuring out the answers before an author reveals them are in for a surprise, too: Bell is very good at keeping secrets. Fans of thrillers with lawyers as their central characters—Lescroart and Margolin, especially—will welcome this new addition to their must-read lists.”
—Booklist

“Engaging whodunit series kickoff . . . Readers will enjoy Bell’s talent for description and character development.”
—Publishers Weekly

“James Scott Bell has written himself into a niche that traditionally has been reserved for the likes of Raymond Chandler.”
—Los Angeles Times

“A master of suspense.”
—Library Journal

“One of the best writers out there, bar none.”
—In the Library Review

Leah had this fun little meme on her blog.

1. Who is your man? David Henry
2. How long have you been together? 16 years Married 13
3. How long dated? 3 years
4. How old is your man? 40
5. Who eats more? More than likely me ~ I know, sad
6. Who said “I love you” first? David
7. Who is taller?  David
8. Who sings better? David
9. Who is smarter? Why me of course HA! David
10. Whose temper is worse? Umm, mine but let’s not speak of that
11. Who does the laundry? Both, but David does it more. He seems to like having clean clothes.
12. Who takes out the garbage? David
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? David
14. Who pays the bills? David
15. Who is better with the computer? David but I have been his little helper here lately =P
16. Who mows the lawn? David, but I would if he would let me.
17. Who cooks dinner? Me
18. Who drives when you are together? David, again, I would if he would let me.
19. Who pays when you go out?  David since I have no money
20. Who is most stubborn? Me
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong?  David
22. Whose parents do you see the most? about the same
23. Who kissed who first? David kissed me first
24. Who asked who out?  I asked David
25. Who proposed? David
26. Who is more sensitive? Me
27. Who has more friends?  I think it’s about equal.
28. Who has more siblings? I do
29. Who wears the pants in the family?  David Heehee!
30. How did you meet? Through Ron and Sherri

If you join in let me know so I can read over yours!

I cannot believe it is already time to start school. My goodness it seems like we just finished up. We will officially start on Monday. Yes, Monday. I know.

I have a few more things that I need to finish up over the weekend. Number one on the list is to clean off the school room desk! Then I need to put together my home school binder, so I will have a place to put all the pages I have been printing off.

I made a schedule out for this year and I SO want to stick to it. We will use the same one for Monday and Thursday. We have a different schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday. I’ve not made one out for Friday yet. My plan is to get all of our stuff finished up early in the week leaving Friday open for tests, field trips & errands.

I’m a little more nervous this year since Emily will be in the fourth grade. She is a super, smart girl and I want to help her reach her full potential this year. We were very slack last year and I hope with Sarah being a little older things will be better.

You know, it’s funny when the girls were 4 & 5 I remember being so excited about homeschooling. And I could not wait for them to get to this age. Well, here we are, and I want to go back to those early years. I wish I would have enjoyed them more.

Another reason I want to go back to the early years is because math is hard in the fourth grade. 

Do those of you who homeschool every think, man I am going to mess my kids up?! I remember how I stressed I was over teaching them how to read and then one day it clicked and they took off. I like to think that will happen with everything else along the way too. Of course, without the stress.

But when I think about it, it scares me, because I know how to read. It’s easy to explain something when you know how to do it yourself. But we are coming up on stuff that either I have forgotten(because it’s been soooo long ago) or I don’t even know it to begin with. (Think MATH!)

I’m going to be adding things here and there on my sidebar or pages on my blog to help me with homeschooing. This way I won’t lose things like spelling lists, schedules or important dates. Just over look it or you can be nosey and check it out. Go ahead, I’m Miss Nosey Pants on your blog =P

Our 2008-2009 school years.

Emily & Audrey

Language Arts
Shurley English (I hope this arrives today!)
Daily Grams

Math
Abeka
Times Tales  * I highly recommend this if you are working on multiplication

History 
Beautiful Feet
Life pacs
Using Media in the Classroom

Science
Life pacs

Art
How Great Thou Art

Music
piano
guitar lessons for Audrey (maybe)

In addition we will be using Christian Liberty Nature Reader, Five in a Row and The Prairie Primer.

Sarah

Learning Numbers with Button Bear
Before Five in a Row
My Art Class

Oh, wait a minute.

Maybe the title should read……

No wonder I can’t get anything done.

Look at this mess!

 And here’s another view.

 I HAVE got to get organized!!

LOVE them.

A couple of my girlfriends have put this up on their blog. I think I did it awhile back but never posted it but in keeping up with the fun I thought I’d give it another try.

I love taking these little quizzes, they are a hoot. Sometimes they are dead on and sometimes, no so much.

Okay, here are my results. I shouldn’t be too suprised. I wear flip flop all the time.

Oh, there seems to be a theme going with the results of my blogthing quizzes. See what you think.

Laid back and friendly, okay.

Cheery & Sunny, okay.

I will admitt that although I love getting dressed up, I would much rather be in a comfy skirt and tshirt. So, yes it takes a lot for me to get dressed up.

Loyal and true, yes, that’s me.

And here is where it gets a little bit iffy.

You can be a bit of a flake. 

What?  Why does this one little point keep making its way to my results.

I mean, it is SO not true.

Right?  

and just incase you were wondering, I made them take a bath in it after they finished playing.

and yes, we are SO redneck.