Books, the Great Outdoors, and I Don't Know What Happened to Summer

The truth is, I have a pile of books sitting on my desk - which operates as my "Nightstand" - which are waiting to either be read or reviewed. I need the inspiration to sit down and type. But alas, the inspiration has not arrived. When it does, I'll have regular posts again.

I have been reading - both to myself and to the children - and so that's good. As I confessed last week, we hadn't been reading much aloud and it was clear we were all missing that time together. Not only have we been reading picture books (Thomas the Tank Engine, may he live forever!) but also chapter books. We finished the following two this past week (and so I intend to participate in Read Aloud Thursdays soon!):



We finished Ramona the Brave in three days flat. And that was only because we weren't home for one of those days. Otherwise we would have finished it in two! Big hit.



I had a review go up over at 5 Minutes for Books that I find interesting due to the author's position on keeping books. Clearly she doesn't read very much. (She reads. She just doesn't understand the value of books in general.) You can read my review of Live More, Want Less by clicking on the title there.



On a completely different subject:

We've taken a lot of time to be outside the past few weeks, taking advantage of Oregon's brief summer. There is a mountain that is all of 5 minutes from our house and we've been exploring its many trails this summer. Here is a picture from one of our hikes:



Speaking of spending time out of doors . . . thanks to our lovely local Nana, Mommy and Daddy were afforded the opportunity to go jet boating down the Rogue River this past Monday. It turned into an overnight trip which made it an extra special trip indeed! We had such a lovely full day on the river. It was so much fun to have an adventure all to ourselves. Here's a picture from our trip - which even though it doesn't have a copyright notice on it, let's pretend it does, k? ;) I don't know which one of us took this picture. We were tossing the camera back and forth a bit as we wound down the river. Every time we turned a corner we were met with something lovely.


And today, at the time you read this post (more or less) we'll be taking Bookworm1 for oral surgery. He has an extra tooth (ever heard of these things?) that we have affectionately been calling "spike." Today my oldest bookworm will be placed under general anesthesia as it is time for spike to go! Prayers for a safe, effective procedure are most appreciated!

I think it'll be a quiet weekend, but then I always think that and then discover it isn't. Life is just zooming by. Is August really almost over?!?!?