My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer
Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Last week was pretty focused on the outdoors – gardening, toads, ponds, playing in the yard and water. My husband worked pretty late all week and the kiddo and I are still on lockdown, but we made the best of it that we could. We even made sugar cookies cut out to look like dragonflies together on Friday – although Wyatt was more about eating the frosting straight out of the container rather than helping to decorate. I’m not the baker in the family, that is Billy, but these turned out pretty ok!
Read Last Week:

I was so excited to see this on NetGalley! I am really enjoying this series.
Reading This Week:

Well this book has been a sort of personal revelation for me – it is everything I feel in my soul as a mother! It resonates so deeply for me – I had bought the kindle version and then the next day ordered a physical copy as well. Needless to say I am loving it.
Posted Last Week:
Homeschooling: Ponds and Frogs
Book Review: A Death Long Overdue
Watching:
We finished up When Calls the Heart and I miss its simple, happy ease already! We started watching Living the Dream on Britbox and Rosemary and Thyme and are enjoying them.. but I still miss my Hope Valley characters. Our movie nights this weekend we watched the new Emma, which we thought was ok, not great. I kind of enjoyed the golden warmth of the cinematography, so much yellow and gold, like the sun was constantly shining on them. My husband and I are heathens though – we both agreed our favorite version is…Clueless. LOL. Then we watched The House with a Clock in its Walls. I was so excited to see this! John Bellairs was born in Michigan, not too far from here really, and I have stood in front of the house that inspired this story. So I was really excited to see this movie. It was a fun kids movie for sure! Kind of dark, so if you are not a fan of that for kids avoid this one.
Stay safe everyone.
Sounds like a good week! Those books and movies are the kind that can really take us out of our worries for a while. Thanks for sharing, and stay safe.
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They are! It was a good week for reading and tv. 🙂
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It rained most of the week but I still tried to get outside between rain showers. But the down time was good after the hard work I did last weekend building my raised bed.
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It is always good to have some down time especially after working hard like that! I bet that rain was good for your garden.
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I think so many of our problems in the world have to do with our inabilities to connect with nature and movement. The Call of the Wild + Free sounds like a book I would like to read. I will look for it. I am glad you enjoyed it so much, and I’m glad that you and your son are able to do so many outdoor activities.
I haven’t baked much except for bread in these past months. My husband doesn’t like sugar, so all of the sweet things I make are things I give away, and I hesitate from giving away food while I still have a cough.
I hope you have a good week!
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Yes! I totally agree! I love it – and I think it will really help me as I homeschool Wyatt. We have decided that he is going to do kindergarten at home next year, and then we will see how it goes from there..
And bread is good!
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I’ll be looking into The Call of the Wild and Free- thanks for the review and insight. The one thing we have been doing daily is our walk in the park.
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It’s so good! I love the philosophies presented in it so far! And a daily walk in the park sounds like a wonderful activity!
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You have me puzzled by the mention of dragonfly sugar cookies – I’ve never heard of those before…
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Sorry!! I meant sugar cookies cut out to look like dragonflies! I could have stated that better, I will change it. 🙂 Sorry about that!
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No problem at all, I am still curious – what are sugar cookies (we don’t have them in the UK)
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Oh sorry!! Here is a basic recipe https://www.marthastewart.com/338471/basic-sugar-cookies Sugar cookies are so buttery, sugary and good! Here when we make them we often use different shaped cookie cutters of all sorts to cut them into whatever we want. Holiday ones, insects, animals, all different things! Then they can be covered in frosting just in case you weren’t getting enough sugar. 🙂
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I hope my next week I’ll be out to do some yard stuff. It rained all last week but now it will be dry this week. I’ll have a few nice days and then it will be hot.
Stay safe and be well!
Anne – Books of My Heart Here is my Sunday Post
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This weekend has been perfect! Cool but sunny and breezy my favorite! Have fun in your yard!
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All is forgiven as long as they taste good!
Have you watched the When Calls the Heart spinoff, When Hope Calls, yet? I saw a few episodes but I prefer the ‘original’.
Wishing you a great reading week
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We watched one episode so far, but that is it. We may go back to it but I agree, I prefer the original. Lol.
Thanks Shelleyrae!
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What are the cookie shapes supposed to be? They made me laugh thinking about past project when my kids were young. My Sunday Salon post
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Hahahaha dragonflies!!! It was fun although we were not that successful. Lol. Definitely memories though!!
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I just love Rosemary and Thyme. It’s a great premise. And the new books sound very good!
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I am loving it – I love Rosemary’s efficiency and capableness, and Laura’s whimsy.
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I was going to rent Emma and then heard some negative reviews and opted not to. Maybe if it is free somewhere at some point. Sounds like you are definitely keeping yourself busy! Our caterpillars died so we didn’t get to have any butterflies but we are going to try it again this summer and see if we can pull it off this time.
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I would agree with waiting until it is free somewhere. It wasn’t terrible, but I didn’t love it. Lol.
Oh no!!! I feel awful about your caterpillars. I wonder why they all died? That stinks! We only had one die from two different times doing it. We did have two butterflies die though, the first time around. 😦 I would try again! My ladybugs come today, fingers crossed about those!
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The chrysalis all fell and didn’t stay up … not sure what happened.
And ladybugs?? I could have shipped you those for free! Lol!!
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Oh no!! That happened to my sister in law too, but only with one of them. She put it on a wet paper towel in the bottom of the enclosure, I think. I will ask what she did!
LOL! I’m kind of freaked out, the larvae look gross.
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Man I wish I had one of those dragonfly sugar cookies right now.
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Lol!! They were pretty tasty! They are actually gone… we ate them up!
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The Call of the Wild and Free sounds like mandatory reading for today’s world. I’m going to check it out – love the premise.
I remember seeing the trailer of The House with a Clock in its Walls and meaning to see it but have promptly forgotten all about it. Thanks for the reminder – I’ll need to check it out.
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I am really enjoying it! We have decided to continue homeschooling next year as well, and then re-evaluate for first grade. It will all depend on how the next year goes, both on an academic level and a world level. So I am trying to read about different philosophies, etc and this one is really resonating with me. 🙂
We liked it! Wyatt did not watch it with us but we said it is one we will remember for when he is the right age. We also loved the stylized feeling to it, the set and costumes were really great.
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A Death Long Overdue looks good. I will tell my niece about the education one for her little ones.
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The Call of the Wild and Free is such a great philosophy for learning! I think even if it wasn’t used exclusively it is great to supplement and enrich!
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I haven’t seen the new Emma yet. I remember liking the Gwyneth Paltrow version a while back, but it’s been years since I’ve seen it. I wonder if it would still hold up lol. Will have to chck out the new one. and yes to nature! I think in many ways we’ve gotten away from nature in our education, and it’s so important to get back to it.
I love that cover of the Eva Gates book! That series looks fun. 🙂
Be well this week!
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I did like the Gwenyth Paltrow one too. There was something missing in this but I don’t know what. Bill Nighy was in it though and I love him! So that was a good part.
It is pretty fun series!
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Your sugar cookies sound like a lot of fun!
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They were! 🙂
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When you order the physical copy of a book you are reading in another format (be it kindle, library borrow etc), then you know its a good ‘un.
Happy reading and a lovely week to you & your family.
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Absolutely! I wasn’t even halfway through the digital copy when I ordered the physical one. So good!
Thanks Jade, same to you!
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So nice when you find a book that really resonates with you at a particular time in your life!
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Yes! I love that!
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OMGosh, Clueless! Alicia Silverstone slayed that. I wish we were friends when my girls were small and you had Wyatt then. I would have learned so much from you. You are so amazing as a teacher and a mama. I will need to try making sugar cookie cutouts again. I haven’t made them for so long. I used to make this cream cheese, sugar cookie recipe.
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Lol I loved that movie! I might watch it again, I think I saw it was on Netflix. Or Amazon. One of those.
Ha that would have been awesome! Then you could teach me to knit and make things too. And thank you so much – I am just over here trying my best! Those are all the nicest compliments!!
My sugar cookies were tasty but not that pretty. LOL. We tried. 🙂
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