Quick Takes: Volume 75 NFP Edition

In honor of NFP Awareness Week I give you 7 Quick Takes on NFP.

~1~

If you're scratching your head and wondering what NFP stands for, it's Natural Family Planning.  Basically you track your fertility cycle and use the information you record to avoid or achieve a pregnancy.  And, no, it's not the rhythm method.  There are several different methods of NFP.  We use the Sympto-thermal method because I like how I can cross check symptoms and temperature to better assess my fertility.

~2~

Does it really work for postponing pregnancy?  Lots of people out there, including some medical professionals, would have you believe that people who use NFP have a gazillion babies, because...well....don't they?  I know that was my perception of NFP for several years.  Then I researched the subject and realized it had lower failure rate (when you follow the rules) than artificial birth control.  So really, for a couple that is determined to follow the rules of the NFP method they're using to avoid a pregnancy, they have a slimmer chance of conceiving than say a couple using an IUD or hormonal birth control.

~3~

If you're skeptical about using NFP to delay a pregnancy, I have to tell you that it really does require a leap of faith to abandon artificial birth control.  I can tell you that I felt like I was stepping off a cliff when we ditched birth control.  Then as I became more comfortable with charting my cycles and interpreting them, I realized that using NFP is such a liberating experience.

~4~

You want to know something that is awesome about NFP?  There are no side effects or health risks associated with using it.  With hormonal birth control you run the risk of massive mood swings, blood clots, strokes, and a whole host of other undesirable side effects.  And let's not forget that birth-control pill are a class 1 carcinogen.  Not sure about you, but I'm not interested in increasing my risk factor for cancer.

~5~

Oh, I could tell you stories about an IUD!  And honestly, I so wish that I couldn't.  Let me assure you that NFP is an infinitely better choice. Just like hormonal birth control, an IUD also brings with it a host of side effects and risks.  I kid you not when I tell you there's a booklet that lists a lot of really unpleasant potential side effects.  Among them, and repeated many times is "perforation of uterus."  What they don't tell you is placement hurts badly enough to make you see stars, and expulsion of the device is almost as bad.

~6~

One of the things I like best about NFP is we decide whether or not we're going to throw caution to the wind and possibly add on to the family.  If you're contracepting, you're really not in control even though you may be operating under the illusion that you are.  In using NFP and being aware of my fertility, we know when we're taking a chance.  You simply don't have that awareness when you're using birth control.

~7~

Now I'm not going to tell you that everything is all sunshine and roses with NFP.  It can be a challenge during the postpartum months and while you're breastfeeding.  And there are plenty of times where abstaining is a royal pain in the rear, but on the whole, I've find using NFP to be a worthwhile experience.  I only wish we had considered using it right from the start of our marriage.  I am convinced that the use of contraceptives is detrimental not only to your health but also to good communication.  If there's one thing you need when using NFP, it's good communication.

What We're Reading Wednesday #2

I think I missed a week or two since the first WWRW link up.  But we're still reading!  It's taking me a bit longer to recover from our super busy VBS/Birthday Party week.  I think the heat wave we had last week didn't help matters.  Maybe I just need a nice long vacation.

I took a break from some of the books I was reading and delved into Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle's latest book, The Miraculous Medal.  Honestly, when it arrived at my house I intended only to page through it and put it in the pile with the rest of the review books to wait its turn.  Instead I wound up finding myself needing to read the book now.  I'm just a few pages from the end.  It's not a book I can easily put down.  I'll be writing a review for it very soon, but here's the short and sweet of it:  We get the back story of St. Catherine Laboure and the origins of the miraculous medal.  Then we move into chapters that discuss miracles surrounding the miraculous medal.  Donna-Marie tells us of how she came to be friends with Blessed Mother Theresa and thus became inspired to make giving miraculous medals to those she meets as part of her ministry.  She then tells many stories about how the medals she has distributed to others has made an impact.  The final part, which I haven't yet read contains novenas and prayers.

I'm also slowly making my way through Fr. F. X. Lascance's Our Lady Book.  I really enjoy reading older prayer books, but with so many other things to read I really only find myself able to read bits and pieces of it each day.  It's just not a book I can sit and read for an hour or so, but I am still enjoying it.

Ellie just started reading the Julie books from American Girl.  She finished up Meet Juliethe other day and has just moved on to reading Julie Tells her Story.  She's enjoying the books so I can't complain.  I would have preferred it if she selected one of the other American Girl's.  

Madeline has been avoiding books in favor of distractions like the iPad or the Wii.  But she did just devour A Bundle of Trouble: A Rebecca Mystery.  She's been in this phase where any book Bryan or I suggest to her is THE. WORST. BOOK. EVER.  Sigh.  We had told her that we expected her to start reading either The Hobbit or Harry Potter.  But those are "boring" books according to Madeline.  Those of us who like those books just don't know any better.  Sorry kid, you're going into 7th grade.  It's time to start reading real books.  Save the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the truly horrible book selections for the language arts teacher.

Katie is still on her Tomie DePaola kick.  She's been adding Strega Nona into the mix.  I love how Tomie DePaola weaves our Catholic faith into the stories.  Katie seems to love both the pictures and the stories.  For a while there I thought she was just interested in the pictures but I've noticed that she has little interest in books illustrated by Tomie but not written by him.  She must be a fan of his story telling.

Earlier this week she spent a bit of time brining me some of our (meaning me, Bryan, Madeline and Ellie) favorite Boynton books.  I think she was a bit annoyed at how short the books are.  She's just so used to sitting and listening to longer stories that these short little board books don't impress her.

So what are you reading this week?  Visit Housewifespice for more What We're Reading Wednesday posts.

The Dreaded Crying Room

About eight and a half years ago we began to learn the not so pleasant reality of the crying room.  For about three and a half years I pretty much avoided Mass not wanting my young child to disturb others at Mass if she should cry or act as young children often do.  So as we prepared to welcome a second child into our family we also attempted to get back into the routine of going to Sunday Mass.  The attempt wound up being a fail of the crash and burn variety which I largely attribute to our decision to use the dreaded crying room.  Still not wanting my eldest child to be the cause of annoyance to anyone at Mass we opted to sit in the crying room at our church.  The concept of the crying room was nice, but the reality wasn't.

In theory, the crying room should be a place where I could retreat with an upset child where her noise making would not garner death stares from those around us.  It was the prospect of those icy stares that sent us to the crying room.  We learned quickly that the crying room wasn't an environment for reverence.  The Sunday Mass missalettes were absent from the crying room so following along with the readings or singing with the rest of the congregation wasn't going to happen.  Instead of pews, the crying room was furnished with metal folding chairs.  And instead of a prayerful environment, we found a zoo like atmosphere where children ran wild, munched on snacks and played with toys.  Our efforts to attend Mass on a weekly basis quickly fizzled.  We felt like our options were: 1.) Hang out in the parish wild child exhibit for an hour each week. 2.) Sit in the nave and be subjected to icy stares anytime our children made noise. 3.) Just stay home.  We wound up choosing option 3.  Awful, right?

When we moved and started going to our current parish I told my husband that I had no intentions of ever setting foot in a crying room again.  I would rather stand outside while I waited for my child to calm down rather than entertain the idea of a crying room.  Of course, at the time when I made this decision my youngest was three years old.  By then, she was pretty good at behaving quietly and I think I only ever had to bring her out to the narthex twice.

Even on Ellie's bad days, she was still behaved enough to remain in the nave of the church without disturbing anyone.  There were days where I would cringe anytime she made a sound or acted like a child at Mass.  I was so worried that we'd be an irritant to those around us.  Instead, we found ourselves in a parish that seemed incredibly welcoming to young families.  Warm smiles and words of encouragement is what we were met with on those tough days and I have to tell you that it really meant a lot to me.

Can I tell you that my biggest worry when I was expecting Katie was how I was going to be able to bring her to Mass and avoid the crying room?  I wondered if those friendly people who were so encouraging of our middle daughter a few years before would tolerate a baby or a toddler sitting in their midst.  I spent many hours wondering just how I was going to pull this off.

Much to my surprise, the first year of Mass with a baby went amazingly well.  Most of the time Katie slept through Mass.  We did have plenty of times where the baby would cry, but usually we were able to quiet her within a minute or so.  I want to say that she was probably 8 or 9 months old the first time we actually had to take her out to the narthex due to crying.  The lovely elderly woman who sits behind us most weeks was always so encouraging on our more difficult weeks.  And when Katie did have a bad day at Mass, most of the time we had friends around us offering us a kind smile or a sympathetic glance.

Now that Katie is a toddler things have been a bit trickier.  She rarely sleeps through Mass and she's interested in getting into things.  So there are weeks where I feel like I need to apologize to the person in front of us because my child thought it would be funny to toss a pacifier at her, or because she decided to scream in close proximity to them.  Thankfully, Katie is pretty well behaved for the most part.  She does have her moments where she reveals that she is, in fact, a toddler but fortunately those moments are few and far between.  Sometimes, those toddler moments are timed so perfectly that they wind up becoming part of the homily, like this past Saturday for instance.   Katie decided to let out an ear piercing screech that left me cringing during Father's homily.  Her timing was so good that Father went with it and mentioned that it was an excellent opportunity for patience.  Another time, one of our other priests was able to comment that her crying and his annoyance at it made him realize that he had no room to say anything about it when he began to read the gospel for that Mass.  So it was yet another time that she worked her way into the homily.  So in those moments when she finds her way into a homily, I do internally cringe a bit, but I have come to a point where I accept that she's one and she's not going to behave like a mini adult.

Now just because I refuse to use the crying room doesn't mean that I'm being selfish or refusing to consider those around me.  I'm not about to sit in the church and just let her wail for an hour.  For a Sunday Mass both Bryan and I are fully prepared to remove her to the narthex of the church if we are not able to clam her within a minute.  For daily Mass, I sit near the back of the church on the outside aisle.  I do this so I can remove her to the narthex as quickly as possible if the need should arise.  I'd have to say that daily Mass is probably the only time I'd ever consider retreating upstairs to the crying room.  And that's only because I know that it's empty.  I haven't had to remove her from a daily Mass yet, but if I did, I'd probably be more inclined to just stand in the narthex.

I think that crying rooms would be less of a hot button issue if they were only used for children who were crying or in the midst of a melt down.  Instead, they seem to be hotbeds of chaos where parents let their kids run wild.  Of course, it's not just parents of young children who use the crying room.  I once had a 7th grade religious ed student tell me that her mom preferred to sit up in the crying room so that she could chat with her friend during Mass.  The biggest issue with crying rooms is they seem to be devoid of all reverence.

When I think about the concept of the crying room it does make me think that in a way the church is saying that little ones aren't necessarily welcome at Mass.  True they're not obligated to attend until they reach the age of reason, but they're still a part of the parish community and should be included.  I'm convinced that you cannot train little ones to behave properly at Mass by brining them to the crying room week after week.

Check out the link-up at Catholic All Year where other moms share their thoughts on the crying room, too.

Book Review: Geekpriest

About a month ago an advance copy of Geekpriest Confessions of a New Media Pioneer by Fr. Roderick Vonhogen showed up in my mail box.  I don't know about you, but when I see a book with a picture of a priest holding his lightsaber on the cover (Yes, I said lightsbaer) I can't help but think it's a book that I have to read.  So never mind the fact that this book won't be released until September, I had to read it right away.

I was fairly certain when I picked up this book that it would be an entertaining read.  Perfect for summer, but again, it's not coming out until September.  So I guess really it's perfect for some nice fall reading.  The book certainly did not disappoint.  In fact, I pretty much devoured the book over the course of a few afternoons.

Geekpriest is filled with lots of anecdotal stories from Fr. Roderick's life.  But this isn't just a book of his amusing memoirs, no it's got a great underlying message of how to utilize new media to evangelize.  Fr. Roderick pretty much lays out how he started using pop culture rallying points like Star Wars, Harry Potter and video games to evangelize.  He illustrates how finding a common ground with people who shared a particular interest, such as Star Wars, gave him an opportunity to share his faith with them.

I found so much of what Fr. Roderick had to say in this book to be incredibly helpful with regards to using new media for the purpose of new evangelization.  So as a Catholic blogger, I felt this book had plenty of great takeaway points that I could use to improve the way I blog with regards to sharing my faith.  But this book isn't just for someone like me out in the blogosphere.  It's really for anyone who is utilizing new media or is interesting in doing so as a way to share their faith and evangelize.  Fr. Roderick discusses some of the difficulties you might encounter as you foray into new media and gives great advice on navigating through those circumstances.

I also think this book has the potential to be of use to clergy.  Not just for the great information on reaching people using new media, but also on thinking outside the box when it comes to the ways in which you try to reach them.  It's the idea meeting people where they are and evangelizing from there.  So if drawing parallels between the plot of say the Harry Potter books and the Gospels enables you to connect with your intended audience so that they're able to connect the dots and grasp what you're trying to convey, then why not?  So more or less, Fr. Roderick lays out ways in which you can think outside the box to evangelize.

Overall, I found Geekpriest to be both informative and entertaining.  It's an engaging book that is packed with lots of helpful advice on navigating new media as part of new evangelization.  It's certainly worth reading.

I was provided with a review copy of Geekpriest by the publisher, Servant Books, in exchange for my honest review.  You can pre-order a copy of this book at Amazon.com.

Theme Thursday: Bright

You know how flies and moths are attracted to bright lights at night?  Well so are little tree frogs.  Two nights ago Bryan and I decided to go for a swim after we put the girls to bed.  In the super bright light of the pool I spotted a frog on the coping, but he looked like he had blue stripes.  Bryan was convinced that it was poisonous and didn't want me to touch it.  I love to pick up frogs when I find them.  So it took a lot for me not to grab the little frog.

On our way into the house I noticed we had a few more frogs on the sliding glass door.  But because of the blinding spot light we have right next to the door they still looked like they had blue stripes.  Once we got in the house I turned off the lights and grabbed my camera so I could get a few pictures of the cute frogs.  Turns out that you can see them much better when you shine a bright flashlight on them from below.  And the added benefit of shining a light on them is you get to see them eat the little bugs that are attracted to the light.  I felt like I had my own personal nature documentary playing out on my sliding glass door.  

I think this is my favorite frog picture from that night.  If I had my camera with me when I laid down on the couch about 30 minutes later I would have taken some pictures of the frog who snuck into our house!  I thought we had a cricket on the floor (I'm terrified of them!) and then I realized after I screamed that it was a frog.  At that point Bryan was freaking out and asking me to pick it up and get it out of the house.  Of course, I was still worried that he was poisonous since Bryan had made such a big deal about the frogs earlier.  I ended up trapping the frog in a cup and sent Bryan to release him into the front yard.  These little frogs are super tiny.  They're about the size of my thumbnail.

Visit Clan Donaldson for more Theme Thursday pictures.

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life...

After a busy week of VBS followed immediately by a birthday party for Ellie I'm still feeling quite spent.  So I'm forcing myself to blog.  One of these days I'll find the time to blog about Ellie's American Girl birthday party and VBS.  Today just isn't that day.  At least, I don't think it is.

{Pretty}

My beautiful Elisabeth poses for a picture with her Elizabeth doll and her American Girl themed cup cakes before her party.  I have the hardest time believing that eight years have passed since she was born.

{Happy}

I so seldom make it into pictures that I was surprised when I noticed this picture of me in the uploads from the final day of VBS.  I had asked my friend to take pictures of the kids during the closing show. Apparently she got me, too! I'm really happy that she took this picture.  And look at how content Katie is to hang out with my friend.  All week long she went from person to person. She was so happy to be passed around the week of VBS.  In fact, she enjoyed it so much that when I had a spare minute and went to hold her she didn't want to go to me.  

{Funny}

One of the days of VBS I decided to pass my camera off to another good friend and join in on a relay race with the pre-K kids.  I got my team all hyped up and I heckled the team next to me (mostly the high school boy who was their classroom aide).  Unfortunately my team lost, but we had a lot of fun.  I'll be in the gym for a rematch next year!

{Real}

Deacon Al (Alias: The Cowboy of God) frequently tells me that I can sell refrigerators to eskimos.  I can also talk a deacon into wearing an inflatable cowboy costume very much against his will.  You know how Jesus said "Ask and it will be given to you?"  Well, I asked, was shot down and kept asking and this was the result.  The kids loved it and so did I.  It made all of the hard work involved in organizing VBS worth it.  I tell you that you could not have slapped the smile off my face that first day of VBS.

Vist Like Mother, Like Daughter for more pictures of contentment.

Miss Me?

I've been MIA for about a week and a half now, right?  I feel like I've abandoned the blog.  Last week was our parish VBS so I was pretty busy with that from just before the 4th of July when I began setting up the school and tying up some last minute VBS items.  Once I made it through an exhausting week of VBS I had to jump right into putting together an American Girl party for Ellie's 8th birthday.  I really need to realize that throwing a birthday party at my house just before or right after or even during the week of VBS is nothing short of overwhelming.  Add in taking my sister-in-law to create a baby registry (for her, not me) and you can call me exhausted.  On the whole it was a great week (8 days if we want to be specific) filled with lots of good things that kept me busy.

Since about last Wednesday I've been feeling like I just can't get enough sleep or rest.  I wake up in the morning and I feel like I'm going to pass out within two hours and spend the rest of my day feeling like I'm dragging.  I was hoping to spend some time relaxing today but that never happened.  No rest for the weary!  The heat wave that we just entered isn't helping either.

I have lots I want to blog about, but it's probably going to be another couple of days before my poor neglected blog has any sort of interesting content.  I am wondering how some bloggers who seem to be busy all the time manage to crank out amazing blog posts with gorgeous pictures all of the time.  Maybe they don't sleep.

Simple Saturday

So the girls went on another ride where I was on the verge of freaking out as I watch my kids spinning around at warp speed.  Ok, maybe I played with the settings on my camera to make the ride look a smidge faster than it really was.  I don't recall the f-stop for this picture but it had the aperture set to 1/60.  I like playing with fast moving rides and the camera settings.  Would you believe both of the girls really liked this panic inducing ride?

When we went to the boardwalk Ellie was having a bit of a problem getting on rides for 48" and up at first.  So Madeline was a nice big sister and went on this exciting tug boat ride with her little sister.  Can you tell that Madeline felt a bit ridiculous on the kiddie ride?  Fortunately we were able to convince Ellie to stand tall when getting measured for all of the other rides and she was able to get on those 48" to ride attractions.

I'm still not sure I get the point of this hopping kangaroo ride, but the girls seem to have enjoyed it.  

I love this picture of Bryan and Katie walking along the path on our little beach walk.  I do miss living in my hometown and being able to go for walks on the beach whenever I feel like it.  Maybe someday we'll buy a summer house down there.

Visit House Unseen for more Simple Saturday posts.

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} Beach Blast

Celebrating the context of contentment in everyday life...

This past weekend Madeline's soccer team participated in a fun soccer tournament called Beach Blast on my hometown island of Wildwood.  

{Pretty}

On our way to our team's first game we walked the boardwalk with some of our friends.  One of the moms decided that we needed a picture of our pretty girls with the not so pretty soccer zombie ref.

On Saturday night Bryan and I took Katie for a walk on the beach.  She had a lot of fun running all over the place.  She doesn't seem to like having sand on her feet so she wouldn't let me take off her sandals.

{Happy}

While the big sisters played their soccer games the little sisters sat on the sidelines building sand castles. The girls had a lot of fun and I did my best not to think about the questionable materials of foam head wraps and bathing suit straps that Ellie found on the beach to use as sand castle decorations.

{Funny}

I'm not sure how Katie was comfortable sleeping like this.  Oddly enough we didn't realize that she was napping until we were ready to take her out of the stroller.  Not wanting to disturb her we abandoned our plans of not letting the stroller touch the sand.

{Real}

These are just a few of the pictures I have of Madeline in action on the soccer field.  Most of our pictures from the first game have the oh-so-classy port a potty area in the background.   And then when I got to the second game and pulled out my camera to take pictures I discovered that I left the battery in the charger back at the apartment where we were staying.  Arrgh!  I was really annoyed with myself.  On Sunday morning I made sure I had the battery and memory card in the camera before we left for the game.  I wasn't waking up super early for an 8am game and not getting pictures!

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more pictures of contentment.

Awwkwaaard!

Ever have those moments where you're the stand alone odd-ball?  I have them more often than I care to recall.  I guess it goes with the territory of being me.  Today I got treated to one of those moments early in the day.

After Mass two days a week our parish has two devotions that I'd say fall under the "optional" heading.  On Wednesday it's the Miraculous Medal novena and on Thursday it's the Litany of St. John Neumann.      On both of these days I leave the church right after we pray the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel.  Ordinarily there's a handful of people who are also leaving when I leave so I don't feel awkward leaving.  Today, however, was different.  Somehow, at a daily Mass that was pretty well attended, I managed to be the lone person who opted to get up and leave.  Awwwwkwwaaaarrrd!  Nothing makes you second guess your practice of opting out of the optional quite like this!

Here's the thing, as a convert to Catholicism there are some things that just don't resonate with me the way that other things do.  Take the rosary for example.  I'm all for it.  I love it and it's one of the aspects of Catholicism that really drew me in like a tractor beam.  Novenas....not so much.  I honestly think I lack the attention span for them.  As much as I've tried to get into some different novenas they just don't click with me the way they seem to with others.  I suppose that's one of the awesome things about Catholicism.  There are so many different optional devotions from which you can pick and choose.  It's like a buffet of spirituality.

As I think about this morning's awkwardness I wonder if there was another aspect involved in everyone but me staying.  There was a relic of St. John Neumann on the altar.  Can you guess where I'm going with this?  Relics.  Yeah, you could say that I don't quite get relics either.  Actually, they really weird me out....particularly the ones that are body parts (1st class relics).  Want to make me uncomfortable?  Introduce me to the bone fragment, fingernail clippings or scab of a saint.  My thoughts don't run to the awestruck "This was a part of St. _________!"  No, instead my thoughts are more along the lines of "Why did someone save his scab?  Who does that?" or "Did they purposely dig up St._________ and hack off bits and pieces of his bones to distribute as relics?"  I'm ok with 2nd and 3rd class relics since they don't have that element of being macabre.  I should note that 1st class relics that are say in an altar stone don't bother me, it's more or less relics that are on display that make me uncomfortable.

So there you have it.  Put two devotional aspects together that just don't resonate well with me and you have the perfect formula for an induced bout of awkwardness.

What We're Reading Wednesday

Here's a new link up that's perfect for me since I seem to always be up to my eyeballs in books when I'm not attached to my laptop.

Since it's "What We're Reading Wednesday" and not what I'm reading, I'll give you the run down on what the girls are reading or trying to avoid reading, too.

I'm reading an advance copy of Lino Rulli's new book, Saint.  It's a funny book that picks up where his other book, Sinner leaves off.  This time, instead of detailing what a sinner he is, he's putting forth his case for why he should be canonized.  I'm throughly enjoying the book.  It's certainly one to add to your Amazon wish list.  You do have an Amazon wish list, don't you?  How else will you remember what you want to read?  Also, if you don't have an Amazon wish list people won't know what to buy you for your birthday or Christmas.  Having the list certainly helps cut down on creative gifts like crocheted toilet paper cozies.  I can tell you that I haven't gotten anything like that since I created a list ages ago.

Katie has been having me read the same two books to her over and over for the past several months.  She's in love with Tomie DePaola's The Clown of God and Pascual and the Kitchen Angels.   Can I tell you that I sobbed as I read The Clown of God to her the first few times.  I thought it was the book version of the movie Up! (Just thinking about that movie can make me cry.)  Anyway, now I'm desensitized to The Clown of God and can read the book without feeling like I need to stop and cry for poor Giovanni.  And when I pick up Pascual and the Kitchen Angels I find myself wondering how I can get God to send me a kitchen angel.  Katie loves both books so much that they're already quite worn after having them for less than 6 months.  I think I'm going to have to order new copies soon.

Last week the price on the Read Aloud Book of Bible Stories dropped down enough on Amazon for me to buy it.  I wanted it so I could read it to my religious ed students during our circle time.  Katie saw the book and kept bringing it to me so I figured I'd read her a story and see if she was interested in it despite there not being many pictures in it.  She liked the book enough to bring it to me four more times for another story.  She happily sits and listens to me read the stories.  I hope the kids in my class like it as much as she does.  I think the stories are nicely done.  I suspect Katie and I will take a couple of weeks to read the whole book since I have to read The Clown of God and Pascual and the Kitchen Angels between each story.  Have I mentioned that I read those two books a lot?  I really need to get hard bound copies of those titles.

Ellie has been reading The Lemonade War for her summer reading.  I started off by having her read the book to me since it was supposed to be at a higher grade level but she had no issues with reading the book so now she's reading it on her own.  She seems to be enjoying the story.  She's also been reading me the stories in the Devotional Stories for Little Folks, Too book.  I love these stories.  They always have such great lessons.

Madeline is doing her best to avoid reading her summer reading book for school.  Together we went over the list of approved books on the summer reading list and we chose The Crossing: How George Washington Saved the American Revolution.  I think the book is pretty dry.  Having read loads of history text books for fun in the past I think I can say with certainty that this is probably one of the least exciting history book I've ever paged through.

Visit Housewifespice for more WWRW.