Three days of the Beehive Shop Hop has resulted in the following:
My camera and the lighting is showing these as a somewhat black background for the frogs and lizards, but it’s actually a warm chocolate brown with greens, teals, and oranges for the other colors. I’m going to be using this pattern:
It’s going to be an awesome boy quilt! Someday……..
One year ago, Scott & I participated in a miracle by attending Aaron’s one year party and releasing balloons in memory of all the Trisomy 18 babies not fortunate enough to have made it to that milestone. Well, last night we released 4 balloons, one for each of us in our family, at Aaron’s second birthday party. What a miracle! You can see lots of photos at the mom’s blog and you can play “Where’s Waldo?” to find the photo of my back.
It’s June and the daffodils are done but the late spring flowers are on. Here’s a sampling of what’s going on out in my flower gardens right now. They’re starting to look pretty good now that all the seedlings are finally in the ground and it’s warming up. I have 5 varieties of penstemon blooming, 3 varieties of poppies, and several different gaillardias. With vigorous spraying, I’ve managed to keep the deer from eating the rosebuds, so they are just starting to open on some of the bushes.
I’ve been wanting vertical structures for the vegetable garden for a long time and it’s just never happened, so today we were out weeding and planting some more veggies and I mentioned that Scott should lash together a structure for the cucumbers before we plant them and he just did it! Such an awesome husband! He went to the woodpile and a few minutes later all those mad Scout skills had made a cucumber teepee. Will it work? Stay tuned. But we have verticality in the vegetables! Wah-hoo!
I have a long-standing goal of reading all the Newbery award winners. This began when I was young and was renewed when Brian was in elementary school and decided to take up the challenge. I read along with him then, but as he grew older and moved on to other reading material, I also moved on. Again. A few years ago, I decided that I would focus again on this perpetual challenge and try to knock out a few more each year. To date I’ve read 64 of the 91 books so honored. So I’m making progress. Early in 2011 I realized that since my favorite genre (by far) is historical fiction, I should be reading the books given the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. (Because who doesn’t need more reading challenges in their life?) To be eligible for the award, a book must have been published as a book intended for children or young people, it must be set in the New World (Canada, Central or South America, or the United States), it must be published by a publisher in the United States, and it must be written in English by a citizen of the United States.
Before I decided to read them all, I had only read 5 of the 29, so the rest have been read during 2011-2012. Herein is the list with my star rating from my goodreads.com reviews. I read some really excellent books and a couple of duds, but for the most part, the books that have received this award have all been worthy. I enjoyed stretching myself and getting them all read. Someday I’ll finish all the Newberys.
2012, Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt, 2 stars
2011, Rita Williams-Garcia, One Crazy Summer, 4 stars
2010, Matt Phelan, The Storm in the Barn, 3 stars
2009, Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains, 5 stars
2008, Christopher Paul Curtis, Elijah of Buxton, 3 stars
2007, Ellen Klages, The Green Glass Sea, 3 stars
2006, Louise Erdrich, The Game of Silence, 4 stars
2005, A LaFaye, Worth, 5 stars
2004, Richard Peck, The River Between Us, 4 stars
2003, Shelley Pearsall, Trouble Don’t Last, 3 stars
2002, Mildred D. Taylor, The Land, 4 stars
2001, Janet Taylor Lisle, The Art of Keeping Cool, 4 stars
2000, Miriam Bat-Ami, Two Suns in the Sky, 2 stars
1999, Harriette Robinet, Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule, 4 stars
1998, Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust, 4 stars
1997, Katherine Paterson, Jip, His Story, 4 stars
1996, Theodore Taylor, The Bomb, 4 stars
1995, Graham Salisbury, Under the Blood Red Sun, 3 stars
1994, Paul Fleischman, Bull Run, 4 stars
1993, Michael Dorris, Morning Girl, 3 stars
1992, Mary Downing Hahn, Stepping on the Cracks, 4 stars
1991, Pieter Van Raven, A Time of Troubles, 4 stars
1990, Carolyn Reeder, Shades of Grey, 4 stars
1989, Lyll Becerra de Jenkins, The Honorable Prison, 5 stars
1988, Patricia Beatty, Charley Skedaddle, 3 stars
1987, Scott O’Dell, Streams to the River, River to the Sea, 3 stars
1986, Patricia MacLachlan, Sarah, Plain and Tall, 4 stars
1985, Avi, The Fighting Ground, 4 stars
1984, Elizabeth George Speare, The Sign of the Beaver, 3 stars