*****
1) Polymer Clay and paint
I'm really having fun. =) I'm just jumping in and figuring it out as I go... I've read a couple of good books, and looked in a couple of library books with different polymer clay jewelry. Some of it I liked and some of it I just don't. I'm hoping to grow and get better.
I think I like the painting as much as the clay. I'm trying to remember to photograph my pieces before I sell them!
2) My girls like school this year!
It feels like a miracle to see them happily walking into school each morning...
Abigail's kindergarten year was torture- every morning she would cry and refuse to go, and I'd end up having to carry her in crying. First grade was better- good teacher, yucky social issues.... Have you ever noticed how mean little girls can be?
But finally, second grade has turned a corner for her. She can read, and she can talk to people. She likes playing with the other kids. She likes her teacher. She likes math, and stories, and music, and gym... It's just amazing.
And Deborah has a fourth grade teacher who is emphasizing writing!!! Truly, he is an answer to prayer. She writes different bits (sometimes fiction, and sometimes non-fiction) every day and is doing so well. Math is still a struggle for her, much like it was for me, but she is surviving.
3) Mercedes Lackey Elemental Masters Series
This is my last week before I go back to work tutoring, so I am taking advantage of my last few days with the girls in school and me at home. I'm cleaning and reading.
Currently, I am re-reading Lackey's Elemental Masters turn of the century fantasy novels, and enjoying them again. I've read each of them about twice, but never straight through back to back. She has a new one, and I want to read them all again before I jump into the new one.
I enjoy the little cross-overs. Each story is complete in and of itself, but they all tie together and have some repeated characters.
I don't always agree with some of the moralizing/philosophizing that Lackey includes, but I always enjoy reading a book that makes me think. The series starts right about 1905, and then continue into the start of WWI. I like Lackey's characters- she creates people who you would like to know and hate to see go when the book is over. And I always love re-telling of fairy-tales.
The second book of the series, and honestly my favorite- The Serpent's Shadow is a re-telling of the Snow White story, with an Indian touch.
One of my favorite quotes from Phoenix is a comment made by a local village witch/mid-wife and the fairy godmother in the re-telling of the story:
"Eleanor looked up and lifted an eyebrow. 'I think I see why you never married, Sarah,' she replied, with irony.
Sarah laughed. 'Well, and I reckoned if I wanted something that'd come and go as he pleased, take me for granted and ignore me when he chose, I'd get a cat. And if I wanted something I'd always have to be picking up after, getting into trouble, but slavishly devoted, I'd get a dog.'"
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