a rainy day...

 We're finally getting consistently into the 30's and 40's. Tomorrow will jump up into the high 60's and then back down into the 40's again. Our April showers seem to be mostly snow showers, though it isn't really sticking at this point. It will be raining and thunderstorming today and tomorrow.

This is Audrey's latest fold-out card from an Art for Kids Hub video tutorial. 

Micah has had a full week with homeschool co-op, MOPS, Adele's dance class and play practices. The three grand girls will be performing tonight and Sunday in the homeschool production of "101 Dalmatians". Audrey is a "poodle narrator" and Hazel and Adele will be dalmatians. :) I'll be babysitting Sully and Thatcher tonight and I'll go see the play on Sunday. It's been a big babysitting week!

My current reading pile...

I just finished The Gulag Archipelago. It was a long slog, but something I think everyone should read at some point. (At least the abridged version!) Especially the younger generation who seem to be ignorant of some of the history of the world. I also finished...

The story of a "marriage of convenience" and how love can grow in some of the most unlikely circumstances. Takes place during the Napoleonic wars and is filled with history.

Mags, you asked what I do with all these books after I read them. I usually donate them back to the thrift store, or occasionally mail one to a family member whom I think might enjoy it. Yesterday I took several down from the shelves and flipped through the beginnings of them and then tossed them straight into my donation box! I try to keep things rotating in and out so I don't get too many. I used to be a bit of a hoarder. I'm trying to overcome that tendency. No point in keeping things I'm not really looking forward to reading. That's why some of the impulse purchases are sent back without reading them. Too many books; too little time! :)

MK, yes, I've watched several of those Ruth Stout videos on YouTube and enjoyed them a lot! If I ever get around to gardening, that's how I'll do it! :)

I'm slowing down a little on the ATCs. I've "gone on homers", as we say, for the Continuous Round Robin swaps. That means I'll just get back my finished cards, but won't be sent cards that need work. I just need to get off the merry-go-round for a while. I'll still be doing regular swaps as the spirit moves me. 

These cards are for the April Weird Holidays swap.

The Save the Bees swap...

APC (altered playing card) Cats and a little something extra-8's

The Mice are Nice swap...

The Felis Catus swap...

The Found Poetry swap...

During my nursing school days (remember my nursing school days about 10 years ago?) I read a book for Sociology called The Blue Zones. It's about areas in the world where people live to be 100 or so with great regularity. I came across this cookbook at the thrift store. It's really interesting, though it will probably go unused, like all of my cookbooks. I tend to eat very simple things and prefer it that way. :)

But it's fun to look through.

I came across these at the bottom of my memory card and don't recall posting them. This was a swap called "Text Me". You needed to have some text somewhere on the card. Some of these were from cool old Saturday Evening Post covers. (Or it may have been the Foreign Language swap, since they seem to all be in non-English languages.)

Well, enough of that! I think it will be a day of reading, loafing and listening to the rain pitter patter on the roof. I'll venture out to the post office and then stay in where it's warm and dry until babysitting time.

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be by for a visit to all my bloggy friends. 

Love and shalom to all!

Spring is springing! (And some thrift store books!)

Or maybe I'd better not jinx it? Our considerable amount of snow is melting and we have a lake on the driveway, like every year. Hopefully the frost will "go out", as we say, and the lake will disappear in a couple of days. Highs in the 40's are rejoiced over and maybe soon walking outside will be a thing again! (My car is parked halfway down the driveway.)

Just thought I'd empty my memory card onto the blog as usual. Sipping my blueberry/banana smoothie and relaxing, like always. Just finished some ATCs and thought I should catch up on posting them.

Doing lots of babysitting, and glad to be able to help. Micah's family is pretty heavily scheduled so I'd better write this stuff down. None of that "keeping it all in  my head" stuff. ;)

I'm currently reading The Gulag Archipelago. I read part of it in my 20's and didn't realize I had missed two volumes! The edition I'm reading now is the abridged version of all three volumes. I figured I could make it through this  shorter version. (450 pages. Not bad compared to the unabridged version!) I just finished a book called The Story of Reality by Greg Koukl. Really good. I'll let you read the blurbs...

Sun dog! This was a few days ago.

A typical day of babysitting. Screens and artwork.

They're watching a video of other people playing Minecraft. It's the same nice family that does the art video tutorials. They have a lot of fun. (Games for Kids Hub, or something like that.) Della must be the only one doing art. The two smallest boys went with Micah to MOPS.

Sully took this one. 

The crow couple who visit me a lot.

And now...drumroll...ATCs!

This swap was called Celebrity Zettis. Zetti is a style of brightly colored art. It's sometimes described as sustained confusion, lol. It's kind of fun, though difficult for my literal brain that always wants things to look realistic. They had to have a celebrity's face on them. Mine were very old school celebrities. 

These are ATCoins for a Pick-a-Theme swap...(They're 2-1/2 inches in diameter.)

The Fun Flower swap...(just requires flowers)

The Text Me swap. (Just required some text.)

The Foolish Squirrel swap. 

The Stencil swap. Just needed a little stenciling to qualify. (I'm a little bit retro, in case you hadn't noticed, ha ha.)

That's about it for the ATCs. I do a lot of Continuous Random Round Robin cards, too, but don't usually take photos since I only do little bits of them. As usual, apologies if I had any repeats there.

And now...drumroll...the thrift store books.

Gave my last copy to my son, so thought I'd pick up another.

The catechism, just because I was curious and the other Luther book was old, but had interesting stuff to use for collage. The wilderness survival book looked kind of interesting.

I've heard several people say that Bleak House was their favorite Dickens novel, so I grabbed it. And Micah and I had just been talking about Ruth Stout's no till gardening method the other day. Lo and behold I found this copy of one of her books. The genuine article; copyright 1961, I believe.

Some maybes...

Now, I didn't know Lois Lowry had written a follow up book to The Giver. This is it, apparently. I hope it's as good. And the cozy mystery looked like it might be good.

Interested to read a John MacArthur book. And I've always wanted to read one of these traveling books by the Jenkins's.

This is to flip through and then pass on to Adam. I've given him most of my tiny house type books. He politely takes them, ha ha. I think he likes to look at them, too.

And now my tale is finished. We have an early morning tomorrow. Micah and two of the kids have eye doctor appointments, so we're all tagging along.

Thanks for dropping by! I'll come check up on everyone. 

Love and shalom to everyone! :)