Book Review: The Dawn of a Dream by Ann Shorey

Right away this story has a shocker for you when Luellen's brand new husband takes off and leaves her on her own for scandalous reasons. The rest of the story follows Luellen as she chases her lifelong dream to become a teacher. She pushes past obstacles after obstacles to reach her goal, and I enjoyed being on the ride watching her strength and courage in very difficult circumstances.

This is the third book in a series, but I did not feel like I needed to read the first two in order to follow along. Anything that needed to be explained was explained in a natural manner. I very much enjoyed learning about the family in this book, especially because they were not perfect. The story had enough twists and turns in the plot that I didn't always know what was coming and enough predictability to enjoy waiting for the endings I knew were coming :-)

Thank you to Revell publishers for a free copy of this book to review.

Easter 2011

Here are a couple of videos and pics from yesterday. We had a busy morning with music practices for everyone so we waited for all the goodies until after dinner. Eóin did a really good job at trying to sing with the other kids this time. I know he is still a bit spacey, but usually he is so nervous he stands there with his tongue sticking out (his nervous/shy look). He was so proud of himself for singing along :-) Here are some vids for the grannies...





Then we came home and Eric and Christina came for dinner (although I forgot to get a pic of them), and then the kids got to go on their egg hunt. They were a lot more into it this year than previous ones so it was fun to watch them :-) It was a nice fun day as a family!

 Eóin was very patient and let Aidan find a few ;-)

On the hunt!

Eating the spoils (Aidan like sto shove as much as he can get in there!)

Happy Easter from the Harrisons!

Book Review: Tomorrow's Garden by Amanda Cabot.

Harriet Kirk packs up her five siblings to find a new beginning in Ladreville Texas. While she is there she faces some old challenges with her brother that she was hoping would be resolved with the move, and with her fears for her family's safety. She also faces new challenges in her school room and in issues of the heart.

This book contained a lot of foreshadowing in the first few chapters so I could pretty much guess what the storyline would be. Besides it's predictability, I still thought this made for a nice easy read. Nothing really page turning, but if you are looking for a sweet read for a warm summers day, this would do very nicely :-) It's the third book in a series, but I thought it stood on it's own very well and didn't feel like I was missing anything.

Thanks to Revell Publishing for a  free copy of this book to review.

Rainy Day Blessings

So I didn't post my thankful list yesterday, but I have a very good reason. In fact it is so good, it made it to my list!

1.  Jonathan gave me the night off last night to go to the mall and take a break. He took care of cleaning up after dinner and putting the kids to bed. Lovely!

2.  Free Farm Fun 

(even if we do spend most of the time at the playgrounds)

3. Cheesy Grins

4. Long Naps 

(He likes to be surrounded by blankets but not covered by them!)

5.  New Colors for Our Household!

6. Imaginations 

(Eóin is being a digger - his hand is his hook)

7.  Technology that makes even boring jobs funny!

I have been trying to write down 7 things to be thankful for at the end of each day and it has been very good for me. I just picked a few that I had pictures to match :-) I realize that none of these ones are very deep or insightful, but I have been finding that looking for joy in small things changes my attitude in big ways. 

A Springy Day of thankfulness.

I really enjoy reading this blog about thankfulness (http://www.aholyexperience.com), and so I think every Monday I am going to post my thankfulness list.  The goal is to get to 1,000 things you are thankful for. Here are some for today. I am thankful for...

1. A beautiful blue sky to play under

2. Healthy children who are able to enjoy playing

3. Trying new things 

(he would never even go near a swing before today).

4. Determination ("I do it" is the phrase of the week)

5. Bravery 

This slide was pretty tall and he loved it!