Mailbox Monday - Oct 26

 

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

There really should be a law against feeling this exhausted. Between a hectic work schedule and the tinnitus making it challenging to sleep, my behind is dragging. The holidays can't come soon enough. Things should slow down then... believe it or not. 

This week I participated in an online cooking class for the first time. A local chef helped us make falafel and rice with a tomato and cucumber salad. I plated mine before he showed us how to plate it. I'm not much on presentation. The third plate I did his way: rice on the bottom, falafel on top of the rice and the salad on the side with some tahini sauce. 

The Lil' Diva bought the animals Halloween costumes. The animals were not impressed.

Theo the Lion

Dwight the Pumpkin

Travis the Bat

The one really nice thing about the pandemic is that I've been walking in the woods behind the house. Tonight, the man about the place and I took a leisurely stroll with Theo. Not the best photo, but the fall colors in the woods are beautiful. 

On the mailbox front, I received two books for review.

I also picked up these freebies for my Kindle.

I used credits to buy this seasonal story.

It looks like that's it from my end. Hope you have a great week.

PBS KIDS Helps You Celebrate Halloween with Fun Activities

 

With celebrations, school, and work pushed into virtual and socially distanced formats, normal can be tough. Holidays, like Halloween, will look a bit different this year. That doesn't mean it can’t still be spook-tastic and fun for children of all ages!

Check out these tried and true activities from PBS KIDS to help children and their families safely get in the spirit this year.

• Make Halloween Treat Bags to drop off on porches of friends and family members in your neighborhood
• Throw a virtual Halloween party and decorate your house with glowing ghost jugs, hand print spiders or pipe cleaner pumpkins
• Carve a pumpkin (or two) to jazz up your front porch with these PBS KIDS pumpkin carving templates
• Create your own Daniel Tiger, WordGirl or Wild Kratts costumes for an at-home Halloween costume parade 

Even when life is different, you can count on PBS KIDS to be there to help. 

Mailbox Monday - Oct 15

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

We are back to Monday. I hope you all had a great weekend. I held an open house that brought in an offer and also had another offer accepted for a buyer. The family attended the annual Taste of Greece at St. Luke's. We also got our first taste of cold weather--actually had to put the frost cover up on the vegetables this weekend. I'm not sure I'm ready for that.

It was a great book week too. I'm reviewing this first one for Chronicle Books. Isn't it cute?

The next book in The Daughters of the Mayflower series arrived.

I ordered this one for myself when it was recommended by someone in my writing group.

The founder of our writing group came back to the area this past weekend for a book reading and signing, so I visited the local Barnes and Noble to see her. This isn't her favorite cover, but I love it. 

While there, I visited one of the bargain tables and picked up this great book for less than $2 after my rewards. You can never have too many reference books. 

I decided to stay away from the Kindle freebies this week, so that was my entire mailbox. What did you find in your mailbox? Hope it's something you really wanted.

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - Sep 26

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

• Let me just say that I am really okay with skipping over Halloween and Thanksgiving and getting right to the Christmas season. It makes no sense. I have way too much to do before then. I just can't help it. I really want it to be the Christmas season right now. Feel free to tell me I am nuts.
• Had a closing this week and one coming up on Monday. Feeling good about that.
• Should be reading right now. I have books for review coming up. Just not feeling it lately.
• This is another work weekend. Maybe I'll get a weekend off in October. One can hope.

Is There a Middle Ground for Christians at Halloween?

A few years ago, I posted an article on Christian Children's Authors about how we celebrate Halloween. This is a holiday that can divide people of faith. My mother-in-law won't even call it Halloween. She calls it Trick or Treat Night. Admittedly, I'm not much into the gore and ghoulish aspects of the holiday, but I do enjoy this time of year and like to see all the neighborhood kids dressed up.

Today, I found an article from 2015 written by Dr. Benjamin L Corey titled, "A Reasonable Middle-Ground For Being A Christian At Halloween." I also found this article citing Bible verses that might be some basis for not celebrating. I'm curious what you think. Is there a middle ground for Christians on Halloween? Should we avoid celebrating the holiday in any way?

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Halloween with Last-Minute Costume Ideas

The Lil' Diva inspecting pumpkins

I enjoy Halloween. I'm not much into zombies and goblins, but the cute aspects of it are fine. We choose more of a harvest theme for our decorations. It's become a tradition around here that two weeks before Halloween we visit our local farmers market and pick out pumpkins. We carve them the week leading up to Halloween so they last. On Halloween night, the girls get together with their friends and walk through our neighborhood with their dads, while the moms stay home and hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. Then the girls and their dad hop in the car and visit their grandparents. 

What are some of your Halloween or harvest time traditions?

The Lil' Princess humoring her camera-toting Dad

Here are links to some last minute Halloween costume ideas:

http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/holidays/halloween/last-minute-halloween-costume-ideas-00100000066551/ 

http://spoonful.com/halloween/best-last-minute-kids-halloween-costumes-gallery

Some of the ideas on this site are more adult than others, but most of them are good:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/angelamv/31-insanely-clever-last-minute-halloween-costumes  

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

You've Got Mail Monday

I'm thinking the mail carrier must have felt guilty about ignoring me the previous week, because he sure made up for it last week. Between the United States Postal Service, UPS and FedEx, I can't seem to find the floor of my office.

Catalogs and magazines arrived galore last week. Most of the catalogs made their way to the recycle bin. I try not to save them if I don't think I'll be ordering from them. It's not Christmas yet, so Land's End isn't on the agenda--even if they do send me multiple catalogs each month. Oriental Trading sent a catalog with Halloween costumes and other funny dress up accessories. I actually bought an angel costume from them one year for the Lil' Princess. I remember it because it was the year of the three horrible storms that left us without power for multiple days. Halloween 2011 was canceled by our town because we were still without power and many downed trees littered the sidewalks and roads. We ended up staying at my in-laws' house for a week, so we Trick-or-Treated there. Eventually, once everyone in town was back up and running again, we had our own Trick-or-Treat night.

Grandin Road® has some great Halloween and fall decorations. Too bad I'm broke right now.

In addition to those catalogs, my October 18, 2013 issue of All You magazine arrived. Love the cover on this one. I haven't had time to go through it yet, but hopefully I will by the end of the week. Traditional Home also arrived. I've been so busy I haven't even unwrapped it yet. That's definitely on my to-do list. I find so many great decorating ideas to show my future interior designer.

I have to admit to a bit of confusion about magazines lately. It seems I'm getting some I never signed up for. ESPN magazine started coming a few months ago. There is no way I would want that one. Then Shape magazine began arriving. I thought maybe my Heath magazine had simply changed its name, but I received a copy of each this month, so not sure what's going on.

As for books, I was pleasantly surprised to find a box of children's picture books from Clavis Publishing on my doorstep one day. I'll review those at The Children's and Teens' Book Connection. I had ordered a copy of The Crypto-Capers in The Peacock Diaries by Renee Hand, which also arrived. I've followed this series since the beginning and I can't wait to read this one. Finally, A Christmas Carol 2: The Return of Scrooge by Robert J. Elisberg showed up at the end of the week. I'll be reviewing that one at The Book Connection in October.

Planning for my upcoming virtual book tour for Little Shepherd, I ordered a few of my books so I can mail them to reviewers. Our UPS driver dropped those off. My new business cards also arrived from VistaPrint.

I think that's it. Like I said, it was a busy mail week. Hope you had a nice day today. Many blessings for the rest of the week.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday #2

Wordless Wednesday #1

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday