CHRISTEPHI

It has been a very long time since I read a book for pleasure.  I read with the kids, I read for the kids (i.e. parenting & homeschooling books), but rarely a book for pleasure.  In fact, the last time I did was (oh, this is embarrassing) about a year ago when I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. So when I got the chance to read a Christian fantasy novel for review, I decided it was an opportunity I didn't want to pass up. I didn't realize it when I first started, but Beneath the Forsaken City is actually Book Two in the Song of Seare series.  Having not read the first book, Oath of the Brotherhood , didn't slow me down a bit.  I was able to jump straight into the story and follow along without any trouble.  Although clearly I might have had a better understanding of the characters had I spent time with them in the first book. About the Book A Storm on the Horizon. A Brotherhood Scattered.   Conor and Aine have barely escaped Seare with their

I finally went and deleted my old Wordpress blog, but in doing so it looks like my oldest posts have lost all their images!  Doh! No worries, I have them all saved on my computer, but it will take me some time to get them re-uploaded and fixed.  In the mean time, please enjoy my more recent posts.

Before we moved, we lived in a 900 sq. ft. duplex with a multipurpose kitchen that served as our cooking room, dining room, home office, and school room.  When we bought this house we added about half again as much living space.  The kids now get their own bedrooms and though the kitchen is smaller now, we gained a finished room in the basement that has been turned into a family room/school room! On one end of the room is a bright fluorescent light in the ceiling.  I positioned our table near it because it lends itself well to bookwork.  We all sit at this table when we need to fill out worksheets or write or draw or color.  There is built in storage behind the table that we use to corral all our school books for the year.  We haven't implemented workboxes since the move and might not since things have been working so smoothly for us so far this year. Hubby's treadmill is down there which is nice when it's bitter cold outside and one of the children need to

Two months ago we closed on our first house!  We were on break from school at the time, which was a huge blessing.  After getting moved and settling in a little (digging ourselves out of boxes!) it was Christmas and then time to start a new school year.  And all the while I've neglected my poor blog! It's not much, but it's OURS! But I'm back now!  And I'm going to show you our new school room set up in the basement.  It's ah-MAY-zing to have a dedicated school space!  Being able to just run upstairs for lunch and return to our open books and half-finished papers is a huge blessing.  Not to mention the fantastic built-in storage.  It's homeschooler heaven!  (Well, maybe not.  That would probably be a house with far more square footage on an acreage, but...I'm content!) We are no longer in a small town, but smack-dab in the city.  This is mostly good, but has a few draw-backs.  Everything is so much more accessible and yet we are saving beaucoup