A Name Unknown - A Book Review

After reading Roseanna White's Ladies of the Manor series, I was looking forward to reading her first installment of her Shadows Over England series. This book felt different from her previous series, but she held true to character and setting development.  She does a beautiful job of crafting this tale right as World War I is about to break out using it to tell an endearing story of the lower class and upper class.  It is not a fast paced book.  However, it was written in such a way that I didn't get bored and made me want to come back for more.  I think the slowness of the book lends itself to the slower paced lifestyle of that time as well.  I did have a bit of a hard time following the political side story that was occurring, but that didn't interfere terribly with the final outcome of the book.  I followed it well enough to understand how it impacted the ending.  Otherwise, I enjoyed this book and look forward to future installments to the series.

I received a complimentary copy of A Name Unknown by Roseanna M. White from Bethany House Publishers.

First Day...

First day of school.  First day in two different buildings for the trio.  First day of jr high and the last first day of elementary for another.  It was not the first time that I did not cried when I dropped  them off for the school year.  I am not the Mom who jumps for joy when the school year gets underway.  I don't dread it, though, because I know that they grow up.  I know they are excited and nervous for the adventures that will unfold over the next few months.  I just get sad because I enjoy them and time is marching on all too quickly.

 Luke moved up to the jr high as a 6th grader this year complete with switching classes, tough classes, drummer in the school band and the newest member of the school soccer team.  When asked if he liked it better than elementary, he quickly responded with a "yes"!  His favoriet part was sitting with whoever and wherever he wanted at lunch.

 Hannah is starting her last year of elementary school in 5th grade.  She is thrilled to be able to spend the year with friends from previous years (a definite answer to prayer!) and she has the same teacher Luke had last year.  She should be all set for jr high after this year!

 Andrew begins 4th grade.  He has never had a duplicate teacher that his brother and sister have had.  He is sad about that and the fact that two of his good friends are not in his class.  He will make friends quickly and hopefully settle into his new routine. 

With one in jr high, I only got to walk these two to school today.  Thankfully, we missed the torrential downpour that followed shortly after the start of school.

Summer Snapshots

If you'd asked me what our summer would have looked like, it wouldn't have been as it turned out.  However, when I look back on it all, we've had a lot of fun doing a lot of things!  It's sad, but it is time to our new routine of school.  Before tomorrow arrives, though, I thought I'd take a few minutes to look at some of summer snapshots.

 Summer kicked off with a trip to Chicago

 We took in an airshow with the USAF Thunderbirds...of course!

 Legos are always a part of our summer and any other free moment.  Luke is our Lego king, but they all get involved when they set up complex cities in the basement and play together with them for hours.

 We also have silly moments...it is no surprise that Andrew is the one that thought of trying to fit in the washing machine.  He is also the only one of us that would fit!

 Our sweet family time at Mammoth Caves to camp, unplug and just enjoy being together!

 Cousin time!

 Education time.  Here, we're at the D-Day Memorial, but we also visited battlefields, Appomattox Courthouse, the Old Courthouse and a some other places.

 The Zoo is always a place we visit in the summer.

 Going skating was our new, fun and inexpensive outing for the summer.  We only went a couple of times, but it was always fun.  They also enjoyed bowling and swimming.

 Taking in some sights closer to home

 Baking with friends.  These two made some yummy banana bread and zucchini bread for us pretty much all by themselves

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 The sillies came out before heading to Open House and meeting the teachers for the younger two.  Luke has moved on and his Open House was tonight.

As our last celebration of the summer and to kick off the new school year, we held our second annual ice cream social.

Now, there is only one thing left to do, but we will save that for tomorrow.....

Something New....

Today, our church held a community event.  With any event like this, they always a large need for volunteers.  I didn't know what to expect, but when the Children's Pastor asked for volunteers, we agreed to be there bright and early this morning.  They got to be a part of the worship team on stage and help with a some games.  They have never ever done anything like that.  I was thrilled to see them jump in and try something new.  One of them was rather hesitant, but as you can see from the picture, they all ended up doing it in the end.  Another one learned that some people may not always be nice, but we can't let that interfere with what God has called us to do as well as some of the reasons why people act in that manner.  It was a great learning experience for them.  They loved it and want to do it again next year!