Hockey Hockey Hockey

It's official, hockey season has started again for the Gallagher family. Mac and Daniel are both playing and love it especially when Dad is on the ice for practices.

To get in the mood, we started a new "chapter book" by Nancy Wilcox Richards called How to Outplay a Bully. It's a cute little story about a boy, Tony, who starts hockey late in the season. His third-grade teammates have been playing for a couple of years and seem to be well-versed in the sport. Besides having to overcome the hurdles of never having played on a team, Tony has to deal with Berk, the bully. We are half-way through the book and are thoroughly enjoying the discussions that arise after each chapter.

On the adult book front, I was really touched by We Are All the Same by Jim Wooten. I will never think of AIDS and South Africa without thinking of this book.

I am now working my way through Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen. So far it is a good teenage read dealing with family issues.

The election results (and my knitting) are calling my name....

New season, new books

Well, the boys and I finished The Dragon in the Sock Drawer last night. It was a great read the whole way through. We even went to the accompanying website that the cousins visited in the story. I am hoping there will be another book in this series.

Eliza and I have read Jamie Lee Curtis' new book (her 8th actually) a few times. Big Words for Little People is an adorable rhyming story about a huge family who encounters big words in their daily life. Words like privacy, considerate, perseverance are all explained in a child-like way.

Tonight we read the first chapter of Ivy and Bean Take Care of the Babysitter. So far so good. The fact that all three kids moaned when I closed the book is a good sign...they wanted more.

Tonight I am starting We Are All the Same by Jim Wooten as this is our pick for our adult book club. Loni picked this one and was moved deeply by it.

Jim has just gone for a quick run and my knitting is calling me so I shall sign off...

Mixed Feelings about Labour Day

I am sure there are many of us that feel the same way about Labour Day. While the lazy days of summer with our lack of routine, later bedtimes and long days at the beach are over, we can rejoice in the fact that the kids will be back at school with their friends (old and new) and some sort of schedule will be incorporated back into our homes. Whether we like it or not, we are all creatures of habit and schedules are a part of our life that help us to get where we are going.

A habit that our family (and most families that I know) have come to enjoy is the reading of a great story before bedtime. This habit does not take a break over the summer but some nights the boys had to choose between Drake and Josh and whatever book we were reading at that time. As expected, some nights Drake and Josh and their slapstick humour won out!

However yesterday on the way to our cottage, the boys insisted on finishing Max-a-Million: The Movie Director. At points, I thought maybe the story was a little old for the boys considering there was a lawsuit taking place but it only made them ask more questions than usual...something I didn't know was humanly possible. The Max-a-Million series is written by Trina Wiebe (a Canadian author) and follows the adventures of Maximillion Wigglesworth III. Max is a young boy who is forever looking for ways to make easy money. It's a great series for children aged 6-10.

Now we have moved on to a brand new book called The Dragon in the Sock Drawer. Although we only read the first chapter tonight, it sure caught the boys' attention. Even Daniel, who is not a huge fan of fantasy books, was intrigued by the idea of a dragon hatching from a thunder egg.

I am heading to bed now in hopes that I will finish my young adult novel, Paper Towns by John Green. It is a strange book that has kept my interest and now has me dying to know what has happened to Margo Roth Spiegelman. The dual cover treatment is something I have never seen and will surely catch the eye of teenage readers.

Read on...
Mary Ann

Cleaning out our old home

This morning Jane and I helped Mom clean out some of her/our old things from her home preparing for the big move. (think university yearbooks, notes, exams, old photo albums, wedding dresses, veils etc.)

Bookwise, I learned an interesting fact today by calling Fundy Recycles. Encyclopedias are recyclable in the blue bin marked "paper". This may be helpful to those of you cleaning out your basements or your parents' basements anytime soon. It seems a shame to throw away books but when the time comes to part with the old books of knowledge at least you will know where to put them.

Off to our last night of Under 8 soccer practice...

Wow, that was easy...

While we were away on vacation, Jim and I decided we should have a blog for discussing books. As with most things on the internet, I typed in "how to start a blog" and within minutes here I am typing my first entry.

Speaking of vacation, our two weeks were split between a somewhat rainy week on the beautiful Belleisle Bay at our cottage and a sunnier week in Wells, Maine. There were lots of laughs and adventures and good books that were read.

I read Eric Walter's yet to be released, Alexandria of Africa. A great teenage novel about a spoiled brat who gets caught shoplifting. Thinking she is above the law, she is shocked to find out that she is being sent to Africa to help build a school. Essentially, she is exposed to a world that she had never even contemplated.

I also read Sheree Fitch's adult novel, Kiss the Joy as it Flies. I thought of Mercy Beth Fanjoy for days afterward. I loved the book as much as I hoped I would!

The Friday Night Knitting Club was a lovely story about women brought together by their common interest in the age-old art of knitting (my other favourite pastime). There was a bit of everything in this story that would appeal to women of all ages.

Little Earthquakes by jennifer Weiner was our bookclubs choice this month. We all enjoyed reading about these 3 women having their first child. Although their worlds are far from mine, I thoroughly enjoyed my first book by this popular author.

I hear Nora waking up so I had better sign off.