Changes brewing...

I have 4 blogs right now - this one, one for general family news, one for knitting, and one for sewing. I can't keep up with any of them. LOL I'm sorry I haven't been posting here or commenting in other blogs much lately. Life has just been busy and as usual I am so behind on everything. I am still reading your blogs though!

Anyway....

In September I will start homeschooling Lindsey (Kindergarten), and I've been thinking about doing a blog with more of a homeschool focus - what we're learning, accomplishments, struggles, and misc. ramblings. But I still want to write about reading, knitting, and occasionally sewing so I've decided to combine everything into one blog. I've decided to start this blog at Homeschool Blogger. I haven't decided on a name yet so I don't have a specific URL to share with you. I would LOVE suggestions on what to call this new blog! I am so uncreative. I don't want the word homeschool in the title since the blog will be about more than that. The same goes for any one subject such as reading, knitting, etc.

I'm thinking I may lose some readers when I go to this new blog but I may gain some too. I would love to have you follow me there, but I understand if you're not interested.

I hope to have my new blog started in the next few weeks and when I get a URL I will let you know! Thanks to the faithful readers/commenters of my many blogs.

Shameless Plug!

I started another blog, because I'm learning to knit! It's called N-E-W-Knitter. I also updated my sewing blog. Go have a look!

N-E-W-Knitter

Eileen's Sewing Journal

WOW

Wow, look what they're giving away at 5 Minutes for Mom!!!!!!!!!




Oooh I want to win that! I'm sure you do too! If so, just visit the 5 Minutes for Mom blog, leave a comment, and link to the post about the giveaway.

How many men read books?

My husband, Jay, and I were talking yesterday about how many men read books - including general non-fiction, biographies, novels, etc. I said maybe 2 out of 10 and he thought less. He named 8 guys he knows including himself and only one of them (not him, sigh) reads books. Jay likes to read the newspaper online, articles online, and magazines such as Business Week. But he rarely reads a book.

What do you think?

Happy New Year! and Hello!

I am so excited to begin this blog! I am trying to spend less time online these days, so I'll probably keep this simple. Don't look for anything fancy. I still have some work to do on the look of the blog and will do that when I have time.

If you don't know me yet, I'll give you a brief intro. I've been married for over 19 years and have 3 wonderful children. Ben is 16, Lindsey is 3 1/2, and Allison is 14 months. My 2 girls were adopted from China. We just adopted Allison 2 months ago. I love my life! I love to read and crochet (duh) and also I love love love football, especially NFL, especially my Green Bay Packers (who beat Da Bears last night, woo hoo!), but I can watch any football game, anytime. I also love coffee, chocolate, and my dog, a 6 year old Westie named Chester. He's the best dog in the whole world! I live in Wisconsin and love it here. I homeschool Ben which I love (most of the time!) and plan to homeschool the girls too. I am learning Latin along with Ben and I love that too. My husband thinks I'm nuts, but I actually love doing the homework along with Ben.

Okay so now on to the purpose of this blog, which is books and crochet! The focus will be books but I'll start with crochet for now. I learned how about 10 years ago, maybe a little more. I've made tons of afghans, tons of dishcloths and coasters, quite a few doilies, and many other miscellaneous things. I enjoy crocheting both with yarn and thread. The first thing I made besides maybe a dishcloth, was a green/gold ripple afghan (which ended up wider on one end than the other, LOL, but not bad for a first big project), and the last thing I finished was a purple and white baby afghan for Allison. Soon I'll take some pictures of some of the things I've made and post them here.

Books! I love to read! I love to play on the computer too which causes a conflict - sometimes I spend so much time online reading about what other people are reading when I could be reading myself! My favorite thing to read is Christian fiction (What is "Christian fiction" anyway? I guess I would describe it as fiction written by a Christian with a Christian theme - how would you describe it?) I will read "secular" fiction too as long as it doesn't have too many objectionable elements in it. I also like non-fiction but prefer fiction.

I've kept a notebook with all my books read since 2002. Just this year I put them on the computer too. I rate them Excellent, Very Good, Good, and Okay. If it's worse than "Okay" I don't keep reading it. I'm not one to finish a book I don't like or can't get into. Sometimes I will keep reading and just skim if I really want to know what happens in the end, or if it's for the book club I'm in (through my church, we only read "Christian Fiction"), and many non-fiction books.

Some of my favorite authors are Jamie Langston Turner, Lisa Samson, Cindy Martinusen, Brandilynn Collins (mainly her Bradleyville series), Linda Hall, Philip Gulley, and many others. My favorite book of all time is The Family Nobody Wanted by Helen Doss. I've probably read it about 50 times and I own 3 copies. Some of my recent favorites (past 5 years or so) are Some Wildflower in My Heart by Jamie Langston Turner, The Church Ladies by Lisa Samson, the Harmony series by Philip Gulley. Those are just a few.

I hardly ever buy books (gasp!). It seems most book lovers on the blogs I have read buy most if not all of their books. I can't afford to do that. Besides I love love love going to the library and picking out a bunch of books! Also because I start so many books that I can't get into and put down, I can't afford to buy them and not read them. I save purchases more for non-fiction books I will reread, or occasionally a book from a favorite author that I know I will like and want to reread in the future.

My next post will be all the books I read in 2006 with ratings. Happy reading!