Book Review

My Name Is NOT Isabella by Jennifer Fosberry

I love this book! It follows the day of little Isabella, who imagines herself as different strong, historical women. She pretends to be Rosa Parks, Marie Curie, and (my childhood hero!) Sally Ride, among others. Throughout her day, Isabella discovers that she can find the admirable qualities of these women within herself.

At the end of the book, there is a small piece of information about each of the women Isabella pretends to be. It's a great starting point for discovering what characteristics of each woman led her to be an inspiration.

I highly recommend this book for every little girl... and the mommies! One of the kindest, greatest women that Isabella pretends to be is her mommy. Reminds me to try to live my life to be a woman my daughter can look up to.

Three fun things!

A friend asked me to make some hats for a very special little girl.



I had so much fun making these, and I'm so proud of how they turned out!

Three good things...

** Menu planning. It's making my evenings so much nicer to know what's for dinner and get started on it as soon as I get home. I've been much more conscious about what we're eating, too--except for last night's caramel corn debacle. Hey, homemade means healthy, right?

** Knitting projects. I have a couple of things on the needles right now for friends. Every time I pick up that project, I think about the person I'm making it for, with prayers and good wishes going into each stitch.

** Plans. I'm excited about a few things that I probably shouldn't even bring up, since I don't want to talk about them here, yet. But they are good things, and I'm looking forward to the changes they will bring.

Our Favorite Books

One of our favorite read aloud books is Cool Time Song by Carole Lexa Schaefer. It's a story of animals on the savannah, and the peaceful time they share around the watering hole at sundown. There's a bit of an environmental message, too.

Our favorite part is the middle, where the animal noises make a song. We like to all make the animal noises in chorus.

There is also a white dove on each page spread. We like to search for the bird until we find it. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's more tricky.

Somehow, we ended up with more than one copy of this book. Lucky us!

Preschool projects

Katie made a Christmas ornament at preschool! She poured the paint inside a glass ball, and swirled it around. She chose 2 shades of pink (!) and one of blue with some white.





And today Katie painted an igloo! She loves to paint, and this was especially fun because she painted with a sponge.

Three good things...

**Pharmaceuticals. Man, I feel better already.

**Learning the brioche stitch. Have had to pull out this project three times, but hey, that means more knitting, right?

**Warm bath. That's my goal for tonight. Bath with a good book.

Today was a good day.

Happy New Year!

2010 was a damn good year. Despite the chaotic ending, my family was very blessed this year--mostly blessed with boring!

**plenty of snow to play in
**finishing my masters degree
**Jared's acceptance to nursing school
**vacation to the beach with family
**riding Thomas the Tank Engine
**Jared back at Partners 'n' Pals, which I know fills his soul
**lots of trips to the park and the library with my girlie
**finding an amazing daycare
**potty training
**challenging new classes to teach, which is stretching my abilities as an educator
**arising interests in books and dress up
**meeting some personal challenges, and making what headway we can

Yep. Pretty damn good year.