Music Monday - The Plot in You "Pretend"

A band that I immediately liked the first time I heard it on the radio. Loving it!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Life Right Now #6

As I look outside my window: It’s been a rainy weekend here. A storm rolled in on Friday night and the clouds stuck around. We definitely need the rain, but I could do without the high winds.

Right now I am: Deciding what to make for brunch. Maybe I’ll make scones… lemon poppy seed and/or ham and cheddar.

On my bedside table: All the manga! Seriously, I have most of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and Jujutsu Kaisen sitting here. I’m missing a few volumes yet from the library and don’t want to dive in until I get them. So it looks like the second half of March will be all comics and manga.

On my tv this week: J and I watched multiple episodes of S1 of Dimension 20. We’re getting closer to the end of that campaign. I also caught up with my Below Deck and The Bachelor.

Listening to: All Stray Kids all the time!

On the menu for this week:

• Monday - Parmesan Tilapia

• Tuesday - Lemon Ginger Turmeric Chicken Soup

• Wednesday - Me Out

• Thursday - Snack Dinner

• Friday - Buffalo Chicken Sliders

• Saturday - Cajun Chicken and Sausage Alfredo

• Sunday - Broccoli Beef

On my to do list: I have a ton of homeschool tasks for today. The biggest is making a video for the social co-op about our clarifying of expectations and rules.

Happening this week:

• Monday -

• Tuesday -

• Wednesday - Joslyn Art Museum; Book Club

• Thursday - Academic Co-op (Last Week!); Co-op Happy Hour

• Friday - Board Game Club

• Saturday - Cookout with Friends

• Sunday - Nerdy Bookish Friends Book Discussion

What I am creating: I would like to work on my February Memory Planner. And maybe start laying out the bookish retreat name tags.

My simple pleasures: Coffee, kids who listen to me, eating lunch outside

Looking around the house: I need to do a general pickup and I probably have a ton of laundry to do. But I’ll get there.

From the camera: Thursday we dropped the boys off at the homeschool dance and went to dinner! A proper adult dinner to celebrate both of our birthdays. It was so good! I got the duck and J got the salmon.

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Title: Romantic Comedy

Author: Curtis Sittenfeld

Publisher: Random House 2023

Genre: Romance

Pages: 309

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Quarter of a Century - 2023; Romanceopoly - Festival Barn

Where I Got It: Library

Spice Rating: 4.5

Sally Milz is a sketch writer for The Night Owls, a late-night live comedy show that airs every Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life.

But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actress who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called The Danny Horst Rule, poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman.

Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder if there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy—it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her . . . right?

With her keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page, Curtis Sittenfeld explores the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.

Oh goodness. I truly disliked this book. My main issue with the book is actually the format and writing style. The “Dear Diary” style of relating the week at the non-SNL production got old really fast. It felt super immature and distracted from the characters. The second section of emails was tired and repetitive. I couldn’t even imagine having to listen to that on audio. Thank goodness that I was reading it with my eyes. The third section was the only part that I was okay with. It’s written with first-person narrative, but seems normal. My other issue with the book is the story itself. There’s an attempt to show a story focused on insecure woman as she attempts to not fuck up a New Romantic relationship. I appreciate the attempt, but found Sally so unlikeable and annoying in many ways. I would have liked to see so much more between her and Noah, but instead we don’t get them together until the 70% mark of the book. As an extra note, I hated reading the COVID section. The entire section where Jerry contracts COVID seemed out of place and took my out of the point of the book. This is going to be interesting book club.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Title: The Last Unicorn

Author: Peter S. Beagle

Publisher: 1968

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 294

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Books to Movies; Fairytale Retelling - Mythology

Where I Got It: Library

The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. So she ventured out from the safety of the enchanted forest on a quest for others of her kind. Joined along the way by the bumbling magician Schmendrick and the indomitable Molly Grue, the unicorn learns all about the joys and sorrows of life and love before meeting her destiny in the castle of a despondent monarch—and confronting the creature that would drive her kind to extinction...

Our Nerdy Bookish Friend selection for May (it got bumped from March). It’s been on my TBR for absolute years. I finally got around to it and I’m not sure exactly how I feel about this one. I kept having to remind myself that this was written in 1968. The story felt very dated, but again, 1968. There are a few scenes that were pretty disturbing and I couldn’t decide if they actually fit the story at all. The story meandered a little too much in sections. There are passages that are beautiful and fun. I can see why this became a classic, but I ultimately was sorta disappointed in this read.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair

Title: The Secret Lives of Color

Author: Kassia St. Clair

Publisher: Penguin Books 2016

Genre: Nonfiction

Pages: 284

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER; Nonfiction Reader

Where I Got It: Kindle

The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of seventy-five fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso’s blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history.

In this book, Kassia St. Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colors and where they come from (whether Van Gogh’s chrome yellow sunflowers or punk’s fluorescent pink) into a unique study of human civilization. Across fashion and politics, art and war, the secret lives of color tell the vivid story of our culture. 

I randomly picked this from my backlog of Kindle selections. I enjoyed a light journey through various historical vignettes about colors. I liked learning specific shades. There’s a lot of history in here that obviously took a lot of research. It didn’t surprise me that so many colors involve various toxins and poisons. An interesting read in between all my more serious books.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis

Title: Dreadful

Author: Caitlin Rozakis

Publisher: Titan Books 2024

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 344

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Cover Lover - Bookish Elements

Where I Got It: Library

It’s bad enough waking up in a half-destroyed evil wizard’s workshop with no eyebrows, no memories, and no idea how long you have before the Dread Lord Whomever shows up to murder you horribly and then turn your skull into a goblet or something.

It’s a lot worse when you realize that Dread Lord Whomever is… you.

Gav isn’t really sure how he ended up with a castle full of goblins, or why he has a princess locked in a cell. All he can do is play along with his own evil plan in hopes of getting his memories back before he gets himself killed. 

But as he realizes that nothing – from the incredibly tasteless cloak adorned with flames to the aforementioned princess – is quite what it seems, Gav must face up to all the things the Dread Lord Gavrax has done. And he’ll have to answer the hardest question of all – who does he want to be?

A high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, an evil wizard convocation, and a garlic festival. All at once. All in all, Dread Lord Gavrax has had better weeks.

Overall, this was such a delight. I choose it for my speculative fiction book club because I was hoping for something a bit lighter and fun. It delivered on both of those fronts. We immediately jump into the action and have to puzzle out the past along with Gav. Apparently I really like the amnesia trope in fantasy books. I found it a lot of fun to try and piece together all the mysteries and secrets surrounding the Dread Lord. I was afraid that the book was going to continue with Gav attempting to deceive everyone. Quickly a few others figure out that he has amnesia and even more hijinks ensue. There’s a lot of humor mixed in with the horror and I loved it. Ultimately, I wanted to see a bit more about the larger world and magic. But, I enjoyed my time reading the book.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Currently #3

Reading: I’m almost finished reading Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. It’s our book club selection this month and I have some mixed feelings. Waiting until I finish the book before making my official determination.

Watching: J and finally started watching Alice in Borderland as I finished the manga series last month. I am enjoying the changes while retaining the basic ideas from the manga.

Listening: Stray Kids all the time, every day. That’s all.

Making: J and I have officially started our podcast about War and Peace. I’m excited to get into the book more and establish a routine.

Feeling: Since Christmas, I’ve been feeling weirdly disconnected. My depression has been harder to keep at bay.

Planning: The Enrichment Co-op is starting at the beginning of April. I need to start planning my lessons, but I guess I need to reconfirm the weeks that I am actually teaching.

Loving: I finally got my birthday cake this past weekend and of course it was German chocolate. Love it so much!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W24: Back to Normal?

What We Studied

We had a pretty normal week. Lots of schoolwork, a few activities, but also weather that interrupted some plans. We had a big blizzard blow through on Tuesday night that cancelled our Wednesday plans. We pivoted by covering more schoolwork and watching some more documentaries. Not a big deal.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur is primarily using Hearth and Story G5 for his language arts this year. Arthur dove into our next coop book club selection. We’re both really loving it! It’s a gentle story, but with a lot to say. We also covered more grammar and extra language arts assignments.

• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

• Science Verse by Jon Scieszka

• The Elephant in the Room by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Quentin is primarily using Blossom & Root G1 for his language arts this year. We will pull some elements from Build Your Library Level 2 and random books that we have around the house. We started our next read aloud that aligns with our Blossom and Root curriculum. We’re both really loved it!

• Poetry: Out of This World: ICE Poems About Polar Life by Douglas Florian

• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

Math

Arthur is using Singapore’s Math in Focus Course 1. Effectively this is Singapore’s 6th grade math text. We ended up taking a short break from our textbook to explore more logic and algebraic expressions.

• Math in Focus Course 1 Book A

Quentin is using Singapore’s Primary Mathematics Common Core edition 2B and 3A. We moved onto 3A starting slow to easy back into our lessons. Taking it slow but moving along.

• Singapore Primary 3A

• Primarily Logic

Social Studies

Arthur is using Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 this year. Because of our changes in scheduled, we ended up covering three sections of history this week. We learned about the Latin American Revolutions in South America, the revolutions in Brazil and Mexico, and the African Zulu Empire and Central African caliphates

• Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK A Child Through Time

• Simon Bolivar: Latin American Liberator by Frank de Varona

• A Kid’s Guide to Latino History: More than 50 Activities, by Valerie Petrillo

• Latinitas: Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers, by Juliet Menendez

• Where Is the Amazon?, by Sarah Fabiny

• DK Eyewitness: The Amazon

• Fiesta Femenina: Celebrating Women of Mexican Folklore, by Mary-Joan Gerson

• Tales Our Abuelitas Told: A Hispanic Folktale Collection, by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy

• Brazil: Enchantment of the World, by Ann Heinrichs

• Mexico: Enchantment of the World, by Liz Sonneborn

• A Kid's Guide to Latino History by Valerie Petrillo

• Shaka Zulu by Richard Spilsbury

Quentin is using History Quest Middle Times with Build Your Library Level 2 as his main history curriculum. We covered two chapters, one about the Inca Empire and one about the Renaissance..

• History Quest Middle Times

• DK When on Earth?

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK A Child Through Time

• DK Explorers

• Ancient Civilizations: Aztecs, Maya, Incas! by Anita Yasuda

• The Inca Empire by Sandra Newman

• 20 Fun Facts About Machu Picchu by Janey Levy

• Inca by Lawrence Kovacs

• Lost Treasure of the Inca by Peter Lourie

• A Look at Renaissance Art by J. Jean Robertson

• Raphael by Mike Venezia

• Leonardo, Beautiful Dreamer by Robert Byrd

• Leonardo da Vinci by Mike Venezia

• The Renaissance by Enzo George

Science

Arthur is using RSO Biology 1 this year has the main science text. Our academic coop will also be using RSO Biology 1 as a basis for the fall and spring semester courses, so we will be just supplementing at home. We will also be doing some of Blossom & Root’s Book Seeds and various other small units in between. Other than co-op, we watched a ton of PBS Eons videos this week.

• RSO Biology 1

• Story of Science Vol. 3 by Joy Hakim

Quentin is using RSO Earth & Environment and RSO Astronomy 1 as a base. Of course, we have a ton of extra science resources laying around the house. And I will be hosting some one-off science exploration days that align with the units. We jumped back into RSO Earth & Environment to cover the atmosphere. But we also just watched a ton of PBS Eons videos.

• RSO Earth and Environment

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

Academic Co-op

We’re entering the home stretch of this semester of co-op. For biology, the kids learned about fish and amphibians. For art, they focused on abstract and absurdist art. And for writing, we started our unit on Fictional Narrative. Only two weeks to go!

Art and Music

Art will be very sporadic this year, but we do have some fun excursions planned. And I will incorporate art projects into a lot of other subjects and unit studies.

For music, we are using Music Lab: We Rock! as our spine. Each week we will be learning about a different rock musician and focus on a particular song. I have also created Spotify playlists so we can listen on the go.

• Music Lab: We Rock!

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

Field Trip/Activities

No specific field trip this week.

High

We got a lot of curriculum covered…

Low

The weather brought a fun winter storm and some terrible road conditions that disrupted our week. We had to skip our nature walk due to sleet and soggy ground. And our social meetup was cancelled due to the blizzard.

Next Week

• Finishing our read alouds, probably starting our next ones

• Moving forward with our math textbooks

• Traveling to the United States and Russia (A) and Russia (Q) for history

• Exploring weather for science

• Visiting the zoo

• Attending a nature class

• Moving into the last two weeks of Academic Co-op

Next up on the TBR pile:

Music Monday - Breaking Benjamin "Awaken"

And a turn to a band that I’ve been listening to for almost 30 years…

Next up on the TBR pile:

My Vampire Plus-One by Jenna Levine

Title: My Vampire Plus-One (My Vampires #2)

Author: Jenna Levine

Publisher: Berkley 2024

Genre: Romance

Pages: 372

Rating: /5 stars

Reading Challenges: Romanceopoly - The Frosty Bistro; Cover Lover - Eyewear

Where I Got It: Library

Spice Rating: 4

Amelia Collins is by definition successful. She would even go so far as to say successfully single. But not according to her family, and she's tired of the constant questions about her nonexistent dating life. When an invitation to yet another family wedding arrives, she decides to get everyone off her back once and for all by finding someone--anyone--to pose as her date.
 
After a chance encounter with Reginald Cleaves, Amelia decides he's perfect for her purposes. He's a bit strange, but that’s fine; it'll discourage tough questions from her family. (And it certainly doesn't hurt that he's very handsome.) For centuries-old vampire Reggie, posing as her plus-one sounds like the ultimate fun. And if it helps his ruse of pretending to be human, so much the better.

As Amelia and Reggie practice their fauxmance, it becomes clear that Reggie is as loyal to her as the day is long, and that Amelia’s first impressions could not have been more wrong. Suddenly, being in a real relationship with Reggie sounds pretty fang-tastic.

The book had been on my list from the fall when I wanted a bit of supernatural angle to my reading. Unfortunately, there were a ton of holds on the book. Overall, this was super cute. Reggie is an oddball vampire who’s not looking for love. Amelia is an accountant pretty stuck in her life. Together they are a strange pairing but one that actually works. We get some ridiculous romance tropes: fake dating, forced proximity, and silly miscommunication. I wasn’t annoyed by any of them, but this isn’t the best romance I’ve read. It was cute and fun, just what I needed for this week, but nothing amazing.

My Vampires

• #1 My Roommate is a Vampire

• #2 My Vampire Plus-One

Next up on the TBR pile:

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall

Title: All the Water in the World

Author: Eiren Caffall

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press 2025

Genre: SciFi

Pages: 304

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Read Around the USA - New York; Cover Lover - Famous Structure

Where I Got It: Library

All the Water in the World is told in the voice of a girl gifted with a deep feeling for water. In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The rule: Take from the exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow their food in Central Park as they work to save the collections of human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the city’s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson. They carry with them a book that holds their records of the lost collections. Racing on the swollen river towards what may be safety, they encounter communities that have adapted in very different and sometimes frightening ways to the new reality. But they are determined to find a way to make a new world that honors all they've saved.

Inspired by the stories of the curators in Iraq and Leningrad who worked to protect their collections from war, All the Water in the World is both a meditation on what we save from collapse and an adventure story―with danger, storms, and a fight for survival. In the spirit of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Parable of the Sower, this wild journey offers the hope that what matters most – love and work, community and knowledge – will survive.

50 pages into this book and I contemplated DNFing it. Not because I hated it, but because it was really bringing all the emotion and I didn’t know if I could handle that right now. I persevered and absolutely ended up loving this one so much. There’s beautiful writing, relatable characters, and suspense. This apocalypse feels very relevant and prescient to our world right now. But we get to experience it through the eyes of a child who doesn’t quite remember The World Before. While the world drowns, Nonie has a love and affinity with the water. That dichotomy alone intrigued me. I loved her commentary about the pull of the water and the wonder at the life that it holds. The book flips between the present escape from AMNH and their life in AMNH after the floods came. We slowly learn more about the characters and their struggles and triumphs over the years. This book deals with a lot of death and it’s very present on th page, but it was told in such a beautiful way that I couldn’t put it down.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Odds and Ends

Here's my randomness for the week:

• I’m currently reading six books right now. It might be a bit much.

• A blizzard came through on Tuesday night, disrupting my plans for yesterday. No birthday dinner out for me. Instead, we have pushed it to this weekend at some point.

• Trying to take advantage of all the birthday offers from various places. We’ll see what I can work into my plans for Sunday.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab

Title: The Near Witch

Author: V.E. Schwab

Publisher: Hyperion Books 2011

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 284

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER; Quarter of a Century - 2011

Where I Got It: Kindle

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. 

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company. 

There are no strangers in the town of Near. 

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. 

But when an actual stranger, a boy who seems to fade like smoke, appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true. 

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. 

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy. 

I was randomly perusing my Kindle app looking for a lighter fantasy read and this one caught my eye. I have really enjoyed many of Schwab’s books. Apparently this is her first published book. I went into the book with no expectations and immediately fell into this folk story featuring a lost girl and a lost boy finding their way through the world. I loved the mix of folklore and supernatural aspects. We get some great scenes with the sisters and The Near Witch. It ended up being a shorter book, but was a great lighter fairy tale-esque read.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W22-23: Lots of activities, a Flex week, and a trip!

What We Studied

We had a week of a ton of activities. Seriously, we only did book work school one day between a birthday party, a parent meeting, co-op, and the Valentine’s Day party. And then the next week was technically a flex week, but we pushed in some school. So that we could leave on Friday to go on a mini trip to Kansas City and Great Wolf Lodge with friends. We’re back this week on Tuesday, but will be taking a bit of a break from school to regroup. Plus we have co-op as usual on Thursday, so we won’t be just sitting around.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur is primarily using Hearth and Story G5 for his language arts this year. Arthur started and finished the next Co-op Book Club selection. It was written in verse, so something a little different for him. We also covered more grammar and extra language arts assignments.

• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

• Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Quentin is primarily using Blossom & Root G1 for his language arts this year. We will pull some elements from Build Your Library Level 2 and random books that we have around the house. We dove into a modern classic. Q even tried to read it himself, but said that the words were too hard. It is above his independent reading level right now, but we’ll get there.

• Poetry: Out of This World: Star-Studded Haiu by Sally M. Walker

• The Tale of Despeareaux by Kate DiCamillo

Math

Arthur is using Singapore’s Math in Focus Course 1. Effectively this is Singapore’s 6th grade math text. We took a short break so Arthur could catch up on some independent work, and then dove back into area of polygons and triangles.

• Math in Focus Course 1 Book A

Quentin is using Singapore’s Primary Mathematics Common Core edition 2B and 3A. We moved onto 3A starting slow to easy back into our lessons. Taking it slow but moving along.

• Singapore Primary 3A

• Primarily Logic

Social Studies

Arthur is using Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 this year. Arthur covered the Industrial Revolution and the Rise of Romanticism. From there, we learned about Napoleon. We are blazing through this history curriculum this year.

• Curiosity Chronicles Early Modern History Vol. 1

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK A Child Through Time

• Crossing on Time: Steam Engines, Fast Ships, and a Journey to the New World by David Macaulay

• Cars, Trains, Ships, and Planes: A Visual Encyclopedia of Every Vehicle, by DK and the Smithsonian Institution

• Train: The Definitive Visual History by DK and the Smithsonian Institution

• Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein by Linda Bailey

• She Made a Monster: How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lynn Fulton

• DK Eyewitness Books: Judaism by DK

• Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers: Ludwig van Beethoven, by Mike Venezia

• Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers: Frederic Chopin, by Mike Venezia

• Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley and Gris Grimly

• Beethoven’s Heroic Symphony, by Anna Harwell Celenza

• Blades of Freedom: A Tale of Haiti, Napoleon, and the Louisiana Purchase (Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales 10), by Nathan Hale

• Napoleon vs. the Bunnies, by J. F. Fox

• Battles that Changed History, by DK and Smithsonian Institution

• The Game of Hope, by Sandra Gulland

• Who Was Napoleon?, by Jim Gigliotti

Quentin is using History Quest Middle Times with Build Your Library Level 2 as his main history curriculum. We covered the chapter about the Aztec Empire.

• History Quest Middle Times

• DK When on Earth?

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK Timelines of Everyone

• DK A Child Through Time

• DK Explorers

• The Aztec Empire by Sunita Apte

• The Aztec Empire by Ellis Roxburgh

• The Princess and the Warrior: A Tale of Two Volcanoes by Duncan Tonatiuh

• Ancient Aztec: Archaeology Unlocks the Secrets of Mexico's Past by Time Cooke

• Ancient Civilizations: Aztec, Maya, Incas! by Anita Yasuda

Science

Arthur is using RSO Biology 1 this year has the main science text. Our academic coop will also be using RSO Biology 1 as a basis for the fall and spring semester courses, so we will be just supplementing at home. We will also be doing some of Blossom & Root’s Book Seeds and various other small units in between. We did read some chapters from our Story of Science to keep up. Added science bonus, we watched more PBS Eons videos.

• RSO Biology 1

• Story of Science Vol. 3 by Joy Hakim

Quentin is using RSO Earth & Environment and RSO Astronomy 1 as a base. Of course, we have a ton of extra science resources laying around the house. And I will be hosting some one-off science exploration days that align with the units. Lots of science this week! We covered Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and beyond. We finished the documentary series The Planets. But we also just watched a ton of PBS Eons videos.

• RSO Earth and Environment

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

• RSO Asttonomy 1

• DK Eyewitness Astronomy

• DK Space

• DK First Space Encyclopedia

• DK Eyewitness The Planets

• 13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System by David A. Aguilar

• Professor Astro Cat's Frontiers of Space by Dominic Walliman and Ben Newman

• Goodnight, Astronaut by Scott Kelly

• Starry Messenger by Peter Sis

Academic Co-op

Back at it with weeks 4 and 5. In biology, they covered climate change and started the unit on evolution. Art focused on perspective. And in Writer’s Workshop, we started our opinion writing project.

Art and Music

Art will be very sporadic this year, but we do have some fun excursions planned. And I will incorporate art projects into a lot of other subjects and unit studies.

For music, we are using Music Lab: We Rock! as our spine. Each week we will be learning about a different rock musician and focus on a particular song. I have also created Spotify playlists so we can listen on the go. We listened to Earth, Wind, and Fire and Chic. Not our favorites, but a good exploration.

• Music Lab: We Rock!

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

Field Trip/Activities

So many incredible activiites over the last few weeks. So many activities…

High

It finally snowed properly! The boys got to play outside multiple days. It was even powdery snow, perfect for sledding down to the neighbors yards. Their record was sledding four houses down.

Low

We had our co-op Valentine’s Day party at a bowling alley. A great idea, and the planners did awesome. Unfortunately, there was some logistical miscommunication and my group of boys that wanted to bowl together lost their lane and we had to split them up on other lanes. Q was especially upset that he couldn’t bowl with the kids he had originally wanted to bowl with. The planners and I chatted about how to avoid that issue next time we do a bowling party.

Next Week

• Starting new read alouds

• Moving forward with our math textbooks

• Traveling to Latin America (A) and the medieval Incan Empire (Q) for history

• Exploring the atmosphere for science

• Moving into the last three weeks of Academic Co-op

Next up on the TBR pile:

Music Monday - Novelists "All for Nothing"

Another new-to-me artist that I stumbled upon. Reminds me a bit of Within Temptation.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Life Right Now #5

On my bedside table: No idea yet… I’m currently reading five books, so I should finish those first. And I did start War and Peace, which will take me months to finish I imagine.

On my tv this week: We started watching Alice in Borderland. I finished the manga series last week, so it was finally time! We also just continued our usual shows.

Listening to: All the Stray Kids. It’s the only thing that making me happy right now.

On the menu for this week:

• Monday - Monterrey Chicken Skillet

• Tuesday - Chicken and Corn Stew

• Wednesday - Birthday Dinner Out

• Thursday - Fiesta Chicken and Rice

• Friday - Pizza Night

• Saturday - Shrimp Gumbo

• Sunday - Chili

On my to do list: Mostly I’m working on administrative tasks for co-op and the bookish retreat.

Happening this week:

• Monday - Parent Meeting

• Tuesday - Dentist Cleaning; Book Club

• Wednesday - Parent Meeting and My Birthday!

• Thursday - Academic Co-op

• Friday - Glacier Creek Hike

• Saturday - Secular Omaha Meeting

• Sunday - Birthday Day Out

What I am creating: Nothing much.

My simple pleasures: A good night’s sleep, a good song with a good beat, hazelnut lattes

Looking around the house: I managed to get most of our travel stuff put away. I still need to get my clothes situated, but that’s an ongoing task.

From the camera: Proof that we were actually at Great Wolf Lodge earlier this week. It was the only picture I took there…

A Werewolf's Guide to Seducing a Vampire by Sarah Hawley

Title: A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire (Glimmer Falls #3)

Author: Sarah Hawley

Publisher: Berkley 2024

Genre: Romancce

Pages: 448

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Finishing the Series; Romancceopoly - Heroine’s Rising (Strong, Independent Female Character)

Where I Got It: Library

Spice Rating: 5

Werewolf Ben Rosewood is happy with his life. One hundred percent. Everything is fine. His business, Ben’s Plant Emporium, is thriving, and he’s even expanding the shop. His anxiety disorder is…well, it’s been better, but that comes with the territory of running a business and having beastly urges every full moon, right? As for romance—who has the time? Though his family is desperate to see him settled, Ben is fine approaching forty as a single werewolf. But after drunkenly bidding on and winning a supposedly-possessed crystal on eBay one night, he finds himself face-to-face with a beautiful yet angry vampire.

Eleonore Bettencourt-Devereux is a rare breed—a vampire succubus born from two elite European bloodlines during medieval times. Thanks to an evil witch, she’s been stuck in a crystal since she was thirty, forced to obey orders from the possessor of the rock. Eleonore's been dreaming of breaking the spell and severing the witch’s head for centuries. But did this witch really sell her to someone new, and for only ninety-nine cents?

Eleonore would claw this werewolf’s heart out and eat it, if only the binding spell would allow her to. But Eleonore and Ben soon realize they can help each other with both vengeful and less hostile needs. And why not have a little fun along the way?

I finished another series! Unfortunately, this volume didn’t quite land for me. I love Oz and Mariel and Astaroth and Calladie were at least interesting. While I was rooting for Ben and Eleonore, I found their actual relationship to be pretty surface level. Too much of the narrative was focused on Ben’s inability to say no to anyone and then Eleonore’s revenge schemes. It was a bit unbalanced for me. I wanted to see them have more conversations and growth as a couple. Oh well. They can’t all be winners for me.

Gimmer Falls

• #1 A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon

• #2 A Demon’s Guide to Wooing a Witch

• #3 A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire

Next up on the TBR pile:

February 2025 Wrap-up

February TBR Pile (22/23):

1. Bookworms BC: The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang ✓

2. Bookworms BC: The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan ✓

3. Friend BC: Shark Heart by Emily Habeck ✓

4. Nerdy Bookish Friends BC: The Black God’s Drums by P. Djeli Clark (already read)

5. Kid Book Club: Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai ✓

6. Kid Read Aloud: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien ✓

7. Kid Read Aloud: The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat ✓

8. Kid Read Aloud: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo ✓

9. Romance: Their Vicious Darling by Nikki St. Crowe ✓

10. Romance; The Fae Princes by Nikki St. Crowe ✓

11. Romance: Temple of Swoon by Jo Segura ✓

12. Romance: Scythe and Sparrow by Brynne Weaver ✓

13. Horror: The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas ✓

14. Horror: The Way Up is Death by Dan Hanks ✓

15. Horror: Horseman by Christina Henry ✓

16. Nonfiction: A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks by David Gibbins ✓

17. Comics: Alice in Borderland Vol. 4 ✓

18. Comics: Alice in Borderland Vol. 5 ✓

19. Comics: Alice in Borderland Vol. 6 ✓

20. Comics: Alice in Borderland Vol. 7 ✓

21. Comics: Alice in Borderland Vol. 8 ✓

22. Comics: Alice in Borderland Vol. 9 ✓

23. Fantasy: Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire ✓

1,000,000 Page Goal

Monthly Total: 6848 pages
Pages Remaining: 178,048 pages

Current Read - A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire; Dreadful; War and Peace

Books I Gave Up On (0)

Books Bought/Received (2) - On our trip to Lawrence and Kansas City, we stopped into The Raven bookstore in Lawrence. It was my second time visiting the store and I loved it even more this time. I grabbed two books off of the shelf: The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke and Zoey is Too Drunk for This Dystopia by Jason Pargin.

UnRead Shelf Progress

• Starting Number: 290

• Books Read: 4

• Books Acquired: 3

• Books Unshelved: 0

• Finishing Number: 289

March TBR Pile:

1. Bookworms BC: (already read)

2. Friend BC: Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

3. Nerdy Bookish Friends BC: Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakas

4. Kid Book Club: The Elephant in the Room by Holly Goldberg Sloan

5. Kid Read Aloud: Willodeen by Katherine Applegate

6. Romance: A Werewolf’s Guide to Seducing a Vampire by Sarah Hawley

7. Fantasy: The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab

Movies Watched

• The Hobbit 1977 version

• The Gorge

• Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads concert to go along with our music curriculum

TV Shows Watched

• The Franchise S1 - Finished

• Severance S2

• Rivals S1 - Finished

• Smartypants S1 - Finished

• Pantheon S1-2 - Finished

• The Recruit S2 - Finished

• The Bachelor

• Mythic Quest S4

• Make Some Noise

• Last Week Tonight

• Clone High S1 - Missed this one when it aired way back in 2002.

Comments - Overall another great month! While I struggled to read some days, I turned to Alice in Borderland to help me get over the slump. It worked! I’m back to reading normally I think. Just in time for a busy March.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Alice in Borderland Vol. 9

Title: Alice in Borderland Vol. 9

Author: Haro Aso

Publisher: VIZ Media LLC 2024

Genre: Comics

Pages: 400

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Finishing the Series; Books (Manga) to Movies (Television Shows)

Where I Got It: Library

Eighteen-year-old Ryohei Arisu is sick of his life. School sucks, his love life is a joke, and his future weighs on him like impending doom. As he struggles to exist in a world that can’t be bothered with him, Ryohei feels like everything would be better if he were anywhere else. When a strange fireworks show transports him and his friends to a parallel world, Ryohei thinks all his wishes have come true. But this new world isn’t an empty paradise, it’s a vicious game. And the only way to survive is to play.

After stumbling on a dealer’s bunker, Arisu is even more determined to uncover the terrible truth behind Borderland. But that means he and Usagi will have to abandon their plans to sit out the games and instead seek out the last person who might have the answers—the Queen of Hearts. Will taking on the queen find them a way home, or will it be their final game?

And we come to the end of the story. We get a wrap-up of the previous games and a reconnection of characters. We slowly start to wind down, but not without one last game to play. This time we get the Queen of Hearts, who we’ve already met. But in this game, the focus comes back to Arisu and his experience. I appreciate how the story started focused on Arisu and ended focused on Arisu. We get a nice bookend to series. But then, the big reveal at the end of the games. I’m not quite certain how I feel about the twist, but I did enjoy the wrapping up pages. Overall, I truly enjoyed this series and am so excited to now go and watch the television series.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Alice in Borderland Vol. 8

Title: Alice in Borderland Vol. 8

Author: Haro Aso

Publisher: VIZ Media LLC 2023

Genre: Comics

Pages: 360

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Finishing the Series

Where I Got It: Library

Eighteen-year-old Ryohei Arisu is sick of his life. School sucks, his love life is a joke, and his future weighs on him like impending doom. As he struggles to exist in a world that can’t be bothered with him, Ryohei feels like everything would be better if he were anywhere else. When a strange fireworks show transports him and his friends to a parallel world, Ryohei thinks all his wishes have come true. But this new world isn’t an empty paradise, it’s a vicious game. And the only way to survive is to play.

Not every visitor to Borderland spends their time struggling to survive. Much like Arisu, some are hunting for the truth behind the strange and deadly world they’ve landed in. But whether that means searching for the boundaries of their strange prison or finding ways to expose Borderland to the media back home, does the truth even matter if everyone dies before they can share it?

Oh goodness, we are nearing the end of the story. We get an interesting interlude featuring a player attempting to record the experience for the future. Seemingly it’s not related to the main story, but then we get some clues as to other going-ons. I have really enjoyed seeing how disparate stories come together into the main story or at least give us clues to the mysteries. Plus we get an excellent story featuring the King of Diamonds. The reveal was absolutely perfect. Plus, we get to check in with another player we’ve met before. I was fascinated to see it all go down. And now I am ready for the conclusion.

Next up on the TBR pile: