On The Nightstand...

Hope for Each Day - Billy Graham - little daily devotional book. Reading this on the screen porch every morning with coffee. Coffee and Billy Graham, not a bad way to start the day.

Good and Angry - Turansky and Miller - parenting book that is supposed to help exchange frustration for character in the parent and child. Pray it works...

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress Janzen - fun memoir.

Troubling Deaf Heaven - J. George - a gift from my dad, this book is written by the actress that played Corrie ten Boom in the movie The Hiding Place.

Someone Knows My Name - L. Hill - my mother-in-law suggested this one to me and i am having a hard time putting it down.

Science is Simple - P. Ashbrook - easy science activities for preschoolers. Hope to use what I learn from this one at home and work.

My Turn, Your Turn

carrots from our garden - but this has nothing do with the subject of today's post


Do not bother reading this post if ...

• you never have to (I mean get to) play with young children


• you love playing anything and everything your child suggest


• your child will happily play any educational game you have ever come up with

Do read this post if ...

• you find yourself counting the minutes till school starts back and wondering how in the world you will survive another minute of playing tag, or Littlest Pet Shop Toys or acting out the death scene from Lion King


• your child can sniff a learning opportunity from a mile away and wants nothing to do with it

Okay - for those of you still reading I want to tell you about a game that I came up with that may just be my best idea ever. It is called My Turn, Your Turn. Very simple - Abby and I set a timer for 10 minutes and we play what she wants (dance party, barbies, lion tamer) and when the timer beeps it is my turn to pick (letter bingo, connect four, pattern blocks). It is a win, win for both of us.

Garden Update - June

The garden is coming right along. We have been eating spinach and snap peas out of it for a few weeks now and just brought our first broccoli in yesterday. The squash plant is about to take over the neighborhood and the tomato plants look promising. No critter issues yet (probably due to my scary scarecrows).