Update...We are still here...

Hello, oh how I have missed this little space. I have been working ten to twelve hour days, and the last thing I want to do when I get home, is spend more time on the computer. So, I have been spending my time with my family, reading aloud to my son, and reading for myself.

The weather here in Arizona has been beautiful. We had rain on Friday, the mountains surrounding the valley are covered with snow, but that will be gone this week because it's supposed to get up to 89 degrees for the high on Friday.

We have been spending our weekends at the park running barefoot in the grass. Or taking walks and examining the natural world around us. For some reason getting outside with my son has been very important to me this year. I feel that we need sunshine, and lots of it!

We are still reading, though my son is going through a stage where he only wants to read at bedtime. This has cut our read aloud time down quite a bit, but I am still aiming for an hour a day. I think this may have to do with my working so much, all he wants to do when I get home is play, so that's what we have been doing.

We just finished Dandelion Library's lovely abridged version of Peter Pan. I just loved the illustrations, and my son loved the story.

I just finished re-reading The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma. I really enjoyed this book, their story was interesting, but what was so thought provoking was how reading aloud brought a father and daughter together. No matter what was going on in their lives, divorce, Christmas, prom, late night play rehearsals, or laryngitis, this father and daughter made it a priority to read aloud. Which, in my opinion, built a very strong relationship between a father and a daughter. The kind of relationship that most fathers and daughters don't have in today's world. 

I also just finished Laura Ingalls Wilder A Writer's Life by Pamela Smith Hill. I found this book fascinating. I felt the book was more about Laura's relationship with her daughter Rose Wilder Lane, who was also a writer, than anything else. It described how the Little House books come to be, and the role that Rose played in helping Laura with editing and publishing her stories. I also found it fascinating that Rose said that Laura loved to read aloud at night. I wonder if her love for reading aloud came from her mother?