tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83493681098471022052024-03-14T03:20:26.939-05:00A Novel LifeLaura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.comBlogger819125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-51236587010999388442020-10-06T11:51:00.007-05:002022-12-16T08:44:30.064-06:00Awaking Wonder by Sally Clarkson Awaking Wonder by Sally Clarkson was really a timely read. I've been homeschooling for seven years and this year the thought of getting back to it was honestly a little daunting. I started reading Awaking Wonder and really felt a sense of peace...maybe not peace, but something that stirred by soul. It was a wake up. A wake up for me. This has really been a tough year...I've lost my own wonder. Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-29426875682157955642019-07-10T10:25:00.004-05:002022-12-16T08:45:19.812-06:00Best field trip EVER!
A few weeks ago we took the kids on a trip to DC! It was amazing! We saw so many things and honestly there was still so much more to see. I am hoping we can take the kids again in the next year of two. I bet we walked 30 miles in just four days!
In front of The White House!
The Metro
I'd have to say I can't imagine a better field trip. It was scary at first because I've never usedLaura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-1660131951968566332019-01-20T14:50:00.002-06:002022-12-16T08:46:20.083-06:00Homeschooling with a toddler
I have a very active 2.5 year old son, Z. He loves to be involved in our learning time. Story time means pulling the book out of my hands and possible throwing it. Going over our lessons means keeping him busy with things to 'write'. I've thought about doing busy boxes...I just don't seem to have time to put them together (I do plan on making some up this summer for next school year).
Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-7979873887395762312019-01-14T09:40:00.003-06:002022-12-16T08:46:30.573-06:00What I've been up to!
Last week I went over to Target and spotted Kristina McMorris' new book Sold On Monday! I love Kristina's books and the little I know of this story is it is based on a picture. I know exactly what picture inspired this novel. I haven't had a chance to crack it open yet (story of my life). I want to make reading, or more so reading books for my enjoyment as part of my New Years resolution.Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-21339429861591873632019-01-05T16:52:00.002-06:002022-12-16T08:46:39.614-06:00Back at it!
Well we officially started back homeschooling. We ended up taking off way more time than I had planned to, but the truth was we needed a break. I would also like to add we needed a reboot of our curriculum, but I can't say I did much with that. It's not to say everything wasn't working. Most things were. I will say science...oh science how you always seem to allude us. That is our biggest Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-85255223704092309532019-01-01T11:29:00.001-06:002022-12-16T08:46:51.639-06:00New Year New Me!
As I mentioned awhile back, I want to make sure I'm blogging a bit more. I'm still not blogging as much as I would really like to be, but today is New Years Day and so I thought here is my opportunity to kick start my blog back up!
I had promised pictures of our new built ins for our new home and so I decided this is where I would start. This first picture shows off some of my beautiful Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-60757601375303151062018-11-12T14:21:00.001-06:002018-11-12T14:21:57.834-06:00Growing a Homeschool MomLast time I posted, I mentioned that I am a part of a Mother's Culture club. I really love this time with these other moms! I'll be honest with you and tell you last week I thought about throwing in the towel and stop homeschooling. I am so thankful for my friends who listened to me and then encouraged me. It felt good to vent and not be told, "just send them to school". Even if you aren't Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-18626418884141862322018-10-28T15:32:00.002-05:002018-10-28T15:34:20.000-05:00Life Update
Life with three kids at home keeps me pretty busy. Our littlest guy just turned two, which means he is slightly more independent and into a whole lot more! I love getting to see his personality really coming out. Our homeschool year started really strong and I was super proud of everything we were doing, but the last few weeks hasn't seemed nearly as productive. This is fine, except I know we Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-79872942118548422922018-08-07T12:07:00.000-05:002018-08-07T12:07:33.987-05:00Hello everyone!
I feel like I'm completely out of the reading loop! I've barely read fiction or blogged the last few years. It's really been a crazy time in our family. We decided to homeschool our children, so that really kept me busy. Then we added a fifth child! And he is already almost two years old! I can hardly believe it. Now most recently we moved. I love our new home and the amazing Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-70630452552726835742018-03-27T07:30:00.001-05:002022-12-16T08:47:02.986-06:00The Broken Girls by Simone St. James
The “clever and wonderfully chilling” (Fiona Barton) suspense novel from the award-winning author of The Haunting of Maddy Clare...Vermont, 1950. There's a place for the girls whom no one wants—the troublemakers, the illegitimate, the too smart for their own good. It's called Idlewild Hall. And in the small town where it's located, there are rumors that the boarding school is haunted. Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-12540396336600572502017-07-24T14:43:00.003-05:002022-12-16T08:47:11.998-06:00Love Story: A Novel (The Baxter Family) by Karen Kingsbury
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury comes a new book featuring everyone’s favorite family—the Baxters, which tells the story of how John and Elizabeth first fell in love.
From the day they met, John and Elizabeth were destined to fall in love. Their whirlwind romance started when they were young college students and lasted nearly thirty years—until Elizabeth died of Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-55736837739067220712017-06-13T07:34:00.002-05:002017-06-13T15:27:49.791-05:00The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green
The New York Times bestselling author of Falling presents a warm, wise, and wonderfully vivid novel about a mother who asks her three estranged daughters to come home to help her end her life.
Ronni Sunshine left London for Hollywood to become a beautiful, charismatic star of the silver screen. But at home, she was a narcissistic, disinterested mother who alienated her three daughters. Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-51456381571485624352015-08-18T07:00:00.000-05:002015-08-18T07:00:03.370-05:00The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach by Pam Jenoff
Summer 1941
Young Adelia Monteforte flees fascist Italy for America, where she is whisked away to the shore by her well-meaning aunt and uncle. Here, she meets and falls for Charlie Connally, the eldest of the four Irish-Catholic boys next door. But all hopes for a future together are soon throttled by the war and a tragedy that hits much closer to home.
Grief-stricken, Addie flees—Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-11521523033503168842015-08-05T08:39:00.002-05:002015-08-05T08:39:05.276-05:00Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica
A chance encounter sparks an unrelenting web of lies in this stunning new psychological thriller from national bestselling author Mary Kubica
She sees the teenage girl on the train platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching an infant in her arms. She boards a train and is whisked away. But she can't get the girl out of her head...
Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman: she Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-37169874078435527432015-07-21T10:14:00.001-05:002015-07-21T10:14:29.005-05:00The Summer of Good Intentions by Wendy Francis + GiveawayCape Cod summers are supposed to remain reassuringly the same, but everything falls apart when three sisters and their families come together for their annual summer vacation—and they are carrying more secrets than suitcases.
Maggie is the oldest. She feels responsible for managing the summer house and making sure everything is as it always has been. But she’s hurt that her parents’ recent Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-24538218773386715602015-07-21T07:34:00.002-05:002015-07-21T10:42:02.701-05:00The Idea of Love by Patti Callahan Henry
As we like to say in the south: "Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story."
Ella's life has been completely upended. She's young, beautiful, and deeply in love—until her husband dies in a tragic sailing accident while trying save her. Or so she'll have everyone believe. Screenwriter Hunter needs a hit, but crippling writers' block and a serious lack of motivation are getting him Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-54181339739698765452015-07-02T07:00:00.000-05:002015-07-02T09:47:20.099-05:00Saving Grace by Jane Green now in paperback!Grace and Ted Chapman are widely regarded as the perfect literary power couple. Ted is a successful novelist and Grace, his wife of twenty years, is beautiful, stylish, carefree, and a wonderful homemaker. But what no one sees, what is churning under the surface, is Ted’s rages. His mood swings. And the precarious house of cards that their lifestyle is built upon. When Ted’s longtime assistant Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-8161542796262936532015-07-01T06:52:00.004-05:002022-12-16T10:16:30.539-06:00It's You by Jane Porter
From the USA Today bestselling author of the Brennan Sisters novels comes a heartwarming story about finding love and strength, even in the darkest moments…
In the wake of a tragedy that tore her life down to the foundations, Dr. Alison McAdams has lost her way. So when she’s summoned to Napa to care for her ailing father, she’s not sure she has anything to offer him—or anyone Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-82267624572881965402015-06-15T07:00:00.000-05:002015-06-15T07:00:17.260-05:00Eight Hundred Grapes: A Novel by Laura Dave + a chance to win a visit from Laura!
There are secrets you share, and secrets you hide…
Growing up on her family’s Sonoma vineyard, Georgia Ford learned some important secrets. The secret number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine: eight hundred. The secret ingredient in her mother’s lasagna: chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands.
But just a week before her wedding, thirty-year-old Georgia discovers Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-19971220427829817092015-06-12T07:00:00.000-05:002015-06-12T07:00:04.416-05:00The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
Publication Date: May 5, 2015Atria BooksFormats: eBook, HardcoverPages: 480
Series: Book One, The Seven Sisters
Genre: Historical Fiction
Internationally bestselling author Lucinda Riley returns with THE SEVEN SISTERS, the first novel in a spellbinding new series (seven books in all) inspired by the ancient myth of the Seven Sisters of Pleiades. THE SEVEN SISTERS takes readers from theLaura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-27565842672540248332015-06-04T07:00:00.000-05:002015-06-04T07:00:13.768-05:00Spotlight: Those Secrets We Keep by Emily Liebert
From the author of You Knew Me When and When We Fall
Three women. Three lives. Three secrets.
On the surface, Sloane has the perfect life—an adoring husband, a precocious daughter, and enough financial security to be a stay-at-home mom. Still, she can’t help but feel as though something—or someone—is missing....
Hillary has a successful career and a solid marriage. Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-63653131752361192102015-06-02T07:00:00.000-05:002015-06-02T07:00:09.961-05:00The Status of All Things: A Novel by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke
What would you do if you could literally rewrite your fate—on Facebook? This heartwarming and hilarious new novel from the authors of Your Perfect Life follows a woman who discovers she can change her life through online status updates.
Kate is a thirty-five-year-old woman who is obsessed with social media. So when her fiancé, Max, breaks things off at their rehearsal dinner—to be Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-85989024671761398612015-06-01T07:00:00.000-05:002015-06-01T07:00:01.729-05:00The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley spotlight & giveaway
Publication Date: May 5, 2015Atria BooksFormats: eBook, HardcoverPages: 480
Series: Book One, The Seven Sisters
Genre: Historical Fiction
Internationally bestselling author Lucinda Riley returns with THE SEVEN SISTERS, the first novel in a spellbinding new series (seven books in all) inspired by the ancient myth of the Seven Sisters of Pleiades. THE SEVEN SISTERS takes readers from the Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-21938380274665012892015-05-26T07:31:00.001-05:002015-05-26T07:33:52.707-05:00The Sound of Glass by Karen White
The New York Times bestselling author of A Long Time Gone now explores a Southern family’s buried history, which will change the life of the woman who unearths it, secret by shattering secret.
It has been two years since the death of Merritt Heyward’s husband, Cal, when she receives unexpected news—Cal’s family home in Beaufort, South Carolina, bequeathed by Cal’s Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8349368109847102205.post-60379896710355463152015-05-23T08:00:00.000-05:002015-05-23T08:00:00.622-05:00Spotlight: Beach Town by Mary Kay Andrews
Greer Hennessy is a struggling movie location scout. Her last location shoot ended in disaster when a film crew destroyed property on an avocado grove. And Greer ended up with the blame.
Now Greer has been given one more chance—a shot at finding the perfect undiscovered beach town for a big budget movie. She zeroes in on a sleepy Florida panhandle town. There’s one motel, a marina, a long Laura Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009532621158292428noreply@blogger.com1