My Plan Worked!

For the most part, I have never pressured my sons to read. I would consider more of an encouraging them to read more than a flat out command. And I've never minded if what they were reading. it could be a magazine, the funny papers or the back of a cereal box. I just wanted them reading, something. However, since I have started homeschooling, I really wanted the boys to delve into more novels and books that would enrich their vocabularies and imaginations. My teen ager already read a lot of novels for school, so I didn't mind him only reading his car magazines when he was home. My oldest son used to read a lot when he was younger, but the video games took him over and that was it for him. My third son, is a voracious reader! He reads more novels a year than I have read in a decade. He is a lot like his dad. On the other hand, I think my youngest inherited my reading gene. Now don't get me wrong, I love to read. But, I am extremely picky. I don't read many novels. My mind wanders too much. They have to grab me and suck me in from the first few pages or that book will sit there and gather dust. I do love to read magazines and cookbooks though. Now, my baby boy is what I would call a reluctant reader. He reads very well, and loves the library, but he consistently chooses only books with facts, maps, books for younger readers that don't have a lot of pages and any book with Charlie Brown. To try and get him to read a book with more than 50 pages is a struggle. He has no shortage of books to choose from, but like I said before, he is just like me. So, in my quest to help ignite his thirst for more substantial reading, I came across something that I thought might be helpful. I was on Facebook and one of the bloggers was talking about a deal she had seen on Kindles. Hmm? My husband already had a Kindle Fire, but it never seemed to interest the boys much. They only wanted to see what games were on there. So, I looked up the Kindle paper white. No bells or whistles, just books. I hoped that this would spark Ky to read more. Since, he loves gadgets as much as everyone else in the house.I turned it on and was instantly impressed. This little thing was great! it had a wonderful battery life, a built in backlight so you can see it anywhere and it even has a section on it called, Kindle Free Time. This allows me to make a separate side account for the boys and add books just for them. It counts how long they read and they can even use the built in dictionary to look up words they don't understand. Another great tool is the ability to "borrow" books from Amazon's lending library. You can download one book and keep it for a month. The entire Harry Potter collection is on there! Anyway, I got the Kindle Paper white yesterday and of course my book eater was ecstatic. My little guy really didn't pay it much attention, at first. Matt got busy reading the Chamber of Secrets right away and I wondered if Ky would show any interest. I took him aside and put it in his hands. I even bought him his own book, Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja. When he saw that the book was in his own section AND had a password, he was hooked! My boy was reading! Later on, he even asked if it time for bed so he could continue reading. I was overjoyed! That was until the arguing started about who could use it at night to read their book. So, today I will be making a schedule of when they can use it. So needless to say, I am super proud of myself for thinking of such a brilliant idea. But, if I had been truly brilliant, I would have bought two! Oh well, he's reading and that is all that matters.

Let's play catch up

Oh wow! The last time I blogged it was winter. I have been so insanely busy and every time I thought about writing, something else would come up. So, let's get caught up shall we?

First off, I had the pleasure of connecting with an awesome group of people that were putting on a stage play. I went to a couple of rehearsals just to see how the process works, and I ended up working as the asst. stage manager for the production company. The experience was amazing!  There were months of long rehearsals, countless hours of tweaking lines and getting cues just right. It was nerve racking at times, but the end result was an awesome show that touched a lot of people.(including me) In between doing that, I still worked on the set of Chicago Fire and I feel so thankful and blessed every time I get to watch those talented people work. I was overjoyed to hear that they were given a third season. I truly love that show and working on it, is just a HUGE bonus. Not to mention being invited to end of the season cast parties.

I can't forget about Gunther. Gunther celebrated his 2nd birthday on March the 9th. Paul bought him a big party hat and he actually let us put it on his head. He is still a work in progress. He weighs about 225lbs now and he still has a big problem with strangers and the occasional car bumper. We haven't been able to work out a proper training schedule for him, but we are still hopeful that it will get done.

My teen-aged son graduates from high school very soon and will hopefully be going away to college in August. I am not handling that very well. He is such a shy and quiet young man, and I just worry like crazy about him being on his own. Ever since my oldest son left I feel like my family is slowly pulling apart. I know that is the natural progression of things, but it is still hitting me like a ton of bricks.

See, I told you a lot of stuff has been going on, and this is not all of it. But, I just wanted to let you know that I was still around.

Peace and Love