Samantha Pierce

There be spoilers here! So if you haven't finished reading the book yourself just yet you may want to skip this post. Hubby and I got our copy on Saturday and finished it together on Wednesday night. I cried at the end. It's not unusual for me to tear up when I'm reading books. I'm used to having a lot of the good guys die what seem like useless deaths in the books I read. It was unusual that I had to exercise so much control to keep myself from sobbing into my pillow as if I had lost a child or something. The deaths in the book but didn't really hit me emotionally until the epilogue. As we read fondly of the lives and children of those who survived I began to think of all of those who didn't survive. Those who didn't get to grow up and have families. Those who didn't get to watch their loved ones find love and purpose in their lives. Their loss really hurt but it also helped to make life possible for the survivors. Sigh, it reminds me so much of real li

So I was slogging along in my usual summer blogging slump when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows showed up on our doorstep shortly before noon last Saturday. Then I avoided my computer and the television like the plague because I didn't want any surprises spoiled. Hubby and I finished reading it last night and I seem to have been jolted out of the blogging blahs for a bit. So without further ado, today I am thankful for/that: Sophia seems to have decided that she really wants to do the big girl potty thing. She's been using the toilet in the bathroom regularly since Monday morning and this morning her training pants were bone dry. We celebrated by going on a shopping spree at the mall. The big girl needed some more pretty girly underwears. Watching the kids pilfer raspberries from the bushes in our backyard. They're so adorable wit their berry stained little mouths and fingers, so long as no one is wearing white. Good books, good stories, and the people who tell them so

Yeah, I'm a day late but I just couldn't seem to drag myself over to the computer yesterday. So today I am thankful for/that: Play dough. Its capacity to hold a child's attention is impressive. Isaiah decided to play teacher with me yesterday. He sat with me as the others were being put to bed and labeled the colours and shapes in his PECS binder. He wouldn't put the pictures back until I had repeated the name of the colour or shape after him. I've been taking Isaiah around the garden teaching him to deadhead the tickseed ( Coreopsis ). He's taken to the task with great enthusiasm. I still haven't gotten him to distinguish between the spent blooms and unopened ones so I have to watch him very carefully. Me: Isaiah, what is this? Isaiah: Isaiah, what is this? He's also been going around asking, "What colour is it?" to no one in particular. One of his new goals at school is identifying the colours of objects. We had a great time naming the colo