Book Review - A Dance in Donegal by Jennifer Deibel

 

A Dance in Donegal by Jennifer Deibel is a good debut novel.  The sweeping beauty of Ireland is on full display, and the author clearly seems familiar with the interesting customs of that old country.  I liked the main character, Moira, and her love interest, Sean, although it took a while before their budding romance seemed quite believable.  After a bit, though, it was a very nice romance.  I liked many of the secondary characters, and their inclusion lent depth to the story.  I didn't like the addition of Declan, and I thought that part did not further the story line but rather distracted from it.  Overall, though, I enjoyed this novel.  I think that the faith and forgiveness element was handled really well and was a strong point of the book.  I look forward to seeing what this author does in the future.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Revel, for the purpose of writing a review, but all opinions are my own.

Dollar Store Fix

 Lydia was very embarrassed when she saw how I fixed the mixer from spraying whipped cream all over the kitchen.

Actually, I believe she called me a psychopath.  She can be a bit dramatic.  In any case, I got whipped cream without a mess, so I was very happy.

Baptism

 

Before bed, he said, "Mama, today was a great day.  I got baptized!"

Ice

 We had a lot of ice here, and yesterday our driveway was a solid sheet of it.  The teens decided to go sledding, and they had a ball.

They slid all over the place and only partially ended up on the pond.  

Today, we had to attack the driveway with salt, shovels, and sledgehammers.  We can get Nathaniel's car out, but we want to be able to get the van out, too.  We have a very important event tonight!

Second Grade Science

 Gyunay just finished his second grade science book, CHC's Behold and See 2, and the last unit was on ocean life.  We unrolled a big section of butcher paper from our practically non-ending roll in order to measure out the sizes of several ocean creatures.  Then, Gyunay enjoyed illustrating the whole strip.

Seed Starting and Plum Trees

These beautiful shoots belong to little plum trees.  I started them from seed, and they are looking very healthy.

Lydia took these pictures.  She was helping me plant seeds and water seedlings today.  Here is one of our aloe plants:

And a cabbage.  We have a few growing in the playroom.  I have hopes that they will continue to do well.

A couple of years ago, Malachi bought me a heated seed starting mat.  Lydia planted some seeds for me, mostly peppers, but also a few broccoli, flowers, and a couple of tomatoes.  

The peppers need a long growing time, so I start them extra early.  I hope they all sprout, but we will see in about a week.

 

Books

 Gyunay and Emry have been into making books lately.  I think they are mostly intrigued with using the stapler, but they are writing and reading words, so it's a good thing.

They even got Lydia to help them out.  

January Harvest Totals

 122 Eggs!

That's it for January, but really, what did you expect, it's January.  I am so excited that the egg count has gone up.  We only got 10 eggs in the entire month of December.  It is so nice to have laying hens again.