A Movie Review Instead – This Beautiful Fantastic

It has been pouring for two days. What with the rain and the stay at home situation, I have been feeling quite restless. Then last night I found this amazing movie. This Beautiful Fantastic is a 2016 British romantic drama, written and directed by Simon Aboud. Bella Brown was abandoned as a baby in an…

Book Review: Artistic Pedagogical Technologies

Artistic Pedagogical Technologies: A Primer for Educators – by Katherine J. Janzen, Beth Perry, and Margaret J. A. Edwards. Have you ever sat through a boring lecture and wished there was a better way for teachers to present material? Have you watched your child plod through numerous worksheets and wished the teacher would employ a…

The Language of Sparrows

Book Review:  The Language of Sparrows, by Rachel Pfifer - When artist April Wright and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Sierra, move to Houston, Texas, they are trying to escape a past neither of them can get over. But their pain follows them, and April has no idea how to help her brilliant daughter, who learns languages…

Greensleeves

Book Review:  Greensleeves, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw   Shannon Lightley has reached the end of high school and wonders what to do.  All her life, she’s been pulled in many directions and has tried without success to fit in.  She’s lived all over Europe with both sets of famous parents, lived with her aunts and…

LUW Conference

This past weekend I attended the League of Utah Writers Conference.  I had a great time.  There were a wide variety of topics to choose from, covering everything from the beginning steps of writing all the way to marketing and publishing.  The class I enjoyed most was How to Write a Fight Scene, taught by…

Happy Canada Day!

To all you Canadians out there, Happy Canada Day.  I hope you have a great time with your family and friends, barbequing, swimming, playing games, and all your other activities. I am thankful for my Canadian heritage, for my ancestors who came to Canada seeking a fresh start, freedom, and adventure.  Some were farmers and…

Read to Children

I have been tutoring two students since the fall, using the Star reading program.  Each day we meet, they work hard at reading, decoding, and learning the phonics skills they need in order to be good readers.  It has been very gratifying to watch them go from barely able to read to being able to…

The Real Boy

I wasn’t planning on buying another book. After all, I have six books piled on my desk that need reviews, and another twenty books on my night stand that want to be read. But as I was perusing my favorite book review websites, I found The Real Boy. The cover and review looked interesting, so…

League of Utah Writers

Over the weekend I attended the League of Utah Writers' Conference in Salt Lake City.  I had a great time meeting authors, learning in the workshops, and drooling over all the delicious-looking books.  I was impressed by how friendly everyone was.  Instead of being competitive, everyone was open and cheerful as they cheered each other…

Off to School

Every year we mothers face the dreaded first day of school.  This year it happened for the last time:  yesterday we took our youngest son to college.  It was a long, exhausting day divided between the university, his new apartment, the bank, MacDonalds, and a number of stores.  That didn't include the 'Welcome to College'…