I’ve been reading lots of chapter books lately. Classics and New books and books on book lists and books full of imagination, books that are nonfiction, books that have awarded Newberry Medals and more. When I haven’t read a good book in a while, I start to get fidgety. Books ground me and I love sitting on my table with a good book.

I would love to do chapter book reviews, but there are just so many other things capturing my time. Books that I have really enjoyed lately are Sarah Plain and Tall as well as its sequels. Did you know there were sequels? (Skylark , Caleb’s Story) I just learned they were.

The books are quick reads. I can eat a bowl of oatmeal while I finish a few chapters and am whisked to another world.

In a recent beautiful book I read, I lived on Butterfly Hill , a poignant tale about an immigrant girl – I related deeply — the character writes about how her grandmother doesn’t turn on the lights from afternoon all the way until it gets dark. That way she gets to truly enjoy the sun setting outside her window.

Have you tried that? If you don’t turn on the lights until it gets truly dark, you will notice how the colors of your home will change. The walls will get a rosy warmth. The kitchen will get darker, then brighter, then dark again. The bonus if you have little children is that I feel they are ready for bed sooner because they have witnessed the sky settle in for the night.

Love the transformation of pink to blue!

Microwave a sweet potato for 2 minute intervals 2 times and you have a quick and nutritious snack! I didn’t edit these pictures – notice how the sky made everything pink around them…

Have they not looked at the sky above them – how We structured it and adorned it and [how] it has no rifts?

(Quran 50:6)