We made another trip to our favorite local bookstore, Powell’s.   It’s on the way home from church, and so very hard to pass it by without stopping in.  Every visit I am tempted to spend a ridiculous amount of money on crafting, cooking, and kids’ books.  And I could hide out in the Orange Room for hours and hours if my children didn’t keep dragging me back to the kid corner…

In the end, I exercised some self-control, and left with only this hilarious kid’s book, which will be a gift for Firecracker’s birthday in October.  (But, I also left with a long mental list of things to order from the library – you know, those books you’d like to read once, but are not ready to commit to purchasing.)

Here are some of the books we’ve been reading this week for homeschool, as well.  Little Hen, who loves to finger knit, is learning how to knit on two needles and spin on a drop spindle, so we’ve ordered a big stack of knitting and spinning books (although the librarian was skeptical when I tried to check out knitting books on my home-educator library card.  I guess they didn’t look like “homeschooling books” to her).   The book on Turkish sock knitting led to an internet search of Turkish culture, and we ordered several children’s books and cultural books on Turkey that will hopefully come soon.  (Isn’t that one of the wonderful things about homeschooling?  How you’re free to chase your interests wherever the trail leads?)

We must have had fiber-art on the brain, because many of our other choices had to do with socks, knitting, sheep, fiber.  Only our new book CD – Island of the Blue Dolphins – seems out of place, although we’ve been listening to it during our quiet-time in the afternoons, while the girls finger-knit or sew with me during the baby’s nap. (Speaking of great kid’s fiber art, Quince and Quire has a neat kid’s wet-felting post)

Some other mamas with stacks of books  – 5 Orange Potatoes, Charming the Birds from the Trees, Red Dirt Mother, and Starry Sky Ranch.  There are always great reads on the bookshelves of Mom in Madison, and  SouleMama,  .  And don’t forget to check out the very talented Mamaroots, and her lovingly hand-crafted wooden playsets with literary themes.