Anyone else feeling a bit isolated and alone? We are still largely sheltering in place in our corner of Indiana, and the weeks are getting long. A friend posted something on Friday about it being 70 days since she’d seen her husband — they were separated when the country she’d traveled to locked down — and the number made me sigh. It feels so large…and so small at the same time. I think that’s why I’m reading soooo much even around edits. (Lethal Intent line edits were turned in a week ago. Woot! Next stop galleys!)

The weather in Indiana has been gorgeous, almost hot. So in between yard work and projects, this is what you’ll see at our house. Kids and parents sprawled out on the patio with books. I love this! When I was a homeschool mom, teaching my kids to read was the piece that made me nervous. I knew I could do everything else or get help, but reading? If I got that wrong, everything else would be harder. Then I found a great resource and that fear evaporated.

I don’t think I needed to worry. Here’s our nine-year-old tackeling the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He read the first two books in April, and then has taken a pause for some “lighter” reading this month. He moved on to Louis Lamour!

And here’s our twelve-year-old reading one of Karen Witemeyer’s books yesterday. Yep. She read it in a day. Her favorite birthday gift a couple weeks ago was an autographed copy of Stay With Me that Becky so sweetly signed for her. (These ladies are some of my favorite authors, and I’ve loved watching B race through their books this month. Reminds me of me as a preteen!)

I think one of the reasons our kids love to read is reflected in this photo. My husband and I LOVE books. I’m reading five or six right now. He’s reading a couple. This is just one of our bookshelves, the one in the office. It was empty a year ago. Oops! In an effort to clean one of my shelves — sort of — I’m giving away an autographed ARC of Katherine Reay’s brand-spanking new release Of Literature and Lattes. Just use the form below!

We’ve also been using this pause to introduce our kids to movies. Over the weekend it was You’ve Got Mail. Such a good movie! We’re also watching the Marvel movies in order. We watched Thor: Dark World last night. I’m still not sure exactly how that one fits into the MCU, but watching them in order has helped me to really appreciate the character arc for Tony Stark. I’m still a Captain America girl, but I can appreciate Iron Man now.

By the way if you haven’t read it yet, Imperfect Justice is on ebook sale for $1.99 and Where Treetops Glisten is on sale for $4.99. I wrote the collection with Sarah Sundin and Tricia Goyer. Such fun! As always, make sure you confirm they are still on sale before purchasing. Enjoy!
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What are you reading or watching?