{Celebrate China} Our New Year Library

With Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival) just around the corner, it seemed like a good time to post about our favorite books celebrating the holiday!  There are so many terrific books available!  Our library is still a little small and certainly in the "growing" stage, but here is a list of what we like to read during Spring Festival, along with explanations taken from Amazon:

A New Year's Reunion - "Little Maomao's father works in faraway places and comes home just once a year, for Chinese New Year. At first Maomao barely recognizes him, but before long the family is happily making sticky rice balls, listening to firecrackers, and watching the dragon dance in the streets below. Papa gets a haircut, makes repairs to the house, and hides a lucky coin for Maomao to find. Which she does! But all too soon it is time for Papa to go away again. This poignant, vibrantly illustrated tale, which won the prestigious Feng Zikai Chinese Children's Picture Book Award in 2009, is sure to resonate with every child who misses relatives when they are away--and shows how a family's love is strong enough to endure over time and distance."

The Beast Nian (iTunes e-book) - iTunes doesn't provide a good summary of this story, so I'll share my thoughts!  Although this is an e-book, I love that it tells the legend of Nian.  I haven't found many books that explain this story, and it's part of some of the traditions behind Spring Festival.  The illustrations are bright and colorful and the story tells the legend well.  Very young children might not do well with the beginning knowing that Nian is a monster who would sometimes hurt the villagers, but I think it's probably fine for most children. For $0.99, it's a bargain and you can listen to a narration in English or Chinese!

Bringing In The New Year - "This exuberant story follows a Chinese American family as they prepare for the Lunar New Year. Each member of the family lends a hand as they sweep out the dust of the old year, hang decorations, and make dumplings. Then it’s time to put on new clothes and celebrate with family and friends. There will be fireworks and lion dancers, shining lanterns, and a great, long dragon parade to help bring in the Lunar New Year. And the dragon parade in our book is extra long–on a surprise fold-out page at the end of the story. Grace Lin’s artwork is a bright and gloriously patterned celebration in itself! And her story is tailor-made for reading aloud."

Celebrate Chinese New Year - "Children have never had so many reasons to learn how Chinese people everywhere ring in the new and ring out the old. Celebrate Chinese New Year is the latest, timely addition to National Geographic’s popular Holidays Around the World series. With 25 colorful images and a simple, educational text, the book is a lively invitation to revel in this child-friendly, national and international holiday. Carolyn Otto brings the historical and cultural aspects of the Chinese New Year into focus, and young readers experience the full flavor of an event celebrated by over a billion people in China, and countless others worldwide."

The Dancing Dragon - "The Chinese New Year is about to begin. There's lots to do--tie strings of firecrackers outside, hang up red scrolls, bake special cakes, and sing New Year's songs. And when family and friends are gathered together, it's time for the parade to begin. This book folds out to reveal all the color and excitement of a traditional Chinese New Year celebration, complete with dancing dragon!"

Dragon Dance - "It's Chinese New Year and there are so many fun things to do! Shopping at the outdoor market for fresh flowers, eating New Year's dinner with the whole family, receiving red envelopes from Grandma and Grandpa, and best of all-watching the spectacular Chinese New Year's parade! Introduce the customs of Chinese New Year to even the youngest readers with this festive new lift-the-flap book."

The Great Race - "The Jade Emperor is concerned because his country does not have a calendar, and no one can tell one year from the next. He decides to hold a race across a great river, and the order in which the animals finish will determine the order of the years. The event is exciting as the creatures maneuver for position, only to be bested in the end by the clever Rat. In this retelling of the ancient legend, Casey maintains the pace well. Back matter includes information about the Chinese calendar in general, as well as the more specific Dragon Boat Festival and Moon Festival. The book is a visual treat, with illustrations in simple collage designs on acrylic and painted backgrounds placed in such a way as to keep the eye engaged and moving."

Sam And The Lucky Money - "It's Chinese New Year in Chinatown, and young Sam has four dollars of New Year money burning a hole in his pocket. As he and his mother are milling through the crowded streets--alive with firecrackers, lion dances, and shoppers--Sam accidentally steps on the foot of a homeless man who is buried in a pile of red paper. Flustered, Sam hurries back to his mother, and is soon distracted by the char siu bao and other sweets he might buy with his gift money. When he sees fish-tail cookies that remind him of toes, he remembers the old man again, and Sam starts to think of his "lucky money" in a new light."

The Year Of The Horse (new for us this year) - 2014 is The Year of the Horse! Hannah the horse has a wonderfully talented family and a very special friendship with a boy named Tom, but she wants more than that. She yearns to have special skills like those of her parents and relatives. When Tom offers to take his art teacher s newest painting to the governor in a far off capital, Hannah jumps at the chance to show a little horse can have a lot of courage.

This latest adventure in the Tales from the Chinese Zodiac follows The Year of the Snake (2013), Dragon (2012), Rabbit (2011), Tiger (2010), Ox (2009), Rat (2008), Pig (2007) and Dog (2006). Each book features a unique cast of a dozen creatures. In the Chinese lunar calendar, a special animal represents every year. Each creature symbolizes unique qualities and has a personality that people identify with.

{Celebrate China} Free Mandarin Apps for Kids

Trying to preserve or teach birth language is one way to help adopted children connect with their heritage.  Although we struggled just with English for quite a long time with Sunshine, we are now trying to teach all the kids as much Chinese Mandarin as we can, with the hope that maybe one day they'll be bilingual.  We'll needs lots of help at some point in the future, but for now, we're working on simple children's songs (which will be in an upcoming post!) and vocabulary. There are endless possibilities available out there nowadays for language learning!  You can learn anything you want on apps, including tons of different foreign languages.  I love that there is such a variety of Mandarin Chinese apps for kids.  If you are serious about your children learning Mandarin, you'll need more than just a few apps.  But they are surely a great way to get your children started.  I spent some time reviewing just a few of the many Chinese apps available - these are arranged from my most favorite to least favorite.

#1 - Kids Learn Mandarin - This is by far my most favorite app.  It's free at first and a bit pricey to download the whole app, but oh boy the $12.99 is worth it.  It teaches fruits, veggies, body parts, colors, shapes, animals, family members, occupations, things around the home, eating and drinking.  I can't say enough good things about all of the different games available for reinforcement.  There are so many different things to do, it could literally entertain a child for hours!

#2 - Ricki & Jacky - This one is really fun, although a bit limited compared to Kids Learn Mandarin.  It is free at first, with a $3.99 download to unlock everything.  It teaches colors, fruits, emotions, simple action verbs, and places.  Ricki & Jacky are two circus clowns that lead children through multiple circus tents, offering a few games to teach and reinforce new vocabulary.  All of my kids enjoyed themselves while playing this one!

#3 - Fun Chinese - Again free at first, it's $4.99 to unlock the entire app.  It's very fun, offering quite a large variety of games for reinforcement.  It comes loaded with colors, and also teaches animals, numbers, things around the house, and transportation with the full app.

#4 - Chinese Flashcards - Free at first, but for $0.99 to unlock the whole app, you can't beat this one.  If your child prefers to skip all the games and just learn the vocabulary, these flashcards may be the way to go.  It teaches animals, transportation, verbs, around the house, numbers, shapes, colors, weather, musical instruments, food, fruit, and veggies.  Being a visual learner, I do wish the app showed the pinyin so I could read the words.  But if your child is a good auditory imitator, you're set!

#5 - LinguPinguin - This one comes loaded with animals and transportation with the free download, and then a $1.99 upgrade gets you everything else.  It's cute and interactive and my kids had fun playing it.  I think it's worth the $1.99 for all that it offers!

#6 - Penyo Pal - This one is more difficult and probably suited for older children.  I didn't spend the money to upgrade past the included foods section, but it's great for recognizing Chinese characters if your children are interested in that.  It's a little hard to follow at first, but you can catch on quickly.

#7 - Princesses Learn Chinese - I suppose the name of this one might limit this game to girls only, but it's still cute.  It's a free download and includes the story of Snow White.  The app can narrate the story, which includes a bit of Mandarin thrown in.  You can also purchase other stories for $1.99 each.  It's a cute idea, but I'm not sure how much Mandarin can be learned with it.  There are a few games too, but none that really kept my children's interest.  It's certainly worth the free download of Snow White to check it out though.

#8 - KidsChinese - I'm not sure how this app has so many glowing reviews.  This is a free app that comes with one short animation of little bean people having a conversation.  After that, you have to pay $0.99 for each additional video you want to download.  The audio lags behind the video, which is frustrating when trying to read the English subtitles.  I could recognize some of the words, but I couldn't follow along with the conversation.  I am not sure how anyone could learn a foreign language this way, but maybe I am missing something.

There are so many more possibilities for Mandarin Chinese apps, as you can see with the screenshot below.  I chose to review just a few of them, but I definitely think there are some big winners in this list.  I'm sure there are many other equally great apps available, but hopefully my reviews will get you started!  If you already use any apps, please comment and let me know so I can add it to my "check it out" list.  And if you are interested in learning Mandarin Chinese for yourself, there are many very good free apps for adults too!

Pollution 101

The children are learning about different types of pollution this week with CC.  We ran an experiment to find out how easy/difficult it would be to clean water after it had been "polluted."  Both older kids hypothesized that we would be able to clean it, but quickly changed their minds when they realized how difficult it was.  It was quite a messy, and very fun process.  It was also a great visual to help everyone become more aware about water pollution.

Makin' It Rain

We're learning about the Water Cycle this week in science, so we made it rain today with this experiment.  The kids were so fascinated, they asked me to demonstrate twice.  Watching the cloud form (what you can see below) and then seeing rain droplets fall was pretty cool.  I love being able to visually show them a concept like this.  I'm sure they won't remember the paper they filled out, but this is much more likely to stick with them!

My apologies for being absent from the bloggy world recently.  I have reached a new definition of busy this season and am really trying to get back to a good blogging routine.  I miss it terribly!  We are chugging along with homeschool and are learning many new interesting things.

Zoo through the iPhone

I'm going to send the wrong impression to new readers with two iPhone posts in a row!  I normally don't lean so heavily on it, but it's just not practical to carry my camera around the zoo.  And I always tell the moms at my workshops that it's better to capture the moment with whatever you have, instead of letting it pass you by.  So the iPhone it is!  I took more, but I settled on one shot of each child for the post.  It was an amazing day!  The weather was awesome and we learned a ton.  We are in the process of studying consumers and food chains, so a visit to the zoo worked in perfectly with our science lessons.  The kids enjoyed trying to figure out which animals were herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores, and I thought it was interesting to find out what all of the animals were eating too.  So fascinating how God designed our world!  I can't help but stand in awe and wonder!

And we're off!

So looking forward to this school year with my little ones :)  We had a great first CC day and Sunshine happily stayed in the nursery for the whole morning without me!  That's huge progress and such a big milestone for her!

'Twas the night before CC

We are so excited about our first Classical Conversations day tomorrow!  I know we are starting school later than most, but that ended up working out quite nicely because there has been so much going on.  Especially with Sweetie starting school, I'm not sure there would have been much time for schooling anyway.  But we are ready to go for tomorrow and I am thrilled about what is in store this year!  I am planned through December and we have some really great stuff to look forward to!  Yay for homeschool!  It's hard work, but I love this lifestyle and am very thankful for the opportunity to homeschool my littles.

 

CC Memory Review {CC Sequence}

Homeschool planning season seems like a good time to share this fun review game!  I first heard about CC Sequence months back on Half a Hundred Acre Woods.  But the sweet homeschool mama who was selling them wasn't taking anymore orders at the time, so I couldn't get my hands on one of the games.  Instead of waiting, I spent some time to make my own.  I cannot take any credit for the idea, but I duplicated it for my kiddos.  I am happy to pass along the game to anyone else who might like to use it for CC review as well.  You can download the CC Sequence .pdf HERE.  It's played just like the normal Sequence game you can buy in stores, and is good for all three cycles of CC.  The first game board is Weeks 1-12, the second is Weeks 13-24.  You'll need some kind of counters, but I figure all of us homeschool mamas have several varieties to choose from around the house! I suggest printing on card stock and laminating.  Enjoy!

CC Homeschool Planning

You may find it odd, but I sincerely enjoy the process of school planning.  Making lists, scouring the interweb for pinspiration, printing worksheets, filing, creating binders, and filling in blocks on my school planner gets my endorphins pumping.  And then there's the never-ending flow of coffee too.

I'm biting off quite a bit more than last year, but I feel ready to handle it and am so excited about the extra fine arts and literature I am adding into the school year.  I skated through that part last year by piggy backing on Classical Conversations, but am excited about what we are adding.  I am also incorporating quite a few more living books (ok, a ton more) and am thrilled about that.  I think "real" books, instead of text books, will be much more captivating for the kiddos.  We'll still use text books for references, but I am working on an awesome lineup of living books for history and science!  I'll share the list when I've gotten through planning the first 12 weeks of CC, but for now here's my ever-growing Amazon wish list for Cycle 2.  There are many more options out there, but I am choosing books that are geared to my kiddos and the time we have to read each week.

Aside from the resources from CC Connected and our text book curriculums, I want to especially thank Sola Gratia Mom for her CC plans, Half a Hundred Acre Wood for her Cycle 2 book lists (and her generally awesome CC/homeschool blog posts), and Jennifer of Teaching Boys for all of her fantastic CC week-by-week pinterest boards (her book pins are wonderful)!  I am also getting some great information from Ambleside Online's very thorough lists.

I am planning on having the first half of the school year (12 weeks of CC with breaks will take us through to Christmas) planned in the next week or so.  In a perfect world, I'd plan the entire school year before school started, but I'm not sure if that will happen.  I'll reserve judgment for now :)

Summer School

Yes, they aren't thrilled about it.  But summer school is in session here at our house.  It takes less than an hour a day, but is so important.  We are still playing a bit of catch-up for Angel from when we made the switch to homeschool last year.

There were quite a few language arts/english concepts that she hadn't learned (or had learned but not retained), so we went through the first and second grade FLL and WWE work this year.  We'll be finishing up with most of it by the end of July, but will be continuing with writing studies clear through to the start of the upcoming school year.  She will also be finishing up the rest of her second grade math work at the end of this month (same issue - just playing a bit of catch-up).  At that point, she'll be caught up and 100% ready for her third grade curriculums!  She's also doing weekly violin lessons through the summer :)

And for Lovebug, we are jumping into All About Reading's Pre-Reading Program.  He seems to like it much more than The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, which we worked through last year.  It's much more interesting with multiple sensory learning opportunities, and seems to grab his attention better.  I think Ordinary Parent's Guide was a little too bland for him, I'm hoping he'll retain more by trying this new curriculum.  I'm not on a set schedule with him for the summer though, but we'll get through as many lessons as we can before starting Kindergarten in the Fall.

Sometimes

Sometimes you just need to dump the box of legos on the floor and CREATE.  And this post reminds me that I need to snap some shots of Lovebug's lego creation that he put together by himself a few weeks ago ... I was so proud of him!

Confession

Confession: I let the kids pollute their minds and watch Looney Toons while they eat lunch.  I wish I could say I provide a stimulating, rich environment filled with educational opportunities while they eat ... but I don't.  And I don't mind.  Because it gives all of us a brain break, and gives me some time for me.

Reflections of a first year homeschooling mama

As the school year (I use that term loosely because we are continuing a few subjects through the summer) comes to a close, I wanted to get my thoughts out about my first year as a homeschooling mama.  There were soooooo many things I did wrong, but I do hope that, just maybe, I got a few things right.  (Sorry, this is a loooong post!)

Successes

1. This may seem obvious, but the choice to homeschool was a huge success for our family!  Angel loves it and Sunshine is too young to know any different (but I can say with certainty that her speech has improved so quickly because I am able to work with her all day long).  Lovebug still says he misses "school," but everyone in the family is still trying to convince him that traditional school is nothing like the structured playing he did in his half-day Pre-K class last year  =)  Angel knows better!
2. Setting up a separate school room was a necessity for our family.  I know not all families need this or have the capability to do it, but it was essential in making the switch from traditional school to homeschool for us.  Having a separate, organized, and cheerful space with individual desks was really key for us being able to maintain a "school" environment to ensure we got our work completed.  Maybe I needed the separation more than the kids, who knows.  But it was a huge helper for making things run more smoothly and kept all of our schooling stuff nice and organized.
3. Being flexible with (i.e., totally scrapping) the schedule I had intricately mapped out was so important.  I had incorrectly thought I needed to plan blocks of time using workboxes for each subject.  It worked so much better to give the kids a list of what needed to be done (I used Homeschool Helper App), and let them do it in the order they wanted.  The exceptions were that fun history and science projects were done only when all of the other work was completed first.  This worked especially well for Angel, who did a lot of her work independently, only getting me when she needed help.  If I was working with Lovebug or helping Sunshine with something when Angel needed help, she just moved onto something else until I could help her (or I recently started keeping a fun chapter book available to read at her desk too).  Vice versa for Lovebug - I'd give him work to do that didn't require help while I helped Angel (the Ooka Island computer game was great for this when he was finished his other independent work).  I also kept separate activities put up and out of reach for Sunshine to be played with only during school time.  I set her up at the green table and she was good to go for a small window of time.  This was helpful with keeping her occupied when I needed to work with the older two.  It wasn't perfect and there were plenty of days that simply did not go well, but it was pretty good overall.
4. Joining our Classical Conversations community was absolutely a highlight of our school year.  We loved everything about it, including the friendships we have made.  Through some trial and error, I think we have a good system down for working on memorizing the grammar now.  I didn't do a very good job in the beginning, but I am excited about implementing good memorization practices in the Fall.  I think at least Angel is going to try for Memory Masters next year!
5. Using CC as our curriculum base for history and science was a big success.  I mostly used Story of the World for history and God's Design for Science for our science lessons, both mapped out to our weekly CC grammar (we skipped around in the books to fit what we were memorizing each week).  I also used several other living books, especially when SOTW and GDS didn't have lessons that fit well.  And then using multiple resources from other CC moms and pinterest, I picked different projects to go along with what we were studying.  The kids loved doing different projects each week!
6. The other curriculums we worked with this year were pretty awesome.  I'm sticking with most of them for next year, which makes the english and math planning easy peasy (with the exception of switching Lovebug over the All About Reading).  We are still going to be using CC for these subjects as well, but the CC memorization is in addition to the math and english curriculums we're using.  I am planning to add in more art at home next year too.  Angel loves art and to be honest, we didn't do a ton of extra art, other than the history art projects and what we did at CC.  I'd like to work on a foreign language as well.  We memorized some Latin at CC, but I didn't do anything with that this year.  We think our family would be better served learning Mandarin, but I need to put that into motion.

Lessons to Learn From

1. I didn't plan ahead enough in the beginning ... I learned my lesson the hard way because I do feel like I sort of floated through the first half of the school year.  Especially with the Fall being my busy work season, we didn't do as many interesting things as I would have liked.  I got my act together for the second half of the school year though and planned the whole thing over Christmas break.  Although we didn't get to every project, things went much more smoothly and we were way more likely to do the hands-on stuff because it was already planned, along with all of the supplies already being purchased (I did that while planning).  I planned for one science and history project a week (art, experiment, or hands-on activity).  It didn't always happen, but we tried!
2. We didn't start school at a regular time early enough.  This one is ALL on me and was a big one.  It is so easy for me to get caught up in answering emails or work stuff right after breakfast, and then before I know it, it's 10:00am and we haven't started school yet.  I know that the beauty of homeschool is flexibility, but too much flexibility for me is not good.  On the days when we started early (before 9:00am) and were finished by lunch, everyone was happy and so excited to have the rest of the day free!  It set such a positive tone for the whole day.  So a BIG goal for next year is to be disciplined and regularly start at about 8:30am.
3. Along the same lines, I struggled with time management.  I'm pretty sure every homeschool mama will relate.  Juggling multiple responsibilities is a bit overwhelming, and part of the answer is cutting back on work.  It's such a fine balance, because I love homeschooling and I adore my job.  And then trying to be the best wife I can be, finding time for me, for blogging, for Red Thread Sessions, for adoption/orphan care related activities, for household stuff, etc., etc., ... oy, it can be a lot.
4. I was just getting my feet wet this year and felt a little overwhelmed on the academic side, so I will definitely be working on getting the kids involved in more extracurricular activities.  Angel has been talking about gymnastics, Girl Scouts, and maybe softball next Spring.  We also just bought her a violin and she starts lessons on Monday!  Lovebug has been asking about Tae Kwon Do for longer than I'd like to admit, so I really want to get him involved in that.  There is also a weekly homeschool gym at the Y that is very close to our house.  It's drop-off AND in the afternoon - so I can drop the older two off, head home for Sunshine's nap time, and be back to pick them up when she wakes up.  SCORE!  We tried a homeschool gym at another gym and it was awesome (kids loved it!), but it was too far away and it took place in the morning, which was so hard with scheduling school time.
5. I struggled with Bible study all year.  It was quite frustrating because of all the things we are learning, my most important job is to teach them about God.  The rest will fall into place, but I welcome the task gladly to teach the kids about their heavenly Father!  I had a difficult time using our curriculum (which I really do love because it goes through the whole Bible systematically in three years and involves a lot of good memorization) because of the age range of my littles. Angel was very interested, Lovebug was somewhat interested but mostly indifferent, and Sunshine was usually creating distractions.  It was really frustrating.  I also tried a morning basket at breakfast for individual devotions - it worked quite nicely but we were hot and cold with using it.  And although I love devotions, they aren't a replacement for Bible study.  So I actually gave the Bible study curriculum a retry several weeks ago again, and by God's grace, it worked.  And it worked well! We're several weeks into the Bible study and it's going ... great!  We're reading straight from the Bible and everyone is sitting relatively quiet and paying attention!  We all love the interactive timeline and for now, the whole study is totally working for us!
6. Scripture memory was a big fail this school year.  I was so focused on the rest of our academics that I didn't even try.  But I know that hiding God's Word in their hearts is so very important!  Learning from my mistake though, I put together a Scripture Memory box using Charlotte Mason's system and I am thrilled to say that we started using it this week!  If you haven't checked out this system of memory work but want to memorize scripture (or anything else for that matter), go watch THIS VIDEO about how to do it.  It rocks.

So anyway, I think that this first school year went very well overall.  I pray that we were able to glorify God, and that we only continue to do so as the years go on.  It must be a good sign that I feel like I could keep going and am not desperately waiting for the summer months to hit.  I am even more inspired for next year and am excited about a few of the changes we'll be making too!

Classical Conversations memory review

There are so many creative CC mamas out there that have adapted different memory ideas for CC.  In fact, I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to pinning these awesome ideas!  I thought the Jenga review game was pretty cool.  Playing Jenga while reviewing our grammar?  Yes, please.  I wanted it to be useable for all CC cycles, so I wrote the review questions by subject and week, instead of asking cycle-specific questions on each block.  I used a sharpie to write directly on the blocks because I was afraid that using labels would make the game not work as well.  And to conserve, most of the blocks have a subject/week on each side.  Otherwise I would have needed to purchase 2 games.  Using both sides, I was able to get all of the subjects/weeks on them (Latin weeks were combined).  This idea could easily be adapted to any information that needs to be reviewed/remembered.  I love how versatile it is!

Sensory Bin #5: Oobleck (solid or liquid?)

Sunshine's sweet Godmama got the kids Dr. Seuss's "Oobleck" story, along with the ingredients to make our own oobleck.  After reading the story (which they loved!), we made oobleck.  It's the strangest sensory experience.  It's sort of a solid until you pick it up, and then it turns to liquid.  I don't know any other way to explain it than that.  Oobleck is easily turned into a homeschool science experiment, a sensory bin, or just an entertaining rainy day project.  Sunshine was not a fan of this experience, but the older kids were absolutely fascinated.  I think it was just a little too weird for her.  She definitely laughed a lot and enjoyed herself, but was finished with it pretty quickly.  I promise you though, most kids will love playing with this stuff!

Classical Conversations Ceremony

The kiddos are officially finished their first year of Classical Conversations!  Although our homeschool year is certainly not over (we'll be doing some schooling through the summer - Angel is overjoyed about that, ha!), I cannot believe that CC Cycle 1 has come to an end.  We celebrated with a year end ceremony this evening.  It was raining on the kids (and my camera), so this was a "ya get what ya get" photo op.  I am so incredibly proud of my littles and all they have accomplished this school year.  I am even more excited about what our next homeschool year will bring - the fun is just beginning.  I'm feeling so blessed to have the special privilege to school them at home, what an honor!

Below is a small snippet of the almost-15-minute Timeline Song the kids worked hard at memorizing this school year.  It includes 161 world events, starting at Creation and going through 9/11.  Because of its length, the kids performed the song from Creation to Jesus Christ, and they did a great job!

A sweet message

Coffee is an important part of my day.  When we did the Daniel Fast in November, there were hours that went by when I thought about the day I could drink coffee again.  My love affair with coffee is pretty serious.  On that note, I make a double cappuccino to take with me for our LAST Classical Conversations co-op day this week.  What a beautiful little surprise to see this heart in my foam before I stirred.  I showed Angel and she agreed that I had to snap a picture.  It was a sweet message to start the day off.  It's the little things, right?