Happy Monday! We are facing an unusually busy week but I am ready. I am linking up with Heather, Lindsay, and Johannah to say Hello Monday.

I finished reading Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan. She also goes by Patti Callahan Henry. I’ve read a few of her other books but this one was totally different. This historical fiction account of how Joy Davidman Gresham met and fell in love with C.S. Lewis or Jack as she called him. Everything I read about the book had me super excited to read it. It is a long book, over 400 pages, and while I found the whole book interesting the beginning was a little slow. But the second half was so worth making it through the first half. In the first half, Joy leaves her family to go to England to rest and regain her health. As a mom I couldn’t imagine leaving my children for months at a time to go heal, write, and travel. Upon her arrival at home, Joy realizes that this is not the life for her. She’s so unhappy and feels she must go back to England and her Jack. I loved watching Joy and Jack’s relationship evolve and seeing her boys flourish at The Kilns, Jack’s home with his brother Warnie. It’s a long book, but definitely worth the read for historical fiction fans, C.S. Lewis fans, and Patti Callahan fans. Enjoy! **I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.**

On Saturday, I got up and started making my first bone broth. I’ve never made broth of any kind before but I had a bunch of bones from our portion of a cow that we bought in February. I browned the bones and then added onions, carrots, celery, spices, salt and pepper, and water to the pot. I let it simmer all day and the house smelled sooooo good!

Luke’s soccer game was cancelled due to wet fields. Jeff took both boys to their basketball and swim practices to wear everyone out as much as possible. I met up with my friend Jamie to do our Fellow Flowers virtual Strength run. This is our seventh virtual flower run. We decided to do something a little different for this run. It is the strength run so we added some strength training to our run. After the first mile, we stopped after each lap on the track to do some strength training. We had weights and a medicine ball. Jamie and I did bicep/shoulder presses, triceps, chest pass, squats, lunges, and a few different shoulder exercises. It was FREEZING but we did it! I love running with Jamie! Our runs were quicker than normal because we only had to run about a 1/4 mile before we got a little break. I ran about 4.25 miles and was just a little sore on Sunday morning.

Our other Fellow Flower runs: Dreamer, Wildflower, Joy, No Excuses, and Fiercely United x2.

Saturday afternoon I went into work for a little bit while Luke was at basketball practice. It’s one of the things I love about basketball. Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade boys practice at our school. I can slip into the media center to finish up some loose ends if I need to without going too far out of my way. I wanted to be sure I was ready for buying week at the Book Fair. Scholastic has new registers and I took some time to figure them out.

On Saturday night, a few girlfriends and I got together to celebrate our Kourtni’s birthday. We ordered dinner in and sat around the kitchen table for hours. We laughed, cried, and made plans for some fun in the coming months. It was a great evening!

Luke had a soccer game on Sunday morning. Thank goodness the wind wasn’t as bad as it was on Saturday. His team played so well and the game ended in a tie. This outfit was the perfect blend of cozy, cute, and warm enough for the games and party.

He went straight to a roller skating party. I think the moms had as much fun as the kids at the party. We laughed so hard at our cuties trying to skate. It was so sweet!

We headed home and I started making Shay’s Cowboy Stew. I modified it in a few ways, mostly using bone broth instead of beef stock. It was delicious! All four Parsons were very happy at dinner time!

We started reading our first Book Fair book tonight and it’s perfect for everyone to read aloud. I highly recommend it! Luke was giggling up a storm!

I’ve been watching a bunch of Hallmark movies and now I am reading a book that reads like a Hallmark movie. It’s a quick fun read and if you love watching Hallmark movies, you’ll love reading this book.

Our busy week includes 1-2 soccer practices, 2-3 basketball practices, 4+ swim team practices, 4+ soccer games, 3 football games (for Jeff), 7 hours of family shopping at Book Fair (for me), 3 dentist appointments, religious ed, and hopefully some laughs and family dinners. Here we go!!

I hope your week is full of sunshine and books!!

☀️ 📚 😎