Hello everybody! We have been busy little bees around here lately! The sunshine and nice weather has finally seemed to return to our corner of the world and we have been trying to get out more.

Last Saturday was Independent Bookstore Day and I was so very excited about it. I mean what better reason to buy books and have it sound noble? We had two bookstores near us that I wanted to visit. The first, Another Look Books, I visited alone. It was early still and quiet, and I chose a few books for Wyatt’s library. I generally shop these days for Wyatt and check books out from the library for myself, but lately I have been splurging a bit more. I think I will do a book haul round up next week of all the books I have bought from various places. Anyway, after a very peaceful half an hour or so, I headed back home to pick Billy and Wyatt up, then we popped over to the other bookstore I wanted to visit, Brooks Books.

Brooks Books (see if you can find me in the photos..) sells a mix of used and new and vintage books, and for Independent Bookstore Day they were having a dessert truck (Covered in Frosting) out front, an author signing, a giveaway, and custom bookmarks. Wyatt loves to shop and especially to shop for books so I figured it would be fun for him to go too. And then we could all have a treat after! Win-win!

Well, we got there right at opening and it was jam packed already! Like so packed it was hard to walk around! Wyatt and Billy looked around a bit inside with me, Wyatt chose a book (Old Wolf by Avi) and then he and Billy went outside to hang out where there was more room to move. I of course continued shopping – and especially when I spotted the shelf of vintage Nancy Drew books! I immediately texted a photo to Lisa from Boondock Ramblings, who collects them. Together we chose a few for her and then I got in the huge line to wait my turn. I didn’t mind though because I could continue to browse as I waited.

I finally escaped with my purchases and reunited with Billy and Wyatt. We got in line for our treats and to our dismay, they sold out of almost all of them before we made it to the counter! We were luckier than most though, as there were still some choices left, just not the lemon cupcake which we all wanted. I ended up getting a delicious creme brulee cupcake, Wyatt a cakesickle, and Billy a few macarons. Everything was so good, I could see why it was selling out! Readers must have be a hungry bunch though, because the truck ended up selling out twice during the day! After we left, the owner left to restock, returned, and sold out again! I have to hand it to her, the owner is a one woman operation, and she made some amazing food. Both bookstores posted the next day that they had both had record sales and attendance, so I was very happy for both of them!

Later that night we had family game night, and Miso decided to join is as well.

The next morning I was up and at ’em again! I was meeting up with my crew to go plant shopping which is our annual tradition. It was a very rainy morning with more rain in the forecast, so I dressed in my green raincoat and wellies just in case – which turned out to be a very smart move as the rain turned into a monsoon.

The blurry car photo is my sister-in-law in the car next to me. We were waiting for the weather to clear for a minute, but it never did.

When I got home I had to hurry and get ready for my mom’s birthday party! I whipped up some cupcakes with the help of Duncan Hines, cleaned really fast, and then before I knew it everyone was over. We had a blast. The kids were just playing away – the big kids and the little kids…

It was a very big weekend for us, but a very fun one! The rest of the week was full as well. Wyatt resumed his regular physical therapy after doing the robot legs Lokomat for months, and his therapist was very pleased with the gains he made from it!

It has been a very full, very busy, very good week.

I hope that you all are having a good week as well, and that today you do something that makes you happy!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This weeks topic: Petty Reasons You’ve DNF’d a Book (Or reduced its rating. You don’t even have to say what the book was if you don’t want to!)

We have all done it, dumped a book for one reason or another. We’ve told that book, it’s not you, it’s me, when, yeah, it’s the book. Here are some of my reasons I have dnf’d a book, petty and non-petty alike.

• I don’t like one of the names, or any of the names, or the spelling of a name. 
• Too much of the story told through letters or newspaper articles. I am good with diary entries though.
• An animal or pet dies.

•  The weather in the book doesn’t match my weather. 
• Just no longer in the mood for it. 
• The main character is just too much of an airhead.

• Terrible dialogue that just sounds super fake. I like characters that speak like real people.
• Too gory. I can read horror and thrillers but I still don’t want straight up gore all the time.
• The plot takes a sudden, unbelievable turn for reasons unknown.

• Finally, just because the book is boring.

And there you have it! All the reasons I will stop reading a book!

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Hello everyone! We have been having an unusually busy weekend! This morning I have to get ready soon to meet my crew at the nursery to plant shop, an annual tradition for us. This year though, I am buying a coffee and that is it. With the wheelchair ramp project commencing soon, we won’t have time to do much else, not to mention I can’t visualize the footprint. I wasn’t planning on doing too much this year anyway, just adding some trees and I can even do that later on in the year. Anyway, I am going for the company today which is all I need!

Read Last Week:

So! I finished Watership Down, complete with annotations this year. Sigh. Always such a good read. I also read Flowerheart which was such a light read. I enjoyed it so much and I needed a read like that. Then I followed those two up with two middle grades, Strawberry Hill and The Ghosts of Mercy Manor.

Reading This Week:

This week I am reading Lisa at Boondock Ramblings book, Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage, which is the second book in her Gladwynn series. I really enjoyed the first one so I am looking forward to this one!

Posted Last Week:

Top Ten Tuesday – Unread Books on My Shelves I Want to Read Soon

Three Very Short Book Reviews

Thursday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Watching:

Billy and I have been watching a few different things lately. Fallout, which is Billy’s pick, Season 3 of Only Murders in the Building which is my pick, and last night we watched Beyond Paradise. I was glad to see that Beyond Paradise has been renewed for another season!

I have also been watching a few YouTubers in the evening. My usuals, like Forgotten Way Farms and Darling Desi, don’t post very frequently so I need some new channels to watch! I started watching Randi Lynn Reed last night, and her channel is so pretty, all art and nature and some tea thrown in. I also watched Liv’s Library. She has a lot of different books that I hadn’t really heard of, plus some that are pretty popular, like Abby Jimenez. Finally, I started watching Morgan Long, and she seems very sweet. She talks about a whole bunch of things, but one of them is of course books – and tea.

And that is it from around here! I hope you are all well!

Hello everyone! I am already on my second cup of coffee, it has been that sort of a morning.

We have been going hard at life these days. We have so much going on, on top of our regular life things, and we have been constantly working or cleaning or planning or organizing or making life fun for the littles in our life (NEVER a chore but sometimes it is work lol) and we haven’t had a lot of down time for ourselves. So we need to rectify that. I plan on calling my mother-in-law today and setting up a time for her to watch Wyatt so Billy and I can get out for a bit together.

We had Mermaid Girl over the night to celebrate the Pink Moon, and we had so much fun! We had pink pancakes with whipped cream and twisty bacon for dinner – and the two kids ate so much bacon it was crazy! They barely touched their pancakes, but devoured a pound of bacon between the two of them. I guess they both really liked it! Then for dessert we of course had pink cupcakes, and they also really liked those.

Mermaid Girl loves the stories that are part of the Kids Moon Club. Every month there is a different adventure story, and it has places where you insert the names of your children into the story. I started making peg people for the story, and Mermaid Girl loves them. When she comes in, she instantly scopes out the table to look for the new character. This time I had the new character done, plus a Wyatt and Mermaid Girl peg doll. We usually read the story after dinner, and the kids color. This time Mermaid Girl played with the dolls while I read, which brought a smile to my face. I make them because I know they make her happy, which in turn makes me happy.

After the story, it was time to pull out the big project of the night, the fairy houses! The day before Wyatt and I had gone shopping for the houses and for the items to decorate the houses which we found either at the dollar store or at Michael’s, and Wyatt chose everything for their creation. When I pulled them out to paint and decorate the kids were very excited. Wyatt had been asking for two days to paint his, so I knew he was happy. They did such a nice job, and took it very seriously. I also had other little things for them to paint while I used the hair dryer to dry the paint of the houses, since that had to dry before they could decorate. No sense in sitting around waiting for paint to dry when a hair dryer can do the work for you!

Devin, Chrissy, and baby girl came over a little early to pick up Mermaid Girl so we could hang out a bit with them as well. Baby girl is walking so good and getting into all the mischief. It was such a fun night and Wyatt had so much fun with his cousin.

The last few days I have been spending an absurd amount of time reading about skin cycling, which sounds like it is out of a futuristic sci-fi novel but really just means switching up your skin care routine at night, and what should be done each night. For those who are curious – it is exfoliate night 1, retinol night 2, then nights 3 and 4 hyaluronic acid. And of course on all of the nights cleanse and moisturize. I never really had a skin care routine before so this is so complicated for me. I even had to purchase a few of these items. Oh! I also had to buy toner, as I didn’t have that either, and apparently that is necessary in the mornings. (mornings – cleanse, vitamin c, hyaluronic acid, moisturizer, and SPF) I am going to give this a whirl – I am going all in! If I find something I don’t like or my skin doesn’t like I will add or subtract here or there, but for now, this is what I am going to do. It will be so different for me! I will probably switch up my moisturizer soon, but this is what I am using currently and have been for a while. I have also used Mad Hippie and Good Molecules brands in the past and I stuck with them for now. If I like this routine I might search around for something different but for now, I am staying with these brands. I would love to hear about any products you love, or what your skin care routine is. Until now, my routine has been very minimalistic!

Amazon Affiliate Links

Derma-E || Hyaluronic Acid || Retinol Night Oil || Sheer Tint Sun Serum || Toner with Vitamin C || Cleanser

And now, some randoms from the camera roll!

And that is it from me today! I hope you all have a wonderful day, and that no matter what you do, you do something that makes you smile.

I am so behind on book reviews! I probably will not go back and write reviews for all of the books that I have read in the past few months, but I did want to write a few short (some very short!) reviews for more recent reads.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai, trans. Jesse Kirkwood

Genre: Cozy Mystery

This was a fun quick read, but a thoughtful one. I thought the premise was so unique, and it was such a combination of so many things – nostalgia, memory, foodways, research and detective work, logic, all wrapped up in each meal. It was beautiful and poignant, and gave me a lot to think about. Have I had a meal that meant so much to me, that it could remind me of one moment in time so completely, that it could take me back to that moment if I ate it again, if it were prepared in the exact same way? Maybe? I am not sure! I did enjoy this book, but it did get a little repetitive. That is my only complaint! I am definitely glad that I read it. I also finished the book wanting to eat Japanese food so badly, so we might be doing that soon. It was more cozy than mystery and it felt perfect to read on rainy days.

The Love Remedy by Elizabeth Everett

Genre: Historical Romance

So I was thinking this would be just a simple historical type romance, and it was. It did however touch on much deeper topics more political and religious in nature, so I do not think this book is for everyone. When I was done reading it, I wasn’t sure how I felt. It wasn’t what I was expecting, and I think had I known, I would not have read it, simply because I didn’t want to visit those topics in what I had anticipated to be a fun read. It also sort of detracted from the actual story, or distracted from it. I am going to list the trigger warnings below in the next paragraph, because I want more sensitive readers to know before reading that this is something they will encounter should the choose to read it. It was not a poorly written book or a bad story, it was just not what I was expecting, and I probably would have liked it more without that storyline. A fellow book blogger said that other books by this author also delve heavily into the political realm.

Trigger warnings: off-page sexual assault of a 15 year old, off-page abortions by means of bringing on menses

Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell

Genre: Cozy Fantasy, YA

Oh, this was such a delightful read! I read it so quickly, and it was just so refreshing and easy, which was exactly what I needed after reading The Love Remedy. Clara Lucas has a wild magic, one that gets out of control most of the time. After accidentally cursing her father, she needs to find be able to harness her magic and cure him. However, most of the witch council is ready to take her magic from her, just when she needs it most. She finds a teacher in her old friend Xavier, who has a mystery of his own that he is struggling with. Despite sounding like this will be a tense read, it really isn’t. It is a YA book and a fast read, one that is pure escapism, and full of flowers and love. Clara has a very strong and kind spirit, and I just enjoyed her relationship with her father so much.

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Hello everyone! This past week was full of just normal day to day activities – school, housework, appointments… you know how it is. I do feel like I got a lot accomplished and caught up on some things which was nice, as we have some big projects in the works!

Read Last Week:

I finished The Love Remedy which was a bit more political/religious than I had anticipated. I enjoyed it but it is probably not the book for everyone. I am hoping to do some mini-reviews this week and I will include the trigger warnings for those who might be more sensitive to certain topics.

I also read a bit of Watership Down for my annual reread. I never get tired of Hazel and the gang. I will be finishing it up this week and I will be saying goodbye to the bunnies for another year.

Reading This Week:

This one has been on my TBR for a year and I am excited to read it. I need a little magical realism and spring cozy vibes right now!

Posted Last Week:

Top Ten Tuesday – What Book Characters Would You Like to Vacation With

Coffee Catch Up

Watching:

We are watching lots of Billy picks these days! We usually watch about an hour of television a night and our nighttime viewing has gotten a bit more action packed.

We watched the new Road House movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal last Sunday. Billy loved the original that starred Patrick Swayze and has been wanting to watch this remake. My brother scoffed at the idea that Jake could ever take Patrick’s place, and we had to evaluate it for him. I don’t think I was the best judge but Billy said that Gyllenhaal did a great job of stepping into Swayze’s shoes. I have to admit, I enjoyed the movie way more than I thought I would, although I do not believe it needed to be 2 hours long. It was obvious though that Gyllenhaal put a lot of time into readying himself for this role!

This week we also watched Beyond Paradise, Only Murders in the Building (S3), and Fallout. Fallout is…different. I don’t know anything about the video game but Billy has been bouncing off the walls wanting to watch it so we started it. It is pretty darn graphic, but the fifties styling of some of it is pretty awesome. I also love Lucy’s hair – she has the perfect curtain bangs. Because these are the things I apparently think about while watching it. I also really like the soundtrack. So far Lucy is my favorite. I like the vault dwellers, they are like these boy scouts (although there is a bit of allusion to some er.. questionable behaviors) of this world, or at least it seems like it to me so far.

And that is it from me this week! How are you all doing?

Hello everyone!! I debated even posting a catch up this week; we have been so boring! We are in a huge period of transition and upheaval right now, all for good reasons and good stuff but not very exciting to others. Lol.

We have been very focused on getting ready for Wyatt’s wheelchair ramp construction. We have to make room for the materials once they are delivered, I have to empty out part of my office where construction will begin, figure out what to do with my reptiles temporarily that live in there – just so much goes into a big project like this that you don’t even think about at first. It all comes at a time when I am in the middle of redoing Wyatt’s bedroom too. So, I do a bit here and a bit there, since my involvement in the construction of the ramp is fairly minimal. The bulk of that falls to Billy and all the kind hearted people who have volunteered to help him build it.

It is so exciting though. This is going to be a game changer for my kiddo. And me, to tell you the honest truth. For Wyatt, it means more freedom and independence. He can go in and out of the house without being carried by one of us, and that is where it is a game changer for me too! Lol. Wyatt is now a foot shorter than me, and about 65 pounds. I am very strong these days from the lifting I do daily with him, all day long, but his height is actually the harder part! He is almost as long as me when I carry him in and out and it can be tricky. So we are all looking forward to this much needed change. I am busy coming up with play areas that are accessible in the backyard as well. Billy is going to build what looks like a wheel up bar counter on part of the deck landing, where Wyatt can sit and draw, and I can pull up a chair there as well. We are also going to paint wood with chalkboard paint and situate that outside as well, and then a basketball net at an appropriate height that he can practice throwing the ball into. But help! You all are creative! Any other ideas for a kid in the backyard in a wheelchair, that he can do either alone or with other children? He is also getting a gait trainer as well, so he will be doing some walking too.

We went to a few stores the other day to look at doors, and Wyatt and I decided on this door to replace the window in my office. It will be the one that leads to the backyard.

I’ve been toying with the idea of getting those realistic looking stained glass stickers for doors and windows to place on the door, but we will see.

(and whoops! I was talking to Wyatt and published this before I meant to. Lol!)

Wyatt is also all finished with his Lokomat/robot legs therapy! He did fantastic! I can’t wait to hear the evaluations of after compared to before. We are in the process of transitioning back to his regular PT and speech therapies, which means new evaluations and a new schedule! We are back to mornings rather than afternoons twice a week, and on different days than Lokomat and I am all in a kerfuffle over it. I am so thrown off, like what day is this? We went from Tuesdays and Thursdays in the afternoon to Mondays and Wednesdays in the morning. We will adjust but right now I am a mess!

Wyatt did have some fun last week! We went to his cousin Penguin Girl’s birthday party, which was a bowling party. It was his first time bowling and he had a blast! Penguin Girl’s mom and I are in the midst of planning family bowling nights in the future as all the kids like it.

We do have some stuff on the horizon too! I am also planning for our Pink Moon party which is on Saturday. Mermaid Girl is coming over and we are looking forward to it. We are having our party before the actual full moon because school and stuff, but it is the spirit of the thing. And pink moon is such a fun theme!

In between all of this, we managed to find time to have school and paint and bake cookies and read. It’s been busy, but fun as well!

Random pics from the camera roll!

Have a great one everybody!