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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

The past week was a very good one – full of reunions, playing outside, music, and learning. And tacos. We also had some fabulous tacos this week. Things we didn’t do – find tadpoles or go on a full moon walk, both of which were on our list. We absolutely just can’t find any tadpoles! We are going to make another go of it this week, but all of our vernal pools are bone dry this year. Billy has an idea of where to find some as a last ditch attempt – otherwise I am totally putting in a pond this year. The night of the full moon, Wyatt simply was tired so we postponed our walk until next month.

Read Last Week:

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I didn’t finish either of these although I am enjoying them both! The Cottingley Secret is really good. I was also that kid who loved fairies as a kid, and also as a teenager – I totally grew up in the 80s and 90s, and in the 90s fairy stuff was everywhere! So this is a fun read. I had read about the Arthur Conan Doyle connection to fairies before so it is fun to read this fictionalized version of that whole fairy frenzy. I will continue to read them this week.

Posted Last Week:

Chit Chat Coffee Time – this week I chattered on about our reunions with family members and identiy and homeschooling

Book Review: The Nature of Witches

Watching and Listening:

Billy and I are fully engrossed in Shadow and Bone, it is so good! We are also watching Death in Paradise, which I think I might start a rewatch of soon. Wyatt is watching Wild Kratts still, and has dropped Peppa Pig for Nature Cat. (a better choice in my opinion!)

I am continuing to listen to podcasts – mostly true crime and nature pods. I listed to a great a podcast about Ursinology, a podcast all about bears, on Alie Ward’s Ologies, and it was one of my favorite episodes. As for true crime, I’ve been listening to Morbid and Crime Junkie lately. I finished up Your Own Backyard with Chris Lambert and was seriously impressed with the depth of his research and skill and sensitivity he displayed in that podcast. And, it just might have helped to solve the case.

Wyatt has discovered 80s music and also, Here Comes the Sun, his new favorite. Our house usually has some variation of Eric Church, The Dead South, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, 70s folk music, Sesame Street, A-Ha’s Take on Me, Here Comes the Sun, and Miranda Lambert playing at all times. It’s quite a mix.

Anyway, that is it from my corner of the world. Stay safe and well everyone!

Goodreads Summary:

For centuries, witches have maintained the climate, their power from the sun peaking in the season of their birth. But now their control is faltering as the atmosphere becomes more erratic. All hope lies with Clara, an Everwitch whose rare magic is tied to every season.

In Autumn, Clara wants nothing to do with her power. It’s wild and volatile, and the price of her magic―losing the ones she loves―is too high, despite the need to control the increasingly dangerous weather.

In Winter, the world is on the precipice of disaster. Fires burn, storms rage, and Clara accepts that she’s the only one who can make a difference.

In Spring, she falls for Sang, the witch training her. As her magic grows, so do her feelings, until she’s terrified Sang will be the next one she loses.

In Summer, Clara must choose between her power and her happiness, her duty and the people she loves… before she loses Sang, her magic, and thrusts the world into chaos.

My Thoughts:

I was so excited about receiving this e-book ARC from NetGalley! I kept seeing it around the internet and I knew I would love it. I love this cover, the title, the premise..all are things that call to me!

When I finally got the opportunity to really dive into this book, I didn’t want to stop reading! I read it every chance I got until I was finished, all in one day. It was a fun, quick read.

In the world that Griffin has built, witches exist and each witch is tied to a season – within these ties lies the magic to manipulate the weather and world during that season. These witches help to keep the natural world in balance, protecting all people from major storms and weather events that would otherwise destroy, like out of control wildfires, tornadoes, blizzards – you get the idea. Clara is a different though – she is an Everwitch, the first of her kind in generations. As an Ever, she is able to manipulate and use her magic all year. And it is not a moment too soon either, as the world is shifting out of balance and catastrophic weather events are happening out of season, and the witches who would normally be able to control this weather can’t do it. It is not their season, and trying to restore the balance depletes them. Clara, however, does not want this responsibility or power. Her power is strong and has caused some very tragic side effects, and she would rather live free, without it.

But the world needs her. And Sang, her new mentor, teaches her how to love her magic, herself, and to open her heart again. I have to admit, I loved the love story in this book. I am usually a give or take on the romance plot line in books unless it is a romance book, but this one I really enjoyed. Sang is a beautiful soul and a wonderful character. He is a spring and has such a joyful magic.

Overall, I really loved this book, and I look forward to reading more from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the chance to read and review this book!

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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! It was a pretty good week last week, despite the crazy snow we had. Yesterday we were back at my mom’s, going through the things that my stepfather had accumulated in his life. I find it sad, I miss him, but at the same time I feel like I am getting glimpses of who he was before I met him when I was ten. I mean, I really I didn’t know him very well then either, it was just as I got older that I did. I found a letter yesterday that he wrote in 1950 to a friend, but never mailed. In it he talked about how many Valentines he had gotten that year – it was just cute to think of a ten year old Jerry talking about his Valentines to his friend. I also found a really cool vintage dairy crate from Erie Crate, it was a neat find. I thought I could keep wine in it. Or maybe plants! We also upgraded Luna’s tank last week to give her a better hide – check out how awesome this looks! I feel so Game of Thrones or Hogwarts now.

Read Last Week:

The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin: Ooo I loved this one so much! I am a person who lives pretty closely to the seasons so I loved that this book was tied to that. Review this week. (NetGalley)

Reading This Week:

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So, I won’t finish all these this week. Those days are gone. But I will be hopscotching about. I read Wendell Berry in college and loved everything he said; I am excited to revisit him. That book will be a slow read for me. The other two I will be bouncing back and forth on more frequently.

Posted Last Week:

Chit Chat Coffee Time where I talk about whatever is on my mind

Spring to Snow.. about our trip to the dairy farm (and baby goats!)

Watching:

We have been watching a lot more Netflix than usual this past week. We watched The Irregulars, which we were totally sucked into. When we finished that, we moved on to Shadow and Bone, which is fantastic! Neither of us have read the books but now we are definitely going to. And even though I said I wasn’t going to do it, I did. I started watching the new season of Death in Paradise. I always have to grieve the changing of the detectives, and DI Jack Mooney was my favorite; when he left I swore off the show. But this new guy, DI Neville Parker has won me over, although it did take a few episodes. He’s no Jack, but I like him. We’ve also been watching the YouTube people Weed Em’ and Reap and they are the coolest little family.

And that is it from my corner of the world! Stay safe and well everyone!

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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

Good morning! (or afternoon or evening, whenever you are reading this) Last week was a pretty good week. Yesterday I spent a few hours helping pack up my mom’s house before we put it on the market, and my brother found the biggest book in the world in the basement. My stepdad was a bit of a collector, and this was obviously his, my mother had never even seen it before. And honestly, we don’t know what to do with it. It is an old newspaper register from the Terre Haute Tribune, 1948. My mom is downsizing and well, doesn’t need a book of this size. Lol. I was thinking of contacting the Terre Haute Historical Society or library, but I am sure it would cost a zillion dollars to ship it so it would have to be a pick up situation. I would love to hear suggestions.

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I didn’t read as much as I wanted last week. I started listening to a podcast that has me hooked, called Your Own Backyard. You may have seen in the news this week that two people have been apprehended in the murder of Kristin Smart, who went missing 23 years ago. This is the podcast that actually helped the police to crack the case. It is very well done. I had not actually heard of this case until this week – probably because I am the same age that Smart would be today had she not been taken. I was not paying attention to anything at all back then, certainly not the news. This pod is fascinating and sensitive to Smart and her family.

But since my brain can’t figure out how to read and listen to a podcast at the same time, I have to divide my free time between the two. And I had some really good books! I did read a bit of The Nature of Witches and I love it! I will probably binge Your Own Backyard the beginning of this week, then dedicate the rest of the week to The Nature of Witches.

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I did finish up my reread of Watership Down; it was just as amazing this time around!

Posted Last Week:

Chit Chat Coffee Time

Homeschool: Duck Week

Talk Nerdy to Me: My Favorite Science and Nature Podcasts

Watching:

We are watching The Irregulars (I talk a little about it in my Coffee Time Post), and we are pretty hooked. We also watched some Father Brown, which is apparently one of my favorite shows since I can watch it all the time.

And that is about it from our corner of the world! What is going on in your world? Stay safe everyone!

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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

This past week was pretty non-eventful, like most of our weeks these days. I do see more adventures in our future as the weather warms up though, and I am looking forward to them! Billy got his second vaccine yesterday, and I get mine tomorrow. Between that and setting up my new shelf unit in the office as the highlights of my week, we are pretty exciting around here. I’m looking forward to getting all my art on the walls now! Also, notice the small terrarium tank on the bottom row – Billy treated himself to a new creature. A ghost mantis. It is en route to us, and Billy is super excited. I joked with my dad the other day that maybe by the time everything is back to normal I can line up a new job – I can take all of our creatures to schools for small assemblies.

Read Last Week:

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I’ve been soaking up the goodness that is this book. I just love it so much.

Reading Next Week:

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I started Skymeadow and while it is really good and entertaining, I think I need a little break from nonfiction. I will probably continue to read it over the next few weeks. In the meantime I will finish up Watership Down and then start The Nature of Witches.

Posted Last Week:

Chit Chat Coffee Time

Currently..April

Day Out in Detroit

A Pretty Perfect Day

Watching:

We watched The Pembrokeshire Murders on Britbox this week, and it was excellent! We also watched a few episodes of Father Brown. We have already watched them a few times but I guess I really love Father Brown. Wyatt is watching Wild Kratts, Peppa Pig, Sesame Street, and Molly of Denali these days.

How about you all? What is going on in your corner of the world?

Good morning!

This week felt so long for some reason! By Wednesday I felt like it should be Friday and it is not like anything went wrong or crazy or anything, it just crawled along to the weekend.

Tuesday we met Wyatt’s new physical therapist. We were so sad to say goodbye to Stacy, who had been part of Wyatt’s team since he was a year old. I was nervous about meeting a new therapist, honestly. We had previously had a poor experience, before Stacy, at a different facility. Wyatt and I would leave in tears every week, they just didn’t “get” him there and didn’t believe in him. I heard things like “Well this might be all Wyatt is capable of” from them all the time, which for a child under a year old I felt was really short-sighted, considering their entire job was to encourage him to do more, to teach us how to help him, to help him themselves. I wasn’t accepting this – I wasn’t giving up on him before we had even tried or gotten started! I switched therapy centers and the experience was night and day. Every single person at his facility now has all of Wyatt’s best interests at heart, always. They genuinely like him. They advocate for him, believe in him, and have done so much for all of us honestly. They changed our lives. So it was so hard to meet someone new. And – we love her. She immediately made us both feel at ease, and had Wyatt giggling within minutes. I feel so relieved. And while we will miss Stacy, Hannah is going to be a wonderful new therapist for Wyatt. I can tell.

Billy gets his second vaccine today! Living in Michigan is a little nerve-wracking right now, which if you watch the news you can see we are exploding with the virus. Our entire state is red on the map and listed as extreme high risk. My county is averaging about 900 new cases a day right now alone. So, the small steps we were taking to go to stores, etc has been put on pause for us. We are still seeing my brother and his family and my mom in outdoor situations, because they are locked down as much as we are, but no more indoor anythings for us for a bit, unless it is needed. (therapy, work, and crickets for the lizards basically – I can’t get them curbside) And then I get my second vaccine on Monday. We have basically zero plans for the next four days – we figured we would take it day by day. Everyone we know has had very mild side effects after the second shot, if any, so fingers crossed and all the prayers we follow suit. But we plan on just laying low and probably just hang out around the house.

We watched The Pembrokeshire Murders on Britbox this week and it was amazing. We thought it was so well done! The actors were superb, we were riveted to the story, and neither of us even glanced at our phones during the watching. (which we are both guilty of usually..) If you have Britbox I highly recommend it!

Speaking of television, which streaming services do you all watch? I feel like Billy and I switch them up all the time, but we always keep Britbox and Netflix. Although we honestly watch Netflix the least. We have had Hulu, Disney, Acorn, off and on. Currently we have Netflix, Britbox, and Discovery+ and I have been binging lots of TLC shows like Sister Wives and HGTV shows like Beachfront Bargain Hunt and the lake house version too. We don’t have cable and we stream everything, so it was nice to be able to watch these shows again. I was hesitant about keeping this service at first but now, we are keeping it, at least for a bit. I guess I should add we have Amazon Prime but we would have that anyway.

Little Luna is doing well! She seems to be recovering from her problems, and is eating and active and even growing, which is great news. If you look under her belly in this photo it still looks dark, which usually means an issue. We have decided since she is doing all of the things that she needs to and it is has been three weeks since we got her, that she might just have translucent skin there, more so than Harry. So, good but also, yuck? We also have decided that she is a mack snow morph leopard gecko. There are a billion different morphs, like pokemon. (but we are NOT going to try get them all, despite appearances otherwise lol)

And.. I hear my kiddo getting into something that I should probably go check on. I will stop here this morning – I hope you all have a wonderful day!

It is time for Anne In Residence’s monthly Currently post where we answer one word prompts about different things we are doing and feeling. I always love the insight I gain from these, taking inventory of my own life. This month we are looking at what we are arranging, craving, discussing, enjoying, and preparing.

On with the show!

Arranging: Safe mini getaways for the summer, fall, and even next spring! My brother and I were texting all day the other day about a spring 2022 trip to Chincoteague Island with our families, our mother, and my sister-in-law’s mother. I even started looking at vacation rentals! We have a private campsite reserved already for June (the only campsite there, and on a vineyard!), and I hope to rent one of the “Getaway” cabins for August, then in the fall, a possible camping trip to northern Michigan.

Craving: Longer days, more sunshine, nights by the fire with family, outside get togethers with friends.

Discussing: small adventures, possible road trip field trips for next school year (already thinking that far ahead!), our plans for the next two rooms we are going to “refresh and redo” – our bedroom and the family room!

Enjoying: All the green growing things, from the plants I started from seeds indoors to the bulbs that I planted in the fall starting to bloom!

Preparing: Our garden beds! I hope that in two weeks we will have them all ready to go.

It has been so so long since we have been to Detroit. We used to go all the time, every weekend, hanging out with friends, trying all the cool new restaurants and bars, just enjoying the city. After Wyatt was born, our nights in Detroit became days downtown, with the rare date night out. But we still were always there, enjoying the museums and parks and sometimes just driving around. Since COVID, we have been missing our usual haunts and routines. On Saturday we took a distanced trip to Detroit, not stopping anywhere necessarily but checking out some of our favorite spots, crossing our fingers that they were surviving. And we were happy to see that most were doing well!

We started out easy – Belle Isle. We spend so much time here, driving around, visiting the museums, the nature center, hiking around the island. We were so excited to find a field of daffodils! It was a windy day, a bit chilly, but that did not deter us from getting out and grabbing some pics. (note: we did not pick any flowers, that one was laying there already)

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Next stop was Avalon for cookies! Billy went in and picked out two cookies for each of us, plus a turkey sandwich with pesto for us to split. We happily ate in the car, watching the people go by. (Avalon by the way, did an excellent job with safety- only 4 in the store at a time, masks, gloves, the whole shebang) Everything was absolutely delicious!

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After that we just drove around, no particular destination, just enjoying the day and our time together. We did drive by the restaurant we have designated as our first restaurant we will go out to when we can – we are dreaming of chips and salsa, margaritas, Mexican food, not at our dining room table but out. With people. Mexican Village, we are looking at you…

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Eventually we headed home, but it was a good day. An easy day, but a good one. Detroit, hopefully we will see you soon!

There is nothing I like more than heading to the woods on Easter morning. And we had a beautiful morning for our hike! But first of course, Wyatt had to find his Easter basket – and when he did, he promptly ate a Reese’s Peanut Butter egg, just like his mother always did. They are the best! Just try and change my mind.

We grabbed coffee and granola bars and hopped in the car, the sun shining, the grass a vibrant green, the sky so blue. Nature was showing off it’s beauty for sure. The roads were empty, and we had the woods to ourselves too, with the exception of all the little creatures that live there.

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There is a peace to be found in the woods, even with a six year old. The quiet of the morning, the only sound that of the birds singing their morning songs, and the woodpeckers tap-tap-tapping on the trees. Wyatt loves to listen for the woodpeckers, I think they are his favorite. I love them too. And yesterday, we had a rare spotting! A pileated woodpecker! I have been looking for one for ages and then yesterday, there it was! They are uncommon in our area but you will occasionally see them if you are lucky. And yesterday was my day! I was so excited. I tried to get pictures but I only had my camera phone so they are not the best. We actually saw two, I am sure they were a mated pair.

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We also stumbled across bees that we called dirt bees, but after some googling I think they are called Mining bees. I could be wrong though.

On the way home, we stopped to listen to the spring peepers.

Then in the afternoon we just relaxed. We had two driveway visits but for the most part we just chilled out for a few hours before ordering dinner. I decided that this year since it was just the three of us we were going to order Middle Eastern, one of our favorites. I had rice almond salad which is so darn good, hummus, and of course, hot bread. Wyatt loves the bread too, but otherwise he stuck with chicken fries.

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After dinner we went to my brother’s for a fire, and hung out with them, my mom, and my SIL’s mom. It was so nice, especially after a long winter inside and not really seeing anyone. The kids played in the yard, the adults drank their adult beverages around the fire and talked and laughed and it was so so nice to be with family again. By the time we were ready to leave, both kids were covered in dirt and chocolate – pretty much the perfect ending to a fantastic day.

If you celebrate, what did you do? If not, how was your Sunday?