It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
If you read my last Sunday-Monday post, then you know that I recently lost my aunt, to whom I was very close with. Thank you to all of you who left such kind comments. These past two weeks have been about grieving, but also healing. This past Saturday we had a great day as a family, heading out into nature, taking a small hike, then stopping at a bakery we really like in Detroit, where we bought some bread and cookies and listened to a little music. Today we watched one of my nieces, and she and Wyatt had a great time playing together – they both loved the impromptu dance party we had! Because really, dancing is fun!
Read Last Week:
I picked this up off the shelf at the library because I am a bird nerd, and I was intrigued. I am glad that I did, because this book was really unique for the paranormal genre. Full of Nordic lore, new types of creatures, a whole new type of mythology. I will be reading the next in this series for sure!
Reading This Week:
I am usually a pretty seasonal reader but this winter has been nuts and I am ready for springtime and color and sunshine! As I write this post, a wind storm is blowing across our state, along with a wicked cold front. I’m over it. And Sunset Beach looks like the perfect cure for the wintertime blues..
Top Chef (someone a few weeks ago asked how I like this season – it’s not too bad!), The Umbrella Academy which we binged and loved and can’t wait for the next season, and Home Town
How about all of you? What’s happening in your world?
I may not be reading too much right now, but my little book loving mini me is. We had a themed focus this month – I bet you can guess what it is.
February is the month of the Snow Moon, so we focused a lot on snow. (esp. since we are in that kids moon club!) It is called the snow moon because historically, February gets the most snow, which has proven true for our region at least! My little guy who struggles in speech can now say “snow” and can also now read the letters S and W! So very exciting for us.
We enjoyed all of these books, but Wyatt’s standout favorites were Snow by Manya Stojic, and Flannel Kisses. I am going to have to buy those for his library for him, as we had to read them over and over and over. As for me, the two I enjoyed reading to him the most were the Gwen Frostic book, and Snow by Cynthia Rylant. Gwen Frostic graduated from the same high school that I did. She also moved up north when she was older to start her art business, and strangely, that is the area we also vacation in every year. I knew those things before reading the book, but I was shocked to learn that she also had a disability that was similar to or was cerebral palsy. They thought she would never write, and one day she became an artist! So inspiring. And I just found Rylant’s picture book Snow beautiful in word and illustration. One page in particular grabbed me – Rylant says snow serves to remind us that nothing is forever, except in memories. A very timely message for me right now, and a very beautiful image. It was a pretty good reading month here! I didn’t share all of the books we read together, just the highlights.
Last week was a very tough, hard week. My family had to say goodbye to my Aunt Barb, who after a two year battle with pancreatic cancer, finally found peace.
My aunt was like a second mother to me- she was always there, for me. Always. Through the little things, and the big things. There were many times we shared a look, trying not to laugh. Times when I was so afraid or angry and she was there for me. She was there for my parent’s divorce when I was eight, when I was dropped off to college my freshman year; when I got married, when I had Wyatt. The looks she would give me when she thought I said something outrageous which was probably a few times a month. I tried to be there for her too as much as I could. Through her first brush with cancer when I was in high school, to times when she was scared or mad or nervous too. And times we would just laugh together, like when I tried to teach her how to use the internet to online shop. She volunteered in the school library I worked in, and since I called her Aunt Barb, so did all of the little kids. If you knew me, you also knew my Aunt Barb.
So this week has been tough. I didn’t get much reading done. Reading is always such an escape for me, but I find there are times I can’t lose myself in a book, times of grief or high stress. Times I wish I could! I would wander about my home, picking up this book or that, reading a page or two then putting it back down. Trying a different book later, doing the same thing. Reading books that I would never pick up usually. Or books that are not super involved, no plot to focus on. I read from a book of Mary Oliver’s poems, and some of her essays from another book, Upstream. I read from a book called Smudgings and Blessings; I flipped through my seed catalogs, and magazines.
I didn’t get much reading done, but I did hear so many stories this week. Old stories and new stories, about my aunt in more recent months, about my aunt as a child, a young woman, about when she was a new mother. We did a lot of crying, but we also did a lot of laughing. Smiling through our tears as we looked at old pictures.
This week, I have a lot to do. Cleaning and grocery shopping, finishing up the details for Wyatt’s birthday party in a few weeks, working on some new ideas. Our full moon dinner is on Tuesday, and I think this one will be just me and my guys. Maybe next month we will celebrate with family again. And I’ll probably find my reading mojo somewhere in there too.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
We had such a fun weekend this weekend. We went to the farm, we got our DIY going on Sunday, I had a business venture meeting on Saturday – plus I had soup twice! I love soup and would eat it all the time for every meal, if my other family members would.
Read Last Week:
I enjoyed both of these books! I read The Lost Sisters in preparation for The Wicked King, which I am looking forward to immensely. And I waited a whole year for The Vanishing Stair! It was worth it though, I love this series and the characters.
Reading This Week:
Watcher in the Woods is another book I have been waiting to read for a very long time! I love the Rockton series. What a cool concept, in my opinion. And I always love Rhys Bowen. I hope to have my review of The Victory Garden up on Thursday so I have some reading ahead of me!
Have any of you seen that meme that says “January was a tough year, but we survived”? That is pretty much how I am feeling. January was a rough month, but we made it. We were sick a lot, stuck inside, the weather trapped us indoors, and we didn’t get to do a lot of the things we planned. We did have a lot of good family time at home, but we are feeling a little stir crazy. We usually love to hike and be outdoors in the winter, but January kind of kicked our butt this year, including slamming us with a polar vortex on its way out the door. So hello February, we are glad to see you!
The arctic freeze last week was horrid, leaving us layering up inside, gathering all of our blankets, and in general causing us to be slugs. We were as toasty as could be, and then there was a fire in a nearby county that depleted natural gas reserves. We got an alert to turn our heat down to save resources so that we didn’t run out! That was a fun turn of events. Not only that, but the rest of the lower peninsula had to worry about losing electricity as well. Our city actually has its own power company, so we are generally not down long, so in the event of losing heat, we could have used an electric heater. Not fun, but doable. Thankfully it didn’t come to that though!
By the weekend, Wyatt and I were crawling the walls. When Billy got home from work on Friday, we ventured outside for the first time in days, and headed to one of our favorite restaurants, Joe’s Hamburgers. It is an eclectic mix of local history, hockey, and burgers and beer. Everyone must have had the same idea, as it was packed, even early in the evening when we went.
Saturday we ran a bunch of errands, then we got to play! We spent most of the day gone from the house – we went to the nature center, where Wyatt had a blast exploring. Then we took a long ride in the car, where Wyatt promptly fell asleep after having exhausted himself at the nature center. We stopped for pie to eat at home, drank some coffee, looked at the frozen tundra that Michigan had become, then turned the car toward home. My mother-in-law came over to watch little man so that we could get out for a bit the two of us, and so Billy and I went on a winter night hike through the woods followed by a bonfire and s’mores.
The night was perfectly clear and still and cold. There is nothing like the magic of being in a winter woods at night. Lucky us, as we started down the trail a majestic great horned owl chose to fly overhead, leaving his lady owl on their nest to keep their eggs warm. After our walk, we gathered around a warm bonfire, making s’mores and learning about the area, and sharing our own stories. I managed to eat three before calling it quits, getting marshmallow all over my gloves since I am perpetually messy, but the little boy who was there with his parents devoured six, and managed to keep his gloves marshmallow free!
The full moon this month is the snow moon, so called that because this was a time of heavy snow. Hopefully though, we are done with big snows around here! It is also a time for renewal, so we are taking this month to try to focus on things that renew us, as a family, and as individuals. I have been wanting to practice yoga again, as I used to go religiously before Wyatt, so that is a huge goal for me personally this month. As a family we are focusing on our garden – planning it, starting seeds if we need to, looking forward to the warmth of spring and the return of wild and bright colors.
Anyone else have any plans or goals for this month? Were you excited to see January go?
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
So last week was the longest. week. ever. Wyatt and I were stuck inside for five whole days due to the polar vortex and a snowstorm. Temps here reached close to -50, and we stayed tucked up inside. Literally. One Wednesday, the coldest day, we hung out in my bedroom which was the warmest room as it gets the daytime sun. We watched so much tv, more than normal, read so many books, colored, played – we were feeling like caged animals by the time Friday rolled around. And strangely, I didn’t have much time to read my own books!It’s really hard to get things done sometimes when you have a housebound, bored preschooler! Lol. We spent the weekend playing catch up and being out as much as we could. I think I am going to post about our weekend tomorrow, the vortex left some pretty scenery behind, before Michigan went crazy and gave us spring temps the past two days, which are much appreciated!
Read Last Week:
We read mostly kids books last week. These were our books that were in constant rotation. I loved The Storm Whale in Winter; Wyatt loved Once Upon a Northern Night and Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox. Wolf Wilder I managed to finish but it is a kids book too! Lol. It was really well done, with great imagery and language. I loved it.
Reading This Week:
I am so excited for this sequel!! I loved the first book so much, I can’t wait to dive into this. I probably won’t get a chance until tomorrow, but I am sure it will be worth the wait!
Is it cold where you are? Where I am, Old Man Winter is breathing down hard on us. Tomorrow we are supposed to plunge down to negative forty, with the wind chill, and you can already feel that polar air sneaking in and taking over. This arctic freeze is supposed to stick around for three days, so we have been battening down the hatches to get ready, stocking up on tea, coffee, macaroni and cheese, getting out all of our warmest, wooliest clothes and blankets, and putting flannel sheets on! As I write this, the wind is whipping up a frenzy around the house, and I have a cup of tea steaming next to me. I am feeling pretty cozy and well insulated for now.
I think there are few schools of thought for books to read when it is cold. The first camp of people just read what they feel like, free spirits. Another group reads warm weather books, set in tropical settings, beaches and islands and sunshine. Then there are people like me, who like their reading material to match the weather. I am very seasonal, and that includes what I read. And of course, I have a few suggestions.
Visit icy, snow covered Russia..
or the pioneering days of the US.
Read a scary book, a mysterious thriller, or a short little classic with a crazy ending,
or drift like snow into fantasy worlds.
So grab a mug of your favorite soul warming drink, a cozy blanket, and get reading!
Even if it isn’t cold where you are, maybe you are in the mood for a snowy setting?
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hey all! I hope you have all had a great week! Ours was just a basic week lol. We did start the week with a Full Moon Family Dinner with my brother, sister-in-law, and niece, which was a lot of fun! The kids played, there was food and drink and conversation – not a bad way to spend a wintry night. -And we have many more wintry nights on the way! Winter took its time getting to my part of Michigan, but this week it is going to hit us like a hammer! Snow last night, another 5-7 inches expected Monday, then the artic polar vortex swoops in giving us awesome temperatures like -40. I am sure the boy and I will be spending much of our time huddled inside against the weather. I went to the library to stock up on books for the week, and have been planning different things for us to do indoors – it will be a long time in the house for us if we get those temps. Good thing we all like to read!
Read Last Week:
Two very different books but I loved them both. The Ash Family was crazy and intense and I didn’t want to put it down. The Wood was amazing as well, in the way that all of John Lewis-Stempel’s books are.
Reading This Week:
Apparently my reading this week is taking me to snowy cold Russia. Perfect for the weather we are going to have this week! I’m not sure I am emotionally ready for the tween book The Wolf Wilder – I usually don’t read books with animals the main focus because I sob if any of them are injured or die. I’ll let you know how I do, if this is a trigger for you too!
Posted Last Week:
This journey began with a bear – a little post filled with my musings about nature writing sprinkled throughout with references to different books
Watching:
Grace and Frankie, Outlander, Schitt’s Creek, Top Chef, Hometown, and we are waiting for tomorrow’s episode of Agatha Raisin!
How about all of you? What’s been happening in your neighborhood?
So – I finally think that everyone in this house is over their colds, including me. I got laid low last week by something, although I am thinking it was a bad allergic reaction to some down pillows we had bought for the living room. I had no idea that they were down when I bought them, I wouldn’t have for a few reasons, one being I am pretty allergic. By Thursday-Friday I was feeling much better, once I got rid of those and got some rest. I am still not sure which it was but whatever – I’m better! We spent the snowy (1st snow of the year!!), cold weekend working on our projects for the Kid’s Moon Club that I signed Wyatt up for. It is run by Nicolette at Wilder Child, and every month there are special stories, songs, crafts, and snacks, as well as the info about that moon. I will be honest, it is more work on my end than I had anticipated, but I think I have the hang of it now, and I am looking forward to the rest of the year. Tomorrow we are even having a full moon gathering at our house for Wyatt and his cousin L. We also finally got to exchange gifts with Wyatt’s other cousins T and J, after weeks of one of us or the other being sick. His cousin J. is only 3 months old so we are trying to keep her healthy!
Read Last Week:
John Lewis-Stempel is one of my favorite nature writers, and Billy got me this for Christmas. I am taking my time and savoring it, so I am not quite done yet.
I spent the week getting us caught up and put back to normal. I’ve almost gotten us back into our normal groove! I did catch a cold after dodging bullets for months, but I think that is typical after the holidays – we are all so run down and then being around so many people celebrating, it is bound to happen. I’ve also had a few nice brunches with family the past few days – it has been nice to catch up and actually talk! This week ahead is a busy one – a doctor’s appointment for the boy ( a check up with one of his specialists), a belated gift exchange with family, and then hopefully going to the zoo’s Wild Winter on Saturday. I’m not sure what that is but it sounds fun!
Read Last Week:
The Best of Us by Robyn Carr – I love the books in this series, and this one was perfect for dreaming of springtime and forgetting about the gray winter skies. Plus – I have a Giveaway happening right now for this book! Check out my review for details!
Snow in Love – If The Best of Us made me dream of springtime, then this one made me feel all winter cozy. A quick little read for the weekend.
Reading This Week:
This was another gift from my husband for Christmas! I love this author so much. His nature writing is phenomenal and I can’t wait to dive into this one. I love that this one is written in diary format, like his book Meadowlands, that I absolutely adored.
I’m also waiting on a billion books from the library! I am sure one or two or all will show up soon. Lol.
We binged on A Series of Unfortunate Events, so sad it is all over!! We also started You, which is so creepy good! And then last night we started watching the new season of The Ranch, which I love because Sam Elliot and his mustache are in it. Love that actor. It’s also a pretty good show! We finished up Agatha Raisin for the moment, we are all caught up and have to wait for the next episode. We’ve been watching a lot of tv lately!
What about you all? What is going on in your world?
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 