Hello everyone! I have been seeing this around the interwebs and wanted to play too!
Favorite Book of the Year So Far:
The God of the Woodsby Liz Moore
I became totally enveloped in this world and this mystery. I was sucked in, and once I was finished, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And this was even after I knocked a star off. Review coming next week!
Biggest Disappointment:
Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates
I really don’t like to criticize books, because it is all so subjective to the reader. It just wasn’t the book for me.
Biggest Surprise:
Of Salt and Shore by Annet Schaap
There was so much emotion hidden in the pages of this middle grade. So many stories. So much love and found family and loyalty. I absolutely loved it – and cried too. So… you will see this book again on this list.
Made Me Laugh:
The Jewel of the Isle by Kerry Rea
This book cracked me up! It was just so silly and cute and the perfect happy fun romantic read. It was full of adventure and goofiness.
Made Me Cry:
Of Salt and Shore by Annet Schaap
And…repeat from above. If I hadn’t read The God of the Woods, this would be my favorite book of the year so far.
Favorite New to Me Author:
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
I loved The Spellshop so much that I need to go find every Durst book out there.
Favorite New To Me Character:
Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
I love Emily! I loved her sass and her moodiness and that she had a bit of a temper too. She sort of reminded me of Laura Ingalls, and as a kid I loved Laura because she wasn’t perfect and got into mischief – kind of like I did occasionally….
Most Beautiful Book I Have Acquired (Writing):
Nightwalking by John Lewis-Stempel
…all around us the earth had erupted with silver rabbits washing their faces with moon dew.”
New Release I Haven’t Read Yet:
What about you all? I would love to hear how you would answer these questions!
Hello everyone!! I decided that this year I am going to be doing book reviews in groups of three, and just little short mini reviews. And it is finally time for me to do three more, plus a sad little DNF.
First up is Of Salt and Shore!
Of Salt and Shore however, was amazing. It is a middle grade but wow, it was fantastic. It is translated from Dutch (the OG title is Lampje) At first, I didn’t know if I was going to like it. It has some darkness swirling around in it, but the story that evolved was a beautiful tale of friendship and found family and loyalty. I just loved this one, and so far it is one of the best books I have read all year.
It was much more emotional for me than I had anticipated from a middle grade. It touches on child abuse, neglect, alcoholism, otherism, prejudice, and there were moments that made me feel the pain of these characters so profoundly. But little Lampie marches through in her practical way, setting things right, shaking things up, helping to heal the people around her just by being her own steadfast self, a little girl who won’t be swayed from her purpose and goals. She stares headlong into challenges and despite any fear, keeps going. The daughter of a lighthouse keeper, she herself is like a beacon and a lighthouse for those around her.
It has vibes of The Secret Garden, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid. There is found family and friendship, and I highly recommend this book to everyone.
I just want to say that this book made me smile and laugh and just get all feet kicky over some parts. I love a good adventure theme, I guess, and this one is even set in my very own home state of Michigan! This book was just campy goodness, with inept but earnest characters, a total cinnamon roll of a MMC, crazy situations, danger, shipwrecks, a missing diamond… It was just absolutely perfect. It did also have some more serious moments, that explored grief, that were so very true and touching. We have all lost people we love, and know what it is like to be hit out of the blue with a memory that just reminds you of how much you miss that person to your core.
The romance is a slow burn which I also enjoyed, and the spice level was probably like, 2 jalapenos if that? Open door, but not like super detailed or graphic. LOL. I never know how to describe this for people!
This book is just charming and adorable and touching and hilarious, and I absolutely loved it.
Little Pieces of Hope began when WHO declared COVID a pandemic, and the author Todd Doughty realized that in order to keep going through such an unprecedented, scary time, he needed to do something. And what he did was create lists, something I can totally understand, of things that made him happy. Anything and everything. Feelings and moments and sounds and smells and memories. It is not really a book to read straight through, but one to pick up here and there, when you might need a reminder of good things in life. It inspired me to start my own list of happy making things as well, those glimmers that just tickle our souls and make us smile.
And now my DNF. I am so bummed about this one! I was pretty excited about it – this cover is gorgeous, and the premise sounded interesting, a LGBTQ+ version of The Holiday. And there were parts of it I did enjoy! However, I felt like Goldilocks reading this book that had dual relationships happening, and one moved way way too fast for me, while the other was way too slow. However, the writing itself was wonderful.
And that is it my friends! I hope today you do or read or see something that makes you smile!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! We had a pretty busy but good week last week. Wyatt had a good EEG, he had a blast at Dream Night at the Detroit Zoo, we have seen a lot of family… it’s been fun.
Ok, so what did I read? I read the best romance book. Like, seriously, it is probably my favorite one I have ever read. I don’t read a lot of romance. There is no real reason I don’t, it is just not a genre I gravitate to much. But Wyatt and I were at the library last week and I was looking for something that would be easy to pick up and put down as needed in the hospital, and I spotted this book on the shelf, and it just sounded so me.
I guess I should have heeded the blurb that says it is impossible to put down, because I really loved it. I am planning on posting some reviews this week, and this one is on the list to review.
And now what is on the list for this week? It’s hard to say! I really enjoyed The Jewel of the Isle, and now I don’t know which way to bounce. Do I want scary? Or something classic and cool like L.M. Montgomery and Jane of Lantern Hill? Do I want nature nonfiction? I really don’t know. I will have to see which way the wind blows (hopefully blowing this smoke and dust out of the Detroit area!) this week. So, I will list all the possibles here.
I just bought Otter Country off of Pango! Does anyone else use that? I love it! Books are very reasonably priced, you can list books to sell super easily, and you can earn money to either send to your actual bank account, or you can use the money as Pangobucks and spend it on … more books!! Anyway, it is a super easy site to use and I find a lot of books on there that I have a hard time finding elsewhere.
Not much. When we get a chance we watch Yellowjackets, which we are obsessed with. It is so freaking good!
Online Things Happening:
Not much on my own end here, at least through the summer. I do plan to host an autumn fun thing with Lisa, but that won’t be until October.
We are still having our crafternoons once a month or so! My last one for a month or two is coming up June 21st but Lisa will be holding the doors open for us throughout the summer. Please email me if you are interested in joining our zoom and I will add you to the group email. I am thinking I might pop in to July and August though, even if it is just for a short time, since the crafternoons are light and easy, drop in style. Come and go as you please!
And that is that from my end today! I hope that whatever you do today you do something that makes you smile.
“I tell you this/ to break your heart, /by which I mean only/ that it break open and never close again/ to the rest of the world.” – Mary Oliver
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! We have been working on projects around here like maniacs, but we are getting things done. Billy has been working outside on the yard, while I have been neglecting the house while I work on school and scout stuff for next fall (I don’t want to be planning after Wyatt’s surgery), handling Wyatt’s prehab exercises, and finishing up the bit of school we have left. I need to clean today…..
What I have read lately:
Let me start with Anywhere You Go. I wanted to like this one so much, but I didn’t. It is a LGBTQ retelling of The Holiday, which is such a fun premise. However, I felt like Goldilocks. One of the relationships moved way too fast for me – I don’t like the trope of insta-love – and the other was way too slow! Lol. I ended up DNFing it.
Beaches, Bungalows, and Burglaries was another one that I didn’t love, but I did enjoy it. Like, not love. I am going to read the next one though, because I am curious about where this series goes. So I guess that says something.
Of Salt and Shore however, was amazing. It is a middle grade but wow, it was fantastic. It is translated from Dutch (the OG title is Lampje) At first, I didn’t know if I was going to like it. It has some darkness swirling around in it, but the story that evolved was a beautiful tale of friendship and found family and loyalty. I just loved this one, and so far it is one of the best books I have read all year.
We are still watching Wheel of Time, although it was cancelled. Billy is bummed, but knew it was probably coming.
We also finished up The Brokenwood Mysteries, and I will have to be sad now until more come out. It is my favorite show and it is so short!
We also started Yellowjackets, which I have been wanting to watch for ages, and we are obsessed. However, if you don’t know much about it, it is pretty gory, just wanted to put that out there. Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci are amazing in it. I love Ricci in anything and I don’t think I appreciated Lewis enough back in the day, but her performance in this is fantastic.
We haven’t had a night where we can watch a movie together (other than movies with Wyatt earlier in the evening, we just watched the OG Lilo and Stitch which he loved!), so we are still waiting to watch the first two on our list, Holland with Nicole Kidman and Wait Until Dark with Hepburn.
And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
This week’s prompt: Authors (or books by authors) Who Live In My State/Country
I chose to go with authors from my home state of Michigan, or who lived in Michigan for a part of their lives. I apologize in advance for the length of this post!
Angeline Boulley: “Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She is a former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Her debut novel Firekeeper’s Daughter was an instant #1New York Times bestseller and recipient of many internatioanl accolades including the ALA Printz and Morris Awards; the YA Goodreads Choice Award; the Walter Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature; and is Carnegie Mellon nominated. Angeline lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island.” (from Macmillan Publishers)
I have loved both Fire Keepers Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed. I can’t wait to read her new one, Sisters in the Wind, that comes out in September. So far both books have been set in Michigan, in the area that Boulley is originally from.
Beth Nguyen: “Beth Nguyen is the author of four books, most recently the memoir Owner of a Lonely Heart, published by Scribner. Owner of a Lonely Heart was a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick and was named a best book of 2023 by NPR, Time, Oprah Daily, and BookPage. Nguyen’s three previous books, the memoir Stealing Buddha’s Dinner and the novels Short Girls and Pioneer Girl, were published by Viking Penguin. Her awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, a PEN/Jerard Award, a Bread Loaf fellowship, and best book of the year honors from the Chicago Tribune and Library Journal. Her books have been included in community and university read programs around the country. Nguyen’s work has also appeared in numerous anthologies and publications including The New Yorker,The Paris Review, The New York Times, Literary Hub, Time Magazine, and The Best American Essays.
Nguyen was born in Saigon. When she was a baby, she and her family came to the United States as refugees and were resettled in Michigan, where Nguyen grew up.
She received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan and is currently a professor in the creative writing program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.” (From https://www.bethminhnguyen.com/bio)
I read Stealing Buddha’s Dinner for book club years and years ago it feels like, and I found it a very interesting read! It is a memoir and takes place in Grand Rapids, MI.
Jeffrey Eugenides: “Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit and attended Brown and Stanford Universities. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published by FSG to great acclaim in 1993, and he has received numerous awards for his work. In 2003, he received the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Middlesex (FSG, 2002), which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and France’s Prix Médicis. The Marriage Plot (FSG, 2011) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and won both the Prix Fitzgerald and the Madame Figaro Literary Prize. His collection of short stories, Fresh Complaint, is from FSG (2017). Eugenides is a professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton.” (From Macmillan Publishers)
I have read this book and watched this movie so many times, and it never fails to make me cry. What an absolutely heartbreaking story. I have not read any of his other work, although I feel like I should.
Christopher Paul Curtis: “Christopher Paul Curtis won the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award for his bestselling second novel, Bud, Not Buddy. His first novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963, was also singled out for many awards, and has been a bestseller in hardcover and paperback. His most recent novels for Random House include The Mighty Miss Malone, Mr. Chickee’s Messy Mission, Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money, and Bucking the Sarge. Christopher Paul Curtis grew up in Flint, Michigan. After high school he began working on the assembly line at the Fisher Body Plant No. 1 while attending the Flint branch of the University of Michigan. He is now a full-time writer, and lives with his family in Windsor, Ontario.” (From Random House)
I have this book on Wyatt’s list for next year!
Anissa Gray: “Anissa Gray was born and raised in western Michigan. She is the author of the critically acclaimed 2019 novel The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls. Gray is also a journalist whose work has been featured in The Washington Post, CNN, The Cut and Shondaland. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her wife.” (From https://anissagray.com/about)
I have had this book on my TBR for a while now. I didn’t know she was a Michigan native!
Joyce Carol Oates: Oates moved to Detroit in 1962 with her husband, Raymond Smith. The two were English Professors at two universities in Detroit. Oates worked for U-D Mercy, while Smith worked for Wayne State. At this point in her life, she had not yet published a novel. Her time in Detroit is said to be very influential on her work, as she took in the city as it was then. She was here during the riots in 1967, a time that has not been forgotten for anyone who was around then. My mom remembers the curfews, Billy’s dad was living in the city as well and remembers the violence of that time. She eventually moved across the river to Windsor, where she wrote the book, Them. The Detroit Free Press says about this book, ‘In her first months in Canada, Oates finished her novel “them,” in which Detroit is a character, just like human characters, scuffling, hurting, prone to violence. “All of Detroit is melodrama, and most lives in Detroit fated to be melodramatic,” the narrator says.” (Detroit Free Press)
I have not yet read this book. I went through a time where I binged Joyce Carol Oates and I am pretty sure it plunged me into almost a depression of sorts. It was all just so heavy and violent and tragic and sad, and I have not gone back to that well. She is an amazing writer – I just don’t recommend binging her work all at once!
Chris Van Allsburg: From his bio on Penguin: “As long as I can remember, I’ve always loved to draw. But my interest in drawing wasn’t encouraged very much. Growing up in the 1950s, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, boys were supposed to be athletic. Certain peer pressures encouraged little fingers to learn how to hold footballs rather than crayons.
My early love for drawing developed into a love for telling stories through pictures. Stories begin as fragments of pictures in my mind. I create a story by posing questions to myself. I call it the “what if” and “what then” approach. For example, for my book Jumanji, I started out by thinking “What if two bored children discovered a board game? What if the board game came to life? What then?” The Polar Express began with the idea of a train standing alone in the woods. I asked myself, “What if a boy gets on that train? Where does he go?” After the boy got on, I tried different destinations out in my mind. “What about north? Who lives in the north?” Then ideas of Christmas, Santa Claus, and faith began to take shape.”
He has many books, but Jumanji is my favorite.
Elmore Leonard: “Author Elmore Leonard was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1925. His family moved frequently until 1934 when they settled in Detroit, Michigan, when his father got a job with General Motors. Leonard joined the navy after graduating high school in 1943, and served during World War II. After three years, he left the navy and enrolled at the University of Detroit, majoring in English and Philosophy. Leonard worked at the Campbell-Ewald advertising agency while still in college.
Around 1950, Leonard began writing and publishing short stories and western novels for magazines, with the first being The Bounty Hunters in 1953. Some of the other most notable works were Three-Ten to Yuma also published in 1953, as well as Hombre, in 1961. Leonard then moved into educational films and crime novels. His first big crime novel was The Big Bounce in 1969; He followed that novel with titles such as Fifty-Two Pickup in 1974, and Swag in 1976. His breakout novel however, was his crime thriller Glitz, in 1985, which followed a Miami detective being stalked by a criminal he had sent to prison. Leonard based most of his novels in Detroit and Florida, and was known for his working-class protagonists, damsels in distress, and particularly colorful and sleazy villains.
Leonard and his novels have been nominated for numerous awards, such the PEN Lifetime Achievement Award. One of his short stories, Fire in the Hole, became the basis for the television series Justified. Some of his other short stories and novels such as Rum Punch and Three-Ten to Yuma have been made into films. Rum Punch was adapted into the Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown.
Other well-known works by Elmore Leonard include: City Primeval, Stick, Freaky Deaky, and Get Shorty. Elmore Leonard passed away on August 20, 2013, following a stroke.” (From the Detroit Historical Society website)
Leonard is an author I have never read, but my dad enjoys reading him so I wanted to include him for sure!
Jim Harrison: “Jim Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan, to Winfield Sprague Harrison, a county agricultural agent, and Norma Olivia (Wahlgren) Harrison, both avid readers. He married Linda King in 1959 with whom he has two daughters.
His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 68, 69), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969-70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007).
Much of Harrison’s writing depicts sparsely populated regions of North America with many stories set in places such as Nebraska’s Sand Hills, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Montana’s mountains, and along the Arizona-Mexico border.” (Goodreads Summary)
He has been on my TBR for ages. Maybe this is the year to read him.
Ok this last one… I debated on and then decided to just do it.
Ernest Hemingway: “Ernest Hemingway’s connections to Michigan began when his parents first brought their six-week-old son there for three days in September 1899. His father, a young physician, practiced medicine in his hometown of Oak Park, Illinois, and his mother was an artistically inclined woman who enjoyed the cultural aspects of their Chicago suburb. The previous summer the Hemingways visited Walloon Lake (then named Bear Lake) and were so taken with the area that they purchased two hundred feet of waterfront property. The 1899 trip was to finalize plans for the building of their cottage, Windemere. They took pictures, selected the exact site on the property where it was to be located, and arranged for construction during their brief stay. The next summer would be the first full one there for the family, and Ernest would return to Michigan each year until he was married in 1921. Even today members of the Hemingway family either summer or live year-round in the area.”
Hemingway is not a favorite of mine, but I do think it is cool that he visited Northern Michigan for so many summers, just like I have. He has a few books set there, including The Big Two-Hearted River (and just an FYI, there is also a Michigan craft beer named Two-Hearted as well). I think it is neat that I have walked in and vacationed in some of the same places Hemingway did, and found peace in.
And my friends, that is my very long post of Michigan authors! I can’t wait to hop around visiting this week – because it will take me all week probably to visit everyone!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! Last week Wyatt and I took a break for spring and it was a very busy, very full, very fun week. I might still be recovering from all the activity! Today is my mom’s birthday party, and then I am not making anymore plans for this week. We need a break from our break, and by break I mean getting back to our routine!
Read Last Week:
I started two nonfiction books last week, and have been reading through them slowly. They are very different, and I am enjoying them both. One thing they have in common though, is that they both focus on how we view ourselves and our bodies and even how we keep house, and how we have been influenced to always regard ourselves as coming up short, how wrinkles or a few extra pounds or dishes in the sink can sometimes trigger negative thoughts about ourselves. I actually really didn’t know what either of them were about when I got them – I loved the cover of Women Living Deliciously so I picked it up, and then I’ve seen the book about keeping house around and thought I would read through it, since Wyatt’s surgery is coming up soon. I will be very busy for at least a month afterward caring for him and I thought this book might be a good read in preparation for that time.
Reading This Week:
This week I will still be reading my two nonfiction books, but adding in a fiction book too.
I am behind on this series. It seems like a good time to catch up!
We are watching a few different things. We recently finished up Our Flag Means Death, which we both enjoyed for its silliness, and we are also watching The Wheel of Time S3. We also started the new Brokenwood Mysteries. I wait so long for each season and I really love it.
Wyatt and I also are watching our YouTubers at night. We watch a video, read a book, then he goes to bed. Wyatt would love to have his own booktube channel, but that feels weird to me, for many reasons. However, I do wonder if it would help him to use his words more, because they are in there and we need to just encourage him to use them. Lisa at Boondock Ramblings mentioned that I could make a private channel or just share with specific people, so I am considering that. Maybe as his surprise after surgery, we can try one.
Anyway. Lately we have been watching a few different people, in addition to book people as he calls them.
In order, left to right: Real Vintage Doll House, Jay Lee Painting, and Plant Based Bride.
Real Vintage Doll House is a fun, realistic look at someone who enjoys vintage but also does not live it constantly. She has a job in the medical field, so her love of a vintage life is only part of her life, and I like that. She has a house that is circa 1940s and is so cute and apparently very small. She dresses vintage, keeps pigeons which I love, and has very interesting videos about British history mixed in.
Jay Lee Painting is just what you think – he shares different painting techniques and they are just calming and inspiring to watch.
Plant Based Bride is a booktuber. I love her videos, she has very in depth reviews, that are well thought out. I think she is interesting because she often does not like books that are getting a lot of love on YouTube or TikTok, and I like hearing another perspective.
And of course, we are watching our Springtime in Paris movies! We just watched Hugo, which I thought led to some great discussions and reviews. Next up we are watching The Intouchables!
And that is it from around here! I hope that whatever you do today, that you do something that makes you smile!
Hello everyone! I am sitting here typing away, with my coffee on one side, and Wyatt on the other. He is flipping through a book, and watching Frog and Toad, which incidentally is the cutest little cartoon. He is also chattering away so please ignore any typos. Billy is in the kitchen preparing the sourdough so that he can make a few loaves for Easter. It’s a pretty good morning.
It was a very busy week this week – our appointment season is almost over though! There are times of the year when we have all of Wyatt’s specialist appointments in a row, like a month or so of them, and it is crazy. We had his epileptologist appointment this week, and it went really well. We had nothing but good things to report and his doctor was very pleased! His EEG in June looks like it will only be one night now instead of two, so that was welcome news.
Last Saturday we had a little guest at our house. We watched my littlest niece, who we call The Hurricane because she is a whirling dervish causing mayhem. We had such a great time with her! She kept us soooo busy but it was really cool to hang out with her. We have time with her older sister all the time so it was nice to hang with just E. She went from one thing to the next to the next and so on. She loved our fish so much, they were a big hit. I had to stop her a few times from trying to reach inside the aquariums to grab them though.
Sunday we had a birthday party for another of our nieces. It was so cute to see T. full of excitement at her party. She had all of her friends and family there, and she was happy that she had all of her aunts there at one time. It doesn’t usually happen for some reason and I loved that that made her happy. She had an axolotl themed party with very delicious cupcakes!
This week we also had some sunny warm days, finally!! We are trying to get outside as much as we can on these nice days between now and Wyatt’s surgery. Wyatt and I spent almost all afternoon Wednesday playing basketball outside. It meant lots of rounding up basketballs for me though, so I got quite a workout. I need one of these nieces to come over and fetch for us! We also had dinner out there as well. Wyatt loves picnics, so we had a picnic, then he and his dad played outside until bedtime. It was awesome. This might not sound like much, but before the ramp was built, Wyatt was not able to go outside and play. Wheelchairs are not great on grass, and just getting to the yard was very difficult for the two of us. I would have to carry him out the front door and around the house to the back, which doesn’t sound too hard, but imagine the person you are carrying is 70 pounds. I am not a big human either, so it was getting sort of rough and we just didn’t do it very often. Now though, we have our freedom back and it has been wonderful. Using the ramp all winter to leave the house whenever we wanted, now using the ramp and being able to utilize the deck space, has transformed both of our lives. We were able to get out some yesterday as well. Today is going to be really warm apparently, so we are going to go out on his bike too.
Speaking of his surgery, we are working on preparing for it the best we can. We have pivoted from walking as much in therapy to more strength training, both there and at home. We have added a few extra home exercises to build up his muscle strength, which will help him recover easier, and are just trying to get him to move any body part as much as possible between now and then. We scaled back on school for the moment, focusing just on the essentials (I mean, I think it is all essential but we are sticking a pin in a few things for now – like the Revolutionary War and artist studies).
I also started thinking about what we will need during recovery. What will we do to entertain this kid while he is in bed, or stuck in traction for weeks? What special clothes might we need? Bathing, how does that happen? So we are looking for these solutions right now. I have a whole list of books I made the other day for us to try during that time. I think we will reread some old favorites like Frog and Toad and Mr. Putter and Tabby, introduce some gentle reads for that first week home, like Paddington, and then as he feels a bit better, add in books like The Hardy Boys. Then we will see what else he would like to read.
We had had reservations for Providence in August, which are obviously now cancelled. So, I put together a list of some books for myself as well, that focus on the seaside and the coast. They are not all New England based, but some are. That is the great thing about books, we can travel anywhere with them. And Providence will still be there in the future. The whales will have to wait!
Wyatt and I also convinced Billy to use some of the leftover lumber from the ramp to build little free libraries for us! We want one that two houses – one that is the typical height, and one that is lower for children and wheelchair users. We are also going to have Billy install a camera so we can see into the backyard while we are in his room if we want – we have three cats that like to hang around and I know Wyatt will want to keep updated on them. We have the neighbor’s cat, Knox, who is super sweet and we can actually pet. Then there are two cats that we don’t if they are stray or not. One is a big tabby, and I have named him Angus-Fergus, and there is one that just showed up, a big rough looking guy who has been around. He is white with black splotches, and we named him Brando. I don’t know why they like our porches so much but they do. And that is ok.
And jeez, I feel like I am just rambling away today!! I should wrap this up! Lol.
I hope that whatever you all do today, whatever you do this weekend, that you feel safe and loved and do something that makes you smile.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! I hope that you are all doing well! We are doing ok over here, just keeping on keeping on. We had a pretty busy weekend that was full of family!
Read Last Week:
I’ve been reading monstery books this spring. Not sure how that happened, but it did. I absolutely loved Wormwood Abbey, and I can’t wait to read book two in the series. Greenteeth… I had higher hopes for it. I love this cover, I loved parts of the book, but it was a bit slow maybe? There was something about that I didn’t love. Maybe I was just too excited to read it; I grew up reading about fairies and loving faery lore and Jenny Greenteeth was one of my favorites so maybe I had too high of expectations. It still was a pretty good read.
Reading This Week:
This week I am stepping away from my monster books and starting my yearly reread of Watership Down. I can’t wait to get back to this little world again!
We have been hopscotching about, and doing less binge watching lately! This is unlike us. Lol. However, we are enjoying all of our shows that we are watching. Lately, that list has included Poldark (why did it take us so long to watch this!), Our Flag Means Death, Wheel of Time, Murdoch Mysteries, and Beyond Paradise.
We are also three movies into our Springtime in Paris movie watch! This week is Paris Blues with Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier.
And that is it from around here today! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello all! Last week was a pretty big week around here. Wyatt had multiple doctor’s appointments, and some of them were not the best. But, we are doing our best to be positive, as hard as it is at times. And for those times that are hard, I do have a good community around to help out.
Anyway. I didn’t get any time to read last week, until yesterday. So I didn’t make it too far into my books! I will be reading the same books that I posted last week.
I am halfway through Wormwood Abbey though now and I am really enjoying it.
Last week we watched a lot of Murdoch Mysteries, then when we caught up, we switched to Our Flag Means Death.
I also watched Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris as part of our Springtime in Paris movie event. I absolutely loved it. It was such a joy filled movie, which was something I really needed.
In My Blogging World:
Lisa at Boondock Ramblings and I are hosting another film watching event for springtime. It is six weeks, six movies, and very easy going! If you want to watch one or all or a few, we would love to have you join in. Just watch along and comment on our posts or post your own thoughts and link up!
If you are interested, this is the schedule of movies! Our second post will be up this week!
Also, in January and February, Lisa and I were hosting Crafternoons and they turned out to be so much fun that we are continuing them on through the year. People craft, color, sometimes just chat, and we just have a lot of fun. They are drop in style, so no time commitment, just if you have some time to just craft or hang out one scheduled afternoon, drop on in! We will have our schedule up for spring this week!
And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do today, that you do something that makes you smile!
Hey everyone! It is cold and gray here today, with a chance of snow! What the heck! Wyatt and I are going to hole up inside today. We have a huge day of school, and then I think we will make muffins.
So, I have been very distracted the past few days and it has been hard for me to keep up on anything, other than fretting. Wyatt had an appointment with his orthopedic doctor last week, who follows his spine and hips, and we got some news we didn’t want. We learned that Wyatt’s right hip bone is 50% out of the socket, and that he needs surgery. The doctor actually told us that it was not 100% necessary right now, but that if we waited until it was 100% out, it would be far worse for Wyatt all around – more pain, a longer recovery, a more intense surgery. So of course we are going to do the surgery before all that happens. It just makes me want to vomit, I am not going to lie. I am going to be honest – I am so so tired of my son having to go through all of this. I feel like he just reaches a good stride with things, and then boom, something else happens. I hate this for him so much and I just want to take all this away from him. And I can’t. It is alternately all I can think about but I also can’t think about it. He is literally the toughest person I know, and he is so resilient and despite everything he has gone through in his little life so far he manages to be one of the happiest people I know as well. We haven’t gotten the date for the surgery yet, but it will more than likely be sometime in the summer or fall. If you are a praying person, please send up some prayers for my baby, and we also welcome all the good vibes for him too.
Ok. Phew. Now that I have gotten that off of my chest (but not out of my head or my heart) we have been doing some other things around here too. Yes, lots of appointments because they all seem to fall at the same time, but still having school and some good times too.
We had two family parties last weekend! My cousin hosted a St. Patrick’s Day party for the kids – Wyatt, his two girls, and my nieces. Devin and Chrissy couldn’t make it, since they were prepping for party number 2, a birthday party for my youngest niece, so we took Mermaid Girl with us when we went. The kids decorated shamrock cookies, and the we played a trivia game and the kids acted out charades while the adults guessed, which was hysterical. Wyatt participated too, with the help of his dad, and he absolutely loved it.
The next day was the Hurricane’s second birthday! It was a blast, and she was so funny! In typical two year old fashion, she didn’t want to stop playing with her toys when it was time to sing happy birthday and have cake, and she flung herself face down on the floor and just cried while we sang. She had already eaten the frosting off of four cupcakes so she didn’t care about the cupcakes too much by that point. I was happy that she seemed to really love the present that we got her, which was a set of little houses, maybe ten or twelve, all different colors, that were numbered, and each house came apart and a little plastic animal was inside. She was having such a good time just taking them all apart and putting the animals inside, etc. Success! The two ten year olds also seemed to like them. Lol.
I also had a few hours to myself over the past two weeks! Billy had paid for a massage for me at Christmas time, and I finally cashed it in! I had a lovely hour massage followed up by a twenty minute nap and it was glorious. Then yesterday I had a lovely hang out in our Crafternoon session with Lisa and Cat, where I colored using the markers Billy bought a while ago. We decided a few weeks ago to treat ourselves to a coloring book each, and these markers and we spent an afternoon coloring, Wyatt and Billy and I, and it was actually really relaxing.
Wyatt was also excited because for his birthday month, the local used bookstore gives you a free book, so we took a trip there with my cousin and his girls (his youngest is also a March birthday – we have four birthdays in March!) to shop. Wyatt spent some of his birthday money, and ended up with quite a stack of dragon and wolf books! He was super happy. Nonfiction books were buy one get one free, and they are already half off, so I bought one and got another free. Both were summer crafting books that I thought would be cool to do, either as a family or by myself. I also threw in a Rachel Carson book as well while I was at it. It was a good little trip out.
And that is about it!
Just throwing in some random photos from the roll!
So that last picture of Wyatt. Wyatt lately, like most kids, has been imitating and wanting to make YouTube videos (we don’t but I told him I would try to think of a way maybe if he really wants to). Wyatt however likes to imitate the booktubers we watch and I think it is so cute. I don’t dare say that to him though, he would die of ten year old embarrassment. He also writes down books, like I do when I watch them, and then he looks books up to read on the internet like I do. I have to say that I am flattered that this is what he is imitating, and also love that it is so book centered. That booktuber in the photo is his favorite, Liv of Liv’s Library. Wyatt and I watch her new video together every Sunday night before reading a book before bed.
And that is it from around here! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile! I will be trying as well!
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 