Category Archives: books

Apr11

5 Good Things

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Given that I don’t actually have anything of substance to talk about today, I’m just going to share 5 good things going on in our lives:

1. The kids and I read a new book today that made us laugh called Hattie the Bad. Hattie is a little girl who thinks being good is boring, so she decides to be bad- she put frogs in the fridge, likes to scare people and tries to sell her brother at a garage sale. Hattie is so naughty that while the kids all love her, the parents tell them they can’t play with her any more. So Hattie decides to be the best she can possibly be- only that is a little boring. None of her friends want to hang around her anymore since she’s so very good. So Hattie has to figure out what is the mix that makes her her. While I’m not entirely sure how I feel about a book that portrays a child being super good as one with no friends, the book itself was funny, beautifully illustrated and it prompted a great conversation between Scorch and me.

2. Finally, finally, our grocery store has amazing watermelon in stock. I don’t know where it was made- it could have been dipped in all sorts of crazy chemicals for all I know- but it was amazing and that makes me (and my kids!) happy.

3. I found a way to download all my old Facebook posts!! I’ve been wondering how to do this for quite some time as some of my family’s funniest moments and greatest memories are written there and I was thrilled to find out how stinking easy it was. Formatting isn’t perfect- but at least I have something.

4. Little League starts this week for Scorch. We’ve been talking about this forever so I’m beyond happy that the season is finally starting. I’m a little nervous as Scorch is on a team with 6, 7 and 8 year olds, but the Hubs is coaching along with 2 great friends and long time baseball coaches, so I’m sure we’ll be fine.

5. I’m off tomorrow and Friday for the last 2 days of the kid’s Spring Break. I have no idea what we’re doing or how we’re going to pass the time, but I’m excited for a 4 day weekend with the family!

 

Mar16

Good Riddence

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I have never been so happy to see the end of the week.

Post-vacation blues + a horrible work week +  a kid who did not adjust well to being back at school + a sick husband + reading one of the most touching books ever = me being a basket case all week long.

But- it’s Friday night. We watched Bolt (I love that movie), the kids are in bed asleep and I have what I hope will be a very funny book to start to counteract all the generally yuckiness this week. The weather is supposed to be picture perfect this weekend and things will turn around, darn it!

Hope y’ll have a great weekend too.

Feb16

Funny Fairytale

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The kids and I go to the library once a week without fail. Some weeks the kids are fantastic- they leaf through their books, color all the print outs around and are the type of kids the librarians beam at. Then we have weeks like this one where they are more interested in playing hide & seek or spies to really care about the quieter joys the library has to offer.  I like to take my time finding just the right books for the kids, but on weeks like this one, I just shove whatever I can find that looks appealing in a pile while frantically trying to herd the kids to a quiet corner.

This week it worked to our favor because I managed to pick a little gem that has had the kids laughing for two nights now.  They have gotten the biggest kick out of An Undone Fairy Tale by Ian Lendler. It’s a story within a story- the first is about a damsel in distress locked away in a tower and the knight who tries to save her, the 2nd is about the illustrator of the book who can’t keep up with how fast we’re reading, so he has to substitute in whatever he has on hand for the horses, dragons and moat monsters.  It’s clever and silly and much loved in my house.

It also reminded me of two other of my favorites in the house- The Paperbag Princess and The Princess Knight.   If you have any good books to recommend, please let me know!

Jan30

Crazy’s All Nighter

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Last night was a horrible night for bedtime at our house. A combination of a lot of things I won’t bore you with resulted in us starting the kid’s bedtime routine at 6:45 last night in the (vain) hope that the kids would go to bed quickly and easily.  Yeah- not so much.  The Bean was wonderful, but Scorch was freaking out over everything.

The Hubs monitored the situation for the first hour, then he tagged me in to take over before he lost his mind.  While he was downstairs, he fed and watered all our animals and (unbeknownst to me)  put Crazy, our dog, out to go to the bathroom one last time. While Crazy was outside, I asked the Hubs to come back up to help me.

After another 45 minutes of fighting with Scorch, he finally fell asleep and the Hubs and I went to bed shortly there after.

Fast forward to 6:30 this morning when Scorch was up for the day.  I brought him downstairs into our basement so we could watch TV. Normally Crazy greets us as soon as we get down there, but this morning, no Crazy.  She’s almost 10 and losing her hearing, so I figured she was just sleeping.  Nope. The dog isn’t anywhere in our basement. I know she’s not upstairs anywhere, so I proceed to lose my mind and yell bloody murder for the Hubs to get out of bed and downstairs NOW.

He confirms that I’m not nuts and that the dog is, in fact, missing- so I asked him if he brought the dog in last night.  That is when he got the universally recognized “Oh Shit” look on this face and we both ran to the door.  After a few minutes of us yelling (thank goodness we live in the country),  Crazy finally came to the door.

I have no idea where she spent the night, but she came back happy, dry and completely unhurt.  That is a minor miracle considering we got 3 inches of snow last night.  She bounded into the house as frisky as a puppy and wanted to play for another hour before crashing.  My heart rate finally returned to normal around noon today and Crazy spent the day sleeping on the couch.

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In completely unrelated news, I finished Divergent by Veronica Roth.  I really enjoyed it! Parts of it were a little wooden, but I flew through it and had a very hard time putting it down.  I also finished Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos. I loved, loved, loved 90% of this book. The description of friendships had and lost was wonderful. The end felt a little rushed to me, but I’d highly recommend it!

Jan25

A Book Worm is Born

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“Hey Mom- if you replace the “d” in “dog” with an “l,” it spells “log.”

“Dad, Dad- at the end of movies, it says “The End” but if you swap that “E” with an “A”- you’d get “The And.” Wouldn’t that be funny?”

As, so it begins- my boy is reading! He read us a book the other night before bed, blending all the words and getting every one just right.  The Hubs and I just sat there and grinned like fools the whole time, so proud that I thought we were going to burst.  Sure, this means our time of being able to spell words we don’t want the kids to know is dwindling down, but the upside to this whole Scorch being able to read things is enormous. I hope so much for my kids- including that they the same passion for reading that I do. I simply can’t imagine how boring and stale my life would be without a good book.

On that note, the kids are finally asleep (thank goodness– it’s been a crappy day here behavior wise), the Hubs is watching TV and I have a lot of books to enjoy.

Books, glorious books!

 

What are you reading? You know I’m always looking for a good recommendation or two!

Jan12

I Think Her Medicine is Laced with Sugar & Other Tales

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Yesterday when I picked up the Bean from school she was pale, wouldn’t really talk to me and wouldn’t stop holding her right ear. It didn’t take a genius to figure out she was sick, so off to the dr’s we went (huge thanks to them for getting us in with 10 minutes notice!).  Final diagnosis: strep throat and an ear infection.

Awesome.

I asked for a different kind of antibiotic to give her since she flat out refused to take the last kind, so we have a new med we’re using. This one is actually going down, thank goodness. But I think it’s laced with crack because Beaner hasn’t slowed down once since taking it. So the good news is she’s feeling much better, the bad news is she’s learned how to scale the kitchen cabinets.

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One of the things I’d like to do better in 2012 is keep track of what I read. There is nothing I hate more then getting a book out of the library (or worse, buying it!) only to realize 10 pages in that I’ve already read it. So I started tracking my books on Good Reads.  Not sure if this link will work- but here are all the books I’ve reviewed so far.  I’ve reviewed either some of my favorites (The Outlander Series, for example)  as well as the books I’ve read in 2012.  I picked up 6 new books from the library this week, so I hope to update it again soon.

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My other goal this year is to be more consistent with my workouts and to start working out with a trainer. That is why I haven’t been online as much- it hurts to type.

 

Oct26

Good & Bad

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The Bad

> Scorch came home from school feeling fine and then proceeded to puke everywhere 2 hours later. When the Hubs wasn’t home. So I had to clean it up. By myself.  All that = my worst nightmare come to life.
> The Bean woke up 2 days ago at 5 am and decided she was up for the day. I begged to differ, so I made her stay in bed until she finally fell back asleep at 6:15 am.  Last night she woke up at 3 am and we had the same battle until 4:20 am.
> Because of the Bean’s sleep battles, I’ve been too damn tired to get up and out at 5:10 to work out, so I’m feeling like an exhausted  slug.
> It’s supposed to snow tomorrow.

The Good

> I went to the library and found Bossypants just sitting there on the shelf for the taking. Mind you, it was the large print edition, but I’ve been on the waiting list for this book for months, so I’m thrilled. I also found a Vince Flynn book I hadn’t read (I hope!) and another good sounding book. Hoping this pushes me out of my reading slump.  I’m currently reading The Poisonwood Bible, but it’s still too early to determine if I like it or not.
> We booked our camping trip for the summer!  Sure, it’s 9 months away, but at least I’ve got something to look forward to.
> Scorch went to bed early tonight, so the Hubs and I got to spend some one on one time with the Bean.  Even if she is a pain in the butt, she’s pretty darn awesome and it’s fun to watch her shine.
> I didn’t gag, freak out, or run out of the room crying when Scorch got sick so I am feeling like a Responsible Parent.

Here’s hoping that tomorrows good outweighs the bad again!

Oct16

Books, books and more books.

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I feel like I have books coming out my ears and it’s awesome.  Every Thursday after school we have some time to kill before gymnastics, so we had to the library to hang out for an hour.  This allows all of us to pick up some books to bring home for the week.  We’re having a ball with some of the kids books we get.  Here are some that we’ve been loving lately:

> Anything by Mo Willems. It’s a toss up who loves Gerald and Piggie more, me or the kids! Add in the occasional Knuffle Bunny & Edwina and we could read Mo all day long.

> Either Martha book by Samantha Berger. Martha reminds us of a certain little girl who shall remain nameless, so while we laugh at Martha, I’m also really hoping that little girl is learning a thing or two.

> The Magic Tree House series.  Now, these don’t hold the Bean’s attention, but most of them will hold Scorch’s, so we try to carve out some time for books just for him.

> Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel. Poor kitty- she’s not happy about having to eat healthy food so she goes on a rampage (and makes us laugh).

> The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. How can you not love a princess who tells a prince off when he proves to be a jerk?

Sadly, I’m not having as much luck in the book department. I’ve slogged through quite a few books that frankly have sucked.  The last book I read that I really enjoyed was Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  Really beautifully written book about a time and I place I really didn’t know a lot about.  Anyone have any good book recs for me or the kids?

Sep19

Finding Our New Normal

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Today marked the first day of our 2nd full week with the kids in school.  This new normal is being worn like a shirt that doesn’t quite fit.  We don’t not like it- Scorch loves school, the Bean is starting to and I’m enjoying having the house to myself- but it doesn’t feel quite right yet.  I’m sure that’ll come with time, but right now the mornings are still a tad too rushed, I’m still trying to find the best way to work around the kid’s school schedule and the kids are flat out tired at the end of the night.

Monday’s are our most fun night and our most tiring. I work 6 am – 2:45 pm so I don’t have to work after I pick the kids up.  The weather has been great, so the kids and I go to the park for an hour before going to swim lessons.  After lessons, we get home around 5:30, the kiddos have their baths and we all eat dinner so we can start bed time around 6:45.  Tonight the kids were more cranky then usual thanks to them waking up at 5:30 am, so I did what any smart mom would do to get us though the last few minutes before bedtime.  I showed my kids YouTube videos of cats doing funny things.  This one was our favorite– Scorch laughed so hard he got the hiccups.

Then I gave them the last bits of the homemade brownies we snagged from my parents last night and read Alfred’s Nose.  It’s a book about a dog, Alfred, who doesn’t like his tiny little pug nose and the fact that his tongue sticks out, so he decided to disguise himself.  The pictures are awesome and we all laughed so hard we had to read it again when the Hubs came home from work.

All in all a great night, I just can’t wait until this starts feeling routine.

*****

Completely random and off topic, but the Hubs and I went to the movies this weekend and saw Warrior.  I didn’t know anything about it except that it’s about two brothers who are Mixed Martial Arts fighters, so I had no idea what to expected.  Both the Hubs and I were completely blown away- we loved it!  There is a fat ton of MMA action in the movie but the stories were so well down and the fighting sequences, while brutal, were amazing.  It may be the best movie we’ve seen all year and we see a lot of movies!

 

Jun22

Iron Man & My Nook

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After we say our nightly prayers, we all take turns sharing 2 things we’re thankful for.  Scorch is giving this long speech about how he’s thankful that tomorrow is the last day of school and how he’s thankful for summer vacation, but that he’s going to miss his teachers and friend so much. Poor kid is just pouring his heart out, getting all upset over all this change (he is his mother’s son) when the Bean interupts.

“Scorch,” she says, “you done now. I thankful for Iron Man and poop.”

I’m still giggling about this 30 minutes later.

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Moving on to a completely unrelated topic- I received a Nook Color as an early birthday gift today.  I am so excited I can’t even stand it!  So talk to me- what do I need? Any cool tips or tricks?  Any public libraries non-residents can join to access their eBook collection?  I can’t wait for that sucker to finish charging so I can start playing!!