Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Things I Like - March 2024

I always enjoy hearing what works for other people and I like sharing things I like, it's part of the reason I have a blog.  I've been doing these monthly posts for 10 years and they also provide a nice little snapshot in my life at a moment in time! See more here!  Some affiliate links may be included!

1) Rug Tape
This falls under one of those purchases that sound rather boring but turned out to be amazing.  Also, another item that Sherry at Young House Love recommended and, once again, she was right (we have different tastes in books, tv shows, fashion, etc. but her home recommendations have always been spot on.)  The thing with rugs is that they move, even with heavy furniture on them.  Like our bed or the couch.  The ones that annoyed me the most were a rug at the top of our stairs and the rug in my room.  The one at the top of the stairs didn't have anything on it and shifted CONSTANTLY.  That was the first one I taped down and it was amazing and I was left wondering why I hadn't done that as soon as I bought this tape a year earlier.  Then I was more motivated to straighten out my office rug and get that taped down as well.  It's WONDERFUL to not have those shifting any more.  The tape says it's easily removable but since I've only had it down for a few months, I haven't tried that yet.  But, SO FAR, this is working very well.

2) Wart Bandaids
Also filed under boring things that are super helpful.  One kid had a wart on his finger that we tried freezing off but that was too painful for him and we were not consistent at remembering the liquid stuff.  I found these bandaids at Target and they have been great because he can put them on himself and he's actually pretty good at remembering to do it about every other night.  I also had a string of warts on my bottom of my foot which hasn't really been painful but just annoying for a few years.  I bought the foot specific ones and they might work even better.  I'm treating 3 different spots on my foot so it's taking awhile to get them all resolved but this is certainly easier than any other option we've tried.  

3) "Don't Forget to Remember" by Ellie Holcomb
There is a picture book she wrote with the same name that we've had for years and we gifted it to many godchildren as well.  I used to read it to Sam when *I* needed the reminder that "Don't forget to remember, God won't forget you." regardless of if he needed to hear that or not (who doesn't??  But he was also 3-4 when we read it often so maybe didn't have many worries at that stage of life.)  It was years later that I downloaded the song and now it's one I play often, on repeat if I'm particularly struggling with something.  It is reassuring and comforting when I need to remember what not to forget.

4) "God is Good (All the Time)" by Austin French
This is on our morning playlist and is a great reminder as we start our days - God is Good, all the time, even when we can't feel it.  Sometimes I just need that reassurance or I'd like my boys to hear it too.  Also, it's just a catchy song.  I didn't even realize he was a Christian artist until I found this song (I had others by him before).  Also, free to download via Freegal with our library login. 

5) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Matt got the boys hooked on this, I think they were lamenting something they were watching being over and Matt's like "Oh, I'll find you something with ENDLESS episodes" (due to many remakes of it).  This is on Netflix and the deal is the boys can watch it once they are COMPLETELY (besides coats) ready for school, until I say it's time to go.  I'd like if something else motivated them but, also, if it saves our mornings I will let them have some Ninja Turtles if it keeps them moving.  Sometimes it's 3 minutes.  Sometimes it's 20.  Depends on how motivated they are to move but they love this so much they are watching it the SECOND time through and even choose this over Sasquatch for their weekend screen time which is just CRAZY because Sasquatch was their favorite screen time for nearly a year.

What have YOU been liking lately?

Friday, March 22, 2024

Hobbies: Puzzles

Thanks to various things I've been reading and things I've seen on the internet, I've given some thought lately to my hobbies.  My main hobby is reading and I've come to realize more and more how much I need that time out of my own head in order to recharge my energy and calm my mind to sleep.  There are times I really feel like my brain is short circuiting that few things besides a nap or some quiet time reading will fix.  It makes me step away from whatever has me spinning in a way few other things do. 

There is also running, although I've done very little of that so far this year, but that is more for healthy living than anything else.  Although I wouldn't even think to count my inside morning workouts as a hobby the way I'd think about counting running, even though they are both fulfilling the same purpose.  

There are certain hobbies that don't work for me such a knitting or crocheting.  I know either would aggravate my arthritis to much to ever be a consideration.  I'm not artsy nor do I have a real desire to be so anything like that is outside of my interest.  I like baking but not when I am under stress or time constraints, partially why I despise making supper so much.  I did years of making all of our bread and have not minded going back to store bought bread so don't feel like that's something I need to pick back up.  I do garden and yard work when the weather is right for it but it's not something I ever crave to do although something I usually enjoy once I'm doing it.  This could be something I pick up more of over time.  I'd like to play the piano, I took many years of lessons as a kid, but we do not have space in our current house arrangement for a piano. 

This is in no way a complete list of possible hobbies, just ones I have done or have considered, however briefly, to do. 

I guess I could consider making photobooks as a hobby, even though there is an output that my whole families appreciates, I do enjoy doing them and having them done.  It is not anything that is expected of me like people expect laundry to get done and meals to be made.  I nearly always listen to podcasts when doing them, since I am nearly always doing them when the house is empty or after the boys have gone to bed and Matt's doing school. A sort of a hobby, even though I am making them for the family.

The only other hobby I can have that I can think of is puzzles.  Puzzles give me a brain break and the satisfaction of getting something done, even though the thing that is done is a puzzle that in no way needs done.  And while I like finishing one, the real joy is in each individual piece that I find a place for.  It's almost a little sad when the whole thing IS done....because that means I'll be starting a new ones and I dislike starting new ones the most of the whole process (flipping over all those pieces gets tedious). 

One huge benefit to puzzles is that it keeps me awake during family movie night.  We do family movie night nearly every Friday we are home (which is most of them) and I would fall asleep every single week until I started to make sure I always had a puzzle going.  Sure, I pay slightly less attention BUT I pay more attention doing a puzzle than I would be if I was asleep.  I usually keep doing my puzzle while Matt & I watch something when the boys are in bed.  Again, this helps me stay awake. (Should the fact that I would fall asleep doing these every week be a sign that I should just go to bed? Maybe.)  Sometimes I work on them during the day for a bit, while I am watching something (I do not spend the majority of the school day watching something but do sometimes while I eat and then keep it on another 20 minutes to do a puzzle or fold laundry or something.)  

Puzzles are also nice to do while listening to podcasts, especially when my list is piling up.  Or I'll work on one right after school when the boys are taking some down time before homework because it is much easier for me to step away from a puzzle than it is to step away from a book, especially if one of them are calling me away (as opposed to myself deciding to walk away...I dislike leaving a book unless it's at a chapter or other break).  They were great to have going during our many e-learning days in January because I could work on a puzzle in little chunks of time between instructing them in their lessons.  (And sometimes those were VERY little chunks of times, seconds at most.)

Sometimes the boys help me (Sam was delighted to point out that on the recent 750 piece puzzle I finished that I only did 749 pieces because he found one) but I mostly do them myself.  Although I wouldn't be opposed to trying a family puzzle, if they had interest.  And were actually helpful.

There was a time, most of the time we've been married, that I did my puzzles at our dining table.  The largest room in our house we call "the front room" and is part family room (couch, tv, shelves, books) and part dining room (dining table that we mostly eat at on Christmas and when we have people over but it's too cold to eat outside).  It's also where homework gets done or various other table needs, we just rarely actually DINE there.  

Then, a little over 2 years ago, I asked Matt to set-up one of these "Target tables" in my office.  Right before we got married we bought 3 of these $15/each wooden tables from Target on clearance.  They have metal legs and one was our kitchen table for over a decade (Matt has since made us a new kitchen table).  They were all disassembled in the basement.  They are light enough that I can carry it the ~7 feet from my office to closer to the tv for movie nights and they are nearly the perfect size for the puzzles that I do.  I can sit at the window seat in my office to work on a puzzle (what I would do when my kindergartner was doing e-learning on my computer and using my chair) or I can spin my desk around to work on a puzzle and also see out the window (this does involve turning the table 180° from time to time).  I was SO DELIGHTED the first time he set-up that table.  It worked perfectly.

The first one up for nearly 6 months before I got overwhelmed with life, stopped doing puzzles, and asked Matt to take it down.  I didn't do puzzles in the summer then anyways.  He set it up again in the fall and now it's been up for over a year.  Sometimes I go a few days between puzzles, just life, but otherwise have nearly constantly had a puzzle going on it this whole time.  Especially during Friday night movie nights, with few exceptions, I have one going. 

I have accumulated a puzzle collection that hovers around 20 right now and I know I have to limit myself to just one new puzzle a year at this point.  Our current storage space just can't handle more than that.  But I also know that 20 puzzles is a comfortable amount to own in that I can do them all every year as well as throw in some borrowed from family or library puzzles too.  If I'm not doing a puzzle regularly (every year), then why keep it?  I also don't mind repeating some of my favorites throughout the year.  I've been asking for one new one each Christmas and it's exciting to have that to do over Christmas break.  Although I've curated my collection enough that I get excited to do most of the ones I have, over and over again. 

Two tips I've picked up over my puzzle years.  One is that I write the date I complete a puzzle on the inside of the box lid, for puzzles I own (I do not do this to borrowed or library puzzles).  I haven't been doing this forever so these aren't complete back to when I started doing some of my puzzles pre-kids but I have been doing it for awhile and it's fun seeing those dates stack up (the one shown is one of the puzzles I've owned the longest). (And you can spot big breaks in my puzzle years when the boys were babies, I had just started to do puzzles regularly again, and wrote this post, then we got Sam and newborn life was not conducive to puzzles.).  

The other is that I separate out the edge pieces when I put the puzzle away.  Matt asked if this was cheating.  I am adamant that it is not because sorting pieces is, by far, my least favorite part of a puzzle and trying to find all the edge pieces to start to just tedious and frustrating.  Since I store many of my puzzle boxes on end (and not flat), I keep the edge pieces in a small ziploc (one I have probably gotten somewhere else and washed out), and the rest of the pieces in a larger ziploc (a great many of these we got with bagged, donated, breast milk in them for baby Sam).  I also keep a rubber band around many of those "on end" boxes just to keep them from falling open.  Then when I start a puzzle I dump out the edge pieces, get the satisfaction of doing that, and then move onto getting the inside pieces facing up.

Another note: I do not feel looking at the picture on the box or included inside is cheating.  I didn't even know this was a thing until recently and then discovered that my brother-in-law swears that it is cheating and never looks.  This is crazy.  If I wanted to get endlessly frustrated and stressed by something I would pick up a different hobby.  I am looking to relax and enjoy something so I look at the picture.  Sometimes more than others but I still always have it out. 

Some of my favorite puzzles (affiliate links below, if you purchase through them, I receive a very small amount, at no additional cost to you):

Travel poster puzzles are fun because you can split up each little section and work through them.  They move pretty fast for being 1000 pieces.  I have a world wide and a US version

I enjoy True South Puzzle Co puzzles even though they are a bit pricier.  I have a classic literary location 500 piece that is fun but no longer on their website.  I like this classic Chick Flick one and own and enjoy this Acadia one.  

Flow puzzles are some of my favorite.  The ones I have are 1000 pieces but enough detail that they move pretty well.  I have Everything is Made out of Magic and All Good Things are Wild & Free.  The pictures are just fun. 

I have had mixed luck with Lego puzzles.  This Rainbow brick one was hard until I figured out a strategy but then this Space Minifigures that I bought at Kennedy Space Center last summer was near impossible.  It's the hardest puzzle I've ever done.  I think I had it out for over 2 months.  

Galison makes good puzzles.  I have two with art by Michael Storring that have A LOT of white on them and, on pieces, it can be hard to tell if something is a person, tree, or brick.  He makes MANY city scenes that are fun but more challenging than I've expected.  I own Bethesda Terrace and St. Patrick's Cathedral.  I think owning two of his is sufficient although I've gotten others from the library.  There are many other Galison puzzles with charming pictures.  I own this Spring Street one which is fun to do this time of year.  

Both my boys have gone through their own puzzle stages.  We did floor puzzles for many years and I can't find the ones they had but they may have been Melissa and Doug.  We gave our youngest this Space floor puzzle a few years ago and did it A LOT (and then saw it for sale at Kennedy Space Center!).  For his recent 6th birthday he requested a "500 piece puzzle I could do myself" and I eventually talked him down to a 100 piece puzzle, at least to start.  We gave him this Woodland Friends one.  And we own MANY of the mini Saint puzzles from Shining Light.  My youngest in particular will do a bunch in a row, often while I'm reading books.  We also have the 500 piece Saint sticker puzzle on that page which is the one I have sitting on my table to do next, partially because it is one my youngest can do with me, probably from our countless games of Saint memory.   

That is way more words than I thought I had to say about puzzles.  It is nice to have something that I do purely for my own enjoyment, that produces no real functional outcome, and that keeps me awake during movie nights.  It is certainly a hobby that I find joy in.  I'd love to hear about a hobby that does that for you!  I hope you have one!

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

{16} Garden Picture Books

It's about that time of year when I start thinking about what we'll be growing this summer.  I'm not actually doing anything about it yet, but I have given it the smallest amount of thought.  Last year wasn't a great growing year for us (the sunflowers never came up despite planting them twice!) but we tried some new things and need to recommit to eating more veggies.  I am more interested, generally, in the flower growing, particularly the ones I can cut and put around the house.  And most of our tomatoes went to my sister who does massive amounts of canning of sauce and she put those to good use!  

We also start reading many picture books about gardening and things growing in the spring.  It just feels spring-y to me, even though we aren't planting until mid-May or something (if we're lucky...sometimes it's June).  We've read quite a few already in March and so why not share a list!  These are almost entirely books about growing a garden, mostly the vegetable kind although a few flower ones might have sneaked through.  I'll have to do another list about growing flowers! 

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, links for which are included within this post, at no additional cost to you.  Thanks for helping support this blog!   Of course, utilize the library or shop used or from an independent bookstore if you prefer!

Grandma's Rooftop Garden by Tang Wei, translated by Kelly Zhang
This is the one we most recently read that inspired this list!  Granny might be old but she has built a wonderful vegetable garden on the roof of her apartment building in Chengdu (a city in China). She collects the produce that is thrown away at markets and composts it for her garden and then shares her produce with friends and family, either by making them food or passing on produce for them to use.  Very sweet story and love reading about urban gardens all over the world!

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
This is one the first ones that came to mind when thinking of more books for this list.  We love this over/under series, everyone of them is fantastic.  This follows a young girl and her grandmother for a year through taking care of their backyard garden, what is going on that they can see but also what is going on under the dirt!

Badger's Perfect Garden by Marsha Diane Arnold, illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki
Badger has spent months planning his perfect garden and gathering the seeds.  When the time comes, he recruits his forest friends to help him exactly according to plan.  Badger is already imagining how perfect it'll be when it starts growing.  But then a rainstorm hits and washes away his seeds.  Is all his hard work and organization ruined?

And Then It's Spring by Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Erin E. Stead
This is probably my very favorite spring book to read and I used to read it nearly daily to Sam when he was home with me.  First you have brown, all around you have brown.  A young boy and his dog are getting impatient with the long departure of winter and decide to plant a garden while they wait.  Although a garden just means more things to wait on. 

Diana's White House Garden by Elisa Carbone, illustrated by Jen Hill
Biography picture book about a young girl, Diana Hopkins, who lived at the White House during the administration of FDR during WWII.  Her father was the president's chief advisor.  Diana wanted to help with the war efforts and starts a Victory Garden at the White House under the tutelage of Eleanor Roosevelt. 

The Garden We Share by Zoe Tucker, illustrated by Swaney Julianna
A young girl and an elderly woman bond over their work at the local community garden, planting seeds alongside neighbors and friends.  By harvest the girl's elderly friend is bedridden but the young girl can still take her baskets of ripe tomatoes and sugar snap peas, sharing what they produced together.  By the fall everything is different but spring always comes again.

Love Makes a Garden Grow by Taeeun Yoo
Still a young girl working in a garden but this time with her Grandfather.  The Grandfather works hard at his garden, teaching his granddaughter how to care for the plants and associates all the work and senses of the garden with him.  As he ages his garden gets smaller but the girl never forgets what he has taught her. 

The Forever Garden by Laurel Snyder
Honey works hard on her garden, pouring hours into it each day.  Her young neighbor, Laurel, spends a lot of time helping Honey, weeding, watering, etc.  But then one day Honey puts out a For Sale sign in her yard.  She must move to care for an elderly parent.  Laurel will miss her friend but, also, what will happen to this wonderful garden??

We Are the Gardeners by Joanna Gaines, illustrated by Julianna Swaney
All about her children's young attempts at growing SOMETHING.  The house plants that died before they finally figured out what they were doing and kept a whole garden growing.  The picture here are especially charming. 

Thank You, Garden by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Simone Shin
First, this one has a fantastic and beautiful cover.  Second, this is about a community garden and how it unites the neighborhood as they celebrate all that grows there and the work it takes to make that happen.  Not just growing plants, but friendships that grow too. 

The Gardener of Alcatraz: A True Story by Emma Bland Smith, illustrated by Jenn Ely
The story of a man who was locked away at Alcatraz for counterfeiting but was determined to defy the odds and escape.  Instead, he got a job tending the prison garden and a strange thing happened, he found new interests and skills and a sense of fulfillment, even behind the walls of Alcatraz.  

A Garden Called Home by Jessica J. Lee, illustrated by Elaine Chen
A young girl and her mother return to her mother's homeland and the girl sees her mother come alive in a way that she never does in their new country.  Once they return home, the mother's smile disappears but the girl is determined the show her mother, through growing plants, that they can make their place in their new country as well. 

The Imaginary Garden by Andrew Larsen, illustrated by Irene Luxbacher
Theodore loved her Grandfather's old garden but then he moved to an apartment where he can't grow nearly as much.  It's just not the same.  But then Theo and her Grandpa decide to paint a new garden and work together to create something growing, in a different way.  Eventually that garden starts to take on a life of it's own. 

Jack's Garden by Henry Cole
A book about a young BOY working in a garden!  This list has, unintentionally, been little girl heavy.  This is a take on "The House Jack Built" but about a garden instead. He makes it look easy. 

In Our Garden by Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Melissa Crowton
Millie has recently moved, across an ocean, and she misses her old home and ways of doing things.  One day she has an idea - their school has a flat roof, that could be perfect for a school garden!  She gets her teacher and classmates on board but it takes a lot of hard work to make a garden from scratch!  

What Grew in Larry's Garden by Laura Alary, illustrated by Kass Reich
Grace thinks her neighbor, Larry, has the greatest garden in the world.  He grows the most wonderful vegetables and Grace loves helping him with the watering, weeding, planting, pruning, hoeing, and harvesting.  Whenever there is a problem they solve it together.  Grace learns that Larry has big plans for his garden!

I'd love to hear if you have any picture books about garden we could add to our list!  Maybe it'll be good luck to keep our garden more alive this year!

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

{14} Time Travel Novels

Recently, I was reading Rewind by Lisa Graff which is a middle-grade novel about a 6th grade girl time traveling from 2018 to 1993.  I am sure the "being a time traveling 6th grader in 1993" is part of what made me want to read the book because although I have no time traveled, I nearly was a 6th grader in 1993 (I started 6th grade in 1994).  Now, I was homeschooled, we didn't watch a lot of tv, mostly listened to music from the 60s on the radio, and didn't watch many movies that weren't animated so there is a lot of the wider culture of the 80s and 90s that we just didn't participate in.  However, enough of the time period, the lack of cell phones, and all that was familiar enough.  It was fun to be taken back to that time.

Reading that book also got me thinking about many other books I've read over the years with time travel as a plot device.  Then the more I thought about it, the more I came up with!  Not many of these could be classified as sci-fy-y, most are more "my life just jumped forwards (or backwards) and I don't know how to process this is what life will be (or was)".  Really, who wouldn't be thrown for a loop if they all of a sudden got a peak at their life 5 years in the future.  There would probably be many things that wouldn't make sense to life right now!

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, links for which are included within this post, at no additional cost to you.  Thanks for helping support this blog!   Of course, utilize the library or shop used or from an independent bookstore if you prefer!
 
1)  The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Starting with an older title and one with the most obvious time travel in the title.  (Amazon tells me I purchased this in paperback 14.5 years ago...I am 90% sure I read it on our Seattle trip a few months later.)  This is one of those books that was EVERYWHERE and EVERYONE was reading.  Henry is an adventurous librarian who time-travels completely randomly and without choice.  Over time he has enough encounters with Clare that they fall in love and attempt to have something of a real relationship despite his not always being present or present at different ages really.  

2) Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald
This is a book that I have thought about MANY times and knew almost immediately that it should have been on my favorite reads of 2019 list (instead of what? I don't know now.).  This takes place almost entirely at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan and almost entirely during the phenomenon known as "Manhattanhenge" where the sunset lines up with the NYC street grid (I have never witnessed this but wouldn't mind doing so some day!).  Starts in 1937 (historical fiction not centered around a war!) when a railroad worker sees a mysterious woman who seems just slightly out of place.  Her clothes are nice but dated and she doesn't quite fit with Depression era New York.  She disappears before he can talk to her and becomes fascinated by seeing her again.  Having been to Grand Central isn't a must but is a nice bonus.

3) What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
I had thought many times that if I was in a book club, this would be one of the first books I would suggest to discuss...and now I'm on my 3rd year of being in something of a book club (is it a book club if we all read the same books approximately the same months but rarely discuss them?) and I still have no suggested this book to read.  Alice Love is 29, in love with her husband and pregnant with her first child.  The next thing she knows, it's 39, on the floor of a gym, in the middle of a divorce, and has THREE kids.  She doesn't know how she got there or how her life became this and what the heck to do about it.  So many good topics to discuss with a book club in this one! (I'd imagine...still have yet to do so.)

4) All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
This is probably the most sci-fi book on this list AND has the distinction of being the only one here that Matt has read too! (There was a stretch a few years ago when I actually got him to read books with some regularity! Which meant I was reading more sci-fi-ish ones in an effort to find some he might like).  It's 2016 and Tom is living in a world where technology has solved all our problems.  No war, no poverty, etc.  But he's not happy because he's lost the girl of his dream so, since he has a time machine, he decides to try to fix this.  And instead of fixing it, he ends up in our 2016 where there is war and poverty and a host of other problems BUT...he has a wonderful career, family, and the woman who might be the love of his life.  So go back to the "perfect" world or stay in this one where his personal life is "perfect"? 

5) Rewind by Lisa Graff
The book that kicked off this list and I talked about above.  Easy to read since middle grade and transports to one of the more recent times (the 1990s). 

6) Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
This one is one we actually read for book club and maybe the hardest one to read on this list.  A woman disappears on her 26th birthday from California in 1976 and comes to in Maryland pre Civil War where she isn't a woman just living her life but a slave who has no control over her own life.  She jumps back and forth between the two times, eventually figuring how what pulls her back to slavery each time.  It is hard to read the slavery portions, getting an intimate look at how hard life was for people forced into that life.  BUT...also important to read it.  I'm glad book club finally got me to read this one.

7) In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
A more recent read (it came out in 2021...which isn't as recent as I thought).  Dannie is very much a planner and everything in her life is going according to plan.  Then, one night she wakes up, exactly 5 years in the future and spends one hour there.  In a different apartment with a different ring on her finger and a different person in her life.  She cannot figure out how this happened before going back to her highly planned life.  She spends the next 5 years seeing how her life got to the point of that flash forward and if there is anything she can do to change it. 

8) In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren
A Christmastime set Groundhog Day-esque book about a woman who is frustrated with her life but is determined to enjoy one last holiday at her family's cabin in snowy Utah where they always spend Christmas with two other families (I cannot comprehend people who never want to be home on Christmas.)  She just wants whatever will make her happy...then there is the screeching of tires, everything goes black...and now she's on a plane to Utah instead of a car where she's going to start the same trip all over again.  And then over and over and over again.  She needs to break free of this time loop and wants to find her true love. 

9) The Good Part by Sophie Cousens
Another very recent read, this one just came out in November 2023.  Lucy is 26 and tired of everything.  Tired of her job, tired of bad dates, tired of her bad living situation, and just tired.  She makes a wish in a mysterious shop that she could just skip to the good part of her life.  And the next thing she knows, she wakes up next to a mysterious man, a ring on her finger, in a fancy house, with two kids.  If this is the "good part" she doesn't know anything about how she got here or who these other people are.  Has she really skipped a whole chunk of her life.  One of my favorite details of this one is that one of her kids figures out right away that this isn't his "real" mom and is convinced she's an alien.  I do appreciate a good kid sidekick here!  Also, demonstrates that maybe the hard parts of life are worth living through.  

10) Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
The most literary fiction of any book on this list, as you'd expect if you've read any other Emily St. John Mandel.  This is a strange book to try to explain, there is so many different things happening and yet, she pulls them all together by the end in ways I wasn't expecting.  This books skips around from Vancouver Island in 1912 to the moon 500 years later and a few other places in between. 

11) This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Another pretty recent book (released less than a year ago) and one that flashes back to a time where I was close to the same age as the protagonist!  Alice is on the eve of turning 40 (I read this last year when *I* was nearly turning 40) and her life is pretty good.  Happy enough with her romantic status, apartment, job, etc.  But her father is ill and something feels like it's missing.  The next morning she wakes up in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday (I didn't turn 16 until 1999 but this is close!).  She's shocked by being a teenager again, her high school crush, but also seeing her father fully healthy and vibrant.  Past events take on new meaning and she has to decide if there is anything she would change. 

12) When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Another middle-grade book that I was really taken with when I read it many years ago.  Sixth-grader Miranda (I like the recurring theme of 6th graders being involved in time-travel) has a fall-out with her best friend and starts to receive mysterious notes.  The notes tell her she must write a letter and she can't tell anyone about her mission.  She'd just ignore these notes, except whoever is leaving them is strangely good at predicting the future.  Which is a problem because these notes predict that someone is going to die.  When I read this, I was proud of myself for piecing together most of the mystery before it was fully revealed...until I remembered it was written for kids half my age...

13) The Life Intended by Kristin Harmel
Another more "alternate world" than time travel but that's close enough for this list.  Kate's husband died suddenly 10 years ago and she never expected to find love again.  But now she's planning to marry a perfectly nice man when she starts seeing her dead husband in her dreams.  In really vivid dreams.  Is she really ready to move on?  Is he trying to tell her something?  These dreams lead her places and a life she didn't expect.  

14) Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
New Years Eve 1982 and Oona has her life ahead of her.  At midnight she'll turn 19 and the year ahead seems to be a big one.  As the countdown to midnight begins, Oona faints and wakes up 32 years in the future in her 51 year old body.  She's greeted by a stranger in a beautiful house she's told is hers.  Oona soon learns that each year she'll travel to another age at random.  She's young on the inside but her body and the times are constantly changing.  She never knows who and where she's going to be next!  What to hold onto when this is your life?

Putting this list together made me realize that I generally like time-travel as a plot device or at least I did in all these instances!  Maybe it's just fascinating to think about what I would be surprised by if my life suddenly jumped forwards or backwards.  Backwards might be easier, since I've lived it already, but forwards would be more interesting, seeing the future. Always gives me a lot to think about, either way!

Let me know if you have read or plan to read any of these and what you think of them! 


Thursday, March 7, 2024

Looking back to February 2024

We are through February which means it's now spring and we've even mostly had spring weather so far this March!  Not always sunny but even just the warmer temps makes such a difference on my mood.  Life always feels much more doable in the spring, even after a rather mild winter like we just had.  Plus wrestling is winding down which is exciting too!

The flu bug that we had avoided most of the winter finally caught up with us at the end of February.  We all missed some work and/or school over the course of a few days and I'm still super congested but that really took it out of me a bit.  Still playing a bit of catch-up on a few things but considering how much illness was going around all winter, feels like we didn't make out too horribly with it.  

I'm not going to do a full update on it but I wrote a post about my list of 53 items to help me stay motivated that would cover the 53 days from when my boys went back to school after Christmas until the start of spring, March 1st.  And I actually got all but 3 items on that list done!  It really did help give me little mood boosts to feel like I was getting some nagging tasks done around the house, especially when I could knock out a few right in a row.  Nice looking back and seeing all I was able to get done in the midst of the winter blues. 

Looking back:
1 year ago: Travel: Grand Haven, Michigan
2 years ago: Making Our Stair Travel Wall
3 years ago: The Molly Murphy Series by Rhys Bowen
4 years ago: Book Love: Flight Girls by Noelle Salazar
5 years ago: {11} Picture Books Featuring Food
6 years ago: A Photobook Update
7 years ago: Friday Five: {5} Paris Books
8 years ago:
Making a List and Checking It (Often)
9 years ago: Painting the Office/Craft Cupboard (Finally)
10 years ago:
Kool-Aid Cookies

 

1) This was early February and bulbs were starting to come up!  So fun to see them growing a little more every day!
2) Reading with my tea and a treat.
3) A beautiful country sunset!
4) Pretzel with cheese means we're back at wrestling meets...
5) February was actually pretty mild which meant we could open up the porch more than usual.  And I love the festive hearts.
6) Finishing up a puzzle with many pieces near my perfect shades of blue.
7) A ice cream sundae with Matt, celebrating Valentine's Day a little early, since it was on Ash Wednesday this year.
8) Watching the Super Bowl, eating buffalo chicken dip, having a drink.  I did most of a puzzle while watching it!
9) I have so many cut out hearts from years of cutting up scraps of paper.  It's rather handy when we need to make some Valentine's, can just pull from the bowl!
10) Sam and I played quite a bit of Tri-ominos which always reminds me of my Grandparents.
11) Downtown in snow to pick-up a gift card for our school auction/dinner (which I ended up having to miss for being sick).
12) Pretzels with cheese from Aldi.  It's a near constant in our winter snack rotation.

Books finished: 14!
Miles ran:
2.05!  A much warmer but harder run than in January!
Currently watching:
We've been so tired lately with getting over bugs that we've just been doing the longer edit of The Office season 2 on Peacock.
Most read post this month: New York City #4 - days 1 & 2 and then Mixed Drink Monday: The Fizzy Flamingo
Luke's current favorite song:
"God's Country" by Blake Shelton
Sam's current favorite song: "Happy Birthday"...he recently had a birthday. 

March brings birthdays for both boys, the start of spring break, AND Easter.  My boys having March birthdays sure has made me appreciate this month a lot more!