Day: March 13, 2021

This Week – I’m back

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Fave pic

It’s Razzi for the win! We missed our cats while we were gone.

Highlights of the week- I’ve been waking up early to do some reading and journaling with a cup of coffee before Jason and Gage get up and it has changed my whole day for the better. I do sometimes want to rush through school so that I can take my after school teacher nap, but I’m so much happier when I make myself do it. And a happier teacher makes a happier student 🙂

Some nice walking weather. Jason’s even been able to play tennis outside a few times and that’s a win for everyone.

My parents go in for their second vaccine shot this week.

Getting back on track from our almost month away. Hopefully I’ll get a post up on that this week, but the change of scenery, even while being mostly isolated, was good for all of us.

Currently reading –

The Pinballs
Always the Last to KnowThe Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing In…Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad #3)Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Q…

Finished this week-Still keeping up with my book a day challenge. I’m even ahead of the game with 80 books in 72 days. You can find more thoughts on these books here and here.

Chasing Cassandra (The Ravenels, #6)
Historical Romance series done right.
A New Kind of Country
Beautiful memoir for Women’s History Month
Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos
Funny and informative look at having a baby.
Going Up!: Elisha Otis's Trip to the Top
Loved learning about the origin of the elevator safety brake.
The Paper Kingdom
Gorgeous picture book.
The Night Gardener
Great topiary illustrations.
I is for Innocent (Kinsey Millhone, #9)
Kinsey keeping the streets of Santa Teresa safe.
Title: Falling from Trees, Author: Mike Fiorito
Collection of sci-fi/dystopian stories.
Daring Amelia
Amelia was a badass.

Movies Watched-

ALC poster.jpg
Mudbound (film).png Both of these good in different ways.

On the TV – Just watching Schitt’s Creek a few times a week for laughs.

Plans for the Weekend – Spending as much outside in the sun as possible in 40 degree weather.

And tonight is movie night so Gage gets to stay up as long as he wants watching movies with us. He is always the last one awake 🙂

Back on Track with Books

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I’d like to do these book posts on Fridays, so no time like the present, even if I did just post an update earlier this week. After 71 days this year I’ve finished 79 books and two bookish movies. If you have any recommendations for good one day books let me know!

Here’s what I read in the second half of this week. 2 Picture books (1 fiction, 1 non-fiction), 1 Kids book (non-fiction, 1 Mystery, and 1 Graphic Memoir.

Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos by Lucy Knisley is on loan from the library. I loved this book! I’ve read a few of her other graphic memoirs, but this may be my favorite so far.

Knisley has always wanted a child. When the time came for her and her husband it didn’t go according to plan. After two miscarriages, infertility visits , and lots of research, her dream was realized. Only that didn’t go as planned either.

This book covers so much! Sex Ed, historical views on the womans’ body, infertility, pregnancy, childbirth, and many of the things you don’t know until you know. Having suffered a miscarriage and pre-eclampsia (although mine was correctly diagnosed and not life-threatening) her experiences spoke to me.

Perfect for any friend even thinking about getting pregnant!
Gage and I read Going Up! Elisha Otis’s Trip To the Top by Monica Kulling and illustrated by David Parkins. It’s a short picture book about how Elisha’s childhood on the farm influenced him and his creation of the safety brake for elevators. No one was interested In his passenger elevator until a demonstration at New York City’s World Fair in 1854 convinced people it could be safe. The first elevator installed in NYC in the 1850’s still works today and the Otis Elevator Company is still around. Quite a legacy!

I also finished up I is for Innocent in Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone series. Kinsey is helping a lawyer friend prep for a civil trial by doing some last minute investigating when she begins to doubt the identity of the murderer. I listened to most of this and found all of the characters hard to track at first, but I really liked the resolution of the plotlines. I’m enjoying reading my way through this mystery series.
 The Paper Kingdom by Helena Ku Rhee. I actually read this back in January but couldn’t mention it until my time as a @cybilsawards judge was over. We used it for what we’re now calling Reading With Razzi. First, the illustrations are gorgeous. Such a beautiful book. The story is about a young boy who must go to work with his parents at night because the sitter is unavailable. They are night janitors and tell their son fantastic tales of the people who work there. Based on the author’s own childhood this is heartfelt and engaging.
Gage read Daring Amelia by Barbara Lowell to me and Razzi. He doesn’t like to read out loud, but we must to get/keep his reading up to speed. He actually thanked me yesterday when I gave him this as his reading because it was below his level and therefore easy for him. It was a win for me because I actually learned a few new things about Amelia Earhart and he did his reading happily. Every day doesn’t have to be a reading struggle 😁