Sundays with Gage – Puzzling

January 26, 201419 Comments

Gage is high maintenance, always has been, starting with the colic that seemed to last forever (but in reality only six months until we got him on acid reflux medication). When he was diagnosed on the spectrum there was almost a lessening of the burden of guilt for me and the fact that I found mothering so, so hard. I had some answers as to why it was so difficult to engage him or why he didn’t really seem to care what I was doing. He’s wired a little differently, that’s all. With all of the differently therapies he’s been doing this past year, there has been a huge improvement. He’s always liked to play by himself, but now he wants us to play with him, more than just be entertained by us.

The biggest improvement has come because we’ve changed our thought process. Gage needs to be actively engaged all of the time so we adjust to what we can engage him in. It’s tiring. So, imagine my happy dance when Gage found a 500 piece puzzle buried under a pile of odds and ends on our dining room table. I had started it one ambitious day probably a year and a half ago, but it’s sat untouched since then. Gage found a few stray pieces and pulled out the chair and said “Mommy’s puzzle”. He was ready to work! I cleaned off the table and we’ve spent about 20 minutes every day this week working on mommy’s puzzle. He likes to look at me and tell me, “I’m a good helper” with a satisfied smile. He tries the pieces and if I help him pick the right one he can get it in! For the first time Gage has independently joined me in an activity that I love, not the other way around and it has made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside 🙂 Now, If I could just get him to sit in my lap and listen to me read Inferno.

Love Water Memory by Jennie Shortridge

January 23, 2014January 23, 201411 Comments

Love Water Memory. Finished 1-22-14, rating 3.5/5, fiction, 326 pages, pub. 2013

If you could do it all over again, would you still choose him?

At age thirty-nine, Lucie Walker has no choice but to start her life over when she comes to, up to her knees in the chilly San Francisco Bay, with no idea how she got there or who she is. Her memory loss is caused by an emotional trauma she knows nothing about, and only when handsome, quiet Grady Goodall arrives at the hospital does she learn she has a home, a career, and a wedding just two months away. What went wrong? Grady seems to care for her, but Lucie is no more sure of him than she is of anything. As she collects the clues of her past self, she unlocks the mystery of what happened to her. The painful secrets she uncovers could hold the key to her future—if she trusts her heart enough to guide her.

from Goodreads

Suffering from dissociative fugue, Lucie is clueless. She has no idea where she belongs, who she really is, what the relationship is with her fiance, or who her friends are. She is lost. Grady takes her back to Seattle and their life together, but they are virtual strangers. Lucie doesn’t remember anything and Grady isn’t familiar with the new Lucie, this new nicer woman who seems so curious. The two try to navigate living together while she tries to piece together what happened to make her break like she did.

I can’t imagine suffering from amnesia, how hard it must be especially if you don’t have support. Grady, as steady and nice as he was couldn’t have been adequate support for Lucie. Because she been all about her job before she didn’t have friends, or at least any that reached out to her. How sad is that? Grady didn’t seem to mind this and didn’t seem to want her to connect with the family she had, his sisters and her aunt. It was weird. They both just went through the day, muddling along. I was hoping for a little more oomph. I liked the new and improved Lucie and am glad that even if she didn’t find memories she found some peace, but there was something off about the relationship with Grady, from both sides.

This was an okay novel for me. I liked that the story was told from three perspectives and I loved seeing the way that Lucie really turned her life around. It was enjoyable and led to some questions about relationships and do we see people the way they are or do we see them through the lens of our own insecurities and fears. But the mystery wasn’t shocking by the time it was revealed and there wasn’t anything that really made me want to skip ten minutes of sleep and read the next chapter (the hallmark of a great book, in my humble opinion).

The gentleness of the storytelling was enough to make me want to read more from this author. Good thing I already have When She Flew on my shelf!

I received this book from She Reads. Go on over and see what other bloggers think about this one.

Sundays with Gage – Where is home?

January 19, 201429 Comments

My parents moved into their current house before I started 1st grade, that was 1978. I lived there until I left for college at 18, came back for the next two summers and for 5 months after I graduated from college. The house holds a lot of memories. My parents both come from bigger families and many of the them live fairly close by. When I think of home that’s where I think of, a house full of memories and close to the family I love. This past weekend we took a very quick trip down for a surprise 40th birthday party for my cousin’s wife (a fun time was had by all, too much for some ;)) and spent maybe our last night there. My parents will be moving close to us next month. I am excited for us all, especially Gage, but I will miss that house.

And this leads to the question, where is home? When I say home now, will it be here, where we make new memories and have cherished family close by or will it continue to be the place I grew up and spent every holiday until age 42? Time will tell. Gage loved to go to Papaw’s house but it would mean two and a half hours in the car. I can’t wait to see the surprise on his face when the trip takes 12 minutes! They will be living closer to Gage’s school than we do! Here’s the picture we took before we left for the party last night. It’s full of great memories and the next people who live there will be lucky to be in a house so full of love.

The Autism Mom’s Survival Guide by Susan Senator

January 16, 20145 Comments

The Autism Mom’s Survival Guide (for Dads, too!);Creating a Balanced and Happy Life while Raising a Child with Autism. Finished 1-16-14, rating 4/5, autism, 196 pages, pub. 2010

Given the daily challenges of raising a child with autism, it’s easy for parents to lose themselves and for their overall quality of life to plummet. Susan Senator interweaves the voices of autism parents, researchers, and professionals to offer guidance and encouragement on how to find happiness and fulfillment in the midst of the struggles of raising an autistic child. Topics include: how to handle feelings of despair and hopelessness; finding fun, even during turbulent times; caring for your marriage; and finding a balance between accepting your child as he or she is and seeking new treatments.

from Goodreads

When a child is diagnosed with autism, parents read as much as they can about the current treatments available to help their child. And then start the different treatments, adding more as time and money allow. In my own personal experience we were so busy with this that I didn’t really take the time to breathe and accept the future. I was trying to save my son from the diagnosis. Honestly, I still am, but around the year mark acceptance crept in to my daily thoughts too. This book really did help with that.

The author has a grown son with autism and two younger sons at home and has had 20 years to make peace and come up with some advice that might help other parents. This is not a book on therapies and it will not lead you to a quick fix, as a matter of fact she really is not a fan of alternative solutions, like biomedical. What this book does so well is to offer comfort and advice on how your family can have a better home-life. It’s full of resources (books, websites, blogs) and stories from other parents to help you feel understood and armed with more information.

At first, it was a struggle to get my mind out of the scary, unknown future. But as therapies, research, and behaviors kept me busy, the future faded and only resurrected itself on the very bad days. This book, detailing her experience with her son moving out of the house at 18, was something I needed to read. While her life isn’t what she expected, it is good and fulfilled and happy.

If you have a friend that has a child with autism this would be a nice recommendation or gift (when she’s having one of those bad days). I checked this out of the library.

Winner and a 2014 reading plan

January 15, 2014January 15, 201416 Comments

I am late getting a winner posted for the $25 Barnes & Noble gift card. Gage stayed home from school today since he’s a little sick and he helped me draw a name from his fireman’s hat.

In case you can’t read the name in the second picture, it’s

Hannah!

Thank you all for taking the time to visit my old posts. I wonder if the top posts will change in the next year?

Last year I tried to read from a stack of books I already had on my shelves that were favorites of other bloggers. This year I decided that I don’t need to discover any new fiction authors (outside of my one book from She Reads a month). I want to rediscover the authors I already love and take the time to read their backlist or newest hardcover. Every year I fall in love with a handful of authors and before I can read more from them I’m moving on to the next thing.

A few authors I’ve only read one book from but want more! Jennifer Donnelly, Tana French, Sarah Jio, Kristin Hannah, Susanna Kearsley, Leah Stewart, JojoMoyes…

A few authors I have read all their books and always look forward to the latest. Harlan Coben, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Sarah Addison Allen, Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme series…

A few favorite authors I usually love and want to read everything they’ve written. Anne Tyler, Anita Shreve, Greg Iles, Kate White, Deborah Smith, Elizabeth Berg, Alice Hoffman, Dean Koontz, Stephen King…

This is not an exhaustive list but a good starting point. I have a year of great reading ahead of me!

Saturday Snapshot- Postcrossing

January 11, 201417 Comments

I’ve done a couple of posts on Postcrossing and my love of sending and receiving postcards from around the world. I’ve received 133 cards from around the world in the 14 months since I started and I decided that I needed a place to keep them all organized by a few different categories so I started another blog Postcarder. At this point I’m just showing the front, the stamp, and listing whether they told me their favorite book or movie. It’s bare bones, but I wanted something basic before I received too many cards to deal with. You can look by country or a few of the categories that I’ve found with the cards. Maybe I’ll occasionally do a favorites or stats post over there, but I’m not taking the time now.

I would love to receive a postcard from you with a favorite book or movie that I can add to my collection. You’ll show up on my other blog 🙂 If you need my address just leave a comment and I’ll send it to you and I’ll return the favor 🙂

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams

January 9, 201414 Comments

A Hundred Summers. Finished 1-7-14, rating 4/5, historical romantic fiction, 357 pages, pub. 2013

Memorial Day, 1938: New York socialite Lily Dane has just returned with her family to the idyllic oceanfront community of Seaview, Rhode Island, expecting another placid summer season among the familiar traditions and friendships that sustained her after heartbreak.

That is, until Greenwalds decide to take up residence in Seaview.

from Goodreads

I fell in love with this story right away. The time period, Lily, the complicated friendships, Nick, the mystery of how it all unraveled. I was hooked. I love reading about people who used to take whole summers off somewhere outside the city. The rich and the idle are such interesting creatures and its fascinating to see how they spend their days. Only in books though I find the rich and the idle in real life pretty boring.

The love story of Nick & Lily was beautifully written. Nick was Jewish and while the world pre-WWII might have cared, Lily didn’t. Lily saw him and fell hard and we find out that Nick fell hard too. I couldn’t understand what could break them apart and then when I did find out I was a little disappointed because it seemed small in comparison to how they felt. But just like in real life, often misunderstandings or harsh words can cause more damage than they should.

I devoured this book faster than I expected (often books on my Nook only get read a few nights a week in bed) but it did fall apart for me toward the end. The soap opera like quality became too melodramatic for me and while I liked the end, it might have been nice to have more understanding of the characters than excitement over the weather. I wanted a bit more from Budgie and Lily’s mom.

I loved most of this one but it ended up just a little less than that for me, but I consider myself a new fan and am really looking forward to her first book, Overseas. It seems most bloggers who read both liked Overseas better. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to any romance lover. Williams knows how to deliver romance for sure!

Question- If you got to spend every summer somewhere else where would you choose? I’ll reveal my answer in the comments 🙂

Guess who turns 6 today?

January 7, 201433 Comments

If you guessed Stacy’s Books give yourself a high five! I am so thankful that I discovered the blogging world those many years ago. What started out as a way to track what I read turned into a way to talk about my interests and make friends. I started this adventure without ever having read a blog so the first year (well okay, and every year after) was a major learning experience. Blogging takes time, time I haven’t always had, but whenever I think about stopping it’s doesn’t take me more than a few days to realize how much I’d miss having my own little spot on the web to say whatever I wanted about anything I wanted. I thank you all for your friendship, anyone who blogs knows that it’s the friendships you find that make it worth all of the work.

I want to give something away so I’m giving a $25 Barnes & Noble giftcard to one of you!!!!! All you need to do is leave a comment on one of my 6 all-time most viewed posts. Or all six, I’ll give you an entry for every one that you leave a comment on 🙂

Here are my most viewed posts of the past 6 years…

1. 5,000 piece puzzle of Florence (this has been viewed 7,678 times. maybe I need more puzzle posts?)

2. Rome pics (Seriously?! This post has no comments and is my 2nd viewed post. Weird. Click to see Jason and I in 2008)

3. Baby-to-be Update (the post after the first ultrasound where I asked for name suggestions. Funny, no one mentioned Gage!)

4. My book problem (2008 was the beginning of my yearly pic of unread books. Oh, how silly I was back then to think that TBR was too big)

5. Monday Movie Meme- Bring on the Heat (interesting that this is the first movie post that appears since it’s pretty much the opposite of hot everywhere right now!)

6. Venice pics (a few more pics from our Italian tour)

So, three of these are Italy related. Maybe I need to change the focus of Stacy’s Books. How does Stacy’s Italian Tour sound?

Anyway, I’ll have Gage choose a winner on Sunday. While I’ll accept kind comments on this post, the sweet talk will not get you an entry for $25 at B&N. You must leave a comment on one of the above posts for that (yes, I’m making you work for it :))

Weekends with Gage(‘s obsession)

January 5, 201438 Comments

When given a present to open on Christmas, Gage would take it and say, “There’s a train in here.” Oftentimes there was, but if there wasn’t not much time or attention was paid and he wanted the next gift because it still had the possibility of being the love of his 3-year-old life. He’s pretty single-minded in his love for trains and we’ve attempted to get him hooked on other things and sometimes it works, for a day or a week, but the trains always come back. In some of the reading we’ve done this last year it is often suggested to feed the obsession and we’ve been doing that but I am trained out. Yesterday we took Gage to his first model train show or as Gage thinks of it, heaven. Let’s look at how Gage spent two-and-half bliss-filled hours…

He was so intent that he did not want to take time out to smile for me. Trains are serious business!

Most of us are obviously crazy about books but is there another obsession that needs fed? Something that you love as much as Gage loves trains?

We have a WINNER and a charity $100 richer!

January 3, 2014January 4, 20149 Comments

Three years ago I started writing my 5 word movie reviews and asking for your input too, tying it to raising money for charity. I love seeing what you all come up with. The more participants the more fun!

We hit 100 reviews at 12:15-ish on January 1st and we have a repeat winner! Heather (Gofita’s Pages) topped the reviews this year with 28! Way to go Heather 🙂 And thanks to the other 16 of you who added your two cents (and $1 for charity). So where is the money going? Let’s hear from Heather…

My charity this year is the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. http://www.afsp.org/

I lost my brother to suicide this year and love that there are people and organizations out there who offer support for those affected by suicide and those in crisis, as well as destigmatizing mental illness in general.

I don’t know how many of you know Heather, but if you don’t you are missing out. When she lost her brother and a good friend weeks apart her post on them both touched me and I think it will you too if you have a few minutes to read it (Life and Death). As we start a new year (even if you are practically snowed in like we are) remember to give more hugs, laugh a little bit more and enjoy life. And if you know of someone who might benefit from this charity I hope you will pass it along to them. I am honored that I can help in some way – even if it’s only by donating $100 (money is never enough) in Heather’s brother’s name, Blaine.

Stacy's Books

books, movies, and boy