Under the Weather

A weekend of sore throats and achy bones ended up being a good ole weekend at home! Saturday we both pitched in to finish weekend chores so that we could settle down by the fire. I read (well re-read) one of my Trixie Belden mysteries. Trixie Belden books transport me to a safe New England town in the 1950s where everything is beautiful and happy. Think of a mix of Nancy Drew and the Boxcar Children books. Then on Sunday we cooked soup and watched some serious olympic hockey!

So the reading continues...

Book #5 of 2010 is

Trixie Belden and the Mystery of the Missing Heiress

by Kathryn Kenny

I have LOVED Trixie Belden books since my childhood. In fact, you know you LOVE these books when out of the blue, a few years ago, the public library calls you and tells you that they want to replace their collection of Trixie Belden books and since you have been the only one to check them out in goodness knows how long, they want to know if you want to buy them...then you know you LOVE Trixie Belden books. Or maybe you know you love Trixie Belden books if you jumped into your car and 20 minutes later you bought the ENTIRE collection of books and you STILL think that it was the best deal ever and you are SO lucky because the books you wanted to own for so long are FINALLY yours!

Reaping What You Sow

The seeds have been planted. The rows have been pulled. The summer garden has begun again!

When we ordered seeds a few months ago, we may have gone a little bit overboard.

We pulled the rows just in time for the rain. Now we just have to wait...

The Reading Continues

Book #4 of 2010 is...

A Gathering of Finches

by Jane Kirkpatrick

This was an AMAZING book. So powerfully written that I cried at the end of it (I won't tell you why, in case you want to read it too). I love a book that makes me laugh out loud or cry. There is something very beautiful about words that can connect on so human a level that they evoke tears.

I love Jane Kirkpatrick and A Gathering of Finches is my 9th Kirkpatrick book that I've read. She is a reliable author who I love because she choses to write stories about real people. Her kind of historical fiction is the best I've read. Plus I love that she writes about people who pioneered where she and her husband live and ranch on 160 "rugged" acres in Oregon. This book, like her others, follows the life of a strong willed and very real pioneer, Cassie Hendrick Stearns Simpson. Her struggles with life choices, her hunger for God, the cost of forgiveness and the consequences of selfishness speak right to a reader's heart. This book was good for my soul, like all of Kirkpatrick's books have been!

The Reading Continues...

Book #3 of 2010 is...

Love in the Time of Cholera

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This book was, to be frank, awful. It says that it is "a love story of astonishing power," but it was a love story that was built up for the first 300 pages and then finally in the last 40 pages when the two main characters FINALLY get to be in love, it is depressing and unrealistic. It took me 10 days just to get through the last 40 pages because I didn't want to read it...it was that awful. It was an Oprah's Book Club book, and that should have clued me in to the awfulness earlier because her books are usually dark and depressing, but this one was also dry and boring. Glad it's done, on to the next book!

True Love

What is true love?

This...

Matt, turning down a SuperBowl party with friends to sit by the fire with me and watch the marathon PBS was running of my FAVORITE show ever, the Britcom "Keeping Up Apperences."

(We switched back and forth with the game, so it was a True Love compromise) Which is what True Love REALLY is.

A healthy between-the-SuperBowl-game-and-a-PBS-marathon balance.

I am so happy to be with a man who appreciates and loves things that I appreciate and love. How awesome to have a partner in all things even the little things.

Besides, who wouldn't love a man with a monkey backpack holding a baby.

Matt and Julia

Simplicity = Joy

"China tea, the scent of hyacinths,

wood fires and bowls of violets -

that is my mental picture of an

agreeable February afternoon."

-Constance Spry