Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - Oct 3

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

My niece/goddaughter is getting married this month. I'm so excited for her. Saw her FB post today talking about stressful wedding planning and it reminded me how my sisters told me I was so calm when planning my wedding. I guess if you date a guy for 11 years, you kind of have it all set in your mind by the time you get engaged. And honestly, it's just one day out of the rest of your lives. You want it to be special, but how can you enjoy it if you've driven yourself batty?

Sleeping hasn't been great lately. I hear insomnia is part of menopause, but I've never been a great sleeper. At least the hot flashes come less often...especially if I keep the stress level down.

I'm trying to find a way back into my exercise schedule. Not feeling very motivated right now.

Inquiring minds want to know: tub or shower? I prefer soaking in my jetted tub. That's usually where I read and it helps relax me before bed. It's been mostly showers for me lately. Maybe that's why I'm struggling with sleep.

Meeting one of my sisters for breakfast this week. Need to reconnect with two friends for lunch one day soon.

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - Sep 26

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

• Let me just say that I am really okay with skipping over Halloween and Thanksgiving and getting right to the Christmas season. It makes no sense. I have way too much to do before then. I just can't help it. I really want it to be the Christmas season right now. Feel free to tell me I am nuts.
• Had a closing this week and one coming up on Monday. Feeling good about that.
• Should be reading right now. I have books for review coming up. Just not feeling it lately.
• This is another work weekend. Maybe I'll get a weekend off in October. One can hope.

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - Sep 19

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

Do you have a least favorite chore? I was wondering, because I have two: laundry and vacuuming.

Hubby nicely bought me a robot vacuum for Christmas, but the dog is petrified of it. Every time I start the silly thing, he tries to bite it and barks like a madman, so it never gets used. The central vac is great, but it takes forever and it is so annoying pulling the hose out of one outlet and plugging it into the next one to keep going; especially when you have to move the couch first. Oh, wait, I don't have to do that anymore. The dog ate it, so I threw the couch away.

Laundry is just one of those things that is so never ending. First you have to sort it. Then you load it into the washer. Then you have to tug wet, heavy clothes into the dryer. Next you have to run to the dryer the minute it stops to fold the clean clothes or hang them so they don't wrinkle. And then you have to put them away. By the time you're done, there are dirty clothes in the laundry basket again. Why can't it be more like cooking/baking? Yeah, it takes a while, but you get a nice reward at the end.

I decided to do a few things for myself this week:

• Bring back to life Cheryl's Christian Book Connection
• Pay the in-laws' bills early so I can enjoy the rest of the month
• Skim some library books for research on my current writing project
• Spend time in the garden

What did you do for yourself this week? 

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - Sep 12

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

There are so many things going on right now, my brainy is a bit fried.

1. My house is filled with things from my in-laws' house just begging to find a permanent home, but my work schedule it crazy.
2. I listed a condo this week and will list two more properties by the end of the month. 
3. I'm desperately trying to find a charity to help an elderly homeowner with some deferred maintenance, so they can stay in their home as long as possible.
4. I ordered fall vegetable plants and need to carve out time to get them in the ground. 
5. The WriteAngles Conference is only two months away and I'm coordinating agent meetings this year in addition to being treasurer. 
6. I rejoined the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) because my writing has been ignored too long. 
7. I would love to plan a virtual book tour for November to promote my books, but not sure that will happen.
8. Exciting news that is writing related: I've been contracted as an acquisitions editor intern for 4 RV Publishing. They published my second book, A Christmas Kindness. If all goes well, I'll become a lead editor. 

Hope you have a blessed week. Please say a prayer for everyone down in the Carolinas as they brace for Hurricane Florence. 

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - Sep 5

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

Welcome to September! I hope you had a nice Labor Day weekend. We took the girls into NYC as a belated birthday gift for the Lil' Diva (I should probably stop calling her that since she turned 17 last month).

We walked to Central Park on Sunday since Monday was going to be a scorcher. There was a little fair going on with amusement rides for the little ones. They posed in front of that and did some walking on the rocks. Sunday night we ate at John's Pizzeria and did some shopping in Times Square. Monday was filled with breakfast at a local cafe and more shopping (gosh, I swear that's all the girls like to do). The ride home was pretty easy, but we saw a ton of traffic driving back into New York Monday afternoon.

The kids in Central Park

Climbing rocks in Central Park

Times Square - Sep 2

Window shopping at Macy's--Found these cute piggies I would like to have in my house

We are happy that dance starts this coming weekend. The Lil' Princess might have soccer practice before dance. She will definitely be beat by the time she's done. 

It's a full work week for me. I keep hoping to take some time off to clean the house, but it never happens. I guess going to NYC instead of staying home to clean doesn't make me sound too worthy of sympathy. :) 

Hope you have a great week.

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

Yesterday was an emotional day. My in-laws' place is finally organized so that the clean up crew can come in and toss what needs to be tossed and bring to our place what is being kept. I found so-o-o-o many wonderful family photos and other mementos during the clean up process. It was hard to part with some of them, but there is only so much room at our place. Here are some of the special treasures I discovered on the last day:

My mother-in-law's parents (they died before I joined the family)

My hubby's newborn photo

Local magazines from the 1980s

My father-in-law's navy uniforms

I'm grateful for the blessing of being part of a wonderful family. 

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - August 15

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

Please join me in saying a prayer for one of the Lil' Princess' friends. She was born with a condition called NF2. She has developed benign tumors throughout her body requiring dozens of surgeries. She is scheduled for another major surgery today. May God's hands guide the doctors as they operate on this sweet girl.

God has certainly blessed us with plenty of vegetables from the garden this year. The carrots didn't make it, but everything else is coming along nicely and the potatoes should be ready by the end of the month.

Hope you have a wonderful day.

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - Aug 8

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

1. Building relationships is so important in life. Whether they are personal relationships or business relationships, so much is gained when you nurture them. 
2. Integrity matters. 
3. What would be nice to see in this world is a bit more self-control and a little less talk about people's rights. 
4. Rich Little is still alive and still acting. Wow! This is totally random, I realize, but I was thinking about Don Rickles, Bob Hope and other comedians from my childhood and thought maybe Rich Little had passed away, so I looked him up on the IMDB. Amazing. 

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - Aug 1

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

I'm a bit behind the eight ball this week. Several real estate calls took yesterday in a different direction than planned. Monday was already hectic. I'm hoping the next two days are a bit slower. In a nutshell, here are a few life blurbs:

• No new books arrived, but some other good stuff came in which I'll share later in the week.
• Got one of my properties under contract and signed up two new buyers.
• Furniture is getting moved out of the in-laws' place this weekend. After that the final clean up begins. 
• Cleaned out my pantry yesterday and it feels so great. First step in getting this house together. 

That's it from me. What's going on in your world?

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - July 25

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

Bookish Thought: I need to finish a book.

Not so Bookish Thought: Wouldn't bed feel good right about now?

Bookish Thought: Why did I sign up for all these book reviews?

Not so Bookish Thought: Can I really function on only three hours of sleep?

Bookish Thought: One day I am going to be totally caught up on book reviews.

Not so Bookish Thought: One day this office will be clean.

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - July 18

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

I turned 50 last week. Oh, my gosh, that was tough. It shouldn't be. Age is just a number. I don't feel 50. Well, how would I know? What does 50 feel like? Maybe I should say that I don't feel like my mother. Granted, she never made it to 50, so I already feel blessed I'm happy and healthy. My memories of my mother, though, are of this serious person who never would think of doing the Carlton in the middle of the living room--which I've been known to do. She was definitely the adult in the house.






It's also hard to imagine I've been around for half a century. Where did the time go? Didn't I just graduate from high school? How am I the mother of two teenage girls and a son who has been married for eight years? How is it I'm much closer to retirement than to starting out?

Perhaps the toughest realization of turning 50 is that I thought I would have accomplished more by now. I'm actually working harder now than I did when I was 30.

Life is strange. Now instead of taking care of kids, the hubby and I are caring for his parents. We find the girls want to spend more time with friends and less with us. In a couple of years, it's possible our oldest daughter won't join us on vacation because she will be working or off on her own. We've spent our entire adult lives taking care of kids. What will it be like when they aren't home anymore? Yes, they will still need us, but it will be different. It doesn't make me sad, really, just makes me wonder what else the Lord has in store for us.

Have you been down this road before? How did it feel for you? Any helpful tips you can share?

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - July 4

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

One of my favorite parts of vacation is spending the Fourth of July on the Manteo waterfront. We walk the boardwalk, eat at The Hungry Pelican, and listen to the 208th Army Band at the Roanoke Island Festival Park Theater before the amazing fireworks display starts.

It makes me sad, however, that our country is so divided. Instead of drawing on what we have in common, our differences pull us apart. My sincere prayer is that we can learn to find that common ground again. The days following 9/11, it didn't matter which side of the aisle we were on or if we were right in the middle. We all stood together as one. We were Americans first and liberal, moderate or conservative second. How we responded to that tragedy and the humanitarian efforts we see during other tragedies is what makes us great. The freedom to express our own opinions is what is wonderful about America, but it is us acting with honesty, integrity and respect for all that should define us as a nation. We are the great American melting pot, and it is only when we blend together and work for the common good that we can be all that we are destined to be.

May you have a blessed Fourth of July.

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - Jun 27

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

There really are never enough hours in the day before vacation. In addition to all the regular chores, this week includes:

1. Two home inspections for properties I've sold recently;
2. Getting the in-laws' house on the market;
3. Packing;
4. Shopping for vacation;
5. Cleaning so the house isn't a mess when we get home.

With God's grace and a healthy dose of prayer it will all come together, but it will definitely be a frantic pace.

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - June 20

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

My mind is on vacation. The Lil' Princess graduates from middle school on Thursday and the final day for the Lil' Diva is Friday. Dance recital is Saturday. The whole family is ready for a break. I'm hoping John Boy and his wife decide to join us for a few days, but might not happen.

After decades of traveling to the Outer Banks, I've learned a lot of stuff...

• You often pack things you don't need
• No car is big enough to fit all the stuff the kids bring
• There will be at least one disagreement while you're away
• Moms don't really get vacations

After driving all night, we unpack the car and then I make all the beds, put away all the food we just bought, and start laundry. I usually make two of the three meals each day. I'm still the dog's master. 

On the flip side, vacations, by their nature, encourage you to slow down. Even if you don't get a good night's rest, you usually feel okay because you're not dealing with the day-to-day grind. Reading is so much more fun at the beach. Even when you have to work, it's much easier to handle because after you're done you can go do something fun. 

There is also something very reassuring in knowing you will be coming home again. 

Where do you go on vacation? Do you have a favorite spot? 

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - June 13

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

Oh...my...gosh! I swear this week is so crazy I want to rip out my hair. Next week should be a bit better, but the girls have finals, the Lil' Princess graduates from middle school (thank the Lord for His many blessings), and the Lil' Diva wants to try and get her driver's license before we leave for NC. Please stop the rest of the world so I can catch up.

On a good note, the garden is planted! Pics are coming. It's not a large garden, but hopefully it is manageable. Unfortunately, the crop cover I bought was missing a part, so it's not set up yet. Need to take care of that before we leave or I'll come back to eaten plants.

The gypsy moths are bad this year. When I walk the dog I can hear them chewing leaves in the woods. Yuck!

Looking forward to the Outer Banks and the beach. Hopefully I'll be able to work very little while away.

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - May 30

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

1. So glad the garden is ready for planting. 
2. Where am I going to find the time to actually plant anything? 
3. Don't fresh fruits and vegetables I've grown sound wonderful?
4. Where am I going to find the time to weed the garden? 
5. Do you think the neighbors care that the weeds in my mailbox garden have staged a mutiny and are taking over the actual flowers? 
6. Do you think the next door neighbor is tired of seeing that half empty spot where my hostas use to grow before the voles ate them?

The season has barely begun and I am exhausted. Just have to take it one step at a time, right Jesus? 

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - May 23

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

Do any of you have experience with your school's reporting system? I'm wondering how your school district handles complaints or concerns brought forth by students and their parents. Feel free to share in the comments.

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - May 9

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

Started a new devotional and I love it. It is long overdue. Even the first few pages made me feel better and refocused.

I am so tired of working all the time. Thought I might get the weekend off and then realized there is no way I can take Saturday off. I hope Sunday will be dedicated to my garden, but it's not looking likely.

Do you ever wonder why bullies exist? Well, we know they exist because we live in a fallen world and Lucifer is the master bully. But other than that, don't you just wonder how kids can be so mean to other kids and how it's possible some people are always pushing others around? Why can't we all play nice?

Missed writing group this week. I'm bummed. I'll plan to go next month if I can.

Have you ever taken a bet for what age your kid will be before she starts listening to you?

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - May 2

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

One thing I am looking forward to is not having any book reviews due for a while. There are some old past due ones the authors have probably forgotten about--I can never forget--but after next week I'll be done with new book reviews that I owe. I'm not signing up for any more book tours or requesting any new books until I can read what I want to for a bit. My brain is tired from work and other not so fun things. It needs a rest.

Do you ever stop requesting books for review simply so you can have a less structured reading schedule?

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts - April 4

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts is hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. This is a chance for book bloggers to dabble in areas besides books (but those are welcome too). Share your plans for the weekend, a rant on people not using their turn signals in parking lots, or your love of Sunday morning mimosas.

Things I am tired of....

Liars
Mean people
Rule breakers
Rudeness
School shootings
Domestic violence
Intolerance

Things I need to pray about...

EVERYTHING!