Well...I Can't Walk The Walk!!!

Wore these to dinner...they are so much fun and so cute...strangers asked me where I got them...I had on my signature outfit...a tunic y black dress...black cropped tights underneath...
One problemo...
That would be the actual walking part...
So these are good for short distances only...
very very short...

I don't get it...they aren't that high but I was still teetering and tottering in them...



Read and reviewed this...just a fun bittersweet story...deliciously flawed characters...literally blew through this one. It was in my Vine group.


Also read and reviewed this...this was in my NetGalley group...YA, haunting, great characters with just the right amount of snarky fun thrown in...



I loved that I stuck to my plan this week and by doing so and with Den away...I read four books.

Who knows what next week will bring? I plan on more of the same...I actually read more this time of year...sitting on the deck surrounded by a cat, squirrels, crows, ducks, geese and I finally saw one bunny!!!

I think I am reading this next...also from NetGalley.


Happy Sunday!

All About Laundry...

There are three of us in our little family but only two of us wear clothes.
Well...other than Lucy in her occasional hoodie but that should not be a ton of laundry...right?
We have a ton of laundry. We each change clothes three times a day...I don't get it...either.

Work out clothes, out and about clothes, comfy relaxing at home clothes!!! And there is still dry cleaning.

Whew!!!

My original system was a bin for every category...fine washable whites, fine washable darks, towels/ sheets, darks, lights, and kitchen towels.

Just a bit bin crazy...so much so that the bins...which were actually tall meshy basket like things were taking over an upstairs guest room. And I wouldn't do laundry until a bin was full and then it would take all day to wash, dry, fold, carry back upstairs, and finally put away! In addition to hanging all fine washables on hangers. Add to that the crazy fact that my washer turns everything inside out so I have to uninside out everything to hang. And even if I spent all day doing laundry it was still only one category!

Whoopsie...

Then...folding takes so long because when Lucy hears the dryer go off...she literally races me to the laundry room, waits for the dryer door to open, races me to the family room where I dump hot clean laundry on the floor. She claims it as hers until it's cool or the next batch is ready. I delicately pull out whatever I can to fold as she desperately hangs on to it. Until the next batch and we start all over again...

Sigh...

Anyway...a new system is now in place...everything in one bin...when it's full I do little loads...and I am done for a few days...love it!!!

So far it's working...I sort as I do it and everything is finished in one day...the only dissatisfied family member is LucyGrace...her hot piles of clothing are a teensie bit smaller.

Hopefully she'll get over it.




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So...

I didn't read any of the books I planned on reading this week. I finished The Yard and picked up and read A Good American in a day...
I had no intention of reading it this week but once I started it I just read it until I was done! It was really good...spanned a huge period of time...and was sad and happy and absorbing. Den was away...it was raining...and with my new laundry system in place...I had time!!!
Then I randomly chose this one from my Vine stack...it's really good, too.

So...quite a surprise!







I did decide on shoes...these...they are so soft and comfy and look different in person!
You have to trust me on this one...they are spunkier on...now I want more by this company. They are walkable...I can even hop and run in them...again...trust me.



I also bought these...love them!!! Love shoes that I can just slip on and go...these are semi walk able...if I concentrate and watch where I am going. No running, no hopping...just one step at a time walking.

So...I am weak!!!




Lucy exploitation at its finest...taking her picture while she is napping and without her permission.




So sweet...

So...are you ready for a great week end?

It's supposed to be summery hot here!!!

Gotta Have...Gotta Make...Gotta Love...

What is it about this top thing? I don't even want to wear it out...I just want to wear it around the house...with ragged cut off jeans...I think I want this because it reminds me of something I used to wear in college...I love it!!!
It's my newest gotta have...




And because I love all things layered...remember my total fixation with salad in a jar a few weeks ago?
This baby was on Pinterest...layered cornbread salad?
Gotta make it soon...




I absolutely love the way Lucy loves her stroller...if I park it in the sunroom...it becomes her "crib". Her " blanket " is an Ohio State one my sister gave her...she seems to like it!!!
Gotta love her...




Is there anything out there that gets your "just gotta"?

Ta Da!!!

Finished this...




If you love old English mysteries with an intro to the beginnings of ME's and crime scene investigations...you will love this book. Glorious writing...an engrossing mystery...policemen you will want to make dinner for...and tons of excitement!!! It was long and lovely and filled with creepy early medical practices...lockjaw? Who knew there was such a thing...and leaches and putting jars on your body to take the poisons out...grossly fascinating...by the end of the book a crime fighting team is established...Day and Hammersmith...Hammersmith and Day...I can actually see this as a movie!!!
So excited by this book!!! I hope there are more!!! But the research for a book like this has to be excrutiatingly torturous!!! Alex Grecian needs to take a nice rest and then pick up his laptop and start writing the next book!!!


Now reading this...



Described as suspense filled and intense!!!

Thinking about this...


Has anyone ever heard of this Jello creation before? Am I the last person in the world to make this?

Can you believe it is pretzels...that's the bottom...and cream cheese and Cool Whip?
And Jello and frozen strawberries?

Not one ounce of organic anything in this thing...Although we did use organic strawberries...

You can't imagine the taste...or can you because you have heard of this before and...again...I am the last to know...the recipe is on Pinterest...of course!!!

April Is Poetry Month!!!

April is National Poetry Month...I am a teensy bit late but my post is about children and poetry and some lovely poetry books that I used when I taught.


When I was teaching second grade I would always start the day with a poem. It would always be written on a huge sheet of chart paper...it would always cause discussion...and it would most often come from this book.  It was a part of our morning to sing and recite and chant and tap out syllables and dance and rhyme to the poem of the day.  If for some reason I forgot or didn't have a poem ready...my students would remind me and we would choose an old one. 









I used this book so much that the pages were loose and floppy.


It has wonderful illustrations and a mix of old and newer poems and it was beloved by me and my young students.


Another total favorite was anything and everything by Shel Silverstein. My students would beg for certain poems to be read over and over and over...a special favorite was called "Sick". It was about a little girl named Peggy Ann McKay who couldn't go to school today...they loved it!!!

My second graders also loved the poems of Jack Prelutsky...these were their favorite books.

The poems are silly and ridiculous and sing songy and lovely!!!

There are so many fun and unique and delightful poetry books to share with  children...it is so important to not forget that part of your library when reading books to your children!!!


Happy Poetry Month!!!

Clicking on the above link will take you to the blog tour site for National Poetry Month...there are lots of cool blogs listed there that are exploring poetry!!!

I leave you with a Jack Prelutsky classic...one of my personal favorites!!!

Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face

Be glad your nose is on your face,
not pasted on some other place,
for if it were where it is not,
you might dislike your nose a lot.

Imagine if your precious nose
were sandwiched in between your toes,
that clearly would not be a treat,
for you'd be forced to smell your feet.

Your nose would be a source of dread
were it attached atop your head,
it soon would drive you to despair,
forever tickled by your hair.

Within your ear, your nose would be
an absolute catastrophe,
for when you were obliged to sneeze,
your brain would rattle from the breeze.

Your nose, instead, through thick and thin,
remains between your eyes and chin,
not pasted on some other place--
be glad your nose is on your face!

Thank you, Jack Prelutsky!!!

It's All About Books!!!

Reading this...it's excellent...takes place at the time of Jack the Ripper but that's not what it's about. It's about another serial killer...so very good...I should not be reading this now...I have other books that I really have to read but I am weak...I could not help myself...it's one of those books that grabbed me right away with its tales of murders and disappearing children...and the early stages of fingerprinting...after watching a million CSI's...it is fun to read about the birth of this technique.




Reading this next...I love this author's writing...and this one is about a girl and her chaperone. Louise is a fifteen year old actress. Cora is her thirty six year old chaperone. The book is about their five weeks together in New York that will alter them forever.
Sounds good...doesn't it?




And this right after that...this is described as a "fight of their lives" kind of story...love this kind of book...




All of these were sent to me by the lovely Mary E. Stone from Penguin Group and Putnam Books via NetGalley!!!

Thank you so much...I more than appreciate it.

Love this cover...it was free for Kindle yesterday and got great reviews...we shall see!!!



Have a great day!!!

Bunnies!!!

I found a few of my bunnies...they appear to have found their way onto various shelves around the house...but there are more in a lost bin in the basement.
Hopefully I will find them soon!!!
So...without further ado...meet Biggest Bunny!!!




And Carved Bunny!!!




And Moveable Bunny!!! He likes being next to Brown Wooden Duck!!!




And Stone Cold Bunny!!!




And Handmade By My Sister Paula Married Without Bunnies Bunnies!!! They have been litter less for 5 years now...

Do bunnies come in litters?



Happy Easter!!!