Projects. Reading. And More......

Back in March, some Sweet Sisters were born into our 'family'.  They were tiny, delicate little things and spent about 2 months in the NICU.  Oh my.  They were the epitome of mini-but-mighty and made sure everybody knew they were in charge.  College Girl has spent the summer being their nanny. Suffice it to say she's in love with them--

--and their brother. They are silly together and he is an amazing almost 5 year-old.  At the City fireworks display, he said, "Guys.  No phones during the show."  Every night she comes home with a funny story from her day with the kids.  She is in heaven because the Mom has let her dress The Sisters each day.  For a girl who spent HOURS and HOURS playing with Barbies, these real live barbies are the best gift.  She sends each of us The Sisters outfit-of-the-day picture.  It's a highlight for sure!

So now that they have been home for 2 months, I am getting around to making their blankets.  Frack helped out with one and I made the other.  My girls picked out the fabric for these blankets.  I don't love sewing on that minky stuff.  It's so soft and cuddly and makes the nicest blankets but, boy it's a bearcat to sew on.  It's stretchy and slick.  My grandma would be gritching about that fabric. 

 

One thing my grandma would not be gritching about is this:  

 

Frack learning to sew.  And I have raised my girls right.  My grandma would be so proud.  We cannot pass a fabric store without going in and most likely, purchasing something.  Last week, flannel was on sale.  The Sisters got two more blankets made with love by Frack.  I simply supervised, occasionally wound some thread on the bobbin and just watched with great pride knowing my grandma was also watching. 

Later in the month, I am hosting my annual Ladies Function.  It requires a Hostess Gift.  I refuse to buy anything that has to be dusted, so I decided that everyone can use hot pads and tea towels.  Mainly I think that because I can always use them.  I have about a 5 inch stack of material cut into potholders, just waiting to be sewn.  So I made a couple of potholders and then just cut 2 squares and sewed them onto the tea towel.  Nothing fancy, nothing difficult, nothing real expensive.  Just useful and pretty darn cute.  I probably will add some kitchen utensil to the gift and I am done.  Easy peasy.  Now if only my house was clean!

 
I finished another book, The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly.  It's a good book.  A very good book.  It may seem familiar to you because it's a movie with Matthew McConaughey as the main character, Michael Haller.  He does keep his clothes on in this movie, so it might be easier to concentrate.  On the movie.  You know the plot, etc. 

Anyway, I highly recommend this book.  I also found that Micheal Connelly has a bunch of books with Michael Haller as the main character and another series that have a character named Hieronymus Bosch as the main character.  Those books look really interesting. 

I also was able to score the new Jeffrey Archer book, The Sins of the Father, at the public library.  I am pretty excited about this book for I really do enjoy Jeffrey Archer.  One of my favorite books is his As the Crow Flies.  The Sins of the Father is part of a series that he has started, called The Clifton Chronicles.  The first book, Only Time Will Tell, takes place in England but it seems this book migrates across the ocean to be set in the United States. 

So many books, so little time. 

After school lets out in May, I take a nap every day.  No lie.  Every day in June I take a nap.  This June was no exception--I took a nap every day.  Unfortunately, its now July.  No naps.  Today, I seriously wanted a nap.  I did not take one.  I did not. 

I did not.  Just sayin'.

Tuesday

Today is Tuesday, July 3.  For many a teacher, it's almost the half-way point of the summer.  For when we awake on Thursday, July 5, it will be the half-way point of the summer.  It's the moment of sheer panic we feel when we realize that our summer to-do list isn't half done, our summer reading list isn't half read, our school year weight gain isn't half gone, our house isn't half cleaned and those 'projects' related to school, well, they aren't even started. 

But for today, all of that is going to wait.  I have important things to do:  blankets to make for sweet sisters, books to be read, lemonade to be drank and dinner to make. 

Yep.  I don't want to miss a thing.  Just sayin'. 

Read 1

A couple of summers ago I decided to see how many books I could read over the course of summer break. I think I ended up having read 35 books that summer.  Vacation always helps--usually half my suitcase is books for the week.  No vacation this year.  This summer?  I hope to get 30.

These are the books I have finished so far:

This is one of my book stacks.....

And another book stack....although I have finished 2 books from this stack, so it is smaller.  One or two books are not in the pictures that I have finished, so I actually have a total of 8.  Almost 1/4 of the way to 30--sort of--and I need to step it up if I am going to get my goal.

And here is another book stack.

   

I did not like Fireflies in December at all.  It was the June selection for my Old Lady Book Club.  The other members enjoyed it and I simply did not.  The July selection is Circle of Three.  Although I have read another book,  The Saving Graces, by this same author, I am not sure I liked this book as much.  I started it, read about 1/4 of it, put it down, read another book, picked it back up read about 1/2 of it, read another book and finally forced myself to finish it.  I was skimming and scanning towards the end.  I just didn't like 2 of the 3 main characters.  They were whiny, nambypambies.  I also am finding that I don't really enjoy books that have a different chapter told from each main characters point of view.  It's like the same story is being told 3 times and it takes FOREVER to get anything going in the story.  It will be interesting to see what the other Old Ladies think about the book.  

I have read the first 4 books, Open Season, Savage Run, Winterkill and Trophy Run in the Joe Pickett series by C.J. Box.  The last book, Trophy Kill, was kind of brutal.  One night I dreamed what I had read before bed.  I guess that means I am really into the book, right? 

The Innocent by David Baldacci is a very good book.  I seriously couldn't put it down and had to enforce my read-a-chapter-do-a-chore-rule or we would have had complete and utter chaos.  Wait, too late.  We have that already.  And Frick read it after me, and she couldn't put it down either.

If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now by Claire LaZebnik was a decent read.  Lots of things that made me think--but part way through the novel, I realized I had read another book by the author--Knitting Under the Influence--which I really liked a lot.  She is a good writer and she weaves a good tale.  Family saga type stuff. 

Since today is July 1, I have 47 days left of summer vacation.  It would be so awesome if I could read a book a day--but seriously, that's not going to happen.

It won't hurt to try, though.  Just sayin'.