Life is Better at the Lake

More thoughts than my instagram posts here and here.

The kidlets had a three-day weekend so we rented a cabin in the mountains and ignored spring parent teacher conferences (optional anyway) to play board games, pretend to fish (didn't catch anything as usual) and read for three days.  Relaxation at it's finest.  

MC Escher house.  The kids reaaaaally wanted to throw stuff over the rail.  Mean mom said no!  

Several deer spottings, including one running in front of the car on the way home...

Optimistic board game pile.  We played about half of them...

I need one of these.

Eagle!

Moody teenager on some rocks.  I also have photos of moody teenager indoors, in the yard, watching TV, drawing and reading.  It's a whole series.

I think this looks like a jigsaw puzzle photo...

In case we forgot we were in Sasquatch territory... and DB Cooper country (there was a poster).  Conspiracy theory of mine: they're the same person :P  

In my worst John Denver impression: Country roads take me home...

We found Bigfoot, right outside the kitchen window!

Who cares about  the no-fish fishing luck when there's a mountain to stare at.  

Fog/clouds/moody weather.  

I wish my living room was this clean...  I read some of this book but decided my brain needed to read something else for a while.

Started and finished this.  When in a house in the woods, read a book about someone killed in the woods.  Perfect!  Photographed with really horrible coffee (my fault, unfamiliar coffee maker and powdered creamer).

The Fury of Dracula in progress, Dracula won.  

Sub Terra.  We did not escape the cave.  

The Easter bunny found us even though we weren't at home and didn't bring Easter baskets... the Easter bunny is amazing (if I do say so myself).  

It was nice to stay in a house that I didn't look around and think I needed to clean all day...  and we had a great trip.

Other random stuff:

Vacations always make me come home thinking we have way too much stuff... but on vacation we don't have to pay bills, do laundry, or all the other things all that extra "stuff" is used for...

The kids were amazed how the house we stayed in was so clean... of course then came home and left wrappers and cups on every surface.  Grrr.

The dishwasher there actually cleaned the dishes... why can't mine do that?

I don't like gas appliances.  I kept thinking I was going to blow the house up every time I used the oven.  

I always say I want to retire at the beach, but now I'm reconsidering... lake houses don't have tsunami warnings, plus I wouldn't need to put in a pool.

Today, is catch up on all the stuff we didn't do while we were gone day, plus it's pouring.  When is my next vacation?

For My Own Future Amusement

Because no one cares about other people's weather stories.  This one is for me.  I wish I'd gotten a better picture... 

I was today year's old the first time I went outside to take a picture of it snowing, after it stopped hailing, and it was thundering...  and now it's sunny, the sky is blue, and it's 41 degrees. 

The July I was sixteen, we were driving through Yellowstone, and it was snowing has been knocked off the top of my weird weather experience list.  

Go home and sleep it off weather, it's April, not January!  

#ihatewinter #whathappenedtospring? #imcold

I also found out today what happens when you drop a gallon of milk on the kitchen floor... it's not pretty.  Highly do not recommend.  No stars.

#weneedabiggermop #whatamess #stupidhamthatfelloutofthefridgeandmademedropthemilk

No coordinating post on Instagram, I was just having fun making up hashtags.

Day 10 of Spring Break...

 

Today I woke up to it snowing.  Most of our snow happens in February around here. April snow? Never.  

No school means more time to write.  Then the power went out...  

A snow day, what a weird way to end "spring" break.    

Instagram post here.  

What I Read in March 2022

Format: Audio (read by the author).  Length: 3 hours  (+not in the blurb) an unrelated 1 hour story about a dog.  I guess they could be related because both contain dog poop references, otherwise they are two separate stories.  Rating: 4.25

Thoughts: this didn't get high ratings  online but I enjoyed it...  I'm not sure if my enjoyment was higher (trying not to use the word elevated!)  because I listened to it and it was read by the author who knew where to emphasize all the right words or I'm weird.  Maybe it was just a case of right book at the right time...  

I've read Thinner by the author (disguised as Richard Bachman) but it was a looooong time ago (and might have been my first Stephen King book.)  While both stories are about a character losing weight  they are not the same story.  Scott Carey (I'm guessing that is how it's spelled) deals with rapidly losing weight, the lesbians down the street, and other life events.

It kind of got me in the mood to read more everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Stephen King books.  I've only read fifteen or sixteen, and he's written eighty so I have a lot to choose from...

Format: physical book Age: middle grade Length: 224 pages Rating: 3.75 (considering taking it down to 3.5 as I'm already forgetting the plot)

Thoughts: a fun little story about three kids who meet this professor and learn about the land of the Whangdoodles and try to visit.  It was OK, nothing super thrilling or anything.

Format: physical (read-aloud) length: 176 pages rating: 3.5

thoughts: I also read Where the Sidewalk Ends this month so I'm just going to lump the two books together.  I am more familiar with Where the Sidewalk Ends because I still own my childhood copy... Some fun poems, some that were just weird, some were a mouthful to read outloud.  I think Where the Sidewalk Ends was a little more enjoyable, slightly.  

format: physical (reread) length: 352 pages rating: 4 stars

thoughts: I first read this book when I was in high school, I think I received it as a Christmas present.  I have kind of grown out of reading fantasy (wars, blech!) but I have been craving it for some reason and didn't want to reread Lord of the Rings... so I picked this up.  I think I was just not in the right mood, and world events going on affected my reading. Also, the mole dialect annoyed me.  I kept my previous four star rating because I think I was just grumpy while reading this.  I won't swear off fantasy but I apparently have to be in the exact right mood to read it... and I was not in that mood in March.

format: physical (library book) non-fiction length: 144 pages rating: 4 stars

thoughts: a handy little reference book. I recently killed my aloe plant (the one I bought right before the pandemic started, I loved that plant) so I need help before I become a serial plant murderer.  Apparently, according to this book, the error of my ways was watering it in the winter.  🤷‍♀️  

format: physical  age: middle grade pages: 291 rating: 4.25

Thoughts: this was a fun little book about a bunch of kids who win a chance to visit a new library before it officially opens, and they have to figure out a way to "escape" and win a prize.  Puzzles, lots of author jokes and easter eggs, and a fun journey.  I liked it.  I'm not sure I'll read the rest of the series right away, but it's possible.  

format: physical age: middle grade length: 304 pages rating: 4.5

thoughts: I really enjoyed this one.  It's about a Chinese immigrant family that lives and works in a hotel and the issues they face with guests, neighbors, people at school etc and especially the hotel owner  I thought it was really well written and I guess it is now a trilogy so I'll have to eventually read the rest.  

Winnie-ther-Pooh.  160ish pages.  Read-aloud.  Five stars, I mean who doesn't like Winnie-the-Pooh?

The silly old bear gets into all kinds of adventures.  My kid loved the maps on our copy of the book, and is still talking about Eeyore's mopey place.

did-not-finish: 

Pony by RJ Palacio (everyone else loves it...) I was bored to death and it sent me into a book slump.  I probably will not pick this one up again.  The people who are raving about it are adults, I don't know about middle graders, it was pretty slow for a middle grade book...

The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis (audio book).  I watched most of the show (the husband was watching it, I didn't see the first episode) and I was slightly interested, even if it's about chess.  So I grabbed the audio book because it's supposed to be excellent and it was available.

There was a scene in the first chapter of this book that I could not listen to.  I have asked around and it's apparently the only such scene, they left it out of the show, and it has nothing to do with the plot... so if it's so unimportant, than why was it in the book in the first place?  

I read pretty much anything (except if it involves eyes and sharp objects) but that particular scene just turned me off of the entire book and I didn't finish the chapter.  Maybe because it was a male author writing about an 8-year-old girl.  Gross. 

March statistics:

books read: 9

fiction: 8 non-fiction: 1

middle grade: 7 adult: 2 YA: 0

owned:7  borrowed:2

physical: 8 audio:1 ebook: 0

pages read: 1954, hours listened: 4.5 

dnf: 2

And that was my reading March.  Not the worst month, not the best either.  Meh March.  Let's go awesome April!

Muffins and Stuff

And the update, as per Instagram.  I have written approximately 7000 words of something in the last three weeks that might someday resemble an actual story and it's not about a house.  

The photo is not the same as Instagram because 1) I'd have to go find my phone and email it to myself and I don't want to go find my phone and email myself right now and 2) I really liked that muffin (circa February 2022) and wish I had blueberries so I could make more.  

And finally, it is the seventh day of a rainy, wet, stormy, occasionally sunny for long enough to think about mowing the lawn, nope it's raining again spring break.  Yesterday it was 77 degrees, this weekend it might snow...  My allergies have been horrid this year and I don't know if I can take any more spring. Is it July yet?

The End

Oh Yeah, I Have a Blog...

 

As posted on instagram, the book I am currently reading.  It's very good so far.  But I keep having to remind myself I'm a person who reads books and need to actually pick them up and read them...

I should have plenty of time to read today since The Husband had to actually go to his physical work building today and drove my car, so I can't take the load of crap I have in there to Goodwill like I planned.  I also can't fit all four kids in his car so leaving the house at all is negligible.  The weather is kind of gross anyway... Yay, Spring Break.

I read nine books in March and will probably post what those were and what I thought of them soon.  It sounds like a lot but seven were middle grade, three of those I read outloud to my youngest child, and I read the majority of the books in the first part of the month.   April, hopefully, will be more normal.

other stuff:

kids: good

plants: growing (too cold to transplant outside yet), it's supposed to freeze tonight :( 

house: almost finished the bathroom (need to paint part of a wall and install the sink)

board games: we played Thunderstone Quest yesterday, and I don't like it... dungeons, fantasy, buy weapons, kill monsters, and lots of waiting for your own turn.  Not my thing...

scrapbooking: excellent.  

teeny tiny cup of coffee for the day: complete