Teaser Tuesdays: Hawke's Cove by Susan Wilson

Teaser Tuesday's is hosted by MizB at Books and a Beat. To play along, just do the following:

- Grab your current read 

- Open to a random page 

- Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser. 

My teaser this week is from page 6 of Hawke's Cove by Susan Wilson:

After this long, which secret needed the most safekeeping? Did it really matter anymore where Joe had come from?

Memorial Day

Revision

I love John Steinbeck and this quote is so me! This quote also falls in line with my love for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The entire philosophy of NaNoWriMo is this quote exactly - write the entire story as quickly as possible without censure or revision. Then, once the first draft is complete, go back and revise.

I took what I already knew to be true for me and applied it to a short story I had running around in my head. I sat for my allotted writing time for a couple of days and wrote down the story in my head. Then I set it aside while I worked on other stuff. This week I brought the short story out again and I have been revising it. I'm going to go through it once more but I am finally coming to a happy place - or at least a place of understanding - with this story. 

It feels good to be revising. It feels even better to be taking steps forward. 

Stay positive

I believe in being positive but sometimes I need a little reminder about actually doing it. I also need that reminder about patience. I'd much rather be positive than negative but being human I sometimes let darkness creep in. I am making a vigilant effort to remain on a positive path filled with patience and persistence so the above quotes are perfect for me right now. I'd like to be reminded of them on a regular basis. I'm doing my best to teach my children these same values so I have to live them. 

Crocheted Potholder

I used a mandala pattern from Attic 24 to make a potholder. I love it and will be making more. In fact, I am about to start one in red, white and blue. 

Summer vacation begins

Time to play at the beach.

Time to go swimming.

It's time to relax, enjoy the warmer temperatures, the water and hopefully a trip to the mountains. It's time to read just for the fun of it, sleep-in and do some fun art projects! It really is a wonderful time of year.

Wordless Wednesday: The Cure

The Cure at The Hollywood Bowl.

Teaser Tuesdays: Fighting Dirty by Lori Foster

Teaser Tuesday's is hosted by MizB at Books and a Beat. To play along, just do the following:

- Grab your current read 

- Open to a random page 

- Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser. 

My teaser this week is from page 97 of Fighting Dirty by Lori Foster:

"He was planning to drug me?"

"I only know what I heard."

It's almost here

This has been the mantra at my house for a couple of weeks now. My kids are nearing the end of their school year (it went by in a flash) and they are so ready for summer. To be honest I am, too. They go to a good school and have great teachers but we are all so ready for a break. We love the more relaxed demeanor of summer. We love going to the pool, the beach, taking road trips and generally being able to have more freedom with our schedule. Oh, and my kids adore being allowed to stay up a little later and sleep in a little more in the mornings. So yeah, we're all ready for summer here!

Believe

Paper and Pen

I had forgotten just how much I like writing with a pen on paper. In April I got into a thing called Bullet Journaling. It's an organizational system built around simplicity and results. However, it is also a world of creativity that I had no idea existed until a few months ago.

I kept seeing it referenced through hashtags on Instagram. Finally, I checked it out and - as I told a friend of mine - I went down Alice's rabbit hole! There is an entire group of people - myself included now - who swear and plan their lives through their Bullet Journals! The original creator of the system, Ryder, has a great video about his intent and how he uses his Bullet Journal. As he says, "It's the analog system for the digital age." You basically use a notebook or journal and write down the things you need to do or remember and then get things done!

A lot of people also use their Bullet Journal for actual journaling or artistic ventures such as writing or drawing. It can be as fancy or as simple as you want it to be. Every Bullet Journal is as individual as the person who uses it. In my opinion, that is the beauty of this community.

My Bullet Journal is a mixture of a task oriented planner, journal and writing ideas. It is wonderful to have the things I need to remember for my kids, myself and my husband in the same book that I journal in and jot down ideas for my books. I absolutely LOVE having all of this stuff in ONE book that I can put in my purse and have whenever I need it. As I said in the beginning, an added bonus is that I have rediscovered the joy of writing with a pen on paper.

Just write

Another piece of writing advice I truly believe in!

A blank page

This advice is so very true! As I've shared before it isn't the actual writing that I find so challenging it is the editing and revision process. I make time to write every single day. I need to make the same time - if not more - to edit every single day, as well. 

Wordless Wednesday: Mosaic butterfly tree

Teaser Tuesdays: True Betrayals by Nora Roberts

Teaser Tuesday's is hosted by MizB at Books and a Beat. To play along, just do the following:

- Grab your current read 

- Open to a random page 

- Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser. 

My teaser this week is from page 294 of True Betrayals by Nora Roberts:

He moved like lightning, shielding her with his own body as he gathered her up. He took a blow to the shoulder, unfelt as he lifted her. 

I love reading!

Wise advice from Ernest Hemingway

Family

My family mean the world to me. We've been very busy lately but still able to spend some wonderful quality time together. I am so thankful for that and for them - always. 

So ready for summer

At the very least I am ready for my kids to be on summer vacation! I love when they are on vacation and especially during the summer. Every thing just seems to slow down and move at a more relaxed pace. There's no homework, projects or multiple other obligations. Don't get me wrong - my kids go to a great school and I am thankful that they have had some great teachers but there is just something so fabulous about summer vacation. It's almost here and my kids are already asking to go to the pool and the beach. They even want to go camping this year which is an exciting thing to their dad and I. They even want to fish while we're camping. Of course they also want to release the fish we catch. That's kind of a bummer freshly caught grilled fish is delicious. That's all right though - we'll throw the fish back this time.

Sorting through books

I need to have a sort through of my children's bookshelf. This shouldn't feel like a daunting task but it does. I think it is due to the fact that there are so many books on their shelves that they have outgrown but we all have an emotional attachment to. I know we can't keep every book forever but it's hard to decide which ones to keep and which to donate. There are some books that will be kept forever and there's simply no question about it. Such as: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. There are so many other books that have been so well loved in our house that it is hard to know which to keep and which to let go. How do you decide? I honestly wish we didn;t have to part with any of them but I know that we must. We simply don't have the room in our home to keep every book my children and I purchase to read. 

The books I listed are early childhood favorites. There are certainly more that they have fallen in love as middle grade readers. This bookshelf sort through has needed to be done for a while now but I just keep putting it off because if I don;t really want to do it then of course they won;t want to, either. It NEEDS to be done, though! They're running out of room for their books. It's a wonderful 'problem' to have but it is still one that needs to be addressed. 

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Mother's Day Tulips

My Mother's Day tulips opened up and they're a gorgeous pink and white. 

Teaser Tuesdays: True Betrayals by Nora Roberts

Teaser Tuesday's is hosted by MizB at Books and a Beat. To play along, just do the following:

- Grab your current read 

- Open to a random page 

- Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser. 

My teaser this week is from page 164 of True Betrayals by Nora Roberts:

Where, Kelsey thought as she felt the urgency, the need pulse from her mother, had this passion come from? How could it have been there all along and never showed?

Musing Mondays: The Best of LAST year

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

• I’m currently reading…
• Up next I think I’ll read…
• I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
• I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I can’t wait to get a copy of…
• I wish I could read ___, but…
• I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: What is the best book you read LAST year?

2015 was a rather chaotic year for my family. I didn't read quite as much as I normally would but I did read some really good books and series. I'm going to use two books to answer this question. The first book I would qualify as one of the best of 2015 is Friction by Sandra Brown. I only discovered Sandra Brown about two years ago. I am so glad I did because I never know quite what to expect with her books and I love that. Friction was exactly that way. There were times while reading the book where I had to tell myself that Ms. Brown had created her Texas Ranger hero so he had to actually be the hero.

Last year I also discovered a new-to-me author names Lisa Clark O'Neill. She has a series called Southern Comfort that is amazing. I really enjoyed the entire series but I will list the first, Serendipity as one of favorites because it is the start of the series and it made me crave - and therefore read - the rest of the books. 

Happy Mother's Day

Reading with my kids

Around Christmas of 2015 I started reading with my kids again. I used to read to them most every day when they were smaller. However that slowly went away as they got bigger and became independent readers. It was something I missed so much, though. Then, by chance, my oldest asked me to read to them one night during Christmas break. I was thrilled and happily read to them before they went to sleep. The next night they asked me to do it again. About the fourth or fifth night in they wanted to know why we'd stopped reading together at night and if we could start it up again. So we did and we haven't stopped.

It has been so wonderful reading to and with my kids again each night. It is something we all look forward to every night. So far this year we have read the first two Land of Stories books. Now we're reading a book called The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd. It is a wonderful book - a little sad, though. Still, we're enjoying the adventure in the book and the time to spend together each night.

Dinner on a rainy night

My kids have been asking for lasagna for a couple of weeks. I finally made it tonight. It was delicious! We had it with salad and bread. 

Forever Love

Wordless Wednesday: Crochet Everyday

Teaser Tuesdays: True Betrayals by Nora Roberts

Teaser Tuesday's is hosted by MizB at Books and a Beat. To play along, just do the following:

- Grab your current read 

- Open to a random page 

- Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser. 

My teaser this week is from page 22 of True Betrayals by Nora Roberts:

Naomi had admitted to murder as casually as another woman might admit to dyeing her hair. What kind of a woman was she?

Library Love

I love this quote so much! I also love the library so very much! I always have. I can't remember getting my first library card as a child. I just remember always having one. We moved around a lot when I was a kid but my brother and I always knew where the library was and we both made frequent use of it. I imagine it was probably my mom who made sure we knew where it was and set us up with our library cards in each new place we lived but I don;t remember that for sure, either. What I remember is always having the certainty of books and stories and new adventures in my life. Through stories and words on the pages of books my brother and I had friends even if we didn't know anyone else in our new home.

As a mom I have made certain that my children have library cards. I have made sure that we use our local library on a regular basis. We go to the library every seven to ten days during the school year and once or twice a week during summer. In addition to the books we all get there our library has a wonderful summer program that my kids love. They also have a pretty decent selection of movies that my kids have recently begun checking out. The librarians are always so helpful and a wonderful source of knowledge. I am so thankful for our library system and hope that it never goes away. 

A needed reminder