IT'S ABOUT ME, MY BOYS AND A LITTLE CRAFTING THROWN INTO THE MIX!
As you can imagine, I have all sorts of thoughts and feelings about what happened in Florida.
I am sure if you have children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews or any loved ones that go to school, This thought has passed through your mind at some point.😔
I wrote a long heart felt post, but will or will not share next week.
This is all I have to say for now.
Do you ever come across something in your house that makes you say, “Hmmm…” I did the other day…
 Charlie’s dog collar…with a padlock on the bottom…hanging from a Command hook…Interesting.
“JACK!”
“So what’s up with this?”
“Mom…I am making different Escape Chambers in the house.”
Oh! Of course. Silly me. What else could it possibly be?
(I’m glad to report that no one has had to escape a chamber in our house due to this is as far as Jack’s planning has progressed. )
I just finished the book This Is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel.
I loved this story! It gave me all the feelings!
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
I am going to share pieces of a review that I read due to the fact that it words my thoughst perfectly:
As Rosie and Penn’s fifth child, they had learned to take their children’s many quirks in stride. Claude is a sweet little boy, the youngest in his family of five boys. Claude is a happy well-adjusted, precocious child who knows what he wants. He wants to wear dresses, carry a purse for a lunchbox, play princess, and be a girl when he grows up. Rosie, Penn and his brothers want Claude to be happy with whoever he is, but there is no road map for how to do this. When it became apparent that Claude’s yearning was more than a phase, they didn’t panic as many parents might. Instead, Rosie and Penn did all they could to help Claude be the person he felt himself to be, Poppy. When it became too difficult in the small Wisconsin community where they lived, they moved their family to Seattle for a fresh start. I so loved the way the entire family took everything about Poppy in stride. Her brothers were amazingly off-handed about it, but never to the point where it didn’t ring true. Poppy was just another piece of their busy lives. Soon the whole family is keeping secrets to protect Poppy. Secrets too big to be secrets for long.
There is a part where Rosie and Claude/Poppy go to Thailand. (Not giving anything away.) I questioned this part of the book and thought it wasn’t really relevant, but…This section of the book helped me understand the hopelessness that Claude/Poppy felt. That last section allowed the reader to learn that transgender people are accepted in some cultures.(Earlier, Poppy even taught her parents about gender variations in some animals.) The Thai part showed that there are other issues much more critical in life and allowed Poppy/Claude to help others and thus gain strength and accept herself.
People Magazine’s Top 10 Books of 2017
Amazon’s Best Books of 2017: Top 20
Amazon’s Best Literature and Fiction of 2017
Bustle’s 17 Books Every Woman Should Read From 2017
PopSugar’s Our Favorite Books of the Year (So Far)
Refinery29’s Best Books of the Year So Far
BookBrowse’s The 20 Best Books of 2017
Pacific Northwest Book Awards Finalist
The Globe and Mail‘s Top 100 Books of 2017
When I pick up Charlie’s poo in a poop bag (may be too much information) IÂ throw it into our “poop-bag bucket.”
Out poop bucket is beside our recycle bin, so instead of walking around to the bin, at times, I throw it over the bushes to see if I can hit the poop-bag bucket. No, you cannot see the bucket from where I toss the bag.
Here is the poop-bucket from the recycle bin side. (NO it is NOT that full! It is full of frozen snow and that is why the bags are at the top!!)
The other day, I gave the bag a good toss and Oops..it got caught in the tree! (Oh Dear!!) How gross is that!?!?
Can you spot the yellow bag in the tree in the previous pictures? We will have to get it down…but not sure how. It’s strategically landed right over the bushes and as you can see, it’s caught on one of the higher branches.
Most would say, stop throwing that bags over the bushes.
I say, try aiming lower!
I could not have said this better myself!
I started to notice how when one of us would leave the house, Charlie would run from the garage door (where we just walked out) to the front window and look out. Â Was she actually watching our cars drive down the lane?
So the other day when I left, she was at the garage door. When I was driving up the lane, I stopped to see if Charlie was in the window watching me leave…
And sure enough, I spotted her little face in the window watching me leaving her behind.
I have always wanted to learn how to knit! So I finally bit the bullet and signed up for a beginners knitting class! Our first assignment was to knit a square dishcloth. Done!
Now, don’t  be too overwhelmed by my knitting abilities…here’s my first knitted project: a square dish cloth!
Nailed it!! 😊
I am now a statistic. I am one of the many people that have had influenza A. It knocked me out. I was down for the count. This was my view for days.
Charlie slept on the end of the bed…looking out the window. She was very quiet and actually left me alone. I think she knew I didn’t feel good. The TV was on, but I really didn’t watch much…just slept.
Finally feeling better, but get worn out pretty quickly. All the boys have stayed well due to putting myself in quarantine, with Charlie.
Hope you and your family are all staying well!!
jack has a fun challenge game that sits on our coffee table called Shoot the Moon. The concept is to balance the silver ball on the poles and try to drop it into the Saturn cup. It’s A LOT harder than it looks. I’ve only been able to get to Jupiter two times.
When Jack plays, Charlie is always by his side, eyeing that little silver ball.
Then Charlie had an idea…
She went and got her favorite red ball and placed it on the poles. It was much easier to get to Saturn with a larger ball!
I really needed to start moving again…either working out at the gym (yuck) or doing something at home. I’ve always been interested in yoga, so yoga it was! With the suggestions of a couple of friends, I started Yoga with Adriene, specifically, 30 Days of Yoga: True.
I love it and would highly suggested it to anyone that might be interested in yoga. The entire series (plus many many more videos) are available on youtube…for free!
The top question I asked others (and have been asked) is, “Do you really get a work out?” Oh, yes you do! I actually needed to take a day off to let my muscles recover . Adriene eases you into the entire practice of yoga and I am actually doing the moves correctly now and can feel the difference.
So need a little encouragement to get moving, then try True! I don’t think you will be disappointed!