Author: Trish

Into reading, decluttering, budgeting, and doing jigsaw puzzles!
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What I’m Reading – June 30th

What I’m Reading Now:

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins – The story of Coriolanus Snow from The Hunger Games. I’m about a third of the way through and I am loving it!

Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life by Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein – I enjoyed Kondo’s books on decluttering and used them to go through my whole house and get it organized. I need to do some touch ups here and there, but I am interested in what she has to say about work. I feel pretty organized there, but she may have some good ideas that will make it even better.

The Winemaker’s Wife by Kristin Harmel – My foray back into the world of WWII novels.

To See the Moon Again by Jamie Langston Turner – This is her eighth book and the last one she has published so far. It has gotten pushed to the side by the influx of library books coming off hold.

What I Recently Finished:

A Week at the Shore by Barbara Delinsky – I have always enjoyed this author’s books, and this one was pretty good.

The Battle for Skandia by John Flanagan – Book Four in the Ranger’s Apprentice series. It was action-packed and very satisfying to read.

Spy, Spy Again by Mercedes Lackey – Book Three in the Family Spies series and who knows how many in the entire Valdemaran world. I have read her books since I was a teenager and still enjoy them. I loved this one!

What I’ve Added to my TBR list:

The Sorcerer of the North by John Flanagan – Book Five in the Ranger’s Apprentice series.

If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!

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We’ve Gone Green!

Under my desk – one of his favorite spots when I’m working!

I guess our county is in the green phase of reopening now. The dog park is open, although both times I have gone there haven’t been any dogs Baxter could play with.

Tuesday after I got the stitches out from my dental implant, I treated myself to lunch at a Mexican restaurant. It was nice to sit there and enjoy food I didn’t have to cook that was still hot. Takeout is nice but it has its limitations.

I don’t plan to go back to church yet. I will continue viewing the online services, which I had been doing off and on even before the pandemic. I prefer that method anyway!

I am going to get my hair cut on Thursday. It’s halfway down my back and desperately needs a few inches off. Plus she will thin it out some and taper it around my face. I want to look somewhat presentable when I have to do some staff training next month.

Speaking of work, I have been very busy there. We are adding new health and safety products to the website, plus I’m helping test the new system we are switching to later this year. And my boss has also asked me to train the sales staff on how to use the new system, so I’m trying to prepare for that as well.

On the Baxter front, we are now working with a dog trainer. She is coming once a week and plans to help us with the various issues we have been having. Lately it seems like potty training has regressed a bit so we are going back to a more routine schedule for taking him out. I really hope we can get this under control!

He was so cute the other night though. I took him out around 9pm and he was fascinated by the lightning bugs. He really wanted to catch one!

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What I’m Reading – June 23rd

What I’m Reading Now:

To See the Moon Again by Jamie Langston Turner – This is her eighth book and the last one she has published so far.

What I Recently Finished:

When We Were Young by Karen Kingsbury – One of the Baxter Family books that I missed somehow. It was cute – sort of Fireproof meets A Christmas Carol. A quick read.

Masked Prey by John Sandford – This is book 30 in his Prey series featuring Lucas Davenport.

Sometimes a Light Surprises by Jamie Langston Turner – I’m rereading her books in the order they were published, and this is the seventh one.

The Lending Library by Aliza Fogelson – Light hearted novel about a woman who opens a small library in her home when her local library closes for repairs. Kind of cute, but there’s something about it that’s a little too cheesy.

What I’ve Added to my TBR list:

Shadows in Death by J.D. Robb – Book #51 in the In Death series, this is due out in September.

The Christmas Swap by Melody Carlson – Also due out in September, this should be a cute holiday read.

If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!

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What I’m Reading – June 16th

What I’m Reading Now:

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner – My library only has this in audiobook, so I’m trying to listen to it. I’m not very far into it. I have trouble finding time when I can really focus on listening to the story. I may have to put this back on my TBR list until I can find a print copy.

Sometimes a Light Surprises by Jamie Langston Turner – I’m rereading her books in the order they were published, and this is the seventh one.

When We Were Young by Karen Kingsbury – One of the Baxter Family books that I missed somehow.

What I Recently Finished:

No Dark Valley by Jamie Langston Turner – I’m rereading her books in the order they were published, and this is number five.

Winter Birds by Jamie Langston Turner – Her sixth book. It actually is set in Mississippi instead of South Carolina, although there are a few characters from her other books who show up in this one a little bit.

What I’ve Added to my TBR list:

Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue by Hugh Howey – I absolutely loved his Wool series and am going to give the Bern Saga a try – this is book one.

If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!

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What I’m Reading – June 9th

What I’m Reading Now:

No Dark Valley by Jamie Langston Turner – I’m rereading her books in the order they were published, and this is number five.

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner – My library only has this in audiobook, so I’m trying to listen to it. We’ll see how it goes.

What I Recently Finished:

A Garden to Keep by Jamie Langston Turner – Her fourth book, this is an extremely thought-provoking story.

What I’ve Added to my TBR list:

The Lending Library by Aliza Fogelson – This was one of the Amazon Prime First Reads for June, and it sounded good.

The Winemaker’s Wife by Kristin Harmel – I know I said I didn’t like books set in WWII, but this one just sounded interesting and I thought I would give it a try.

If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!

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One Year Old

Baxter will be one year old this Tuesday. Since I’m getting a dental implant that day and wasn’t sure I’d feel up to celebrating, we decided to celebrate over the weekend.

To start, I baked him a dog-friendly cake with ingredients like applesauce and pumpkin, complete with a frosting made from peanut butter and Greek yogurt. For the humans, I made cake mix chocolate chip cookie bars. We sang Happy Birthday and ate our respective treats, which everyone enjoyed. Then I gave him his presents. He got a split elk antler and a birthday balloon toy with rope.

I have to admit I have been struggling lately, vacillating between great affection for Baxter and incredible frustration with him. Now that we are not under a stay-at-home order anymore, I reached out to a few dog trainers and found one that is willing to do positive behavior training for a very reasonable price. So I have her starting this week.

If we can get to a point where I can take him for walks without being pulled every which way, that would go a long way towards helping the situation. If we can get him to stop bothering the cat, that would be amazing. Those are my top two complaints right now.

Hopefully I will be feeling better about things by the time we hit one year since the day we got him, which was September 7th. Until then, I’ll keep trying to take one day at a time. 🙂

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What I’m Reading – June 2nd

What I’m Reading Now:

A Garden to Keep by Jamie Langston Turner – I’m rereading her books in the order they were published, and this is book four.

What I Recently Finished:

The Burning Bridge by John Flanagan – Book 2 in the Ranger’s Apprentice series. I am enjoying this series. It’s not totally realistic because the 15 year olds save the day on more than one occasion, but they are still a lot of fun to read.

The Icebound Land by John Flanagan – Book 3 in the Ranger’s Apprentice series. Another good book, although the way it shifted between the two storylines every other chapter was disconcerting. I would just be getting into it and the chapter would end, and I would have to switch gears to the other characters.

Someone Like You by Karen Kingsbury – This novel is part of her Baxter Family series. It was a sweet story and a quick afternoon read.

By the Light of a Thousand Stars by Jamie Langston Turner – I’m rereading her books in the order they were published, and this is her third one. I got so engrossed in it that I finished it in one day.

What I’ve Added to my TBR list:

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner – A few weeks ago, I shared a blog post about things that make me not want to read a book, and one of those things was a WWII setting. Well, this book is set just after WWII plus it’s about one of my favorite authors, so I am going to take a chance on it. My library only has it available as an audiobook. I have enjoyed audiobooks in the past, so I think that will be okay.

The Battle for Skandia by John Flanagan – Book 4 in the Ranger’s Apprentice series

Truly, Madly, Deeply by Karen Kingsbury – the next book in the Baxter Family series due out in October (no image available yet)

If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!

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Moving to Yellow (May 31st Update)

I don’t have much to report this week.

I had a very productive week at work. Splitting my time between new product entry and new system testing breaks up the monotony of doing one thing all the time.

Michael finished up his assignments for the fourth quarter, so all that is left is to return his library books and pay his fines, which are less than $1.00 in total.  That will be on Wednesday.

Our county is now in the yellow zone, which means the stay at home order is lifted and some businesses can reopen while following social distancing guidelines. People are encouraged to continue working from home if they can and are supposed to limit gatherings to 25 people.

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Jane Austen (Author Spotlight)

Another of my all-time favorite writers is Jane Austen. I tend to be the kind of person who perversely avoids things that everyone is raving about, but in this case, I don’t mind being part of the crowd of admirers. Here is a list of her books with their publication date:

She also had two unfinished works, The Watsons and Sanditon (included with Lady Susan in the book I linked to above). Although Pride and Prejudice is probably her best known book (who doesn’t love Mr. Darcy?), my favorite of her novels is Persuasion. I have always identified with the personality of Anne Elliot and love the way the romance unfolds between her and Frederick Wentworth. I especially enjoyed the 1995 movie version of Persuasion with Amanda Root.

Her novels have been retold and added onto by countless writers and filmmakers over the years with varying amounts of success. I have read (and viewed) lots of these and enjoyed many of them, although sometimes they are overwhelmingly bad.

Do you like Jane Austen? Do you have a favorite novel of hers?

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What I’m Reading – May 26th

What I’m Reading Now:

The Burning Bridge by John Flanagan – Book 2 in the Ranger’s Apprentice series I started a couple of weeks ago.

What I Recently Finished:

Some Wildflower in My Heart by Jamie Langston Turner – I’m rereading her books in the order they were published, and this is her second book. I have read this one several times, so I knew the story details pretty well, but I still enjoyed the writing and the characters.

What I’ve Added to my TBR list:

I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott – A memoir in essay form, this was recommended by Nick & Hanna True from Mapped Out Money.  They read sections from the book on a recent podcast, and I was intrigued to read more of it.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins – Just released prequel to The Hunger Games series. The wait on my library app is more than 6 months, so it will be a while before I get to read this one!

Added to DNF list:

The Truth About Us by Brant Hansen – Fairly recent arrival by the author of Blessed Are the Misfits, which I enjoyed. The book has a good message and prompted me to recognize times I think I am better than other people in some way. I enjoyed the social science aspect of it as well as how he integrates Biblical wisdom on the topic of self-righteousness, but I just felt like he made his point pretty early on and was just restating it in different ways, so I didn’t finish this one.

If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!