Chelle tries to find time to read (#2)

Art of David Walker

HI Friends!
Welcome to my February thread! My goals for this month are to finish more than one book per week and to try and keep up on the PopSugar Challenge. I'd also like to try and revive my other threads by reading books that fit into them. My other threads (that have gone to sleep out of neglect) are:
Women's Prize for Fiction
1001 books list
Booker Prize

Best wishes to you all for a wonderful 2018!
Chelle

Currently Reading

eBook


Audio

I am Chelle, 36yo wife, mother of two and a police dispatcher. Hubby is an officer and between our two shift work schedules we share in all duties of house and children. I read at work when it is slow and after our daughters are in bed, which doesn't amount to much reading anymore. We had our second child in 2017 so life is hectic right now but I'm still trying to find time to read.
I used to read about 100-125 books a year but in 2016 I only hit 36 and 2017 I just squeaked in with 75!
Hoping to hit 75 again this year.



Books read in 2018:

January
1) Midnight Line by Lee Child
2) Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
3) The Pyramid of Mud by Andrea Camilleri
4) Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
5) Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

February
6) The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
7) Strawberry Shortcake Murder by Joanne Fluke (eBook)
8) Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King
9) The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
10) The Rooster Bar by John Grisham
11) The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey

Currently reading ...
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

2018 PopSugar Reading Challenge


1. A book made into a movie you've already seen
2. True crime
3. The next book in a series you started
4. A book involving a heist - The Rooster Bar by John Grisham
5. Nordic noir
6. A novel based on a real person
7. A book set in a country that fascinates you - A Pyramid of Mud by Andrea Camilleri
8. A book with a time of day in the title -Midnight Line by Lee Child
9. A book about a villain or antihero
10. A book about death or grief
11. A book with a female author who uses a male pseudonym (possible Robert Galbraith due out this year?)
12. A book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist
13. A book that is also a stage play or musical - Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
14. A book by an author of a different ethnicity than you
15. A book about feminism
16. A book about mental health
17. A book you borrowed or that was given to you as a gift
18. A book by two authors - Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King & Owen King
19. A book about or involving a sport
20. A book by a local author -
21. A book with your favorite color in the title
22. A book with alliteration in the title
23. A book about time travel
24. A book with a weather element in the title
25. A book set at sea
26. A book with an animal in the title- Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
27. A book set on a different planet
28. A book with song lyrics in the title
29. A book about or set on Halloween
30. A book with characters who are twins
31. A book mentioned in another book
32. A book from a celebrity book club - The Lying Game by Ruth Ware (Reese Witherspoon Book Club)
33. A childhood classic you've never read
34. A book that's published in 2018
35. A past Goodreads Choice Awards winner
36. A book set in the decade you were born
37. A book you meant to read in 2017 but didn't get to
38. A book with an ugly cover
39. A book that involves a bookstore or library
40. Your favorite prompt from the 2015, 2016, or 2017 POPSUGAR Reading Challenges - The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (2017 Popsugar 28. A Novel set during Wartime)

Advanced Reading Challenge

41. A bestseller from the year you graduated high school
42. A cyberpunk book
43. A book that was being read by a stranger in a public place
44. A book tied to your ancestry
45. A book with a fruit or vegetable in the title - Strawberry Shortcake Murder by Joanne Fluke
46. An allegory
47. A book by an author with the same first or last name as you
48. A microhistory
49. A book about a problem facing society today
50. A book recommended by someone else taking the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge - The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (Mamie)

*******
February Totals:
4. A book involving a heist - The Rooster Bar by John Grisham
18. A book by two authors - Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King & Owen King
32. A book from a celebrity book club - The Lying Game by Ruth Ware (Reese Witherspoon Book Club)
40. Your favorite prompt from the 2015, 2016, or 2017 POPSUGAR Reading Challenges - The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (2017 Popsugar 28. A Novel set during Wartime)
45. A book with a fruit or vegetable in the title - Strawberry Shortcake Murder by Joanne Fluke
50. A book recommended by someone else taking the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge - The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (Mamie)

Potential reads:

The Godfather by Mario Puzo (PopSugar 1. A book made into a movie you've already seen, 1001 books list)
The spider and the fly by Claudia Rowe (PopSugar 2. True crime)
Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen (PopSugar 5. Nordic noir)
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (PopSugar 6. A novel based on a real person)
The Power by Naomi Alderman (Women's prize winner, PopSugar 15. A book about feminism )
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (PopSugar 16. A book about mental health, 1001 books list)
Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente (PopSugar 27. A book set on a different planet )
Little Women by Louisa May Alcotte (PopSugar 33. A childhood classic you've never read, 1001 books list) )

Attempting to track our Children's Books
New books acquired and read since January 1:
Mmm, Cookies! by Robert Munsch
That's Not My Snowman... by Fiona Watt (gift)
That's Not My Puppy... by Fiona Watt (gift)
Goodnight Songs by Margaret Wise Brown
Bear's Loose Tooth by Karma Wilson
Ladybug Girl Dresses Up by David Soman and Jacks Davis
The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield
The Bad Seed by Jory John
If you Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff
Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann (second hand gift)
Pinkalicious: The Pinkamazing Storybook Collection by Victoria Kann (second hand gift)
Silverlicious by Victoria Kann (second hand gift)
Pinkalicious: The Princess of Pink Treasury by Victoria Kann (second hand gift)
Purplicious by Victoria Kann (second hand gift)
If I were a Unicorn by Anne Wilkinson (gift)
The World is a Wonderland board book collection by Nancy Tillman (V-Day present)
The Enormous Suitcase by Robert Munsch (V-Day present)
Pyjama Day by Robert Munsch (V-Day present)

New books read from off our shelves:
Edgar's Second Word by Audrey Vernick
Red: A Crayon's Story by Michael Hall

Rereads of books that we own:
Doggies by Sandra Boynton
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Your Baby's First Word Will Be DADA by Jimmy Fallon
More Blueberries! by Susan Musgrave

Library books:
Stick Man by Julia Donaldson
Gruffalo crumble and other recipes by Julia Donaldson
The rabbit and the turtle : Aesop's fables / retold and illustrated - Eric Carle
The elephant wish - Lou Berger
I'm a hungry dinosaur - Janeen Brian
Tater and Tot - by Andrea Burris
Snow moon - Nicholas Brunelle
Baby Polar - by Yannick Murphy
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Cottonwool Colin by Jeanne Willis
The Dragon Snatcher by MP Robertson
A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson
The Hockey Tree by David Ward
Mom, the School Flooded by Ken Rivard
My Best Friend by Mary Ann Rodman
Never Tease a Weasel by Jean Conder Soule
Pog and the Birdies by Jane Simmons
Skippyjohn Jones and the Big Bones by Judy Schachner
Postman Bear by Julia Donaldson
The monster at the end of this book by Jon Stone
Clifford goes to kindergarten by Norman Bridwell

Potential reads for February:

From my shelves:
Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King
Column of Fire by Ken Follett

Me!

Happy new thread, Chelle!

Happy new thread, Chelle! That topper is so cool.

Happy New Thread, Chelle and Happy February too!
Ooooo, I have Dark Saturday. I got it through ER and it will fit a TIOLI Challenge so maaaayyyyybeeeee.

Ditto >7 Crazymamie: you're topper is very cool.

>6 katiekrug: thanks, Katie!

>7 Crazymamie: >8 Carmenere: thanks Mamie .& Lynda. I’m sure I saw his art on someone’s thread. His website is very cool

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread. You really woke my sleepy eyes up with that topper! It's cool but a big shocking for first thing in the morning :)

Happy New Thread, Chelle!

Love that David Walker topper.

Happy new thread Chelle my dear and what a fabulous picture as your thread topper, wow.

Happy new thread Chelle!

We will see between the both of us...maybe one of us will get to The Lying Game by the end of this month. :D

>1 ChelleBearss: That is an amazing work of art! I really like it.

Happy New Thread!

I'm having a blah day today. Feeling very uninterested in any of my chores and goals for today. The girls and I made it to the library playtime and I think that's about all I will accomplish today. I have a bit of a headache and that's not making my blah-ness any better. Ordering pizza for dinner, me thinks.

New books for Chloe from the library:
Postman Bear by Julia Donaldson
The monster at the end of this book by Jon Stone
Clifford goes to kindergarten by Norman Bridwell

>10 BBGirl55: Thanks, Bryony!

>11 RebaRelishesReading: Sorry for the shock there, Reba! There were three of his paintings that really caught my eye. Perhaps I'll use another one next month

>12 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! Have you used a Walker painting as your topper before? I feel like I've seen his work before somewhere and you post a lot of awesome artwork.

>13 johnsimpson: Thanks, John! I thought it was pretty eye catching.

>14 jolerie: Ha, Valerie! Hopefully one of us gets to it! I was going to start it and then I ended up starting an eBook on my phone instead. These books made of paper are starting to feel neglected here.

>15 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen! Gotta love the beautiful things we can find on the internet!

>16 ChelleBearss: I can't remember whether one's been a topper, Chelle, but David Walker does wonderful street art, and I've posted some of that.

Never fight the blah day. Just go with it. Everything will still be there when you feel better. And pizza makes everything better!

>18 jnwelch: Ah, I was correct! You always post such interesting art that I figured it was your thread. Love that one too!

>19 katiekrug: Nate was happy to hear that we will be having pizza. It was that or a frozen quiche and I think pizza will always win!
I'm on my third coffee and the funk has not lifted. Hopefully a good sleep tonight and I'll be full of beans tomorrow.

Happy new thread, Chelle.

What a stunning topper!

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Chelle!

Happy almost weekend!
I am up with the birds but my little birdie may have fallen back asleep! Ellie woke me up and then by the time I got out of bed and started her bottle she has gone quiet again. Hmm.

Nate is home this weekend as this is his three day weekend off. Quiet day today, I hope. I need to get groceries at some point and perhaps look at some flights. We are thinking about a trip to Red Deer in August to visit Nate's brother and I'd like to find a cheap flight deal.
Perhaps an Alberta meet-up in August??

>21 PaulCranswick: >22 drneutron: >23 scaifea: Thanks Paul, Jim & Amber!

Hi Chelle and happy new thread. Excellent topper art, it's stunning.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

I really liked Midnight Line. Have you read No Middle Name, his collected short stories? I got it for Christmas (from my list, of course!) and devoured it in 2 days a couple of weeks ago.

Morning, Karen! I haven't read No Middle Name yet as I usually avoid short stories but if your devoured it then perhaps I should check it out!

eta
Apparently touchstones are wonky today?

Happy new thread, Chelle!

>26 ChelleBearss: Yes, the touchstones are wonky today, the powers that be are working on it.

Alberta meetup!! That would be a blast. How many of us are there??

I hope today is better than yesterday since the weekend is just around the corner. That is usually enough to add a little bounce to my steps. :)

>27 FAMeulstee: Ah, thanks Anita!

>28 jolerie: Thanks, Valerie. I feel much better today despite being awake at 4am (ew!).
So glad you are interested in a meet-up! We don't have any set plans yet but his vacation runs from August 22-28 so we may travel 4 nights during that period. How close are you to Red Deer? I think Micky is in Edmonton and I think Megan (evilmoose) is in/near Canmore. Not sure if anyone else is in Alberta?

Hi, Chelle.

I'm another one who devoured the stories in No Middle Name, and like you, I'm not much of a short story reader.

>30 jnwelch: Awesome, Joe! With you and Karen behind it then I'll be sure to give it a shot!

Happy weekend, folks!

My little minion is still cutting teeth so we got a whopping 4 hours sleep last night. We had a couple friends over for a drink and I didn't end up in bed until midnight (which is well past my bedtime!!) and then Elissa decided 1am was party time for a couple hours.
Send coffee!! In vats! I am looking forward to her nap so that I can go back to bed too! Thankfully Nate is home today and can do daddy duty while I sleep.

On the reading front I have once again forgone my library books and picked up an eBook. I started The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie and I'm enjoying it so far. My first Agatha Christie!

Oh dear, Chelle - that sounds like a very short night in one way - no doubt longer for the toothing minion.

I'm not a short story reader either, but I got No Middle Name and really enjoyed it (it reads up very quickly, but then again it has Jack in it...).

I decided to reserve the hard copy of The Midnight Line and I'm 37th in line for it :-)

Hi Chelle!

Daddy duty and naps sound like a good day for you.

I am a serious fan of Poirot, so The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the perfect place to start for him. I hope you like it.

>26 ChelleBearss: I'm mostly not a fan of short stories either. I'm thinking that the rule is that they have to be by an author whose novels I like. J.D. Salinger, Agatha Christie, Sue Grafton, and now Lee Child all write short stories about my favorite characters, and I like them. Also, specific short stories that I had to read for high school or college and struck me at the time, like The Gift by O. Henry and Roman Fever by Edith Wharton are good, too.

Morning, Chelle! Hoping you get your nap today. Like Karen, I also adore Poirot.

Thanks so much for coming over to let me know about the Skinnytaste recipe.

Hope this helps, Chelle.

Aren't teeth weird? How did this odd system develop, where babies have them cutting through the gums like that, and then the baby teeth all get replaced later. I think as adults we'd get pretty whacky if we had bone cutting up through our gums.

>33 susanj67: Hi Susan! The teething minion seemed to be quite content to just cuddle. She fussed if I tried to put her back in bed though. Two hours of rocking while she sucked her thumb and cuddled in her furry blanket. I’m lucky I didn’t fall asleep in her rocking chair!

Consider my arm thoroughly twisted and I’ve put No Middle Name on hold from my library :-)

>34 karenmarie: Hi Karen! Short stories can often be hot or it’s for me. Depends on how much punch they manage to pack. I love Stephen King and even some of his shorts just don’t do it for me. That being said I will give the Child shorts a chance!
Daddy has been a good daddy today and let me nap. He nap was short though as my hunger won out. A nice bath and some book tome has helped as well.

ETA
Ignore any errors as I’m on my phone and it’s quite hard to spell check on the tiny screen

>35 Crazymamie: you’re welcome, Mamie. I had checked the recipe again as I’m making it for dinner and wanted to confirm that I had picked up all the ingredients.
I also picked up broccolini yesterday and wee little Chloe was so offended by the “fake broccoli” that she wouldn’t touch it no matter what we said! I’ll make her real broccoli tonight to make up for my error in judgement!

Glad that you loved Poirot! He is an interesting little character! I’m about halfway and enjoying it so far!

>36 jnwelch: thanks for the cuppa joe, Joe! I’ve had my second and debating a third!
I think if my mouth was sprouting something from my gums I’d be bedridden and rather miserable! It’s amazing that some babies take it in stride and don’t bat an eye! For the most part Elissa is doing well with it, with a few minor complaints. Just happens the complaints occur around 1-3am! Lol

An Agatha Christie is always a treat! Glad you enjoyed it. Whoa on the sleep deficit. I still remember those days. I recall William, my younger son seeming to think that the day ought to start at 5 am. I thought not a chance! I'd get up and change him, make sure he was't hungry and then I'd hold him , but look away and try to seem really boring. Eventually he got the idea. Or maybe I just got lucky.

We will be out most of tomorrow as we are heading into London for my Dad's birthday lunch. So since I won't be around I'll leave you all with a little cake to snack on. Made with love by 3yo Chloe. She mastered the chocolate dots and perhaps snuck a few too many as I can hear her bouncing off the walls of her bedroom instead of sleeping!

>39 vancouverdeb: Ha, Deb perhaps he got the hint! I can't really complain about 630 as that seems to be common for a lot of babies. Means I get to put her to bed at 630pm and hope for the full 12 hours! She is restless already tonight so I can only imagine what the night will bring!

Happy new thread, Chelle! Love that thread topper pic! I would seriously love to have that as wall art in our living room!

I also love the tradition you have of documenting your little ones with a personalized meme (photo and notes) every few months! I am sure your girls will cherish your photo journal when they are adults.

Blah days come and then they pass.

>24 ChelleBearss: - Oooohhh... a potential Alberta meetup? Color me interested! I know I live in BC but I frequently travel to Calgary to visit family. Depending on dates, I might be able to swing some vacation time in August from work for a trip over the mountains.

>32 ChelleBearss: Sorry you were up most of the night with your little one! I can relate to a certain degree even though it's not children that keep me awake - I'm trying to get pregnant so I changed my psych meds (I have an unfortunate case of bipolar disorder) so I seem to either not be able to fall asleep and/or I wake up at 4:30 in the morning. My fiancé will sometimes say to me "perhaps you should take something to help you sleep? Your mind is racing again." when he notices me chattering away not letting him sleep. lol It's sweet now, could get old after 10 years, though. We'll see. lol

I LOVE your topper!

Happy Sunday, Chelle! Happy New Thread! How are those darling girls doing? I am trying to catch up on some threads and it is no easy task. AND, I have to leave room for the books, right?

Hi Chelle! Have a lovely day at your dad's.

>40 ChelleBearss: Beautiful cake, for sure. I love the swirl pattern - I might try it some time.

Hi Chelle just popping in to let you know there is a vote going on over on my thread.

>40 ChelleBearss: Yum. Excellent job with the blue balls.

I love the topper, Chelle. Happy Sunday.

How did I get so behind on your thread? The cake looks lovely!

>40 ChelleBearss: gorgeous cake! I remember now, that you frequently used to pull together a few fantastic cakes!!!

Happy Monday!
Today we are just hanging around the house. We got a ton of snow over the weekend and it's a good day to stay inside and dry! We had a great visit with my parents and sister yesterday. We took my Dad to Red Lobster for his birthday (which is today!) and he loved his meal. He is from New Brunswick and grew up on mass amounts of sea food. There isn't a great sea food restaurant around here so Red Lobster is the best we could do, but he was happy. Unfortunately my Mom backed out of coming at the last minute. Ever since she recovered from cancer/chemo she has had some severe anxiety issues and they flared up right before leaving. It's very hard for her to go out in public as her immune system is compromised she is terrified of catching the flu and has become a bit of a hermit. It's worse in the winter, of course.

We got a lovely package from my cousin yesterday with a gift for Elissa. It had a superman teething ring that she already loves, a Wonder Woman onesie that says "Warrior Princess" and a new book If I Were a Unicorn.
( I can't seem to add the book to my library though, the search can't find it anywhere even though there is a works page. Weird)

Hope you all have a lovely Monday!

>42 lkernagh: Yay, Lori!! That would be awesome if you could come to a meet-up too! I'm still trying to talk Nate into the trip (he thinks it's too early to plan) and find cheap flights! Hopefully it can all come together. I'll let you know, and start a meet-up thread, once I know for sure!

>43 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel. Sorry to see that your meds have affected your sleep. I had a little bit of sleep issues while pregnant, I would get restless legs and be unable to fall asleep. Sleep issues can be such a terrible thing. Hope your meds get sorted out so you can get some proper sleep. Good luck with trying to get pregnant!

>44 msf59: Hiya Mark! Glad to see you had a great trip and have gotten caught up here. It's quite a task when one gets behind here. I am quite often trying to get caught up!

>45 karenmarie: Hi Karen! The pattern is one of my easier go-to designs for when I don't have much time. It's just a star tip used in small circles. I am looking at some new icing tips too, have you seen the new ones from Russia? Tres fancy!

>46 BBGirl55: Hi Bryony. Voting compelet :)

>47 BLBera: Thanks, Beth! Chloe was very happy to have a job during decorating time!

>48 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori! It's so easy to get behind here on LT! Staying up to date can be a full time job!

>49 LovingLit: Hi Megan! Much less frequently now, but yes I used to love to make cakes with fancy fondant decorations. It's so hard to find the time to sit down for hours decorating, but a quick buttercream cake is still fun!
My MIL's birthday is next week and Chloe has requested to make her a blueberry cake! I'm going to have to try and find a recipe for that as I've never used blueberries in a cake before! She may end up with blueberry jam layers instead!
We also are going to make some cupcakes later this week for our neighbours who have been alternating snow plowing our laneway this year! They were keeping it clean while we were away for Elissa's surgery and they have kept doing it when we get a big snow. They both have large snowblowers and they take pity on us shovelers!

Good morning, Chelle! Enjoy your hang-around day. I'm glad to hear the family visit was a success, although sad to hear that your mom had an anxiety attack and couldn't go.

I took cake decorating when Jenna was about 18 months old. It was a good lesson in learning how much time a character cake takes to make and decorate. Even getting out the bags and tips is an effort, but I still have all my bag/tips/etc. - just in case!

>52 karenmarie: Yes, with small kids just the smallest amount of decorating can be a giant effort! I try and make all our birthday cakes every year as I am an icing snob and greatly dislike grocery store cakes. I have 6 cakes to make between now and June and my own birthday cake will be a Dairy Queen ice cream cake! Mmmm

These are the new Russian icing tips. I am debating buying myself a small set to try. They are quite interesting

Wow! Those are gorgeous. What an easy way to decorate cupcakes.

Store-bought cakes are not tasty at all and the icing usually tastes fatty or waxy. I don't make cakes as often as I used to, but when I do, I usually just frost them with a flat spatula. I never ever use cake mixes or canned frosting because I can taste the chemicals. Here's my birthday cake from last year - Bill doesn't like coconut, so I am a nice wife and put plain chocolate frosting on part of my German Chocolate Cake (I got lazy and made it in a rectangle instead of 3-layer):

Awww I hope you've sufficiently recovered from the lack of sleep due to teething....
Right now we are in the strange stage where we have a baby who is teething and an older child who is losing his baby teeth. I cannot for the life of me bring myself to pull out the teeth so that job has been relegated to Dad. I am the hugger, high fiver, I'm so proud of you cheerleader afterwards. :)

>54 karenmarie: Mmm, I love coconut so I would have taken a huge slice from your side of the cake!
I'm lazy so I've been using cake mixes. I like the Betty Crocker french vanilla. But I always make my own buttercream icing from the Wilton website. I dislike canned icing. Chloe has decided that she wants to make a heart cake for Valentine's day but I bought mini cupcake liners and some sprinkles. I figure one mini cupcake might not make her bounce off the walls!

>55 jolerie: Valerie, kids are weird! Elissa is still trying to work up that first tooth. It's been a over a week and it is still barely visible. It's causing her a great deal of pain though and she has been going to bed at normal time and waking up 2-3 hours later crying. An hour or two of cuddles and rocking and then she has been sleeping the rest of the night. So weird. It's not causing me to lose any sleep, thankfully, but it is taking a great chunk from my TV/reading time!

I think I will be like you and have to make Nate pull the teeth. All things dental give me the heebie-jeebies! Just writing about pulling teeth has given me the shivers!

Hi, Chelle. Boo to tons of snow and teething issues.

I am spending my final vacation day, curled up with the books, trying to save up warm vibes for my return tomorrow.

>54 karenmarie: I used to think store-bought cakes weren't tasty until the new Food City opened. I don't know who is doing their baking, but their desserts taste like home-made. I treat myself to slices of cake they sell from time to time. I don't need a whole one, but those single-serving slices are worth it -- and much cheaper than purchasing it in a restaurant.

Heya Chelle - just realised I hadn't found your thread til now. Can't imagine why, it's full of cake! And some fun reading choices.

Hi Chelle, I'm am finally caught up with your thread(s). Where to begin, well first Elissa is simply beautiful. Her little face with the big smile on it just make me smile too. Even though it is ancient history, I do remember the sleepless years of motherhood. It does eventually pass but at the time I certainly felt like a zombie a lot of the time.

I wish you lived far closer Chelle. I'm an icing snob myself. I'd love to purchase cakes and cupcakes from you. I never mastered a good icing myself. I won't eat a grocery store cake either, but I've found a few good bakeries.

6) The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
2018 PopSugar Reading Challenge :40. Your favorite prompt from the 2015, 2016, or 2017 POPSUGAR Reading Challenges - The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (2017 Popsugar 28. A Novel set during Wartime)

This is the first time I have picked up an Agatha Christie novel and I'm wondering what took me so long?!
This was her debut novel introducing Hercule Poirot and it was a great read. It had all the characteristics of a good murder mystery and I especially enjoyed that Hercule gave the reader all the same clues that he had and left it up to the reader to figure out, if they can. I thought I had it figured out and then they threw me for a loop! I will check out more from this series!

Morning, Folks! We are having a lazy day again today before our appointments start up again tomorrow. Both girls slept in this morning, which was nice! (Although Elissa woke me up every hour from 4am on but then put herself back to sleep until 730. Teething is rather annoying me!)

Last night Chloe and I started a new recipe book from the author of The Gruffalo called Gruffalo Crumble and Other Recipes. She decided she wanted to make fox's sandwiches. We had to swap out some ingredients that she doesn't like so it didn't look exactly like the recipe photo but she had fun. (We swapped out black olives for cherry tomato eyes and a chocolate chip nose) Today she says she wants to make the Mouse in a Hole (egg in a hole cut in the shape of a mouse face) but she doesn't like egg so I don't know if we will make it or find something else.


>57 msf59: Have a good day back to work today, Mark! Hope it's warm for you! It's a chilly -9c here today.

>58 thornton37814: Hi Lori! You are right that some store bought cakes can be yummy. Our local grocery store has some delicious cupcakes and they have a yummy Boston Cream cake. It's more the slab cakes that they drop the ball on.

>59 evilmoose: Hi Megan, Glad you found me! Now have a slice of cake and hang out a bit :)

>60 DeltaQueen50: Thanks, Judy! Elissa does have a contagious smile and giggle! She is whiney right now though so I had better get off the computer and take her for her nap!

>61 vancouverdeb: Hi Deb! I wish I still had the time to make cakes for sale. I mostly just do our birthdays now. I work with a couple young, single females who work full time at the OPP and sell some amazing cakes on the side! If I ever run out of time I know I could order from them and be sure that the cakes would be delicious and beautiful!

Good morning, Chelle!

What a cute food project for Chloe.

Here's hoping that Elissa's tooth breaks through soon.

>64 karenmarie: Thanks, Karen. Ellie's tooth broke through a week ago but for some reason it seems to be stalled and not getting higher. I think a second one is pushing up too but hasn't broken through yet. She is chewing everything and rather miserable.

>63 ChelleBearss: - That's adorable! Nice job, Chloe (and Mom)!

>63 ChelleBearss: Too cute! Chef Chloe is in the house!

The Mysterious Affair at Styles was my first Agatha Christie, too. I'm glad you liked it. You have lots of fun reading ahead of you now!

Fox's sandwiches - what a great project for Chloe, and what cute photos.

Such a sweet picture and I'm sure she had such a blast with mom doing such a fun activity!

I totally missed the cake up there. You made that? Yourself?? I tried baking a cake once in my life. Let's just say by the time it came to eating it, the top layer was sitting beside the bottom layer instead of on top of it. I'm no betty crocker...haha. :D

>66 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie!

>67 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie! Chloe always wants to help in the kitchen. Most often she is under my feet whether I want/need help at all.

>68 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! Have you read many of the Poirot series? I want to check out Miss Marple at some point as well.

>69 jolerie: Yep, Chloe and I made that. If you look closely you can see that it is wicked crooked! I used a knife to level it because I was too lazy to walk the 10 feet to my panty to get my cake levelling tool ;-p

Hey! But it stayed on!! Better than any attempt I've ever made....lol :D

We, and by we I mean my husband made another cake one time based off one of those Pinterest pictures of a pokemon cake for C. It was funny because it was like one of those MEMES where you go NAILED IT, but not at all. Thank goodness he's not picky and he could tell what it was and so win win for everyone.

>71 jolerie: Ha, yes I think pinterest fails are a pretty common thing! I've had some pretty funny looking cakes but thankfully Nate loves cake so much he would never make fun just in case I dared to stop baking!
If you have facebook you can take a look at my cake page

>70 ChelleBearss: As far as I know, I've read all of the Poirot books, Chelle, except his final one, Curtain, and re-read many. Our daughter has read all of them, including Curtain. They're great fun, as are the Miss Marples.

She's got other lead characters, too - Harley Quin and Mr. Satterwaite, Parker Pyne, Tommy and Tuppence. And crime writer Ariadne Oliver is with Poirot in some of them.

Hi, Chelle. Happy almost new thread! I was just looking at some of your kid books and remembered how much I loved the Karma Wilson Bear series. Have you read any of Doreen Cronin's Click, Clack series? They were so funny - both of my boys really loved them. Also, I really loved Mo Willems - the Pigeon books were great and for early reading Elephant & Piggy were fabulous! I wish they were still at an age so I could read more Elephant & Piggy books! Two other books we read over and over were Wild About Books by Judy Sierra and Halibut Jackson by David Lucas. I just love picture books - I can't imagine what great pictures books have been written in the last five to seven years that I haven't seen.

>62 ChelleBearss: You are in for a treat with Agatha Christie - she is one of my favorite authors and I have been reading her books since I was in 3rd or 4th grade. If you liked Hercule Poirot, I think you would probably like Miss Marple too - her first book was Murder at the Vicarage and it is one of my favorite Christies!

Morning, Folks! We had an excellent sleep last night and Elissa slept her first 12 hours straight since last week. Both girls had fevers all day yesterday (including me!) but we all woke fever free this morning and way less cranky than yesterday!
I have no idea what would cause a baby, a toddler and a grown woman to all have a fever at the same time with NO other symptoms. I had feared that flu was about to arrive but so far nothing. Crossing my fingers it stays that way!

Elissa has been doing a weird wiggling thing in her sleep. It's a little funny actually. I put her down on her back in the middle of her crib and overnight she has wiggled herself all the way to the head of the bed. When I get her up in the morning her head is jammed in the corner of the crib! Poor little thing! That can't be comfortable! I'm going to try putting her to sleep at the foot of the bed tonight and see if that helps.

We got a couple of inches of snow overnight and we woke to a full on snowstorm. Weather warning says we are due another 10cm through the day (4inches) and another 15-20cm over the next couple days. It figures as we have a bunch of driving to do other the next two days for appointments for the girls! We have a 30km drive to Chloe's speech lesson today and a 50km drive tomorrow to Elissa's Paediatrician followup.
It is really pretty outside right now though. Wish I could just stay inside and watch it while reading :)



>73 jnwelch: Hi Joe! I looked at her bibliography last night and was surprised at how many novels she wrote! That was one successful career! I doubt I will get to all of them in this lifetime but I would like to try some more of them. I'll try some more of the Poirot and I'd like to give Miss Marple a shot as well. I'll try and fit a few more in this year.

>74 rretzler: HI Robin! Thanks for the books selections! I'll check those out!
The last 10 years has probably brought a ton of great books! The Gruffalo may have been during your child book time but Julia Donaldson has written some more great ones since then. Chloe really liked Stick Man and The Gruffalo's Child.

I think I will give Miss Marple a shot sooner than later. I liked Poirot and will continue that as well but I have heard that Miss Marple is also a fan favourite!

Happy Wednesday! Just so you know the Vote on my thread was tied, so please go vote again. Thanks.

>63 ChelleBearss: Those are adorable photos! Chloe has such a delightful smile; you can really tell she enjoyed that activity.

>75 ChelleBearss: "Elissa slept her first 12 hours straight since last week." Hooray! And I'm glad for the fever-freedom!

It sounds like you've got a busy day ahead. Drive carefully in that snow. It is so lovely.

I read one or two Miss Marple mysteries way back when. I think you'll enjoy her.

Chelle, your snow is beautiful, but I am sorry that you have to venture out in it. Wishing you safe travels to and from those appointments.

I am a huge fan of Poirot, but was never taken with Miss Marple, the poor dear. She was probably devastated to never earn my affections.

>76 BBGirl55: oh, how fun!

>77 EBT1002: Hi Ellen! Chloe is a pretty happy kid, most times!
I spoke too soon about being fever free. Chloe has a low grade fever but thankfully Ellie and I are fine. Hoping the tylenol helps and she doesn't get any other symptoms!
But at least we are not leaving the house now as I can't take her to her appointment with a fever. Oh darn.

>78 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie! Chloe and I ended shovelling this morning as there was too much to just drive over and Nate is still sleeping. I was hoping we could wait until he wakes up but it's accumulating too fast. But thankfully as I mentioned above we don't need to drive in it now because Chloe has a fever again so we cancelled her appointment.

At least someone likes all this snow!!

>79 ChelleBearss: Adorable! My kids always loved playing in the snow - the difficulty was in getting them to come back inside. And hooray for not having to venture out, but I am sorry about Chloe's fever.

I need to read my first Agatha as well.....

We are expecting a winter storm to hit late tonight and all day tomorrow. If C hadn't missed the first 2 days of school this week I would be tempted to keep him at home to avoid driving in all those drifts.
Days like that I'm thankful for a garage so we aren't scraping snow and ice off the car but then I get irritated having to shovel a driveway multiple times a day. Can't win I guess...haha

>80 Crazymamie: Mamie, I should have known that she didn't feel well when she was willing to come back inside as soon as I was finished shovelling. Usually she would put up a fight to stay out much longer! Fever is down with tylenol. Crossing my crossables that it stays down!

>81 jolerie: Hi Valerie! Do you think you would like to start with Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot as your first Christie?

How much snow do you expect? They said we were due 10cm but I wouldn't be surprised if we got 15. You can't tell that we shovelled this morning! Thankfully I took a picture so I can prove to Nate that we did it once ;-p
We have a garage too but it's too full to park in. Nate was going to use it for his mustang this winter but fails to organize the junk so that he could fit it in. Instead he has been driving my truck because he is too lazy to clean off his car!

Awww sorry to hear about Chloe being under the weather! Hopefully whatever it is will run its course and pass on soon.

I think they are saying 10-15 maybe? I'm hoping that is on the heavier side.
We just insulated our garage a few years ago and so we had to clean everything out and dump a bunch of things. One of the reasons we bought the house was because it had an attached garage. I didn't want to be hauling kids and groceries in and out of the cold in the winter so I banned the husband from using our garage as a storage place. Helps keep the clutter from taking over our lives... ;)

ETA...nevermind..it's more like 25-35cm. Umm..big difference. Better get my muscles all warmed up for all that shovelling. :P

Uh oh, I just checked our forecast too, looks like we might be getting as much as Valerie. On the plus side, being concussed means I don't have to shovel snow... I do have to try and rope other people into doing it for me though.

>83 jolerie: Thanks, Valerie. I don't know what is causing her fever but she is trying my patience today. Whiney and not eating her meals but then 10 minutes later telling me she is hungry and needs a snack. Mama needs a glass of wine and a bubble bath today!! Bedtime in t minus 2 hours! (but will probably come early though at this whiney rate!)

Oh wow, 35cm is waaaaaay too much snow!! I guess I should stop complaining about me 15! Hope you get way less than that!!

>84 evilmoose: Megan I hope you don't get that much either! I hope you find someone to shovel for you since you should not be doing it!
We are supposed to get another 10cm on Friday but I'm hoping that forecast is wrong!

>79 ChelleBearss: LOVE it!. Go Chloe!

Hi, Chelle. Sorry, to hear about all the snow. We have been getting hit all week too and we are supposed to get hit very hard, late tomorrow, through Friday. Sighs...

I should be back in Mexico.

It's 720 and I'm the only one awake! Elissa woke me at 645 and by the time I got out of bed and started her bottle she had put herself back to sleep. I heard Chloe get up and look out her door and it appears she also decided to go back to bed. My children are being odd this morning ...
Chloe still had a fever at bedtime, despite the Tylenol. If she isn't better today she will be tagging along to Elissa's paediatrician appointment this afternoon.

Reading: I'm trying out having two books on the go at once. Reading on my phone has been working well during Elissa's fussy times but the print books from the library will need to go back eventually. So I'm trying having one of each on the go. The eBook is getting the most attention so far.
ebook is Strawberry Shortcake Murder by Joanne Fluke and I'm nearing the end. I really like this series and it's easy to get into each book.
I'm also reading The Lying Game in print format but I haven't gotten very far into it yet.
Nate and I have finished disc two of Doctor Who First Series. I was surprised that we both really like it!
No new kids books as we are still working our way through the library books and new books that she gotten lately.

>86 msf59: Morning Mark! Boo to the snow coming your way too!
We should all head to Mexico! One giant LT meet-up!

Aw, I'm sorry Chloe isn't feeling well! Fingers crossed that the fever is gone by the time she gets up. Charlie's staying home with me today because he says he doesn't feel well; no fever, but I'm not pushing it - I'm just calling this week a loss and I'm all for a pajama day today, especially since I'll likely be out shoveling 6+ inches tomorrow. Blerg.

I have a couple Fluke books on my shelves and I really want to get round to her stuff soon...

I just had a chance to look at your cake pics! AMAZEBALLS. I seriously wish I could do something half as good..haha. It's just not in my genes and I'm sticking with that. :)
Did you teach yourself or took classes at some point?

I hope your girls are feeling better today.

Surprisingly with all the snow on the ground and still falling, the school board did not cancel school?!? I have no idea what it would take for them to close down schools here, but I'm scared of getting stuck somewhere so I made the executive decision to call it a snow day for C. We are all tucked safe at home. Besides the multiple excursions to clear sidewalk snow, all is well.

Have a great day, Chelle!

I love the Chloe in the snow photo!! Hope she's feeling better today and that you didn't have to much of a struggle with the weather in getting your girls to the doctor. (also hope you get a bubble bath and glass of wine this evening)

Love your Gruffalo sandwiches. I sometimes doll-up the dinner, but mostly using patterns, like this one:

>88 scaifea: Thanks Amber! We are home from the doctor and there is nothing wrong with either child. Must have been fighting off a bug and won. Ellie is back up to the 75% percentile since her surgery which is awesome!
Sorry to see that Charlie is having a yucky day as well! Hopefully you don't get as much snow as predicted! Enjoy your day inside!

>89 jolerie: Thanks, Valerie! I actually taught myself over youtube! I did a police officer cake for a friend's husband's graduation from police college and then it spiralled from there. One of my first cakes was my friend's wedding cake because she couldn't afford a bakery cake. It turned out pretty good for one of my first cakes! (It was small!)
Hope you guys enjoyed your snow day! That's weird that the school didn't cancel when you are getting that much snow! You Albertans must be made of tougher stuff! We get snow days often here!

>90 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba! It was clear skies today thankfully! Although we have another snowfall warning for tomorrow so I fear our playdate will be cancelled as the weather warning says expect heavy snow and road delays so that means no driving to London for us!

>91 LovingLit: Aw, those are very creative Megan! Way more creative than I am with meals! Tonight is pizza night because Nate didn't want chicken. Oh darn, I didn't have to cook.

Such cute pictures of your your little ones, Chelle! They are darling! I may be calling on you for advice on little girls once my granddaughter is here. I'm already trying to get my head around sleeping sacks, organic cotton for baby clothes, etc etc. Those were not a " thing' back in my kids day.

Ask away, Deb!! I don’t do organic cotton but I do love sleep sacks! Babies wiggle so much that blankets are pretty ineffective (and frowned upon for young babies anyway.) Sleep sacks are warm and cozy. My mom made me some out of fleece and I have some light cotton ones too. Elissa actually got a blue jays sleep sack for Christmas from Nate’s aunt who knows I love watching Jays games!
Usually I use a fleece sleep sack if she is in cotton PJs and a Cotton sleep sack if her PJs are fleece or very warm. We turn out heat down at night so using a sleep sack makes me more comfortable about her not being cold in the night.

^I think you may have missed me up there! I would blame lack of sleep.

Sweet Thursday, Chelle. Boo to snow! Enough all ready! I hope the girls are feeling better and you get a good nights sleep.

>95 msf59: Sorry Mark! I got you in >87 ChelleBearss: but I had put the wrong number so it showed my name and not yours! Let’s go with that lack of sleep excuse :-)

Girls are doing well now, thanks! Must have been a weak virus. Ellie is sleeping and Chloe is happily talking to her stuffies in her bed :)
Hope you don’t have to trudge through too much snow tomorrow!

> WOW What an eye opening image. Beautiful colors!
>96 ChelleBearss: I love the stories of your girls. "Talking to her snuffles." I assume this is a stuffed toy?

"Ellie is sleeping and Chloe is happily talking to her stuffies in her bed." Sounds perfect, Chelle!

>97 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda! Chloe sleeps with a bed full of stuffed animals. Mostly importantly is her constant companion aptly named "puppy" who goes everywhere with her.
He even made it to her uncle's wedding in British Columbia! (He was a lot whiter then and still had two ears! He is now pretty grey and ratty)


>98 msf59: It is pretty good Mark, I even finished a book! Let's hope they actually sleep :)

7) Strawberry Shortcake Murder by Joanne Fluke
2018 PopSugar Reading Challenge :45. A book with a fruit or vegetable in the title

Loving this fun little murder mystery series. It's not all light and fluffy but it has a nice amount of fun and humour to make it more on the cozy side.

Morning, Folks!
Today we are having a forced stay-in day as we are expecting another snow storm. We were supposed to be heading into town for a play date with my best friend and her son but the weather network tells me that it's not a good day to be driving 40 mins each direction with little ones in the vehicle. Kind of sad but we will reschedule and hope for the best.
I'm thinking that today may be a baking day with Chloe. She woke very whiney today and I think she needs some entertaining. We need to work on her alphabet too. I'm trying to find fun ways to teach her but she is very stubborn. I was thinking of trying to use her paint easel and painting a new letter each day for her to try and copy.

Mamas and Papas: any ideas for fun ways to teach letters?

>101 ChelleBearss: Based on my experience earlier this week, I'd say keeping yourself and your wee ones out of a car on a snowy day is an *excellent* idea.

How to teach letters ideas: I used to play a game with Charlie all the time that was, Hey, can we make letters out of these? What letter is this? and we'd do it with crayons and matchbox cars and wooden blocks and pretty much anything, really. And then when he was learning to write them, when we were sitting on the inside landing steps facing our front door (in the afternoons for 10 minutes or so before Tomm came home, we had a ritual of sitting there and looking out our glass front door to watch for him to drive up), we'd play the Draw a Letter on My Back game, where we'd take turns drawing letters or numbers on each other's back and trying to guess what the other person had drawn. So fun. Oh, and also, watching Sesame Street together, of course (we still do that sometimes - I love that Charlie happily refuses to outgrow loving Elmo and Cookie Monster).

Morning, Amber! Yes, staying off the roads in snow is probably for the best! It just sucks because it looks fine right now but I know the forecast says it's supposed to get heavy while we would be in town and I don't want to risk a crappy drive home.

How old was Charlie when you started working with him? I know he is a pretty smart kid so I bet it was early. Chloe is three and knows her numbers to 10 but has rejected learning her alphabet so far. She knows that her name starts with C and she knows A,B,C,D for the alphabet song but when I try and work more with her she just says "no thank you" lol. She is so stubborn!

I don't exactly remember when we started, but I think he was two or three. We had some letter learning app on an ipad that he loved, too, and I bet there are tons more now. Maybe she'd get more excited about some of those games (the ones we found for Charlie were pretty excellent).

>104 scaifea: Unfortunately our ipad is ancient and I can't add any new apps to it :( I'll take a look and see what I can find for the computer though. She is starting to learn how to use the mouse, and of course my phone!

We started the alphabet painting today. She loves painting so I thought that might work. We have letter A finished and she drew some apples and a plane and four letter A's. She says that's enough for now and has wandered off to play house. Once Ellie goes to bed I'm going to start a new paint page and draw a B for her and see if we can keep it going during the day today.
She needs to know this stuff by school in September.

Good morning, Chelle!

I'm thinking that today may be a baking day with Chloe. She woke very whiney today and I think she needs some entertaining.

Why not just show her the letters in the word/words of whatever recipe you use? She can pick one out and if it's something you can decorate with (frostings, raising, carrot bits, etc.) that could help reinforce it without necessarily making a 'lesson' out of it. Just a thought!

Glad to hear the good pediatrician results for both girls.

Hi, Chelle.

My used to be teacher wife says tactile is really good for teaching the alphabet - draw letters in shaving cream, or pudding, or sand, that kind of thing. If Chloe can cut them out, that's another one. And doing them with additional art, like a C wearing a crown, is fun, too, says she. She emphasizes "tactile" for Chloe's age.

P.S. She also suggests looking on Pinterest? Apparently they have lots of good ideas that teachers use.

I get the whole resistance to learning letters, Chelle! I remember thinking my goodness this kid is NEVER going to learn his alphabet..but he did eventually. :)

One of the games we used to play was hide and seek with cards that I had laminated. So I would show him the letter and we would play hot and cold for him to find the card. As he got better I would put other letters in the same stash so that he would pick the right one out of the mix.
J on the other hand just totally learned from his brother...figures. No intention, no teaching, nothing. He just picked it up. The older one get the lucky role of forging all the paths.

>106 karenmarie: HI Karen! I do try and do fun things like but with numbers (she has to count the eggs as I put them in the recipe, pick three good ones for dad, etc). I'll have to try and figure out something similar for her letters. She does not respond well to lessons from me at all. I'm hoping that changes when it's a teacher instead of her mother!

>107 jnwelch: Thanks Joe (And Debbi!) We have done letter cut outs and colour pages based on letters which worked for a short period. Painting her letters was fun for a bit this morning and she was very excited when I offered to hang her alphabet paintings all over the dinning room walls. She got bored by B though.
I'll take your advice about Pinterest. I haven't been on there in a bit, it's so easy to time suck there!

>108 jolerie: Hi Valerie! I really like your hide and seek idea. Chloe is obsessed with hide and seek and can play it ALL DAMN DAY if I let her! I was really surprised about her resistance to learning her letters and she loves being read to and I thought she would want to learn to read faster. My mom told me that I was reading by age 4 and I am really doubting her memory after working with Chloe!

Ah, teaching letters? Hmm, is Sesame Street still around? I recall reading to my kids, which you already do. I think I bought books with the alphabet in them and we read through the alphabet. I recall driving with Daniel and I'm sure he was about 2 1/2 and he pointed to a stop sign and shouted "STOP"! Then I knew we had it. So I got flash cards. Daniel was very stubborn too, but not about the alphabet. He was more the picky eater and one thousand stories at bedtime. Daniel had more problems in the socializing area. He was quite a shy guy , and not one for change. They all come with their challenges . I'm sure Chloe will pick up her alphabet when she decides it is for her.

My guys seemed to learn to read early , kind of like my mom told me I did. But we had other issues. They were both keen about numbers too and I recall William loving to roll up pennies and other change. The number of times I played Jr Monopoly. Maybe games? I played a lot of games with my kids - snakes and ladders, hungry hippo, Jr Monopoly, Monopoly, Go Fish, on and on an on. LOL! That probably helped them with numbers and the alphabet and they didn't even realize.

Hi Chelle!

She does not respond well to lessons from me at all. And that's how I knew that homeschooling my daughter would be a disaster for us both. *smile*

Hi Folks!
My day started off with baby cuddles and olympics on the TV. Not a bad start at all!
I was planning on taking the girls to the grocery store later but the plow just left us a two foot wall of snow at the end of the laneway so we won't be going anywhere!

I'll have to go out and make a dent in that at some point or Nate won't be able to get his car in tonight!

>110 vancouverdeb: Morning, Deb! Yes Sesame Street is still around but Chloe has never really liked it and it's not on often here. We found it before bed last night and watched it for a bit. There was a Son's on Anarchy skit (Son's of Poetry) that I found amusing.
We've tried Dr Seuss flashcards but she didn't take to it well.
Seems like the art route is helping with her. We facetimed my sister last night and she was excited to tell her that she painted the letter A and said A was for apple and Aunty! It was sweet

>111 karenmarie: Ha, Karen! Yes, homeschooling would not be for us either! I don't have the patience for that! Chloe responds well to other people, just not me. She does well practicing her words with Nathen. I think he is a lot more fun than I am.

One of my neighbours took his snowblower and removed everyone's snow plow snow walls!

I still have to shovel the laneway and unbury my car but that's the least of my worries now! Yahoo!

Once the snow stops, that is ...
. (excuse the dog bum! :)

I'm certain there is nothing to worry about with your two cute bright button little girls, Chelle. I can only hope that my wee granddaughter is anywhere as cute as your two. And Chloe and Elissa seem to get along so well. I wish I could say that about my two son when they were little.

Wow! Lots of snow! We've got some nice sunshine today. We've had so much rain and gloom we really need it.

Hi Chelle!

Neighbors with equipment are great - our neighbor Larry plowed our 1/2 mile long street and our 300' gravel road and concrete pad when we got 12" in January.

Nice pictures and I hope you all have a great Sunday.

Morning, Chelle. Happy Sunday. Hooray for the snowblower and great neighbors!

>113 ChelleBearss: Hooray for generosity. When we lived in Indiana, one of our friends Had a snowplow on his truck, and he would always clear off our circular drive when it snowed - so lovely and saved us a lot of time as it was a big driveway.

Hoping your Sunday is an indulgent one.

Happy Sunday! It's been a slow day for me as Elissa and her teeth are not getting along. We were up late last night and up before the birds again this morning! Hopefully that second tooth comes through soon! (Preferably before this mama looses my mind!)

I'm still working on The Lying Game (print) and Sleeping Beauties (eBook). Both are excellent so far!

>114 vancouverdeb: Hi Deb! I'd love to say that my girls are perfect but I do have serious concerns about Chloe's speech delay. The report from her speech therapist was pretty negative. Hoping the next 10 weeks of classes help her as I really don't think the previous 8 weeks helped much at all.

>115 karenmarie: Hey Karen! Isn't it great when people chip in and take care of each other!

>116 msf59: Happy Sunday, Mark!

>117 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! Sounds like you had great neighbours as well!

Wonderful to have snow angels!

We usually shovel or neighbours sidewalk if we are out there first and he does the same for us. The tradition started a fews years back and we've kept it up ever since. Saves us half the work during the winter. :)

Morning, folks!
Lazy morning planned here! Elissa is still working on that tooth and had me up at 6am but we made the best of it by watching Canada get a gold in mixed curling (yay! GO Canada :)

It's just us girls this week as Nate is on a course and is doing an 7-5 type day until Friday. We have an appointment this afternoon and then a trip to the grocery store for bath bomb supplies and back home for supper.
Chloe and I are working our way through her painting alphabet still. She did really well with the first four letters (which she knew already) but now that we are working on some letters that she doesn't know she is showing less interest. I'm going to keep E on the easel for a couple days until she can tell me what it is without effort and then we will move on. She impressed me last night by picking out some letters in the book we were reading so I know she is learning even if she is stubborn (must get that from Nate ;-)


>119 jolerie: That's great, Valerie! It's so nice when neighbours take care of each other! We really lucked out with good neighbours when we moved here! Only one annoying neighbour across the street that is super chatty so it can get a bit annoying when I'm in a hurry and he wants to chat, but he is super friendly despite his inability to see when people aren't up for an hour's conversation about his food truck renovations lol

Good morning, Chelle!

I hope you enjoy your lazy morning and the afternoon errands are uneventful. *smile*

Congrats on Canada getting gold in mixed curling. The US bombed terribly, I'm afraid. However, we rock at snowboarding.

>101 ChelleBearss: Chelle, we used magnetic letters and a small magnetic board to learn letters and just played games with them. Both my boys were pretty musical, so the alphabet song worked well for us - maybe Chloe will come around with it. I can still remember when Beckham was around 3 and I would put him to bed and hear him singing the alphabet song to himself! Do you know the band They Might Be Giants? They have an ABCs CD which has some pretty catchy tunes on it and we listened to it quite a bit too.



Glad to hear everyone is feeling better.

>121 karenmarie: Happy day, Karen! Yes, your snowboarders have been doing excellent! I believe that our men got bronze in the slopestyle but I don't think Canada had any women in the final. I was shocked to see the winds during the slopestyle! The boarders were just being blown right over!

>122 rretzler: Thanks, Robin! I'll see if I can find that CD. We do have the magnetic letters and numbers and a wheel on the bus magnet that says the letter sound when you press each letter. Chloe plays with it periodically but it didn't have the desired affect that we had hoped when we bought it. She is one stubborn little girl!
But she is also adorable and so creative! She is currently dressed up as a princess and having a tea party with her stuffed Paw Patrol friends.

Does anyone else neglect library books??
I took three library books out when we were there last and they are due back and have not been touched. I started reading one of them but then started an eBook one night while cuddling my teething wee monster for hours. My eBook is awesome (but huge!) so my library book got put on the back burner. I may take them back so someone else can enjoy them instead of letting them languish here all sad and neglected.

Hi Chelle, your alphabet woes remind me of when my grandchildren were young. The elder wanted to learn so much, he wanted me to read to him while he picked out the letters that he knew, we worked with flash cards as well. On the other hand my granddaughter had no interest in learning her letters, but somehow she must have absorbed them because she was good with them by the time she needed to be. You've been getting so many great ideas, I bet Chloe will have the alphabet nailed soon!

I think S might be channeling E as he was up at 6:30 this morning (I usually wake him up around 745) and wouldn't fall back asleep. His naps have been off as well and I'm guessing he is teething again. Knowing him he is probably getting 2 of them at the same time. :/

Woohoo for curling gold! They totally dominated. :D

I'm the total opposite. I tend to prioritize my library books first since a lot of them have holds and can't be renewed whereas my OTS books tend to just sit there and get neglected...haha

You know, I'm actually pretty good about reading library books. It's my own books that I neglect.

And I love all the pictures. Especially those in >63 ChelleBearss:

Hi Chelle!

Does anyone else neglect library books?? I stopped checking 'em out years ago because I got tired of $.25 fines per day and felt like I was under pressure to get them read. When I still worked I would take out audiobooks, but with retirement I'm just listening to what I have - currentlyHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It is ironic about me not using the library any more since I'm Treasurer for the Friends of the Library.

I really loved the slope style and I thought Canada did really well with the slope style. I use my library regularly, but I admit unless it's a book that really grabs me, I don't feel that I need to read it. I get library books out to see if I like them because I can always go back to them. It's not like I paid for them ;-)

Canada took a silver and bronze in SlopeStyle Snowboarding. I had never heard of it until I got watching it this time round. And then I think we got another silver in " plain' snowboarding?

>123 ChelleBearss: I have the opposite problem - I won't get a book read unless I have a deadline! Once I own a book that is the kiss of death. Since it's always there to read whenever I need it, there's no pressure to get to it.

Happy V-Day!
No plans for today, just hanging out with my girls (Nate is still on his course)
We will decorate cookies today and then just relax.

I'm still working my way through Sleeping Beauties and it will take me a while because it is huge! I am really enjoying it though!

>124 DeltaQueen50: Hi Judy! I have been really surprised that Chloe has been so resistant to learning as she has loved being read to since she was a baby. We read at least three books at bedtime and she would let me keep going until she passed out if I would let her! I think we are making progress but time will tell.

>125 jolerie: How in the world do you get S to sleep until 745 every day!? I need your tricks!! Tell me, tell me! :)
Elissa had me up at 6am again today. I think Nathen's work alarm wakes her as he needs it quite loud or else he won't get up. Both girls were up but I made Chloe go back to bed. 6am is not wake up time!

I think my library book neglect is partially because they were random picks while browsing and not books I had requested and put holds on. I've renewed them and will give them another shot and then take them back.

>126 The_Hibernator: Thanks, Rachel! I have many neglected books that I own as well. Some have been on my shelves for years! They have moved from Ontario to Nova Scotia and back to Ontario without being read!

>127 karenmarie: Morning, Karen! Our library doesn't have fees so I'm not as worried about that. I just feel bad having books here that I'm not reading. It feels like I'm keeping them from others who could enjoy them. Silly, I know.

>128 vancouverdeb: Hi, Deborah! It's been fun watching Canada do so well. Even though we didn't have a Canadian in the Men's snowboarding half pipe I watched the finals with Shaun White. What an amazing event! The just fly!

>129 norabelle414: Ha, Nora, some of my books have been given the kiss of death as well! I always rush out and buy my favourite author's new books and then they sit. Why did I need to rush to have it now instead of just picking it up when I actually want to read it?

>122 rretzler: >123 ChelleBearss: Oh! YES!! Here Come the ABCs is excellent!! Charlie and I still listen to it, and there are videos, too, so be sure to see if you can track down the dvd version. They also have Here Come the 123s and Here Comes Science, both of which are equally amazing (and also have dvd versions).

>122 rretzler: >131 scaifea: Thanks Robin & Amber. I've picked up the DVD of Here Come the ABCs from Amazon. It will be here Friday :)

>130 ChelleBearss: LOVE Snoopy! Your Valentine's Day plans sound just like ours except for the cookie decorating, and now of course I am thinking we NEED cookies. Heh. I think I will have to bake some. Craig doesn't know it yet, but he is getting us pizza for dinner.

Good morning, Chelle, and happy Valentine's Day. It sounds like a lovely day planned.

I bought a gorgeous heart cookie cutter last month, fully intending to make Valentine's Day cookies, but I'm probably going to be lazy instead. Sigh.

>133 Crazymamie: Everyone ALWAYS needs cookies! Pizza for dinner sounds great! I'm not sure Nate will make it home for dinner so we may just have something easy.

>134 karenmarie: Hi Karen. I took the easy way out and bought cookies while we were out yesterday and we are just going to make some icing and decorate them.

New books aquired for the girls. V-Day presents from Nate and I:
The World is a Wonderland board book collection by Nancy Tillman
The Enormous Suitcase by Robert Munsch
Pyjama Day by Robert Munsch

I don't know what it is with my boys but maybe it's genetic because my husband and I are NOT morning people haha. All of them have always slept until I woke them up unless of course something was bothering them. In the summers our house wouldn't get going till past 8... :/
S in a class of his own tho...he started sleeping through the night at 2 months and thank goodness for that because we had a huge family trip to Disney in the summer and I can't imagine what it would have been like if he was still up all night feeding and we had to hit the park the next day with the whole family!

>123 ChelleBearss: Chelle, my younger son Keegan would always pick at least 10 books from the library every time he went and would be very excited about them. Then they would just sit around untouched until we took them back and repeated the process. We've since discovered that he's mildly dyslexic which explains a lot about him. I tend to just borrow ebooks from the library, and one at a time when I want to read it, but I did just recently take back 5 cookbooks that I borrowed and renewed 10 times untouched!

Happy Valentine's Day, Chelle.

>136 jolerie: Chloe usually sleeps in until 8 but once Ellie is up and making a ton of noise (scream stage is still here) now Chloe wakes up earlier. Does S go to bed at 8?

>137 rretzler: I am glad that I'm not the only one renewing books over and over and sending them back unread. I do want to get to The Lying Game as I got part way through before I started a waaaaaaay better book :)

Cutest Valentines ever! Who needs flowers and chocolates when you got the sweetest girls to keep you company. :D

Yup he goes to bed at 8. Was easiest to keep his bedtime and wakeup time consistent with his brothers.

>139 ChelleBearss: - Oh my goodness, Chelle, they are adorable!

>139 ChelleBearss: Hooray for your Valentines! How adorable!

Hope your week is going well, Chelle. Getting any reading in?

>107 jnwelch: love those tactile ideas! Sand boxes, play dough moulding, chalk on the footpath or driveway?

My lot have staggered bed and up times. W goes to bed at 830pm, and is up at 7, and Lenny goest to bed at 7pm and is up at 630am.

Morning Folks!
Not a thing planned for today! We will continue with our paint alphabet and hopefully a bit of cleaning today. Right now Chloe is still sleeping and Elissa and I are watching Men's Olympic Hockey (Go Canada!)

>140 jolerie: Ha, I wouldn't mind flowers once in a while! Nate thinks they are a waste of money (they die) but sometimes will bring me a plant. Usually it's Chloe that sees one at the grocery store and he gives in and buys it, but I'll take it!

How do you manage to get three boys to bed all at the same time? I tried having both girls in bed around the same time (8) but Ellie was waking up at 630 anyway so that's bedtime now so that she will get 12 hours.

>141 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie! I agree but then I'm biased!

>142 msf59: Thanks, Mark! Week is going ok. Chloe is going through a "daddy" stage and has been crying when he isn't home in the morning. I'm looking forward to Saturday when he will be home
I have been doing some decent reading! I've got Sleeping Beauties in print and eBook and I'm about halfway through now! It's awesome so far!

>143 LovingLit: Those are great ideas, Megan. Hopefully she has learned her alphabet before the snow melts but if not then we will do some outside tactile ideas. We did icing on cookies yesterday for Vday and wrote her alphabet out.
Staggered bedtimes make sense to me when they are little. Especially for me right now since Nate is a shift worker and not always home at bedtime. I get Ellie to bed between 6-7 (bath, bottle, bed) and then Chloe has her bath, books and bed between 7-8.

Hi Chelle! That is an adorable picture of your two littlest Valentines!

Bill rarely gets me flowers - the last time was for our anniversary one year, but I don't mind. I tend to be of the Nate mindset - they die. I will bring in some from outside occasionally - Dutch Irises, daffodils.

Sweet Thursday, Chelle!

That is such a sweet photo of the girls. I saw it on FB, too. I've got to show it to Debbi. She's seen how cute they are.

I got her black licorice for Valentine's Day and, as you know, we went out to dinner and to a ballgame last night.

P.S. That kind of thing is easy when the kids are all growed up.

My hubby is also of the flowers are a waste variety, especially when they charge a premium during those special days..haha

Ill be honest...I actually don't do any of the kids bedtimes. My amazing husband, since the very beginning would do the bedtime routine with the kids. It was important to him that he has some time with them since he doesn't see them all day and he is gone to work before they are even up. After dinner is bath time, then brush teeth and then stories and then off to dreamland. When S was younger I would put him down since he was nursing so it was easier but now he nurses before bath time and then he would have some solids right before bed. My hubby then puts him down first and then the older boys. This is where I do a large bulk of my reading done..haha.

I'll be back to respond properly later but I wanted to leave this here for my Canadian friends who shop at alp loblaws (reposted from my Facebook)

Loblaws company had been price fixing their bread and they have offered their customers a $25 gift card to make up for this. Even if you do not need this money please register and donate your gift card to a local food bank. Let Loblaws support those in need to make up for their mistake.

Register here: https://loblawcard.ca/en/form

Article:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/how-to-register-for-25-loblaw-card-after-bread-p...

Morning folks. Nate and I were both in bed by 9pm last night! Which ended up being a good thing when Chloe woke me crying at 430. Something about her door being closed and was daddy still home. I got her back to sleep by 6 when Elissa woke up. It's going to be a many, many coffee day! I've emailed my MIL to see if she is around today and perhaps wants to hang out with Chloe today. If all goes well perhaps I will get a nap at some point.

>145 karenmarie: Morning, Karen! We have a lot of spring bulbs in my front garden so in April and May we often bring in cut flowers (tulips, daffodils, hyacinth) I love having flowers in the house but the cut ones don't last long enough and throwing out dead flowers makes me sad. I love having a nice plant for the table centre though and it's been a while since I had one so perhaps I'll treat myself soon!

>146 jnwelch: Hiya Joe! Glad that you and Debbi had a good VDay out! Sorry the Raptors won but at least you had fun anyway! Maybe in 15 years Nate and I can do that too :)

>147 jolerie: HI Valerie! That is so amazing that your hubby does bedtime every night! That must help you out so much! Nate helps with bedtime when he is home but because he works shifts there are many days that he is either gone to work or still not home from work. I always put Elissa to bed because I was nursing but now that I've had to stop (because of her surgery complications) he could start putting her to bed. I expect it wouldn't go well though as she is too used to me. Oh well. I'm off work until September so it's not something they have to get used to yet, and even then I'll probably be straight dayshift again so I should be home by bedtime most days.

Well, Chelle, I have a few minutes well I wait for my so - called " Scrub Free ' bathroom cleaner to work. I have serious doubts about this scrub free notion, but I'll give it a few minutes to sit in the bathtub before I tackle it.

I have to agree, shift work is not the most fun. Dave has worked shift work all of his life - aircraft mechanic. It does not make life easy. I recall when our kids were young, being home all by myself at dinner with the kids. getting through dinner and then bathing both of the boys and reading a zillion books . I must admit that Dave was really good! On the weeks that he was not working in the evening, he would do bedtime with the boys. So as one of my friends said - so he is " always on." Sometimes I think working is easier than looking after little ones. Dave stilll works shifts and yes, it's still a drag. I'm used to it, but yesterday we got word of more shifting of the shifts so they are even longer. Sigh.

As I said to Dave, another 3 -4 years and he can retire. That is great, but also a wee bit scary money wise. Vancouver is a pricey place to live, even if you townhouse is paid off.

Happy Friday, Chelle. I hope your weather has been mild. I am glad you are enjoying Sleeping Beauties. I liked the book but think it went on too long.

Happy weekend!
Nathen is home for the next two days and he is taking Chloe out today for a daddy daughter date for lunch. If we time it well I may have a couple hours of quiet daytime reading, yahoo!

I'm almost finished reading Sleeping Beauties. (Only 150 pages left, which is not much when the book is 700 pages!) I hope to finish it this weekend.

>150 vancouverdeb: Ha, Deb! How did you like your scrub free tub cleaner? I use the scrubbing bubbles but I always give it a scrub after it does it's magic. (That reminds me my tubs are due for a good scrubbing!)
That's great that Dave will be able to retire in the next few years. Do you have any plans for retirement? My FIL is thinking of retiring this year and they have goals to take many cruises and see more of Canada.
Shift work seems to be harder on me as I get older. I loved nightshifts in my early 20's but after having kids I struggled with them. Thankfully my comm centre started offering flex schedules so we could pick straight days or nights. I chose straight days and I'm hoping to get that again when I go back to work in September.
I get what you mean about Dave always being "on" as Nate feels like that too. I don't give him a hard time about helping with bedtimes on the days he works as he works 12 hour shifts with 80 minutes of commute time. He is too tired after work. However, on days off he is expected to pull his weight and has been pretty good about doing so.

>151 msf59: Morning, Mark! No snow lately but it's a little chilly this morning at -7c.
I agree that Sleeping Beauties is lasting about 100 or more pages than it needs to. As much as I love King he really does add some character lines that maybe could have been skipped and perhaps needs an editor with the balls to tell him to cut out chunks that could be removed. Although I guess when you get to be someone as well regarded as King the editors wouldn't want to push too hard in case of losing him, and really his constant readers will still read his books whether they are a normal size or a whopper!

Yahoo, I got a badge for the Vday treasure hunt :) How did I not know these were a thing?!

>139 ChelleBearss: Your valentines are adorable, Chelle.

Scout loves the Gruffalo stories and loves to cook. I'll have to look for that cookbook.

I got a badge as well!

Hi Chelle!

Congrats on your badge, and yay for daddy-daughter date and mommy quiet(er) time.

Aw! Your Valentines are so sweet! And hooray for some quiet time today - hoping that you get the maximum amount.

8) Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King & Owen King
2018 PopSugar Reading Challenge 18. A book by two authors

Loved. Just loved. I've been a fan of King's work since high school and this one was as good as any I've read before. I ignored housework to find time to read, which in my world is something I did in my 20's and much less recently!

As much as I loved it, I admit it was way too long (700 pages and probably could have been under 600 with a good editing).
King² wrote not just of the supernatural terrors (women spontaneously being wrapped in cocoon type substances after falling asleep) but also of the terrors of human nature. (Men mass exterminating the women in cocoons with fire.)

I was a little surprised as I neared the end as it really became very strong in the man hating camp. It's not often you read a book written by men that has such strong feelings of disdain for the violence that some men act upon towards fellow man and women.
I was very impressed that two men could show such insight into the violence, sexual violence and oppression that some women have dealt with. This book comes at a time where this is very prevalent in the media.

I thought this was a very well done collaboration and it makes me want to check into Owen King's work as I have read both his daddy and brother's (Joe Hill) works.

>154 BLBera: Thanks, Beth! I think they are pretty cute, most days :) Less so at 430 in the morning! :)
I liked the gruffalo recipe book but there didn't end up being a lot that Chloe would eat. She doesn't like eggs (or much meat). She has since forgotten that we have it and I'm not sad about that

>155 karenmarie: Hi Karen! It's turned out to be a pretty decent reading day! Nate and Chloe did a workout this morning that happened to coincide with Ellie's nap so I had a very long, super hot shower and over an hour of reading time. Then I got another two hours of reading time after they left on their daddy daughter date :) They are still out and I have no idea where they went. Just hanging with Ellie now and going to bake a cake soon.

>156 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie! I ended up with more than I had hoped! Turned out pretty great! Gotta love when kids nap well! I'm sure there were a million things that I could have been doing, but they will all wait!

>153 ChelleBearss: Nice, Chelle! Congratulations! I was not even aware that there was a Valentines day hunt. Last Pirate day I accidentally stumbled onto a clue here on LT that I was able to answer and I got a pirate badge.

>157 ChelleBearss: Good review of Sleeping Beauties, Chelle. Thumb! You liked it a bit more than me but there was plenty to admire here, but the length bogged it down for me.

Morning, Chelle. Happy Sunday. It looks like a lazy day of books and birds for me. Not sure I will venture out. I am keeping an eye on the weather.

>159 vancouverdeb: Morning, Deb! I only was aware of the hunt because I saw it on someone else's thread (Julia, I think). I'll have to keep an eye out for the pirate hunt.

>160 msf59: Morning, Mark! Hopefully you get some good weather so you can venture outside! We have an exciting day of food prep, house cleaning and then a visit from Nate's parents for dinner and birthday cake. (MIL's birthday was on the 15th)

9) The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
2018 PopSugar Reading Challenge 32. A book from a celebrity book club (Reese Witherspoon Book Club)

I didn't love this one. I was determined to finish it though as I felt it was one that I should have liked. It had great reviews and had all the elements of a great tale, but it fell flat for me. I think that was partially because I disliked the main character and found her weak.

>139 ChelleBearss: Absolutely adorable!! I love the expression on Ellie's face.

I BELIEVE IN YOU, CHELLE! YOU CAN DO THE MAKING TIME FOR READING!

'Morning, Chelle! I hope you have a great Monday.

I'm glad you had so much relaxing time on Saturday.

I have Sleeping Beauties on my shelves and also have End of Watch - both unread. I need to get back to King one of these days soon. Sorry about The Lying Game. Disliking the main character makes for a lets-get-it-over read.

>162 ChelleBearss: - I read Ware's book published before this one - about a woman on a cruise. Had a very similar reaction to yours - it was kind of flat and I didn't really like the protagonist. Onward!

Happy Monday! It’s Family Day holiday here so we went and spent time with my family while Nate worked. The girls and I are tuckered but it was a fun day! Hopefully both girls will be in bed early so I can recharge!

I started reading The Rooster Bar this morning and it’s not grabbing me yet. Hoping to get into it more tonight while watching Olympics.

>163 rretzler: Thanks, Robin!

>164 StudyGuideQueen: Thanks, I’m doing well so far

>165 karenmarie: Hi, Karen! Hope you had a good Monday! I agree, you should get back to King! :)

>166 katiekrug: Hi, Katie! I’ve read all of Ruth Ware’s books now and I remember liking the first two, although I don’t remember much of the plot lines so maybe that in itself says something.

Hi Chelle--Love the Valentine's photo of your two cuties. : ) Have fun with the alphabet and it will come. I loved reading stories to my kids that used the letters, one per page. Also whip cream is fun to draw in.

Hi Chelle - what a lovely photo of your Valentines!

Our local library system has just eliminated fines for children's materials - they'll charge a replacement fee for lost books, but overdues are gone! Hopefully your library will consider doing the same.

How old is Chloe? Here's one teacher's perspective: the letters (and literacy in general) will come when she's ready. I always caution parents not to push their kids so hard they don't enjoy reading. There's a wide range of skills when kids come to kindergarten (and I definitely think kinder is TOO academic, at least in the US), but when they're ready, they're ready. And they'll fly!

Happy Tuesday!
Today it is pouring rain and very foggy here! The fog started last night early and has continued to be thick still this morning. I'm hoping it breaks a little in the next two hours as we have to drive into the city for a play date with my best friend and her son.
After that it will be back home and Chloe has asked to bake cookies that she can use cookie cutters on so hopefully we can fit that into our afternoon.

>168 Berly: Thanks, Kim! Chloe has been making progress with her alphabet pictures (which are hanging all over my kitchen). I have been trying not to push at all. I've been putting up the easel with the letter on it and some pencil drawings that she can paint. She surprised me by blurting out the alphabet to letter G without me prompting. She was very proud of herself so I hope that continued. She got stuck on H though as she can't pronounce it properly.
Whip cream isn't something I keep in the house because I will EAT IT ALL! lol. Perhaps we will do a treat night for her and incorporate that. I'm sure Nate would enjoy that!

>169 AMQS: Hi Anne! Chloe is 3 years old (turns 4 at the end of May). I'm trying not to push with reading at all as I think she is pretty young for that, but I feel by almost 4 years old she should know her numbers and alphabet. She can say her numbers to 11 then gets stuck, which I'm fine with. The rest will come with time. She has just been so stubborn with the alphabet. It seems to be coming now though so I am happy. I don't need perfection from her, but I do like seeing progress and a willingness to try and learn. She still has a very toddler like attitude and she will need to grow out of that a bit before school but I'm sure it will come.

Our library went fine free this year as well. I'm already delinquent with returning my Doctor Who videos, whoops!

Morning, Chelle. Yep, still raining here too. We are having flooding issues, in some areas, because all the snow has melted away, on top of the rainfall. We have a small retention pond behind us and it is full.

I have heard so many mixed things about Ruth Ware, that I have never picked her up. Looks like this will continue...

'Morning, Chelle!

We've got fog here, too, and Bill said that it was foggy all the way to work for him - 24 miles or 67 kilometers.

Have a fun play date and hope the cookie baking goes well.

The library fee discussion makes me curious to know what our Library does. I'll have to find out - don't have small children at home but I am on the board of the Friends of the Library so knowledge is always helpful.

Foggy and unseasonably warm here - weird.....

Hope you have a great Tuesday, Chelle!

Hi, Chelle.

Kids differ on reading, for sure. Our daughter picked it up really early, and at a pre-school age surprised the heck out of us by inviting us into her room where she proceeded to read us Rainy Day Kate. Our son, on the other hand, really struggled with it, and entered the first grade in the lowest reading group. Typical of him, he exited first grade in the highest, but it tweren't easy. When we asked him in later years about his working so hard at it, he said, you all were reading all the time, and I wanted to, too.

Yay for family day and reading your library books..haha
I finally started on The Lying Game this weekend and so far so good.

Our library still has fines and I try really hard not to accrue anything because I've been known for racking those babies up.
We do not however have membership fees which we used to have up till a couple of years ago. Glad they got rid of it. :)

Interesting. I've never heard of this Owen King. I've heard of Joe Hill, of course.

Hi Chelle, it looks like I have to add Sleeping Beauties to my wishlist!

Happy Hump Day, Folks!


Today is another rainy day here and it's supposed to rain all day again. Our poor dog is not happy.
Chloe woke us up a few times overnight sick to her stomach. Not sure what that's about. She does not have a fever and does not appear to be sick. We will keep an eye on her today. She is happily colouring right now so who knows what's going on with her! She was supposed to start her first gymnastics class tonight but we will have to see how the day goes on whether she can attend.

>171 msf59: HI Mark! Yes, Ontario has quite a bit of flooding as well. A very small town near Lake Huron a couple hours north of here may have to evacuate due to flooding. Hope the rain stops soon! I'm not sure if I will keep reading Ruth Ware. I think I remember enjoying In a Dark, Dark Wood, but I didn't love the other two.

>172 karenmarie: Morning, Karen! Our library removed fines for all media types, adult and children. I'm not sure what the motivation is but I can't see that helping to get people to return items on time. I am behind on three DVDs that were due back yesterday and can't be renewed. It's on my to-do list for today.

>173 katiekrug: Morning, Katie! Unseasonably warm here as well. It's already 7c this morning. Weather like this really affects Nate's nigrains so I'd really like it, and him, to go back to normal!

>174 jnwelch: Hi Joe! That's a great story about your kiddos reading! I can only hope my kids will love to read. We read to them every night and they see me reading often. I guess we will see where they are as they age a bit. Chloe is excited to go to school so I hope that helps when she starts school. I need to check into what the curriculum is like here. I know some JK are more play based and some even include nap time which Chloe won't like as she hasn't napped in two years!

>175 jolerie: Hi Valerie! I hope you enjoy The Lying Game! Isa bothered me and I might have enjoyed the book more if she hadn't bugged me so much!
I've never heard of membership fees to be part of a library! I wonder if that's an Alberta thing or just your town?

>176 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel! I've read Joe Hill before and I knew that he writes under a pseudonym so I had to check and see if that was Owen Hill but it's Joseph King writing as Joe Hill. I guess there are three King kids and two are authors.

>177 DeltaQueen50: HI Judy! Hope you love it when you get to it! It's a chunker though!

Is anyone having issues with the Add Books feature? Anyone know how I report an issue?

When I try to add a book the search comes up empty and I have to click on amazon.com all media before it can find it. When I click on it to add it the book no longer goes in my wishlist and has instead picked a random list to add it too.

I haven't tried to add a book today, Chelle, so not sure what the issue is. But underneath the search box should be the place to designate what Collection you want to add the book to. Mine defaults to "Your Library" but I can change it by clinking on the "Show All" button.

I think there is a thread somewhere called "Bug Collectors" where you can report issues...

I have not tried to add a book today, but last night I could not post on the threads, so I would guess that LT is having a few issues today , Chelle. Thanks for the recommendation of the Angels Care sensor. As I mentioned on my thread, my DIL , in line with her beliefs, will not be bathing or washing her hair for the first month. She and her mom have worked out some dry shampoo thing for her hair and I have not asked the particulars about bathing :-) I can understand that she will not want visitors during that first month, given that. But her parents are not forcing the tradition on her at all, she seems to be looking forward to it.

My library does have fines, and not only that, they count on overdue fees as a revenue source! But we don't have a fee to join the library, as Valerie has mentioned. They cut back on library hours a few years ago, which was very hard, but they have re- instated normal hours. I'm limited to 20 books at one time as far as taking out books. It used to be no limit, then just 10 books and I think everyone in the community complained so much they went to 20 books per library card. Needless to say, I got my husband a library card( for me ) .

I wondered if was just a Calgary thing or an Alberta thing. I was surprised too that you had to pay for the membership or card at first but they removed that now so that is a bonus. Now I just have to contend with late fees...haha.

Hopefully Chloe feels better soon. It's always hard when they are young and can't really tell you what is bothering them. Stomach issues are the worst!

You might try again now. I just added a new book to my collection and everything worked just like it usually does.

I added the 13 children's books I read earlier today without a problem. I mostly used Overcat to add them though. The data comes through cleaner that way than if I use Amazon.

I am well over hump day already here, it being Thursday afternoon. However, I will be going back to work tonight, and again on Saturday, so I guess my hump day is tomorrow afternoon!

Chelle, while I understand your concern for Chloe and letters and numbers, I really think she has the best of parents and she will do just fine. Excellent, really. Two very bright parents, parents that are doing everything and more, perfectly, so I have no doubt that she is a bright little button. Hang on and I'll bet it all falls into place. I guess I was lucky with my two as far as reading and numbers went. They seemed to pick it up fairly easily. I did encourage them a lot , just as you are , but part of it is just plain luck and when they are ready. I recall with some humour my more serious second son , telling me firmly that he was going to read through his pre- school bible . It had a lot of print and also some pictures, but was about 200 pages long. I kind of doubted he would really read through the thing, but oh he was determined. It took him a bit , but he did read through it. He was also money crazy , and he'd play Jr Monopoly by himself if he couldn't drag me or his older brother into playing with him. But he had really messy writing and got sent to " special classes " for " dysgraphia" when we moved when he was in grade 6. I think initially they thought he had some sort of disability, but after a couple of months, the school decided he was just a plain old messy writer / printer, in part owing to his being double jointed and having over flexible joints. Daniel was also quick with his letter and numbers and I was surprised to be called into the school in grade 1 and told by the counselor that he suspected Daniel had ADD without hyperactivity. I knew that Daniel was in fact an anxious , obsessive child, and once he got focused on one thing, he had a tough time moving to the next thing. So we took him to a child psychiatrist, who agreed with me and we got help there.

My husband is a stubborn old bat, even if I do love him, so I suspect that stubborn personality that my eldest inherited is all DAVE's fault! :-) Dave's mom told me that when Dave started school , they told her - your son has a late birthday - December and he cannot yet hold a pencil. My MIL, who had a good sense of humour , told the school that she just plain wanted him off her hands and if it took gluing a pencil to his fingers , he was remaining in grade 1 , like it or not. And so he did. Parenting, always a challenge.

Woot! for getting through hump day! I've actually got a bit of an easy time of it since my day consisted of a 3-hour flight (aka time to read), a walk around Tempe including a salad and ale sitting at an outside bar (heat lamp included, but still), and a bit more walking around the ASU campus.

Never having kids, I hesitate to contribute to any of the conversations about parenting or grand-parenting so I'll just say something you already have said and clearly know: kids come to things in their own time. Human development is variable and the territory under the highest part of the bell curve is huge!! I also loved Joe's story of his son working hard to improve his reading as a first grader because he wanted to participate in the reading action of the family! :-D
I think being surrounded by books, being read to, and being surrounded by family who will support and encourage reading --- if she has any inclination to be a reader, she will be one.

Okay, one story that isn't about me. P is the third of four kids (three brothers) and they did not have a telly when she was growing up. The kids were encouraged to read and (I experienced this first-hand) dinners were occasions of conversation where what family members were reading was fair game for sharing. When P's youngest brother was just learning to read, the Huskies made it to the Rose Bowl and P's dad went out and bought a television (much to P's mom's dismay). P and her two older brothers are avid readers, her youngest brother not so much. P is convinced it is because he had a television to watch as he was learning to read whereas the other three did not. Who knows, but it's an interesting theory.

I hope Chloe feels better soon and that you have a great end of your week, Chelle!

Chelle, your girls are SO photogenic. That Valentine Day photo is totally precious!

P.S. Granddaughter is due March 19th. So not long now .

>180 katiekrug: Hi Katie, Thanks! It used to be that I could click on the wishlist button or the add to library and the wishlist would add it right to the wishlist and the add to library would add it to which ever one I selected for it. Now they both go to the same one and it was just a random folder. I've managed to get that to go to my library now but the wishlist button still isn't working for me.
And it appears that amazon.ca is not working but amazon.com is. Odd.

>181 vancouverdeb: HI Deb! As I said on your thread I hope that things go the way your DIL plans. I know my birth plan went out the window with both girls but I know many women that things go well! I'm sure she will have worked out a system of bathing without submersion in water. I know that after the birth of both girls I severely needed a hot shower!

I think my county library is trying to be fairly progressive. There are no limits on how many items a person can have out, and they have removed fines. They even have a home delivery program for elderly or disabled patrons. I think when the girls get a bit older I'd like to volunteer there.

>182 jolerie: Hi Valerie! Glad that your library removed that membership. I've never heard of that before and I would think that would be a deterrent for some people who can't afford a membership. Maybe they will go fee free soon!

I have no idea what was causing Chloe to vomit in the night as she was fine for the rest of the day and slept through last night! Children are weird! She even felt well enough to go to her first gymnastics class and loved it. She was nervous at first as it was a coed class ( and boys are scary!) but she did well and stayed in the whole class without trying to get to us.

I'm not sure what is going on with LT this morning but I have lost two long posts now. I'll be back later to try again

>183 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! I'm not sure what's going on with mine. It's been doing that for a while. Sometimes the wishlist just doesn't work at all.

>184 thornton37814: Hi Lori! I've never tried overcat before so perhaps I need to make a switch. I've always used amazon.ca but it appears to be having issues.

>185 LovingLit: Hi Megan! Hope you are now enjoying your hump day!

>186 vancouverdeb: HI Deb! I think we are making progress with Chloe. It seems like if we make something fun she is willing to learn but if she gets frustrated or bored then she shuts down. Very stubborn! Nathen, like Dave, is very stubborn so it must be his fault and not mine. (I'm sure I'm not stubborn at all! ;)
We've been doing her alphabet paintings and she is able to sing it until H. She has trouble saying H right now but that's one of our speech goals. She has a hard time with the consonants that come from the back of the throat (H, C, etc)

My Kitchen is becoming a toddler alphabet art zone. Who needs real decor, right?

Trying again ....

Ok my original post disappeared so I'm trying again. I'll see if I can remember what I wrote...

Today Elissa has her followup cardiologist appointment. She has finished her round of six weeks low fat diet and is back on normal foods and formula. She appears to be doing well with it so I am crossing my fingers that there are no issues at the appointment today!

Chloe had her first gymnastics class yesterday and loved it. I was surprised as it was coed and she is normally scared of boys that are loud and run around. I am glad that she appears to be growing out of that!

I finished a book yesterday:

10) The Rooster Bar by John Grisham
2018 PopSugar Reading Challenge 4. A book involving a heist

Typical John Grisham. He is pretty dependable for a decent, enjoyable read. It's no A Time to Kill but it is comparable to his recent works.

This appears to not be posting, once again. I hope I am not getting 15 new posts of the same one!

'Morning, Chelle! I love the TAAZ - very nice.

I hope you all have a good day.

It posted. Glad to hear that Chloe loved gymnastics and I hope Elissa's appointment goes well.

Morning, Chelle. Sweet Thursday. The weather has been chilly but dry, so I am content. I have not read Grisham in 15 years or so. I did like his earlier stuff.

I was having issues posting this morning as well so it wasn't just you. The posts were disappearing into the LT black hole..haha

That's a wonderful way to display C's work. She can then see her progress and celebrate. :)

Glad to hear the stomach thing was just a one off. Every time we have to take out the "bucket", I inwardly grown, and dread what is coming....

I love the kitchen decor! Chloe is an exuberant artist. What a great way to reinforce letters. My Molly is 4 and loves to paint…maybe I should let her? Haha! I tend to stick to crayons and washable markers. She is in a stage now where she doesn't want to read with me. I have her one afternoon a week and reading was always something we did…until she got tired of it. I won't let my grandkids use the "B" (bored) word. Usually it's not an issue as we have lots to do at my house and they like having my undivided attention. I miss reading, though…

I love the pictures and stories about Chloe and Ellie. Chloe is the perfect age for a gymnastics class. It's a fun way to get some exercise in during the winter. It just amazes me how much reading you are able to do with children those ages. I haven't read any John Grisham in a long time. My favorite of his was a memoir, A Painted House. He grew up poor (in an unpainted house) in Arkansas, the state south of where we live.

Hi Chelle, loving the kitchen art work of Chloe my dear, reminds me of the art work Hannah leaves for us bless her. Sending love and hugs to you all dear friend.

Ok, back from a busy day of waiting for doctors! Let's try this whole posting thing again and see if I get further than this morning!

>187 EBT1002: Hi Ellen! I can only hope that my love of reading passes down to Chloe. She gets very excited to go to the library but I think that is currently because our library has an active play area in the children's wing. She is always excited to get new books and bring books home from the library too. We try and always buy new books whenever it's a gift giving holiday (birthday, Christmas, Easter etc) and the people that know me well always buy her gifts of books as they know how much I love books. She has shown little interest in learning to read so far but I keep having to remind myself that she is only three!
Love that story about P and the TV! IMO Chloe watches too much TV for a child her age. I don't complain though as usually the tv is on in the background while she is playing dolls or doing crafts or painting. She is rarely glued to the TV and is usually doing something else too. I need to get a big bookshelf in our living room and bring a bunch of her books down. When we renovated the toy room her books are now in the toy room (upstairs) and her bedroom.

>188 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! I'd like to say they get it from my but it's rare that I get a good photo of myself. (The big eyes are from me though :)

>189 vancouverdeb: Oh, March 19th is soon! That's so exciting. Has your family started a baby watch or doing a baby pool on when he/she will arrive?

I'm not stubborn at all, either ;-) , Chelle. I'm determined. No, no baby watch or pool on the due date. In some ways my DIL and son are quite private and also a wee bit sensitive. I think if they knew of such a bet , they would be offended. I love the kitchen art . Even now my fridge is full of magnets, pictures and old art by the kids. I remember my first John Grisham, The Firm. Wow, that was a ride! I continued to read his books for quite a while, but not lately.

>194 karenmarie: Hi Karen! I'm having a DUH moment and am not sure what TAAZ is?

Thanks, Ellie's appointment went great, despite the wait times! They did an ultrasound of her chest and an ecg and everything looks great! All her stats are in normal range and her chest is fluid free! We are free from the cardiologist for another 2-3 months and then after the next appointment I expect they will start getting further apart! I wanted to sneak out with her to Costco after the appointment but she fell asleep before we even left the hospital parking garage!

>195 msf59: HI Mark! It's pretty mild here. I even managed to leave the house without a jacket today as it was only a low of 0c and sunny! The snow has melted and the whole area here is flooding. Thankfully our house is on a slight elevation with no real basement (it's a basement walk out) so we are in the clear in our neighbourhood.

I like Grisham's older work much better than his newer stuff. I wouldn't call his books fluffy, but they are something I wouldn't mind taking on a beach vacation. Entertaining but nothing I need full concentration for. His older books had a bit more substance than the last few that I've read.

>196 jolerie: HI Valerie! That black hole was quite annoying! It tricked me with letting me post one and then when I wrote a big one it did nothing.
I was so worried when Chloe started being sick. I figured we would all end up taking down by a plague of some sort. Despite being tired (and oh so whiney!!) she seems fine and hasn't been sick since. Keeping all my crossables crossed!
Chloe loves hanging her art around the house so I figured she would like hanging her alphabet on the wall. I may have to start taking some down as she paints new letters as I only have so much wall space!

>197 Donna828: Hi Donna! Get out the paints! :) The paint we have is washable and we do it on the kitchen floor (and not the hard wood) so that no one gets upset if there is a spill. Except I knocked over her purple and it went flying ONTO MY WHITE CURTAINS! I immediately put them in the wash but I am too afraid to check and see if it came out. My MIL lets Chloe sit at the kitchen table and paint. I found Chloe never really liked crayons much and was more into markers and paints.
Hopefully she lets you start reading again soon. Do you think she would like it if she picked out a library book by herself for you to read to her?

>198 johnsimpson: Thanks, John! Chloe does so much art that we have to collect it and give it away to her family. I just don't have enough wall space in the house for the mass amount of Chloe art :)

>200 vancouverdeb: Hi Deb! I will keep my fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly for your son and DIL! Do they have names picked out yet?
The Firm was a great one! My first Grisham was A Time to Kill and it blew me away at the time. His new work, while still enjoyable, does not pack the same punch as his earlier works.

That's great news about Ellie, Chelle.

>203 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! It's a huge relief to know that the low fat diet did it's job as I was worried that the Chylothorax could come back (even though the doctor told me it was rare).

>199 ChelleBearss: Chloe may be more active, less prone to sitting quietly and reading. That is okay. She will be who she is. As you, of course, fully know.

>201 ChelleBearss: That is great news about Ellie's checkup!

>205 EBT1002: Chloe is quite a busy child but she can be very focused when she works on her crafts. Yesterday she started what she is calling "my project" and has been happily drawing pictures and then cutting them out and gluing them on a larger paper and adding gems and beads. She worked on it off and on all day yesterday and told us before bed that it's still not finished and she needs to "do more work" today lol

Yesterday I abandoned a book. Not because it was a bad read or even because I didn't want to read it, but because it pissed me off on the first page!
I borrowed Blueberry Muffin Murder eBook from my library and the first page was a teaser of what is to come in the book, but the teaser is the page where Hannah finds the murder victim. So before the book even starts I know who is going to die.
Thoroughly not impressed.

While I was angry I visited Mamie's page and saw her five star review of The Girl with all the Gifts. I own that one and have been meaning to read it so Mamie's review pushed me to pick it up last night. I spent my evening in bed with a pizza induced tummy ache so I managed to knock a decent chunk off already! Tres interesting!

Nate is on nightshift this weekend so once the wee monsters are in bed I plan to spend three nights reading and watching the last of the Olympics

Have a happy Friday, folks!

Great news about Elissa's check-up, Chelle. And they are so cute up there with their Valentine bags!

Chelle--I second the enthusiastic review of The Girl With All the Gifts! Hope you have fun with it. So glad that the doctor visit went well. Phew! And I love your new kitchen decor. No sympathy on the pizza induced tummy ache. Show some restraint woman! LOL. (Been there, done that.) Hope you have a great weekend.

Hi Chelle!

>201 ChelleBearss: Yipes. Sorry. We do this a lot at home, but I forget that most people don’t do first letter of word abbreviations all the time.

(T)oddler (A)lphabet (A)rt (Z)one.

I’m so glad Elissa’s checkup went well. Big sigh of relief for Mommy and Daddy, I’m sure.

Have fun with your reading and Olympics fest.

Good morning, Chelle! I hope your day is going well.

>193 ChelleBearss: It's rare, but I gave up on The Rooster Bar pretty quickly. I was not connecting with the characters and uninspired to continue, even on audio. My favorite in recent years was Rogue Lawyer. I absolutely loved that one.

Wonderful news about Elissa's progress! What a load off of your heart, right? Chloe's project sounds amazingly complex and advanced for a three-year-old. A lot of creativity showing there. Enjoy your evenings this week!!

Chelle, great to hear about Ellie's cardiologist visit. Hopefully, before long there will be no need to visit them at all.

Your evenings sounds nice and relaxing. Unwind, kick up those feet and refresh yourself mama! :D

Great news about Elissa's checkup. I can't imagine what a relief it must be. Enjoy your weekend of reading and Olympics watching.

Happy Saturday, Folks! Today is going to be a jammy day for myself and the wee monsters. Nate is on nightshift so we will spend the day trying not to wake him up. Chloe has requested to do more painting today and doing some crafts so we will do that this afternoon while Ellie naps.

>208 susanj67: Thanks, Susan! We are very happy with her progress!

>209 Berly: Ha, Kim! I should have stuck to my boring chicken and veggie plan. I let Nate talk me into pizza way too often!
Glad that you loved The Girl with all the Gifts. I had seen so much love for it on LT so I picked it up and left it on a shelf for too long. Being mad at the other eBook and seeing Mamie's review made me pick it up then. Glad I did as I'm loving it!

>210 karenmarie: Ha, Karen! I would have never got that! I often visit LT with my morning coffee and I just don't have enough brain cells at this time of day to figure out puzzles! There are some other abbreviations and acronyms here on LT that I don't know (B.A.G.?)

>211 brodiew2: HI Brodie! I also enjoyed The Rogue Lawyer. I don't think I have abandoned any Grisham books but for sure some are way better than others! I really love his earlier books and some of those I could reread.

>212 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! I really have no experience with kids (other than my own) and really don't know what is normal for age ranges and what is above/below. Chloe has loved crafts for a long time now and we have stackable bins with 5 drawers full of craft supplies that she is free to use at anytime. I don't put restrictions on books or crafts and she is free to use either in any way she wishes. I only ask her not to use her craft supplies in her books! (There is a drawer called "the mommy drawer" that has glitter, glue gun, etc that she has to ask me to go in. The rest is free game)

>213 rretzler: Thanks, Robin! When we saw the cardiac surgeon before her surgery he stressed that even though they could try and fix her heart issues it will stay a lifetime concern for her. I don't think we will ever get away from cardiology visits but after a few routine ones we may got down to one or two a year. I wouldn't mind that as anything is better than cardiac and paediatrician each once a month! Combine that with Chloe's speech twice a week and our 40 min commute to the city for all of these and mama needs a break! Thankfully I have Nate and the grandparents all to help out when needed and I'm not forced to do it all on my own

>214 jolerie: Thanks, Valerie! I watched some snowboarding, had a bubble bath and peppermint tea and read a huge chunk of my book. And I was still in bed by 1030! :) Hope you and the munchkins are enjoying your weekend! Now that hubby is home for the weekend perhaps you can get that nap in!

>215 rosalita: Thanks, Julia! It was such a relief! And now that she is on full fat again I can go back to introducing new foods to her diet. She turns 8 months next week (OMG!) so she gets to learn about the joys of cheese! :) And since she has healed so well we can get out her jumper toys again soon! She loved that jolly jumper and her baby Einstein play seat.

Good golly, Chelle, I was so far behind! I just can't seem to keep up with everyone's threads - Ugh!
>63 ChelleBearss: great pic of your little chef! start them early and let them have fun. (Unfortunately, I didn't do that often enough and now I'm basically the main chef at my house)
Wow! You've been clobbered by so much snow!! Hope the worst has passed and better weather is on the way.
The kitchen art is absolutely adorable.
Nice Valentine pic of the girls! They are adorable!
Have a great weekend with the family!!

>192 ChelleBearss: Love your art zone, Chelle.

Have a great weekend.

All caught up here, Chelle. I am so glad that Ellie's visit went so well - hooray for that. And I am thrilled that you jumped right into The Girl With All the Gifts and are loving it. *grin*

Hi Chelle, I loved The Girl With All the Gifts and there's another one set in the same world called The Boy on the Bridge which I thought was just as good. Great news that your little one is testing in the normal range and you can move on with introducing her to new things.

Is it a full moon? I don't know what is wrong with these children today but after severe meltdowns from one (older) and crying bouts from the other (younger) they were both put to bed early! Ellie by only 30 minutes but Chloe ended up in bed by 530 and fell fast asleep! Weirdos! Oh well, them being in bed meant reading time for me and the opportunity to clean up the house a bit. I finished The Girl with all the Gifts and still have an hour before thinking about bedtime. What to read now?

>218 Carmenere: Hi Lynda! Keeping up with the threads can be a full time job sometimes! I'm surprised that I've managed to stay semi caught up so far this year.
No snow here now. Warmer temps and quite a few days of serious rain and all our snow has melted (and caused some flood issues nearby!) Thankfully no issues at our house because we are slightly elevated here.

>219 BLBera: Thanks Beth! It has expanded more! I had to move all of them right to the ceiling to be able to get one more row underneath. I still won't have enough room and will have to put some into the living room lol.

>220 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! Jumped in and already finished! What a book!

>221 DeltaQueen50: Thanks, Judy! I will have to check that one out as well as I loved TGWATG!

11) The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey
2018 PopSugar Reading Challenge 50. A book recommended by someone else taking the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge (Mamie)

This was a five star read for me. I finished it in three days which is practically unheard of these days!
I had this one on my radar for a while and am so glad I finally picked it up. I adored the main character and even started liking some of the nastier characters as the book moved on. I won't give anything away by writing any of the plot but I highly recommend this to anyone who likes a post apocalyptic tale and isn't too squeamish!

So glad Ellie got a clean bill of health for the moment, Chelle. Hang in there!

>223 ChelleBearss: Hooray for The Girl with all the Gifts! I warbled incessantly about this one, after reading it and couldn't stop putting the book in the hands of friends and family.

Morning, Chelle. Happy Sunday. I want some sunshine. It has been cold, damp and cloudy for several days now.

Hi Chelle! I hope there aren't any kidlet meltdowns today.

>216 ChelleBearss: - I had to ask Mark what this one meant. B.A.G. = Big Ass Grin.

>224 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! We are very lucky that she has no lingering affects. After seeing some of the kids in the cardiac unit I think we got away from the whole experience pretty lucky. Things could have been a lot worse.

>225 msf59: Hiya, Mark! I remember seeing lots of warbling about The Girl with all the Gifts from many people! Which was the reason I picked it up. But then like many a book that came before it sat on my shelf all sad and lonely until finally it had it's day to shine! :)

The sun has finally come out here! We've had way too much rain lately! Two towns near here have had bridges wash out and some towns have had the Thames River overflow and many houses are under water. It's not even March yet!

>226 karenmarie: Hi Karen! We've had a good morning so far! Ellie slept her 12 hours and Chloe slept a whopping 14 hours! They both woke up happy and we are going to visit my parents today so I think they will stay happy for most of the day. I also have an exciting trip to Costco planned with my sister. Life is just so exciting ;-p

Thanks!! I've seen that around the threads since I returned from my large hiatus and had no clue what it meant!

Happy Sunday, Chelle! I'm glad that Elissa received a good report from the cardiologist.

Hooray for cheese!!!

>228 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl! Cheese is a staple in this house and is eaten in large quantities! (Which is probably why my waistline doesn't want to shrink! :)

This is what is making me happy right now!

1) I survived Costco and even found some things I actually needed at a great price!

2) Both girls are in bed by 8pm with no meltdowns!

3) Chloe sang me her alphabet today (skipping H, we are working on that!) and only needed a little help towards the end! We are making progress! (Next goal is to teach a tiny bit of grammar and switch her improper use of "me" to "I". Baby steps.)

4) I have a chocolate bar, bathtub and Devil in the White City calling my name! (dishes can wait!)

Hope everyone had a great weekend and have a good Monday morning tomorrow!

(eta: fixed my spelling)

>230 ChelleBearss: That is an awesome list!! I love it!

'Morning, Chelle, and I hope you all have a great day.

It sounds like you had a lovely Sunday.

I've just cracked The Devil in the White City and plan on reading some this afternoon.

>230 ChelleBearss: Whoot! Nicely done, Chelle!

Hoping the week is kind to you. I really enjoyed The Devil and the White City when I read it - I could have read an entire book just on the World Fair planning. So interesting.

>230 ChelleBearss: Love the list.

There's a lot of "devil" in The Devil in the White City but it's a good read.

I smiled about Chloe needing to learn to use "I" rather than "me". My 44 year-old son (who used to use English quite correctly) has recently started using "me" where it should be "I' -- an error a lot of Americans who want to speak correctly (but aren't completely sure of the "rules") make. What's a mother to do?!?

Just re-read that, I mean he uses "I" where it should be "me" --

Sorry I hope my kids didn't send your kids the meltdown mojos!

I saw on the news about the flooding in Ontario but wasn't sure where you were in the province. Glad to hear you aren't directly affected!

Here we go..another week is off and running. Friday seems really far away. :/

>231 scaifea: Thanks, Amber! I wish I could say today was going as well *face palm*

>232 karenmarie: Hi Karen! I hope you enjoy it! I'm about 15% in and it's a touch slow so far, but not boring. I can tell from the character introductions that something big is coming, but they haven't gotten to the point yet.

>233 Crazymamie: Hi, Mamie! Hope you and your girls are feeling better! How's the foot?
I don't know much about the Chicago World's Fair but I have a feeling I'm going to learn a lot soon!

>234 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! Just curious about what ways your son would use me instead of I? I'm not the best person to correct anyone's grammar but I feel that I have a basic understanding of the language and how it should be used. (I could never be an editor, or even pretend to be one!)

Chloe never talked in the third person using her name (Chloe wants) and I think we skipped that as she couldn't say her name for a long time as she has trouble with C. She usually says "me want", "me need" etc. I am trying to break her of that by stressing the I when I speak or when she says it wrong I repeat it back to her correctly, but mostly I feel as if I am talking to a wall and I feel like a broken record. I know it will come in time but it's one of the things that her speech therapist wants her working on at home.

>235 jolerie: HI Valerie! I don't think your kiddos shared but mine is trying to kill me! Or is possibly acting like a toddler, maybe. Either way it's 4pm and I'm having an extra large coffee. 'Nuff said.

Yes, the flooding was bad in nearby counties. A town about 50km west of us had a bridge collapse

Oh wow...that's so crazy and scary!
Hopefully it's stop raining at least so the river doesn't keep overflowing.

Is Nate done with his night shifts so you can catch a break? 4pm caffeine. Oh yes those days are so not fun! Wishing you a relaxing evening at least.

Yep, Nate is home today and trying to help contain the meltdown! He has her distracted with a workout right now so I can chill for a bit. (Just need Ellie to stop moaning and fighting sleep first!)

Perhaps she will be Prime Minister one day ...

>239 ChelleBearss: LIKE!

" Chloe sang me her alphabet today (skipping H, we are working on that!)" Well, this definitely put a smile on my face.

Hi, Chelle. I hope the day went smoothly and I hope you are enjoying The Devil in the White City. I am a big Larson fan and he has been very consistent.

I know right..the pains you have to go through on the road to greatness.....

S is a pretty flexible kid on everything except bottles. Refuses them. I can't for the life of me get him to drink milk from it when his 2 older brothers loved the bottle. Thank goodness I don't have anywhere to go work wise so I'm just letting it fly but my controlling side just can't let it go... You just can't have it all!

ETA: we are in the middle of trying to wean S of his catnap because I'm running out of time to squeeze anything into his day. Let's just say this is the part of babyhood that I don't miss one bit. Oh, but the cuddles and cuteness can't just come on their own can they!?!

Ellen said up there somewhere, Human development is variable and the territory under the highest part of the bell curve is huge!!
I agree :)
And I agree with you too, if Chloe is having fun she will learn constantly (from any source), as soon as it feels like a chore, she will turn off. I was worried about W's reading when he was 7, as he was behind and I wasn't even sure he could read! For a while I tried to force him to read his after school book, and it was a mess. He hated it, I hated it. We each disliked each other, and the school book, it was a circle of doom. So I decided to stop- cold turkey, no more reading homework. (I wondered if I would get in trouble with his teacher, but when I explained why, they were fine.) Soon enough he picked it up fine through normal exposure to school work, and then I decided if he wanted his iPad turn, he had to do 15 minutes of looking at a book first. It was his choice and I never forced him. For a long while he did that and improved further, and now he reads well :) (He still doesn't much like to though- which is another story.)

mostly I feel as if I am talking to a wall and I feel like a broken record.
lol- I hear ya! Apparently it takes 1000 times saying something for a child to connect your words to their actions.

>240 msf59: Hiya, Mark! Glad I could put a smile on your face! Now, if I could only get her to embrace H! :)

This is my first Larson and I'm enjoying it so far! For some reason I was sure I had read him before but when I looked back, way back, I realized that I was actually thinking of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.

>241 jolerie: I always wonder what other parents, and babies, have for schedules around this age. There is so much on the internet that it is way overwhelming. I'm just winging it and hoping for the best :) Ellie has two naps on a good day, if she wake up super early and naps poorly sometimes I can fit in that afternoon cat nap. That's just recently though. Up until this week she was a steady three nap girl (unless we had to leave the house for something and then it would be car naps).

She wouldn't take a bottle either until after her surgery. She ended up with a complication after surgery that meant she needed a low fat diet and BM is not low fat. I quit nursing cold turkey while in the hospital and that was a VERY bad idea! Can you say hormone crash? Oh well, she is on normal formula now and Nate has the ability to feed her so it all worked out.

She cut another tooth overnight and needed to be cuddled to sleep tonight. I forgot how nice it was to just rock a sleeping baby and that only stopped a few weeks back!

>242 LovingLit: Hi Megan! Isn't it crazy how kids can learn sometimes. Just by not forcing it they decide to do it. I can't think of how to correct Chloe's me/I issue without constantly bringing it up though. I was looking online for toddler grammar games but I was finding more noun/verb education than just the basics. Her poor JK teacher is going to have his/her work cut out for them come September!

I feel like I've already passed my 1000 times! :)

I won a book! :) WHOOT!
I haven't taken part in the Early Reviewers for a while now but I saw some interesting looking kids books this month so I signed up for some and I won one!


Backyard Fairies by Phoebe Wahl

C will be very excited to get this in the mail! Amazon says it is for ages 4-8.

>236 ChelleBearss: Actually I got that the wrong way round the first time. He has recently taken to saying things like "John gave it to Gina and I". When he was little I would correct him but now that he's 44 and, I believe, getting it from his girl friend, who is generally there, I hesitate to correct him.

Wow, that flooding looks terrible!! I've been spending most of my TV time watching the Olympics recently and, now that I'm coming back to reality, I find I've missed a lot.

>243 ChelleBearss: I remember feeling super overwhelmed with C especially when he refused to nap or sleep. I remember going crazy looking on the internet trying to find answers. In the end I realized that for whatever solution one person may gave me, another person would give me the total opposite. No two babies are exactly alike so for someone like me who just wanted to be told the answers, it was not helpful..haha

Now, S naps 2 times a day 1.5 hours each and we used to be able to squeeze in a catnap but that has been affecting his bedtime so now just earlier bedtime. My schedule is all hung on pickup time for C at school which has made it harder to manage baby's nap time and ensuring he is up long enough to get a good nap. I'm just limping along until summer so then I'm not restricted by a 350 school pick up time. :/

>245 RebaRelishesReading: Ah, yes that is a hard one! A lot of people get that wrong and I don't think it's one that a lot of people would pick up on. I am not the grammar police by any means but I have a few things that drive me nuts. The word "seen" is my pet peeve!

>246 jolerie: Yes, I felt the exact same way with C and she was a TERRIBLE sleeper until at least three months. I don't remember exactly as I was too sleep deprived to mark anything down! I would spend hours on the internet trying to find the magic trick that would turn her into a sleeper. Turns out it was formula! lol

E is a very sleepy baby and has been pretty great with naps all along. Now that she is sleeping all night I'm way less crazysleep deprived! Now I just need to get rid of Nate's 330am alarm clock!

I am also looking forward to summer but for different reasons! I'm taking an extended mat leave and instead of going back to work in May I've request to stay off unpaid until September so I can be home until C goes to school. Plus the fact that I'm going through hell trying to find daycare for E, let alone trying to get them both in somewhere!

Morning! E has me up with the birds today and this is one of those days that I wish I could sleep all day! I woke up yesterday with a head cold and it has been getting progressively worse. I was in bed before C last night and I was hoping a long sleep would see me waking up normal today. I was wrong :(
I did get a bit of reading in before I conked out. I'm about a third of the way through The Devil in the White City and enjoying it so far.

E is eight months today! This week she cut another tooth and has been spending her days mimicking a screech owl! My poor ears!

Aw, happy 8 months, E! Give her a squeeze for me, please. Such a cutie.

>243 ChelleBearss: Up until this week she was a steady three nap girl

That's my retirement goal right there :-) I saw a cute quote a while ago that said we fight naps when we're young but when we're grown up we realise what a delicious treat they are. The quote said it better than that :-)

>248 ChelleBearss: Happy eight months! I love her t-shirt too :-)

>206 ChelleBearss: That is so cool. You have a budding artist on your hands, perhaps....

I am SO sorry to hear that you also have this dang head cold. No fun. I feel lucky that there are no little ones (other than Abby, of course) needing my attention. I think one of the hard parts of parenting is being there for them when you yourself are under the weather!

Happy 8 Months to little Ellie! I think teething is one of those things that evolution should have taken care of. It's this weird and terrible experience that occurs when we are far too young to comprehend why we're in so much pain.

>239 ChelleBearss: LOL.

I'm glad you're enjoying Devil in the White City and I hope you feel better quickly!

"E is eight months today!" Hooray! She is such a cutie. Sorry to hear about her teething issues and your head cold. Not a good combo.

Hope you get over this quickly, Chelle. Sending healing vibes from the Midwest.

Awww..so cute and adorable!! I love the little pigtails. :)

I firmly believe that teething is one of the worst tortures ever. The poor thing and you having a head cold definitely does not make it easier.
Hopefully you can squeeze in a nap today at some point.
Sending you lots of healing vibes!

Happy 8 months to Elissa! She is thriving - you are doing such a great job with her.

I am sorry to hear about the head cold - no fun, especially with two little ones needing your time and attention. Hoping you get some quiet time all to yourself. Feel better, Chelle.

>248 ChelleBearss: What a doll!! Congrats to you and hubby and a big hug for each of the girls please.

>249 scaifea: Thanks, Amber, your squeezes have been passed along :)

>250 susanj67: Ha, Susan, that's my daily goal! Or just one nap that doesn't involve a toddler poking me in the face and laughing hysterically!
My cousin sent E that shirt as well as a lovely unicorn book and a superman teething toy!

>251 EBT1002: Hiya, Ellen! Yes, it's sometimes hard to care for the littles when I'm under the weather. Thankfully Chloe is pretty good at entertaining herself and she understands that Mommy feels like crap. I figure as long as they are fed and reasonably clean at the end of the day then it's a win!

>252 msf59: Thanks, Mark! It's like my head weighs 5 tons. I am filling myself full of medicines and liquids in hopes that it will go away soon but so far the cold is winning.

>253 jolerie: Hi, Valerie! No nap for me today but I did manage to lay down for a little bit. E is starting to want to crawl so I let her roam free on the floor in front of me and layed down to watch her explore.

>254 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie! I'm trying :) Nate will be home from work between 6 and 7. Last night he walked in the door and I pointed to C and then to his food and said "I'm out!" and off to bed I went :)

>255 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba! Hugs have been passed on! C has no idea why but is always happy to have extra hugs!

I'm trying to start some thank you cards for all the doctors and my coworkers. I wanted to include a photo of E in hospital after surgery and one now. I didn't want the hospital photo to be shocking though.
This is what I've come up with. I'm hoping this photo is decent and not as shocking as the ones that show her chest or more tubs

What a sweet gesture Chelle! I'm sure the staff will appreciate it as they go through the gambit of seeing the highs and lows of their jobs.
What a darling of an angle E is. Here's to continual health to her as she smiles her way through life. :D

>257 jolerie: The hallway outside E's hospital room had a window box that was overflowing with thank you cards. I'm debating putting her name and age on it like some of the other ones had. I'm sure they forget the names of all the kids considering how many they see every year!

This is a bigger version of the one we took today. Not sure if you can read her shirt in the smaller one but it says "Sick Kids versus broken hearts". I cried when I bought it at the hospital gift shop. I'm sure the cashier thought I had lost my mind as I was blubbering over a onesie!

I was hoping to finish my audio book before the end of the month but that's not going to happen.
So here's my February end totals:

February
6) The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
7) Strawberry Shortcake Murder by Joanne Fluke (eBook)
8) Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King
9) The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
10) The Rooster Bar by John Grisham
11) The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey

PopSugar prompts crossed off:
4. A book involving a heist - The Rooster Bar by John Grisham
18. A book by two authors - Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King & Owen King
32. A book from a celebrity book club - The Lying Game by Ruth Ware (Reese Witherspoon Book Club)
40. Your favorite prompt from the 2015, 2016, or 2017 POPSUGAR Reading Challenges - The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (2017 Popsugar 28. A Novel set during Wartime)
45. A book with a fruit or vegetable in the title - Strawberry Shortcake Murder by Joanne Fluke
50. A book recommended by someone else taking the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge - The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (Mamie)

Best of the Month:
The Girl with all the Gifts 5*

Runner up:
Sleeping Beauties 4*

>256 ChelleBearss: That's a beautiful card and the hospital photo makes the point but it totally tasteful. Really nicely done!

Love that card, Chelle - how thoughtful, and I think the photos are perfect.

Thanks Reba and Mamie. My MIL was concerned that with E’s eyes closed it’s still a bit shocking. I have changed the photo to one with her eyes open and made the hospital photo a touch smaller. I got them printed today so I’ll slowly start writing them as time permits.