literary

Summer beginnings

May 27, 2018 Marie Leave a Comment

Low-key weekend for us, so far. Between the Little Mr and I, we’re quite the pair of sickly things. He started a few weeks ago with an ear infection and we thought we were good until earlier this week when he started complaining about the other ear – so, back to the doctor we went. Turns out the ear he said was hurting was actually fine and might have had just a small infection but the other ear – the one that was originally a problem a few weeks ago – was a RAGING ear infection. Oy. Between that and the sinus infection I’m fighting off we’re both in quite the mood.

So with what, we’ve been relegated to taking things slow. We got an early start Saturday and actually got our garden planting done. Well, the Mr got it done. I mostly showed up to plant flowers, lol. I debated on driving up to Wooster to the Great Lakes Fiber Show and load up on pretty yarns, but I’m working on being realistic with myself right now on a. how much yarn one actually needs and b. how much yarn I can actually use given how little I get to knit anymore. So I spent a lot of the rest of the day wandering the house wondering what to do with myself, and ultimately watched movies and snuggled the munchkin.

Today, determined to do something other than sit in front of the TV being pathetic on this holiday weekend, I chopped up a pound of strawberries and poured some blackcurrant balsamic vinegar in a canning jar and we snacked away on the porch while watching the world go by (and knitting, but a worsted wool sweater on a 90 degree day was a poor choice). BTW, that blackcurrant vinegar and strawberry combo is amazing if you pair it with some bread and cheese like little appetizers!

I started reading The Bear and the Nightingale this weekend, too. It was on my “to read” list, and Amazon Kindle has it for only $2 so it seemed fated for perfect holiday weekend reading. So far I’m loving it – it’s a book that I don’t want to put down and stop reading, but at the same time I don’t want to plow through it and finish it in a single day, either. So I bounce between a chapter or two of that, and a few rows of complicated chart knitting, and then back again.

Book club and the unexpected patio

June 28, 2015 Marie Leave a Comment

Friday night I attended my first book club. My dear friend has been talking about it for a while, and she’s constantly telling me “you need to come with me” so I can meet other people. More specifically, other local moms. I think it’s her way of trying to make me feel less alone in my struggles while also trying to get me out of the house so I can get a break from life. And since I always say I want to read more, and since I’m trying to find ways to sneak in time for myself (as much as I hate them, I’ve taken to reading ebooks on my phone since I can do that while the baby naps on me), I decided to buy the book (The Girl on the Train) and read it and attend the discussion.

We met at a local place I haven’t been to before. It’s a pub/grill next to the courthouse, and all of the sandwiches are named cutesy names related to the courts/jail. I really hate to admit it, but we’re horrible about not eating at the “local” places. Our town is full of chain restaurants, so you’d think we’d make a point to support the local places more, but we’re just not good at it. We forget about them. Or, as is the case with this place, because it doubles as a bar and a lot of the downtown bars are gross, we just ignore it and go on thinking it’s bad like the rest of them. I’m happy to report that I was severely mistaken, and that this place is quite lovely. There wasn’t much seating inside, and we had a group of 6, so we were set up outside under a tent on the patio. It was rainy and drizzly and fairly cool for a late June evening, but it was perfect. Absolutely perfect. And this view? Surely it doesn’t rival that of those I know others have in their towns, but this patio felt quite cute as far as outdoor patios downtown go.

Book club itself was ok. Things are always awkward when you’re the new kid at something. The book was just okay for me, too, so it wasn’t anything I was really thrilled to discuss. But it was a nice change, and nice to get to go hang out with some new people. The next book we’re reading is Holly Madison’s tell-all on the Playboy Mansion, which I’m probably a bit too excited about. The Girls Next Door was my guilty pleasure for years. I bought it and have it on my phone, I just need to finish the book I’m already reading, first (Cinder).

Multitasking

March 19, 2015 Marie 1 Comment

Yesterday the Mr had a late meeting, so the little one and I some time at home alone. I’ve been seriously lacking some knitting time with all the work I’ve been doing lately, so I took the opportunity to multitask and sit in the rocking chair while he played. I think I maybe knit 4 rows? Possibly 8? I don’t know. It wasn’t much, that’s for sure, though I suppose any progress is progress and that’s 4/8 less rows to knit. After he fell over (he’s still a bit wobbly, after all) and threw a fit about hitting the carpet I had to put things down and we tried reading. I don’t read to him enough, to be honest. After a long day, it’s usually the last thing on my mind. And, besides, he’s way more interested in eating the books than looking at them right now. Fabric books are my BFF right now and I wish I had more than two – I may have to find some interesting pieces of fabric and whip one up myself one night after he goes to bed. We’ve tried looking at this one before but he wasn’t really interested, but this time around he wanted to turn the pages a bit, open the flaps, and feel the different textures.

Tonight I’m getting a glorious night out for wine and watercolor painting. I’m not great at painting, though I’ve always wanted to learn/get better, but I’m going to guess I’m not going to care much about how my painting looks once I have a glass of wine or two. I think we’re painting flowers? I don’t know. I didn’t really pay attention – I just heard wine and a kid-free night out with a girlfriend and I was all SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.

Recharging

November 11, 2014 Marie 1 Comment

The weekend took its toll on me, and yesterday and today has been all about recharging. I found myself today wondering if I’m being the adult (and mom) I want to be. The answer was, resoundingly, no. I’m not doing the things I want to do and being the person I want to be, and there’s no better time than the present to correct that. So off the TV went, off the radio went, and we’re going on some lovely silence this afternoon.

I’ve been trying to make more of an effort to read books to the baby. We’ve received a small handful of books as gifts, but most of the books we own have been acquired at book sales or thrift stores. The Little House and Grizzwold were both rescued from a box of books destined for the thrift store. While I love the more contemporary books we’ve received (Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, for example), I really do love the old children’s books and their artwork.

On the knitting front, I cast on a new sweater. It was supposed to be textured on the front and back, but since the pattern never actually said “start chart here” I forgot all about it and just knit happily along. By the time I realized my error it was too late. Not that I couldn’t rip it out, but that I just didn’t have it in me – not after so much progress had been made. So a plain sweater it will be. Perhaps, if I have enough yarn, I’ll add a cowl collar to it to cozy it up a bit?

I started knitting little stars yesterday. They’re quick and fast. The holiday bug has bitten me and it felt like the easiest way to scratch that itch. I think when I’m done I’ll string them up and hang them in the baby’s room so he has some cute winter decorations to gaze at.

Book Swapping

January 27, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

I did something yesterday that I have never done before – I took a giant bag of books in to Half Price Books to sell. Normally I’ll pare back my books every year or so and donate them to our local library book sale, which is also the same sale I’ll attend to find new books to read. It’s a nice little circle of life for the books, really. But today I knew we’d be near a HPB, and I liked the idea of trading in my ‘read’ books for some credit toward new ones, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

I probably traded in almost 20 books, all in great condition because I’m picky about keeping my books as nice as possible, and wound up getting a grand total of $8. On one hand I was a bit disappointed that all I was offered was eight measly dollars, but on the other hand it was $8 more than I had before. And while my books were in great condition, they weren’t anything that was in high demand so I was not like to receive anything more if I tried to sell them online somewhere. In the end I decided to take the positive outlook and accepted my $8 and went on my way to find a book to buy in exchange for cleaning out my old ones.

And wouldn’t you know it, I couldn’t find a single book I wanted in stock at that location or in my price range. I looked and looked and looked, desperately trying to find one of the titles on my reading wishlist to pick up. The store had exactly one copy of The Night Circus in hardcover but at $13.49 it was over my $8 limit.

Feeling defeated, I made my way to the clearance shelves (which is usually where I start in the first place, and should have started yesterday). It was there that I struck gold. The Lace Reader? That was on my list. Cost? $2. In the Woods wasn’t on the list, but I had found it new at a store once and thought it sounded interesting. The other two I was totally unfamiliar with, but they sounded interesting and for $2/book I was willing to take a gamble. All in all I paid $0.54 out of pocket in sales tax for my new reading materials. Not too shabby!

Would I do a book sale/swap at HPB again? Probably not. We never buy brand-new books that would be worth much of anything to sell back. $8 is $8, but I think in the future I’d rather continue donating our unwanted books to the library sale in exchange for clearing out space for new-to-us books from the same sale. At most I received less than $.50 per book, and half the books I sold would have gone for $1/book at the local sale. And it just feels better donating and shopping the sale – the money raised from it is put to use via the summer reading programs for kids and some adult programs as well.