With a little reading.......

I figure I better throw in a little bit about books and reading since it's suppose to have some book blogging background here.

I started Secrets of Eden by Chris Bohjalian the other day but I'm thinking I might just put it down and pick up Shudder Island by Dennis Lehane. I picked it up at the library the other day and I'm thinking that it might not be renewable. So I think I'll bump it up to #1 on the list and read it before it's due date. I've heard so many great reviews from some of the book boards I've browsed and the movie previews look really good.

After I'm done Shudder Island, I'll go back to Secrets of Eden. I have some really good books in my book bag at home too. I don't actually keep my books on my nightstand because it's too crowded with everything else I have on there. I got this really neat reusable bag at Barnes & Noble and it fits in that little space between my bed and my nightstand. I store my TBR pile in there. I have quite a few books in there right now and I think I might have to take a few back to the library unread, which I hate to do. But I have a few on reserve and I'm thinking these books are going to come and I'm going to have wayyyy too many books in the bag.

Again, it's an addiction. I just can't bear to leave a library empty handed or with just one. My books are like a security blanket for me. And I like it that way. I'll be all snug and secure this weekend with lots of good reads and lots of white blankets outside!

Happy Reading!

My Morning Meanderings........

I'm sitting here at work at 3:14AM and I'm listening to a radio station that is all news, all the time. I'm waiting to hear if our schools are closed today because yet again, we have snow. It's not a lot of snow and no where near the snow we've had over the past month, but it's very very windy out there which is causing major white-outs. I have these glass windows in part of the roof where I sit and it's just covered in white. But I can see these gusts of snow blowing around, almost spirit like and it's really neat looking.

I'm betting "they" don't announce the school closings for a while because they got such criticism today about closing the schools. There was not a drop of snow on the ground when they closed the schools at 7PM on Wednesday night. So we knew we were closed on Thursday when it was raining but now it's a Snowicane out there and we don't know. I can just picture the higher ups sleeping with little grins on their faces, knowing that they won't have to wake to the alarms, knowing full well that all of us parents are sitting home on pins and needles. Muhahahaha!

Listening to the news can get kind of boring because at 3:20AM, nothing new happens. It's all the information from the day and night before. Yesterday, at this time, there were 3 families who had no idea of how incredibly horrible their lives were about to become. That's because they had no idea that their 3 daughters would go to school in the morning but at some point during that morning, they would leave school. After they snuck out of school, they went down to the train tracks and while one friend watched, her two friends were killed by a train. All the girls were 15 year old sophomores in high school, just like my son. No one knows why they decided to cut school, no one knows how they went unnoticed. But let's be serious, can't be the first time they did it. And just a few weeks ago, there were 3 kids that were also killed on a train track so you would think that if they were going to cut classes, they wouldn't go and do something so stupid like play on train tracks where they know the trains are running. You see it on the news and then you decide to go and hang out in the same type of place? I'm guessing there's more to the story than we'll ever know. Oh what a difference a day makes.

Kind of makes you think. Makes you realize that you never know, it's not just a cliche, life is precious, a gift. You give your kids an extra hug and kiss, don't let them leave for school without knowing that you love them, even if they ticked you off the night before.

I'm guilty many mornings of being the ticked off mom because someone didn't get something signed the night before, or didn't check for their gym uniform, or can't find some piece of their uniform again, asking me where it could be. And I'm sure I'll have more mornings that I'm ticked off but I hope that I'll step back before the kids leave and make sure that they know that I love them, that I'm not mad or that it was just a few minutes of insanity and that they mean more to me than anything in the world!

And now it's 3:42AM, still no word on school closings. Hopefully, when I get home safe and sound, I'll peek in on my stinkers and be able to let them sleep in.

Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend!

And the award goes to......

but first, let's recognize where it came from! Thanks to Kathy from http://bagsbooksandbonjovi.blogspot.com/ for this very sweet award!

A Prolific Blogger is one who is intellectually productive… keeping up an active blog that is filled with enjoyable content.

What a way to flatter a girl! Thank you so much Kathy!

Of course with every award there are rules and the rules are:

1. Every winner of the Prolific Blogger Award has to pass on this award to at least seven other deserving prolific bloggers. Spread some love!

2. Each Prolific Blogger must link to the blog from which he/she has received the award.

3. Every Prolific Blogger must link back to This Post, which explains the origins and motivation for the award.

I will be passing my award on to some very good blogs, but first, I need to get caught up on some blog reading so in a few days, I will continue the honor and share the love.

Thank you Kathy for sharing the love too!

It's a love hate thing.....

I absolutely hate when a good book is over. It's even worse when you think you have a few more pages because the author wrote about 3 pages of acknowledgments in the back.

I absolutely LOVE a series. And I was really loving Adriana Trigiani's Valentine series. I was so happy when I saw the second book was out and I was elated when I saw that book just sitting on the desk at the library when I walked in. It was just sitting there waiting for me, just for me!

I absolutely hate that I have to wait so long between books.

I absolutely LOVE that there is going to be more for this series.

I absolutely hate that there is only going to be one more book in this series.

I fell in love with these characters. I laughed with these books, I cried with them and I felt a little heartbreak when they were over. I could actually picture the places, the people, the scenarios in my head. I got lost in these books!

I absolutely LOVED them!!!

Ciao!

This week's read.....

I figured I'd throw in a few extra posts since I've missed a few months of blogging.

I have been reading even when I was busy. I have all the books that I've read written in my day planner and on my Facebook page. I couldn't get to sleep in the morning when I come home from work if I could read myself to sleep.

This week I'm reading Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani. And I'm loving it! I really like Trigiani's books and was so happy when I heard that Very Valentine was going to be a series. I was a little late in finding out that Brava Valentine was coming out so I quick put it on reserve at the library. I think I was 6th in line for the regular copy and 3rd for the large print. Then one day, I took my oldest to a few of our local branches of the library. We have so many branches close to us that we can just drive around to find what books we need at which branch. Since he was looking for a certain book and had others to pick up, we were on a branch hopping mission. The last branch we went to was the one that is right around the corner from my house. He was looking for his book and I walked around the counter............and there it was. Sitting on display was Brava, Valentine, right in front of me. I grabbed it so fast. I have no idea of why that book wasn't in the system being passed to the people on the list before me but I wasn't going to ask why. I grabbed it and checked out ASAP. I even had the librarian remove me from the waiting list so that someone else would get the thrill of moving up in the ranks.

I love this series! I love the characters. I love the whole Italy/Italian thing. Deep inside I'm an Italian wanna be. I dream about going to Italy one day. I'm going to be an old lady when I get to go with some church group, but that's okay with me. I'm getting there somehow. So in the meantime, I love reading this series about the lifestyle and Italy.

I'd be done this book already if reading didn't put me to sleep. Part of me is dying to just tear through it and part of me is trying to savor the book.

I think I'll finish up, clean up at work and sit back and read a few more pages before my relief comes in!

Happy Reading!!

Ash Wednesday, Lent & the Sacrafice.......

So today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. A very special time for Catholics. A time where we are supposed to make a sacrifice, to give up something that is important to us or to give up a bad habit to help "change" ourselves.

I tried that one year. I decided to give up swearing or cursing. It was Ash Wednesday. I had my ashes on my head and I had made the promise to give up having a potty mouth. I walked down the street with my girlfriend to my truck because we were going out. We started talking about an incident that involved a certain person who was a trouble maker and there went my promise, my sacrifice, my big change. I'd say I lasted an entire 20 minutes. I didn't even notice that I had done it. My girlfriend was so kind to point it out to me. Of course she kept her promise that entire Lent. Whatever.

That was also the year that I decided "giving up things" just wasn't for me. I was setting myself up for failure. Instead, I would change something, improve something about myself. That's my goal this Ash Wednesday. I've actually decided to improve myself in two ways. I'd love to say that I'm going to lose weight, diet and not eat anything bad for me but knowing the events that I have coming up with the Mothers' Association, I just can't make that promise. We have great caterers and seriously, the temptation, I'm just setting myself up for a HUGE failure. But that doesn't mean I can't try to add a little exercise into each day. I need to find time, maybe a 1/2 hour that I can do a little something for myself. I have a treadmill in my bedroom. Wouldn't kill me to pull it out and walk for a 1/2 hour each day. Hell, might even lead to an hour.

My other "improvement" is to my spirituality. I go to mass every week. I like going to mass. I pray, most days. I pray when my friends ask for my prayers. I try to pray at least once a day, a quick thank you for this or that. I pray when I pass that billboard on the way home from work that says "Say One Hail Mary" with the glowing picture of Mary. Hey, I dare anyone to say no to that billboard when you drive by it. Happens to be about 15 feet from a light and 15 feet from the train track, you really that brave? Not I. I say the Hail Mary. Then I feel like a hypocrite for just saying one so I say as many as I can until I get to the next light. Kind of like banking them.

But I've decided that I want to intensify my prayers. Maybe say the rosary more often or even find some deeper prayers. I've been thinking about even breaking out one of the many Bibles that I have and seeing if I can "understand" it a little better. I have a mini New Testiment in my pocketbook too now. Maybe reading a little passage or Proverb or Psalm and then trying to reflect on it, see how it speaks to me.

I figure even if I fail a little, don't do this every day, or don't do this as intensely as I plan, it's okay because any little bit helps improve my spirituality. Every little bit will help. And that can not be a bad thing!

So, if you have decided to take on a new challenge for Lent this year, good luck to you! I'll pray that you have strength. If you haven't, not too late to think about it. And if you just don't do that kind of thing, that's okay too. It's just not for everyone!

I guess busy....

would be a complete understatement to explain why I haven't been blogging or reading blogs.

Lazy would be a more appropriate word.

You would think with 8 hours at work with nothing to do but go on the internet, I would use some of those 8 hours to get some blogging done. And in the perfect world, that's what I'd do.

In the perfect world, I'd get enough sleep, be able to enjoy my awake time a little more, and get everything done that I swear I'm going to get done. Evidently, I am no where near the perfect world. It's not even coming up on any of my maps.

But I did promise that I would try to get back to blogging. That I would try to find something interesting to talk about now and then. I do believe I have made a promise that I might not be able to keep. I might be able to keep up with it this time but I'm not so sure about the interesting part.

I've decided that there is no way I can be just a book lovers blog. I'm still reading, still love it and still enjoy reading those book blogs, but I just don't read as fast anymore and because of that, my "book blog" would be slow and boring.

So, it's a life blog. Quite possibly a boring life blog but a life blog nonetheless. I will bore you with my job, my family, my Mothers Association, my friends, my kids schools, my reading and heaven knows what else. Maybe once in a while, it might even be a little interesting.

Please don't hold me to that "interesting" part.