More Insta Love

I've been reading and reading and READING pretty much every spare second I've had lately so almost all of my Instagram posts are books.  Books and coffee, books and treats, books in a pile, books on the streets-
No.
No, that was a lie.  I would never let my books touch a dirty street.  I would have to put it in a biohazard bag afterwards.  No dirty books!
They're pretty much only photographed at my kitchen table since that's where I do most of my reading.  Put a cup of coffee and a cookie in front of me and I will literally be a statue for the next two hours.
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Most important thing to know about my bookish habits lately is that I read A Game of Thrones.

I did it.  Took me a few weeks, but I actually did it.
I.  Read.  All.  800.  Pages.
As you can see, this is an older version of the book.  I think this copy is from 1997 maybe?  I found it a few years ago from my local used bookstore and it was only a few dollars so I grabbed it and it's been sitting on my shelf ever since.  I knew it was a long series and I knew not all of the books had been released yet so I just let it stay tucked away.  I have the next three books in the series all ready to go (at 25 cents apiece they were a steal!) for when I want to dive back in. 
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Another "big" series I started this month was Death Note.

There are 12 manga's (I believe) and I've read the first three with the next two on their way from my library.  I am not a huge fan of manga but I see people everywhere saying that even if you don't enjoy the genre very much that these are still a worthwhile read so I gave it a shot and fell in love.  Ryuk is so sassy and hilarious and L is growing on me, but Light is just no.  Just 100% no.
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My husband lets me add things to his Amazon wishlist and occasionally he'll buy a few random things off it and surprise me.  In this box I got a new copy of Jane Eyre (my fourth!).

And a travel mug since I keep complaining that I never have anything to take coffee in while I drive.

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One of my favorite things to do each year is to go mushroom hunting with my daddy.  When I was younger we went multiple times every spring and it's something I love sharing with my kids.

Poppy took us to a new place and even though we didn't find many we still had a good time and I got to claim bragging rights that I found the first one.  And a white one at that!
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I won a gift card to my local library bookstore a long time ago and finally finished it off with a huge stack of books. 

 I think I paid $4 or $5 dollars for this after the remaining gift card was used.I actually bought these before I read and despised Moby-Dick and that's why Ahab's Wife is in there.  I thought it would be interesting to read it after reading Melville's original story.  Hindsight and all that.  We read Sir Gawain and the Green Night and Beowulf in high school and I'm interested to see how they hold up compared to my memory of them.
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My local bookstore changed ownership and the new owners had a "$1 for everything" sale going on with all of the leftover inventory so I charged in and made my way out with a few books I've been contemplating reading.

Outlander is another series like Game of Thrones:  not sure if I want to read it THAT badly, but a lot of people seem to like it and there's a TV show of it.  So for a dollar a book I figured it was worth it.  That Series of Unfortunate Events book was the only one Goose didn't have so I was excited to finish off her collection.  She wants to reread all of them since she heard there's a TV show of it coming out.
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Besides Game of Thrones, my favorite book I have read lately is North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.  I honestly hadn't heard of this book before stumbling over it on Goodreads but as soon as I found out there was a BBC miniseries starring Richard Armitrage I was IN.

This book was beautiful and thought-provoking and everything I love reading in a classic English novel.  I wish it was more well known because I would have read it ages ago.  It reminded me of a working class Jane Eyre.  I borrowed mine from the library and it's a gorgeous edition, but I now have my eye on this beauty for a forever home in my bookcase.  *also I have a new owl mug and I'm in love with it*
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Mother's Day was a few weeks ago and my girls woke up with breakfast in bed.

They made this flower all by themselves and were so proud when they gave it to me.  I ate everything but the green Jell-O grass because A) I don't really like it and B) it was warm by the time it made it to me.  My sweet girls love me and nothing else in the world matters to me.

Dewey's Wrap-Up

This was my first Readathon and I think I did pretty good!  We were really busy all morning with kid stuff so I didn't get to start reading until after lunch, but I kept at it all day and way up until around 3am.  Then after a few hours of sleep I got up and finished strong for the last hour.

My original pile changed a smidge from when I took this pic in advance.  I started The Beach House and just could not get past a few pages.  I managed to read three books start to finish and then a big chunk of one I've been working on for weeks.

Somewhere in Time Richard Matheson was my first pick.  I was a little disappointed in this since the synopsis sounded so interesting but it was pretty much just a 12 year old's fanfiction come to life.  It was full of plot holes and made absolutely no sense.  The writing was really easy to follow though so at least it was a quick read.

Because of Winn-Dixie was so short that I breezed through it while walking on the treadmill.  I wanted something quick and easy and light to break up the two bigger books and this was so cute.  I put the movie on order from my library because I told the girls about it and they thought it sounded interesting.

The Red Badge of Courage was the late night book for me.  I stayed up until three reading this pile of garbage and I've come to the conclusion that whomever decides what books are "classics" needs a foot in their face.  *don't even get me started on how idiotic Moby-Dick is*  This book was boring and all the characters were full of themselves and I hated every second of it.  So glad it's off my shelf.

 I also made some pretty good headway on Moby-Dick.  I wanted to try and finish it by the end but I had a little over a hundred pages left and was too exhausted to keep going with it.

I'm pretty proud of my tiny pile of books and I can't wait for the next Readathon to try even better.  I think I read around 800 pages since I'm including Bug and I's nighttime books as well.  Next time I think I might try for one large book instead of a bunch of short ones and see how I do.  I might try Anna Karenina.  We'll see.

Mom Fears

I am scarily obsessed with my kids coming down with lice.  I know, I know, it's not considered a "dirty" disease and that anyone can get it no matter who they are or how they live.

I understand.

But diarrhea can happen to anyone too and I don't think anyone would call that a fun time.

So when I say obsessed, I mean that I religiously check their hair every night after showers, I mean that if they casually mention someone in their class was sent home with lice that I attack them like a shark on a wounded baby seal, I mean that if I see them scratching anywhere within a twelve inch distance from their head I screech like a pterodactyl and make them come into the bathroom to check them over.

When Bug came home complaining another girl in her class accidentally took her hooded coat home over the weekend I was almost in tears thinking of my daughter getting it back on Monday and putting it on with no second thought whatsoever.

When Goose's best friend and classmate was found to have it I told her that if she even THOUGHT about getting near that kid for the next two weeks that I was just going to shave her head and get it over with.

I've threatened a complete stuffed animal genocide, I've held a razor up and told them exactly how this was going to go down, I've even banned certain kids from my house because they are chronically coming down with it.

Lice is one my biggest fears and I'm not ashamed to say I would fall into a deep, dark depression if it ever entered my home.

And now my head itches.