A Different Feel On This Day...

It is odd to actually not have a living mother to send flowers to on Mother's Day.  I keep her photo on my laptop because I need to look at it every day.  It is my third Mother's Day without a living mom and it does not seem to get any easier.  It just sort of stays sad.  I know how much she loved being our mom.  She loved all four of us.  She was devoted to us.  She would do anything in the world for us without question.  She would stay up with us when she was tired and laugh with us and eat Peanut Buster Parfait's with us late in the evening.  She was up for doing stuff with her kids.  My dad would go to bed but she would stay up for the fun.  Everyone who knew her thought she looked young and beautiful.  Everyone thought she was clever and funny.  Everyone loved seeing her ride all over town on her bike...her beautiful red bike.  My dad was forever fixing her tires and keeping it in riding mode for her.  When she needed a new one he searched everywhere for one with wide tires and no hand brakes...just a regular plain bike with a basket.  Her bike is still at my sister's house.  None of us can part with it.  When my sister and I were little she would let us play beauty parlor with her hair.  We would brush it and put stuff in it and she would pretend to pay us for our services.  We loved it.  We had a box with all of her hair stuff in it...curlers and combs and bobby pins.

We used to tease her about her Saturday routine.  It was her only really inflexible day.  She would do her hair in the morning and get her clothes ready for Mass at 5 o'clock.  She wouldn't go out or do anything all day long except sort of wait for church.  If we didn't go with her we would wait for her to come home...she would always be late.  She would stay to talk to friends or our priest.  Sometimes she would tidy the church pews...she would collect the Mass books and water the flowers...she would stop at a neighbor's...she would wander the town...it was her time...those hours after church.  She was funny that way. 

Then when she finally came home she would change her clothes and put on something comfy and we would make snacks and sit on the front porch and talk.  She kept this same Saturday routine even when we were married and only back for visits. We often teased her about it... not realizing then that it was her day, her time and she really didn't want to change anything about it.  So we would wait for her to come home...when we were there she would shorten her visiting but we could hear her as she was walking down our sidewalk proudly telling people she was in a hurry because her "kids" were home.  She would hurry in and change her clothes and Dennis would get in the car and drive up the street to bring us Peanut Buster Parfaits.  The three of us would sit on the front porch and eat them while my mom continued to say...I can't eat this whole thing and then in seconds it was gone...in all of its fudgey goodness.  My mom loved chocolate...more than anyone I ever knew.

I miss my mom.  I love our memories. 

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Dystopianly Divergent

This book was so good...so amazingly heartstoppingly delicious.  I think I just read that there is a movie deal on this.  If this is true...it will be amazing.

I think I am taking a vacay away from vampires, werewolves, witches and daemons but oh my goodness am I ever loving these awesome dystopian thrillers.

This was one of my favorites.

Imagine varying factions in society...Abnegation ( selfless...sort of reminded my of the Amish ), Candor...truthful, Dauntless...brave, Amity...peace keepers, and Erudite...really smart.

These factions all exist in Chicago...but a Chicago that is devastated.  Also there are people who don't fit in these factions.  I think they are the factionless and no one wants to be one of these.

Anyway...when you are 16 you have a choosing ceremony.  You have been given aptitude tests to help you decide where you think you belong.  Beatrice Prior has lived her first sixteen years in Abnegation.  Her choosing ceremony surprises everyone.

And this is where the real fun begins. 

That and the fact that she might also be Divergent.

Again...totally loved this book...could not put it down.  Excitement and thrills and of course a bit of a romance...a sweet sort of first love.  But for Beatrice everything is a first. 

My Cat Almost Blew Off Of The Deck...

Lucy was on the deck today...safe and snug in her kitty tent.  I normally tie it to the chaise lounge that it rests on...kind of like the princess and the pea...she is on a chaise lounge with a chaise pillow on top of that and then the kitty tent and finally...Lucy.

Dennis told me it was not necessary to tie her to anything.  He said she would never fall or that the tent could not blow away.  So I listened to him. 

I might add that it was just a teeny bit windy today.

Today when I went out to sit with her...she and the tent and the chaise and the pillow were in a heap on the deck floor.  Lucy was frantically trying to dig her way out of this mess.  She looked as though she was pantomiming swimming.

She did not look happy.

I think she is limping.

She is mad at Dennis.

I am mad at Dennis.

I think that Tonkinese cats are quite capable of holding grudges.  She stormed away from a treat.  She keeps looking at me.  I tried to tell her it wasn't even my fault.

We will see how the evening progresses.

Happy Start Of The Weekend!!!

Pretty And Pink And Oh So Addictive!!!

Oh...I am so in love with my IPAD 2...I spent most of yesterday getting to know her.  She does the most incredible things!!!  And...to my delight...just when I thought I knew everything that she could toss my way...she came up with new tricks.  I love technology, games, apps, and I love reading on my IPAD 2...syncing...syncing is one of my favorite new things to do!!!

Did you know that even something as dull as an email is in color and almost alive on an IPAD 2?  It is amazing.  I will never have a huge mass of email to look through every day because I can clear it from my IPAD 2.

My IPAD 2 and I did all of this yesterday...

• researched apps
• downloaded Netflix, USA Today, Scrabble, Angry Birds, Kindle and Goodreads and played with all of them...especially Angry Birds
• Cleared email
• played with the camera and video stuff on it
• got frustrated because I don't know how to go backwards in mail...this needs a tech call
• found a cool squirrel video and watched it with Lucy 12 times
• played a Hidden Object game
• read Divergent...I love reading on my IPAD 2
• ordered a screen cover and a sleeve...the fingerprints are making me crazy
• bought a cat game for Lucy called Painting For Cats...I found this on Modern Cat's blog 

She will chase a mouse and make a painting!!!

Waiting for the screen cover before we do that!!!   

Were you as productive as I was yesterday?

Today I went to lunch for three hours. 

I think I have Spring Fever!!!

It's Raining But I Am Sundancing!!!

I love Robert Redford's Sundance Catalog!!! 



This online catalog is the home of delightful artisan made jewelry.  You can also find clothes and shoes and bags and home goods.  The furniture is so beautiful that you might cry looking at it.  The jewelry is also different and often hand made by the most amazing designers.  Recently I inadvertently allowed a $50.00 gift from Sundance expire...and to my delight...when I asked...they reissued it.  This is a gift from Sundance to us for being such great consumers...is this good or not?  Hmmm...

I get most of my husband's Christmas gifts from Sundance...he loves the long sleeved tees and really unique sweaters.  I love the shoes and bags especially...here are a few of my favorites.

My renewed fifty dollar coupon is literally burning a hole through my wallet...I need these shoes...this bag...this bracelet!!!

Do you have a favorite much loved shopping place where you can find treasures that are unique and different?

I really loved this book…it was dystopia at its finest. This book was filled with amazing scary thought provoking images. A tvalter ( a movie theatre ), an unlake that used to be Lake Superior, wearing a hat all of the time…with a wide brim…due to intense sun.  An area called the Wasteland that people talk about but have no clue as to whether it exists or not. Classes separated not only by a wall but also by the color of clothing you are allowed to wear and even what you are given to eat.

Gaia is returning from her first solo delivery as a new midwife. She has just delivered a beautiful baby to a first time mother and then removed the baby from this mother to turn over to a guard so the baby can fulfill a quota and be raised by adoptive parents inside the wall. She is beckoned by a neighbor and given a parcel to keep secret and she is told that her parents are gone…to the Enclave where the Protectionist will question them for unknown reasons…and then either release them or imprison them or execute them.  As Gaia is being questioned in her home by a guard…she begins to feel the injustices and the crumbling of her world. She finds a way to get into the Enclave with one thought in her mind…freeing her parents.

Many unbelievable things happen to Gaia as the society that she lives just beyond begins to unravel. The Enclave needs more babies, there is a problem with intermarrying and hemophilia and infertility within the Enclave…and Gaia gets deeper and deeper into the injustices that she has lived with.

One important thing…Gaia is beautiful and scarred. She has a huge burn on one side of her face. This enabled her to stay with her parents because only perfect babies fill the quota. Both of her brothers were perfect babies and are unknown to her and living within the Enclave.

This was an amazing far-fetched and yet totally believable heart pounding novel. I could not read it fast enough. Gaia changed from obedient and unquestioning to a Joan Of Arc.

Water monitoring, a food made of mushrooms or some sort of fungus called mycoprotein. The haves and the have not’s…a wall that divides the haves and have not’s. This amazing author came up with the most fascinating things that could happen in a dystopian world. There is a part when Gaia has her first ever taste of an orange…they are like diamonds in this world…again…it was beautifully sad scene.

This is a must read for all lovers of this genre.



Wow...Yikes...Amazing...Yummy Books...

I can't even list them...they are popping up everywhere!!!  On the front steps and on the bench by the garage and in the mailbox!!!  It is an epidemic of books,  a torrent,  a flood and a whirlwind of reading material. 

I love it.

I am reading all of them.

Eventually.

The bottom two boxes are IPAD2 covers...one pink...one black...IPADS arrive soon.

Kindled books are here this week too...I will list them later...and I even had some books gifted!!!

I am ever so thankful to every publisher out there who has found me!!!

I will never catch up...but it does not bother me...I am one reader reading and loving one book at a time!!!

What are you happily reading this week?

And The Beat Goes On...

Hmm...yesterday it was the weeds...today it was nervous energy.  My husband...my lovely nonneurotic husband...declared today a day of rest...no yardwork at all...we would play with our new laptops, eat dinner early, relax while watching Amazing Race and whatever part of Celebrity Apprentice he could stay up for.  While discussing this on the deck...apparently in a not relaxed mode...a number of things were racing through his head.  Rain during the week meant he really should cut the grass again even though he just cut it yesterday but it should be cut shorter.  The veggie gardens were a mess...he actually left the tomato stakes up all winter...he could barely look at it yesterday while mowing.  It made him nervous.  And don't forget the huge mulch pile that was delivered on Friday...yikes!!!  Lucy and I just calmly listened to him...a feat in itself!!!  We said nothing.  We sipped our tea and read our book.  We breathed in and out.  We meditated.  I prayed for lots of rain to keep us inside for a short while.

I think I am saintly. 

What Sunday relaxation are you taking part in today?

I think I need to get her sunglasses!!!