Month: August 2023

August 2023 Book Reviews

Between three major milestones and jumping back into projects with the kids’ closet update, August has been a busy month! I did manage to get three books read and I’m excited to discuss them today so without further ado, let’s get to it!

I Found You by Lisa Jewell

“In the windswept British seaside town of Ridinghouse Bay, single mom Alice Lake finds a man sitting on a beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, and no idea how he got there. Against her better judgment, she invites him inside. Meanwhile, in a suburb of London, newlywed Lily Monrose grows anxious when her husband fails to return home from work one night. Soon, she receives even worse news: according to the police, the man she married never even existed. Twenty-three years earlier, Gray and Kirsty Ross are teenagers on a summer holiday with their parents. The annual trip to Ridinghouse Bay is uneventful, until an enigmatic young man starts paying extra attention to Kirsty. Something about him makes Gray uncomfortable—and it’s not just because he’s a protective older brother. Who is the man on the beach? Where is Lily’s missing husband? And what ever happened to the man who made such a lasting and disturbing impression on Gray?” (review taken from Amazon)

I feel a little conflicted writing this review, because I liked it, but didn’t love it. On the plus side, I thought it was a compelling read with the three different storylines that slowly start to overlap and connect. It’s a character-driven plot and fairly slow for a thriller but still was one I read quickly and enjoyed figuring out. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why this book didn’t totally work for me and then I realized: I had to suspend too much reality regarding reasonable decisions parents would make. Every single adult in this book made terrible decisions regarding children and it just did not seem plausible to me that these things would happen. With Alice in particular, I believe her character was supposed to come across as a bit of a normal/endearing/relatable mess but her choices just made her seem very reckless. It’s also a fairly light thriller until one chapter in particular where it takes a sharp turn into a very dark and disturbing scene that felt pretty jarring in the context of the whole book. Overall, I would say I enjoyed it as an average thriller but would give preference to Watching You.

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Elise Hannaway is a theoretical physicist and has been struggling to survive on her adjunct professor salary. She moonlights for a fake-dating service to make ends meet but all that may be coming to an end because she’s finally up for a faculty position at MIT. There’s just one little problem: when her interview process begins, she realizes the faculty member in charge is Jack Smith, the older brother of the guy she has been fake-dating and even worse, the experimental physicist who ruined the career of Elsie’s mentor and called into question the validity of theoretical physics. Elsie doesn’t want to play nice with Jack, but it seems like she has to, especially because he sees right through all her people-pleasing personality shifts and notices who she really, truly is.

This is now the third book I’ve read by this author (also read The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain). They are all about women in STEM (which I love!) and science is a strong part of the plot (like, I will skip an entire paragraph here and there because it’s science-y and way above my head). The downfall to this is books do end up feeling very similar in plot, characters, conflicts, etc. so it can kind of feel a bit like you’re reading the same kind of thing over and over. That being said, I liked Elsie and Jack most of all the characters and think this book would rank as my favorite of the three. Their banter is witty and enjoyable and their conflict and storyline felt the most believable of all the books. I loved the side characters, especially Jack’s grandma who makes some very memorable appearances. It was also fun to see that Hazelwood has created this little world of science where we had little cameos from the characters in the other books. I would give this one a rated-R ranking for language and steam just like the first two (although I would say this one is the steamiest), and I would say if you enjoyed either of the first two, you would also enjoy this one.

Dating Mr. Darcy by Kate O’Keeffe

Emma Brady agreed to go on Dating Mr. Darcy, a reality TV dating show inspired by Pride and Prejudice, for one reason and one reason only: to promote her struggling activewear apparel line. She’s not looking to fall in love and certainly not with the show’s lead: Sebastian Huntington-Ross. He’s arrogant and rude and okay, yes, attractive, but Emma can totally ignore that thanks to his other undesirable qualities. That is, until she actually gets to know him. Because once she starts to discover what he’s really and truly like, she finds it harder and harder to convince herself she can’t find love on a TV show.

I saw this book on the shelf and decided to grab it on a whim. My expectations were that it would be a light, easy, cute, and predictable read and that more or less was the case. It didn’t feel particularly original since it’s essentially just combining two well-known scenarios (The Bachelor reality TV show Pride and Prejudice), but I wasn’t really expecting or needing it to be groundbreaking. It was . . . fine. The premise seemed entertaining and I wanted to enjoy it, but it fell flat for me for a couple reasons. For one, I couldn’t quite get into Emma and Sebastian as a couple. Their misunderstandings were a little too silly and Emma’s assumptions too immature – it felt like we were trying too hard to create conflict out of pretty minor things. I would have liked to see this as a dual-perspective book to get more invested in Sebastian and the relationship in general. I also thought there was way too much time given to the tension and cattiness with the other contestants and, without spoiling anything, I’ll just say I was personally unsatisfied with how everything resolved in the end. It’s the first of three (looks like book 2 is about their wedding and book 3 is about their trying for a baby) but I am not interested enough in these characters or their storyline to pursue any future books. I will say, this is a clean book (no language, no intimacy beyond kissing) which can be hard to find these days so if that’s a priority for you, this one might be worth it.

What have you been reading lately?

Plans for the Kids’ Closet

I’m gearing up for my next home project and it might not be the most glamorous space, but I’m very excited for adding storage in the kids’ closet!

The previous owners had created their own system with a DIY shelving unit and a couple hanging rods. The setup was okay and hopefully worked well for their needs, but wasn’t a very efficient system for our needs. It felt like there was a lot of underutilized space and with two kids using this room, we need to maximize every inch.

When we replaced the carpet last June, we discovered the shelving unit was actually bolted to the floor underneath the carpet. They had cut a notch in the old carpet to accommodate it and we didn’t want to do that with our new carpet, so we decided to dismantle the whole thing. We’ve been living without the shelves ever since, and while I wasn’t sad to see the old system go, I have definitely felt the loss of storage. Right now all the kids’ clothes are either hanging or stuffed into their dresser and I have bins with hand-me-down clothes in future sizes underneath the hanging storage (and a garbage bag full of clothes a friend passed along that I haven’t had a chance to sort through yet). It’s been working okay, but I’m ready for more efficiency!

One of the challenges in thinking about a new closet design was having to think about what we need now, when we have a five-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl sharing a room, and what we’ll need in the future, when we have two teenaged boys sharing this room (eventually, Ollie and Vi will switch places). There’s also a small door to an attic space that we need to keep accessible, and the longest side wall isn’t deep enough to accommodate hangars.

All those challenges had me feeling a little out of my depth. We debated coming up with our own solution using Ikea storage and some DIY hacks, but it was going to require a lot of finagling with the attic access to maximize like we wanted to. My friend recommended The Container Store and their free closet planning service so we decided to check them out before jumping into an Ikea project.

We were totally blown away by the options at The Container Store and the fact that their planning service is totally free. (I want to emphasize that this is in no way sponsored by them, we paid for everything and this was just our honest experience!) We didn’t need to make an appointment and were just able to talk with a consultant about our needs. He took all the dimensions we brought and in just a couple hours was able to create a plan using their Elfa system that perfectly fit our space and our needs. Their rendering even included a 3D view which was so helpful to visualize what it will look like!

It was the simplest planning we’ve ever done and he ordered all the necessary pieces for us – bonus for us that they were having a 25% off sale! It ended up costing a little less than double what our makeshift Ikea hack was going to cost, but with a lot less work and a LOT more storage and function so it felt worth it to us. The system arrives this week so I need to prep the closet for install now.

Before the system arrives, I need to:

– remove all the remaining shelves and hanging rods

– patch and paint all the walls

– re-install baseboards (these got ripped out when we updated the carpet and were never added back in)

I would also really like to replace the light fixture and possibly add a small mirror. I know that’s not the biggest deal in the closet, but I think it would be fun to add some of those touches.

If you want to see updates in real time, be sure to follow along this week on Instagram!

Three Milestones in Three Days

Last week was an emotional roller coaster of a week, as each of my kids hit a pretty big milestone. Truly, any of these events could make for their own full blog post, but I’m going to try to keep my reflections somewhat brief and condense them into one post here.

A few years ago, I blogged about the firsts and the lasts in my motherhood journey and those words from years ago still resonate deeply with me today. Last week was full of both firsts and lasts and it was a lot to process as it was happening – writing this blog post was very therapeutic for me and it finally allowed me to feel all the feelings (I didn’t cry during these milestones, but I sure cried writing this post!) Before I jump in, I do want to share what you’ll probably notice – after careful thought, Justin and I have decided we are no longer going to be sharing our older children’s full faces on my blog or Instagram. Ollie is still a baby and will continue to change looks in the future, so we’re okay sharing his face for just a bit longer, but for Vi and LJ, we have decided to keep their face private going forward. I will still be sharing our life and family here, particularly as it relates to my home projects and how we live in our home, just with a little more privacy for my kids.

And with that, let’s take a look at last week’s events:

Vi’s (unexpected) First Haircut

On Monday, Vi got ahold of scissors and chopped off a significant amount of her hair. I discovered a huge clump of sweet little blond ringlets on our stairs and was distraught – she’s never had a haircut! Her hair is fine and very slow-growing and it felt shocking that what took four years to grow out was suddenly gone. No more cute ponytails and braids, at least for quite a while, and I had to grieve the unexpected loss.

Tuesday we got her in for a real haircut to fix the damage and I decided to make it a special occasion. I hired a babysitter for the boys, and Vi and I got dressed up in dresses and headed to the salon. She absolutely glowed in the chair – she was so happy and excited for the experience!

Now she has a sweet little bob; it’s actually very cute and we were both happy with the outcome. Afterwards we got some ice cream and I was thankful to have turned the situation into a special memory with my girl.

LJ Started Kindergarten

The day after Vi’s first haircut, LJ had his first day of kindergarten.

To be honest, this was the milestone we prepared the most for. We have been talking about it for months. LJ is very interested in time and calendars and knowing what to expect; he is constantly asking how many days until x or how many minutes until y or what to expect at event z. Suffice to say there has been a lot of counting down to kindergarten and talking about when it will start, how long are the days, will there still be time to play, etc.

As the day approached, I really enjoyed going through the preparations with him. We had fun shopping for school supplies together (except for backpacks, but that story has a good ending!) and going to registration. It was an exciting day when we got the introduction letter from his teacher. Justin and I hired a babysitter to watch Vi and Ollie so we could both go with LJ to Meet the Teacher night and give him our complete focus and attention. All these little experiences helped us prepare our hearts and minds for this big transition.

A few days before the first day, I asked him if there was anything he was still nervous about and after thinking a bit, he said recess. He remembered that when we came for registration, the playground was full of kids and he was used to just his one small class being outside at preschool. I had to drop off a couple things at the school so we asked in the office how many classes go at once and if we could play a bit on the playground right then. LJ and Vi spent ten minutes running around and checking out all the equipment. That little experience helped clear the rest of his nerves – he felt he knew pretty much what to expect and was totally ready to go!

Justin was off work on the first day so we all got to spend the morning together and then take LJ to school. He was so excited and that helped us also be hyped up and excited with him. I expected to cry but didn’t – I felt a few bittersweet twinges but overall the whole experience felt joyful. I think we were all really well prepared for this transition so it just truly felt positive and exciting. The day did feel a little long for me and I was itching to go pick him up, but we were glad to find out he had a great first day and was excited to go back again!

Ollie’s First Birthday

The day after LJ started kindergarten, Ollie turned one.

Oh boy. I don’t even know how to start this one.

Ollie is my last baby. Every milestone with him is exciting, but a little extra bittersweet because his firsts are also my finals. His was the final time I heard a first word or saw a first tooth poking through or cheered for a first crawl. He isn’t walking yet, but I know soon I will be reaching my hands out to catch the toddling fall after the first few steps. There will soon be a final bottle. Someday there will be a final diaper and a final stroller ride and a final night in a crib (if you’re wondering if I’m crying now writing these words, the answer is YES!) I will celebrate each milestone wholeheartedly, even as that heart breaks a tiny bit at saying goodbye to the previous stage.

So all that to say, his first birthday was celebratory but also very bittersweet. The night before, I held him a little longer before putting him to bed, knowing that it was my last night of my last baby year. And then in the morning, I had my final one year old! We kept the celebration pretty simple with a family dinner and a cake that Vi and I made earlier that day, and will have a joint party for both Vi and Ollie in a couple weeks.

Ollie is the sweetest, most easygoing baby. When I drop him off in the nursery at church I often get asked “is he always like this!?” because he’s just content the entire time. He’s happy, he plays, he observes, he snuggles, he interacts – he is just along for the ride and unless he is hungry, tired, or sick, he generally isn’t fussy. For basically his whole life, he’s been carted around to one activity or another and he adjusted to sleeping in the car and having a somewhat flexible schedule. He thankfully doesn’t mind the car seat and travels well!

He is very curious and enjoys getting into things. He just started crawling on both hands and knees within the past month. Before that, he kind of did an army crawl where he drug his right hand along and just used his left hand to pull himself around. His little teeth crack me up – his canines were actually the first teeth to come in so he looked like a little vampire at first!

He loves clapping and doing “pat a cake” and “so big” with people. He also really loves music and will bop along to just about any beat, although I discovered he jams the hardest to Blink 182’s “All the Small Things” haha! He is by far our best sleeper and has been sleeping consistently 7 pm – 8 am for most of this year (I know, I know. I have no idea how we did this but it was amazing!) He still loves his bottle but he also loves food and will eat anything we put in front of him. He does great staying overnight with my parents (took a little while to warm up to my dad for some reason but they’re besties now!) and that has really allowed us to have a bit of freedom back this past year.

He didn’t initially like baths but now he really loves them, although we just tried a bath with all three kids and I think that was a bit overwhelming for him. The older two absolutely adore him. He is smothered with hugs, kisses, and affection all day long and mostly takes even the more aggressive sibling love in stride. He loves daddy and he loves mama and we enjoy seeing his toothy smile light up whenever we come into the room.

He surprised us on his birthday with a new trick and started crawling up the stairs. We started following behind him and realized he could go the entire way up by himself! So that’s another first/last…and now we have to figure out a gate situation one final time.

My sweet little Ollie, I am so so thankful you are in our family. We love you so much and are so grateful for this year of your life!

Whew! Now I’m ready to transition back into project mode . . . and no one is allowed to have any more milestones for at least a month so my mama heart can recover. 😉

A DIY Backpack Compromise

We’re gearing up for a big milestone around here: LJ is about to start kindergarten!

A few weeks ago we were in Target getting school supplies and had an unexpected meltdown in the backpack aisle. I wanted to buy a backpack that would last all the way through elementary school at a minimum, but LJ saw a Sonic backpack and immediately decided no other backpacks would do.

LJ loves Sonic . . . for now. But what about next year? I wanted to prioritize sustainability and I just know that in a year or two (if not even sooner!) he might be tired of Sonic and want something else. But according to his impassioned pleas as he literally laid his body down in the middle of the aisle in protest, he will always love Sonic forever and pleasemommyIonlywantthisbackpackIpromiseI’llnevergettiredofit. We were at an impasse.

It is important to me that he likes his backpack and feels some level of autonomy in these decisions, so I wanted to try and come up with a solution that worked for us both. And then I had an idea – a DIY idea!

I researched various backpack options and landed on Terra Thread. Their backpacks are high quality, fair trade certified, and sustainably made so that made me happy. I got this backpack in Tidal Blue, which is the color of Sonic, and that made LJ happy. And then, for the final touch . . .

. . . I bought a Sonic iron-on patch! LJ gets Sonic on his backpack, I get well-made, long-lasting quality, and the best part is whenever he does get tired of Sonic, it’s easy to remove. Win, win, win!

I had never used an iron-on patch before and it took just a bit of trial and error, but overall was an easy little project to complete. Here’s what I did:

I initially thought I wanted Sonic in the very center, but ultimately landed on having him stand on top of the logo. I think it seems unexpected and fun there!

Once the patch was exactly where I wanted it, I covered it with a tea towel.

The directions said to use a tea towel and high heat, but I wasn’t exactly sure how high to go so I started on the cotton setting (medium-high) since the backpack is cotton canvas. That was not hot enough and the patch easily peeled off. I truly needed HIGH heat to fully activate the glue and have it adhere properly. I turned it all the way up and placed the iron on top of the tea towel over the patch and pressed firmly for a full 60 seconds.

I also opened up the bookbag and firmly pressed the iron onto the patch from the other side of the fabric for another 60 seconds.

Lastly, I firmly pressed the edges of the patch for 2-3 seconds at a time. This wasn’t in the directions but I think it helped ensure the edges were firmly adhered. My mom suggested throwing in a few stitches (she did live through the 80’s so she’s a patch expert! 😉 ) and I might do that if I notice the edges coming up over time but for now it doesn’t seem necessary.

Voila! A Sonic backpack that will actually grow with LJ. This truly was the best compromise for both of us and he is SO happy with it. He’s already talking about adding other patches like Tails and Mario and honestly, I’m fine with that! He can personalize this with as many patches as he wants and I’m looking forward to how the look will evolve over the years.

Now on to kindergarten!

July 2023 Book Reviews

Hello August!

This summer I kind of took an unplanned break from home projects and blog posts and such. For a myriad of reasons, it felt best for me to let those things slide to the back burner and just enjoy time with my family and get back to the basics around my life and my home. Other than a few small projects and posts here and there, I decided to just give myself time off from it all and it was refreshing and just what I needed. Now that it’s August, it feels like a perfect time for a fresh start – school is approaching (LJ is going to be in kindergarten!! What!!!) and I’m feeling ready to get back to projects and plans for our home. I’m starting to plan for my next few projects and I’m getting very excited to jump back in!

Despite taking a break from other things this summer, I didn’t take a break from reading. I read three books in July and I’m excited to discuss them today!

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Harriet and Wyn broke up five months ago but still haven’t told their best friends. Harriet has decided to share the news with everyone during their annual reunion trip to Maine but to her shock, Wyn is already there when she shows up. It turns out, one of their friends called him and begged him to come because the cottage that has hosted this yearly getaway is for sale, making this the grand finale trip. Harriet and Wyn realize everything must go perfectly for their friends this week so they have no choice but to pretend they are still engaged and in love for the entire trip. After being a totally in love, made-for-each-other couple for years, how hard can that be?

I don’t mind a trope-y book and enjoyed this one despite the fact that the miscommunication trope isn’t one of my favorites (so much could be solved if people just talked honestly!) Besides making me want to take a summer trip to Maine asap, I thought the chemistry and tension between Wyn and Harriet was great and I easily was hoping for them to figure things out. I appreciated that their love journey felt realistic and dreamy at the same time. I really loved the eclectic friend group and how their relationships developed and grew over the years; again, watching them handle changing seasons of life and friendship felt realistic. It’s told in a way that’s relatable and fun and makes you feel like you’re in on all their inside jokes and traditions. One thing that didn’t work for me was the length – it clocks in at 385 pages and that is just too long for this type of book. There were too many details about too many side plots in the background chapters (Harriet’s family, Wyn’s family, various stories about the friend group) and coupled with an angsty, miscommunication trope in the present day chapters, it felt pretty drawn out at times. It could have been 80-100 pages shorter and still been great. All that being said, I still enjoyed it overall and would recommend if you want an easy, fun, somewhat predictable vacation read!

Homecoming by Kate Morton

On Christmas Eve 1959, a terrible family tragedy is discovered at a country estate in Australia; the whole town gets swept up in the ensuing murder investigation that is never conclusively resolved. Nearly 60 years later, struggling freelance writer Jess is returning to Australia after hearing the news that her beloved grandmother, Nora Turner-Bridges, has fallen very ill. When Jess discovers a true crime novel in Nora’s belongings, she learns of the Turner Family Tragedy of 1959 and her own family’s shocking connection to it. Her journalist instinct immediately kicks in and Jess sets out to discover more about this family and what exactly happened all those years ago.

Listen, if Kate Morton writes it, I want to read it. She is my favorite author (dare I say: ever?) and I just adore getting swept up in her books. This one was no exception! The story is a slow burn mystery intricately woven over the course of three generations and despite featuring many different characters, it was easy for me to follow along. The book is hefty at 500+ pages, but I was spellbound and just wanted to keep reading and reading and watch everything unfold. I will say, with every book of hers I read, I get this hard to describe sense. I recently discovered there is a German word for longing called “sehnsucht” and according to Wikipedia, “some psychologists use the word to represent thoughts and feelings about all facets of life that are unfinished or imperfect, paired with a yearning for ideal alternative experiences.” This is a good way to describe how Kate Morton books make me feel. I’m captivated, I’m satisfied, yet I always have this sense of bittersweet longing for alternate plotlines. But isn’t that how history is? If one thing changed, maybe so much would change. If we only had this answer or this person’s motivation or personal feelings or could see the full chain of events, we would understand so much more. It’s how real life is and how looking back on history is, so I believe it’s also how well-written historical fiction should be. Kate Morton is just the best at it in my opinion. I loved this book and wish I could read it for the first time again just to experience it all once more.

Flying Solo by Linda Holmes

Following the death of her never-married great aunt Dot, Laurie heads back to her hometown in Maine to clear out Dot’s cottage and get things ready to sell. When clearing out an old trunk, she finds a wooden duck tucked underneath some quilts and has more questions than answers. Why does Dot have this duck? What are the markings on the bottom? Why was it tucked away like a secret? Laurie enlists the help of her best friend, June, and her first love, Nick, to figure out the story behind the duck. It seems to be turning into an uninteresting dead end . . . until the duck disappears under unusual circumstances. Now Laurie must band together an eclectic bunch of people to try and get the duck back and solve the mystery of it’s importance in Dot’s life.

Laurie is an almost-forty, plus-sized woman who has consciously decided that she does not want to get married or have children. (I include plus-sized because the author definitely wants that to be known about her. I found it odd how many times her specific clothing size of 18 is mentioned.) Kudos to the author for breaking out of the mold and portraying a woman who wants an alternate type of happy ever after. I love the goal to represent an empowered woman who makes choices that don’t fit the mainstream societal narrative, but the problem for me was that I didn’t find Laurie to be altogether likeable. What was meant to come across as strong and independent felt more like stubborn and selfish at times, and her preferences for independence get really repetitive. The cast of side characters is interesting and adds a layer of fun, but I was very underwhelmed by her rekindled (and underdeveloped) relationship with Nick. Their whole romance just fell flat for me. The duck caper was initially cute but eventually silly; I found myself bored with the slow-moving storyline and skimmed quite a bit. Overall, it’s a fine read but after really enjoying the author’s other book, Evvie Drake Starts Over, I was ultimately let down by this one.

What have you been reading lately?