Over the weekend, we were talking about books. Youngest son, myself and Wizard were talking about some non-fiction we were all reading and talking about loaning one another, mostly biographies of successful business types. And my daughter-in-law said, “I’ve just been reading fiction.”

I stopped her immediately. “Fiction is important and teaches us a lot. It is not “just fiction.'” And she agreed, because she’s smart and all the things I could hope for in my son’s life partner

Quick story here: Just weeks before my 14th birthday, my dad suddenly died, we moved states, lived with my sister, I started high school where I knew no one, and I was very lost. But I found fiction. In that fiction, I came to believe there was a future for me out there, I just had to work for it. Become the person who would earn and deserve that future. In short, novels saved me. They gave me a safe place to go when I was drowning in the world.

Fiction taught me to value myself and choose a good life partner who would value me too.

Fiction taught me to value that life partner, no matter how hard life gets.

Fiction also taught me that Happily Ever After is fiction, but character, patience and determination will take you through in the real world.

Historical Fiction brought history to life and taught me the human toll of tragedy as well as that the human spirit that can triumph.

I believe Fiction teaches us both the value and the costs of choices we make, so that maybe we can make better choices, or at least, have a better understanding of the cost of the choices we do make.

I believe Fiction has so much to teach me, and to teach all of us.

It’s not “just fiction.”

What do you think?

Another weekend came and went dumping us into mid-February and speeding toward March Our weekend was good.

Friday, I got my hair done, and came home to the coffee table being delivered. And…the coffee table is not warped! We are very happy and glad to have that done. Full credit to the furniture company for taking care of this, it’s much appreciated. Back to my hair — my hairdresser and I made a plan to do a heavy weave in six weeks (when the gray is grown out enough for her to weave it), beginning a process of growing out my gray. Right now, I’m excited about that, but we’ll see how it goes. After all that I made cupcakes for BLB. I resorted to simple gluten and dairy free chocolate ones because I could not get an ingredient I needed to make the S’more Cupcakes.

Saturday, I made the frosted and iced the cupcakes. We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant that Youngest chose. Then youngest and his wife came back to our house for gifts, cupcakes and dairy free ice cream. They were both very happy with the cupcakes so that’s good. Youngest took a box of extra ones home with him. Overall we had a great time. Oh and youngest loved the new tables which was nice to hear after the all the drama,

Sunday tested my frustration but it was just normal stuff annoying me. On the upside, I did get my freezer cleaned out so I got to cross one item off a much longer to-do list. Sometime we take the small wins!

How was your weekend?

I’m not reading anything, and I’ve mostly been listening to podcasts rather than books. I was really enjoying Onyx Storm, then Wizard and I started watching movies at night when I would normally read and I haven’t picked it back up. I will soon, especially with rain potentially starting today and possibly lasting through till Friday. So far, each rain forecasted this year has fizzled to a heavy drizzle in our area, but we’ll see what happens.

What are you guys reading or listening to?

Happy Wednesday!

It was a good weekend. I’m writing this while Superbowl is on TV (on Sunday…obviously) so I have no idea how that ends

Friday was a nice day because I didn’t have to be somewhere for the first time that week. My hairdresser had canceled by hair appointment after she had a reaction to a necessary medical procedure. We rescheduled it for Saturday, so no big deal. I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies to take to my nephews on Saturday and then, I scored eggs for half the price I usually pay at Trader Joes. I was weirdly excited by that, LOL.

Saturday, my hair appointment was cancelled again. I’m getting less than thrilled although I understand this is out of her control. But it would be nice if they’d offered to have someone else step in…oh well it’s just hair. And resembling like a skunk is a look, right? Saturday afternoon we went to my nephews to have tacos and celebrate his birthday. It was a nice evening! I enjoyed it.

Sunday, Wizard went racing and I did a bunch of stuff, including a two mile walk with Maggie, washing floors and baking bread. While running errands, I got a text picture of youngest and his wife on my front porch. Sigh…if they’d warned me, I’d have been home! However once I finished everything, I went over their house and we hang out for a while. Youngest’s birthday is coming up in a week so we talked about doing something Saturday night for that. He’s deciding where he’d like to go to dinner (or have me make dinner). Then I came home to find Wizard home from racing and watching the Superbowl and now you’re all caught up!

How was your weekend?

TGIF!! Let’s jump right into sharing five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. Monday Wizard and I went to a running shoe store to buy shoes. It costs a tad more, but we found it worth it. Ordering stuff online is convenient and all, but sometimes, in-person is the better option. We both bought some shoes.
2. The coffee table saga goes on. They brought the new one Wednesday and it was warped worse than the one we have. The delivery guys noticed it first and they called to tell the office they’re returning it. Customer Service called me, and they are delivering a new one a week from today. The customer service person swears they will check it at the warehouse first. I just keep telling myself people deal with real problems every day and this is not one of those real problems. This is just an annoyance that will get sorted out. But man I’m tired of endless phone calls, emails, texts and four hour windows for deliveries — I just want this done.
3. In the Success! column, Wizard and I hung a TV in our what we humorously called our “Media Room.”  It’s a spare bedroom we use for everything — working out, wrapping presents, doing little projects, chilling out by ourselves with YouTube or Movies or read, just all kinds of things. The hardest part of that was finding the right TV bracket for our older TV. The rest went fairly easy and now the TV appears to be securely on the wall and doing what we want it to do. We are super happy about it. There’s more to be done in that room, but the house is a process that we enjoy and do as we can afford it.
4. We took some Manicotti over to my sister and her husband’s yesterday (we just wanted them to know we are thinking of them as the deal with losing a family member). We visited for a while, then Wizard got antsy and was ready to leave. I wanted to stay longer but traffic sucks so we went home. On the way, Oldest called, and while I was on the phone to him and distracted — Wizard got off the freeway and started winding into the hills where we’ve never been. I told oldest this and said that he might be the last person to talk to me, and that this was my last known location. He’s like, “Cool, Mom, this is how all the best mysteries start.” Frankly, he sounded more amused than worried. It’s like he trusts his dad or something
5. We saw Baby Girl yesterday. She’s delightful, super chatty and engaged. She turns five months old on the 9th! When I see her now, I barely remember that tiny helpless newborn. It sure is hard to leave when she’s mastered the art of being adorable, full of smiles and babbling.

This weekend, we have a family birthday party Saturday afternoon. Sunday Wizard is torn between racing and the Superbowl, and I’ve got a list of things I could do so we’ll see. That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours!

Tuesday was just one of those days when I woke up tired. Then I spent a record amount at the grocery store. After that shock and joy (insert sarcasm), I came home and spent two more hours cleaning and prepping veggies and meats, and whatever else I needed to prep, because I buy minimally processed stuff as much as I can these days. So that was fun…Not.

So I am blowing off weight lifting today (Tuesday) to try a new recipe for Lemon Cheesecake Cookies. I’ll let you know on Friday how they come out

Are you blowing anything off today?

Happy Wednesday!

Welcome to Monday and Happy February!! Now let’s talk about the weekend:

Friday, Biker Witch (my sister) and I had lunch. We always have a good time and I’m so glad we got together. Then Biker Witch’s Saturday turned sad as they lost a member of her husband’s family. It wasn’t unexpected but it’s always hard. Both my sister and her husband are doing as well as anyone can under the circumstances. They’re strong enough to handle it, but I hate watching the people I love go through this.

Our Saturday was a little brighter as we went to visit our grandson, Turbo. He and Grandpa bonded over cars for hours That made me happy as Wizard had a cold and missed out last time I visited Turbo. Turbo starts baseball in a couple weeks, so we’ll be going to games when we can! Fun fact — Wizard won’t let me buy hats for the team they are named after because “You’ll buy dorky ones.”  LOLOL!! He’s probably not wrong, so I’ll trust him on this and let him buy mine.

Sunday Wizard went racing, and I stayed home and did stuff like taking Maggie for a couple mile walk, work out, cook, wash floors. Just stuff. Nothing exciting but it was a nice quiet day and I love those. I’m really boring these days, and I’m okay with that.

This week looks a little busier than last week, but nothing crazy. It does look like we’ll get some rain, which is a very good thing in general, but not great for the burn areas. Still we really needs rain.

How was your weekend?