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Iโve gathered a list of challenges and their hosts. ย So if you know a challenge host, please direct them to my blog. ย Feel free to contact me anytime. ย I hope everyone will be able to use my lists.
Qi (energy) hugs
Cee
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The Best of Us by Joyce Maynard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don’t usually include the book blurb but I felt it said more about the book that I could.
“In 2011, when she was in her late fifties, beloved author and journalist Joyce Maynard met the first true partner she had ever known. Jim wore a rakish hat over a good head of hair; he asked real questions and gave real answers; he loved to see Joyce shine, both in and out of the spotlight; and he didn’t mind the mess she made in the kitchen. He was not the husband Joyce imagined, but he quickly became the partner she had always dreamed of.
Before they met, both had believed they were done with marriage, and even after they married, Joyce resolved that no one could alter her course of determined independence. Then, just after their one-year wedding anniversary, her new husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. During the nineteen months that followed, as they battled his illness together, she discovered for the first time what it really meant to be a couple–to be a true partner and to have one.
This is their story. Charting the course through their whirlwind romance, a marriage cut short by tragedy, and Joyce’s return to singleness on new terms, The Best of Us is a heart-wrenching, ultimately life-affirming reflection on coming to understand true love through the experience of great loss. ”
Knowing this may help you decide if you want to read this book. It is autobiographical and full of the journey that the author took through a gorgeous romance and then finding that her husband has pancreatic cancer and all that they went through during this journey. Though it is a depressing topic, after the romance, the author is able to keep the reader from falling into despair. In fact, it was only toward the end of the book that I nearly lost it in a loud sob that would have awaken the neighborhood had I let it escape. But I felt okay most of the read.
I guess I should tell you that for me it was a bit personal in that my mother passed of Pancreatic Cancer. She certainly didn’t last as long as Joyce’s husband. The doctors did exploratory surgery, found the cancer and closed her up. They said she would live for about three months, she barely lasted three weeks. So it is good to know that many are getting longer life-spans after diagnosis.
Mostly the book is a story of love and learning life as you go. I loved it and hated that I had to put it away and go to sleep.
I did have an issue with the formatting in that every now and then there was a title or author’s name and page number interrupting the flow. But it didn’t take me out of the book for more than a second.
I want to thank NetGalley for letting me read the book for an honest review. I hope others get the chance to read this book. There is a lot to learn here.
Silence is not my favorite. In fact, for the last week or so, my favorite part of the day is afternoon when the thunderstorms start. Even today, I had to shut down my computer after the one-one thousand, two-one thousand then BOOM! And shortly after we would see something like this:
lights our sky. I leave the curtains open as long as I can to catch the show. By the way, that was a shot from Pixabay. Wish I could take photos like that!
Anyway, you would think that when the storm moves on it would be silent. Nope. We have frogs that croak whole stories to each other the rest of the night. Only in early morning do they finish their ribbing.
(Pixabay.com)
Early morning is never silent. I think every bird in all creation hang out near our house. I take the dog out for the first ‘outside’ and the chirps and cackles and cock-a-doodles can almost deafen you.
(Pixabay.com)
Even when we turn off the TV and sleep for the night our house shakes with noise. Every person in this house snores, even the dog and cats.
(Not a picture of any of our cats, yep, Pixabay.com)
I think I would freak out if silence ever overcame my world. I would expect an earthquake or a need to invest in hearing aids.
Thank you, Linda G. Hill for this Stream of Consciousness Saturday challenge.
A friend suggested recently that she just finished binging on Royal Pains. Finding myself in a binging lull, I decided to try it. My brother and my son have in protest joined me most days. They both have their own rooms and the same access to all the same shows so no one is pulling their limbs to watch. We are all equally bored and yet there, binging.
Our biggest gripe is the younger brother, Evan. Irritating! Without him, it is another medical show that could take itself seriously, if it tried. But I suddenly couldn’t stop looking at Evan. Who did he remind me of? After a couple seasons, I finally figured it out. First here’s a picture of Evan:
Here is his look-a-like, I think:
What do you think? Could they be related, same person, or coincidence? Clue? I don’t think anything but two very nice looking people. Love their eyes!
By the way, I think we are finally at season 5. So I may be finished within a few days. (8 seasons). Thinking I may need to watch the L Word again!
Not waiting until the last day of the month. Luckily this is May and there are 31 days! ๐ Here’s my May project Empty first then color-penciled (noun becomes a verb!).
This guy was fun to work with. Imagine a colorful feathered dragon!
Here’s next month’s dragon (butterfly dragon?):
Thank you, Linda G. Hill, for this fun challenge!
ย 
Yesterday’s sunset was gorgeous all the way around. Today is the same. (Sorry for three sentences–power outages, thunder and lightning distractions!)
Thank you, Linda G. Hill for #1linerWed!
The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was so lucky to receive this book from NetGalley to read for an honest review. I loved it.
Stories about women friends are the best, especially those who stood strong and were able to fight the male machine. The early days of motion pictures either sex could do the job. Both were needed to reflect the real world while inventing a new one. Sadly after the two World Wars women were sent back to the kitchen. Such an unfair state of affairs.
I loved how these two, actress and screenwriter supported each other while they could. I was sorry that, as they predicted, once they had a male counterpart that friendship had to take a backseat. And as the reality seems to hold, the male world still stifles that of the female. It is sad that only now many decades later we are just now seeing that the fight for equality may be within sight, again.
Everyone needs to read books like this. History/HERstory is possibly more palatable in fiction. There is enough truth that a person can Google (as I did) and see these early movie marvels. Meanwhile, there are gems of wisdom for us all to carry into the rest of our lives.
Between here and FaceBook, the answer was overwhelming. Sadly as I didn’t want to sew anything else. But I guess you all were right as I think they are cute.
Funny how maroon they look when it is really a rich brown with beige. And the hats are bigger than I caught with my cell. The eyes are black and the noses beige so it is not as light as it appears in the picture. Again, this is loosely LoomAHat’s Tiny Doll. The tutorial can be found here:
Okay. Though I’m finished with the dolls I have a couple of these guys that are soft and fluffy. They seem like gingerbread men or teddy bears. I didn’t put in the child-proof eyes as I think the yarn would still permit the eyes to pull out. Not sure I want to sew on eyes or faces.ย So I’m asking you: Face or no face?
Hat or no hat?
I don’t think these will go to young babies as the furriness might not be good for little ones that put everything in their mouths. But they are soft and cuddly. I have two of them and then I move on to other toys.
Thank you for your help in advance. ๐
By the way, these are made similarly to the dolls and the tutorial is on my blog two days ago.
Linda’s prompt for this SoCS is Rosy. Which I am going to change to Rosey. You’ll see why. I hope.
In many parts of the country, we are experiencing a lag in the Spring-ness. It is so all-encompassing that this meme is showing up on our FaceBook feeds.
I say that because here is it windy and raining a LOT. The good part is that it might forestall fires. But the wind doesn’t and the rain comes with lightning, so– not so much. Anyway, I was forced to take the dog (Kali) out as is her way. I opened the screen door and the wind nearly tore it out of my hand. I nearly closed it on Kali and the wind had it again. Now I see this black creature climbing down the steps as Kali was climbing back up.
Rosey and Teddy are the indoor cats. Too many predators to let them be outside. So I ran down the steps in my socks and picked up Rosey.ย She’s usually a sweetie and so cute, see:
But as I pick her up and tell Kali to go up and in the house, Rosey turns and does this to me:
I didn’t even know she drew blood until after I sat down. I was FaceTiming with friends and I showed them. They had me leave the conversation to clean it and treat it so it wouldn’t get infected.
Today as I was trying to finish a couple more dolls, Kali and Rosey sat on my lap, I think to make it up to me, but it makes it hard to sew with those two taking up the lap-space.
(This picture wasn’t taken today. I wasn’t on my bed in my PJs! And they were on reversed sides! But you get the idea!)
So where was I? Oh yeah! I finished my last dolls. The last thing I do is put a dab of color on their cheeks giving them a rosy glow.
I won’t include the tute here. as I shared it on yesterday’s blog. But I think I am done with the dolls for a while. I have to sew some other toys in the next couple of days. This feeling of accomplishment gives my soul a rosy glow that nearly matches my Rosey scratches! ๐
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