Almost seven years ago, I went through a traumatic experience. The first thing I did, as soon as my oldest and I were safe, was begin to reach out to my network of friends on the phone. I started calling people, because I felt that I could derive strength from my friends, and because I’d …
Book Review: News of the World by Paulette Jiles
What does it mean to be free? What happens when “saving” someone isn’t necessarily saving that person? Paulette Jiles explores these questions, beautifully, in her book, News of the World. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels and performs the newspaper for those who want to know what’s going on, but who cannot themselves read the news. This lifestyle …
Book Review: Kiss Carlo by Adriana Trigiani
To leap, or not to leap: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of familial expectations and obligations, or to take arms and follow one’s own passions and dreams? In Kiss Carlo, Adriana Trigiani explores this question among others against a backdrop of a local Shakespeare theatre company. It’s …
Bean Box Subscription Review
*This post contains affiliate links. Clicking on an affiliate link and making a purchase helps me to support my family at no additional cost to you. I received a 3-month subscription to Bean Box in exchange for my honest review of the product. It’s really not a secret that I have a strong coffee addiction. …
Book Review: Strange Contagion by Lee Daniel Kravetz
Happy Independence Day! I hope you’re going out to see fireworks later. How do social behaviors become viral? I found Strange Contagion by Lee Daniel Kravetz to be a fascinating work exploring how it is that emotions can be passed from one individual to another. Have you ever noticed that if you’re around someone who is …
Book Review: Soulmates by Jessica Grose
Everything happens for a reason – or does it? This is a question philosophers and theologians have debated about for a long time. On the one hand, it seems as though there is a divine order to the universe – things cannot be merely coincidental. On the other hand, things can be so random that …
Book Review: The Art of Fear by Kristen Ulmer
Fear can be a powerful thing. It can bring us to our knees, freeze us in our tracks, and paralyze us. It can warn us of danger – either real or imagined. Fear can also motivate us and drive us, then sabotage us right before we’re about to receive what we’ve been striving for. Fear …
Celebrating Summer: Sofilantjes’ 3rd Anniversary Mini Tour
It’s Sofilantjes’ 3rd Anniversary! The first pattern I tested for Anne was the Otium top for women. Anne has designed 7 summer dresses – enough for at least one week of dresses. Of course, each dress has multiple options, making it so that you could create several dresses to last your little gal for quite …
Book Review: It Happens in the Hamptons by Holly Peterson
Who doesn’t love a cheesy Lifetime movie? I’m a huge fan of them myself, and sometimes I give into the guilty pleasure of following along some whacked-out tale that gives me the warm fuzzies at the end. That’s kind of how It Happens in the Hamptons by Holly Peterson is. This novel is pure guilty-pleasure reading. It’s …
The Teenager Graduated and Baby 4 is Here
It’s been a crazy couple of weeks involving a high school graduation AND a birth. The upswing? There is a beautiful and healthy new baby in our lives, the teenager gets to go off to college in August, and I’ll be able to enjoy a glass of wine with Wining Husband on our anniversary in …
