Thursday, March 30, 2017

Celebrate the Small Things 31-3-17



This post is part of Lexa Cain's bloghop, Celebrate the Small Things. Head on over there to join up!

So what am I celebrating this week?


A new house! On Tuesday, I offered on the house we liked, and our offer was accepted! Settlement is on my birthday in May.


So this weekend is all about getting ready to sell the house we are in now. We're about 3/4 of the way there, but the photographer is coming on Sunday to take pictures for the ads, so we have to make sure everything is looking as fabulous as possible by then.


I'm kind of dreading the next 3 weeks because my kids are not clean and tidy and we will have to keep the house clean and tidy for people coming to view.


What are you celebrating this week?

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Books I've Read: The Museum of Heartbreak



I wasn't expecting this book to be as delightful as it is.  The cover is adorable, and the book between it is just as good.

Penelope Marx is a New Yorker and this book is almost as much a love letter to the city as it is a story about Penelope's relationship attempts and failures.   It's also a story about friendship and how friendships grow and change as we grow up, sometimes even changing into something else entirely.

Each chapter begins with an object, usually something Penelope finds or is given.  At the end of the book, these are the exhibits in her museum of heartbreak - a trail of artifacts that mark the success and failure of her relationships with two boys.

First there's Keats.  Dashing, charming and handsome, he's Penelope's dream guy.  But he'd never speak to someone like her.  So when he does, Penelope's world begins spinning off its axis.  It's not long before she believes she's head over heels in love.  Just, why doesn't she enjoy being with Keats as much as she does with her best friends Audrey and Eph?

Then there's Eph.  Penelope's best friend since childhood, the son of her father's partner in the dinosaur department of the museum.  Talented, funny and fun to be with, Eph is suddenly acting in all kinds of confusing ways.  Yet somehow, he's always exactly where Penelope needs him to be.

Over the course of a year, Penelope navigates her feeling for these two boys, the fracturing of her friendship with Audrey and breaks out and finds new friends who share her interest in writing when she joins the staff of the school's literary magazine.

I read this book in a single day because I enjoyed it so much.  There's nothing very deep or challenging in it, but Penelope is a funny and charming protagonist - awkward, a little geeky, and a lot of fun to spend a few hours with.

But don't just take my word for it.  Here's the blurb:

In this ode to all the things we gain and lose and gain again, seventeen-year-old Penelope Marx curates her own mini-museum to deal with all the heartbreaks of love, friendship, and growing up.

Welcome to the Museum of Heartbreak.

Well, actually, to Penelope Marx’s personal museum. The one she creates after coming face to face with the devastating, lonely-making butt-kicking phenomenon known as heartbreak.

Heartbreak comes in all forms: There’s Keats, the charmingly handsome new guy who couldn’t be more perfect for her. There’s possibly the worst person in the world, Cherisse, whose mission in life is to make Penelope miserable. There’s Penelope’s increasingly distant best friend Audrey. And then there’s Penelope’s other best friend, the equal-parts-infuriating-and-yet-somehow-amazing Eph, who has been all kinds of confusing lately.

But sometimes the biggest heartbreak of all is learning to let go of that wondrous time before you ever knew things could be broken.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Weekly Goals 27-3-17

I have another busy week at work ahead of me, so I'm not going to be too ambitious in terms of writing output.  I've made a start on my proposal for the ghostwriting job, but still need to do a lot more before it's finished.

Do any of you use voice to text software?  I'm looking for recommendations for a good one.  Something I can use to make recordings into text.

We went and took a second look at the house over the weekend, and we still like it.  Wish me luck!  I'll be making an offer tomorrow, probably.

What are your goals this week?


Friday, March 24, 2017

Celebrate the Small Things 24-3-17



This post is part of Lexa Cain's bloghop, Celebrate the Small Things. Head on over there to join up!

So what am I celebrating this week?

Well, we found another house we like.  I think it's probably slightly out of our price range, but I figure there's no harm in making an offer.  Who knows how desperate the current owners are to sell?  So I've been busy getting all those ducks in a row so we can offer early next week.

Been a crazy week at work and I've been so exhausted by the end of the day, I haven't managed to get anything much done on my ghostwriting project at all.  I will have to do some serious butt-in-chair next week.

I went to the ballet on Thursday night and it was incredible.  Such skill.  I'm still buzzing from it.

What are you celebrating this week?