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Baking with Mary Berry: Cakes, Cookies, Pies, and Pastries from the British Queen of Baking By Mary Berry

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts

Cookbooks:

Southern Girl Meets Vegetarian Boy by Damaris Phillips

Weight Watchers One Pot Cookbook by Weight Watchers

Non-Fiction:

Cheaper By the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave by Joanna Gaines

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What I’m Reading 11.06.19 ~ The End of the Road

Published on November 6, 2019November 7, 2019 by TracieLeave a comment

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Go Away I'm Reading Read Pullover Hoodie

This week I wanted to tell you about a book that my Daddy recommended to me a couple of decades ago. You may have heard his voice a time or two if you ever watched TV that had commercials in it. The author’s name is Tom Bodett and he is probably most famous for the line “we’ll leave the light on for you” from the Motel 6 commercials that started in the ’80s.

The End of the Road Audible Audiobook – Abridged Tom Bodett (Author, Narrator), Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio (Publisher)

You need to read this book. It’s a super fast read, it’s hilarious and it will give you a glimpse of life and the people who lived at that time in Homer, Alaska.

The thing that prompted me to remember this book was a conversation that Hayden and I had a few weeks ago. Every night while I’m cooking someone inevitably ends up with me in the kitchen. Which is awesome, except for two things:

My kitchen was not designed to house more than one person at a time, because it was built by a demented person and
I am a very dangerous cook.

I cannot tell you how many times I have been talking with my hands and almost skewered a member of my family with a sharp knife. I know. I told you that I’m dangerous. Also, just last week when I fried hamburgers for supper, I forgot that I’m not 17 anymore and I can’t just pick up a heavy pan with boiling grease with one hand and carry it to the sink. Yes, I am a 46 year old woman who has arthritis issues who has to remind herself to carefully pick up hot, scalding pans with TWO hands and navigate carefully to the sink or else suffer the horrifying consequences of almost dumping said contents on her daughter. Liv was not nearly as concerned about this as I was, because I didn’t actually get near her. My poor kitchen rug could tell you a different story. I was just having a Mama moment where I imagined all of the terrible, horrendous consequences if I actually HAD. Gah.

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Anyway, Hayden and I were talking while I cooked supper one night and he casually asked me why I keep my Costco sized box of baking soda in the cabinet next to the stove. And you know how your brain does that super fast forward motion thing where you remember entire conversations, or entire movies in a split second? That’s what my brain did at that moment except it was with this book.

There is a section where one of the characters is talking about moving into their new house. They have always kept their baking soda next to the stove, except, they had help putting everything away as it was unpacked, and the person who unpacked the kitchen didn’t put the baking soda in the cabinet next to the stove with disastrous consequences. I had never realized that Tom Bodett’s book was the reason that I always make sure to have a giant box handy.

I never want to give you spoilers for anything that I recommend to you, so go read the book! You can thank me later. And go buy a Costco sized box of baking soda this afternoon and make sure it’s next to your stove!

P.S. Yes, I’ve had to use my enormous box of baking soda more than once after setting my stove top on fire. I told you I was a dangerous woman.

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You can see a list of all of the books I read in 2018 here. Just scroll to the bottom of the page.

Books I’ve read in the past:

The End of the Road by Tom Bodett

Books I’ve read in 2019:

Novels:

Baking with Mary Berry: Cakes, Cookies, Pies, and Pastries from the British Queen of Baking By Mary Berry

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts

Cookbooks:

Southern Girl Meets Vegetarian Boy by Damaris Phillips

Weight Watchers One Pot Cookbook by Weight Watchers

Non-Fiction:

Cheaper By the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave by Joanna Gaines

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What I’m Reading 10.23.19 ~ The Official Downton Abbey Cookbook

Published on October 23, 2019 by TracieLeave a comment

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Hello again! You are going to LOVE this post if you are a Downton Abbey fan. A few weeks ago, Liv and I were in a bookstore and I came across this lovely, lovely gem. You guys. This book is absolutely beautiful. Even if you don’t collect books like my brother and my kids collected rocks when they were little, you have to at least run to your local library and demand that they get a copy of it RIGHT NOW.

The Official Downton Abbey Cookbook Hardcover – September 17, 2019 by Annie Gray (Author), Gareth Neame (Foreword)

It’s a gorgeous, big and heavy hardcover book that you can sit down and read for a few hours.

It has more than 100 recipes from the show from upstairs and downstairs; it has over 100 photos from the show; it’s full of historical information about how the social, political and economic systems affected everyone at this time – without making you want to take a nap.

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In a word: I can’t give you just one word. It is everything you would expect from Downton Abbey.

You need to go find a copy today, even if you just borrow it. I love it.

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You can see a list of all of the books I read in 2018 here. Just scroll to the bottom of the page.

Books I’ve read in 2019:

Novels:

Baking with Mary Berry: Cakes, Cookies, Pies, and Pastries from the British Queen of Baking By Mary Berry

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts

Cookbooks:

Southern Girl Meets Vegetarian Boy by Damaris Phillips

Weight Watchers One Pot Cookbook by Weight Watchers

Non-Fiction:

Cheaper By the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave by Joanna Gaines

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What I’m Reading 10.09.19 ~ David Sedaris & Brian Tracy

Published on October 9, 2019 by TracieLeave a comment

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Hello again! Over the past couple of weeks I read not one, but two books that I’ll tell you about today. Yay! Life is so, so busy (I hate that expression) and things encroach constantly, but I try to find tiny pockets of time to fit my reading in. Anytime I’m standing in a line, I’m reading a book. I also discovered audio books again. Who knew that you can read with your ears!! Seriously, I used to listen to audio books when I was a courier for one of our hospitals. I loved them, and it got my fix in for reading in a BIG way. When you spend eight hours in a car alone, you can fly through a lot of books.

But it does create confusion for people, when you walk into a place of business with your eyes swollen shut from crying after listening to four straight hours of The Chamber by John Grisham. Have you read it? It was excellent from what I remember…..Anywho, that’s not what I wanted to talk about today.

I discovered that now that I’m older, I most definitely cannot multitask. This includes listening to audio books. I have to concentrate and pay attention, else my mind wanders off and when I tune back in I have NO idea what’s going on. I hate multitasking anyway. I have found that if I concentrate on one thing at a time, I get it done quicker and I don’t get it wrong after three tries. Ahem. But some things I do are what I call brainless activities: loading the dishwasher, changing the bed sheets, scrubbing the toilets in my house. Things like that, that need to done, but that don’t necessarily need my brain along to accomplish them. Those are excellent times to also “read” a book. ANYWAY. I “read” Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris over the past two weeks via audio book.

Let me get out all of my adjectives for this one: This book was hilarious, heartbreaking, shocking, tender, sad, and laugh out loud funny. I had no idea who David Sedaris was when I picked out this book. I knew somewhere in the recesses of my brain that Hayden had one of his books that we had picked up on one of our book hauls. But beyond that, nothing.

I highly recommend it on the fact alone that he narrates the audio book himself and he kind of, sort of, not really, but slightly sounds like me when he talks. Also, I would love to meet his father because I would bet real money that David Sedaris has his Dad’s voice down pat.

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I also read Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy. I wanted to read this because I hear so, SO many people reference it all the time and I’ve never been a fan of the concept. I understand where they are coming from, but I have found that I don’t deal well with things in this way. Example: The point of this book is to take your most dreaded task and get it done first thing. This is to keep you from procrastinating. I have discovered about myself many things over the years. One of them is that if I have a dreaded, monumental task set before me, I’m going to avoid completing it like it’s the plague. Which is the very definition of procrastination. So I feel like, by doing things in this manner, I am absolutely setting myself up for failure from the very beginning.

I need to break things down into manageable chunks of time, so that I can get a sense of accomplishment along the way. I feel like if I used the Eat That Frog method of doing things, it would go something like this: I decide to clear out my closet all in one go; it takes me three days; I have a complete and utter disaster on my hands; and Denton and I would be sleeping on random piles of clothing for the duration. Not fun for anyone.

But, if I do things in small manageable chunks – clear out the dresser today and just the dresser – I can get that done in a reasonable amount of time, and I can feel good about the whole thing without my bedroom looking like the Goodwill exploded, to quote my Mama.

I guess it all comes down to what kind of a system works for you. I enjoyed reading the Marie Kondo books too, but I work better with the FlyLady system on a day to day basis. Of course I’ve been decluttering my house for about six years now, but that’s another story entirely.

It was a good book though, full of other great tips and I’m glad that I read it.

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You can see a list of all of the books I read in 2018 here. Just scroll to the bottom of the page.

Books I’ve read in 2019:

Novels:

Baking with Mary Berry: Cakes, Cookies, Pies, and Pastries from the British Queen of Baking By Mary Berry

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts

Cookbooks:

Southern Girl Meets Vegetarian Boy by Damaris Phillips

Weight Watchers One Pot Cookbook by Weight Watchers

Non-Fiction:

Cheaper By the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave by Joanna Gaines

Baking with Mary Berry: Cakes, Cookies, Pies, and Pastries from the British Queen of Baking By Mary Berry

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What I’m Reading 09.25.19 ~ Agatha Christie

Published on September 25, 2019September 24, 2019 by Tracie2 Comments

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Agatha Christie And Then There Were None

Can you believe that I had never, ever, ever, read a book by Agatha Christie? I can’t either. I knew with my brain that she was the best selling novelist of all time. You understand what I’m saying. You know things, but you don’t know how you acquired this knowledge; just by being alive I suppose. All you have to say are the words Agatha Christie and anyone on the planet earth will know exactly who you are talking about. So how did I live and breathe books for 45 years and not once read one of her books? I still don’t know. But you can believe that I will be reading many more of her books in the future.

I picked up the copy of And Then There Were None completely out of the blue and I LOVED it. It has been sitting in my gigantic to be read pile for at least a year. I had no idea when I chose this book last week that it was her best selling novel and that it is also the world’s best selling mystery – ever. High, high praise indeed. And for very good reason.

As per my normal way with everything you will find NO spoilers here, but I cannot recommend this book enough. Every time I thought that I had ferreted out the plot, it would twist and turn, again and again. She does this all the way up to the very last page.

If you’ve never an Agatha Christie book either, you should pick this one up today. If you are already well into her amazing universe, you should have told me! Either way, let me know what you think of this book. Did you love it as much as I did? Did you hate it? If so, WHY?

Side note: I just discovered that there is a two part drama series available!! Adding it to our never ending list of things we have to watch!

You can see a list of all of the books I read in 2018 here. Just scroll to the bottom of the page.

Books I’ve read in 2019:

Novels:

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts

Cookbooks:

Southern Girl Meets Vegetarian Boy by Damaris Phillips

Weight Watchers One Pot Cookbook by Weight Watchers

Non-Fiction:

Cheaper By the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave by Joanna Gaines

Baking with Mary Berry: Cakes, Cookies, Pies, and Pastries from the British Queen of Baking By Mary Berry

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What I’m Reading 09.18.19

Published on September 18, 2019 by Tracie1 Comment

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Well hello there. This has been sitting on the back burner of my life for quite a long time. I’ve had a difficult time sorting my thoughts out about books lately. For months I literally couldn’t concentrate enough to get through a page of a book, much less a whole book. No matter what I picked up my mind would just flutter around and I would realize that I had no idea how far my eyes had read down the page, but my brain was off in lala land.

So. I stopped reading books. For months. I swear I could feel my brain shrinking and my entire being getting stupider by the day. Please, PLEASE don’t take that as a personal insult if you don’t like to read. I know many, many people who are much more intelligent than I am who do not enjoy reading. But for me, reading is like breathing air. I felt like I was suffocating. I thought to myself one day: This must be what writer’s block feels like in a way. Gahh. That’s horrifying.

We went on vacation with my family in June and usually that’s when I can burn through many, many books. I didn’t read a single book this year. I started a LOT of new books and put every single one of them down in frustration.

Then I decided sometime in the middle of July that I was determined to get through a book, so I picked up an old favorite. Books that I’ve read over and over. That way if my mind did wander off in the middle of a sentence it didn’t matter, because once my brain caught up with my eyes I still knew what was going on. Then I read another old favorite and another until we are caught up today.

Light, easy, fun and entertaining reads. That’s what I’ve spent the last month and a half reading. Things that I’ve read over and over. That’s definitely not a complete list of my favorites, but it got me started again and now I can breathe.

I actually picked a new to me book from my ginormous to be read pile and I’m about halfway through, so I’ll tell you all about it next week! That’s all I’ve got. If your brain is stuck in neutral and you can’t bring yourself to finish even one paragraph of a new book, pick up an old favorite and just immerse yourself in it. Your lungs will thank you.

You can see a list of all of the books I read in 2018 here. Just scroll to the bottom of the page.

Books I’ve read in 2019:

Novels:

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts

Cookbooks:

Southern Girl Meets Vegetarian Boy by Damaris Phillips

Weight Watchers One Pot Cookbook by Weight Watchers

Non-Fiction:

Cheaper By the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave by Joanna Gaines