Book Review: The Mystery of Mrs. Christie

I know it has been a while since I have sat down and put my fingers to the keyboard. It isn’t that I haven’t had tons of things to write about, there just never seems to be enough time to write. Last fall I begin the journey to complete my Master's degree, so school takes precedent over blogging. Since the spring semester ended I have been trying to catch up on one of my greatest joys, reading. I have a very long to-read list and it seems to grow every week. 

 

That being said this first blog for the summer of 2021 will be a review of my latest read,  The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict. 

One of my favorite literary genres is historical fiction and some of the ones I like best are about the lives of real people. As I am reading and after I finish a book I normally spend some time researching them. Growing up I had a vague knowledge of Agatha Christie. I knew that she was British and a mystery writer. I was most familiar with her novel Murder on the Orient Express. I must confess that I have never actually read a book by Agatha Christie and I have only watched one screen adaption of her novels. That being Murder on the Orient Express (the latest version starring Johnny Depp).

I discovered The Mystery of Mrs. Christie completely by accident as I was browsing my local library's collection. As I read the premise for it, I knew that it was a must-read. I was intrigued to learn that Agatha Christie had indeed vanished for 11 days in 1926 and that it was never revealed what happened during those 11 days. It seems that Mrs. Christie kept that mystery close to her heart. This of course is where the fiction comes in. Marie Benedict weaves an amazing story of what happened during those days.

Synopsis

In December 1926, Agatha Christie goes missing. Investigators find her empty car on the edge of a deep, gloomy pond, the only clues some tire tracks nearby and a fur coat left in the car—strange for a frigid night. Her World War I veteran husband and her daughter do not know her whereabouts, and England unleashes an unprecedented manhunt to find the up-and-coming mystery author. Eleven days later, she reappears, just as mysteriously as she disappeared, claiming amnesia and providing no explanations for her time away.

Archie and Agatha

The story moves along two lines, one follows Agatha's husband Archie and begins on the day that her disappearance is discovered. The other story-line begins when the couple first meet and how their relationship progresses, eventually the two story-lines connect. This may have been the reason that it took a little time to get into the story, but after a few chapters I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. I won't reveal too much about either story-line, but let's just say that Archie is the kind of character that leaves you angry and hoping for his downfall. Agatha on the other hand is the one that you sympathize with and root for throughout the entire story.

Final Word

Marie Benedict is an amazing storyteller who brought the mystery of Agatha Christie‘s disappearance to life and made it an irresistible read. I thoroughly enjoyed The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, with its historical figures, mystery, and look into marriages of the time. I highly recommend this book. Due to the fact that I enjoyed Ms. Benedict's storytelling so much, I have decided to give another one of her books a chance. I am currently reading The Only Woman In The Room and I’m looking forward to learning more about the story of Hedy Lamarr.

 

"That's my two cents worth, whats yours?" 

 

Birds

Have you ever just sat and watched the birds?

I’ve always liked birds and I’ve always been interested in them but I never really took the time to sit and watch them until the quarantine/shutdown started. In March when the quarantine first started I was still in college (see the previous blog) and I didn’t have a lot of time for anything but trying to finish the semester dealing with very unusual circumstances. I had one college-age child trying to finish up the semester online and I had a middle schooler trying to finish up the school year at home, it was a very interesting and as Thomas Paine would say "These are the times that try men’s souls.". When the semester finally ended and we were still in a state shut down I decided to get the birdfeeders out, clean them up, and get them filled with food for my little bird friends. I started going out onto our back porch early every morning to do my yoga and have my quiet time. My quiet time consists of my Bible reading and my morning devotional. Throughout this whole time, my devotional has been focused on learning about different women of the bible (it’s been a very interesting devotion which has three parts and when I finish all three I’ll do a review). After my quiet time, I would just sit and watch the birds. It was during this time that I started noticing different kinds of birds that I’ve never noticed before. I started to listen to the different calls and trying to identify which bird was which by sound. I also noticed the interactions between the male and the female of the species.

We have this one red cardinal and he is very dark red, I named him Red Daddy. At the time that I noticed him, I also noticed several other male cardinals who are not as brightly colored as Red Daddy. I observed that when he was around the female Cardinals tended to flock, for a lack of a better word, to him and just completely ignore the other Cardinals. Eventually, I also noticed that he was the only male cardinal around, I guess he’s made this his territory and ran all the other males off.

Now you know that the male of the bird species is always the more brightly colored that’s to attract mates and the female is a lighter color that’s for camouflage and hiding on the nest. I just thought it was very interesting the way these females reacted to this very brightly colored male. Other than the interactions between the birds themselves I also began to notice something else about birds based partly on what I noticed about the male cardinals. I started to pay attention and I noticed that when an environment is not good for these birds regardless of whether they are male or female they don’t stick around. I let myself run out of birdseed and when I didn’t fill the birdfeeder back up immediately I noticed that the birds didn’t come. I also observed that when I filled the birdfeeder back up it took a couple of days for them to realize the food was back and then they were there all the time.
You see it’s not just about any one particular thing it’s about all things of the environment. Birds need food, water, shelter, and companionship in their environment. If they don’t have the things that they need to sustain themselves they leave. It made me wonder about humans.  Why can’t we see that our environment is not sustainable for our existence? In answer to my question, I think we can. I think what holds us to the ground is the fact that unlike birds we can’t just fly away. If a spot is not good for a bird they can just fly to another spot and start all over again but people aren’t like that. We get bogged down by responsibilities and obligations, maybe different people are depending on us or we don’t have the financial means to make our flight. We’re just not birds! Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes a person may say my environment is not good for me and make up excuses just to leave, but at other times the environment is bad and they do need to take that step and get out.

I guess taking that Biology course this past spring really put my scientific brain into overdrive, it seems that I am always making some sort of observation lately.

That’s my two cents worth, what’s yours?

College is complete, maybe?

So it’s been a long time since I did a blog post, I don’t think I’ve done one this entire year. To say things have been crazy since I started college would be the understatement of the century, well except for this year which has been an understatement in itself. I started the year off in with my last semester to complete my bachelor's degree. It was kind of bumpy to start with and there were just some things that we weren’t sure about, but it got better. Of course, as soon as it started to get better, about halfway through the semester, boom corona hit. I went from being home during the day by myself to being home with two other students, one in middle school finishing up the year and one college student finishing up the semester online. It made the days very interesting, bogged down our internet service, and made it for some very testy interactions. People got ill and aggravated, it just wasn’t a very pretty thing in the beginning. After we had been home for a few weeks we settled into a routine and then my semester was over.

Of course, my graduation was canceled and that was a bummer I cried. The university said we would have a ceremony but they couldn’t tell us when, so we had a virtual recognition and I graduated with the highest honors summa cum laude, which I was very proud of. I had to wait several weeks because of the virus for all of the paperwork and everything to come from the University but I finally got everything that I needed to start the process of applying for my teaching license. Well, I started the application only to discover that I was still missing two pieces of information that I needed and that was three weeks ago. I had to make some phone calls and was able to request some of the paperwork, from one organization, that was mailed and the other paperwork I have to go pick up today. I’m hoping to get this whole licensure application completed by the beginning of next week. I guess we will see!

Anyway, I have no idea what I’m doing next as I don’t want to go into my first year of teaching when we have no idea what the school year is even going to look like. I talked about the possibility of just returning to school and working towards my Masters with my family and then contacted the University. My name has been placed on a waiting list for a class this fall as a visiting student, as it was too late to apply for the Master's program for this fall. Now I just wait for a phone call or email letting me know if I have gotten into the class. The way I see it is if I get into the class then that's the Lord's way of letting me know that he opened this door and he wants me to go through. If I don’t get into the class then I know that it’s not what he wants me to do. I know my college days are not over because once I get my license I have to take so many glasses in a certain amount of time to keep it. Therefore, I know I’ll be going back to school I just don’t know what I’ll be doing this coming up school year. For me the waiting is hard, I like to be able to make plans and figure how things are going to go, but I have had to learn to take my hands off of things and let God do the work. The Bible says in Psalm 46:10a, "Be still, and know that I am God:".  I just have to give it to him and let him guide me in what he would have me to do. So the question remains masters program or not? I don’t know if I wanna bite off going to school again or if I just want to be finished for right now and take classes as I need to keep my license. I hate being indecisive, it’s never been my thing!

That’s my two cents worth, what’s yours?

Our Southern New Year Tradition

Ever since I was a tiny little girl, as far back as I can remember, my family has gathered around the table on New Years Day to partake in our traditional meal of black-eyed peas, greens, cornbread and hog jowls. It wasn't just our family, but every family that we knew. I remember one year asking my Mama why we "had" to eat the same foods every year and she responded, "It's tradition". As you can imagine that didn't get rid of my curiosity. I wanted to know more, so I went to the best source I had, my grandmother. She explained to me that each food represented something for the new year. The hog jowl was for health, the greens for paper money, the black-eyed peas for pennies, and the cornbread was for gold.  I never questioned my Grandmothers explanation and even though they weren't my favorite foods at the time, I forced myself to eat them.

Time moved on, my grandmother passed away, but still every year we had our traditional first meal. Of course, my family has added other dishes to the menu like Mac&Cheese and potatoes, but we still have those traditional foods every year.  As I grew older I learned to appreciate each of the foods we ate and to respect our family/cultural traditions.

Today as I write this I am preparing for my first meal of the year. My family and I will be headed to my brothers, with hog jowls in tow, to spend the day with him. I was interested in where the traditions came from so I decided to do a little research and what I found out was very interesting. It seems that during the Civil War, when Sherman marched through Georgia, the only food he left was black-eyed peas. He didn't think they were suitable for anything but the animals. It turns out that was a fortunate belief for the southerners, it gave them something to eat over the cold winter months. It just makes sense that pork would be on the table, as hog would be salted and kept for months. Greens being on the table makes sense as they are a late crop, so they would still be in season at the beginning of the year.  When the Civil War (aka The War of Northern Aggression) ended, the south was crippled and brought to her knees, which was what the North wanted. The people had to learn to make the best out of what they had and much of the time that was almost nothing, but survive they did.

The people of the American South have always risen from the ashes and lived to fight another day. I am so very proud to say that I am descended from such an extraordinary and amazing group of men and women.

Now let's eat! 

"That's 'my two cents worth', what's yours?"

Saying Hello

Losing a pet is an extremely difficult thing to go through. It doesn't matter if you have had them a few months or many years, the loss still hurts. I often looked at our Dixie like another child and a part of our family. When she passed away I could still hear her walking through the house, laying in her spot on the couch and standing at the door waiting to get in. I knew in my heart I needed another dog and I prayed each day that God would send us just the right one for our family and within just a few weeks he did.  

 

We visited a couple of local shelters, but not a single dog "spoke" to us. It was a few days later after checking the local humane society's website multiple times a day, we saw a face that we just couldn't forget. We made a trip to visit and fell in love with a tiny little puppy they were calling Shelby. She had been dumped on the roadside , in a trash bag, with her brothers and sisters when they were a week old and had been in foster care since then. We felt like she was the perfect dog for us, but we had no idea how perfect until she settled into our family.  We decided to call her Mocha Joy because her coloring looked like coffee after creamer was added. The vet believes she is Boston Terrior/Chihuahua/French Bulldog mix, but I think she believes she is part Pit Bull. She is protective and fierce when she has to be, but loving and gentle the rest of the time.  

Why did we get another dog you may ask?

Companionship was the biggest reason for me. I really missed that little fur baby running around the house and keeping me company.  I thought it would be interesting to see how others felt about dog ownership and I found the following blog spot that explains it perfectly. 

https://barkpost.com/discover/17-reasons-why-a-dog-would-make-your-life-more-awesome/

I am so very thankful that we waited and let God send us the perfect addition to our family. We still miss our Dixie and Mocha will never take her place, but having her has made the loss easier to bear and filled that empty place in my heart (except for that tiny space that will always be for Dixie).

"That's my 'two cents worth', what's yours?" 

Saying Goodbye

 A while back I blogged on my little furry companion, Dixie. It is with a sad and broken heart that I report to you my readers of her passing away.

It was a Sunday afternoon in the summer of 2017.  We came home from church that afternoon and found her. My heart shattered into a million pieces. She had been my guard, my friend, my secret keeper. She laid by my side when I was sick and comforted me in my grief.

I remember how tiny she was when we first brought her home. We made her a bed in a cardboard box and she cried all night long. The second night she somehow managed to escape and I woke up with her sitting next to my bed howling.  She slept with me every night after that for 4 years, then she started sleeping with my daughter.

She hated cold weather and loved to lay in the sunshine. At times she drove me crazy, but I loved that dog with all my heart. She was twenty-five days shy of her 13th birthday when she passed, but she loved us more in her 13 years than most humans can love in a lifetime. Right after she passed away I discovered this story. I touched my heart because it described my Dixie perfectly.

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolf hound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.
I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.
As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.
The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker's Death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, 'I know why.'

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation.
He said, 'People are born so that they can learn how to live a good Life - - like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?' The Six-year-old continued, 'Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long.'

I don't know if all dogs go to heaven, but Pastor Billy Graham once said, ""I think God will have prepared everything for our perfect happiness. If it takes my dog being there (in Heaven), I believe he'll be there."I pray every day that God will let my Dixie be there in heaven to meet me when I cross over.

  "That's my 'two-cents worth', what's yours?"

My Return

I hope this short post finds my readers well, if any of you are still hanging around. This year has been full of adventures, life milestones, college for two living in this house and just everyday living. I am hoping to get back on the blogging wagon in the upcoming year, but I don't think it will be a regular part of my life. As I continue in college, with two internships coming up in the next year, I can only hope to get a little time for blogging. I have a few things I want to work on in the coming year and goals I want to work toward. I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and that you are looking forward to the new year to come. I look forward to doing more writing this year and sharing our adventures and misadventures with y'all!

 As always, "That's my 'two cents worth, what's yours?"

      

My Big Decision

Well, I guess y'all  have noticed that I have been absent from blogging for seven months. I can't believe it myself, seven months. It really didn't seem like that long until I looked back and realized I had not blogged since May. Boy, do I have a lot of catching up to do. There have been some good things and some sad things that have happened in the last seven months, but I am going to start off by telling you about my big decision.

Nine years ago I graduated from a local community college with an Associates Degree in Early Childhood Education. I wanted to transfer to a four year college and continue with my education, but was told that all my credits would be lost and I would basically be starting over. I was devastated! I didn't want to do that, so I just decided to stay home, raise my kids, do a little babysitting and give up that teaching degree dream.

Fast forward to March of this year and I decided to look into school again, just in case something had changed and to my surprise it had.

I discovered that I could transfer almost most of my credits and go into the school at almost junior status. I thought why not apply, so I did and I was accepted. The next few months were a whirlwind of paperwork, financial aid headaches and advisement meetings. In August I started my first semester at one of our state universities and it has been one more exciting semester. I only registered for two classes, per advice from my adviser, and I can tell you I am glad I did. I spend so much time each week reading, working on papers and discussions.

I have been stressed to the max!! 

One of the things I love best about it is the that all my classes are online. I don't have to drive all the way to campus and I can do schoolwork in my pajamas.  I do miss one thing about being in a classroom, raising my hand to ask a question and getting an answer right away. The thing with online school is emailing your professor and then having to wait for a reply.

This week is finals week for me and thankfully one professor has decided not to give us a final exam, because of all our hard work this semester, but I do have to study for the one tomorrow, then the semester is over. I get a few days off and then go right into a mini-mester for the month of December, it is going to be a wild and busy month.

This new journey I am on is both exciting and scary, but anything worth doing is.  

  "That's my 'two-cents worth', what's yours?"

The little things

The other day I got to noticing some things I had never really taking the time to appreciate before. They were not big things, not major events, just little small things that I had noticed, but never really paid that much attention to. Each one brings me happiness in it's own special way and I wanted to share just a few of these things with you.

1. I love how my youngest daughter automatically takes my hand when we walk side by side:
It never fails, just as soon as we start to walk anywhere if she is beside me, she will reach out and take my hand automatically and I am going to enjoy it while it last.

2. I love how my little dog Dixie looks up at me with such love in her eyes:
I just love so many things about my Dixie, but the love in her eyes is so real and true. Humans can fake or hide their emotions, but dogs do not have the ability to do that. There have been many days that her love and comfort have seen me through difficulty and I hope to have her around for a very long time.

3. I love how my husband always holds my hand as we are driving down the road:
I hardly ever drive anymore, unless I just have to. I like being able to ride as a passenger and just watch the world around me. You see so much more when you are not driving, but I like holding my hubby's hand the most. There is just something solid and comforting in knowing that he is there and taking care of us. 

4. I love how my oldest daughter and I can sit just reading together without saying a word:
So many times we feel the need to fill up our days and the days of our children. It seems as if everyone's kids have sports, music, and all sorts of activities planned each week. I am so thankful for the quiet nights at home when we just sit around with our books, not feeling the need to talk or go everywhere, just content to be at home and share our love of reading.

5. I love how all the kids around call me Tink:
Eight years ago a little boy named Hunter came into our family and since them I have been known as Tink. It is a nickname that is short for Tinkerbell.  All the little ones in my family and some in my church call me Tink.  It just seems so natural that they all use that for my name. I am so glad to have so many wonderful little ones in my life.  I was privileged to finally meet "myself" on our most recent Disney vacation. I have to say I was very impressed.

6. I love snuggling up on the couch with the girls for movie night.
My husband doesn't really care for the whole cartoon thing, so if the choice for the night is a movie of the toon variety, my hubby just lets me and the girls do our thing.  There is always fighting over space and the last bag of popcorn, but I love our time anyway.

7. I love how my youngest daughter "plays along" with our pianist at church:
Every service as we are singing in the choir I look down to see my 10 year olds little hands playing right along with Ms. Sherri.  She gets so upset if she has to stand in a different spot and can't see Ms. Sherri play.  I am so glad that she has a talent for music and I pray that she will use it her entire life.

8. I love how a cool breeze is just what you need on a hot day:
Southern summers can be hot, but not just hot, they are humid.  Sometimes you can just stand outside and not be doing a thing and the sweat will just be rolling down your back and legs.  Then all of a sudden the Lord will send a nice cool breeze along your way and it is like instant air-conditioning.

9. I love how the acoustics in our church bathroom are perfect for speaking whale.
Really, I am serious! I guess it comes from watching to much Finding Nemo and Finding Dory, but the way that bathroom makes your voice sound is perfect. Speaking whale is so cool!!







10.  I love older television shows:
I know it sounds strange, but I just love to sit back and watch old tv shows from when I was a kid.  When I say older I mean they were in reruns when I was growing up.  I am so glad to have the chance to introduce shows like, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, Little House on the Prairie, etc.  That was when television, was good and decent.



You see, the little things are important. They are the things that we never really notice or we do, but just don't appreciate.  I am going to start trying to find the little things around me each day and to appreciate them even more.

   "That's my 'two-cents worth', what's yours?"

Why I Adore Country Living!

I have traveled some and been to some pretty big cities and I love seeing new things, but there is no where I can imagine making my home than in the country. I know a lot of people would absolutely hate it. They would ask, "How can you be so far away from everything?". You see the thing is I don't see myself as being far away from everything. Sure the closet town to us only has a population of about 2500 and I have to drive at least 30 miles to get to a fairly good size city and that I have to travel at least one and a half hours to get to a major metropolitan area, but I like it that way. The way I see it, I am close enough if I want to get there I can and far enough away that I don't feel the "big city" creeping in.

I know there are good things about city living, I can't deny that, but let me share just some of the reasons I adore living in the country.

1. The quiet: I know this will not be a plus for some people, but I absolutely love sitting on my back porch listening to the quiet, peaceful sounds of nature. You can always hear the frogs at night or the birds during the day. In fact lately we have a mockingbird who has decided that singing at 3:30 in the morning is an appropriate thing to do. I remember my trips to the big city and it always stuck out to me that even in the parks and natural places I couldn't hear nature. All I could hear where horns honking and people yelling.  I much more prefer my quiet little country oasis.

2.The wildness: This sort of goes along with the first point, but expands it some.  When I say the wildness I mean the actual wildlife.  I really enjoy watching the kids chase frogs and toads across the driveway and catching fireflies on a hot summer night. I enjoy those cool autumn mornings watching the deer drink from the pond as I have my morning coffee.  I know that these wild animals have started making their way into the more populated areas, but there is just something magical about seeing them in their own environment and being able to share that with my children.

3.The people: It seems to me that most people see us country folk as rednecks, hicks or backwoods people. I have heard all the stereotypical terms used to describe us and to tell you the truth those words don't really offend us. We might go at a slower pace, talk a little slower and do things differently, but we are a true, loving and compassionate people.  I don't think you can really appreciate the country without knowing it's people.  We are kind and would give you the shirt off our back if you needed it. We live, laugh and love just like city folk, but yet we are looked at as if we are ignorant and backwards. I admit some people do fit that bill, but for the most part you can't find a better group of people anywhere else.

4.The lifestyle: I think that I have already covered this some in my previous points.  Living in the country is just a slower, more laid back lifestyle. We have a different way of living and being. I am thinking about one thing in particular. My Daddy wanted to buy a hen from a man. He really wanted this hen, she was what we call a good sitter, which just means she would be good for raising baby chicks. The man didn't want to sell the hen, but was willing to trade her off for a turtle. Yes, you read that right, a turtle. His plan was to cook and eat said turtle. Yes, we do eat turtle around these parts. So, my Daddy has spent the last week trying to catch a turtle to trade for a chicken. I just had to laugh and say only in the country.

I know that our way of living may seem strange and foriegn to a lot of people. but I hope that after reading this you will have a better appreciation for the country and maybe you will even want to visit it some day. It will be somewhat of a culture shock, but come on over! We'lll brew up some sweet ice tea, bake a pound cake and sit on the back porch visiting and enjoying some country living.

"That's my 'two-cents worth', what's yours?"

Money Saving: Dimes for Disney

A couple of months ago I shared with y'all one of the ways I am saving for Disney, recycling cans. Well today I am going to share another of our projects, Dimes for Disney. 

I got the idea for this project from Pinterest. 

https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=Dimes%20for%20Disney&rs=typed&term_meta[]=Dimes%20for%20Disney%7Ctyped

After reading about some other peoples experience I decided to give it a try. 

I started out with an empty two liter drink bottle. If this seems to extreme at first I have read that some people start out with a small water bottle,doing this makes the task seems less daunting. We decided that we would just go for the big payoff from the get go.  After washing the bottle and allowing it to dry, it was time to decorate. We wanted something that was Disney related, since it was a Disney saving project, so we cut out a picture of Cinderellas castle from the Lego catalog and glued it to the front of the bottle. We then used letter stickers to label our bottle Dimes for Disney. 

Making the container was the easy part, now we have the task of filling it up. All of us, my husband included have started saving our dimes. I have even started asking for my change back to be as many dimes as possible. That gets me some strange looks from the cashier, but then I explain why and most of them totally understand.  I read that when the jug gets completely full you would have somewhere in the neighborhood of about $650, but no matter the amount it will be a huge help in paying for our vacation. 

"That's my 'two-cents worth', what's yours?"

The Bucket List Project 2017 (part 1)

I am sad to say that my 2017 Bucket List challenge has not gotten off to a very good start.  I have been overwhelmed with life. I have the job of wife, mother, teacher, daughter, sister, Tink and church member.  All these things have keep me extremely busy the first quarter of the year.  I have learned a few new things this year, nothing I really wanted to, but that is just how life goes.

If you had read my challenge from last year, you would remember my goal was to cross twelve things off my bucket list, one for each month, and I accomplished that. I had so much fun in doing it that I decided to go for a repeat this year.  As I said it is not going as well. That being said I guess now would be the time to write on how my twelve bucket list things in one year challenge for this year is going.  

January 2017: 

NOTHING!!! That is right I got absolutely nothing done that month.  January was filled with dealing with trying to get things started with my Mama's estate, not a chore I wanted to do. We had one of our birthdays to celebrate without our Mama. We tried to stay positive and be happy, but honestly it just wasn't the same without her.  The weather here was cold and rainy and I honestly hardly ever left home.  

February 2017:
And again another month of absolutely nothing crossed off my list. February was filled with all the above things mentioned, plus preparing for a birthday party in April and the Senior Citizens banquet at our church.  We had a quiet Valentines Day, nothing special, just me and the husband getting a couple of hours to eat out alone.  I guess in my hectic life carving a couple of hours really is accomplishing something.

March 2017:
Amazingly this month it finally happened, two things on my bucket list!! We decided to take the family for a quick little get away over spring break.  I has been on my bucket list to go to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, so that is were we headed. Unfortunately the week of our spring break was cool and not the perfect weather for the beach, but we made the most of it. I won't go much into Hilton Head itself, I did a post on that earlier, but I will say the beach was beautiful and quiet, just what I was looking for.

The second item was checked off on this trip as well. I have always wondered what it was like to just sit on the beach, watch the kids play and read a book. Every time we go, there are always shows, aquariums and other things to see and I never get to do that lazy day on the beach.  Well at Hilton Head you have to pay by the hour to park at the beach access, so I didn't get a whole day of sitting on the beach and reading, I only got a couple of hours. 

I can honestly say after trying it for a couple of hours, I don't think I could stand a whole day. I don't know how people do it. I learned that I am really not a beach person. I am more of a lets go somewhere different and see lots of different things type of person, as long as the hotel has a pool. 

So now here I am into the month of April, by now I should have three things done, but I am only at two. I am not concerned though, the summer months are coming and there are so many fun things on my list to do that hopefully I can still make that goal by the end of the year. 

"That's my 'two-cents worth', what's yours?"

The Paris Wife: Book Review

This post will be completely different than any other post I have written.  I never really thought about doing book or movie reviews, but after my latest read I just had to share my opinion. 

First off, I really did not know that much about Ernest Hemingway, just the basic facts that I had picked up over time. I will admit I have become somewhat fascinated with him since we visited Shakespeare and Co. in Paris. This is a little book store that was often visited by Hemingway, Fitzgerald and other great authors of their time. 

I never knew anything about his marriages, other than he had several of them, but I was intrigued to read this story about his first wife Hadley, Hemingway's Paris Wife.  

Hadley Richardson Hemingway

I love the fact, that even though fiction, this book takes you through the intense love and passion that Ernest and Hadley held for one another. From the very beginning you can see that their relationship and marriage would be tested not just by others and family, but also by the Hemingways themselves.

Paula McLain does a fantastic job of bringing 1920's Paris to life. I could just feel myself walking around the streets of the city right alongside Hadley and Ernest.  It brought back wonderful memories of our time there and presented what life was really like during the era of the Roaring Twenties. Paris was so different from the Mid-west United States that the Hemingways departed from and that Parisian life would not only test them, but would change them both. 

The only issue I had with this novel was the use of some profanity. I can see that this is exactly how a man like Hemingway would have spoken, but I do believe the story could have been told just as well without it. 

Overall I give the book four out of five stars. It is beautifully written and presents the story of a regular girl caught up in a romance for the ages. 

https://www.amazon.com/Paris-Wife-Paula-McLain/dp/0345521315

"That's my 'two-cents worth', what's yours?"