Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer

Sometimes my brain just wants pure diversion. I often turn to mysteries to satisfy that, and sometimes light romances fill that need too.

Georgette Heyer's books are usually diverting (they are regency romances). That's why I pick them up every once in a while. This one, however, is not one of her best. I liked it just enough to keep reading it. Not the most glowing endorsement.

I'm ready for a really good book.

I Always Loved You by Robin Oliveira

I wanted to love this book. But I did not. I'm fascinated by the lives of the impressionist painters and was excited to read this book that one description called "A novel of Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas's great romance." Not much romance, and certainly not great romance. According to the story, their relationship was mostly being at odds with one another.

I did like the information about Mary Cassatt and her family. The book also touches on the lives of Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, and Berthe Morisot. I would have liked to know more about all four of these people.

I liked Oliveira's My Name is Mary Sutter much more.

My reviews on other books I read about this era:
The Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland
Dancing for Degas by Kathryn Wagner

The Luncheon of the Boating Party wins out for my favorite of these three books. It's interesting to go back and see how I felt about a book right after I read it. My memory of a book doesn't always jive with what I wrote about it right after reading it. Turns out this time my memory was the same.

The Moor by Laurie King

This is the fourth book in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. I requested this one and got it right away--unlike the last one, which I waited two months to get.

I liked this book, although not quite as well as the others. It took me longer to engage in the story (perhaps more telling of me than the book). And I felt there was a section in the middle that dragged. But after that, everything kicked in and I finished it quickly, and enjoyed the last half.

Sisters 2014 (RAL) ~ March 27-30

Two weeks after my Sisters' weekend with Ray's sisters, we had our own Sisters' weekend with my daughters. We'd been looking forward to it for months. It's my favorite weekend all year. This year Carolyn became part of our group (that's what happens when you marry into the family). Since I only have one son, our group is now complete. 

Three days before we were due to begin our weekend, I found out that I needed to have my gall bladder out. I scheduled it for Wednesday, and Sisters started on Thursday. It wasn't bad timing, actually, because really all we do is sit around and be together. I knew my girls would take care of me. The following email thread happened on Monday: (Please note that the Dance Dance Revolution reference that I made was a joke.)

-----

Girlies,

I've had another gall bladder attack, and spent a few hours in the emergency room tonight. (A moment of silence in gratitude for morphine.) So it looks like I'll be having my gall bladder removed on Wednesday. It's outpatient, and I'll need to take it easy for a few days, but it shouldn't be painful.

The good news is I have nothing better to do this weekend than lie low at home with my girls. It's good timing in many ways. It shouldn't change our plans really, but I just wanted to let you know I won't want to be playing Dance Dance Revolution this year. But cards, talking, and eating should be just fine.

Love, Mom

----- 

Rats! We will miss you during rounds of DDR but I guess we will have to make do :)

Thanks for the heads up. 

Love, Audrey

----- 

From Beth:

Yikes! I hope it goes well. We will pamper you all weekend. Let us know what we can do. 

Love you!

PS. Look on the bright side. You "get" to have surgery ;)

Bruce says he wants video footage of any DDR that goes down.

----- 

From Debra:

I just read randy the email and he said, "you guys do DDR?"

-----

Wednesday I had my surgery, and came through with flying colors. I have never had an easier surgery. Zero pain, some fatigue, and that's it. Debra arrived on Thursday and Audrey and Beth picked her up from the airport. Then the three girls drove down to Orem and picked up Carolyn and they all went to dinner and did some shopping. (I think I was napping at the time.) Carolyn had to work Friday morning so they dropped her off at home.

Friday morning we played some cards. I lounged about. The girls drove down to get Carolyn, and we were set for the weekend. Lots of the weekend is sort of a post-anesthesia haze for me, but I do know we watched Austenland, and Frozen. We played several card games. We ate fun treats. We talked. I did a lot of lying on the couch and some napping. Sunday the men and children joined us for dinner (except Randy and the kids, who were in Seattle), and that finished off the weekend. 

The only baby we had with us this year was Katherine, and she was no bother at all. She is such an easy-going baby.

Here are the very few pictures we took:

The first one is our gifts. Audrey gave us the makings for delicious steamed milk. Flavored syrup, and a foamer. Debra gave us three small mason jars to put treats in. Carolyn gave us each a copy of her favorite book Howl's Moving Castle. Beth gave us a pretty scarf, very lightweight. I gave each of us a copy of this year's Newbery winner Flora and Ulysses, and this year's Caldecott winner Locomotive, and a jar of Lemmi Shine (our new favorite cleaner). 

Beth and Debra

Our Katherine

Aunt Debby and Katherine

Audrey, Diane, Carolyn, Debra, Beth

Sisters 2014 (RHL) ~ March 13-17

This year for Sisters we met at our cabin in Heber. We were surrounded by snow, but the roads were nice and clear so we did not have any problems getting there.

We arrived Thursday evening, and set up camp, so to speak. We rearranged furniture, set up sewing machines and quilting equipment, plugged in computers, and we were off and running.

Elna, Orva, Ann, and Amy worked on the Cary dresses quilts that they've been working on for the last couple of years. They found more fabric they wanted to use, so they are re-doing parts of the quilts. They will be stunning when finished (both the sisters and the quilts!).

Sally and Jennifer did various projects on their computers. I spent the first day switching between doing some machine quilting, and working on some slide scans from Ray's mission. I ended up abandoning the quilting (knowing I would get to it at home no matter what) and just worked on extracting the slides from the scans I'd done earlier. I really got a lot done.

We are not always so ambitious. Sometimes we just sit around and talk, a luxury we don't often have with one another. Over the years we've sort of evolved into doing what we do now - bring something to work on if we feel like it. We bring things that we can do while talking. Talking is the best part of the weekend for me. Some of us see each other fairly frequently, but we never really have time to sit and visit uninterrupted by spouses and children and grandchildren. So this one weekend a year is precious to us all.

Perhaps the best proof is that we keep doing it every year. Since 1991, to be exact. And now we each do the same thing with our own daughters.

This year we did not take many pictures. We did eat well, as evidenced by this outlay of delicious vegetables all ready to be put into our soup:

Each year we also give a "party favor". The same gift to each of us. Here's our haul for this year:

And finally, we always take a group shot. Usually we have someone around who can take a picture for us. This year we realized very late Sunday night that we never took a group picture. So here's a "selfie" of the group:

Top row: Sally, Ann, Amy, Jennifer
Bottom row: Diane, Elna, Orva

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley

This is number six in the Flavia de Luce novels by Alan Bradley. I think it's my favorite so far.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Each year at our Sisters' retreat, we give gifts to each other. Traditionally we give the same gift to each person, so we all have the same things (it's so fun). This year my daughter-in-law, Carolyn, gave us this book. It is one of her all time favorites. I was excited to read it, and have another glimpse into Carolyn. Plus, what could be more fun than a new addition to the family who also likes to read?

This was a cute book. It had a mystery to solve from the very beginning, so of course I liked it.

King and Maxwell by David Baldacci

This the most current book in the series. As yet there are no more. I've enjoyed the series, and I hope Baldacci sees his way clear to write some more of them.

A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King

This is the third book in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. I'm really liking the series, and it's holding my attention. The fourth book is waiting for me at the library.

7: an Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker

 Small problem. I've read several books lately that I haven't blogged about yet, and then I had gall bladder surgery. I am having a hard time remembering what some of those books are that I've read. I think part of my brain was removed with my gall bladder. Perhaps it was hanging out with my gall bladder and got caught in the process.

But I have no problem remembering this book. I loved it!

Jen Hatmaker decided to do something about the excess in her life. So she chose seven areas in her life to cut back on. For one month each she "fasted" in those areas.

Food: Jen ate only seven foods for one month.
Clothing: Jen wore only seven articles of clothing for one month (she is a public speaker, so this required some creativity)
Possessions: Jen gave away seven items a day for one month.

That's just the beginning. Jen documents each month, and her feelings and reactions to giving up each area of excess. She is witty and thought-provoking. She is never preachy. She just shares her experience. If I hadn't borrowed the book, I would have been underlining parts of it like crazy.

It made me sit up and take notice, and look at the excess in my life. It made me want to get rid of that excess--not just get rid of it, but find where it can be put to good use.

In general the only non-fiction I am fond of are biographies. This is a big exception. In a funny way it reminds me of The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Both books have inspired me to find ways of cutting out or adding to my life to make me happier.

Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

I started reading this once, and ended up putting it down because I had other, more pressing books I needed to get to (which is an indicator of how I felt about the book in itself). Then my daughter read it and talked about how insightful it was about her husband and daughter. That was a new motivator to read it. I checked it out, read less than 30 pages and had to return it - it was all marked up, and the markings were very distracting. Finally, I got the audio book and listened to it. Well, most of it.

In some ways the audio version was better because it kept me forging ahead in the book. In other ways it was not (like the times I fell asleep listening to it).

This all makes it sound like I didn't like the book, which is not true. I did like it. I felt it had good information. And, I'm an introvert, so it was especially good information for me. But still...

Cain is a clever writer. This book is so pro-introversion that it's almost ridiculous. Yet she is sly in her lack of "respect" for extroverts. At the end of the book (or as close to the end as I got), you realize the only positive example of an extrovert in her book is Martin Luther King. I personally feel like it takes all kinds to make the world go around. We need both introverts and extroverts to balance our world.

If you are a strong introvert who has a hard time seeing any place for yourself in the world around you, this book is for you. Or if you have family members who are strong introverts, you can better understand them and help them adjust to the world around them by reading this book.

As I read the book, I kept thinking "I think I'm an introvert." I wanted to take a Myers Briggs test, then remembered that I took one about 20 years ago. I was an INSJ (the I means Introvert). I wondered if I would score much differently now. Rather than take the test again, I looked up the personality traits of an INSJ. It's me on the nose. I don't think I need to take the test again.

March 2014 Report

March came in like a lamb and out like a lion. I'm not talking about weather here. (Although it is true for our weather also.) I knew I had a busy month ahead--out of town for a long weekend, and then all my girls here for our Sisters weekend. I did not take into account having my gall bladder removed one week ago. That threw me a little bit for getting a couple of things done. Something always comes up. That's life!

An aside about the gall bladder: I've been having gall bladder pain for years and years that was never definitely diagnosed. It would come and go. Finally in January I decided to find out for sure if it was my gall bladder or some other problem that I should have taken care of. (I wanted to choose when to have it removed if possible, and not get stuck while on vacation or something.) I had an ultrasound which did not reveal any problems with the gall bladder (no stones, etc.). Then a few weeks ago I had a HIDA scan done. Before I got the results back from that I had two severe gall bladder attacks. The second one landed me in the ER. While I was there they checked the results of the scan. Sure enough, I had gall bladder disease. It was functioning at about 17%. So I scheduled outpatient surgery for two days later. What a great, easy surgery. Zero pain afterward, just fatigue. I didn't exactly get to choose when to have the surgery, but it ended up at a convenient time.

So, with that in mind, here's my month in review:

1. First Things First: plugging along as usual. I've had a couple of weeks of no exercise because of the surgery. I'll start again next week.

2. Personal History: Still no writing. Writing might not happen this year. That's okay. I spent my weekend out of town working on Ray's mission slides. They are all ready to be labelled. I'm taking a night class on Photoshop Lightroom beginning this week. That should help propel my photo journaling.

3. Temples: Draper temple this month.

4. Home Projects:
Cleaning: Master Bath top to bottom.  How about master bath shower top to bottom, and a cursory clean of everything else.
Project: Dad's files. Done! All re-organized and put into a different box. I'm feeling great about that one.

For April: cleaning the Family Room top to bottom, and updating my emergency information.