I wasn’t sure how Mother’s Day would be, since Mr. SJ tweaked his back on Friday and wasn’t able to do as much with the kids, but other than needing me to handle all diaper changes and dirty dishes, he did all right. That might sound awfully suspicious, but washing dishes is generally tough on him because the height of the sink is bad for him, and that’s also what gets him with changing diapers. Eh, just give me some time to sit in peace and quiet and read without interruption and I am quite happy to change the diapers.
I made myself the delectable King Arthur Flour Chocolate Indulgence cake that I discussed in my birthday planning 7QT. One of the nicest things about this cake is that it is way too chocolatey for Mr. SJ to want to eat it, so it’s all mine. Fortunately it freezes nicely too. 
Mine wasn’t quite that pretty, but it tastes just as good as it looks.
I thought about taking myself (and the baby) to the library for a bonus visit – usually I go only ever 3 weeks (the length of time a book can be checked out). I was too lazy to want to drive down there however, and instead just stayed home.
I also passed on the opportunity to go to Target by myself (or just with the baby.) Again, the pull of my books was stronger than the pull of wandering the aisles in peace.
Because the boy is generally so insistent that he be near me, unless he’s working with daddy (mowing the grass, cleaning up the garage), his dad ended up taking him to a nearby park for a walk on Sunday to give me some quiet. Of course the baby woke up not 5 minutes after they left, so the quiet wasn’t quite what he was trying to provide.
Last week Mr. SJ was very weird about telling me that he was taking the boy out. They were going to the store. I was starting to ask him more in depth what he was doing because he was being so odd about it, and then I realized: Mother’s Day and my birthday are both approaching. I’m sure they’re going to go look for cards.
Yup, that’s what they were doing. The boy picked me out a very nice Mother’s Day card with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy wishing me a happy day. As Mr. SJ said, there was absolutely no doubt which card he would pick once he saw that one; only perhaps if there had been a Lightning McQueen one might there have been some hesitation as to which one would win.
My mom and mother-in-law pretty much always send me a card for Mother’s Day. Not this year, which made me laugh. However, one of my sister-in-laws sent me a really sweet card for Mother’s Day, and I wasn’t expecting that!
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. The books, not the TV series, which I always hated because of how it departed from the books. 
. All the glorious food described in 
. Jack the brindle bulldog trotting along beneath their wagon as they traveled west.
. I’m still determined to travel to Prince Edward Island someday so I can see the setting for this book and the others by L. M. Montgomery. Anne was so real to me, and her books made me long to have a close friend like her. I’m glad I have a daughter to share this book with her someday. And while I liked all of the 
well enough, the first book was definitely my favorite. 
. I read this as a fairly young child (5th grade or 6th), and to this day I remember the shock some people expressed when they found out I was reading it. I didn’t get the surprise – there was nothing that complicated to understand in the book, and it had such an exciting ending. I did reread it a few years ago, to see how I liked it as an adult, and yes I missed some of the subtleties, but it’s still not anything I would say I shouldn’t have been reading, which is the impression I remember getting.
, 
, 
, and 
). My mom got me started on these books, and she used to read one chapter a night. I’ve never had any interest in being a vet, certainly not a large animal vet in the Yorkshire Dales, but these books transported me. I still own them, and hope that my children like hearing them all, one chapter at a time. 
by Sarah Patterson. I first read this as a teen or maybe even a pre-teen as a Reader’s Digest Condensed Book. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit how much I adored this story. It’s a sappy love story! Sappy love story or not, I read it multiple times, and have never forgotten the story or characters. Definitley one of my guilty reading pleasures. I’ve always wondered if I would still love it as an adult, so writing this post made me curious enough to order the book (long out of print, there are used copies available). I’m somewhat scared to see if reading it now will taint my fond memories, but I’m going to try it anyway.
. I was an adult when I read this series, but it’s so special to me because of my grandmother. When I was in graduate school (the first time), I lived with my parents, and my grandmother also moved in due to declining health. She loved to read and I would do my best to keep her well stocked with reading material. As her eyesight continued to diminish, she got pickier and pickier about what she would read; it had to be worth the effort, and she knew she only had so many more books left that she’d get to. 
, was too heavy for her to hold, and so remained unread. She died before 
was ever published. 
