Task It Tuesday: May 22

This week's task list is all about finding the balance I need in my life to get back to blogging. I love this community, I love writing, and I love reading the books I need to read to be able to write posts. But how to make the time for all of it? Well...

1. Put it on the daily and weekly to-do lists. Not so much because it is a task to be done (despite the name of this post), but because I don't want it to get lost. If it's on my list, I will make sure I take the time to do it. And taking the time to do it is taking time for myself.

2. Work on ways to make writing reviews faster and easier. I used to spend hours working on my reviews, back when I thought that "someday" I might try to make this sucker pay for itself. But I've long ago abandoned that idea and I know that anyone reading the blog is also busy and would prefer that I just get to the point.

3. Use phone time to read more blog posts. This may mean I don't get any more comments left on blogs than I do now, but at least I will have the time to read posts which I find hard to do some weeks.  And, let's face it, I spend entirely too much time on my phone playing Two Dots and checking out Facebook updates so it will be easy enough to make that change.

4. Make a quiet place. I tend to read curled up on the sofa in my family room which is, oddly enough, filled with my family and the television is on. I like quiet so I'm not opposed to being off by myself in another room. I just need to get the right furniture in place to make that happen.

5. Turn off the t.v. I'm as guilty as the next guy of turning that thing on just to have it babble in the background. The thing is, even if it's just babbling in the background, it's a distraction, one I don't need. If I find I'd rather turn on the t.v. than pick up the book I'm reading, it's time for a new book.

6. Make time for Bloggiestas and readathons. I make time for all the other events in my life so why do I only do these things when I think I have "spare" time? Again, put them on the calendar and I'm more likely to give myself permission to do them.

So how about you? How do you find time to do the things that are just for you?

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead
Published May 2012 by Blue Door
Read by : Arthur Morey
Source: bought my audiobook copy at my local library book sale

Publisher's Summary:

Winn Van Meter is heading for his family’s retreat on the pristine New England island of Waskeke. Normally a haven of calm, for the next three days this sanctuary will be overrun by tipsy revelers as Winn prepares for the marriage of his daughter Daphne to the affable young scion Greyson Duff. Winn’s wife, Biddy, has planned the wedding with military precision, but arrangements are sideswept by a storm of salacious misbehavior and intractable lust: Daphne’s sister, Livia, who has recently had her heart broken by Teddy Fenn, the son of her father’s oldest rival, is an eager target for the seductive wiles of Greyson’s best man; Winn, instead of reveling in his patriarchal duties, is tormented by his long-standing crush on Daphne’s beguiling bridesmaid Agatha; and the bride and groom find themselves presiding over a spectacle of misplaced desire, marital infidelity, and monumental loss of faith in the rituals of American life.

My Thoughts: 
This may be a book set around the wedding of Daphne and Greyson; but, make no mistake about it, this is Winn's story, despite the many journey's down the life stories of the other characters. Which was my problem with the book. I really, really, did not care for Winn.

Here is a middle-aged man who makes no bones about the fact that he really wasn't excited to find himself with two daughters when they were born and nothing in their lives has endeared them to him any more than the day they were born. Boo hoo, so you wanted a boy. I watched my husband fall in love with my daughter the minute she was put into his arms (although, to be fair, he already had two sons) so I had very little patience for a man who would carry that kind of thing with him for all those years. Also? What kind of a father cares more about being in the right club more than he cares about his family? Winn, that's the kind.

One reviewer on Goodreads called this the whitest book she'd read that year. I'm trying to think over what I've read but I'm pretty sure I'd have to say "ditto." Seating Arrangements is a book full of bland, WASPy characters so if Shipstead had chosen another central characters, I'm not sure it would have made much difference. Maybe that was her point? That these kind of people are essentially interchangeable? Even all of those different characters' backstories only seemed to make them seem more stereotypical.

Curiously, the book still held a certain charm. I mean, wedding weekends are crazy things and people drink too much and hookups happy and two families have to try to get along. And Shipstead captures all of it...all before we even get to the wedding. And, I did find the ending mostly satisfying.  Plus, Arthur Morey is a pleasure as a reader (although, a male trying to differentiate so many female voices pushes his capabilities; perhaps a female co-reader would have helped).

Life: It Goes On - May 20

Happy Sunday from grey, wet Omaha. I suppose I'm meant to be happy about the rain; we need it. But it's the weekend and I'd really liked to have been able to spend at least some of it basking up the sunshine on the patio!

Ah well, I have a lot to get done inside this weekend so I suppose it's just as well that I can't play outside. My whole family will be here for an extra long weekend this week. To avoid them needing to wear flip-flops in the shower and being able to write in the dust, I need to get this place cleaned up. So, of course, the first thing I did this weekend was deep clean my laundry room. Because that makes sense, right?

Last Week I:

Listened To: Started listening to Cranford. It was time for a classic and I needed something completely different from what I'd just finished. Thanks to errands, I'll be about half done with it by the end of today.

Watched: Once in a while I have nights that I just do not sleep well. Friday night was one of those nights. Just before five, I stopped fighting it and just got up...just in time to watch the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. I'm was quite taken by how happy they both looked.

Read: The Women In The Castle for book club this week. I have no idea what I'm going to pick up next. I did notice the other day that I've read almost no nonfiction this year so maybe it's time to pick up something in that vein.

Made: Pork tenderloin, Cuban sandwiches, bbq chicken, naked pasta - but we've spent almost as much time eating out as eating in this week.

Enjoyed: Watching the election results on Tuesday night. My friend who is running for office, was the winner in her district and will move on to the general election in November. Very excited for her!


This Week I’m: 

Planning: Meals for this coming week. I need to have things that will work as people are around to eat and it might not be all of us here at the same time for a meal. It requires a different kind of meal planning but I do love the challenge.

Thinking About: Our summer calendar. Trying to plan some weekend trips and thinking about a trip to South Carolina.

Feeling: Sassy. I had my annual summer chop off of the hair yesterday. Every time I do that, I wonder why I let it grow out! We even opted for a violet glaze so I'm feeling a little less middle-aged!

Looking forward to: Book club Tuesday and having all of my siblings together.

Question of the week: 'Fess up - did you get up early to watch the wedding? Or spend a chunk of yesterday watching it run over again? I just can't get enough of it, the fashion, the pageantry, and those hats!

Circe by Madeline Miller

Circe by Madeline Miller
Published April 2018 by Little, Brown, and Company
Source: my ecopy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power--the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

My Thoughts:
A relatively minor character in Homer's The Odyssey, Circe comes into her own in this story that draws on both Homer's work and Greek mythology. Miller has everything you'd expect in a story about gods and witches - terrifying power, horrifying creatures, impressive magic, and even more impressive temper tantrums. In a book that spans hundreds of years, there's a lot of action, a lot of characters to track, and you'll definitely find yourself reacquainting yourself with Greek mythology. All of the is terrific but it's the more human aspects of the story that really make the book shine.

Circe grows up the unloved, black sheep of her family who is constantly told no husband will ever have her. When she falls in love for the first time, her heart is broken. Her revenge goes terribly awry leaving her with a guilt that will not end. Left on her own, Circe, learns to care for and protect herself and turns into a serious badass. Which is a good thing, because her family is not done making her life difficult, there will be more trouble with men, and she will have to go to the ends of the earth for her child. In the end, it's her humanity that is what is most appealing about her - the heartbreak she suffers, the desire to be someone other than who she is, her love for her son, her sorrow. I seriously loved this character.

Kudos for my daughter-in-law (after almost a year, it still seems strange to say that!) for bringing this one to my attention and to NPR for bringing it to her attention some months ago. This is definitely one of my favorite books of the year. And since I'm going to have to buy a copy to pass on to my daughter-in-law, I might just read it again.

Life: It Goes On - May 14

Better late than never, right? I woke up feeling super productive yesterday and couldn't stop long enough to post. That's what spring does to me! I cleaned, I did laundry, I gardened. The perennials are finally coming along and the annuals and herbs are all planted. I've planted mostly mosquito deterring plants this spring - lavender, geraniums, catnip, marigolds, and lemon geranium (aka citronella). We've got a major ground cover/shady area project yet to do - we'll move a lot of stuff we already have including lily of the valley, hosta, and bleeding heart. My backyard is my happy place again!

Last Week I:

Listened To: I'm about 70% through Seating Arrangements and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it.

Watched: Westworld and The Voice (although this may be my last season of this one - starting to feel too much like a judge popularity contest). I can't remember anything else we watched, although I know I didn't watch nearly as much as I normally do.

Read: Loving Madeline Miller's Circe; I'm going to be sad to be done with it tomorrow. Then I move on to this month's book club selection, The Women In The Castle.

Made: Champagne cupcakes, dipped strawberries, and a cranberry/pink lemonade punch for the bridal shower we hosted on Saturday. Strawberry rhubarb pie and rhubarb sauce from the first harvested crop of 2018. Cooking with rhubarb always wraps me up in all the  mommas I come from - my plant came from one grandma, my pie recipe from another, and my mom taught me how to make rhubarb sauce.

Enjoyed: Dinner with friends, happy hours on our friends' deck on Friday evening, making a bride happy with the shower, and Mother's Day with my kids (well, Mini-me via a long, long telephone call).


This Week I’m: 

Planning: On a lot of cleaning this week. My family will be coming for a long weekend next weekend and every last bed will be put to use.

Thinking About: Sunny days on the patio, tomatoes on the vine, fresh foods at dinner.

Feeling: Tired bu accomplished.

Looking forward to: Voting tomorrow then heading off to my friend's (she is running for office!) campaign party.

Question of the week: We have been so busy the past couple of months; spring is flying by. Have you found time this spring to enjoy the season?