Year 3, week 2: Love in the Time of Cholera

This week's book:
Love in the Time of Cholera
By Gabriel García Márquez

This week's post is going to be super short, not because I'm only a little over a week and half post-op with my third baby, or that my eldest is having a flipping hard time with second grade, or that I literally want to spend every second of the day talking and snuggling my amazing hubby and baby at the same time. It's because I have no idea what the book is about.

I started this book ...well honestly years ago. It has been on our bathroom counter for Lord knows how long. The used bookstore that I bought it from went out of business three years ago. Are you getting the picture of how long I have been working on this dang novel?

I made a promise to myself that I would finish the book before our new baby came. Well, I made it, but just barely. The morning that my water broke, I had ten pages of the book left. So while I waited for my sister to come and watch the kids and my husband was sleeping (one of us needed to be rested), I finished the book. The love triangle and all the flowery wording was too much for me. Sorry, everyone; I sound like an uncultured swine but it was a no go for me.

Year 3, week 1: Roseline Alice Long

This week:
Roseline Alice Long
By Matt and Emily Long

At 3:30am on Sunday August 18th, my water broke. We were going to have a nice, calm, organized C-section on Tuesday the 20th, but nope, this baby was in a hurry to come. Many quick phone calls were made and the kids and bags were packed up into the van. Every one was calm while we were in van. Hubby and I took turns answering the kids questions while I sat on a bath towel trying to not scare the kids. When we arrived at the hospital they set me right up to get ready for my surgery. I was worried the hubs was going to miss the whole baby being born thing because he was waiting for my sister to pick up the older children, but he made it in time. Even had time to eat some of the smelliest beef jerky I have ever smelled.

I walked into the operating room to have the baby. I always am so happily surprised how amazing my sweet husband is, and so insanely supportive during times like these. He is my rock and does an amazing job keeping me calm. It happened to be that this C-section was a little rougher than the one I had with our four year old. I was super nauseated and had to take some anti nausea medicine that made me keep falling asleep. I wasn't loopy per se, just really tired. When the moment of truth came it was a little girl who was held above the curtain, who happened to look like her own little person, no other family member.

The kids are so happy to have a new little sister; they can't get enough of holding her and kissing her. She can't seem to get enough of her Daddy, and I think the feelings are mutual. I myself just keep having a hard time really believing she is really here. After all the losses of 2018, secretly, I thought maybe we were done having kids, maybe that part of my life was done. Even now with a brand new little one, I'm still not sure if I want that part of my life to be over. Pregnancy is really rough on me, but while holding this perfect little one while I type this, I can't shut that door to possibilities. Our little girl is so perfect, I would have loved her no matter what, but she is already doing so well, and let's be completely honest, she is so beautiful. So I will end this post saying I'm so tired, covered in spit up and there isn't a part of my body that isn't sore, but I couldn't be happier. I am insanely happy that our little girl is finally part of our lives. 

But because I have already written a post about the hubby and I having a new baby, I have added a photo of Rosie and the quilt I made for her. It's Sesame Street because Sesame Street is flipping amazing, and it's also rainbowish without the rainbow smacking you in the face.

Year 2, week 52: The Magic Tree House books

This week's books:
The Magic Tree House books
By Mary Pope Osborne

This is the last blog of the year, and it's late of course. Tuesday was our little guy's first day of school along with it being our little girl's fourth birthday. The hubby and I have been prepping the house and our lives for baby 3's appearance coming next week. It's been a busy week.

This week's book is actually a bunch of books. All summer the family has been reading the Magic Tree House books. It all started because our son's amazing first grade teacher read a Thanksgiving themed book last year. We were also lucky enough to borrow a collection of the first few on CD from a family member as well. We also took many trips to the different libraries around town to read as many as we could this summer. As always, I thought we could definitely read all of them this summer; why read a few when we could read all of them? I knew I was going to get bigger and bigger, and summer heat always makes me all pregnant puffy. Well, there are like a million and two Magic treehouse books, so we didn't finish the list, not by a long shot.

This series is about a brother and sister who find a magic tree house that can go back in time. The plot sounds ridiculous and it's a kids book series, but some of the books are super educational and both of our kids really seemed to like them. Now not every one of the books are winners, but I rather enjoyed when they went back in time and met actual historical figures, but that might be the nerd in me.

If you have little people, I would suggest reading them together or having them read them. The fact that there are so many books gives the child or reader a lot of options to read about. There should definitely be something that can peak your interest in these books.

Year 2, week 51: Three Wishes

This week's book:
Three Wishes
By Liane Moriarty

So this post is super late. I read this book a while back and kept forgetting to share this post. Blame it on me getting sick at thirty-seven weeks pregnant, or that I'm measuring a month bigger than I should, or that my children have been insane, choose your own theory. 

This book was Liane Moriarty's first novel, and I'm not going to lie, you can kind of tell. She has definitely gotten better at having three storylines go together seamlessly, bit it has taken a while. The plot of this novel revolves around a set of triplets on their birthday, and they are all at different points in their lives. I went between listening to this on my cell phone and actually reading the physical copy that I owned. I had a bit of a hard time connecting to any of the three sisters, but that might have just been me.

I would recommend it, just keep in mind that it's not the best of Moriarty's work.

Year 2, week 50: The Hidden Power of F*cking Up

This week's book:
The Hidden Power of F*cking Up
By Eugene Lee Yang, Keith Habersberger, Ned Fulmer, and Zach Kornfeld

This week's book comes to us from The Try Guys of YouTube! I don't go out of my way to watch YouTube "stars" or can even list that many of them to be completely honest. But The Try Guys are different, I love them!

The Try Guys are these four guys that started making videos for BuzzFeed and then started their own channel, and are currently touring. The basic idea is that each video the guys try something new. The concept sounds easy, and they are all four silly enough that the book they came out with could have been mind fluff, but the book had some real depth. All four of the guys take to trying new things with strength and without fear. They might be silly guys on the interwebs, but they take their jobs very seriously. They edit their own videos and try to be brave with everything they try.

In the book each four of the guys tried a certain thing they struggle with. One faced his fear of fashion, one tried to eat more healthy and started working out, one faced his fear of romantic love and one faced his fear of telling his family members how much he cared for them. It was a fun book and, as I said before, the book has depth that was not expected at all. Truly the book is about not being afraid to fail when trying new things, or even just trying to live your life. I would highly recommend this book, if you love the try guys as much as I do.