Ah. Such a nice Christmas.

It's not over.  We've got something this evening and something next weekend and something on January 6th, so we're really doing the 12 days of Christmas this year.  Well, actually, it looks like, 13.  The 13 days of Christmas.  So far, it's been lovely.  We got a lot of time with our immediate family on Christmas Eve and a lot of time with my husband's family yesterday.  Sometimes people have to rush off and it's over quickly, but not yesterday.  We were still sitting around post-breakfast at 4:00 p.m.  For a while, I thought about all the kids that have been in that highchair there at the dinner table, 9, so far, with the youngest still sitting in it at the age of 2.  :-)  We sat around snacking on fudge and french toast casserole, talking, watching the board games being played, playing with and talking to the kids.  It was just very nice.  I feel like everyone liked the gifts I picked out for them, which is a big part of my Christmas happiness, and I liked the gifts that I got as well.

My daughter did some wood burning of kitchen utensils this year.  The one above for her Dad.  It's a grill spatula and on the edges it says "I am your father". 

These she made for her brother and sister-in-law.  The first is the eye of Sauron, next says Sara's baking spoon, the third is a Dr. Who reference, then a Harry Potter reference and then a Star Trek reference, so all the geekiness is evident.  :-) 

After that, I came home, took a short socialization break (introvert!) and then went to see my aunt at the nursing home.  She seemed to like the small presents that I got her.  I hope that she gets some use out of them.   Nursing homes are just so hard.  :-(

Today, I'm off to work and then I have 2 events after that, so it's a big day.  We're also dog-sitting my son and daughter-in-law's puppy, so that adds a little layer of difficulty.  He's not house-trained completely and he's on a different sleep schedule than everyone else in our household, but my young adults that live at home aren't working or going to school this week, so it's falling on them.  Hopefully, they got some sleep last night!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

We've had a wonderful time so far.  The oldest and his wife got off work unexpectedly yesterday and we got to spend the whole day with them.  The presents all seemed to go over well ( you know I always worry they won't like them!) and my husband ignored the no presents pact and got me a car! 

I hope your holiday is just as wonderful! 

Merry Christmas!

The wise men.

We have 3 now.  Cosmo ate one of the  2 remaining old one so I ordered some replacements.  These 3 are taking the safer northern route across the top of the entertainment center. 

Getting ready for Christmas.

The shopping is done.  My daughter finished her last day of teaching preschool yesterday.  I have to work 3 days and then it will be Christmas Eve Eve.  :-)   I am still expecting one package to be delivered.  I don't remember if they guaranteed shipping before Christmas or not, but it's for my daughter and she'll be okay with it if it arrives late.  I'm excited about the presents we're giving this year.  My husband and I decided not to get anything for each other.  I'm fine with that.  What I wish for him is to get well.  In December, he's been sick already 3 times, three different things.  It's not fair.  I hope that he gets better before Christmas.  My son and daughter-in-law are working, working, working, working because it's peak season for them so even though they live here now, we'll still barely see them for Christmas.  They will be here Christmas Eve, (after working 10 hours) and we'll see them Christmas morning, but then they'll be leaving Christmas day to see her family.  So, even though it's not a perfect Christmas (what even is that?)  it's always nice to celebrate our Savior and spend time with our families.  :-) 

Almost there!

Christmas shopping is almost done!  I'm excited and happy about it and proud that I haven't obsessed over the perfectness of every little gift, as I tend to do.  That's what makes the shopping so excruciating some years is the obsessing.  I managed to rise above that this year, get what they asked for and not worry too, too much about it.  I hope I did okay.  I have one or two small things to pick up still, but they're minor and I may get them today.  Last night we went to see the Christmas program at the school where my daughter is the afterschool assistant - very cute!  And tomorrow we will go see a program at our church.  I kinda want to go to a concert tonight but no-one wants to go with me and I don't think I want to go badly enough to try and find someone who will.  I think I'll probably just let it go.  I can't decide.

Anyway, I'm excited and happy about Christmas instead of my usual grouchiness/grinchiness, and it is a very nice change.

I hope that you are enjoying the season as well.

And then, just a few days later, it's mostly done.

Okay, so we got the bulk of the Christmas shopping done this weekend.  I was lucky enough to have Friday off, so I had a 3 day weekend with not a lot else to do.  I shopped online at Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, Target, Walmart and Barnes and Noble.   Now in real life, I need to go to my small town and get some gift cards here and there and to Target in real life because they couldn't ship me the items I needed (which is frustrating, Target!)  Anyway, it's almost done. 

Speaking of things that are done, youngest son is done with his first semester of college and believes (is pretty sure) he got the following grades.  He can't for sure find his algebra grade online and they haven't been posted to the official website yet, each professor has just posted them here and there.  I guess.  That's what it sounded like when he explained it to me.  It's different now than when I was in college back in the dark ages and we got our grades through the United States Postal Service. 

Writing 101   B
History          B
Freshman Year Experience   B
College Algebra   C
Chorus          A

Chorus is pretty much a guaranteed A, you just have to show up.   In History and FYE the reason he didn't get an A had to do with, I think, just learning to be in college and messing some things up at the beginning and his C in Algebra stems from his difficulty showing his work.  He knows what the answer is, but he can't show the steps his brain used to get there.  He's both exceptionally gifted at math and learning disabled at math and the school could not (would not) accommodate that, so he ended up with a C.   We're all thrilled with his writing B because, with dysgraphia/dyslexia, writing is the most difficult thing for him.  This is a victory!   I think it's better than I did my first semester in college and I was a traditional, non-learning-disabled person.  I was finding out that I needed to study.   He does not need to study, just absorbs everything from class and reading and so, spent a relaxing finals week not studying and not worrying about anything.   He did well on finals, the fact that he didn't get As is due, as I said, to some mistakes early on while he was trying to get it all figured out.  (Not that we're hung up on getting As, it's just fun for us, watching him do so well when for a while there, we were so worried~! ) 

In other Christmas news, we finally got the tree up, the decorations hung and placed around the house.  Cosmo ate one of our 2 remaining wise men, so I've ordered a replacement from Ebay.  Isn't the internet grand?  It's from a set I bought in the 80s, but I go on Ebay and find matching wisemen.  Pretty amazing, really.

It begins.

With much less whining and obsessing than usual, I have begun my Christmas shopping.  I've picked up a couple of things from the local game store, a couple of things from Walmart and today I've been shopping on Etsy, Amazon and Walmart.com.  I hold on so tight to money all year that it's hard for me to actually start spending money at Christmas.  :-) 

It's almost here, you guys!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. . .

We're getting busy for Christmas already.  I've got a lunch today, we've got a craft fair on Saturday.  On Friday night, we'll be putting up our tree and decorating.  Next week we've got whatever you call a Friend's Christmas gathering.  I know some people have Friendsgiving  but we do it at Christmas so I don't know what to call that. I guess just Friends Christmas.  :-P  We should coin a word.

Anyway, I'm hanging in there at work even though commuting and working in an office is all new (again) to me.  It's interesting, certainly not boring and there is a quite a learning curve so I'm still in the feeling stupid stage of getting a new job.  I hope that passes soon, but I'm starting a new work type, so I feel like it will continue for quite a while, unfortunately.  I like everyone that I'm working with and I like the atmosphere there, so that's good.

Youngest son is almost finished with his first semester of college and doing well.  He has learned a lot this semester and is looking forward to next semester, but really looking forward to Christmas break.  :-)   His choir had a concert the other night and it was awesome.  I'd show you a video but I've had the worst time trying to transfer the videos from my phone to my computer and I tried to upload them directly to the blog but that didn't work either.  I'll try again, so if you see a video here, you'll know I was successful. I have a tiny snippet of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah that might work since the file size is small. 

Daughter is getting ready for Christmas at her work.  Working with preschoolers makes the holidays even more fun.

I haven't seen oldest son and his wife since Thanksgiving because they are working 60 hour weeks right now.  I did hear from them by text today so I know that they're still alive and kicking.  Hopefully, they will be okay doing this for a few more weeks until Christmas/peak is over.  Whew.

I am in a good mood about the holidays, not horribly grouchy and grinchy as I usually am.  Of course I haven't started shopping yet, so that may make me get crabby for a few days with the pain of spending money!  :-)

Have a great week everyone!  December is almost here!! 

This is unbelievable.

But, I actually started my Christmas shopping yesterday, on Black Friday.  The little gaming store where my kids play D&D was having a buy one, get one half price sale, so we went up there and bought a couple of board games.  We love board games very much.  It's a great way to bring the family together and also a great way to get together with friends.  Today we're still celebrating Thanksgiving, but after today, we will start decorating for Christmas, putting up the tree, watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music.  Actually, I already started the music, because my favorite radio station started Christmas music yesterday and I listened to it on the way to and from work. 

Happy Thanksgiving~!

Today is our prep day.  I've got a lot of cooking and cleaning to do.  I think that's the day-before-Thanksgiving national pass-time.   I'm not actually hosting here tomorrow, but on Saturday, but I have to work on Friday and it's pretty dirty, so we better start now.  I'm not keeping up with the housework as well now that I'm working, as is to be expected, I guess.  Also, I have to do a lot of cooking on Saturday which will cut into my cleaning time.  Fortunately, I have help.  That's the good thing about having young adult kids who live with you.  :-)

So, Thanksgiving already.  Of course, I can't believe it.  I have some kind of condition in which I can never realize how quickly time passes and I can't grasp how quickly the holidays are upon us!  It happens every year.   After tomorrow starts the Christmas season.   I'll wail in disbelief, wish for more time, whine about my Christmas shopping, finally start Christmas shopping and then get it all done quickly and start hoping, for goodness sake, that Christmas will come faster! 

Every year the same old thing.   

So anyway, Happy Thanksgiving!  Take some time and think about all the blessings you have.  :-)

Settling in.

I've almost been at my new job a month.  I'm still learning and I will be learning for a while, not the transcription part, but the administration/data entry part.  There may also be a bit of phone answering (gasp!) and filing.  I'm sure I'll figure it out but right now, they are using me as their PRN worker because another transcriptionist is out for the week, so they are using me to type and I am getting it done.  It feels good.  Yesterday, there was a big pile of dictations in the afternoon and my boss said that there was no way I'd get them all done by 4 o'clock but just do the best I could and go home at 4:00.  She doesn't know me very well.  I was completely done by 3:15.  :-)  It's nice going in already having some skills for the job and feeling like I am contributing to the team already.  I still don't love the walk, but I'm getting used to it.  Some days I can catch the shuttle and get a ride, it depends on what my hours are.  Overall, it's okay.  It's something I feel like I can do and I don't feel panicked like I did when I had that job at Head Start.  That wasn't for me, but this nice quiet office?  Much better.

Youngest son is still doing well in school.  He got a 93 on the most recent history test, has been helping some other kids with algebra and is feeling very confident and self-assured.  I don't think every kid should go to college, but I really think it's the best path for him.  He's really enjoying it.

Silly Cosmo in one of his funny sleeping positions.  

Everyone else is just doing about the same.  It's been very cold, so the 2 young adults living in a camper have been very cold as well.  They are going to get to do some house-sitting for the winter and they are looking forward to a heater that stays on for more than 3 minutes, a full size water heater and other comforts of a house.

Speaking of comforts of a house, walking in downtown the other day I saw homeless people sleeping in the street for the first time in my life.  I've been sheltered here in my small town and though working at the food stamp office, I met plenty of homeless people, I'd never seen anyone actually sleeping on the street.  It's sobering.   I've only seen them once, so hopefully they are in a shelter during this pretty extreme cold snap.  :-/

Can you all believe how close it is getting to Thanksgiving?  Some people are already putting their Christmas trees up!!!  Too soon!  Too soon!

My Old Job.

I used to work for this transcription company at home and when they let me go, I went on Glassdoor and did a review of them.  ( I was looking for something else before then, but hadn't found anything.) It's been a year and a half and every month or so, Glassdoor emails me with the new reviews that have been posted.  Here are today's examples.  There is nothing, nothing, nothing good about working for them and now from my perspective of working for a wonderful not-for-profit hospital and getting paid by the hour, reading these gives me even more pleasure. 

November is already marching right on.

Before long, Thanksgiving and soon after, Christmas will be here.  I can't believe it.  Time just marches on so quickly.  I've already done 3 whole weeks at my new job.  I don't have a lot of interesting news or anything, just getting used to the new normal, etc.  Above are 2 paintings that my daughter has done lately, one is Lucy, our dog that passed away last summer.  The other is Freckles with the Christmas tree lights reflected in her eyes.  The picture below is a shot of the pretty foliage on my drive home, which never turns out to be as pretty in the pictures as it is in real life. 

New Normal Report.

It seems a little hectic some days, but I think the new normal is okay.  Over the years, we have had so many changes and so many new normals and a lot of them have not been the best, but me going to work has been okay.  I'm only working about 12 hours a week right now and that helps.  It's helping me ease into going outside the home to work, which I haven't done for many years.  I'm getting to know the people and so far, everyone seems really nice.  I got a welcome email and phone call from one of the other transcriptionists who is in my department but in another building.  I thought that was very nice.  Today was Halloween, of course, and a lot of people in the hospital dressed up and the hospital gave us a free lunch and some small free gifts which was fun.  I actually had a pretty good time at work today, though I'm still learning the job and that's a little hard.  It's good.  I think it's going to be a good fit for me.  I hope.

I got my rheumatologist to write me a note to try and help me get a better parking space a little closer to the building, but I am not sure, now, if I want to.  The walking will be good for most of me, only bad for my knees ... so I'm torn whether to turn it in or not, or just keep walking.

Other things that have changed in our world this year are that my husband's brother and my brother both got engaged and his brother is married and mine will be soon.  Kind of exciting~!   We love both of the new family members, so that's good!

Sweater

My daughter finished knitting her sweater this week. 

History Test!!!

This is a victory for a student with a really good knowledge of history, but a difficulty with expressive written language.  It says "Great results on the objective questions - Well expressed, solid essays." 

Note that one of the people he was asked to write about was Clovis, ruler of Gaul and go back for a blast from the past and read this blog post.  

Trying to settle in.

I'm trying to settle into my new normal as a working outside the home person and not only outside the home, but a 45-minute drive and, it turns out, then a 15-20 minute walk from home.  As you may remember, a year or so ago, I turned down a job stocking the bread at walmart because I couldn't do all the walking and standing, and looked instead for a sedentary job.  I found one, but the parking garage is 3 1/2 blocks away.  To some people, I know that seems like nothing, but to me with my osteoarthritis, it seems like a long way.  I can do it.  I did it yesterday and yes, it hurt my knees, but then the rest of the day I'm sitting, so I don't know ... it might be a good thing.  If I decide it is too much or if I just want to save that time everyday, I can probably get a note from my rheumatologist that would allow me to park in one of the closer parking garages.  I've been doing orientation and going through computer training modules, getting a tour, meeting everyone, looking over the types of reports I will be doing and studying computer manuals (a little) but I don't have a log-in ID yet so I can't log in and start actually doing the work.  I was supposed to get to log in yesterday and start, but the ID didn't come through so I got today off.   Today I'll find out my schedule for next week.  I did learn yesterday that this department of the hospital is closed on holidays, so bonus!   I think I'm going to mostly like the job.  There are going to be difficult things to type like autopsies but I have done those before, so I guess I'll be able to do it.  We haven't eaten quite as well this week or had as clean of a house as usual, but it's fine.

Youngest son is continuing to do well in school.  He had a history test this week and knew it would take a long time, so he went to his writing professor and told him that he would be late for writing class due to his ADA accomodations and the other class going over, so he wouldn't be counted as tardy.  It's manageable with the accomodations but he does have to let the professors know about things like this.  He's doing what he needs to do and it's great.

Daughter is still working at the preschool and doing well with it.  She has more hours than last year, but seems to be managing it fine.  The other day she and the children walked into their other building and there was a snake under the art table.  She handled it well, getting all the kids back outside and calling building maintenance.   Adulthood!  She's working on her stern voices that she needs to use sometimes and is doing well with that.  She still works on writing her book, crocheting and knitting and doing art in her spare time that's not taken up with work and playing Dungeons and Dragons which she and her younger brother do a couple of times a week.

Oldest son and his wife are still working at Amazon.  The mostly like it.  Daughter-in-law has been having some trouble with her shoulder and may have to change to a different job.  They are tougher than me, for sure, standing on their feet for 10 hours at a time.

My husband still works with software at the same place he's been for a while.  I think he's relatively happy there.  We've finally got enough vehicles going all at once so that everyone can get to where they need to be each day, but I'm not happy, getting stuck with the one that no one else wants to drive and seriously regretting that I ever learned to drive a stick shift.  :-P

Anyway, that's what's going on with us now.  I'll look on my phone and see if I have any good pictures to share for this week.   Now that we're not homeschooling, this blog is about our lives with a little bit of post-homeschooling/disablity/college stuff thrown in.  I appreciate that some of you are still reading.  Over the years, I have enjoyed going back and looking at the blog to see when our family did what and enjoying the memories, so even if no one reads, I'll probably still blog for us.

Have a great day everyone!

Remus got a haircut this week and looks like a different dog.  He's learning to deal with the paparazzi here at our house, taking pictures of him every day.  :-) 

Cosmo is used to the paparazzi at this point and bored with it.  Hey, trying to take a nap here.  

Freckles sometimes adopts dramatic poses in the hopes that someone will take her picture.  We always fall for it.

I took this sunset shot through the window of the place the kids were playing Dungeons and Dragons the other night.  I had forgotten my book and was bored, but isn't it pretty?  

I won some gaming dice in a contest on Facebook.  Aren't they pretty?  

Keeping busy and another new normal.

I start my new job this week, working 4 days.   I'll have orientation and then 3 days of working.  I'm a little bit terrified.  It's been a while since I have worked outside the home, 9 years ago when I started working at the local hospital and had such problems with the chair and the computer program that they had.  I'm coming off of a year and a half of unemployment, a couple of failed new job attempts and I'm more humble and prepared to like it no matter what because I don't want to have to job hunt again.  Ever.  It kind of reminds me of the Winnie-The-Pooh story about how they are going to take Tigger into the woods and bring him back as a humble Tigger, a sorry Tigger and hopefully a less bouncy Tigger.  It didn't work on Tigger, but it worked on me.  I am prepared to like this job and do it no matter what. 

So anyway, we're moving into a new normal with me working.  I won't be home to wake up my college-aged son and though he sets alarms, he still needs someone to nudge him in the morning.  I guess his sister will have to pick up her old role of little mama and do it, at least this week.  I think once I get going in this job I will be working later in the afternoon, so it possibly won't be an issue after this week. 

Another part of the new normal, which is a good thing, really is that the younger kids social lives are expanding.  They are playing games and Dungeons and Dragons 2 nights a week and going to art classes another night of the week and often going back to the game store for pickup games or just to socialize at other times.  It's good for them.  It's a little hard for the 2 helicopter parents (who are trying hard not to hover) but we're doing okay.  :-P 

Doing better.

Youngest son is doing better and better in school.  He's taking less time to write things and writing well when he does write.  His history quizzes, which are essays, have needed less and less editing from me, just 2 commas and a semicolon on the last one and he's getting 19 and 20 out of 20 on a regular basis now.  He's got about half of his first paper written for writing 101 and it didn't take him but a couple of hours, whereas the first things he wrote took many, many hours and needed a ton of editing from me and his sister.  I'm thrilled by his progress.  He shows me a lot of his writing when he gets it back with the grades because he knows how happy it makes me.  The most recent history quiz/essay was 20 out of 20 and said "Good job!" on it.  You all know how much I worried when he was little and wouldn't even draw and hated coloring and then didn't learn to read until he was 10 and always, always hated writing, but maturity is working for him.  I'm glad we didn't sacrifice our relationship to trying to have him conform to others expectations of when he should do things.  He did it in his own good time.

If you have a little one who is struggling with any skill. lagging behind his peers, tell him or her about my son and read him or her this book.  Leo the Late Bloomer

A concert!

We went to a concert and variety show for youngest son's college last night.  It was very good. There's a lot of talent in the group.  I especially enjoyed the choir parts when my son was singing, but I enjoyed the other parts too, mostly.  There was at least one singer that I just sat and hoped would be finished soon.  That's how it is, though, isn't it?  During the in-between times, when no one was singing, they gave away door prizes.  Most of them were things like candles or T shirts, but my daughter-in-law won some Disney Princess stickers and my husband hit the jackpot with a bookstore gift card and some Godiva chocolates.  :-)  Anyway, it was a fun, family time.  It's interesting for us, having been homeschoolers, to start participating in these kind of school/family events that we've been out of for so, so long. 

History Test #2.

This is for youngest son (who was 6 years old when I started this blog and is now in college!).  He has dyslexia/dysgraphia and got a 92 with "solid essays" on his history test!  He has a chance to do a 6 point extra credit and he's going to do that too, to bring his average up a little bit. 

Job craziness and other updates.

I've been job hunting for a year and a half and it's been kind of a pain.  I wanted to say tough, but it hasn't been really tough.  I'm not the major wage earner in our household so the pressure is not as great as it would be if my husband didn't have a good job.  Still, it's been a little hard on my ego and I've wanted to quit several times.  Last Thursday, I got offered a job.  It was at a nursing home, working as a receptionist.  I was very excited about it and my daughter and I did a happy, happy dance.  Then, 5 minutes later (what are the odds?), I got a notice that another company wanted to interview me, for work as a transcriptionist, paying a lot more, with no weekend hours and no early morning hours.  I had to do the interview.  It went well and I was offered that job on Wednesday of this week.  I immediately started trying to contact the person I had interviewed with for the first job to let her know but I could not reach her by phone. I called 7 times over 3 days.  (I don't enjoy making phone calls, but much less to give disappointing news.  They were excited to have finally found someone to work that position).  Finally, today in desperation, not wanting to go through the weekend with the prospect of having to make that uncomfortable phone call on Monday, I emailed her and she got right back to me, wishing me well in the new job.  I hate that it worked out that way, that I had to go through with all the onboarding tasks for the one company while secretly hoping the other company would call.  I don't know why I can't simply get a job with no drama!  But, anyway, I have been offered a job.  Assuming my drug screen and my crime check go through, I will start on the 16th of October.  It's good timing for that because my daughter is on fall break the next two weeks and maybe we can get some things done to the house and maybe we can go and do some fun things.  I wish everyone in our family got fall break.  :-)

College is still going well for our current student.  He had another history test this week and thinks that it went well.  He emailed his answers to himself so I was able to read them and I think he did well too, except for some grammar and punctuation issues.  We'll see pretty soon, I guess.  He also talked with his math teacher a bit, to show her that he had the answer but had some trouble with the steps to get to it, but he did not, as far as I can tell, explain his disability to her.  It's progress I guess?  The rest of the updates for this past couple of weeks will be in pictures.

Cosmo, Remus and Freckles.  I've been doggy-sitting Remus while my son and his wife are at work.  

Cosmo getting between my daughter and her book.  

My brother-in-law got married and we got to go and then went to a nice restaurant that believes that this is a serving of ice cream cake for ONE PERSON! 

Duncan and Squinch.  I just love taking pictures of them because they are cute.

Oldest son turned 25 this week and his lovely wife cooked him, and us, this lovely dinner.  Burgers with pepper jack, barbecue sauce, fried onions and mushrooms with loaded mashed potatoes.  Yummy.

More college notes.

My son scored an 81 on his algebra test because he has a hard time showing his work.  I've told him that he needs to speak to the professor about this, that the reasons she wants the work shown is to show that he understands the concepts and that he is not cheating and he can prove that to her in one conversation.  He definitely understands the concepts.  He's figured out that there are something like 49 operations in math and has figured out how to do them in his head and he does them now very quickly, so it's very laborious and counterintuitive for him to go back and try to show how he did it. He doesn't want to have this conversation with his professor so I told him to just start yelling out the answers in class when he knows them and to quit pretending to take notes; just sit there with his hands plainly in view on his desk (so she knows he's not using a phone) and answer the equations she writes on the board.  He says that he can do this, so he needs to show the professor that he can do this.

Whew.  It's hard to be the mama of a twice-exceptional young man and also be hands-off and let him do his own thing.  He's 19.  He doesn't need his mama going over there and talking to anyone about it.  He needs to handle it on his own.

As long as he passes the class, right?  And 81 is a pass.  There's just a part of me that says it is a shame for someone that good at math to get an 81.  :-(

50 Books This Year.

I've read my 50 books for the year and if I keep going at the same pace, I may be able to do 70 by the end of the year.  It's been a good year of reading.  I've re-read a lot of my old favorites and some new ones too.  It started out when my 2 youngest kids challenged themselves to read 26 books this year, one every 2 weeks.  They've pretty much finished by now too, at least I know my son has.  It's probably good that he got done before starting college because he certainly doesn't have as much time as he used to.  He does read very fast though.  He's at 30 and he's read bigger books and more difficult books than I have.  I like to stick to kind of light fiction and the occasional non-fiction self help kind of book or biography.  The complete list of what I have read is in the sidebar of this blog, on the right.  I recommend all of them except the one by Graeme Simsion The Best of Adam Sharp, because it's awful.  The rest are good.  I've started taking pictures of some of my favorite quotes instead of trying to keep track of them in any other way.  Here are some of my favorites, both fiction and nonfiction.  

 The first few are from a book on fighting autoimmune disease with diet, which I , sadly, can't remember the name of and it's not on my list because I didn't finish reading it.  I skipped the recipe section at the end.

"In the last fifty years there has been a 400% increase in the incidence of celiac disease."

"If you can do only one thing to improve your health, removing gluten is far and away the best thing you can do."

Now, onto fiction.   The next 2 are from Frederick Backman's Britt-Marie was Here.  

"At a certain age almost all the questions a person asks himself are about one thing; how should you live your life?"

"It was very brave of you, putting that tie on.  Because it looks absolutely preposterous." 

 From Kathryn Stockett's The Help.  The part that leaped out at me was "I reckon that's the risk you run, letting sombody else raise you chilluns."  I was thinking about kids spending so many hours at school and it resonated with me.

 The brilliant Cecelia Ahern on grief, from the book One Hundred Names.

 Frederick Backman again.  This is from Beartown.

 "It doesn't take a lot to be able to let go of your child.  It takes everything." 

 The extremely brilliant J.K. Rowling.  "Lord -- Thingy."  Oh, I love her writing so much!