Book Review | The Chilbury Ladies' Choir

Rating: ★★ out of 5

This book had to grow on me. While I enjoyed the diary/letter format to see all points of view, I'm not sure the story is for me. The first half of the book was pretty slow and I wasn't sure where the rest of the book could take me, but then an event happened that did intrigue me.

This historical fiction book is set during world war II, in England, a hear before Pearl Harbor. It really wasn't about the war at all - it was about the ladies that were left behind. Mothers, wives, and children. It was an unique idea for a book, a side of the war I haven't really read.

I don't think I will be recommending this book to a friend. The reason for that is is this book just couldn't keep my attention. The book was pretty "event-less" in my opinion. There were a few plot lines that I did enjoy, but they weren't amazing. This was just a "meh" book. I have a hard time recommending books that leave me feeling this way.

I was given this book by Blogging for Books, in exchange for my honest review.

I was given this book by Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.
I was given this book by Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.I was given this book by Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

1st quarter recap 2017 | Reading Challenge

I can't believe the 1st quarter of the year is over. But I have actually been reading a lot, compared to the past 3 years...aka before Jack.

I've got a new lunch routine that has really helped with my reading goal and it's helping my bank account. I'm bringing my lunch to work and reading in the break room. Before this, I was pretty flighty when it came to lunch - eat out, drive home, bring my lunch, take no lunch hour and just grab something from the Pizza place across from work... so I am just happy to have a consistent schedule.

I read 4 books this quarter, so I'm one book ahead of my goal of reading one book a month - yay me!

I read:
Potty Training in 3 days
I've got your number
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily
The mischief of the Mistletoe

I am currently on book 8 of the series I'm reading. After this book, I'm not sure if I'm going to keep going on the series or change it up on the story. I don't want to forget anything, but I also don't want to get too burned out on the storyline. I have figured out that there is a reason why books in a series come out about a year a part, you need time to want to pick the characters back up.

I also signed up on bloggingforbooks.com. So, what this means is I will be getting New Releases of Advanced Reader Copies of books to review! I'm very excited to start this. I think this will maybe help me read more diverse genres. Since I'm not spending the money on the books. You may want to tell me to go to my local library after what I just said...but my local library is severly lacking and dated. I know I need to give it another shot...it's been over 5 years since I've looked around the adult side. Jack and I have gone the the children's side and I can't complain too much.

So anyway, I will be posting my honest review of the books I get from bloggingforbooks.com. Be on the look out!

Here is my updated reading list after the 1st quarter of 2017:

2017 Popsugar Ultimate Reading Challenge

1. A book recommended by a librarian
2. A book that's been on your TBR list for way too long
3. A book of letters
4. An audiobook
5. A book by a person of color
6. A book with one of the four seasons in the title
7. A book that is a story within a story
8. A book with multiple authors
9. An espionage thriller The Betrayal of the Blood Lily
10. A book with a cat on the cover
11. A book by an author who uses a pseudonym I've got your number by Sophie Kinsella
12. A bestseller from a genre you don't normally read
13. A book by or about a person who has a disability
14. A book involving travel The Betrayal of the Blood Lily
15. A book with a subtitle
16. A book that's published in 2017
17. A book involving a mythical creature
18. A book you've read before that never fails to make you smile
19. A book about food
20. A book with career advice
21. A book from a nonhuman perspective
22. A steampunk novel
23. A book with a red spine
24. A book set in the wilderness
25. A book you loved as a child
26. A book by an author from a country you've never visited
27. A book with a title that's a character's name
28. A novel set during wartime
29. A book with an unreliable narrator
30. A book with pictures
31. A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you
32. A book about an interesting woman The mischief of the Mistletoe
33. A book set in two different time periods Any of the Pink Carnation Series
34. A book with a month or day of the week in the title
35. A book set in a hotel
36. A book written by someone you admire
37. A book that's becoming a movie in 2017
38. A book set around a holiday other than Christmas
39. The first book in a series you haven't read before
40. A book you bought on a trip

2017 | Reading Challenge

I miss reading.

I worked at a bookstore for 5 years (RIP Borders), and I used tp read all the time. I slowed down my reading when got really into running/losing weight/TTC about 5 years ago. Priorities...

Even though I still need to get back into running/losing weight again BAD; I hope to just balance my life better in 2017.

I've been getting back on my Goodreads account lately. I found out real fast that I am soooo out of the book loop. I added a bunch of books that have been released the while I've been MIA.

The reason for this blog post is a pinterest post that I found. After looking at this list, I thought to myself, "you can totally do this". Some of these are going to challenge for me, hence it's a CHALLENGE.  :) I'm just really glad my college roommate became a librarian. #1 is in the BAG! I've been trying to work through a 12-book book series. I'm on book 6. It's a historical fiction series, and the books are not going to fit in to a lot of these challenges. I'm also going to have to look for through my TBR (to be read).

I'm going to try to update this list every quarter and see what I've accomplished. I think this will really help me move forward with my reading. I will be using books to mark off multiple items of the challenge.

Please join me if you would like. It's just February. :)

2017 Popsugar Ultimate Reading Challenge

1. A book recommended by a librarian
2. A book that's been on your TBR list for way too long
3. A book of letters
4. An audiobook
5. A book by a person of color
6. A book with one of the four seasons in the title
7. A book that is a story within a story
8. A book with multiple authors
9. An espionage thriller
10. A book with a cat on the cover
11. A book by an author who uses a pseudonym I've got your number by Sophie Kinsella
12. A bestseller from a genre you don't normally read
13. A book by or about a person who has a disability
14. A book involving travel
15. A book with a subtitle
16. A book that's published in 2017
17. A book involving a mythical creature
18. A book you've read before that never fails to make you smile
19. A book about food
20. A book with career advice
21. A book from a nonhuman perspective
22. A steampunk novel
23. A book with a red spine
24. A book set in the wilderness
25. A book you loved as a child
26. A book by an author from a country you've never visited
27. A book with a title that's a character's name
28. A novel set during wartime
29. A book with an unreliable narrator
30. A book with pictures
31. A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you
32. A book about an interesting woman
33. A book set in two different time periods
34. A book with a month or day of the week in the title
35. A book set in a hotel
36. A book written by someone you admire
37. A book that's becoming a movie in 2017
38. A book set around a holiday other than Christmas
39. The first book in a series you haven't read before
40. A book you bought on a trip

lead is dangerous, people

With all the kitchen remodeling and re doing the guest room this past April, we have been doing a lot of trim board sanding. and by we, I mean Mike. Poor guy...he works so hard to make this house the home of my dreams. He's been doing it the safest way we knew how - take everything out in the detached garage, scrape and sand, fill and prime. We then brought it back into the house, nailed it up and 2 coats of our favorite "dove white" finished it off.

Well....

The one step we didn't think about and it was apparently a doosey, was when Mike came in from working, he came in with "contaminated" clothes and shoes on, walked around and sat on our clothes couches. UGH... why didn't we think about this....

So, back in April we had just finished our mini remodel on the guest room, just in time for 1st birthday guests. This was also the same time as Jack's 12 month doctor's appointment. They do a blood test (for a lot of things) and it came back that he had an elevated lead count in his blood. Normal is anything below 5 and Jack's came back at an 8. They had us check it again in a couple weeks and we was down to a 7. No one was really worried at this point. But we knew it would probably have to be checked again at his 15 month appointment at the beginning of August.

And then we started the Kitchen remodel and took our all of the old trim and refinished it....and you guessed it - came in with contaminated clothes and shoes. Jack had his 15 month appointment at the beginning of August, just when we were in the heat of the final touches aka trim sanding and his numbers skyrocketed to 17!!! (FYI, it doesn't get harmful until around 45.) We were told, my heart just sunk...what did we do??? Mike and I then immediately put two and two together. April's numbers made sense all of a sudden. And we just felt like we failed as parents - we put Jack's health in danger and it was all our faults.

And just FYI, if your lead number is above a 15 in the state of Missouri, the doctors office must call the health dept....lovely. We still aren't completely done with the health department, but after meeting with them, it made us feel a lot better and we knew they weren't going to take Jack away. I know that may sound silly, but that was what immediately went through our minds. It scared me to death that the heath department was called.

We have since got rid of all construction dust in the house and we are working on repainting all of our doors. This is actually what Mike is doing on this LOOONNNNGGGG Columbus Day weekend - and what made me think of writing this post.

Also, once we cleaned the house from top to bottom, Jack's lead levels dropped from a 17 to a 7.5!!! This was amazing news we got around labor day. Everyone was so happy with his progress. We were told this may be a slow process - lead lives in your red blood cells and red blood cells live 120 days, so we really weren't expecting a number that low. I just hope at he 18 month appointment in early November, it keeps going down. It makes me nervous trying to fix it, because you have to disrupt the paint a bit to sand it, before you paint it.

Fingers crossed for little Jack, he is what matters in this whole drawn out story. We would do anything to make him the healthiest little boy ever.

our wild land fire fighter

Mike's crew - Mike is in the 1st row, 2nd from the left.

Mike was called out for western wild land fire duty on the 1st. His tours normally go for about 21 days. This is his 5th year going out, but I really think this is the worst one on me. Last year, my mom came and stayed with me and Jack. I would not of survived it in a right mind if she hadn't came. Nursing/pumping for Jack took up so much more time than I ever thought it would. So since I was doing that, I would of been eating fast food and not cleaning my house...basically just surviving.

Well, fast forward to this year - Jack is eating what I eat and I have adjusted so much more to motherhood, that I felt like I could do this one on my own. And I think I've done pretty good. I think the reason why this is the hardest on me is that Mike is missing things with Jack - and I just don't have my whole family with me.

Communication is the worst when he goes out. Like I said, he's out for 21 days or so and I really only get to talk to him 3 times - right after he lands wherever the fire may be, halfway through, and then when he is about to board his flight home. UGH! I just hate that part. There is a federal website that is updated everyday on every fire that is currently going, so I at least have that to check and see how big his fire is getting, etc. Well, this year, his fire actually has a Facebook page - I love living in the age of technology! :) And someone is going around take photos of all the fire fighters and the fire. I'm so thankful for that! And just last week they posted a picture of Mike's crew. I was so full of emotion when I saw him; I'm glad I was at work so I had to keep it together. It was so nice to see him and see that he was doing ok.

This is a very proud wife right here and I can't wait until he's home.

It's very hard to comprehend that Mike is actually in this place.