I have been wanting to read Lady Tremaine since I first saw the book jacket. I finally started the sample on Kindle last week and it left me wanting to know what would happen next. I tried to get it at the library; found out I could read it on the Libby library app but there were 127 people ahead of me! Estimated wait time was five months.  I don't usually buy new novels. They have gotten so expensive (like just about everything else). I love to read real books but usually use an e-reader for fiction. I'm really fond of the samples I can get, because they will usually let me know whether I want to bother with the whole thing.

I always used to finish a book whether I really liked it or not. I don't do that anymore. I also wanted to read books in order. Recently I read books 1 and 3 of a trilogy. I got a good idea of what happened in the second book just by reading the third. I may go back to the second later.  The books by Lindsey Davis about first century Rome are always good. I started with the fourteenth because that was the only one the library had. I've been jumping around ever since, between the e-reader and used books on Amazon.

Lady Tremaine is a retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale. It is written from the point of view of her stepmother. It's been described as a story of mothers and the steps they will go to protect their children. It's also a bit of a love story, but not with the Prince. In fact, he isn't a very nice character at all. It's a very readable book, and the author's sentence structure is so good that I re-read several lines just because they sounded so beautiful.

I liked it. Mostly. I didn't love it. I'm at the point in life where I don't want to read something unless I really love it. I want to get lost in a book and really care about the characters. I want it to have a happy ending and I want to be sad when it ends. This book just.....ended. It did have an epilogue, but it wasn't enough for me.

There is no fairy godmother. I think the point, though never mentioned, is that we all have to be our own fairy godmother. I want the sparkly one who does magic. And, of course, another thing is that women don't need to rely on a Prince to make them feel valued. I can see that this would be a very good book for a book club. There is a lot to discuss. Maybe we don't need a Prince, but everyone should have a Fairy Godmother.

There are lots of adaptations of the Cinderella story. There is another book published recently about the stepmother. I may try it.

My favorite of the movies is the one from 2015. Lily James was Cinderella, with Cate Blanchett as Lady Tremaine, and my favorite, Helena Bonham Carter was the perfect Fairy Godmother

"Have courage and be kind. For where there is kindness there is goodness, and where there is goodness, there will be magic." Cinderella

Peanuts and Crackerjacks

 

We took a little road trip this week and went to see our grandson play baseball. They live too far away for us to see too many of the games, but this was fun. His team is the eight- to ten-year-old age slot, so they are at the point where you start to see a lot of improvement. I've been to a lot of Little League games over the years, but I have never been what anyone could call a sports fan.

With five children growing up, there were years when practices, and games took a lot of time. My two boys played ball. My youngest daughter also played baseball, not softball. That was kind of unusual for the time. There weren't too many girls on the teams.

Two of my girls were gymnasts, so for years we had three practices a week, and meets all over the state for what seemed like every weekend. I enjoyed watching gymnastics. The worst part of it was that they expected nearly absolute quiet. So the moms would always sit on the bleachers barely talking. I brought a lot of craft and sewing projects to work on during those years. This was way before the time of cell phones. We wouldn't have been able to have them in the gym anyway. It was a sacred and silent place!

The ball fields were a lot more casual and laid back. All the younger kids would run around and have a great time playing and the moms would catch up on everything going on in their lives and neighborhoods. A lot of this is still the same over 40 years later. And a lot is different. Parenting styles have changed a bit over the years. Sportsmanship is still important, even though sometimes things can get a little heated. This was a good game, and I thought our team was going to win up until the last inning. It was exciting. 

Most of our trips now are short ones. Neither of my husbands really liked to travel. I'm pretty sure that Jim had a 23-hour time limit. He never wanted to be gone longer than that. Once he even woke us all up at three a.m. to leave a weekend family reunion after the first evening. John's family all seemed surprised that we were spending the night away from home. I don't think he's that predictable. We have been on several one- or two-day trips around the Midwest. And who could ever forget our debacle of a honeymoon!

Lucky for me, nobody cared if I wanted to travel, so I have been on  quite a few longer trips over the years. But even my love for adventure is starting to slow down. I am always, always happy to return home, no matter where I go!

WHAT I AM READING:  Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser

A Retelling of the Cinderella Story. Was her stepmother really that wicked or was she just misunderstood? We will find out and let you know.

CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Last week I wrote about the peacefulness of June after the busyness of May. I was looking forward to not having to worry about having too much to do. In my head I was planning to float through the month while I enjoyed quiet times with books and a feather duster (and maybe an apron) as I caught up with little chores and treated myself to little pleasures.

As we know, life has a way of sending our plans awry. I can say I totally dilly-dallied the week away. I managed to get sick and spent the days taking antibiotics and very long naps. Now seven days have gone by and the only productive thing I've done all week is unload the dishwasher.

I am finally feeling better but still have one more doctor appointment. I'm sure by that time everything will be fine. It seems like I always hear "Well, it is probably this, but of course the specialist needs to check it out, just to make sure that it isn't....THAT!  And then, of course, no specialist has an appointment available for at least two months. Thanks to a very determined nurse, who contacted four different offices, she finally found one with a cancellation. I'm sure I will be feeling fine and normal by the time I see the doctor and try to convince him that I really was in a "no good, terrible, very bad" way.  

It's true that we never know how healthy we feel until we don't. It's something I don't think about enough. But when I do, I realize I have had just one thing after another lately. So now I have vowed to myself to be more conscious about taking better care of myself.  I almost said "Be Better." And then I laughed at myself.  There's a chance that I may be a little delirious. It's been a strange week.

My problem with vows is that I never want to start them today. I think that secret is to begin Today. I am always willing to begin tomorrow. Preferably after I have bought a nice notebook and made a detailed list of what to do and why.

I've been reading a lot about writing and trying to work out how much is the right amount to share. Just in general. I don't have any big secret announcements. Some of my favorite bloggers are willing to write about every private, tiny thing. In great detail. I admire how they can do this, but I don't think it is right for me. I realize that when I start to tell too much that I am overloaded, and it's time to retreat and reboot. Maybe I needed this week after all. But I'm glad it's just about over.  Most of June is still ahead. Take care and be healthy everyone.

June is Here

 

I never heard the word Maycember until a few days ago. And by that time I had gotten through it. I guess it's been a name to describe the craziness of May for nearly ten years! And I didn't even know. I guess that's because most of my busy, hectic Mays were earlier in my life. Sometimes I feel so out of date, but I think that I am okay with it. We only had two graduation parties to go to. I talked to people who visited three or four in a single day. There were no weddings, picnics or barbeques. May is the time of year for school programs, and class plays, and Grandparent Days at school. We did have a couple of sad occasions which will make this a bitter Springtime to remember. 

So now I am declaring June as a time to rest, rejuvenate, relax, and rekindle. If you have a hammock, use it. (Does anyone have a hammock anymore?) Read novels. Walk barefoot in the grass or on the beach. Bloomscroll, which is to look for inspiring, uplifting and positive content on your phone. Drink tea, either hot or iced. 

I am a product of British television, and I daydream about serving tea and treats on a tray. That's how they do it on all my cozy murder mysteries. I am looking for the perfect tea set and I am sure I will know when I find it. When I say "looking" I mean to purchase a new one, and also the complete Irish set I had which disappeared in our move a couple of years ago. I know it must be here, but I have struggled through every box in our storage room. As always, I have hope.

In case anyone is wondering what to do in June, here is a list of these funny old fashioned words:

To lollygag means to spend time aimlessly. It's a physical movement with a lack of urgency. It is said to be an American word with Gaelic origins. It was first used in the 1860's and referred to kissing.

Dawdling is much like lollygagging, only without the kissing. It's been around a lot longer, since the seventeenth century.

There's no physical movement with dilly-dallying. It means procrastination and indecision. When you dilly-dally you are fussing over a task without physically doing any of it.

Now moodling is my favorite of these words. It was first mentioned by author Brenda Ueland in her 1938 book called "If You Want To Write". I have a copy somewhere. Moodling is a creative and relaxing state of mind where you let your imagination wander aimlessly and ponder thoughts without pressure. Doing this is supposed to cause relaxed daydreaming that helps creativity, insight, and problem solving.  Some definitions say that one can also dawdle while moodling. 

Here's to having just the kind of June that you want. Life is sure to get busier again soon.