Scarlet  and Cress by Marissa Meyer

These are the second and third installments in a four-part series of a YA dystopian/fairy tale mash-up. Fair warning, the fourth part doesn’t come out until November. I enjoy Young Adult literature, so I often check out the popular series. These were quick reads and the clever way the fairy tales are woven in made me happy. The first book in this series is Cinder, and you really would need to start there. Recommended.

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

This is a book that tells the fictionalized version of the wives of Brigham Young, alternating with a modern-day plural wives situation and excerpts from Ann Eliza Young’s own plea against plural marriage, Wife No. 19. This book sparked more conversation at our book club than any other book to date, I think. There is a lot of curiosity surrounding the LDS church and its origins. I enjoyed the book, particularly during the parts that showed Ann Eliza’s life. Recommended.

10 Things We Did (and probably shouldn’t have) by Sarah Mlynowski

This was not my favorite YA novel. The set up is hard to swallow, as are most of the 10 things they did. It was better in the end than it appeared at the beginning, though, which helped me finish it.

This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

I love everything I’ve read by Jennifer E. Smith. She writes very believable teens, and she writes yearning extremely well. The characters in this book are delightful people, and I enjoyed reading about them. Young Adult romance of high quality. Recommended.

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

I had never read anything by Sarah Dessen, even though she was a favorite of my daughter’s, and I follow her on twitter. So in the middle of my young adult binge, I picked up her latest from the library. Her writing is on another plane from most of the young adult I’ve read. This was as good as most of the adult fiction I read. I plan to get some more of her work at the library soon. Highly recommend.

Mini Habits by Stephen Guise

This is a short little book, but I look forward to putting it’s plans into action soon. I’m re-reading it now, and I really think it could be beneficial for me. I’m going to write a blog post on my progress with it in December, probably. Recommendation on hold until I put it into practice, but I love it.

Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern

An excellent YA book on accepting people not just in spite of their differences, but maybe because of them. Two wounded teens connect and discover love isn’t any harder or any easier just because you have a disability. Highly recommend.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Our October Book Club pick, this was another WWII novel (we seem to have read a lot of those this year). This had incredible reviews, and it didn’t disappoint. I was a little prejudiced against it, but it won me over quickly. War stories from the woman’s point of view aren’t as common, and this one was beautifully done. The main characters were nuanced, not black and white good guys or bad guys. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I’m always looking for more book recommendations, so if you have favorites, let me know.

When my son was in preschool, we carpooled with another little boy in the neighborhood. The mother and I had never met, but the preschool put us in touch with each other because we were in the same neighborhood and had expressed an interest in carpooling. (The preschool was on the military base, and we were not.)

The boys became fast friends, and the mom and I started hanging out together some, too. It was really the best possible outcome for that set-up. One day in October, the mom brought snack for the preschool, and when she dropped Tony off after school, she also dropped off some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins that were left over. I’m still not sure how there were any left over at all. I immediately called and asked for the recipe, which she kindly wrote down for me on a small square piece of paper, which I still have. It is starting to fade, and having it recorded here will help me not panic that one day I won’t be able to read it.
I’ve never been a fan of pumpkin pie, and my mother really didn’t like the flavor of pumpkin, so we didn’t have anything pumpkin as I grew up. I was amazed that this was pumpkin! They were so yummy, and of course, the chocolate chips didn’t hurt. She had made mini muffins for the kids, and it was so easy to just pop one in my mouth as I went through the kitchen. For me, these are delicious but dangerous. I love to make them and love to eat them. Through the years, these have become a true family favorite, and when October hits, whoever is home (or away at college) starts asking when we’re going to have the muffins. Since all of the kids aren’t always here, I’ve started making these when I have somewhere to take them, because I will eat them all. The past couple of years, I made a batch to send the girls at college. This year, with Alex and Tony at home, there was no need to wait for an event to take them to.

For these muffins, here’s what you need:

the basics, a can of pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and chocolate chips.

Once you’ve combined the wet ingredients and dry ingredients, fold them together. Then add the chocolate chips.

Chocolate chips are one of nature’s perfect foods.

Then, the easiest way to make consistent muffins easily is to use this:

Scoop them into mini muffin pans. It made 54 mini muffins for me.

As you bake them, other members of the family will start to drift in to the kitchen as the aroma wafts through the house.

I am a bit of a personality test nerd, and StrengthsFinder is one of my favorites. It lists your top five strengths and tells you what that means for you. My number one strength is LEARNER, meaning I love to read more about it, learn new things, look things up, etc. I’m hoping to follow in the footsteps of my favorite blogger, Modern Mrs. Darcy and post a monthly What I’ve learned post. I always enjoy hers, and thinking about the post and writing things down throughout the month help me to realize all of the things I am learning all the time, which of course makes my Learner-self very happy.

–Date night is a good thing. My anniversary was in September (28 years!), and as a gift, I gave my husband a year of dates, one per month. The first date was a movie marathon of the Star Wars movies, 1, 2, and 3. That has been more than one night, as we are not capable of staying up to watch more than one movie in an evening. So I have made popcorn (in my Whirlypop) or caramel corn and we have settled in together. This month’s date is a college football game at ARMY. I’ll show the whole gift set up one day. We’ve been spending more time together, now that we have specific reasons to. We used to just assume we would think of something, and then we would just end up doing whatever alone instead of being with each other.

–Tracking my reading keeps me reading. I have been writing down every book I’m reading for my betterment challenge, and it makes me want to read more. I’ve definitely seen an uptick in my reading versus just playing on my iPad at night.

-Apparently, “aggressive relaxation” is a thing. Just last week, I had a rare day where I completed all of the items from my bullet journal early in the day, and I had some time to myself. Frankly, it made me uncomfortable, and I kept having to reassure myself that extra reading was ok. I did a lot of pacing around and picking things up and putting them down, and my daughter, who was trying to apply for jobs told me I was driving her crazy. She coined the term “aggressive relaxation” and told me to sit down and read.

-Netflix has a down side. I love Netflix. I spent a lot more time than normal binge watching series this summer, partly because Alex was around to encourage it, partly because it was summer and I was relaxing more. I caught up on Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, and Arrow. Now new episodes are on the TV, and I do not have the willpower to wait for the end of the season for them to hit Netflix again. Thus, I am watching way more TV than normal for me. And waiting the week between shows is crazy after watching entire seasons in a week.

-No capsule wardrobe for me. I see it everywhere- the capsule wardrobe. The idea is somewhat reasonable; saying you only wear 20% of what is in your closet anyway, so just get rid of the 80% you aren’t wearing, and select your 20% very carefully, with an eye toward coordinating all of the pieces. I often see numbers like 37 or 39 pieces, not sure why that is the magic number. Well, I cannot wear the same thing all the time. I know the really smart people are saving their brains for greater thoughts, but my brain likes to think about clothes. (and a lot of other things) It’s a creative choice I get to make early in the day (or late the night before, depending on my schedule.) Also, no matter how many different cardigans, jackets, or shirts (!) you put over that one poor dress, it is still just one dress. I can’t work with that. And the color palette so many choose- all grays and blacks and whites.-very little color. It depresses me. Certainly not something I need heading into cooler months with less sunlight. I am, however, planning to clean out my clothes next week, a la Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Hopefully, progress will be posted here.

-Sisters are the best. My sister treated me and a friend to a cooking class at a gorgeous winery near her home. We had a beautiful evening, and it was quality time with my sister and quality time with a friend, something I don’t get enough of regularly. I didn’t really learn that this month; I’ve known that one for a long time.

What have you learned this month?

This picture of me tells you a lot about me right off the bat, I’m wearing a denim jacket, pretty standard for me, and I’m cooking, which I love. I also have my sunglasses on my head, which is almost a constant state of being if they aren’t on my face.

Starting a blog is weird. I write as if people are reading this, which, of course, I hope they will. Thought I would take a tiny step back and introduce myself with this Meet the Blogger survey. I’d love to hear your answers to any of these questions as well. Found this survey here, so thanks to them for the great basic question outline.

LAYER ONE: THE OUTSIDE

• Name: Andrea
• Eye color: Blue/Gray
• Hair style/color: Brown, longer than its been in a long time
• Height: 5’ 3.5”
• Clothing style: Casual, classic, I think
• Best physical feature: legs

LAYER TWO: THE INSIDE

• Your fears: fire, something happening to one of my kids
• Your guilty pleasure: Young Adult novels, FanFiction, several TV shows I watch could be considered that.
• Ambitions for the future: become a published writer (possibly of YA fiction)

LAYER THREE: THOUGHTS

• Your first thoughts waking up: usually, where is my phone to hit the snooze button
• What you think about most: constantly making to-do lists in my head
• What you think about before bed: what I have going on tomorrow, how many hours of sleep I can get if I fall asleep immediately

LAYER FOUR: WHAT’S BETTER? 

• Single or group dates: single, but I’ve been married a long time.
• To be loved or respected: I think love contains respect, so I’ll go with love.
• Beauty or brains: Brains. As my daddy said, Beauty fades, but dumb is forever. I’d like both, but that was not a choice, apparently.
• Dogs or cats: definitely dogs

LAYER FIVE: DO YOU.

• Lie: I try not to.
• Believe in yourself: generally
• Believe in love: yes
• Want someone: I’ve got him.

LAYER SIX: EVER?

• Been on stage: yes, I’m a pianist and I’ve been on stage for that and high school plays
• Done drugs: nope, unless you count my unhealthy dependence on Midol and Exedrin
• Changed who you were to fit in: I try not to, I can’t really remember ever doing that. I was a geek in high school, but I had plenty of geek friends. Then I went to a geek college, and I didn’t seem so geeky.

LAYER SEVEN: FAVORITES

• Favorite color: turquoise blue, although there aren’t many colors I don’t like
• Favorite animal: Golden Retrievers are a favorite, for sure, and I also like bunnies (in the wild, not as a pet) I get really happy to see one.
• Favorite movie: Gone with the Wind, Empire Strikes Back, When Harry Met Sally (I need a more current favorite, obviously.)
• Favorite show: Right now, Arrow or How to Get Away with Murder, probably.
• Favorite book: Glass Castles, The Poisonwood Bible This is a category which could change at any given moment. Too many books to narrow down.

LAYER EIGHT: AGE

• Day your next birthday will be: June 30
• How old will you be: yikes! 50
• Does age matter: I didn’t ever think it did until 50 started staring me down. It’s weird. No other birthday has ever bothered me before, but I’m dreading this one more than 6 months out.

I am a master of the starting over self-improvement kick. I think this may have something to do with my MBTI- I’m an ENFP. Improvement and coaching are big for me, so when I aim that at myself, it can be good and terrifying. I’m always coming up with self-improvement plans, and the two best times to start them? The New Year and the New School Year.
I no longer have any kids starting public school (college started back in August for my youngest), but I still feel the pull of the school year luring me into the self-improvement mindset.

I have crafted a betterment program for myself that runs from Labor Day to Christmas. I have four areas where I’m trying to reach a certain goal by Christmas. Here are my 16-week goals:
1. Books– I’m aiming for 20 books. I know that this pace will slow as the holidays approach, so I’m trying to front load this goal as much as possible. Next year I’m determined to hit 100 books minimum, but this year didn’t quite go as planned for reading.
2. House Projects– 16 projects completed. I’m a little fuzzy about what counts as a project right now, but I’m trying to count things that have been on the lingering to-do list. If I can cross it off, I count it.
3. Blog Posts– 16. Trying to get into the rhythm of writing and posting. Haven’t mastered it yet, but I think I can get it going soon. (I’d love to be posting 6 days a week, but I’m not sure I have that much to say yet.)
4. Weight– 10 pounds lost. I have about 15 pounds to lose total, so my interim goal for this 16-week period is 10 pounds. This has gotten really hard in the past few years. Weight really doesn’t like to budge after 47. This will involve starting an exercise program at some point.

Previously, I’ve added other things like hours of sleep, glasses of water per day, miles walked, scrapbook pages completed. This time I’m keeping it a little simpler for me in an effort to accomplish more. Hopefully, I can keep up some momentum. I’m using a very low-tech notebook to keep track of everything and adding projects to my calendar. Trying to space things out between now and Christmas, so I don’t feel like I have to do everything in September. Which might happen if I’m not careful. Burnout is not the goal.
September is always a rough time for me. I’m trying very hard to concentrate on the good things (sleeping with the window open! Not dying from humidity while walking the dogs! TV premieres!) and not dwell on the lack of light to come. Already, it is getting dark too early for me, and December 21 is way too far away. Better to be doing something rather than cocooning in my couch for the duration.
How about you? Do you ever make plans like this (I’m not sure I want to know if I’m the only one…)? What goes on your list?

I believe I may have jinxed myself in starting this blog. Within a week of writing my first post, my oldest son tore his ACL, and returned home for surgery and recovery. My middle daughter graduated from college 2 weeks later, and returned home to look for a job. In between, my youngest returned from her sophomore year of college. That’s right. I named a blog My Almost Empty Nest and they all returned. My posting has been nil, and my time is definitely not my own currently. I’m back to claim it again. I have decided that if I want to write, I’d better be able to do it with distractions.
For many years, my summer schedule was set to the local public school schedule. I was one of the moms counting down to summer so that the merry-go-round that was our sports/dance/homework life would stop. Now, without a public school schedule to tie my own life to, I haven’t adjusted to summer beginning when my youngest gets out of college the first week of May. That isn’t really summer to me. The public school around here got out last Friday, and so I feel like it should be summer now. But the kids have been hanging around the house for weeks now, and I’m still on my regular work 20 hours a week, cook every night schedule. In other words, so far, summer doesn’t seem a lot different.
So I believe this calls for a change in attitude and priorities. Summer (at least according to the upcoming solstice) begins on Sunday. I’m setting a few items on a Summer To Do List so it doesn’t slip by without my noticing. Also because I like having things on a list I can cross off.

Summer To Do List

1.Go to the pool to read.
This should be a simple one. Get the kindle or an actual book (maybe one out of the “to-be-read” basket in my family room) and walk to the pool. Spend 1-2 hours reading without having to look at all of the things I should be doing around the house. This will help with #4 as well. (bonus!)
2.Take the dogs to the dog park.
They have just opened a dog park in my town, and my husband and I were talking about taking the dogs there to run off leash. I’m putting it on the list so that there is some chance of us actually doing it.
3.See the beach.
I’m not being so ambitious as to say stay at the beach for a week, but I need at least a day by the ocean in the summer to reset my stress levels.
4.Read at least 12 books.
This should not be a difficult feat for me, but sometimes having other people around makes me feel bad about reading. I have the above-referenced basket in my family room full of books, and the digital pile on my kindle is almost as bad.
5.Scrapbook.
I have a ton of scrapbooking supplies, which I am trying to pare down and organize, and tons of photos to tell stories with. Need to prioritize some time for just that.
6.Back up photos.
My digital photo files are a mess. I have multiple external hard drives filled with photos. Unfortunately, they are PC compatible and I now (happily) have a Mac. That means I can’t open my files from my new computer, which makes this a multistep process, but I need to get it done. Planning to mark some time each week for just this.
7.Make a fresh strawberry pie.
My mother made the best strawberry pies, and I need to make at least one. I’d also like to try my hand at her homemade ice cream recipe.
8.Develop a blogging routine.
I want this to be a good habit for me, so I’m going to use this summer to start it up in a big way.
I thought I would try to get to 10, but then I thought that I would rather have 8 things that I could actually do than 10 that wouldn’t happen.
Beginning this weekend, there are 11 weeks until Labor Day. On your mark, get set, go!
Here’s to summer!

I find myself in a bit of an unusual situation (not all that unusual unless your main occupation has been raising kids for the last 20+ years). I have worked myself out of a job. Not really, I mean I am a mom, and I will always be Mom to three really great people. But, those people have gone and done exactly what I raised them to do- grown up and moved on in the process of becoming productive members of society. Currently, my oldest is on his own and working (in Alaska- it’s a whole thing. I’ll get into it later.) My middle is about to graduate from college, which is freaking me out almost as much as it is freaking her out. And the youngest is finishing her second year of college out of state. That has left me and my husband all alone (with 2 dogs) in our house for the vast majority of our time. Which brings me to the real blessing of the empty nest—TIME.

I have some now. This is a very unusual state for someone who had three kids going in three different directions for many years. There are no practices to drive to, no games or performances to attend. It’s a bit odd, I must admit, but the time is there. Time to do what I want to do. Time with no real constraints on it. Entire Saturdays with nothing on the schedule that requires leaving the house. This is both liberating and terrifying. All of those things I said I wished I could do, if only I had time, are now staring me down. The excuses are out of the way. I have time. What was it I wanted to do again? 

I’ve wanted to write a blog for a long time. I love to read them. But it always fell to the bottom of the list. There are so many links on Pinterest about starting a blog, and SEO, and 10 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Started My Blog, and on and on. Reading about starting a blog was becoming the procrastination to actually starting said blog. My son started a blog (with very little fanfare, and it’s quite interesting), then my daughter started encouraging me, and then the very bad thing happened. A close family friend, a man I have known since childhood and consider as nothing less than a brother, got brain cancer. I hate even typing the words. He is fighting it with grace and intelligence and in all the ways that make him him. But it struck me that I had things I wanted to do. Not for anyone else, just for me, and I wasn’t doing them. I didn’t want to have to get the ultimate wake-up call and realize I might not have time to do my things. And so, here we go.

This blog is a way to keep track of the things I am doing and those I hope to start doing as I remember everything I wanted to do all of those years I was raising kids, and cooking dinners between drop-offs, and checking homework, and worrying about them getting into a good college. I have a few ideas, and I hope to think of more as the days move along.

I’m only almost an empty nester, and right now that is the best. These kids will be coming and going for a few more years as they get going on their lives. Right now, I can enjoy doing the things I want to do, if I can just remember what all of those things are.