The parents may not know.......my niece just arrived at the family home and reclaimed her bedroom very late one night. She told my brother they were getting a divorce and we all left her alone. Honestly we left her alone mainly because we expected them to get back together. They didn’t........

Since many here crochet ( or want to learn to crochet ) I thought I would post this fun “Gnome of the Gnorth” pattern. I plan to make some.....or talk Dd into it since she likes to crochet! 😉 https://mrsmicawber.blogspot.com/2019/11/gnomes-of-gnorth-free-crochet-pattern.html

Don’t ask......since it is family you will most likely hear eventually. Also occasionally couples sometimes get back together and you really don’t want to be “in the know” if that happens. My niece had one of those mysterious divorces......as in the couple was at both my house and my mom’s within two weeks of the announcement, for all appearances in love and full of future plans. It was a couple of years before we learned what happened and that was from her ex telling someone and the explanation filtered back. It was finances, still makes me sad as I adored that guy.

Sending prayers!

@Lady Florida. That was a great update filled with news! So glad you are getting ready to move nearer to the grand babies.....I have been seeing the multiplexes appearing all over the area. From the outside really attractive and no lawn care is such a bonus! Keep us updated on the move...... I finished a book by a favorite classic mystery writer, Dorothy Hughes, who was prolific in the 40’s and 50’s. Her The Expendable Man was a favorite when I read it several years ago and I always read her books when I find then. The So Blue Marble was just sitting on my library’s shelf in it’s rereleased perfection last week so I checked it out. It was a page turner that was often a bit over the top. Totally enjoyed it. The opening scene has a woman walking home in NYC very late at night. Two men join her on the side walk and escort/force her into her apartment and ask her to give them the so blue marble........... I was hooked even though I still do not get the attraction of that little blue ball! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/579827.The_So_Blue_Marble

Yes it would bother me.

Glad to be helpful. Also things became mush easier when I started separating the shelves into years, so 2019 Brit Tripping as opposed to 2018 Brit Tripping. It means I can find things quickly. Labeling by year doesn’t have to be done because of the sorting abilities you have in each shelf bu I like to. Also I like to use the recommender spot on the review for the setting of the book.......I show that in my columns and can see New York etc. I am planning to use it for my end of the year summary and hopefully should be able to put my numbers together quickly.

Goodreads.......I love Goodreads. At first I kept my book journal up too but now do a lot of my organizing via Goodreads and the shelves........the most important thing is your shelves. I seem to need more shelves each year as I set up the challenges I do by shelf. I would start by making my fifth set shelf an Abandoned book one. You will end up with every book being Read, Want to Read, Currently Reading, Abandoned, or Unread. Abandoned is very useful years down the road. Some people term it as read another time but I like the Abandoned term. Since I believe you still have young children I would make shelves for each child and what you read, or plan to with each. I had those at one time. One book can be shelved in many places. I just sent a friend request so you will be easily able to look at all my shelves.😉 I have a massive one from the Brit Tripping challenge where books can be sorted by county that I put together with @aggieamy a couple of years ago.

I finished my Agatha Christie challenge today by finishing my tenth AC in my perpetual read through from the list over on 52 books. Murder in Mesopotamia was not a favorite the first time I read it and it still is not a favorite. That said it wasn’t a bad mystery....... from the list below I still would class Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? as my favorite along with Death in the Clouds more because of David Tennant and one of my favorite Dr. Who episodes ever than the book.😉 I will say I listened to as many of these as possible and the narration was well done......Hugh Frazier for most. Some like Sittaford I had previously disliked are now on my pretty good book list!😂 Agatha Christie (52 books perpetual challenge) 10x10 1. The Sittaford Mystery 2. Peril at End House 3. The Thirteen Problems 4. Lord Edgeware Dies 5. Listerdale Mystery 6. Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? 7. Parker Pyne Investigates 8. The Three Act Tragedy 9. Death in the Clouds 10. Murder in Mesopotamia

Praying

From a past thread I ordered the Yoyi brand for Dd. She loves them and they have held up well over several months. Easier to care for then anticipated She puts them in a lingerie bag and tosses them in washing machine and I hang them on my drying rack.

Great books! I see a couple that are on my list......probably next year’s list at this point. This is definitely not me saying spell Phryne but Y is(was) hard until I discovered searching my library for books with “you” in the title. I always get a whole bunch to choose from, mainly romances but I like romances.😉. Speaking of romances I finished one that I had seen on lists in the past today Remedial Rocket Science by susannah Nix was fun and actually pretty non blush worthy in terms of adult content. I like this author and had put the rest of the series on hold. The bonus is an R for Phryne Fisher and an N for my A to Z author challenge. Other finishes last week: The Bird Tribunal for my Nordic Noir was different, suspenseful but not the typical detective book I associate with the genre. A failed news presenter accepts a job in a remote area as a housekeeper for a reclusive man..........written oddly with no quotation marks, all in the first person. It’s short and sort of additive. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29501521-the-bird-tribunal Now for my I in Fisher and the Q in the A to Z title challenge😂 The Quiet Game by Greg Iles https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44472783-the-quiet-game is the first in a long running Grisham type thriller series that I can’t believe I never read. I do think I tried a later book in the series and set it aside because I felt I needed to start at the start. I had this one marked and think @Æthelthryth the Texan Recommended these at some point. The first 100 pages were a bit slow but after that it was great, as in I can’t wait to finish the series. Lots of action and suspense(lots of hold’s too).....may I say one of the clues to solving the entire mystery just left me shocked.....l was so wrong and the author happily led me down the path and I followed. Currently listening to Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia and about to start Murder Cuts the Mustard by Jessica Elliott.

Shamelessly quoting the emoji! Happy Birthday Robin! I hope you have a wonderful day!

Dh has purchased a couple electronic items in the past week of so at Best Buy that he has been watching price wise for about 3months. He felt they were as good as they were going to get.......many of the Black Friday ads are already available.

I recently finished a couple more baby quilts for my stack and I have started knitting some Christmas ornaments. I need to finish putting the ornaments together before I can post any. I having some gift quilts in progress. This one I have nicknamed “The Girls” and they crack me up. Happy to say all the red made it through a wash cycle just fine.

What can I say beyond Kareni is right. Glad you enjoyed listening to The Goblin Emperor! I just wanted say thank you for putting Empress of a Thousand Skies on my radar. I just finished listening to it and found it quite good and as a bonus it is in outer space so I am getting close to finishing my 10x10 category. I have actually checked the second of the series out but have not started listening to it.

Oh wow! Can’t believe we need to plan for 2020 already! Fun stuff! Beyond wanting another spelling challenge incorporated I don’t have any instant ideas or requests. I have enjoyed the 10x10 concept this year and it has worked well for me in terms of broadening my reading. BIngo is always a challenge for me but there isn’t a category that I really want to do.

We don’t have it up and running yet but it’s on hubby’s list! Your post made me happy because I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy it much........I spent years watching Disney movies and the kids had quite a collection. Dh did not watch many so really enjoys them......we found the original Mary Poppins VHS a few weeks ago which he hadn’t watched since a theatre as a child. He loved it! Are the oldies all there like Aristocats? My favorite❤️! Well, Aristocats and Bedknobs are my favorites. I know we will get use out of Marvel!😂 My kid’s watch them all! Question of the Week........What is your favorite Disney movie? I finally started reading my Phyrne Fisher mystery and have to say Cocaine Blues at 20% is good. I now remember why I never read this series, this first book deals with botched abortions which is a personal trigger for me. I do think I have started Cocaine Blues and abandoned it in the past. So far I am good with how things are being presented so will continue but other people might prefer to give a later one in the series a try.

We still do cards with preprinted letters to people we have known throughout the years who matter. Our life has included a lot of moving and the cards do seem to keep us a bit more connected......no Facebook and honestly I don’t think many of the people on my list do Facebook either. I do quite a stack and could never write a personal letter with each. I do address the cards myself and try to write a bit in each if it is someone we won’t see in the next year. We still mail a picture of the dc’s standing beside each other because it’s tradition. They spent years in front of Royal Mail boxes wearing Christmas sweaters after we moved to England 😂......then we moved to a house with a great stone wall which became the backdrop for how much taller is Ds (ended at about a foot). Now we just do a favorite picture I have from the previous year of them. Dh enjoys writing the letter and seems to be popular with it.😉 My college roommate’s hubby writes theirs too and I really look forward to hearing what’s happening from the guy perspective. Each year I cut a few from the list as I add a new person to two. I seem to always cut someone who didn’t want to be so am pretty cautious about cutting now. People actually have asked for copies after Christmas while asking what happened to theirs.......I normally say it must have gotten lost ( actually has happened) and I mail a new one. I have a spot I keep all the card photos I have received over the years. It’s fun getting a quick email from someone commenting about something mentioned in the card. We still receive several cards each year from both sides of the Atlantic but since we require a trip to the post office because of international postage I don’t keep count in the traditional crossed off the list way.

My brother is a great cook and hosted holiday’s for both sides of their family together for years. His mil demanded stuffing made with everything in that pack except the neck. He had to roast the neck for her separately. She did take the neck home to eat with her leftovers thankfully. He served her stuffing in a special recognizable bowl and announced very carefully that it was her favorite so everyone would remember to stay clear. I think Dh was a bit traumatized in fear of getting her food by accident! I reminded Dh that he never wanted anything that was Vicki’s “favorite” before every meal. Side note: I have never gotten that special package in a turkey purchased in England but I check very carefully.😉

Definitely make sure she leaves room in her schedule to take it twice. Libraries generally have lots of prep books so at a minimum take the timed exam once before the exam. She needs to understand what the timing feels like at a minimum for both exams. Unexpected things happen during the exams or your dc could be ill so plan on sitting twice. For instance, both of mine took the exams together although they are not the same age because we were living overseas and a hotel stay was needed. We took a practice timed exam two weeks out from the ACT, worked on weak points in between, and two days before took the timed exam again. We were so prepared until we got to the school and they had no power. They did allow the test to go ahead....fortunately not many signed up so window seats for all who stayed!😂. The scores were lower than practice but not bad. We took it again in a few months and improved enough so our super scores were quite high. One of the exams had a wonky science section exam that had one question that confused both of my kids so they were glad to have the other score available.

That’s pretty much my method too.

I actually finished a nonfiction audiobook earlier this week for my Seafaring Bingo square. The Catalogue of Lost Books https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41758062-the-catalogue-of-shipwrecked-books was quite fascinating. Columbus had an illegitimate son, Hernando, who not only traveled with his father but lived a life devoted to starting what might be the first library that is similar to what we know today. He attempted to include all published materials, not just the famous. He was also the first to attempt to develop a cataloging system which I found especially interesting. @Mothersweets Down a Dark Hall was one of my favorite books when I was your DD’s age. Someone here helped me find it as I couldn’t remember many relevant details so I could read it with DD at that age. I am currently listening to Sacred Games by Gary Corby for my Sacred Bingo square. I had planned to use it for my Ancient square but think I will use it for Sacred and spell Ancient. This series features a detective in Athens, and this particular book is set at the Olympic Games. Enjoyable with some adult content.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15849504-sacred-games?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=HmIpV6FaN5&rank=3 I have several fluffy kindle books currently which are meant to balance my Nordic Noir paper stack to finish that 10x10. Many of the Fluffy books have been picked in order to finish up my 2019 A to Z challenges. First up in Nordic Noir, The Bird Tribunal https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29501521-the-bird-tribunal?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=Lj9Qlinyct&rank=1.

Thanks for the more detailed links, I think I saw it explained via blog a couple of weeks ago. UK libraries do not have Overdrive Kindle either. Apparently per librarian friends it was made very clear upfront that Amazon would not be releasing the Kindle format to libraries when kindle came to the UK. I do use my library card there for unique audio occasionally but prefer to just work with Overdrive. After reading the part about one cheap overdrive that the library perpetually owns being the first book I feel a bit more positive about the move. As a series reader I love being able to check out a nice clean kindle copy of the first book in a series that came out 25 years ago so this will keep books in a collection which is a plus. Also the hold lists for really popular books is frequently long..........honestly I frequently go on knowing I have a six month wait all the time because I prefer the kindle format. It mentioned some other publishers are already doing something similar which explains the rapid movement in my long hold’s after a couple of months. Like Robin I am not sure that I will be very inconvenienced......I probably won’t be seeing new releases until after the two month mark but do wonder if the long waiting lists at huge library systems might dwindle pretty quickly with multiple copies. @Negin What good news! I love the pictures of all the pots filled with plants....I would love watering all those pots but love looking at them.

I read that they are only allowing each library to buy one copy of a title on Overdrive and thought they were talking about the Kindle format. After the book has been released for several months they will allow more copies per library. Apparently there are no limit on the number of paper copies a library can buy. As someone who uses Overdrive a great deal this saddens me. Eta: It’s one copy for two months, than more copies can be purchased.