This is so beautiful!

Just a discovery that has made my day a bit happier.......Once again I have 5 books to finish in basically three days. Most are fluffy and fun but the pressure was on.........one is by the author Penny Reid because I need the word Penny to finish off a ten chain challenge. No other reason to read that book right now. I have a hopefully silly spooky that I have been saving for a Spooky to read on Halloween that I thought I was going to have to set aside. The Vampire Knitting Club https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41882197-the-vampire-knitting-club?ac=1&from_search=true I am in line for the new Verity Kent by Anna Lee Huber which is titled Penny for Your Secrets.......Penny!!! It just clicked.......yeah! I can wait! One book off the list with no effort and I get to read a book in a series I love! Releases on the 29th i think if anyone goes looking for it.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43786616-penny-for-your-secrets

I would return it unless you love it.

@Robin M Thank you for the Mr. Macklin Jack o lantern poem! @Negin I had never heard of Ronda before your beautiful pictures..........it is on the list of places I would like to visit now! @Kareni Your links were very click worthy, I was kept well entertained while preparing dinner tonight.😉 Now I need to do the research part of all those potential books I finished A Small Death in Lisbon and have to say it was well done in terms of a book that intermingles past events with current (1990’s current), the ending was satisfying and the history was unfortunately basically accurate without much googling. That said one of the books main characters was a Nazi, a reluctant one perhaps, but many atrocities detailed. The present day portion envolved many potential triggers also so this really is not a book I can recommend to most. That said I am done with my Brexit Special 10x10. I really wanted 10 different EU countries which was harder than expected. Brexit is an appropriate as we wait to see exactly what will happen as we approach this next week............ Brexit Special......10 EU countries 1. The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen (Finland) 2. The Ruin by Dervia McTiernan (Ireland) 3. Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear (Germany) 4. A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear (Spain) 5. A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson (Portugal and Germany) 6. All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen (Netherlands ) 7. Death in Strange Country by Donna Leon (Italy) 8. The Elusive Mrs. Polifax by Dorothy Gilman (Bulgaria) 9. Have Mercy on Us All by Fred Vargas (France) 10. The Black Shepherd (Estonia) My favorites on this list were The Man Who Died, The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax, and The Ruin. I also finished another Bo Tully Mystery, The Huckleberry Murders, which I found charming. I will be sad when this series is over. My nature fact of the day......did you know that a beaver slapping it’s tail on the water sounds like a gunshot? Apparently it’s true.😉 I am currently trying to finish spelling Toby Peters before the books return themselves!

I finished The Linesman and it really was very good. I will be reading the rest of the series as soon as I get the chance. My Overdrive checkouts are rather plentiful currently 😉 and so is my paper stack as I just picked up our library hold’s. So it probably will be a couple of weeks at least before I continue. I now think I have a majority of the books that I need to finish my assorted challenges......I just need to read them! I started listening to a favorite Poirot today Death in the Clouds and also have the Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books in progress for my Sea Voyage Bingo Square. It’s quite interesting, seems to be a history of Columbus and Hernando. Centering on Hernando’ universal library....he cataloged and kept common written pamphlets etc. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41758062-the-catalogue-of-shipwrecked-books Trying rather desperately to finish A Small Death in Lisbon so I don’t have to turn my devices off! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/368250.A_Small_Death_in_Lisbon?ac=1&from_search=true

So far I think we have managed to do a great job with this thread........everyone needs to remember that. I have worked with so many new moms who aren’t necessarily receiving much support at home. Women who want to breastfeed their babies need to be supported. We all need to remember women quit breastfeeding all the time because they are afraid, for a huge list of reasons to do it in a public setting. The “what if”is the problem usually not the reality. We all need to encourage woman that it is OK to feed their babies wherever they are. In many cases they will have a blanket, be wearing easy to nurse in clothing, have an acceptable room available...........but if you don’t it is fine. The mom who started this situation handled it perfectly and there was no reason to stop feeding and move if she didn’t desire to. A public setting is forced upon most women at some point, realistically it just is. There is absolutely nothing wrong with under cover. I frankly am pro under cover except it can be too hot at times and not all babies will tolerate it. My kids never wanted to be covered, I also had a joyous slurpy eater, no hiding that. I just want the conclusion of this thread to be under cover to be the only acceptable way for a woman to nurse in public because obviously I failed.😉 I tried to wear clothing that kept potential exposure to a minimum. I want the mom to be comfortable which means handling the nursing in public question how the mom wishes too. I just don’t want women to feel forced to go find a bathroom in order to nurse. Honestly the clothing etc is great, even I don’t always know that the mom holding the cute baby is actually nursing.

E is so hard. I am working on my Toby Peters E’s right now. I discovered that Delivering the Truth is by Edith Maxwell so just need to finish that and one of my E’s will be done. Keep us updated on your move........you are staying in the same area right? @JennW in SoCal I have been thinking about you So was glad to see your post with the lovely pictures. I think there are more Murderbot coming next year! @Kareni I just moved Linesman to the front of the stack and am enjoying it!😉. Thanks for the freebie links as always. @Robin M Glad you are all moved in!

Pagoo was one of my favorite home ed science experiences. We ended up turning it into a unit study using animal classification books from the library. The kids did drawings, labeled parts, wrote short reports. I think these were the books https://books.google.com/books?id=WQMdjJe_04YC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=animal+classification+children's+books.+mollusks&source=bl&ots=-LuzgF9cZg&sig=ACfU3U3JxJQ3MPu5vriBkTWs1j-uQSiBqA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiIyOqZ567lAhUPRa0KHSt5D_oQ6AEwDXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=animal classification children's books. mollusks&f=false

I think she is referring to a baby screaming who is hungry and not being fed because in public etc. fwiw my ds was a noisy nurser. Dd was highly distractible so keeping her head where I wanted/needed it was pretty impossible when nursing in public.

See how the one dehumidifier does, for us even outside the bathroom was a big improvement. We also have one downstairs in the area I dry clothes. Dh empties them a couple times a day.

We have a dehumidifier set up near the bathroom which has helped the household moisture control greatly. It’s a Ebac brand, made in Durham I believe. Sometimes we crack the window when showering then close it after.......depends on the outside temperature.

Thank you, I was starting to worry I was being a bit obnoxious. Your library seems to have a large Overdrive audio selection so if I know I have seen something I liked that is a mystery as an audio at my library I have been tagging you. Your commute is long and I am sure books make it much more pleasant! The Faye Kellerman series actually starts with The Ritual Bath which is also good.https://www.goodreads.com/series/40352-peter-decker-rina-lazarus Too the best of my knowledge I can’t intermix both Amazon’s on one Kindle. At one point I wanted to but gave up because my tech help bought another Fire for me!😂. So I have an old British Kindle Fire which is attached to an Amazon UK account. My main Kindle is attached to the US Amazon account which was started with one of the earliest readers. My original Kindle account started at least two years before Kindle arrived in England. Lots of people brought them over who had US connections but having one was really cool at one point. Every time I leave the US I get my International Warning is refreshed which has to do which using my 3G on my reader but no book buying constraints. My fire is perfectly normal. Looking through my book that I record books read for challenges in.......these are what I can find that might qualify. Hope one of these is it! .Ellis Peter(Cadefel) Kathy Lynn Emerson(Several historical.......the Face Downs which oddly I just put hold’s on some this morning), Jessica Ellicott (Cozy and historical ....), Emily Brightwell (Cozy, older series, not bad), I used Rhys Bowen’s Evans series a couple of times which isn’t historical.

Robin, this thread is timely. Thank you! I keep looking at the Sacred box on my Bingo Card wondering what to use. I still haven’t decided 😉 but now know one of my favorites Sacred and Profane by Faye Kellerman will work if I decide to reread it again......just read it last year. I love this mystery series and my library has it on audio @Liz CA. That is so sweet! When Kareni mentioned receiving the arc I was pretty excited for her! Now I get to be happy for Robin! I put a hold on it and am number three so know I have it pretty quickly. I put the hold on at least a month ago btw. So the what am I reading question..........I started Sins of the Father by JAJance because I didn’t have my devices synced and got hooked! I still adore JP Beaumont the main character in this long running mystery series that I have read and reread. This book is busy tying up the threads in his rather messy history and as a fan girl I am a happy reader for others start nearer the beginning of the series. This is another that I have been rereading thanks to Kindle......my library no longer had hard copies of the start of the series. I think this one is part of my how to spell Toby Peters plan which is how it got chosen.😉 Still working on a Small Death in Lisbon and Delivering the Truth. For my audio I started Murder at the House of Rooster Happiness and am loving it. It’s for my Asian Detective category and is set in the north of Thailand near the Chinese border. The detective is a nurse ethicist ......she is the nurse in charge of ethical practices for the hospital which is how she was consulted for her case. I will definitely be listening to the rest in this series! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28449133-murder-at-the-house-of-rooster-happiness I love the photos Negin. I can’t believe those houses on the cliff. Are they purposely built into the cliff or has time put them at the edge?

I have mentioned on the board before that I spent roughly 10 years working with nursing moms as a volunteer for a large teaching hospital. That needs to be said first because I have interacted with a huge number of nursing moms from many cultures and the ability for moms to feel comfortable bfing in public is so important. It’s wonderful when places create nice comfy lounges for women to go to but it shouldn’t be awful for someone to feed their baby in the library, for instance. For many moms nursing in public becomes a bit of a barrier to continuing to nurse......if you are nursing you probably don’t have a bottle ready if your errands take longer than expected but if you are bottle feeding you can always be prepared. I have seen so many moms start weaning because they didn’t know what to do, were embarrassed, didn’t want to feed in the bathroom........my list goes on. That means moms frequently stop bfing earlier than planned or desired because of embarrassment. For that reason I am a cheerleader to women who feed in public......yeah, I prefer the discreet, non boob baring feedings, but it is important for moms to have the choice and feel that it is OK. I am the old lady who whispers to a mom that she is doing great as I walk by if I see someone bfing who doesn’t look comfortable.

I can confirm that information!😂 Neither dc had heard of the book which did not appeal to either btw or the video game before or after mom fortified her information with Google. Both my kid’s seemed to think Cold War era Russians using a North American setting for the book was strange. It didn’t seem that odd to me..............oh, well..........This particular book did nothing to enhance my cool mom reputation. I actually really liked it and would read more by those authors.

First, I am going to say you might be just the right level of close to be really useful to your relative because bedrest is a weird place to be. It’s really hard not to whine hugely at those really close to you. I sort of felt I was the only person who could keep my son in and all my efforts needed to be totally there. Anyone who wasn’t helping those efforts please leave me be all the while being incredibly polite because I needed help so badly. The dad is under huge stress too (mine was suddenly a single dad to an 18 mo) and honestly they are not at their best......my roommates hubby’s did most of the whining when they visited to be honest. She may be able to say things to you that she can’t to others. I had bedpans so it was uncomfortable when people stopped by. It really bothered me. If I had warning the nurses would help me tidy up ...... as in they tidied for me.😉. Oddly I loved the minister from my church, who wasn’t even the real minister as we were between and his job was to be a substitute at large congregations. He was hilarious and let me know he had been doing hospital visits for 25 years. It was all btdt for him so don’t worry about him. The associate minister had spent a couple of months in antepartum herself so she kept me calm. I wasn’t allowed to shave my legs or trim my toenails and my husband was not very skilled. My niece stopped every couple of weeks. Offering that service is an idea that might make her ridiculously happy. My roommate’s friend (there were many roommates....I spent 100 days in antepartum) used to come and do her nails. She loved that. She may be there over Thanksgiving and Christmas so helping her make her area a bit festive might be fun. Have your kids make her decorations. The one thing to remember is if they need to move her to labor and delivery it happens quickly and the staff just throws your stuff in a bag to follow you.......I made several trips down because they moved you when they needed to start an IV to stop contractions and they never knew if it would work. So things like fairy lights are not going to happen. Btw, the letters are a great idea. Like others have mentioned I was on meds to stop contractions. They made me sort of blurry......I love to read but read very little. My bf brought me books and kept switching them out until we landed on paranormal romances as something I could follow with half a brain. I had never read them before. I suspect my TV viewing problems would exist today but I lived on my sides so half the time I couldn’t see the screen. I sort of gave up. You might fall into craft projects for her that she needs help with. One roommate did scrapbooks and her visitors helped her. I did some cross stitch......she might be happy just to watch you do whatever. Maybe watch some chick flicks together on an iPad. eta Visitors were able to use a microwave to heat food. So not only can you bring carry out in but you can potentially bring something homemade she loves. I had a small frig in my room and had cans of Dr. Pepper which I craved occasionally. If she is having issues with food you could make her a couple of meals.

Sending hugs and prayers........I think you need to look within the ex pat community there. Not sure how to go about it but that is where I would start.

I was in antepartum from 18 weeks. Encouragement is the most important gift. Tell her it can work. Text with her, talk to her. If she wants company visiting would be great........beyond that entertainment and fun food. The menu is boring. I forgot to say I am praying.......

Same, but no need to move. She probably meant well.......may have been thinking she would be uncomfortable so trying to help.

Seriously you need a few more days to rest. You still have a fever. I think you are still in the “contagious” time frame.....5 to 7 days after and still symptomatic. I know we were advised to wait for a week past the contagious period before visiting my 94 yo mom. Your pastor really shouldn’t want to be near you when your business can be done via phone as he risks infecting his congregation if he does catch it. The flu seems to be hitting early this year and not everyone has their flu shots yet. We went for the flu shots last week because of these threads!

I have a dyson that I love.

Oh wow, I can just imagine the toxic bone melting slime pits in a video game. I have to ask Ds if has knows about the game. I am now at about 50% and enjoying it.

Fwiw, I know several real life Freya’s ........I love the name Freya

Glad blood clots were ruled out. Put your legs up and relax. Hopefully the swelling will go down. fyi, My mom had lymphedemia in her arm after her first mastectomy and belonged to a support group. Legs were not uncommon. Along with the massages people had stockings like support hose.....speciality medical items that helped.

I finished listening to Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13538552-memoirs-of-an-imaginary-friend which is yet another book off the favorite book to recommend thread. The one was also engaging and unique......I gave it a 5. I doubt it will be on my favorite books of the year list but totally well done. I also that the narration was really well done for audio book fans. I have abandoned a few books lately and seem to have stuck on Roadside Picnichttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/331256.Roadside_Picnic?ac=1&from_search=true and have no idea how this rather odd science fiction book appeared in my stack.........literally aliens landed on earth, made a mess at their picnic, then left leaving their rubbish in a mess. No idea what is going on beyond that bit of wisdom that I confirmed by reading the Goodreads. It is early Russian Sci Fi........... I am also reading Delivering The Truthhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25834931-delivering-the-truth. A historical mystery featuring a Quaker midwife.