30 Days about Me - Favorite Non-Fiction Book

I looked up Non-fiction on Wikipedia.

Why?

Because I wanted to know what all fell under this description.

My first answer was blogs.

I LOVE to read blogs, I catch up on everyone at least once a week and before my Mile High Mama meet up’s I make sure to read everyone’s blog over the past month to make sure I knew how they are doing.

But this question was regarding books. Favorite Non-Fiction Book.

This was a hard one. However, this morning in the early hours while I was sitting at work, drinking my happy juice (coffee), I realized the book I always turn to when I need the help. When I’m feeling lost within myself.

Sarah Ban Breathnach was “born to write”. She’s intuitive, funny and brings you into her books like a warm blanket. It is one of my favorite ways to get lost in “myself”.

The one book in particular is A Daybook of Comfort and Joy.

When I was a single mom pregnant with baby #6 and the six months afterward while I was trying to relearn who I was as a woman and a mother, I read this everyday. I spent over a year trying to fall in love with the woman I had become; this book was instrumental in that.

She taught me to love myself, to enjoy a bubble bath once a week, buy sexy socks because it doesn’t matter if anyone else can see them... I can. She helped me learn that there are over 150 different types of honey in the US alone and to enjoy them.

I have given my own copy of this book to women going through a divorce and am about to give my copy to a co-worker who lost her mother and seems to need a warm hug from something she can get lost in.

If you have 10 minutes a day before work, or after work…. Take the chance to fall in love with yourself and the world around you. It’s worth it!

30 Days about Me - Fiction Book

I fell in love with reading as a young kid. I used to spend every Saturday afternoon at the library in my hometown. My mom would drop me off for two hours and then pick me up with an arm full of books and many days of quiet reading.

I became fascinated in all kinds of books and the one that still captures my attention are books about Fairy Tales. Mainly Fairy Tales from around the world have Myths and legends, stories of boogie men that parents tell their children to keep them in bed at night.

I love the story of Babi Yaga… it always frightened me and still gives me the heebee jeebees. (Slavic FairyTales)

The Changling also has a lot of different variations, Dave’s mother used to call them “brownies”

Changing things up for kids is a great idea, even for us, because the world doesn’t just end at our borders and it is wonderful to see the world outside of our own myths!

30 Days about Me - Something I am OCD about

I have a main OCD and that is my daughters room.

My toddlers have a lovely little girls room, with matching chair, cribs, dresses all over their closet and lovely sayings on the wall.

Every night their room must be clean, every two weeks I go through and deep clean it. They get clean sheets every week and laundry is done twice a week.

I can't sleep at night without this room being clean... I love their room, it's so peaceful for me.

30 Days about Me - Recent Photo

This is a recent photo of me from a day trip Dave and I took about 2 months ago.

The weather was perfect, the company was the best and we have a ton of fun memories!!

30 Days about Me - Photo of me over 10 years ago

I have tons of photos of myself growing up; my father LOVED his camera which is where I got my love for it. I remember staring at him with the “Are you kidding?? ANOTHER photo?” (Ironically the same look my kids give me).

Then my computer got a virus last night *sobs*

So I am stuck with the ones I have on my FB page.

Here is a photo of my about 27 years ago. (HOLY cow I’m old!) This was at a park with my little sister and my dad is the genius behind the camera. And yes… I am probably stepping on Kristin’s fingers, because I was oblivious to her intent on climbing up after me.

(Isn’t that coat FANTASTIC? I’d wear that now if I could find one!)

30 Days about Me - Photo I took

Yes, I am a day late, but I’m making up for lost time!

Yesterday’s entry was a hard choice. I take a lot of photos and since I got my beloved Nikon, however some of my older photography still has a hold of my heart.

Here is a photo of my daughters in the summer of 2009. It was about two weeks before Dave and I moved in together. The rain storm in Colorado on this day was impressive and after the downpour I did my favorite thing, took my kids out in the aftermath and played in puddles.

These are my three youngest daughters. Faith was 6 years old, Issa was 2 years old and LaLa was a little over a year.

I love this photo of them; it’s a reminder of different times, when I was a single mom of six kids.

I wouldn’t trade my life now for the world, it’s a blessing everyday when I wake up next to the man I Love and know that it’s all been worth it!

All about me in 30 days - Photo that makes me angry/mad

It is something I've been thinking about for a week or so, somethings that need to be said in the hopes that they will help another person.

I've been there, in the 90's we had speakers in school that came and told us their stories, the abuse and the things we all thought, "Wouldn't happen to me." or "I'd never be that weak to let someone hurt me like that."

I remember when it was happening I could hear those women in my head... It's a part of me I've never been willing to talk about... perhaps it's time.

Soon... when it's not too hard to resurface those memories, apparently they are still tender wounds.

30 Days about Me - Favorite Book

This has been the hardest question so far, in fact, I wrote part of it while I thought about all the books I’ve loved in my life.

I grew up reading and never stopped, being raised by two teachers I got the bug for the solitude and adoration of getting lost in a really good story. Now that I am older, I read every night to my daughters when they are with me, I read magazines, blogs, books, and poetry. My favorite relaxation on a winter day is leather arm chair, my blankie, the fireplace roaring and a great book. It’s pure bliss. Give me some tea and a banana and I’m a happy cookie for a few hours.

I fell in love with On A Pale Horse in High school and I think I had it checked out from the school library for most of the school year. I loved the Incarnations of Immortality series; Piers Anthony has a way of weaving his stories together and immersing the reader in a world that is fantastic and believable.

When Rabbit Howls is an amazing story about the human mind’s ability to handle adversity; I have read this about 30 times. Truddi Chase survived the worst of mankind and never knew she came out of it with “extra” parts of herself.

Then I fell into the Sword of Truth Series (adapted into the TV program called Legend of the Seeker). Oh how I love Terry Goodkind. His ability to create prophesies and the reluctant hero is beautiful. I’ve fallen in love with Kahlen and Richard, the stories that Mr. Goodkind shares with us. If you get the chance, check out the series, it’s worth the addiction.

However, the one that pulls at my heart strings when I see it, the one that I cry every year when I read it to my kids, the one I’ve held onto for my whole life is ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas by: Arthur Rackham Copyright: 1931

(Photo courtesy of An Enchanted Cottage)

(Photo courtesy of An Enchanted Cottage)

The way this story reads, how it smells and the older photos brings me to a different time. It’s absolutely my favorite read!

How about you? What is your favorite book(s)??

30 Days about Me - Favorite Television Show

Television was not a big thing in my house growing up. Even if it was, I would have still been locked up in my room getting lost in a book than in front of the tiny square box fighting with my brother over what we were watching. Luckily, I grew up in the 70’s, there were not a lot of options.

My parents watched, “All in the Family”, and I remember watching that with them, and not understanding a lick of the short man yelling at everyone who came into his house.

I watched Saturday morning cartoons like Shazam, The Electric Company, Batman (Whack!) and Banana Split.

It wasn’t until I moved out of the house that I started watching TV more. I got into soap operas, which were addicting, but a year later I grew bored of them. Then around 20 I fell in love with “Friends” They were beautiful people with idyllic jobs, and lives that I’d craved. I watched it with my friends and in the last year of Mom’s life (My ex-husband’s mother, she was one of my best friends.), we watched it every Thursday together. It was heartbreaking when she died suddenly before the last episode aired, she would have loved it.




Then there was “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Scrubs”, “Sopranos”, “Deadwood” and here recently my current addiction is “True Blood”.

Oh…. That show is beautiful; the storyline is full of everything a good show needs. Love, lust, vampires, werewolves, fairies, seers and violence, it has people you love to hate and more importantly those you fall in love with! So… a simple question ends up with my current favorite show… “True Blood”




What about you? What is your favorite show?

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