Ramblings of a Thirty-Something

Here we go, time for some more WISE WORDS!  Or, as I call it in my head "Vital Information for your Everyday Life!" {Anybody else remember that All That! sketch? Classic Nickelodeon, where did you go?} Anywho, my Wise Words today come from one of my all-time favorite ladies. You know her, you love her {at least I'm assuming you do}, and here she is today...Miss Jane Austen! {And the crowd goes wild...wait, that's only in my head? Moving on...}  Now Jane comes to use today through the words of one of her most famous characters, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of Pride and Prejudice , and the Austen lady we'd all like to be best friends with. {At this point, you can just insert "I" for "we"...I just want you all to feel included}. These wise words come from near the end of Pride and Prejudice.  Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, aka Sexy McSexerton, have just professed that they now both love each other. Previously, Mr. D loved Lizzie, but L...

I know April is officially over {and has been for awhile now}, but I have three final books to review for AUSTEN-INSPIRED APRIL! Not all of these books were on my original list, but because I finished the list I made, I decided to do a few more books. So there! The first book is actually just a short story, and it was on my original list. LADY SUSAN  by Jane Austen {yes, that one}. So Lady Susan  isn't so much "Austen-inspired" as "Austen-written." In the book, there are three stories by Jane Austen--two of which are unfinished, as she passed away before she could complete them. But Lady Susan  is complete and is, in fact, hilarious.  The story is told through letters between Lady Susan and the various people in her life, including her best friend {whose husband doesn't approve of Lady Susan}, her sister-in-law, her sister-in-law's brother and mother, and her lover {who happens to be a married man}. Lady Susan is an unashamed flirt who is bo...

Random musing for you:  has anyone else ever had that moment where you're laying in bed and are just a little  cold {like not cold enough for a blanket} and so you just throw a pillow over top your legs and contort your body to make it work? Anyone? Just curious if anybody else's day started off like mine...moving on! I have already shared two books with you off my AUSTEN-INSPIRED APRIL   list, and now I have two more for you. And get excited, people, because I undershot how many books I'd be able to read in a month, so I've added two more books to the original list ! I can see your eager faces through my computer screen {really, I can't. It would be creepy if I could.} First up, we have THE SECRET DIARY OF LIZZIE BENNET  by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick. This book is actually based on a web series called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries . You can find all the episodes on Youtube. It's pretty amazing, actually. Very short episodes {there are 160 total episode...

I'll be honest. I had a completely  different plan in mind for today's post. I have yet to post about our excursions into London from last June, which is probably going to take two or three {or more!} posts...but I need to pull out my journal in order to remember when we went where and all that jazz. And my journal is in a tote up in our barn and I don't feel like climbing up there tonight, so instead, you get something entirely different. I've finished the first two books on my AUSTEN INSPIRED APRIL reading list, and so now it's time for me to review them! First up, we have AUSTENLAND   by Shannon Hale. Now, "Austenland" is not a magical theme park that has Austen-related things {seriously, wouldn't that be amazing?}. In this case, "Austenland" refers to Pembrook Park. Which is kind of like a Jane Austen theme park. But not really. Okay, this is getting confusing. I'll start over. Austenland  centers around Jane...

So you know how there are just soooo many books out there? And there is just not enough time in a day {or week or month or year} to read them all? Anybody else have this problem? That's what I thought. Part of the problem, I know, is me. I'm just interested in such a variety of things! I have a craving to read all the classics--Dickens, Tolstoy, Stevenson, Kipling. I have a desire to read all the new books topping the fiction {and nonfiction} charts.  And I have lists.  Lists upon lists upon lists.  Some are lists of my own making, like the two page {small pages, like a notepad} list of nonfiction books and biographies recounting the Revolutionary War and our Founding Fathers, not to mention my equally-impressive Civil War, World War II, and women's history lists. Then there are the Pinterest lists that I can't help pinning. "30 Books Every Woman Should Read Before 30" "Missing Downton Abbey ? These books will put you in the moo...

It's January 7th. One week into our new year. How are you doing with your resolutions? C'mon, you can be honest. This is a safe space. They say it takes 21 days to make something a habit, so we're a third of the way there! This year, I decided not to make any official resolutions. I didn't make a list saying that I wanted to work out three times a week, write 1000 words a day (which is not really as much as it seems...actually, it's about the length of your average blog post, or a page and a half on a Google Doc). I've done that a lot of years, and that just never works for me. As you might have read (or might not have read) in my first post of the year, I wrote about living intentionally. That is my resolution, essentially, for the year. And one of my Christmas gifts is helping me to do that. Friends, family, if you are on Pinterest, I highly recommend that you make a board for yourself of gift ideas. It's an easy way to bring things to people's a...

First off, let me apologize for taking a month long hiatus. I didn't intend for that to happen. Life and school just caught up with me and left me exhausted by the time 3:50 rolled around, with little energy to do much other than drink a Straw-ber-ita and watch That 70s Show reruns with my dad and sister. Don't feel bad, though. I'm behind on everything right now. Except for my bills. I paid those! At any rate, I have finally finished the second book on my reading list. It didn't take me long, but it took me awhile to start it. It shouldn't have; I've already mentioned it once on this blog, back in one of my first posts. I've already stated it is one of my favorites...which is why I was so hesitant to start it. Huh? Does this even make sense? Before I continue, let me reveal the book to which I'm referring. There are two problems with reading Jane Austen, and both of those problems, I was trying to avoid. First of all, the book ends. Duh. All b...