What a good month of books!

Somehow I read 17 again - not my normal number.

It's such a joy to sit down and revisit what I liked (and disliked, ha!) about each book I read (or listened to!) this month. 

Recommend: Phoenix Crown & Zero Days - two of my FAV authors and both of these were FAB (former: historical fiction around the San Fran Earthquake of 1906, and latter: a thriller about a hacker trying to solve her husband's murder). The Paris Novel is a francophile's dream: the most gorgeous descriptions of French food and art and fashion in the 1980s (pub date 4/23!). The Many Lives of Mama Love (our April book club pick!) was one of THE best books I've read this year - absolutely gutwrechingly raw memoir of Lara Love Hardin's life (an addict who ended up in jail but manages to turn her life completely around). Couldn't put this one down & has forever changed the way I view addiction & incarceration. Amanda Skenandore has been added to my list of fav historical fiction authors, and her newest novel, centered around the Galveston hurricane of 1900, was a really great read. 

Honorable Mentions: The Seven Year Slip (time travel right-person-wrong-time romance), & The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard (multi-generational Parisian fashion historical fiction). 

Kid Reads. 3 family readalouds: another one of the Penderwicks (absolutely darling family series that we just love so much), an "I Survived" (not our normal readaloud speed, but absolutely timely for us as we read it while IN Galveston over spring break), and our top favorite: Nothing Else But Miracles (WW2 historical fiction, set in NYC, about 3 sweet siblings waiting for their dad to return from war - SO GOOD). Arden and I finished the 2nd Sarah Plain & Tall ("Skylark" - the family is forced to spend time in Main to escape the prairie drought), and Turner and I finished the 2nd Dimwood Forest book ("Poppy & Rye" - where we follow the adventures of our heroine mouse and her porcupine friend as they defeat the beavers). 

Nonfiction. Everyone should read Atomic Habits! Such a good book with so many good takeaways (and step by step methods) about how to make habits actually stick and become part of who you are. Lasting habits (ie parts of your identity) get formed from tiny small changes. 

Evelyn's Birth Story 7.15.19

After we had Arden, our baby #1, I thought I'd never forget the details of her birth day. I mean how can you? Especially with your first precious baby! And yet, as sleep deprivation set in and as time went on, the very specific parts of her story started getting a little blurry. Sure, we knew the big picture, the overarching story, but when exactly did we get to the hospital? What was that funny thing the nurse said once we hit hour 9 of labor? Etc. So, with Turner, baby #2, I was determined to get the details down on paper (or more accurately, on my computer!) so that we'd have everything straight (his birth story is here) - and we did the same thing with Evelyn, our tie-breaker baby #3. Here is her story:

To set the scene: my due date, Friday 7 /12, came and went and our little family got to have one last fun weekend together, just the 4 of us - details to bring you up to speed are over on my 40-week bumpdate (and all previous bumpdates can be found here).

{Baby3} Nurse Thank You Gifts

The nurses (both labor & delivery, and postpartum) at the hospital are our heroes!

Since we had Arden, I've always put together some kind of "thank you" basket for our nurses & brought it with us to the hospital. 

With Arden, I wanted to keep it healthy (after talking to a nurse friend who told me they get a lot of junk food!), so I packed up oatmeal packets, granola bars and fruit BUT I didn't actually get the baskets assembled before I went into labor, so we had a family member helping us put the baskets together at the last minute. Whoops. One other mistake we made was dropping off the baskets at the nurses stations right when we got there (one at L&D and one on recovery floor)  but I'm not even sure we had our names on it. Whoops again.