My latest read...

Just finished The Light Between Oceans which is about a lightkeeper, Tom, and his wife on a 3 year post on a remote island off the coast of Australia.  Isabella, the usually vivacious and fun-loving wife, suffers two miscarriages and a still birth, and is on the brink of losing it, when a boat washes up on shore carrying a dead man and a newborn baby.  She convinces her straight-edge, meticulous husband to ditch the body and keep the child to raise it as though she was their own.  He uneasily agrees to keep the child knowing the woman he loves needs the baby to crawl out of her anguish and depression.  Time slowly goes on with the three of them alone on their island of Janus,  and a few years later, on leave visiting the mainland, they realize that their "gift from God" was another woman's tragic loss.

The book starts off strong.  I felt "invested" in the main characters and so sad when Isabella began her downward spiral after the loss of her babies.  It felt a little slow-going in the middle of the book, but once the action began to pick up again, I was sucked right in.  I found myself torn between the two sides of an impossible situation.   It was painful to see the main characters in such agony, because as a mother, I could relate on such a deep level.

Anyway, I thought it was a good read.  Definitely not a "light" book, but I would recommend it :)

It's the little things....

Back to school, back to the grind... I already miss the lazy days of summer.  And I especially miss being able to run errands whenever I want.  T is great at picking up the groceries to help out, but it requires a very SPECIFIC list.  I always tell him that its a given that he will either forget something entirely, or call me 3 times to ask questions while shopping.

I'm ridiculously anal about putting together a grocery list/meal plan for the week.  We stop at the store once on the weekend, that's it.  So I plan my meals for the whole week around what's on sale, what we've got stocked in the freezer, and their "Maggie Approval Rating".

To streamline the grocery shopping, I made a word doc that lists common items on our shopping list in our store's aisle order.  It makes it sooo much easier to cross things off as we go, because everything is grouped according to our path through the store.

Here's this week's list, unfolded after coming back from the store... I write the week's dishes in the top right corner of the paper.  This week, I had some Crock-pot pulled pork left over from the weekend, and plan to defrost a Mexican Lasagna that I made and froze right before school started.  The chicken parm recipe I use is from skinnytaste and the Lil Cheddar Meatloaves can be found on TastyKitchen

 (two of my GO-TO sites for new recipes).  

Sometimes it's the littlest things that make a big difference... I really wish I had made this list-system sooner!!

Back to school, back to schoooool....

As much as I love the fall, I dread those first few days of going back to school.... Getting to know the kids, getting them to learn how I operate and what will or won't fly with me... Then there's Back to School Night nerves and worst of all, leaving my baby-girl again all day, every day :(

Sometimes I wish I could just skip the first two weeks of September, snap my fingers and already be in my "school groove"... I could do without the stress of transitioning back to work, and instead focus on the fun things that I love about the fall.

Soooo... I made a fall bucket list!
It's attached to our calendar, so I'll be looking at it often... Let's hope it helps me focus less on the stress of back-to-school-back-to-work, and more on the autumn activities that make me smile  =)