Series: A Lavender Tides Novel Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Thomas Nelson (January 23, 2018)
“Prepare to stay up all night with Colleen Coble. Coble’s beautiful, emotional prose coupled with her keen sense of pacing, escalating danger, and very real characters place her firmly at the top of the suspense genre. I could not put this book down.” –Allison Brennan, New York Times bestselling author of Shattered
After her husband, Jack, dies in a climbing incident, Shauna has only her five-year-old son and her helicopter charter business to live for. Every day is a struggle to make ends meet and she lives in constant fear of losing even more than she already has.
When her business partner is murdered, his final words convince Shauna that she’s in danger too. But where can she turn? Zach Bannister was her husband’s best friend and is the person she blames for his death. She’s barely spoken to him since. But right now he seems her only hope for protecting her son.
Zach is only too happy to assuage his guilt over Jack’s death by helping Shauna any way he can. But there are secrets involved dating back to Shauna’s childhood that more than one person would prefer to stay hidden.
In The View from Rainshadow Bay, suspense, danger, and a longing to love again ignite amid the gorgeous lavender fields of Washington State.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a powerful, emotionally complex story of love, loss, the pain of the past—and the promise of the future.
Sometimes the greatest dream starts with the smallest element. A single cell, joining with another. And then dividing. And just like that, the world changes. Annie Harlow knows how lucky she is. The producer of a popular television cooking show, she loves her handsome husband and the beautiful Los Angeles home they share. And now, she’s pregnant with their first child. But in an instant, her life is shattered. And when Annie awakes from a yearlong coma, she discovers that time isn’t the only thing she’s lost.
Grieving and wounded, Annie retreats to her old family home in Switchback, Vermont, a maple farm generations old. There, surrounded by her free-spirited brother, their divorced mother, and four young nieces and nephews, Annie slowly emerges into a world she left behind years ago: the town where she grew up, the people she knew before, the high-school boyfriend turned judge. And with the discovery of a cookbook her grandmother wrote in the distant past, Annie unearths an age-old mystery that might prove the salvation of the family farm.
Family Tree is the story of one woman’s triumph over betrayal, and how she eventually comes to terms with her past. It is the story of joys unrealized and opportunities regained. Complex, clear-eyed and big-hearted, funny, sad, and wise, it is a novel to cherish and to remember.
Campaign hashtag for Twitter and Instagram posts: #FamilyTree. Also tag @williammorrowbooks and @TLCBookTours.
Good morning, and a very happy Monday to you all :)
How was your weekend?
Mine was good, the usual homemaking, had family over for dinner on Saturday night and then yesterday just pottered around and finished up laundry, hung in my pajamas all day and enjoyed every single minute of it.
It is now Monday and the beginning of a new week. I sure do hope you all have a beautiful blessed week ahead :)
Breakfast time....what is on the plate this morning::::
I've had my cup of coffee with French Vanilla Creamer, but I have not yet had anything to eat. Not sure what I'll have to eat, but it will either be toast as always, or some Banana Nut Crunch Cereal.
On today's to do list::::
Laundry - Have a few comforters that need washing and going to get to that today.
Kitchen - Empty the dishwasher. On Sundays I don't usually cook dinner, we have leftovers or snacky bits, so my kitchen is actually clean this morning. I'll just give the counters a quick wipe down and sweep and mop the floor and that's it.
Living Rooms - Dust, vacuum and tidy up.
Currently reading::::
Finished The Family Tree by Susan Wiggs (review will be up this morning), and am reading The View from Rainshadow Bay by Colleen Coble.
On the TV this week::::
Jamestown Season 2
Coal House at War (you can watch on Youtube)
Medici - Masters of Florence
Lockup Season 6
The Frankenstein Chronicles
Catch up with Walking Dead
The weather outside is::::
Beautiful, blue skies with not a cloud in sight. After last week's horrid weather, I'm so happy to see a bit of sun and warmth coming through. We'll be in the 60's this week, but with some thunderstorms tomorrow and Wednesday. Rest of the week is sunny :)
On the menu this week::::
Monday - Oklahoma Fried Onion Burgers, Crispy Potato Rounds Tuesday - Lasagna, Salad Wednesday - Peixe de Caldeirada (Fish Stew) Thursday - Pan Seared Chicken with Garlic Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli Friday - Crockpot Cubed Steak with Gravy, Rice,Peas Saturday -Cast Iron Pizzas Sunday -Leftovers, Snacky Bits
If I have a few minutes to myself, I will::::
Crack on with my outer squares for the Elements CAL.
What I'm sewing, crocheting, knitting or creating::::
I am on Part 10 of the Elements CAL. I need 24 outer squares and have only made 3. Y'all don't know how I'm struggling to push through with this part of the pattern, because I get easily bored making little squares of the same thing, over and over. I also just got more yarn on Saturday so couldn't do much of anything until then. The new and last part of the blanket CAL comes out on Wednesday, but I'll doubt I will be caught up with all 24 squares and sewed onto the blanket etc. We will see how far I get.
New recipe I tried, or want to try this week::::
Not a new recipe, but I made one of my favorite Portuguese dishes on Saturday and finally took some pictures. I am pretty sure I already have the recipe on the food blog, but never had a good picture so will update it today. I didn't forget about the Sheet Pan Crunchwrap, those were delicious, and I'll put the recipe up this morning as well.
Favorite photo from the camera::::
We had cancelled schools and work, pretty much all of last week, due to the icy conditions around here. I took this picture of one of the trees in the backyard. Just look at those icicles, insane.
Bible Verse, Devotional::::
I've been reading my devotionals on the Bible App, and I've finished quite a few and started a few more. I'm currently obsessed with Devotionals, just find them so helpful and interesting, so I thought I would share with you the ones I'm currently working through:
I was talking to you the other day, about the fact that I had stopped enjoying being a homemaker, had fallen off the wagon and only recently found that joy again.
I wasn't going to really talk about it much, but then I started thinking that maybe there are others out there going through the same. One minute you're a happy joyful homemaker, loving what you do, and the next you find yourself not only enjoying it but completely off in a different direction.
Not to say that we're all exactly the same, or the circumstances are identical. I think we all fall off the wagon for different reasons, at different times and due to different situations.
Paperback: 416 pages Publisher: Graydon House (February 6, 2018)
They think nothing can tear their bond apart, until a long-buried secret threatens to destroy everything.
Every year they have met up for a vacation, but their time away is much more than just a bit of fun. Over time, it has become a lifesaver, as each of them struggles with life’s triumphs and tragedies.
Sophie, Emily, Amy and Melissa have been best friends since they were girls. They have seen each other through everything—from Sophie’s private fear that she doesn’t actually want to be a mother despite having two kids, to Amy’s perfect-on-the-outside marriage that starts to reveal troubling warning signs, to Melissa’s spiraling alcoholism, to questions that are suddenly bubbling up around the paternity of Emily’s son. But could a lie that spans just as long as their friendship be the thing that tears them apart?
I'm so completely confused the past week. I keep having to check the calendar because my days are all switched around.
We had a long weekend, as you all know, so Monday felt like Sunday to me, then yesterday it was back to normal school and work, and today due to the Winter Storm there was no work for my husband so it was back to feeling like it was the weekend.
Goodness!!!
Yesterday we had a full day of rain, it started early morning and just came down, unrelenting, making driving a bit of a pain in the behind. I always drive slower in the rain or snow, but my car has like no traction whatsoever and easily slides, so even though it had been raining all day, I still ended up hydroplaning between base and home.
Hello friends and welcome to another Happy Homemaker Monday :)
I hope you've been having a good weekend, especially since it's a long one. I always enjoy these long weekends and having my husband home.
We've been relaxing the past two days, but today we actually have quite a few things we want to get done around the house, plus I would like to get some baking done as well. We will see just how much we get done, you know how it is, lot of plans and to do's and sometimes even the best intentions don't come to fruition.
Anyway, hope you all have a beautiful week ahead, let's get on with our Happy Homemaker Monday!!!
Whenever I go some time without putting up a blog post, and I don't mean the Happy Homemaker Monday, but a proper chatty post, I feel like when someone returns to their summer house and needs to clean off the cobwebs and give it a good dusting.
It's been crazy.
I don't need to tell you that, you all are aware of what's been going on around here.
Good news is that we are all finally over the sickness and back to normal. Yay!!!
So what does that mean? Well for one, it means I can get back to being and feeling like my normal old self, in all areas of my life, including blogging.
The weather here has been deplorable. Yesterday was 85 degrees, beautiful, hot and made me believe that maybe, just maybe, Spring was around the corner.
Fast forward to today. Woke up to cloudy skies, high winds and 30 degrees. I would cry but it's not even worth it, one thing I've learned with Texas is that it will do whatever it wants to when it comes to weather.
Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Thomas Nelson (February 6, 2018)
Broken-down walls and crumbled stones seemed to possess a secret language all their own. What stories would they tell, if she finally listened?
Ellie Carver arrives at her grandmother’s bedside expecting to find her silently slipping away. Instead, the beloved old woman begins speaking. Of a secret past and castle ruins forgotten by time. Of a hidden chapel that served as a rendezvous for the French resistance in World War II. Of lost love and deep regret . . .
Each piece that unlocks the story seems to unlock part of Ellie too—where she came from and who she is becoming. But her grandmother is quickly disappearing into the shadows of Alzheimer’s and Ellie must act fast if she wants to uncover the truth of her family’s history. Drawn by the mystery surrounding The Sleeping Beauty—a forgotten castle so named for Charles Perrault’s beloved fairy tale—Ellie embarks on a journey to France’s Loire Valley in hopes that she can unearth its secrets before time silences them forever.
Bridging the past to present in three time-periods—the French Revolution, World War II, and present day—The Lost Castle is a story of loves won and lost, of battles waged in the hearts of men, and an enchanted castle that stood witness to it all, inspiring a legacy of faith through the generations.
I just realized that I've been pretty MIA from my little corner here on the web, and actually the last post I made was last week's Happy Homemaker Monday. For shame!!!
We've been extremely sick around here, when I say that the sickness grabbed hold of our house, I mean it really sunk it's clutches in and has been reluctant to let it go. The kids are finally better, the hubby is still getting over his second bout with the cold and I'm slowly and I mean very slowly trying to get out of this crud that I caught. For me, it's been sinus, congestion, feeling of being lightheaded and nausea.
Last week was the absolute pit for me, on Tuesday I felt ok, then bam got hit Tuesday night, was pretty much laid up on the couch without being able to eat much at all the rest of the week. Friday I managed to get to my Physical Therapy appointment but by the time I got back home, I was once again on the couch with horrible nausea. Saturday I was meant to get groceries, and got up, got dressed, only to have to get undressed again and back on the couch again. Ended up doing Walmart grocery pick up and what a blessing that was, Curt drove me there and within 5 minutes we were headed back home with the grocery shopping.
So yes, it's been just horrible around here and I pray that we're all finally headed in the right direction and out of this sickness.
I'm starting this post pretty early but having to take breaks as I go along. This flu is kicking my behind and sitting up or standing for longer than a few minutes, is leaving me light headed and nauseous. I'm not sure how long it will take to type this all up, but we'll just go at a slow pace and eventually get there right?
Sure hope you're all well and that you're not also dealing with a household of flu, this stuff is no joke, good grief.
The kids are starting to feel a little better, they came out of their bedrooms yesterday and actually sat the dinner table for a few minutes, something that hasn't happened in a week, so that made me happy to see :) It's still slow going, they're pretty weak, but their appetites are back which is a great thing. We'll all eventually get there.
Oh goodness. I mentioned the other day that the kids were sick. After taking them to the doctor, they didn't seem to be getting any better, matter of fact, on Thursday Jasmine got worse which prompted a trip to the Urgent Care.
I was there with her for a couple of hours, and after testing her for the Flu, it was determined that she has Flu Type B.
Because the 48 hour window had closed for the use of Tamiflu, we are having to just manage the flu as best as we can. She had high fevers for 4 days, and thankfully yesterday it seemed to finally break, but she's weak, wiped out and extremely unwell still. Her stomach hurts and she isn't able to keep down much food at all, only thing she seems to manage to eat is cereal, and I'm ok with that, as long as she's getting something in her tummy. She is drinking a ton of fluids, and has been bedridden for days now.
