Sweetgum Knit Lit Society

I was having a bit of a reading dry spell but I broke it on Friday when I picked this book up off my desk (where it has been sitting for several weeks) during lunch time and made myself start it.  I'm glad I did.   The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society by Beth Pattillo was exactly what I was looking for this weekend.  It was a cozy story about a group of very different women in a small town who come together each month to talk about books and share their knitting projects.  There is not a lot of action in this book so if you are looking for fast paced - this one won't be for you.  I would say this book is more of a character study of the women in the group and is made more interesting by the fact that they don't all particularly like one another.  The story begins when the town librarian brings one of her "strays" (a teenage girl lacking in the parents department -- well at least in the good parents department) to a meeting.   The characters seemed real to me, each with her own individual strengths and flaws and perhaps that's why I enjoyed the book.  I've seen it categorized as Christian Fiction but it was never preachy (actually the only hint of Christian Fiction I saw was that they meet in a church) so don't let that get in the way if you usually don't read that genre.

A nice, quick read for a cloudy day!

Blondes have more fun...

The jury is still out on whether blondes have more fun... I'll have to get back to that one after I've lived as a blonde a little longer...
Maybe they have so much fun, they can't find time to accomplish any goals. That seems to be the current case for me :-)

Accomplishment 1: I did manage to attend another Zumba class and it really is a lot of fun but I think I will trip over my feet a feel a little awkward no matter how many times I go to class. I have added it to my “classes I go to” list though. I can’t seem to get into a good schedule about going to the gym at certain times each week so I just sort of have a mental list of classes I am willing to go to and hope that one of them is available on the day/time I want to workout.

I did not however manage to make it to the gym 3 times a week like my goal stated.... in fact I haven't made it there at all in April yet. I will blame some of that on injuring myself in last Saturday's kickball game and not wanting to push it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I also haven't read anything at all since my last post (at least not books - of course I've read things like package labels/ mail/ emails etc). I have a lot of books on my mental list (and goodreads list) to read but I haven't managed to take the plunge with any of them yet.

Accomplishement 2: I did complete one other item from my 101 things list by attending a lecture about National Parks at Johns Hopkins last night with the hubby and some friends.  I don't think my husband learned anything new about the parks - he's a self taught expert in this field but we all enjoyed ourselves and it was nice to do something different.  The lecture was really interesting and for the first hour I was excited to be back in a classroom setting but by the end I was glad it was done and relieved to not have any homework or studying to do. My favorite part of the lecture was when she talked about what influenced people around the time of the birth of the National Park System to want to spend time with nature and to view the land and the experience of the parks as a benefit to the American people. She spent quite a bit of time talking about how landscape painters and poets/writers of the time had a big influence on this. Made me look up some of my favorite Wordsworth while drinking my coffee this morning…..
In honor of the lecture here is one of my favorite National Park photos from one of my favorite vacations...do you know where it is?

Some goals for the short term:
START a book. I’m going to think smaller this time!
Take a Centergy class at the gym (a combination of yoga and pilates).
Clean out my very messy/bordering on disgusting car.