It's been a couple of weeks but sometimes I can't write about what's going on every week. I just need a break from time-to-time.
Last weekend my friend set-up a socially distancing paint nite with her niece who is studying to become an art educator. We all wore masks and kept our distance and had fun painting outdoors. It was a welcome activity outside the house.
This weekend we took a day-trip with our neighbors. We caravanned down together and enjoyed some sites and a little hike. It was nice to get out of the house again and with some friends and enjoy some of the outdoors before it gets too cold.
Last week and this week AFineParent.com is hosting their 4th annual Positive Parenting Conference. This is my second year and I am loving it. Their are lots of masterclasses from the top experts in parenting, psychology, neuroscience, etc all giving masterclasses. Check it out. It's free to register and view within the conference dates. Some great stuff.
We made a "beautiful" red rock scene!
Hiking around the National Dinosaur Monument
Things I'm Grateful For:
1. Getting out on the weekends(safely). It's been a nice change.
2. Great television. There are a ton of new shows on right now that I am loving!
3. Pumpkin everything right now. According to a study Utah is the 4th most pumpkin everything consumer! I think we're behind California, Oregon, Washington, and randomly Ohio.
4. That we decided to have G do school online this year. Our county is in a hot outbreak now with two large universities and young adults not wanting to do anything but party and spread Covid about. Also high schools. We had over 1400 positive cases in Utah on Saturday with a high percentage of those cases from my county. It's a hot spot. We are staying super cautious and am just so glad we are able to stay home for school and work right now.
Reading:
I finished up Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff, When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, and Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron.
I took a break from Stamped from the Beginning but picked it back up since a few of my friends wanted to read it so we're reading it together. Our first virtual meetup will be next Saturday!
I'm focusing on The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix and The Only Good Indian by Stephen Graham Jones for horror.
Classics I'm reading Emma by Jane Austen. And I just bought a nice newly illustrated copy of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley that I plan on diving into in October. I'm slowly getting into The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.
I'm still reading The Magnus Chase series Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan.
For my new philosophy book with my friend we started At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Others by Sarah Bakewell.
For my horror movie weekend I watched: The Ruins is based off the book by Scott Smith. I liked the book a lot better. The movie pandered a lot and I didn't like it as much. But it's still a horrifying movie. Spiral is a new one on Shudder that was excellent. Rabbit is an Australian movie that had an interesting plot but the execution wasn't great.
I understand exactly what you mean about having trouble writing some weeks. Sometimes I think I have nothing to share, but then I think again about all the books I've read, and I feel like I should at least tell about the great books I'm reading.
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of Paint Nite. That sounds like great fun.
Wow. I had to look up National Dinosaur Monument. It's 200,000 acres. Oh my. That's a lot of area to hike.
I'm glad you and your family are able to be at home instead of being around people at work and school. My little town has 25,000 people and we've had 1,500 cases of the virus with 19 deaths so far. People don't take precautions, and that's very sad to me.
I hope you have a great week.
I love how many books you can get through in a week! I'm not a fast reader. Even if I did nothing else in my free-time, I still don't think I could get through so many! But then again maybe I could! Ha.
DeleteYeah, we stuck to a very small portion of that 200,000 acres!
I hope the cases in your small town go down soon. I'm hoping people will wear the masks and take this seriously. We're in for a bumpy winter, I fear.
I hope your week is full of good books!
I've found a few new things to watch but I miss my regular shows.
ReplyDeleteSometimes there is just too much out there! So it's nice when we can go back to the ones we really love! Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteI think I've read and/or watched at least half the books and shows you mentioned. Are you stalking my shelves? :-D
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of Paint Night! It sounds like a really good time! Some of my cousins have had a couple of "Bob Ross parties," where they bought all the supplies and then painted along with Bob--while wearing the curly brown wig! Their pictures were hilarious!
Your hiking pictures are beautiful! I'm glad you can get out safely but I'm sorry your area's a hot spot. We've been hiking a *lot* this summer but we've been staying in a lot since the fires started. Hopefully we can get out again soon.
We just happened to stumble on the place where Tremors was filmed while we were in California! It's just outside Death Valley in an area called the Alabama Hills. I'd never watched the movie all the way through before but we did after we got home. It was a lot of fun to recognize the scenery we had just been driving through! It's really beautiful when you can pay attention to it instead of giant man-eating worms.
Enjoy your week!
That's so cool you went through Tremors country! It's a classic and we watch it every year.
DeleteGreat book minds think alike, apparently! Nice!
I hope you enjoy your week as well.
Your books look good. Enjoy them!
ReplyDeleteI'm excited! Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteLooks like you made the right choice about having your son do virtual school. A lot of uncertainty out there. Paint nights can be fun (did one pre-covid), but i'm terrible at the paint part! Keep up the hiking weekends ... looks very pretty there. Looking forward to Halloween. boo!
ReplyDeleteI'm a terrible painter but it was fun to try with friends! Hiking was excellent this weekend. I went twice. Once with the family and once with my friend.
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