Flower Friday: Marigolds and Pumpkins #FlowerFriday #Marigolds #Pumpkins #Fall

On By MischenkoIn Flower Friday, Plants and gardening12 Comments

I discovered Flower Friday while visiting Lorilin@Bugbugbooks and decided to begin sharing some flower pictures from our gardens along with some information about them. Please check out Lorilin’s blog if you haven’t already for book reviews and more!

Last time I shared Lemon Queen Sunflowers. Here are other 2019 shares:

Today’s share:

Marigolds and Pumpkins

We grew a few different types of marigolds this year…

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Continue reading “Flower Friday: Marigolds and Pumpkins #FlowerFriday #Marigolds #Pumpkins #Fall” →

Book Review: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple #BookReview #Fiction #Bernadette

On By MischenkoIn Fiction, Mental Health, Movies, Reads, Women's fiction17 Comments

Where’d You Go, Bernadette

by Maria Semple

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Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple is a book about a family living in Seattle, Washington. Bernadette is wife to Elgin (Elgie), and their Daughter Bee is a young teen just out of middle school.

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Before moving to Seattle, Bernadette suffered a catastrophic event in her arcitect career that’s totally changed her; she’s become extremely anti social  and tends to hide from everyone; she does what she wants, on her own terms, regardless of what anyone thinks; and now others, including Elgin, are suffering because of it.

Elgin works for Microsoft and is well-respected. Although his relationship with Bernadette used to be wonderful, since her life-changing event in L.A., their marriage is now strained. He’s heavily involved in work and he’s lost patience for her behavior. Eventually, he comes to terms with the fact that Bernadette’s likely suffering from multiple mental disorders and feels it’s time for an intervention.

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Music Monday: Ventura County Sheriff’s Department: Lip Sync to the Rescue Vanilla Ice #IceIceBaby #LipSyncRescue #MusicMonday

On By MischenkoIn Music15 Comments

Music Monday-

This meme was created by Drew @ The Tattooed Book Geek. You pick a song that you really like and share it on Monday.

Last time I shared:

Guns N’ Rose’s “Don’t Cry”

Today’s share:

Ventura County Sheriff’s Dept. Lip Sync to the Rescue

Has anyone watched the show, Lip Sync to the Rescue? I’d never heard of it until seeing it in the news over the weekend. What a wonderful idea for police to engage with the community and bridge the gap between them. It’s not just sheriff and police departments doing it, but also fire departments and EMTs too.

Vanilla Ice actually congratulated Ventura County Sheriff’s Dept. for a job well done. Besides “Ice Ice Baby”, other songs in this video include “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang, “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees, “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire, and “Whatever it Takes” by Imagine Dragons.

I just loved this. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Continue reading “Music Monday: Ventura County Sheriff’s Department: Lip Sync to the Rescue Vanilla Ice #IceIceBaby #LipSyncRescue #MusicMonday” →

Flower Friday: Sedums and Rigby the Cat #FlowerFriday #BlackCat #CatsofTwitter #Kitten #Sedums

On By MischenkoIn Animals, Flower Friday, Pets25 Comments

I wasn’t going to post Flower Friday today because I posted a book review, but I thought I’d share a quick picture of our landscaping sedums sheltering Rigby.

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Continue reading “Flower Friday: Sedums and Rigby the Cat #FlowerFriday #BlackCat #CatsofTwitter #Kitten #Sedums” →

Book Review: Nordic Tales by Chronicle Books & Ulla Thynell (Illustrator) #NordicTales #ChronicleBooks #FolkTales #FairyTales #BookReview

On By MischenkoIn Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Fiction, Reads21 Comments

Nordic Tales

By: Chronicle Books

Illustrator: Ulla Thynell

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My Review:

Nordic Tales by Chronicle Books and illustrated by Ulla Thynell is a beautiful collection of 17 folk tales from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark. Every tale varies in length, but most are fairly quick and easy to read.

The book is divided into three sections: Transformation, Wit, and Journeys.  Under each title, the author has included where it originates, and a few tales have more information attached at the bottom of the page for more clarification of a word used, or a historical fact; for example, the word jöjking is a Finnish word which means to sing songs.

Many of the tales in this book were unfamiliar to me, while others reminded me of tales from childhood; for example, “The Old Woman and the Tramp” was very similar to “Stone Soup” with the concept and the lesson it teaches of kindness and sharing. Another familiar tale was “East of the Sun and West of the Moon”. Most contain  folkloric characters we’re all familiar with including trolls, witches, dragons, giants, and talking animals of course. Some tales end happily, while others don’t.

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Book Review: The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events #10) #BookReview #ChildrensBooks #Fiction

On By MischenkoIn Children's Books, Fiction, Reads, Series15 Comments

The Slippery Slope (A Series of Unfortunate Events #10)

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By Lemony Snicket

My review:

The Slippery Slope, book number ten in A Series of Unfortunate Events, begins right where book nine left off. It’s as terrifying as ever with poor little Sunny Baudelaire now separated from her older siblings and in Count Olaf’s clutches. Not only is Sunny in danger, but Violet and Klaus are in their own horrifying predicament: speeding down the Mortmain Mountains in an uncontrolled caravan. As they descend further and further away from Sunny, they scramble to concoct a plan, and contemplate when and if they’ll be reunited with Sunny again.

Violet and Klaus moved closer to one another, and felt the icy winds of the Mortmain Mountains blow down the road less traveled and give them goosebumps. They looked at the dark and swirling waters of the Stricken Stream, and they looked down from the edge of the peak into the mist, and then looked at one another and shivered, not only at the fates they had avoided, but all the mysterious fates that lay ahead.

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