New toes.

Usually if I am talking about toes, it is about my summer toes and how much I actually enjoy having my toes painted. It is a small thing that makes me happy.

Random thing having a kid with CP that drags his foot and you have made him knitted socks - it he can wear through thick rubber KEENs.. imagine what he can do to a natural fibre like wool and nylon.

Hence, check out his new toes!!! I couldn't find the leftover ball of yarn from when I originally knitted these bad boys up... so I went sideways and used up some other old balls because.. WHY NOT.  Amazing what happens when you let go of a few things, some magic can happen!

I really didn't know what to do for a while when I realized that Brandon had worn holes in the top of his socks. I kind of needed to get over my shock (maybe this wasn't best sock yarn choice for B but we went for colour choice) but I figured out back in the good ole days... you would have darned the holes.  So I went one full step further and just cut the ends of his socks off... found a loop that was untouched, and started again from there. I am sure there is a life lesson buried in here.  After the first sock was fixed.. B walked around with one sock, literally all day. Any doubts I had about fixing them, out the window.  Love comes in many forms.  This is one of them.

Go Big...

 A highly quotable book, this.  If I am on a fantasy kick, I would also have to admit to being on a bit of a YA kick.  There is some kind of magic roaming through different genres far and wide and trying to pluck out some gems.

This human condition thing is an interesting beast.

I really enjoyed this book.  A different kind of heroine - at once, many different things: self aware of her size, confident, insecure, beautiful, funny, nasty, emerging into an older version of her self (AKA growing up).

It is great to see so many different voices, and how important they are to find.  I was going to say as a young person, but hell, I am in my 40s and I enjoyed it and got something out of it... so it really isn't about age.  It helps to hear different voices, different selves growing up, being insecure, making mistakes, being pulled in too many different directions at once.  I didn't always like Willow, but we aren't meant to. She pissed me off sometimes and I wanted to smack her.  I wasn't always comfortable - as a person who has never been small, there are some things written in this book I have definitely thought.  I also love how female friendship is handled in this book, and power struggles, and how important honest communication is.

How hard is to quiet that voice in your hard? We all have that harshest critic that questions whether or not we are good enough.  It is harder when you don't quite fit the normal mode, or the average.  Yes, I can hear that voice saying to me but HEY, what is normal anyways? I would also say normal is whatever your experience is of this thing called life... but there are some experiences that are outside of what is generally experienced.  Like when Willow says she hates going to a mall because 90% of what is inside won't fit her.  There is truth in that statement. I can't say I like going to the mall.  Select stores, maybe.  I hate many things about the mall, feeling inadequate because the clothes in the trendy stores don't normally fit doesn't help.  It is why I will never purchase lululemon clothes.  Their whole thing that they aren't for fat people, and their small sizing and big pricing.  Beauty comes in every size, and even folks who have some extra padding can be active and want some quality yoga pants.  Even if I was a 10 or even a 12... owning a pair of lulus isn't the hill I am going to chase.

This is a quick, fast, enjoying coming of age novel from a larger gal down south in pageant country.

Full on fantasy kick

I don't think I saw this one coming.. but I seem to be reading a lot of YA and fantasy novels this year.  They seem to be filling some kind of need - or perhaps this is an offshoot of the books that I am reading with my kids.

This is a cool idea - what if dragons exist, form deep bonds with humans, and we use them in warfare?  Enter this novel, during naval battles between Brits and the French in the time of Napoleon and Nelson.  A very different take, and quite enjoyable as a summer read.

Where?

There is something wonderful about Gaiman's imagination.

I am sure a conversation with him would go in weird and enlightening directions.

Again, a totally different novel that was at once enchanting, and a little dark. I like the worlds that Gaiman creates, and this is a different take on New York, London, and the places that exist in the cracks of society.

Good read.

Far better than some of those popular thrillers...

VERY interesting book.

This is one I would love to discuss with my bookclub ladies.

Damn, I wish I would have written this after I had finished this book, not attempting to reconstruct my impressions weeks later.  Such is life.

This is about a family cracking around the edges, and something terrible happens in the tradition of old school horror movies meets reality TV.  Well worth a gander.