Before I forget: if you are going to be in Southern California this Sunday afternoon, I will be at the Ripped Bodice reading and signing Moonstone Heart. Also reading this Sunday:  Ann Royal Nicholas, Sarah Vance Tompkins, and Christine Ashworth. Y’all, this event is FUN. This is an ALL ROMANCE bookstore and there are SNACKS. It’s practically heaven. Come join the fun!
Now, on to the roundup:
Last weekend at the beach my daughter was stung by a stingray. I suppose the name should have given it away. They are hateful animals. Big, flat, brown, squishy, mean fish. Did I get that order of adjectives right? If I had written that they were flat, squishy, mean, big  fish would you have gotten a little itchy, and thought that something wasn’t right? It turns out, there is a specific order to writing a list of adjectives. Most of us know the order, but we don’t know that we know it. I honestly don’t know how anyone ever learns English. (As another example – we all believe in the rule I before E except after C. But that only works on 44 words, and has 923 exceptions. WEIRD.)
In the old days, before I was a homeschooler and a writer, if one of my kids whined ‘but there is nothing to eeeeeeaaaaaaatttt!!” I would open the refrigerator and point to a stockpile of healthy, organic, homemade snacks and treats and meals they could choose from. Now, when they whine, I don’t even both to open the fridge and gloat because I know they are right. I have lost all will to shop and cook. It’s hot, I’m busy, they won’t eat the vegetables anyway.  I loved this roundup of quick Trader Joe’s meal hacks, and am going to use them until I get my kitchen mojo back. (Which usually happens around October.) My favorite Trader Joe’s meal hack is the frozen Orange Chicken. It takes 3 bags to feed my army, and I throw a bag of baby carrots in to steam with the rice. It’s almost like real cooking.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a bunch of these fantastic succulent planters hanging at different heights around your patio? I’d sing “Under the Sea” every time I walked outside because they remind me of jellyfish. Just as long as they don’t remind me of stingrays, because stingrays are on my List of Bullshit Animals.
What are you reading this weekend? I pre-ordered Glennon Doyle Melton’s Love Warrior and devoured it in one sleepless night last week. For the weekend, the stingray-stung daughter wants me to read her current favorite book, See You At Harry’s. And I found a hardback copy of Atonement at a very wonderful used bookstore and am eager to re-read that, since it’s been a while.
Do you re-read books? Tell me what is on your nightstand this week.

photo via Unsplash