Your Prayers Will Be Answered...
(missing MOM, Philly sports, Kitties! and BOOKS!)
Hello beautiful friends.
Today is the sixth anniversary of my mother’s passing. I miss my MOM an impossible amount every single day, or SEVERELY to describe it in one word. I don’t know much what else to write about this day, except, that yeah… it truly sucks. If you have your parents, hug them tighter if you read this, or reach out to them. Just for a minute… I’m sure they will appreciate it. <3
Not much has been going on in the last few weeks. Just been a homebody because it’s too cold to do anything and it also snowed 6 inches this past weekend. We were supposed to go to the Flyers game (Philadelphia National League hockey team if you’re not familiar with hockey and the Philly region) … and we canceled on that because of the weather not being good whatsoever. It’s okay, I sold my tickets in about 10 minutes on StubHub and didn’t lose out that much on money, so that’s good… but we had great seats and I’m bummed we didn’t get to use them, even if they lost in a terrible loss. Three goals on three shots and the other team (The New York Rangers) had a HAT TRICK (3 goals by one player) … and that IS TERRIBLE for the Flyers! But… it would have been fun just to get down there to a game, even if their season has collapsed apparently because of injury—which seems to happen every year anymore. Will I ever see a Stanley Cup championship win? I PRAY I DO!
Next week: I have a guest contributor post coming out for Journal Notes from Jamaica 🖋️ … I am so proud to have gotten my writing in yet ANOTHER publication, and I hope you all enjoy it. I will be posting it next week for everyone to read as a link to the publication. YAYS! I won’t give away the topic for the Kindness Journal, but as you can figure it revolves Kindness and I wrote about something near and dear to my heart because I truly believe it is the epitome of KINDNESS. =)
The Rescue Life has been going good as of late… ( www. Hart2heartanimalrescue.com ) and my new role in it all has been a great thing so far… I just need to keep boundaries in place and enforce them when necessary and will. I am pretty good and have gotten better at protecting my peace in that sense. I also am excited that I will get to SOCIALIZE some kittens. We need to SOCIALIZE quite a few of our cats, including these older kittens that are near to my home, so I get to go on some evenings of the week with the hubs to socialize and play with them and get them to be able to get closer to adopted. This is an amazing thing for me and I’m glad I was asked to do it. =) I type this as AURORA stares at me. I think she wants her dinner, as it’s getting closer to dinner time for her. HAHA! She is a very friendly yet still skittish kitty. She is very much a people kitty and loves being with me. Yesterday, MR. MACK was out and about when a neighbor stopped by and he continued to lay on the couch, unbothered. Yet another friendly kitty. I love them both so much and I have been so blessed to have both in my life so far. AURORA has her birthday on Saturday; she will be TWO. YAYS! Happy Birthday AURORA! It’s supposed to snow again that day. HA! I hope to see my dad on Sunday because we didn’t get to because of the weather this past weekend. Hopefully, this time it will be a bust instead of the opposite, where there is a forecast of less than inch and we end up with six inches of snow instead! YIKES. That is seriously a forecasting PROBLEM. I wonder if they’re going off the AI models and THAT’s THE TRUE PROBLEM. SCIENCE… it’s good for the soul, can we keep it ALIVE? /mic drop.
BOOKS
ANATOMY OF AN ALIBI Ashley Elston – THIS BOOK WAS PHENOMENAL. I was awaiting its release because her book FIRST LIE WINS was really what started me on my reading kick 2-3 years ago and I AM THRILLED this second ADULT fiction/thriller book was so good! I read it so fast (of course) and now in 2 years I’m going to be awaiting her next release! LOL! Of course. She is another Gillian Flynn*** I swear, but with less sarcasm to her writing style. Five Stars.
*** Gillian Flynn where are you? It’s been 16 years since GONE GIRL where are you?
THE NEW YEAR’S PARTY Jenna Satterthwaite -– That last name is beyond a MOUTHFUL. Anyways, this book was very good. I kept seeing it listed as BOOK CLUB reads in my Book Clubs app and I thought, hmmm… The Philly Thriller Book Club (which I hope to join sometime this coming summer—warmer weather and PHILLY) … had listed it as this month’s read. I didn’t look at the ratings but went for it. IT WAS BETTER than expected. Keep an eye out for it, I recommend it. If you like Lucy Foley (which I do!) you will love this! PROMISE! Five Stars.
THIS BOOK WILL BURY ME Ashley Winstead-– This book was better than I expected. I thought it would be my first DNF since the New Year started, but it wasn’t and it actually made me cry in spots as the writer of the book (Ms. Winstead) was dealing with the grief of the loss of her father while writing the book and I KNOW ALL ABOUT GRIEF. I even think sometimes my life’s purpose is to just deal with grief. (I won’t say the next sarcastic phrase I am thinking because I don’t want to throw LIZ under the bus, or my mother’s parent’s but come on… ! So, I totally get it.) And then … it made me cry in spots at the end. So, there’s that, but the story itself was intricate and deep and somewhat moving which you kind of really don’t expect from a THRILLER! Five Stars.
NOBODY KNOWS YOU’RE HERE Bryn Greenwood— This FELT LONG. I thought it could have been wrapped up in 350 or so pages rather than 460 pages. Sometimes those lengths feel FORCED and as a writer and voracious reader myself, I feel like I can say this… THIS FELT FORCED. The story also felt used so many times, and I feel I have read it too many times before, starting with years ago (like 10!) with another book I read and can’t remember the name of, and the author just released a new book: Chevy Stevens. This is in the vein though of PRETTY GIRLS by Karin Slaughter from my understanding, and I did NOT read that because so many people told me NOT to. (EFF everyone else though—I think I need to try it out, especially since I LOVE that Will Trent (one of Slaughter’s repeat characters to my understanding) show on TV and watch it with the hubs weekly!) This book was good though for what it’s worth, just not 5-star material. Four Stars.
NEXT UP!—I read a bunch of women in a row, I think I need to read a man’s thriller, or crime fiction. I will pick it later though, as I probably won’t begin to read it today, stay tuned!
Thank you as always for reading my blog and being supportive of ME, MYSELF and I and my FAMILY. Please keep us in your prayers as we navigate through this period in the grief cycle. The period where we have moved on, (of course) but reminders bring it back and NEW grief always trickles in the bad memories and almost like a PTSD, it injects itself into our veins and it hurts, like the needle you just don’t want to stick there. “HOLD MY HAND, EVERYTHING WILL BE OK… YOUR PRAYERS WILL BE ANSWERED, LET GOD WHISPER HOW.”—Lady Gaga
And please, PUT some KINDNESS into the world today. We ALL need it, and you never know what someone else is going through.
Take care.
-xoxo-
LWB*
Sending you love, healing, and peace, Laura. What a blessing your relationship with your mother is/was. Looking forward to publishing your story this Sunday! ☮️🙏🏽🩵🫂
Sending healing thoughts your way on this day. 🙏