Maureen > Recent Status Updates

“We both know food is the catalyst that unlocks our brains, binds our families, and determines our futures.”

“I looked out of the window. People were shopping, talking on mobiles, pushing prams. The world just went on, regardless of what happened. That's how it works.”

“I'd tried to cope alone for far too long, and it hadn't done me any good at all. Sometimes you simply needed someone kind to sit with you while you dealt with things.”

“The past had been hiding from me--or I'd hidden from it-and yet there it was, still, lurking in darkness. It was time to let in a little light.”

“The voice in my own head--my own voice--was actually quite sensible, and rational, I'd begun to realize. It was Mummy's voice that had done all the judging, and encouraged me to do so too. I was getting to quite like my own voice, my own thoughts. I wanted more of them. They made me feel good, calm even. They made me feel like me.”

“She certainly seemed to have a life, not just an existence.”

“Obscenity is the distinguishing hallmark of a sadly limited vocabulary.”

“Tiny slivers of life--they all added up and helped you to feel that you too could be a fragment, a little piece of humanity who usefully filled a space, however minuscule.”

“I suppose one of the reasons we’re all able to continue to exist for our allotted span in this green and blue vale of tears is that there is always, however remote it might seem, the possibility of change.”

“She was, quite simply, a nice lady who’d raised a family and now lived quietly with her cats and grew vegetables. This was both nothing and everything.”

“… Once I start a book I finish it. That was the way one was brought up. Books, bread and butter, mashed potato – one finishes what’s on one’s plate. That’s always been my philosophy.”

I gave my copy of Debbie Macomber’s Christmas book “The Christmas Spirit” to the Free Little Library at The Bookworm Cafe and noticed two other DM Christmas books on the shelves, so I chose this one. I’m not sure why I’m so hellbent on finding adult Christmas stories to enjoy, but I’m here for the adventure! The writing isn’t usually what I gravitate toward, but I have fun dissecting it as I read.

"It's not so nuts when you think about it," Pete said.
"Both Hank and I deal in spirits. He's serving alcohol and I'm serving up the Holy Spirit."

I’m still not sure what I think of this book, but it’s making me smirk and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t warming my heart a bit.

I’m in a reading rut and desired an uplifting, cheerful read to pull me out of it. I have never been one to choose fiction, but this year I have been pushing myself to choose it. Though I love Christmas, I must say I am not a Hallmark Christmas movie watcher or a reader of adult Christmas fiction. This is only my second adult fiction Christmas read ever! I’m craving more - it’s delightful. 🥰

Reading this as a read-aloud with Lucy! She loves Laura Ingalls Wilder like me and we want to get out to Walnut Grove one day, so this sounded like a fun read. We are loving the Minnesota-isms like tater tot hot dish!

“What do you want for your kids? And are you practicing these things in your own life?”

“You told me that knowing how to read words and knowing when to speak them is the most valuable commodity a person can have.”

I absolutely adore this book. The story is powerful.

“I wondered, maybe other people weren’t the reason I hadn’t been living my own life; maybe they were just the excuse I needed.”

I’ve had this book on my shelf for a long time and read a bit of it previously. My father-in-law gave it to me. We are both business-minded and enjoy books like this. I have a few Starbucks books that I have only read bits and pieces of and now want to read in their entirety, especially given the company’s current situation. In the past I’ve always been intrigued by their business practices.

Shelving this one for a bit at the halfway point. There is mostly a common thread that runs through the book, but the stories are here, there, and everywhere. I need a break. I’m fatigued from the scattered-ness of the content. There are plenty of make-ya-thinkers in here, but some of the metaphors are too out there for me.

“Consumer culture promises us that we can buy our way out of pain - that the reason we’re sad and angry is not that being human hurts; it’s because we don’t have those countertops, her thighs, these jeans. This is a clever way to run an economy, but it is no way to run a life. Consuming keeps us distracted, busy, and numb. Numbness keeps us from becoming.”