{"id":328,"date":"2016-06-03T11:41:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T11:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2016\/06\/03\/beach-blooms-and-books\/"},"modified":"2020-10-28T02:51:01","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T02:51:01","slug":"beach-blooms-and-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2016\/06\/03\/beach-blooms-and-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Beach, Blooms, And Books"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"girl<\/a><\/div>\n

If that isn’t the picture of happiness right there, I don’t know what is. \u00a0We were in Maine over the weekend and it just confirms my belief that there is nothing like the ocean for soothing the soul. \u00a0It was grey and gloomy while we were there and downright chilly two of the three days but that doesn’t really matter. \u00a0The sound of the ocean, the smell of the salt breeze, and the feel of the sand between your toes is wonderful no matter what the weather. \u00a0If you can add in a dinner of fish, clams, scallops, shrimp, and clam chowder well, life doesn’t get much better than that.<\/p>\n

\"beach\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\"Maine<\/a><\/div>\n

We came home to a lawn that looked like a jungle and irises that appear to have bloomed overnight. \u00a0My gardens are kind of a mess but when the irises bloom it doesn’t seem to matter. \u00a0All the beauty distracts you from the weeds, at least that is what I tell myself.<\/p>\n

\"yellow<\/a><\/div>\n
\"purple<\/a><\/div>\n

The kids only have two weeks left of school. \u00a0I can’t wait. \u00a0I am so tired of alarms going off at 5:15, of homework, of crabby children. \u00a0I want more beach days and a little more rest and time with family. \u00a0In reality, I will probably spend a lot of the summer yelling at my son to get off his computer and at my daughter to clean up the trail of debris she has left throughout the house but I am going to live in my world of illusion and fantasy for now.<\/p>\n

I am occasionally pleasantly surprised by the papers the kids bring home from school. \u00a0My daughter had to write a haiku and this is what she did. \u00a0Maybe I will let her create that trail of debris through the house after all.<\/p>\n

\"haiku<\/a><\/div>\n

I haven’t had much to write about books lately. \u00a0That isn’t because I haven’t been reading but because I went a little crazy and started five million books all at once. \u00a0I finally reined myself in and forced myself to finish all of them before I started anything new. I even made myself set aside the Lymond Chronicles until I had finished everything else. \u00a0I had read the first chapter or so of the second book but I knew once I was sucked into that world nothing else would be read. \u00a0 Several of the books I had started were rereads just for the fun of it and a couple were ones I had no particular intention of blogging about. \u00a0I am on the last of the five million started books right now and then I can hopefully pull back from the slight chaos of my current book selection process and read in a more rational manner. \u00a0That is the plan anyway. I am a bit greedy where books are concerned. \u00a0 I just want to read them all at once.<\/p>\n

Last night I finished Mr. Scarborough’s Family by Anthony Trollope. \u00a0I find reading Trollope fascinating. \u00a0It is such a window into a world that doesn’t exist anymore. \u00a0The attitudes, standards, and outlooks portrayed in his novels are not ones that are common to the world anymore. \u00a0In many cases, though not all, \u00a0this is sad. \u00a0It seems that often the events and actions that are viewed as shocking by the characters in the novels would not be thought twice about by people in our day and age. \u00a0But at the same time, there is causal racism and classism that bothers modern-day readers. \u00a0One reason I love books so much is that they put you so completely into a different world. \u00a0That, in and of itself, is an education.<\/p>\n

Do you ever find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer number of books you are trying to read at once?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If that isn’t the picture of happiness right there, I don’t know what is. \u00a0We were in Maine over the weekend and it just confirms my belief that there is nothing like the ocean for soothing the soul. \u00a0It was grey and gloomy while we were there and downright chilly two of the three days but that doesn’t really matter. \u00a0The sound of the ocean, the smell of the salt breeze, and the feel of the sand between your toes is wonderful no matter what the weather. \u00a0If you can add in a dinner of fish, clams, scallops, shrimp, and clam chowder well, life doesn’t get much better than that. We came home to a lawn that looked like a jungle and irises that appear to have bloomed overnight. \u00a0My gardens are kind of a mess but when the irises bloom it doesn’t seem to matter. \u00a0All the beauty distracts you from the weeds, at least that is what I tell myself. The kids only have two weeks left of school. \u00a0I can’t wait. \u00a0I am so tired of alarms going off at 5:15, of homework, of crabby children. \u00a0I want more beach days and a little more rest and time with family. \u00a0In reality, I will probably spend a lot of the summer yelling at my son to get off his computer and at my daughter to clean up the trail of debris she has left throughout the house but I am going to live in my world of illusion and fantasy for now. I am occasionally pleasantly surprised by the papers the kids bring home from school. \u00a0My daughter had to write a haiku and this is what she did. \u00a0Maybe I will let her create that trail of debris through the house after all. I haven’t had much to write about books lately. \u00a0That isn’t because I haven’t been reading but because I went a little crazy and started five million books all at once. \u00a0I finally reined myself in and forced myself to finish all of them before I started anything new. I even made myself set aside the Lymond Chronicles until I had finished everything else. \u00a0I had read the first chapter or so of the second book but I knew once I was sucked into that world nothing else would be read. \u00a0 Several of the books I had started were rereads just for the fun of it and a couple were ones I had no particular intention of blogging about. \u00a0I am on the last of the five million started books right now and then I can hopefully pull back from the slight chaos of my current book selection process and read in a more rational manner. \u00a0That is the plan anyway. I am a bit greedy where books are concerned. \u00a0 I just want to read them all at once. Last night I finished Mr. Scarborough’s Family by Anthony Trollope. \u00a0I find reading Trollope fascinating. \u00a0It is such a window into a world that doesn’t exist anymore. \u00a0The attitudes, standards, and outlooks portrayed in his novels are not ones that are common to the world anymore. \u00a0In many cases, though not all, \u00a0this is sad. \u00a0It seems that often the events and actions that are viewed as shocking by the characters in the novels would not be thought twice about by people in our day and age. \u00a0But at the same time, there is causal racism and classism that bothers modern-day readers. \u00a0One reason I love books so much is that they put you so completely into a different world. \u00a0That, in and of itself, is an education. Do you ever find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer number of books you are trying to read at once?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happy-things"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2827,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions\/2827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}