It's Monday and I'm tired...

Mondays are a mixed blessing/curse. I hate Monday, because it's the start of my work week and where I used to look forward to work, I now have a very hard time getting up and getting motivated...once I get there, I'm okay, as long as I have enough pain meds (sounds bad, doesn't it? But yes, I need to have a certain amount of meds in my system at all times just to feel comfortable enough to even walk...but that's whining, and not the purpose of this post or blog - it just is.) But the point is, it's getting more and more difficult to do this work thing, and I'm close to wanting to retire...yet the government says I'm too young. That's yet another blog post ( seriously, I have to wait until I'm 67!?! I think the government is just hoping most of us die off before we hit that age, and they want to raise it even HIGHER. Shame on them. )... The blessing part, is that usually by Monday or Sunday night, I've had a pretty fun weekend, even if I'm utterly exhausted from dealing with two preschool aged children. One has just turned four years old (the girl) and the other is going to be three in May.

(I know, this belongs more on a personal blog - but it's part of my Monday feelings.. lol)
I had a fun weekend. Both the grandchildren were over; they were playing together nicely....most of the time - a few times it was Battle Royale, but for the most part it was fun. We read books, watched movies, laughed at potty humor (WHAT has happened to my MIND) and played. I was extremely lazy (except for the whole potty thing and changing of the diapers), even going to far as to laying on the bed and letting the kids roll around on and off of me. This is a sneaky way of getting a back rub. Hey, what ever works - when your muscles are so tight from pain that they cramp up, having little kids roll around on top of your back, sitting on your back and in general just roughhousing ON TOP OF YOU, it actually feels good. This is pretty much how all my weekends go. It works for me.

In the picture here, they were being a prince and princess - dressing up in grandma's clothes and each wearing a button from Jack Kessler's Helles Belles book. If you look very closely, you can see the outline of Jezebel from the book. Not only were they prince and princess, but every weekend they must be transformed into kittykats, with heart shaped noses and whiskers - courtesy of their fun Aunt AJ. I wish she were my aunt sometimes. I hope to someday have a grandchild from her.....hint hint.

Okay, down to business - book blog business.
It's Monday - What Are You Reading? or What ARE you reading, for god's sake!
wierd mood, what can I say?

Hosted by Sheila of Book Journey, this is where we give and get a glimpse of what each other has been reading, might start reading and what we've read for the past week.
My reading has slowed down quite a bit since a year ago (see above picture for possible reasons) but I'm plugging away, getting at least an average of one book a week.

:)

By Cat Adams, (writing team of C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp) I finished Blood Song, an enjoyable urban fantasy read that includes vampires, telepaths, werewolves and Abominations (people not quite turned by a vampire). I enjoyed it enough to want to try out the second in the Blood Singer series (Siren Song). In fact, not only did I finish reading, but I actually managed to post a review on THE SAME DAY. I haven't cross posted it yet to Amazon and the other sites, like Good Reads, but I will.

That's it. for finished reading...

I'm Currently Reading:

A Song For My Mother by Kat Martin. This is my "work book", a book that is fairly tame, with a work-safe cover, that I don't mind the students catching a peek at. It's about a woman who has left her small hometown at a young age because of family trouble. She's held a grudge against her mother for all those years, but has come home for a short visit to allow her own daughter to get to know her grandmother. Her daughter came through a bout of cancer, so she's finally decided to allow her daughter and grandmother to meet each other. Personally, speaking as a grandmother, I can't think of anything more heartbreaking (other than death) than not being allowed to even meet your grandchildren.

I am also reading The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney. Karen Mahoney wrote short stories for the YA anthologies Eternal Kiss and most recently Deadly Kiss. I was fortunate and won it (still excited about winning it, I'm such a book nerd - *g*) and had to force myself to wait until I finished reading Blood Song before I started The Iron Witch. I was able to get some reading done this weekend, despite having my weekend fun (see above *g*). Even though it's written in third person (my favorite is first person), I'm enjoying the whole tone of the novel so far. The heroine also has these cool metal markings on both arms (she doesn't like them, though). There are mechanical birds which remind me of some of the steampunk gadgets and/or the mechanical owl in The Clash of the Titans. the mythologically based movie made long, long ago. There is a POC side character, if anyone is looking for POC characters in books - though not a big deal is made of this (refreshing). I'm within the first hundred pages, but it's going well so far.

I'm also going to admit here that I was too lazy to walk back to another room to get The Iron Witch, when I had five minutes to read, so I grabbed a book that was sitting on my bedside table, Masques by Patricia Briggs. Per Patricia Briggs, this was her very first novel. She's re-worked it a bit, and luckily it's been reprinted, along with the sequel Wolfsbane. I haven't bought Wolfsbane yet - I was waiting to see if I would like Masques first. Although I love reading her Mercy Thompson series, I don't like the Alpha and Omega series - too romancy for me. I've only read the first chapter, but it's promising. After I read her forward, I was almost afraid to start reading the book, but it's not bad. *g* There is still a sample of the original Masques up at Hurog

I was going to finish this post with the books I'm reading, but I'm in the mood to inflict yet another grandchild picture on y'all. This one is a study of feet. It's the difference between my grandson's foot, and my granddaughter's foot. Remember, they are a year and a couple months apart - the girl being the oldest...she gets very angry when we mention how he's bigger than her. She wants to be bigger. She also doesn't like sharing the 'L' from the alphabet, only she's suppose to have it in her name, I guess. lol.