Logan Can

A Lifestyle Blog about Marriage, Parenting, Fashion and Fitness

Bookworm Review: Milk Glass Moon by Adriana Trigiani

Milk Glass Moon by Adriana Trigiani
Random House Publishing Group
July, 2003


Synopsis from Goodreads: Milk Glass Moon, the third book in Adriana Trigiani’s bestselling Big Stone Gap series, continues the life story of Ave Maria Mulligan MacChesney as she faces the challenges and changes of motherhood with her trademark humor and honesty. With twists as plentiful as those found on the holler roads of southwest Virginia, this story takes turns that will surprise and enthrall the reader.

Transporting us from Ave Maria’s home in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Italian Alps, from New York City to the Tuscan countryside, Milk Glass Moon is the story of a shifting mother-daughter relationship, of a daughter’s first love and a mother’s heartbreak, of an enduring marriage that contains its own ongoing challenges, and of a community faced with seismic change.

All of Trigiani’s beloved characters are back: Jack Mac, Ave Maria’s true love, who is willing to gamble security for the unknown; her best friend and confidant, bandleader Theodore Tip-ton, who begins a new life in New York City; librarian and sexpert Iva Lou Wade Makin, who faces a life-or-death crisis. Meanwhile, surprises emerge in the blossoming of crusty cashier Fleeta Mullins, the maturing of mountain girl turned savvy businesswoman Pearl Grimes, and the return of Pete Rutledge, the handsome stranger who turned Ave Maria’s world upside down in Big Cherry Holler. 

In this rollicking hayride of upheaval and change, Ave Maria is led to places she never dreamed she would go, and to people who enter her life and rock its foundation. As Ave Maria reaches into the past to find answers to the present, readers will stay with her every step of the way, rooting for the onetime town spinster who embraced love and made a family. Milk Glass Moon is about the power of love and its abiding truth, and captures Trigiani at her most lyrical and heartfelt.


My Thoughts: I loved this one! It’s almost like this series gets better and better by the book. Etta is growing up and I love learning more about her character and getting a glimpse at her adulthood. This story takes us back to Italy twice. It also reveals a healed relationship between Jack and Ave Maria. All of the characters are back and there is never a dull moment. This novel is filled with loss, marriage, illness, healing, friendships and love. I can’t wait to read the final book in this series but I am going to miss these characters so much. It reminds me of the town of Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls. I gave this book 5 stars.

Bookworm Review: The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
Riverhead, 2012


Synopsis from Goodreads: Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever.
 
For Cora, the city holds the promise of discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in this strange and bustling place she embarks on a mission of her own. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, she is liberated in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of Cora’s relationship with Louise, her eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.
 
Drawing on the rich history of the 1920s,’30s, and beyond—from the orphan trains to Prohibition, flappers,  and the onset of the Great Depression to the burgeoning movement for equal rights and new opportunities for women—Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone illustrates how rapidly everything, from fashion and hemlines to values and attitudes, was changing at this time and what a vast difference it all made for Louise Brooks, Cora Carlisle, and others like them


My Thoughts: Normally I love books that take place in the 1920s. This was an exception. There were parts of the story I loved and parts I hated. I felt like Moriarty was trying too hard to pack in as much (unnecessary) drama as she could. It was just too much and made it hard to enjoy the story. There was too much going on. I also felt that the story was going at a steady pace and then rushed at the end to hurry and finish the book. I gave this one 3 stars.

Baby OOTD // Wake Me Up Designs

Mornings with my little bubby are so priceless to me. It is my favorite time of day. He is so happy and loves to play while I drink my coffee and make out my schedule/lists for the day.

My sweet bloggy friend, Sarah from Whimsical Minutes has recently opened an Etsy shop called Wake Me Up Designs. She sells coffee mugs that can be personalized and has recently started adding other products to her shop. Right now she has this adorable “Mommy’s Coffee Date” tee-shirt and also has a matching mug! When I saw the tee-shirt, this coffee obsessed mommy had to have it for Hamp. She is going to add more shirt designs for babies and toddlers soon. Sarah also made me this personalized tee-pee mug that I absolutely adore! It made our morning a little more special.

Sarah is offering my readers a discount to her shop by using this code: sscblove


Follow Wake Me Up Designs on Instagram @wakemeupdegins and don’t forget to favorite her shop on etsy!

Shirt: WMUD // Jeans: Target (similar) // Socks: Khols (similar)

Hampton // 3 Months

Hampton is 3 months! He is now wearing 3-6 month clothes, is eating 3 ounces every 2 1/2 hours and is smiling and baby talking all the time. He is finally taking 1 or 2 naps a day which is much better than he was doing last month. He is able to sit in his bumbo and loves to go on walks with mommy. He discovered his taggie blanket and won’t ride in the car without it. He loves Thomas the Train. He had a fun weekend with his best friend, George and he saw his first snow! He is growing so fast and is almost rolling over. He is waking up once during the night and is still sleeping in his pack and play, however he does take naps in his crib so we have started the transition. He weighed 12 lbs and 14 ounces at his last doctor appointment and was 25 inches long. We go back at the end of this month. Happy 3 months sweet baby!

Fitness Friday: Look who’s back in her jeans

I had a pretty exciting week. Not only did I lose another pound, I can officially fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans!! I tried them on Monday morning and they fit! It was a huge milestone. Hampton turned 3 months on the 24th, and 4 months is the goal I had marked in my head to lose all of this weight. I am really excited to have made it this far! 8 pounds to go in less than 1 month. Can I do it (fingers crossed)? The Tone it up challenge has definitely helped me achieve my weight loss and helped me tone up a good bit in the last month. Most importantly, I feel so much better. I feel stronger and have so much more energy. It makes me excited and I actually look forward to the workouts every day.

Because of our snow days, I wasn’t able to make it to the gym (roads closed) and so I did Zumba several times this week. Zumba is awesome and you can burn a ton of calories doing it. I am definitely looking forward to getting back on my running schedule.

As far as nutrition, I am still trying to eat more fruits and vegetables than anything else. I’m not really dieting, just trying to eat healthier in general. I’m also still mostly drinking water (and coffee of course).

How was your fitness this week? Any nutrition tips you want to share?

Snow Day in Alabama

If you follow me on Instagram, you have seen the fun my family had in the snow! It’s not every day that it snows in Alabama. It’s a pretty big deal. Unfortunately because it never snows here, we do not have proper equipment and plans on how to deal with all of the ice and snow. There are a lot of families who were separated overnight due to this winter storm and people stranded on the interstate. I know several people who had to ditch their cars and walk home from work yesterday and others who had to leave their children overnight at their schools. There are also countless stories of people helping each other which always restores my faith in humanity. Luckily, my family was safe at home and got to enjoy the 2 snow days that we were blessed with. I hope all of you were able to stay safe and warm at home with your loved ones.

Fitness Friday: Tone it up

Happy Fitness Friday!! How are you doing with your fitness goals this month? You haven’t given up on those NYRs yet, have you? I sure haven’t!

I discovered an amazing website a couple of weeks ago. Tone it up is a fitness/nutrition program that gives you challenges and goals every week. Right now they are hosting the Love Your Body challenge. You must complete 100 miles by Valentines Day and they also have workouts for you to do every day to help you tone up.

I am loving this program so much. It is fun and exciting and the best part is there is a whole community of women who encourage you to reach your goals along the way. I started a week late so I’m a bit behind on my miles, but as of yesterday, I’ve completed 38.8 miles in just two weeks! That is pretty awesome for me! Not to mention the workouts on top of that. I have also lost 3 pounds! I only have 9 more to go but I still have a lot of toning to do to get back to where I was before the pregnancy. I am very proud of the progress I’ve made so far and can’t wait to continue to see results.

You can follow my fitness journey on Instagram where I’ll be checking in daily. Did I mention they give out all kinds of fun prizes and workout gear to people who check in regularly? They sure do! I highly recommend you join this FREE program! It is so much fun and I probably would have accomplished everything I have if I had not joined.

Happy Friday, y’all!!

Literary Junkies (January)

Pink Heels Pink Truck

1. What are you reading right now? Tell us about it.

–Milk Glass Moon by Adriana Trigiani It is the third book in the Big Stone Gap Series. I have really enjoyed reading them and learning about her Italian heritage. 

2. Out of the 16 books that will be turned into a movie adaptation, which one are you most looking forward to seeing this year? (Article Link)

– Can I choose All of the above? I really want to read all of these but maybe one or two. It will be exciting to see so many in theaters this year!

3. What was the worst book you’ve ever read?

-I’m not sure. If I usually start reading a book that I hate, I will quit reading it because there are too many other books I’d rather read. I don’t know that I’ve ever really read through an entire book that I hated…oh wait. The Casual Vacancy. That one was pretty bad. 

4. What foods or beverages have you spilled on a book while reading? Anything good?

-Coffee

5. Do you pictures characters as popular film or tv actors? Or do you create a whole new person in your head?

-I kind of make them up. I’m sure that sometimes I picture famous people or resemblances, but usually they are my own creation. 

6. Out of all the authors you’ve read books by, who’s brain would you want to pick the most?

-Hands down, Kate Morton and Adriana Trigiani. I love their books for different reasons, but they are two of my favorite authors. I’d love to pic their brains and hear how they came up with their stories.

Demolition

If you follow me on Instagram you probably saw this picture that I posted earlier. My family has been going through a lot of changes these last couple of weeks and forced to make a lot of difficult decisions. Because Ryan and I both work from home now and recently had our sweet baby H, we have really outgrown our little starter home. We are always on top of each other and having H here while we work is a wonderful blessing but it is also very distracting.

We decided that we needed to go ahead and put our house up for sale and start looking for a new home. We have actually been keeping our eyes open for a place but haven’t had any luck in the last year. We have come to the decision to build a home. We already found the builder we want to use and have already discussed the floor plan. The tough part is deciding where to build. We will either build in a neighborhood we found recently that is fairly new, or we may even be moving out of our hometown. We still have a lot of things to figure out and work through. The big thing is selling our home.

We have to sell our house before we can start building. In order to do this quickly, we have been really working on our house to de-clutter it, clean it really good and fix things that we have been needing to do for quite some time. On the list is our bathroom. It is terrible. When we moved in, it had hideous wallpaper and carpet. Carpet, y’all. Ewe. There is nothing like selling your house to make you want to finally redo these things. Anyways…demolition started today and will continue the next couple of days. I can’t wait to see the finished product!

Please pray that our house sells quickly. This will probably be a long process because we will likely move into an apartment while we are building so it will be an interesting year or so. Here’s to taking a leap of faith!

         

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