Did you ever feel like you are the outside looking in?

I’ve felt this a lot but specifically, I am talking about people who have read classic books like Little Women and I haven’t, or well hadn’t.

After reading Little Women this year I finally feel like I know what everyone is talking about when it comes to Jo and Laurie.

Finally!

I mean I have seen movies based on the book but only by reading the book did I really get why Jo and Laurie simply couldn’t be together at the end. They were too much alike. Both impulsive and passionate in ways that weren’t always good. Yes, as they grew they could have changed and mellowed but I can’t see that happening really. I think as they grew older they may have bounced off each other even more and ended up arguing all of the time, making for a miserable marriage.

They both needed partners to offset their personalities.

Jo needed someone more calming like The Professor and Laurie needed someone willing to be more genteel like Amy.

Part of me still doesn’t like that Amy and Laurie ended up together. My heart says it wasn’t right, but I can also see why Alcott didn’t make Jo and Laurie a couple. She needed to do something different – shake up the readers’ expectations and leave everyone talking for the next hundred or so years. If Laurie and Jo had ended up together then Little Women would have always been seen as a sweet book but maybe not the one ahead of its time that it is now.

What do you think? *looking at those who have read Little Women with a wide-eyed, somewhat crazed expression*

Relaxing breath.

Okay. With that off my chest, we can now move on to our regularly scheduled program of me reviewing my past week.

Today I am going to be sipping something warm – most likely tea – while writing blog posts, brainstorming more ideas for Gladwynn Shakes the Family Tree (book three in my cozy mystery series), and reading a cozy mystery. It’s a little chilly today after some very nice and warm days earlier in the week.

We had warm days and cold nights. Warm enough that our tulips came up and I thought one night they’d die in the frost we had forecasted, but they survived.

Next week I need to prepare myself to be at the playground a lot because it is supposed to be warm and sunny pretty much all week.

We spent time at the playground three days this week and a lot of time outside sitting on the porch and playing with the dog on other days.

In between all of that, we had school lessons as we marched toward the end of our school year. We will be finishing up around the first week of June.

I picked The Boy up from his trade school yesterday and we headed over to an additional location for a bakery near us that has become very, very popular before picking up our groceries.

The kids picked out some sweet treats – two Boston cream donuts for The Boy and three Oreo cupcakes for Little Miss (and an extra for dad) and three Hershey kiss cookies for me. The Boy also ordered an iced coffee but, sadly, said it had more ice than coffee. It was still good, though, he said and he will try again for one another time. He said he actually doesn’t like coffee that much but always feels like he should so he keeps ordering different kinds to see if the love for it will finally catch on.

There was a mix up at our pick up when the young man who brought out my groceries gave me two or three bags that were not mine.

I’m so glad I checked before I left because more than half my order was missing. He had grabbed the wrong stack of bags. I had to go into the store and track him down when I noticed the mistake. When he came out to the car to help correct, I let him know that I’m not in diapers yet so the one bag clearly wasn’t supposed to go me.

He was very polite and apologetic and the mistake was taken care of very quickly.

After we left there it was a quick snack from Wendy’s, which my son said was disgusting.

From there we headed home and the kids spent part of the afternoon watching Harry Potter and then a half hour at the playground.

Today The Husband has to work almost the entire day so it will be just me and the kids. We will probably watch a movie together later tonight – I’m trying to find something different that The Boy might like. He always suggests the weirdest movies so this time he’s going to watch something that I like.

Tomorrow we will visit my parents for Sunday lunch and to hang out. Little Miss likes to play games when we are there but I’m hoping that this time we can watch a fun or interesting movie instead.


This morning I spent some time crying over Tom Jones singing on The Voice. I never knew much about Tom Jones until I saw some clips on the UK version of The Voice and oh my. He is still amazing and he’s in his 80s! Just what?!

Here are a couple clips I just loved listening to while I procrastinated on cleaning the house and organizing my homeschooling supplies:

How was your week last week? Let me know in the comments and if you have a similar weekly catch-up post – no matter when you post it – link up with me.

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