Month: May 2013

Beach Reading-Here I Come!

erinbradyauthor

Now that Memorial Day holiday is over and the start of the summer season begins, I can officially proclaim to you all how much I love summer.  And it’s not just because of the weather (hot and sunny and no sign of snow anywhere) or the fact that I can wear my white capri pants and flip flops 24/7 (say good bye to Uggs for now).  It’s also not how much I look forward to a long overdue vacation and sigh with contentment over long weekends feeling the sand in between my toes and hearing the ocean waves crashing onto the shore.

Those are all really good reasons to love summer but one of the main reasons I enjoy this season so much is because of beach reading!  Yay!  As a book lover, I can’t wait to make a dent to the long list of summer reads I have been anxiously waiting to dive into.

Summer gives me the perfect opportunity to catch up on my favorite authors and characters.  It sets the right mood with the irresistible combination of a lounge chair, sun block, a glass of chilled wine and two hours of uninterrupted time with my Kindle.  And there is sooo much to choose from this year that I really don’t know where to begin.

The sequel to The Devil Wears Prada is definitely on the top of my list, as well as, Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter and Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple.  Inferno by Dan Brown, Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight and And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini will definitely check off the categories of mystery suspense and emotional drama.  ‘Insurgent’ by Veronica Roth is a must for the science fiction cravings I often have. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows will take care of historical fiction and One Day by David Nicholls will satisfy my mushy sentimental romantic side.  And if I have time, I may be tempted to re-read my favorite classics such as Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  And just to add some levity and fluff to my summer months, VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV’s First Wave is definitely on my “to-read” list as well as Some Girls: My Life in a Harem by Jillian Lauren (Hey, a girl needs her quota of gossip too!)

So there you have it. Only two and a half months to get done with all this reading.  It’s quite a challenge but one I’m so ready to take on.  Now, I’m off.  I hear my books and the beach calling!

Happy Reading!

Erin

When Did My Bed Get Too Small?

erinbradyauthor

 

I have a king size bed.  My husband and I bought it a few years back.  But before you think that this is a good thing, let me just explain.

When my husband and I were first married, we slept on a full size bed.  We didn’t think it was too small.  Just like realtors who advertise a tiny house as quaint and cozy, that’s how we felt about our bed.  Keep in mind we were also newlyweds and so the thought of feeling each other’s feet and intertwining legs under the covers was kind of sexy and very intimate.  Of course, that was at a time in our marriage when we couldn’t get enough of each other and we were practically attached at the hip. But you get the picture…

Fast-forward a few years into our blessed union.  We were elated at the birth of our first-born child and were determined to be perfect parents and so we never let the baby out of our sight.  Our son slept very comfortably in a sleeper, positioned between the both of us on our bed.  A few weeks of this and we quickly realized our full size bed was, indeed…full and not big enough for the three of us.  Suddenly, cozy was not cutting it anymore. So we bought ourselves a queen size bed.  Now by this time, we wore socks to bed and the only time our feet touched was to keep warm.  As new parents, sex was something we saw briefly in an R rated movie which ending credits, if we were lucky, we stayed awake long enough to see roll down the TV screen.

Then my daughter was born and we found that our queen size bed was yet again… a full one!  By now my son was a toddler and he had his own bed but every night he would sneak into ours. Four people sleeping in a bed made for two, even if two of the four made up the equivalent of one adult, was still crowding.  My husband and I stayed at either end of the bed and if our legs found each other, we would swat them away with a gentle but firm kick.

Now, that we have our third child, we felt that it was time again to bite the bullet and buy the king size tempurpedic mattress –which the salesman insisted we could put a glass of wine in the middle of the bed and it wouldn’t spill or be dislodged. Naturally, that made the sale!  How cool is it to drink wine in bed?  Now, we have five people sleeping in our bed at any given time of night.  It has become a sporting event where my husband and I take turns maneuvering our kids out of our beds and back into their own.  We gently tell them that there are no monsters under their own beds –although sometimes one may be luring under ours-lightning cannot come through a closed window and the bogeyman does not have a key to our front door.  We walk them bleary eyed to their own rooms.  Most of the times, we are too exhausted to do any of that and we just give in and let them sleep in our bed curled up like circus people, assuming positions that only a contortionist would be able to.  My husband and I are miles apart on this king size bed and our legs no longer can reach far enough to touch.  Sex is now just a three-letter word that seems vaguely familiar to us.   The other day, I woke up with a splitting headache to find a Pokemon toy jabbing my temple under my pillow.

Sigh.  Its’ days like that when I really miss my full size bed.

Erin

The Ultimate Superhero

erinbradyauthor

Moms are amazing creatures.    Somehow they have this incredible, amazing ability to do it all.    Whenever I read a job post online and the qualifications ask for being able to juggle multiple projects simultaneously and under tight deadlines, I think that all moms should apply; because that is precisely what they do on a daily basis.   Tell a mom something is impossible to do and they will laugh at you.  They can cook, sew a button on a shirt, figure out an algebraic formula, balance a phone on their shoulder while being put on hold with customer service, arbitrate a fight between siblings, all of it at the same time without even breaking a sweat. So many runny noses to blow, so many shoelaces to tie, so many chores to tend to… and only two hands to do it!

And it’s not like women are born with these magical powers.  No-just the opposite.  When I was young, I thought of no one but myself:  sleeping until noon on weekends was the norm.  Partying until early in the wee hours was a must.  But the minute I became a mom, something definitely changed.  It’s as if the minute you bring a child to the world, you acquire superhuman traits.  You know how Superman can fly or Spiderman can swing on a web, well moms can handle a crisis in two seconds flat without blinking an eye.  Moms can memorize everyone’s schedule in the family with photographic precision: Tons of soccer practices, play rehearsals, Girl Scout cookie drives, doctor’s appointments, sleepovers and that does not even include the million of other things that moms have lined up for themselves; yet, somehow, no one is late.  Remember those noon wake up calls I mentioned?  Now my internal clock wakes me up most mornings at six am.  And my mommy senses know when one of my children is hurt or in trouble.  I also have the ability to locate any lost item in my house with just the mention of two words to describe it: “that thing.”   I am, indeed, the GPS for all things.

But most of all, moms are loving and patient and kind.  They give their kids tough love when they need to but also are very eager to provide a smile, a hug, a kiss and a word of encouragement.  I know I still need my mom in my life and I am grateful to still have her with me.

So, for all of us moms out there getting ready to celebrate our special day on Sunday, cheers and hats off to us all!  Our husbands still don’t know how we do it.  Shh, let’s keep it that way!

Erin