Author Archives: Heather Shoberg

About Heather Shoberg

I'm many things... I'm a wife, a mother, a book lover, a movie lover, a photography lover, a music lover, a coffee lover, and a chocolate lover. I have cute aggression and I'm an introvert. I love mangoes and my favorite flower is the sunflower. I got married in Converse sneakers and love fairy lights. I love the mountains and when I was little I wanted to be an astronaut.

Week In Review – Well hello there, February

Happy Monday!

Linking up with Meghan from Clean Eats, Fast Feets for another Week in Review!

Random occurrences and accomplishments – this week there were few accomplishments, let’s just be honest.

  • So much laundry. The cat puked on the bed two days in a row which meant extra washing to be done, and is not my favorite.
  • Flipped the calendar to February. This is my work calendar, my home calendar is all Outlander.

  • Fewer trips to Target – this is an accomplishment because it seems like I’m always at Target spending money on things we don’t need.
  • Kept my cool during another insane Phoebe tantrum when she didn’t want to leave day care. Enzo and I shared a look and he helped carry bags and open doors while I carried a flailing and screaming child to the car. I’m giving myself a big pat on the back for deep breathing this week and only having maybe 1 mommy meltdown.
  • Have been enjoying this super yummy tea that Phoebe picked out for her tea party last weekend. She didn’t drink any, but I LOVE it, and the boys thought it was tasty too.

  • On Saturday the kids and I went to the zoo in the morning.  It was chilly, so we stuck indoors on the Tropics Trail where we got to be actually warm and it wasn’t even that crowded.

  • I rewarded their good behavior with sugary treats because that’s what one does when they’re you’re of the house while your husband plays video games with his friends.

 

  • After the zoo we stopped by my sister-in-law’s house so that the kids could play with their cousins and I was able to have some gal time.  The kiddos were absolutely worn out by the time we got home… to the point where Phoebe was just fighting everything and completely melting down because she didn’t want to get in pajamas and go to sleep even though she was clearly exhausted. Whoops.  They had a lot fun, though…

  • Sunday was low-key and filled with lots of relaxing, snacking, and not much in the way of actually doing anything that really needed doing.  I’m okay with that,  though.

Happy Monday everyone!

Mr. Mercedes

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

It’s been a while since I’ve read anything dark and even longer since I’ve read a novel by Mr. King.  Right off the bat, I wasn’t sure if I could go through with it.  Did I really want these dark and gruesome images stuck in my head? I’ve really become a wimp over the years.  I pressed on, though, and I’m glad I did.

For starters, Mr. Mercedes is a thriller without any supernatural aspects as many of Stephen King’s books have. King has never been one to skimp on words, and he has always done a really good job when it comes to describing a scene. You aren’t left filling in a lot of blanks in your mind – there’s no need to. Perhaps that’s what makes it even more difficult when something horrendous happens, like the mass killing of a group of people in the very first chapter. I have a difficult time reading about violent occurrences that could happen in real life because I just get sucked into books so easily… and movies, and video games, and you name it.

The further I got into it, the more I didn’t want to put it down and became more immersed in the characters and the story.  By the final ¼ of the book, I didn’t want to stop reading and was trying to read as fast as I could to get through it because I had to know exactly how it turned out. I knew on some level that there would be a “happy” ending, but I didn’t know at what cost because, let’s be honest, you don’t really expect a skipping through fields of daisies ending in a Stephen King novel.

My conclusion?  I’ll be reading the next two books in the trilogy. There’s something about the characters that I really, really like.  Perhaps it’s a tad cliché to have the unexpected friendship between such unlikely characters, but I enjoy the charm of it anyway.

Goodreads Synopsis:

In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, hundreds of desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.

In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.

Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again.

Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of highly unlikely allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.

Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.

One small step…

Enzo is officially registered for Kindergarten. I have very mixed feelings on this matter, which is weird to me because I never felt like I would be “that” mom. Both kids have been in day care since they were 6 weeks old, and the transition to preschool was never a big deal because we still dropped them off at the same place every day. Maybe that’s why the thought of him going to Kindergarten makes me feel like my heart is suddenly in a vise.  It should be exciting, I know, but I worry about my boy and this big step into the unknown.

I’ve always had some anxiety along with my depression, but postpartum depression and anxiety were worse because suddenly there were these tiny little creatures I had helped create and was supposed to take care of and all of these ridiculous thoughts and emotions going through my brain all. the. time. Long story short, it’s better now, but the anxiety is more bothersome to me now because I’m not worried about myself, instead I’m thinking of every worst case scenario that involves my children and there are times when it’s hard to breathe and I have to hold back tears because I am so fearful for them.

Overcoming my fears of the unknown and inability to protect them from everything is a work in progress. Out of the past my own fears, traumas, failures and hurts will suddenly appear and I’m reminded of those things I would do anything to protect my own children from. But I can’t. I know this, and yet it doesn’t make it any easier.

I know that I cannot live in fear because that isn’t living. My life would be vastly different had I lived in a protective bubble and yet I survived it all and perhaps am better for it. I think it’s really been within the past 6 months that I’ve started taking more chances and have tried to do things that challenge my fears and have overall tried to have more trust and faith that everything works out the way it should… and really, it does. For the longest time we didn’t want to switch the kids day care because that’s what they’d (we’d) known since they were tiny babies. The idea of changing and leaving their friends was just not something I wanted to deal with until we were left with no choice. The result?  The kids are doing great in their new environment and we should have probably made the switch sooner.  They don’t have any close friends, yet, but those will come.

As we get ready for our highly sensitive boy to enter Kindergarten I have to remind myself to breathe and trust that he’ll be fine. We just need to give him the proper tools and that means he needs to see me handle fear and change and adversity with strength and optimism. More than anything I want my kids to grow up to be strong and confident and caring.  So, when he steps on that school bus for the first time all by himself, I will put a smile on my face and cheer him on as he embarks on his own new adventure and I will trust that he’ll be okay.

Week In Review – Finally the Sun Came Out!

Happy Monday!

Linking up with Meghan from Clean Eats, Fast Feets for another Week in Review!

Random occurrences and accomplishments.

  • Got some work done in my office. I feel like this is probably going to just be a weekly update that sticks around for a while especially since I only get a little bit done at a time.
  • Started watching Z: The Beginning (about Zelda Fitzgerald) on Amazon, but our wireless is lame and since my hubby was on streaming his video game playing, Vega and I kept getting error messages. SIGH.

Speaking of which, Vega has been all kinds of snuggly this week!  It’s been a really nice surprising treat. She even came and slept by head for a while one night.

  • Got quite a bit of reading done this week, which is always nice even if it means a lot of other stuff doesn’t get done. I’m just going with what my body/mind says it needs during this usually blech time of year.  That also means eating as many free donuts as possible on Free Breakfast Friday at work.

  • After an incredibly gloomy week, the sun finally peeked through on Thursday and then came out in full glory on Friday. It hasn’t remained sunny, but I’ll take what I can get.

  • We got a lot of cleaning done over the weekend and had a little picnic lunch and watched the new Pete’s Dragon. It was actually a lot better than I thought it would be, and no, I didn’t get the sniffles. Not at all. I have allergies.

  • On Sunday Phoebe and I went grocery shopping, most importantly for items for the tea party I told her we could have. She was playing with her Calico Critters and pretending to have a tea party so I asked her if she wanted to have a real one and her eyes lit up and she was so excited.  It was an excellent day of play and rest overall.

I promise I do actually leave this seat occasionally. I won’t lie… there’s nothing more cozy than a recliner and it really is the perfect spot where I can view most of the action upstairs. Ha!  Plus, it makes for the perfect place to cuddle kids and cats… and to watch The OA.  Anyone else watching?  I’m not entirely sure what I think yet.  Vega is also intrigued, yet uncertain.

Happy Monday everyone!

The Book of Speculation

I don’t know about you, but I typically don’t enjoy really long reviews whether it be for movies or books. I also don’t want too much to be given away and like sort of a mysterious and vague glimpse that gives me enough of an idea of whether or not I might like to read it. So, here we go. I probably won’t get around to talking about every book I read, but I’m going to try and do as many as I can. Like I mentioned before, I have a hard time remembering most of the books I read, so it’s helpful for me when I can’t recall whether or not I actually liked a book and why or why I didn’t.

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler

The story overall was good and I enjoyed the writing and use of description in terms of location. You can easily see in your mind’s eyes the house slowly falling apart as the sea creeps in closer and closer and you can smell the salt in the air.  Water is a prominent and important character in this book as it tells the tale of a family of mermaids and what can only be a curse that has followed several generations.  While there is a sense of urgency in the story as the narrator attempts to save his sister from what he is certain is impending death, the pace itself is sometimes slow.

If you enjoy books about family, secrets, circus life (whether it may or may not be based on fact), some mysticism, the power of books, and a taste of fantasy then I recommend this. Ideally it would be the perfect vacation read, but really any old time would work.

I give it:

Goodreads Synopsis

A sweeping and captivating debut novel about a young librarian who is sent a mysterious old book, inscribed with his grandmother’s name. What is the book’s connection to his family?

Simon Watson, a young librarian, lives alone on the Long Island Sound in his family home, a house perched on the edge of a cliff that is slowly crumbling into the sea. His parents are long dead, his mother having drowned in the water his house overlooks.

One day, Simon receives a mysterious book from an antiquarian bookseller; it has been sent to him because it is inscribed with the name Verona Bonn, Simon’s grandmother. Simon must unlock the mysteries of the book, and decode his family history, before fate deals its next deadly hand.

The Book of Speculation is Erika Swyler’s gorgeous and moving debut, a wondrous novel about the power of books, family, and magic