Books on Audio - yet another sinful pleasure of mine...

Life with two boys and a husband can get rough for a girl.  Not rough as in harsh, but rough as in I am not able to float around on my own private pink puff cloud anymore.  On blissfully calm days when I am on the pink puff cloud, I could be pushed off at any minute by two boys wrestling. Of course, most who know me realize that the husband is always trying to direct the pink puff cloud on where it should float to next and how.  (Note the word "trying" - everyone knows a woman is always in control of her own destiny!)

In short, mothers need some alone time.  Everyone can benefit from time and space to reflect on identity - who we were before we departed on life's journey of learning quickly to become "Anything and Everything to Everyone."  The closest to peaceful that I get these days is when I meet Jennifer for breakfast on Wednesdays at Johnson's on 4th.  Sometimes (like this past Wednesday when I really needed to be doing other things instead of meeting at our charming little breakfast spot - and texted her so), I still somehow ended up there with her because this tiny bit of heaven is well deserved by us frantic moms and I refuse to give it up. 

So, if you have been blessed in the way that I have - with a wide open, daily adventurous, maniac life with two wonderful little boys, what you just might need this chilly season is a warm car and a book on audio. 

Audio books, like charming breakfast spots, can be completely delicious.

Prime pleasure comes from sitting in my toasty car, whether in the school pickup line, bumper-to-bumper traffic, or while coasting down the highway to work when listening to a good book on audio.  What can make this pleasure even better is if you have a steaming cup of hot tea or coffee - over the top decadence! 

It's the small things that can make a girl like me feel like a celebrity!  Almost. 

Here are a few I recommend...

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
A fairly short story of two men, one needing the other - for entirely different reasons.  A reminder that even the best laid plans sometimes go awry...

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
A trying tale of a woman trying her best to remain loyal and cheerful for her husband and children, of a man bent on farming his land, of two men coming home from the war, one hiding in a bottle of liquor and the other who refused to humble down to the prejudices running thick in the delta and of a family who learned that no matter how hard they worked, they just couldn't get ahead.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

For One More Day by Mitch Albom
A beautiful story of a mother who gave everything to her son.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger