Welcome to Tomes of Whimsy

Welcome to Tomes of Whimsy; a place where I will be sharing book reviews and a few of my favorite hobbies, plus a touch of photography and maybe a little glimpse into my life! I am a 48-year-old stay at home mom, with a gorgeous, loving and encouraging husband and two beautiful and very busy kids. One of each - 16 1/2 months apart, they are always keeping me on my toes, and I love every second of it!  

You may be asking, why Tomes of Whimsy?  A tome is a large, heavy book; a volume forming part of a larger work.  Whimsy is defined as the quality or state of being very whimsical or fanciful or a fantastic creation, especially in writing or art.  These entries are all part of my tome, peeks into my life and things that give me joy and make me happy.  They are also part of my life story.  Things I want to remember, stories I want to tell.  I define myself as a goof ball, silly, and dorky.  I try not to take things too seriously, although I am serious a little too much at times.  When I put these two words together, this blog is a large work, consisting of all the things I love and enjoy and make me feel whimsical.  Therefore, Tomes of Whimsy was born!

I don't expect that many people will be blowing up the internet to read my blog and I don't think it will ever become a book about my life, but I do want to look back and read my stories.  Feel free to join me. 

I love to create and be creative and there are many avenues I use for this goal.  I write, cross stitch, color, do diamond art, draw, paint, and the list continues.  I love to try new things and I enjoy challenging myself.  Many times, I fail, but every once in a while, I surprise myself.  I hope to share these things as well.  When I am not creating, I am still taking part in the creative process by reading.  

Reading is one of my most favorite things to do in my down time, and I am known to always have a book in my hand, sometimes even two or three books.  When my daughter was in third grade, she was invited to join a reading club called Tome Society at school and, of course, she jumped at the chance (she is my daughter, after all).   I was so proud of her for being invited because this is a club reserved for 4th and 5th grades.  In order to keep her on track and help her with comprehension, I began reading the books with her.  I knew these would be challenging books, with the club being very selective about their "It List".  I was so surprised to find out that I really enjoyed the book selections!  Being the overachiever that I am, I thought it would be helpful to make her a book club binder, complete with an overview sheet, chapter review sheets, and a few helpful hints sheets.  After a few weeks, the school Media Specialist commented on how much she liked the binder and I offered to send her all of the things I had created for my daughter's binder.  Unfortunately, the spring of my daughter's third grade year was also 2020, the pandemic hit, and we all know what happened after that!  The club continued online, but our county was unprepared for all things digital, so the club fizzled out and, of course, the convention, TomeCon, was cancelled. 

Like any good book, this is where my simple, one story-line type life fractured into multiple chapters!

Fast forward to Fall of 2021, my daughter was now in 5th grade, things were beginning to normalize, and school was back in session.  She joined the club again and I was asked to help with the club, along with my handy dandy binder sheets and I was excited!  Things were going great, the book selections were awesome, and my daughter was able to end her elementary school year by attending TomeCon in 2022!

During this time, December 2021, we received the shocking news that my husband had stage 4 colon cancer.  To say that our world was turned upside down would be an understatement! We received the news on December 17, 2021 and had our first consult with the oncologist on December 22, 2021.  We had to push ourselves through Christmas, trying to keep things as normal as possible for our kids and it was a tough couple of weeks.  He had a biopsy and port placement the first week in January 2022 and began chemotherapy the following week.  I stepped away from helping with Tome Society and stepped into my new role of "primary caregiver" and into the world of Cancer.  What a big world Cancer is!  

I found that most things I do on a daily basis was just pushing me deeper in depression and was struggling to find a way to keep my mind busy while still supporting my husband and raising my kids.  That is when I jumped deeper into reading and learned that I could actually help Tome Society by reading and reviewing books to be considered for the following year's "It List."  Slowly, I began trying to write my own reviews instead of copying the inside book jacket summary.  It took a while to really understand what to include, the length and the many ways a review could be written, but I kept going.  As I was progressing, I thought it might be fun to save these reviews in case the book was selected.  That way, I would have the information to help at the school.  The more I thought about it, the more I thought, "jump in, give it a go, just try."  And Tomes of Whimsy was born!

I invite you along my reading journey, so please have a look, comment and suggest some books you would like me to review or think I should dive into.  Challenge me with a new craft or creative activity.  I'm up for anything!  Who knows what we may find as the chapters of our lives intersect to create a library of joy and happiness?!