The Pearl that Broke Its Shell

Books

Author: Nadia Hashimi

I’ve had this book for quite awhile but I first heard of it long before I picked it up (from somewhere). I don’t know why it took me so long to read it; maybe because the recommendation came from a friend who has passed and I didn’t want to break that small connection.

The book follows the lives of two Afghan women; Shekiba is the great-great-grandmother of Rahima. The story is told with a chapter about one woman and the next chapter about the other woman. I found this to be very confusing and eventually blocked off a section and read only one story and then, on another sitting, went back and read the chapters of the other story.

Both stories are interesting but at the end it felt unresolved. For that reason, and the way it is written, it dropped lower on my Goodreads scale.

Goodreads Rating: * * *

A little progress

Journal

Monday, November 16, 2020

I’ve been working all day and making a bit of progress. I’m down to 9 items on my Reminders and 26 items flagged through e-mail.

I ventured out this morning to take care of a few errands. It was the first time I’ve been in the mall since March. I went directly to the department I needed and got out as fast as I could. I saw one woman that I know; it wasn’t until she spoke that I realized who she was as we were both wearing masks and she didn’t recognize me either. I was just leaving and she was just coming in so we only said hello to each other.

I’ve been cleaning up my sewing room and getting ready for another three days of intense quilting. I set aside my originally planned project because when I looked at the pattern there were several items in the errata and some cutting changes so I wasn’t feeling very confident. I’ve prepped the last of my Christmas projects and even ordered a very last-minute item to finish off my list.

Time to start cleaning up again as I’ve managed to make quite a mess of things – again!

A few days off and wham!

Journal

Sunday, November 15, 2020

My three-day retreat is over – at least I’ve run out of energy. Day One was fantastic. A project done from start to finish, including quilting and tying in ends. Day Two was productive but things took longer than I expected. I knew today’s project was doable but I’m later finishing than I thought I would be. I had a bit later start and because I knew the project would finish by the end of the day I took a few extra breaks.

But my goodness what a slew of work I have ahead of me. I have 43 items flagged in my e-mail; these are things I need to deal with but didn’t respond to as soon as I read them. I also have 11 tasks in my reminders program that I’ll have to take a look at and see what needs to be done and what can be put off.

Pat has an online session this evening and I hope to make a start at cleaning up my sewing room. My sewing machine also needs to be cleaned, oiled and set with a new needle. If time permits (and I know it won’t) I’ll see what prep work I can do for my session with Stacia and Deloise next week.

Ready

Journal

Thursday, November 12, 2020

It took all morning but I think I have all of my cutting done for projects I intend to work on over the weekend – my Texada-Retreat-at Home. Pat purchased more groceries today so I have a few treats for myself should I actually feel like I deserve something.

I have three main projects I will work on; a different one for each day. I don’t expect to finish everything but I’d like to get a few of the projects finished. Since I won’t be able to share any of my accomplishments (if there are any) I won’t be posting until after the weekend unless something exciting happens.

Since I’m working on Christmas projects I’ll be pulling out the Christmas music.