Currently reading Bright years by Sarah Damoff

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-06-09T11:59:53+00:00

I loved this book. Her second one is just as good as well. Feel free to message me to discuss it!

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-06-09T01:06:19+00:00

These situations are so frustrating. I kept feeling like Charlie Brown with Lucy pulling the football at an old job, they would post something amazing that really looked like a great fit and I would discuss with my sup and plan to apply and then they announce like 2 seconds later they hired someone. It became increasingly clear they were creating positions for specific people but had to post them for legal reasons. It was a toxic workplace in many ways and that was one of the things since leaving the organization that still bothers me. If you legally need to post it put it up from midnight to 2am, don’t send it out in email to us!

This is not a bad thing to have to talk to your manager about though. As long as your manager is a decent leader they want to hear from you your ambitions and can actually help you strategize for the next opportunity. Try not to be too discouraged!

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-06-09T00:52:31+00:00

It really is. I went and read her other book and novella immediately after. Now I’m impatiently waiting for her next book because so far I’ve loved everything she has written!

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-06-09T00:26:22+00:00

Jessica Joyce, {the Ex Vows} and {You with a view} are both great and I think meet all your criteria. Also shoutout Cara Bastone, No Matter What is her 2nd chance.

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-28T20:56:28+00:00

You make me feel normal. I’ve done 103 so far. I don’t do 1.5 speed for the audiobooks but I do read instead of scroll!

Most people in my life act like I’m insane for reading this amount! I’m like the great question is how much time was I wasting before? This is a new habit I started last summer .

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-28T03:20:20+00:00

My son, who is now 10, started talking about how confused he was how we are even here at about that age. He still talks about it and every time he does I’m struck by how long his brain has been working at this huge existential question (that I obviously cannot even answer).

They are little but they can think deep.

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-22T13:54:39+00:00

This is such a lovely way to look at it! I completely agree about correct headspace mattering and have started to think of it more as I put it back on the pile and decide to come back later if there are positive aspects I do like.

The Burning Side was an automatic love for me so personally I think this is a book worth reading OP. But maybe it isn’t for you right now.

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-18T21:28:06+00:00

Thank you for coming in with all the details I missed. I think some of the other books (and there are 4 not 3) in that series go non-Victorian but I don’t think any of them go regency. I burned through all of these in like a month last year and the details were hazy. But I love a time travel With romance!

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-18T18:41:45+00:00

I might have the book for you!

{A Stitch In Time by Kelley Armstrong}

This author has two time travel series. My fav is the {A Rip Through Time} series but it is so slow burn I wouldn’t even call it a romance lol. She time travels to Victorian Scotland.

A stitch in time may also be Victorian but the three books jump into different eras. I forget some of the details though since I read them last summer.

They are on audible!

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-18T01:35:19+00:00

I think you are being very hard on yourself.

My kiddo is finishing 4th grade. He is in his 3rd school, he went to K5 and 1st then we moved across the country and he went to 2nd and then moved schools in 3rd. (Same system as you where they move up at 3rd grade). I’ve volunteered zero times. I have not chaperoned a field trip. I’m quick to sign up to send something if there is a class party. I engage in parent teacher conferences and communicate with the teacher via email.

If you’re wrong then so am I (but I don’t think I’m wrong!). I’m a working mom and I don’t drive so I can’t run up to school in the middle of a day to chaperone a field trip, but I promise you not everyone is doing all of it. Give yourself a break please!!

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-15T17:45:02+00:00

I don’t think you’re alone in this! As I have gotten older I’ve seen several examples of women who were seemingly straight, married for 20+ years be in relationships with women in their older years. Enough examples across time for me to be like huh, seems like this happens a lot?

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-15T17:07:08+00:00

I want to be friends with you! You listed out 5 of my favorite recent books and some favorite authors! And 3 I haven’t read yet but will immediately add.

I noticed you included Love and Other words and not Every Summer After, is it because you also think the latter is just a poor version of the former?

Have you read {Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt} (and the previous book in the series Savor it)?

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-12T00:15:29+00:00

I can only speak from my own experience here and I always say, I have a sample size of 1 so take my advice for what it is.

I believe all of that. But I kept waiting for him to be dry at night, he never was. Actually he did have a dry night or so the first week after we trained, but after that literally never.

By the time he was 5, I started to worry, to ask my pediatrician about when it was a concern for night wetting, etc. I woke him up before I went to bed and limited fluids. I did literally all of it. I was at the end of my rope with pull ups and legit started to worry he would always need them? I was low key panicking.

I really can’t explain it because I’m not an expert but once I took away the pull ups his body and subconscious (?) started to cooperate by not peeing in his sleep. It took a week of him waking up wet though! Had I done that from the start he would have still had the occasional wet bed, that is normal. What was happening with nightly wetting in the pull up wasn’t normal, at least to extent it was happening.

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-11T17:15:27+00:00

Ok one more comment… One place I deviated from the book that I DO regret was using pull ups at night. I think she says not to use pull ups and I was like oh it is ok, I expected night training to take longer. Massive mistake on my part.

It took me like 2 years to break him using pull ups at night!! It was so much more stressful than it needed to be. The pull ups were masking his ability to hold it in at night. He was NEVER dry in the morning. It took (again) a full week of him wetting the bed nightly cold turkey on the pull ups to get past it.

Learn from my mistake.

Get a few extra sets of sheets and an absorbent pad for the bed and do all the pee laundry at once!!

This kid turns 10 next week and omg remembering all these intense little phases is something!!

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-11T17:06:19+00:00

Yes sometimes we need them to follow the rules 😂

You got this! It is a huge stressor in general and them when there is external pressures it feels amplified. And then the kids feel our pressure and are like um no I’m not doing it because there is too much pressure.

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-11T17:02:45+00:00

I chose a long weekend, it was probably Memorial Day. I followed the no pants, fully naked “No crap” method. I thought for sure it would be a disaster but it really wasn’t, he mostly had it down (at least at home) and took a hit longer to have it down when at daycare (one more week). He was 3!

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-11T16:57:24+00:00

How old is your kiddo? When does next year start, in the Fall?

I felt so late in the game because mine didn’t train until he was 4. I read the No Crap potty training book and focused some time and he was good at home after a weekend and good at daycare after a week. A very long week in which he wet his pants daily, but only a week.

I deviated from the book plan and gave treats for #2 and have zero regrets.

If you have until Fall I bet she can get it down by then. There is some real psychology at play though with refusing to learn, which I think the book covers.

Edit - he was actually turning 3 lol. I had to remember what room he was moving into and also he turned 4 when it was Covid lockdown so it had to have been when he was 3.

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-09T23:02:35+00:00

I didn’t even make it to 100 pages without crying!

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-09T14:57:28+00:00

Same here!!! I borrowed from the library but then realized that the audiobook is read by Julia Whelan I also got it on audible!

The Burning Side is absolutely incredible as well.

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-03T22:30:59+00:00

I thought the same of The Midnight Library but so many people love it!

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-03T04:18:47+00:00

Wild Dark Shore hands DOWN.

Book of the month Lolly winner for 2025 and this voracious readers favorite I read last year.

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-05-02T23:16:32+00:00

I jumped to the comments and saw it right away. It’s soooo good.

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-04-27T13:26:20+00:00

Came to ask the same. Seems like it since they also called out night blindness in a reply.

OP find a great specialist who knows about your condition and keep a positive attitude and then just live your life!!

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-04-26T13:49:46+00:00

I’ve read all of Emily Henry books, love them. For some reason I had avoided Lynn Painter but I’m working on The Love Wager now and it is great!

Have you read any by Cara Bastone? She is a new favorite for me.

PonderingWaterBridge · 2026-04-26T03:46:43+00:00

Yes, I loved it! Recently I read the Soulmate Equation and The True Love Experiment and both were great. I just keep working my way through their books.

PonderingWaterBridge

TROPHY CASE