It's been over a month since my last review...Good thing I'm still 14 books ahead of schedule for this year's goal!
https://thoughtsfromtheloo.com/2025/04/03/book-review-the-warhol-incident/

Anyone else want to see this film?

This was just not that good.
https://thoughtsfromtheloo.com/2025/04/06/book-review-the-conjurers-wife/

It's been a few weeks friends...And it has been an adventure.
#LettieLoo #ThoughtsFromTheLoo #RoadTrip #ToyotaHighlander #Toyota #Highlander #FarmAndFleet #Breakdown

This WAS recorded on Good Friday, but with my folks in town and all of the Easter busy-ness, I got this edited and ready for you today. #lettieloo #thoughtsfromtheloo #catholic #lent #easter #eastervigil #ocia #rcia #newcatholic

It's storm season, and we had the potential for large hail, high winds, and tornadoes...It made me realize I've got a few holes in my preps.
#LettieLoo #thoughtsfromtheloo #prepping #preps #storms #tornadoes #shelterinplace

Why aren't you at Midwest Preparedness Project's Spring Festival??? #lettieloo #thoughtsfromtheloo

It's never easy to say, but I'm broken right now.
I found out early last month that I was pregnant, and I miscarried the morning of July 2nd.
I'm not ready to talk about it, and I'm not sure when that time will come. So when I'm not out and about, or on the socials as much as I have been, this is why.
If you'll all say a prayer for me, my family, and little Stephen Patrick, we'd greatly appreciate it.

In the months before I got pregnant I would constantly pray that we would be blessed with one more child. I prayed to The Lord that he would bless us with one more child, a child for Him. I prayed that one of my children would serve God through Holy Orders, as a Priest, Deacon, or sister (if I were to have a daughter).
Reading my devotional the other day, I was reminded of the story of Hannah from 1 Samuel. I was praying to God as Hannah did. She had her son Samuel, and brought him to the priests. My child was for God, who decided he needed him in Heaven, instead of here on Earth.
I never fathomed that promising a child for God would mean the loss before I even got to hold him. But I know Hannah's cries. I know her longing. I know why she would promise her son to The Lord.

And it gives me some peace to know that I'm not the only one who has been there. But it still makes me angry and sad that He chose my child to spend his life in Heaven instead of here on Earth. I'm slowly working through this. Coming to terms that I have a child I lost. Each day it gets easier, but it doesn't hurt any less. One day the pain will ease and be bearable. Until then, I'm finding peace in knowing that I will one day be with my child in Heaven. ✝️💔🕊💖🙏

Horton brings us back to The Borrowed World with an excellent 12th addition.
https://thoughtsfromtheloo.com/2025/08/14/book-review-the-fury-of-the-forsaken/

I'm not one for flowers, but one of my girlfriends brought two small vases of flowers her daughters picked from their garden to the Memorial Mass we had this afternoon for the baby I lost last month.
They truly warm our little altar.

A change of pace from the world of Locker 9, Mad Mick, and Borrowed World, we meet Dan who is NOT a prepper and completely isolated when shit goes south.
https://thoughtsfromtheloo.com/2025/08/28/book-review-burning-down-boise/

This one...just sucks....

https://thoughtsfromtheloo.com/2025/09/08/book-review-the-hanging-creek-chronicles-shadows-of-martial-law/

I hate to see it because I feel that if we insist on people getting fired and canceled for what they say/do right now…we are no better than the left.

BUT…The fact that ANYONE no matter which side of the aisle they are on, no matter where their sympathies lie, no matter ANYTHING, is celebrating the death of another is heinous and goes against everything I believe in.

I didn’t celebrate when Ruth Bader Ginsberg died, although I did breathe a sigh of relief that she wouldn’t be participating in SCOTUS decisions anymore. I don’t care at all for Biden, but as I saw his clear cognitive decline the past few years, I felt pity for him, that his family and handlers (for lack of a better term) continued to put him out on a national and global stage for everyone to see.

I gave Michelle Obama a ton of grief when she had her “when they go low, we go high” statement. But you know what? For everything that I do NOT like about her or her husband (let’s face it, he did absolutely NOTHING when he was elected to his state office in Illinois, and I just sat there and watched as so many public figures started putting him on a pedestal and angling him towards the White House), the fact that she (at that point), looked to doing better than her opponents, I gave her credit and applauded her for that statement.

Yes, there are a great many number of people out there championing Charlie’s death, celebrating it, reveling in it. But there are even more people out there like us, who are in shock, devastated, and ANGRY. I’m angry that a young man (who very well may have been in one or two of my classes at Harper College) had his life stolen from him. I’m angry that a wife has no husband to come home to. I’m angry that two young children have to grow up without knowing their father. All for words and rhetoric (as far as we know…unless a “manifesto” or the actual shooter are found, we may very well never know the reasoning…until then we just have conjecture).

And I’m fearful that the same may happen to me…my husband…my friends.

But I’m NOT going to insist that people lose their jobs. I’m NOT going to celebrate when I hear of firings and other cancellations. I AM going to be more strong and convicted in my beliefs. I’m NOT going to back down when feelings are pushed in my face instead of facts.

I am worried about what will happen going forward. The right has been a sleeping bear for many years. Is THIS what will cause us all to wake up and react? I don’t know. I don’t think we will go silently into that dark night though. Charlie’s death has opened a gate, and it may very well soon become a flood of anger. Until then, all we can do is prepare ourselves and take care of our families.

Got another "Didn't Finish" book to add to the stack...
https://thoughtsfromtheloo.com/2025/10/12/book-review-desperate-people/

We go on a journey through 3 generations of women struggling to get by in a man's world - Adele in WWI, Georgeanne and Vivian in WWII, Ruth & Ivy in Vietnam.
https://thoughtsfromtheloo.com/2025/10/20/book-review-american-sky/