Ranch Librarian Reads: Next Year in Havana

Next Year in Havana, by Chanel Cleeton

Genre

Women's Fiction, Historical Fiction

356 pages


I love a beautiful cover on a book. Truly, I do. I know that I'm not supposed to judge a book based on the cover, but let's all get real here for a minute: sometimes we judge a book by it's cover, don't we? With Next Year in Havana, I was immediately drawn to the gorgeous cover, and the pages of the book turned out to be just as wonderful.

Ranch Mama Learns: Bugs, Sun, and Wheels

When I first discovered I was pregnant, I thought that the timing was just about perfect. I would be pregnant over the winter and give birth in the early spring, so we could back in full force for the summer. It turns out, that was kind of true, but having a newborn into the summer presented us with a few specific challenges. As silly as this might sound, figuring out how to protect Huxton from bugs and the sun was a problem from the start. Not only is our boy fair-haired (he gets that from me), but he's little, too little for traditional bug sprays and sunscreens, plus he's prone to getting hot as well. Of course, he'll be the recommended six months old in October, just in time for bug spray and sunscreen to be put away in the cupboard for the winter (sigh...). So we started some brainstorming and research, and we came up with a few solutions that worked for us.

Ranch Mama Learns: Starting the Curve

Ten Weeks Old

We celebrated Hubster's first Father's Day yesterday (Black Rifle Coffee Co. Merch abounded in our house--more on that later), and had a gorgeous, cool stormy day outside. Huxton turned TEN weeks old as well, and today I put him in a 12 month romper that's a little big, but not that big!

Over the past ten weeks, I've come to realize that the learning curve on becoming

Huxton and I at an Eventing Clinic in
Gillette, Wyoming, learning all about cross
country and how to keep baby from getting
sunburned.

a mama can be pretty steep, but there are some peculiarities to being a ranch mama. When you live on the high plains with animals and crops and bugs and in the hot sun, it turns out that there are some challenges to toting around a wee one.

So I'm embarking on a new series here on the Ranch Librarian: Ranch Mama Learns.