Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

So.  I missed my last post for a legitimate reason; I’ve been trying to rearrange and declutter in our house, and Monday saw a large, clunky, and broken-in-multiple-ways entertainment center leave our living room.  I did finish a book before bed, but I didn’t manage to review it.

I’m just plain avoiding writing the review of it now.

You know those days, right?  Where concentrating and being intelligent and coherent when it’s already after 9 pm seems completely impossible?  My friend and I took the kids to the Conservation Gardens in West Jordan this morning, fed the hangries at Burger King afterward, and then parted ways to do the things.  MY things involved a trip to the library, a bit of a nap, dinner and tidying and getting kids to bed, exercising in between, and (right now) acknowledging that I don’t feel up to doing much else at the moment.  On the one hand, that doesn’t feel like it should have worn me out; on the other hand, the fact remains that it did.

What were YOUR things today?

I procrastinated my dinner prep last Tuesday until it was too late to make any of the things I’d been considering; I ended up on Pinterest instead, searching out recipes with strawberries in them (because hey, I had those).  I had one muffin recipe all picked out before realizing that my plain yogurt had gone over to the dark (and fuzzy!) side, meaning I had to go back to the drawing board (okay, my Pinterest search results).

I am SO glad I did.

When I saw these Strawberry Ricotta Muffins I decided to give them a try, since my ricotta (though technically expired) was unopened and perfectly serviceable.  I figured the protein in the ricotta would make them more filling than your average muffins–perfect for brinner, right?  And OH, I was not disappointed.  They were filling, but they were also lovely–moist and vanilla-y, with delightful chunks of strawberry and that unmistakable, irreplaceable richness that comes from a dairy-based fat instead of vegetable oil.  My three older kiddos all gave them an enthusiastic thumbs up, and I ended up making them again for breakfast on Friday morning.  If you’ve got strawberries, friends, you need these muffins in your life.  If you don’t, well–they are in season.

When’s your next shopping trip?

Okay, I am seriously loving the “Hamster Princess” series.  I just finished Hamster Princess:  Ratpunzel, and I hate to give much away, so I’ll be brief; Harriet and Wilbur go in search of Heady the Hydra’s stolen egg and end up involved with Dame Gothel and Ratpunzel, with fabulous results.  If you haven’t started this series yet, go do it.  What else can I say?

Oh, and I do know that I missed my last post, but there were legitimate extenuating circumstances.

Good day, folks!

I went to a Mather family party tonight (Mather being my mother’s side of the family) to which I’d signed up to bring cookies; because it was my mother’s side of the family, I got to bring these Frosted Rhubarb Cookies and have them be a hit and not an oddity.  My aunts love rhubarb (as do I!), and buttery cookies with lovely bits of tart rhubarb (not to mention toasted coconut), frosted with homemade cream cheese frosting, always go over well.  (I love them too, by the way.)  Make these with butter, not shortening, and give your rhubarb a pretty fine dice, and you’ll be in dessert heaven.

I’d honestly love to talk for a while about my mother’s side of the family–they’re pretty amazing–but it’s late and we have swimming lessons at 9 am.  Goodnight all!

Thus proving that there’s a Billy Joel quote for everything, folks.  But seriously–I listened to Phillip Hoose’s The Boys Who Challenged Hitler:  Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club because a)I was interested and b)my oldest read it as part of a school project and wanted me to, and Knud Pedersen was a seriously angry young man.  I’m not saying he didn’t have a right to be, you understand; Hitler declared Denmark a protectorate in April of 1940, and its government submitted within hours with pretty much no fighting involved.  Pedersen was a patriotic Dane and found this humiliating, especially in contrast to Norway’s efforts to fight back against essentially the same “protectorate” deal.  His anger and humiliation ultimately led him, his older brother, and various school friends to conduct a schoolboy campaign of sabotage against their German occupiers.  They continued for months, their actions escalating, until they were caught and sent to prison–but not before their courage had ignited the spark that became the Danish resistance.  Essentially, they sowed a seed that ended up growing into a fairly respectably sized sunflower.

So–the pros:

1.  The story was fascinating.
2.  Much of it was told in Pedersen’s own words.

And the cons?

1.  Knud’s teenage boy anger (and competitiveness) was slightly wearying by the end.  (I’m clearly getting old.)
2.  That anger made it feel like the campaign was more against the Nazis than for Denmark.  (I doubt they saw it that way, but they were furious at their own country as well as Germany, and you definitely felt that.)

The verdict?  Totally worth your time, especially since it’s a lesser known piece of history.  Just be prepared to share some space with an angry young man for two hundred pages or so.

Here’s my rule of thumb for the day, folks–any book that contains a poncho of invisibility (not quite as good as a cloak of invisibility, but cheaper and easier to sew) is pretty much guaranteed to be a good time.  Case in point?  Ursula Vernon’s Hamster Princess:  Of Mice and Magic.  This second chronicle of Harriet Hamsterbone’s adventures with her trusty riding quail, Mumfrey, is a good time through and through.  In it, Harriet is recruited to break the curse on the 12 dancing mouse princesses, with entertaining (and eventually earth-shattering!) results.  If you’re a Wilbur fan, you’ll be glad to know that he shows up to lend a hand.  If you haven’t met Harriet yet, go get the first book and jump on in.  I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a book one of my children brought to my attention this much.

First things first–I know I no-showed over the weekend, but I had family in town.  AND there were extenuating circumstances!  Tonight, however, I am beyond thrilled to be reviewing R.J. Palacio’s Wonder, which I finally got around to listening to and thoroughly loved.  Honestly, it was the perfect antidote to Admissions, which is really kind of a downer; Wonder is a beautifully written book bursting with heart.  It’s taken me a long time to get to it, so I’m assuming most of you are familiar with the premise, right?  Auggie Pullman, a boy with the kind of facial abnormalities that send some kids running away from him, enters the 5th grade after having been previously home-schooled (partly due to the ongoing surgeries caused by his difficulties).  How he copes, how he makes friends, and how it turns out make for a beautiful journey of a book.  If, like me,  you’ve been slow and haven’t picked this one up, then it’s time to repent, people.  Hurry up!  Go read it!

You’ll be very glad you did.

I was quite excited to receive an advance copy of Henry Marsh’s Admissions:  Life as a Brain Surgeon; I enjoy memoirs, and I tend to enjoy case studies, so it seemed like a natural fit.  When my hubby found it available on audio I was even more excited, since it meant I could actually GET to it sooner rather than later.  As I read it, however, I did find that I ended up feeling differently about it than I was anticipating.  Here’s what I think you ought to know going in.

What This Book Is–And Isn’t

1.  This IS an extremely well-written memoir, and one that manages to avoid crossing the line into over-technicality (despite its topic).
2.  This ISN’T a book that focuses on Marsh’s career.  Instead, he reflects a bit on his child- and young adulthood and occasionally on his most memorable cases.  He relates his volunteer work in Nepal (and, to a far lesser extent, in Ukraine).  He spends far more time than I expected, however, ruminating on the healthcare system in the UK, on how doctors’ daily lives have changed, and on the limitations of brain surgery.
3.  This IS a book that mingles significant self-assurance with self-deprecation.
4.  This IS a book by a man who cares deeply about animals and the environment.
5.  This ISN’T a book of faith.  Marsh is openly atheistic, and his ideas about how his profession and his lack of belief are related are presented with a presumptive style that I didn’t appreciate.  Presumably any memoir, by definition, presents the opinions of its author, but I doubt Marsh’s colleagues all share his views on that particular subject.
6.  This ISN’T a particularly cheerful book.  It is what it is, you understand; I just find it helpful to know that sort of thing going in.
7.  This IS an interesting read all the way through.  (Although being a memoir, it inevitably lacks complete resolution.)
8.  This IS a book you ought to read if you’re interested in a British brain surgeon’s life experiences and how those experiences shape his view of our world and its future.

There you have it, folks.  If you decide to read it, let me know what you think!

I still have 25 pages left in the book I was sort of hoping to review tonight AND I’m a little poopered from the holiday weekend.  Have a good night, folks!