Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Here I am again, folks. I’ve survived orientations and walkthroughs and parties and yard cleanup and laundry, and now tomorrow–TOMORROW!–is the first day of school. And not just any first day of school, but the first day of the school year in which my youngest starts FIRST GRADE.

As in, I’ll be home alone all day. (All school day, that is.)

You should see the list of things I’m hoping to do tomorrow.

That, however, is tomorrow. Tonight I’m finally reviewing Patricia MacLachlan’s Dream Within a Dream, which I finished days ago. It’s no secret that I love MacLachlan’s books, of course, and Dream was a lovely little read; Louisa and her brother are staying with their grandparents for the summer while their parents do their usual summertime traveling-for-their-careers. That’s nothing new, as far as it goes, but this summer their grandfather’s eyesight is failing–AND Louisa meets George. Dream is a story of family and friends and love in its many forms, old and new; the island setting particularly appealed to me, and while its almost-fairytale quality was unexpected, you have only to look at the title to realize that nothing about the book is unintentional.

I’ll be interested to know exactly what my turning-12-on-Tuesday-year-old thinks of it.

In the meantime, I’ll be tucking in my junior high and high school students now. Tomorrow morning is going to feel appallingly early!