Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I really thought things would slow down nicely after everyone was home from all the trips, but it really hasn’t felt like it! On Monday my oldest had the dentist and my son played at a friend’s house while I took his sisters shopping (by the time I’d dropped him off and come back my oldest was done). We hit a Walmart Neighborhood Market on the way home and I was unimpressed with the prices, and then I made lasagna for dinner. (We were going to have it on Sunday except that we were completely out of lasagna noodles, which is the number one reason we went to the weird Walmart.) Yesterday was a ‘clean up and organize in problem spots’ kind of a day–which certainly needed to happen–and this morning I ran to Ream’s to get pork and potatoes for dinner with my nephew tonight. I did laundry and such before going out to lunch with Britt, and then did a bit more dinner prep while my nephew took my older girls to the temple. After dinner my fantastic hubby took said nephew to the airport and I was a good girl and did the dishes I didn’t want to do, so go me!

In other news, I finished listening to A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking over laundry and such today, and OH MY STARS I LOVE THIS BOOK. (As in, I’m pondering getting it for myself for Christmas maybe?) T. Kingfisher is Ursula Vernon’s not-writing-for-kids name, and while this was a book club pick–I just don’t choose fantasy much on my own–I am so DESPERATELY glad it was. To be honest with you, it gave me quite a strong tribute-to-the-work-of-Robin-McKinley vibe, with its teenage baker wizard main character, her quirky, slightly rambling, real-time narration style, and its pointed way of viewing heroism. (Those phrases in that sentence want to be parallel but aren’t–quite–and I’m open to suggestions, being too tired tonight to actually come up with a solution.) If you can picture something Robin McKinley-ish written with all of the wit and humor of the ‘Hamster Princess’ books, you can picture this book; Mona, a bakery wizard with a sentient sourdough starter, finds a dead body in her aunt’s bakery and becomes slowly entangled in a plot against her city. The thing is, it doesn’t really even feel like fantasy; it feels like a story about incredibly real people who just happen to live in a world where different sorts of things happen–or where some of the same things happen as in our world, but happen differently. (I mean, yes, animating bread is solidly fantastical, but Mona’s just too real, somehow, for that to matter.) Just–go read this book, okay? Because you need this in your life.

Like, now.