Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

This is about the time of year when I start thinking it’d be really nice to move to Alaska–because seriously, it’s 6:29 pm and 99 degrees out. Then I remind myself that I like natural light too much to live that far north in the winter time, and I further remind myself to be grateful for my air conditioning, and I look for recipes that don’t involve turning on the oven.

Tonight’s dinner, therefore, was a new recipe for Mongolian Ground Beef Noodles, and while it bore a definite resemblance to Korean Beef, it wasn’t the same, even allowing for noodles rather than rice. (It wasn’t as sweet, for one thing, and it didn’t call for any sesame oil–not that sesame oil wouldn’t have been good in it.) We had broccoli on the side and while my hubby and second daughter haven’t tried it yet, no one else complained. It might even make it into our dinner rotation!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m pondering something frozen for dessert…

I get emails from Taste of Home, even if–I don’t think–I get the regular magazines anymore, and that’s how I came across this recipe for Sheet-Pan Breakfast Quesadillas. I found it intriguing, and when I found myself at the corner grocery store with a couple of avocados and some bulk breakfast sausage in my basket, I decided it would make a solid Sunday dinner. (Because everyone’s home to help on Sunday.)

It did. In fact, I even preferred it with the avocado and fresh salsa (of the Sam’s Club’s fresh variety), and I’d had doubts about that flavor profile. I put in less pepper than it called for–people can put more pepper on their own servings, dang it!–but I think we mostly followed the recipe. (I can’t completely vouch for what the others were doing, you understand.) I did wish that we’d started it earlier, but we were playing games and such, so it was what it was. My only real concern is that I don’t know that I’d be excited about making it on my own, since the layers felt a little labor intensive. Still, it went over pretty well, and so it might stick around as an occasional weekend dinner option. And to be fair, there are plenty of leftovers!

In other news, it feels like I’ve driven all over the place in the heat today, but at least I’m home now. (That’s how I felt on Saturday as well, actually). Cross your fingers for me that I can come up with an easy meal plan for tonight!

It really is, folks. Yesterday I ran errands and then did things around the house, but I didn’t even really think about posting until it was too late in the day to realistically make it happen.

On the other hand, I did finish reading Audrey Meeker’s Swing last night, so I get to review that today. And that’s good, because while it hopped onto my radar first, my second girlie saw it on Sora (or somewhere) and asked about it as well.

Here’s the thing. Thematically, Swing has a lot to recommend it; its execution, however, is uneven. Both moms seem more like brief plot devices than real characters, and Ted reminds me of Gaston–consistently gratuitously mean. The idea of parental/family pressure and/or expectations should resonate with readers, though, and the mere mention of 8th grade is enough to make many (most? all?) of us wince in sympathy. Questioning traditional gender norms is a worthwhile theme, but there is an odd “too much or not enough” quality to its execution–for both main characters. The ending feels like quite the leap based on the rest of the novel, and in the same vein, I would have preferred Marcus to start making changes earlier on. (It was painful to read about too many of his interactions for too long.)

Most of that sounds pretty negative, and yet reluctant-soccer-star Marcus and edgy-loner Izzy are engaging protagonists. Izzy’s self-advocating with Marcus at the 3/4-ish point is well done, and while Ted’s and Marcus’s older brothers are barely there, their appearances are still appreciated. My guess is that Swing‘s intended audience is going to enjoy it, and if Meeker keeps writing, her execution will grow more deft. I’m not sure how many boys will be drawn to it, but I do anticipate my girlies to be fans.

In the meantime, my older girlies are flying home today, and I’m glad–we have missed them!

Or DCFS, CPS, whatever. I just wanted to let you know that when I yelled at my son to go around to the other side of the car–after telling him in a perfectly nice voice twice–he suggested I slap him to get his attention instead of yell.

I did NOT slap him.

(But I kind of wanted to strangle him.)

Can I report my son for suggesting I slap him?

Sincerely,

The mother of a 13-year-old boy who didn’t take his ADHD medication this morning

That’s what my 10-year-old told me I was yesterday–after wishing me happy birthday. Since I had to get up before 3 am to take my older girlies to the airport, however, I may have felt most of the way to 92 most of the day. (It took me forever to get back to sleep, and even that was more of a doze.) Since it was my birthday, however, I took it upon myself to lay in bed and finish Kayla Miller’s Stuck, her latest ‘Click’ graphic novel. In it Olive and her friends–as well as Nat, who’s never really quite a friend–are back at summer camp, only her two best camp friends start fighting and refuse to speak to each other. (They’re also insisting that Olive choose between them at every activity the three of them would normally do together.) Nat is making no secret of her lack of enthusiasm for the entire camp experience, and Olive is sure her summer is ruined. She does perk up at the chance to present a plan for how to spend money being donated to the camp, but will the persistent rain ruin that, too?

Stuck presents a worthwhile perspective on how to deal with friend drama (spoiler alert: I’m not talking about Nat’s ‘let’s make popcorn and enjoy the show’ attitude.) It also presents a strong what-can-we-do-for-the-environment message, which feels more natural given the setting than environmental messages often do nowadays. Being halfway to 92, I just wanted the friend drama to be over already, but I suspect the target audience will be less aggravated. Stuck is a solid addition to Miller’s series.

As for the rest of my birthday, it was a quiet day, with phone calls from family and an eventual (and inevitable under the circumstances) nap. We went to ‘Spitz’ for dinner, had ice cream when we got home, and enjoyed the occasional picture and update from my mil about our older girls.

Now, of course, we have a week of being (more or less) a family of four. It’s going to be weird!

That, of course, is what happened on Monday–we’ve been getting our older girls ready for their cousin trip with my in-laws. Tonight is their last night at home–I’m taking them to the airport at an unholy hour of the morning–and I tried a random recipe I found on Pinterest for dinner. (Because–just because.) Except, of course, I made changes.

To begin with, even though it’s a recipe for BBQ Chicken Cornbread Casserole, I don’t buy ground chicken. I did, however, have just over a pound of ground pork in my freezer from someone’s “I’m moving and have to empty my freezer” life event, and since it’s been in there for a bit, I was thrilled to pull it out and use IT instead. Because I don’t cook with bell pepper I was going to use celery instead, except guess what I’m apparently out of? (My daughter put it on the list–I just didn’t look.) I went with grated carrot instead, and my kiddos said the whole recipe tasted like fancy sloppy joes. (They weren’t wrong.) Overall, I think I’d recommend it–most of my family were fine with it, and it made a solid dinner when accompanied by some Hami melon.

Now, to get my older girlies finished packing…

That’s what the last week or so has been, folks. We spent the 4th of July in Clearfield, where lightning forced burgers from the grill to the griddle, and went to see the city fireworks with the littles and my oldest (#2 did fireworks with a cousin and her friends instead). We spent most of the 5th there as well, attending a bridal shower at 4, and then the three younger kids and I headed to Idaho for a (very) quick trip while my hubby and our oldest went home. (She had a hard-to-reschedule doctor’s appointment; he had to work.) We got in at 11 on Saturday night, which is never the best case scenario, and spent Sunday and Monday spending time with my nephew’s family (plus other family members) before driving home on Tuesday so that both my older girls could head to youth conference first thing Wednesday morning. The littles and I have been home during the days until now (it’s Saturday morning), and while the girlies get back today, they’re only in town until early Thursday morning, when they leave for a week.

That week is going to be a weird one.

Anyway. The one thing I did manage to do is finish reading Michael Morpurgo’s Kaspar the Titanic Cat (it didn’t seem to have a reliable link) aloud to my youngest. She enjoyed Morpurgo’s tale of a cat brought to the Savoy by a Russian countess and its adventures with the young bellboy who helped take care of it. (I was afraid the details about the sinking of the Titanic would give her bad dreams, but apparently not?) Certainly that was the most vivid part of the book for me; the rest of it was a nice story, but (probably for the most obvious of reasons) that part lived. It’s about 200 pages with occasional illustrations, so accessible for elementary readers on their own (especially animal lovers).* Give this one a try!

*Sorry that wasn’t the smoothest of segues; I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in days.

As in, three teenagers, folks. Today is my only son’s birthday, and I now officially have THREE TEENAGERS! (Plus a 10-year-old.) We had streuselly coffee cake for breakfast, we’re having grilled chicken, cooked carrots, and orange rolls for dinner, and in the meantime, the holiday weekend is more or less upon us. Yowsers! I’ve also managed to make the arm in which I pulled something at water aerobics last week continually worse, which is frustrating. On the other hand, I use both of my arms on a pretty regular basis, so…

Anyway. I had lunch with a friend from RI this week, which was lovely, and got my 15-year-old’s retainer replaced. (I know the metal/hard plastic ones are out of vogue nowadays, but we’ve had to replace retainers for both braces graduates. Grrr.) We’re working out logistics for the holiday weekend and getting the older girls ready for youth conference next week. And all I’d really like to do right now is manage to be lights off before midnight…