Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

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!