Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

First of all, I do apologize for the two missed posts. Since Thursday, however, here’s how my week has gone:

Thursday afternoon: Popsicles with our new principal. I was at the school from 4:25 until just after 7.

Friday: Volunteer appreciation breakfast. I had to have a breakfast casserole baked and at the school before 9, not to mention collecting all of the necessary paper products from the closet, and my oldest threw up half the night, so I also had to take my youngest to school and then go back and get her the backpack she forgot. Piano lessons in the afternoon.

Saturday: Family chores and activities (I’m the slavedriver), Costco run, and my niece’s high school graduation open house in Layton.

Sunday: My daughter’s farewell talk in church and brunch afterwards. By the time we’d cleaned up the church pavilion and gotten everything back inside our house, it was after 1, and we had stragglers at the house until after 3. We had lots of support, we felt loved–and we were tired.

Monday: Left for Clearfield family graves slightly after 8 and were in Clearfield all day. Hustled the kids out the door to be home by 7:30-ish since it was a school night.

Yesterday: Kitchen recovery, washing of bedding because it’s too warm for our winter comforter, and kindergarten graduation. Made chicken for dinner.

Today so Far: Fourth load of wash in the washer, third in the dryer, dishwasher again full of clean dishes. Dinner in the crockpot, errands at two libraries and the grocery store/pharmacy completed, lunch mostly consumed. Not bad for 1:15, right?

Now. My oldest daughter got a free copy of Gennifer Choldenko’s The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman in her prize bag after her team won the 5th grade Battle of the Books competition. She’s been wanting me to read it ever since finishing it herself, and since my not-much-of-a-reader son gave it 10 stars, I moved it up my list. (I actually had a copy checked out from the library when she won hers.) I listened to much of the last third of it Saturday night, including while shaving my legs in the shower, and oh, I cried! After getting past the crisis point I went to bed and finished it up on Sunday night, but as I’ve said, life has been a bit busy for a review until today.

Hank Hooperman and his little sister, Boo, have been waiting for days for their mother to come home when their landlord threatens eviction. Worried about making a mistake but trying to pick the best of a handful of bad options, Hank uses their mother’s bus pass to get the two of them to the house of a woman listed as emergency contact on some of their paperwork; from there, the changes start to snowball. A temporary school, new friends, their own social workers, friendly neighbors, and the ever-present question of where they’re going to end up keeps Hank’s mind spinning. Can he avoid making any serious mistakes so that he and Boo can stay together, find their mom, and be a family again?

Seriously, folks–ALL the feels. (Including a fair bit of anger towards Hank and Boo’s mother.) You will root for Hank until the very last page, and then hug your family more tightly than usual before bed. DO NOT miss this one.