Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Not as often as I’d like right now, it’s true, but it does happen. To wit? Yesterday I finished listening to Freya Sampson’s The Busybody Book Club, which was quite gripping towards the end. I don’t know whether to call it character driven fiction or a cozy mystery–I suppose it’s a mashup of the two–but it follows Nova Davies, who runs a (very) small book club at a community center in Cornwall. When a large sum of money is stolen on the same night that a book club member rushes out partway through with no explanation, Nova’s work habits come under scrutiny, and she allows herself to be drawn into her book club’s amateur sleuthing in hopes of getting the money back. The sleuthing, however, puts a strain on her relationship with her fiance, and when murder enters the picture, things get even dicier. How it all comes out is a captivating ride, and the name/plot dropping of an impressive number of mystery and romance titles makes it all the more entertaining. Book lovers and fans of found family plots should enjoy this one.

In the meantime, my son’s schedule was successfully changed yesterday, tonight is freshman orientation, and I’ve already taken a nap today. (In my defense, my almost-17-year-old had to be picked up at 10:45 last night and taken to dance at 5:45 this morning.) I’ve got wash in the dryer, my youngest has a friend over, and I did some very good work in my kitchen this morning. I’m pretty sure my audiobook is calling me…

I did mean to post yesterday–truly, I did. But the morning started with the AC/Furnace people coming before 9–NOT to measure, as I thought, but to install. Which entailed my almost-17-year-old finding a ride to seminary council, since I didn’t want to leave the littles home with the installers first thing, plus dishes and then a warm house by the time they were done and the AC was on again. My oldest was blessedly on her way home and close to the high school when her sister was ready to be picked up, but between doggedly cleaning the living room (my youngest was sure she was going to die), taking a child shopping, and finding time to eat meals, well–it was a day. And I never do well when my expectations of the day undergo sudden and significant revisions first thing in the morning.

On the other hand, here I am now, right? And on Tuesday–starting while the littles and a friend apiece were at Classic–I read the start of a delightful new graphic novel series by Deborah Underwood and Jorge Lacera. The Fairy Tale Fixers: Cinderella owes some of Cinderella’s character to ‘The Princess and the Frog’, but it’s got mice, an evil stepmother and stepsisters, and a handsome prince. One of the mice, in fact, gets the plot rolling–she’s so tired of all the yelling at Cinderella that she employs the Fairy Tale Fixer to get Cinderella out of the house so she (the mouse) can (hopefully) get some sleep. Unfortunately, the handsome prince is an incredible bore, so the initial fix needs some serious fixing. The plot is highly entertaining, the illustrations are fun, and at 120 or pages, it’s got crossover appeal between early readers and solid ones. Check it out when you’ve got a chance!

The good news is that I am making progress. The (temporarily) bad news is that I have bags upon bags of clothes waiting to go to different people and places, so not half of the things designated to leave my house have actually left yet. One step at a time, I guess…

Anyway. It was a full weekend, what with a work event Friday night, fetching the middles back from Provo early Saturday morning (together with all of their laundry), teaching adult Sunday school, Sunday dinner in Clearfield with my and my August birthday girlie’s birthday dessert, and a devotional to drop the middles off at afterwards. Today I’m allowing myself a slower pace while still accomplishing things, which is why I made myself this Old Fashioned Kidney Bean Salad to have for lunch (I wanted higher protein and fewer carbs today). I halved it, since I wasn’t sure anyone else was going to be excited about it, and when I read the blogger’s note that it would have a deviled-eggy sort of vibe, I decided to add a teaspoon each of horseradish and mustard, both of which are in my deviled egg recipe. That worked for me, but I ended up wishing I’d salted it more liberally (I wish ‘salt and pepper to taste’ always came with a ballpark amount to start with). I’m not so sure about the texture of the beans (oh, I used red instead of kidney, since kidney beans are unkind to my digestive system), but they do add a significant portion of the nutritional value, so there’s that. It wasn’t instantly amazing, but it’s good enough to tinker with. Let me know what you think!