Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

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…

Once again I’m doing the post of shame. Maybe I should just accept that summer posting is going to be irregular? Last week was one of those weeks with lots of day things–the temple, giving blood, a ministering interview, therapy–plus, you know, kids home. Which continues to be not good for concentration. (Oh, and on Friday night all of us but my son saw another teen edition of “Six” with my second girlie’s friend in it. On Saturday my oldest and I–and my hubby, for much of it–watched “Evita”, but “Six” is still what’s in our heads.)

On the other hand, I did end up finishing Katherine Center’s Hello Stranger over the weekend, so there’s that. And yowsers, what a ride! If you’re not familiar with face blindness as a medical condition, you’ll have to google it, but if you are, the plot potential in the concept of a portrait artist being diagnosed with probably temporary face blindness should strike you pretty much immediately. Throw in family difficulties, an aging dog, and some overdue therapy, and you have Sadie Montgomery’s story.

I will say that this novel requires more suspension of disbelief than many; on the other hand, Center does provide (relatively) reasonable explanations of as many things as she can. The ending is satisfying, and there’s enough resolution with the antagonist that I was fine with it; overall, it’s maybe not my very favorite Center novel, but it’s still worth your time. (If you’re a fan of women’s fiction with a definite romantic element, that is. If that’s not your thing, you may not want to go there.)

In the meantime, I’ve got to gather library books due tomorrow and do whiteboards with the kiddos to plan out our day. But I did get a lot done in my food room on Saturday while my hubby took those kiddos to Taylorsville Dayz! Here’s wishing y’all luck in your own endeavors for the day…

Since I’m clearly struggling with my M/W/F posting schedule, should I accept reality–maybe just for the summer, maybe not–and switch to T/Th? I’m pondering.

I have zero regrets about the time we spent with friends that moved out of the neighborhood in January, which was lovely and involved most of yesterday afternoon. And I managed to hit the post office yesterday morning, since my great-nephew is apparently obsessed with a book series that we owned four of but weren’t passionate about. (Britt passed some of the books down to us, but only my younger two were still young enough, and neither one was terribly into them. I actually thought they were fun, but I’d rather pass them on to a passionate fan!) Today I have errands staring me in the face, but since one of them is returning library books, I wanted to review Wendy Xu’s Tidesong.

Meh.

I wanted to really like it, you know? Water dragons and mythology and a girl main character trying to find her confidence, etc. Unfortunately, I was just as annoyed as I was entertained. Sophie is sometimes likable but often not–the stereotypical “I’m going to ignore everything my experienced relatives tell me and do what I want without regard for the consequences” character. Xu’s technique for showing us the dark voices of insecurity and pressure in Sophie’s head isn’t bad, but–I’m not sure it makes her appreciably more likable. As for the adults–most of them start out as just plain mean, and the ones that change do so too suddenly and completely for believability. Sophie’s relationship with the water dragon is meant to outlast her mistakes, but it wants more development to make that realistic.

Really, the phrase ‘wants more development’ is probably the best way to sum up Tidesong. There’s potential there, and its intended audience might not mind how abruptly the plot moves along, but older readers will–mind, that is. The art is often enjoyable (although Sophie’s hair is a bit much for me), but the story needs more fleshing out. Any readers out there want to comment on their impressions?

Well. After some emotional struggles and the hecticness (yeah, not a word, I know) of making sure three kids were ready to leave for camp for a few days, yesterday was INCREDIBLY quiet. My youngest and I met my hubby for lunch yesterday and then had a read-a-thon when we got home…except that mine involved quite the nap in the middle of it. After she went to bed he and I watched the first half of “Hamilton” before heading off ourselves, which was impressive (even if the lyrics were sometimes hard to understand, although that’s a common difficulty in musicals); we lost power for a while before getting to sleep, but we did sleep pretty well.

This morning Britt and I met with our respective youngests for breakfast at Waffle Love, after which she helped me go through emails while I did dishes and sorted through papers; when they left, the young one and I played Skyjo, read for a bit more, and are heading off to Panda shortly. One nice thing is that I actually finished the 6th ‘Dragonbreath’ book, Revenge of the Horned Bunnies, and it was both lighter than the last one and beautifully hilarious. Danny, Wendell, and Christiana are joined by Danny’s annoying younger cousin Spencer at summer camp, where they discover nefarious doings and a horde of jackalopes. By the end, wrongs have been righted, lanyards made (although, sadly, not the Chinese Throwing Lanyard of Death), and Spencer has gotten considerably less annoying. If you haven’t read anything by Ursula Vernon yet, well–what are you waiting for?

In other news, kids get home tomorrow (camps were short) and my youngest has a piano recital. It’s always a party in Taylorsville!

No, I didn’t eat all the plums. And they’re not in the fridge, anyway–they’re sitting on the table.

I almost didn’t post today at all, to be honest with you, because it’s been a rough couple of days. On the other hand, my son finished reading Kate McMullan’s ‘Dragon Slayers Academy’ series today, and I have to give it a shoutout before the last book goes back to the library. My son doesn’t love reading, and he doesn’t love fantasy, but he’s chosen to keep reading DSA anyway. They’re short (not much over a hundred pages each) and approachable for more reluctant readers, and yet they’re entertaining and clever enough that I’ve kept up with him as he’s read them. They have enough of the ick factor to be appealing to elementary school boys (that’s when my son started the series) without bothering me, and–well, they’re hilarious. Please give the story of Wiglaf, his pig Daisy, and the rest of the students at DSA a try. You’ll be glad you did!

Because they’re supposed to remember everything, right? Except that it isn’t so much that I’m FORGETTING to post; it’s more that it’s distracting when kids are home, I’m truly trying to work on projects, and I’m too tired to concentrate an unfortunate amount of the time. (And I’ve been gone. I’ve been to the temple two mornings this week and to the school to meet with the principal one.) I did just finish listening to the audio fluff I’ve been distracting myself with, however, and so I figured I’d better just get the review over with. Because MEH.

Summer Ever After was available immediately and had a premise with promise–Jane is lonely, and since she loves romance novels, she comes up with a dating plan and decides to apply romance tropes to her dates. Her dating pool is small, since she doesn’t want to leave the small island she’s lived on all her life (which necessitates dating men who live there and plan to stay there, most of whom she’s known all of her life), but she starts out with plans. (The tropes get more painfully forced as she goes along, but she does have plans.)

Unfortunately, she’s had some level of crush on her best friend’s older brother since middle school. This is problematic because a)he’s a golf pro who travels a lot and doesn’t live on the island when he’s not traveling, and b)when his family moved to the island, girls pretended to be friends with his younger sister to get to know him, so she was sensitive about it. If I were Kortney Keisel, I would have concentrated a lot harder on the first issue rather than the second, because 3/4 of a book is really too long to spend focusing on the obstacle of “I can’t date him because it would break her heart, we can’t date because she wouldn’t approve, etc.” Seriously? They signed a BFF pact in middle school, sure, but that’s not a strong enough plot device to take seriously for that long.

The other problem we’re dealing with* is Keisel’s metaphors and similes. Is she aiming for over-the-top cheese for the laugh? I can’t quote any of them since I listened to the book without a physical copy to reference, but they were definitely too far over the top–they took me out of the moment, which is kind of death for a romance novel.

*There’s actually a third problem, but it’s probably a harder line to find for an adult novel. Summer Ever After is marketed as a “sweet” romantic comedy, which means (more or less) that any sex is happening off the page. The problem is that Keisel’s a bit heavy handed with talk of desire and passion to just not address the ‘are they or aren’t they’ issue. I’m perfectly happy for there to be no sex happening while dating, but avoiding the topic completely was not the way to go. Since we’re doing elephant metaphors, it’s the equivalent of inviting the elephant into the room and then refusing to acknowledge it. I get that having your main couple talk about it is more work, but either leave the elephant out or invite it to the table.

Anyway. It looks like each book in the series has a different author, so I’m pondering giving the second one a try out of morbid curiosity, but I’m not going to be actively seeking out any more Keisel novels. Summer Ever After was distracting, yes, but it was a little too fluffy for me.

Oh, wait. I took the littles (who, yeah, aren’t exactly so little anymore) to my friend Britt’s house until 2-ish. Our piano teacher wasn’t feeling well and cancelled lessons, and–that may be all I remember?

Summer is tough.

Sunday morning, though, I got to go to a missionary farewell for my friend Andrea’s oldest daughter, and between her talk and her sister’s piano solo, I was blown away. BOTH were beautiful.

And today? Today (with help from the kiddos) I cleaned out the main part of the fridge, which now looks lovely. The door will happen soon, I hope, but I also had to go to Costco and do some laundry, so there’s that. I do feel like I’m continually tackling overdue projects, and that’s a good thing; today, however, I’m just beat. Here’s hoping your summer is shaping up to be what you wanted it to be!

That’s seriously what I’m trying to kick–some congestion but mainly a throat that HURTS when I swallow. (But no fever or other strep symptoms, so there’s that.) Plus I had a deal of trouble falling asleep Sunday and Monday night, and I woke up horribly early Monday morning and couldn’t fall BACK asleep. On the other hand, I slept better last night and this morning my throat hurts less than it did, so I’m going to take that.

I also FINALLY managed to finish listening to/reading M.T. Anderson’s Elf Dog & Owl Head last night, which was an interesting journey. Not really my thing, to be honest with you, and yet it’s good enough that I enjoyed the read regardless; I even liked the majority of Junyi Wu’s illustrations, even though her style isn’t really my thing either. (I recognize the power of it, though.) I went into it thinking it was simply set during Covid, but it didn’t take long to realize that Anderson was more using the idea of Covid and Quarantine as a jumping off point. The forest and mountain by Clay’s house had a Vermont/New Hampshire feel for me, and the other worlds concept made me think of Susan Cooper’s ‘Dark is Rising’ sequence. DiRossi’s character development amused me, and I absolutely loved the sweater sheep.

These, however, are just random observations. The book follows a regular human boy’s experiences when he finds a dog that got caught in his world, and the story is filled with the unexpected. Both of his sisters get involved, if in entirely different ways, but ultimately, everything that happens can be tied to Elphinore. If you want an original and oddly powerful read for the summer, this one is definitely worth a try.

In the meantime, I’m sorry I missed Monday–feeling under the weather at the same time that we’re trying to find our summer routine is problematic. Here’s hoping for steady improvement for the rest of the week!

Seriously. Why else am I STILL so beat? Field Day/Graduation was an incredibly long day with a very late night (I exercised late and then took forever winding down), but I went to bed earlier than usual the next night, and I’ve certainly managed later mornings yesterday and today. Meh.

To be fair, I suppose I HAVE been busy at home. I’ve been trying to catch up on laundry, but also going through clothes that have been sitting around in limbo; yesterday I took pictures of a bunch of things I was having a hard time letting go of and put them in bags to go to the appropriate people. Yesterday I also went to a doctor’s appointment with my oldest and dropped a bunch of library books back at the library, and Thursday (the last day of school) we ordered Panda for our fundraiser. (I’m hoping we did well, but I haven’t heard yet.) Today we have places to go in the afternoon, though, so accomplishments at home will be kept to a minimum.

Anyway. This morning (while our choc-choc-chip-banana muffins were in the oven) I finished Nat a Chance, the 6th book in Maria Scrivan’s ‘Nat’ series of graphic novels. To be honest? I was torn about this one. I think its intended audience will enjoy it, and it has multiple good messages, but I didn’t feel like the plot development was up to Scrivan’s usual standards. It tried to convey more good messages than it had time to fully deliver. Still, the overriding idea–that we can do things we didn’t think were possible if we stop limiting ourselves with our own negative self-assessments–is a worthwhile one for the age (or for any age, really), and so it’s definitely a worthwhile read. Nat’s growth in self-confidence as she trains for a triathlon (her friend Zoe talks her into it) is nice to see, and her experience feels authentic.

I’ll have to see what my girlies think.

So–we were at my in-laws’ house all day Monday and yesterday was field day and my oldest child’s high school graduation.

I’m still wiped. Have a nice day!