Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

To be honest, we all are. Today we took apart the double bunk bed in the girls’ room and put together a new triple bunk bed–to be fair, my hubby and son mostly did that–which involved ridiculous amounts of cleaning and moving stuff around, not to mention the washing of much, much bedding. Also, I woke up at 6:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep, so there’s that.

SO. Quick recap–we drove to Idaho for Christmas on the 23rd and drove home on the 27; Christmas with my parents was quiet but a different kind of lovely, and the weather was so ridiculously warm that my oldest took her youngest sister on two different bike rides. Santa came and everything went well for Christmas, even though it was a bit smaller of a Christmas than we’ve had the last few years. As my Grandpa Mather used to say, the Lord sure has been good to us.

We stopped in Clearfield on the way home to watch the second half of BYU’s bowl game, which was stressful but ultimately triumphant, and then yesterday our ward boundaries got completely realigned. As in, our ward is now our entire neighborhood, I have multiple PTA friends in the ward now, and our children and youth programs have grown significantly. (Not that it would take much, you understand.) It’s all very exciting for us, since we didn’t lose anyone, but those that had their wards dissolved are understandably struggling to some degree. Sunday will be interesting!

Anyway. I did manage to finish listening to Elana K. Arnold’s Harriet Spies today, mostly because it was short and we all kind of tapped out around 4. Normally, I avoid main characters who struggle with lying, because they drive me crazy; Arnold does such a good job with, however–in first person, no less!–that I still enjoyed the book. (Although if it were longer and the situation more drawn out, I’d probably have struggled.) Harriet is still on Marble Island with her grandmother while her mother is on bedrest, but this time she and the Captain butt heads in a way that ultimately endangers a new friendship. All does turn out well, in a realistic, satisfying sort of way, and since Harriet’s dad drops a verbal bomb toward the end, I’m rather anxious to read the next one. In the meantime, I’m beat and I want to be in bed earlier tonight, so goodnight all!

Okay, so it’s not quite 2:30 in the afternoon, but my point is that after this post I’m signing off for the holiday week. (I’ll be busy.) In the meantime, we had a lovely Christmas program at church yesterday, at which my hubby played the organ and my oldest helped narrate and then played the harp with my hubby as piano accompaniment. Our family watched “Klaus” together last night, which was fun, and before bed I finished reading Jessixa and Aaron Bagley’s Dear Jackie, which I was considering for my 16-year-old for Christmas.

Here’s the thing. When I tell you I did not enjoy it, I need to immediately add that, objectively, it’s at least a 3.5 star graphic novel. I’ve always struggled with plots involving people who lie to make themselves cooler to other people, however, and I hate the inevitable fallout. (How can you enjoy anything when you know it’s bound to end badly?) Jackie’s pretend love letters to herself were not a plot element I was ever going to enjoy. Added to that, however, was the spate of unkindness by various middle schoolers, which was realistic but painful for me to read about. The seemingly endless drama of who likes whom and what should be done about it was bad enough, but the mean “friends” who claimed to be just teasing were worse. Again, realistic, but SO painful. I suppose I feel about Dear Jackie the same way I felt about Raina Telgemeier’s Drama–they’re both full of realistic middle school drama and experiences, but dang it, I’ve EARNED THE RIGHT not to relive junior high any more than my parenting responsibilities make me have to. I lived through it, I survived, and so help me, I am not going back there.

Anyway. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all, folks–I wish you all peace and joy. See you next week!

The one thing about having a child home sick is that it’s easier to finish the book you and that child are reading together; yesterday morning I finished reading Mary Amato’s Edgar Allan’s Official Crime Investigation Notebook aloud to my 10-year-old, and I ended up really liking it. Edgar does come across as whiny at first–although the book’s intended audience is not likely to be bothered–but as he gains confidence and makes connections with a few of his classmates, he becomes more of a delight than anything else. As he and other elementary school students investigate a string of school thefts which include poems left by the thief, Edgar also gains a better relationship with his family. AND the thief’s poems are parodies of famous ones, which I quite enjoyed! I wish I’d known about this one when my mystery-loving oldest was in elementary school.

I recommend.

In the meantime, I took care of the most pressing PTA business this morning and now I should be home for the duration–unless I have to go pick up my 16-year-old, who says her stomach is acting up. Because it’s that time of year, of course. How is Christmas Eve a week from today???

Mind you, I’m desperately grateful that this year’s plague isn’t the horrible 48 hour stomach nightmare of last December, but my youngest two are coughing and miserable. I’m just hoping that it stops with them.

In the meantime, I spent Friday Christmas shopping and getting things done, Saturday was a day of madness that included a baby shower and the shopping for that, and yesterday both of my younger kiddos were home. (Only my youngest is home today; her brother took cold medicine and went to school in a mask.) I did, however, finish reading Doreen Rappaport and Joan Verniero’s Victory or Death! Stories of the American Revolution (which is expensive enough new that I didn’t bother linking it here) last night before bed, which means it can go back to the library with me today.

As for what I thought of it? I’m afraid that I was familiar with most (though not all) of the stories told, and so the amount of new information it provided me was small. I wouldn’t necessarily blame that on the book, though–when you grow up in one of the original 13 colonies, you do get more colonial and revolutionary war history in school. What I would say is that at just over 100 pages, this is a good book for elementary schoolers with little previous specific knowledge of the American Revolution, and the ‘Acknowledgements’ at the end do an excellent job of laying out what was quoted and what had to be extrapolated from all available research. If you’re in need of this book, it does look to be available used for a reasonable price, but it’s too young for anyone but my youngest. (Although she said she’d read it, so I guess it’s not going back to the library today after all.) In the meantime, good luck with all of your holiday preparations, and I hope your families aren’t fighting the plague!

We’re just not going to talk about any days I miss between now and New Year’s, okay? Because in addition to, oh, CHRISTMAS, I’m also on–heading?–the STEAM night committee and my youngest is working on submitting her topic for the history fair. Plus we’ve been challenged by our local church leaders to read the Book of Mormon as a family between now (well, a week and a half ago) and Easter, and coordinating that (even though we’re doing two family groups during the week) gets interesting. At least the projects are coming along?

In the meantime, I’m still volunteering at the school at least 2 days a week, and I promised I’d take care of delivering the food if student council headed up a food drive. Luckily I found someplace exceptionally close, except they’re only open on Wednesdays.

How’s your December going?

It’s normally my second girlie that I’m frantically previewing books for in December, but she’s deep in the throes of her junior year and so not reading a ton. On the other hand, when I saw Maria van Lieshout’s Song of a Blackbird described and realized that it was a dual-timeline Holocaust mystery with art as the key, well–that fits my oldest to a T. (I did worry at one point that it was going to go in a direction that would bug her, but it didn’t, and I was SO glad!) She should find the art interesting, even if it’s deliberately evocative of printmaking and thus uses a very limited color scheme, and she’s always been my mystery lover. I suppose I’m more of a devotee of Holocaust literature than she is, but she inherited enough of my love for history that it should still be a draw, so it’s a win–I ordered it from B&N (may Borders ever rest in peace) today.

For those of you wanting more of an actual plot description, Blackbird follows two teenagers in Amsterdam, Emma in 1943 and Annick in 2011. When Annick discovers that her grandmother, who is in need of a transplant, was actually adopted as a child, she dives hurriedly into the past to try to find her a biological relative who may be a match. That dive starts with a series of prints on a wall and leads, eventually, to Emma. How their stories connect involves a fictional story based on a good many historical events, and my daughter should love the ‘fight hate–make art’ theme van Lieshout explores. I found the color scheme required more light than usual for my eyes to appreciate, but as long as I was working with more than just my bed lamp, I did fine.

I highly recommend this one.

I refuse to feel guilty about Monday’s post; I did 6 loads of laundry, gave blood, made dinner, and attended a Driver’s Ed parent night that night. As for yesterday, my youngest and I were home all day with iffy tummies, and I did at least manage to order Christmas cards and get the majority of our Christmas letter written. (Ordering Christmas cards is no mean feat, by the way–I had no idea what a good deal Costco offered until they stopped offering it and partnered with Shutterfly instead.) I also finished listening to Gordon Korman’s Old School, another ‘Battle of the Books’ title that’s getting passed on to my youngest, in part to guarantee that I could write its review today.

So. If you haven’t read anything by Korman before, you should know that he’s generally over-the-top in what I assume is a self-aware kind of way. His characters aren’t two-dimensional, but some are fleshed out more than others, and many of them are (again, I’m assuming) intentionally representative types. Some of his stories work better than others because of this, but I have to say–he’s pretty much always a good time. Old School, in fact, is a perfect example of what Korman does well. You’ve got Dexter Foreman, whose parents work overseas while he lives with his grandma at her retirement village and gets homeschooled by the residents; he dresses, behaves, and thinks more like the senior citizens he lives with than the middle schooler he technically is. Enter a truancy officer–for reasons I shan’t spoil for you, his homeschooling isn’t quite official enough–and suddenly he’s plopped unwillingly down in the middle of Wolf’s Eye Middle School. Reactions to Dexter aren’t exactly enthusiastic, middle school being what it is, but he’s making it along (in his own unique way) until he bumps up against a school rule not designed for a kid like him and finds himself suspended. Which is great for him…or is it?

I’ll let you enjoy the rest of it on your own, which you definitely should do. Is it realistic? Heck no. Is it purely recreational fun during a season that, at its best, tends to be far busier than we’d like? Absolutely.

I can’t wait for my youngest to read it.

Monday clearly got away from me, but let’s be fair–I had a child home from school AND I had to grocery shop for pie night. (Technically, I also grocery shopped for pie night yesterday, just at different stores. But Monday was the big Walmart trek.) This morning I’m making MY pie–my youngest and my hubby made theirs yesterday–and my oldest is baking hers before we leave for my in-laws’, where my middles are making theirs. Except that I also have to pick up Munchkins for one of those pies and take my son to the orthodontist to fix a broken bracket. Good times…

Anyway. Last night I finished ‘Epic Fails’ #3: Not-So-Great Presidents: Commanders in Chief, which I’ve been chipping away at before bed. (I’ve decided I need to pick books divided into short chunks to chip away at before bed; that’s going to work better than novels in my current stage of life.) It was certainly informative and often hilarious, especially with its casual, chatty, almost gossipy tone; I did think, however, that it came across more as a list of presidents with their good and not-so-good accomplishments than as a book devoted to epic fails. The authors may have skipped a few, but they covered a lot of presidential ground, some of it the antithesis of failure. Still, I definitely learned some new things, and I found myself reading bits and pieces aloud to my husband (did you know that Gerald Ford was named Leslie Lynch King, Jr. at birth?). I’d recommend this one as high accessible history for elementary through middle schoolers, not to mention for reluctant readers.

Well, I’m off to do the things. Have a happy Thanksgiving, folks!

Not that I’m surprised, you understand; Rob Buyea always has plenty of feels. But Carter Avery’s Tricky Fourth-Grade Year has different kinds of feels than some of his other ones, so they still feel worth mentioning. (By the way, I put off my post deliberately so that I could review Carter Avery today, since I only finished reading it aloud with my youngest yesterday afternoon. And it’s a ‘Battle of the Books’ book, so she and I can fill out our summaries today as well!)

First of all, Carter Avery is narrated only by–surprise surprise!–Carter Avery; most of Buyea’s books have more than one narrator. Secondly, he’s on the youngest side of Buyea’s main characters, and he and his sister live with their grandmother because their parents died in a car accident when he was a baby. (Feels.) Third–well, the plot does involve teachers who make a difference (in both directions!), but Ms. Krane and Mr. Terupt are really quite different. Carter’s journey with teachers, learning, and friendship has all the heart you could ask for, however, and while the Missy Gerber aspect of the plot feels like one of the biggest reality stretches, it definitely matters. I loved Lieutenant Boss, Mrs. Stinger’s fate felt perfect, and overall, Carter’s story grabbed me and didn’t let go. As for Grams, Torrie, and Brynn–and Mason and Susie–well, let’s just say there are a lot of characters to love.

Don’t miss this one.

You know those foods that your children say they really like but then don’t necessarily eat much of? Cheddar Bay biscuits–you know, the Red Lobster kind you make from a boxed mix you can get at Costco–are one of those things, and I had one package of mix left in the box when I came across this recipe for Creamy Tomato Soup with Cheddar Bay Dumplings. I knew my family wouldn’t be particularly excited about any tomato soup, but hey–it was an easy recipe, and they can live with something they’re not excited about every once in a while, right? So I waited for an acceptable soup day (it’s been a warm November) and today was it. The verdict?

First of all, my hubby’s tummy was bugging him and my oldest went out to dinner with friends, so it was my younger three and me eating it. Among the four of us, my 16-year-old couldn’t deal with the texture and my littles both gave it a thumbs middle, so not exactly a success, but I rather enjoyed it. I do know that a lot of people struggle with the ‘soggy bread’ sort of texture you find in soup dumplings–among other things–and anyone who so struggles should definitely avoid this recipe. If the texture doesn’t bother you, however, and the idea of garlic-cheddar dumplings in a simple tomato soup appeals, then I recommend giving this recipe a try.

I’m kind of looking forward to the leftovers.