Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

The reason I’ve been MIA for the past week is that my dad went into memory care on September 21st; my sister went out of town on the 23rd, and so I drove up to Idaho myself to stay with my mom. It’s (unsurprisingly) been hard for us all, but his steep decline over the past few weeks has now made it physically impossible for my 81-year-old mother to be his caretaker. We’re all at peace with the decision, but witnessing his further decline is a special kind of heartbreaking.

What I am grateful for was the chance (with my mother-in-law’s help on the home front) to spend the time with my mother. We have very different personalities and sometimes frustrate each other, but it truly was a help to have me there, and I felt truly blessed to be able to be that help. (Also grateful that my sister pushed me into asking my m-i-l for the help, because my hubby’s work schedule would not have permitted him to take over the daytime chauffeuring duties.) My older girls were both a help at home, and I’m feeling blessed by my family.

Now. Since I was in the car by myself for 5 hours twice in the last week or so, I enjoyed being able to listen to whatever audiobook I wanted, and on the way up I finished listening to Hena Khan’s Drawing Deena, which I definitely enjoyed. (Although every time the audiobook narrator pronounced the artist’s name as Van ‘Goff’ it weirded me out. Is it not Van ‘Go’? Never have I ever heard anyone say Van ‘Goff’ before!) Deena is an American girl whose parents grew up in Pakistan, and she worries about more things than her parents realize. As she tries to help her mother’s business grow (maybe then she won’t overhear her parents arguing about money?), she also looks for ways to improve her art while trying to be a good friend and cousin. Eventually, however, she realizes that in order to do that, she needs to get a handle on her anxiety.

My only real issue with this book is the somewhat uneven pacing of the anxiety arc; otherwise, Deena’s parents could have been fleshed out a bit more, but Deena’s journey is one older elementary kids ought to appreciate. It portrays anxiety in both a relatable and a helpful way, and I enjoyed the small business aspect of the plot. I’ll let you know how my artistic and anxious children enjoy it!

To wit: I just finished The BIG Adventures of Babymouse: Besties!, which I’ve had in my library pile for a good long while; Goodreads, however, lists it as ‘Not Yet Published’ and gives an expected publishing date of January 2, 2079. (Note: if I’m still alive at that point, I will be 99 1/2.) Why? No one knows. But Besties! is as insightful and entertaining as the rest of Babymouse’s adventures, so I wouldn’t wait until the last quarter of the century to pick it up. In it we meet Kara, an adorable and seemingly perfect koala that seems to be charming her way into the heart of Babymouse’s friend group. Has Kara replaced her–and even appropriated her best friend, Wilson? You can guess what the end result will be, but Babymouse is consoled on her journey of understanding by an unexpected source, making for some fantastic panels. Don’t miss this one!*

On the homefront, my dad–my amazing, flawed, loving dad, who dementia has reduced to a shell of himself–is scheduled to enter a care center today. It’s more than time, as the strain of his caretaking has been weighing more and more heavily on my 81-year-old mother, but it’s going to be a difficult transition for both of them. I can’t be there today–my son’s very first high school jazz band concert is tonight, and I wouldn’t miss that–but I’ll be spending a great deal of time with my mother later this week, so I’ll likely not post until a week from Wednesday. If you’d like to send prayers, thoughts, or good vibes their way, our family would appreciate them.

*It’s clear that many people have already not missed it, so to speak. I generally mend rips in library book pages, but more than half of this one’s over 200 pages had at least small rips on the bottom. I didn’t have the will to mend more than the worst one or two.

My kiddos didn’t have school today* AND I have some significant family things going on, so I’m afraid you don’t get much today. Let’s hope for a quieter day on Monday…

*I will say, however, that my living and dining rooms look much better now than they did this morning; there will also be fewer chores tomorrow. Which is something.

I am SO SO SORRY about the advanced state of hyperactivity in which I dropped my child off at the activity tonight. I was not expecting quite so many of her friends to be in line with us during SEPs, and having one of those friends come to the activity with her just fueled the insanity. At least you only have them for an hour?

In other news, I quite liked the Tuscan Style Chicken Piccata I bought at Costco this month and served up tonight; my senior also liked it, my son did not, and I’m waiting on the rest of the family to try it. I do wish I’d cooked up 12 oz of pasta to add to it rather than 8, though. I’ll let you know what other people think…

Y’all know I often can’t resist trying new things at Costco; last week’s impulse purchases included a tub of Curry Chicken Breast Salad and a bag of Nutty & Fruity Crazy Fruit.

Not my best purchases ever.

The Crazy Fruit is described as ‘sour candy coated mango with a splash of real peach juice’, and since I have two mango loving girls AND two that love sour candy–sadly, not the same two, but still–I thought it was a pretty safe bet. The problem is that inside the sour candy coating, that mango isn’t so much chewy as hard. You have to work at it. That coupled with the impressively unfortunate sugar content means I will not be purchasing those again. As for the Curry Chicken Breast Salad, well–while I didn’t think the curry flavor was at all strong, my two curry haters nixed it. My son wasn’t a big fan for reasons he didn’t elaborate, but my hubby and youngest both complained about the mustard flavor. Spoiler alert? Mustard is not listed as an ingredient. (Although of course, the ‘spices’ could probably include mustard seed.) The funny thing is that I know what they mean, but I found it almost too salty. Sadly, that adds up to no one in our household preferring it, so I’m going to pass it on to my friend Britt. Perhaps her crew will feel differently…

In fact, my MO for Terri Libenson’s ‘Emmie & Friends’ series seems to be to finish the one I’ve got checked out right about the time the next one gets published. (Although to be fair, I’m a couple of weeks ahead of the game this time.) I did, however, finish Entirely Emmie on Wednesday night, and despite some misgivings about Joe’s co-starring role, I found myself completely enjoying it. The setting is a celebrate-the-end-of-the-school-year class trip to a camp by a lake; Emmie’s (much) older sister is coming along as a chaperone, and she and Bri are expecting plenty of bestie time.

Except.

For starters, Bri comes down with a miserable cold just before they’re scheduled to leave. And Joe’s parents, who find the flyer at almost the last minute, encourage him to go by heavily implying that the weekend at home will be a veritable chore-fest if he doesn’t. Which then makes the two of them inconveniently buddy-less–together. What starts out as a miserable weekend, however, starts to shift when Emmie and Joe start to really talk to each other. And even though neither one of them would have chosen to be forced out of her/his comfort zone, they both appreciate some of the aftereffects.

To be honest, I was most impressed at how Libenson handled Joe’s inner voice. While I generally can’t STAND people who crack jokes at other people’s expense, Joe’s thought processes and character growth nudged me out of my reader comfort zone, rendering him a sympathetic character in his own right. There is definitely some typical middle school drama as well, but that’s more of a plot device to aid what matters than anything else. Entirely Emmie is, well, entirely worth your time.

In other–sad–news, we lost one of our bunnies yesterday. Marshy–short for Marshmallow, since he was an albino lionhead–was at the outer edge of the life expectancy for outdoor bunnies, and he got lots of love and attention yesterday from the two kiddos who loved him most, but those kiddos–ESPECIALLY my son–will miss and miss him. He was chill enough to hold and hang out with, and despite an unfortunate penchant for nibbling on shoes, he was good natured and accommodating. He served as an emotional support animal for my oldest in early high school and my son for the past several years, and we will not forget him.

My neighbor has also had barely any tomatoes off of her plants this year. Why? Garden tomatoes and corn on the cob are two of the things that make heat bearable. I WANT MY TOMATOES!!!

And by holiday, I mean I missed a blog post and focused on doing other things that needed doing…at least until it was time to leave for Clearfield and a Labor Day BBQ with my in-laws. I’m posting today, however, because I finished Ruth Behar’s Letters from Cuba over the weekend, and it was seriously SO GOOD! (Did I just sound like a teenager there? Possibly. But I slept really, really badly last night.)

Ruth Behar was heavily inspired by her own family history in Letters from Cuba; in it we have Esther, the oldest child of a Polish family, joining her father in Cuba to help earn money to get the rest of their family out of Poland. She is charmed by the friendliness of the Cuban people, as well as the sunshine, abundant fruits, and mix of cultures. Unfortunately, even Cuba isn’t completely free of anti-Semitism, making it harder for Esther and Papa to earn the money they need, even while the news from Europe makes rescuing their family ever more urgent. Luckily, they have far more friends than they do enemies, and lessons learned in Poland come back to help them; as news of Kristallnacht comes to Cuba, those friends pitch in to help them meet their goal. Will it be in time?

I loved Esther, who is spunky, open-hearted, and driven by her fierce love for her family. Her story represents an almost forgotten chapter in history; until a year or two ago, I had no idea that many Jews found refuge in Cuba before WWII. If you haven’t read anything by Ruth Behar yet, well–what are you waiting for?

In other news, the weather is delightfully cooler than it has been, my morning responsibilities are complete, and my bed is beckoning seductively. I rather think some more sleep is in order…

Let’s be honest, folks–Fridays are going to be hard this school year. I already need more sleep than I’m getting, but on Friday mornings my senior has to be at the school at 6 AM for Dance Company, and I’m her chauffeur. Thankfully, my blessed hubby took her from there to her off-the-school-campus class on his way to work, so I got in a nap (kind of an impressive one, actually). I also ran a couple of errands, but what I’m actually most proud of is that I washed another load of stuffed animals (plus one blanket) in hot water, ran it through the dryer, and sent one of them with my niece and her family with the rest of the stuff already set aside for them. Which was a solid pile. Which has now LEFT MY HOUSE.

That, my friends, together with getting to spend time with said niece and her family, made today a pretty good day.

That, my friends, describes my dinner leftovers perfectly. I’d have less left over, of course, if my hubby hadn’t had an after-work-work thing down the street from Raising Cane’s, but such is life. When I went looking for a casserole recipe to use the rest of the chicken I cooked up yesterday, I came across this recipe for Chicken Enchilada Rice Casserole and thought–hey! I noticed leftover homemade enchilada sauce in my freezer just the other day! I had to make some adjustments based on what I had on hand, of course, but I stayed fairly close to the original.

Adjustment #1: I had just over a pound of cooked chicken when it called for ‘about a pound and a half’, so I threw in a can of drained and rinsed pinto beans to compensate. (I normally prefer black beans, but I figured pinto would combine better with the refried beans the recipe called for.)

Adjustment #2: I went for a combination of Monterey Jack and sharp cheddar, because that’s what I had.

Adjustment #3: I didn’t make a special trip for cilantro because most of my children object and I didn’t want to go out for one thing.

Adjustment #4: I generally only stock the bigger cans of corn–14.5 oz, probably–so that’s what I used.

Adjustment #5: I was doubtful about the amount of liquid, so I added an 8 oz can of tomato sauce to supplement the enchilada sauce. This gave the whole thing a milder flavor, but since my hubby rather specifically doesn’t love red enchilada sauce, I figured it worked.

Bottom line? It was on the bland side, partly (I’m sure) due to that tomato sauce, but I had mine with chopped fresh tomato and enjoyed it. I may make it again and tinker with it slightly; I also may serve up some of the leftovers as taco filling and provide the toppings. Regardless, it made a perfectly serviceable dinner tonight!