Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Every other Wednesday my oldest has a church activity from 5-6 and then dance from 6:15-7; this means she has to eat whatever leftovers we have in the fridge (or, if all else fails, a deli meat sandwich) for dinner at 4:30.  Which means, of course, I’m down a good eater for dinner–AND I have to start dinner knowing I have to leave the house to take her just before five, and then be done eating in time to take her from one to the other.  (My hubby then picks her up while I bathe the boy.)  You can probably appreciate the need for an easy meal on these nights, right?  (If you can’t, well, I can’t imagine why you’re interested in this blog.)

Anyway, tonight’s pick was these Apple Pie Pancakes with Vanilla Maple Syrup, which I enjoyed–but which also need some tweaking.  I did love the flavor, although I messed with the spices a bit (I’m just all about more nutmeg flavor, and so I lessened the cinnamon and cloves some to make up for it).  I doubled it but stuck with one (large) apple (out of pure laziness, to be honest with you, but they were apple-y enough, overall), and I used half whole wheat flour because this is the Pregnancy of Craving Fiber!  These are predictable changes for me, however, and I wouldn’t say they NEEDED tweaking if these were the only things I wanted to change.  What needs to change next time, however, is the leavening.  I admit to using 1% milk instead of whole, but that shouldn’t have made the batter all that thin; I’m thinking the recipe really wants buttermilk instead (at least partly), but to do that it possibly needs some baking soda instead of all baking powder, and I need to research how to change the proportions properly.  (And yes, I am aware that altitude may be a major factor here, since the blogger lives in San Diego.)  In the meantime, the flavor truly was lovely.  If any of you know how to make them a bit fluffier without messing with that, please share!

I must be imagining things.  The very year I will be having a baby 8 days after the Newberys are announced is the year that the Medal winner and one Honor book are verse novels; the other Honor book, unbelievably, is a graphic novel.  I couldn’t ask for a more manageable list, but I confess–I’m not entirely comfortable with a Newbery year where no books of a traditional format actually win.  I love verse novels, mind you–love them–but I can’t help wondering why on EARTH they couldn’t find one or two regular novels as well.  Many years see four or five Honor books, and you can’t tell me no worthy contenders came out last year.  I wish I’d been a fly on the wall during the decision-making process.

Anyway, for inquiring minds, here are the ALA Youth Media Award Winners for 2015:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/american-library-association-announces-2015-youth-media-award-winners-300028995.html

I want to read plenty more than just the Newberys, but I’m  trying to be realistic about what life will be like in the next few months…

Yeah, yeah, like anyone reading this blog really thought of me as being into football.  I am from New England, though, so I’m being sincere when I say ‘Go Pats!’  I always cheer for my home teams–if by cheer you  mean that I’m happy when I hear that they’ve won, but I don’t always care enough about the sports themselves to know much more than that.  (By the way, this is slightly off topic, but I was amused to see my high school prom date’s FB status:  “Let’s show Starbucks drinkers what Dunkin Donuts can do!”)  In all fairness, I did watch as much as I could of the last few minutes of the game, since it was a bit of a nail-biter.  (I was putting the girlies to bed during the interception, though.)

Nevertheless, I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for weeks, and the reason why has nothing to do with the Super Bowl.  The ALA Midwinter Meeting has been going on all weekend, and tomorrow morning they will announce their Youth Media Awards.  (The press conference is from 8-9 in Chicago, which means I may catch snatches while getting the kids ready for school.  We’ll see how that goes.)  I’d like to thank the Salt Lake County Library system, by the way, for upping the number of hold slots allowed per library card–I should have enough spots to put all of the new Newberys on hold this year.  (Many of the other Award categories tempt me as well, but I will try to be realistic about all of the things that are NOT going to happen in the next month or so!)

There you have it, folks.  Be a fellow geek and watch the broadcast online.  (Let’s just hope I don’t randomly go into labor between now and then; I never have before, but I sure am contracting, and there’s a first time for everything…)