Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

That pretty much sums up my day, folks. I took the clean-but-just-tossed-in-a-laundry-basket clothes from the first half of the week and created a laundry mountain on my bed; I even added 3 or 4 new loads to it over the course of the day. The first half of the afternoon, however, was spent at our new orthodontist’s office. He’s out of network but willing to give us an impressive discount despite our lack of orthodontic coverage, and so my oldest is now lisping (she has bumpers, which I never had) and trying to learn how to chew with braces on. Good times! (By the way, Dr. Pezza, if we lived in Rhode Island, I would have come to your practice without a moment’s pause. Do your hands still smell like Dial soap?)

Anyway. Clean sheets are on my bed and Laundry Mountain has been reduced to what will fit in one (larger) laundry basket; all I have left between me and the shower is a review of Jessica Kim’s Stand Up, Yumi Chung!, which is totally worth your time. Funny-but-poignant middle grade fiction is always a win for me, and Kim’s debut novel is a lovely example of it. Yumi Chung has a genius older sister, strict, restaurant-running immigrant parents, and a wholehearted love of comedy. An unexpected chain of events finds her leading a bit of a double life, which eventually comes crashing to pieces around her; that isn’t the end of the person Yumi was hoping to become, however, and watching her use those pieces to create a successful mosaic of her truest self is a joy. Kids should relate; parents will appreciate. Give this one a try!