Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Remember the Idaho trip we postponed because my oldest was throwing up the morning we were supposed to leave? That finally happened this past weekend, and we really did pack a bunch in. We drove up Thursday afternoon and went to DI with my parents on Friday morning; Friday evening we had salmon and lemon rice for dinner and my brother’s family came over afterwards. We had cinnamon rolls on Saturday morning, a firepit at my sister’s at lunchtime, and then pizza for dinner at my brother’s, followed by pumpkin carving. We went to sacrament meeting at my brother’s ward before getting an elliptical from my sister, which would only fit into the car if we put down enough seats that my son ended up driving home later that night with my nephew and his fiance. (AND the gecko that was that same nephew’s until he went to college, passed to my brother’s youngest boy after that, and is now ours. We’ve gecko-sat for Palmer before, but now we’re his forever family!) I drove home with the girls after lunch, and it was not the best drive in the world–I pulled over to doze twice, and my youngest was carsick enough to think she was going to throw up, although she very thankfully didn’t. We stopped at my in-laws’ for dinner and then made it home in time to get the girls to bed on time; my son rolled in around 12:30 am.

And then yesterday was Halloween. But my oldest two had friends trick-or-treating with them, and they all seemed to have fun!

Today I spent the entire morning at the school doing PTA and school volunteer work, but I did manage to finish Illegal this evening, and that was a victory–it’s been hanging around my library shelf for YEARS. (Not an exaggeration.) It’s a graphic novel by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin–illustrated by Giovanni Rigano–and to be fair, it went plenty fast once I actually read the first five pages. Illegal is the story of Ebo, an African boy who leaves his country determined to find his brother so they can make their way to Europe, their sister, and a better life together. It’s a heartbreaking picture of the impossible choices too many people must make and the unreal experiences that refugees often endure, and there’s a reason it’s being taught in schools. Illegal is a book that cannot fail to foster empathy and understanding; don’t miss it.