Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

So–on the 21st I managed dinner in the crockpot (which involved an early trip to Ream’s in my pjs) and exercising and a quick shower before going to the temple and then walking to pick up my kiddos; my 13-year-old’s band concert was at 7 that evening, but my oldest had dance until 6:15, call time was 6:30, and we had to pick up a friend, so it was hectic. Wednesday morning I took my littles to school, dropped the 13-year-old at the orthodontist, dropped my hubby at Target to meet his ride to the airport (work trip), picked the 13-year-old UP at the orthodontist, dropped her at school, and finally made it home. I had a meeting at 7 Wednesday night, so I had to drop my littles at a friend’s house before dropping my big girls at YW and heading to my meeting; thankfully it ended shortly after 8, so I got the littles in bed as quickly as I could. Thursday was early day and there were difficulties with my oldest, and then that oldest got her wisdom teeth out Friday morning. The 13-year-old got woozy and eventually passed out at the sight of her sister and the leftover blood in her mouth, so I had to get my neighbor to babysit the teenagers while my son and I picked up prescriptions, frozen fruit without seeds, and a birthday present for the party he was invited to that night (from 7-9!). We had to hurry then to be ready for piano lessons, but we managed…my hubby got home around 8:30, I retrieved the boy, and we all made it to bed eventually.

Saturday morning we had to get up and clean the church at 8; when we were done I switched laundry and then headed to a Relief Society breakfast/service project that started at 9. By the time I was home it was a try-to-do-Saturday-things-in-half-the-time sort of day, and we ended up having Family Scripture Time after dinner. Yesterday was Fast Sunday, my hubby got called to team teach youth Sunday School with me, and a RI friend came for dinner–which brings us to this morning. My hubby and I went to apply for passports before he left for work–we grabbed crickets for Palmer on the way home–and then I took the three younger kids to Costco, where we priced items for Stake Women’s Conference as well as shopped, and then they watched a movie while I took my oldest to her feedback appointment (the follow up to her psychological testing).

Yeah, it’s been a week. That being the case, instead of reviewing one of the two books that I’ve actually finished in the last week, I’m giving a shoutout to Caroline Carlson’s The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates trilogy. (Yes, I know that link goes specifically to the first book–it seemed the sensible thing.) I’m not marking them as read on Goodreads–I listened to them at double speed, sometimes in the shower, which means I definitely missed some details here and there–but they were so much fun to listen to that I wanted to blog about them anyway. Picture a mashup of Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies, and a light-hearted British girl-away-at-school-corresponds-with-friend story, and you’ll get The Very Nearly Honorable League…; as long as you don’t think too hard about pirates and the incredibleness of the whole premise, it’s a rollicking good time. (WITH the friendship and nice-underdogs-against-tyranny themes of the Harry Potter books.) If you and the readers in your household love adventures, pirates, or not-high fantasy, don’t miss Carlson’s trilogy!