Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

This past weekend was a strange mixture of relaxation and frenetic activity; the three girls and I went to my niece’s bridal shower on Saturday morning, which was relaxing and involved a good deal of enjoyable visiting; on the other hand, I wrote out recipes as part of our gift, and THAT involved a somewhat frustrating trip to Michael’s and a busy evening the night before. Saturday afternoon was all about laundry and tidying and household chores, and we taught Sunday School on Sunday; we had dinner in Clearfield, however, and my 15-year-old made our dessert, so I only had to bring and cut up a watermelon before focusing on eating and playing games. And yesterday my son helped me make his (very belated) birthday breakfast, after which I did dishes and more chores and went to Walmart with my oldest, but then a friend came over and we watched a movie with her while I cross-stitched, which was nice. When she left, however, it was back to chores again! This morning is a more straightforward day of chores and more chores and more chores; at least, however, I’ve gotten off to a good start.

And SPEAKING of that good start, I finished reading Kevin Henkes’ Oh, Sal aloud with my 9-year-old the other day, and since I’ll be returning library books later, I figured I’d best get it ready to go back. I have mixed feelings about Kevin Henkes’ non-picture-book offerings–he’s such a genius with few words that it’s like the more he uses, the more uneven the effect becomes–but the Miller family books are written for early elementary school readers, and I’ve tended to like them better as a result. Sal features Billy Miller’s younger sister–Billy has two books of his own with Sal as a supporting character–dealing with eminently relatable post-Christmas difficulties. Haven’t we all struggled with a particular relative and misplaced a gift we loved? (Not necessarily at the same time, yes, but haven’t we?) Sal is understandably upset, although experienced parents will likely suspect a bit of an adrenaline crash as well. She’s ALSO dealing with a new baby in the family, which is another doozy. How it all works out made for fun reading with my youngest, and while my personal tastes run more towards the true middle grade novel, Sal is excellent fare for its target audience.