Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I really am, okay?  I was all set to review a book tonight, and then I looked at the load of delicate wash–the one with the fancy dresses with glittery stuff on them–waiting to be done, and I decided that I couldn’t put my girlies off any more (because the glittery dresses sure aren’t MINE).  EVEN if I then didn’t feel like I had the energy to review a book before bed.  (It’s sad that this has to be an either/or choice, but this is the stage of life I’m in!)  And so, instead of you getting a book review, they get clean fancy dresses.  There’s always Monday, right?

What with spring break, Easter, and my hubby’s birthday, I’m afraid I’ve gotten a bit behind on book reviews.  That being the case, today you get brief reviews of two books that either one or both of my girlies have been waiting for!

The Invisible Fran is the third installment in Jim Benton’s ‘Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist’ series; in it, Franny learns the folly of belittling other people’s interests AND defeats a ketchup-shooting robot (with the help of some of her classmates).  What’s not to love?  Benton does an amazing job of embedding a worthwhile lesson (moral?) inside a thoroughly entertaining and easy-to-read adventure, so if you’ve got an emerging or a reluctant reader, don’t miss these.

The Return of Zita the Spacegirl is a third installment as well; sadly, it also appears to be the final one, at least for now.  Zita joins with friends both old and new to save a planet from a maniacal overlord–which is fun all by itself–with a twist that took me completely by surprise.  This trilogy has just gotten better as it goes along, which makes me want to write Ben Hatke a letter asking if there will be more about Zita eventually.  Even if there isn’t, however, you at least want to read what there is!  Graphic novels and sci-fi are two genres I don’t actively seek out, but Hatke hooked me.

There you have it, folks!  Goodnight!

Since tomorrow is my hubby’s birthday, my fabulous mother-in-law offered to come down this week and tend the kiddos so that we could go out.  Tonight, we ate way, way too much at Texas Roadhouse (it was so good, though!) and then went to see “Ready Player One.”  I’ll admit, I haven’t read the book–I usually do that first–but I had a blast at the movie.  There was a lot of minor profanity–it was VERY 80s in that regard–but that was my only complaint.  Go see it!

Today is Easter, and the day we celebrated my hubby’s birthday with his family, and the second day of our church’s semiannual general conference.

It was a good day.

However,* since it’s after 9 and we just got home from my in-law’s house, I’m making this a short and simple post.  I made Sandy’s Chocolate Cake Recipe for today’s birthday celebration, and it was moist and rich and flavorful and thoroughly delightful.  (It was also forgiving, which was a good thing given the timing of the day!)  I’d make it again, which is saying something for a layer cake.  Next time you’re looking for something rich, moist, and chocolaty, look no further!

*Sorry, Mrs. DiDonato.  It pained me not to tuck the ‘however’ in, but it sounded weird when I tried it.

And that, folks, is why no review happened on the 29th–by the time I got home from hanging with family, I hurried into my bedtime routine and then hurried off to bed.  As for tonight, well–I’m just poopered.  Tomorrow?  Hopefully?  We’ll see how perky I feel then…

Svetlana Chmakova is quickly moving up my list of graphic novelists to keep track of.  Both my older girlies loved Awkward and now we’re passing Brave around; it started with my 8-year-old, but I picked it up yesterday and finished it just before it was time to turn out my light.

I kind of loved it.

For the first little bit I didn’t actually expect to; Jensen seemed less relatable to me personally, at least at first.   The more I read, however, the more engrossed I was.  I remember being at the edge of a group, worrying about keeping your place and your friends; I remember finding a new group of people unexpectedly, the sheer wonder and joy of it.  I was afraid for a few pages that the school dress code plot line would go places that annoyed me, but the way it was handled was open-ended in a way that worked nicely for the story.  Brave is a book with rather a strong message–a moral to the story, so to speak–but it completely works.  Graphic novels with depth and breadth that are still appropriate for my 8-year-old aren’t as easy to find as I might prefer, but Chmakova has written at least two–AND Crush, another companion to Awkward and Brave looks to be due out this October.  My girlies–and I–will be waiting!

Seriously–the Patricias!  How do they manage to paint the pictures they do with so few words?  Last night I finished Patricia MacLachlan’s The Truth of Me, and it was–of course–beautiful.  Somehow, in 114 pages, we gain a clear picture of Robbie, his musician parents, and his loving grandmother, who is gifted in her own right.  As a parent, I kind of wanted to hate Robbie’s mother at first, and yet MacLachlan never let me do it (even before she gave me the tools to understand her).  As a reader, of course, I just enjoyed.  Her books are short and simply written, but oh, so beautifully!  If you have an elementary schooler like mine, who gravitates toward the emotionally complex–or an animal lover–this is not a book to miss.

This week my family had the opportunity to attend the Jordan River Temple open house–me with the littles Wednesday morning, my hubby with the bigs tonight.  It’s not a new temple, but it’s one of the busiest–likely THE busiest–there is, and for the past year and more it’s been undergoing updates and renovations.  We’ve missed it–all of the other temples in the Salt Lake valley have been busier in the meantime–and it’s wonderful to have the work on it completed; it’s also wonderful, however, to be able to walk through the temple with my children and see the beauty and the peace that are everywhere you look.  Those of our faith make covenants in our temples; we are sealed together as families to be together in the next life as well as this one; and we make covenants as well on behalf of those who’ve died without the opportunity to do it themselves.  We find peace there, and a stillness that our world and daily life as we know it lacks.  We look for spiritual guidance.  Our temples are houses of the Lord.

If you’d like to take a few minutes to focus on peace, beauty, and God’s love, you can find information about our temples here.

I finished Legends of Zita the Spacegirl today–it’s been hanging out in my bathroom drawer–and I did rather like the premise of what happens after the world-saving.  It still moves quickly enough that even the “she might die/get caught/crash” scenes barely have time to impact the reader (the series is obviously geared toward the younger end of its audience), but the story still feels fully defined; it’s a solid sequel.  If you or someone you find books for are interested in easier sci-fi and/or graphic novels, Zita should be on your list.

Okay, that was a short review, but a longer one didn’t feel terribly necessary.  In the meantime, my apple may be gone, but I still have a spoon and an open jar of Trader Joe’s cookie butter; who could ask for anything more?

Last night (yes, a day late) I did an Irish sort of dinner and invited my nephew, who gets stir-crazy when his wife has to work on Sunday and he’s home twiddling his thumbs.  He and I were the only ones who liked the cabbage, and the mashed potatoes got a lot of thumbs middles from the kiddos (my children have potato issues), but cooked carrots are always a hit and everyone LOVED the corned beef.  My oldest gave it “such a big thumbs up that the top of my thumb exploded.”

She’s 11.

Seriously, though, I picked an easy recipe off of the ones my Pinterest search found me, and this Crispy Slow Cooker Corned Beef turned out to be a smashing success.  It was moist, it was flavorful, it was tender–in fact, the only problem was that there wasn’t more of it.  (Apparently I should have gone with a bigger package at Costco, but it was my first attempt at cooking it and I was afraid of tempting fate.)  If they still have it at Costco, I really might grab some more and freeze it for a rainy day.  If you see it on sale anywhere, pick some up and try this recipe–you’ll want to get it into the crockpot first thing in the morning, but it’s so, so worth it!