Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I want you to imagine the most amazing stuffed peppers you can–fresh, perfectly ripe peppers, stuffed with cheesy, savory goodness, baked to perfection and served on lovely dishes in good company.

I loathe stuffed peppers. When I was a kid, I would save the filling for last–I enjoyed the filling–and grimly eat my way through pieces of the outside pepper first, hating every bite. (Sometimes I took a nibble of the filling in the middle of eating the pepper, just to fortify myself and remind me of the light at the end of the tunnel.) As an adult, I can intellectually understand the appeal of a perfectly crunchy, slightly sweet raw red bell pepper, and I periodically cut them up for some of my kids, but whichever taste bud makes bell peppers appealing rather than appalling did not make it into my mouth.

The Last Cuentista is a darn near perfect stuffed pepper. The writing is lovely, the suspense grows and has you on the edge of your seat by the end, and what could be better than a book that emphasizes the importance of story? The filling, in short, is fabulous. My problem is that I still don’t like bell peppers–or, in this case, dystopian sci-fi. I don’t just not prefer it in comparison to other sorts of fiction; I actively dislike dystopian anything, and I can only handle sci-fi if the emphasis is on the characters and the story rather than the sci-fi-ness of the setting. (I did, for example, enjoy Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead.) I love Petra–I admire her bravery and I felt the pain of her loss–and her story is a great one; I’m also thrilled that The Last Cuentista won the Newbery Medal, because its genre is definitely underrepresented in the Newbery canon. It just took me, personally, half the book before I was engaged enough for it not to feel like pulling teeth to read. The fact that I more or less enjoyed the second half is an incredible testament to Donna Barba Higuera and her storytelling; if you even occasionally like dystopian fiction and/or sci-fi, you should absolutely read this book. As for me, well–it impressed and moved me, but still.

Stuffed peppers.

I honestly didn’t realize that I haven’t posted in 8 days, but I’m somehow not surprised. On Monday my oldest had the orthodontist, on Tuesday I had the temple, on Wednesday we had my girls’ dance dress rehearsal, and last night was the recital…and then vomit. I did finally finish listening to the audiobook that was due in a day or two, but after being up in the night, my writing brain isn’t up to the review at the moment. Let’s hope for a better night’s sleep tonight!

I took my 12-year-old shopping for shorts today, and I would like to know why we are SO DESPERATE to show as much of our daughters’ skin to the world as possible. (Not our sons’ skin, of course.) In this world of objectification, where women still have to struggle to be taken as seriously and treated as respectfully as men–not to mention, you know, SKIN CANCER–why is this still a thing?

Anyone?

Anyone?

I spent the weekend watching General Conference with my family and yesterday projecting and shopping and making my hubby’s birthday dinner; today had snow in the forecast, and so I decided crockpot soup was a perfect meal choice. And since I had fresh pineapple that wanted using, I went looking for muffin recipes with fresh pineapple–because hey, they could be delicious, right?

Could be, yes. The recipe I picked? Not so much. First of all, they were mostly banana muffins with some pineapple thrown in (which explains the cinnamon), and secondly, they were 100% whole wheat with only 2 T of maple syrup as a sweetener. Yes, ripe bananas add sweetness, but…eh. They were unremarkable.

In the meantime, my older daughters have drawn out their bedtime so much that it’s about time for me to head into the shower. I’m hoping for more book time tomorrow…

Here’s today’s actual post, as opposed to yesterday’s post that happened today (because vomit)!

Since my 7-year-old is home sick today, I finished reading Megabat is a Fraidybat aloud to her during the first half of the morning (after which I went back to bed, because not so much with the sleep during the night). My girlie said she liked it the same as the first two “Megabat” books, rather than better or not as much; I was mostly amused at the coincidence of my finishing two “kid at summer camp gets over his/her fears” books in a row. (Fraidybat is actually a cute twist on that theme, given that as Daniel overcomes his fears, Megabat’s start to develop.) This series is geared towards a slightly younger audience than I prefer for my personal reading, and in my opinion the illustrations are fun but not fabulous, but my daughter is actively asking for me to read more to her whenever she thinks we’ll have time, so I’m going to recommend “Megabat” for early elementary schoolers.

In other news, my girlie has kept down 3 saltines, a bite of another cracker that she decided she didn’t like, and probably 3/4 of a banana. (Oh, and some water.) This is progress, but slow progress. In the meantime, the plastic back of her mattress cover was in shreds when I took it off last night, so a trip to Walmart once I get my son from school and my 12-year-old is home to supervise the sicky is in order…

I have to say, folks, Maria Scrivan’s “Nat” novels are getting better and better. Yesterday (at our elementary school’s literacy night, actually) I finished the third and newest one, Absolutely Nat; it’s the classic kid-at-summer-camp story, complete with Nat’s deathly fear of the purported lake monster. The illustrations were fabulous in the details (I loved Walter!!!), and the interrelations among the kids were varied and meaningful (in the best sense). I expect my graphic-novel-obsessed-12-year-old to love this one.

In other news, we spent last Friday and Saturday night in Kanosh with friends, leaving us to start the week extra tired. That same 12-year-old has been rehearsing for months for “Frozen Jr.”, and she has a performance every night this week (plus a Saturday matinee); I get to braid her hair and give her a bit of make-up before running her to the junior high by 5:30, and having us both tired to begin with has been less than ideal…

Anyway. I was totally going to finish and post this last night, but my 7-year-old threw up in her bed somewhere in the vicinity of 10 pm, and so that’s what the rest of my night was about. (It’s possible she hasn’t dry-heaved since 4:30-ish this morning, at least.) I’m going to pass Absolutely Nat on to my girlies today and try to function as best I can on the amount of sleep I had, so adios, amigos!

When A Wish in the Dark was named a Newbery Honor book, I read the description and thought–weird. A Thai-inspired fantasy version of Les Miserables sounded bizarre to me, and if I love Les Mis, I don’t really love fantasy (not to mention that the world sounded dystopian-ish). My brain filed it under “might like but might really not”, and I put it off…until now.

I confess, I may have finally decided to tackle it because I needed the space on my library card, but tackle it I did–and what a delightful surprise it was. Pong’s journey brought me to tears by the end, Father Cham is more loveable than the Bishop, and I couldn’t help but cheer Nok on as well, despite her being a (teenaged and female) convincing version of Javert. Somkit made me smile, even if the narrator on the audiobook made him sound whiny and annoying (based on the Audible reviews, I’m not the only one who felt that way). If “Thai Fantasy Les Mis” makes you leery, don’t be–this is a jewel of a book, captivating even as it asks difficult questions about safety versus freedom and who deserves what. Don’t put off reading it like I did.

I was struggling to come up with a title for tonight’s post and the above was my 15-year-old’s suggestion; she says it will pique my readers’ interest. (Or should I say my reader’s interest? Because let’s be honest here…) Whether it does or not, I’m going with it!

Part of me is thrilled to be writing this review, you understand, because I finished listening to Darcie Little Badger’s A Snake Falls to Earth last night, and I am SO happy to be done. For whatever reason, I kept losing the story threads when I tried to up the speed past 1.25, so it took longer than audiobooks usually do; it’s also less my thing. The American southwest (and its reflecting world counterpart) is not a setting I relate to well, and the author’s writing style is not–something. Not my thing? I think I’d prefer to hear a story told in her style rather than read one. I did enjoy it more once the two worlds represented in the book collided with each other, but that took longer than I wanted it to. (Part of my problem was audiobook speed, and that is definitely my own personal problem, but the plot pacing also felt slow for the first half of the book.) Nina and her family’s story makes for an interesting tale, and I was much more engaged in the last third of the book–the climax is, in its own way, pretty fabulous. I actually think I would have preferred more of the book to be from Nina’s point of view, although Oli is lovable; ultimately, I’m going to go with it’s a good story, but the structure and style is problematic for me in written form. Bottom line? I wouldn’t have read it if it weren’t a Newbery Honor book, and I would have been okay with not reading it, but I’m not sorry I read it. If you read it, let me know what YOU think!

Also, sorry for the long silence–we all have our struggles, right? My 7th grader had a band concert on the 16th (not to mention her almost daily and ever-lengthening play rehearsals) and I helped my friend Britt with her birthday party planning and execution last week (my 7th grader being one of the guests). I’m currently playing laundry catchup–we all know what a blast THAT is–and, well, life. I’ll try and do better!

I missed posting on Sunday in large part because it was a day of the unexpected; we were planning on one niece and a nephew as dinner guests and ended up with five (two nieces and three nephews). Which was lovely, actually–we split the pieces of grilled chicken and had an impromptu family party, ending with angel food cake, strawberries, whipped cream, and ice cream. A good day!–just unexpected.

Moving on to last night–or rather, very early this morning–I finished Rosena Fung’s Living with Viola, in which Olivia (or Livy) is accompanied by the intangible but visible-to-her embodiment of her anxiety, whom she calls Viola. Viola is the worst kind of company–always ready to belittle, discourage, or criticize–but it’s hard for Livy to push her away, and her voice seems to be getting stronger and stronger. What happens to us when that inner bully is starting to become all we can hear? What happens when we’re overwhelmed by feelings that don’t always make sense, feelings that make it hard to do what we need to do? Using her own experiences as inspiration, Fung shows us one girl who starts to drown in her own anxiety–until she finds the strength to do what all of us need to do when we hit that point.

Talk to someone.

Olivia’s journey tugs at me, given that I have more than one child who struggles with anxiety. I’m hoping they find her story both meaningful and helpful.

I’m also hoping Rosena Fung writes more graphic novels.

That’s right, folks, we are springing forward this weekend. And between how tired I am and the time-change-adjustment-period for the kids, well–doom it is. On the other hand, today being a “student non-attendance day,” the kids and I did some chores and went to Nickelmania, which was good for everybody.

In the meantime, I finished listening to Amy Timberlake’s Egg Marks the Spot (Skunk and Badger 2) last night, and I looked at the rest of the illustrations today. It’s at least as quirky as the first one, but with an outdoorsy feel; Badger and Skunk head off on a rock-finding expedition that gets hijacked by a tiny orange hen, a ginormous yellow backpack, a nefarious weasel cousin, and a guild of rats. Stands are taken, adventures are found, and friendships are discovered (and rediscovered), all rounded out by Jon Klassen’s equally quirky illustrations. At an occasionally illustrated 150 pages, this is a chapter book for kiddos who are transitioning out of the Cam Jansen and Rainbow Magic stage. Let me know what you think!