Books I read: August

reread:
43. Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater
44. Linger - Maggie Stiefvater
45. Forever - Maggie Stiefvater

new:
48. Dark Prince - Christine Feehan Dear God, this was horrendous. Hooorrrendous.
49. Sinner - Maggie Stiefvater I didn't really expect to like this but I loved it. Cheese and wonderful.
50. The Beekeeper's Apprentice - Laurie R. King Quite excellent.
51. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin Adorable.
52. The Casual Vacancy - JK Rowling Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh ... I'm still trying to muddle through this, but I think it's a lost cause. I'm bored to tears and I care about NO ONE.
53. The One - Kiera Cass This was by no means great literature, but I enjoyed the series and I enjoyed this last book.
Landline - Rainbow Rowell No number on this because I counted it last month, but now that I've actually read it I have Feelings. I liked it. A lot. I felt like it was an accurate and depressing portrayal of the downs of marriage, when you forget to work on it. I didn't like Neal but I also recognized that it was told from a low place and all the best elements are tinted with darkness.
54. Safe Haven - Nicholas Sparks This would have been a terrible book, but I listened to it on a long drive for work and the narrator made it much more enjoyable. I think I liked it, a bit, although I'm not a Sparks fan so maybe it was just better than I expected?
55. The Silent Wife - A.S.A. Harrison I'm still listening to this on audio - I had to make a long drive on Saturday and a lack of sleep the night before so I started it. The dual narrator is interesting, and I'm quite enjoying it. It's supposed to be in the way of Gone Girl, but I'm finding it much less twisted.

Woah. That's 100 books in 8 months. I know just under half of those are rereads, but still - I read 100 books, and I still have 4 months left to go. So what else should I read?

Where to live, where to live

The other day, Spencer started going through the list of things that would get him kicked out of school. I don’t know what started it, but first it was what would happen if he kicked some one, and then what would happen if he wouldn’t stop kicking someone (there wasn’t anyone in particular) and then he started talking about being kicked out.

Obviously there’s no threat about him actually getting kicked out – there was an issue two weeks ago that could have gotten him kicked out of daycare except for a very understanding daycare lady  -- but no offenses at school that would warrant drastic measures. Anyhow, so C starts saying “well, you know if you get kicked out of school you might get kicked out of the house. If you’re not going to school …”

This paints C in an unflattering light, but obviously also this is a joke and S was fine, not freaked out and man, I’m over compensating in this story and here’s the whole point to the story:

So Spencer thinks about it for a minute. “But where would I live? Would I have to live in the forest?”

Reading and Telling

Spencer is supposed to read 15 minutes every night, and for this he started reading this book:

Which is a little over his head (from my research it appears to be a fifth grade reading level) but he was insistent and I was all, whatever, but you will need to tell me what you read about so I’m sure that you’re reading. And he did! All week he told me what was going on, and I was so impressed by how far he’s come in reading comprehension, and I was all smug-mom about my son’s reading prowess.

…

…

…

Apparently I should have instead been smug-mom about my son’s IMAGINATION, because Sunday I asked about his reading and he went on and on and frankly, the storyline was getting a little weird even for a book about a super evil villain who infiltrates a school to get a freeze ray. So I asked to see the book, and he started panicking, and it turns out almost NONE of what he told me about was really in the book. Some things were, but it looks like when he doesn’t recognize a word, he skips it. Sometimes he skips a lot of words and so he doesn’t know what he’s reading about.

I read him the prologue, and we’re going to start at the beginning, trying to read and understand. I’m thinking of just reading it to him myself, and having him read some younger books but I know he’s going to get upset. He gets OFFENDED by those You Can Read! Books, even though I’m pretty sure he’d enjoy the story. I really want him to understand his books and not get so het up about being a better reader than everyone else, because let’s face it – it’s not being a better reader when you just don’t get it.

Ahh, children.

A few things on a Monday

I think I’ve lost the kids’ birth certificates. I kept them in my purse while we were in Colorado and I have completely misplaced the paperwork that they were with. They are NOT in my purse. I cannot find them in my house. I know they weren’t in the rental car. I was so sick then but I know I had them at the airport because I wasn’t sure if they would need them, but I can’t really remember after that. I’m thinking that I may have thrown them in the recycling and I don’t know what to do. I guess just order new copies but it’s so obnoxious! I might go through my house during my me-time today and gather up all the spare papers to look through and confirm. I don’t really need Spencer’s anytime soon, but I will need Henry’s to enroll him in VPK after the new year. Ack.

**

I made this yesterday, and paired it with shrimp and bacon and it was fantastic. I was skeptical. Farro, tomatoes, onion, garlic. What’s special about that? But really, it was just delicious and even Henry liked it which is my general bar these days on if something’s really great – the pickiest eater likes it? We’ll have it for every meal! He’s always surprised when he likes things. He tells me he won’t eat it and I say “one bite. Do you want me to make your one bite?” and he will pout but say yes, and I make him a spoonful that doesn’t have the objectionable parts (in this case he didn’t like the texture of the cooked onions) and leave it on his plate for him.

Thirty seconds later there’s a whisper from across the table: “Mommy, can you make me another bite?” and I do. More whisper, like he’s trying to hide it. “Mommy, I really love it!” and then I asked if he wanted me to pull all the onions out of his so he could eat at his leisure, and I did and he ate his whole plate of farro. Shrimp and bacon first – those are his first loves.

Spencer did not eat it, but I think he’s declining on principle these days.

**

I’m signed up for a 5k on October 3. I have been getting into shape – I have! But I have not been running, and I feel like this is going to be a major problem. I tried to run once last week, and it was hell. I did just over 2 miles and most of it was walking. Bad idea. I’m going to go tonight hopefully with my neighbor and it will again be mostly walking, but Wednesday I’ll try to actually run the loop (just under 2 miles) and see how it goes. It will probably not go well.

**

I just now friend requested my son’s kindergarten teacher on Facebook. She’s not his teacher anymore – I would have thought that was too weird, but she’s also not at his school anymore. I hear she’s teaching middle school now, and that makes me so sad, that he can’t stop in and see her anymore (he actually DID stop in to see her and that’s how he found out that she was gone). She lives in my neighborhood; wouldn’t it be great fun if we started becoming super friends? Yeah, I’m getting the creeper vibe from myself as well.

**

Yesterday I stopped in at Starbucks and then took my coffee (iced couble dirty non-fat chai) to the grocery store at 9am and did my grocery shopping. We were without any breakfast stuff at all, so it made sense to get it all done but I did so without any list or idea of what I wanted to make and oh my, I spent so much. To be fair, I also got so much, but holy goodness I basically doubled my usual grocery shopping bill and I didn’t even get any alcohol (only because it was before 11am on a Sunday). So now my job is to meal plan with all the stuff in my house for as long as I can – I have about 2 meals left of shrimp, salad stuff, 4 lbs of hamburger, chicken burgers, turkey feta burgers, three meals of chicken and a ton of wraps and tortillas. On my meal plan for this week: Salad, turkey burgers, hot dogs, cheese ravioli and chicken pot pie. I got a large chicken to make in my slow cooker which I’ve never done before, and I’ll use the meat for pot pit and other random chicken needs.

**

I have been completely out of wine since before we left for Colorado. That means there has been no wine in my house for a month. A MONTH. We’ve been home two weeks now, and I keep meaning to get to the store but I haven’t and so today I’m driving over to the Trader Joe’s on my lunch break to use a gift certificate to fill up my wine fridge a little because it is well needed.

**

I bought Spencer a pair of Harry Potter costume glasses, and he’s now obsessed with them (I got Henry a pair too but he doesn’t care). S wore them all weekend, and when I handed him his book for daily reading he yelled for his glasses so he could see better. They are costume. They do not help see. I don’t know if it’s the Potter glasses specifically, or if someone at school has glasses or what the deal is. My husband and I both wear glasses but we didn’t get them until adulthood – me in college, C in his late 20s. His vision is fine, to my knowledge (last checked in February) so I suppose it’s just a stage. I wanted glasses a lot of my childhood.

Back to the Mousehouse

We got back on the Disney bandwagon last Sunday after three weekends off (between sickness and vacation). It was a homecoming, of sorts. Henry’s birthday celebration, hip hurray! His only request was riding Test Track FIRST (with no fast pass, unfortunately) so we got up and moving as soon as possible to hit Epcot bright and early.

It was a 75 minute wait (we do NOT do those waits, usually) but he still would not be dissuaded so in the line we stood, and it was fine and he loved the ride. I don’t really get the draw of it, except for boys and their car designing. The kids like to see who can design the highest scoring car. This round, Henry won 204 to 203, or something along those lines.

  

We took the monorail over to MK and rode a few things, stood in a few lines and had our packed lunch in Tomorrowland. I had set up FP+ for Peter Pan, Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain, and we also rode the Peoplemover (still one of the favorite rides), Buzz Lightyear, Thunder Mountain a second time and did Mickey’s Philharmagic. We did the Pirate’s Adventures for the first time too, which is where you get a pirate map and have to find symbols around Adventureland.

(source) 

All in all, it was a good re-entry into Disney weekends. We had dinner off-campus at Cracker Barrel with its many carbs galore and there was much sleeping on the way home. This weekend we’re hopefully hitting Hollywood Studios because we haven’t been since the Frozen stuff started, and it’s only got a couple more weekends left. I remember last year we went on Labor Day and there was NO ONE THERE so I’m hoping that happens again this year around right now. That would be magnificent.

First days

Tuesday was Spencer’s first day of first grade.

He was a tad excited.

I think he was also a little nervous, but he was so good when we took him in with his four bags of classroom supplies and when I picked him up from aftercare I asked him how his day was.

“Oh, it was grrrreat.” Further discussion involved PE (kindergarten doesn’t have organized PE, just teacher-led play) – basketball and hula hoops, and how his teacher gave a piece of candy to all the kids who had been good all day (some sort of cinnamon ball) (sidenote – why do people give other people’s children candy? This bothers me a little, but not enough to be a squeaky wheel).

He had no homework so I had him do a journal entry and read (he’s reading some book about a villain who matriculates as a fourth grader to take over the school … I don’t even know, but at least he can tell me what he’s reading about) and he picked dinner – homemade blueberry waffles, eggs and maple sausage.

He asked me if I was going to walk him into school for every first day.

As many years as I can, dude. Will you let me walk you in for your first day of 11^th grade?

Years gone by

I'm not good at these mushy Dear Baby posts. But on the fourth anniversary of the day Henry came into existence, I'm feeling a wee bit sentimental. Such a personality. So shy and yet so forceful. He's becoming such an absolute JOY.

first birthday party

two - cars bike!

three - minion invasion

four!

There was some time passing and we did stuff

So, Internet. It’s been awhile. I wish I could at least say that I’ve been keeping up on your lives, but I haven’t. There are 204 items simmering in my blog feed, but I thought I might possibly post myself before getting through them. It’s a bad week to promise myself I would comment more, right? Oh well, slowly and surely.

We went to Colorado. It was lovely and glorious and I was “on vacation” for nine days. I bookended that vacation with pretty icky illnesses – a stomach bug that lasted the majority of the trip on one side and strep on the other, but the middle portion was great fun. We saw Estes Park, Breckenridge, Cave of the Winds, Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs, and Cripple Creek. We saw a production of Guys and Dolls, took a train through the old gold mines, hit a farmer’s market, went to a bunch of breweries and saw a crap ton of wildlife (by metric ounce) – deer, elk, a bear, prairie dogs, hummingbirds, jays, llamas, alpacas.

I have no more words for my vacation post, except to mourn its passing. It was time to come home. We had a good time.

(The Stanley - C's one need to see)

(Breckenridge)