Books I'm Reading

I read.  I read all the time.  I read books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and news sites.  I love reading.  With my busy life, I tend to read fluffy fiction books, books that are quick and easy and I can fit into the free time in my life.  I can go months at a time without reading books of "substance"...I feel like I need the down time for my brain and so I take it.

Then my brain begins to atrophy and I start reading "better" books.  Some are terrific and some are not so terrific.  I've been fortunate, recently, to read some seriously terrific books.  A few months ago, I told you about So Sexy, So Soon, a book that tackles the highly-sexualized world our children live in and can help you steer your children clear.  Before that, I shared with you the tremendous impact The Four Agreements had on my life.   If you haven't read those books, and they apply to your circumstances, I urge you to read them.


Now, however, I'm tackling something new and different.   Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford.  I first heard about this book by listening to the author be interviewed for some radio program and was intrigued.  Mr. Crawford is a PhD in political philosophy who worked in a think tank and discovered he was completely unhappy, uninspired, and exhausted by this lifestyle he'd worked so hard for.  He quit and became a motorcycle mechanic.  (Yes, really.)  The book is the result of his life-changing journey.  The first 50 pages were so dry, I wondered if I'd made a mistake tackling this subject in this way, but the rest of it has made up for it.  The main premise is that we've lost the art of doing as society has grown to value "intellectual knowledge" but that the combination of thinking and doing is what feeds our souls.  Think you won't understand or agree with his message?  What do you think we're all doing as we tackle sewing projects or DIY projects or gardens or cooking from scratch?  We're feeding our souls by working with our minds and hands together.  He makes a compelling argument for education that supports just that, rather than just educating our children to work in cubicles.  Mr. Crawford admits that his examples and his supports are drawn from typically masculine endeavors, because that is his area of comfort, but that it doesn't make his arguments any less valid. 

The other book that I'd like to bring to your attention is The Narcissism Epidemic:  Living in the Age of Entitlement by Jean M. Twende, PhD and W. Keith Campbell, PhD.  This book is a must read.  Truly.  If you are alive and breathing, this book has relevance to your life.  It is just that simple.  If you read no other "real" book this year, you need to read this one.

Finally, I'm offering up a  fiction novel written by a girl I went to Junior High with all those years ago (many, many years ago!).  Of course, we grew up and didn't keep in touch. 33 years later, I was walking through our local library (a few months ago) and saw the author photo on the jacket of a novel and thought, "Hey, that looks just like Karen Kingsbury, all grown up."  I nabbed the book off the shelf and saw that the author's name was Karen Kingsbury, so I check it out, read it, and sent the author an email asking if she was the same Karen Kingsbury who'd attended school in So Cal all those years ago and she responded in the affirmative.  She was the girl I'd known so many years ago.  She's gone on to become a well-known writer of Christian fiction.  If you haven't read her,  you will be pleasantly surprised and if you have, you already know why I enjoy her books so much.  Anyway, the book I read last week was A Time To Dance.  If you're looking for an uplifting novel, her books never disappoint.

Fertilizer Friday...Rainy Week Edition

In our region of the world, our last freeze date is supposed to be May 15th.  Unfortunately, we got a surprise late freeze last week and people had some serious damage.  Fortunately, my plants did fine...we covered them for the night and they were fine in the morning.  Since then we've had a few days of warm weather followed by gentle rain for the past few days.  The plants have loved it.  I am so excited that my garden is doing so well.  It makes my heart smile to see all these plants I started from seed. 




Tomatoes and peppers from seed.  Why did I say both?  Because I can't tell which is which, so I don't know if the picture I took is of a pepper or a tomato (but I think it is a tomato).

The squash patch...this is where I did the lasagna gardening and just put my not-quite-done compost material on the dirt, mixed it around a bit, and called it good enough.  The pumpkins and zucchini seem to be fine with it.

My broccoli and lettuce are doing well in the actual garden space.  I have two watermelons that survived the drama of the spring, but I'm thinking I lost my last surviving cantaloupe. 

My verbena and cosmos and even my petunias are doing well, too.  Did I mention that Tootsie taught me how to harvest my own petunia seeds.  (White seemed the most prevalent last fall, so I have a lot of white petunias this year!)  I'm just so excited to see them all.

Fertilizer Friday is the time to share our gardens...our triumphs and our failures.  Tootsie's encouragement and all the other bloggers who jump in each week have definitely made me enjoy my garden and gardening so much more.  Head over to Tootsie's and see what is going on around the gardening world...it is always inspiring.

Shoot Me! #19 - Costco and #20 - Amongst Lovely Things

It occurred to me that blogging connects people from all over the country, even all over the world.  We find our common ground and share our lives...kind of like a Venn Diagram where we all meet in the middle.  My friend Gens is in the Deep South and my friends Karen and Kyle are in So Cal.  My sister is in Boston.  We're spread out all over the place, you know?  Yet, when I say "Costco" to almost any blogger, you immediately get an image in your mind.  Do you think of the taste test ladies?  Those ladies make my kids love Costco.  Maybe you think of the photo processing or the book section, the meat coolers or the milk, egg, and dairy cooler.  Regardless, I'd bet you could walk through my Costco and find everything you were looking for and, conversely, I'll bet I wouldn't have any difficulty finding my way around your Costco.   Our lives might be different in so many ways, but we share enough that we speak the same "language".  Isn't that kind of cool?

Here is a shot of me at my Costco.  Does it look anything like your Costco?  Yeah, I thought so.  This is my submission for week 19 of Shoot Me...I'm trying to catch up.  Charming took it just today as we raced through Costco so I could hurry up, get home, and take the two younger ones, Valiant and Buttercup, to hang out with my new blogger friend, Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things. 

We've been fortunate enough to discover that we live a few blocks away from a fellow blogger.  Don't you wish you knew more of the bloggers you read?  Even better?  We love her and her family!  Sarah homeschools her three adorable children who are much younger than mine:  Primrose, Tulip, and Snapdragon.  They're new to our area and I'm so glad she ended up joining my homeschool group.  She's like a breath of fresh air.  She is so fun and has the most infectious laugh...whenever she laughs, you want to join right in.   We had hoped to have a picnic today, but the weather hasn't cooperated, so we headed over to their house for some inside play.   When I confessed that I dragged my camera along so I could grab another photo for Shoot Me, Sarah and Primrose joined in with Buttercup and me, while Valiant snapped the photo for me!  Her house was full of fun and some crazy creatures, don't you think?  (I think the girls' drawings got a life of their own!)  So, head over to Sarah's and say "Hi".

Shoot Me is the brainchild of Carin at Forever In Blue Jeans...a year long project in which you include yourself in at least one photo you snap each week.   I'm still a week behind, but I'm catching up.  Carin Says:
It's time to stop hiding behind that camera of yours. Your family is missing you in the picture. So it's time to post a picture of YOU (yes, you) every Thursday with your child, your spouse, your friend, your dog, or even by yourself. Just get in the picture, you'll be glad you did! And just jump in now with 1 of 52, you can do it!

Potty Question

Once a month, the moderator of our homeschooling group hosts a Mom's Book Club or, as I like to call it, we-call-it-a-book-club-so-we-have-an-excuse-to-get-out-of-the-house-to-talk club. Friday night was our most recent one. (If you're interested, the book selection was The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. I'm not sure if anyone but our moderator finished it...those who tried to read it gave up after 3 chapters. They hated it.)

Anyway, instead of talking about the book, we talked about anything and everything, with conversation bouncing around as it is wont to do when a group of women have the opportunity to get together without a task to be accomplished.

My ears keyed in on a conversation that had somehow gone to public restrooms and the fact that the speaker flushed public toilets with her foot. What? I thought. She flushes the toilet with her foot? Well, if you knew me in real life, you'd totally be able to imagine what happened next.

"What? You flush the toilet with your foot?", I blurted out.

"Of course", she replied. "Don't you?"

"Well, no! I have never heard of flushing the toilet with your foot" was my shocked response. (Seriously, I hadn't.)

After that, it was a free for all. Everyone volunteered their public restroom habits for public consumption in a flurry of back and forth conversation combined with commentary on the state of public restrooms. The conclusion? Most of the women in the room flush public toilets with their feet and all of the women think public restrooms are disgusting. The three of us to didn't flush the toilet with our feet all pointed out that we washed our hands thoroughly when we were done, so what was the point of the feet? (Not to mention that we were all now grossed out that people were putting their shoes on the flush handles.)

Well, as one of the hand flushers, I couldn't believe that there was this entire majority sub-culture of women who flush the toilet with their feet. Obviously, it couldn't stop with the Book Club moms...oh, no. I needed to know more.

I got home and I asked Buttercup. You guessed it. Buttercup flushes with her foot. I didn't teach her that...how did she know? The next day, I asked my neighbor. Again, she flushes with her foot. I even asked my dad's wife. It was unanimous, I am the only person in my life who flushes public toilets with my hand. How did this movement happen without me knowing it? Seriously. How widespread is it?

So, now I want to know. No, now I need to know. Tell me. Foot or hand? Please. Am I really the only one?

P.S. Again, if you know me in real life, you can picture this entire scenario. Admit it...you're laughing at me right now.

Getting A Lot Done, Just Not Any Blogging

We've been on a roll the past few days, so I really haven't had time to post. (Yes, I know kitten posts, while cute, don't really count!) I heard a nasty rumor that we're going to be having rain through Saturday, so I'm doubly grateful that I buckled down and got a bunch of yard work done these past two days (with the help of my trusty associates!).

Twinkle lights hung on the deck? Check!

(Yeah, I know the deck cover needs to be painted, but the twinkle lights make me feel happy when I see them and the painting will get done this summer.) Even better? These are twinkle lights from Christmas that are LED, so they are super inexpensive to have on. (Valiant took this night shot for me just now...wasn't that kind of him?)

Lawns got mowed and edged...I've decided Mondays are the day to do it. Weekends can be for other fun stuff and yard work just becomes one more Monday chore.

The last of the seedling in are in the ground or in pots and all the pots are hung or set out, even the ones that needed to be attached to the railing around our firepit.

Our new turtle is doing well and I found the time to clean his/her bowl yesterday. This turtle is the size of a quarter and, by our best research, it is a Florida or Alabama Red Belly, which means it is not native to our area and wouldn't survive our harsh winters. We have five guppies still with us, too.

Oh, what? I didn't mention the turtle? My dad found the turtle in the driveway and he gave it to us because he knew we needed more pets! Wasn't that kind of him? What is the turtle's name? We don't know...it won't tell us and we can't seem to figure out its name. Do you know our turtle's name?

The sprinkler system has been checked for problems and repaired where needed. Valiant even repaired the pond filter to keep our koi happy as the weather warms up.

I even found time to go to the chiropractor to discover that I am not pulling the starter string for the weed whacker or the lawn mower properly and am tweaking my neck and shoulder and that is why I am in pain! I love my chiropractor and am grateful that Superman is so supportive of our relationship.

In between that kind of stuff, Buttercup begged for her favorite Honey Wheat Bread, so I couldn't help but make some for her. If you haven't already tried it, this recipe makes an awesome wheat bread that is moist and flavorful...it became a family favorite the very first time I made it. (Oh, and it uses the bread maker to make the dough, so you can keep working in the yard!) Since I was already spending time in the kitchen, I decided to teach Charming to make bagels. Charming loves bagels and making your own is so gratifying, I knew this would be right up his alley. Right now, our bagels are spending the night in the refrigerator (slow rise is apparently one of the tricks to good bagels), but we'll be boiling and baking them tomorrow morning.

So, now you know what I've been doing instead of blogging. Forgive me?

These are the days...

Dear Mom,

I found this critter heading into your room, so I tackled him and threw him onto the bed.

He was a bit unruly, so I had to use some serious force.

He was resisting my authority.


I finally got him subdued. What do you want me to do with him?

Love, Ninja

For no other reason...

...than it is just so cute.


I guess blogging can take a lot out of a person...er...kitten.

A gift from Buttercup...