Month: May 2017

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (May 8, 2017)

Morning, friends.  Everyone have a nice weekend?  We did – a low-key one, even more than the last few.  We stuck close to home base all weekend and didn’t do much of anything productive.  (Well, I didn’t.  Steve put together a new armoire for the bedroom and set up a sandbox for the kids, much to their delight.)  I’ve been particularly stressed at work lately (probably more stressed than I even should be, objectively speaking) and I just wanted to chill, so that’s what I did.  We took a walk to the farmers market and picked up some strawberries, asparagus, and a gorgeous bouquet of orange and yellow ranunculus – pictured above, and it’s actually two bouquets; the kind flower seller told me to go get another one for free after I paid for the first bunch, and also gifted Peanut with a white rose – and several walks to the playground, and on Sunday we also ambled down to the waterfront and saw the fire boat deploying on a call.  I spent both Saturday’s and Sunday’s naptimes reading, despite feeling vaguely guilty for not working, cleaning, doing food prep or making progress on anything I “should” be doing.  Whatever!

  

Reading.  Good reading week over here!  Last Monday, I finished A Field Guide to Awkward Silences, which was absolutely hysterical.  With some library deadline pressure eased, I went back to the books that I owned and was partially through, and finally finished Barchester Towers, and adored every moment of that reading experience.  I don’t know what took me so long to come to Trollope, but I’m now a convert and couldn’t be more delighted to have so many more of his books to read.  After Barchester Towers I picked up The Hate U Give, which is pretty much the opposite of Barchester Towers, but incredible in completely different ways.  I’ve been flying through it and it’s riveting, heartbreaking, and – as the cover blurbs promised – searing.  I’ll finish it in the next day or so, I’m sure, and I think at that point I’ll probably go back and finish A Gentleman in Moscow.

Watching.  New obsession alert!  After checking periodically with no success, last week I finally found The Great British Baking Show on Netflix.  I’d had a stressful day and watching British people bake cake seemed like just what the doctor ordered, so I requested that we check out an episode.  Steve and I are now both completely obsessed and spent most of yesterday evening, after the kids went to bed, glued to the TV watching the show that has understandably captivated Great Britain (or, at least, captivated the English book bloggers I follow, and one of my sorority sisters who lives in London).

Listening.  Hmmmmm, not much to report.  A few podcasts.  But with our SafeTrack surge over, I’m not standing as long on Metro platforms and I’m able to get a seat so I can pull out my book on the train again – plus I’ve had so much noise in my head recently that I haven’t felt like putting more in via my earbuds.

Moving.  Nothing to report here.  Still pedaling my DeskCycle and taking walks around town, but nothing more interesting.  Steve started the Couch to 5K program, so he’s doing better than I am at the moment.  I’ve got to get into a routine before the summer heat makes running really unpleasant, or else I’ll be writing the same non-update until fall.

Blogging.  Musings on life in “the Tired Thirties” coming up for you on Wednesday, and an overdue recap of our Easter Sunday in the tulip fields on Friday.  Enjoy!

Loving.  I’m trying to rein it in, but lately I can’t get enough canned sparkling waters.  I put them on the grocery list every weekend, and every week I run out by Wednesday.  La Croix grapefruit is a favorite, as is La Croix coconut and Wegmans coconut-lime.  I’ve never had a problem drinking still water, so I don’t need to use these to trick myself into hydrating, but they’re just so darn tasty and fun that I can’t stop pounding them.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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Garden Notes: The Early Bird Catches the Rosemary

It’s only April, and already the garden has been a bit of a comedy of errors – but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Peanut and I were both chomping at the bit to start our garden this year.  We planted a garden two springs ago, as a fun way to get in some one-on-one mother/daughter time with a new baby in the house.  It was fun, and we got a decent amount of food out of it – quite a few salads and lots of herbs, although the tomatoes struggled and then were all eaten by backyard pests once they’d finally sprouted.  Last spring, we were living in temporary housing while we planned our move back home, and planting a garden – even a container garden – just wasn’t in the cards.  Peanut didn’t say much about it, but I know she was disappointed.  So this year, she was doubly excited when I asked her if she wanted to garden with Mommy again.

As soon as the calendar turned to March, she started begging to get plants for the garden.  I wasn’t sure when would be the right time, so I did a little research and concluded that by mid-March, if the weather was looking good, we should be fine to get plants into pots.  Clearly, I was wrong, because we visited multiple nurseries in search of tomatoes, basil, etc. – and everyone looked at me as if I’d sprouted another head when I asked where the edible plants were.  We finally found a few things – some sugar snap peas, cold weather lettuce, and rosemary – at Holly, Woods & Vines down by our old house.  I snapped them up because if we left another greenhouse empty handed, Peanut was going to lose her mind.  We’ll supplement in a little bit, when the warmer weather plants are out.  (Please ignore the pink-haired mermaid photobomb above.)

We got home and got ready to plant.  Steve had nicely prepared the pots earlier in the week, setting them out in the sunniest spot on our back patio and filling them with mulch and then topsoil.  My little gardener and her mermaid were ready to get their hands dirty!

Since the plants we came home with weren’t the plants I was intending to come home with, I did some fast thinking about what should go where.  First thing into the soil was rosemary – the only herb available so early in the season – in the smallest pot.

(Don’t mind the big red splotch on Peanut’s fleece.  That’s her school jacket and it has the school crest embroidered on it.  It was hard to see in pictures but still, I don’t plan to announce to the entire internet where my kid can be found during the day.  Since my photo-editing skills are basically limited to zoom, crop and Instagram, it’s totally obvious that I scribbled over it in red “paint” – but whatever, it does the trick, right?)

Rosemary planted, it was time for the lettuce to go into the big pot.  It’s already pretty much doubled in size since we planted – we’ve had so much rain!  Can’t wait to start eating some backyard salads again.

Last pot – sugar snap peas.  I had no plans to plant peas, but like I said, we had to get something or Peanut would have lost it.  Now that we have them, I’m enjoying watching them curl their little tendrils up the tomato cage, and I hope that we get to enjoy some fresh peas all season long!

And – that’s it for now!  We gave everything a quick “welcome home” water with our new orange watering can and have just been having fun watching things grow and change ever since.  We might need to add a planter once we’re ready for tomatoes, but all in good time.

Anyone else get a ridiculously early start on planting this year?

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Reading Round-Up: April 2017

Reading Round-Up Header

Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby.  I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book.  Here are my reads for April, 2017…

The Body in the Library (Miss Marple #3), by Agatha Christie – When Colonel and Mrs Bantry wake up to a house in confusion and the body of a young woman they’ve never seen before on the floor of their library, there is only one person who can sort out the mess – Mrs Bantry’s friend, Jane Marple.  Miss Marple applies her trademark knowledge of human nature to solve a particularly confusing crime.  One of the things I love about Christie is that she doesn’t conceal clues.  You have to be smart to sort out the correct clues and solve the puzzle, but you’ll never read a Christie sleuth declaring “I knew ___ was the murderer as soon as I discovered that [insert clue the reader is learning about for the first time here].”

A Circle of Quiet (The Crosswicks Journals #1), by Madeleine L’Engle – I’ve long been a fan of L’Engle’s work – remind me someday to tell you about the time I met her, when I was twelve, and she gave me writing advice – but my experience with her was pretty much restricted to her writing for children and young adults (the Time Quintet, the Austin Family series), aside from one Christmas compilation.  So I figured it was time to read L’Engle for adults.  A Circle of Quiet is indeed quiet, but lovely, ruminative, and containing so many gems.  I can’t wait to read the other three Crosswicks Journals books.

The Princess Diarist, by Carrie Fisher – Having always liked Star Wars, I was intrigued to read Fisher’s memoir of filming A New Hope.  I’ve never read any of her other memoirs, but this one has gotten great reviews, and like everyone else I was unabashedly curious about the relationship Fisher calls “Carrison.”  An affair between Fisher and Harrison Ford had long been speculated, but neither party confirmed it – until now.  Fisher takes the reader through her painfully awkward first encounters with Ford and shares every thought that was in her mind for the duration of the affair.  It was a fascinating – if sometimes confusing – read, which is par for the course with Fisher, I hear.

Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America, by Jeff Chu – I’d been meaning to read this book for awhile, because I thought it sounded interesting, but when it was given as an example for the “person of color goes on a spiritual journey” category in the 2017 Book Riot Challenge, I bumped it up to the top of my list.  It was a fascinating journey indeed – Chu travels the country speaking to everyone from the leaders of gay churches to “fallen” pastors and homophobic megachurch members, all in an effort to reconcile his strict Christian upbringing with his sexuality.  I did find myself wishing the book was just a little bit shorter, but I think that was more to do with the fact that I was exhausted and overwhelmed with work while reading it, and less to do with the book itself, which was comprehensive and excellent.

Emily’s Quest (Emily #3), by L.M. Montgomery – The final installment in Montgomery’s Emily Trilogy is one of her darkest books, not only in the trilogy but, I think, overall.  Emily is back home at New Moon after graduating from high school, and trying to make her way as a writer while her friends Ilse, Perry and Teddy are conquering the world.  She spends a lot of time lonely, gets engaged to a man she doesn’t love, and experiences some difficult losses.  I wrote about the book here, as my April contribution to Naomi‘s readalong.  The Emily Trilogy has long been, and still is, my favorite of Montgomery’s prolific writings.

Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee – Another one I read for the Book Riot Challenge (multiple points of view, all people of color), Pachinko follows three generations of a family of Korean expats in Japan before, during and after World War II.  At the heart of the story is Sunja, a young woman and only daughter who finds herself pregnant out of wedlock; Isak, a minister who marries her to save her from ruin and then falls in love with her; Hansu, Sunja’s wealthy lover, who watches her from afar during her marriage to Isak and reenters her life after Isak’s death; Yoseb and Kyunghee, Sunja’s brother- and sister-in-law; Noa and Mosazu, her sons; and Solomon, her grandson.  It’s a beautifully written tour-de-force and I did enjoy it – I just keep forgetting that multigenerational family sagas aren’t my favorite genre.

Hag-Seed (Hogarth Shakespeare), by Margaret Atwood – I absolutely LOVED Hag-Seed, Atwood’s take on The Tempest.  Felix Phillips is a washed-up theatre director.  Once lord of his realm of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival, his second-in-command betrayed him and Felix found himself out on his ear, living in a hovel and mourning his daughter Miranda, alone (or is he?) for twelve years.  Then one day he takes over leadership of a literacy program at a local prison and begins teaching the inmates Shakespeare.  After a few seasons, he gets the idea for a spectacular revenge on his betrayers, aided by the Fletcher Correctional Players in their own rendition of The Tempest.  Hag-Seed was astonishingly creative (I’d expect nothing less from Atwood) and such good fun.  I haven’t even read The Tempest, but just being moderately familiar with the plot I was able to spot dozens of parallels – I can’t imagine how many more inside jokes I’d have caught if I knew the play well.  What a delight, and a great way to end a month’s reading.

April was rather a slow month in reading, as it turned out.  One audiobook (The Body in the Library) and six in print, for a total of seven – not exactly a high for me.  I was a little stressed out with work and family stuff, and both consumed a lot of attention this month and left me with diminished ability to focus on books.  As a result, a few of the choices this month took longer than usual and didn’t wow me as much as they probably would have if picked up in a better month.  But there were some highlights.  The Princess Diarist was gossipy and fun, Emily’s Quest a fitting end to my favorite series of books from childhood, and Hag-Seed a joy to read.  I’m hoping for a happier and more bookish May, but with some big work things on the horizon, that might be wishful thinking.  Still, you know I’ll share!

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (May 1, 2017)

Mornin’, friends.  How were your weekends?  Other than flying by as usual, ours was nice.  We started Saturday morning off with a walk to the farmers’ market – something I would really like to be in the habit of doing, but that we hadn’t made happen in too many weeks.  Our market is year-round, but it definitely gets bigger in the warmer months.  At the end of April, spring produce was everywhere, and I finally got the asparagus I’ve been craving for weeks now.  We also bought some pastries, and Nugget stole my spinach croissant and made hilarious faces as he ate the croissant while carefully avoiding any vegetables – ha!  The rest of the day, we mostly stuck around home.  It was a scorcher – 95 degrees! – so we kept the kids in air conditioning.  I did a run out to Lowe’s to pick up some supplies for the garden, and spent a very hot hour dragging patio furniture around and transplanting a few plants into larger pots.  I’m pretty sure I killed our snap peas.  (Hoping for a miracle.)  Sunday was a little bit cooler – not much, but enough – so we drove down to Leesylvania State Park to explore the trails.  It’s not a huge park, but it’s all on the water, so the views were gorgeous – witness above.  The park is on the Potomac, but downriver a ways, where the waters start to open up as they get closer to the Chesapeake.  There was a sandy beach where people were already swimming, and a few boat launches.  So it was a lovely, albeit short, hike.  We ended the weekend splitting up the kids – Steve helped Peanut clean her room while I took Nugget for a bike ride to the playground – and then I stayed up way too late finishing my book, and am now of course exhausted to start the week.  What else is new?

  

Reading.  So, a pretty productive reading week.  I finished Pachinko early last week and managed to get it back to the library without an overdue fine – hurray!  Turned then to Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood’s retelling of The Tempest for the Hogarth Shakespeare Project, and absolutely loved it.  I’d expected to like it, but was surprised by just how much I enjoyed the reading experience.  Finally, I quickly blazed through A Field Guide to Awkward Silences, Alexandra Petri’s memoir of all of the ways she has embarrassed herself, and as expected, it was a hoot.  (Petri is well-known inside the Beltway as a humor columnist for The Washington Post, but she deserves to be more widely known, as she is a riot.)  I finished it late last night, so next up, I plan to go back to one of the books I’ve shelved (literally) to make time for these library books – all of which had loudly ticking deadlines – so I’ll either resume my acquaintance with Count Rostov or with the people of Barchester.

Watching.  Not much this week, since I was trying to push through the above-noted library books before their deadlines.  But we did watch the thrilling conclusion (no I’m not kidding) of Pride and Prejudice, and I think Steve really enjoyed it.  He loved seeing Lizzy tell off Lady Catherine.  And on Friday night, I was craving an old movie – I really wanted to watch Bringing Up Baby, my all-time favorite film.  Sadly, our DVD has not turned up post-move, and neither Netflix or Hulu obliged.  So we ended up watching To Catch a Thief, which is nothing like Bringing Up Baby, but still a good time.

Listening.  I think the only listening I’ve done all week was to the Sorta Awesome parenting confessions episode, which I listened to in the car on the way to and from the gardening center over the weekend.  I just have been wanting a little more quiet recently, so Audible has mostly been off.  But I did enjoy the one podcast episode I listened to.  Perhaps more listening to come this week?

Moving.  Well, I realized that as busy as my work-weeks are, the only way I was going to get any kind of movement in was if I worked it into my workdays.  So I dusted off my DeskCycle and got some pedaling in every day while I worked, and squeezed a couple of yoga routines in at lunchtimes.  That, plus Saturday’s gardening and Sunday’s hike, made for the most active week I’ve had in awhile.  Still not what I’d like, but at least better than wishing for movement!

Blogging.  I had fun sharing poems every Friday in April, and I hope you liked my choices!  This week, back to regularly-scheduled programming.  On Wednesday, I’ll share my April reads, and on Friday, the first of what I hope will be many garden updates.  Check back!

Asking.  What are you reading this week?