Uncategorized – Page 41 – Peaceful Reader

Even librarians make mistakes…

You know it’s easy to lose a book in a house full of books even when you are a librarian! My friend Tina and I have often joked how we are terrible examples of library book care as we’ve both had to pay not only overdue fines but for lost books as well.

Today I opened up several boxes from Scholastic that I ordered using our book fair $$. Inside one of the boxes was a copy of The False Prince by Jennifer Nielson and I cringed a little. My school library had a copy of this book when I started the year off-mind you this IS my very 1st year here-and I was reading it at school as my “I’m reading” example book (loosely translated to the book I read a page or two out of to demonstrate to students what a good reader looks like as they read near me; trust me it works). I’d gotten to the half way point in the book and was pretty engaged so that Friday I stuck it in my backpack and carted it home with high hopes to finish it that weekend.

Saturday (way back in November) I toted The False Prince with me in my little “31” bag as I went off to work our church Christmas bazaar, where I am in charge of the used book sale. When we finished setting up I set it on the counter because I thought for sure during a lull that I would be able to read a chapter or at the very least a few ~~pages~~ paragraphs. That lull never came and at the end of the bazaar after Teri and I counted the money and closed up shop I went to pick up my book (more accurately my library’s book) and lo and behold all heck broke loose because it was GONE! Now I must be completely honest here and admit that the table I had set this book on was also the table where we exhanged money for books and bagged sold books up for happy buyers. Really, really a poor choice on my part.

So when I pulled this new copy of The False Prince out of the Scholastic box I felt sad that I’d lost the first copy. This is why when students come to us with the crazy excuses they have for losing a book I have to look at them with total empathy. I’ve walked in their shoes.

Somewhere out there is a copy of The False Prince sitting in the bottom of someone’s Target bag of books, waiting to be found. Maybe someday it will be returned to our church or to our school as it is stamped inside. Maybe it will even be returned with my book mark sticking out. Who knows? More than likely the book buyer will just shrug their shoulders and think “I don’t remember buying this one but it looks good!” and they’ll proceed to move the book mark back to the beginning.

Maybe every year I could lose a book to remind myself to stay humble and remember how tough it is for most kids to come in and admit that their new puppy chewed their chapter book to cardboard bits.
And I still need to finish the rest of Jennifer Nielson’s excellent book.

Dinner w/ Friends

Last night I made dinner for two friends who’ve recently moved into our neighborhood. It’s been my resolution even before New Year’s Eve that I would host more dinners with friends. It sounds easy enough…invite people over and cook them good food. But where it gets tricky is cleaning of the house space and coordinating calendars can be complicated as well at least in our house.

I like a clean house but I’m not great at keeping it up because, well, I like to read more. And watch Gilmore Girls with Groovy Girl more. And play Ruzzle or WWF on my Kindle more. But all that aside it is a goal for the new year to entertain more, cleaning is optional.

I actually found this recipe when I sampled Jamie Oliver’s app on my phone. I haven’t paid to get the app and I’m not actually sure I will (anyone else have it and like it?) This recipe caught my attention easily and then I thought of this couple, Kathleen and Evan, and knew they would like this dish as well.

{Jaime Oliver’s; mine looked quite similar though}

Tarka Daal

(Tarka Daal is lentil heaven-garlicky with a little bit of a kick, eat it with your favorite naan bread or along with lots of little sides) Serves 4.

Ingredients

1 cup red lentils
1 cup yellow split peas
2 red onions
6 cloves of garlic
2 ripe tomatoes
2 fresh red chilies
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1 tsp hot chili powder
1 pinch of Spanish smoked paprika
1 tsp ground tumeric
2 T vegetable oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
sea salt

1. Peel and thinly slice the onions and the garlic. Halve, seed, and finely chop the chilies and roughly chop the tomatoes.

2. Pick the cilantro leaves and put aside, then finely chop the stems.
3. To a large saucepan, add the onions, chilies, tomatoes, cilantro stems, the lentils, split peas and one third of the garlic.

4. Place the pan on a high heat, pour in 6 cups of cold water and bring to a boil.

5. With a metal (I use wood) spoon scoop away any froth from the top, then add the chili powder, smoked paprika, tumeric and a pinch of salt.

6. Reduce the heat a little and simmer gently for 35-40 minutes, or until the legumes are cooked and the sauce has thickened, stirring regularly. Meanwhile…

7. Make your table look respectable-get the flatware, salt, pepper, and drinks laid out nicely. (This step made me smile and made me prepared, which is good).

8. Roughly 5 minutes before the daal is ready, place a small frying pan on a medium heat.

9. Add the vegetable oil, followed by the cumin and the remaining garlic and fry gently for 1-2 minutes, or until the garlic is golden.

10. Swirl the cumin and garlic through the daal, tear over the reserved cilantro leaves and seve with your favorite flat bread.

It was quite good and I’m excited for today’s lunch of leftovers. When I make it next time I will put more heat in it. I didn’t add the fresh chilies as I was afraid it would be too hot for Groovy Girl. She didn’t eat it anyway so I’m going all out next time and kicking it up a few notches but the flavor was splendiforous! We had naan and chapattis to dig in with and I served it with brown rice. I did bring extra spice to the table so anyone could spice it up more. Only Evan shook some chili powder onto his 2nd portion. They brought a lovely spinach salad which was a perfect companion to the daal.

Usually with friends we might sit around and talk or play a board game but on this particular night we had tickets to the university’s women’s BB game so we picked up quickly and headed off to the game.

My goal has been successful for the first month and I didn’t die because the house was not immaculate!

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Like everyone else out there I loved Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park (2013) and knew that I would want to read whatever else she produced. Then you get on with life and read a bazillion other authors because you have a pile to read. Then fast forward into my Christmas break and I came upon review or an online conversation about Rowell’s book Landline and how it takes place leading right up to Christmas. And just like that Rainbow was back in my life.

I need to keep up more as she is quite a prolific writer; four books in basically two years. Wow.

Landline (2014) is an amazing story of Georgie McCool, a television scriptwriter who has a major writing opportunity right before Christmas. In order to accept the gig with her hip writing partner, Seth, they have to put together several scripts over the holiday! This is a chance of a lifetime, Georgie tells her husband Neal. Neal, though, chooses to travel to his mom’s house in Omaha on his own with their two daughters, Namoi and Alice. She can’t believe he does but he does it and while she feels a little abandoned she puts in long hours with Seth working on the show.

The first few nights she can’t face going back to their house on her own she finds reasons to end up at her mom’s house. It is here in her childhood room where she fishes out an old rotary phone to call Neal one night. She has cell phone problems and it’s easier than going home for the charger. The phone makes a call to the past and she ends up talking to a young Neal, a college-age Neal. And the conversations are so wonderful that she gets pulled back to that time herself as they chat and flirt and remember all that was good.

A quote:

“Hi Mrs. Grafton,” Georgie said.
“Yes?”
“It’s Georgie.”
“Oh hi, Georgie. Neal’s still asleep. He must have been up pretty late. Do you want him to call you back?”
“No. I mean, just tell him I’ll call later. Actually, I already told him I’d call later. But-I was going to ask him something.” She couldn’t ask about the president; that would seem mental…”Do you happen to know who the Speaker of the House is?”
Neal’s mom hummed. “It’s Newt Gingrich, isn’t it? Did it change?”
“No,” Georgie siad. “I think that’s right. His name was at the tip of my tongue.” She leaned closer to the base of the phone. “Thanks. Um bye. Thanks.” She dropped the receiver onto the hook and stood up suddenly, taking a few steps away.
Then she dropped to her knees and crawled under the bed, reading for the telephone outlet and unclicking the plug. She pulled the cord away, then backed out from the bed and crawled to the opposite wall staring at the nightstand.
She had to deal with this.
It was still happening. (108)

If you haven’t picked this one up please do. I now have to wrestle Fangirl from my librarian friend Denise’s hands.

Favorite Reads of 2014

2014 was a good year for reading for me. I read 67 books, 3 away from my goal of 70. Not bad considering I don’t spend hours lounging around my house reading. Out of my 67 books I found 30 to be great reads. Hopefully my list will inspire you to read one that you hadn’t heard of before or that might be languishing on your to-read pile. I only read two nonfiction books this year; I’m much more adept at reading fun and interesting fiction but both nonfiction were noteworthy (The Book Whisperer and Here and Now)

My three lists are in random order.

Adult:

1. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
2. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
3. Belong to me by Marisa de los Santos
4. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
5. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
6. We are all completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
7. Sweetgrass by Mary Alice Monroe
8. The Wife by Meg Wolitzer
9. Landline by Rainbow Rowell
10. The cuckoo’s calling by Robert Galbraith

Young Adult:

1. All rivers flow to the sea by Alison Mcghee
2. Counting by 7’s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
3. The scorpio races by Maggie Stiefvater
4. Where’d you go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
5. Mark of the dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson
6. The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
7. The Fault in our stars by John Green
8. Never Ending by Martyn Bedford
9. The mirk and the midnight hour by Jane Nickerson
10. Hush Puppy by Lisa Cresswell

Chapter books:

1. Ophelia and the marvelous boy by Karen Foxlee
2. Here Lies Linc by Delia Ray
3. Fortunetely the milk by Neil Gaiman
4. Doll Bones by Holly Black
5. Curse of the warmbloods by Suzanne Collins
6. Secret Hum of a daisy by Tracy Holczer
7. Winterling by Sarah Prineas
8. Palace Beautiful by Sarah Deford Williams
9. Laugh at the moon by Shana Burg
10. The mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis

I have a hard time choosing each year and can never get it down to just a few. Enjoy!

2015~bring on adventure

Starting 2015 off right for me. Yes, that is a Bloody Mary but before that appeared I did 53 minutes of power yoga from my new connection with GaiamTV. I can stream it from my laptop or our PS3 for a variety of content. I signed up to do a year challenge~yoga everyday. They send me an email with my workout embedded and because I check my email first thing in the morning before I even touch my feet to the floor I will be reminded to get my sore legs up and onto my mat. Right now I need that kind of motivation.

Groovy Girl even joined me for part of my session this morning. Starting off with a bang! (or a twist, forward fold, or three-legged dog). All work-out and no play is not our way so we made chocolate chip pancakes after our yoga. Playful. Balance.

I juiced and had one small pancake. Just one. Must leave room for the veggies in my Bloody Mary.

Now it’s time to really relax and drink the delicious Bloody Mary as we have a minimal to-do list for us. Watch some football, Groovy Girl has two games she wants to play (Gin and Mexican Train), I have two book reviews to write, and a Netflix movie to watch with my husband. A full good day.

And my husband is making dinner~salmon with a side of black-eyed peas. Health and prosperity in the new year. 2015. Make it your best year ever.

2015-Happy New Year to You.

{Xmas morn}

I can’t believe it’s here! I don’t have everything checked off my list from 2014! Do you? I still have miles to go in fact. I didn’t write enough, didn’t do enough downward dogs, and I’m three books behind on my Goodreads challenge.

I can reflect back and know that while I didn’t get everything done I did get so much accomplished. And I’m grateful for the year that I’ve had especially school-related. I didn’t think I could love kids the way I loved Highland students but Hansen proved me wrong. Grateful.

I’ve survived a year with handsome son out of the house and living in Colorado. I miss him fiercely but I’m happy he’s working on the next part of his own journey. I love to text back and forth with him and have received some amazing messages from him throughout the year. Grateful.

Groovy Girl and I have survived the first half of 7th grade together. Middle school is harsh because her elementary school was like home; filled with love and understanding. Middle school is the opposite of that. Rules, rules and more rules. She’s learning though and I’ve learned to listen as she rants about this teacher or that rule. In the long run we’ll both be better off. Grateful.

I’m happy that oldest daughter has figured out her next step after graduating in May from Oberlin. She’ll be off to Portland, ME in a week to study at the The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Just browsing their website makes me know she will love it. It’s good when each person knows what their next step into space is going to be. Grateful.

This new year will bring more surprises, more journeys, and more inner peace. What will the new year bring for you?

{Last night together for 2014 @Ciao Bella/Minneapolis)

The night before Christmas…

and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. I stirred most of the day though.

What a beautiful Christmas Eve day we’ve had here in the Holt household. The kids woke up lazy and late, eating breakfast for lunch. I, on the other hand, had been up since 5 a.m. putting together dough for three loaves of bread, making my last list and checking it twice. I dislike to be all crazy on a holiday yet I didn’t want it to be Christmas Day and not have what I needed for our meal and our, most importantly, mimosas! So I did have a long list of things to do since it was my first day off and even though I’d shopped previously. I blame it on our too small refrigerator.

We’ve done a lot of sharing over this holiday since it is now rare for all 5 of us to be together. Somehow it’s made us more appreciative. The older kids have shared many memories and both said that eating breakfast together on Christmas morn is very special to them. That over opening gifts! That is a happy thought I will savor all through the year.

Tomorrow morning we are having this french toast recipe which I picked just because I could make it in my crock pot. I adore the idea of getting up and having it all ready. We usually only look at Santa gifts and stocking gifts before we eat so this will be perfect. I am also going to cook some bacon (for our meat-loving men) and fried eggs to round out the meal.

(Bon Appetit clam chowder)

Christmas Eve meals have always been special in our house and many times I’ve many lasagna but the last few years we’ve had clam chowder. In my family we always had oyster stew with fresh bread which was so perfect but I married a man who cannot eat oysters so we came around to clams-for some reason clams are okay. I will use this Bon Appetit recipe again -it had excellent flavor and I’m sure it came from the pound of real clams I started with and I was so excited when they all opened. The fresh bread was perfect for dipping and soaking up the broth. I made a double batch and we have just a small amount for leftovers.

Tomorrow we have a hodgepodge of favorites for all types. My husband and son will enjoy a spiral-cut ham (a gift from a friend) and the rest of us will enjoy a variety of veggie dishes + a big salad. Mostly I want to just sit and enjoy my kids as we laugh together, go for a walk, and play board games. I think watching a movie is in the works as well.

Appreciate the love of your family as you celebrate this holiday season! Feliz Navidad.

Tough beginning to December

My kid’s favorite month has had a tough start for me. I’ve been sick for about 4 weeks with a cold that turned into a sinus infection. I finally took myself to the doctor (which I’m always slow to do) and am now on an antibiotic (which I really dislike) but I am beginning to feel human again.

I watched copious amounts of Parenthood, making me cry, and read several books (The Wednesday Wars, The secret life of bees, The invention of wings). In all that sick time I just didn’t get any blogging done-I blame it on a the snot. Really though I was just so tired. It took all the strength I could gather just to finish a day at work.

I wasn’t writing but I did do all this:

I made this lasagna from Martha Stewart. Good flavor but a bit dry. It tasted much better the next day.

I hosted my husband’s work Christmas party so we had 11 people over for a potluck dinner; I made bread and the lasagna. We cleaned house for 2 days. It was dusty.

I went to my school Christmas gathering hosted by my principal. It was lovely and I made this artichoke dip from Paula Deen. It doesn’t have any butter in it but it was a huge hit.

I made a second artichoke dip for book club (The invention of wings) which happened on the exact same night as aforementioned school party.

I also hosted a reception for my husband’s Christmas play (A Coney Island Christmas by Donald Marguiles.) The play was a huge hit and Groovy Girl even had a good role.

In between but mostly just the last two days I’ve been able to finish Christmas shopping and prepare for our two oldest to come home. We picked up the oldest, Kaylee, yesterday in Iowa City. Tomorrow the second, Tristan, flies into Mpls/St Paul airport. Last spring for Kaylee’s graduation is the last time we’ve been together and we are so excited to be together.

You can see from my list why the writing drops off the list so easily unfortunately. Too tired, too much to do. I hope your list isn’t as long!

Beautiful soup!

I love soup. If I had to pick a last meal I would pick soup and I’d have to make it myself. I’m not a fan of canned soup or most soups in a restaurant. They generally don’t excite me-even though I want them to be splendiferous. When I order a tomato-basil soup I want it to be great-as great as the one I make or better even!

Jason’s Deli makes a good soup but we don’t have one around here. We had one in Little Rock when we lived there and used to go after church and have soup, sandwiches, and salads. I found one in Denver, Colorado when I needed to order chicken noodle soup for my 19-year-old son who was sick- I sent him a delivery person with soup. I couldn’t be there so this was the next best thing. It’s all about the soup.

Soup, glorious soup. I found a keeper as I scanned through my very special copy of Dinner; A love story by Jenny Rosenstrach. I found myself standing in my kitchen lazily paging through looking and reading many of Jenny’s stories (again) when I came upon this soup and I had all the ingredients (Love that!) + I’m under the weather so perfectly in need of a bowl of quality soup.

{Jenny’s photo}

Butternut Squash Soup with apples (101-102)

1 medium onion, chopped
few glugs of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
leaves from 1 sprig fresh thyme
1 T. curry powder (optional)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1 butternut squash, peeled, halved, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes. (about 4 1/2 cups cubes)
2 apples (Fuji, Macintosh, or Cortland preferred., but just about any except Red Delicious will work.)
3 1/2 cups or more of chicken broth (or vegetable broth-which is what I used)
Garnishes: Chopped walnuts, chopped chives, sour cream

In a Dutch oven or a large stockpot, brown the onion in oil until wilted, about 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper, thyme, curry powder and cayenne. Stir in the squash and apples, then add enough broth to cover it all by about a half inch. Bring to a boil and then simmer uncovered for 30 minutes-checking and adding water or broth every 10 minutes or so-until the squash is tender. Turn off the heat and puree with a handheld immersion blender or in batches in the blender (see warning about spinning hot liquid), adding more water or broth until it reaches desired consistency. Serve with toppings.

Hopefully by now everyone has an immersion blender because they are one of the greatest kitchen tools ever invented! Mine is a Braun and I’ve had it for about 14 years and it is still going strong.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads; Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts. Maybe others are talking about their deep love of soup as well.

My Wish List

In case any of you want to finish your weekend shopping with a few select gifts here would be my top five choices. I’m not a holiday shopper but I did take Groovy Girl to the mall yesterday just for fun and to get her out of the house.

These fun items I found all online.

1. 1 liter Bkr bottle: I want to drink water from this glass bottle all day long. I know my water consumption would increase with this bottle by my side.

2. These Joules boots are adorable and they support bee life. We eat a lot of honey and have a huge respect for bees at our house and I think it’s my purpose in life to sport these rain boots to spread the love.

3. I love these Clark boots. I have a cute gray pair that are quite similar but not as sturdy but I know I would wear these a ton in the fall and winter. I had a pair from Bass for years and years and the sole finely fell off. It’s probably weird that I have two pairs of boots here. Excessive boot envy. What I really need is a warm long black coat but I cannot find one that I like or that is a reasonable price. I found one this year from Kenneth Cole; I like the style but it isn’t very warm.

4. This dress from Anthropologie. Perfect for school or a night out. I have a perfect pair of black boots to wear with it. My ankles would be covered. It’s cold here. If I wore wooly cream tights I could wear the above gift with this dress.

5. I think this neck warmer is lovely and would keep me toasty warm as I stand outside in near freezing conditions for my 4-times a week recess duty. Find it on Etsy. The mannequin gives me a bit of the creeps though.

Now enough about me as the season really is about giving to others to be part of the true joy of Christmas. Here are some of my ideas of fantastic gifts for others:

1. Goldie Blox: WoW! What a great idea this is. If you have a young girl on your holiday list please please think about getting her this fabulous gift. Groovy Girl and I listened to Debbie Sterling on Ted Talks and we’ve loved what she had to say. We are more than just a pink aisle. Get on the wagon toy manufacturers (and consumers). This is at the top of my list for my nieces.

2. I would pick a scarf from this selection at Feed.com that helps to simply feed the world. This is a basic human right that we take for granted in our home. Many don’t here in the states and in 3rd world countries. Feed works to eradicate childhood hunger.

3. Heifer International: We love Heifer and we’re lucky to be able to tour their space in Little Rock, AR before we moved North again. We have a penchant for the bees but we’ve often purchased other animal gifts through this organization.

Please give generously. Skip one Christmas gift for yourself and ask for donations to a local charity this year. Find ways to give back. In the land of plenty most of us can afford a little extra holiday giving.