family – Page 26 – Peaceful Reader

Vacation Blues

A vacation is a beautiful thing until you get home. Dirty laundry times 10, cranky kids and (a few) dead garden plants are what you get when you return. Oh, and a lot of wonderful photos.

Surfer Boy

We absolutely loved the OBX and would vacation there again in a heartbeat!

Handsome Husband and Teenage Boy

We stopped in Richmond, VA to visit my stepbrother, Sean, and walk through VCU-one of Teenage Boy’s college choices for soccer. We had lunch at a very earthy place right off campus, 821 Cafe, which served a well-rounded vegan, veggie and meat-menu.

Cousin with Groovy Girl on Roanoke Island boat

What I miss about vacation: my in-laws, watching the pelicans skim the water, dolphin sightings, watching the sand crabs scurry, walking in the sand, collecting seashells, hot tubbing, kids giggling as they chased the waves, cooking meals together, touring Roanoke Island and cocktail hour-appetizers included!

Owens’ Restaurant Anniversary Celebration (me, Teenage Boy and Writer Girl)

I’ve been in school meetings since our return but one day soon my laundry will be done, the house will return to normal and summer will flow forward.

I hope everyone has an amazing journey this summer-one that will bring you umpteen piles of laundry equaling the number of smiles!

Vacation Reading

Groovy Girl and her 9-yr-old cousin

We played on the beach early this morning. One of the many great things about the Outer Banks beach is it is not crowded! You don’t have to fight for space to set your chair down or wade through rows of people to get to the water. I sat in a beach chair while Groovy Girl and her cousin ran in and out of the ocean, hundreds of times, laughing each time. After chasing the waves back and forth they took to collecting shells and showing me each and every one. When they were younger we always had to be right there next to them but now that they are 8 and 9 I can sit in the chair and read and still keep and eye on them. Pure mama joy. I did romp with them in the waves for a bit but after that my main job was to exclaim every time they brought a new shell to my chair for inspection. (oh, yes that one is very smooth, striped, pink, etc.)

My husband’s side of the family are very intellectual and love to read. I did a fair amount of reading on the trip to DC and have been able to keep reading while here. We visited two bookstores; one in Adams Morgan area of DC and one at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. I picked up a used book at each of these lovely stores and I hear there is a great indie bookstore here, which we plan to seek out and find in the next few days.

I finished Cutting For Stone (I was almost done with this before we left Chicago) by Abraham Verghese, Little Klein by Anna Ylvisaker-great little book, Newsgirl by Liza Ketchum and am more than half way through Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, which was a used hardcover ($6!) I found in Adams Morgan! Yeah, love those kind of finds-it was on my summer reading list already. I started Summer Affair by Elin Hildebrand but set it aside until I finish Before I Fall. Every single person (except for the 8/9 year-olds) read this afternoon as a storm whipped up and kept us from playing by the beach. When not reading we tend to play games together; Guesstures, Scattegories, Password, Mexican Train, etc.

I remember the first time I went on vacation with my soon-to-be-husband’s family years ago…I remember how relaxed it made me; like I belonged.

What does your family do when they spend time together?

Tomorrow is the longest day of the year and we plan to be up for most of it. Starting the day with fresh doughnuts from Duck. Yum!

Beach Baby

This is where we spent Father’s Day for half the day.

We spotted dolphins and pelicans so far.

It was windy and beautiful.

My father-in-law and his two sons, Brett and Greg

Tomorrow I want the sun to be out and the wind to be gone. Please.

I miss my dad but I’ve not focused on that today as it makes me weepy sad.

Celebrate.

Library Loot

I had a lovely weekend cooking idea all about my attempt to bring less packaging into our home. The project is actually going quite well and I had photos to share but I cannot find our camera anywhere in the house!?! While I attempt to think back, back, backwards in my brain until the last moment I remember touching the tiny camera bag that post will just have to wait. We are a one camera family and my phone does take pictures but that is where they stay…on my phone…because I don’t have a connecting cable.

Instead we have Library Loot as we did make it to the library yesterday with Groovy Girl in tow and we found lots of amazing books and DVDs.

Sister’s Gimm Books #’s 3 and 4. We read 1, 2 and up to Chapter 5 of 3 but had to return it to her school library but they cut us off and she had to return it on Friday. (of course I get this as I’m a school librarian as well but it still felt a little like getting a book ripped out of my hands) Have you read this series yet? I tried a few years back and didn’t get into it on my own but reading it with her has made all the difference.

Newsgirl by Liza Ketchum. (2009) This one’s been getting a lot of press but I was drawn to it just from reading the flap. My dad was a newspaper man and I love historical fiction making this a great combination. Sadly, this morning while updating my status on Goodreads I read quite a few ho-hum reviews on this title. How much do other reviews influence your take on a book? I can’t say for sure but I feel a little less excitement over this book. I’ll forge ahead and form my own opinion.

Groovy Girl’s picks from the “NEW” shelf in the library:

Welcome to Italy by Mary Berendes. (2008)

Welcome to Russia by Elma Schemenauer (2008).

Brava, Mimi! by Helga Bansch (2010)

Hide and Squeak by Heather Vogel Frederick. (2011)

Dotty by Erica S. Pearl (2010)

Everything but the Horse by Holly Hobbie(2010)

I can easily do a personality profile on Groovy Girl just by her library picks! What do you think? A girl who loves travel, learning, animals and bright covers!

Weekend Cooking: Highlights of the week.

Weekend Cooking is a weekly meme hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Anyone with a food-related post can play along. Click to her blog and read about Man with a Pan.

I made several great recipes this week, amid the chaos of going in many different directions, that I’d like to share. I have three categories:

Adult Favorite: Pearl Couscous Gratin with Goat Cheese and Spinach. This was so refreshing and light. My husband and I loved it plus I shared it with a friend at work and she ate it cold right out of the container-she liked it so much! It was easy to make and I’d never toasted couscous first. I write in my cookbooks and this one I starred. Loved the flavor combination of lemon, goat cheese, and fresh spinach.

Kid Favorite: Micah’s Mac and Cheese. This was a huge hit which is saying a lot as my kids like one type of mac and cheese…box after box of Annie’s. For years I’ve only had Annie’s in my cupboard which has been okay except for the children who chose to spend time with my children over the years! When that bowl of mac and cheese arrives in front of them and it is not bright orange, they are truly confused and more than a little disappointed. This mac and cheese is pleasantly creamy, white and flavorful. Husband and I added more freshly ground pepper on ours.

Best Hot-Hot Bites: I also made these Rachel Ray baked poppers tonight. A friend made them, said they were good and passed on the recipe. I followed the directions to a T except for that one important line that said to scrape the seeds out using a spoon…I used my hands! I’ve done it before but then again I have never scraped 12 JALAPENOS @ one time!!!! Note to self…use the spoon next time. The poppers though were cheesy yummy spicy bites. I burn myself frequently and I found the solution by tweeting about my pain. @joellewrites told me to make a paste out of cayenne and water and apply it to my hand. It worked. Really. It. Worked. This was the very first Rachel Ray recipe I’ve ever made and I liked it. I’ve never been a big fan because I like making things from ingredients not boxes. This one, other than my hand burns, was a winner. And the burns, of course, are my own dang fault.

And last but not least I set a food-related goal for my summer. A free summer is one of the MAJOR reasons I was drawn to teaching because I love love to spend all that quiet time with my children.(At least I used to feel that way until peaceful boy became teenage cranky) Standing in my kitchen at the end of a long teaching day and wondering what in the dickens to cook is one of my least favorite feelings. Summertime is the perfect time to implement menu planning so we can all get adjusted-the kids will have two days to plan as well. I found these fabulous menu plans at The Sister’s Cafe blog…through Mel and the Boys. If you haven’t stopped by their foodie family blog-you must give it a try.

Happy Eating and Reading this rainy Saturday. We’re eating our cereal, watching the 1st Harry Potter.

Review: I'll Be There

(Beautiful new cover-My copy is brown paper)

Holly Goldberg Sloan

(May, 2011)

Goodreads Summary:

Raised by an unstable father who keeps the family constantly on the move, Sam Border hasn’t been in a classroom since the second grade. He’s always been the rock for his younger brother Riddle, who stopped speaking long ago and instead makes sense of the world through his strange and intricate drawings. It’s said that the two boys speak with one voice–and that voice is Sam’s.

Then, Sam meets Emily Bell, and everything changes. The two share an immediate and intense attraction, and soon Sam and Riddle find themselves welcomed into the Bell’s home. Faced with normalcy for the first time, they know it’s too good to last.

Told from multiple perspectives, Holly Goldberg Sloan’s debut novel offers readers fresh voices and a gripping story, with vivid glimpses into the lives of many unique characters. Beautifully written and emotionally profound, I’ll Be There is a story about connections both big and small, and deftly explores the many ways that our lives are woven together.

My Thoughts:

I loved this book. It was emotional and thrilling roller coaster. Sam’s family situation made me angry and I’m always amazing when remarkable children are born out of such chaos. I’ve met my share of neglected children and I simply want to bring them home. I did once as a teacher in Arkansas.

It’s too long of a tale to tell fully but Anton’s mother wasn’t home often and kids made fun of him for his body odor. I had a rapport with him and his 5th grade teacher was a close friend of mine so I asked him one day if he would consider spending the weekend with my family. He readily said yes and wanted to know if it could be the very next weekend. I made arrangements and Friday after school took him across the street to the public housing apartment he lived in with several brothers and his mother.

Nobody was home which gave me the opportunity to look around. No shower curtain, no soap, no food in the cupboards, but the tv and a gas burner were both on. In his room three cardboard boxes were on the floor for each brother’s storage and three mattresses with no sheets just a few blankets were scattered on the floor. It was shocking for my middle-class eyes. I thought I’d seen poverty but not like that.

My experience with Anton helped me understand other students’ living situations, which has made me a more empathetic teacher. I could relate to Debbie Bell’s need to take care of the intricate Riddle (mostly) and Sam. I would have done the same. It amazed me the first time I took Anton into the grocery store (an experience we take for granted, even if we can’t buy all we would like) and seeing his joy and confusion all mixed together. He’d never been to an actual grocery store, had only ever shopped at convenience stores.

Debbie Bell experienced this same awe as she gets to know Sam and Riddle and how parts of life are a surprise to them; simple things like cooking in the kitchen. Even though both boys really need help they are getting by with Sam’s ability to understand and care for Riddle. Mrs Bell, Emily’s

Quote:

Making a connection to a person can be the scariest thing that ever happens to you.
Sam knew that now.
He’d walked around coiled rattlesnakes. He’d jumped off a train trestle to avoid an oncoming train. He’d lain in bed shivering at night with infection and no penicillin. He’d been pulled out to sea by the current when he couldn’t swim. He dodged the flying fist of his father. Many, many times.
But this scared him more.
This scared him so much that he couldn’t face her again.
He’d come home that night, and things had not gone well. Clarence was hearing voices and when he discovered Riddle by himself, the voices got louder. Where the hell had Sam gone? (70-ARC version)

The quote sounds confusing as the characters think back and forth, making the reader focus on the each particular character. Once you get the hang of reading this stream-of-consciencness it makes the story go fast, just like real life.

Sloan’s amazing job of juxtaposing the “normal” Bell family against the craziness of Clarence Border is well done and she takes it a step further by adding Bobby, another interesting character with his own bumbling moral code. He has a major crush on Emily and wants to “save” her from Sam. Bobby’s interwoven and often humorous tale is just another battle for Emily and Sam to face, even though Sam’s family life would be enough for any young couple to handle.

Maybe I connected to Sloan’s story because of my previous experiences but I truly enjoyed reading this book. It has many surprising twists of which I plan to reveal none of here-suffice it to say it is a very unconventional tale of love, hope and family.

ARC received from publisher, Little, Brown and Company, but in no way influenced how I felt about the book. A HUGE thank you!

I love searching out other posts about the book once I am finished writing my review. After reading through this post at Flippin’ Fabulous I had to smile as she and I share a few similar thoughts (hers is better, of course) and I’m choosing to leave mine as is. This book does deserve to be read again!
Others:

Britta at I Like These Books.
Forever Young Adult. (love that she wants to adopt sweet Riddle)
and Ten Cent Notes.

16 Years Ago-Birthday Boy!

Still curious after all these years!

This event deserves so much more time but I’m off to a soccer game and three other events!

Weekend Cooking; Beautiful Bread

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Click over to check out her post where she shares two recipes from her grandparents.

Bread is a life force at our house. We toast it, we dunk it in soup, we make fat vegetarian sandwiches with it. I love to bake it as well. Not one person in our 5-member family doesn’t love bread. My husband enjoys bread at dinner so if there isn’t any fresh baked he will just take sandwich bread and toast it, asking everyone “Who wants toast?” Everyone will say “YES”, except for me-I only eat bread when its the good stuff. Sometimes we have this wonderful sourdough from a local Bosnian bakery-ahhhh! I can smell it toasting. Can’t really-my nose is too stuffed up from this cold but I can mentally smell bread so deep is our connection.

Recently we’ve started rethinking, just maybe, we eat too much bread. My husband is a runner and gets plenty of excercise, I do yoga and both our kids are active and thin but still we think cutting back could help our waistlines. Groovy Girl, suffers from tummy aches, takes her lunch almost everyday (thankfully) and she relies on a sandwich as the main part of her lunch. We’ve had to get creative on how to make her a healthy lunch without two pieces of bread as her main course. Any suggestions??

But for Easter we have to have bread what with family coming and all…

In the middle of this “bread heavy conversation” I knew I still had a bread recipe to try from Faith Durand’s cookbook, Not Your Mother’s Casseroles. I’ve now made it four times, it is super easy and each time the loaves turn out very similar, which is a win for me. If you are making a big Easter meal or need something to bring to a big Easter meal…this bread would be wonderful to share. I made an extra loaf and I’m going to drop it off this morning in its own Easter basket for friends.

Simple Pot Bread

Baking Dish: 5- or 6- inch Dutch oven or other stovetop-to-oven pot with a lid
Bake Time: 45 minutes

3 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
¾ tsp regular yeast or ½ tsp instant yeast
1 ¼ tsp salt
1 ½ cups water

1. Make the dough in the morning, before you eat breakfast or go to work. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. The dough will be sticky and wet; slightly goopy. Spray the dough lightly with nonstick cooking spray or drizzle with olive oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave it in the warmest spot in your kitchen. Let it rise for at least 6 hours, although up to 12 hours will be fine.

2. About 3 hours before dinner, lightly spray a work space with nonstick cooking spray or a little oil. By now the dough will have expanded into a wet, dimpled mass. Dump the whole thing out onto the oiled surface. Push it roughly into a ball and cover it again with a clean kitchen towel. Let it sit for 2 more hours. (this step could be skipped it needed but will add more air to your loaf)

3. When you’re ready to bake the bread, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the Dutch oven in the oven to get hot.

4. Pour or roll the dough into the hot pot. You may have to pry it or peel it off the countertop. [I used my nice silicone dough mat from Pampered Chef and it popped right off] Cover the pot with the lid and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 15 minutes to brown.

5. Remove the bread from the oven and immediately take it out of the pot, using potholders or a thick kitchen towel to handle it. If you have the time, let it cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing so it can set.

Adapted from Faith Durand’s Not Your Mother’s Casseroles (2010)

I don’t have a Dutch Oven-my mother says she’ll pass hers on to me when she’s done (which means dead) with it-that could be years but I just used my largest Corning Ware pot. The bread came out square and it turned out beautiful. There is something so delightful about fresh bread that makes it hard to give up. I loved that step #2 gives me the opportunity to knead it a little. I love watching the bread come together under my hands. Adding the cold water to the flour mixture surprised me as the yeast doesn’t get to “proof” but it rises just fine.

Yummy with fresh unsalted butter.
I served this to my book club on 4-18-2011 with bleu cheese crumbles. We discussed The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls-the bleu cheese represented mold.

None of the pictures do it justice-I think photographing food is hard but look the bread has airy holes in it.
If you want to easily print the recipe off here it as a Google Doc…Simple Pot Bread (yes, the name cracks us up also).
Happy Easter!

Weekend Update; Library Loot

I had a meeting the other day at the library and because it started 30 minutes after my yoga class and they are right around the corner from each other-it left me about 20 minutes to browse at the library. Browse quietly at the library by myself, she said with glee.

I’ve become addicted to the NEW section of nonfiction, but specifically usually just for cookbooks. This time though I sort of did a swoop through all the nonfiction section. I’m not a nonfiction reader, prefering fiction hands-down almost always but for some reason I found a ton of interesting titles this week.

1. The Locavore Way; Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Food by Amy Cotler (2009). This one has lots of tidbits and helpful advice. As I paged through it there was plenty in there I didn’t already know so I had to bring it home.

2. Earth to Table; Seasonal Recipes from an Organic Farm by Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann (2009). I love good farm stories and this one has beautiful photos as well.

3. The Power of Small; Why Little Things Make All the Difference by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval (2009). I liked the pages I read through and thought it might enlighten me a bit.

4. River House; A Memoir by Sarahlee Lawrence (2010). A dad and his daughter build a cabin together in Oregon. Proof that I miss my own Dad.

5. Scout, Atticus and Boo; A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird by Mary McDonagh Murphy (2010). This is a collection of interviews from authors and icons…Wally Lamb, Rosanne Cash, Rick Bragg, Tom Brokaw, Scott Turow, Adriana Trigiani and Andrew Young, just to name a few. I read part of one chapter while standing and was intrigued. Mockingbird is one of my all-time favorite reads.

6. Johnny Cash; The Biography by Michael Streissguth (2006). This wasn’t on the new shelf but on a music display. We love Cash in our house and I thought Teenage Boy might enjoy this.

7. Legendary Homes of Lake Minnetonka by Bette Jones Hammell w/ photography by Karen Melvin (2010). When I was a kid we boated on this lake (thanks, Dad) and now my brother lives near the lake. I recognize some of the landmarks and enjoy reading about the architechture of these beautiful homes. My mom was here on Saturday and it was nice to look through some of it with her.

Have you read any of these? Which section of the library do you usually frequent?

While it was strange to not have one fiction book in my stack, I am just about to finish Moon Over Manifest, I have to finish The Glass Castle for next Monday’s book club and I have two books to read for my 5th grade book clubs so I guess I’m fiction-full as well.

Happy Reading.
Hope you’ve had a peace-filled weekend.

Spring Break (slow down you move to fast…)

We are having a fantastic time in Little Rock, visiting friends and hanging out. Groovy Girl and her friend, S, daughter of V, enjoyed the zoo and a few dress-up playdates. The weather has been chilly and a bit rainy while my mother, back at our homestead, keeps texting me how warm she is sitting on our patio with our dog. Hopefully tomorrow will be warmer as we wake early to climb Pinnacle Mt. together as a family.

I’m reading Lisa See’s Shanghi Girls while we are here and I hope to finish it so the return trip I can begin another book I brought with me. We still have many more adventures before we leave and as always it will be difficult to say goodbye. I did get to eat my favorite catfish tacos today so I’m all good.

Teenage Boy and his girlfriend, Caylee