Joy – Peaceful Reader

My heart; it's February

It’s bitter cold out these days with lots of snow and ice. Normal for Iowa, not so for the Southern states getting crushed with winter storms. I’m sure there was mad rush for winter coats and snow shovels. Cold weather is the perfect time to read and I just finished The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James by Ashley Herring Blake. This book has been gathering dust on my school library shelf for about a year. I ordered it after reading very good reviews and I had a personal and professional goal to continue to round out our library shelves with diverse titles. It’s maddening to think this sweet story could make someone else angry and ask for it to be removed from the library. What a terrible place we are in as we build out shelves specifically for all students only to hear that we could be punished for those choices.

Sunny St. James is a 12-year-old young girl who has heart problems both physically and emotionally. She receives a new heart to replace her old damaged one all while she is trying to figure out who she wants to kiss. What she really wants is to be a “normal” tween who can run and play on the beach and kissing another person is part of that. She focuses her attention on boys because that’s what is “normal” but in her heart she is curious about kissing girls. She and Kate live in a small beach community where everyone knows her and she’s lead a physically restrictive life while waiting for this new heart.

Her best friend Margot used to help her through all this but she branched out and made new friends from her swim team (an activity Sunny couldn’t participate in) and Sunny feels abandoned. One of her goals after surgery is to meet a new best friend and one day on the beach she meets Quinn someone brand new to the island who doesn’t know Sunny’s history. Her real mother Lena abandoned her as well when Sunny was four and Lena’s best friend Kate has been raising Sunny. After surgery Lena decides to reappear in Sunny’s life creating more confusion for both Kate and Sunny.

There is so much emotion, both sad and joyful in the story and I wish I’d had this book while I was in elementary school because many of Sunny’s questions and feelings about her surgery and recovery are emotions I’ve been through myself. I was 11 years old when it was discovered that my mitral valve was damaged due to an undetected case of rheumatic fever as a child. I underwent valve replacement surgery at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. I received a porcine valve and four years later after experiencing symptoms of heart failure, the valve was replaced again with a St. Jude’s plastic valve. I was lucky to be in the same hospital and to have the same surgeon (Dr. Kaiser).

Through the process I often felt angry that I didn’t feel good, that I couldn’t participate in activities, that I had this scar running down my chest, that I had medicine to take which made me feel old. I adjusted over time and feel blessed that my parents saw my symptoms and knew I needed medical help. Sunny St. James spoke to me in a way that made me feel understood even at my age. She might also speak to a young girl who is experiencing the same confused feeling about who she wants to kiss. Imagine that young person hugging this book in their arms and understanding that they have allies. Making a connection through literature can easily help a young (or old) person feel in balance about their unique thoughts and feelings. The “I’m not alone…” idea.

If you can imagine this book on a banned book list you can see how banning books sucks out all of our humanity. To counteract that feeling you should request this book from your public library or order it, read it, pass it on…it’s a story worth sharing!

Let’s touch base…

It’s the end of April! We’ve had a fantastic month of poetry for most of my students at school. I mean of course there are a few hold-outs who just can’t get into it but that’s okay. We did some borrowed poetry with Kwame Alexander and my littles did a few acrostic and concrete poems about trees, the weather and Earth Day. We read a lot of poetry together and kids of all ages love the You Read to me; I’ll read to you series of poetry books by Mary Ann Hoberman. Reading a poem out loud to a group of your peers is a brave thing to do and reading it with a friend just makes it easier. 5th and 6th graders are doing a mash-up with The Hill We Climb by the amazing Amanda Gorman, poet laureate. We listened to her recite this poem and through Google Classroom each student has their own copy to edit how they choose. Ms. Gorman has many beautiful and meaningful phrases and some students were really able to conceptualize what Amanda’s intention was in this piece. The poem they compose with me will then be illustrated with our beautiful art teacher.

Last week I made a really delicious sweet potato dish from the NYT with wild rice that gave me lots of great lunches for school. I made some yummy m & m bars last night for a student party today at school and at the beginning of the week I made a chocolate vegan birthday cake for our son’s birthday. He took all the cake with him (or we gave him all the cake?) but I’m still thinking about the rich dark chocolate flavor. I am ready for the weekend, ready to relax and prepare mentally for the last month of school. Groovy Girl is almost finished with her freshman year of college and I’m ready for her to be home and in a summer routine.

And tomorrow is May Day! Ya’ll have your May Day baskets prepared yet? We don’t either but will do them tomorrow for maybe an early evening delivery time. Let’s head into May with a positive mindset and good weather for spending time outside.

What sustains us?

Food, for one. I am cooking twice as much while we stay home together and I’ve tried to keep it interesting. This week I cooked several winning recipes (and yes, I am patting myself on the back) that my family loved. It’s amazing how busy we are finishing up school projects, books clubs, and homework. Oh and planning a mini socially distant grad party to celebrate our senior. Luckily in our house we are not on top of each other so it is wonderful when we can gather together at the end of a long day to eat together and talk. While the food is important its really the gathering as one that sustains us.

Recipes of the week:

Chicken and Rice with Scallion-Ginger Sauce from the New York Times. It’s worth it to download the Times’ cooking app; it’s my idea starting point. I loved that this recipe used sushi rice and that the flavor reminded me of eating sushi without the rolling work. I sautéed a block of firm tofu to add to it as I’m not a fan of eating chicken. I also used veggie broth instead of chicken broth and we had chicken thighs instead of breasts. I love recipes with a lot of flavor but that aren’t going to take me five hours to prepare. This one won on both accounts and when my husband and I ate the last of it for lunch the next day I added diced orange pepper and zucchini, sprinkled in a little more sesame oil and rice vinegar to refresh the rice. It was amazing the second time around as well.

Chicken Tikka Masala from Jaime Oliver: This one did take a little more time but after hearing my husband talk about really missing Indian food one night I decided to give this recipe a try. I do make a lot of Indian recipes and have a great cookbook, Indian for Everyone by Anupy Singla, that I’ve learned a lot from but this one popped up on Jaime’s IG feed and I was inspired. Searing the chicken was new for me but also made it easier for to eat my Tikka Masala chicken-free because it’s not mixed together during but added as the last step. I served it with Roti from my freezer and cooked in my cast iron skillet on both sides to make it nice and toasty. I’m not a great pre-planner so our chicken breasts didn’t get much more than 20 minutes of marinating time. Next time I would plan ahead a bit more but my two other dinner companions didn’t complain one bit.

Roasted Tomato and White Bean Stew again from the NYT: I made this one just last night. I don’t go out much at all but we had some errands to run for our soon-to-be graduate and I went to the grocery store with my husband. He pushed the cart while I tossed things in and realized I missed being able to see stuff and choose it instead of me relying on my husband with the list. In preparation for the long weekend I had two recipes picked out to try and purchased all ingredients plus pantry replacements. This white bean dish was so, so simple to put together and added a spicy warmth to a chilly day. There was murmurings of joy and I watched my husband literally like his bowl. Next time I will double this recipe so there are more leftovers. I imagine it would be excellent the second time around. I served it with mini Naan flatbread toasted from the oven. All three of these recipes will be on rotation at my house now. It’s great to find new favorites to get us through this world crisis.

Books, for two. I recently read two amazing fiction books and feel that everyone should read them as well. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent was a compelling story about Agnes who has been sentenced to death after the man she works for and has loved is murdered. This book takes place in Iceland in 1829 and I can’t say I’ve ever read a book with this particular setting. I thought I might get bogged down by the unusual and long names but they flowed once I connected with Agnes’s story. This book is based in reality as their was a real-life Agnes accused of murdering her employer and lover. From Adelaide, South Australia Hannah Kent heard the story during the year she spent as a teen in Iceland on a Rotary Exchange. This was her first book. Right out of the shoot an amazing story, award-winning and all!

A little over a year ago I joined Book of the Month Club because, after reviewing the format, I wanted some hand-picked and new book choices. I have thousands of book already in my house-maybe less now that we cleaned one entire book shelf clean over Spring break-still many, many volumes of great books already live here. To justify joining a club that would bring me more shelves of books I asked my husband to share the experience. So every month we look at the selections together and make a choice. That way we are both invested and we like reading the blurbs from the literary crew that does the picking.

One month as I read through favorites on the BOTM website I came across The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne which won Book of the Year in 2017 and added it on to my order. I finally picked it up a week ago with some trepidation because of its size but as I read the first few chapters any lingering concerns were flung away as I buried my nose in the book sneaking hours away from my to-do list to get another section read. The book made me laugh out loud many times yet I cried when I turned the last page as I stood up at my kitchen counter waiting for my toast to pop. I loved this book. I felt such a deep connection to the main character, Cyril, and his ability to mess things up unwittingly. When your nearest library or local book store opens up, don your mask, and get yourself a copy.

Stay safe out there even as many business begin to reopen. During this time we’ve found much to sustain us right here at home and we will continue that through the summer so stay healthy.

May flowers and May Baskets

I remember vividly running around our neighborhood, delivering handmade May baskets when I was a little girl. It was such a thrill to hear your doorbell ring only to find your friend racing away, screaming with delight, after delivering a popcorn-filled basket on your doorstep. Such fun! Now some classrooms participate in this activity delivering popcorn-filled styrofoam cups around school and it’s still cool but it’s lacking that genuine thrill factor. Times change. If you want to bring that excitement back here is a fantastic resource, Create Whimsy, which gives many options over popcorn-filled cups like this plant-filled beauty. Next year I’m going to be prepared and start racing around my neighborhood delivering unique treats.

May is such a busy month as we work to finish out the school year strong, Groovy Girl has her dance recital coming up, we are looking forward to my in-laws visit, and my husband has two shows in the works. Through all these we have to work to breathe, take care of ourselves, go to yoga (me), and get enough sleep (all of us) to be our best. I have my eye on June but I don’t want to arrive there exhausted.

I’m working on a slideshow about gender stereotypes for 6th grade students for tomorrow and when I finish that task I have an excellent book, The Novice by Taran Matharu, to read. This is a book that a 4th grade student handed me and said I should give it a try. Now he stops in every morning to ask where I am in the story. We have a delightful conversation about the story and then he heads off to class. The part of the month that I dread is telling students that check out is finished for the year. At some point it’s a requirement to get all the books back into the library for the summer yet many of our students are such readers they will resist this news and it fills me with joy and breaks my heart at the same time.

What’s inspiring you today?

Let's catch up…

September is flying by and I had the crazy thought today; I can understand the appeal of a ghost writer to very busy authors. I feel like I could use one every now and again.

What’s happening in my world?

School:

I’m having a magical year so far. This is my fourth year and I feel much more confident overall. This class of 6th grade students were 3rd graders when I arrived and we have a unique and trusting relationship. Even kindergarten this year has impressed me with their amazing excitement for library.

Home:

Japhy has settled into her high school classes and dance started last week. She is busy, happy, and still filled with so much love for me that our life together is smooth. She loves to lay with me and just hang out. My husband just finished directing an amazing play, The Man who shot Liberty Valance, which I knew nothing about until he picked it for this current season. I’m not a fan of westerns but this one, never having read the book or watched the movie, struck me with it’s very modern issues of good vs. bad.

The only part of my idyllic home life that is not going as planned is how difficult it is for Anton to understand how to be part of a healthy, high-functioning family. It is literally an every day struggle which is a major impact on the rest of us. He doesn’t understand why he needs to check in with us, he doesn’t understand about keeping regular hours, about respect or graciousness, about empathy for other humans and as of yesterday how to talk to another person after a fender bender. (Clue: YOU DO not yell at the person you just rear ended) He has not been able to save a single dime even though he only has two bills to pay. It is mind-blowing and heart-breaking to watch someone struggle and continue to lose any momentum mostly because he flat out doesn’t want to listen as a 22-year-old. The poverty cycle is hard to break. He’s never had anyone “parent” him per se or have expectations for him to follow. On the plus side he loves the community college and the digital media program he is enrolled in and loves taking and editing photos and videos. We hope and pray that he will get over a major hump and realize the gifts he is being handed and how far he can actually go if he listens and learns.

Books:

I hosted book club last night and we discussed The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Excellent read. I loved the magical realism, making it an actual train with stations. It helped me to experience the claustrophobia and fear of traveling to someplace better than where you came from hopefully. We had a good discussion, delicious food, and lots of wine. The extra bonus of hosting was that I deep cleaned many corners of my house that spiders had otherwise been living and dying in.

I’m almost finished with Eowyn Ivey’s new book, The bright edge of the world. Love it. Written in journal entries, it tells the story of Colonel Forrester as he explores the Wolverine River into Alaska, and his wife as she restlessly waits for him to return. She begins taking photographs, which in 1885, was quite a process. Set against the beautiful backdrop of Canada and Alaska their stories are captivating. I loved The Snow Child and this one uses a touch of magical realism as well through several Indigenous tribal legends and myths.

I hope you are having an amazing September as well! Life is good.

Happy, Happy Weekend!

I love a long weekend. I even gifted myself an extra day by taking a personal day on Friday. I had lunch with a former student at the school where I used to teach and watched part of their talent show. I also had a late lunch/early dinner with my husband at a new local place. I purposely did not make many plans for this weekend – I could tell I need to replenish and revive myself with a little down time so I can begin this last week of school with joy.

Today I started my day at the farmers market. It is a vibrant and lively place with as many crafty stops as farmers selling wares. I picked up asparagus, radishes, and a bag of salad greens. As I finished my errands today I spotted a new Filipino food truck by our local dairy store. I stopped and bought enough to feed people at home. My fish taco was amazing-super spicy- and Groovy Girl and my husband finished up the chicken, rice, and noodles I’d picked out for them.

Tonight I’m making a dirty rice recipe for dinner. My husband bought some steaks wrapped in bacon at Aldi – he just does not fully embrace my idea that meat I eat needs to be locally grown/organic. I’m not eatin’ one of those steaks but the dirty rice and grilled vegetables will be delicious and enough for me. I found the recipe at Bob’s Red Mill website. I had to go out and search for TSP and wonder if I’ll like this additional protein or if I can leave it out next time.

{I spotted these pretty chickens today}

The weather is amazing right now. A little rain here and there but yesterday was a brilliant sunshine yellow. I look forward to seeing what the next two days bring…

What’s everyone else cooking this holiday weekend?

Weekly Recipes 13

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My husband celebrated his birthday last week and somewhere before that day I had read a blog post about really doing it up for your kids’ birthdays. Balloons across their doorway, balloons in the cabinets, singing, cupcakes for breakfast. It was a fun read and inspired to go the extra mile in celebrating his big day.

First a little background on my guy. He’s the artistic director at our local community theatre. He is a talented and creative guy. He is also crazy busy. He is in the middle of directing Cabaret; a big and serious show. His birthday fell during tech week. You do not take a day off during tech week. He had rehearsal at 6:30 so we scheduled around it and had dinner plans with the kids for 4:45 approximately.

Because we weren’t celebrating at home I had kinda thought I wouldn’t make any dessert for him until I read the blog post. After I called a local store to ask about a cake. Usually I make everything from scratch but my cake idea was for cast and crew and I thought a big sheet cake was in order. Until I checked the price. Wwhhhaaaat! Highway robbery for a stupid cake that has fake plastic-tasting frosting.

I made my own. And he loved it. And the cast and crew demolished it. He’s not a fake frosting kinda guy anyway. He isn’t even a chocolate cake kinda guy. I made this Oatmeal-Raisin Snack Cake for him and it’s a keeper. I didn’t even get a bite but he came home raving and rolling his eyes back about how wonderful the frosting was-this is a man who does not love sweet. My heart sang. From one of my favorite food bloggers…Brown-Eyed Baker. Click her link or the recipe title above for the recipe. The recipe was very easy but you do have to wade past all the new ads on her site.

We did have a lovely dinner together. We laughed. The kids had excellent gifts for him. I had a big bouquet of balloons for him. And tickets to the Blue Ox Music Festival. He did make it to rehearsal.

Weekend Cooking; Working it all in.

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We are still consumed with Junie B. rehearsals with only a week to go before opening night. In order to try to fit so much into the week we’ve actually eaten out twice. My tribe loves Jimmy John’s and on Thursday we ate there and another night we ate at the deli at our local grocery store so I could fit in a little grocery shopping. I love Jimmy John’s but am overwhelmed by the loaf of french bread it is served on until I discovered their lettuce wraps; now I just get a #6 (vegetarian) as a wrap and am happy.

I’m not a fan of the deli food either so I got a small package of sushi from the cooler + a cup of broccoli soup and again I was happy. Two times of eating out for us though is a lot so Saturday I took the time to really make a meal again. Six sweet potatoes resting on my counter inspired me to recreate the black bean and sweet potatoes burritos I’ve made in the past except I already had a refried bean mixture from earlier in the week when I made a quick meal of quesadillas. I reused that instead of the black bean mixture and it worked just fine. Served with a fresh green salad it was a perfect meal for the three of us.

This past week my husband made pudding for dessert and Groovy Girl loved it and wanted more. He’d made his from a box but I wanted to make it from scratch (typical me). I used the recipe below and it went together nice and easy but then it did not set up. Arghh. It’s still in the refrigerator like chocolate milk in fancy parfait glasses. Hmmmm. What went wrong?

Chocolate pudding recipe.
Sweet potato burritos.

Groovy Girl loves calzones and wants to take them in her school lunch. We are going to experiment with making them this week (probably next). Does anyone have a great recipe? I found a few but she doesn’t want it to fancy; just tomatoes, sauce, and black olives. I might be able to sneak a little spinach into the sauce. Calzone recipe; they all have meat in them and many start with purchased dough. We want to make the dough. I think I will just experiment with my pizza dough recipe and stuff it with what she likes. I also want them to be medium sized as I think that’s all she has time to finish.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to read many other food-related posts.

In reading news I just finished The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman (enjoyed it!) and I’m trying to think of what to take to our book club buffet that would be Australian-inspired food. The book doesn’t mention much about food to help me out.

Back-to-school

Usually my school begins before Groovy Girl so I miss the first day send-off. This year it is reversed so I was able to be here and take just a few photos. Allow me to share my little love:

{this is about when she got tired of the paparazzi}

{6th Grade Beauty}

Now I have three days to get a summer’s worth of work done!
I can honestly say though that this has been a very relaxing summer and
I’ve spent a lot of my time hanging out with her. #love

Weekend Cooking; Rhubarb, sweet rhubarb

Even though the calendar says June Iowa is experiencing spring weather. I have a light sweater on as I type. Our old brick house stands on a very shady lot and our house is usually cool inside but this cool and rainy weather is throwing our growing season off a bit. While the farmers are unhappy I’m happy to slow down our growing time as there are two spring crops that I adore; asparagus and rhubarb. Asparagus is pretty easy to enjoy plucked straight out of the earth but rhubarb takes some time in the kitchen to bring out its essence.

My mom made me a rhubarb cake a few weeks ago; it was delicious but she didn’t leave me the recipe and I wouldn’t want to repeat anyway but I had several bags of rhubarb from my mom and my friend Janice that needed to be dealt with before we leave on vacation. I know, I know I could have stuck them in the freezer to deal with later but frankly that felt like a cop-out. I do well under pressure.

Two years ago when we had the pleasure of vacationing on The Outer Banks, NC my mother-in-law brought the MOST delicious rhubarb-ginger jam with her for our toasting pleasure. I stumbled upon this jam recipe the other day as I went through my recipe folders. I made it that day adding almond flavoring instead of ginger because I didn’t have any. I made it again Friday night because the first batch was licked clean from its glass container. The recipe is so easy.

Try it:

Rhubarb-Ginger Jam

(makes about 5 cups)

8 cups rhubarb in 1-inch pieces

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup crystallized ginger, chopped

zest of 1 lemon

Combine the ingredients in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over med.-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Reduce the heat to medium to medium and cook at least 20 minutes (it may take a little longer) stirring often, until the mixture thickens and mounds on a spoon.

Store in the refrigerator or put in sterilized jars to can.

Changes: I used brown sugar instead of white and I didn’t have crystallized ginger but I did have ginger root so I grated it but used probably only two tablespoons.

And here is my mother-in-law’s notes: “This can be eaten warm as a compote or chilled as a jam. I suggest straight out of the jar with a spoon. It would also make a great topping for ice cream or cake.”

It is just that good. I love it on a good piece of wheat toast or straight out of the jar!

{big fat rhubarb-lemon muffins}

That took care of two bags of rhubarb but I still had one more large bag and I took that and turned it into delicious rhubarb-lemon muffins. Oh, they are so good. Groovy Girl’s comment, “The rhubarb makes them so moist and the lemon makes them tart,” as she gobbled one up for breakfast. I replaced white sugar for brown sugar in the recipe as well.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts. Happy eating!