Halu-Halo

My happy place

I will forever be indebted to the Parkside Library of San Francisco. During my late elementary and early middle school years, we lived just a few short blocks away, and it housed me for the better part of my afterschool hours and summer days. My brothers and I would roam it, as large as a space it seemed to us at the time, and we scrounged its shelves for every book appropriate for us.

It wasn't too long until I moved on from the children's section to, then, the minuscule middle grade and young adult section. It consisted of a solitary spinning rack, and there I found Judy Bloom's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, and Forever, and S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders and Rumble Fish.

It was then that the world opened up to me as this great big chasm of infinite possibilities.

I still feel the same way, walking into a library, whether it's on or off-post, in the chill of beautiful upstate New York, or in the heat of the great state of Texas.  And it doesn't matter to me if my book isn't available, or if I'm distracted by my little ones. Just being in the library makes me feel like the world is exactly the way it should be: peaceful, generous, creative.  

And when I walk out of the library each week with more than enough books for even a superhuman to read, I am me at 11 years old, checking out the maximum of thirteen books per visit. I am me now, eager for inspiration and imagination through the written word. And I am just like my children, looking for that next great story to talk about over dinner. 

How about you? Do you love the library as much as I do? Where is your happy place?

New Routine

Hello friends, this morning I finally was able to wake up after a few days of traveling followed by many days of trying to recover from jetlag and a resurgence of my fall allergies.  But, I am here!  And I'm blogging - thank goodness; how I have missed you all so.  

It's been a long couple of weeks, yo.  It involved a trip back to my home state for a funeral, but was actually a culmination of a few big and life changing events for close members of my family.  It took all this time for me to mourn, digest, review, and finally establish a new routine.

It came in handy that I had a couple of tools on hand:

How many minutes have I used asking, acquiring, achieving, taking stock, and working more more and more?  Goal-oriented, self critical, push-through-it-all, by golly, not just bloom where I plant, but want to flower with fruit with my roots embedded deep and far.  You all know me.

Balance.  These last few days, I prayed for balance, and thanked God for my blessings, for even the stains on my shirt when I walked out of my door this morning.  That the world is really small, our time here short, our potential- while infinite- is limited by the hours in the day and the strength in our bodies.  

Acceptance. But still Thankful.

Mind - Body AND Spirit.

Have a peaceful day everyone.

That earthquake was nuthin'

I am, after all, a proud Northern Californian with a few under her belt.  Add that to the yearly earthquake drills we had in school, and our DC tremor was old hat.  We took our places underneath our dining room table and just waited.  I even gave myself a pat on the back for the calm demeanor I had (in general - except my "Get under the table - it's an earthquake!" declaration) throughout the crisis.

But this?  Not so much.

I'm all about having peace if the ground opens up to swallow me, but winds, flooding, and possible evacuation?  Eeeeek, there is no calm Tif here - nope, I'm not even going to pretend.

I made my list and I'm checking it twice.  I'm gassing up the car today and pulling a wad out of the bank just in case.  And hubby, who - by the way - thinks that this storm won't touch us, will be doing a final run for batteries and water tonight.  

And to think we aren't even on the North Carolina coast, where Irene expects to undoubtedly trample through.

I've stocked up on some books I've been wanting to read, in case we are stuck without power, and if Nyla  has run out of juice.  

Hubby has even taken the uber-laissez faire route just to balance out my hyper vigilance, making me even more spastic.  My poor sweet Hubby, he just can't win sometimes.

I hope that that my fellow east coasters stay safe this weekend!  I'll be praying for Irene to change her mind and head East into the waters.

 

 

P.S.  And no, I don't like tornados either.  I'll pass on the Yellow Brick Road experience, thank you.

Dystopia

Next month the Mother's Morning Bookclub a friend and I started is celebrating it's first year anniversary.  I'm in the process of compiling the books we've read this year, and I'm so pleased to note that each of our members brought forward a great variety of books this year!  Of the entire bunch, I would probably have to admit that I am most likely the slowest reader of all of them, but I'm happy to be able to draw so many different book recommendations from them.

We started off the year with Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.  It was my first time reading Atwood, and she totally turned me on to dystopian novels and apocalyptic fiction.  She writes such an eerie and bleak picture of what the future could hold, but I just couldn't get enough.  After The Handmaid's Tale, I read The Road, The Passage, The Hunger Games trilogy, am almost finished with Uglies series.  And I just finished these:

 

I gobbled these two books down in a flash, almost thankful for the rest time my wrist was insisting that I take.  I was almost always thinking about how I would be able to survive such austere circumstances, as portrayed by these authors.  Would I be just as optimistic as I am now, would I still have the same confidence and Faith?  I, after all, am living the good life now in this great and free country, despite the challenges I face, and the now and then physical pain I feel.  In other places of the world, their norm could be considered just as bad as what's predicted in these books.  And yet, the heart of the average citizen who lives there can be even more pure and Faithful.  Would I be able to stand up to the same test?

When I was at mass yesterday, I prayed that I would.  I sometimes take it for granted that my Faith is always with me, but if I were thrown into an arena to fight my peers to the death at the age of 16 (The Hunger Games, just in case you haven't read it), would I have the same outlook of life?  Or if I had to take my son and walk an endless, dangerous road to warmth and safety (The Road), would I have the emotional stamina to do so?  Or, if my country was blowing up violently all around me, would I have the strength to *know* that I'm going to be alright? (Current events, past history)

I hope so...but until then, I'll be praying for it, and for those who live in such dire straights today.

Hope you all have a productive Monday!

 

 

 

 

Giddy

I am...

I get most of my books from the library and received a notice yesterday that a few of my reserved books came in for pick up.  You better believe I scooped up my sleeping baby to retrieve them; such the great mom I am!

How am I supposed to finish all of my projects now, looking at this stash of books that call out to me?  I am dying to read the last two books of The Hunger Games and finish out the Steig series.  Since both are coming out in the movies, I need to be prepared!  And, because I am itching to find another Young Adult series to read, I reserved Thirst and hope that it will satiate my need for teen angst.

Growing up, I loved Summer Reading programs.  I get excited for my children when we sign up for them.  It feels like true permission to go hog-wild in the library - to pick whatever book you'd like, to fulfill all of your reading needs, to sow your oats and read non-required subjects.  

In my opinion, the library should have a summer reading program for adults.  The prize to complete at least 12 books?  A coupon for a margarita, a hot chocolate a pastry at the local coffee shop, or a free ice cream cone.  

They would have me at 12 books.  I would be in it to win it.

 

Oh, and she is too, by the way:

I caught her, AGAIN, on our kitchen table, giddy over a box of markers.  I was in the living room sewing, and I realized that she hadn't sat on my feet or pulled on my arm in a while, and I jumped up to search for her.  She was as quiet as a mouse, obviously trying not to let me know what she was doing.

Really, Baby J?  You're going to give me more grey hairs.  

She was quite upset when took I took her off the table.  That she decided she wasn't going to let me sew. (kept sitting on my foot pedal, screamed to the heavens, throwing her toys out of her toy box...you know the deal)

I hope you all have a great Saturday!  I will be organizing my house for the summer reading, planning for R's final school party reading, sewing up teacher's gifts reading, and going grocery shopping reading.  Oh, and doing some laundry coercing Baby J off the table.

 

It's a keeper!

With what seems to me like a third of the library stocked with them, new-to-me cookbooks are always finding themselves in my kitchen.  I covet and drool over the lovely pictures of food that I could potentially make, sometimes totally skipping over all of the verbage to skip to a photo, and therefore a recipe, that calls to me.

But, after I cook recipes after purposely buying the ingredients, I find that many of the recipes just.don't.work.  I usually give a book a couple of tries, and I learn my lesson, not subscribing to the "third time's a charm" rule.  I have a conniption when I end up not using ingredients to its yummiest capacity.

This is why, just by principle, I don't buy cookbooks before I try them.  

While rushing through our weekly library trip last Tuesday, shaking my keys to distract Baby J as she attempted to jump out of our moving stroller, I picked up this up in the New Book Section.  

 

It seems that the same rule applies to libraries as it applies to grocery stores - one mustn't go when one is hungry.  My sweet tooth, apparently, needed to be satiated.

Within a week, I baked 3 batches of biscotti using one of their recipes and snickerdoodles.  But the recipe that won this Halu-Halo family is their chocolate chip cookie.

They disappeared, lickety-split.

Crazy about Cookies is a keeper, even for this recipe alone! I am a believer that everything happens for a reason; now, I am grateful that Baby J attempted to disembark at that exact spot in the New Book section of the library.

Thank you, Krystina, for sharing recipes that are simple and true!

Three good things...

Spring break is here!  And it couldn't have come faster, for this mama is feeling the need to get on a non-schedule.  A little recharge of my batteries, a few more moments in the day when I don't need to herd the children into the van, and, definitely, more opportunities to sew and craft aside from the stolen minutes before we need to get "somewhere."

Do you discuss "the good things/not so good things" with your children/spouse/friends?  When we find ourselves in a lull in our conversation at the dinner table, I ask for each of my kids to mention a good and not so good thing that happened during their day.  

Here are mine for this week:

 

1.

I finally got started on the Robert Kaufman Charm Pack challenge.  As a member of the NOVA Modern Quilt Guild, we were given charm packs by RK to make into a quilt featuring its fabrics and then give them to charity.  The Guild will be providing quilts to Inova Fairfax Hospital NICU.  

The great:  I love charm packs!  If you are new to quilting, these are the perfect solution, as the squares are already pre-cut to 5x5 squares.  

The not so great: The quilt is due at the end of the month!  Which means I must get cracking.  

 

2.

The good: Allende does it again...she wrote what I feel is another piece of art.  She became one of my favorite authors in high school, when she and Gabriel Garcia Marquez literally changed my life and opened my eyes to the magic of the written word.

The not so good: This book was my selection for book club (still a good),but I literally finished it 10 minutes before book club began.   Talk about sweating it...

3.

Onion Focaccia - from my favorite bread book ever. Handmade for last night's book club.

The good: It came out perfectly, the outside crisp and the inside light and fluffy.

The not so good: I ate at least 3 pieces before book club even began.  Maybe I should have focused on reading faster instead of stuffing my face.

 

As a result of the not so goods, today, I will be sewing, reading early for the next book club and then taking a turn on the treadmill.

Care to share your good and not so good?

 

Wanna be UltraFit

This was my first read for the New Year.

Are you a follower?  

I read this from cover to cover and my mind was blown away.  

The facts are these:

    We have four children.

    I am, by and large, a stay at home mom.

    In 10 years I will have my first child in college.

    My husband will retire from his military career in 7-10 years.

The goals are these:

    That we can help our children accomplish their collegiate goals.

    That we can support future career transitions with ease.

    That if and when we become grandparents, we can travel and see all of our grandchildren anytime, anywhere.

    That the "forever home" (military spouses know what I'm talking about when I say this dreamily) I envision in my mind will be a reality.

To do this we are:

    Acting with "gazelle intensity"

    Conditioning ourselves to be "ultrafit"

 

Wanna know what those terms mean?  Read the book, cover to cover without judgement.  Hubby and I thought we were doing really well, and now I see how we can do better.  

I hope that you all are having a good week!  We're fired up over here!!

Worth the late fee

There needs to be a Netflix for books.  

For times like these, when I have to get myself to face the librarian tomorrow when I turn in this book.  I'm about a week late.

Yes, I know that I can put the book in the slot, and that the librarian won't slap my hands for bringing it late.  But you're talking to Ms. Rule Follower here.  And Ms. Guilty Conscience, because I know that there is a waiting list for this book.  Poor number-whatever-they're-on.  I've been holding on even though I've had it read for a while.

But I can't let go.

 

I don't want to divulge anything about this book.  Nothing at all because I can almost guarantee that if you and I have something of an iota in common, you will love it as much as I do.  Or at least find significant meaning in it.  

Don't let the young adult classification scare or fool you!  

And no, I did not rough up this book while it's been in my possession.  It came to me battered.  Poor thing...I bet it's previously been under someone's pillow, tossed in a backpack, kicked around and sat on.  Some folks might not like library books because of this, but I, on the other hand, appreciate its journey.

Hopefully the next person to read it will love it as much as I did!

 

p.s .... go read it!

 

I'm naming my husband's Nook.

(just as I have named my sewing machines)

She's sleek, light, compact, and quite the best thing since sliced bread and Baby J's baby swing.  When I tried a version of her at B&N I thought that it would be a perfect Father's Day gift for Hubby, because he is an avid reader and unlike me, doesn't get a chance to get to the library to reserve/pick up and return books.

I hadn't thought of getting it for myself because I love the library.  Of the books I read last year, I only purchased 4 of them, and these were book club books that the ladies at book club had to fight for.  And there is something about smelling an old stuffy book, and turning its pages.

But the turning of pages can get pretty cumbersome when one is nursing a babe.  Can't seem to quite get the handle of reading and turning with one hand and managing a successful latch....with my Babe anyway.  She is a wiggle worm, who loves to kick her legs and grab my necklace while she nurses.  Melts my heart just thinking about it...

...but because all of my "sit down" moments are nursing sessions, I haven't been able to squeeze the time to read.  See that list over there to the right? ----------------->  Slow going right?  It's already the end of June and I've only read 5 books.  

 

Hopefully Ms. Nook will help change that.

And hopefully Hubby won't mind that I monopolize her.

So how does Nova sound? Or Nyla? hmmm