Book Club - Calm by Dr. Arlene K. Unger

"We cannot be calm if we are always rushing from one thing to the next."

"Keeping our surroundings free from clutter can help us to stay calm."

"Holding a grudge is like being a prisoner to your anger."

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I picked this up at the bookstore from the clearance table, 

Those last 2 above - love them, and so accurate for me.

Update on the yellow room

We finally got the touch up painting done in The Girl's room.

With the insomnia I was having at the time my mom was passing, it was easy to get it done early in the mornings  before the kids were up to "help".

Lordy, it's a yellow room.  You will probably be able to see it from space on a sunny summer day.

I like it though.

Both kids have a little window seat in their room, and my mom had made a cushion for The Boy's seat when he was about 3.  I planned on making one for The Girl, but I sort of like it without for now.

That brown stuffy in the middle is a handmade Kanga, from Winnie the Pooh, that an extended family member made me when I was little. It's old.

The picture is a pastel that The Mister's Grandmother did years ago. She was a very talented artist. We have at least 5 more pieces of her work up around the house.

The lamp is sitting on an old wooden laundry hamper I bought years ago at a thrift shop.

I bought some pink spray paint for it; just need some good weather so it can sit outside to dry.

There is a lot of wall in this room- we definitely need some more decorations.  But what?  I was thinking maybe some wall  decals.  Or posters? 

We still haven't started on the prep for painting The Boy's room yet.  He doesn't seem to mind, and I'm relieved because his room is going to be more work - some hole filling and patching and priming to do, not to mention hauling 11,000 pounds of lego out before we can start....

Bread Baking Babes 10th Anniversary - Royal Crown Tortano

From 2008 to 2012 I baked with a group of superstars called The Bread Baking Babes and it was super crazy that they included me  - this group was and is full of very talented bread wizards who make the most beautiful doughy creations.

I learned about shaping and fermenting and slashing.  Hydration and fillings and toppings and flours.

I had some interesting experiences and some flops, but I always had fun. I made breads and tried techniques that I know I never would have tried otherwise.

Dan's Garlic Bread was one of my favorites, and the Brunkans Langa is amazing.  The Injera was so much fun to make and eat.  This Challah made me very proud of myself.  And our first bread, Royal Crown Tortano, was so exciting for me.  That really cool looking bread?  I made that!

The group has been baking monthly breads for 10 years now, and Tanna very graciously invited me to bake with the group to celebrate.  The Babes chose to revisit the first bread, the Royal Crown Tortano.

This dough takes a long time - there is a preferment that you have to start the night before, and then the next day there is kneading and rising and turning and folding and on and on.  You need some time, I'm telling you.

But it is worth it.  So worth it.  The Tortano is huge and gorgeous and filled with air pockets and flavor.  

My slashing didn't turn out at all, and I missed the step about turning the dough, so my top isn't floured, but no cares here.  This bread is wonderful.

 A big, floury THANK YOU to the Bread Baking Babes for letting me join in celebrating the 10th (10!) Anniversary of the BBB.  Happy baking.  May your yeast always be fresh and your dough always rise.

Princess cake

Both kids have birthdays at the end of the year - November and December, about a month apart - and once The Girl got to help decorate her brother's birthday cake for his party, she became quite interested in her own upcoming cake.

"A BIG cake!  A THOMAS cake!"  She announced, and struck fear into my soul because I am in no way artistic or creative please see pretty much any of the posts here if you don't believe me.

Now, she doesn't even really like Thomas much anymore, so I think it was just the first thing that popped into her head.  I panicked, and replied with the first thing that popped into my head - wouldn't you rather have a princess cake?  YES!  She replied enthusiastically,  and then talked non stop about it for the next month. 

Now, before anyone rolls their eyes at me, trust me that this was not a sexist Girl can't have a Thomas cake thing.  It was a I remember my Boo (aka BFF) made a princess cake for one of her daughters a few years back and she said it was so easy that even I could do it thing.

The Big Day came, and my Boo came over to get me started.

The night before I had made the cakes- 2 - one in round pans, and one in a large measuring cup my Boo had lent me.

I wrapped the dolls legs in plastic wrap and we hacked one of the round cakes up to make a bottom and a top to go around the measuring cup cake.

I used this buttercream frosting and we dyed it pink.

My Boo got the decorating started, and then turned the reins over to me.  The kitchen and the icing got warmer, the kids were all amped up, and my little frosting blobs were not turning out as neat as hers. But hey, 3 year olds don't have super high standards.

I was starting to get fatigued by the time I got to the lower part of the dress, so I added some purple food coloring to the pink frosting and tried my hand at a big swirly design to hurry it along.  

If you stand back and squint a lot, it doesn't look too bad.

What matters most is the The Girl loved it - a lot - so that made my day.

And I'm in the clear on kids birthday cakes for 9 more months!

Book Club - The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

"The wind whispers through the grass.  A shadow flits between the trees. And up speaks the little voice that goes, Shhhhh.  It's close now.  Close."

"Cruelty isn't a personality trait.  Cruelty is a habit."

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Back into Book Club too. I have done a lot of reading instead of sleeping the past while, so I've got a bunch.  I'm also going to add why I chose the book, or where it came from.

This one came from a book swap at work, and when I started it I realized that I tried to read this a few years ago, but never finished it. This time I did, then took it back and swapped it for something else.

My Mom's Tetrazzini

I don't know how to start here after my last post, so talking about one of my mom's recipes feels like the thing to do.

My mom's tetrazzini has always been a favorite of mine - I used to think it was so classy! 

Noodles and cream of mushroom soup!  What could be better?

Some days, not much.

I made this one not long after she passed away, with some leftover rotisserie chicken. It felt good to make this meal for the kids, even though both are so picky - The Girl will eat some of the noodles, but not the chicken, and The Boy will scrape off the cheese and eat the chicken but isn't so much a fan of pasta.  I like it all.

I am thinking about going through my posts and starting a new label, maybe family recipes?  to note all the good stuff my mom shared with us.  There's a lot.  Also check out my Sunday Dinner label - most of the Sunday dinners I cooked for my mom and dad are posted too.  And I also have a family label, for  memories.  I am slowly searching key words on the blog to look for untagged posts that I want to add to the categories.  The Sunday Dinner label will return - we are back to having Sunday dinners with my Dad, and as soon as I get organized (ha!) the posts will start again.
Sadly, some of my older posts won't update with new labels, so I will have to start remaking some of this delicious stuff and posting so it can be labelled.  The things I must do....

someday

In the elevators of the hospital here, they have posters explaining that if you see a butterfly on the door of a room in the hospital, it means that a patient is close to passing, or has already passed, so that those entering the room are aware of the circumstances.

When I got to my moms hospital room on the morning of December 21, there was a blue butterfly on her door. 

The meaning of the butterfly wasn't a shock - my Dad and I had received the devastating news the afternoon before; but it still slammed me in the heart.  This was really happening.

In November I read over and over again a few posts and Instagrams of Tracy at Shutterbean.  Her mom passed away suddenly right before American Thanksgiving.   I was beginning to wonder if the same was  going to happen to us.

My Mom had been in the hospital for a  while.  She endured countless cycles  of improvements and setbacks.  She fought as hard as she could.  She suffered.

A handful of days later.  A different door. A different butterfly. My Mom is gone.

Of her son, Tracy wrote 

"He doesn’t understand it. He doesn’t understand how this will change him.

It makes me feel so lucky that I had my grandparents for as long as I did.

He doesn’t understand how this will change me."

My Mom loved her grandkids a lot.  One of my biggest regrets is that they will move forward without her in their lives.  It was too soon. 

It's been more than a month since we lost her now. Some days are good.  Some are pretty bad.  

We are moving forward and trying to figure out this new life without her.

It will come.

Photos from our 2016 family trip to Vancouver Island, one of our last trips.

"...the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take."

J.R.R. Tolkien

Merry Merry

Peace Love and Joy

A Week of Book Club - We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby

"...but there I was, trying to fit the ocean into a plastic cup as it tossed and turned me in its waves."

"The doughnuts tormented me, nestled so sweetly in their box, but, bitch, I just had a chair collapse underneath me so please pass the fucking watermelon balls."

"I guess what I'm saying is that maybe we could all just mind our own fucking business for once, and that when you can actually see a person's scars, maybe be a pal and don't pick at them."

A Week of Book Club - Kids Book Club - The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

Why we chose it - part of  a classics set from Scholastic.

The Boy's favorite part - The Dancing Bear.

A Week of Book Club - My Life In France by Julia Child

"Our first lunch together in France had been absolute perfection.  It was the most exciting meal of my life."

"Instead I had married Paul Child, a painter, photographer, poet, and mid-level diplomat who had taken me to live in dirty, dreaded France. I couldn't have been happier!"

"I was thirty seven years old and still  discovering who I was."

"I lit a match and turned on the four burner cuisiniere; the stove made a dramatic pouf! noise when the gas lit, which scared everyone but made me smile."

A Week of Book Club - The Chemist by Stephanie Meyer

"That darkness would not surface easily.  He would compartmentalize it, keep it away from this gentle life, pack it into the dark spaces where it fit."

A Week of Book Club - Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson

"The moon seemed to be laughing at him."

A Week of Book Club - Kids Book Club - Swiss Family Robsinson by Johann Wyss

Why we  chose it -  my pick off the bookshelf as I'd never read it before.  Picked up secondhand a few years ago.

The Boy's favorite part - "When they built the house out of the cave."

A Week of Book Club - The Art Of Racing In The Rain by Garth Stein

"My soul has learned what it came to learn, and all other things are just things.  We can't have everything we want.  Sometimes we simply have to believe."

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I'm cleaning house and trying to get my draft folder a bit emptied before the New Year.
Here's 7 days of books - my 5 most recent reads and 2 of The Boy's.

Potlucking - Punch and Meatballs

We went to a potluck a couple of weeks ago - lots of fun and enough food for half a neighborhood.  There was spinach dip and chips and dip, dry ribs, wings, salads, meat and cheese, veggies, breads, desserts, cookies.....you name it.  I ate too  much and it was glorious.

We took some raw veggies because our kids are pretty picky eaters but they will always eat some raw vegetables; and they did, but they ate nearly everything else as well.  I was surprised and impressed. 

I made some grape jelly meatballs - The Mister had these at a party years and years ago (we still lived in Calgary!) and we keep meaning to make them, and finally their time arrived.

I used this recipe and they were perfect.

We also made a punch called Lifesaver Punch from Best of Bridge.  

It is a thawed can of Strawberry Daiquiri mix and a thawed can of Pink Lemonade mix and 4 cups of Ginger Ale.  I found it too sweet so I added the other half of the 2 liter bottle  of Ginger Ale and still thought it was too sweet, but it was all drankened (huh?) up, and the boys have requested I make it at home this holiday season.  

The other potluck we were to go to we have bowed out of; so thankfully I am done with that for the year.  I am focusing on getting to the end of 2017 in one piece and wishing for a joyful new year.

Something I Love and Cried 5 Times While Watching

Western Canada Theater Company has been on a roll the past few years - we've seen some really excellent shows, and yesterday The Boy and I saw one of the best - A Christmas Carol.

They are doing an amazing job and I really did cry a lot, as did the lady next to me (not as much as me though!)

I'm not giving you much time but if you are in Kamloops, you have only a couple of days left to go see it - and if you can, you really should! 

Snapshot - Saturday afternoon reading

A couple of Saturdays ago the boys were out at a birthday party and The Girl was napping, and I should have been cleaning something, or laundry, or sorting, or a million other chores that always seem to be waiting for me, but I couldn't find the energy to do anything but crawl under a blanket and read a bit of "My Life In France" by Julia Child.

When I read As Always, Julia in the Spring, it fatigued me a bit for this one- I didn't enjoy AAJ as much as I'd expected to, and wasn't looking forward to Life in France. But this one is more my style, and a real treat.  

Stress and my schedule have finally caught up with me, and I was down for the count for 2 days which has put me behind at work and at home which, guess what?  adds more stress.  Ugh.

I am trying to be chill about it and not over do it on the first day that I feel somewhat  normal.

This Christmas (this December; this YEAR) looks nothing like I expected or wanted it to, but I cannot control it, so instead I will roll with it.

Happy Saturday.  Deep breaths.

6 of my favorite books

My Book Club posts focus on books I haven't read before; so here I thought I would share with you 6 of my faves from my book shelf. 

I laid them out on the cleanest spot on the carpet that I could find for a fancy photo.

Let's start with the one I think I've owned the longest- The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole.  

I really wanted to take a photo of the first book in the series - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 - but it escapes me at 5:30am, so here is book 2 in the set.  My parents bought me the first two I believe, at a book store in Vancouver in the 80's.  My dad (The Grandfather)  was and is a big reader, but didn't approve of most teen and juvenile fiction.  These got his approval probably because they were English, but I'm not sure they would have been ok with me reading them if they'd known the content. The books, especially the first ones in his younger years, are hilarious, and angsty and wonderful. The Queen and I is also a very good book by Sue Townsend, as is The True Confessions of Margaret Hilda Roberts.

Beside that is Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood.  My grandmother bought me a couple of her books as a birthday gift one year; this one and The Handmaids Tale,  and one other I can't think of anymore.  This was my favorite, because I felt like it was written for me. This isn't the original copy from her, I lost that in a move, not that that matters to anyone but me.   I think this is one of MA's greatest books.

Up next is She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb.  I don't know why or where I bought this one, but this is one of those books that punches you in the gut and you are rooting for the main character and you don't ever want the story to end. Another great one by WL is I Know This Much Is True.

Top row- Where The Red Fern Grows - oh man. This is one of those books for me where you feel like you are in the story.  Get a box of tissues ready.  So good.  No idea how I came across this one but I can't wait to read it with The Boy.  He's probably old enough now, come to think of it.....

I have a pretty big soft spot for the movie Friend Green Tomatos (Jessica Tandy!), but the book, which I ordered from the book counter at the grocery store (early 90's ahem), is SO MUCH BETTER.  I have read this book so many times that it's falling apart.  

The most recent book is Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage. by Rob Delaney.  I  discovered him when I still used twitter for more than checking the weather, the traffic,and following Chrissy Teigan, and although he is often crass, he is funny and brilliant.  His book is both hilarious and sad, and reading about his struggles with alcohol and depression were eye opening for me.  

I have more that I love and plan on keeping for a while; but recently a friend told me that she almost never re-reads books and gets rid of them as soon as she is done.  
Are you a saver or a recycler?
What are some of your favorite books of all time?

Something I Like - The Big Sick

It was worth it to stay up late (for me) and watch this excellent movie.  Funny, sad, beautiful.