January 31, 2011

Help

Farewell, January.  Good riddance.  I have never liked you, and 2011 has given me even more reason not to. 

February, come on in.  I wouldn't care for you either, but at least you're short.  I guess I can put up with you for 28 days.

I apologize for being such a crank.  I just don't winter well, and this month has been particularly harsh.  Both mom and Lib, my MIL, are very frail, and I am powerless to help them.  I am down, I admit it.

So tonight I am selecting my book of the month for February, and I know my mood played a major role in my selection.  I picked The Help, written by Kathryn Stockett.  It's described as having 'heart and hope'.  It had me at heart. The story is set in 1962 Mississippi and features three 'unforgettable' females.  One is Skeeter, a twenty-two year old graduate of Ole Miss who has returned home.  The pressure to get a ring on her finger is huge and she would love to find solace with her dear maid, Constantine, who raised her.  But Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she is. The second woman is Aibileen, a maid who is raising her seventeenth white child.  She has changed since her own son was killed while her boss looked the other way, but she loves the child she is raising. It may break both of their hearts. Finally, Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue. I have a feeling I may like her the best.

Did I finish my January selection, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?  Well, it's not midnight yet, so I think I will.  I was right.  I often don't enjoy books from the New York Times bestseller list.  This one was horrid.  The writing was vivid, don't get me wrong.  Too vivid.  Too sick.  Too foreign.  I am glad to know what everyone is talking about; however, I wish I had never read the violent and twisted events, and I won't be continuing to the next one in the trilogy.

On a happy note, Grammy finds out what Mama Cat and Daddy Jaybird will be having this week!  Guess you know what I'll be writing next.

It's a ~


January 25, 2011

I Want My Grammy!

Just Grandma and Me (Little Critter) (Pictureback(R))
I got an audio the other day from Mama at Law.  I wish I could play it for you, but I am not that tech savvy.  PDub was crying for me.  "I want Grammy!" with big sobs.  "You want Grammy?" asked Mama at Law.  "Uh huh, I want my Grammy!" he cried again.  Then seeing Mama at Law with her iphone in hand and without missing a beat, he cried, "I want Dumbo!", the video he watches on her phone on the way to school.  Oh well, it was sweet while it lasted, and it was hard to hear him cry for me and not be able to reach out and say, "It's okay. I'm here.  Always."

I think I know what triggered this sudden desire for me.  I shipped the LMNoPeas book directly to him, and it had arrived after his bedtime.  When Mama at Law went in to see him the next morning, she delivered the book and said, "Look! Grammy sent you a book!"  Imagine being a two year old and having Grammy give you a book.  There is only one way that could be.  Grammy is here in the house!  How cruel he must have thought I was not to even speak to him before he left for school!  Breaks my heart.  I guess I need to find a book about the post office for him now.

My love for PDub is very special, and I, too, sometimes feel like crying, "I want my PDub!" Like now..

~waaaaa

January 14, 2011

L.M.No.Peas

LMNO Peas
Wonder if this book would help PDub like peas?
Remember being little and what it was like to be offered something new to eat for the first time?  Were you an eager Guinea pig?  Or did you feed it to the dog under the table? 

I recall our family meals when I was little and a strange new dish was put on the table.  Having two older brothers, the dish was usually passed first to them before reaching me.  I vividly remember one dinner when the prettiest little chicken breasts were proudly presented by Mom for dinner.  "Quail!" wailed my brother.  The other one began to giggle.  Now at the time, I didn't have a clue what a "Quail!" was, but one thing was for sure.  I wasn't touching it.  My brothers laughed at me, my father fussed at me, and my mother was clearly disappointed that her attempt to serve something new had set off such drama at the dinner table.  But my theory was that anything that created a reaction like the one given by bro was to be avoided at all costs. 

That and other unpleasant dinner experiences led me to crave peace at the dinner table.  The slightest unrest and my stomach tightens and my appetite excuses itself.  I think the dinner table is sacred territory.  It is the one time that the whole family stops long enough to shut out the rest of the world and receive nourishment.  To me, it's not the food that matters, but the nurture.

That brings me to the cry for help Mama at Law posted on facebook last week.  How could she get her picky eater to eat something other than chicken nuggets.  It seems that PDub has a habit of not eating his dinner and Mama at Law rescues him by fixing him a side of nuggets.  She got lots of suggestions, and I admit I like the ones that said to include at least one food she knows he likes.  (Hint: It starts with chicken and ends with nuggets)

My only suggestion is this.  Keep dinnertime sacred.  Don't use this precious time to teach him a lesson and show him who's boss.  Fix a dinner (with chicken nuggets on the side, if needed), sit down together, turn off the television and be together.  Offer him what you're having, but don't turn the table into a battlefield.  You're eating something healthy, right? *wink*  He will develop his taste buds over time.

Now if you have a better idea, I would love to hear it, but keep in mind that Mama at Law works until 6:00 or later every day, and sculpting faces out of vegetables is probably not an option.

~Bon Appetit!

January 7, 2011

This year, I resolve to...

Get a tat?
Heavens no.

What is it about a new year that makes us resolve to do more/better/harder/faster/smarter? Well, I still have those ten pounds to get off, but in 2011, I am adding a new goal. I am going to read one new book a month. Each book will be something I would not normally select and something that will challenge me as a reader.

January's selection is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by the late Stieg Larsson.  It is the first book in a triology.  I selected it, frankly, because I was hearing and reading so many reviews that I was beginning to feel left out.  I let that happen during the Harry Potter saga...not again, I say! It is not the type of book I would normally pick out.  I am not swayed by the label "Best Seller".  In fact, those books usually turn me off.  So it fit my resolution well.

I am just getting started.  My goal is at least a chapter a day.  I am not having any trouble with that pace.  I sat with my mom and dad at the hospital last week and had the book with me.  It drew a lot of attention.  People had already read it or were planning to.  My sister in law said she could not put it down.  I have not gotten there yet. 

It is set in Sweden and I don't know Swedish, y'all.  So I am having to glaze over some places for now.  It also has alot of financial talk.  I don't know financial, either, so again, hop, skip, jump over those passages.  I am just hoping there is enough I DO understand to keep it glued together.  I am beginning to feel some intrigue about the main characters and one mystery that has been presented about a girl who disappeared some forty years ago. 

I guess the new year is as good a time as any to set some new goals.  And since I am far from perfect, I don't think I will run out of ways to improve for a long, long time. 

As for the tattoo?  PDub and I will have to have a long talk one day about that.

Happy 2011!~