“Please put down the book and come to dinner.”

No response.

“Put down the book and come to dinner!”

“But I like reading! I want to know what happens next!” – MG

“But this is a good book!” – BG

“Sorry girls, I don’t want to put down my book, either. But we have a rule that there’s no reading at the table.”

“Pleeeeeeeeease?” – BG and MG together.

“You can read as soon as you’re done eating.”

“Can I learn to read now?” – LG

I ended up putting a bunch of books in a clementine box on the table, and telling them they could choose anything in there and read from dinner to bedtime.  I included a few pre-K books for LG.

There was much rejoicing!!! Reluctant and anxious readers have crossed the hurdle! I can see the giant light bulb over their heads!

My friend Sue, of Graceful Kate, took her oldest daughter to see the Wicked musical last year. Their excitement trickled down, and now her youngest (MG’s age) really likes Wicked. I thought that was cool, because I had read and enjoyed the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. I want to bring the family to see the show on Broadway, but unless it starts raining money, that’s unlikely right now.

The last couple times we were with Sue and her family, MG and LG were hanging out with her youngest, listening to the Wicked Soundtrack and looking through various books related to the musical.

I picked up a copy of the Wicked Soundtrack on sale, and the girls started listening to it.

Over and over and over and over and over… Is it better than listening to Raffi? yep. But this is proof that even a good thing can be overdone. They aren’t interested in Audiobooks, they just want to listen to the Wicked Soundtrack. One sign it may have gone over the edge was when they were taking over my laptop to find YouTube videos of Wicked.

Or maybe when we got green makeup to turn people into Elphaba

Perhaps it was when 4 year old LG figured out the motions, and will sing the whole Wicked Soundtrack – in different voices and poses, even.

Now the three of them fight over who gets to sing Galinda, and who gets to sing Elphaba… The third person gets to be everyone else.

They also write their journal entries about Wicked. BG – “Everyone thinks Elphaba is bad because of her skin color. That’s wrong” (edited for spelling clarity)

Today, I think it went over the edge into obsession: LG performed the musical using Littlest Pet Shop figures, with MG as the audience.

Shudder

Three Million Acres of Flame is the latest Young Adult novel by Canadian author Valerie Sherrard. She has written several other novels for this age range, including Speechless, which we really enjoyed and reviewed here. It’s always wonderful to have a chance to read and review a second book by an author. This time Sherrard has created a fictionalized story that commemorates a part of Canadian history that is often overlooked – the Great Miramichi Fire of 1825. She participated in an interview about the fire, as a part of her book tour. Using a time of crisis and tragedy as a backdrop, Sherrard paints a portrait of a family coping with both big and small problems. Read the rest of the review

I had heard mixed reviews about Prep: A Novel, by Curtis Sittenfeld. I had wanted to read it, so when I was helping out with the first NoBloPoMo, I received a copy from Eden in exchange. I’ll admit that the mixed reviews explain why I hadn’t read it until now.

I needed a break from some of my books for review, so I read it over the past couple of days. Meh. I almost put it down a number of times, but I kept thinking it would get better. It didn’t.

Maybe my viewpoint is skewed because of a step-brother and sister-in-law teaching at boarding schools. Or because I grew up in the Northeast rather than the Midwest. Or because I grew up in a wealthy suburb with kids who ended up at prep schools. Whatever the reason, I am baffled that I spent that much time reading 400 pages of a story about an overly anxious, overly self-conscious high schooler. I’m even more boggled that reviewers compared Prep to The Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfield was infinitely more well adjusted than Lee Fiora.  He is also much more compelling.

I kept thinking that Lee would be happier as the book went on. Nope. It left me feeling disappointed and sad. So, anyone want my copy of Prep? It’s one of only three books I remember actively disliking in the last few years. As someone who has literally read hundreds of books in that time period, that’s either saying something about my impressive book selection skills or my ability to enjoy reading almost anything.

I just reviewed a Christian parenting book – The Minivan Years: Celebrating the Hectic Joys of Motherhood, by Olivia Bruner. It has some wonderful stories of imperfect parenting, and some great ideas on things to do with your children as well as tips on how to cope when you’re stressed.

While I am not Christian, I still found some great ideas for family activities as well as parenting survival tips, which you can see at my review. However, the book is definitely aimed at Christians; it intersperses funny family anecdotes with Scriptures and religious discussions. A Christian mom will get the most out of The Minivan Years, so I’m offering to send it to the contest winner.

If you want to win a copy of The Minivan Years, as well as a couple surprise books, just leave a comment on the review at A Gaggle of Book Reviews by Friday 1/25 at midnight! I’ll draw a winner, and ship it out soon after that. For my own financial well-being, I would prefer entrants to be in the US and Canada only. C’mon go enter!

I’ve been feeling overwhelmed a bit lately between my health issues, money stuff, getting book review work done, and then LG’s cellulitis. (I’ve been careful not to Google it, other than finding out it isn’t very contagious, my mom did, and that was unsettling enough) Between the blips in my mind due to my Chronic Lyme and my overwhelmed feelings, plus my natural “ooh, look, something shiny!” easily-distracted tendencies, I’ve had a number of random things bounce up in my head…

I finally accepted that a Roomba isn’t in our future. Besides the clutter, it wouldn’t be a great idea because Jack would try to herd it. Yes, he’s a dog who really can herd a cat… Maybe I’m best off with an Oreck XL like what Crazy Hip Blog Mamas is giving away

I feel this mix of pride and sadness that the entire pharmacy team at Rite Aid told the new pharmacy cashier where my 2nd prescription was, and that he didn’t need to ask for ID on me. I’m going to ignore the part where the pharmacist asked if I had ever gone longer than a week between visits…

I know that you should write a thank-you note that talks about the person’s generosity and what you did with the money when you are given cash. But should children who are planning to get a lizard and/or a hermit crab write that to a great-aunt? er, I guess great-great-aunt…

How is it I managed to be married to the guy who not only doesn’t have a 3-day weekend this weekend, he has a 1-day weekend, because he has an IT workday on Saturday. (Getting news of a raise and a bonus make it easier to take, though…)

I love fingerless gloves. I love great packages that come in the mail. I love the wonderful people who make me fingerless gloves!

I love that my job currently involves reading books and products I’ve usually received for free and writing about them. Then getting praise for what I’ve done! What more could I ever want? (yes, money, but other than that I’m happy)

I needed to redo this blog’s design again – the earlier design was loading very slowly for some people. Please take a look! This is it for a while, really. Unless it refuses to load for some people…

In other geeky-love news, one of my children (who has asked to remain nameless) said, “Can I have my allowance in Amazon money? I can’t wait to open my own Amazon account!”

Yep. We may be a bit computer-centered here…

I’m reading a book right now called The Minivan Years: Celebrating the Hectic Joys of Motherhood. It has very strong religious overtones, which is challenging to me as a reader. (The author is involved with “Focus on the Family”) There are still some wonderful nuggets in there, even for a heathen family.

The author’s family has a tradition at dinner time of taking turns saying the High and Low of their days. Growing up at my Mom & step-dad’s house, we held hands and take turns saying what they are thankful for each day before dinner. We had tried this concept as “Best and Worst” when BG and MG were very little, and it didn’t work because of their ages. We did High/Low last night at dinner, and it was wonderful and somewhat surprising – BG’s high was watching a puppy’s birth on YouTube! I’m hoping to continue the idea.

I have had some highs and lows myself in the past 24 hours…

• High: Finding out that my Lyme doctor is a quoted reference on the Wikipedia Lyme Page
• Low: Watching LG’s face get all puffy and red with cellulitis, and freaking out about it after MG was hospitalized for it 4 years ago. (totally different situation, but still)
• High: Being offered a Spring-release book on Lyme, co-authored by my doctor, published by Amacom Books.
• Low: Being hit with a very achy Chronic Lyme day when the girls are needing a lot of attention. Pain = Grouchy around here.
• High: Having GameWright offer us some new game releases for review. Woot!
• Low: Telling the children no over and over again. They wanted this pet, and this one, no – that one! All of which were well out of our price range and/or ate mice. I am always sad when I have to say no due to finances. Not so sad about the mice eating, though.
• High: Realizing that I understood the css as I was revamping a blog template. Wow, have I learned a lot! To think I started blogging in 2001 to teach myself html…
• High: Cuddling with my girls today. BG took a short nap with her head on my shoulder. At one point they were all snuggled in bed with me as we were searching for something online. I’m so grateful for kids who are still snuggly at 9!

I love it when there are more highs than lows! I’d love to hear other dinnertime traditions – we eat together every night, but sometimes dinner can drag… or our talkers can chatter the whole time without eating…

Last week we had fevers and tummy bugs in BG and MG. LG was coming through unscathed. Everyone seemed healthy on Sunday, so I sent them off for a visit and overnight with my parents. The snowstorm yesterday meant they couldn’t return until today. While it was lovely to have some quiet, we missed them a lot.

Meanwhile, as I am sitting around reading and reviewing books at my house, the sick fairy was visiting LG at her grandparents house. The same fever and stomach bug hit her, and she didn’t want to play in the snow. This morning, though, she woke up with a reddish puffy face that didn’t get less puffy with Benadryl.

After a visit with the nice doctor, she’s been diagnosed with cellulitis (skin infection), and is on antibiotics. We’re a bit freaked out by cellulitis, because that is what MG had when she was 3 1/2 and was hospitalized for 5 days on IV antibiotics after a dog bite. Apparently it’s a skin infection, and could be from staph or strep. We want to make sure she gets better, having a kid in the hospital was no fun! MG is busy telling LG that even if the medicine doesn’t taste good, it’s much better than shots!

Food allergies complicate everything – we ended up having to go to the compounding pharmacy to pick up her medicine because that antibiotic only came in strawberry flavor. Thankfully we have a compounding pharmacy in town that has completely artificial flavors. And yes, I do see the humor in someone who tries to eat organic and likes all natural products to be excited about artificial flavors! Anything can hide in “natural flavors”, though – it’s a very loose definition.

We’re hoping we can make the sick fairy leave here soon – we’ve been stuck inside for too long! Maybe the cool air will kill the germs? I really want to air out the house. Or bomb it with Lysol! The only ones still standing from this bug are me and B. I’m hoping B’s hardy constitution will save him. Perhaps being on 2 antibiotics will help me… but I know from far too much experience that antibiotics won’t do anything for a virus.

I recently reviewed two memoirs, mentioning that they read like novels. Now we have found a novel that felt like a memoir. In The Last Cowgirl: A Novel, Jana Richman has brought her main character, Dickie Sinfield to life through a combination of contemporary narrative and flashbacks to childhood memories. The Last Cowgirl is a book about a woman coming to terms with her childhood on a cattle ranch, and her life in the 30 years since she left it. Read the rest of the review