Reading

I am reading the letters of John and Abigail Adams. They are fascinating. Abigail Adams is one of my hero's. I loved this quote from the second letter:

"Let us, therefore, my dear partner, from that affection which we feel for our lovely babes, apply ourselves, by every way we can, to the cultivation of our farm. Let frugality and industry be our virtues, if they are not of any others. And above all cares of this life, let our ardent anxiety be to mould the minds and manners of our children. Let us teach them not only to do virtuously, but to excel. To excel, they must be taught to be steady, active, and industrious."--John Adams

Books books and more books

Today marks one week since we canceled our TV and Internet and we are loving it! I feel like my time has tripled. Evenings feel longer and more relaxed, mornings are no longer rushed, our home is more relaxing and peaceful.

Now for my book challenge. I mentioned my book challenge to Mr. P and you know what his first response was, "That means you have to read War and Peace". He then preceded to name all the intensely long Russian novels we own (that he brought to the marriage) that I have not read. Not only is there War and Peace but there is Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov and something else I can't remember. While I very smartly remembered to exempt Kant from my list I forgot about Mr. P's Russian literature collection.

I will read War and Peace last, it will be my crowning glory to this whole project.

Last night I attempted to make a list of all the books I haven't read but I got bored and stopped at 22. It was the tip of the ice berg. I definitely have more research but I did count 625 book in our house that are not cook books, law books, or other reference books such as sewing, hiking, fishing and what not. Of those 625 a lot are the exempt philosophy. So at this point I'm not sure how many I have ahead of me. Further research is needed. Right now I am reading The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan and up next is a memoir called West With the Night.

Secret Single Behavior

I have written before about what I call secret single behavior. This is when your husband goes out of town and you revert to your pre-married ways. For me this means cereal for dinner, no cooking, staying up half the night watching things such as Dawson's Creek with my sister, or staying up half the night reading chick lit, shopping, more shopping and late night target runs, very little house work and so on. Mostly things that drive my husband crazy. Yet this week I seem to have had a relapse of secret single behavior except my husband is still here. I think I might be driving him mad.

It all started when I failed to make a menu for the week. As I blogged on Monday, not having a menu and groceries before the week starts is not a pretty picture. Monday I was able to scrape up lentils, Tuesday we went out for Mexican (we NEVER go out to eat so this is a big deal), last night I did cook but then failed to do any dishes, and tonight will be left overs.

The next thing was I started reading Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin on Monday. Well I couldn't stop reading it. It was so funny and good and I wanted to know who Dex would choose. So I stayed up until 1 am reading it. Then Tuesday I just had to watch Brothers & Sisters with Jess and Jessica. Then after we finished that at 11:30 I just had to keep reading Something Borrowed because I was so close to being done...only 100 or so pages. So I stayed up until 2am to finish the book. This was perhaps not so smart being as I had a very big day at work on Wednesday and had to be there early.

One would think I had learned my lesson. On the contrary when I got home at a wonderfully early 4pm yesterday I picked up Something Blue and got right to it. I paused to fix some dinner and then returned back to Darcy and Ethan because I just had to know what was going to happen. When would Darcy see that really it was Ethan she loved?!!! So I stayed up late reading once again. And as tempting as it is to go to the library and find the next Emily Griffin book I think I'd better refrain. I'm simply too tired. And I fear my husbands patience may be running a little thin.

Late night reading

I stayed up way too late reading last night. I am reading Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin and it is so entertaining. I could not put it down. It was especially perfect last night after a very hectic day. After work, which was busy, I went jogging and then to pick up Chris. By this point it was already 6:30 and I was hungry and had no idea what I was making for dinner. Chris needed to stop at Bi-mart but they didn't have what he needed so we had to go to another Bi-mart making it 7:30 before we got home. By this point I was really hungry and still had no idea what was for dinner never a good combination. By the time I threw something together, folded the massive pile of laundry on the bed ate and settled in with my book it was almost 9. So the fun, engaging, page turner was just what I needed.

I know I have blogged before about my normally meticulous routine of meal planning and grocery shopping designed to ensure that the above situation does not occur. However, I completely dropped the ball this weekend. I was so preoccupied with food for the shower and planning for Mr. P's b-day party I forgot about menu's. I am once again reminded why I plan menus it prevents a lot of grumpiness on my part. I was able to scrounge up some dahl and veggies and rice. Once again I sing the praises of lentils. Truly one of the most ingenious foods. They are dirt cheap, incredibly versatile and cook in 25 minutes.

Good Books

I just finished this book and I really enjoyed it. I honestly wasn’t very excited to read it after I read the back cover but it surprised me and was a really good book. So I highly recommend it.

Now my sister and I are on a King Arthur kick. We watched the newest movie with Clive Owen and Keira Knightly because, well honestly Clive Owen is dreamy and Keira Knightly is gorgeous and we love her in Pride and Prejudice. While the movie was fairly awful, at one point Kiera Knightly goes into battle wearing what can only resemble a liter-hosen, it did remind us how much we love King Arthur stories. We were big King Arthur fan’s as kids. We had a few different children’s renditions and then there was the move Kid in King Arthur’s Court which was a favorite of ours. So after Keira Knightly and her liter-hosen we watched Mists of Avalon and First Knight. Julia Armand is a much better Guinevere than Keira Knightly, it pains me to say it but it’s very true. Next we are going to rent the movie Excalibur which was made in the 70’s and should be highly entertaining.

Mists of Avalon was incredibly entertaining yet perhaps the most ridiculous movie I have every seen. We have christened it the soap opera version of King Arthur as it boasts, murder, hidden identities, multiple love triangles, incest, revenge, affairs, deceit, betrayal and a three some between King Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot. I have never read the book but I can’t really believe that all of that happens in the book. So I will have to read it and see if it is better. But first I’m reading a King Arthur story our Pastor loaned me. It’s a trilogy the first one is called Taliesin by Stephan Lawhead. So far it is really good and I’m enjoying it a lot. It begins on the lost Island of Atlantis. Normally I don’t read science fiction or fantasy. I spent most of my childhood reading Laura Ingalls Wilder, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, The Secret Garden and so on. But there were a few exceptions. I had a weakness for stories about magic, kingdoms, dragon’s and knights and ladies. I love to be pulled into a completely different world and reality where I have to imagine what everything looks like.

My favorite stories in this genre are:

Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis: how I wished I could find a secret wardrobe when I was a kid...
Lord of the Rings: I first read these on a camping trip and spend the entire trip reading. I couldn’t put them down until I knew how the story ended.
Tales of King Arthur
Harry Potter: you don’t even want to get me started

Do you have childhood favorites you still come back to? What are your favorite books?

Butter is a health food!

I recently read this book.

There is a bit of a story behind it and a coincidence. I have two good friends from church Jessica and JoAnna. We all like to cook, eat and talk about food. Jessica got married in July and soon after her wedding we were running and she was telling me about this book JoAnna got her as a wedding present. She’s telling me how this book says that the low-fat diet is bad. It encourages us to eat butter and animal fat but says vegetable oil and canola oil are killing us. It encourages eating organ meats and fermented vegetables and drinking raw (un-pasteurized milk). For a few weeks every time we ran we’d end up talking about this book. Meanwhile, I had started going to a Naturopathic doctor who was telling me similar things. She wanted me to quick drinking coffee and alcohol (for the time being) and cut vegetable oil, shortening, canola oil, high fructose corn syrup and sugar out of my diet. She wanted me to get raw milk and cultured butter and consume as much whole milk, butter and cream as possible (hello sounds wonderful). Sounded a lot like Jessica’s crazy book! Finally, I asked her about Nourishing Traditions and she said that was exactly the diet goal she had for me and I should read the book. So I did. And…it is amazing. I couldn’t put it down.

The premise behind this book is that we need to return to a more natural way of eating. The authors reference Weston Price, who studied the diets of native populations around the world. He found that all native populations who shared similar diets and health. They all consumed diets high in animal fats and omega-3 oils, high in organ meat and other animal protein and high in fermented dairy and vegetables. These are the principals the book argues we should have in our diet. The result is a more natural and nourishing diet. Reading it will challenge what you previously thought about health food but I encourage you to read it and see what you think. For me it made a lot of intuitive sense. I always wondered about low-fat. It seemed to me that in a lot of ways people were a lot healthier in the days of Laura Ingalls Wilder then we are today.

Oh to be a princess

Recently the 10th and final installment of The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot was released. I have been reading The Princess Diaries since the first and second was released back when I was in high school (way before the movie came out). Actually, my younger sister, who at the time was in middle school, first discovered them and we have been reading them and re-reading them together ever since. Thus, with the release of the 10th and final installment here I am reading the entire series with great joy! If you haven’t read these I highly recommend them, as they are hilarious!

They tell the story of Mia Thermopolis, a five foot nine, flat chested, vegetarian, combat boot-wearing freshman at a private high school in Manhattan. The books open with the beginning of Mia’s diary. Due to Mia’s refusal to talk about her feelings with her mother, modern painter and ardent feminist, Helen Thermopolis, her mom gives her the diary.

Through her diary Mia tells us her woes. Not only is she the tallest girl in her class, flat chested, failing algebra, tormented by the cheerleaders and clearly destined to be a social freak, but also her mother has just begun to date her algebra teacher. But what Mia doesn’t yet know, and is about to learn, is that she is the sole heir to a small European country. So begins the Princess Diaries and what follows? Complete hilariousness. I am not exaggerating. These books are so funny you will laugh out loud. In fact beware when reading them in public places because cracking up in public can be a tad bit embarrassing, trust me I speak from experience.

I am enjoying reading them immensely (albeit it may be the 10th or 12th time I’ve read them). Mr. P on the other hand does not understand. Saying he rolled his eyes when I announced my reading plans would be a gross understatement. He has repeatedly stated concerns about what reading 10 of these books will do to my brain. Furthermore, I swear I have caught him glaring at the stack of them on the coffee table since I borrowed them from my sister over the weekend. Sometimes husbands just do not understand.

Mrs. P

P.S. The Princess Diaries books are not to be confused with The Princess Diaries movies made and butchered by Disney. There is NO comparison.