Friday links: 4 February, 2022

 Happy Friday! Anyone have any big plans for the weekend? As usual, not much going on here. Maybe a walk on Sunday, since it’s going to be 32F that day, and I have two bags of peppers that need to be chopped and put in the freezer. And I reeeeeeeeeeally need to get some laundry folded; I've been putting that off for, uh, a while now.

Here's what I found interesting online this week!

 

A Tennessee School Board’s Ban of ‘Maus’ Speaks to a Much Larger Problem

This is a good article (full disclosure: I’ve written for one of their sister sites). You may have heard about a school board in Tennessee banning the book Maus by Art Spiegelman recently, on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Ostensibly, they did it because of profanity and nudity. For one, I guarantee that every single one of those kids hears worse profanity every day in the hallways of their school (I sure did, and I went to small-town Midwestern schools, one of which was religious in nature), and second, the Jews in the book are drawn as mice. These people are concerned about naked mice (do they also have problems with Winnie the Pooh and Donald Duck not wearing pants?). And the school board member worried about promoting violence? She’s going to have a real bad time with, say, the Revolutionary War, or, uh, a LOT of stuff in the Bible (and I say this as someone who reads a bit from the Tanakh every day).

I began learning about the Holocaust in depth when I was nine years old. Yes, it was horrifying to learn about, but that’s the entire point. How can we ensure that these horrors never happen again if we don’t teach about them? I’m not a hundred percent sure what that school board was thinking, but I have a few ideas, and, as someone who leaves in-person synagogue services and walks out past the armed guards hired to prevent us from getting murdered, none of them make me feel very safe. Add this to the Tennessee pastor who held a book burning the other day (you read that correctly), and I’m so, so very glad we left Tennessee when we did. I have so many friends still there, and I'm so sorry that they're doing this to your beautiful state.

Speaking of people behaving badly around books…

 

Documents reveal nature of threats made against St. Charles Public Library employees

This isn’t too far from me.

A local group of people got a bug up their behinds about the fact that, two years into a pandemic in which almost 900,000 Americans have died of a preventable, airborne virus, the library requires its patrons to wear masks in the building. So, like the petulant, whiny toddlers they are, they threw tantrums in the building and made horrific threats toward the library staff, to the point where the library had to close down.

Classy move, people. Ruin it for everyone.

The group behind the threats is known around here, and they’re scary and dangerous. I’m disgusted that this is what our society has come down to: people too good to follow the rules, so they ruin opportunities for everyone by making violent threats. Awesome message they’re teaching their children, and odds are good that that will very much come back to haunt them when their children get older.

On a lighter note…

 

A short guide to the 100 most nutritious goods, as ranked by scientists

An interesting look at what one group of scientists consider healthy. I don’t eat the seafood on the list- even if I did eat animals, I have huge concerns over the amount of microplastics researchers are finding in fish- but this is a pretty fascinating list.

 

That’s all I’ve got this week. I’m making a run to a local grocery store this morning, then coming home to do more volunteer work. I’m making a taco dip for dinner that I’ve been craving all week, so I’m looking forward to that. So glad I’m feeling better this week than I did last week!

Have a great weekend, everyone! : )

What I Read in November 2018

It's book talk time!

I still feel a little book-slumpy. Some months I can blow through 12-14 books, no problem, and other months, reading feels like a slog. I do tend to pick up with my reading after the holidays pass, so I'm definitely crossing my fingers that that happens again this year. :) It doesn't help that right now, I'm reading an incredibly information-dense book on religion. It's interesting, but slow-going because there's so much information to process- plus the book is over 500 pages. I may be reading this for a while...

Anywhere, here's what I read in November this year.


1. The Marrying of Chani Kaufman- Eve Harris

An interesting novel about the lives of a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews (I recently listened to a podcast which featured a rabbi from one of these sects; he prefers the term Haredi or Charedi, although I don't know if that's universal or if it differs between the sects). Chani is nervous over her upcoming wedding to a man with whom she's barely had a handful of conversations; Rivka, the wife of the group's rabbi, feels claustrophobic in her life. All the unknowns in Chani's future are contrasted with the twists and turns of Rivka's past that have brought her to this point, and I deeply enjoyed learning Rivka's story (which wasn't quite what I'd expected).

The reviews on Goodreads are mixed, which surprised me. I enjoyed the look into a world I wouldn't normally otherwise get to see or learn about, and some of the reviews seem unnecessarily harsh (one woman is criticizing the author for her characters wondering about bacon, which, of course, is forbidden by the Jewish kashrut laws. "They wonder about bacon," the reviewer says. "Because another culture's diet is REALLY what a curious person would think about." Uh...I find other culture's diets and dietary restrictions to be endlessly fascinating. Jewish kashrut laws? Fill me in. Seventh Day Adventists and their vegetarianism? Let's talk. Jungle tribes who have never seen a grocery store? I WANNA KNOW ABOUT IT. Seriously, I love that stuff, hence the enormous book on religion- not my own, nor has it ever been- that I'm currently reading). So this was a book I enjoyed reading, and apparently other people did too, if it was nominated for the Man Booker Prize, but apparently if you're the type of person who doesn't believe that curious people can find other cultures interesting, I guess stay away from it? :D


2. Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free- Linda Kay Klein

This is an emotionally heavy book dealing with the purity culture that sprung up in evangelical churches in the 90's. I was raised Catholic and so I never had to deal with this (although Catholicism, like any religion, comes with its own strife! And hey, see! I'm interested in the behavioral standards of another group! IT HAPPENS, GOODREADS REVIEWER!!!), but I've had my issues with purity culture for as long as I've known about it.

I won't get into the deep pain felt by Klein and the women she interviewed, but this was really, really good and I hope it finds its way to those women who would most benefit from its message.


3. Thin- Grace Bowman

The painful memoir of a woman who suffered from anorexia, the long road back from it, and the aspects of it that still creep up even though she's in recovery.

The format- sometimes it's like a novel, sometimes it's more like an essay- made it a little hard to read at times, and if you're looking for answers on how to help someone you love who struggles with an eating disorder, this probably isn't your book. But if you're wanting to examine and understand what the mindset of someone with anorexia looks like, what it feels like to be them, the anguish and constant pressure they feel to be perfect, this is a good read.


4. Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime- Ron Stallworth

The true story of a police officer who spearheaded an undercover investigation into the most notorious American hate group.

Mr. Stallworth obviously couldn't go undercover himself- he is, of course, black- so he teamed up with a partner who played him while he himself did the phone work and the behind-the-scenes research. The book suffers a little for that- it's a seriously compelling story and absolutely needs to be told, but it's hard to keep up momentum when you're not the one performing the actions and the story in which you set the ball in motion is carried out by others (and now I'm wondering if the story would have been better served by being told in third person...). I'm looking forward to seeing the movie they're making of it. :)


5. Journeys: An American Story- Mark Tisch, Mary Skafidas

A collection of essays on the wonder and vitality that immigrants bring and have always brought to America. Definitely necessary in these trying times.

I loved hearing all the stories here. I wish I knew more about my ancestors- some of them came here in the 1890's from a farm near Bergen, Norway, but that's really all I know. Many of the authors know much, much more about the family members who started their family's story in America, and it was really moving to be able to experience their joy and pain at recounting those tales. Some people came here looking for a better future; others came because they were fleeing unimaginable horror. And while we've always been a nation made up of immigrants, a nation who benefits from immigrants, our attitude toward those same immigrants has often really sucked, to put it nicely. And for far too many people, it still sucks; I've seen it firsthand and it's gross.

So read this book and learn what so many people sacrificed in order to come to the US, and hug your local immigrant, because leaving everything behind (especially to come to a place where people mock you, mock your customs, mock your language, mock your progress with English, and scream at you to go home, like they themselves did anything other than be lucky enough to benefit from their own ancestors sacrificing everything to come here) isn't easy.


6. Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist- Eli Saslow

This was a compelling read! Saslow covers the life story of Derek Black, whose father founded the internet's largest racist online community (I'm not going to dignify that community by naming it here). Derek was raised to be the movement's golden child, to inherit all the hatred and illogical, unscientific, racist claptrap that that movement pushes as fact. For years, he bought into it, stood at the forefront of the community and repeated all its garbage...until his world expanded and he started to question whether everything he'd grown up believing was a lie. (Narrator: It was, indeed, a lie.)

At times infuriating and other times hopeful, Saslow does a masterful job of portraying the slow exit of what was essentially an indoctrinated young man. He believed what he was taught until he stepped out into the wider world, and I'm ecstatic for him that he was able to move beyond the falsities his family of origin attempted to bestow upon him. May he continue to grow and and learn and question and keep fighting against the hatred he once tried to push. A fantastic book.


7. Where's My F*cking Latte? (and Other Stories about Being an Assistant in Hollywood)- Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff

Yikes! I read this hoping to get some info out of it for something I'm writing, but these stories were a bit too out there for what I needed. Still...uh...yikes. Mostly fluff, but there are a few really sad stories in here.


8. The Skeptic and the Rabbi: Falling in Love With Faith- Judy Gruen

This was kind of neat. Gruen was raised in a not-terribly-religious household, but hey, things change, people stretch and grow and challenge themselves, and when she walks down the aisle, it's as someone who is prepared to live a strict Orthodox life, following the 613 commandments of the Torah, and this book details her journey from one point to the other.

I didn't always agree with her reasoning on certain things, and at the end, I felt as though a certain degree of judgment was coming through (there was one chapter in particular where she was discussing her modest dress and how random men would comment things like, "I wish more women dressed like you!" and "If more women dressed like you, we wouldn't have all the problems that we do!" I didn't find that as a point of pride; if someone said that to me, I'd be grossed out. I do tend to dress very modestly- not as a religious thing, it's just what I'm comfortable with- but those comments are a bit backhanded, praising the author while shaming other women, and I found her seeming pride in those compliments a bit remiss. How other women dress should be absolutely no one's concern but theirs. Wear a floor length skirt, wear a crop top; it's not my place or anyone else's to judge either. Everyone's journey is their own, and shaming others is no way to set an example), but I did enjoy reading the story of her increasing observance. I would've loved to hear more about her challenges raising her children in a tradition that she herself was not raised, but perhaps that's another book.


So that's what I read last month! I have about 200 pages or so to go in the hefty book on religion and then I'll move on to something...well, not lighter, but not as information-dense. I'm *still* dragging a bit from either that cold or who knows what else, but I'm definitely still not up to regular speed yet. :( Tomorrow should be a quiet day, so hopefully I'll get some rest and reading time.


What have you read lately?

What I Read in October 2018

It's book talk time!!!

Have you ever gone through a reading slump?

Reading slumps are when you have a hard time getting into books. Even books you want to read, awesome books, just sound kind of...meh, and reading is slow, slow, slow. Nothing really grabs you. You try books, then put them down after a few pages. You grab that one book that you've been wanting to read for ages...and you have to force yourself to read any of it. Even though it's a fantastic book.

It's frustrating.

Once or twice a year, my brain does this and I'm never sure why. Information overload? Needing a break? Who knows. I'm kind of there now (although I'm really enjoying the book I've been reading lately, and I have a book from the library that I'm looking forward to, so we'll see how it works out), and it's been a somewhat frustrating month- I just haven't felt all that enthusiastic about reading altogether. No worries, I'll get back to my usual excitement sometime soon, once my brain is done throwing this tantrum. ;)

Anyway, here's what I read this past month.


1. Culture Shock! Norway- Elizabeth Su-Dale

I'm always interested in reading things about Norway (and there's not a lot out there, surprisingly), and I've enjoyed books from the Culture Shock! series in the past, but this book didn't really do it for me and I kind of had to slog to get through it. For one, it's extremely dated at this point; it was written before the internet took over and I'm positive that a lot of the info here is massively out of date. I'm wondering if it's just not a profitable book to update and that's why it hasn't happened, because this book definitely needs it. Total bummer for me.


2. Marking Time: The Radium Girls of Ottawa- Heinz Dietrich Suppan

Years ago, I took a history class from this author. Super nice guy; he's the child of immigrants and grew up speaking German at home (I was dating my born-in-Belgium-and-raised-here-but-spoke-French-at-home husband at the time, so Mr. Suppan and I bonded over the whole navigating-two-cultures-and-being-bilingual thing). Seriously the best history class I've ever taken. He threw down SO much information during each class that I often left with my head spinning and exams were tough, but I learned so much. He absolutely knows his stuff and is a great teacher.

This is a very short book on a topic that absolutely infuriated me- so much that I had to set the book down a few times and take several calming breaths in order to not burst into flames. Women were hired to paint clock faces, but they were painting those clock faces with radium and using a technique called lip pointing, which is where they would stick the tip of the radium coated-brush in their mouths to make it pointy. And of course, they all started dying of radium poisoning, while the company was all, "Pffffft, it's not the radium, they're just loose women who are dying of syphilis, because everyone knows radium is actually good for you!" Over and over they denied it, while more and more women suffered and died in horrible, horrible ways.

RAGE.

I'd definitely like to read more about this, but I'm going to have to wait until I can mentally/emotionally handle it, because things like this make me want to start screaming and never stop.


3. What If- A.J. Pine

A New Adult romance, featuring a guy who's the black sheep of his family and a young woman struggling to overcome the affect of a brain aneurysm.

This really wasn't bad. I really liked that it went through all the things that Maggie had to do to get through her days- setting timers so that she'd leave for work in time, packing her 'just-in-case' pills in her purse, Post-It notes and Polaroids to aid her short-term memory, etc. We need more disability representation in fiction. I personally would have liked more of the technicalities of her condition, more medical information. It seemed to me like the author was assuming we all knew about brain aneurysm and its after-effects, but I didn't, and I found that learning about it (what little of the technicalities we learned) as the story unfolded left me feeling kind of unmoored. I would've liked to see more doctor appointments, maybe a support group or a therapist, things that helped to deepen the reader's understanding of what Maggie had been through and how hard she had to fight to get to where she was when the story started, because all that seemed just a little too vague for my taste.

But really, this was a neat premise for a story and I enjoyed it.


4. Timeless- Alexandra Monir

I adore time travel romance.

My mom used to have a stash of romance novels in our downstairs closet and a bunch of them were historical and time travel romances, and I read the heck out of them when I was 12/13. I need to read more from this genre again, I think.

So I was all excited about the concept of this book. After the death of her single mother, Michele moves in with her super rich, estranged grandparents, and while snooping through some stuff, finds an old diary that sends her back in time. And while she's there, helping out a family member, she meets the guy she's been dreaming about (literally, like dreaming-while-she's-sleeping) for years and they fall in love (even though no one else can see her and so he's actually kind of macking on a ghost, so to speak, and they don't find this weird). But of course, there are complications, both in the present and in the past.

I don't know. I didn't feel like the writing here was strong enough to carry the story. It lacked emotional depth for me. Michele as a character seemed flat, and the romance was rushed to the point of being a little ridiculous. I did like the grandparents- I felt like the author was able to portray the stiffness of an emotionally reserved upper class couple really well- and I completely agreed with Michele's acceptance of older Phillip in the last scenes, I felt that was really well done. But the drawn-out descriptions of the past architecture got old really quickly. I'm not a fan of heavy description in general, and it was clear that the author had done a ton of research and knew her stuff , but it ended up reading like a giant info dump every time Michele ventured out into town when she time traveled.

So this wasn't for me, and I'll keep searching for more time travel romance. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!!!


5. Crazy Pucking Love- Cindi Madsen

I'm also a sucker for a good hockey romance.

Dane's a college hockey player; Megan's the new freshman student and sister of another hockey player on the team. She's worked hard to overcome some wild behavior in the past and he's dealing with a lot of drama from back home. They're both under a lot of pressure, but the attraction is immediate. The catch: Megan's brother doesn't want any of the guys on the team coming anywhere near his little sister (because he's super overprotective, because of course their parents are dead- New Adult books are worse than Disney movies when it comes to killing off parents, anyone else notice that? I mean, I get it- it's the easiest way to force your character to grow up, get the parents out of the picture- but I'd like to see some NA books featuring characters from decent, supportive families. You can still deal with plenty of problems even if you have awesome parents, really! And now I have writing ideas. Thanks, brain).

The story follows Megan and Dane as they figure their crap out so they can be together. It's well-written, it's fun, and even though I got a little tired of Dane's constant back-and-forth, I enjoyed this. It's a decent one to check out if you're also a hockey romance fan. ;)


6. The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers- Maxwell King

Read this book.

Read it now.

This should be at the top of your list.

Oh, Mister Rogers. What a special man he was, and how lucky we all were to share the planet with him. I grew up watching him, listening to his gentle voice and the ding of his Trolley, joining him on trips to the crayon factory and construction sites, smiling as he changed into his cardigan and soft-soled canvas shoes. He was an integral part of my childhood and even today, I look to him as a role model. What would Mister Rogers do? is something I often ask myself when I'm struggling with how to act or react.

This book humanizes him. He wasn't perfect or saintly; he had his faults like everyone else (I love, love, love that he seemed as baffled by parenting teenagers as everyone else out there), but man, overall, he was just a really, really good person. A genuine person. The same person you saw on TV was the same person you got when you met him in the flesh. I can't think of anyone these days who is so genuine, so real, so worthy of emulation and respect as Fred Rogers was. I often wonder, though, how he would react to the events of today, how disappointed he'd be in the nastiness that fills public discourse. I know he would have wept openly at the horrifying massacre at the synagogue this past weekend- that happened about three blocks from where he lived. That was literally Mister Rogers' neighborhood. He would have been the first person there to comfort the victims, I'm positive of it.

Anyway, this book is a gorgeous tribute to one of the best humans who ever existed. There were several times I laughed out loud at the stories told, stories that made him seem so very real and such a wonderful man. More than ever, we need Fred Rogers' humanity in our lives, and I'm glad this book is out there.


7. The Search Angel- Tish Cohen

Eleanor, owner of the city's most exclusive baby store, wants a baby of her own, and she and her husband are on the brink of picking up the baby girl they're adopting when her husband, who has been all in on this plan, suddenly bails. In order to do this on her own, Eleanor, who is adopted herself, needs to build a support system (because her parents have passed already, and she was an only child), and she does this by...trying to find her birth mother in several days?

There are about a million things wrong with this plan, none of which are ever really dwelt upon in the book, and that bothered me. What if birth mom was dead? A terrible person? Addicted to drugs, homeless, just straight up didn't want contact, living in a foreign country, etc? Eleanor didn't have a plan beyond 'Find her and she'll be a support system so that the adoption agency will allow me to adopt this baby.' I was a bit aghast that this wasn't covered.

We don't really even meet the Search Angel until about halfway through the book. Isabelle has dedicated her life to reuniting adoptees and their birth families, and though she's retired, Eleanor gets to her in a way that forces her to help. Isabelle's character is so over-the-top that she's completely enjoyable, whereas the slowly blossoming romance between Eleanor and the shop owner next door didn't feel very real to me (and her constantly pregnant shop assistant, whom Eleanor marked as a terrible mother... I don't know. I wasn't a huge fan of that character, either). I did like seeing Eleanor's struggles as a single mother portrayed so accurately, although I kind of wanted to smack her after she was complaining about being tired after one night of being awake most of the night (miss me with that crap; come back after you haven't slept more than three hours at a time for EIGHTEEN FRICKIN' MONTHS, LADY, NOT THAT I'M STILL BITTER ABOUT THIS AT ALL OMG), but then when the baby's biological father comes back, and Eleanor's flipping out and then there's stuff going on with the shop owner next door, and Isabelle has issues with her past, and Eleanor's ex is hot and cold, and...There's just a lot going on at the end that made it seem a little overstuffed. So I didn't quite love this the way I was hoping.



So that's it for October. Only seven books in a month is low for me, but...reading slump. It happens. Life's been a little crazy around here lately, too, so hopefully things will maybe-hopefully-possibly start to slow down a bit ("HAHAHAHAHA," says the holiday-filled calendar!). I'm reading a Kindle book right now, and then I'll move on to a book from the library, something someone just suggested on a Facebook group I'm in, and then we'll see where I'm at after that. I'd like to go back to reading some of the books on my Goodread list, maybe interspersed with some Kindle books, because I need more fiction in my life right now (and my Goodreads list is nonfiction-heavy).


What did you read in October?

What I Read in September 2018

It's book talk time!

It's been another month of working my way through my Goodreads list, with a few extras tossed in. I still have probably about a year and a half to go before the list is done (there are going to be some books that hang out there for a bit, since the library doesn't have them. Some I may order online; others, I'll just wait until they magically appear in my life, I guess!). When I'm done with the list, I'll start reading my way through my own shelves (along with reading some library books here and there for variety, of course), but that'll be a while yet.

Anyway, here's what I read last month.


1. Little House Living: The Make-Your-Own Guide to a Frugal, Simple, and Self-Sufficient Life- Merissa A. Alink

I follow Merissa's blog, Little House Living. It's a lovely blog with tons of recipes for everything from shampoo to oven cleaner, and the book is no different. It's almost information overload, so recipe-heavy is this book. If you're looking for a way to simplify the products you use, this may be something you're interested in. Merissa leads an interesting life, and I wish I knew what her schedule was and how she crams in making all of this stuff! There are times when my bottle of homemade floor cleaner sits on the counter for weeks until I can get to it...


2. Out of Orange: A Memoir- Cleary Wolters

If you've watched Orange Is the New Black on Netflix or read Piper Kerman's memoir of the same name, you know that Piper wasn't alone in the wrongdoings that lead to her imprisonment. In the series, her partner in crime (literally) is known as Alex Vause; in the memoir, she's known as Nora. In real life, Cleary Wolters was the woman who persuaded Piper to join her in international drug trafficking, and in this memoir, she shares her side of the story.

There's not a TON about Piper or about prison itself in this memoir; the vast majority of it had to do with her time as a drug trafficker, which, to be honest, didn't sound at all glamorous to me. The drug lord she worked for sounded terrifying; so much of her work involved waiting around for weeks on end; the stress of trying to enter a country with suitcases crammed full of drugs would have given me enough heart attacks to kill every last elephant on the planet ten times over. I didn't see the appeal to that kind of life whatsoever, but it was interesting to see what Cleary had to say. I just so happened upon this book at the library; I'm not sure how I managed to miss that it even existed, but I'm glad we crossed paths.


3. Girl in a Bad Place- Kaitlin Ward

The story of a teenage girl whose best friend gets caught up in a dangerous cult.

Well-written, fast-paced, and intense. Not quite what I was expecting, but still a great read, especially if you're interested in cults and closed groups like I am.


4. Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors- Jeanne E. Arnold, Anthony Graesch, Elinor Ochs, Enzo Ragazzini

A deep look into what working families own, and how they store and use those items, along with the spaces they live in. If you've ever wanted a glimpse into what people's houses look like when they're not blog- or company-ready, this is your book.

I'll be honest. The pictures in this book seriously stressed me out. So. Much. CLUTTER. I went on a massive cleaning rampage after reading this. I do not want any part of my house to look like what I saw in these pictures. It's bad enough when my kitchen table gets covered in papers (or apples and butternut squash, as it is now); the amount of STUFF people crammed into their houses made me feel claustrophobic, and the mess- not just clutter, but straight-up mess- made me anxious.

Everyone has different standards of living, and if these people are happy with their houses, then that's cool. My anxiety about what their houses look like is fully on me and not them, so please don't think this is judgment. It's not; it's more of a testament to what I need my living space to look like in order to feel mentally calm (and I don't always succeed in that, either! It's hard when you're trying to keep up with the belongings of four people, three of whom don't share your desire to not have all their stuff hanging around on every flat surface!). Reading this also reconfirmed my desire to rid myself of superfluous possesions, those things that I own but that I don't use or love. I don't want to have large collections of stuff surrounding me like many of these pictures showed. Too much for me, thanks! This was a seriously neat book, though.


5. Tales From a Traveling Couch: Psychotherapist Revisits His Most Memorable Patients- Robert U. Akeret

This was one from my own shelves, which I read in bits and pieces while I was waiting for interlibrary loan books to come in. I'd picked this up from the thrift store for a quarter a while back. It was...odd. Interesting, but he had some patients who were...just odd. Not even ill in the way that I think most people would classify someone as mentally ill, but... Like, there was a patient who had fallen in love with a polar bear at the circus where he worked, to the point of climbing into this polar bear's cage so he could, um, attempt to be amorous with her.

It didn't go well for him.

It's a great concept for a book, though; I've often wondered if the therapists I've worked with in the past ever think about me, so it's nice to know that they do. :)


6. Scraps, Wilt & Weeds: Turning Wasted Food Into Plenty- Mads Refslund

A gorgeous book that's part-educational, part-cookbook, all about the bits of food that you thought were trash but are actually edible (like, uh, fish scales. I...might pass on that one). This is where I learned that you can actually dry pumpkin skins/rinds/whatever you call them and then grind up those dry whatevers and add the powder into baked goods, so I'm definitely planning on doing that. The recipes in this book were a bit too fancy for what I consider to be everyday cooking, but if you're more of an everyday gourmet, this might be right up your alley.


7. Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History- Bill Schutt

Speaking of recipes...

This book had none.

What it did have was more information on cannibalism in both animals and humans than I've ever seen in one place before. Not that I've spent a lot of time looking; I can't think of anything I've read that focused solely on cannibalism before. I was kind of expecting more about human cannibalism, and the front half of the book focuses a lot on animals, which didn't necessarily interest me as much, but it was still a deeply intriguing read. Also kind of gross, especially where the author ate a few bites of a woman's placenta (cooked, of course) as research for the book.

It tasted somewhat like veal, in case you were wondering.

There.

That's a thing you know now.


8. The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store- Cait Flanders 

The title pretty much sums it up. It's pretty much a memoir, by a woman who seems to be prone to many forms of addiction (human brains can be such jerks, right? It's a roll of the dice, and I'm sorry for anyone who struggles with any form of addiction). She'd struggled with food and alcohol in the past, and after she tackled those issues, she decided to look at her shopping habits, because mindlessly consuming wasn't making her happy, and she realized that she was buying things not for who she was at the time, but for who she wanted those things to make her.

That's something I think we're all guilty of, myself included. We all have those stacks of books gathering dust, because we swore we'd learn woodworking or accounting or French cooking, and then we never did. Flanders's method of dealing with that problem was to give those things away, whereas mine is to use those things to become the best version of myself (for the most part. There are things I've gotten rid of!). I want to become the person who's going to use that yarn and sew that fabric and learn all of those things, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. That said, I'm mostly not acquiring new things, just dealing with the things I already own, because there's a limit to all the things I can become!

I liked this. Didn't love it, but it was a good quick read.


9. The Surrendered Wife: A Practical Guide To Finding Intimacy, Passion and Peace- Laura Doyle
10. First Kill All the Marriage Counselors: Modern-Day Secrets to Being Desired, Cherished, and Adored for Life- Laura Doyle

Lumping these two together, because they're pretty close to being the same book.

I'm not sure what to say about these books. I don't think Laura Doyle's totally full of it; she has some good ideas, and a few of the things she wrote made me realize some areas where I could improve, but quite a few times, I went, "Um, what???" Regarding one of her ideas, I asked my husband, and he is absolutely not interested in me letting him drive one hundred miles in the wrong direction just so I don't challenge his masculinity or somesuch; he'd much rather me let him know that he missed the exit or took a wrong turn so that we're not late or wasting gas. I mean, maybe your husband is different and would rather miss his best friend's wedding or that super important work meeting while you sit silently next to him, having seen the exit he was supposed to take three miles back. If so, then Laura Doyle probably has other great advice for you, too, but I have to wonder about anyone whose sense of self is THAT fragile.

I also didn't buy half of the stories she told in the book. Things like "Mary came to me sobbing. Her husband never helped with the fifteen children or the house, and he'd been chronically unemployed for the past twelve years, preferring to spend his days and nights with his golf buddies. Once Mary started following my methods, he surprised her by cleaning the house from top to bottom, taking all the kids to Disneyland so she could stay home and rest, and starting his own company. Today, his company is at the top of the Fortune 500, and he and Mary are deliriously happy!"

I'm not buying it, and most of the stories in this book sounded pretty much like that. There's never any contingency plan for what to do when her methods don't work- she guarantees they will, and I think that discounts a large portion of human nature. She also comes dangerously close to dismissing some forms of abuse (and putting it on the wives to change, instead of the husbands), which made me extremely uncomfortable.

So if you read these, I suggest a grain of salt, maybe even the whole shaker. Take from it the good parts, run screaming from the rest. They're those kinds of books.



What did you read this month? Do you keep track of what you read?




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What I Read in August 2018

And now, book talk!

I find libraries so relaxing. Ahhhhhhhh.

I'm going to start backtracking at the end of each month and go through everything I've read throughout the past month. Maybe you'll find something good to read, too! Side note: I'm still working through my Goodreads To Read list, and a LOT of that is nonfiction, so if you're not a huge nonfiction reader, bear with me while I plow through the rest of the list. I promise, I do read fiction! Sometimes I read heavy stuff; other times, I read lighter stuff, which is like a delicious dessert for your brain (I enjoy cheesecake, if anyone's offering). It all balances out. :)


1. Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living- Elizabeth Willard Thames

Ohhhhhh, I loved this. I really enjoy the Frugalwoods blog; her style is so relaxing and approachable, which makes for an incredibly engaging read. The book is written in the same style, telling the story of how Thames and her husband came to save up enough money to buy the rural homestead of their dreams and be financially independent. My goals and dreams aren't the same as hers, but I still found her story really inspiring.


2. Beyond Belief: The Secret Lives of Women in Extreme Religions- Susan Tive and Cami Ostman

A collection of essays on women at various points in their religious journeys, in what you may or may not find extreme (as the authors cover in the foreword, extreme is in the eye of the beholder, or, in this case, the believer or non-believer). This wasn't *quite* what I was expecting, but still a very good read, as I'm a huge fan of reading about other people's experiences, especially when it comes to religion, which I've always found endlessly fascinating.


3.The Things They Carried- Tim O'Brien

I was lucky enough to be able to hear the author speak last week at a local high school as part of a parent education series. This book is a fictionalized account of a man's experiences before, during, and after the Vietnam War. Some of the experiences were very similar to what happened to the author; others were not, and he discussed that in his talk. It's moving and some parts are hard to read, but it's worth it to push through, because this is something that needs to be understood, as far as we can understand another person's wartime experience. My son's English class is reading this this year, so I'm curious as to how he'll perceive the book.


4. The Curious Case of Kiryas Joel: The Rise of a Village Theocracy and the Battle to Defend the Separation of Church and State- Louis Grumet with John Caher

If you're not familiar with Kiryas Joel, it's a village in New York whose residents are almost entirely Hasidic, of the Satmar sect. Their public school district has been very controversial, and this book deals with the first major legal case against that district. Again, it wasn't quite what I was expecting; there was a LOT of legal talk that was, on occasion, a bit over my head, but it was still fascinating.


5. The Last Speakers: The Quest to Save the World's Most Endangered Languages- K. David Harrison

Super fascinating book written by a linguist who travels around the world, documenting languages that are dying out or are in danger of dying out. Hopeful, heart-wrenching, intriguing...


6. Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America- Helen Thorpe

 Loved this! Thorpe documents the final parts of high school and all of the college years of four friends, all of whom were born in Mexico. Two are here legally; two don't have documents. The struggles that the undocumented young women faced are gutting, from healthcare to jobs to school, to driving legally, to being able to rent an apartment, to being able to care for their family and younger siblings... My heart absolutely broke for those two girls over and over again. This book was published in 2011 and I'm deeply curious as to how the women are faring today. If anyone knows of any updates, PLEASE let me know. This was a great, great book. I've read Helen Thorpe before and have enjoyed her, and I'm looking forward to reading more from her in the future.


7. Almost Amish: One Woman's Quest for a Slower, Simpler, More Sustainable Life- Nancy Sleeth

This started out well. The back cover made it seem like the author had gone on a journey to slow her life down, and here's what she tried, and here's what worked and what didn't, etc. She told the story of how she and her physician husband realized their lives weren't exactly working for them and how he quit his job and they reworked everything in accordance to their newfound religious faith.

I'm not particularly religious myself, but I have no problems reading about others' deeply held beliefs. Rachel Held Evans has some delightful books, and I deeply enjoyed John Pavlovitz's A Bigger Table (this one *really* made me think, which I appreciated!). I also really enjoy the writings of Rabbi Harold Kushner. But about halfway through, this book switched from pleasant to preachy, and I found myself disappointed.


8. What I Eat: Around the World In 80 Diets- Peter Menzel and Faith D'Alusio

A large coffee table-style book, full of great photographs of people from all over, surrounded by a spread of everything they ate on that particular day. It's arranged by calories taken in, ranging from somewhere in the 800's to over 12,000. It was a pretty neat look at how diets differ based on not only where you live but what class you belong to. There's quite a bit of text in this photo-heavy book, so prepare to be holding this giant book up for a while!


9. Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America- Linda Tirado

Tirado wrote this book after a post she wrote on poverty went viral. There's a lot of hard truths in here about what life is like for poor people- what society demands from them (but not from others), how they're viewed and treated, the ways they help and hurt themselves (and sometimes they have good reasons for doing so). This is an excellent book. For me, it was preaching to the choir (but I'm still glad I read it, huge thanks to I Heart Tightwads for making me aware of this book). I haven't experienced the type of prolonged poverty that she has, but I've worked those jobs where management doesn't schedule you but threatens your job if you don't come in every single time they call you to come in an hour before they want you to start working (this was also the same job that forced me in after I'd been awake all night vomiting. Yes, it was retail. Yes, I worked face-to-face with customers, several of whom commented on my ghastly appearance. And we wonder why cold and flu season is so awful in this country? DING DING DING). I've been food insecure, I've had to put medical stuff off for financial reasons, and I was extremely lucky to have a dentist who worked with me on paying off an extremely large amount of dental work. Like Tirado, my dental issues were through no fault of my own- hyperemesis gravidarum is not good for your teeth- but I still dealt with people who judged me for their state, and I still felt that shame.

If you're sensitive to swear words, you should steel yourself before diving in, because she uses them a lot. I'm not bothered in the least, but even if you are, this is a really important book. I was surprised by the Goodreads reviews. It seemed to me that a *lot* of people there absolutely missed the entire point of the book, and that disappointed me. Far too many people ignore the humanity of others, and think that serving the public is an undignified job and thus the people who do it are worthy of their scorn and derision. If you've never worked a crappy retail job where customers threaten your life for policy created by someone that makes hundreds of times more than you, try it out and see how great it feels to make about fourteen cents a minute for that experience (that's actually more than I made when that happened to me. Yay, minimum wage!), and then try to pay rent and buy your kid new shoes and pay off that hospital bill from that surprise bout of pneumonia and see how grateful you feel to that employer. Tirado covers all of this and more.

Super important book right here, one that I feel like a lot of people could benefit from reading, because I see far too much scorn and disgust thrown at low-wage workers.



I finished a book today and started a new one, but I'm not sure if I'm going to keep going with it. It's one my son recommended to me, and the writing style is very good, but I'm not sure I'm in the greatest headspace for it. It's rare for me to abandon a book, especially one from my To Read list, but I'm' already feeling a bit down because of my back issues (more about that on Monday's recap), so I might move on to something more appropriate for the place I'm at right now. :)


What about you? Read anything good lately?




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Friday Thoughts 8/3/2018

Happy Friday! This week has gone by so quickly. Maybe it's because summer is speeding to a close and all the Back-to-School mayhem is in full swing. We've got less than two weeks before my son heads back, but I have friends whose kids have already returned. That was the norm when we lived in Tennessee, but I always thought that was crazy early. Anyway, let's get down to...Friday Thoughts!


*Don't Be Afraid of Robert Munsch's Love You Forever*

Everyone knows Love You Forever, right? The sweet children's book that starts out with the mom rocking her new baby and singing, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be." I first read this when I was twelve and my librarian/teacher grandmother owned a copy. I sat on the floor in front of her bookshelf, turning the pages, and by the end, I had tears streaming down my face. When my son was born, I couldn't even read it to him, the book hit me so hard. My husband, who prides himself on not getting emotional over anything, got halfway through the book and refused to finish, and my teenage son was like, "Why did you make me read that???" after I'd pushed it on him. 

This book punches people in the gut. It's the perfect illustration of not only the deep and abiding love a parent feels for a child, but also how deeply young children need their parents. I've seen far too many people write the book off as 'creepy.' 'Why is that mom climbing into her adult son's window and rocking him?' they cry. 'That's just messed up!' But those people are looking at it the wrong way. If you look at it from the perspective of a five year old snuggled up next to their parent, reading this book, they don't see a creepy mom who can't let go. What they hear is the message that even when they're big and grown up (and the idea of being big and grown up is kind of scary!), Mom (or Dad or whoever is raising them) will still love them just as much as she does right now. It's comforting. It's reassuring. It's a promise of security and stability, of support and lifelong unconditional love. It's what every child deserves to hear, and Robert Munsch has framed in perfectly and beautifully. 

I'm never going to be able to read this book without crying- heck, I'm tearing up right now. I won't ever flip the page like the author of this article has, and I'm okay with that. :)



*How Decluttering Saves Me Money, Time, and Stress* 

This blog post is exactly where I'm at right now. A lot of my time lately has been going to my summer project of organizing, deep cleaning, and weeding out clutter that I don't need. "The more I own, the more I have to clean, the more I have to store, and the more I’m responsible for," Elizabeth Thames writes, and I've come to understand that. The things we own, own us. If we bring an item into the house, we're responsible for maintaining it, for caring for it, for figuring out where it goes and how/when we'll use it, how/when we'll clean it. I've begun to consider deeply before bringing anything permanent into my house (things that will be used up, like food or toiletries, fall in a different category for me). Do I want to be responsible for that item? Do I want to try to find a place to cram it into, in my already-hurting-for-storage home? (Spoiler alert: I usually don't.) For the most part, I have everything I need. There are a few things I would like, things that I've thought about for a while and decided that it would be worth it, but they're not going to make or break me. I really am content with what I have. 

If you've read the blog post, you've seen the picture of what the Frugalwoods' basement looked like, pre-decluttering and organizing. That's a close approximation of what my basement looks like, no joke. Mine might be worse. My husband has 4382947329843 boxes from when we moved in, and that's where they were all abandoned and forgotten. Sadly, my laundry room, which is also located in the basement, isn't much better. That room is my next project; I'll be tackling it slowly because it's kind of overwhelming, and then I'm going to move on to the basement. That room might involve buying things like Rubbermaid containers for storage; our crawlspace gets a little moisture in it sometimes and it's safer to store things NOT in cardboard boxes (ask me how I know). So we'll see. It feels SO much better to be decluttered and organized, and I'm smack in the middle of it right now, to the point where other projects are kind of getting pushed to the side. I'm okay with that- who knows when this organization bug will bite again? Might as well run with it. :)

Have you read Meet the Frugalwoods by Elizabeth Willard Thames? I adore her blog. I just finished her book this week and it's great. Full of frugal inspiration and long-term planning and the big payoffs that come with each, and I enjoyed every page of it. Highly recommended!


*Trying to Keep Up With the Kardashians? Here's How to Stop Money Envy*

I don't know that I've ever suffered from money envy, per se. I do see pictures of well-organized homes where everything is coordinated and things are perfectly placed and everything seems so calm and orderly, and I envy that (and am trying to emulate at least the sense of calm and organization in my own home), and when I was younger and money was tight, I distinctly remember lamenting to friends that I didn't want anything super fancy but I just wished we could go into the grocery store and buy a few frivolous things, like cookies and orange juice. Those were luxuries that were unaffordable to us, things we usually had around the house when I was younger, and at the time, it felt like deprivation to not have them.

It took a while, a lot of growth and learning, self-examination and studying of others, but I don't feel deprived of anything these days. While we can afford orange juice, it's not something I normally buy because I don't feel like we need the extra sugar. And cookies? Meh. I can make my own, and they're far superior in taste and ingredients than what I could buy at the store. I've learned to appreciate the process of baking, the way it makes my house smell sweet and feel warm and cozy, and the feeling that I've accomplished something when I pull a tray of something homemade out of the oven. It's a little luxury, one I'm grateful for, and I'm now trying to cultivate that mindset of gratitude in my daughter. She definitely has toy envy; it's hard passing by toys at stores or yard sales because she's immediately thrown into a deep abyss of "That dollhouse is a different color than mine and thus it's SO MUCH BETTER and I WANT IT!" We had a long talk the other night, and I'm very focused on helping her learn to appreciate the things she has and not focusing on what she doesn't. It's a lesson much better learned earlier in life, so I'm hoping I'll get there with her. :)


*Bringing Afternoon Tea*

How gorgeous is this post??? Such lovely baking, and the message is something I need to get better at. I usually have all the ingredients to whip up quite a few things at any given moment, but often I'm too busy or exhausted, especially during the school year when I'm running in twenty different directions after my two very different kids! It's something I'm working on. :)


*Tsundoku: The Practice of Buying More Books Than You Can Read*

Eek! This is something that every reader I know struggles with, and I'm no different, but now that I'm aware of it, I'm actively working to prevent this. While I'm focused on emptying out my Goodreads To Read list right now, I'm reading my own books while I wait for my interlibrary loans, and when my To Read list is down to books I'll have to buy (some of them just aren't available through my library system), I'm going to focus on reading what I own (and then weeding those books out). All these books on my shelves aren't doing me any good if I'm not reading them, and they're taking up space that could be used for other storage or just clear, calm empty space. 

'I will allow myself to engage in some tsundoku – besides, it's not actually a waste because of course, I'm going to get to that teetering stack of books someday, really!' the author says. I don't necessarily like that. No more somedays for me: I'm a woman with a plan. If it's not something I'm going to actively use, I no longer want to bring it into my life. I ADORE books, but I want to be the kind of person who reads- and benefits from- the books she owns, not the kind of person who lives among the stacks but never touches them.


So that was what was on my mind this week (which has been a little bit of an odd week around here, but I'll get to that on Monday). What have you been contemplating?



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Friday thoughts 7/20/2018

I thought I'd start something new here this week, a weekly roundup of articles and links that caught my eye for one reason or another. Maybe they'll be helpful or interesting to you as well!

First off:

*Why Kids Benefit From Fewer Toys*

This is something I've long suspected, and it's something I've been pondering over again since I read this. My daughter is currently drowning in toys. Her room, when I don't go in and put every last piece away in its proper spot, is a sea of toys that makes it impossible to walk anywhere. It's messy, it looks terrible, and I'm pretty sure it's overwhelming to her, but I have no idea how to stem the flow of toys into our house. I almost never buy her things, but Papa does, and then there are the gift avalanches that come twice a year at Christmas and birthday time. If (and that's a big IF) I can get the rest of the house in the order that I want, I can possibly start in on our mostly-furnished-but-in-terrible-shape-as-it's-mostly-a-dumping-area basement, I can start switching her toys out every once in a while, storing the extras downstairs and changing them when she gets bored. But there needs to be a lot of work done for that to happen. It's good to have goals, though, right?!???


*10 reasons I have my food storage, from Making Cents of It All*

I love this post! I don't necessarily consider what I have a food storage, but it fits the bill. I have a very small pantry (about half the size of a tiny coat closet), two tall shelves, and a small set of Ikea Algot shelves (which used to hold our cable box and my son's video games in the living room) where I keep my food, along with a deep freezer in the garage. Before we moved back to be closer to our families, I didn't shop the way I do now, which is outlined in The Complete Tightwad Gazette (buy what's on sale and stock up enough so that you don't have to buy until the next sale; buy ingredients, not food; keep a price book so you know when and where an item hits the lowest price, etc). I live in a great place with some fantastic grocery stores that offer deals good enough for me to shop like this (before, I really didn't; I found the stores to be expensive, with the exception of Aldi and Walmart). Having a well-stocked pantry is convenient, it's a time and money saver, it's absolutely a sanity saver- no running out at the last minute to pick up that missing ingredient, because if I don't have everything I need for a recipe, I have all the ingredients for another! I'm never, ever running to the store right before a major storm, because I already have what I need on hand. Keeping a well-stocked pantry has really changed the way I cook and think about food, for the better.

And from the same source, Making Cents of It All's Things That Are Making Me HAPPY! provided a bright spot for me this week. I know that I don't stop and acknowledge the little things often enough, and this was a lovely reminder to do so. :)


*How (and Why) I Keep My Goodreads To-Read Shelf At 100 Books*

Well THAT'S right up my alley, isn't it???

"What good is a TBR list if it just stresses me out?" the author asks, and I agree. That's exactly the point I was at at the end of December 2016/January 2017. The list was far too long and I began questioning why I was adding to it but never actually reading any of those books. And thus began my TBR adventure. Having started with the list at 332 books, I'm currently at 164 books, which means I've tackled 168 books from that list in the past year and a half. Not too shabby! I'll never, ever let it get that high again, and keeping it at a manageable number is definitely a goal of mine.


Lastly, Readercoin just came to my attention right before I sat down to write this post. It seems to be an app that will pay you in their currency for reading books from their site, and you can redeem that currency for giftcards and whatnot. It looks as though it'll be for both public domain fiction and self-published (via their site, is what I'm seeing, in my quick jog through). It's something I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on and I'm really curious as to what the buzz will be around the book world. Is this going to hurt profits for writers? Will it be frowned upon by the publishing industry? I did a quick search for it around Twitter but didn't see any industry officials commenting on it, but I'll be watching.


What about you? Anything interesting in your cyber neck-of-the-woods this week?



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Weekly recap 7/16/2018: Spending time in Door County, Wisconsin

I'm back! What. A. Week!!!! Are you ready for a LOT of vacation pictures???

As I mentioned last time, this week was a little different. Almost every summer, my mother takes my children and me on a trip. In the past, we've visited Indiana Beach in Monticello, Indiana; Bowling Green, Kentucky; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Traverse City, Michigan. This year, she called me up and said, "Hey, what do you have going on next week? Wanna go to Door County in Wisconsin?" Of course we did! So we packed up, and Monday morning we hit the road.

Of course I made good use of my time in the car:

On the ride up, at around lunch time, we were reminiscing about last year's trip to Traverse City, and how we stopped at a restaurant called Pizza Ranch on the way there. We'd never heard of Pizza Ranch before and assumed it was just kind of a local thing. When my daughter announced she was hungry right outside of Sheboygan, we began scrutinizing the signs for a place to stop. (I'm vegetarian, so some places are better than others for me to eat at.) We passed by one sign and the choices didn't impress me, so we drove on. The next sign, I began reading off the options. "Subway, McDonald's...OMG PIZZA RANCH!!!!" My son, who absolutely loved Pizza Ranch, was like, "WHAT?????????"

We had no idea it was a chain!

It was indeed Pizza Ranch, and a tasty lunch was had by all. After that, back on the road again!

We arrived in Door County in the afternoon and checked into our hotel, then drove around Sturgeon Bay and picked up a few things Target and Walmart (who knew swim floaties could be so hard to find?). We had a fantastic dinner at a local Mexican restaurant: 

My daughter and I shared, and we still had leftovers. This was sooooooo good.

And then my son and daughter went swimming in our hotel's outdoor pool. BRRRRRRR!!!! My mother and I stayed along the edges. WAY too cold for us.

The next day, we visited a cute store with great food (lots of delicious samples to try) and Door County gifts. The giant apple outside was adorable!

The store also had a Little Free Library! These things are all over Door County; quite a few of the hotels had their own. How awesome is that? Made my reader heart very happy. :)

After that, we headed into Fish Creek. They have an adorable downtown with a lot of kitschy little shops, all local. We visited quite a few of them, and then took in some local history by visiting the Alexander Noble house. 

The elderly gentleman docent was incredibly knowledgeable about the home, the history, and the area. Their current exhibit here is "A House in Mourning," and it's set up to show the mourning customs of the Victorian area. Very, very interesting, and the family who originally lived there produced some really innovative women for the times- one was a pharmacist, another was a doctor and pilot. Go Nobles! And I had to take a picture of the kitchen. Check out this stove: 

I can't even imagine cooking on this thing.

Afterwards, we went mini golfing. 

An unconventional putting stance, but it worked for her!

Have you ever seen a mini golf course without tadpoles? Me neither.

Hey there, little buddy!

We found some interesting lawn sculptures:

And then we headed into Death's Door Maritime Museum.

I had no idea of the history of this area- I'd never even heard of Death's Door before- and it's truly fascinating. So many shipwrecks, lives lost and fortunes destroyed. I'm definitely going to look into reading more about Door County's history, because I found it unbelievably interesting (if anyone has any suggestions for further reading and learning, I'm all ears! I thought a lot about Loreen Niewenhuis's A 1000 Mile Walk on the Beach during our time here). A few pics of some of the interesting info from the museum:

That evening was our last night in Sturgeon Bay, so we took a walk down by the water near our hotel. Lovely view!

There was also a mama duck with a flock of babies. One quack from her and the baby that was charging off on its own would hurry back. I need to take lessons from her!

Wednesday was our beach day! My daughter was thrilled, she loves the beach. My son hates sand, but went along anyway. On the recommendation of a hotel employee, we headed to Peninsula State Park, and it was wonderful.

Ahhhhhhh. So relaxing! Let's not talk about my sunburn.

Last year in Traverse City, we watched people paddleboarding. I'd never seen it before and was intrigued. I didn't try it at the time; I was worried it would be too hard on my back, but this year, after my mom and son went hydrobiking, I leaped at the chance to try paddleboarding with my son.

It was a little weird at first. My first thoughts were along the lines of, "WHO INVENTED THIS AND WHY??? AND HOW DOES EVERYONE ELSE LOOK SO STEADY???" A yacht drove by us and the water got wavy enough that I sat down and paddled like that for a while (and my son stayed down the rest of the time). After the water calmed, though, I thought, "You know, I may not ever be able to do this again, so I might as well go for the full experience." Up I stood, and I stood the rest of the time! It felt a lot more steady, and I found it soooooooo relaxing. If I lived in a place where I could paddleboard regularly, I'd be out there every night.

C'est moi! :)

I'm so, so glad I got to have this experience! If you get the chance, try it, it's really a lot of fun and seriously relaxing.

On the way back, we drove by Al Johnson's Swedish restaurant, more commonly known as the restaurant with the goats on the roof. No goats out when we were there, but it was still neat to see.

It was pretty hot when we were here, so hopefully the goats were cool inside.

The next day was rainy. We were hoping to take a boat tour of Death's Door's shipwrecks, and fortunately, the rain paused long enough that we could indeed go out. This. Was. Crazy. So, one of the reasons that the water there is so very dangerous is that the area is part of the Niagara Escarpment, which goes all the way from Wisconsin to New York (isn't this fascinating???). And those cliffs that are at the edge of the water are also UNDER Lake Michigan!!! I had no idea. So as we were bobbing along out in the lake, I was watching the depth changes on the screen that measured it. At one point, it went from 143 feet deep to 24 feet deep!!!! I gasped out loud, and the tour guide was like, "Yup, it changes in an instant out here." The captain pointed out a buoy that marked a dangerous spot: on one side of the buoy was a depth of 20 feet; on the other, 4 feet. A lot of ships wrecked at that point. The last commercial shipwreck happened in the late 80's, but the currents are so wild out there (again, because of those sudden depth changes!) that the guide said they lose unsuspecting kayakers out there every year.

We were fortunate enough to be able to tour Plum Island, one of the small uninhabited islands off the tip of the peninsula. 

The boat house.

There's an old building on the island where victims of shipwrecks used to be taken and held until the water had calmed enough to get them back to the mainland. It's being restored now, and when we were there, the roof was being fixed. 

And a few pictures of the water and waves. The weather was gray and ugly, but the island and lake were still gorgeous.

The boat ride there and back was extremely bumpy. I would've liked to have taken pictures of that, but I was hanging onto my daughter with one arm and clutching the side of the boat with the other so we didn't fling out! My daughter, ever adventurous, loved every second of it...until she fell asleep on the way back. Too much vacation! :)

We had a quiet night in the hotel that night, and the next morning, we had breakfast at Fika. Their cardamom rolls are fantastic, if you're ever there. YUM.

'A watched kettle never boils,' it says in Swedish. So cute!

 And that was it! We headed home after that, to the land of three loads of vacation laundry and unpacking the bathroom bag (all of which was accomplished immediately; I hate vacation stuff sitting around). 

Saturday was a rough day. The car trip home was a lot longer than going, and I don't know if I was sitting in a different position or what, but my back was absolutely terrible. I was having a hard time walking, and at one point, I wasn't actually sure I could get my left leg into bed. Fun times! I spent most of the day icing and heating my back. Sunday, I still woke up in pain, but it got better as the day went on.

And hey, remember when I said I made good use of my time in the car on our vacation to Door County?

I wasn't joking!

Twelve! Twelve dishcloths! Ah ah ah! /Count von Count voice. My mom was the driver for the trip, so every time the car was in motion, so were my needles. I've got one more solid colored dishcloth on my needles, and then I'll use the scraps to make one or more multicolored cloths. Any remaining scraps will go into other scrap projects. Not a bad start on some gifts, although I obviously still need to finish ends. I also knocked a book off of my Goodreads To Read list, so yay for that!

And there we go! That was my exciting week in Door County, Wisconsin. Have you been there? I'd love to hear your experiences. I adored it and wouldn't mind visiting again someday. :)