August 2021 Reading List

 Another good reading month...I have a feeling with school starting up in our household next week for the girls my months of reading 5+ books are over, but maybe not as I am r-e-a-l-l-y trying to eliminate social media from my life (or at least 99% of it) and this might create some extra free time that will allow me to keep the pace of these last two months. We'll see, 

I was able to read 7 books this month and included the following titles:

As you can see I am reading a lot about the Middle East - almost exclusively about women in the Middle East and what they endure and what they have overcome (or sometimes not as in the case of the "honor killing" of Qandeel). I find the topic of women's lives in that part of the world fascinating particularly because their lack of choice and freedoms are astounding to someone like myself who lives in a relatively free country (particularly for someone like me who is white).  I have a handful of more titles I plan on reading in September and then may purchase some books from abebooks.com because the Charlotte library system is not the best and does not carry some of the titles I am looking to read for October's book selections.

I enjoyed reading about Custer's Last Stand (I have read about it a bunch of times in other books), but enjoy the history books that focus more on the topics from the Indigenous Americans perspectives better. 

Finally, my last book Finding the Mother Tree was really cool. I love nature. I found the Pacific Northwest forests to be breathtaking and this book focuses on that part of the world (a bit rather north than I was though). I am really glad I came across this book and had the opportunity to read it. 

Numbers of Books Read in 2021:

January: 5

Feb/March: 8

April/May: 6

June: 5

July: 9

August: 7

Total: 40

A Kitchen Sabbatical

Food. I have such a complicated relationship with food, both from a personal standpoint and what I choose to feed my family. 

I whole heartedly believe that homemade is best, but this week this mama decided she needed a rest. I put my grocery order in and instead of ordering mostly from Whole Foods I chose to order from Walmart. Instead of ordering organic (which is a must for me under normal circumstances) I ordered as much nonorganic generic food that I possibly could. 

Instead of simple ingredients that I use to make just about everything from scratch, I bought canned, jarred, frozen, and premade this and that. 

I just need a break. I need a week where every meal is easy. A week in which I don't feel guilty for my utter failure in making this dish as good as it could be, or that dish as it could be. 

A break from trying to make three meals and snacks from a recipe in my binder/pouch. This week my kids can get up and have their choice of 4 different boxes cereals, premade bagels, frozen waffles, or English muffins. Lunches will be sandwiches or leftovers or something that can be easily popped into the oven. Dinners, too, will be incredibly easy with jarred sauces and frozen this or that. 

I don't know why I put the pressure on myself that I do to buy only organic, simple ingredients and make as much as I can from scratch. (Well, that's not entirely true. I know exactly why I do so.) It is so time consuming and there is not one meal in which everyone is happy with what I have decided to make. 

I am sure this sabbatical will not last very long. I have been making stuff from scratch for over a decade and I know the importance of not eating crap food filled with preservatives, but this week? Oh man, I plan on enjoying the hell out of easy meals and snacks for an entire week. This mama sure needs a break. 

Ordinary Moments

 I've been writing in this space for many, many years now - a little over a decade if my memory serves me correctly. Some of my children have begun to read the words I have written hear and look at the photographs that go with the stories I have been telling. I am now beginning to understand how much this space will potentially mean to them over the years as they get older and older. This is the only place where our lives unfold with both photos and words that tell a complete story - at least a complete story from my perspective. I never thought that my kids would enjoy to read the tales I have told, but I am finding out that I was very wrong. 

I am not very good at expressing myself to my children. I do not offer them praise any where near as often as they are deserving. I do not tell them I love them often enough either. I hope they do not carry on these traditions as I know the burden this lack of reinforcement can wreak on one's life. What do hope is that my children will see this space as one big gigantic love letter to them both collectively and individually. I also hope that this space will one day allow them to view me in a light other than their mother - although that is certainly the most important role I choose to take on.  

Life is such a crazy, wonderful, hard, beautiful thing. For those of us lucky enough to be here it passes by all too quickly. In an effort to slow down the go, go, go of my life - the constant need to be doing, doing, doing - I have begun to look for ordinary moments and photograph them. There are million of regular moments that pass me by every day just begging to be noticed and yet I do not see them because of this self inflicted disease called busyness. I am trying to halt this practice, but am not sure I will ever be rid of the desire to be doing, doing, doing. I hope I will though and Hope has carried me through some pretty hard things before, surely she can help carry me through this one? 

I will be sharing more ordinary moments posts in order to remind my future self when she re-reads these words that the ordinary moments are so important in life. I want to capture as many of these moments each day to remind myself that these glimpses simple pleasures are really what life is all about. It is not about doing, doing, doing. 

Favorite flowers

New Beginnings

Reading

Planning

Companion

Playing

Sun tea beginnings

Gladiola beauty

Morning light

First light

Breakfast

Baking

The quiet of morning

15 (Already!)

A painting a friend from Indiana created for her for her birthday. 

A birthday card drawn by my 89 year old grandfather. 

"The four"

Yesterday Elizabeth celebrated her 15th birthday. My firecracker from birth, this sweet girl with a heart of gold has been earthside for a decade and a half. It seems at times unimaginable that the baby of our family could be this old, but here we are.

We celebrated the day with my parents who came down to North Carolina just for this occasion. Elizabeth got to choose how she wanted to spend her day and what food she wanted to eat, as is customary in our household for birthdays. 

She requested french toast for breakfast, appetizers for lunch, and dinner out at a pub; this was followed by an ice cream birthday cake. 

Elizabeth's birthday coincided with the boys' first day of classes, so she had to share the limelight a bit with them. She was very gracious about that of which I was very thankful. 

Elizabeth wanted to go shopping on her birthday, so we spent a couple of hours shopping at a local indoor mall. We haven't shopped at a  indoor mall since living in Ohio, so it was a pretty weird/cool experience for us. This mall seems to have every single store you could possibly imagine and is set up in a ginormous loop which makes it extremely user friendly. 

She ended up scoring some good deals on some cute clothes which made Elizabeth very happy. That girl loves herself a good deal. 

We came home and chilled for a couple of hours. The birthday girl had requested weeks ago that Andy play her favorite video game with her, and being the sweet big brother he is, he obliged and the two spent some time in video game lane. 

Afterwards, we picked up Josh from soccer and went to dinner where we all enjoyed a good meal. We came home ate some cake and played a couple of rounds of a new board game the kids got from Bobby's parents. 

We were all exhausted from a weekend of visiting that began on the Friday before Elizabeth's birthday, so we ended up going to bed around 10. Elizabeth was happy because she got to read a book that she asked her Nana and Papa to get for her months ago. She has been dying to own the series and plans on devouring the books over the next few days. 

Overall, I think she had a good day. 

15. Wow. Time truly stops for no man.

 

Ordinary Days

  

Sometimes the best moments in life aren't the extraordinary ones, but rather just the opposite - the ordinary, everyday moments. Trying very hard right now to get rid of distractions and to focus on simplicity. 

My new favorite spot in the house. 

A beautiful bouquet of gladiolas. 

Company

Prepping for the upcoming school year

Watching them blooming daily

Different morning, same visitor. 

Planning my day

A cozy spot to read

After an evening storm

Just about full bloom

Morning light

July 2021 Reading List

 I was able to read a ton in July mostly because Bobby and the kids were gone for almost a week (I read 4 books during that time) and also because the kids and I went on vacation for a week (I read 1 book during that time). I was a bit behind on hitting my goal of reading 52 books throughout 2021, but after July I am actually ahead of my goal. 

I have noticed that I have begun to shift my reading focus a bit and am now including more books about Black Americans' history. I feel pulled to these books especially now that I am living in the South. While I know that racism is alive and well in all parts of this country, I feel the weight of the history of the South and feel called to read as much as I can about the Black American experience in a way that was not so imperative to me before. I am completely uneducated in what it means to be anything other than privileged, so I have no opinions to offer on what I am reading other than I am learning a lot. 

Here is what I read during the month of July:

S.C. Gwynne is one of my favorite writers. I have read all of his books and have enjoyed them all. (My absolute favorite of his though is Empire of the Summer Moon.) History books are what I love to read the most and this book did not disappoint. I find that S.C. Gwynne is able to present topics that have been covered over and over again (such as the Civil War) in a unique way. I will forever be looking for new books of his to come out so that I can read them. 

I am fascinated by women of the Middle East and thought I had read this book before, but after reading it I am not sure that I have (or if I have I don't remember reading it which I suppose will happen from time to time because I read so many different books on the same topics). I liked this book, I didn't love it. I do love Azadeh Moaveni and her writing style. Charlotte (or maybe North Carolina in general) has a pretty dated and disappointing library system, so this was the only book of her I have been able to get my hands on through the library that she authors solely on her own. She has a couple of other books that I just may purchase on abebooks.com without reading them first because I enjoyed her writing style so much. 

I read the Alchemist years ago and enjoyed the book, but have not really read any of Paulo's books since then. I came across this book while we still lived in Indiana and just never borrowed it, but after browsing the library catalog here in North Carolina, I came across this book again and decided to read it. I liked this book a lot because the ending was not what I thought it was going to be. After reading most of the book, I thought I knew exactly how it was going to end and wasn't too keen on the book, but after finishing it I remembered why Paulo is such a good writer and why he is a bestselling author. I would probably read this book again. 

This was an eye opening really good book. It shocked me, educated me, saddened me, angered me, and required me to think. 

I think my favorite time periods to read about in history are the 1700-1800's. I also love a good love story. This book had both the time period I enjoy reading about the most and also a love story. I am glad I stumbled across this book. 

As I mentioned above one of my favorite books is called Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne. It follows the story of the Comanche tribe with a focus on Quanah Parker, the son of the woman in the upper right picture of this book. I have not found too many books on the story of Cynthia Ann Parker, but have been trying because I loved S.C. Gwynne's telling of this piece of history. I ended up stumbling upon this book. It was something that I was glad to read, but definitely won't read again. It didn't really provide much in terms of what I didn't already know and felt that the story was much better told in Empire of the Summer Moon. 

This book was a good find. I have been trying to get my hands on books about the Blackfeet tribe for forever, but have been unable to do so. When I came across this book, I thought it was about the Blackfeet tribe. It was only after reading it that I understood that the Blackfoot was a different (but related) tribe to the Blackfeet. The Blackfoot tribe was based mostly in Canada while the Blackfeet tribe was based mostly in the United States. I would have liked to have learned more about the daily lives of the Blackfoot tribe rather than the history of Canada and their oppression of this tribe (although that is important to me as well.) I am definitely glad I read this book, but it has only whetted my appetite for more books on these two tribes and I am not sure I am going to be able to satiate that appetite. 

So, I ended up reading this book because Azadeh Moavemi coauthored it. Like I mentioned above I am really trying to get my hands on any and all of her books. This was a great read. Probably one I would read again. 

This book scared me. The bravery that Black Americans had (and have) is amazing and inspiring. I was disgusted by my whiteness when reading about the appalling things that have been done to Black Americans  at the hands of white Americans. Had I been a Black American during this time, I don't think I would have had the courage to stand up for my rights the way the author was able to. I was both inspired and appalled while reading this book. 

Numbers of Books Read in 2021:

January: 5

Feb/March: 8

April/May: 6

June: 5

July: 9

Total: 33