Seven Quick Takes vol. 148

Hi Kelly! Hi Takers...

{one}

Oh, August. Ours hasn't been too hot with showers almost everyday. And although it's still full summer for us, it's felt leisurely which is worth noting I think! I aspire to leisure. I also believe school in August is just plain wrong. So we haven't hit the books yet, which probably helps the leisure part. And with all this leisure I feel as if I don't have very much to report. No great checklists for back to school, no what to wear for back to school, no crazy trips. But if you're reading this you already know I'm boring.

{two}

We have knocked a few things off our to-do lists though which is always satisfying. I stained one of our decks, with one still to go(barf), but it's needed to be stained for about 3 years so it's simultaneously not a great goal to accomplish and something monumental that actually got done. Also, staining is the worst chore there is. I would paint indoor rooms for days before having to stain a deck. 

We also put up some new bookshelves in Gemma's newly painted room. It really helped lower the growing book stacks on the floor in my bedroom and all these great children's series look so dreamy on a high shelf. We're really outgrowing this house when it comes to book storage!

{three}

A few great articles I've come across this week:

The Moral Heart of Hamilton: Yes, yes I am obsessed. So I completely agreed with this entire article. 

A Former Janitor Collects and Photographs the Items Seized and Thrown Away at U.S. Customs and Border Patrol : This is really beautiful and touching and heartbreaking. I love human ephemera because it shows the importance people give to things, but it's heartbreaking thinking about all the stories and lives touched by these simple items. Also; the collection of rosaries just gets me in the gut.

10 Things to See and Do in Prince Edward Island for L.M. Montgomery Fans: Yes, this is me and Haley's dream trip. And yes, my sisters and mom are there right now and it makes me want to cry.

{four}

Last Friday we celebrated our 10 year anniversary! 10 years feels big. It feels old. But at the same time the time has flown by and it feels like we were just married. So that's gotta be a good thing right? We were able to go to the city the night before for dinner just the two of us which hasn't happened for about half a year - we usually average two date nights a year  - so it was awesome!

{five}

I'm currently reading my second memoir of Indian childhoods this summer and I'm completely fascinated. I feel like I'm definitely being sucked into a bit of a book jag. Do you ever go through book moods? I'm in the mood for Indian.

{six}

So my garden grew actual vegetables! I'm in shock and awe. We've been eating tons of potatoes, beans, peas, onions, and our tomatoes just started to ripen on the vine, and we ate our way through two rows of great lettuce in July. The carrots still stink and I'm going to have a ton of beets! You can barely see the vegetables for the weeds, but the important thing is they're there! Our pumpkins didn't make it at all and no zucchini which I don't think has ever happened before in the history of the world. The sunflowers aren't very good either, but I think that's because it's been so cool and cloudy for most of the summer. Do I chalk this all up to garden success or failure?

{seven}

I've been editing podcasts all week so that means that we're coming back with new episodes soon! September 6 we will be back with a new crop of great episodes. It's been fun to edit episodes we recorded a while ago as they seem new again. It also means we're somewhat organized which is amazing! 

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What I've Been Reading Lately

I missed sharing about books last month! I'm sure everyone noticed. So I'm digging up books that it's been a while since I've read because I've got to talk about them for the record...which is this blog...




The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book by Wendy Welch

Oh my goodness, if you've ever wanted to own a bookshop you probably shouldn't read this one because it'll make you want to open one next week. At least that's how I felt about this book. I honestly want to open a used book store after reading this book, even though it doesn't at all sugarcoat the really tough bits that go into operating such an enterprise. I loved how the author tells the hilarious origins of what made her and her husband buy an old house and turn it into a local bookshop, I loved the tales of the "love shack" - or the romance book shed in the back, I loved all the tidbits of building shelves in every room and combing garage sales for stock. The book petters out near the end, but the charming story of how the Little Bookstore came to be is worth the read.

Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather

I'm trying to catch up on my Willa Cather this year, and this was a title that kept being recommended to me by Amazon so I succumbed. It's the story of a young girl living seventeenth century Quebec City and the burgeoning community there. It's a different type of pioneer story in many ways that really evokes a beautiful sense of place. Cather is so good at subtle explorations into her character's souls that I always appreciate. This novel is a beautiful short tale that makes these early European settlers so real to modern readers.








My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life by Ruth Reichl

I love Ruth Reichl. Always and forever. I would read her description of Campbell's Tomato Soup and be enthralled. This is a really thoughtful memoir slash cookbook that I enjoyed from beginning to end. The recipes I have tried have been great and just reading them feels like a sensory experience. Probably the best cookbook I've ever read.













Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

I'm going to use this book to check off that box of "classics I refused to read when I was younger but should read". I really enjoyed the story and writing more than I expected. There are a lot more layers throughout the story that I thought there would be and I found myself thinking about it again and again. Much better than any movie adaptation you've seen, trust me.









Morningside Heights by Cheryl Mendelson

I enjoyed this almost Trollope-esque novel of a circle of friends living in New York City. It involves adult friends who are raising families, navigating expensive city life, figuring out careers, and finding love in unexpected places, all while money plays an intriguing background role. A modern take on many of the domestic novels of the Victorian period, it feels like it pulls you in to that time and place so well while inviting you into the daily lives of the characters.









Let me know what you've been reading lately! And head over to Modern Mrs Darcy's for this month's Quick Lit link up!

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Seven Quick Takes vol 147

Joining Kelly on this fine summer day!

{one}

I'm back! Have I said that 50 times this summer in all 4 of my blog posts? Most likely. I wish I was posting more, I wish I was writing more, I wish I felt like I had more to say. Sometimes I feel like I just don't have anything to say that someone else hasn't said a million times better, sometimes I feel like I shouldn't even bother because it'll be unpopular. But I still just like blogging. I just like the random posting and the writing and I probably won't ever give it up. 

Weird blogger confession finished.

*Insert uncomfortable silence*

{two}

Our summer has been so lovely! Really, really. It's been a great combination of taking things easy, getting out and doing fun things, and all the great things summer brings. We've spent time with family, we've gone away for a few days, we've gone to the lake for the day, we sleep in, we read comic books, we have campfires. Honestly, sometimes when I come up for air from living life in mommy-guilt land I realize my kids have a really wonderful childhood. Really, really. 

{three}

And then I realize that it's already August! And everyone is saying it's the end of summer! (Which isn't true until the first snow falls...Canadians have to fight for every day of summer we can get.) And then waves of melancholy hit me. I've got kids who are going into grades 4, 3, and 2. How does that happen?! Can I handle another school year with everything on my shoulders? Will we fit everything into the day without the toddlers driving me crazy? Will we do enough extra curricular but not too much? Will the kids like what we put them in? Will winter come soon and fiercely leaving me feeling isolated and trapped for too long? Just weird anxious thoughts to have in August. Because it was May yesterday guys, and now...yeah, tomorrow it'll be Christmas. 

{four}

So yeah. School. I don't think I've ever started the school year brimming with excitement. Obviously I don't hate teaching my own kids, but it's a lot of work and it's honestly pretty hard to work up genuine excitement about. I like the rhythm of our school days, but it does take a good month to get there and that month really equals some hard work on my part to make sure the day goes smoothly. It's a lot of discipline on my part in order to get the whole house in a solid routine. So there's that. I do have most of our books ready to go and that's a good thing. But it is a drag seeing everyones gleeful Facebook statuses in being kid free for 8 glorious hours a day again. I feel it just really has the opposite effect of getting someone excited to homeschool their kids, weird eh? Haha, anyway! I'm being all dour it'll really be fine and I'll become magically chipper somehow.

{five}

Guys, I was going to talk about how much I've been enjoying Malcolm Gladwell's new podcast Revisionist History and then this week's episode happened. So if you ignore this week's episode, the previous ones have been really great and I especially thought the three episodes on higher education in America were amazing. I do hold a bit of cynicism in the back of my mind when it comes from this "journalistic" style of reporting just because you just are never sure if they're telling the whole story, or just the stuff that supports their opinion. But that's all news so I'm permanently cynical. Just like everyone else I'm sure.

I've also been listening to Young House Love's new podcast, which is exactly how you think they'd sound in real life. For better or for worse. If you read their blog you know what I mean...you know! But it is kinda fun to have a short podcast where they talk about the fun frivolousness that goes into home stuff. You gotta listen in small doses, but it can be fun.

{six}

We started watching the tv show Fargo this week and I can't believe it took me this long to watch it. I kinda love it. It's completely dark humour, has violence, sex and swearing, but the storytelling and writing is so good and so entertaining. Which makes me sound like a horrible person. But there ya go. I feel like I only recommend R rated television these days so every holy person has long since stopped reading me. 

{seven}

In bigger summer news:

I made pickles! What the hell, right?! Can you even believe me? But not real pickles. Refrigerator pickles, because ain't nobody got time to really can. Or maybe I just don't have the right medication to do it. But we made them, they're sitting in our fridge pickling and we will get to try them next week! 

Also; last weekend I went on a girl's weekend I planned and some friends and I just got a hotel room, went to eat in fancy restaurants, and spent the day at the spa. It was as awesome as it sounds. And you know how it happened? I picked a weekend three months ago and told my friends to come. I believe my exact thought process went like this: "Omigosh, everyone on instagram looks like they have the greatest time on their girls weekends. Why don't I ever get to go on a girl's weekend? I'll never have a girl's weekend. Wait. What if I just picked a weekend and booked a hotel room? I wonder if that would work?" And it did. It really did. Of course our husbands were awesome, it was only two nights away, and we had so much fun. I'm just so glad we made it happen and actually enjoyed ourselves. It's a big deal! 

K, that's it for me today, but I wish you all the best summer weekend - I don't care if school started already! 

It's summer.

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