Mother Daughter Book Club: The Princess Companion by Melanie Cellier

Our monthly Mother Daughter Book Club was at the Gulbransen’s, this month. Hannah G chose The Princess Companion by Melanie Cellier.   It is a retelling of the princess and the pea.    Reese really liked this one and Quincy didn’t enjoy is as much.  I liked the plot twists, and a few of the secondary characters, but found both the prince, princess, and the king and queen to be lacking enough amiable qualities to make me want to really root for any of them.  I love our book club because of the wonderful women in it, and the variety of books we get to read. I probably would not have picked a princess fairy tale off the shelf, but it was fun to read something so light.  

Katie, Jill, Hannah, and Emma hosted us all out on their back deck, with Christmas lights and delicious food, princess crowns (of course!) and it was a wonderfully warm evening with some of our favorite people. 

We also celebrated Jill G’s early high school graduation. Way to go Jilly! We played a party game all about her, had some of her favorite snacks, and the girls played a game called Among Us that they’re all really into. 

I ran across these old pics on the blog of our American Girl Book Club, with mostly the same girls. It’s so fun to see how much they have all grown up! 

The Good Guys Book Club: Dog Man

The bad guys (now Good Guys) Book Club tonight abd fathers and sons gathered to “drink soda and talk about books”. This month’s selection was the Dog Man Series.  The boys took their favorite books, dog man stuffies, and had a grand time with their favorite good guys! 

Meg Reads: Mother Daughter Book Club: Heart of a Samurai

This book is Ruby and Jill Messick’s choice. We loved it! Based on a true story, we learned a lot about Japan’s relationship with the rest of the world—is lack of relationship, I should say. We learned that it takes great courage and consistency in both hope and purpose to fight broken systems that are set fixed in their ways. Questions, adaptations, humility, observation, and wonder carry our survivor on the adventure of a lifetime. Even though he spends years in seemingly unprogressing jobs, to Manjiro, no experience is considered a waste. Everything has purpose to teach him a lesson.  Life is a gift and he is grateful. 

Ok everyone looks pretty serious in the photo above but we had our laughs too!!

Then, this cutie destroyed all of us at five crowns after book discussion. She and Reese also brought home chicken socks and whale socks (because Manjiro is rescued by a whaling ship, adopted by the whaling ship captain, and later promoted to harpooner aboard another whaling ship. Maybe the socks were a lucky charm for Q, because she definitely had a great hand! 

The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens

For book club, this month, we read The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens. It is 32 pages long and you can read it here, for free. I thought the piece was really touching, not just because of my personal relationship with the subject matter, but also because of the tone of the text. Charles Dickens wrote this specifically for his children, in words they would understand, with examples they could relate to. It is written almost like a letter, addressing the young children as children and testifiying of Christ to a young audience. Brilliant. One thing that my friend pointed out was that after all that Dickens wrote and was famous for, this was the legacy he decided to leave behind for his children. His testimony of Jesus Christ, Savior and Redeemer of men. It is the New Testament squished into a 32 page description, in the simplest of words.
It is full of wonderful advice from a wise father to his children.
Be kind. Be good. Be charitable. Be gentle. Be forgiving. Be like Jesus.

Summer Reads

I think I have officially converted. To the Kindle! I'm so spoiled. Picking up "real" books seems like a chore, and turning pages? For suckas!

Anyway, I'd recommend all three of these to anyone. Loved them all. Some themes I found in all three of them are the beautiful power of words and escape of literacy, overcoming adversity and making the best of bad situations, grit, gumption, grudges, and gratitude, mother/daughter relationships, abandonment, and loving what you have. Be sure to read The Glass Castle (also by Jeannette Walls), too.

I cried, cheered, and laughed out loud from behind a book a lot this summer.

What should I read next?

Recipe for Awesomesauce

Read this book.

See the movie with 15 girlfriends in an estrogen packed theater.

Eat ice cream and crinkle fries.
Jump into Lake Windsor at midnight and talk and swim until 1:00am with a few really great girls.
Happy.

Book Club

I hosted book club last night. This month, we read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I loved this book. It's about the German Occupation in the Channel Islands. The main character, Juliet, is spirited, defiant, compassionate, witty, and I just love her. The book is written in the form of letters exchanged between characters (Juliet being the center role, surrounded by a handful of main characters and about a dozen other characters introduced throught the book). It was a little confusing for me, at the beginning, to keep everyone straight, and I wish I had kept a pen handy to write down my thoughts about each person at the beginning, so that when another letter from one of them came up later in the book, I didn't have to search back through the story to be reminded who they were. But the initial confusion is worth it. I recommend this book to anyone. Reading it was like taking a vacation back in time to a little island full of eccentric people that are brought together under unique circumstances and strengthened by literature.



I love book club. Aside from a few regulars, a slightly different batch of ladies shows up each month and we always have a great time.


One of the treats I made were these fruit puffs. The recipe was discovered by my friend, Meg Beckstead (aka Meg #2, or Meg squared, as I call her :P)

Lemon Berry Fruit Puffs

1 box puff pastry (pepperidge farm, it's in the freezer section near the filo dough and cool whip)

2 eggs

1 box cream cheese

powdered sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

lemon zest (optional)

fresh berries

thaw pastry in fridge.

unfold and roll out pastry sheets (lightly dust surface with flour) with rolling pin. Use a pizza cutter to slice pastry into 3x3inch squares. You'll get about 24 puffs from a box.

press squares into regular sized muffin tins and brush the edges with beaten eggs.

bake about 10 minutes at 375*

remove and cool on wire racks

mix softened cream cheese with lemon juice with an electric mixer. Add powdered sugar (1/3 to 1/2 cup? I didn't measure) to desired sweetness.

Spoon cheese into cooled puffs and top with fresh berries. I added a mint leaf to each for garnish and added yumminess. Chill until serving.

Lookout! They're addicting!

"An Early Spring it will be!"

Happy Groundhog Day!
Can you stand the excitement of the townspeople in the video when they hold up the groundhog? This is what they've turned to for entertainment. Winter has driven them to madness.


Dear Punxsutawney Phil,
I've changed my mind. I think you're alright, after all.
Sorry I killed your sister.

Excited for Spring,
Meg

We've been suffering from Cabin Fever, here in the Willy House, as well. I've made a list of a few things I do to fight the Winter Blues:
-Run
y'all saw the Winter Warrior video...it's pretty acurate.
I meet up with 4 other girls once a week after our kids are in bed and go for a night run. We wear thermals, hats, gloves, jackets, etc. and run 5-7 miles with our headlamps and reflective gear lighting the way. It's a blast. We jam to good tunes, talk about food, and solve the worlds problems while we run in the dark.
Yes. We stick together, and we all carry pepper spray.

-Every day is a party
Really. Our most recent party was a Tangled Party (Reese and Quincy's choice). There were Tangled plates, Tangled cups, Tangled napkins, Tangled dolls, Tangled dresses, balloons, and a heart shaped confetti cake with rainbow chip sprinkled frosting. Why? Just because.

-Host
I love playing hostess. Book club, baby showers, or dinner with my little family. Any excuse is good enough to pull out the pretty dishes, clean the house up a little extra, dress up, or serve dessert. I recently hosted a baby shower (that I have yet to blog about) and made some fun decorations for it. I can't wait to use them again for Easter.
Winter survival means that I always say YES to playing hostess.

Did anyone else think of cupcakes both times they read the word Hostess? just me?

-Anticipate
Having something fun scheduled on the calendar is a winter must have. Looking forward to something fun is a great distraction from being cold in ugly weather. I like to stay busy. "Cease to be idle..."

-Purchase Flowers
I find it 100% worth the money to keep a $5 bouquet of fresh tulips or other bright colored flowers in my kitchen all winter long.

-Play Games
We play games at the table after dinner every Sunday night
Have you played Farkle? I sat at my parent's table for hours over the weekend laughing while we played this mindless dice game. Love it. AND I should add that I scored 6000 on one roll, I did. (lady.)

-Watch Movies
When we are snowed in, Redbox is a lifesaver. I also swap movies around with friends (because it's free) and the kids love having "new" movies to watch on the weekend. I also love having a movie date with Aaron or a girls night out to look forward to.

-Serve
This is pretty much a guaranteed way to cheer up. Making other people happy makes me feel happy, and it doesn't take much to brighten someone's day. An unexpected phone call, a thank you card, goodies, dinner to a sick friend, flowers, shoveling snow, saying thank you, babysitting. Simple things-a package of pens for your friend who can never find one, cleaning up a mess that you didn't make, a note or email telling someone you appreciate them. Emails take what, 2 mintues? less? Great way to fight the doom and gloom of winter.

-Read
This can also be found under the "great ways to avoid doing anything else" list. Once I start a good book, I can't put it down until it is finishes. I'm soooo not a one-chapter-a-day reader.
I put together a book club last year and I loooooove the girls in it. We have a lot of fun, eat delicious food, and unlike so me book clubs I've attended, we actually read and talk about the books. A few books we've read recently are:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Help by Kathryn Stockett--loved it!
These is My Words by Nancy Turner
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

I'm currently reading Perilous by my friend Tamara Hart Heiner
The girls and I just started reading The Doll People by Ann Martin

-Cook
I love to cook, but thinking of what to make for dinner can be a monotonous task that adds to the dullness of dark and dreary winter afternoons. Planning ahead and creating menus with new and interesting recipes brings the joy and excitement back into cooking meals for my family. I'm very behind on posts, but I plan to have a massive recipe post, eventually. I love to eat, so knowing I am going to eat something really good, paired with the satisfaction of making it from scratch makes me very happy.

-Bake
similar to above. Who doesn't love fresh bread? I recenly made some citrus blueberry muffins that were gone gone in less than 24 hrs.

This would be a good place to plug in...
-Exercise
since we're eating plenty of delicious junk food. I get together once a week with my friend, Darcie and do workout videos. We have fun, the kids play, we laugh, talk, dance, and get fit. It's a great setup...expecially since it is too cold to take the kids outside right now, and having a workout buddy holds us accountable to actually do the workout!

-Purge
Closets need emptying. Often. I feel so refreshed once the kids and I have tackled a messy toy basket or sorted through closets.

-Groove
Spontaneous dance parties in our house happen regularly. Particularly when laundry is being folded...becuase when laundry gets me down, I can always count on Duffy to "yeah yeah yeah" us through our chores. Go ahead. Sing it. You know you want to. "You got me begging you for mercy..."

-Craft
I feel the need to get my craft ON today. Creativity takes time, and time is the one thing we've got goin' for us on a long winter day. The girls and I are going to make some valentines today.

-Laugh
If you're not one of those people who finds humor in everything, well first of all, I'm sorry.
But don't worry, because there is a never ending supply of stupid and/or inappropriate people on youtube just waiting to help you out.
Here's my latest favorite:

she makes me laugh every time!
My brother, Mark, just introduced me to Tosh.0 over the weekend.
My face hurts from laughing so hard.
I need to get a good laugh in, every day....yeah, even if it is at the expense of others.
I'm not above that.

-Celebrate
Gringo Fiesta is only 16 days away, and I need to create a menu. If you have good recipes from south of the border, send them to me, por favor.

What some simple things YOU do to chase the Winter Blues away?

Book Club

I helped start up a book club with a bunch of gal pals. It's been about 5 months and I LOVE it.
I love these women.
I love the food.
I love the conversations.
I love going to a different house every month, and enjoying a cozy night "out" in home of a friend.
I love that we don't all have the same personality or all in the same stages of life.
I love the books.

June- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
July- The Host and The Short Life ofBrea Tanner by Stephanie Meyer
August- City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (this one was not my fave...I'm kinda over the vampire genre, but a lot of the other women really enjoyed it and went on to finish the series.)
September- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
October- The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I'm already looking forward to reading:
November- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
December- Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
January- These is My Words by Nancy Turner
February-The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

I'm grateful for the simple and good things that bring joy to my life, and for the awesome ladies that I get to share a really fun evening (and morning, since we talked until 1:30am, last time) "out" with, every month.