-Even though we moved to a new neighborhood, I am still sticking with my old book club, because I love the ladies in it and because we make good selections about what we read, and because we have even better discussions. It's the best book club I've been in since we lived in Texas. I think the Neighborhood Book Club and the Texas Book Club would get on really well together. Last month we picked a new theme for our up-coming months of reading selections. The theme we picked was humor. And while I love the idea of the theme, I have to admit, I'm struggling to put together a list of book suggestions that fit into this theme. I like humor, and I like to read books with humor in them, but it seems like most of the books I read don't have enough humor in them to qualify as a humorous book. Does that make any sense? It's like this, most of the books I read have comic relief moments spread here and there through out, but not enough to say that as a whole the book was funny. I've been asking around for funny book recommendations, and I've gotten a few that look promising. But I've also been recommended a lot of Mormon fiction. Those of you who like Mormon fiction (Mom), you should probably stop reading this paragraph, because I'm about to offend you. :) And of course all of the following is my own personal opinion, you are entitled to your own thoughts on the subject. I hate Mormon fiction. It's cheesy, and terribly written. Mormon fiction authors try so hard to pound in certain lessons, or morals, that they insult your intelligence as a human being by telling you point blank about a million times what lessons you should be gleaning from the story. A good story will get the point across within the story, without having to come out summarize it's point 50 times over at the end of the story. A good story will treat you like you have brains in your head. Another thing I hate about Mormon fiction is how authors have their main characters break every commandment ever given, in the name of a good "clean" love story but it all ends up ok in the end because they repent. And yes, I know people screw up, and yes I believe in repentance, and yes it's a good thing, and yes people can make mistakes and then change their whole lives around and live happily ever after...yes, I get it. But in the books its never real feeling...the sin and the repentance are just background information to build a scene around the all important love story. Oh, it makes me want to vomit, seriously. I don't know, there are a lot of things I loathe about Mormon fiction. I'm not opposed to people writing about Mormons, I just wish the premise of the entire story wasn't some melodrama involving the aspects of our religion. Why not write a normal story that just happens to have a Mormon main character? Mormons who are decent writers don't write Mormon fiction. ANYWAYS, enough of the rant... I'm still looking for suggestions of humorous books (that are not Mormon fiction) to put on my list to suggest we read for book club in the up-coming months. So far on my list are these:
-How I killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown
-Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Trusse
-Confessions of a Scary Mommy: The Honest and Irreverent Look at Motherhood: The Good, The Bad, and The Scary by Jill Smokler
-The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, And Made Word Play More Than Some Antics by John Pollack
-I Didn't Ask to Be Born (But I'm Glad I Was) by Bill Cosby
-Brainiac: Adventures in the curious, competitive, compulsive world of Trivia Buffs by Ken Jennings
The only one on that list that I've read before is How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, which I would say is one of my favorite books. If not top 10 at least top 15, I'd have to think about it some more before saying for sure. So what do you like to read? Got any humorous Non-Mormon-fiction recommendations for me?
-Wednesdays are hard for me. On Wednesdays we have clubs with our home school group, and they start right smack in the middle of nap time. So my kids are cranky for one, and for two, I don't get the little bit of personal space in the middle of the day that helps me cope with the afternoon. I think the social interaction my kids get at clubs is beneficial, or else we wouldn't go. But on Wednesday afternoons, I usually check out a lot earlier than I normally would. For example, my kids are watching Lion King this afternoon, so I can have some alone time and type this blog post. Oh well. It's such a balancing act isn't it? My loathing of the kids watching too much TV and my absolute need to have a minute (or an hour) to myself every now and again.
-I was laying out an outfit for Adelia to wear the other day and it occurred to me: she's huge! I have a full-blown toddler on my hands...and a two year old to boot (well, in August). And it dawns on me that it might be time to start thinking about another one. Scary! But even if I got pregnant right this second, Adelia would be two and a half years older than the baby when it was born. I've never had a gap that big between children, and it kind of makes me feel panicky. What if that's too much of a gap for them to play together really well and be close? What if we decided to get pregnant but couldn't right away? Then the gap would just get bigger and bigger. But am I ready to be pregnant again? Sick, tired, miserable, huge? It's exhausting just thinking about it. Not to mention that any thought of the labor and delivery part sends a shot of shear terror through me. I don't know why it's so terrifying, I've done it three times, but for whatever reason it scares the living daylights out of me to think about going through it again. (Which is weird, because in all actuality, I'm very calm when I'm in the middle of labor, it's just the thought of the process that scares me I guess?) I want more kids...and ideally we'll have all the kids we're going to have before I'm 30 (not that there's anything wrong with having kids after 30, but my plan has always been to be done before 30), so now would seem the opportune time to get on the ball, I guess. I just don't know, I guess I'll have to think about it some more, because there are definitely days around here when I'd swear that three was enough. Which brings up another interesting point...how do you know when you're done? Some people I've talked to say "you'll just know." other people say you'll know you're done when you've had one more than was enough, like you'll know you should have stopped at five when you have the sixth and can't handle it...great. I don't really feel like we're done, but I also have no feel for what the "magic" number of kids will be for us. I hope it's not 10, I really can't imagine being pregnant for that much more of my life. Although, the plus side of having 10 would be that you'd get to name 10, and that is something I would love to do. I'm a baby name person. I love to ponder over names, I love to find meanings in names I like, and think about people I'd like to name my kids after and why. I should start a business, you pay me to name your child. :) Then I wouldn't have to have a lot of children just so I could name them, and I could make some extra cash. Sweet. The only problem would be that people generally have a different taste in names than I do. Even Aaron and I have trouble agreeing on names...there are lots of great names I would love to use that he has vetoed. But if it were left up to me, I already know what I'd name my next 10 kids.
-I cleaned the kitchen yesterday...I mean really cleaned. Disinfected everything, wiped down the cabinets, scrubbed all the nasty kid leftovers off the chairs, mopped. Today it looks like nothing was done. Adelia threw a half-full container of yogurt on the floor, which exploded in a five foot radius. We ate rice for dinner last night, so it's everywhere (I don't know why my kids can't have rice without spreading it from one end of the kitchen to the other), someone went outside and got all dusty in the yard and then came in and opened a bunch of the lower cupboards, so they have finger prints all over them again. There are toys everywhere. Dishes in the sink. Crumbs on the counters. And I look around and wonder why on earth I bothered to waste three hours yesterday cleaning everything so nicely. No one noticed, or cared that it was clean, except me. And the fact that I cared, only made me madder at the culprits of each little act that messed it up again. I thought I was getting a head start on getting everything nice for when Aaron's parents come to stay with us next Tuesday. Now I'm wondering if I should even bother cleaning for them at all...I want the house to be clean for them, obviously, but I'm wondering if it's even possible to get it to a state where I'm not thoroughly embarrassed by it. Why is having a clean house so hard to maintain? We aren't even home all that much in the day time...but it only takes them 5 minutes to undo hours worth of doing. Should I even bother? Or just forget it and try again in 10 years? I read a quote the other day that said two year olds were like blenders with the lid left off, which I absolutely agree with, and would add that 3 and 4 year olds aren't much better.
-I kind of feel like I'm suffering from a Harry Potter hang over. The books are over and I don't know what to do with myself. I've seriously considered picking them up and reading them all over again immediately. But I don't think it will be the same. There wouldn't be the same suspense. It's more of the same that I want, not just the same over again. Never thought I'd say that. :) It just proves that sometimes you have to try things you don't think you'll like. BUT I also don't regret waiting until I came around to wanting to read them on my own. The timing was good for me.
-I need a nap. And I still have to go figure out something for dinner. If only Aaron would go for a Little Caesars...I've been wanting one all day.
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