Social Justic Booklist

Putting this here for my future reference (and yours): Social Justice Booklist

This is a list of books for students from elementary school on up, and for adults. I've read quite a few of them. I'm putting the rest on my reading list.

Currently reading: 

 

My signed copy that I picked up from the author Q & A at a writing conference in early August. I'm on somewhere around page 8.

Currently writing: I finished a chapter I've been stuck on rewriting for months! 

Currently putting off: calling an auto body shop to fix my car. 

Currently planning: a birthday adventure in September.

That's my brief update, for now. 

On book clubs, and A Man Called Ove (Fredrik Backman)

I enjoy my book club, I really do. But my favorite book club day is the first one of each year, where we choose the books for the rest of the year. It's sort of all downhill from there: the actual reading of the required books, with a deadline, leaves me wanting to clean out my compost container, make dreaded phone calls, or file my nails on a chalkboard, rather than read. And my book club is Serious Business. Nobody blithely saunters in announcing that they didn't read the book.

I don't think I've actually finished a book in time for book club in a year. (Shhh....don't tell them)

Until now! I finished this one. Thanks to a public transit study I was helping with, which gave me extra reading time while bus-waiting and such, and then the Readathon, which gave me the excuse to sit down at home and read for hours at a stretch. Also, it helped that I liked the book. At first, not so much, but as I got into it, I really loved it.

My one complaint is that it says on page one that Ove is 59 years old, but I forgot that and decided in my head that he was a grumpy old man in his 70s or 80s. Fifty-nine is not old! And is there seriously a 59 year old who doesn't know what an iPad is? I was under the impression that Sweden was not a backwater country where 59 is old and iPads are new-fangled inventions, but maybe I'm wrong.

With that complaint out of the way: I liked grumpy Ove. I liked his neighbors, and the cat that moved in with him against his better judgement. And, I liked the ending--which, have I mentioned, I read?

Here's a hot tip for you: book club discussions are more interesting when you've read the book. Who knew?

Playlist:

One of my favorite groups is First Aid Kit, a sister duo from Sweden. I think their song Emmylou is a good pick for this book.

Readathon 2017

Hello? Is this thing on? All right then, let's get reading. Here's to you, Dewey.

I'll be starting with my book club book, A Man Called Ove. I'm on page 146 of 337. Book Club is Tuesday. Par for the course these days, for me. I'm starting 2 hours late because 5 a.m. and I have spent plenty of time lying awake together lately. Sleep is a precious commodity these days and I just can't say no when my brain will do it. And, now I've spent the first half hour taking care of pets and typing this blog post on my phone. I'll check in at 8.

Hour 6 update Well, that went quickly. It's 10:30 and I've read 85 pages and done a challenge or two. My 6 word story is on Twitter, @worducopia. I'll be taking a break in an hour to go to a Pound class. A little exercise, I decided, should help my productivity in the long run. Just over 100 pages to go on Ove. Let's do this! My goal is to be on to a second book by hour 8.

Joy Street--Laura Foley

Laura Foley's latest book of poetry was a lovely way to start a wintery morning with a cup of tea. The collection mixes it up a bit, with prose poems interspersed among the free verse. At just 36 pages, it's the reader's equivalent of a long walk on the beach--a refreshing way to gain a new perspective on life.

This is the poetry of a woman who has been through some tough times and come out the other side a wiser and more self confident person. Foley alludes to a difficult childhood in "Ghost Street," but, as in the poem, she doesn't wish to go back there. This collection is focused on the future, on new love, and on moving gracefully into middle age.

One of the things that draws me to poetry is the way it can show the impact of an ordinary moment in a life. Foley pulls this off beautifully. My favorite example of this is "Dinner Party,"a prose poem in which Foley describes a party where she (the only poet among mostly lawyers) hasn't spoken a word in two hours. When the conversation finally turns to a topic she knows something about (burial, as it happens), she thinks she's found her chance to jump in:

"I will leap in with the story of how we buried my husband in the front yard, dug the hole ourselves--Yes, it's legal in New Hampshire, Yes, I got a vault. I'll sound smart, resourceful, witty, and everyone will like me."

But before she gets a chance to speak, the conversation moves on and the moment is over--a lost opportunity most of us can certainly relate to. Foley follows the conversation as it evolves:

"Someone's talking cat coffins, asking, maple or pine?--or shiny walnut and Thai mahogany with hot pink satin lining--"

leading away from the opportunity to connect, and towards the trivial. The poem ends with the effect of the shared experience with her new partner, Clara:

"Clara, shy and quiet, too, smiles as I do all through dinner, though she tells me later she could have explained about ashes, the ease of letting go." 

The incident seems to have brought them closer through their distance from the others.

Most of the poems have a positive spin to them, without veering too close to the edge of light and fluffy. My only complaint about the collection is that I wanted more. When a poem hints at a larger incident, it can be intriguing or it can leave the reader with a sense of an unfinished story. In some cases, I felt lost with only one moment drawn from what must have been a monumental event. I could have read a whole book about Foley's partner's brain surgery, for example, but instead we just get references to it in a couple of poems. Maybe I'll have to wait for the next collection. Luckily, there are three previous collections of Foley's work to tide me over in the meantime.

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For Other Reviews, check out these links on the book tour schedule:

I’d Rather Be at the Beach

Lit and Life
Book Dilettante
Savvy Verse and Wit
Diary of an Eccentric
It’s All About Books
Unabridged Chick – review and interview
Peeking Between the Pages
Peeking Between the Pages – author guest post
Patricia’s Wisdom
Books Without Any Pictures

Wednesday, January 21st: Suko’s Notebook
Thursday, January 22nd: Suko’s Notebook – author guest post
Tuesday, January 23rd: Bookgirl’s Nightstand
Saturday, January 24th: Wordy Evidence of the Fact
Monday, January 26th: Bell, Book & Candle
Wednesday, January 28th: Musings of a Bookish Kitty – author guest post
Thursday, January 29th: Musings of a Bookish Kitty
TBD: Everything Distils Into Reading

Poetry Month and Introducing Pix

Here is a book spine poem I made in honor of April being poetry month:

That's about all I've done for poetry month so far. I should maybe, like, read some poems and stuff! Put that on the to-do list, I guess.

In other news, since I last blogged we got the sweetest dog in the world!

Pix was a rescue dog that my friend's wife adopted a little over a year ago. Sadly, his wife passed away last summer, and he has been looking for a home for Pix. We are so happy to have her here as part of our family. She has really bonded with both of my boys. Even the cat kinda likes her.

(A friend of mine told me that when a cat turns his back to you, it means he trusts you)

Currently Reading: Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo. It's a fascinating and heartbreaking look at a slum inhabited by garbage-pickers near the airport in Mumbai, India. I'm reading it for book club, where we were assigned to read about something (anything) we know nothing about. I tried to get book club to read this one last year, but we had too many good books to choose from and this one didn't make the cut (it also might have been a tad bit depressing for some of them at the time). 

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy

A Cemetery Search

In November, our beloved cat went missing. Luckily for you, I wasn't blogging much at the time so you were spared the drama of my family's week of searching for him, only to find out that the poor fellow's dead body had been picked up by Animal Control the first night that he didn't come home. It was a rough week, and I still miss my furry buddy, but the reason I tell you this story is not to make you sad, but to explain why my boys and I were tromping through a nearby cemetery on a sunny November afternoon. Our cat, of course, we didn't find, but we did find some cool stuff.

We've walked through the cemetery before but never noticed this old delapidated garage/shed building. Here's Ben peering inside the closed garage door. There was an old bed in there and some other "treasures."

I had fun playing with filters on these--here's another photo of the shed with the Lomo-ish filter and museum matte. I really love how the filter emphasizes the way the sunlight plays on the brick walls.

This 1906 cemetery also contains a beautiful old Japanese cemetery within its grounds. I don't know much about the history of this cemetery-within-a-cemetery, but I'm so glad this spot outlasted a streak of post-WW2 vandalism to continue as a tribute to this group of Portland's ancestors, as well as the Japanese/American veterans of several U.S. wars.

It's interesting, looking back over these photos with the distance of three months. This walk through the cemetery now seems like a fitting tribute to the small soul we were searching for at the time. While my boys and I peered behind hedges and called for our kitty, our conversations ranged from him and his story, to Portland's history, to ways people remember their loved ones, the temporary nature of life on earth, and the fleeting passage of time.

Blackster may be gone, but he lives on in the many memories like this that our family created over the 7 years that we were lucky enough to have him in our midst.

Thanks for choosing us, little buddy

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy

Counting to D--Katherine Scott

Full disclosure: I know the author of this book. Kate and I took a writing class together a few years ago, and in the intervening years we generally meet up at an annual writing conference. I talked with her about this book when she first received agent representation for it, and again when her agent was waiting to hear from publishers, and again when she decided to seek out a different road to publication.

But in all that time, I never read the book, or really much of any of Kate's writing. I knew it would be good, because, believe me, a first-time author doesn't get an agent unless they have an impressive book to show. But, I didn't know much about it other than that. I was a little worried I wouldn't like it, because how awkward would that be?

It's okay, though, because I loved it.

Counting to D is the story of a girl who is brilliant  (she can memorize entire textbooks) and severely dyslexic (she can't read those textbooks to save her life). When Sam moves from California to Oregon, she sees the opportunity to reinvent herself--to be judged for who she is and not the label of gifted/learning disability.

As I started reading, I thought I knew what this book was going to be--the Girl-with-secret moves to new town, hides secret successfully for long enough to settle in, then someone finds out the secret and her new life blows up in her face. It's the perfect formula for a successful YA book, right?

Spoiler: that's not the plot.

I'm not going to tell you where the plot does go, but I will tell you that it's not at all formulaic or predictable. Neither are the characters. As each chapter progressed and I got to know Sam and her friends, I began to realize that each of them carried such depth, that they didn't fit the stereotypes that are so painfully common in YA lit (the brainy sidekick, the pretty and shallow cheerleader, the nerdy best guy pal). In Counting to D, rather than reinforcing these stereotypes the characters encourage readers to question them.  And I loved every moment of watching them unfold.

Counting to D goes on sale today! Buy a copy at your local bookstore or at Amazon or Powells or wherever. You'll be so glad you did.

At the Antique Shop

I haven't posted a Saturday Snapshot in a while (okay, I haven't posted much of anything in a while). Life has kept me busy and away from the land of Worducopia. The upside is, I have lots of photos lined up to share.

This series is from an antique shop I visited during a beach weekend in Washington with friends. I had a lot of fun taking photos inside the shop, but first I had to stop for a portrait of these beautiful great Danes who were patiently waiting for their owner in the parking lot. Clearly these sweethearts are accustomed to posing for photos, don't you think?

The photo below is a jumble of stuff and didn't even crop well, but I love how they set up the space as if the cow were waiting to see the dentist. Or maybe the cow is the dentist? 

Calling all ducks

 I just love these old tins. 

What I'm reading: So many books half-finished, strewn around my house! I need to at least put them in a stack or something and start working my way through them. Then I can add them to the stack of books waiting to review.

More Saturday Snapshots are available at West Metro Mommy

Bloodline, Indeed. Can a famous author's son inherit his job?

Where I've been: Camping. Attending a writing conference (but not doing much writing). Making jam. Figuring out my kids' fall plans (community college for the oldest. Homeschooling supplemented with various classes for the youngest). Trying to get organized.

What I'm doing today: Preparing for my youngest's 13th birthday, which is tomorrow! Presents must be bought, cake and plans and fanfare sorted out, all without use of a car (that's a story for another day). Also, heading over to Cathedral Park later for a picnic and to watch Trouble with Tribbles, a live play of my favorite original Star Trek episode.

What's Been Happening on Worducopia: Crickets.

What I'm Reading: Just finished Bloodline, by Felix Francis. No, Scratch that: the official title is "Dick Francis's Bloodline," which put me off so much that I almost didn't read the book.

Here's the thing: I get that Felix helped his father, famous mystery writer Dick Francis, with his books in the later years before Dick's death at age 89, and that he is writing in the style of his father, so publisher Putnam wants readers to get the connection. And as a writer, I don't begrudge Felix the advantage he has as a fledgling writer (Bloodline is his second book), because of the connections he had made through his dad. But if the novel is good enough to be published (which it is), it should be good enough to draw readers in its own right. Put "Son of Dick Francis!" in big letters under Felix's name, if you must, but putting Dick's name as part of the title goes too far with the Blatant Marketing Ick factor.

That said, I don't particularly like mysteries, and I was assigned to read one for book club. I've been a Dick Francis fan since I was 14 years old (he managed to write mysteries that read like character-driven novels) and discovered a shelf full of his books while staying with my parents at a house in Tuscany. But I've read all of Francis's books, and I thought that for book club I should branch out.

I picked up a James Lee Burke book, read a few pages, and switched out for Michael Connelly's "The Black Box." Set that down when Chapter 2 started out twenty years after the grisly murder scene in Chapter 1 (Disguising a prologue as Chapter 1? A nasty and underhanded trick! I fling your book at you!)  and tried a Leonard Block mystery that was sitting on the free shelf at my hairdressers. It was okay. I carried it around for a couple of weeks, occasionally reading part of a chapter, mostly not.

Book Club's date loomed closer and closer on the horizon and I found that the nearer it came, the less interest I had in actually finishing "The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling." Book Club Anxiety Syndrome reared its ugly head. It's one thing to show up with a particular book unfinished, but who could justify arriving with a stack of 4 unfinished books and the excuse, "I guess I just don't like mysteries much?"

In desperation, I picked up Bloodlines. Ten minutes later, I felt like I'd taken the medicine doctors might prescribe to remedy Book Club Anxiety Syndrome. Yes, I could read this! I could even finish it by Tuesday if I read 60 pages per day. I ended up finishing it in 3 days.

So, Felix, you're forgiven for taking advantage of your dad's many years building a name for himself. And as for you, Putnam: you've got yourself a decent writer who is admirably filling the hole left by Dick Francis's death. Why not give him credit where credit is due, and let him be an author in his own right?

Find more  Sunday Salon posts here.

The Righteous Breakfast

I got up early this morning to finish The Righteous Mind. This nonfiction book is my assignment for tomorrow's book club, and I have one last chapter to read. I had been a little intimidated by it (it's 419 pages thick), but it has surprised me by being a very enjoyable read. Also, the last 100 pages are end notes and an index, so it's not as long as it seems at first glance.

This final chapter is tying everything together, from the psychological differences between people who tend to lean conservative vs. liberal, politically, to the Team Spirit aspect of partisanship. It's seriously fascinating stuff, and written in a way that's very clear and easy to follow. I highly recommend the book, which I would never have picked up if not for book club.

And, instead of finishing it, I can't tear myself away from this.

It just called to me from the shelf, and before I knew it, it had jumped into my lap right on top of The Righteous Mind.

I reviewed the first edition of Paul Gerald's breakfast book in October of 2008. This "2nd serving" edition has been out since 2011 and I should have run out and bought it immediately but I have this tendency to procrastinate. Then Gerald sent me his newer book, Peaceful Places, Portland, so I had to read that first.

I loved it so much that I'm feeling inspired to write a series of posts where I go to the book's peaceful places which I haven't been to before, and let the book help me discover them. Because when you've lived in a city and loved it for 20 years, there's something magical about finding a person who can show you something new. Paul Gerald, with his collection of Pacific Northwest hiking, camping, and breakfasting books, has proven himself to be that person. So, that'll be a blog post or two at some point this summer, I hope.

And in the meantime, even though the 2011 Breakfast in Bridgetown is now slightly out of date (Gerald posts updates on his website), it's so fascinating (the Hollywood Burger Bar used to be a trolley stop?!) and funny that I can't put it down. Not even to get myself dressed so I can go get breakfast at one of those places I've been meaning to try.

Incidentally, yesterday marked the 5th anniversary of Worducopia. I went back and read some of my old posts to reminisce a little bit, and decided that I should really write some more of those book review-type posts one of these days.

A Pink Green Smoothie

Right now I'm doing the Conscious Cleanse, according to the book by Jo Schaalman and Jules Peláez. Giving up some of my favorite foods for the cleanse (no dairy, wheat, sugar, etc.) has been quite an experience (for more on this, read my initial post and my updates from day 2 and day 10). I'm starting to add foods back now and that has been an education, for sure! Last night I made brown rice pasta with pesto and veggies, plus corn on the cob, for dinner. After that meal, I felt so bloated and low-energy, I just wanted to crawl into bed. I don't know if it was the corn (which I'd strictly avoided until now), or just the sheer amount of carbs in that meal compared to what my stomach had gotten used to. That pasta with pesto tasted awfully good, and I probably just overdid it.

One of the things from the cleanse that's definitely going to stick with me for life, is the green smoothie. I was so resistant to this idea--even though friends told me you could add quite a bit of green veggies like spinach or kale to a smoothie without tasting it, I thought for sure the idea would put me off my smoothie. My first green smoothie probably had two leaves of lettuce in it. Now I'm totally sold and I don't even care if the color is bright green, I will drink it.

For today, though, I'm going to show you how to make a smoothie that's pink and tastes like strawberries. This is not a recipe from the Conscious Cleanse book, but it follows the pattern I learned from following their recipes for over a week.

Here you can see my solid ingredients, all tossed into the blender. I have a banana on the bottom, about a cup of spinach leaves in the middle, packed down by just over a cup of fresh strawberries.

You could substitute any type of fruit for the strawberries--frozen blueberries or raspberries are some of our favorites. Mango is great, too, but it won't cover up the green color. Also, you don't have to add the banana, but I like to because it thickens up the smoothie and adds some potassium and healthy fat. Even my kid who doesn't like bananas prefers a banana in his smoothie.

To this, I'm going to add 2 cups of liquid. A lot of the Conscious Cleanse recipes just call for water, but when I tried that it tasted like something was missing. I've been using coconut milk from a carton (it's much thinner than the stuff from a can--I have two types in the photo just to show you) but you could use juice or any milk, dairy or non-dairy.

Pour the liquid on top of the ingredients. You could add some honey to sweeten it if you want to, but we think the fruit adds plenty of sweet. We've also been adding a tablespoon of flax seeds, almond butter, or hemp seeds to some of our smoothies, for added protein and omega-3s.

I blend it up on the "puree" setting in my cheap blender. It takes about a minute of blending before all the flecks of green disappear from view. And this is what it looks like all blended up. Pink and beautiful, and so tasty.

We've been drinking these every single morning for breakfast. We change up the fruits and add-ins to get a variety of flavors, and we're nowhere near tired of them yet. It feels great knowing that we're getting a serving of green vegetables before we've even started our day. We will definitely be continuing with the green smoothies for breakfast long after we finish the Cleanse.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads.

Notes From the Cleanse (Day 10)

I'm on day 10 of the Conscious Cleanse based on the book of the same title by Jo Schaalman and Jules Peláez. So far, I feel great and am feeding myself and my family healthier than I ever have. Life without sugar, dairy, and gluten (plus a bunch of other stuff) has been easier than I thought it would be.

And . . . I've decided to start easing off of it 5 days early.

The funny thing is, when I first decided to stop, I couldn't quite figure out what food I would add back in, or how. (I guess this shows that I'm not giving in to cravings for one particular food.) I have a menu all planned out through the end of the cleanse, and I was mostly happy with it until the last 2 days when I'd already decided I wasn't going to attempt an all-liquid purification.  But I knew that Ben and I needed to cut it shorter than 2 weeks. Here's why:

• I started this cleanse because I needed a kick in the pants to get me back on track with eating healthier. My snacking was out of control and I had zero willpower when it came to portion control. I wasn't technically overweight, but I'd gained 5 pounds in the past year, all in my belly.
• After a week, I figured out that the issue for me is sugar and salt. Cutting sugar, and my go-to salty snack foods (it's really hard to find crackers that don't contain processed sugar, soy, potatoes, or corn) took care of the compulsive snacking.
• I also figured out that I need to double up on the veggies for every meal. Make it a habit to fix two kinds of veg plus salad. When my family isn't filling up on carbs, they actually will eat the veg! (I'd gotten into the habit of basing meals on the pasta/bread/potatoes/etc. because those and meat were the foods my family could all agree on. We can't afford to fill up on meat, so dinner was often pasta or rice mixed with meat and some vegetables).
• Doubling up on veggies is harder if you have to be super vigilant about what you can add to them. The cleanse started to feel counterproductive.
• Eating healthier feels great, and is something both Ben and I want to continue. But, eliminating foods--except for sugar--isn't much more than an inconvenience for us. We don't feel any different, better or worse.
• We're starting to tire of salads. I've been making fabulous salads with homemade dressing for lunch every day. Ben went from a boy who barely touched his salad to an enthusiastic salad eater. As the days wear on, though, no matter how much I change up the ingredients, salad is starting to feel ho-hum to me. If we're looking at making lifelong changes, we need to start adding more variety before we both feel like we never want to look at another salad again.

So, we added wheat back in yesterday. It was not very dramatic. We had multi-grain cooked cereal for breakfast (well, kind of lunch, I guess, after our breakfast of blueberry green smoothie), with coconut milk, walnuts, and maple syrup. Think I'll make pasta (I have rice pasta, so I'll probably mix that with regular) with pesto and lots of veggies for dinner tonight. Ben also cheated (for the first time!) with some popcorn yesterday at the movies, so I'll probably add corn to my diet tomorrow.

Then we'll add back dairy, soy, or nightshade vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant) on Saturday--I'm going to let Ben decide, since he'll be at a party/sleepover Saturday and I know there'll be something there to tempt him. (We both agree that sugar needs to wait until the end). He's just going to have to text me and let me know what I can eat! And then, something else on Monday, which brings us to the end of the 14-day cleanse on Tuesday.

So far, the cleanse--even this amended version of it--has been really worthwhile. I'm thrilled to see my whole family eating more healthy foods (though Evan still runs on a large amount of pb & j and grilled cheese sandwiches) and I'm inspired to keep it up. Many of the recipes in the book are keepers. I'm totally sold on the green smoothies (I should do a post just on that--in fact, I just took some pictures of my smoothie-making process, so let's call that a plan).

Oh, and incidentally, yes I did lose that 5 pounds.

See my report from Day 2 of the Cleanse here.
Check out the Conscious Cleanse website or their Facebook page.

Murals by Happenstance

I had an eye appointment that was inconveniently timed. Our family has one car (my husband commutes to work by bike year round) to serve not only the 3 drivers in our house but also Chris's parents, who are legally blind and (obviously) can't drive. On this particular Monday, we had to juggle my 8:10 eye appointment, my mother-in-law's 9:30 appointment across town, and a late morning appointment that Chris had.

Our solution was for Chris to drop me off, and when my appointment ended I would start walking the 4 miles home. We knew he'd be able to pick me up long before I got all the way home, but a walk through Portland's neighborhoods on a sunny morning sounded much better to me than sitting in a waiting room for an hour.

On my way home, I came across this mural, informally painted on the side of a garage that faces an alley way. This is the uncropped photo that I snapped from my cell phone. I like how the roughness of the photo matches the setting of this modest neighborhood and the mural's theme with the money flying off the tree.

I also came across a mural in progress. I can't find any information about it. The white spots are numbered, clearly waiting to be filled in. I'll go back in a couple of weeks to see if any progress has been made, or if this is an unofficial project destined to be painted over by Portland's graffiti abatement program. I doubt that's the case here in the upscale Alameda neighborhood, an unlikely spot for renegade street artists.

I ended up having a fantastic walk through Portland's diverse neighborhoods, then Chris picked me up and we had just enough time for coffee and fresh doughnuts at the fabulous Pips Original before I had to drop him off at home to prepare for his appointment, before I headed across town to pick up his mom at the end of hers.

Here's another brand new mural I came upon recently. A few months ago, Ben got his ears pierced, and I snapped a photo of this bee mural outside the tattoo/body art/piercing studio. As you can see, it was a little worn, with sections of paint flaking off.

When we went back a couple weeks ago for some follow-up care, we found that the bees had been replaced by pigs! I shot this photo with a smudge filter, straight into the sun for dramatic effect.

Translation: the light was terrible for a photo facing west and I had a smudge on my lens. In other words, this is a really bad photo that no self-respecting photographer would post on the internet. 

I love street art, but even more than that I love coming across it unexpectedly as I go about my day. Even if the lighting and the lens aren't perfect for capturing the moment.
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See more photos, or add your own Saturday Snapshots, at West Metro Mommy.

Notes From the Cleanse (Day 2)

We're on Day 2 of the Conscious Cleanse I posted about on Monday, and here's what I've learned so far.

1) It's really hard for me to drink a lot of water. I'm totally failing this part of the cleanse, actually. I'm supposed to drink a quart of lemon water in the morning before I eat anything. I can manage a fourth of that. I made this wonderful spa water I found on Pinterest, and it makes it so much easier to keep drinking throughout the day, but still. If I drink anywhere near what I'm supposed to, I start to feel all bloaty and sloshy inside.

Source: mamaearth.ca via Alison on Pinterest

2) If you feed a 16-year-old boy only whole foods with no gluten, he will be hungry All. The. Time. Even Ben didn't have any idea how much he was filling up on junk (crackers and so forth). I can't keep up with him!

3) If you make a big salad with lots of stuff in it for lunch, teen and tween boys will wolf it down. (And then they will want lunch again, 10 minutes later.)

4) Green smoothies are da bomb! I've been resistant for so long, but like everybody told me, it works. Great way to start the day, and my boy who doesn't like to eat breakfast has drunk every single one I've made with enthusiasm.

5) If you leave a green smoothie sitting on the table for a while, its green-ness will rise to the top, making it much less appetizing.

6) I have far more willpower than I gave myself credit for. (We'll see what I have to say about that on day 6).

7) That said... I have my limits.
I didn't read the list of No foods carefully enough. I got the basics--no dairy, soy, gluten, sugar. I got some of the add-ons, which are typical allergenic foods--no tomatoes, potatoes, oranges.
I missed "No Strawberries." Just discovered it today. My reaction? "Are you out of your mind?"

Any other time of year, I'd be fine with giving up strawberries for 2 weeks, but not in June. No way. Oregon Hood strawberry time is a season that Oregonians look forward to all year, right up there with birthdays and holidays. These berries are sweet like candy, juicy as can be, and when they're gone (it'll be any day now) they're gone.

So, yeah, I won't be giving up strawberries. I'm confident that they don't pose a problem for me (surely I'd notice, since we go without them for months in the winter and then gorge ourselves on them in June). I will forgo chocolate chip cookies, coffee, and even my beloved cheese for 2 weeks, but don't you dare mess with my strawberry season bliss!

Photo courtesy of www.tillamook.com

On Canning (inspired by a Kathryn Kirkpatrick poem)

A friend of mine has tried valiantly to teach me the secrets of canning. Together, in her cozy kitchen, we make stunning red jars of sweet strawberry jam and gorgeous garlicky dilled carrots. I bring the jars home and place them lovingly on display on the kitchen window sill, where the sunlight will shine through them, highlighting their colors. Two weeks since the most recent canning date, my family has already plowed through the first two out of five jars of jam and a jar of carrots. (The jar on the left in the photo is mustard that I made in my fermented foods class, waiting patiently to be blended).

My mom used to can pickles, tomatoes, and chutneys, every summer. I don't know if she liked doing it. She just did it, to make use of all the produce that grew in her huge garden. Me, I don't garden very well. I forget to water. Okay, let's be honest--I generally forget to plant, too. So, I've made freezer jam and refrigerator pickles from produce I bought at the farmer's market, but it's not a part of my seasonal routine the way it was when I was a kid and my mom was in charge of the kitchen and garden.

That's why the beginning of Kathryn Kirkpatrick's poem "Canning Globalization," from her collection titled Our Held Animal Breath, jumped out at me.

Not raised during the Depression I get it wrong.
Canning's not a thing you do
for fun or novelty.

It's what might go to waste out in the yard.
Figs and pears and muscadines.
Blueberries from a cousin's laden bushes.  

It's readiness at the brimming,
a steadfast looking out
for what's been given.

This is what I'm missing, this sense of urgency to preserve a gift that's already been given. Yes, the home-canned strawberry jam is ten times better than anything I can buy at the store, but it requires buying a flat of berries. I wait to buy the flat of berries until I know I'll have time to preserve them. I don't make the time, like I would if the berries were in my own yard staring at me.

Mother, teach me the boiling,
the cooling and sealing,
how to live on these two acres,
squash vines on the upper hill,
raspberries in the sloping meadow.

Time has a funny way of not appearing. It just never seems to jump in out of nowhere, begging for something to be done with it.

In this era, time has become the most precious resource of all. The one thing that we never have in abundance. We hoard it, and waste it, and fly through it to the other side of a week, or a month, or a year, where we look back and wonder where it went.

Mother, teach me to let the jars stand and cool.
Let me peaceably fill my shelves
and bring on no one's calamity.

What if we set aside a day to work together as a family to preserve the bounty of each season? I don't need to be taught how to do this--my parents showed me by example. I just need to decide it's important enough to prioritize, just for one day, over all the other things clamoring for my attention.
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The full poem, Canning Globalization, is about so much more than canning. It can be found in Kirkpatrick's collection titled Our Held Animal Breath. I received a copy of this book from TLC Book Tours so that I could write about it today.

The Conscious Cleanse--Jo Schaalman and Julie Pelaez with Josh Dinar

Lately I've been looking a little . . . how should I say it?
Pregnant-ish?
Which I'm not. Not in any way, shape or form.
I've never had a weight problem, but the middle-aged middle has settled in with a vengeance, and it's starting to bug me. Not to mention the fact that it's really unhealthy. I decided it was time to take action.

Taking action means that, as usual, I went to the library. I pulled eight or ten books off the shelves and brought them home to peruse. Sexy Forever (Suzanne Sommers....and too commercial), The Drop 10 Diet (I kept this one around to use later), Making the Cut (too much hardcore fitness), and a bunch more that I glanced through and returned to the library.

I ended up deciding to give The Conscious Cleanse a try. This book appealed the most because it had a solid plan that looked doable to follow. It's all very good to say "eat more vegetables!!" I've been hearing that all my life, and I try, but that's not going to stop me from eating a chocolate chip cookie or five when someone puts a plate of them in front of me (or beside me.... or behind me....or around the corner from me). The Conscious Cleanse says, "Here is everything you will eat for 2 weeks. Here are the recipes! They will be delicious and filling!"

My husband wasn't enthusiastic about the concept, but here's another thing I like about The Conscious Cleanse: most days for the main meal the authors recommend a specific veggie-heavy entree (with no eggs, dairy, gluten, sugar, or other common allergens), and then give you a choice of adding a protein like chicken or fish, or a gluten-free grain like brown rice or quinoa. On the cleanse, you're not supposed to have both the protein and the grain in the same meal--but there's no reason why the rest of my family can't have both. Looking through the recipes, most of the meals I'd be fixing for my cleanse would work out fine for everybody if they have the added protein and rice/quinoa. In fact, Ben decided to do the cleanse with me (he's interested to see if there's any effect on his allergies and asthma).

The first chapters of The Conscious Cleanse are full of background information about the health reasons behind doing the cleanse (which inspired me to take the plunge). Next there is a chapter for each day of the cleanse, and finally, 70 pages of recipes in the back.

The authors suggest taking five days prior to starting the cleanse, to gradually adjust and give up items that aren't on the cleanse diet.

Day 1: Add more fruits and vegetables (I skipped this day because I'd been working on that anyway).
Day 2: Eliminate Sugary foods and alcohol (this was yesterday for me. Surprisingly, giving up the sugar wasn't as hard as I expected.)
Day 3: Eliminate or reduce caffeine intake (I skipped this, too. I like coffee and tea, but I don't drink it every day, so I don't feel that I need a day to adjust.).
Day 4: Eliminate Dairy, Eggs, and Soy (this is where I am today).
Day 5: Eliminate Gluten.

Then we jump into the cleanse, on Wednesday.
Or, I might go ahead and start it tomorrow, because once I give up gluten, I'm a little at a loss as to what to eat so it seems like I might as well eat the foods on the book's cleanse menu. This is my one criticism of the book, so far: if they're going to recommend a transition period prior to the cleanse, why not include that period as part of the program, with meal suggestions?

I've never followed a diet before, so this will be a new adventure for me. I'll be interested to see if I feel any different. I really don't want to give up any foods long term, so I'm kind of hoping I don't see a drastic change. In any case, I think it will be a good way for me to examine my relationship with food and get a handle on the mild case of over eating that I've been able to get away with for 45 years. If I lose an inch or two around my middle in the process, so much the better.

Have you ever done a cleanse? I'd love to hear about your experiences with it.

Cruisin' Sherwood Snapshots

Last weekend I took Evan and his friend to Sherwood, Oregon, for their Classic and Custom Car Show. Evan loves this show because it takes place throughout the streets of this quaint small town. You wander through town, never knowing what you're going to find parked in front of the barber shop or the diner. Here are some of my favorite photos that he took.

The combination of the car detail with the reflection of the photographer really captures the mood of the day for me. Evan has a lot of friends, but very few who share (or even understand) his love and knowledge of all things automobile. It was so much fun to watch him and his buddy, both so enthusiastically finding the perfect positions to take pictures from. I tried to take a photo of the two of them taking photos. I ended up with a lot of shots of them walking away to the next vehicle. Stupid phone camera and its 5-second delay.

This classic VW bus was truncated to make it absolutely adorable. Evan quipped, "Oh, look, it's the first mini-van!" He cracks me up.

By the way, little tip if you're ever looking at cars with guys who love them: "Cute" and "adorable?" Not acceptable words to describe a vehicle.

It's just really not okay.

Unless you're the mom. Because the mom is not doing her job fully  if she doesn't provide opportunity for eye rolling.

I think this is a work in progress, but I just love this car's personality.

No, it's not "cute." Even I can see that. 

This fellow is a total bruiser.

For more Saturday Snapshots or to participate, go to West Metro Mommy.

A Complicated Marriage--Janice Van Horne

What I'm Reading: Right now I'm reading A Complicated Marriage, by Janice Van Horne. When I accepted a copy of this book from TLC book tours, I wasn't thinking of it as a celebrity memoir, though the name Clement Greenburg was familiar to me. My husband got his Master's degree in Art History, and art critic Greenburg's name was tossed about in the types of conversations that Art History graduate students and professors have at parties.

The truth is, if I'd thought, "Celebrity memoir," I would never have read the book. I usually hate those. The name dropping! It drives me nuts. And the incessant chronological rundown of every detail of the person's life, as if, now that they're famous, their memories of drinking Tang  in the back yard and taking bike rides to the 7-11 as a kid are fascinating.

Luckily for me, A Complicated Marriage is different from the typical celebrity memoir, even though Van Horne spends plenty of time detailing the whirlwind of a social life that she and Clem led in the artsy world of Manhattan. Maybe it's because she is so humble, or maybe because she herself doesn't seem especially impressed with the likes of Jackson Pollock, but the name dropping doesn't bug me. And, Van Horne starts her narrative where the story starts (with herself meeting Clem) rather than droning on about her childhood. I'm loving the way she gives enough detail to offer readers a snapshot of a moment in time. Reading this book is like spending time browsing through old photos with friend or relative, listening to them recount stories of their life. I haven't gotten to the "complicated" part of the marriage yet--though it's foreshadowed, big time. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all unfolds.

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (A guest review by John Vorhaus)

I'm always interested to know which books end up as dog-eared copies on people's shelves, so I've taken to asking guest authors to write about a book they've loved. John Vorhaus, author of the Radar Hoverlander series, was happy to oblige. He chose a book by Tom Robbins, a bestselling author that, I have to admit, I've never gotten around to reading. After snickering my way through the John's hearty endorsement, I think I have to go ahead and give Even Cowgirls Get the Blues a try. Vorhaus's latest book, The Texas Twist, comes out this month.
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Hi there, Worducopians. John Vorhaus here, author of the new “sunshine noir” humorous mystery novel, THE TEXAS TWIST. Because writers are, first and foremost, readers, I thought you’d be interested to know what book has most informed my experience as an author. It’s Tom Robbins’ EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES, and if this modern classic has escaped your attention, you should put it on your must-read list immediately. If it blows your mind half as much as it blew mine when I first read it, why then it will have blown my mind twice as much as yours.

COWGIRLS notionally tells the story of Sissy Hankshaw, a white-trash lovely born with the affliction – or gift – of thumbs so large that she can have but one destiny, and that is to hitchhike her way around the world and into our hearts. On that level, the book works terrifically well. It delivers adventure, danger, thrills, laughs, romance, oddball characters, and enough food for thought to sate even the most questing head. But that’s not what the book is about, not really.

Because beneath the surface, COWGIRLS is subversive on two profound levels. The first is in the realm of social philosophy. Robbins, writing in the heart of the 1970s, takes the post-hippie ethos and turns it on its ear, delivering to us a way of looking at men and women, gay people and straights, native and invasive Americans, and the left and right ends of the political spectrum in a way that quickly moves past “Come on people now, smile on your brother,” and gets to the essential realization that each of us is the same, purely as a function of the hopes, dreams, tears, and fears that we all share. In our post-modern world of acceptance as the political norm, this might not seem so groundbreaking. Back then, it was nothing less than a revelation.

The other revelation COWGIRLS has in store is the powerful capability of modern English. In the hands of a master like Robbins, each sentence is not just an explication or an explanation, it is an adventure, a revelation, a happy journey to the magical wonderland where poetry and prose collide. You want an example? How about this bone-chillingly beautiful sculpting of words? “The author is attempting to draw a shaky parallel between the manner in which the oyster, when beset by impurities or disease, coats the offending matter with its secretions, thereby producing a pearl, a parallel between the eliminatory ingenuity of the oyster and the manner in which Sissy Hankshaw, adorned with thumbs that many might consider morbid, coated the offending digits with glory, thereby perpetuating a vision that the author finds smooth and lustrous.”

The eliminatory ingenuity of the oyster… Man, the first time I read that phrase I suddenly knew that there was much more to this business of writing than just communicating information or spewing the news. There’s art. There’s the potential for art in every word. And when that idea took root in my brain, I think I understood for the first time what it meant to be a writer. I knew what I wanted to achieve.

From that day to this, I’ve kept Tom Robbins in my heart and in my mind. I don’t consciously emulate him – who can consciously emulate genius? – but I do strive to be a worthy acolyte. That’s why when you read THE TEXAS TWIST, you’ll get not only a ripping yarn about the crosses and double-crosses that inform my world of con artists and their kind, you’ll also see evidence of my attempt to put color and spin in every sentence, to raise my prose to the level of art – if not to the level of Tom.

John Vorhaus’s new novel, THE TEXAS TWIST, is available now.. All his other books (and they are not few) can be found via his Amazon author page. He tweets for no apparent reason @TrueFactBarFact, and secretly controls the world from www.johnvorhaus.com.

Tidepooling at Seal Rock

We spent a few days on the coast as part of a field trip through the online charter school we use for homeschooling. It was a great trip, complete with a 2-hour educational boat tour, a lab at the Marine Science Center, and spending a night in the shark tunnel at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. What I want to show you today is some photos from exploring some of Oregon's amazing tide pools. My kids have grown up with this and take it for granted, but we still find something fascinating every time we go. If you're in Oregon, Seal Rock is a few miles south of Newport, and is a wonderful tidepooling spot.

Here's the view from the top of the trail that leads down to the beach.

Wednesday morning was one of the lowest tides of the year. At high tide that closest line of rocks and all of the wet sand would be under water.

Once you descend to the beach, you can explore the rocks that spend most of the time under the sea, and the many animals that call them home. Chris took the photo below, looking back toward shore. The white crusty looking stuff that you see on the rocks in the foreground is a living colony of barnacles. They hang out inside their shells waiting for the tide to come in.

So much life in this picture. See it? 

I count 7 starfish (no--8, if you count the purple legs on the left) and at least 4 sea anemones (they look like green or pink squishy circles when the water is gone). Countless baby barnacles (they look like crusty white dots) are stuck all over the rock). If you sit and watch a pool for a minute the little fish and crabs start emerging from their hidey-places.

Below, you can see how the anemones start to emerge when the water flows into their home. There's one opening out, and then to the right is a closed one. If you touch your finger to the bright green part, you can feel the stickiness that is toxic to smaller creatures. Then they pull away from you, because they know you're not food.

Evan found a long piece of kelp and was dragging it along the beach for a while before we noticed all the shells stuck to it. The kelp isn't unusual, but I've never seen one on the beach with shells on it.

In this picture, we're watching in morbid fascination as the clam-like creatures stick out their little feelers and probe around, probably wondering what the dickens happened to their fancy condo in the kelp forest. Homeschooling at its finest! I was tempted to fling the kelp back to sea, in hopes that some of the critters could find a new home, but Chris reminded me that would be stealing some nice nesting sea bird mama's dinner. Circle of life, and all that.

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