It's finally SUMMER......need a good read?

Summertime, summertime, sum...sum...summertime...

Happy happy Friday! Today marks the very first day of summer vacation for the gang at The Wright Place. Cole and Meg are off with their grandparents for a few days on a road trip.

Kate and Molly are at home with softball games to be played in the evenings. 

There have been picnics and tea parties leading up to today ...

...and an unexpected dinner out with family last night to send us off into a blissful summer.

{Hi Ant Sab!}

{Helloooooooo Mom!}

Next week will be full of travel for my Man, softball for the rest of us, and books and sunshine for us all. 

We made a family pilgrimage to our favorite bookstore to inaugurate the season of "reading what we want and not what we have to" otherwise known around here as "For Fun Reading Season".  

Here's what we'll have our noses in during the next few weeks: {click on the book's title to go to the Amazon page for the each book.}

Darrin: The Lion's Gate: On the Front Lines of the Six Day War and U.S. Marshals: Inside America' Most Storied Law Enforcement Agency  and The Good Spy (which I may sneak out of his stack to read for myself!).

Gretchen: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr...I've just begun this book and am captivated. The writing is as beautiful as the cover. 

Also, on it's way to me is Finding Spiritual Whitespace: Awakening Your Soul to Rest . Another much anticipated by book on my list is by Ruth Reichl the writer who brought us the deluxe peanut butter and jelly sandwich a few summers ago and many other lovely books about food {click here for that post} is entitled Delicious and also has a lovely cover. 

Here's hoping I really can judge a book by its cover!

The kids are also loaded up for the beginning of their summer:

Cole has lined up Today Matters, and Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football.

Megan is working on Divergent and The Secret Hum of a Daisy and her mom wants her to read Daddy Long Legs  (free on Kindle right now!) before summer ends.

Kate is on a fierce Nancy Drew kick right now and is also reading about an amazing woman named Gladys Aylward.

Molly as expected selected a princess story and lately has been quite taken with what she calls "The Gerald books" by Mo Willems.

Wishing you the happiest and most joyful of sunny warm days full of playing in the sprinkler and evenings taken over by books on your porch!

More from the New York Times about summer reading {here}.

For more about summer reading from years past click {here} and {here} and {here}.

Looooooookkkkkkk who just came home from lunch just as I'm hitting publish!!! Yipeeeeeeee!

His and Hers stacks of books! Amazon...take me away!!

"One benefit of summer was that each day we had more light to read by." ~Jeannette Walls

Whisked Away...

Once upon a time my Man and I went on a trip. The purpose of this trip is for him to attend a conference and for me to attend to the two overflowing bags of books that I packed to keep me company in the hotel room and on patios and umbrellaed cafe porches in the surrounding town. We have made an annual habit of this get-away for the past 5 years and it is this retreat that on particularly stressful days/weeks/months that I place my hopes of rest and refreshment.

I have few expectations for this week away: to sleep well, to read lots, to put some thoughts down on a page, to browse a bookstore or two, and to enjoy a few meals speaking in complete sentences with my husband.

Tomorrow is the end of our week away and I've slept, eaten, conversed meaningfully, browsed, written a sentence or two, and oh how I've read! The cream of the crop, the book I read in one day and was sad to have finished, the book I will likely read again in years to come is...

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

by Gabrielle Zevin

I cannot get my heart around the story well enough to use my own words so I will tell you what the cover copy says...

"This novel has humor, romance, a touch of suspense, but most of all love--love of books and bookish people and, really, all of humanity in its imperfect glory." ~Eowyn Ivy, author of The Snow Child

“Zevin has done something old-fashioned and fairly rare these days. She has written an entertaining novel, modest in its scope, engaging and funny without being cloying or sentimental. On top of all that, it is marvelously optimistic about the future of books and bookstores and the people who love both.” —The Washington Post

If you'd like to hear more about this book you can click here to listen to one of my favorite book podcasts Books on the Night Stand. If you only want to hear about the particular book, fast forward to the 22:30 mark though the entire podcast is a good one. (The other book they mention, Ruth Reichl's Delicious, is on my list to read this summer.)

For another great "listen" click here to listen to the author talk about the book on NPR's All Things Considered. 

Happy, happy reading!

Reflecting in the Ruckus

A friend recently recounted a story the other day in which her husband was outside working on his truck. The story was not about the truck or about her husband particularly but I remarked at how cool it was that her man was able to work both on humans and machines, he being a surgeon. 

She agreed saying that really it was all about systems. Systems in a truck that had to function together were very like systems in the body that had to do the same.  I told her that I’d never before thought about that and it made perfect sense to me. Our conversation shortly returned to our kids and then lapsed into silence as we turned our attentions to the ball field. 

“I said that about the truck,” she explained, “because I’d been thinking about it the other day…how it all really came down to systems…I didn’t just come up with that.” She said it as if I might think her odd for having such a deep conclusion about a truck motor. I nodded and said again that it made a world of sense.

She need not have worried. I was not thinking her the least bit odd. I was thinking how wonderful it was that she’d taken the time and mental energy to think about such things at all especially as a busy young mamma of little children. 

Days later I came across a book which perfectly articulated why my friend’s deep thinking seemed so remarkable. 

The author of the book pointed out that we do not take time to simply think about things anymore. The simple practice of reflection just isn’t …practiced! 

The book I was reading is called “A Mind For God” written by James Emery White who posits:

“…we tend to make immediate assessments about things—which can lead to responding without thinking on things that need to be thought about. Henri Nouwen insightfully wonders if the fact that so may people ask … counsel from so many other people is not, in large port, due to having lost contact with the practice of such reflection….”as if one half of the world is asking advice of the other half while both sides are sitting in the same darkness.”

When is the last time I reflected on something purposely? Oh sure, I have thoughts that flit and float about my brain but like butterflies in a garden, hardly lighting on one thought long enough to “bring some kind of realization—an aha moment.” To mull a thought over and over and come to a conclusion is not a regular practice of mine. 

James Emery White says that “In order to nurture the life of the mind, we much protect the time it takes to practice it.” He says that this doesn’t mean merely taking in information but to actually reflect on the information we have consumed. 

I realize that reflection will not happen while the TV is blaring while I wash dishes. It will absolutely happen while I wash dishes with the TV off. Reflection can even happen while folding clothes unless, as is my habit, I accomplish the chore in the company of a podcast or a rerun of a favorite show online. 

You might be wondering how one can reflect at all with a house full of children… I’ve learned that if the kids see me folding laundry or washing dishes with no television or other form of entertainment involved, they will 100% of the time make a fast exit and will remain elsewhere for an eternity leaving all the time in the world to reflect!

“[Reflection] brings a sensitivity, an awareness of things. It provides penetrating insight, an intuitive assessment of the world that cannot come any other way.” ~James Emery White

A Day That Will Live in Infirmity

It was after midnight when Kate came down from her bedroom to tell me that her stomach was bothering her and that she couldn’t sleep. She asked if she could sleep on the couch and I told her she could and then I tried to sleep. 

Unfortunately the next few hours were filled with listening to Kate shuffle around in the next room and make more than one false alarm run to the bathroom. At nearly 3 am I heard her make haste for the bathroom-- NOT a false alarm. She didn’t make it to her intended goal and shortly my Man joined us in the bathroom with a bucket of sudsy water and a look of sleepy determination. He cleaned up the mess which involved all four bathroom walls and them some while I cleaned up our girl. 

Eventually we all resumed our places in bed and on the couch. The next three or four hours were just as eventful and just as sleepless as the previous hours had been. Finally the sun came up and the birds began to sing and I rolled over on the couch and covered my head wishing it all away for a few more hours. 

{Kate, 2010}

Soon however, Molly came down from her bed and I waved her toward her Daddy. I drifted off to sleep and awoke to a voice from my room, “My belly hurts!”  

“Molly, you’re just hungry. Come and get breakfast.” 

And she did. And I drifted back to sleep until I heard coughing. 

“Molly, are you gonna be sick?”

“Noooooo……” splat, splat, splat.

We hung the top half of Molly, who had managed to deposit her breakfast on the exact same spot that her sister had hours before, over the bathtub to finish her deed (right on top of my bath poof) and I left the bathroom for some fresh air as my stomach had just begun to threaten. 

Turns out I shouldn’t have left because shortly I had to jump over Molly’s mess to avoid making one of my own. My Man, just ready to walk out the door to work turned around and began to change clothes so he could reacquaint himself with the bucket and sponge. It was not long until the scene in our bathroom involved Molly over the tub, me over the toilet and Cole, announcing from the living room that Kate was also rejoining the fun. It was, however, her game to begin with.

In an hour, my Man was at work and the little girls and I were on the couch holding very still. It was just about time for lunch when I woke up to the sound of…well, I’ve been way too explicit already, but Cole had succumbed. My Man was just walking in the door and Meg announced the news to him. “Please tell me,” he said in a terribly anxious voice, “that he made it to the bathroom.” 

The news on that front was good, but now 4 of the 6 of us were in bad shape. Meg, alone with the four of us, spent her day yelling from far away “Does anybody need anything?!” or “I’ll be outside” and at one point I’m pretty sure I heard her say, “Daddy, please take me to work with you so they don’t infect me too! Please!!”   

I read a book once entitled “The Stomach Virus and Other Forms of Family Bonding” and I kept thinking how true that title was. 

It had been a day of bonding. Us sickos comparing symptoms and commiserating with each other on the couch watching episode after episode of Castle and the pair of healthy folks hiding in the kitchen in the evening hunkered over their what-must-have-been-delicious take out dinner. 

By day’s end we were running low on WalMart bags, but otherwise things were looking a little better. Late in the evening, Meg and her dad fixed ramen noodle soup for us which was to be the beginning of the BETTER.

When I woke the next morning after 12 hours of sleep, I asked my Man if everyone had kept their noodles down during the night. Happily, mercifully, blissfully, everyone had. Shortly Molly and Kate who’d spend the night on the couch, just in case, awoke and were hungry for breakfast. 

One by one all six of us were found to be in pretty solid shape. “Nothing hurts anymore!!” shouted Molly, “even when I stand up!”  Through out the day, which has become known as "the day after” , the whole gang of us appreciated feeling good just a bit more than we did perhaps last week (until the next day when my Man became the last of us to experience the bug). 

There’s nothing like feeling awful to make us appreciate NOT feeling awful later on. It was quite a day to live through just to gain perspective, but I gained so much more than that…

...you should see how shiny my bathroom floor is!!

A Sunlight Service, a Symphony, lots of Softball, a bit of School, a Show, a Slew of birthdays, and a Short Cut...

Are you quite weary of dialing up this blog only to see that it's STILL about Easter Candy?

I apologize AND I thank you for checking back time and again.

Spring has peeked it's timid head out from behind the clouds and as a result the pace around here has been one of zippy activity!

Here's what's been going on at The Wright Place...
(AND you can click HERE to see more pictures via Instagram of the goings on that didn't make today's post.)

Softball is off and running on all cylinders and Kate and Molly are learning lots and enjoying their seasons thus far.

Easter celebrations with our church family were especially lovely this year as we began the day with our first ever sunrise service and breakfast that followed.

Molly was especially attentive during the 7:30 am sunrise service which found our gang 5 minutes early to the pew! (I may or may not have assumed the pose of a gymnast who had just nailed her landing off of the vault. The ushers may or may not have been amused.)

We have celebrated three birthdays and have three more to go...

Kate turned 9...

Cole is now 15...

...and yesterday Meg became a 14 year old and 

today she became a resident of a freshly painted blue bedroom.

School activities are wrapping up for the year and we can happily say that new skills continue to be practiced.

Last week we attended The Young People's Symphony and learned about Mozart.

We have about three weeks of school left and we are all leaning toward the warmth and promise of summer.

And....my Man has had a bit of a make over. Most of us are thrilled and love his new look.

One of us however is less than pleased!

"Mommy, when will Daddy's hair grow back?"

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.

~Abraham Lincoln~

10 Tips for Stealing Candy from Your Kids' Easter Baskets

It's a few days after Easter and my defenses are weakening. I can stand it no longer...those candy-filled baskets are callin' my name and it's high time to answer back. I can claim more than a few years of experience lightening the candy load from my children's Easter baskets and I thought I'd share my knowledge for those of you who may be newer at this than I.

1. Become familiar with the basket, or as they say in the big house, case it, like jewel thieves do on TV. Know which kind of candy lives within each plastic egg. This knowledge is vital for stealth missions.
2. Have a working knowledge of which child enjoys which candy the least. Begin by eating the least liked candy from each basket. If they don't relish the candy, they'll never miss it...probably.
3. After the theft, hide any candy wrappers skillfully in the garbage so that they don't discover your  crime.
4. If you get caught with a mouthful of sugar, run to the bathroom as if you are having a digestive emergency and finish your prize in peace. (Don't forget to lock the door behind you.)
5. Be prepared to lie, but only if its for a Cadbury Creme Egg, don't soil your soul over ANYTHING less, it's just not worth it.
6. Only pilfer a Peep if you feel your window of time will allow for the cleaning up of all of the sugar that will remain in the basket, on the table and most unavoidably on your face.
7. The easiest candy to steal = jellybeans. No noisy wrappers, no crunchy chewing, and if your are already a bit full in the cheeks, you can hide them easily if taken in small quantities.
8. My favorite candy to swipe this year has been the Mini Cadbury Creme Eggs. Other than the pesky foil wrapper, it's perfect. Small enough to eat in one bite and they pack lots of sweet goodness in their small size. AND because of their very small size, if you get caught eating one, you only have to tell a little white lie instead of the big one required for the full size Cadbury Egg. It's just a good all-around set up.
9. If all else fails and you need a late afternoon sugar rush, put all children in time out on trumped up charges and pillage those baskets at your leisure.
10. Finally, the classic: bide your time...wait until after bedtime and dig in!

A FEW FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS: If you become too skilled at candy thievery, you will most likely experience eventual guilt and may be tempted to replenish the candy in the baskets of your little angels.

Fight that urge.

By now, the Easter candy is no longer in the stores, it sold out yesterday when it was on sale for a quarter per bag. You will find yourself paying full price for three bags of candy which will equal the proverbial arm and leg, the same arm and leg that have increased in size substantially as a result of of all of that stolen Easter candy you've been eating and that's just way too much to pay.

Trust me, you and your little ones will be better off the moment all of that candy is out of your home. The end of the obsession is near.

If your children bring your candy crime into the light of day and confront you, do the right thing and blame your husband confess. You may or may not wish to include in your confession that you were only seeking their best interests by saving them from painful trips to the dentist and from a life-long addiction to Peeps (I know whereof I speak). You may also find it helpful to have all Scripture references dealing with forgiveness of one's fellow man at hand for quick reference.

That's it. That's all I know. Happy hunting!

**Please note: the author of this post realizes that lying is wrong and does not plan on getting caught and being forced to lie. The author of this post does not necessarily feel the same way about taking candy from children, however {wink}.

Cheesy Carrots and Apples for Your Easter Table

I've had a block of sharp cheddar in the fridge for a scandalous period of time. Child after child has begged me to cut into the plastic covering and give them a slice or two for a snack.

"I'm saving it for a recipe." I'd tell them over and over. Today the planets lined up and the rest of the ingredients happened along, and I finally made the recipe. I think it was worth all of the cheese-denial AND I think you may want to include as a side dish in your Easter festivities. It's the perfect take-to-someone's-home item if the feast is not at your place too because it can be served cold or at room temperature. I've given it to the teenagers in my world and they gave their hungry approval, I hope you will too.

If you have a food processor this recipe will be a snap. If not, a box grater and a body builder will also do the job quite handily!

Carrot, Cheddar, and Green Apple Salad
{adapted from Keepers by Kathy Brennan & Caroline Campion}
{Printable Here}

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 heaping tablespoon mayonnaise (NOT Miracle Whip)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons water
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon minced shallot, or garlic, or onion (optional)
salt & pepper
5 large carrots, peeled and shredded
6 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and shredded
parsley for garnish (totally optional)

In large bowl combine vinegar, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, water, honey, and shallot, garlic, or onion. 

NOTE: If you really enjoy the taste of shallot/onion up the amount a bit. If, like me you have eaters who do not enjoy the taste you can completely omit the shallot or onion or simply decrease the amount to a pinch. Whisk the vinegar mixture well.

In a food processor fitted with the shredding blade, shred 5 peeled carrots and add them to the bowl with the vinegar mixture. 

Core and peel apples and shred them in the same manner as the carrots, no need to clean processor between, it's all going into the same bowl! 

Add shredded apples to the bowl. 

Add the cheddar cheese after sending it through the processor for shredding as well if you began with a block of cheese like I did. If not, simply add the pre-shredded cheese to the bowl. 

Mix well and either serve immediately or cover well and place in fridge until ready to serve.

Isn't spring food just the BEST??

Don't forget to check out The Recipe Box tab (above) for more fun recipes!

Not {Quite} My Grandma's Cookies

Is there a proper season for cookies like there seems to be for, say, banana bread (autumn) and strawberry shortcake (spring) and soup (winter)? I really hope not because if cookies DID have a season I'd guess it to be winter with oven on warming the kitchen where everyone is gathered cozily listening to Christmas carols or the like with batch after lovely batch hitting the cooling racks only to be taken out to combat the chill in the weather.

But...if cookies do NOT, in fact, have a season, then have I got great news for you!

You see, I've got this killer K-I-L-L-E-R chocolate chip cookie recipe...only, it's not mine to share...exactly. It belongs to my whole family, my mom and ant (aunt...story here on the alternative spelling), my cousins, my sisters and me. It may be the first recipe I ever made on my very own and it is absolutely the first recipe I memorized.

Do you memorize recipes? I do. I can't seem to help it. Recipes are the only time fractions have ever made sense in my mind. I have made these cookies so many times that I know the recipe by heart, in more ways than one, and as a result, I've been able to make these cookies anywhere my feet have landed.

But, like I said, I cannot share the recipe. If I could give you a sample though, I'd have my sister bake them for you because she has just the knack for it. My cookies are often great right out of the oven but loose their lusciousness upon cooling. Sudeana's stay crisp on the outside and soft and tender inside for as long as they last, which is never ever very long.

You may be wondering after these many paragraphs why in the world I touted good news up there in the early stages of this rambling post. Well, here it is...

I have figured out how to make my cookies almost as wonderful as my sister's...but it took a few changes and tweaks to the original recipe to achieve. Since this recipe no longer looks like the original, I am completely giddy with excitement to share it!

This was the last one from the batch. 

My kids thought that they were all gone...so did I.

Here goes:

Not {Quite} My Grandma's Chocolate Chip Cookies
{Printable Recipe HERE}
Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter (not margarine, the real deal),softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips (more if you like)

Instructions:
When you think you might want to make the cookies, go immediately to the fridge and set out the stick of butter. It takes it a sweet forever to soften up.

Preheat oven to 350˚.

While waiting on your butter to soften, combine the dry ingredients: all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, and salt. stir with a whisk and set aside.

Place softened butter, shortening, brown sugar, and white sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix until the mixture is a fluffy light yellow. Allow the mixer to go for 2 or 3 minutes longer than you think. You'll want to allow enough time for the sugar to cut through the shortening and the butter very well.

Add the two eggs one at a time and scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl after each egg with a rubber spatula. Yes, it's a pain but it pays off in the end, honest. Add the vanilla allow to mix for a minute and grab your flour mixture.

WITH YOUR MIXER ON LOW SPEED add flour mixture in three or so separate batches allowing the mixer AND THE SPATULA to do their jobs between each addition. Finally, add the chocolate chips and give that mixing bowl a final spin to evenly distribute the chocolate goodness through out.

Spoon evenly sized mounds of dough onto the cookie sheet. The size you choose is completely up to you. Sometimes we do mini cookies and sometimes normal size and sometimes great big ones; simply add cooking time as you go bigger.

Bake (at 350˚) until they are just starting to get brown around the edges which will probably take 10-11 minutes. They may not look done to you but take them out anyway and let them rest about 3 minutes then remove them to a cooling rack. Note how long it took and decide after the cookie is cool enough to eat if it is to your liking. Then, simply adjust the time as you see fit. You are the baker, you are in charge.

Now, put on your game face and prepare to be hassled by children, spouse, neighbors...until you allow everyone to eat their fill of these soft and chewy and chocolaty and... {can we count them as healthy because of the whole wheat flour?} healthIER than before cookies!

“Think what a better world it would be if we, all the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap."

~Robert Fulghum~

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten