A Must Share Recipe

I went to book group at my mom's house today. We discussed The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz. I'll post a review if anyone is interested. Apparently, it's being made into a movie, The Way Back.

Anyway, the lady who brought our treat brought these...and they were AMAZING.

Blueberry Citrus Bars
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
2-1/4 cups unsifted flour
½ cup finely chopped pecans
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup ReaLemon* Lemon juice from Concentrate
1 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 cups fresh or thawed frozen blueberries (I used about 2 cups fresh)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter in medium sized bowl with mixer until fluffy. Add powdered sugar; beat until combined. Beat in 2 cups of the flour. Stir in 1/4 cup of the pecans. Press on bottom of greased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake 20 minutes or until golden.
2. Meanwhile, for filling, combine eggs, granulated sugar, ReaLemon, baking powder and remaining 1/4 cup flour in large bowl. Beat with mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. (Filling is quite runny.)
3. Sprinkle berries over prepared and partially baked crust. Top with filling and remaining 1/4 cup pecans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes longer or until set and top is lightly golden. Cool.
4. Sift additional powdered sugar over top. Cut into bars. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.
Makes 24 to 36 bars.

Good things:
-Blueberry Citrus Bars
-The Long Walk
-Book Group with my Mom & Aunt

A Quotation Has Come To Mind

From The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

"'When you're screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they've given up on you.'

That lesson has stuck with me my whole life. When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody's bothering to tell you anymore, that's a bad place to be. You may not want to hear it, but your critics are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you, and want to make you better."

Three Cups of Tea

Ok, as promised, here is my review of Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, which is a non-fiction book.



From Goodreads:
Anyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools—especially for girls—that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson’s quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.

As I glanced through reviews given to this book by others on Goodreads, I was surprised to see several low ratings. The chief complaint seemed to be that the book itself is poorly written. Huh. I didn't catch that. Maybe because I listened to it on audio book and didn't actually see much of it in print.

I was captivated by the story the book presents. I was fascinated by Greg Mortenson's efforts to help the children in these mountain villages. I learned a lot about the culture of the area and gained a great deal of respect for these people. They truly aren't much different than we are. Most want the same things we do, a chance to improve ourselves and to give our children a better opportunities than we have had. I think Mortenson is on the right track. Ultimately we will only defeat extremism and terrorism through education and love. Once the general population has been given sufficient education and opportunities, I think they will naturally reject extremism.

Whatever the flaws in the structure of the book itself, I found the themes of the book enlightening and inspiring. I highly recommend it. *****

I'm Drawing a Blank

Usually when I sit down to blog, I have a distinct topic in mind. Not so at the moment. As I sit here reviewing the events of my day/week, I am undecided about what I should share.

I could tell you about cleaning the bedroom that Sunshine Boy & Bob share. It still isn't done, but it's amazing how much better it is in there. Any discussion of that topic would have to include my complete and total frustration with the overall state of my house and my apparent inability to get my kids to embrace cleaning. I welcome any insights anyone wants to share there.

I could tell you about the library book (my library book) that got knocked off the kitchen table, smashed up against our sliding glass door and left to soak up condensation. The end result is that I had to buy the book for twice the cost of what it would have been to buy it online or from any of the big bookstore chains. It's a very good thing that I really, really, liked the book. It's too bad that now my copy of the book has wrinkly water damaged pages. :P Of course, this discussion wouldn't be complete without a review of the book. I'll try really hard to do that properly tomorrow. In the meantime, the title is Three Cups of Tea. It's awesome.

I could tell you about chasing all over the valley to try to locate the specific toys my kids want for Christmas while they were still on sale for a super price. But, that is just kinda boring. (By the way, if anyone happens to spot a Chihuahua Webkinz for a good price, let me know.)

I think I will tell you that probably the highlight of my day was going to visit a family friend who has some mad chiropractic skills. I haven't been this in alignment months. Of course, I'm already trying to slip back out. :( I'm just praying that this helps get rid of the terrible numbness I've had in my left hand. And that, my dear readers, is an entirely different blog post in and of itself.

I'll stop rambling now and try to think about a better topic (with book review) for tomorrow.

More Details & Other Stuff

Ok...I'm back with the details I promised. :D

1. Off and on (for a really long time now) Renaissance Man's right knee will give out without any warning. It just refuses to hold his weight. Once it gives out, it will keep giving out for hours. There have been times when he has actually fallen completely to the ground. It hasn't ever been painful, just really frustrating (and occasionally embarrassing when he falls in public). Well, it has been steadily becoming more frequent. Then, on Sunday, he was in the kitchen helping me clean up a spill on the counter when his knee popped. He was instantly in so much pain he couldn't walk. I helped him to a chair and we immediately iced his knee.

Monday he went to the campus clinic to have his knee looked at. They took x-rays and gave him a brace and crutches. They think it is a torn meniscus. He was told to ice it at night, take 800mg of ibuprofen three times a day and use his crutches until it stops being painful. If he is still in pain in 3 weeks, he's supposed to go back and they'll do an MRI. They are hopeful that it will heal without surgery, because sometimes they can. However, it sounds like surgery is quite common as well.

So, if you are a praying type person and you happen to remember, would you please pray for us that RM's knee will heal without surgery? Thanks!

2. I was reading diligently last night to finish The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow.



I really enjoyed this book. I felt there were some really remarkable insights and some great quotations to be had. It's a quick read and not much of a downer considering you know from the get-go that it was written by a man with terminal cancer. I thought he did a great job celebrating his accomplishments and sharing the lessons learned from them. However, I know one friend who felt like the author was arrogant. :) I guess I can see that, but it didn't bother me. I'd definitely recommend this one. ****

3. I had a friend call me to day to check up on my NaNoWriMo progress. You see, I was the one who got a couple of my friends to sign up. Of course, they are now both significantly ahead of my word count. I haven't even reached the first day's objective yet. Sigh. Truthfully, I wish I cared just a little bit more. My October was so outrageously busy that I still haven't recovered. It's just a bit strange to be in a position that I'd rather clean than write. :P Still, I've been writing at least a little bit every day on my blog for NaBloPoMo and finding that rather fulfilling. I'll be curious to see by the end of November how many words I've written for my blog as opposed to how many I've written for a novel. I'm not giving up on NaNoWriMo, but I'm also not fretting about it.

Other Stuff:

I'm canning again. I know, you thought I was done. Nope. I'm just now getting to the 7 boxes of apples that have been living in my garage ever since they were picked the first weekend in October. I just haven't been able to get to them until now. (See the aforementioned outrageously busy October.) There area few advantages to having my canning delayed this long.

1. My tart Granny Smiths have managed to sweeten a bit over time. I didn't have to put any sugar into the applesauce. It was darn close to what store bought unsweetened applesauce tastes like.

2. No fruit flies. They have all disappeared for the year. Yay!! No need to set fly traps. :)

3. I think my furnace has turned on a whole lot less than my AC would have. :)

I still have way too many boxes to use up, but hey, at least most of them stayed perfectly good until now.

I'm still hoping to find some pumpkins somewhere because I still really, really want to try canning pumpkin this year.

A Few Randomish Things

I have a few randomish things to share today.

1. My dear friend Carin is having a four year blogoversary very soon. She's having a giveaway of some cool quiltish things to celebrate. Go check it out!

2. As I was getting caught up on my blog reading, I came across this post by Kara, an acquaintance of mine whom I'm really enjoying getting to know better through her blog. I've always known that it was important to read to your kids, but I'm recommitting myself to read more often after reading this fantastic paper. I just wanted to share.

3. Many of you know how much I love art history. I love learning about the artists, the historical setting of the paintings and the time period the were painted in, as well as technique. Well, I also like to laugh. I was recently reintroduced to Sister Randy. The Sister Randy sketches take an irreverent look at art history that just breaks me out in giggles. So, if you know art well enough to recognize the famous paintings Sister Randy so grossly misinterprets, you will probably get a kick out of these. Just be warned that Sister Randy is, well, often randy, irreverent, and once in awhile swears to make a sailor blush. The easiest way to view these is probably on the Sister Randy station on YouTube. There are also more videos at www.sisterrandy.com, but I was having trouble getting those to play for some reason. I've seen most of the skits from the Art History 101 & Art History 102 series, but I can't vouch for the other series. Some of my favorite (and among the cleanest) sketches are Paper, Rock, Scissors, Pull My Finger, and West Side Story.

I Am Arbitrary

There. I admit it.

Let me explain...

I was reading Shannon Hale's blog the other day. (Have I said this before? I think I've said this before.) She posted a very thought provoking entry entitled How to be a reader: book evaluation vs. self-evaluation. I'd like to invite my bookwormy friends to pop on over there and give it and the comments that follow a read. (Some of the comments I make here might not make sense without reading the article first.) I found the entry really interesting. It gave me a lot to think about. I still don't know all of what I think. But, I'd love to discuss it with you all.

Here's what I've come up with so far...

1) I like Goodreads because it gives me a chance to get book recomendations from my friends. I like to know what they are reading more than I like to know how they rated something. I love the "To-read" feature so I don't forget the titles of things I want to read but may be too busy for at a given time.

2) I'm always surprised when a friend rates a book radically different than from how I rated it. I have a couple of friends who surprise me regularly. They often seem "difficult to please". I think they demand more from the books they read than I do, though this may not have always been the case. I was a pretty critical reader in college and I suspect I need to become a more critical reader as a writer.

3) How I hand out stars is rather arbitrary. I have given some childrens' picture books and some classics the same number of stars. Do they have equal literary merit, certainly not. It doesn't mean that each isn't great in its own way, ie. "Five stars because it's great fun for my 10 year old" or "Five stars because it was so beautifully written it is haunting my waking thoughts and some of my dreams." A few times I have caught myself rating a book by comparing it to other books in the same series, ie. "I liked this one more than the first one, but not as much as the third one." Occasionally, I'll compare one series to another and realize that although I've given individual books the same number of stars, I much prefer one series to the other. I think I'm okay with being irratic in my rating system.

4) If I have recently read or listened to the book I am much more likely to leave a review as well as a rating. If I remember that I've read a book and add it to my "Read" list in passing, it's not likely to get a review to go with it because the details have become fuzzy. Perhaps I should cease this practice? Someone commented on the article referencing this quote by Bertrand Russel, "There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it." Maybe when I rate without reviewing I am merely bragging that I have read it?

5) Self-evaluation...I have to agree that what we bring to a book as a reader radically affects how we respond that book. For instance, a few years ago I read Memoirs of a Geisha. Chalk it up to naivete, but I didn't know what I was getting into when I picked it up. I remember thinking at the time that it was incredibly well written. However, because of personal issues, I found it a very difficult, often extremely uncomfortable read. I think I'd probably rate it 4 or 5 stars. Would I recommend it to my friends or let my teenaged daughter read it? Hmm...

I fear I'm becoming long winded. If I have anymore deep thoughts, I'll share. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts. :D

Prejudiced about Pride

I first read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in my AP English class my senior year of high school. I remember liking the book. But, I don't think it affected my life in the way it seems to have affected the lives of some I know. I can't honestly tell you if I've read the book more than once. It is currently somewhere on the bottom half of my "To-Read" list.

Recently, I attended a book signing for Shannon Hale's The Actor and the Housewife (which I thought a great book, by the way). As background to how A&H came about, Shannon shared with the assembled fans the story behind her first novel geared toward adult readers, Austenland. Austenland is about a young woman so obsessed with Austen novels and the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth, that it has seriously begun to affect her love life. Personally, I loved the book, which I found really funny with the right amount of hopeless romantic. I have friends (at least one of whom is a fan of Mr. Darcy)*, however, who had a lukewarm response to Austenland. I think, perhaps, they identified a little too strongly with the heroine and felt they were being made fun of. I'm certain this was not Shannon's intention, as she shared with us her own tendency to re-read Pride and Prejudice and her reaction to watching Colin as Darcy. "That's it," I thought, "I definitely need to see this show."



I had seen the Keira Knightly P&P before. As I recall, it left me with a nice chick-flick buzz. Resolving to repent of the grievous error of having never seen the Colin Firth BBC adaptation that so many rave about, I checked it out from the library. Two DVDs, each two and a half hours (give or take a bit) long. I had to keep renewing it, trying to squeeze it in around our camping trip. Finally realizing that if I didn't start it I wouldn't get to see it, I popped in the computer (on Friday?) and watched while I sorted laundry, etc. It took most of the first day to get through the first disk. It took most of Sunday after church to get through the second disk.

Maybe watching during daylight hours, when I had to repeatedly press "Pause" to tend to various domestic responsibilities, was not a good idea. Maybe watching it independently of RM, who kept wandering in an out addressing me as "Ms. Austen" or "Dear Jane", was a bad idea. Maybe expecting it to take its rightful place as a chick-flick favorite was a asking too much. Whatever the reason, I found myself a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong. It was very well done. Colin is indeed handsome, but I found myself jealously noting how stunningly beautiful Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet is more often than I noted Darcy's simmering stare. But, while I wasn't swept off my feet, I do think I'd like to see it again some mythical day when I can do so without interruption. Then maybe I'll finally, fully "get it." But, then again, maybe I won't...I still can't bring myself to crush on either Edward or Jacob. :)

* In the spirit of full disclosure, so am I. :)