super bowl post

Image via here.

That one time I spent the entirety of the Super Bowl at home reading The Hunger Games...

#worthit

I'm Madeline, I'm Madeline...

I've always felt a special tie to my namesake. 
Yes, I truly was named after this Madeline. 
Her height issues and inner hutzpah were a real guiding light in my childhood.
Almost like a cartoon, storybook mentor, if you will.

I mean, when you consider the obvious similarities, we are practically the same person. 

Obvious similarities:

• I'm small—sometimes even "the smallest one."
• (...but inside, "I'm tall!")
• I enjoy straight lines...and order in general.
• I'm not afraid at all.
• I'm not some little twig.
• "I may be teeny tiny, diminutive, petite,
  but that has never stopped me, from being pretty neat."*
  

Apparent (but unimportant) dissimilarities:

• I'm not an orphan.
• I don't have 11 sisters.
• I only WISH I lived in Paris.
• I don't look good in yellow. Or hats.

If you believe you must be big 

In order to be tough 

Then you should get to know me 

I'll teach you other stuff 

I'm Madeline, I'm Madeline 

And though I'm very small 

I'm Madeline, I'm Madeline 

And inside I'm tall 

*She may be teeny tiny 

Diminutive, petite 

But that has never stopped her 

From being pretty neat 

I'm Madeline, I'm Madeline 

I'm not some little twig 

I'm Madeline, I'm Madeline 

And inside I'm big 

Dum-ti-dum-ti-dum 

I'm Madeline, I'm Madeline 

I'm not afraid at all 

I'm Madeline, I'm Madeline 

I'm bravest of all 

Dum-ti-dum-ti-dum 

She's Madeline, she's Madeline 

We hope you have it straight 

She's Madeline, she's Madeline 

And inside she's 

Dum-ti-dum-ti-dum...

Great!

I've come so close to being her for Halloween so many times. 

I need to just bite the bullet and do it. 

The Madeline Costume. Halloween 2012. Stay tuned. 

currently on the library card

I just looked at my library account online and got a kick out of the list of "checked out" books.

Lately, I've made the mistake of borrowing books for other people on my library card.

Which is all fine and dandy until they forget to return them on time.

Try to guess which ones are actually mine.

Did I mention I nanny a 5- and 8-year-old?

And lemme tell ya, there is some whacky stuff out there that is passing for children's literature these days...for example, please note the fourth book down...Peyton Manning is a published author.

Submarines and Submersibles  

By Lock, Deborah (2007) 

 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

By Skloot, Rebecca (2010) 

 

Pecorino Plays Ball 

By Madison, Alan (2006) 

 

Family Huddle  

By Manning, Peyton (2009) 

 

In Cold Blood A True Account of A Multiple Murder and Its Consequences  

By Capote, Truman 1992) 

 

Monsters on Machines 

By Lund, Deb (2008) 

 

I Touched the Moon!  

Stories and Crafts for Kids (2001) 

The Moral Lives of Animals

By Peterson, Dale (2011)

This Boy's Life

A Memoir By Wolff, Tobias (1989) 

 

 

 

Fire Trucks in Action 

By Schuh, Mari C. (2009)

 

The Mystery at Lilac Inn

By Keene, Carolyn (1989) 

 

Eating Local

The Cookbook Inspired by America's Farmers (2010) 

 

The Endeavour Mission STS-61

Fixing the Hubble Space Telescope 

By Zelon, Helen (2002) 

 

 

Writing Creative Nonfiction

Instruction and Insights from the Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs (2001) 

 

Blood, Bones & Butter

The Inadvertent Education of A Reluctant Chef 

By Hamilton, Gabrielle (2011)

An Object of Beauty

A Novel By Martin, Steve (2010)

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

A Modest Bestiary By Sedaris, David (2010)

 

Pecorino Plays Ball is actually pretty cute. Too many words though. For a picture book, I mean. Have you read any of these? Preferably the "chapter books?" Thoughts? What's on your reading list right now? I'm always down for a good book recommendation.

{ book club summer }

It has been a hectic summer, a foggy summer, a summer of new beginnings...

...and it has also been a book club summer. 

My friend and fellow book club enthusiast, Anna, found the above card. Sums things up nicely.

But really, we do read. Or at least I do. I can't and won't vouch for the number of pages consumed by each and every member. 

Friends ask me all the time for book recommendations, and they always slip my mind on the spot. So I compiled a list of what we've read (and some that just I've read on the side) this summer. 

Cheers!

It's Kind of a Funny Story

By Ned Vizzini

Inspired by the author's own brief hospitalization in a mental ward duet to his depression, the teenage author wrote this stream-of-consciousness narrative with candor, colloquialism, and plenty of irreverent observations. 

__________

The Help

By Kathryn Stockett

Loved this one! Read it right before the summer started and it was the perfect vacation book. The author takes on three different points-of-view to describe how "the help" were treated and related to in the deep south. A poignant and meaningful novel full of compassion and realism.

__________

Eat Pray Love

By Elizabeth Gilbert

Who hasn't jumped on this train yet? I actually read this book two years ago when it first came out, but Book Club went and saw the movie together (We LOVE Julia!)...and then we went to a hole-in-the-wall, AMAZING Italian restaurant to gorge ourselves on wine and gnocchi. 

Do I condone taking a year off life to "find yourself" in your mid-forties? Um, no. Selfish much? Just a tad. But fun to read and dream about? Oh yes. 

__________

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

By Rhoda Janzen

Okay, so I'm really into creative memoirs lately. (Maybe because I want to write one of my own...?) Rhoda is a hoot. She tells witty tales about her true-to-life experiences of going home (to her parents) in her late-forties when every outlet of her life seems to fall into crisis.

__________

The School of Essential Ingredients

By Erica Bauermeister

Sweet and easy read (by easy I mean I finished it in one evening). A great one for the foodies out there with a twinge of romance. Although the author does get a tad carried away with her similes sometimes—almost to a distracting point.

Example:

"...she couldn't help feeling embarrassed for the food, all smashed together like immigrants in steerage class."

__________

The Island

by Victoria Hislop

A young girl takes a dive into her mother's secret past on a historical leper island off Crete.

Full of sensuality, intrigue, and emotional history.

__________

And a recommendation from my dad, which I haven't quite finished yet... :)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

By Hunter Thompson

I think this quote sums it up:

"There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon."