Well, whatever. Plenty of time left before my probable breakdown.
Here's the sort of month we had: Eric and I took a walk mid-January and it was so warm I took my jacket off. Then like a week later we had ice and 2 feet of snow and we couldn't even get out of the driveway. January is bi-polar. Apparently.
Abby's basketball games started this month. Johanna got pink eye. Eric is fighting one mother of a cold at the moment. And I'm spending way too much time playing The Sims. (My people! They need me!)
The end. List time!
Books read:
The Land of Later On by Anthony Weller. This one was featured in the Kindle Daily Post, and it got a lot of 5 star reviews. So I thought, why not? Eric used to give me flowers on the girls' birthdays. Now he gives me an ebook. (Yay!) I chose this one. And you know, it was good. The storyline was interesting--what lies beyond this life?--and it developed at a decent pace. Most of the time. Sometimes I was like, um, can we get to the point here? And the ending felt a bit rushed, but whatever, I guess. I can forgive that because Walt Whitman! Is a character! But 5 stars? That's pushing it a little. I'd say more like 3, just because the writing was a bit... unpolished, I guess. Like we're one draft away from the finished product. And look, big words don't really add anything to a story, Anthony Weller. I don't need to be knocked in the head with your vocabulary, okay? Because no one talks like that.
Um... I lost my train of thought there for a second. Great storyline, kind of missed the boat in the execution, but still worth reading.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I really enjoyed this story. So I was a little shocked after the fact when I went back and read some reviews and saw all the 1 and 2 stars going on. What? I loved the writing style, and I loved the old, creepy pictures (that did not translate well on the Kindle, but that's okay because I just looked at them later on my poser iPad). The ending might be a "to be continued" sort of deal... or maybe that's just how it ends. I'm okay with unsettled endings. My brain can end it, yo! I don't need it spelled out for me. So I'd give it a 4, because 5 is perfection (looking at you, Night Circus) and it wasn't quite that. But I definitely recommend this one. It was most entertaining. P.S. Eric has decided he gave me THIS one instead of the one above. Well, why not? It's all the same pot anyway.
Farewell: The Greatest Spy Story of the Twentieth Century by Eric Raynauld, Sergei Kostin and Richard V. Allen; translated by Catherine Cauvin-Higgins. I'm not really sure what to tell you about this one. I bought it probably two months ago when Amazon had it on sale for $1.99 because the reviews made it sound interesting. And it's a true story!
So anyway, here's what I learned: This Farewell / Vetrov guy--a Russian mole who essentially gave the west enough info to eventually bring down the USSR--was sort of nuts. Well, I guess you'd have to be to put yourself into that sort of a situation. FYI, this thing is translated, so sometimes? Dry. And it's not like Vetrov is likable or anything. The guy is a jerk. Thus, it took me practically all month to wade through it. Maybe three stars, then. Because it was interesting. But just okay as a story.
Movies watched:
Rio. And you know what? It was darling.
The Last Airbender. With Johanna, because she wanted to see the live-action version after watching the cartoons 50 times each. Um, wow. Talk about bad acting. Which made it AWESOME. And Sokka? Is Jasper from Twilight! Ah, that explains so much.
Things my kids actually fought about:
Over whether or not you need shots to enter a foreign country. Abby says that to go to Japan, you need shots. Johanna was horrified and rather unconvinced, so there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth--on both sides. So apparently Japan is out, but Canada is in, and possibly Mexico, although Abby is still looking into that one.
And whether or not Abby needs to go to Manners Class. Johanna says yes. Abby says no. You can imagine what happened next.
Things we learned:
Johanna--that when Daddy says, "Go straight into the shower," he does not actually mean to go in fully clothed.
Abby--sometimes girls who play basketball have big brothers, giving "rough housing" a whole new meaning. (Dude! There are some scary middle school girls out there.)
Eric--just when you think winter isn't coming, you end up with a lot of ice-ladden limb in your yard.
Trisha--homemade cleaners? Are awesome. I'll have to write about that whole ordeal sometime. Totally changed my life.
Things I do not want to hear again, ever:
"Mom! Madie just projectile vomited!" --Abby
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