September Pointless Lists

So. September. Three months left of 2013? That seems kind of insane.

September was busy. School started, which meant beginning of the year open houses for Abby and Johanna. Eric and I celebrated our 18th anniversary. We participated in the local CROP Walk as a family (except we walked right past my parents house and ditched Jo), Eric and I volunteered at the local Hops Fest (which ended up being way more fun that I'd expected), and I worked at the elementary school book fair for three straight days (um, an hour at a time, it's not like I moved in or anything).

At the book fair, I spent most of that time telling cute little first graders that the $2 they brought from home would not buy them the $12.99 Dora the Explorer book they wanted. Talk about guilt.

And that's pretty much all that happened, except for that other stuff I don't feel like talking about. Fun fact: That's one of my pet peeves on Facebook--people writing purposely vague things. Don't do that! It's okay that I just did because I did it ironically.

Never mind. Pointless list time!

Books read:
This was a busy book month. It's all Abby's fault. She keeps talking about the Divergent series by Veronica Roth, and then I realized the first book is a mere $3.99 on my Kindle, so I thought, what the heck. I've wasted more money on that on a crappy mocha.

And it turns out that Divergent and its sequel, Insurgent, are fantastic. I could not put them down. I read through them as fast as I could just to see what was going to happen, and then I reread them more carefully, and then I went back and reread all my favorite parts, and then I pre-ordered Allegiant. And the good news is I only have to wait for about three weeks before it's released!

Um, and then because I'm kind of a fangirl, I purchased Free Four (the knife-throwing scene in Divergent as told by Four) and The Transfer (a short story about Four's Choosing Day). Um, and pre-ordered both The Initiate and The Son and The Traitor. I have a wait ahead of me for those little chapters, though.

Anyway, I think I love these books so much because the writing is fantastic, the characters are well fleshed out and believable, and the world is compelling. If you aren't a big fan of bad things happening to characters you love, though, don't read this. It's not a pretty world. But it is excellent. Highly recommend.

So after all of that, I was depressed, and Abby made me read the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. Or, should I say, the first three books (City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass, which, technically, I'm not quite finished with). BOOKS, people, real books. And wow, they're heavy and awkward. Beside the point. These books are interesting, but not so interesting I want to download them to my Kindle, which is why I'm soldier on with Abby's paperbacks. The author uses a lot of writing tricks that are kind of old hat, so you know what is going to happen even when the characters are clueless. The dialog is the best part of this series. There's some stuff that made me laugh out loud. Oh, and when Clary gives Simon a pamphlet on coming out to your parents to help him tell his mom that he's now a vampire? That was AWESOME.

So... it's not Divergent-good, but it's readable and kind of fun. Maybe you have to be 14 or something to truly get it, I don't know.

Garden update:
Sad, sad, sad. We have tomatoes. We have basil. I've gotten four zucchini THIS YEAR. That's about it.

Canning update:
I was all set to can peach butter but then my peaches rotted because that's what happens sometimes when it rains just before harvest--fungus. Well, that's why you know your farmer, people. I got a refund and all was cool.

Things I've learned:
Skilly only likes to cuddle when he's wet and gross. (Smelly cat, indeed.) There's a place in the next town over where you can get your shoes fixed. I can not be trusted in the Goodwill Boutique--too many pretty things--and all my minimalism ideologies go right down the drain. Homemade tomato soup is the bomb. It's possible I need to update the prescription on my glasses as depth is once again alluding me. One of my favorite words to write is "chaos." Spending all your free time reading on the porch in the sun (or curled up in your favorite quilt on the couch when it's raining and cold) is not a bad way to go.