Sunday, May 9, 2010

Sunday Salon: Mom's Day Off


Good morning and Happy Mother's Day!!! I am waking up just a tad fuzzy this morning after last night's celebration of Polish food with friends. Hunter's stew made with venison, elk and pheasant, pierogies covered in butter and bacon, apple/carrot salad, kielbasa, Polish beer...total gluttony. I would have taken a picture, but we consumed it before I even thought about it. Anyway, besides my birthday, this is the one day a year I get a pass to sit and do nothing. Later this morning, my husband, my kids and I will go to a Mother's Day brunch at the club, then I will maybe read and nap by the pool, then (drumroll please) a girlfriend and I will go see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I haven't been this excited about a movie in a long time. It's going to be a great day, I can just feel it!

The week was exhausting and everyone has been cranky. There was something going on every night. My daughter has a serious attitude problem. My kids are routinely trying to kill each other. Headaches are involved. But as the school year comes to a close, things will slowly wrap up and in a couple of weeks, the only thing we should have to worry about are finals and preparing for our summer vacation. In the meantime though, tensions are high. Do any of you go through this? It kind of feels like the last couple weeks of pregnancy. You just want. it. over.

On Thursday evening, our school had an event at the local Barnes & Noble, which occurs twice a year, and I help to organize it. We have kids from the school singing, playing instruments, we had a balloon artist, teachers do storytelling, and we provide the summer reading books. A percentage of the sales is then given back to us to support our library. It is a wonderful community-builder and is alot of fun. We also were lucky enough to have a local author and a friend of mine, Danette Haworth, there to sign books. Sorry, no pictures. I really pooped out on the picture taking this week, didn't I? I only ended up buying a couple of books for my kids. There were SO MANY I wanted for myself, but the cold hard truth is that I probably wouldn't read them for another year. My stacks are just that out of control.

Speaking of the stacks, I whittled them down a fraction this week. I finished the new John Sandford book, "Storm Prey", which goes on sale in another week or so. I enjoyed it, as I do all of the books in this series. I also read "Stitches", a graphic novel that has been around the block on the blogs, and it pretty much blew my mind in a disturbing kind of way. I then started Beth Kephart's new book "The Heart is not a Size". This is my first Beth book, but it was clear to me pretty quickly why everyone loves this author so. Her writing is just precious, and reminds me alot of Jacqueline Woodson. I'm hoping to wrap up this book today by the pool.

The kids and I finished the 6th Harry Potter, and started on the 7th. Oh the excitement! I guess we need to start thinking about what the heck we will listen to after this is all over. We have been at this series now for a long time. I also finished off Stephen King's 30-disc monster "Under the Dome", and started "Love Walked In" by Marisa de los Santos. I am in a quandary over the "Garden Spells" audio by Sarah Addison Allen. I went into convulsions when I discovered that it has 100 tracks per disc, and the online database does not recognize it. Which means to load it onto my iPod, I have to type. in. every. line. Which just isn't going to happen. So I thought I might try just popping it into the CD player in the car and listening to it only there when I am buzzing around during the week. We'll see how that goes. I really didn't want to miss out on this book though.

I suppose I should shut up now. I hope you all have a wonderful, relaxing day!




25 comments:

Julie P. said...

Happy Mother's Day! I love your Sunday Salon posts. We are feeling the effects of the end of the school year too. Something every night and sometimes 3 and 4 things.

Frances said...

Happy Mother's Day! Hope your day is all you want from it and headache free. The tensions around your house are being faced everywhere this time of year so don't worry. It will all go away soon.

How about the Rick Riordan Percy Jackson books after you and the kids finish Harry Potter? My kids love those books and are very excited to see that his new Egyptian mythology books are coming out now. They both picked up signed copies of the first volume when he was in town this week. Highly recommended!

Molly said...

You are one busy lady!!

Sounds like you are going to have a fantabulous mother's day. Enjoy!

Alyce said...

That is so weird about Garden Spells having 100 tracks per disc. It's not even that long of a book.

Looks like you have a great day planned! My little guys woke up at the crack of dawn, so I've been getting some blog reading in before my husband wakes up. :)

Hope you have a great Mother's Day!

rhapsodyinbooks said...

Happy Mother's Day! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the movie!

Unknown said...

Comedian Rita Rudner had a line about kids, "I love children, I just see them as what they really are....a curse from God." ;-) We go through the same thing at school, every single year. We're all at the point where summer can't come quickly enough.

I'm also have trouble with audio-books and my iPod. How can I get iTunes to put librivox books into the audio book section and not the music section. I press suffle music and get Bruce Springstien followed by chapter 23 of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. It's annoying.

Happy Mother's Day to you.

Alice said...

Happy Mother's Day, Sandy!

You're at HP book 6 already? You and your children are very fast!

I hope you're having a blast for the weekend!

Trisha said...

I can just see you guys suffering from withdrawal after finishing HP on audio. It seems like such a big, time consuming activity that I can see a strange drop after it's over. Maybe you should do like Infinite Jest or War and Peace next??? :)

Kathy (mommysreading) said...

I could have written that second paragraph. I was beginning to think I was the only one who had kids that routinely try to kill each other. Our school year is over this month also. Normally I am not a fan of no school, but even I am ready for a break. I plan to read alot this summer.

Here's to a great mother's day!

Anonymous said...

Happy Mother's Day, Sandy! Hope you enjoy your day and movie. I was about to suggest the Percy Jackson books next for you and your kids too. Great series!

JoAnn said...

Happy Mother's Day, Sandy! Enjoy your well-deserved day off...

Ana S. said...

I'm sorry things have been so tense, Sandy! But summer will be here too. I hope you had a lovely and relaxing mother's day!

bermudaonion said...

Happy Mother's Day! I'm impressed that you get the day off. I hate those CDs that contain a hundred tracks - they're a total pain.

Jenners said...

Happy Mother's Day! I think you need a day off ... you're always so busy. Plus you have to sleep off all that wonderful Polish food.

And my Little One has been developing quite an attitude lately too ... wonder if it is going around?

Ti said...

I hope you enjoyed that movie. It was only in Los Angeles for a very short time so I missed it!

Carrie K. said...

Yay for Love Walked In! And Garden Spells is truly amazing - but definitely not one you want to listen to with the kids in the car. And I can understand not wanting to type in every single track - that would be a pain in the butt. :)

Melody said...

Happy Mother's Day, Sandy!
Can't wait to hear what you'll think of that movie! I haven't even started those series yet!! Need to remedy that, but then it makes me shudder whenever I look at those thick volumes, hehe.

Speaking of Harry Potter, I only stopped at Bk 4, but haven't got the mood to reading the rest of the series, yet! I've got the feeling that I'll probably watch the first part of the final instalment before reading them. Oh well.

Beth F said...

Hope the day was everything you wanted it to be!

Jackie (Farm Lane Books) said...

I hope you had a lovely Mother's Day.

I am looking forward to your 'Under the Dome' review as I'm thinking about reading it. Stitches also sounds good - it is looking like I'll have to go and get a copy :-)

Serena said...

I hope you had a nice relaxing Mother's Day!

The Bumbles said...

Happy belated Mother's Day! I'm glad your day was all that you wanted.

A daughter with an attitude? According to my mother, I had an attitude for about 5 years - ages 13 - 18. It stopped when I moved out of the house ;0)

Zibilee said...

Happy Mother's Day Sandy! I know just what you mean about tensions running high this late in the school year. The kids annoy the heck out of each other, and many a time I have to throw them outside for a cool down! I also know what you mean about your TBR stack being out of control. Mine is really, really bad as well. That being said, I am eager to hear what you think of Garden Spells, as I just grabbed that one from Paperback Swap and am really looking forward to it! Have a great week!!

Susan said...

Whew! as usual! Glad you had a chance to take the day off yesterday. Hopefully you built up some endurance to make it through the rest of the school year. Those last weeks are pretty awful if I remember correctly.

Your Polish feast sounds yummy!

Heidenkind said...

Happy belated Mother's Day, Sandy! I had to work. ;_;

Iliana said...

I don't know how you manage to find time to read with all that you have going on! Hope you had a wonderful Mother's day. Ok. Now I need to read your review of the movie :)