A Lazy Saturday Morning

I made homemade yeast-raised waffles for breakfast this morning. I was fairly virtuous in limiting myself to two; not so virtuous in the application of real butter and real maple syrup! Once in awhile, though, we treat ourselves. The recipe is straight from my Fanny Farmer cookbook and they're easy. The hardest part is remembering you have to start them the night before. I used to make them often when the kids were little, and I always had to double the recipe. Now for just the two of us, I have lots of batter left with the single batch. I make up all the waffles and freeze the ones we don't eat.

I love the light now-a-days. The sun is moving higher up in the sky and it's warmer and brighter. It is the beginning of our glorious MUD SEASON. Here in my corner of the world we have winter, MUD, spring, summer, and fall. The roads are full of frost heaves and potholes; it's easy to lose a muffler or scrape bottom on many of our roads. And the roads change on a daily basis, becoming spontaneous roller coasters as the ground unfreezes, and refreezes daily. My driveway has a seasonal sink hole that opens right in the middle. Luckily it's the diameter of the hole is smaller than the wheelbase of our vehicles so we can drive over it -- there's not enough room on either side of it to drive around it. Some of the dirt roads become impassable for short periods of time unless you have 4 wheel drive and high clearance. The sound of snowmobiles is replaced by the "Mudding" vehicles.

School this past week was long -- we started on Monday with a 2 hour delay due to ice and sleet and snow, and ended with very spring-like weather. In between I dealt with students who have decided it's okay to text each other in class despite our "no cell phone" policy in school. I just don't get how I grew up without a cell phone. One student of mine said that she likes cell phones because now it's easier to lie to her mom about where she is after school!! Mom calls to check in, and "Janie" says she's at the library when in fact she's with her boyfriend at McDonalds. And of course Mom gave her the cell phone to keep her safe! When I grew, Mom called my friend's house and I'd better be there!

Here's a book I read this week -- by a favorite YA author, Gary D. Schmidt.

Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a very compelling novel for older adolescents and young adults. Henry is the 2nd son of a prominent, very privileged New England family. His older brother Franklin is the "god" of his prep school and is critically injured in an accident. A Cambodian scholarship student, Chouy, confesses to driving the truck that injures Franklin. This novel explores some heavy issues - anti-immigration sentiment, race and class divisions, harassment,revenge, grief, and forgiveness and grace. It's not an easy read, either for the issues raised and for the way the author has narrated the story in two parts. I really liked it, but it's definitely not something geared for younger readers.


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And the book I've neglected all my Sat. morning chores to finish reading:
Loving Frank: A Novel by Nancy Horan

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I couldn't put this one down. It's a well-researched, but fictional account of the affair between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick, told from her perspective. The novel covers the years between 1903 when Mamah and her husband Edwin Cheney commission Wright to build their Oak park home, and 1914 when the affair between Mamah and Wright comes to its tragic conclusion. I knew very little about Frank Lloyd Wright other than as the founder of a true American architecture before reading this book. I was fascinated by their relationship, as well as by how their relationship was perceived by the rest of the world.


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