Frost

Book review: Broken for You

Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos               

From the Amazon.com
“…the story of two women in self-imposed exile whose lives are transformed when their paths intersect. Stephanie Kallos's debut novel is a work of infinite charm, wit and heart. It is also a glorious homage to the beauty of broken things. When we meet septuagenarian Margaret Hughes, she is living alone in a mansion in Seattle with only a massive collection of valuable antiques for company. Enter Wanda Schultz, a young woman with a broken heart who has come west to search for her wayward boyfriend. Both women are guarding dark secrets and have spent many years building up protective armor against the outside world. As their tentative friendship evolves, the armor begins to fall away and Margaret opens her house to the younger woman. This launches a series of unanticipated events, leading Margaret to discover a way to redeem her cursed past, and Wanda to learn the true purpose of her cross-country journey.
From the Book jacket
“Exuberant, heartbreaking, and alive with a potpourri of eccentric and irresistible characters”  
Not only does Margaret, live in her mansion with valuable antiques for company, she talks to them. She asked for her furniture’s permission to rent one of the 15 rooms to a stranger.

I found the writing and the descriptions in some passages hilarious.  (Laughing out loud, in the car, all by myself, at least I’m not talking to my car, Yet!!!!
For example:
“One of the women was strikingly tall and wore a bulky woolen cape, two emaciated support stockinged legs and a wooden cane protruded from the bottom.  The woman’s head emerged from the top, it’s near perfect roundness accentuated by the fact that it was nearly completely bald.  The overall effect was that of a perambulatory floor lamp with the bald head providing a small globular finial.
The other woman was shorter and the shape and size of her torso suggested that it had been formed by pinning together 5 adipose spheres, two for the breasts, one for the stomach and two for the buttocks.”  
The book while covering only a few years,  does flashbacks to WWII, and the gathering-up robbery and detention of Jewish people.  Although it may be a cliche' and worn one at that.   Family isn't always the people you are born to.
I agree, with all of the above reviewers. .  I found it funny and heartbreaking,   As many of you may know, I judge a book by how well I get to know and like the characters, Well, I loved these strange, unconventional, wounded, caring and loving people.  I would love to see what happens to them in the future

Crockpot Chicken

I tried this recipe on Sunday. 

 Because we were home, I could cook it for the correct length of time

Charlie said it was OK,  I thought it was really good.  

4 chicken breasts at the bottom of crock pot. Pour stove top over chicken. Mix 1/2 C. sour cream and 1 can cream of chicken soup with 1/4 Cup water the pour over chicken and stuffing. Cook low 4 hours. Fluff and serve. Easy peasy!

I found it on Pinterest,  I think it originally came from team-t-adventures.blogspot.com

Christmas Catctus

 My Christmas Cactus is blooming.  A little early, I think.

Best Broccoli of your life?

I tried this recipe tonight.

Best broccoli of your life, according to the Armature Gourmet

I thought it was pretty good, a different way to serve broccoli.  

Charlie, who hates broccoli, can't even stand the smell of it said "The taste isn't too bad.  It's the texture, it's too weedy.

Weekly recipes?

I decided I should try a new recipe once a week.  I get tired of cooking the same old stuff, I get tired of eating the same old stuff.

So today experiment  is called Chicken with Vegetables with Pineapple, from Pillsbury’s Slow CookerCookbook. 

This is what it looked like in the book.  Not bad huh? Notice I am NOT posting a picture of what mine looked like.

 You can find the recipe here .

My opinion?   I'v had, I've made better sweet and sour chicken, I was hungry enough to eat a second helping, but it was not good enough to save for leftovers. 

Charlie’s opinion?   He doesn’t like sweet and sour stuff anyway.  He will eat one recipe that I do on the stove, but only occasionally.

Some people love their crock pots.  I don’t have very good luck with them excejpt for making soup or stew.  I think the problem is that during the week, I am gone 10 hours a day, and by the time I get home most meals are overcooked.

Since I don’t have time to try anything too complicated during the week, I will probably try new things on the weekends, so if you want to find out what’s next check back.

Adventures with Charlie 2

Book Review: Bent Road by Lori Roy

From the library catalog record:

“For twenty years, Celia Scott has watched her husband, Arthur, hide from the secrets surrounding his sister Eve's death. As a young man, Arthur fled his small Kansas hometown, moved to Detroit, married Celia, and never looked back. But when the 1967 riots frighten him even more than his past, he convinces Celia to pack up their family and return to the road he grew up on, Bent Road, and that same small town where Eve mysteriously died.”

He is convinced that it will keep is family safe and help his son become a man.

In some ways it makes me think of Grapes of Wrath, but I can’t really say why.   The farmhouses they live in are usually described as old and run down, there is a passage where the son talks about wearing shoes that are too small, because he is growing too fast.

2/3 of the way through this book and I was still trying to figure out why I was still reading it.  It’s dark and rough, depressing and scary, I don’t usually read this kind of book, and I’m not sure I even like the people.  I feel sorry for some of them.  The father is mean, but not as mean as the brother-in-law. But I could not put it down.

I thought I was reading it to find out what happened to Eve, and that did surprised me, but there are a couple of other twists and turns that surprised me too.   I had to set in my car and listen to the last 3 minutes before I could go to work.

Last Rose of Summer (Fall)

It is cold this morning (32 degrees)  I was suprised to see these. 

 

 

Adventures ? with Charlie

Charlie is laid up AGAIN!!!
He fell from the hay loft on Saturday,  October 13.    He lost his balance while throwing hay down for the horses. 
was able to catch something so he did not fall on his head.  He broke the femur in is right thigh and shattered his left heel.  

He had surgery on Sunday morning, the Doctor said that the femur usually heals in about 6 weeks, the heel will take 3 months.  He came home Thursday evening (10/19), he is using a wheelchair and is getting around fairly well. 

Here are the x-rays the doctor gave me after surgery.  It looks to me like they just threw some nails into his heel, but I guess they know what they are doing.

Femur

The heel

One more of the heel.

 He had stitches out Tuesday (10/30). YAY, he can finally take showers. 
He goes back on November 29 for more x-rays. Hopefully he will be able to put weight on his right leg.

A couple of friends brought a scooter over  yesterday,  it is wider than the wheelchair so it won't go up the ramp or down the hall in the house, so it is currently parked in the carport, (or at least it was when I left for work this morning.)  I guess that means he can be a little more mobile, he still cannot put weight on either leg, so we'll have to see what kind of trouble he can get into now.
 
Thanks to:
Tom Moon, Ed Choate, Mike Townsend for putting up a ramp.  Thanks to Sharon Erickson, for the use of the wheel chair, and bath stool, and the scooter that they just brought over yesterday.  
Danielle Townsend for making sure our horses get fed. 
Laurie Mead for bringing dinner one day last week.  

P.S.  He did use the scooter today, he went from the house to the pole barn. Stay tuned for more adventures with Charlie. 
 

Ponderings

As you can tell it has been a while since I have posted.  I don't really know why,  just lazy I guess.  Or nothing exciting has happened. 

I have been trying  come up with a reason for this blog. 

When I started blogging about 6 years ago I thought that it would be a fun way to stay in touch with family and friends who are scattered across the country. I'm not sure that it worked out that way. I know that a couple of people commented, but it is hard

hen it became more of a personal diary.  I could look back and tell what I had done in the past few months or year.

Then Facebook came along, and I began to send family and friends mini sound bites about what is going on at that second

I don't think of myself as a "writer" but I have had people tell me that I "tell" some good stories.   I would like to be able to write and share with friends and family.

I am going to blame, the not being able to write part of that on my high school English composition teacher.

One of our assignments was to write a humorous story about a real incident. 

I wrote my story, and handed it in.   She told me it was not humorous.  I don't remember her ever telling me why, or any suggestions on how to fix it. 

I think that part of the problem may be that my writing is to stiff, my verbal storytelling may be more animated. I may start working on that. 

Again I will try to update this blog more often.  Please comment at the bottom of this page. Let me know if you have any suggestions for topics you would like to see. 
Check back and see what happens or use a  feed to subscribe so you will automatically know when I update.