September Book Review

Just two books this month so far.  The first one was The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer.

This story is set in World War II, in Poland.  It moves back and forth between war time and present day.  It starts out with a chapter where you think you have an idea of what happened but then you realize there is more to it than that and you get to unwind the mystery with the characters in the book.  In Poland there is a girl who is a teenager when the war starts, she is young and doesn't realize how terrible the war will be at first, but then starts to appreciate the suffering, including her own suffering.  Like The Nazi Officer's Wife I found it very interesting to hear what people living under Nazi rule did during this time.  We usually read about it from the perspective of England or France, but for the Poles, they were occupied right away and didn't have the opportunity to directly fight back, although they certainly organized their own underground system to help. 

The present day story deals with a woman who has had a stroke and cannot speak, her granddaughter who is the main feature of the present day story, and her son (the first women's great-grandson) who has autism and has to communicate using an iPad.  The older woman then figures out how to use the same app on the iPad to communicate.  Aside from the obviously "things we cannot say" like the woman and boy who literally cannot say things, the author also writes about those conversations that loved ones often cannot have.  For example, the main woman needs more help from her husband with her autistic son but doesn't bother to ask him, and just does everything herself.  It was addressed very well and a pleasant feature of a WW2 book where we are usually just concentrating on the historical narrative. 

This is a great book, and as I said, slightly different from a typical wartime novel.

The second was Before the Fall by Noah Hawley.

This one has been on my book list for a long time but the description I had written (plane crash) never really tempted me to read it.  The other day I figured the only way I would get through my reading list was to just start at the top, so this one was at the library and I got it.  It was a really good book so I wish I'd picked it up sooner.  Yes, there is a plane crash, and you know that right away, but the novel is more about what happened "before the crash", I know, I should have figured that out!! It was a private plane so the people on the crash were well to do, important people, and their stories are pretty interesting.  We also get to hear about the crew members as well.  

I won't give too much away about the plot so I'll stop there with my description, but it was a really interesting read and a quick read.  Like the book above, the nuanced writing make it slightly better than a typical beach read, and this certainly was not a beach read. 

Friday Favourites

First of all Happy Birthday to my Mom!  She is celebrating her birthday tomorrow. 

My plan was to get some of our fall decorations out, but it didn't happen.  But Dave did get these beautiful fall flowers on the weekend. 

I had a guest in my office this week - my bike!  When I went to the bike cage on Monday morning the door was broken and I couldn't get in.  It was fixed the next day though!

This is such a good salad and so easy to put together - kale, celery, beets cucumber, blueberries, pumpkin seeds, and salmon  The dressing is just oil, lemon juice, grainy mustard, and salt and pepper. 

This is 3/4s of my law school curling team (and we texted this to our skip!).  I went to a reception this week with lots of UNB alumni - also oyster bar and wine ;). Afterwards we went to Constantine for dinner and it was so good!

Autumn colds are here, so it is time to break out my lemon drink.  I actually bought some ginger and lemon juice to keep at work (we already have honey there) and made myself one of these yesterday.  I thought about getting a fancy tonic from Fresh or Kupfert and Kim (or one of those other places) but realized all I really needed was the lemon and ginger so made my own. 

Three Things

Three things going on with each of us at the moment:

(I always start with Q, so I'll go with E first this time.)

E

1.  He finished up his last regular soccer game this week, just two more on the weekend and then done for the season.  Honestly I was not super impressed with his club this year, but E had fun and definitely improved. 

2. He also gets to attend his t-ball banquet this weekend.  There is a good group of kids and parents from his team so it will be fun to hang out with them again.

3.  And keeping with the sports theme, E is practicing for his cross-country meet coming up in October.  This year the Grade 3s run 1.5 km and the top 50 runners get to move onto the next meet. The way home from school is about that long so twice Dave has run to pick up the kids so E could practice that distance.  He is showing promise for a top 50 finish for sure!

Q

1.  Q is puzzle obsessed.  Luckily we have a large variety of puzzles so he always has one on the go.  Although he likes help he is pretty good at doing them himself. 

2.  His birthday is coming up and he knows it. When we mention his birthday he says "Me?!".  There are about 11 of his friends coming to his party.  I need to pick up some supplies this weekend so we will be ready.

3.  The teacher in the Sunday school nursery, who Q loved, is not back this year.  We knew she wasn't going to be back so I prepped Q on the way to church to say there would be someone new but he didn't need to get upset and he would have fun and I would be back to get him after the service.  I took him to use the bathroom when we got there and repeated what I said, and he looked and said "No crying".  So he understood and there was no crying. 

Dave

1. He is starting work on the basement. The bottom half of our basement is just an empty space and the plan was always to turn it into a TV room.

2. It his year end at work, which is always a roller coaster of emotions; the life of a salesperson!

3. Like a good dad, Dave is concentrating on sowing grass seed, adding fertilizer, and keeping the lawn watered.  It is an ongoing battle.

Me

1. Planning, planning, always planning.  The plans for both Q's and E's birthday parties are made, just executing the plans now.  Plus we are hosting some people for Thanksgiving so will need to plan that menu too.

2. I am remembering to take my B12 vitamin each day by leaving it on my desk.  So when I get to work in the mornings and logging into my computer, I see it and remember to take it.  Not rocket science but I would never remember if I left the bottle at home. 

3. My uncle, who died a couple of years ago, was a pillar of the Halifax business community and this past weekend a plaque was unveiled on a bench on Quinpool Road to honour his memory.  The other gentleman who was honoured was also a family friend.

Media Wednesday - Currently

Netflix
Mindhunter, The Office, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

Regular TV
(Waiting for these to start) The Great Canadian Baking Show, Battle of the Blades, This is Us

YouTube
My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music, John Bercow clips (UK Parliament Speaker of the House), Bill Hader on SNL (best is the Californians)

Library Books on Hold

Class Mom by Laurie Gelman, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan, All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker

Podcasts
The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepherd

News Stories
Federal election, Raptors new (female) assistant coach

Spotify Playlists
The Lumineers Radio, Sunny Day, The Phantom of the Opera (original London cast), 2000s Smash Hits

Weekend Recap

We didn't get up to too much this weekend and it was glorious.  Our local neighbourhood street fest, the Ukrainian Festival, was going on so we went up on Friday night to check it out.

We ate at Baka and enjoyed our seats on the patio.

E tried out the rock climbing, as he has done for the past couple of years.  We ran into one of his classmates there too so we walked around with them for a bit.  Honestly though, the kids' rides didn't look that great, so we didn't plan on coming back the next day like we usually do.

E and Dave were still hungry after our small supper so they got sausages from the Kingsway Deli and E also got a lemonade, which Q got to sip on too.

Q wasn't really making it so I carried him home and took him right up to bed.  We watched Spiderman Far From Home with E and had some popcorn.

I went to my workout on Saturday morning, such a great way to start the day!  Dave and E did some yard work and I took Q to the Superstore to pick out his birthday cake and get a few groceries.  When we got back we had a quick lunch before Q had a nap, and we cleaned up the house, and rested a bit. 

When Q got up, we took advantage of the nice weather and went for a bike ride.  We rode for 8.9 km to a playground, and then back.  

We had a stir-fry for supper and watched a bit of Mary Poppins.  Then the kids went to bed and Dave and I watched Rocketman.

Q was up pretty early on Sunday morning, with E not far behind.  The snuggled in to watch some Paw Patrol and then the rest of Mary Poppins.  Meanwhile, I made some soup.

And folded laundry while Q played.

Then it was off to church.  It was nice to be back. 

We decided to see if Q could stay up all afternoon with no nap with the hope he'd have a better night's sleep.  The boys played all afternoon in the basement, then we watched The Secret Life of Pets 2, and then Dave and I were able to sort through the toys and get rid of some. 

Even though Q didn't nap, the parents did, even with some extra afternoon coffee!

Shrimp tacos for supper, lunches made, breakfasts ready, and bags packed.  The best kind of Sunday night!

September Resolutions - Update

Last month I wrote about my resolutions for September, as I tend to think of this time of year as a fresh start, and I wanted to update you.

Eating better -This is going well.  No alcohol since September 1, and no nighttime snacking, other than some popcorn this weekend.  Those are my two weaknesses and the things I find the hardest to give up.  I definitely feel better and stronger, so it is worth it, and also it feels good to be disciplined.

Bring my lunch - well, since I am eating healthy foods and following a reset meal plan, I am pretty good about not buying food at work.  I did meet a friend for lunch last week, but I think I made a pretty wise choice - a fish and shrimp cake with roasted cabbage and carrot salad.

Fitting in an extra workout/continuing to ride my bike - I am still riding my my bike a few days a week, even though it is getting cooler in the mornings.  That has been my extra workouts for now.

Not scrolling through social media - Not as good with this one.  Since our election has started, and TIFF was going on in Toronto, I have been very interested in Twitter lately.

Start thinking about Halloween and Christmas - We have Q's costume, and E knows what he wants to be so I need to get those things.  No thoughts towards Christmas yet, but my goal will definitely be to minimize the toys!

So I will continue with all of these and a few more as we continue on this month and into October:

Get E back into doing his chores.
Finish up decorating the kids' rooms.
Print some photos for our photo wall.
Read more books.
Keep up to date with the election coverage.

Friday Favourites

Clean eating has resumed in full force this week. I sort of started it last week but was still eating wheat and red meat and some sugar, this week, that's all gone.   We made this delicious buckwheat sweet potato "risotto" to accompany our salmon.  Everyone loved it. 

E had his first full week of school.  He has a dictee to work on and a family math problem.  He took his Pokeman cards to school one day and now they are banned.  I'm sure he wasn't the direct cause of that, just a contributor.  Q had a good week too, including this lovely piece of art ;)

We finished up two family favourite shows this week - Amazing Race Canada and The Great British Baking Show.  The Canadian version of the baking show will be starting up soon so we will watch that together too. 

Our Federal Election has been called, and will be held on E's birthday.  Last time I made the mistake of voting in the advance polls and things changed a lot in between that and actual election day.  This is going to be a close one, so I will wait.  I mentioned last week that Peter Mansbridge has an election podcast called The Bridge.  He has released a few episodes already, they are pretty short, but provide a great source of reliable information.  He isn't telling us who to vote for, but rather how we should be thinking about the election and things to look out for.  If you are a political science geek, add this to your podcast list.

Because we finished up the Great British Baking Show, E wanted to try making donuts, so we did that last night.  It was pretty successful!

We are looking for the Bloor West Ukrainian Festival taking place this weekend.  We will go up tonight to check it all out and probably tomorrow morning as well.

Linking up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci.