It is late. My brain is pretty much mulch.

Our Saturday was filled with such exciting and labor-intense activities as yard work (that was John), cinnamon-roll making (that was me), garage cleaning (that was me and John) and drinking free Slurpees from 7-11 (that was all four of us).

But because we had two more littles here with us tonight while their mama and daddy went on a date and my own sweet guy is getting a late start on organizing and practicing his music for church tomorrow, I feel it my duty to not fall asleep on the couch. Which means–get ready–HOORAY! You get to read a post that won’t make a lick o’ sense! I know, just what you were hoping for this fine weekend.

Do remember, of course, that my mind is mulch. (Isn’t mulch a fertilizer or compost or something like that? Wouldn’t that mean my mind is, in fact, ripe and fertile soil for grand and lofty thoughts? Perhaps I should say my brain is mush. That would make sense. But I’m too lazy. And tired.) Due to the mulchy-ness, I’m going to simply give you a list of updates on Some Things Some People Pretend to Care About and Stuff.

Thing 1–The Books

Lo and behold, you people DO actually read stuff that isn’t on the computer! I think half our country has forgotten that the written word used to be solely printed on actual pages and bound in a fashion requiring hands to hold them and fingers to turn each page. But y’all know how to do you some real READIN’. I don’t remember the last time I was so excited to read all night long until my eyes are burning.

Anyway. Thursday morning I embarked on a literary journey when I loaded up the boys and, list of books from ye olde comment section in hand, headed to the library. We met a friend and listened to a wonderful toddler story time, colored pictures, looked at picture books… and then went upstairs to the adult section to look for books for mommy. All I have to say about that is–being that it was lunch time by now, with one child who past his naptime, only an umbrella stroller to keep the two sets of little active legs contained and only the most vague sense of the whereabouts of most books in this library–EPIC FAIL.

(What, by the way, does epic fail mean? Is it from a game or movie or community or something? Or just exactly what it sounds like–a failure of epic proportions? I’m clearly not “up” on the current lingo. I just pretend.)

We didn’t walk out with a single book. Nor did we walk out with the mama’s sanity. I’m happy to tell you it was recovered a few hours later, though. During naptime, incidentally.

Monday morning will find us trying again, this time with the double stroller (unless we’re all rested and fed and I decide to make this another training session that will not punish the sweet and not so sweet library-goers) and only one goal in mind–FIND SOME BOOKS. I’ll let you know what we carry home. If anything. Ha.

Thing #2–”The Sitcheeashun”

So many of you have contacted me asking how my sweet and wonderful and amazing mama is doing, and I know I’ve slacked in not always responding to every inquiry. Do know that we appreciate your prayers and encouragement more than you even know. Also that, even though I’m sorely behind on The Email and The Facebook Messages and The Twitter DM’s and such, and I don’t write much or talk much about all of it, this is a day in, day out THING we’re all dealing with, and though I feel that I, personally, am making a few baby steps toward a more healthy personal life in this “post-my-parents’-separation-and-divorce-proceedings” state, it is still so very consuming, so very hard, and so very, very heart wrenching for all involved. Just because I’m not talking much about it here doesn’t mean there’s not much going on with all of it and that it’s not a huge part of my daily life.

Thank you so much for your care and concern–we love each of you dearly. The Lord uses every one of your emails, or messages or whatever the form of contact to encourage me, often right when I’m needing it most. Just knowing there are so many people out there loving and caring and praying both near and from afar is like balm to my sometimes so weary spirit. But rather than me giving you an update on my mama, who I know is just as blessed by all of you, I’ll let her do it, being that she posted tonight herself.

Thing #3–Will Work for Free Food

Many of you probably heard that yesterday (Friday) was “Cow Appreciation Day” at Chik-fil-A. Being that we are shameless and can’t turn down something labeled FREE, we totally dressed ourselves in cow attire and got ourselves a whole heap’a free chicken. And fries. And milkshakes.
Just look at how much grub we scored. We didn’t pay a penny. The only thing we spent was the gas to drive the couple miles over there.

Some people would call it exploitation of minors. I call it, “Get your costume on, child, if you want to eat tonight.”

Yes, Troy is saying “Mooo.” I think he was implying we’d all have morphed into what our costumes portrayed by the time this meal was over.

We kinda did. See?

We take it all quite seriously.

But hey, not only did we get a free meal (or four) out of it, but we got to hang with The Cow himself. See, we weren’t the only people wearing cow costumes.

We actually weren’t. There were MANY people who had heard the news and were far more decked out than we were. A literal herd of cows. Or, you know, people-cows.

If this isn’t enough cow-age for you, see more in the video below, in which it’s proven that we’ve trained our children well AND in which I actually do call my child, well… a cow.

Thing #4–The Lobster

SINCE you all begged.

AND you begged so nicely.

AND you won’t let me hear the end of it.

I’m obliging you.

Behold.

The Lobster Back.

(Click to make larger. If you dare.)

You’ll be happy to know that it has darkened MUCHO since then and has evened out with many trips to the beach and pool. But you can still see the teensiest bit of that hand print on there.

Thing #5–This is the end

Just because I like the number five better than the number four. It’s a nice odd number. I’ve always preferred counting by fives to counting by twos.

THE END.

Do you remember that scene in the movie My Girl when the amazingly-named Vada Sultenfuss coerces Thomas J. into sneaking out to the old people’s bingo game? And she calls him a pacifist and a bed wetter because, 11 year olds that they are, he’s scared to go? I always thought she was saying “pessimist” and “bad weather.”

And you know when they’re riding their bikes down the street and “Good Lovin‘” is playing in the background? My brother and I sang the song as “Doodle Oven.” (In our defense, we were, say, four and eight years old. The music of the ’70’s wasn’t exactly part of our daily routine.)

Then, you know the part where Vada is talking to her English teacher–the one to whose picture she later croons the words of “Bill! I love you so, I always will!” and draws a heart around his face in her school picture–and she tells him she’s been working on her summer reading list and needs to hurry home to finish War and Peace? I was certain she was saying “Warren Peas.”

(Apparently those weren’t the only things in that movie I didn’t quite “get” back then because somewhere right in there my parents did a cleaning out of the movie closet and that one didn’t exactly make the cut. I rented it for old times’ sake a year or so ago… and I saw why. Heh.)

Well. I once asked my mom about this “Warren Peas” fellow and found out that, hidy-ho and fancy that, it’s the name of a book. A famous one at that. Kinda like the books I had on MY summer reading list–you know, Samantha Saves the Day and Paula the Waldensian–except that, lo and behold, I didn’t actually have one of these newfangled Summer Reading Lists.

So, since I was homeschooled and thus didn’t have an English teacher making me a list, but I’m a huge fan of the list and a gargantuan fan of the summer reading, I thought I’d take Vada’s example and make me a list. Which I did that summer, and the one after that, and the one after that, and the one…

That first year the list probably included such classic titles as Beezus and Ramona and Rainbow Promise and moved over the years through Princess in Calico, Home Fires at the Foot of the Rockies, all the Anne books, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Elsie Dinsmore, The Cay, Stepping Heavenward (15+ times), The Bronze Bow, Hind’s Feet, more Lamplighter books than I can count, Jane Austen, Lucy Winchester, the Isabella Alden/Pansy books and, oh goodness, so many more. If I had a nickel for every minute I spent sprawled out on my bed with a good book to get through those 110 degree summer days, I’d, of course, be able to build an entire library and fill it with more books than I could ever read.

Now that I think of it, I never actually made it to War and Peace. Actually, in all honesty, other than the works of both Jane Austen and L. M. Montgomery, Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, I didn’t make it through as many of the true classics as I probably should have. I’m eternally damaged, as you can see.

Anyway, other than to think fondly of my favorite girlhood books, the point of this is that I haven’t made a summer reading list in a long ol‘ time. Mostly because I haven’t had much time for summer reading in a long ol‘ time.

But it’s time. I read when I can snag some time throughout the year, but it’s almost exclusively books (good ones, still) on parenting, marriage and other practical topics of interest. It’s like it’s just part of the facts of life: once you graduate high school, good fiction doesn’t exist. But I’ve heard tell there ARE, in fact, some good books out there that I haven’t yet read, that are just… for fun. Good fiction.

This is where you come in. I want to revive the old habit of making my summer reading list, but I have a whole bunch of blank lines on that paper. I need suggestions of your must-reads. Any author, any topic, any story line. What are you reading?

Help a girl out?