Don't you wish TV was better?

I thought I'd let ya know what is ahead for me this week, and that I might not be around.  Quit yer sniveling...you'll get through it.  

I'm probably no more busy than you are, but I handle it worse.

It's already Tuesday (YIKES!) and I have 2 of my newest Relief Society girlies graduating from high school today, so I need to scoot about and get flowers and goodies to them.  That will be fun!  Of course it's gymnastics day, so it'll be a tight squeeze to get it all taken care of, but I'm an expert at that.

Tomorrow is our last dance class day of the season - but more importantly - it is BOOK CLUB night! We'll be reviewing Escape (and I still contend that polygamy eerily parallels The Bachelor) and my house is a wreck!  So I must clean and make some treats for the shin dig.  I also need to figure out what time my book group is meeting.  I really must pay better attention to details.

Thursday is back to gym and a host of classmom/church responsibilities to take care of and most importantly - it's the day to get ready for our big, fat, dance recital weekend!  WOOHOOO  

I don't have the kids' costumes altered, yet (whoopsies) and it'll be one day of rehearsing and one day of recital-ing and a lot of running around and sweating. It's a veeeeeeery long production and I'm planning on moving to the Zen portion of my brain to get through it.  

On top of these small things, I still have a calling (and a sister who has to find new housing by this Sunday and she has lost her job - argh!) and working out AND I decided to do something highly religious this week.

In my copious spare time, I decided to re-read The Book of Mormon this week.  

What was I thinking?

I've felt snark-y and not very patient with people lately.  This is evidenced by my saying to someone about her disdain for her Visiting Teaching route, "We're all big girls and we can do hard things - I believe in you."

Umm, that wasn't probably the answer she was looking for.  That was evidenced by her 0_0 (deer in the headlights) face back at me.

I thought that maybe doing something like this would help me feel more peaceful and help me get things in perspective. We'll see. You don't need to tell me that a massage would also bring about peaceful feelings and hurt my eyes less than reading.  he he  

But I need to get on top of my spiritual game and I think this will help me as it has in the past. I feel a lot of pressure to always be spiritually ready for drama now.  This morning, I awoke to a 1:30 am email from a sister asking if I was awake as she needed someone to talk to.  I love her and would have been happy to talk to her at 1:30 am about whatever it is, but I was sleeping.   Anyhoo - I'm just trying to get at the point that there's never rest from the advice giving/listening ear having aspect of my life, so I need to be prepared.

In (near)  conclusion, If I'm not here, I'm probably doing something relating to any of those things - or am enjoying just the general moments  of motherhood - like grocery shopping, cleaning the dirt off the ceiling of the guest bath, or explaining puberty to 1.0 (because her friend and cousins didn't do a very thorough job.)   

Clearly, you will all be torn up over my absence.  I'd suggest watching some TV. But seeing as there are very few good shows on this week, you might be sunk.

In  that case, I'd further suggest you recall some old shows you used to love, and relive them in your heart and mind. Now THAT sounds entertaining!  Once upon a time, there were so many good shows.  Watch them again in your mind's eye...and share here what shows you miss!

My first game of TAG

I got tagged by Mr. Fob and while I am perhaps not one of his favorite folks on the Net, I am going to pretend he hates the others more.

The rules of the game go like so:

1.  Pick up the nearest book (at least 123 pages long.)

2.  Turn to page 123.

3.  Find the 5th sentence.

4.  Post the 5th sentence on your blog.

5.  Tag 5 friends to do the same!

Here's my sentence:

"He was a good king, his mother be damned."

Ok - that's a pretty great line, eh? Mr. Fob, with a line like that, I'm moving up in my popularity rating, right?!

It's from A Treasury of Royal Scandals: The Shocking True Stories of History's Wickedest, Weirdest, Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes, and Emperors by Michael Farquhar and provided it's ever peaceful, could make excellent hospital reading. I suspect it will be good cruise reading, instead.

Folks I'm tagging:

Marksmom

Drama

C-Dawg

Momi

and

Dee

Now - off with you to your books and entertain me!  

This week in...

...Good Book/Bad Book, we'll explore a couple of lovelies. Feel free to share your opinions.

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

I so wanted to love it. I didn't hate it. No - definitely no hate or even strong dislike of the book. But I wasn't as passionate about it as I thought I'd be. The idea is fresh(ish) and funny, but it's so overwritten, in my opinion. There's almost too much (often esoteric) humor per page. In my fiction, I don't enjoy half page footnotes in 4-point font found regularly in a chapter. That kind of writing made it difficult to read.

But all in all, it was funnish and the approach was intelligent. Basically, an angel and a demon work together to try to stop the Apocalypse. They discuss the pitfalls and greatnesses of humanity and the fight between good and evil. Cute premise, but I preferred The Screwtape Letters, but that's just me.

I give the book 4 miniMormons.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Fun and a good teen read. In my youth, I summarily dismissed anything fantasy or sci-fi and am learning, there's a bit of it that I really enjoy. This book fell into that category. It's fast and entertaining and addresses womanhood's age-old wonderment - just exactly how cool would it be to be completely and utterly gorgeous with no cares in the world?

I'm not sure if I agree with the author's (tacit) assertion that it might not rock - ergo - I still have my application in to Extreme Makeover. It's best to cover one's bases.

I give this book 4.5 miniMormons (upon consideration that it is a teen book.)

I've read Pretties (the next book in the Uglies series) and am currently reading Specials. I've not enjoyed either nearly as much Uglies, but they're still a solidly good way to spend some time in the school car lines. I give them each the Mama-school-pick-up-read seal of approval.

Stay tuned for our next installment where I review Eat, Pray, Love. In an attempt at full disclosure, I feel I should share that I'm pretty determined to try to hate it.

Good Book/Bad Book

This week, in Good Book/Bad Book, we'll explore 2 books  - neither being a non-fictional novel nor an epistle.  

Good Book

These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine - by Nancy Turner

Looooooved it!

I didn't want to read this book and certainly didn't think that I would love it. It was my book group's monthly selection.  It took a good 20 pages or so before I was hooked (which isn't long, I know), but then, I had to know more. The principal character is delightfully strong-willed, trying to be humble and patiently endure the messes of life.  I found myself reading this book while driving - my consummate endorsement ("It's so great - you'll read it while driving!")

I will definitely read it again in life - it's inspiring to me and a good mix of a love, girl power, frontier-y-ness, wit, sadness, and humor.  It explores marriage and men, life in the territories,how to be a good sister-in-law,  self-education, and grace in the face of trials.  It's a fun, quick read that leaves you a bit better than it found you.  And it's an excellent book club read - loads to talk about.  

I give it 4.5 miniMormons.

Bad Book

Celebrity Detox - Rosie O'Donnell

ohmystars it was bad.  Hard to read and the worst part, it really illustrates just how (sadly) crazy she is.  It's draining reading someone being defensive for an entire book.  Basically, she takes every hurt she experienced on The View and compiles them into a book wherein she carefully illustrates how forgiving, self-deprecating,  and good she is. I don't have a great deal of patience for self-aggrandizement, so it rather drove me insane.  I did love her Kabballah instructor, though - who would set her straight.  Sadly, she didn't get a lot of print time.  

The editorial conflicts made me nuts, as well.  In one year Blake is 5 (when he needs to be portrayed as pitiful) and then he's suddenly 7 later that same year.  Rosie admits in the book to being contradicted on her version of the truth about events from very reliable sources (her brother and Kelli.)  Still she defends her revisionist history.  To me, this made her an even less credible source to me than she was.  Making something bigger for storytelling's sake or to get more attention doesn't fly with me - it makes me think I can't trust you about details.  I noticed she did that on The View and it didn't set well with me then, either.

It read quickly and it's not a horrific way to spend a couple of hours, but what it revealed about the author was a little weird and it wasn't well-written, in my opinion.  Too choppy, disjointed, and largely not about how celebrities detox from the fame game, which I believed it would be about, given the title.

I give it 2 miniMormons (which equals 1.5 Trump combovers.)

Stay tuned for the next Good Book/Bad Book where we will discuss The Good Omen.  In the meantime, feel free to share your latest Good Book/Bad Book experience!