It’s baseball season in this neck of the woods. And feis season, too. So that means we’re in survival mode around here. Or something close to it. There’s barely enough time to finish up the school work and complete only the most basic of chores before we are in the car and headed off to somewhere. My reading list reflects this.

Not Your Mother’s Make-Ahead & Freeze Cookbook. My kids are familiar with frozen bean/rice/cheese burritos. I’ve made them before. Also, a few years ago, just before baseball season, I had it together enough to set aside an afternoon and make quite the selection of hand-sized fold over calzones for the freezer.  They were perfect for the season. But, for whatever reason, I just wasn’t motivated enough to do the same this year. Enter this book. Jessica Fisher has some new takes on old stand by’s that I can’t wait to try. Make ahead breakfasts, snacks, dinners and lunch ideas. All of them sound easy and tasty enough.  Which is my biggest beef with this cookbook. No pictures. I can’t think of one cookbook – excepting the Joy of Cooking – that I use faithfully that doesn’t have pictures.  A product of my times, I suppose.  The consolation prize to this is that her website, Life as Mom, does have pictures, so if you feel like flipping back and forth, it’s an option. Bonus! On her website there are quite a few “freezer cooking plans”. I don’t know if I’ll be motivated enough to get to any of the big plans, but I’m at least inspired to get back into the kitchen and try. Which is saying something, don’t you think? A note, you’ll need her cookbook to put in place any of her full scale plans as she always incorporates at least a few recipes from the book. Read More…

This book has been out awhile, I know. And most of you have probably already looked at it.  I just borrowed it from the library  for some inspiration. I guess the thinking is, if I’m in survival mode I can inspire myself through the beginning of July. Taking it in bite-sized chunks as I go. Also, spring cleaning – or what passes for it here – always seems to call for a little spring spruce up following. Wouldn’t you agree? I’m not inherently good at decorating. It doesn’t come easily or naturally to me.  Myquillyn Smith gives me permission to go bigger than just rearranging the few knick knacks we have and encourages me to go ahead and take a chance.  Paint can be painted over and nail holes patched in the walls.  And always, always, she reminds us “it doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.” Always a good thing to remember in the thick of cleats and mud and stuff. Read more…

 by Meg Donohue. Like anyone needs an instruction manual. This was a quick read and, though, it started slowly, I enjoyed it well enough. That is, it’s good but I can’t gush. It’s light enough that it can be thrown into a tote bag and read during baseball team warm ups, the slow parts to the game, or the long in-between waiting moments of a feis. You can alternately put it down and pick it up without fear of losing the sense of time or place within the book.  It’s not a deep book, by any means, but when you put it down you are left with the ever important impression to “be who you are.” Not bad for a quasi-mystery-chick-lit book chock full of baked goods. Read more…

 by Heather Vogel Frederick – In the second book of the series, the girls are reading Anne of Green Gables. If you enjoyed the first book, there isn’t any reason you wouldn’t enjoy this one. There’s another girl added to the mix, a “mean one” and I really enjoyed the conflict it brought back up.  In this book, Megan realizes that she still likes the “popular” crowd and is torn between her nerdy book club friends and the more chic and fashionable “fab three.” There’s silly conflict, too, of course. Skating parties and camping trips that go terribly, terribly wrong.  Of course, it’s all happy endings in the most tidy way possible, but that’s not always a bad thing. Sometimes, you just want to feel good when you close the back cover, ya know. This book – and series – is a great pick for the girls to throw in their own tote bag and pass away the boring parts of baseball. Read more…

 by Jeni Britton Bauer. Because. Duh! Seriously, my hips need this book. Or not. Anyway, this is sort of a cheat book when I add it to the list because I am not the one actually reading it. My kids are. Or rather, they flip through the book and look at the pictures, filling it with sticky notes on what to try next and for whose birthday. Several times a month they’ll start a custard in the morning, having churning in the afternoon (we have this Cuisinart maker for that), and then set it to freeze for an after game treat.  Current favorites are Chocolate Bombesauce and Buckeye State Ice Cream. Except for the child who refuses to budge from vanilla or mint flavored ice cream. Read more…

by Fr. Reginal Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. This is a small book that packs a big punch. I take it slow, reading only what I can digest at the time. Which isn’t much as it’s very much above my head.  That is, it has taken me nearly a month and a half to not quite finish the 112 pages. It’s an intellectual look at the Spiritual Life and the phases of maturity that one needs to pass through.  Garrigou-Lagrange argues that our spiritual life is not much different than the physical life in that we need to pass through the stages of childhood, youth, and adulthood. The conversions from what aspect to another are the same as “the aridity of the senses” described by St. John of the Cross. The only bad thing I can say about this is that it made me hypersensitive to how spiritually immature I am and that I am really not confidant I will ever make it to spiritual adulthood, or “perfection.” See what I mean? Even the word “perfection” conjures up so much angst! More so, I wonder if I am not stuck teetering between childhood and youth and if there is really any hope I will have a “more or less successful” conversion into the latter.  Even with the allowable “more or less successful” criteria for passage from one stage into the next, I find I am woefully inept.  Sigh. Thank God for grace and mercy. Read More…

 by Fr. Robert Barron. This book suffers from a bad title. Truthfully, I bought it for encouragement. So often I find myself liking books other Catholics find morally objectionable. The same is often true with movies and TV shows. The Introduction by Cardinal Timothy Dolan sets that sort of worry to rest. And Fr. Barron shows us how engaging with the culture – and not just condemning it – can be done with grace and in charity. I read this book slowly, reading just one of his reviews at a time. Don’t be surprised if it stays on my currently reading list for quite some time. Read More…

 

I’m linking up to Modern Mrs. Darcy’s “Quick Lit” today and to Kelly’s This Ain’t the Lyceum’s {SQT}. Not all books need a full page review!