Little House

I must admit, all these years I had never read Little House on the Prairie, nor had I really watched an episode. However, I saw the book on the list of "To Read" according to The Well Trained Mind, so I thought I'd jump on it early. I now know why I never read it.

Some may think I'm crazy, as an English major and book lover, to speak poorly of Laura and Mary and the entire family, but honestly, I do not find learning to build walls, doors (some with nails, some without), a fireplace, a roof, or a floor at all (or in the least bit) interesting. Shame on me. I went my entire life passing over the books that were in a dusty brown box in the storage room of my parents house, and now I know why.

I have tried to make the book interesting. I have tried using different voices and making boring sentences exciting, but let's face it: it's just not happening. And the worst part: My daughter shows no interest in the story, either. She will sit through a reading, but she jumps at the chance to do something else, and I'm right there with her. We will finish the book (all 300 and some odd pages), but we will not be checking out more. Shame on me.

OAMC (Freezer Cooking) Review

I did it! It's over! I followed the menu plan from onceamonthmom.com, which was my first time trying to meal plan that many days in advance, let alone cook/assemble that many meals in advance. Now, here's my review:

Pros:

• Tasty dishes that offer a lot of variety


• Although portions seem small for what my family (i.e. my husband) would consume, you can make two portions at once, or for lighter meals, just make one at a time.


• The main part of grocery shopping is done for the month, the meals are made/assembled, and I know my freezer is stocked for when my family is hungry, if we have guests, or if I'm invited somewhere and need to bring a dish.


• It's more fun cooking with someone else!


• The mess is gone! Come dinnertime, I'll only have minimal clean-up!

Cons:

• Uses a lot of time and energy


• High up-front cost


• A LOT of clean-up the day of cooking

Cost: Ingredients for April 2010's menus cost: $272.72, divided by two because I did it with my mother and the menu is meant to divide between two families of four or less. That means each of us spent $136.36, or $34.09 per week on meals! No, there aren't meals for each and every day, but we made 15 recipes, which gave us two portions of each dish. I'll explain how it works in the next post.

Overall Opinion: I am really impressed! I've already eaten/tasted three of the dishes, plus taste-testing while cooking, and while it stretched what I would normally buy for my family, everything tasted great!

Where the Wild Things Were

How many of you remember reading "Where the Wild Things Are" as children? I certainly do--it was one of my favorite short stories. So, of course, when the movie advertisements came out, they certainly seemed appealing. My daughters kept telling me they wanted to see it, so as a treat, my husband rented the movie for us. Either I had extremely high expectations, or my sense of what makes a good movie is off, despite what many critics hailed as a good movie!

The movie begins with Max as a lonely child who gets paid no attention by his sister, little by his mother, and his dad appears out of the picture--with no real explanation. He throws an awful fit, climbing up onto the kitchen counter top in front of his mother's boyfriend, and tells his mother, "I'll eat you up!" However, I missed where his mother called him a "wild thing" as the book states. He thrashes around the kitchen as his mother chases him down, and he goes as far as biting her, and then runs out the door, down the street, through the woods, and to the boat that sails to the island of Wild Things. Upon arrival, he tells them he is a king and can do magic, but the movie doesn't show him staring into their yellow eyes to prove his magical talents. He tries to live with the Wild Things, but they have family problems (just like his, I'm assuming was the theme of the movie), and he eventually sails back to his mother, who is waiting with a huge hug, a warm dinner, and chocolate cake--wait--he was given chocolate cake for biting his mother and running away? Is something a little off here?

I immediately went back to my children's book and read through the story as Max is obviously bad (although not biting his mother), sent to his room (he couldn't out-run this mother) without supper and a jungle grows in his room. He goes to where the Wild Things are, although none seem to have the emotional dysfunctional family problems the movie portrays, convinces them he has powers, but soon sails back to his bedroom once he smells good things to eat. He wakes up and finds his supper in his room, but it doesn't seem like a blatant reward for bad behavior as it does in the movie. Maybe it's just me. My husband and I had to keep telling our girls the boy was bad to disobey his mother, to yell, to bite, to run away at night, walk through a forest, get in a boat by himself, and climb dangerous rocks. Oh, and of course the movie had to contain at least one bad word. Why? Yet another reason to unplug the TV...