July 2019 in Review

Posted on August 2, 2019 by Thistle

July was an exercise in endurance for my family. Not only did we have the last of the surgeries and weeks of scattershot happenings, but we got a few unpleasant surprises that have altered the course of at least this next year of our lives. Back in early July, Morrigan found out that his “full ride” ROTC scholarship only covered tuition, not room and board. We could deal with that. He took out some loans (about $10k) and switched to cheaper housing on campus at KU. But a few days ago, the DOD denied him altogether because of a few self-diagnosed “allergies” (like pineapple makes his mouth itch). He cannot reapply to the Air Force, and he loses his scholarship completely. Without it, he would need to come up with an additional $15k to attend KU, even with their scholarship granting him in-state tuition rates, and we just can’t afford that. All of a sudden, on July 29th, my son no longer has a college plan, and without the Air Force, his career plans must change as well.

(frazzled me…)

These are low blows, but we’re working on them. Morrigan has applied to a local community college where my dad is a prof, and is currently looking for both a job and a cheapo car. He’s also considering going into Navy or Army right away and deferring college, instead. Everything is a bit scattershot and up in the air right now, but one thing is for sure: Our original plans to drive Morrigan to Kansas on August 21st are no longer our plans. We didn’t really see this one coming. I’m just glad that by the time this second big blow came, Morrigan had pretty much prepared himself, and he’s actually feeling okay about this (most of the time, anyway). Still, how frustrating, right? Thank goodness he has some options!! And also: thank goodness President Obama passed those laws that allow us to keep him on our insurance regardless of whether or not he’s a student!

As for me, I’m just ready for the heat to end and school to begin, as all my readers might expect. I’m reorienting myself constantly with all the new changes and trying to catch my breath. Fingers crossed that the next month goes smoother, right??

Reading
Very little reading in my life right now. I only managed to read a single book this month, The Stranger Diaries. At least it was really good!

Watching
It’s been a TV-heavy month for me, which is fairly typical of the summers, I’ve found. I finally got to see the Good Omens mini-series, which was AWESOME and definitely my favorite thing watched all month. I also got to see the newest season of Stranger Things, and an interesting based-on-real-life mini-series called Mrs. Wilson. (Ruth Wilson plays her own grandmother in that one!) Then my youngest son has been binge-watching Friends, which I never saw much when it was on, so that’s been an interesting cultural touchstone to see. In movies, there was only one this month – I finally managed to watch the third volume of How to Train Your Dragon, which I actually thought was better than either of the first two movies.

Health
July was another month of doing very little in terms of health. I mostly ate gluten-free. I did some gentle walking for Wizards Unite. Aaaaand that was about it, until late in the month when I saw my PCOS doctor and she put me on a new medication. I’ll write about this a bit more once I’ve had time to evaluate it, but I’ll just say here that starting a weekly injection (that I do myself!) is a really scary thing. Beyond that, despite the lack of exercise and my total apathy toward health this month, I did manage to maintain for the month, and I also confirmed that gluten is bad for me. Both are WINS in my book!

Highlights of July
Since July was an exercise in just-keep-swimming, these highlights were REALLY needed to keep me going…

  • Jason’s surgery went well and we’re done with surgeries for the summer, yay!
  • meeting my nephew Kyler for the first time!!
  • family reunions: seeing siblings and some extended family for the first time in months
  • Morrigan enjoying (most) of his Appalachian Trail trip
  • my grandpa getting through his surgery and out of the hospital successfully
  • new (much cooler) haircut! –>
  • Laurence finishing summer school
  • Ambrose turned 17!
  • Summer Sendoff party for the new college kids (oh the irony…)
  • and of course, tons and tons of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite!!!!!!! Especially Community Day, and meeting up with other players in person!

Coming up in August
I have no idea. Yay! School will start for the two younger boys on the 19th, and we have a few family birthdays, and Jason is going to Wisconsin at the end of the month for his brother’s wedding. Otherwise, the rest of the month will all depend on Morrigan’s situation – military or community college or full time work or…who knows? I was looking forward to getting back into a routine, but at this point…sigh.

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Wellness Wednesday – Carb Diaries, Part 2

Posted on July 31, 2019 by Thistle

Back in early March, I bit the bullet and increased my daily carb intake from around 35% to over 50%. It was the first time I’d eaten that many carbs on a regular basis in about seven years, since a doctor urged me to cut them back in 2012. As it turns out, my body never adapts to lower-carb diets. My muscles need glycogen! For the last five months, I’ve been learning to live this new way and experimenting to figure out what is and isn’t related to seven years of terrible-for-me nutrition.

March – Eat All The Carbs

March was purely about increasing carbs and seeing what happened as a result. I wasn’t trying to lose weight, or exercise a specific amount, or anything. The only goal was to eat more carbs, see what happened, and ask more questions. I had a lot of good results, and began to wonder about some of the stranger symptoms I’ve had over the years. Could the Effexor side effect of really high body temp (not a normal side effect!) be related to the body temperature problems I had due to lower carbs? Could calorie counting for weight loss actually work now, the way it used to before I cut back on carbs? Could my PCOS symptoms and abnormal hormone blood tests be related to the abnormal menstrual cycle and hormone changes that began when I cut carbs? Would injuries like my broken foot have healed faster and more normally if my body was properly fueled? Etc.

Of course, I can’t answer every question, but I’ve learned something important throughout my adult life: When you have an underlying problem, you’re going to get weird reactions to things most people respond normally to. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that if you have an underlying condition, you might have extreme weight gain on medicines that don’t normally cause weight gain, or you might not react normally to the calories-in-vs-calories-out equation, or your broken foot might take years instead of months to heal. All those years when I had the tooth infection, my body never responded normally to anything! But it began responding normally as soon as the infection was gone. March was about discovering that I’d essentially had a seven-year-long health condition, and now that condition was gone. And of course while I’d like to have discovered this years ago (or never gained the condition in the first place), March was about finding hope that I’d have some control and normalcy back for my body.

April – Failing to Count

The plan for April was to count calories and see if I could lose weight. Unfortunately, April was a bust. I tried counting calories, but other health issues took precedence, and I discovered one small negative side effect from reintroducing carbs: my daily calorie intake increased, because carbs don’t fill you up as much. There was just too much going on, so I put off this goal and just continued to relearn how to balance a diet with a higher carb percentage.

May – Nixing Gluten

In an attempt to counter what is likely an autoimmune disorder (the hives stuff), I cut gluten from my diet. I’ve said before that I have a complicated history with gluten, and this seemed to be a good first step. The goal was to cut gluten for a couple weeks, then reintroduce and see what happened. However, as soon as I cut gluten, the whole calories-in-vs-calories-out equation suddenly started working. I began losing weight slowly but surely. The negative side effect in April – increased daily calories – disappeared because I didn’t need nearly as much food when I cut gluten, even while keeping my carbs around 55% of my diet.

By the end of the month, my body seemed to recognize that I was getting enough carbs on a regular basis, and some of the weirder symptoms – like sudden extreme thirst if I had a day when that percentage dropped below 50% – leveled out and/or disappeared. All the positive results I noted in the first link above remained positive, while the two mixed results have either turned positive or have been dealt with by other means (ie starting an antidepressant). And speaking of antidepressants – that question above about body temp and Effexor? Well, turns out that WAS related to my diet, because I don’t have that symptom now. Yay!!

June – Crashing, Burning, Getting Up Again

So…June wasn’t a good month for me, and while I kept eating GF, I started eating a lot of junk and drinking too much alcohol, and long story short, I regained the weight I lost in May during the first three weeks of the month. I got myself together in the last ten days, though, and discovered two things: First, I tried re-adding gluten. That resulted in a mild feeling like a cold or allergy symptoms (that I knew couldn’t be true allergies, given the number of antihistamines I’m on for hives!). It also resulted in several days of mild stomach cramps and a bump up in weight because I was carrying water (my face was so swollen!). Second, I confirmed that with the higher carb levels in my diet, the weight bumps from too-much-alcohol don’t stick around for weeks/months as they used to. They flush out like any other too-many-calories-fests and disappear after a few days. Despite the first three crappy weeks of June, I ended up the month less than half a pound over where I began it. Cool.

July – Testing, Testing…

July marked my second set of blood tests since switching my diet over, this set specifically for PCOS and hormone levels. And as it turns out, the change in diet seems to have little effect on the bloodwork – at least after only a few months. My progesterone is still too low (though a tiny bit higher), my testosterone still on the higher side of normal (though a tiny bit lower), and my estrogen is sitting about exactly where it’s been. Time will tell if these slight changes will continue to improve.

***
To be honest, other than back in March and May, I’ve done very little to really check what is and isn’t going on in my body. All I know is that my facial inflammation has disappeared, heavy exercise and strength training no longer give me week-long crippling pain, I have more energy, and many of my longterm medical problems have disappeared. That’s all good enough for me!! I’ll continue to keep my carbs high!

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A Plea for Help

Posted on July 29, 2019 by Thistle

I know I don’t have a big readership, and some of you have already seen me talk about this on other social media sites, but I need to take a moment to talk about a dear friend of mine who really needs help. I’ve never done something like this on my blog before, and I rarely even post these sorts of things on FB where everyone does, but this situation is overwhelming and my friend and her family could use every bit of help they can get.

Natalie and I met in high school and have remained friends ever since. She currently lives in Houston with her husband, Chris. Her parents live in San Antonio, across town from where I live, and her disabled younger brother lives with them. Natalie and her family lived at Camp Lejeune for a period of time while her father was in the Navy, and unfortunately, they were exposed to toxic water while they lived there. The toxic water situation at Camp Lejeune is well-documented and many lawsuits are in process, with settlements slowly going out to vets and their families. However, due to this contamination, Natalie and her family have suffered many health problems over the years. Her younger brother, Paul, was born at Camp Lejeune and is severely disabled with several different neurological and functioning disorders. He needs full-time care. Her mother has had multiple brain tumors/surgeries and now lives with a shunt. Her father has developed myelodysplastic disorder, which basically means that his body isn’t making red blood cells,  so that he is really weakened and must get constant transfusions.

So far, Natalie’s family is still waiting for their settlement re: Camp Lejeune, and with the recent myelodysplastic diagnosis for her dad and another stroke for her mother, Nat’s parents now need someone with them full-time, especially as they still care for Paul. Nat and Chris have been planning and trying to move to San Antonio this summer. Nat is a home-health caregiver who works out of Houston and San Antonio, and she’s trained in the care her parents and brother need. Sadly, Chris is having trouble finding work in San Antonio. He has a two master’s degrees in math and chemistry and has spent years both working in chemical research labs and teaching college, but he’s had no luck in getting a job here. Chris’ mother began a gofundme to help keep them afloat while they make the transition and he searches for a new job in San Antonio.

Unfortunately – because when everything goes wrong, everything goes wrong, right? – Natalie took a fall last weekend and shattered her left hip. She underwent a hip replacement on the 25th, and is inpatient-bound in San Antonio for the foreseeable future. Chris must stay with his current job in Houston for the insurance – he can’t resign and come look here, as originally planned – and Nat won’t be able to act as a caregiver for her parents and brother for quite some time. We’re hoping that she’ll be able to apply for disability and medicaid, but as with anything government-related, these things take time and you’ve got to get through a lot of red tape.

Long story short: My best friend and her family are suffering and they need help. Nat is a proud woman and I’ve never known her to ask for financial help once in over twenty years. But she needs to be with her family, and she needs her husband with her, and these are just too many burdens for five people to bear. If you can help, if you can donate anything or share her story with others, it would mean all the world to her and to me as well. Thank you.

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Sunday Coffee – The Last of the Big Adventures

Posted on July 28, 2019 by Thistle

So much is still happening, though we finally finished all the big adventures this week and have a few weeks of nothing-major-happening before the last round of crazy this summer. I’ve barely had time to sit at my computer lately, so I’m trying to catch up!

Appalachian Trail
I may or may not have mentioned (I can’t remember) that Morrigan went for a short hike through the AT with his church group. The group left on the evening of the 12th and returned home on the 20th. During that time, there were four days of hiking, roughly 38 miles they were told, and Morrigan would not have his phone during those days. So imagine how we felt when he called us sobbing on Thursday, tell us that he had an awful time and was really sick. His group had missed the sign toward camp and had hiked an extra 1.5 miles before they found a place they could call for help. During that time, Morrigan nearly slipped down the ravine and threw his hip out stopping the fall, and one of the other kids was severely dehydrated, so Morrigan gave him all his water, which caused Morrigan to get so dehydrated that he began vomiting. Four of the six groups all missed the sign and ended up in the location where they called for help, and when the support team arrived, everyone got scolded for “being off the path” and told to turn around and hike back 1.5 miles. No medical attention was given, and the support truck drove away without helping.

This was all we knew for quite some time. It turns out that most of the trip was great (or at least Morrigan loved it – I won’t harp on all the safety issues like not having a single adult on the trip that knew first air or how most of the adults didn’t finish the hike and started designating any youth who were 18 – like M – as official “adults”). In the end, at least Morrigan wasn’t badly hurt and he hydrated properly as soon as he was in camp. He was well enough to go hike with a group the next day to get the last four miles in to hit 50 (because their 38-mile-trip was actually 46, it turns out). Anyway, we were really glad when he was home safe and sound. A friend sent me the above picture which was taken only a few hours after Morrigan called us sobbing, so we knew he was okay. But seriously that was nightmarish and rage-inducing for a time…

Community Day
Wizards Unite had their first Community Day on the 20th, so I got together with a bunch of other players in town at a nearby library (one I’d never been to, and it’s lovely!). They have a quiet hall off to the side of the library that allowed us to be indoors and in air conditioning (when it was 100+ out!) and within reach of five inns, two greenhouses, and a fortress. Most of the others in the group knew each other from Pokemon Go, but those of us who didn’t integrated easily. It was awesome playing with other people, and those three hours were one of the highlights of the month! I wish I’d gotten some pictures.

Summer Sendoff
My cousin Warren is also leaving for college this fall, to Vanderbilt, so his parents threw a big summer sendoff party for him, Morrigan, and my aunt’s niece Anna, who was leaving for a semester abroad in London. It was a great big party with family from my dad’s side (also my uncle’s side) and my aunt’s side, with fajitas and ice cream sundaes and passing around books to write words of wisdom for the three guests of honor. No pics from this event either, sadly! I need to remember these things!

KU
We’ve had a bit of drama this summer regarding Morrigan’s admission to KU. First, his DOD physical was rejected due to some very small issues (like self-diagnosed allergy to pineapple – makes his mouth itch), and Morrigan had to gather tons of info from his doctor to submit for a waiver. They have all they need now, but it takes weeks for this sort of thing to go through, and we’re still waiting to hear if he’ll get that waiver. If not, he loses the ROTC scholarship. He also found out that the ROTC scholarship doesn’t cover room/board, something he was sure it did. So after he threw a few hissyfits – “College was going to be great, and now it’s just going to be hell!!” – I sat him down with the numbers and showed him how doable this was going to be. He had to make some compromises, like not living in the most expensive dorms, but that’s no big deal. And he just found out this week that his application to live in the scholarship halls – where room/board are half-price because everyone does 4-6 hours of chores each week – was accepted. So already, he has a much better handle on things, and we just await the DOD’s decision.

Summer School
Laurence’s last day of summer school was Thursday. He elected to take his Algebra II class over the summer for two reasons. First, he hates math and didn’t want to be in a math class the entire year. Second, he joined an electricity program through school that will bus him to another location for two periods a day, essentially removing one spot for electives that he gets back if he doesn’t have to take math. This is the second year in a row that he’s chosen to do a class in advance of when he needs it, and while it’s a bit of a headache with all the scheduling, I’m glad he’s taking this initiative for himself.

Birthday
Ambrose turned 17 on Thursday, and we had his party yesterday. A half-dozen of his friends came – a group who call themselves the “sauce squad” and are just as nerdy and strange as Ambrose likes to be – which made the party quite loud and rowdy. The party was baking themed, so we had a lot of Nailed-It style challenges, and the kids got to decorate the four mini-cakes we’d made for the party. It was chaotic and hilarious, though I was wiped by the end. I don’t like to include pictures of other people’s kids on my blog without their permission, so I’m just going to share my favorite pic of Ambrose from the party. His aunt got him this really awesome shirt: A cat (in glasses and an Olympic wreath hat) riding on a llama-corn under a rainbow as UFOs fly overhead. It’s quintessentially Ambrose and just plain awesome.

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The Stranger Diaries, by Elly Griffiths

Posted on July 26, 2019 by Thistle

Clare is an English teacher who adores classic horror – at least until one of her colleagues is murdered  in a fashion too similar to Clare’s favorite horror short story, and a stranger’s words suddenly appear in her diary…

I’ve been in a reading slump for quite some time, but I also spend a lot of time at my local library. Consequently, I see a lot of the new books coming out, and I will often grab one or two that sound interesting and take a peek at them. Usually they got right back on the shelves, and even the ones I take home end up being just okay. The Stranger Diaries? Now this one was awesome!

Ever since I was a kid, I loved ghost stories, especially with a dash of paranormal (or seemingly paranormal). Unfortunately, both the mystery and thriller genres are full of books that I don’t quite get along with, and I’m often disappointed by them. Every once in awhile, I accidentally stumble upon one that works for me. This was one of those times. The Stranger Diaries is written in a way that echos classic lit in pace, motifs, and style, but also stays modern enough to feel like a tribute rather than a copy. Clare’s favorite short story is interspersed through the book, with a new section revealed each time there’s a narrator shift, and it feels like a true classic rather than a story written specifically for this novel. The novel itself is less about the reader figuring out the mystery, and more about the characters as they deal with the mounting horror before them. There’s a richness in the fabric of the book that I found refreshing.

This would have been the perfect book to begin the RIP season. In fact, I loved the writing so much that I looked up Griffith’s other novels and plan to try her Ruth Galloway series in the fall!

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Happy Birthday Ambrose!

Posted on July 25, 2019 by Thistle

Another year has passed, another year of weird hijinks and fun(ky) hair and attempts to bake delicacies seen on the Great British Baking Show. Seventeen years ago, you finally made your entrance into the world after a weird four days of induction attempts. (See? You even started weird, aren’t you proud??) Now, you only have a year left at home before you must start a path for the next years of your life. It’s been a wild ride for everyone, and as I said on Instagram – you’ve been a trip and a treat, Ambrose. Happy 17th birthday!

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Unpopular Opinions

Posted on July 23, 2019 by Thistle

Back in my early days of blogging (2008!), I wrote up a tiny post that just said one thing:

Confession: I think Colin Firth is U-G-L-Y.

It was my first blog experience with negative confessions and unpopular opinions, and thankfully it was a good experience. At the time, only a handful of bloggers and a lot of friends knew my blog, and everyone knew that it was a tongue-in-cheek post, and so no one thought I was some monster for not finding Firth attractive. (It still amazes me that people can get passionate about who I find attractive, or whatever other different opinion I have…) Anyway, it was a fun post, and there was a recent Top Ten Tuesday post that I missed about unpopular bookish opinions, so I’ve decided to make a list of my (tongue-in-cheek) unpopular (sorta-bookish-at-times) opinions, just for kicks. In no particular order:

I still think Colin Firth is U-G-L-Y.

French food isn’t good and I don’t understand why it’s the standard for high cuisine. Give me Indian or Lebanese food any day!

Sometimes I prefer to watch the movie version of a book first, or I prefer the movie to the book. The Hours is a good example. It’s my very favorite movie ever. I didn’t like the book even a little.

I enjoy Stranger Things, but it’s not worth binge-watching or watching more than once.

Cooking is the very worst chore. Despite what I said a few weeks ago. I really just despise cooking and I’d do just about any other chore to get out of it.

Shows like the Big Bang Theory drive me crazy.

I would prefer to be out with friends than home reading 99% of the time.

Deckle edges on books are the worst!

Musicals drive me crazy for the most part. I have no interest in listening to or seeing Hamilton, though I’m willing to one day eat my words on that particular one. The Greatest Showman is the only musical I’ve ever 100% liked.

I’m a fast reader, but I enjoy books more when I read fewer of them, read them slower, and take long breaks from reading. Also, sometimes a book is best experienced when it is read twelve times in a row.

(Jan 2012: The month that shall forever be remembered as the month of twelve rereads of Howl.)

Pie is not my thing. I can’t think of a single pie I actually like. (On the plus side, this makes it easier to eat moderately through Thanksgiving, heh.)

Modern literary fiction, especially written by male authors, bores me to tears.

I was good at school, but had to leave college before I finished my degree because I had an infant to take care of. In the years since then, I’ve come to realize that despite being good at school, I actually hated it, and I have no desire to ever go back. Unfortunately, I do need to go back, but I wish I’d gone a trade route rather than a college route when I was 18.

While I love classics, there are many classics I dislike or can’t get through. I’ve never read a Persephone book that I thought was good. I can’t stand Mark Twain. I’ve tried to read The Great Gatsby half a dozen times and can’t get past the halfway mark. I even tried to watch the GG movie to see if that would make reading the book better, but I detested the movie, too…

Tea in all its many forms is awful. I wish I liked it, but 20 years of trying to force myself to acquire a taste for it hasn’t worked in the slightest. It’s irony indeed that my blog is named after a fictional tea shop.

Tom Hiddleston looks like Pee-Wee Herman grew older and stopped wearing so much makeup.

And these, my friends, are some of my unpopular opinions. You’re welcome. (Or not. Heh.)

Posted in Book Talk, Personal | Tagged | 10 Comments

Family Reunions

Posted on July 15, 2019 by Thistle

I had my whine-fest yesterday, but really, there have been some awesome things happening. My half-sister’s sixteenth birthday was on the 10th, and (possibly related) my brother arrived from DC for a week-long vacation. That meant my second-youngest sister drove into town with her three boys, including the newest, Kyler. Kyler is six weeks old, teeny-tiny, and this was my first time meeting him. He was adorable!!

We had a little mini family reunion for a couple hours before my family had to get back to the house to finish prepping Morrigan for his trip to the Appalachian Trail. I’m not sure if I said here before, but he joined the Mormon church back in early June. Jason’s family is Mormon and Jason grew up in that church, so Morrigan has always had an on-again-off-again relationship with it that finally became on-enough for baptism. Anyway, the young men’s groups of the whole church Stake put together this trip to the AT: eight days, including six of camping and four of hiking (about 38 miles altogether – 13 on the first day and the rest divided over three days). It’s a great opportunity, but I’m afraid Morrigan is woefully unprepared physically and mentally for this particular challenge. He was also a little upset by the amount of money he had to spend on supplies, but that’s part of growing to adulthood – sometimes you bite off more than you can chew, and you just have to deal with it. I just hope the trip goes well for him, because I really worry about all the ways it could go badly wrong – and I’m sure I’m just a nervous mother, and he’ll be happy and excited and all that jazz. Fingers crossed!!

Then there was my sister’s birthday party. As I said above, she turned sixteen last week. We had a pool party and dinner on Saturday. Lots of fun, including the two-year-old doing his “ninja dance” for us several times, and also both him and his older brother putting their hands on people’s shoulders and saying, “Hey,” in their deepest voices. Ha!! (For anyone who might be confused, watch this clip from Into the Spiderverse) Two of my aunts also came over for the party, so it was an even bigger reunion than before!

We have a few more days before my siblings and nephews leave town again, so I imagine I’ll get to see everyone at least once more. I’m looking forward to more awesome times, and will leave this post with a gratuitous adorable photo of sleeping baby Kyler:

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Sunday Coffee – Longing for Fall

Posted on July 14, 2019 by Thistle

Every year, a post similar to this one ends up on my blog. Usually it’s not quite so early, honestly. It’s usually August when the months of relentless heat finally break me, or sometimes even September or October, when fall should have arrived and it’s still 100 degrees out. But I’m early this year, and counting the days.

My house is a wreck. The grocery shopping has been haphazard and scattered for weeks. The family is living on meals we can cobble together because our main cook has been out with surgery recovery. Routines and sleep have been thrown off. The heat has been monstrous this year, with record-breaking temps since April, and there’s no relief in sight.

I count the weeks and days…five weeks until the two younger boys start school; six weeks until Morrigan goes up to college; seven weeks until all the travel/events of the summer will be over and done with; twelve weeks until we might see a temperature below 70 degrees at night; eighteen weeks until our Thanksgiving Week Vacation (and when we actually start seeing a few cool fronts!). Those are long numbers. Too long. So I drink from my autumn owl mug and dream up fun ideas for Halloween and plot the impossible dream of one day owning a summer vacation home up north somewhere.

And really, since it’s only halfway through July, I pray that August will not be as much as a heat-nightmare as it usually is, and I’ll be grateful that I’ll be in Kansas and maybe in Wisconsin at the end of August for a short-lived mini-break from the heat!!!

PS – Does the weather keep me from walking the trails to play more Wizards Unite? Um…no. So I’m probably making myself miserable, and all that jazz…you know, in full disclosure, heh.

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Akata Witch, by Nnedi Okorafor

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Thistle

From Goodreads: Born in New York, but living in Aba, Nigeria, twelve-year old Sunny is understandably a little lost. She is albino and thus, incredibly sensitive to the sun. All Sunny wants to do is be able to play football and get through another day of school without being bullied. But once she befriends Orlu and Chichi, Sunny is plunged in to the world of the Leopard People, where your worst defect becomes your greatest asset. Together, Sunny, Orlu, Chichi and Sasha form the youngest ever Oha Coven. Their mission is to track down Black Hat Otokoto, the man responsible for kidnapping and maiming children. Will Sunny be able to overcome the killer with powers stronger than her own, or will the future she saw in the flames become reality?

So imagine a setup similar to Harry Potter, where a character knows nothing about the magical world and is suddenly thrust into it and discovers she holds a unique position within that world. Now set that story in Nigeria with a non-Western magical system, and that’s loosely the setup of this book. Not to in any way say it’s a copy of Harry Potter. Not at all. It just plays on the same initial trope, then takes the book in a completely different direction. A completely awesome direction.

I don’t read a lot of middle-grade books, because too often they feel like the author talks down to the reader. My friend Stephanie recommended this one, though, so I went ahead and picked it up when I saw it on my library’s shelves. The author doesn’t talk down in this one. She strikes the perfect balance between young and universal. Sunny and her friends are well-developed, the story well-paced and ended, and the world-building just opened enough to leave room for many more books to follow. I quite enjoyed it and look forward to the next volume in the series!

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