Foodie Friday: Last Day of School

Today is the last day of the 2008-2009 school year for my children. I cannot believe my baby finishes kindergarten today! I can't believe they'll all be home all summer long! You can bet your bottom dollar the book bench is loaded down with library books, I've laid in extra stores of bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and caps for the cap guns, and the freezer is full to bursting with rocket pops. I've got no fancy food or cookbook to share this Foodie Friday. Summer is about basics, and it doesn't get much better or more basic than the rocket pop. Cherry, lemon, and blue raspberry. It's got a little something for everyone. When the school bus rounds the corner this afternoon, I'll be ready.

Meme Post

The Book Bench has been tagged with a meme. Actually, A Lawyer Mom from A Lawyer Mom's Musings tagged my nine year old daughter Hayden with this one. She has to list seven awesome things about herself and then tag another blogger(s). I think Hayden is chock full of awesomeness but wasn't sure if she would create a list about herself as she isn't exactly a self promoter. After some blushing and head scratching, she came up with this list of "Seven Awesome Things About Hayden":

1. I think I'm awesome at art, especially messy art.
2. For a nine year old, I'm awesome at writing with my feet.

3. I think I'm awesome at reading, especially good books.

4. I'm awesome at finding things, but not always my own.

5. I'm awesome at observing things.

6. I'm awesome at telling Ethan stories.

7. I'm awesome at thinking. I do it all day long.

Well, I love her list! I couldn't agree more, but I would like to add that Hayden is awesome at logic puzzles like Sudoku,

making cootie catchers (aka fortune tellers).

swimming the backstroke, hula hooping, making me smile, and keeping the baby carrot farmers of America in business. She eats them morning, noon, and night the way other people breathe.

So Hayden decided to tag her Tia Ana, my college aged sister who is a fledgling blogger at Shamrocks and Chancletas and her Aunt Jane at Jane's Journey. We think they are both awesome at everything but especially at achieving their goals and looking stylish doing it. Tell us seven more awesome things about yourselves.

Lemonade War Update

Swim team practice was cancelled for my kids on Friday afternoon, leaving us with a few unscheduled hours. Mostly we loafed around the house reading and/or playing with plastic army men. I read The Lemonade War and have been urging my older kids to read it ever since. That sort of makes no sense as they are the ones who selected it in the first place. I know they will eventually read it, but I want to discuss it with them. There is some great stuff in there about marketing and sibling rivalry. There was one unresolved bit at the end, the theft of some money, which I found dissatisfying. I like justice to be served, I suppose. Other than that, I strongly recommend The Lemonade War for second through fifth grade readers.

Foodie Friday: Lemonade

School is about to let out for the year here in New Jersey so we visited the library yesterday to stock up on summer reading material. When my kids are on summer vacation they like to read about other kids on summer vacation. That makes sense, but unfortunately it led me to allow a book to come home which promises to be like inviting a migraine headache for a visit. It is Jacqueline Davies' The Lemonade War. It is about a brother and sister who engage in an all-out lemonade stand war. Apparently we will also learn a bit about the multiple intelligences as the brother Evan is "people-smart" and his sister Jessie is "math-smart," according to the back cover. I think some math, advertising, and economics get thrown in as well. Each chapter of this book written for third through fifth grade readers opens with the definition of a marketing term such as "joint venture" and "underselling." All in all, it sounds like a good summer read for my kids. Here's the rub: they are going to start begging me to help them to set up a lemonade stand. I don't know what it is about my children, but the idea of selling food to people fascinates them. My daughter is not and never was a Girl Scout. She has no interest in badges, campfires, and sit upons. But once a year when her friends show up with their cookie order forms she turns green with envy. And every summer all three kids campaign for a lemonade stand. We live on a busy road with no sidewalk and hardly any shoulder. It would be one dangerous and probably unprofitable business venture. Besides, I want to spend my summer lazily sipping Arnold Palmers (equal parts lemonade and iced tea) not mixing them up for strangers. Hopefully they can live their entrepreneurial dreams vicariously through Evan and Jessie as they read The Lemonade War. There is also a website at www.lemonadewar.com for kids and teachers with recipes and ideas that might be worth visiting if they enjoy it.

The Eyes Have It

I've been feeling old lately as my eyesight just isn't what it used to be. Considering that I've been wearing eyeglasses since I was a preschooler, what it used to be wasn't much to write home about either. I've been living that joke that goes, "You don't need stronger glasses, you need longer arms," as I hold papers away from me and squint. I reached rock bottom about a week ago when paying bills. I had to call my six year old away from building an elaborate Lego and plastic army man battlefield to read my account number off a credit card bill. The print was too fine for me to read. God knows I didn't want to write the wrong number on my check causing the payment to be late in light of the current national credit card crisis. So my poor vision had me feeling old. The antidote? Visiting my ophthalmologist's office. Holy cardigan sweaters! The room was packed with septua- and octogenarians! I never felt so scantily clad in capri pants and a short sleeve t shirt. Every other person in the room had either a cardigan or windbreaker on and looked like an understudy for this guy.

That's fine. I'm all for layering. Here's my problem. There was nothing good to read! I've said it before that the only reason I go to the doctor and dentist regularly is to catch up on my tabloids. Health schmealth! I want to know what's going on with Heidi and Spencer, Brad and Angelina, and those spunky Real Housewives of New Jersey. It seems like everyone else at my eye doctor's office wants to read Better Homes and Gardens, something published by AARP, or a magazine called Somethings of World War II. I wish I could tell you what the something is but my pupils were dilated and I couldn't quite make it out. Don't these people care about Jon and Kate and poor stressed out Susan Boyle? Ah well, I left the office non the wiser about what's happening with those cat fighting girls from The Hills, but with a prescription for new eyeglasses in my hand and a spring in my step.

Happy Bloomsday!

It's June 16 or Bloomsday today, the day on which all of the events of James Joyce's Ulysses occurred. I just love Joyce, both his writing and his own personal story. If I could have a few more daughters, I would try to convince my husband to let me name them after some of the women in Joyce's life and writing, Nora and Molly and Evangeline. The first time I ever truly felt smart in a college class and not just as if I were pulling the wool over everyone's eyes was in a seminar on Joyce. Thank goodness we never got to reading Finnegan's Wake or the feeling of academic competence would not have lasted! If you are not so fortunate as to be able to spend Bloomsday 2009 on the streets and in the pubs of Dublin, at least celebrate it by listening to, or better yet telling, a good story.

Trifecta!

My book club selected David Benioff's novel City of Thieves for this month's reading. I am feeling lucky because

1. Although it is available in paperback in bookstores, I was able to obtain a copy from my library and save even more money.

2. That library copy is a LARGE PRINT EDITION. Listen, I'm not getting any younger, folks, and neither are my eyes. They really appreciate large type when I am reading around midnight.

3. I was reading this book around midnight because it is so good! It is so entertaining in fact that I purchased a copy for someone for a Father's Day gift and plan to recommend it to high school students looking for outside reading suggestions.

City of Thieves opens with a frame story device. A screenwriter named David visits his retired grandparents in Florida, curious about their experiences in Russia during World War II. When David asks his grandfather to clear up some some holes in the story, points of confusion, his grandfather tells him, "You're a writer. Make it up." From there, readers are treated to the story of 17 year old Lev Beniov, living in Leningrad ("Piter" to its inhabitants) during the Nazi siege of 1942. Lev must join forces with Kolya, a charismatic Russian soldier, on a dangerous and darkly comic quest. City of Thieves is so full of grim details, action, and humor that I had great difficulty putting it down. As I said, it was a win, win, win reading experience!