Women Food and God: an unexpected path to almost everything is written by Geneen Roth, who has written many books about compulsive eating and weight. She will be presenting a program at Kripalu in Lenox, MA this September. She has been on the Oprah show and some of her writings are on Oprah’s website as well. Her recent article is entitled: The Cupcake Dialogues….hello? I mean, it doesn’t even matter what she has to say really: she had me at “cupcake”. 🙂
She also offers a self-guided online retreat. This gave me an idea…why not try a self-guided- retreat, period? Seems like a (potentially) more cost-effective route (I say “potentially”, because if I really am eating everything I want, well, serving after serving of tiramisu can really add up!).
So, for August, I’m going to try to live by Geneen’s 7 guidelines for just one month: August. I wonder how it will turn out?
Kate Braestrup, signing her book "Here If You Need Me"
Kennebooks in Kennebunk hosted a book reading and signing Thursday evening with Kate Braestrup. She is a Chaplain for the Maine Warden Service by day…and author by night (well, this night, anyway).
The bookstore staffers let us know that Kate would be arriving late, but then they started bringing out the refreshments, so the crowd was appeased. First, pitchers of lemon water. Next, an urn of coffee. I got a styrofoam cup and filled it halfway; my expectations were very low, but I was yawning quite a bit (long day) and didn’t want Kate to think that it in any way reflected on her talk. Well, here’s a surprise: the coffee was great (since I’m a flavored coffee kind of gal, and this was straight up, that’s saying something). I quickly filled the cup up the rest of the way. Next came the treats: muffins and cookies. Someone said that this was the best offering of any book signing she’d ever attended. I second that.
Kate arrives and is fully present immediately. She first talks a little about who she is, and her job as a Chaplain. After that, she reads from her book “Marriage and other acts of Charity“. What is great about Kate is that she has excellent comic timing. If her day job (and/or her night job) doesn’t work out, she could always do stand up…she’s that funny.
Kate is also generous; she answers every question that is asked of her with thought and feeling. Overall, Kate was warm, witty, and worth the wait. Her first book is “Here if You Need Me“. She has a third book coming out in the fall (probably November 2010) entitled “Beginner’s Grace“, and is at work on a fourth. I can’t wait.
Things are really doing well this year. I’ve been picking zucchini, yellow squash, string beans, and sugar snap peas for a while now. I thought I’d picked the last strawberry last week, but then the funky pink-flowered strawberry plant that I found at the Portland Farmer’s Market a few months ago produced a couple more!
Pink-flowered strawberry; still producing in July
The blueberries are in full swing and I can’t pick them fast enough. The black raspberries are coming along; only have a few plants this year but they are doing great, for the most part.
I’m eating the sugar snap peas and string beans as fast as I’m picking them. Good thing my family isn’t enamoured of vegetables.
The lettuces and basil is doing great; all of the herbs are kicking butt, actually, as usual. Herbs rock! They know what to do and they do it; they need very little help from us.
The bell peppers all look great. I have one eggplant that unfortunately has a hole drilled straight through the top. The pumpkins, winter squash, and potatoes (Yukon Golds) are doing well. Even the watermelon is still alive. That’s already better results than last year.
But here’s the real news: the first two (cherry) tomatoes have ripened! They are ready to eat! I can’t wait. Now, the bad news: one of the heirloom tomatoes has a disease of some sort. The bottom ends are blackened halfway up on two of the plum style tomatoes. 😦
I will be hitting the books tonight to figure out what to do, but I’m not optimistic. Other than removing the offensive tomatoes and keeping my fingers crossed, I haven’t found much that helps this.
Some of today's garden take (notice the first tomatoes!!!)
Will be consulting these books: Terrific Tomatoes (really old, found used copy at a bookstore years ago) “By the editors of Organic Gardening and Farming”, and Garden Primer (revised edition) by Barbara Damrosch…basically it comes down to a watering problem: too much after too little, or perhaps too little calcium. One book has the nerve to say a solution is to “choose disease-resistant plants”…OY! Are you kidding me?
Okay, note to self: next year, consult crystal ball to rule out plants that will likely develop blossom end rot due to watering problems.
In the meantime, I’ve thrown those two rotted bottomed tomatoes as far away into the woods as I was able. Hopefully the rest will be okay.
Now if i can only figure out what ate the hole through my eggplant…
1. We are a group of six local women. We ranged in age from 34 (but looks like 28 was the consensus!) to mid fifties.
2. All of us knew somebody but none of us knew everybody (except one!) before we met that night.
3. We are all married.
What we do not have in common is this: our taste in books. I picked the book for the first sesson: Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg, a book that I loved by an author that I love. The book chosen for the next meeting is Shutter Islandby Dennis Lehane…’nuf said.
What is good about having divergent taste in books is that we will all, at one time or another, be forced (gently!) out of our collective comfort zones for the reading and discussion of the book that we would not ourselves have chosen, the book we would not have read otherwise. So, we will also have this in common too. 🙂
Only one of us had the foresight to actually bring the book to the meeting, which was much appreciated (especially when it came time to take a picture). She also marked some passages off to discuss, which added a lot to the discussion and made me wish that I had done the same! (note to self: bring book and mark off passages of next book for next meeting).
I generally find it easier to deal with a book toward which I don’t automatically gravitate by listening to it on audio. Your local library is a good resource for finding your book club books on CD’s (or, of course, in print), if money is tight, or if you just don’t want to spend a lot of money on a book that you will only read once. Annie’s Book Stop is another great local resource for used books. Interested in starting your own book club? Find some ideas here.
Maybe you have a lot of new babies to buy for this year. After a long time with the arrival of no babies within my personal sphere of (gift-buying) influence, I find that having just finished putting together a gift for one new baby girl, I have two more baby girls in the picture. One is here already, one is due in the fall.
I used to have a formula for baby gifts, kind of like the wedding day rhyme: “something old, something new…” Too bad that it has been so long, I can’t recall exactly what that formula was.
So, here’s my new top 10 list for what to put in a baby gift basket:
If the sex of the baby is known, consider a pink or blue addition. You may want to have all of your gifts (and even the basket itself) be pink or blue, but I’ll leave that up to your discretion.
Add something handmade to the basket. I’m a sporadic knitter, so I like to add a hat or a blanket if I have time to make it myself, or buy one at a craft show if I don’t.
A favorite book, like (of course) Goodnight Moon, is always a nice addition to a baby gift basket. Pat the Bunny is another good choice. You might consider having your entire gift consist of children’s books that you like.
Babies excrete. Often copiously. An extra outfit or a nightgown or jammies of some sort will be needed (soiled, stained, and appreciated) over and over .
Babies spew. They will need bibs. Multipacks of bibs (because, did i mention? babies drool. A lot).
Babies visually track. Get some colorful, cheerful toys that appeal to many senses: crackling, ringing, textured…and safe. Check that you are buying a toy appropriate for a newborn.
Babies sleep. Blankies and extra jammies are always needed, often in large quantities (reference #4 and #5).
Babies travel. A diaper bag, pack-type baby carrier, and so on may be nice.
Babies get dirty, so bottles of baby wash, shampoo, little facecloths and hooded towels are another idea.
Babies get red bums. Butt paste, desitin, vaseline…all might be helpful for their little bottoms at some point.
That’s it. What are some of your favorite baby gifts to give? to get?
to read bad books. i loved the book Eat, Pray, Love by elizabeth gilbert (http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/eatpraylove.htm) and was every much looking forward to the release of her new book Committed. i waited for weeks on the library wait list for it and finally the day came! it had arrived! i picked it up right away and couldn’t wait to start reading it…but my excitement didn’t last long.
it started off just fine. she started telling the story of how she met her second husband, and it was an interesting one, but then it quickly morphed into something…else. what was it…what was it that it reminded me of? oh yes! it read like a term paper. i could actually feel the footnote anxiety from my college days as i read it.
now, when i was younger i would have read any book that i started from cover to cover, no matter what. it was a point of pride. as i’ve gotten older, however, i have realized that life really is too short to waste it on undeserving books. i have also realized that some books that are very unappealing in print become tolerable, even interesting on audio.
so, i applied the “life’s too short” theory; i returned the book to the library and waited a few more weeks for Committed on audio. it was read by the author. i’ve found i have a soft spot in my heart for authors who take the time to record their books for their readers themselves. this alone makes me predisposed to like the book. i’m glad i stuck with it, but i think that the core story would have made a good magazine article. it was really too short for a book, hence the term paper written around it, presumably to add more pages.
by the way, her book Stern Men was also much better in audiobook form. i even extrapolated the phrase “feet on you!” from the audiobook and applied it to my real life (much to my husband’s annoyance). 🙂
have any of you felt this pressure to read a book through to the end even if you thought it was awful?
Remember every fall when your new teacher would ask you to write an essay on “what I did on my summer vacation”? and you could never think of a thing? Well, how about getting a jump on things this year by writing “what I am going to do on my summer vacation”!
Inspired by Laura Dolce’s column in the York County Coast Star this past thursday, who was talking about her summer wish list, I decided to put together my own. I actually do this every year, but not usually this early. see if you can notice any recurrent theme in my list.
First, the pre-to-do list (it’s short):
Read the Tourist News every week. it’s not just for tourists anymore.
Check out the local library for summer programs for your kids. they’re free, and fun!
Get online and google the dates of the annual events
Now, here’s what i want to do this summer (this is the top 10):
Big Daddy’s in Wells for a Kahlua Browie ice cream cone.
Mini-golf at Wonder Mountain in Wells…although a friend told me about Shaw’s Ridge in Sanford, which we may be checking out instead
The (annual) Strawberry Festival in South Berwick. Every year we mean to go and never make it. this year it’s on saturday 6/26, and it’s been on my calendar for 2 months already.
Congdon’s Doughnuts at least once, for blueberry donuts (me) and blueberry turnovers (my daughter) for breakfast.
Ogunquit Playhouse; there are shows for adults as well as for children all summer. note: please do not bring kids to the evening adult shows…nothing will cramp the style of the actors more than a bright-eyed 12 year old front and center when he is trying to say his risqué lines.
Kennebunkport, to walk and poke around in all the little shops.
Kennebooks…visit the bookstore near me as often as possible!
when i go to the gym, i bring a book (for distraction from stairmaster), am if it’s a day i have to go immediately to work, a clothing change. oh, and car keys (except for once, but that’s another story). goal: get in, work out, then get out as fast as i can. it’s interesting to me that others do not. i am constantly amazed at what i see when i get there. what are some of their agendas?
the sitter: today there was a man at the gym; there is one like him every time i go. he arrives. he chooses a weight machine. he sits. he waits. he stretches. what is he doing? he rests his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. perhaps he is thinking, “how did i get here?”. i, on the other hand, am thinking: “please get up sometime today because i need to use that machine!” doesn’t he have chairs at home?
the baggage carrier: sitting (!) on a weight machine bench. has a gallon of water. a notebook. an ipod. sunblock. gym bag. “hello? are you unaware of the locker room directly to your left?” perhaps he has no peripheral vision?
the poser: this may be a man or a woman. they are decked out in their finest gym-wear. they have their hair done. they choose weight machines that are near the mirrored wall. then, for a moment, you think they may actually be going to, you know, exercise…but no. they drape themselves over the machine and strike a pose, then look in the mirror. they adjust the pose, then look in the mirror again. “hello? you aren’t alone here; we can all see you!” this begs the question: don’t they have mirrors at home?
the laundress: there was actually a woman in the ladies’ locker room doing her ironing. standing there in her underwear doing her ironing. okay, so you know where i’m going with this, right? don’t you have an iron at home? actually, come to think of it, i don’t. hey, maybe i could make this work for me! i could bring my ironing and do it at the gym, instead of working out! is that worth $10 per month plus the $29 annual fee?
what do you take with you to the gym? how long do you stay?
my best work friend is moving on to greener pastures in the workforce…happy for her, sad for me. of course,we plan to stay in touch and have even gone so far as to devise ways to accomplish this (we don’t live near each other), but it is still happy/sad. In The Happiness Project (http://www.happiness-project.com/), author Gretchen Rubin talks about this feeling (she calls it ‘happy/unhappy’ in her book), when the thing that makes you happy also makes you unhappy…one of her examples is eating more than one cupcake…i can relate to that.
how to officially say goodbye? usually at my company we offer up a cake of some sort (although more often than not, my departing friend is the cake baker/procurer) and a gift certificate to a local business.
whenever there is a movie that gets my child to request (and then to actually read) the book that spawned it, i am happy. this month it happened in reverse; the movie of which i speak is “The Diary of a Wimpy Kid”. we are having my daughter’s 11th birthday party at Smitty’s (http://www.smittyscinema.com/) and this is the movie she chose, having read the “diary of a wimpy kid” and subsequent offerings in the series over the past couple of months (http://www.wimpykid.com/), long before she knew that there would be a movie coming out about it. she even has the movie poster hanging in her room, a gift from her brother. now, we seem to be surrounded by all things wimpy…and it’s all good.
have any of you adults seen a kids’ movie lately that made you laugh out loud? this one definitely will. some of the kids had seen the movie already, but even they were excited to see it again, and every one of them sat in their seats for the entire hour and 33 minutes, eyes on the screen.
weight. She will be presenting a program at Kripalu in Lenox, MA this September. She has been on the Oprah show and some of her writings are on Oprah’s website as well. Her recent article is entitled: The Cupcake Dialogues….hello? I mean, it doesn’t even matter what she has to say really: she had me at “cupcake”. 🙂
Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker 
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