The Insanity of Kitchen Islands, and Other Winter Reflections (Books Lately, Winter 2023)

Well, folks, 2023 is finally over.

It was a year of extremes. Extreme joy - goals achieved, new life, and miraculous answers to prayer. And extreme sorrow - loss, suffering, death, illness, and stress of all kinds. 

In summary, 2023 really was a year to remember. 

So far, 2024 has been a year of... illness. So far we've had three colds, influenza, and a particularly violent stomach bug. Oh, I hope that we can move past this soon! 

We have also had another pregnancy and loss - not the catastrophic nightmare of last time, but only the briefest whisper of a presence before a tiny soul took flight. 

2024 has already been quite the year.

***

My goal for the beginning of this year is setting better systems in place.

A systems - meaning any personal or household routine - can be good or bad. For example, "get up, panic at how behind I am, yell at kids, rush out the door late" would be a not-so-good system. An improved alternative might be "get up, make a to-do list, switch the laundry, put away the dishes." Etc. 

I have some good systems, but I also have some not-so-good systems. Most of my bad systems have to do with poor household management - specifically, management of how my children manage their time and belongings. So much of the time what happens seems to run along these lines:

(1) The children make horrendous messes and leave them for Mom to clean up.

(2) Mom end up overwhelmed and discouraged.

Ditto with time management.

And this is obviously a bad thing. Thus, my goal this year is to work on implementing better systems. Here are some things that I have implemented, or am in-process on implementing:

(1) Teaching children to make their beds and brush their teeth immediately upon rising, so that it's not a mom-has-to-nag item for later.

(2) Writing out complete chore lists, so that I'm not randomly assigning chores all of the time.

(3) Implementing a zero-tolerance rule for clothing left on the floor. (This is a major problem in our home, and endless reminders and do-overs have done nothing to improve things.)

(4) Having children age 10 and older take over their own laundry duty. I have always done all of the laundry up until this point, but I have realized that our older children do not know how to do laundry. I need to improve on this - pronto.

(5) Using a reward system for staying on task during lessons. Each child starts the morning with five "m&m credits," and I cancel one credit each time a child is dawdling or goofing off. Remaining credits are paid at the end of lesson times. 

Note: This system worked for an impressive two days before I forgot about it. I really need to get it re-started. I find that reward systems fall by the wayside very quickly around here. I'm not sure if that's the system, or me. Does anyone have any insight on that issue?

(6) Working to standardize breakfast - i.e. assigning a particular breakfast to each day of the week. Right now I know (blessedly) that Monday is reliably "oatmeal," but after that it rather descends into a free-for-all, and the system needs improving. I have tried the "everyone makes his own breakfast" method, but that has not worked for us - the end result is inevitably a kitchen mess that would make any mum weep with despair. 

** If anyone knows of great school-day breakfasts, please let me know! Really. I need ideas.

(7) Improving our bedtime routines. Right now it usually tends toward "wild kids, stressed parents," and we need improvement.

All that to say, family life is very interesting, and it's never dull. There is always something to work on. 

What are you working on in your family life right now?

***

As usual, I am super-late with finishing Christmas activities. I realized that most of that was due to our behind-hand school year (more on that later), which caused me to push all the way to the end with schoolwork, rather than taking Thanksgiving through Epiphany as a Christmas vacation. 

Also, though, I have realized something foundational to the holidays - nothing is worth having a stressed-out Christmas. Nothing. (I've gone that route before.) So if we're doing Christmas into February (or June), fine. 

So, this season, most Christmas activities (cookies, etc.) didn't happen before Christmas. Or Epiphany.

King Cake for Epiphany. Whoever finds the hidden treat is "king for the year."

Or Candlemas.

Or Ash Wednesday.

So here we are, in the beginning of Lent, taking Christmas cookies to neighbors. (Really. I'm not kidding.)

Better late than never?

(Or make them just a bit later, and call them "Easter cookies.")

At least we did manage to get most of our Christmas activities done. Decorating Christmas cookies, baking lepkuchen, concocting our Christmas pudding (which we traditionally light on Candlemas, but illness and jobs prevented that this year), baking fruitcake, building gingerbread houses - most of it got done. The only things that I couldn't quite finish were baking the last bit of lepkuchen and serving our Christmas pudding, both of which will be frozen until after Easter.

Merry Christmas, y'all. 

(Oh, and our decorations are still up. Oops.)

Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses! This year our eldest rejected my "cheat" of assembling the houses with hot glue, and insisted on using the proper royal icing alone as a cementing agent, and surprisingly, it came together well. I also had the experience of making royal icing without a hand mixer - my hand mixer having received mortal wounds in the effort of making dairy-free nut-based cheese (which was awful). Surprisingly, making royal icing by hand was not difficult, and turned out better than my usual royal icing. 

***

But back to the topic at hand - kitchen islands.

Whose idea were they, anyway?

Because the ideal - a beautiful clean surface cheerfully serving as an extra kitchen prep area - is completely different from the reality - an insanity-producing clutter attractant.

Seriously, you guys. 

Our kitchen island does very little other than attract clutter. And mean clutter, mind you. The easy-to-put-away clutter doesn't stick around. What does stick around is the hard-to-put-away clutter - the stuff that really doesn't have a home; the stuff that is a serious nuisance. And work as hard as I might, the clutter flows onto the kitchen island far faster than I can put it away.

In fact, a week or two ago, I spent a serious amount of time clearing the surface - and the clutter was back within 30 minutes. I did this three times in one day. It was utterly futile.

And thus, I do question the sanity of whoever created these clutter-attracting beasts. "Hey! Let's make a two-ton clutter-attractant, and put one in each American kitchen! Great idea, yes?"

Some ideas are better left on the cutting room floor.

And now, some books!

***

Lord of the Flies (William Goulding, 1954) – Realistic fiction.

This book - a work of fiction in which a group of English schoolboys, marooned on a desert island, gradually descends from orderly government into savagery and barbarism - is considered a classic, and is an interesting interpretation of the workings of human nature, especially human nature in social groups detached from general society.

I have wanted to read this book ever since high school - it only took me 25 years or so to get around to it!

My reactions were mixed. The book was fairly gruesome, and made unpleasant reading. Also, some parts - such as the part about the pilot - were puzzling. I don't think I'll be going back for a re-read.

At the same time, the book is valuable and contains good material. The ending is splendidly written. And the book contains valuable insight - namely, that human nature is not naturally good. While human beings are made of good stuff, we have much evil contained within us (just as the Bible teaches, and the Founding Fathers well knew). It takes good methods of government to control the evil side of human nature, and bad forms of government can release a hellish force of evil if they do not acknowledge and allow for the evils inherent within human nature. 

I would love to hear what others thought of this book. Thoughts, anyone?

Fast Food Genocide (Joel Fuhrman, 2017) – Nutrition and nutrition politics.

I've noticed that nutrition books often have titles that are not accurate portrayals of the book's true intent. For example, a famous book about wheat has a title that implies "you should stop eating wheat," but what the author actually means is that "you should stop eating wheat, all grains, sugar, and practically all carbohydrates." And it's the same thing here. The title implies "you should stop eating fast food," but the author's message is that "you should stop eating fast food, junk food, processed food, salt, and meat, and eat a vegan diet." I really prefer titles that accurately portray the message of a book, and not just a tiny bit of it. 

I enjoyed this book. It's got a lot of great material. One thing that I especially appreciated is the author's grasp of a little-realized fact - that diet has a real influence on mental health. This is one of those things that is well-documented in the literature but not acknowledged in common medical practice, and it's a  fact that is not receiving the recognition it deserves. Our food influences our mood, and our mental health. (The author does, in my opinion, take this theme way too far, attributing everything from racism to crime to dietary deficiencies. So, a good beginning, but took it far past logic or reason.)

Two downsides of this book:

First, wokeness. In the middle of the book, the reader is suddenly treated to a pages-upon-pages chapter on the evils of Southern whites. It's long, and it's vituperative, and it's really unnecessary and out of place. A one-paragraph summary of the author's point (that nutritional deficiencies could have contributed to racial strife, which is questionable anyway) would have sufficed. 

Secondly, there are hints throughout the book that the author would prefer nutritional policies to be not just recommendations but goverment mandates. In other words, the government should control what and how people are allowed to eat. Really? 

I do understand the frustration of watching people destroy their health with bad food choices. But governmental control is, in my opinion, not the answer.

As one reviewer noted:

"I have eaten the diet that Dr. Furhman advocates since 2013. It is definitely the safest way to eat, tastes good, and has helped my health. For this I will always be thankful. But not all of Dr. Fuhrman's words in this new book, in fact, maybe only a quarter of his words in this new book, are factual. He has a political agenda and would legislate the way people eat. Perhaps it is because he cares about us, or perhaps because he would back his atheistic beliefs and feel good about himself; and also perhaps that he would grow rich in this world's assets. It is one thing to expose the poor eating habits of Americans and educate them, and now, those copying American society around the world; but it is another to enforce through civil law the way people eat."

There is good material in this book - but I'd prefer a book about straight nutrition that leaves politics alone. 

Witness (Whittaker Chambers, 1952) – Autobiography of a Communist agent turned informer during the first half of the 20th century.

A friend heard that I'd never read this book and promptly handed me a copy. In my ignorance, I thought that it was a book off of which the movie "Witness" had been made - it's not, and the two have nothing to do with each other. But without further ado, I plunged into the book.

"Witness" is the autobiographical account of the life of Whittaker Chambers, from his (very dysfunctional and sad) childhood through his young adulthood, when he became passionately and deeply involved with the American Communist party, up until his departure from the Communist party - which was an extremely dangerous thing for him and his family - and through his participation as a witness in the Alger Hiss trial (which, again, I'd never heard of).

This book has to go on my list of top favorites. It is fascinating, well-written, engaging, and covers a lot of very important American history, especially regarding the spread of Communism in America. I wish that this book were on more high school level reading lists - I'm guessing that it is the book's length that prevents this (it is quite long), but this book is a keeper.

For more on the history of Communism in America, another person to check out is Bella Dodd, who was - during the same time period - responsible for placing Communist agents in the American public school system. She also has an amazing story to tell.

Highly recommended!

Gaudy Night (Dorothy Sayers, 1935) – Realistic mystery set in the 1930s.

A young woman (Harriet Vane) works to solve the mystery of a "poison pen" amongst the female dons at Oxford. Harriet's friend (and disappointed lover), Lord Peter Wimsey (a professional detective, and one of Sayers' ongoing characters) comes down to help her, and the mystery is solved. Even more interestingly, the book contains the final answer to "will she or will she not finally say yes to Lord Peter Wimsey's proposals"?

I have heard of Dorothy Sayers for years, and I was so glad to finally pick up one of her books. While I am an avid Agatha Christie fan, I actually don't usually go for mysteries, so I wasn't sure if I would like this book. But I enjoyed it very much.

Unlike Agatha Christie novels, which are the soul of brevity and inevitably get straight to the point, Gaudy Night was super-long and had a gentle, relaxed tone that made for a very long and leisurely read. The descriptions and character developments are first-rate.

The downside to the book was that there were so many characters that I simply couldn't keep them straight, and by the time I reached the "who done it" denouement, I didn't really know who the culprit was - or much care. But I enjoyed the book thoroughly for its workmanship, and I loved meeting Lord Peter Wimsey, another detective who has become a classic, and it was fun to compare him with my beloved Hercule Poirot.

One interesting note was how deeply embedded the doctrines of feminism were in this text - perhaps not too surprising, as the story took place among female academics, but surprising to me, as the book was written just about 100 years ago. It goes to show how far back in history the feminist movement goes - unlike many modern Christians who intone that "everything was fine through the 1950s." This book had so modern a tone that I would not have questioned anyone who told me that it was written in the past couple of years. I wondered, also, how much Sayers herself subscribed to feminist views, or if they were simply taken on for the sake of the book, or if she even realized that she was espousing feminism. A most interesting study in worldview.

I very much enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading more of Dorothy Sayers.

Any other Sayers fans out there? I would love to hear your take on her books. 

Suicide of the West (Jonah Goldberg, 2018) – Political and worldview analysis.

I expected this book to be an easy read, but it was actually much more of a challenge than I expected. But it was a good challenge, and I enjoyed it very much.

Because this book was written during Donald Trump's presidency, the author deals with a lot of Trump politics, focusing especially on the rise of populism. The author is not particularly pro-Trump, and he goes into detail about the trends arising around Trump's rise to popularity. Having always been mildly pro-Trump myself, it was really good for me to read a conservative commentator's thoughtful and well-reasoned arguments (instead of unreasoning hysteria) for not being in favor of Donald Trump, and I came away from the book with an appreciation of the non-Trump side of conservative American politics.

I enjoyed this book. It was worth the effort to read, and I gained a lot through reading it. 

Anyone have thoughts on this book?

A Severe Mercy (Sheldon Vanauken, 1977) – Autobiography.

I am an enormous fan of C. S. Lewis - and I expect that you are too, dear reader. His books have influenced and challenged and blessed me enormously. 

C. S. Lewis's books have, to my mind, a distinct flavor - a feel, a style - that one can detect at sixty yards. It's like a delicious scent that one immediately knows as something beloved and familiar. 

This book had the delicious scent of a C. S. Lewis book. I recognized it immediately. And yet the book is not written by C. S. Lewis at all. What was going on?

As I read, I discovered that while this book was not written by C.S. Lewis, it was written by a man who was befriended by C. S. Lewis, and later became an intimate life-long friend.

I guess C. S. Lewis awesomeness can be gained by association!

A Severe Mercy is Vanaukin's autobiographical account of his youth and young adulthood, focusing on his courtship and marriage with his wife, Davy, until her early death (at around the age of 40), and of his grief after her passing. It is also the telling of the couple's coming to the Christian faith, under the mentorship of C. S. Lewis, and the development of their faith through the years. 

To put it mildly, A Severe Mercy is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. I enjoyed it tremendously. And it's not just a love story - it's got a lot of real depth to it as well. As literature, as a love story, and as a religious work, it is a work of great merit.

I learned that there is a sequel, titled Under the Mercy - which is, alas, out of print and rather pricey to find used. However, I think it would be worth the money to snag a copy, and I'm currently working on that. 

This book merits not an "it's okay, maybe read it" label, but a go out and buy it right now! designation. 

I know you'll enjoy this book as much as I did. 

Jeeves & Wooster Books of the Month!

This month my Jeeves & Wooster selections included the following:

• Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (P.G. Wodehouse) 
• Very Good, Jeeves! (P. G. Wodehouse) 
• Right Ho, Jeeves

For Children: Picture Books

They Were Strong and Good (Robert Lawson, 1940) – Autobiographical account of the author’s immigrant and pioneer ancestors.

A wonderful picture book - well drawn, engaging, and full of both historical merit and positive character messages. Highly recommended. 

Christmas in the Trenches (John McCutcheon, 2006) - Non-fiction.

The story of the 1914 Christmas truce - in which German and British soldiers spontaneously declared a cease-fire in order to celebrate Christmas as friends - I find one of the most moving of all war stories, and I was thrilled to find a children's book telling the story. 

The author, John McCutcheon, wrote a song about the Christmas truce titled, appropriately, "The Christmas Truce" - you can watch a video of the author singing the song here. 

This book would make an excellent addition to a study of World War I. It's also a great character builder in the qualities of mercy, compassion, and peace building. 

Enjoy!

For Children & Teens: Novels

Ballet Shoes (Shoes series by Noel Streatfeild, 1936) – Realistic fiction.

It is a tragedy that I did not know about this wonderful series during my own childhood!

The "Shoes" books form a six-book series written all about girls in different dance or artistic pursuits - ballet, dance, theatre, skating, etc. The books are extremely well-written and entertaining, as well as educational - both about the artistic pursuits, and about life in an earlier time (the first Shoes book was written in 1936).

Some of these books are easily available, while some are difficult to find. A five-book set is available here (missing "Dancing Shoes," which is thankfully one of the easier books to find, so you can buy that one separately to complete the series). 

I highly recommend this series. I read it myself, just for fun!  

Classic Starts books (various) – Various titles abridged for elementary-aged children

There are several mainstream series of abridged classics for children, and I have really fallen in love with this one - "Classic Starts." The series includes many classic works, and all are tastefully written and illustrated. All of our children have benefited from this easy introduction to classic literature.

The House of Sixty Fathers (Meinert DeJong, 1956) – Realistic fiction set in World War II Japan.

I'd heard of this book for years, but never read it - and wow, was I missing out. This book - a wartime story in WWII-era China - is an absolute delight, and both I and our children loved it. It would be a lovely addition to any unit study on WWII or modern history, and any age from mid-elementary and up would benefit from it - and enjoy it!

Highly recommended. 

Brady (Jean Fritz, 1960) – Realistic fiction set in pre-Civil War Pennsylvania.

We've always enjoyed Jean Fritz's Revolutionary War era books, as well as her other books, so I was excited to read Brady, a new read for me. The book follows a young boy through his experience with pre-Civil War politics and slavery issues, including his family's participation on the Underground Railroad.

I enjoyed this book very much.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Ian Fleming, 1964) – Fantasy.

The adventures of a flying car and the family who owns it!  In all honesty, it's not really my style, but there's no doubt that it's fun, well-written, and an established classic. Give it a try, or let your kids have at it. 

Archimedes and the Door of Science (Jeanne Bendick, 1962) – History.

The life of Archimedes. Very well-written, and includes a lot of history as well as early science. Highly recommended!

A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830-32 (Joan W. Blos, 1979) – Historical fiction set in early 1800s New England.

Very well-written and realistic. As I've written before, there are loads of poor-quality historical fiction books for children out there - thankfully, this book is not among them. It is a great book, and will be a good addition to any homeschool library.

A few notes from the kitchen:

This Christmas season included a few wonderful new recipes:

Pumpkin Crumble Cake - see my notes in the comments as to how to make a dairy-free version, as well as how to replace the cake mix with a homemade version. For the recipe itself, I reduced the sugar to 1 1/4 cups, and am going to try to reduce it further to 1 cup. 

Creamy Cornbread Casserole - I used a homemade Jiffy copycat mix and also (because I was out of bell peppers) substituted a can of green chilis for the bell pepper. This was an immediate hit around here. 

***

Another great recipe was Autumn Pancakes - they have an awesome texture, and even our oatmeal-hating child loved them. My only change is to let the oatmeal mixture sit for longer than five minutes, which gives more time for absorption and softening, not to mention cooling. Given how long things take around here, that's an easy thing to accomplish. 

***

Another kitchen adventure around here lately was our first ever Super Bowl party. This was not something that I ever saw myself doing, as I have a passionate dislike of football (and sports in general), and an even more intense dislike of the politics that seem to surround the game nowadays. However, it happened - mainly due to our children's sudden enthusiasm - and they had a wonderful time decorating and hosting friends. 

In case anyone saw the creepy "He Gets Us" ad, I wanted to share - along with a great response article) - an intensely awesome and breathtakingly beautiful how-it-should-have-been-done video (don't miss this one - it is so good!): 

***

Now, onto a more light-hearted kitchen theme - birthday cakes!

February is a big birthday month for us - we literally can't finish one cake before it's time for another. 

Our first cake of the month was an utter disaster. A complete. and. utter. disaster. So bad that I didn't even take a picture of it. We just quit in the middle and ate it - it was delicious - and I promised the birthday child that I would re-do the entire thing after birthday season. That adventure is yet to come. 

The second cake of the month was a much bigger success. The theme - dinosaurs. I found this cake to be my inspiration:

I loved the idea of two tones of green. I approximated her colors by using plain green for the deep green, and green plus yellow and one drop each of black and brown for the yellow-green. The contrast was great. Upon discovering that I don't actually have a grass tip, I used this fun tip to approximate:

For the cake itself, I used a favorite cake of ours - Beat and Bake Orange Cake. This is a splendid cake, and super-easy to make. My changes:

• I find that regular sugar works just fine.
• I increase the orange zest, and add an equal amount of lemon zest. (Maybe a tablespoonful or so of each.)
• I used this frosting, which has less sugar (I find most frostings unpleasantly sweet). It would be a bit on the soft side for layer cake frosting, so if you're planning a layer cake, either chill the frosting a bit first, or omit the orange juice and use a teaspoon of orange extract instead:
• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter
• 2 (8 oz. each) cream cheese
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp. each vanilla, lemon zest, orange zest

And the outcome was - while not anything near the model - a great cake that thoroughly pleased both birthday child and guests.

***

This past week, we attended what I think may have been the most awesome children's birthday party ever.

Why so amazing?

Because the mom pulled it off without destroying herself - something that parties tend to do to women, and which certainly happens to me. 

Here's how this act of brilliance went, via text:

"Hey, everyone - a couple of our kids are having birthdays soon. Meet us at the park on Saturday to celebrate - we'll bring pulled pork and cake. Bring your own lawn chairs and sports equipment, and post here what food or disposable dishes you'd like to bring."

And that was it.

The kids played wildly for several hours - no pre-planned activities needed - and the adults got to talk. At the end, everyone helped clean up.

Zero headaches, zero exhausted-overworked-overwhelmed mom, zero "I will NEVER DO THIS AGAIN" moments.

This is my new model for how to throw a party.

****

Another kitchen adventure was our much anticipated FROG CUPCAKES for Leap Year! (Frogs leap. Get it?) Very uncomplicated, very unprofessional, but very fun - and our children anticipate this for months (years!) in advance. This time I used Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Cake as the base. By halving the recipe and then reducing the 1 cup of sugar to 3/4 cup, the batter was just perfect for a dozen cupcakes.

My favorite all-natural green coloring is chlorophyll, which you can buy at Sprouts or online. The eyes are made with trimmed marshmallows + chocolate chips, and the mouths (we're going to do pink next time) were piped by the 9yo.

It's hard to realize that this is a first-leap-year-ever for two of my children - and by the time it rolls around again, our eldest teen will no longer be a teen, and we'll have two more of the younger crew who will be teens. Wow.

Happy Leap Year, y'all.

Music & Dance

I am a huge fan of English folk dance, and we recently discovered the YouTube channel Historical Dance. Oh, what a treasure trove! Try this one on for size:

We found that one a bit hard for us to learn right away, but we did learn this easier one - give it a try! Super-fun, and not too difficult. (It also revealed to me how completely out of shape I am - ouch!):

There are so many wonderful videos on this channel. Enjoy!

***

We are just starting to enjoy the music from Laudate Mennonite Ensemble. Here is one of their recent productions:

I recently learned of the existence of many wonderful Mennonite choirs. If you haven't yet searched out this area of choral performance, give it a search on YouTube.

*** 

Speaking of historical dance forms, we are currently enjoying videos of Irish dance. Try this one!

***

To end the music & dance section, I'll leave you with our 2yo's current favorite (he is currently fussing in my arms because I'm writing about it rather than playing it!

***

Okay, folks! That's it for this entry. Write and let me know how you and your families are doing - and if you've read any good books lately. I hope that each of you is having a good spring and a wonderful Lent. 

And in the meantime, pray for me, as I pray for you.

Happy Easter!