Who Hath a book
Has friends at hand,
And gold and gear
At his command;

And rich estates,
If he but look,
Are held by him
Who hath a book.

Who hath a book
Has but to read
And he may be
A king indeed;

His Kingdom is
His inglenook;
All this is his
Who hath a book.

Wilbur D. Nesbit

I am so grateful that Bryan and I share a love of books, instilled by mothers who read to us.

I had a Mother who read to me
Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea,
Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,
“Blackbirds” stowed in the hold beneath

I had a Mother who read me lays
Of ancient and gallant and golden days;
Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,
Which every boy has a right to know.

I had a Mother who read me tales
Of Gelert the hound of the hills of Wales,
True to his trust till his tragic death,
Faithfulness blent with his final breath.

I had a Mother who read me the things
That wholesome life to the boy heart brings—
Stories that stir with an upward touch,
Oh, that each mother of boys [and girls] were such!

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be—
I had a Mother who read to me.
Strickland Gillilan

Now that summer is upon us, I wanted to share a few of my favorite warm-weather recipes.  This one comes from the Lion House Lite cookbook and is one of my favorites.

Tropical Chicken Salad

1 1/2 T lime juice

1 1/2 T honey

2/3 c. nonfat mayo

1 container (4 oz.) low-fat peach yogurt (I use Yoplait lite yogurt)

1/2 t. lemon pepper

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked & diced

1 lb. seedless green or red grapes

1 can (15 oz.) pineapple tidbits in juice, drained

1/4 c. chopped celery

1/3 c. diced green bell pepper (I substituted cucumber, because that’s what was in the fridge)

Lettuce leaves

1 can (11 oz.) mandarin oranges, drained

1/2 c. sliced almonds, toasted (I omit these to save on calories/fat grams)

Mix lime juice & honey together in a small bowl.  Add mayo, yogurt and lemon pepper; mix well and set in fridge to blend flavors.  In a large bowl, combine chicken, grapes, pineapple, celery & green pappers.  Refrigerate.  Just before serving, pour dressing over salad and toss gently to mix.  Place a lettuce leave on a salad plate, spoon salad on top of lettuce, and garnish with mandarin oranges and sliced almonds.  Serve immediately.  Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition (per serving): (assumes that you included the almonds)

Calories: 303

Fat: 7 g

Protein: 30 g

Carbs: 30 g

Cholesterol: 66 mg

Sodium: 368 mg

Shopping for a bathing suit is a humiliating experience, even under the best of circumstances.

Shopping for a bathing suit while pregnant is definitely worse.

Shopping for a bathing suit while pregnant with two kids with you in the dressing room, one of them screaming that she wants her binkie that she left in the car parked nearly a day’s hike away, is even worse.

Shopping for a bathing suit while pregnant with two kids with you in the dressing room, one of them screaming for her binkie and the other exclaiming, “No, Vivi!  Don’t hold the curtain open!” as you blindly struggle to extricate yourself from the swim suit top stuck around your head is definitely the WORST!  And it doesn’t help matters that I was in the FIRST dressing room, closest to the front of the store, and there were LOTS of women AND their husbands milling around.

Yeah.  That’s the kind of day I had.

The past month has been both wonderful and exhausting.  As I dropped my dad off at the airport yesterday, Ariana and I both BAWLED because we’re going to miss him so much.  Despite the moments of utter exhaustion and frustration that accompany any big project, the month that he was here flew by far too quickly.

And as if finishing and installing 24 feet of 11-foot high bookcases and base cabinets, plus 4 desks, 2 window seats and 1 craftroom workstation wasn’t enough work, during the last month . . .

Our AC went out.  Thankfully it did so HOURS before our home warranty expired.

Bryan’s truck window slipped down into the door panel (evidently a very common Ford problem for which the dealer wants $500 to fix).  Seeing my dad and I try to drape plastic over the opening as torrential rain pelted us must have been quite a sight for the neighbors.  Piecing together information from the WWW, we found that we can order a $45 replacement part and install it ourselves.

Ariana neglected to close the door of the deep-freeze, causing us to lose untold amounts of food (I’m particularly saddened by the demise of my precious ice cream treats).  After the episode, the freezer wouldn’t cool properly, so again using the wonders of the WWW, I diagnosed and fixed the problem (frozen circulation lines???)

Ariana took it upon herself to “trim” Vivi’s bangs.  Unfortunately, the haircut makes Vivi look like Moe from the Three Stooges.

Of course, there’s lots of great stuff that has happened along the way, too.  Our baby continues to grow and develop properly.  We’ve all enjoyed good health.  Bryan’s job seems to have stabilized a bit.  We got to spend wonderful time with my dad in the hours that he wasn’t working himself (and us) to exhaustion. 🙂

So, that’s been my month in a nutshell . . . in case you’re thinking that I’ve dropped off the face of the earth.  Once we get the house pulled back together, I’ll take and post some pictures of our new bookcases.