It’s always good with a bedtime story with Bestemor. She read Why Kings and Queens Don’t Wear Crowns by Norway’s Princess Märtha Louise and illustrated by Svein Nyhus. It’s a sweet story. We love learning about princesses with Bestemor — we watched Princess Victoria of Sweden get married last year.
When we get together with Bestemor and Bestefar, we sit around the table together quite often. We used to laugh when going through photo albums … there was always the shot of folks around the dinner table, forks and knives in hand, and the light fixture in the way. Maybe that’s a Norwegian thing. I guess it’s a family thing. It’s always good to cook and eat together.
We went “into town” for lunch, shopping and a tour of where my husband works.
This has to be a joke. If the box actually had lutefisk in there, it wouldn’t smell very good by now.
What. You don’t do this kind of stuff on vacation? We do. You know … catching up on all kinds of projects and all.
Speaking of projects, here’s a new one that got started.
And another one. Whee!
Yes, there are hundreds of ways to make potato salad. One of my favorites, though, is the way my mother-in-law makes it. She shared her recipe.
16 ounces sour cream
6 ounces mayonnaise
3 tablespoons dill pickle brine
1/2 apple, chopped
2 dill pickles, chopped
1/2 leek, sliced
7 potatoes, cooked and diced
Mix all together. Let set. Serve with dinner from the grill.
I finished reading Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women by Susan Faludi in March. My favorite thing about Susan Faludi is the strength and accuracy of her BS-o-meter. My next favorite thing is her brilliant writing. The sad thing to realize after reading this 20-year-old book is that she could write the same book — with all new but similar material — today.
*sigh*
Faludi laid the groundwork for many authors who followed. Twenty years ago, she wrote ” … women in the ’70s who were assertive and persistent discovered that they could begin to change men’s views. By vigorously challenging the conventional definition of masculinity, these women allowed men to start to question it, too.”
Nineteen years later, Joan C. Williams published Reshaping the Work–Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter, in which she challenges the masculine norms at work.
Faludi quoted Kate Rand Lloyd, editor of Working Woman: “Women are not taking advantage of the power they already have … What is regrettable to me is we don’t yet see what it is we have done, how badly we are needed, how we really do have tools for changing our own future in our own hands.”
Nineteen years later, Gloria Feldt published No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power.
Faludi mentioned Peggy Orenstein in the acknowledgments.
Twenty years later, Orenstein published Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture, which I’ve read but haven’t written about yet. If sexualized girlhood isn’t about backlash, I don’t know what is.
…
“No matter how many times women have been told to sit down and keep quiet, they have struggled to their feet.” (p. 455)
“American women have always fought the periodic efforts to force them back behind the curtain. The important question to ask about the currect backlash, then, is not whether women are resisting, but how effectively.” (p. 455)
I read Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After a Lifetime of Ambivalence by Rebecca Walker in March. So much of what she has to say resonates with me.
“And I thought that really, when it comes down to it, that’s what life is all about: showing up for the people you love, again and again, until you can’t show up anymore.”
I read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak in March for my book club. This is another book I probably wouldn’t have read if not for my book club. I see the subject matter and just don’t know if I can read another book about Nazi Germany. But I did read this one, and I’m glad I did. It was great on so many levels. For someone like me, who loves to read and believes in the power of words, it’s brilliant.
“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn’t already know? I wanted to explain that I am constanly overestimating and underestimating the human race — that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.” (p. 550)
I didn’t even notice until someone left a comment. It’s been four years since I started this blog. So … yay!
It’s not a wedding anniversary, of course, but traditional gifts for 4th anniversaries are fruit and flowers (some say books!), so here are both — an apple coming in on our tree and some of the pretty blooms around the house.
9/2011
