How to be an American Housewife

No, this isn't some tale of my marriage or advice for the land. It's a book review!

I just finished Margaret Dilloway's How to Be an American Housewife: a novel. The basic story line is that Shoko decides to marry a U.S. Army man and leave Japan after World War II. We get an insight into her life and her adjustments to American life. But, the story line that I really found interesting was the one between Shoko's daughter Suiko, or Sue, and her own daughter, Helena. 

Sue's relationship with her daughter Helena offered more depth and realism to me. It's the story of a single parent in modern times trying to do the best for her daughter. I found their story easier to connect with and follow as it evolved. As you delve further into the book, you discover that Sue's and Helena's relationship provides a foil to Shoko's and Sue's mother-daughter relationship. Shoko wasn't that great of a mom to Sue (in my opinion), and you can see the ramifications of that in how Sue raises Helena--both the good and the bad. 

The only complaint I have about the book is that I wanted to know more about Shoko as a mother. We see pieces of that time, but most of those instances show her failing to be compassionate and not having the patience to teach Sue how to cook. I wanted to see deeper into Shoko instead of measuring her based on the others around her. I wanted to know more about why she made the choices she did with her daughter. 

Overall, this was a very interesting and touching multi-generational story, centering around mothers and daughters discovering more about their past, each other and their heritage. 

I suggest reading it, and let me know what you think!

To learn more about the book and the author, and to join in further conversations on BlogHer, click here.

This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

Washcloth lollipops: Easy Baby Gift

As I've shared, I got a new nephew recently! I decided I needed to find something cute to make for him. I got inspiration from here to make washcloth lollipops. 

The first time I rolled them up, they looked more like flowers. I added two more washcloths to make the ring larger, and they looked more like a lollipop. 

The sticks are baby spoons!

I took step-by-step photos as I made these, but they have disappeared from my camera. I thought I uploaded everything before I cleared my memory card, but I didn't. Sad. Anyway, I ended up with three extra spoons, so I wrapped them together as one stick. 

 

I printed out an image of real lollipop and taped it to the cellophane sack around the three-as-one spoons. 

I really did take several finished photos, but I don't have them. Thankfully Crystal, my sister-in-law, took this photo of the finished product. 

I wrote, "Happy Birthday, Colton! We're a sucker for you already!"

Get it? Sucker....lollipop. 

I was pleased with the project, and it was the perfect hospital gift. Small and cute, but easy to get home. And useful!

I got another nephew!

Chris and I were anxious to travel to Little Rock to meet our new nephew, Colton. 

When we got there, Colton's big brother, our first nephew Bryce, was holding him. 

Bryce was taking to his big brother role pretty well.

Colton seemed to like him too.

Bryce even gave Colton some brotherly love.

Bryce and I have always been buddies, and he's almost as tall as I am these days! You can see photos from Bryce's birth by clicking here.  You can also see when I took Bryce to the zoo by clicking here.

Finally it was my turn to meet Colton.

He's a pretty good looking guy.

And he smells wonderful! Just like a baby.

I'm a proud aunt.

Here's Colton's proud uncle.

He was pretty tired from being born, but he was just a precious as can be.

As part of my auntly duties, I brought Bryce a Big Brother basket full of goodies like Airhead candies, cotton candy, foam animal tablets that grow in water, a magnetic erasable drawing board and glow sticks. The glow sticks were a bit hit!

Bryce pieced all of the glow sticks together to make a monster glow rope.

Chris even got roped in on the glow stick fun.

After some glow stick fun, Chris and I went back to say goodnight to Colton, who was awake!

He looked a little questionable about this big world.

He figured it was easier to just go back to sleep for the time being.

We went back in the morning to get some more baby love. Colton was sleeping in his bassinet.

But I quickly resolved that issue.

Another proud aunt shot.

The next few shots are the best I got. Isn't he the cutest?

Happy birthday, Colton!

Dining Room: Take 2

For our anniversary this year, we redid our dining room. New table, new chairs, and then I redid the wall art. 

Well, the slip-covered chairs didn't fit our lifestyle very well. And by lifestyle, I mean this guy: 

Porter loved the fabric on the chairs so much that he couldn't keep his claws off of it! I continue to use the claw covers (see here), but as soon as one of the covers would fall off, he'd head straight for the chairs. The slipcovers just got picked to death!

The chairs underneath are perfectly fine, and they are now for sale! Check out my Craigslist page. 

But, we had to make a decision: Continue to purchase new slipcovers every few months, or just buy four new chairs to replace the fabric ones. I headed back to the same antique store where we bought our table and wooden chairs, and in the back of the store, he had four wooden chairs for an absurdly low price. I took their photo, sent it to Chris and left the store. I promptly returned and purchased them. 

They are a similar ladder-back design to the other two wooden chairs we already have. 

I like that they don't match our Head of the Table chairs exactly, but I think they complement each other nicely. 

New dining table: no fabric!

While I was finishing the dining table and chairs combo, I also decided that it was time to finish up that last empty frame on the wall. 

I used paint chips from Low's and the flower paper cutter from my tray project. I cut three flowers from the same color, and I positioned the three flower shapes on top of each other to make a full looking flower. 

It took a while to make, but I really like it!

A finished dining room. For real this time!

 

**Don't forget about Chris marathon page. Please help us raise money directly for St. Jude. Thanks!**

Be a hero for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Hello lovely readers! 

My husband is running his second full marathon and his first St. Jude marathon this year. He also works for ALSAC, the fundraising foundation of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. 

Christopher is part of the Heroes marathon program, and he is raising money directly for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital through his run. 

Here are some amazing facts about St. Jude: 

• It costs $1.7 million a day to operate St. Jude, and public donations through fundraising efforts provide more than 70 percent of the hospital's funding. 

• St. Jude families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance, and no child is ever denied treatment because of the family's inability to pay. 

• Donations also cover other costs a family would typically incur while their child is being treated, including travel, housing and food. 

• St. Jude has treated children from all 50 states and around the world. Every child saved at St. Jude means children saved around the world--a direct result of cutting-edge research and treatment that set the standard in treating childhood cancers. 

• When St. Jude opened in 1962, the survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer, was 4 percent. Today, the survival rate for this once deadly disease is 94 perfect, thanks to research and treatment protocols developed by St. Jude. 

• St. Jude was the first institution to produce a cure for sickle cell disease with a bone marrow transplant and has one of the largest pediatric sickle cell disease programs in the country. 

• St. Jude is the first center to receive government approval for a unique transplant procedure that makes it possible for parents who are not exact matches to be bone marrow donors for their children. 

St. Jude is very important to my family and many thousands of other families, and I would be so appreciative if you could donate to Christopher's run. You can donate directly on his Heroes page: http://bit.ly/ChrisHeroRun 

Any amount is truly helpful!