melted smoosh

i guess i had a lot of time to read with all of our flights, downtime at home, and girls going back to school? pretty sure 10 books in a month is a personal record (at least since i started tracking with Goodreads - as a kid, it was probably more like 10 books a week! ha). i've also been reading while i eat my lunch pretty much every day, which is of course frowned upon from an intuitive eating standpoint, but... whatever. 1) Belong to Me , by Marisa de los Santos. the second book in the series, preceded by Love Walked In . i liked this even more than the first one. de los Santos draws such realistic characters. you start out thinking that there are some real jerks in this novel. slowly, inevitably, you start to see more of everyone's inner lives and their behavior, how their version of love may look warped from the outside but has a kernel of true goodness inside. her vivid prose is a pleasure to read. the ultimate twist at the end is a bit of a stretch, but so satisfyin

discovering a gray hair on my head: "uh oh, Mommy! this one died." during our walk home from school: "those are bugs and we are humans!" while feasting on hot dogs and ketchup: "this ketchup looks like Jesus' blood!" walking past an overgrown sidewalk full of weeds and various insects: "Mommy, bumblebees can't fly in the rain." picking up a package of ground beef while helping me load groceries into the fridge: "Mommy, is this called germs?" (undoubtedly from all the times i tell her to keep her hands away from raw meat when i'm cooking dinner: "it has germs!") smelling a flower she picked from the side of the road: "this smells like sunshine!"