A New Book, a New Recipe, and a Cold?

A few years ago, I read The Poisonwood Bible for a college class designed almost completely around this novel. My mother-in-law, a missionary kid whose parents worked in Nigeria, really disliked this book, and suggested I read Things Fall Apart if I was truly interested in reading about this part of the world. Three years later, I finally got around to reading it. I'm halfway through, thanks to the day off yesterday.

Recently, Joel emailed me with this little tidbit:

i figured out why what we want to read is so different.

i'm a romantic. not necessarily a "romantic" in the lovey-dovey meaning of the word, but in the literary-study-of-life meaning of the word.

Romanticism: values feeling and intution over reason
- believed that imagination, emotion, spontaneity, feelings, and nature were more important than rational thought

Dom likes her facts. She's a Rationalist. Those are lame. All they think is that facts and reasoning are the only way to live through life.

Losers.

So now you can never say I'm not romantic. Cause that's all I am, baby

Truly, I love nonfiction. I'd rather teach it, read it, watch it, listen to it...most of the time. Joel loves these books by Jose Saramago and also Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. I have read a total of zero of his favorite books. On a Friday night, I'd want to go see Food, Inc. and he'd want to see some silly action movie (wink;). This used to be a slight bone of contention, until we came to this realization.

That having been said, I'm proud of myself for making it halfway through Things Fall Apart, considering the last books I got through were the ones in the Twilight saga. I'm not proud of that. Just honest. Currently taking bets on whether or not I'll finish this one.

Secondly, I made pumpkin muffins for us yesterday and saved some for a fabulous Spanish teacher who assisted me in translating a conference this morning. I make this a lot...it's about the only thing I can make.

Here goes:

1 package of yellow cake mix

1 15 oz can of pumpkin

As much cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg as you can get in there! At least a tsp. each.

Mix together and spoon into muffin tin. Sometimes I add walnuts, chocolate chips or streusel:

Streusel topping:

2 tbsp. butter

1/4 c of flour

1/4 c of sugar

more cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg

(mix together and top the muffins. It makes a LOT but I sure do love streusel.)

Bake at 350 for about 18 minutes. They are really moist, so check with a toothpick. They never really become brown.

Thirdly, I have a cough. So do a few kids in my class. Hand sanitizer is not a joke, kids.