Book Review: The Underground Railroad

Disclaimer Notice: This Post Contains Affiliate Links.

Cora is a slave on a plantation in Georgia.  The life of a slave is difficult, but life has thrown her some unexpected complications over the years.  Her mother ran away - and was never seen again - when she was 10 years old.  Cora was left to fend for herself in a hostile environment, where even the strong don't last long.

Image: Amazon

Cora finally reaches her breaking point and escapes with her friend Caesar, hoping that she is a good luck token that will help them escape like her mother did. Unfortunately, as they are making their first break for freedom, they are confronted by a gang of bounty hunters, and in the ensuing struggle, Cora kills a young boy.  Knowing that death - and an ugly death at that - will be her ultimate punishment, Cora becomes desperate to escape to freedom.

Forget what you have learned about the Underground Railroad.  In Cora's story, this is an actual railroad, on tracks, that exists in tunnels bored throughout the south. 

As Cora and Caesar search for the peace that has been denied to them, they find themselves wrapped up into places and situations where the chains that bind them are not the visible ones they had on them in Georgia, but they are every bit as real and deadly.  With the specter of the murdered white boy behind them, the fugitives struggle to settle in to new identities with the hope that they will not be recognized.

Unfortunately, they are pursued by the most determined of bounty hunters - the same man who was assigned to find Cora's mother.   Haunted by this one failure, he is determined to track down the fugitives and return them to their plantation.

Join Cora in her desperate race to Freedom as they journey through several stops along the Underground Railroad and find perils both unexpected and unseen.



The Underground Railroad is Historical Fiction at its very best - well researched and thought provoking.  This haunting tale will reel you in within the first 50 pages, and keep you reading until the very last word.

2016 Resolutions

It's hard to believe we're at the end of the year, isn't it?  It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting down, working through the list of things I hoped to accomplish this year.  Some things, I have done very well, and I feel good about the accomplishments I made this year.  Others, well, let's see what I can finish up before the end of the year!  Who knows?  They were goals I wanted to accomplish, not things I HAD to do....

Having said that, here's the list.

1) Remodel the Hallway Bathroom

It didn't happen this year.  Third year on the hit parade, and even at number one, but it still didn't happen.  Will it happen by the end of the year?  I doubt it.  Our savings account was hit pretty hard when we found that leaky, moldy, disgusting mess under the kitchen sink.   A word of advice here:  It's always a good idea to hire a certified plumber when installing new plumbing.  The previous owner of this house installed the sink himself, and the vent was well below where it should have been.  The result was years worth of water damage.  LESSON LEARNED.

2) Improve My Health
Looking beyond the numbers on the scale, I am going after the big picture numbers that add up to an overall look at my body chemistry and how my body is functioning as a system.  This led me to three separate categories:

a) Lose Inches Off My Waist
My goal for the year was to lose a total of three inches.  That took longer than I thought it would! Eight months to lose three inches.  I'm happy to see those inches come off!  For now, I am content.  Those were 3 very hard inches to lose! 


b) Get My Blood Pressure Down into the Normal Range
YES!!  120/60!  No lecture from the doctor this year, instead I got a hearty "Keep up the good work!"
This time last year, my blood pressure was at 140/80.  Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!

c) Go Down at Least One Clothing Size.  
At least one.  The hard work of the last year has paid off!  I bought pants in the regular section of the store!!!!  Even better?  No elastic waist on these babies! I want to lose more.  My waist is still not under the "circumference" guidelines that suggest that women should have a waist measurement less than 35 inches.  Trust me, I'm working on getting that measurement down there!


3) Restart my Vegetable Garden
Due to a very wet spring and a hideous ant problem, no vegetable garden got up and going this year.  I really need to spend some serious time thinking about this for next year.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do.


4) Learn to Pressure Can
SO, we have a glass top stove.  Pressure canners do not work on a glass top stove because they can't consistently keep the temperature up high enough.  This one will be a wash.  Another epic fail.  If I ever do put in an outdoor kitchen, I'm going to make certain I have a propane or gas stove so that I can pressure can - and I'll be able to do it outside and keep the heat out of the house.

5) Daughter's Quilt
I have pieced it together!  It's sewn!  I'll be pinning the layers together next week.  I want to get it finished before she finishes up at the Community College and transfers on to a 4 year school.


 6) Clean Out and Organize the Carport
The kids did this for me when they were all home the weekend after Mother's Day.  Thanks guys!

Even more fun, my husband made this wonderful tool corral last back in October!  It's so nice to have everything organized and no longer piled up on the floor, next to the house. It was a dangerous tripping hazard that had snared us all at least once.

Bonus - there's enough space in that protected area in front of the tool caddy to put in the buckets full of rock salt for the winter!



7) Exercise Consistently
4 or 5 days every week.  Even better, I'm now keeping a hard copy journal with me when I go.  I get to visibly see my progress every time I work out.  It's an excellent motivator!


9) Participate in the NoSpenduary Challenge.
Thank God I did this, both in February and in March.  It has literally saved our asses as things continue to break and fall apart at an alarming rate.  I originally found this challenge on the Frugal, Debt Free Life Blog. Bless your heart, Lydia.  Because of this challenge, we have not yet gone down the rabbit hole of massive credit card debt with the huge expenses we've had in 2016:  1 abscessed tooth requiring a root canal.  1 crown for said tooth.  The van needing huge repairs not once but TWICE, (once for the a/c, once because it just stopped working late at night when husband was on his way home from choir practice.), 1 leaking, moldy mess under the kitchen sink, a major leak in the basement from the upstairs bathroom,  (You know, that bathroom that I have on my list to remodel?), and NOW a broken dishwasher.  This is honestly beginning to sound like the "12 Days of Christmas".



10) Visit One Place on my Bucket List
Niagara Falls!  We spent time on both the Canadian and U.S. side of the Falls.  I loved Niagara State Park.  If you ever have time to go, make a point of heading to the state park and walking the perimeter trail around the island.  It is absolutely gorgeous!  This picture is from Niagara Falls State Park (U.S. side) - at the tip of the island away from the falls.  What a gorgeous river!

 

12) Scrapbooking
I need to catch up.  I know I had years that I didn't do this.  I went through all of the albums and found the years that I have not yet finished.  These are the years I am in search of:
2006
2009
2010
2011
2012
2015
There's nothing like the feeling of being caught up!  I'd like to say I won't fall behind again, but realistically, we all fall behind with things.  It's going to happen again.  It's good to know that it's possible to catch back up, though!

13) Walk or Bike a portion of at least 6 Rail Trails

Does the Rideau Canal in Ontario count?  I don't think it's an official Rail Trail, but it is alongside a canal, and at one time, there were rail tracks nearby.  It's officially a World Heritage site, so I'm going to add it.  We hiked a good 10 miles of it while we were in Ottawa!  Such a beautiful place!

1) NCR Rail Trail
2) Rideau Canal

How am I going to get those other 4 trails in before the end of the year?   


14) Pay off the big debt and one smaller one-
 
The big debt is gone.  It's nice to have one monkey off my back! 

The payments on the smaller debt have accelerated.  My goal was to have this paid off by December, but it very well might be Feb. or March of 2017 due to the extenuating circumstances we've had this year.  And now, we've got a bathroom that MUST be remodeled in April.  Hmmm.... it might be December before all is said and done.  We'll see.

15) The Recipes Tab
I nicely fixed up the recipe tab so that it is easy to find recipes that I've posted on here before.  For me, this is my online recipe book.  Some of the recipes are my own.  Some, I post direct links to other sites.  You might or might not choose to use it, but I use it on a pretty regular basis, and I've found out that one of the boys does, too.  He likes the fact that most of what I've listed is food he already loves and that everything is fairly easy to make and budget conscious.  (Hey Kiddo!  Glad you stopped by for a while!  Call your mother sometime.  She'd really like to hear from you!)

How are you doing on your goals this year?  

Updating my Resume

After my job search earlier this year, it became painfully obvious to me that I need to overhaul my resume.  I use the traditional style of resume in which I list all of my job experiences from most recent and backwards, along with a list of what I did, my education, etc., etc., etc.  We took a class in college before graduation about interviewing, resume writing, and cover letters.  We were told not to make our resumes too fancy or frilly, or else they'd get thrown out.

Earlier this week, one of my friends handed me her resume to review. 

What I saw has caused me to rethink the way that I write my resume, and has me pondering what I need to do to update this very crucial piece of paper.

Did you know - there are now 2 different styles of resumes?  Functional and Chronological? Chronological is the kind of resume that I was taught back in college.  Functional is the type of resume that is ideal for people like me - who have had employment gaps and a lot of volunteer experiences over the years.  (http://www.bcpl.info/find-info/jobs-careers#resume-cover-letter)

After looking at both types of resumes, I'm going to play around with the Functional format and see how that looks when I'm finished.

I've also been looking at the formatting.  No longer are names and addresses written directly down the middle.  They are offset, either to the left or the right.  You can even play with font size!  I don't want to make the font too small... I want people to be able to read my contact information!  But, I can also play with the font that I use.  No, I'm not thinking of Comic Sans!  Maybe I could use Calibri instead of Times New Roman.  What about Helvetica?  So many choices!!!

You know, I'm very happy where I am now.  One of these days, though, I'm going to try to get a promotion and I'm going to need an updated resume.  It seems as if now is the time to start working on it.  Now, while I have the time to play around with the formatting, the text, and the styles. 

What style of resume do you use?

Green Bean Casserole

I tried something new this year!  I absolutely love Green Bean Casserole, but finding a version that is gluten free and dairy free is next to impossible!  This year, I attempted to make my own version of this classic.  I started with store brand Gluten Free Crispy Fried Onions. 

My biggest challenge was attempting to find something that resembled Cream of Mushroom Soup.  I found Imagine's Portobello Mushroom Creamy Soup (Dairy Free) at our local health food store.

I figured, what the heck?  What do I have to lose?  So, I followed the recipe on the back of the onion can.  I measured out the equivalent amount of Portobello Mushroom soup as the recipe on the back of the can asked for both the cream of mushroom soup and the milk, combined. 

One stint in the oven later, and we had a gluten and dairy free version of green bean casserole.  We took a tentative taste, and ...... it was delicious!  It's a bit runnier than the more traditional version, but good heavens it was good!  Finally, three years after I found out that I had to go Gluten Free, and one year after I found out about the dairy allergy, the Green Bean Casserole is back!  Oh, happy day!

Would I made any improvements?  Next time, I think I might use another can of crispy onions.  I'm looking forward to playing with this wonderful combination for years to come! 

Monday Musings 11/28

Kids
It was great having all the kids home!  They all went back to their respective homes on Saturday, and the house seems very empty without them.  I consoled myself by going to see Benedict Cumberbatch in Dr. Strange with daughter on Sunday afternoon!  I still miss the boys, but by golly, I also really enjoyed the movie!

Smoke Detectors
No smoke detectors went off this year!  What?  What madness is this?  Honestly, I picked up the pies and several of the side dishes from Whole Foods, so I guess that's why my oven remained intact.  I still have more turkey than we know what to do with!  The turkey carcass has been boiled down for soup, and I've got scads of meat that I'm going to have to freeze soon before it goes bad.  I saved out the turkey neck, and I'll be making turkey neck soup with the neck - along with all of the leftover vegetables - for dinner tonight.

Dishwasher
Still no dishwasher.  They won't be able to install it until NEXT Tuesday.  Another week without a dishwasher.  I know, I know - first world problems.  I was the dishwasher growing up, but that doesn't mean that I like it!  On the other hand, the kitchen is cleaner than usual because I am cleaning as I go.  I really don't like having a huge pile of dishes facing me at the end of the day.

Central Intelligence
We watched this movie with the kids on Friday night.  Have you seen it yet?  Seriously, you need to see it!  Kevin Hart and "The Rock".  I wouldn't watch it with little kids, but I would watch it with anybody middle school and older.  It's a great, fun plot, well acted, with just enough wild twists to keep you guessing until the very, very end.  Boy howdy, this was a fantastic movie!  It's a recent release, too. 

Enjoy your week!

Random Pictures

A few pictures from the last few days....

We went to see The Capitol Steps the weekend after the election!

It's like a real life game of Tetris!  (Lots of leftovers.)

The mantel decorated for Thanksgiving.  Several of those squash were eaten for dinner!

Remember those purple flowers?  This is the finished product!

The current reading pile - and Season 5 of one of my favorite shows!

 

Still no dishwasher - so, another pot of dishes to wash!

It's Not Thanksgiving Until the Smoke Detectors Go Off

I originally published this post on 11/28/2014.  Enjoy this blast from the past!

It's a tradition in our family.  Burning stuff on Thanksgiving Day.

Before the advent of smoke detectors, a smoky kitchen was just that - a smoky kitchen- the neighbors didn't know, and if you acted fast enough, you could turn on enough fans and open enough windows that nobody else would know.   Now, everybody knows when you have a cooking disaster on your hands.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we begin to take bets as to when the smoke detectors will go off. Since I start much of the prep on Wednesday, that is the day that we decide that we are most likely to experience a kitchen disaster of some kind.  The person who guesses the correct 2 hour window for the advent of the smoke detectors is excused from washing the dishes after dinner.

Since we were eating at home this year, I decided that I was going to make the pies on Wednesday.

Pies have always been a weak spot for me.  Actually anything with a fruit filling has been a problem for me.  A particularly memorable occasion comes to mind when I attempted a pineapple upside down cake that ended up setting my oven on fire, as well as setting off the smoke detectors in the apartment building and summoning the fire department bright and early one Thanksgiving morning 25 years ago.

Wednesday afternoon, I started on my favorite pie.  It's just not Thanksgiving without a pecan pie.
I mixed the pecans, Karo syrup, eggs, and sugar, and poured it into my carefully prepared pie crust.  I slid the pie into the oven.  As the smell of toasty pecans began to fill the house, I knew that Thanksgiving was finally here.

Special, isn't it?

With 15 minutes left on the timer, I checked the pie.  Imagine my horror as I discovered a pie that was as black as a cinder.  As I hastily pulled the ruined pie out of the oven, the smoke detector began wailing away.

As the pie heaved up and down with a life of it's own, I reflected that this might very well be my most spectacular failure yet.


I still had more pecans, so I decided to give another shot at the pie.  Unfortunately, I had no more gluten free pie crust mix.  So, I decided to make a pecan pie without the crust.

The custard and pecan mix looked beautiful in it's pan.  Even without the crust, it looked fantastic.

While the pecan mix cooled, I began on an Apple Crisp.  I filled the pan with apples, sugar, and cinnamon, and mixed up the crisp part -  with the gluten free oatmeal, gf flour, and vegan butter.  (Good heavens, do we know how to live it up or what?)
 
Remember when I mentioned I have an incredibly bad record with anything involving fruit filling?

15 minutes into the bake time, the smoke detector began wailing away as a thick, black smoke began issuing forth from the oven.

As I was pulling the crisp out of the oven, my next door neighbor came running across the yard, phone in hand, shouting "Do I need to call the fire department, or are you just cooking?"

An aside here, how sad is it, that after 10 years, my neighbors know to come and check when there's black smoke and the sound of smoke detectors before calling 9-1-1?

Somehow, for the 10th year in a row, I was excused from having to wash dishes after Thanksgiving dinner.  Purely coincidence, I assure you.