The Walz Family Adventures: How things are

We've got a nice little set up right now.

I'm (finally, so embarrassing) finishing my two papers for my master's. I've got research and writing time scheduled three or four nights a week, and I'm making great progress. Ryan gets home, we eat dinner, and then I head to my study cave while he and Rory do clean up and he gets the kids in bed.

Tuesday's (beginning today) I'm going to go to a barre class, they have child care, and it's been way too cold to run.

Wednesday Andrew has story time at the library, not that he pays any attention. He spends the hour trying to steal bottles or move the librarian's chair when she stands up. Sometimes, he just leaves, and I chase him before he can start pulling books off the shelves.

Thursday Andrew has baby gym, which is at a very inconvenient time for him. By the end of it, he's usually unable to keep it together, so we leave 5-10 minutes early (I refuse to be a slave to a nap schedule. Sometimes things are unpleasant and flexibility is required, and I think it's an easy way to teach that concept).

Thursday after school, Rory has ballet class with the KC Ballet. She LOVES it, it's so much better than the studio in Lee's Summit she was going to. The cost is comparable and it's not run by a raging ego maniac. Ryan cooks dinner so it's ready when we get home.

This month is Ryan's birthday, and his brother and sis in law are coming down for a visit that weekend. I doubt we'll do much for Valentine's Day, although Rory and I do need to figure out our game plan for school valentines.

With our nice, regular schedule my social life has hit the skids. I never go out at night anymore, because I'm studying. I am managing to have lunch with someone about once a week, so I'm not totally cut off from society.

I've also been able to do actual pleasure reading lately, which hasn't happened in ages.

I am not a fan of young adult fiction, I don't understand the appeal of reading about teenagers. I got through four chapters of The Hunger Games, and decided I'd essentially read it in a different form in jr. high.

But, I heard about a book on NPR called "We Were Liars" and the concept sounded interesting. It was ok. I liked the Kennedyesque take. My cousin felt it was a ghost story/supernatural, I just thought it was evidence of her craziness and post traumatic stress. I figured out the plot 60% of the way in (thanks to my Kindle, I know that), and now I've had my young adult fix for the next five years.

I also read The Best of Everything, which is very much like Sex in the City, if it had been written in 1958. It's fluff, but I loved it from an anthropological stance. The genuine slice of the times.

I read Bellman & Black, by the author of The Thirteenth Tale. The Thirteenth Tale is a gothic mystery for bibliophiles. The whole thing is a love story to reading itself. Bellman & Black is less cut and dry. Beautifully written, the author's style matured a little, I think, but the plot gets a little murky and it gets a little bogged down in the everyday details of running businesses in Victorian England.

I just grabbed The Chaperone and The Night Circus. I also still have Tell The Wolves We're Home and Five Came Back. I haven't decided which to start next.