Welcome 
Hi! My name is Margot. My blog is about the things I love to do. That could be what I'm reading, places we visit, my family, food, or whatever else is happening. I hope you'll stay and visit a while.
Contact me by email: joyfullyretired (at) gmail (dot) com. What I’m Reading  Gods In Alabama
 Sizzle
 Poems by Emily Dickinson
Read-A-Longs  Clarissa
My Book Rating System A = Excellent in every way
B = Very good story
C = Good/Average
D = Poor
F = So Bad I couldn't finish it
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 Welcome to Wondrous Words Wednesday, a weekly meme designed so we can share new-to-us words we find in our reading. I’ve been reading Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. Here are a few words I found.
1. quirting: Cowboys who could ride anything caught the horses and ran them on fear, spurring and quirting them too hard, taking pride in staying on no matter how desperately they bucked and fishtailed.
A quirt is a short-handled riding whip with a braided leather lash. Quirting means to hit the horse with a quirt or whip.
2. scutch: Patches started to scutch about at the strange noise but I held her in, and as the plane approached I took off my hat and waved.
The definition I found for scutch didn’t seem to fit the sentence. It said the word meant to dress by beating? In looking closer, I found the original word trace from the mid 18th century. It’s from the obsolete French escoucher, from Latin excutere ‘shake out.’ I can see the horse “shaking out’ at the strange noise.
3. Poms: Santa Fe was a beautiful old place – Dad pointed out that the Spanish arrived here even before the first Poms got to Virginia – with low adobe buildings and dusty streets lined with Spanish oaks.
Poms is slang for English people.
Wondrous Words Wednesday is sponsored by Kathy at Bermuda Onion.
 It is my pleasure to welcome a guest blogger to Joyfully Retired. Our guest today is Q, my very talented eldest granddaughter. (I was going to introduce her as brilliant but, I’m trying to be modest.) Q loves to read, so she was born into the right family.
During the summer Q volunteers weekly at her local library and sits on the library’s Teen Council. She’s always up-to-date on the best books and often recommending books for me to read. I asked Q to share with us her thoughts on a book that is currently at the top of her ‘Favorites’ list. Here’s what she has written:
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The co-written novel, The Future of Us, by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, is a funny and fast-paced novel for adults, both young and old. It is an exciting book you just want to keep reading and reading. Teen readers can relate to the relationships and plot in this book. The Future of Us reminded me of The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg because of the confusing relationships between the two main characters. It also reminded me of the movie Back To The Future by Robert Zemeckis because of the time travel and comical situations.
 The Future of Us is set in 1996, in the sunny suburbs of a town where everyone knows everyone. The main characters, Josh and Emma, have been next door neighbors and best friends for as long as they can remember. Josh begins misinterpreting friendship for romance, and their relationship becomes strained and uncomfortable. A few months later, Josh comes over to download a CD-ROM on to Emma’s new computer. Suddenly they are logged onto Facebook… but Facebook hasn’t been invented yet.
Throughout the book, Josh and Emma struggle as they try to understand this new information about their futures. They also try to comprehend how any changes that they make now, will affect them later in life. However, they realize that not only will their futures be altered by their choices, but their friends, families, and complete strangers futures will change as well.
The Future of Us was the first book that Asher and Mackler had collaborated on, which was released in 2011. Asher’s other book, 13 Reasons Why, is about a girl who tape-recorded thirteen different reasons why she committed suicide. This touching and sad book was released in 2007, and it also won the California Book Award For Young Adults a year later. Carolyn Mackler started out at Ms. Magazine as an intern, and contributed to a number of other magazines like Seventeen, Glamour, and American Girl. She has written several books including Love And Other Four-Letter Words, which was released in 2000, and Tangled, released in 2009.
The Future of Us is funny and exciting with characters that were both believable, upbeat and complex. I felt that the book gave off a carefree happy mood at times, while other times it gave off an agitated and sorrowful mood. I felt the moods blended together well, and really helped mold the story and make it seem realistic. For example, Emma is looking at a photo of Josh, two of their best friends and herself. The authors describe this happy and lively moment, and then go on to tell how she rips the photo in blind-hatred of Josh. This shows the way the authors incorporate both moods in one description.
While I found this book laughable and lighthearted at points, I disliked the fact that the authors made Emma really arrogant, and disrespectful of others feelings. There’s a section where Emma is trying to change her and Josh’s future as a game. As the game escalates, Emma ends up kissing Josh, when only four months ago, she rejected him. In another chapter, she is discussing the fact that she is dating a boy, Graham, who she doesn’t really like. She continues dating him because she wanted to make Cody, her crush, jealous. I found this incredibly irritating and it made me feel less sympathetic towards Emma.
The authors switched between the two characters each chapter, using the first person narrative. This was a clever device used to reveal both Josh and Emma’s thoughts. This brought you closer to the characters because it gave them more depth, and made them seem like real people rather than characters from a book. I also thought that the concept of time travel through Facebook, was a funny and interesting way to incorporate time travel into the book.
Overall, The Future of Us is an amazing book that is beautifully written. It has an easy to follow style, great descriptions, and loads of comedy. I recommend it to anyone who loves well-developed characters, time travel, drama and romance. If you need a good laugh on a rainy day, this a great book!
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Thank you Q. Now I can’t wait to read The Future of Us. Great review. You are most welcome to visit here anytime. Q is a seventh grader living in Portland, Oregon.
When it comes to lunch, I’ve always been a sandwich person. Sandwiches are quick to make and easy to tote. And, while at work, they can be eaten in a snap. But for me now, things are different. I now have the luxury of eating lunch slowly and I’ve been told to cut back on the carbs. For many of you that’s probably not much of a challenge, but for me it was.
It’s been a bit of a struggle. It’s hard to change old habits. I’ve been experimenting with various lunch ideas and will keep on trying. But of course, I know that salads – plenty of fresh veggies – are one of the best solutions. Until now, salads for lunch were out of my comfort zone.
I had a lovely break-through on salads while in a local restaurant a few weeks ago. I ignored the sandwiches on the menu (even though they have the second best Reuben I’ve ever tasted) and concentrated on the salads. One caught my attention. It was called the Anything and Everything Salad. It was so good. It was a big bowl filled with all sorts of delicious things. I thought I could get enthusiastic eating a salad like that all the time. So I paid attention to everything that was in the salad and imitated it at home. Here’s what I do:
At the base of the bowl is a good mix of lettuces and fresh spinach. On top of that I add as many non-starchy vegetables as I have in the house. Then I add some protein, and a couple of tablespoons of salad dressing.
 Here’s a look at my latest creation. One thing I’ve learned to do is mix all the greens together when I bring them home from the store. It saves a lot of time each day at prep time. The salad above has carrots, cold beets, English cucumber, celery, broccoli florets, grape tomatoes, low-fat cheese, a teaspoon of bleu cheese crumbles, lean ham, red onion, and chopped walnuts. I used a raspberry vinaigrette, and had four cracked pepper water crackers. That total lunch was one carb. I felt very righteous about that, plus it tasted delicious.
I’ll take any suggestions you have for other low-carb lunches.
This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a weekly feature at Beth Fish Reads. Click the button below and it will take you there.
Thanks for stopping by to check on my new-to-me words. I love words. This weekly game of finding new words as I read adds to the joy of reading.
A couple of months ago I told you about a new book I received for Christmas. It’s Grammar Girl’s 101 Words to Sound Smart. I’ve been enjoying this book because, quite frankly, there are quite a few I don’t know. It’s kinda hard to sound smart if I don’t even know the words. So, here are a couple of words I’ve been working on:
1. egregious: ” . . . the most egregious of all the errors is that it says I am a massive David Bowie fan. Which is true, but it is a gross omission to leave out my obsession with Prince.” - from Patrick Stump, lead singer of the band Fall Out Boy, about his Wikipedia piece.)
Egregious means outstandingly bad. In checking my thesaurus I found shocking, appalling, horrendous, atrocious, and so forth. In conversation with my husband this morning I said, “I found the characters of this book egregiously unrealistic.” I thought I sound pretty smart, but he just stared at me.
2. erudite: ”For more than two decades, public-radio listeners have grown accustomed to the erudite questioning style of Fresh Air host Terry Gross.”
Erudite means having or showing great knowledge or learning. Other words are scholarly, learned, knowledgeable, well-read, and so on. In my attempt to use the word, I said, “The erudite librarian lead the discussion group in an in-depth look at the materials.”
Using new words takes effort and, for me, a little note to remind me to try to use the words. Okay, that’s it for my new words. I made it through the letter E. I’ll share more in a month or two.
Wondrous Words Wednesday is sponsored by Kathy at Bermuda Onion.
 Author: Jane Myers Perrine
Publisher: Hachette Book Group / Faithwords, April 3, 2012
Genre: Christian Fiction
My Rating: A
Adam Jordan has just graduated from seminary. He’s on his way to his first job as the minister of the Christian Church in Butternut Creek, Texas. He drove his worn-out car just fine all the way from Kentucky. Just fine, that is, until he got to Austin. There, in the midst of rush hour traffic, the car died. Adam was forced to call ahead to the church to say he would be arriving late. Not a problem for the good people of Butternut Creek. One of the locals drove his flat-bed truck to Austin and picked up both Adam and the car.
Not exactly the way Adam had planned to start his new ministry. However, that act of kindness was just the beginning of the welcome Adam received. As Adam arrives at the parsonage he is surprised to learn he will be living in a massive three-story home. Also surprised are the church members who learn he has no furniture. A few of the “pillars” of the church immediately go into action and have the basics moved into the house within the day.
Miss Birdie and her friend Mercedes are known as the “Widows.” They are two of the “pillars” who are intent on guiding Adam in the way a church’s minister should behave and conduct his ministry. So, they not only furnish the parsonage, they also suggest hymns to be sung, people to be visited, and even how to clean up his office. Although Adam is a little intimidated by the “pillars,” he takes it all in stride as part of his duties. The only thing he draws the line at is Miss Birdie’s attempts to find him a wife.
There’s another bachelor who is new in town. Captain Sam Peterson has come to live in the house he inherited from his aunt. He recently lost his leg in Afghanistan, he sees Butternut Creek as a place of refuge, a place to hide out and spend his days drinking. Sam’s road to recovery begins when he meets his lovely Physical Therapist, and then a few days later, her two rambunctious little boys. The “Widows” actually believe they are the ones bringing this couple together.
The Welcome Committee of Butternut Creek is a refreshing visit with these people, plus a few other Butternut Creek residents. I especially liked Adam and Sam. They were both honest characters. I also liked Adam and Miss Birdie’s connection with a little four-year-old girl who seemed homeless. And then there was Adam’s obsession with playing playground basketball and how it lead him Hector and his sister. Overall a book about people. It’s light and filled with humor while at the same time it takes a serious look at some human problems. It’s Christian fiction without being preachy. The message that comes across in a delightful way is that treating our neighbors with kindness is the right thing to do. Very satisfying.
There are two more books coming in this series: The Matchmakers of Butternut Creek (November) and The Wedding Planners of Butternut Creek (2013). I can’t wait to read them.
 About The Author:
A Missouri native, Jane Myers Perrine earned her B.A. from Kansas State University and her M.Ed. in Spanish from the University of Louisville. She was a finalist in the Regency category of the Golden Heart Awards, and her short pieces have appeared in the Houston Chronicle and Woman’s World magazine. A high-school Spanish teacher as well as an ordained minister, she currently lives in Texas with her husband, who is the minister of a local Christian church.
The author’s website can be found her: Jane Myers Perrine
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What You’ll Find On My Blog: *Book Reviews  Click the button to go to my 2012 Book List
2012 CHALLENGES:
- Library books: 13/30
- Agatha Christie: 31/87
- American Battle of Prizes: 2/3
- British Battle of Prizes: 2/3
- European Challengwe: 0/5
- Foodies Read 2: 5/20
- What’s In A Name 5: 0/6
- Classics: 3/50
- Persephone: 0/3
- Virago: 0/3
Total books read: 37
2012 Book Challenge I’m Hosting  Click the button to sign up
You can also find me here  Click the button
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