The Happy for Now List #10

Calm after the storm, a chonker of a book, and a quick flavor hit

Hey there! It’s been a bit of a stressful week at our household. Early in the week, we had 75mph winds that took off numerous chunks of our roof. There’s nothing like sitting in your living room at 5am with your terrified dog and worried kid, listening to your house howl and make weird banging sounds, and then hearing water dripping…inside.

My teen turned to me and was like, “Well, that can’t be good…”

It was not. A piece of the roof had come up (that was the banging sound) and was letting rain in—rain that then proceeded to run down rafters and drip through our attic door into our hallway. My husband spent the rest of the storm in the attic, strategically placing buckets. Sigh.

We got lucky compared to others. Our roof is temporarily patched for now, and there doesn’t seem to be any permanent water damage inside, so that’s good. But all that to say…I really needed a happy-for-now mindset this week!

There’s always the sunset

After the storm blew through, the wild winds continued all day (ripping off more shingles) and brought in dust from West Texas. It had been a crazy stressful day, and I was just spent by the end of it.

However, right before I started cooking dinner, I remembered that our local weather guy once said that dust storms can make beautiful sunsets.

So, I hurried to my office window to see if I could catch the sunset in time. I did and it did not disappoint. This was the view through my window. No filter. (You can see how dusty the air still is.)

Life gives us metaphors if we pay attention. Something beautiful can come out of something stressful, but we need to remember to look for it.

A big chunky book to get lost in

I haven’t posted about what I’ve been reading recently because I was making my way through this 500+ page chonker.

I often shy away from grabbing a doorstop book because I have so much to read on my TBR, and I know it’s going to take some time to get through a big one. But then, inevitably, when I find a long book that I can truly get immersed in, I remember that the wonderfulness of a big book is that you really feel like you’ve BEEN THROUGH something with the characters. This is why even though I don’t read a ton of super long books, they often land on my favorites-of-the-year list.

So, I’m here, learning that lesson again, with Stephanie Dray’s Becoming Madame Secretary (Bookshop. org | Libro.fm | Amazon). I don’t read a ton of historical fiction, but I was drawn to this one because a) I know Stephanie is a good writer and b) I had this desire to read about another troubled time in American history and how we came through it.

I was not disappointed. This story swept me into a different time and had me rooting hard for these characters. It was also a bonus that FDR played a big role in the book because my family went to visit his house in Hyde Park, NY last summer. That helped me picture things even more clearly.

This is the story of Frances Perkins, the Secretary of Labor for FDR and the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet. That sounds dry, but I promise it’s not. The story follows Frances from her early days in New York, fighting for child labor laws and championing workers’ rights, through her falling in love, moving her way up in politics, becoming a mother, and eventually going to Washington.

She was such a great character to follow along with—tough, principled, funny, and not afraid to go toe to toe over what she believed in. But she was also a wife and mother and living in a time where women were supposed to stay at home. You couldn’t help but root for her.

Here’s the official back cover copy:

Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference.

When she’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love.

But when Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. She thinks he’s a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she’s a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. Neither knows it yet, but over the next twenty years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House.

Frances is destined to rise in a political world dominated by men, facing down the Great Depression as FDR’s most trusted lieutenant—even as she struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. And when vicious political attacks mount and personal tragedies threaten to derail her ambitions, she must decide what she’s willing to do—and what she’s willing to sacrifice—to save a nation.

So, if you’re looking for something to get immersed in for a while and maybe to give you a little hope that we can go through hard things and come out better for it, give this one a try. (Sidenote: looks like the hardcover is half off on Amazon as I’m writing this.)

Quick Pickled Onions

I love an acidic hit to foods, so I love pickled things. Plus, if you’re trying to eat healthy, it’s a big bang of flavor for your buck.

One of my go-to moves is keeping a jar of pickled red onions in my fridge to throw on top of whatever—burgers, salads, tacos, sandwiches. They work in so many places that I end up getting through the jar in a week.

They’re super easy to make—no need to even turn on the stove.

Quick-Pickled Onions

1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar

1/2 cup water

4 tsp kosher salt

4 tsp white sugar

1 big (or 2 small) red onions, sliced into thin slices (or thicker if that’s your jam)

Put the first four ingredients in a quart-size mason jar. Cover and shake it up until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Then drop in the onions. Shake again. Refrigerate.

They’re ready to eat in an hour or two but get even better with more time. You can keep them in the fridge and they’ll stay good for about two weeks.

Yesterday I used them to top nachos and they were perfect!

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That’s all I have for you today. I hope you had a great weekend!

Roni

What’s making you happy for now? I’d love to hear!

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