Pregnant pause - Clearing out

 Pregnant Pause by Han Nolan is NO Juno.  Sixteen-year-old Ellie finds planning for the future - or even thinking  about the future - very confusing and scary.  And so, she finds herself 7 months pregnant, married to her stoner boyfriend (and the baby's Dad) and working at her in-laws' weight loss camp for the summer.  She shares a one room cabin -with NO INDOOR plumbing - with her new husband.  But this whole marriage-baby thing has made big changes in their relationship.  For one thing, Ellie is sober.  Lam, her husband, is not.

This is truly a coming of age story, believable until the very end.  Everyone involved including Ellie, shows their ugly side from time to time.  But when the baby is born, it looks like only Ellie will rise to the challenge.

Now, I am not going to tell you what happens.  There are a lot of things to make the reader cringe and laugh in this novel.  But I will tell you that the parents - Ellie's and Lam's - are four of the most selfish well-meaning people I have ever read about.  They are all "trying" to do the right thing; honestly, they are.  But all four of them are so caught up with what they wanted for their lives and for the lives of their children that their behavior is....pretty awful  And here's the worst part.  Um, ...I acted like that, too, (said in a very small voice).  Not proud, at all.  But it made the whole book that much more convincing.

There is a caveat.  The ending is hopeful and I always worry that some teen might read a book like this and think, "Hey, if that happens to me, it will all work out."  This is fiction - as in not true.

Here's what I wish.  All teens are patient, careful and respectful of one another.  All parents of teens are loving and accepting of their teens.  All babies are loved and wanted.  It should be that way.



On the home front: We bought new furniture for the family room.  (We have a grandbaby coming.  We want the house nice for her.) This means we need to get rid of old stuff, furniture, books, table linens, candles, music books.  Or we need to find other places for them.

Right now the living room looks like a heap with two large boxes of books on their way out and two piles of table linens - the "keep" pile and the "good-bye" pile.  The lovely old steamer trunk that held those table linens is going somewhere.  I hate to get rid of it but, really, it's a safety hazard for small people.  Thank goodness for the second floor of our garage.

Every time I move something to another room, I notice stuff in that room that needs to be thinned out and so my office is also a heap.  Sigh.

The weather is too wet for log splitting so today I will have to "exercise" indoors.  We stopped over at Mom and Dad's to make sure they had supplies for the Huge Major Big Enormous O-My-Heavens storm that is headed our way and Dad made my husband watch as Dad and I demonstrated that log splitter toy of his.  My husband was - ho-hum - so excited to see it.  I had fun and that's all that really matters, I think.

Batten down those hatches, friends.  Fill your bathtubs.  Put your patio furniture inside.  Irene is blowing in!