Hygge versus Hog, or is it Hug?

Me getting hygge-y with it

Well, I have gotten quite a bit older since I last wrote.  My adorable nose is white now, and my back legs don't always work well - sometimes I plummet down the deck stairs, but I always bounce back as I'm still a little puppy-ish.  I have no excuse for not having written except laziness.  I have been reading, though!  I would never give that up.

people hygge

Mom asked to borrow my blog, as she is obsessed with something called "Hygge".  I thought she said Hog, and that she was complaining about Daddy's weight and eating habits again.  But that wasn't it, and it wasn't Hug, as I sat patiently waiting for her arms to go around me and her hands to scratch my ears.  That didn't happen, at least not right then.  Turns out there's something called Hygge that is all about simplifying, and nature, and living in the moment, whatever that means.  It comes from some place cold, and seems to involve food.  Unfortunately Mom can't cook, but she can make coffee and she also says she can buy baked goods.  She explained this to me while surrounded by dog hair and thousands of Legos and everyone's mess - what she calls material chaos.  Frankly it just prepared me for my next nap.

Two hours later I woke up and she asked if we could start the blog again, and she was going to have something called "The Summer of Moomins".  The whole Hygge thing made her think of it.  She is going to read a chapter of "Moominsummer Madness" each week, and use it to "drag herself back from the brink".  Don't ask me what that means.  She was getting a bottle of wine out of the fridge at the same time.

Where's their bottle of wine?

So, if we're doing this again, I am going to also review a book I've been reading, which has nothing to do with Hygge, or Hog, but maybe with Hug.  This week it is "Turtle in Paradise", by Jennifer L. Holm.  Turtle is a girl growing up during the Depression, not to be confused with the depression, which seems to happen about once a month at home.

Turtle is 11.  Her mother is a housekeeper who works for people who still have money during this poor time in American history.  Turtle and her mom don't go hungry as often as many others because they live with people who have money, but Turtle doesn't have a dad and her mother gets her heart broken all the time by men who are no good.  Then Archie comes along and he seems alright!  The bad thing is her mom's new boss doesn't like kids, so Turtle is getting sent to live with an aunt in the Florida Keys.
You may think that sounds glamorous, but this was before the Keys became a tourist destination.  Everyone is dirt poor, and Turtle is now living with a passel of cousins who don't wear shoes, crammed into a little rickety house.  She's the only girl, and she's got to use her wits and an inner strength she didn't know she had to make a new life for herself.  Soon she is coming out of her "turtle" shell and having exciting adventures.  I won't tell you more, but I will hint at the grouchy grandma and the pirate treasure map, and a fortune discovered and lost.  At the end Turtle gets the best treasure of all - her mama and a real home.  This book is so great, I just know you will love it, and you'll see that you can find hygge even in a rickety, messy little house.  Do you hear that, Mom?