Everyday Reading

Winter Challenge: Pattern Mixing

2012-01-27T09:27:00.000-06:00

Fridays make me happy. Especially Fridays where Landen has offered to babysit and we're going out to dinner. Hooray!

Also playgroup at the park. Hello, I am a mom. But a mom wearing a leopard-print belt.

Shirt: Old Navy, Sweater: H&M, Belt: Forever 21

Jeans: Target, Boots: JC Penny

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I'm participating in Kayla's Winter Challenge. Check it out on her blog:

It Doesn't Take Much

2012-01-27T06:33:00.006-06:00

. . . to make me happy.

Just a little daughter that enjoys Pinterest as much as I do.

Winter Challenge: Channel Someone

2012-01-26T07:20:00.001-06:00

Today's challenge is to channel someone. Kayla said it could be anyone, whether or not they are famous, and I almost immediately settled on my dear friend Bethany.

She's a blog friend turned real friend (we overlapped in Boston by about six months) and I am awe of her in practically every way. She is truly one of the kindest people I know, she and her husband are the most darling couple you could know, she kept inviting me over for dinner when Bart was out of town, and she, Casey, and Noah were always ready to join Bart and me on some Boston adventure (now that I have a child, I am amazed by how good they were at taking him around with them). She takes the most beauitful photographs.

Oh, and she has amazing style. She lent me a ton of clothing when I was pregnant and it was sad how much better her PREGNANCY clothes were than my regular clothing. Every time I saw her in real life and now (because we live far apart) when I see her on her blog, I think "I need her to get me dressed. And also buy all my clothing."

Which is why, when I saw this shirt at Forever 21, I bought it. Because it looked like something Bethany would wear.

When I think of Bethany's style, I think stripes, plaid, small prints, drape-y sweaters, and pink, pink, pink. And she also always dresses in a way that makes you think she just threw things on and just happens to look fabulous, not that she spent a ton of time making herself so lovely. She dresses like a real person, like a mom who snuggles her cute babies (including her 10 week-premie daughter) on the couch, and a friend who laughs at your not very funny jokes.

I love Bethany.

Shirt: Forever 21, Sweater: Forever 21, Jeans: Target
Shoes: Fossil, Earrings: Forever 21

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I'm participating in Kayla's Winter Challenge. Check it out on her blog:

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine

2012-01-26T06:03:00.002-06:00

Two years after the fact, I still consider The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had one of my favorite books. So when The Lions of Little Rock arrived - a second book by Kristin Levine - I read it almost immediately.

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had is set in a general period of race conflict in the American South, where The Lions of Little Rock deals with a specific historical event.

I was familiar, of course, with the story of the Little Rock Nine - the nine black children who integrate in the high schools of Little Rock Arkansas and the public (and the Governor, who had the state National Guard on his side) was so deeply opposed to it that President Eisenhower has to send in federal troops to get the students into school.

What I didn't know anything about was "The Lost Year" which took place the following school year when the Governor, furious still at being overridden by the President and determined not to let black and white students attend schools together, closed all the public high schools for the entire year.

And this is where The Lions of Little Rock takes place. Marlee is extremely shy - so much so that she really never speaks at school at all - and she's nervous about a new year of junior high. On the eve of school's beginning, though, the Governor announces that all the high schools will be closed. Both of Marlee's parents are high school teachers and they must attend, even though there won't be any students. Marlee's school isn't affected, since the state hasn't yet integrated junior highs and thus there are no black children to keep out.

Marlee's school year, though, starts out quite well. A new girl, Liz, is assigned to be her partner on a big project, and Liz is everything Marlee is not - confident, outgoing, and talkative. The two really hit it off and Liz starts to help Marlee overcome her shyness.

But then, to Marlee's horror, Liz doesn't show up to school one day and rumors start circulating that it's because Liz is actually black, trying to pass as a white girl.

Fighting back her natural inclinations to just be quiet and not make waves, Marlee seeks Liz out and they carefully try to maintain their friendship, despite the danger to both of them if the wrong people discover what they're doing.

And it's not as if her friendship with Liz is the only thing Marlee has to worry about - her parents are arguing more and more about the segregation issue (her father thinks the Governor is being ridiculous and that the schools should integrate, her mother worries that everyone will think her husband is a communist and that it's just better to keep the races separate), her older sister - one of the few people she can talk to - has been shipped off to live with their grandmother so she can attend school while the Little Rock schools sit empty, and JT, the boy she's liked for ages, is using her to do his homework for him (not to mention that his older brother is always trying to catch her hanging out with Liz).

This book does a brilliant job weaving in the larger back-story of 1958 with the personal struggles of Marlee (who is as likeable a heroine as I've read in a long while).

It's fascinating to see how some people find any reason to act horribly (if race is the issue of the moment, these people will turn on anyone at all outside the mainstream opinion), and others are willing to stand up to awful things in order to fight for what they believe. It's inspiring to see how individuals really can make a difference, and, of course, I always love learning more about a period of history that was previously a blank in my mind.

As Levine mentions in the author's note, this was a year that made the realities of the civil rights movement real to nearly everyone in Little Rock. It was no longer a news story they heard here and there, something they could ignore. Now teenagers all over the city were sitting home and that's pretty hard to overlook. People start having to take a side, and that's not always pretty. This book beautifully illustrates how such events shape a community and how individuals deal with such upheaval in their lives.

I hope Kristin Levine keeps writing - I'll read everything she publishes.

Advance copy received from publisher

And the Winners Are

2012-01-25T06:58:00.001-06:00

Y'all know that I am a complete nerd about book awards and so it was rather heartbreaking to leave Dallas before the big youth media awards were announced.

Still, I made Ella sit at the computer with me first thing Monday morning and watch the webcast with me (she was not as enthusiastic as she might have been. . . ).

There are many many awards given and some of them I just really can't get myself to be excited about. But the big categories? I feel sick with anticipation about. And because I KNOW you want to know what won and what I think about the winners, let me share with you WAY too many thoughts (for instance, did you notice that each of the four Caldecott winners are written and illustrated by one person, rather than a separate writer and illustrator?)

Caldecott:
2012 Winner:
A Ball for Daisy illustrated and written by Chris Raschka - I checked this one out months ago and read it to Ella. It was cute, but not one that I just absolutely loved.

2012 Honors:
Blackout illustrated and written by John Rocco - I've heard a lot about this one, but not actually read it myself. Time to remedy that.
Grandpa Green illustrated and written by Lane Smith - I picked up an early copy of this at TLA in the spring and thought it was sweet. I didn't absolutely adore it, but since then I've heard so much buzz about it, that I wasn't really shocked when it got an honor.
Me . . . Jane illustrated and written by Patrick McDonnell - I adore this book. I'm so happy, but not a bit surprised, to see it get a Caldecott sticker.

Newbery:
2012 Winner:
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos - I listened to this a couple of months ago and I enjoyed it, but it was no match for Okay for Now in my book. And, as you might have guessed, that was the book I was holding out for.

2012 Honors:
Breaking Stalin’s Nose written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin - I've never even heard of this, but I am really excited about reading it. Doesn't it just have a GREAT title?
Inside Out & Back Again written by Thanhha Lai - I meant to read this one back when it was nominated for a National Book Award (and then went on to win), but I did not. At least now, when I finally do get around to it, I can check it off TWO lists in my mega-nerdy spreadsheet.

Printz:
2012 Winner:
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley - I have had this sitting, unopened in my library bin for many weeks now. Of course, now that it won both the Printz AND the Morris award, I will need to finish it quickly, as there is no way it'll be available for renewal.

2012 Honors:
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey - Never even heard of it. Embarrassing.
The Returning by Christine Hinwood - Also never heard of it. Double embarrassment.
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater - I've had a copy of this since BEA, but I've been holding out for an audio version. And now that the audio version got an Odyssey nod, I feel especially justified in doing so.
Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and art by Maira Kalman - This was one of the first books I read after BEA and I thought it was quite remarkable. It's not quite clean enough for me to recommend it across the board, but I personally found it really engaging.

So? What did YOU think about the winners? Read any of them? Wish something else had won? Make me feel like less of a nerd here!

Winter Challenge: Embrace a Trend

2012-01-25T05:11:00.000-06:00

I didn't realize what a luxury it was to have the last challenge during the summer where the sun never stopped shining in Austin. It was PLENTY bright enough inside to take decent pictures.

These last couple of overcast days, however, have made my life hard (yes, whine, whine).

Today's theme is Embrace a Trend and it seemed like the perfect occasion to wear my new leopard print flats (I saw them on Uber Chic for Cheap's Babble post and about ten minutes later had my order completed).

Also, they feel like slippers on the inside (fuzzy!)

Sweater: Old Navy, Jeans: Target,

Scarf: tiny store in London Shoes: Kohl's

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I'm participating in Kayla's Winter Challenge. Check it out on her blog:

Goodwill Rescue

2012-01-24T06:34:00.002-06:00

As part of my "Live Vibrantly" goal for this year, I'm trying not to dress like such a complete boring person (the downside of this for Kayla is that I seem insistent on sending her lousy phone pictures of practically everything I wear. Count yourself lucky that I do not have your phone number).

I was sorting through my clothes a couple of weeks ago in preparation for an upcoming clothing swap, when I saw something I'd previously tossed in the Goodwill pile - this white t-shirt that Ralphie had passed along to me a year ago. It fit pretty well, but it was rather boring and also it was starting to pill a little bit in the front.

I've done a few shirt-saves in the past year

but I hadn't even considered trying to resurrect this one, until I saw a really darling mom at the library with a shirt I love, love, loved and I thought, "I could make that happen."

And I did:

This was an incredibly easy little project. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought 2 spools of trim (each one was 6 ft long and $5, but marked 50% off). I chose one with a scalloped edge and one that was straight on each edge, just for a little variety.

This particular shirt is double-layered in the front (the pilling I mentioned earlier was BETWEEN the two layers), so it made it a little trickier to keep both layers completely flat while sewing - this would have been even more easy with a regular single-fabric shirt.

I pinned the trim on (just eyeballing that they were even) and cut them with about an inch or so of extra on each side.

I sewed the strips on by machine, using invisible thread on the top (I bought this at Walmart for a buck a while ago for some other project that is now far from my mind) and white thread on the back. I highly recommend the invisible thread. On the straight trim, I sewed the top and bottom edges. On the scalloped trim, I only sewed along the straight edge. For all of these seams, I used a small zig-zag stitch.

Once I'd sewed all of that, I carefully trimmed the edges to match up as closely as possible with the side seams. And then I sewed them right along the side seam. I did a separate seam for each piece of trim, so that you wouldn't see stitches on the shirt, but if you don't care about that, you could simply do one long seam up each side.

And then I snipped off the six bazillion threads leftover. This probably took longer and was more boring than the rest of the project combined.

I used about 11.5 feet of trim for this shirt, so if your shirt is a little bigger or smaller or if you'd like to do more or fewer strips or add some to the sleeves, you'll want to adjust accordingly. Also, keep in mind that your shirt won't stretch on the front side much after you add the trim, unless your trim is also stretchy (mine was absolutely not stretchy at all).

Anyway, I'm pretty ridiculously pleased with how it turned out. I am one shirt closer to living less boringly (don't tell me how far I have to go).

Winter Challenge: Monochrome

2012-01-24T04:46:00.003-06:00

Apologies for the heavy posting this week. Blame Kayla (I've found it to be excellent recourse for all my blaming needs).

Today's challenge is monochrome dressing, and gray seemed appropriate (it's like Merrick and I are sisters) because it's super overcast today and there has been some crazy rain and hail.

My other sister and I went and got some free hot chocolates (Dear neighbors, please continue to throw out your free coupons without even glancing at them. I will continue to collect them and eat scads of free food). It would have been even more fun if Merrick had been there.

Dress: Downeast Basics, Shirt: Old Navy,

Scarf: H&M, Tights: Target Shoes: Payless

I have to say, when I saw this outfit in the pictures, I was less impressed by it than I was in real life. I hate it when that happens. Better luck tomorrow. . .

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I'm participating in Kayla's Winter Challenge. Check it out on her blog:

Dinner is Served: Crockpot Chicken Chili

2012-01-23T06:05:00.002-06:00

What I want from my crockpot is something I can throw in early in the morning and not think about again until it's time to eat.

Also, I want it to taste delicious. And I want it not to include a bunch of fake ingredients. And I don't want a lot of fussy steps at the beginning like precooking things or adding things half-way through. AND (I know, I ask a lot here. . .I'm kind of annoyed with me), I want it to cook all day long. It always bothered me when I was working full-time when recipes cooked for four hours. Who is starting a crockpot meal at two in the afternoon!? I need something that can cook all day without burning or going completely dry.

This is that meal. I make this any time I am taking a meal to someone because it is so delicious, it takes about five minutes to throw together and, bonus, it's inexpensive. Add some biscuits or muffins and, ta-da! Dinner is served.

Crockpot Chicken Chili
(slightly adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe)

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS:
2 chicken breasts or thighs (frozen or fresh)
1/2 onion, chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
1 pound dry white beans
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth (2 14-ounce cans)
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies (or two cans if you really like things spicy)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whipping cream

Rinse dried beans thoroughly and toss them in the crockpot. Add everything else except the sour cream and whipping cream. Stir a little bit and cook on low for 7-10 hours.

Shred the chicken a little bit with two forks (this should be super easy - the chicken will be falling apart by this point). Stir in the sour cream and then the cream. Let sit for another 15 minutes or so to warm through. Serve.

Two other options:

Quick-cooking method:Use 3 cans of beans instead of dry beans. Rinse beans thoroughly before adding to crockpot and decrease broth to 3 cups. Cook for about 4 hours.
Vegetarian version: Leave out the chicken and substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth

ALA Midwinter

2012-01-22T11:57:00.000-06:00

Home again, home again, jiggity-jog.

I'm not sure Ella was really that sad I was gone, since Bart took her out to dinner one night and out for ice cream the other evening. They spent an hour swinging on the swings, and Bart bought her a few shirts.

I had a wonderful time in Dallas. The highlights were the preview breakfast at Little Brown (food! books! authors!) and the Scholastic author round up last night (Jordan Sonnenblick's reading of his new book, Curveball, was the best part for me).

And, of course, I came home with many books (hooray for having a car, rather than having to ship them home like I did after BEA). Here are the ones I'm most excited for:

I've been fortunate to go to several conferences in the last year - TLA in Austin, BEA in New York, and now Midwinter in Dallas. I don't know when I'll next be able to make a conference happen for me, but for now I'm just feeling happy that I was able to go to this one.

Winter Challenge: Layers

2012-01-21T20:21:00.002-06:00

You may remember that one of my goals this year was to spend less time getting dressed. Mega-fail today. I think half of my closet was on my bed today (the other half was in the laundry, as Monday is laundry day).

In some ways, I hate Monday because of the laundry issue, but in other ways, it's a nice chance to bring out clothing I don't wear as often.

Kayla's challenge for the day was "Layers" and I didn't want to be TOO obvious with this one.

I ended up wearing this maternity dress which I love the colors of and tucking it in to make it a little more tunic-y. Plus, a triple-wrap belt (layers!) and some new black ankle pants I bought at Forever 21 last weekend.

Sweater: Borrowed from Landen, Dress: Target Maternity,

Belt: Old Navy Pants: Forever 21, Shoes: Payless

Done and done.

Now to go put away all the clothes strewn around my bedroom.

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I'm participating in Kayla's Winter Challenge. Check it out on her blog:

It Doesn't Take Much

2012-01-20T06:35:00.004-06:00

. . . to make me happy.

via Broke Girl's Guide

Just a little weekend road trip to Dallas for ALA Midwinter. See you on Monday!

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

2012-01-19T06:08:00.002-06:00

It is really a nice thing when the first book you read in a year is not terrible. In fact, The Running Dream was quite excellent.

Kelly recommended it to me a while ago and, while we have quite different taste sometimes, she has a knack for knowing what books I will enjoy. And, as usual, she was not wrong.

Jessica wakes up in the hospital to find that her leg is gone, amputated just below the knee. This would be awful enough on its own, but Jessica is a runner - on the day of the accident, in fact, she's just won a big race at her school's track meet.

After the meet, the school bus is hit by a drunk driver and Jessica's leg is crushed beyond repair.

Now life as she knows it is over. Everything is now an enormous effort - going up stairs, getting into the shower, driving, attending school. At first she doesn't even want to leave the house and she isolates many of her friends who are trying hard to maintain a relationship. Only her best friend, Fiona, refuses to be pushed away.

When Jessica finally returns to school, she can't maneuver her wheel chair to her old desk, so she is seated by a girl in her math class, Rosa, with cerebral palsy. She's seen her, of course, over the years, but knows nothing about her, not even why she's in a wheel chair. At first she's uncomfortable around Rosa, but as she gets better at understanding her (she has a fairly significant speech impediment), she discovers that Rosa is funny and kind and good at math, which is a huge boon to Jessica who was already struggling in math before she missed weeks of school.

And, as it usually happens, it's not just life without a leg that Jessica has to learn to adapt to. Her parents are also struggling with the enormous medical bills that came with the accident, the track team rallies around her but she's not sure how she fits in with them now, since she's no longer able to run, and she has to imagine what her future will look like now that a running scholarship is off the table.

And as her small town rallies around her to help raise money for a running leg (who even knew those existed?), she realizes that life, even if it's one she never imagined for herself, is still pretty good.

There's a lot going on in this book and yet, it never seemed like it was trying too hard. I completely bought Jessica's story - her intense anger and despair, her sometimes optimism, her impatience with the whole process of getting a prosthetic leg and learning to walk again.

It's not a high-action book, either; the story spreads over the course of more than a year and the character development really shines because of the pacing. You get to see Jessica at her best and at her worst. You see how hard the parents are trying to be positive while also dealing with the financial repercussions of the accident. And you see Jessica start to get close to Rosa, recognizing that she has seen Rosa as just a girl in a wheelchair and now desperately wants people to look beyond the disability to the regular person. Now that she's someone with a disability, she recognizes how it feels to be on the receiving end of the stares or the people who just ignore you.

I loved too how well-researched this all was - I know more about leg amputations and fake legs than I ever would have imagined. When I start tossing around the term "BK amputee," you'll know it's because of this book.

I listened to this book and several times it was while I was out running. I can't pretend I didn't get a little teary listening to Jessica's adjustments to her new life as I ran effortlessly (well, huffing and puffing, but you know what I mean) on my two perfectly healthy legs.

The narration bothered me a little bit at first (the narrator has many of the sentences ending by going up which at first made me slightly crazy), but I warmed to it and by the end, I was really glad I'd listened to this one. The pacing, the characters (especially Rosa's speech impediment), and the whole tone of the book was richer than I think it might have been if I'd simply read it in paper form.

If you are at all a fan of contemporary young adult novels, this is one I'd highly recommend.

Audiobook checked out from my local library

Three Things I Wore Last Week

2012-01-18T06:36:00.003-06:00

Three guesses which of these pictures I took on a really rainy, overcast day with absolutely no good lighting at all?

P.S. Left to Right:
1) Shirt: Old Navy, Sweater: Anthropologie (borrowed from Landen), Cords: Kohl's (altered), Shoes: Fossil
2) Dress: H&M, Sweater: H&M, Belt: Forever 21, Shoes: hand-me-down from my mom
3) Tank: Old Navy, Sweater: Boden (borrowed from Landen), Jeans: Target, Shoes: Fossil, Earrings: Claire's

A Walk in London by Salvatore Rubbino

2012-01-17T06:15:00.003-06:00

I think the rule is that if you go somewhere on study abroad while in college, you are just required to love anything that is at all related to that city/country for the rest of your life. Thus, I had no choice but to be delighted by A Walk in London.

This book follows a little girl and her mother (this puts it right on the edge of fiction/non-fiction) as they spend a day visiting some of the most famous sites in London, including St. Paul's, the Bank of England, Trafalgar Square, and Buckingham Palace.

Seeing these places made me desperate to go back to London (I had no idea being a Cybils panelist was going to force me to take an international vacation - they should have warned me. . . ).

The illustrations delight me, reminding me a little of the ones in the famous Madeline books. The simple lines keep the big, colorful spreads from seeming overly complicated.

Also, when a book has a lot of little inserts of text around the page (in addition to the main, large block of text on each page), I sometimes feel a little overwhelmed, but this one did a good job of keeping things simple and arranging them in a way that made it easy for my eyes to move from fact to fact, instead of jumping around. Plus, these little facts were so fun and interesting - I didn't know St. Paul's had a whispering gallery or that the ravens at the Tower of London get an egg a week.

Of course, the fact that one small child would be up to visiting this many tourist sites in a single day does make this book deserve a place smack in the fiction section, but that's neither here nor there.

I'll definitely be pulling this book out before the first time we drag our children to London (which, after the horrors of getting Ella back to a normal sleep schedule after our Christmas vacation, looks to be about two decades from now).

Copy checked out from my local library

Cinnamon Almond Biscuits, or, What to Serve at a Tea Party for Two

2012-01-16T06:08:00.018-06:00

I don't really go for mega-fussy recipes. I don't like things that make an enormous mess or that take forever to make and clean up. I also don't want every treat I make with Ella to be super-sugary or that her only cooking memories with me are of desserts.

This recipe fits the bill perfectly for me.

These biscuits are kind of a cross between a cracker and a cookie - slightly sweet, full of texture, crisp on the outside, and soft on the inside. They freeze beautifully and, start to finish, the whole thing takes about thirty minutes.

Plus, you can use your cookie cutters without having to make sugar cookies (blah. I loathe sugar cookies because of the chilling and then the rolling and the getting too soft and then the baking up into unrecognizable shapes. Perhaps I have issues).

Either way, when they came out of the oven, the house smelled wonderful, and Ella and I enjoyed a little tea party in her room. These biscuits were a huge improvement over the wooden hamburgers we've been eating since Christmas.

Cinnamon Almond Biscuits
(slightly adapted from Perry's Plate)

Makes about 30 2-inch cookies

1 cup wheat flour (I use white wheat flour)
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup almonds
1 T ground or whole flax-seed
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 T brown or turbadino sugar (I like turbadino because it is so coarse and has a great texture).
5 T cold butter, diced
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a food processor or blender, blend the almonds until they form a coarse flour. Add oats (and flaxseed if you're using whole flaxseed) and blend a bit more until they are pretty broken up. Pour into a mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer.

Add the remaining ingredients except for the butter and milk and combine. Add the butter chunks and mix until well incorporated. With the mixer running, pour in the milk. Let the mixer run until the dough starts clumping up (kind of like if you were making the crumble topping for an apple crisp).

Dump the dough onto a clean surface, pat it into a rectangle, and roll out to a 1/4 inch thickness.

Cut the dough with cookie cutters (or just use a pizza cutter to cut it into squares. Lay them on a greased or parchment-covered cookie sheet. They don't expand really at all, so you can put them quite close together (I can do about two dozen on a single sheet).

Pat remaining dough back together, re-roll and repeat.

Bake for 12 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes on baking sheet before eating.

It Doesn't Take Much

2012-01-13T06:21:00.011-06:00

. . . to make me happy.

Just a little handmade hat Ella got for Christmas. Thanks, Doug & Gina!

Why Women Need Fat: How "Healthy" Food Makes Us Gain Excess Weight by Lassek and Gaulin

2012-01-12T07:02:00.002-06:00

Why Women Need Fat is a book I feel a little split on. On the one hand, there were some fascinating things about it and I read huge passages aloud to Bart. On the other hand, good heavens, I think it could have been about 100 pages shorter.

The book has four main points: 1) women store fat in their bodies in ways specifically designed to produce healthy children (and this changes over the course of their lives) 2) the Western diet is making people heavier than they would be on a normal diet (I know! I was SHOCKED by this revelation too) in large part because the fats we eat don't provide our bodies the nutrients we need and so we our bodies crave more fat to get those nutrients 3) dieting makes your brain want to gain weight and 4) if you eat more real foods, your body will naturally, over time, find its healthy weight (even if that isn't quite as thin as you'd like to be - if your body really wants to be right around 150, you're going to have a hard time permanently staying at 120).

I loved this quote from the book because it kind of sums up how I feel about food and dieting:

Did we actually voluntarily give up most delicious foods in the quest to make ourselves healthier? Amazingly, we did. American women made unpleasant, unappealing, and difficult changes in the foods their families ate, and especially the fats they were eating, because they believed that this would improve their health. Instead we all got fatter.

I liked this book as an addition to the many other food books I've read and I did learn some new things (including more about how the hypothalamus works), but if I was going to read just one book about changing my diet, it'd be The Omnivore's Dilemma. On the other hand, I'm not looking to lose weight and since this one is more specifically geared toward that (via a real foods diet) than The Omnivore's Dilemma, this might be more helpful to people with different goals than I have.

The other thing that set this book apart for me is the focus on how our bodies react to dieting - it's fun to learn some of the science behind things you've observed your whole life. That part alone made it worth reading for me.

My recommendation? Skim the dull parts and enjoy the many fascinating sections. Wonder about trying the experiment researchers did where they doubled the caloric intake of students who proceeded to not gain any weight at all. Feel smart for understanding how the hypothalamus works and why it will slow your weight loss if you lose too much, too fast. Gag at the stats about the average American eating 6+ gallons of vegetable oil a year.

Also, I'm recommitted to reading food labels more diligently. Bart is probably terrified that his beloved Triscuits won't make the cut.

I read this book for the BlogHer Book Club and you can read other reviews and discussions at BlogHer. I am paid for my participation in the BlogHer Book Club, but I choose which books to read and my reviews are strictly my own opinions. If I think a book is terrible, I'll say so. If I rave about a book, it's because it's one I'd give to Kayla or my mom.

Three Things I Wore Last Week

2012-01-11T06:26:00.012-06:00

One of my unwritten goals this year is to spend less time getting dressed. I sometimes feel like I waste my whole morning and I still don't like what I end up wearing. (Sunday, for some reason, is especially bad for me). I just want to get dressed, feel good about what I'm wearing and go on with my day. Is that asking so much?

Anyway, so far so good. Here are three things I wore last week, and ten points to me because all three of them were the first outfit I put on.

If you happen to care about such things, from left to right:
1) Shirt: H&M (borrowed from Landen), Jeans: Target, Shoes: Target
2) Sweater: Old Navy, Jeans: Target, Boots: JC Pennys, Necklace: Claire's
3) Shirt: Anthropologie (gift from my mom), Jeans: Target, Shoes, Target. Necklace: Gift from my mom

I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat: History's Strangest Cures by Carlyn Beccia

2012-01-10T06:41:00.002-06:00

This is the kind of book that wouldn't have stayed on my shelves in an elementary school library. The combination of non-fiction and the ick factor makes I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat a winner.

The book discusses eight different ailments (coughs, colds, wounds, etc). Each one is presented with three possible cures. You're supposed to guess which one will work and then turn the page to find out which one is right.

Each of the possibilities gets a page description of why or why not it would have worked (and why people in the past thought it would work).

The pictures are a perfect compliment - big, full-color pictures with snaggle-toothed crones, unhappy victims of crazy cures, and lots of very expressive bugs and rodents.

I read this one to Ralphie's girls a few weeks ago and they loved trying to guess the right cures. This book would be a great part of a unit on history or medicine or illness or correlation v. causation.

As for me, I'm mainly just happy that when I get a sore throat, no one tries to make me wear a necklace of worms.

Copy checked out from my local library

2012 Goals

2012-01-09T06:48:00.025-06:00

If you've spent more than twelve seconds at my blog, you might know I love love love goals.

This year, I did my goals a little differently than I have in the past. I've felt like, some years, things on my list are just on there for the sake of having goals, not because they are really things I care strongly about. And then, because of my really reasonable personality type, I tend to do the things I don't care so much about just because they're easy to check off, and kind of ignore the few important ones. I am just such a model of good goal setting.

So this year, I formatted them a little differently (inspired in part by Janet's resolutions on her 2011 wrap-up post). I came up with five overarching themes for the year - things I want to focus on, ways I want to improve. They aren't measurable (I know! goal failure!) but they're easy to remember and I'm hopeful that they'll keep me focused on improving my life this year. Here they are:

Then, I divided my life into various categories (wife, mother, blogger, reader, physical, etc) and tried to make just a few goals in each of those areas - ones that I'd really feel good about working toward. Here are some of those:

Mother

Two one-on-one activities a week (planned in the evening - supplies bought as needed).
Make holidays fun (Valentine’s, Easter, St. Patrick’s Day, Fourth of July, Birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas)
No TV for Ella in our home

Health

Waste no food from the CSA (and this is why we had rutabaga on Thursday night).
Quarterly exercise plans (2x a week)
2 desserts a week - one month of commitment at a time
Floss every day (so far this goal is killing me. My dentist father is probably not that impressed).

Dressing Myself

Buy things that make me happy
15 items repaired/altered

Blogger

40 book reviews (non-picture books)
25 recipes (with photographs)
Full 2x2 series
All Newbery and Caldecott Titles of 2012

Home

Painting done
72 Hour kits completed

I am really excited about 2012 - it's going to be great.

It Doesn't Take Much

2012-01-06T06:31:00.003-06:00

. . . to make me happy.

Just a little pocketknife/scissors for my keychain that Bart got me for Christmas. In hot pink, of course.

Reading Finale

2012-01-05T06:08:00.002-06:00

Like Quarter 3 of 2011, I read 34 books (although it only amounted to 9,329 pages instead of 10,867 like it did July - September).

All in all, that put my totals for 2011 at 156 books with a total of 48,873 pages read. Not bad, even if it's the least number of books I've read since 2008.

Last year I didn't set a goal for how many books to read and I'm not this year either, since I find that it makes me more likely to read short, pointless novels just for the sake of my numbers and also to not give up on books I am finding absolutely not worth finishing.

Anyway, with all that out of the way, here's what I read in October, November, and December:

How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

The Shadows by Jacqueline West

A Friday Night Lights Companion: Love, Loss and Football in Dillon, Texas by Leah Wilson

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen

The Rivals by Daisy Whitney

The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth

Sea Change by Jeremy Page

Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Flesh and Blood So Cheap: the Triangle Fire and Its Legacy by Albert Marrin

365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My life by John Kralik

The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

finally

Shelter by Harlan Coben

Barn Boot Blues by Catherine Friend

The Magic Room: A Story about the Love We Wish for Our Daughters by Jeffrey Zaslow

Playground by 50 Cent

Everybody Sees the Ants by A. S. King

Sounder by William H. Armstrong

Wherever You Go by Heather Davis

Dead End in Norvel by Jack Gantos

The Wednesday Wars

Aces Up by Lauren Barnholdt

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Dinner is Served: Spaghetti Pie

2012-01-04T06:18:00.003-06:00

A few months ago, Ralphie hosted a little freezer meal swap. One of the women brought this and said, "I love this recipe. I got it from Holly after she made it for a big dinner she hosted and I had to have the recipe."

I laughed because Holly had gotten the recipe from me one time when we took dinner to their house years ago, and I felt quite pleased that it's continued to make the rounds. I know it sounds like something horrifying (that probably isn't so much cooked as assembled from pre-made ingredients), but it's actually delicious, easy to toss together, and not full of fake foods.

Even as I become more of a food snob, I still love this recipe. Plus, we always have some leftovers and it's just as good the next day.

This is a recipe I turn to when I need a reliable crowd-pleaser. Or a Bart-pleaser. Because this is one of his favorites. (The recipe is one we got from his mom).

Spaghetti Pie
(adapted from Cooking Light)

serves 6

1 pound ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce (with garlic, if you'd like. Sometimes I just add a little minced garlic).
1 1/2 cups sour cream
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
8 ounces uncooked angel hair pasta (I use whole wheat)
1 1/4 cups (about 5 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350°.

Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove.

Cook meat and onion in a large skillet over medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain if desired (I never do). Stir in salt, pepper, and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer while you prepare the other parts.

Put the pasta in the pot of water, let cook until soft (usually about four minutes for angel hair). Drain and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish.

Combine the sour cream and cream cheese in a small bowl, and spread over the angel hair noodles. Top with meat mixture. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese.

Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

Serve hot.

A Few Things

2012-01-03T07:20:00.007-06:00

Isn't it fantastic to get home after vacation? Ella fell asleep on the way home from the airport and I tried to put her in her crib to continue the nap, but she was SO excited to see all her own things that she wouldn't settle back down. Little girl, I feel the same way. Especially about my own soft bed and perfect pillow (you know, the expensive one from Target (and by expensive, I mean $4)).
Also, I love not living out of a suitcase.
My child makes a very cute lamb. I'll probably stuff her into this costume every Christmas until she's ten. Poor kid.
Right before we left on vacation, Ella snapped the arm of my glasses off. Blah. After I was done being peeved, I ordered a new pair online for all of $10. I love the internet. (This is the pair I got). They arrived while we were gone, and I'm loving them. Bart loves them too, which, frankly, surprised me.
At Bart's office Christmas party, we won a Kindle. (It turns out, he'd ordered me one for Christmas, so we had to return that one). I've been really liking it so far. Having it before we left was ideal, since I only had to take a single book with me and I could keep getting new ones from the library while we were gone.
I have not gone grocery shopping since we returned. We have eaten a lot of pancakes since we got home.
And, over the weekend, Kayla revamped my blog, including a new header and a much cleaner, more stream-lined look. And finally an About Me page that isn't the length of a short novel. I am so in love with it - I keep having to go look at it again. I've probably single-handedly doubled my traffic over the weekend. How pathetic.