Life

WTH is Happening? – St. Patrick’s Day – Coronavirus Day 4

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In a matter of a few days, life has dramatically changed… It’s weird. What are we in for? I’m a little scared, but being scared doesn’t help things. 

Earlier today the little and I decided to make cookies before we headed off to my parent’s house to ride horses. We’re being advised to steer clear of all people over the age of 65 who are at high risk. Well, my mom and dad kind of fall into the age category. I’m not steering clear of them though. I mean, I don’t want to be the cause of something, but going without seeing them would suck too.

I made the choice to let my little grow up with her grandparents and taking that away from her or them… that’s not an option. We’re around them almost every day anyway. So anyway… Maybe I’m a jerk… (more…)

Book Review: Bringing Up Bébé

I started this book in August 2018. Yes, that long ago. And finally finished it. I would read it and then quit. Read then quit. I’m not sure why I couldn’t just push through and finish it, but… I actually read it as a suggestion from a blogger, The Life of Bon. It sat on my Good Reads shelf looking like I wouldn’t read it. And truthfully, I wasn’t. But I finally did. 

Bringing Up Bébé by Pamela Druckerman

The secret behind France’s astonishingly well-behaved children. When American journalist Pamela Druckerman has a baby in Paris, she doesn’t aspire to become a “French parent.” French parenting isn’t a known thing, like French fashion or French cheese. Even French parents themselves insist they aren’t doing anything special.

Yet, the French children Druckerman knows sleep through the night at two or three months old while those of her American friends take a year or more. French kids eat well-rounded meals that are more likely to include braised leeks than chicken nuggets. And while her American friends spend their visits resolving spats between their kids, her French friends sip coffee while the kids play. (more…)

Out of Our Control – Coronavirus Day 3

No truer words have been spoken. There is a lot of weird fear and hoarding going on lately. It is rather sad really. I don’t know anything more about the future than the next person. I did a little research on why people are hoarding toilet paper. It’s supposedly because when you can’t something you don’t understand, you feel better when you can control something. I guess being able to control the fact you have toilet paper is a happy thing? I’m back to being a little lost sadly.

My dad and husband both are constantly reminding me to not worry about the things we cannot control. That is really harder to do than said. (more…)

Time to Get Cooking… Coronavirus Day 2

So being shut in your house really gives you time to sit and think and think and think some more. Oy! I have to keep the radio or tv on or else I’m going nuts. And here we are on day 2. Okay, I might be overexaggerating right now. Truthfully, ask me on day 8 or 9 and that might actually be the truth. You never know.

But one thing that I have been thinking about a lot is cooking my way through the Julia Child Cookbook. Guys, this isn’t a new thought. Quite the contrary. I mentioned this in a blog post in 2018. OMG, I just looked up the original blog post to include with this. Get this, it was written on March 21, 2018. How close is that to current date? Today is March 15. That’s crazy.

I really want to do this. I’ve been talking to my husband a lot about in the last couple of months. I have a couple of holdbacks. First… have you seen the massive size of the cookbook? It’s huge. 2nd, While I try extremely hard not to be a picky eater, I’m afraid I might be too picky of an eater for this cookbook. (more…)

Wear the Damn Helmet… Coronavirus Day 1

The other day, in a matter of 5 minutes I saw no less than 4 posts where WHO was calling the Coronavirus (COVID-19) a Pandemic. Okay, so what does that mean?

Epidemic – noun – a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.

Pandemic – adjective – prevalent over a whole country or the world.

Okay, what does that mean though? We know this is prevalent in multiple countries. We know countries like Italy are on lockdown and the U.S. has put a ban on travel in and out of regions around the world. But 4 different places telling us it is a pandemic, do we need to panic now or something? That really didn’t tell us anything other than something we already knew, they just declared what we already knew. I’m still scratching my head. (more…)

Book Review: Bridget Jones’s Diary

 

I know this is a movie that came out, oh gosh, way back when. But here’s the thing with this book… prior to starting Grad School, I bought this book, at a book sale at work for a quarter. It sat there waiting for me to read it for years. I’m talking years! Jump forward to grad school. I took a British Comedy class. I really had no choice. And this was actually on the book list that we had to read. Shhhh… I still never read it. I glossed over it enough to be able to talk in class about it, but I didn’t read it. I had this class the same semester that I had comps and this was the furthest thing from my mind. Oh, and watching the movie DOESN’T help unless you’re comparing how the book and the movie are DIFFERENT!

Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

a 30-something Singleton who is certain she would have all the answers if she could:
a. lose 7 pounds
b. stop smoking
c. develop Inner Poise (more…)

Book Review: The Paris Wife

Earlier this year a friend of mine took some “test” on Facebook. You know, those weird tests. It was about 1,000 books that you should have read. It was interesting. I figured with grad school that I would have read more than 52 of them. 52/1000… not good odds… One of the books was The Paris Wife. I actually hadn’t read it yet, but I owned it. It was a book I came across a while back… we’re talking over a year ago. It was a physical book even. Sadly, it just sat there waiting for me to read it. Once I saw it on the list and realized I had it but hadn’t read it yet, I jumped on reading it.

Gosh, for as many books I’ve read about Paris, I need to visit Paris. Truthfully, I want to visit 1920 Paris and 1940 Paris, not current Paris. Although don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see current Paris too. I think it is just all the reading of I’d about a Paris I’ll never truly get to experience. (more…)

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

We’re moving right along. At the school Valentine’s Day party yesterday one of the gals asked how I got my little to read. Obviously, in Kindergarten they accept parents reading to the kids as the kids reading. The kids are sitting and listening to reading. I said, does it count if I am bribing a little. She wants to watch the movies, so she has to read the book first. They kind of laughed at me. But it works. We’re ahead of the reading curve. Have been even before we started the reading of the Harry Potter series, but still, we’re ahead and I like it!

The goal for the students is if they read X-number of books (I can’t remember the number) that they get to duct tape the vice principal to the wall. It’ll be exciting and I want to see if it can happen. (more…)

Keto Diet, month 1

Now… let’s put this out here first… My husband and I are doing Keto. No, I don’t need you telling me we’re stupid. I don’t need judgment. I just don’t. We did research and are doing with a doctor’s supervision so please don’t judge, yell, or tell me we’re stupid. 

Now that we have that out of the way… let’s proceed on. We are doing Keto. A lot of people are. It’s probably one of those fad diets honestly. So it’s a high fat, medium protein, no/low carb. That kills me. Quite almost literally. I love my breads and pastas. I’m not a huge dessert or candy fan and gosh I want those too. Really, I am a savory person, but right now I want sweets so bad sort of. 

So your carb intake is based on net carbs. So you take the carbs in your food, subtract out fiber and alcohol sugars, and that gives you the net carbs. You have to eat less than 25 net carbs per day. I’ve also read 20. Either way, 5 doesn’t really make you or break you. 2 days per week you are supposed to bump that up to 50 carbs to help avoid health problems you hear about. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE PASTA? That’s totally random at this point but I can’t help myself. (more…)

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

When it comes to reading the Harry Potter series, I know I am way past the prime reading time. But here’s the thing… I read this book long, long ago. I’m bringing the next round of “fan” into the reading world. 

Last fall when the little started school, we learned we had to read 30 minutes per night. No big deal. Then one weekend we watched the Harry Potter movies. Since then all she’s done is beg to watch them again. So I made her a deal. We had to read the books (as well as other books because come on she needs to learn to read)… and as a reward, she’d get to watch the movies.

It seemed like a fair enough deal, right?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

(more…)