Reading Challenges for 2013

 Ever since I can remember I have loved to read.  My grandmother used to read to me all the time which is probably why I have this love of reading.  When I read its like a movie plays in my head especially when its a good book that I can really get into.  The first time I remember it happening I was reading Curious George and the pictures were in my head and became a movie.   I participated in a challenge last year through Goodreads and am again this year through them.  After reading several blogs and the challenges that their bloggers are participating in I decided that I would follow suit.  Take a look at the challenges below and if so inclined participate in one or more.



The Reading Challenge Addict challenge is for those of us who participate in one or more reading challenges.

2013 Goodreads Reading Challenge  is a challenge where you set your own goal.  You update what you are reading on the Goodreads website and your progress is tracked.


The 2013 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge fits right in with my goal to read more than I did last year.  If you have this same goal the jump in and join us.  Last year I read 26 books and I'm looking to outdo last years number.

Do you have a reading goal?  If so join in on a challenge or two.

Are You Prepared?

Tonight has been one hell of a night.  I tried to get home from work and my street was blocked with firetrucks, firemen, and tons of people.  Our neighbor's house caught fire and the back of the house burned.  Fortunately no one was hurt and only things were lost. 

Helping them retrieve items from their home once the fire was out was very heart wrenching.  Through all of this however, looking over across the street where their three children were playing and laughing was enough to bring a smile to your face through all this craziness.  They are young enough that they don't understand the devastation behind the front door so they were enjoying being outside after dark playing with the other neighborhood kids.  That fire could have turned very tragic in only a matter of seconds and watching all those kids playing and laughing made me stop and thank God for keeping everyone safe tonight.  After going home I hugged my kids a little bit tighter because you never know when something could happen. 

The only good thing that came out of this tragedy tonight was our renewed awareness of home safety.  My kids and I talked about what we should have in our home for safety and what some other things to think about might be.  After discussions and a lot of surfing the web, here is a list of things we came up with for our family.

• Check the batteries in every smoke detector often (sources we found said every 6 moths)
• Place smoke detectors near bedrooms
• Test smoke detectors each month to make sure they are working properly
• Keep hallways and exits empty for easy evacuation.
• Have an ABC type fire extinguishers on each level of your home and know how and when to use them.
• Have an escape plan and a meeting place
• Practice your escape plan
• Be sure your home number is visible from the street so emergency vehicles can find you.

Infographic from LibertyMutual.com

Whether your child is 2 or 20 you need to continue to reinforce home safety to them.  Lead by example and your children will follow. 

Do you have an escape plan and a family meeting place? 

1 Down, 7 To Go

It's the end of the first week of my 8 week Paleo Challenge and all in all I've done well.  So far my husband and kids haven't had an issue with any of the menus.  They haven't really noticed the missing grains or dairy.  Sugar hasn't been an issue since we did away with it last year using honey or maple syrup for sweetener.

Before I ever ate Paleo I researched it quite a bit and thought it was going to be way to much work.  However I have found with a little planning it really isn't hard to do.  Tonight was a perfect example of how easy it can be.  I forgot to put dinner in the crock pot before we left to run some errands to day and got back and had no clue what to cook.  I went through some recipes and dinner was on the table in about an hour.

 Baked Honey Mustard Chicken
Serves 6

Ingredients:
6 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Salt & Pepper to taste
1/2 cup Honey
1/2 cup Prepared mustard
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon parsley
Coconut oil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.  Season chicken with salt and pepper.  Lightly oil baking dish with coconut oil and add chicken. 

In a small bowl combine honey, mustard, basil, paprika, and parsley and mix well.  Pour 1/2 the mixture over the chicken and brush to cover.  Bake for 30 minutes then turn chicken and pour the rest of the honey mustard mixture over the chicken and bake for 15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

I may have forgotten to put dinner in the crock pot but we were able to still have dinner at a reasonable time and eat healthy.  And at the end of the day I have a new go to dinner when things don't go as planned.

Do you have a go to dinner when things don't go the way you planned?

 

Paleo Challenge Time!

Well it's almost 2:30 am here and I'm still awake planning my meals for the week!  WTH?!?!  I have to work tomorrow and I'm still sitting here laptop teetering on the arm of the couch.  I'm trying to figure out who is going to be here and who isn't and their likes and dislikes...ummmm wait a minute I AM THE MOM!  Why am I trying to appease the people who live in my house?  Ok so this week everyone will be happy with my meals that I have planned, if not they can go raid the fridge.

I have actually been looking forward to this challenge since it was posted on the board at our box.  The last one was good and I did have some good results from it.  Now granted I was very lax on keeping track of everything like I should and you only had so many days to post it only, so yeah it shows as if I really sucked at the challenge.  Oh well it was my first and it was a learning experience.

I visited a lot of my favorite sites tonight to get recipes and will be posting recipes along with how the meals went over with the rugrats and the hubby.  Tonight's meal went over very well getting an "OMG this is good from the hubby".  I served it over rice because hey I needed to have a last hurrah, ok ok the cheesecake was the last hurrah but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do ya know.

Drunk Sweet Sausage

Ingredients:

• 2 cups red wine
• 1 (28-oz.) can whole peeled tomatoes
• 2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 2 tablespoon sage
• 2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 small onion
• 15 sweet Italian sausages

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350.  Put everything into your food processor except the sausage and process until you have a sauce like consistency.  Place the sausages into a baking dish and pour the sauce over and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes.

What I lo-lo-loved about this recipe is that I didn't have to chop anything so not a lot of prep time.  This will be a quick go to meal for me in the future.  This was really yummy and got a thumbs up from everyone tonight.

Have you started any type of a challenge in the new year or made a New Year's resolution?

Mother Daughter Day

Yesterday my friend had a mommy daughter day (you can read about it here Daily Venting & Exclamations) and her pictures made me think about my daughter.  Since she moved out on her own last December we haven't had very much time together without her dad or her brothers.  As I sit here thinking about it I think the last time was when Twilight New Moon came out.   So I've decided its past time to have another.  What should we do?  There aren't a whole lot of new movies out that we want to see.  So what can we do? 

No matter what age your daughter is you can find things to do that both of you will have fun.  Ask her what she would like to do and brainstorm together.  Have fun with the process of planning your day together.  Here are a few ideas to get you started.

1.  Mani/Pedi at the local nail salon
2.  Breakfast or Lunch
3.  Dinner
4.  Go to the movies
5.  Rent some movies and get some snacks and have a movie night at home in your PJs
6.  Bake some cookies
7.  Cook a gourmet meal together
8.  Do some crafts
9.  Go shopping
10. Visit a museum
11. Play a game
12 Take a walk or if its raining...dance in the rain

 My daughter is 22 so just getting to spend time with her is hard to schedule.  We may not be able to spend a full day together but whatever time we have available I want to make the most of.  A way to do that is take her to lunch and making sure its not a loud restaurant so we can talk without having to talk over other people, music, etc.  At the end of the day the point is to spend quality time with your daughter and simply have fun.

What kind of things would or do you do for a mother daughter day?

 

Comfort Food

My post from yesterday (Bringing Back the 70's) and getting ready for another Paleo challenge has me thinking about comfort food.  Good thing the challenge is starting after the holidays because all but one of my comfort foods is a no no when eating a Paleo Diet.  Mac and cheese, potato soup, oatmeal, and mashed potatoes are going to be off limits for the next 8 weeks. 

So what am I eating tonight...Potato soup!  I learned this recipe from my mom who learned from her mom.  It's very simple and takes so little time to whip up.   I have been known to call my mom when I'm sick and ask her to come over and make me some.  Any time I was sick as a kid my mom or Mimi (my grandma) would make me some and it may not have taken away my fever or cured me but it filled my belly and made me feel all warm and fuzzy.   It may not be much to look at but it tastes so good and reminds me of my childhood. 

Simple Potato Soup

Ingredients

2 medium potatoes
Milk - just enough to almost cover the potatoes
1 to 2 Tbs Butter
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

Cut potatoes into 1/2" pieces.  Put in a pot of water and boil until soft.  Drain the potatoes then put back into the pan and add butter, milk, and salt and pepper.  Heat on low to medium heat, just until the milk warms and the butter melts.  Makes 2-3 servings.

What food makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

Bringing Back the 70's

Recently saw the question 'If you could bring back something what would it be?' and it got me thinking.  What would I bring back?  Now don't laugh but I would bring back the 70's.  The music, the carefree days of my childhood and yes even the fashion.

I was a child in the 70's but remember it to be a fun carefree time.  My days were spent running around the neighborhood with the boys.  Yes I said the boys, you see there were no girls my age only boys, DR, Randy W., Randy G., Gary, Scott, and Lenny.  There were more but these were the core crew.  I have known most of them since I was three and we ran the roads of Carriage Hills together.  We played football, baseball, and went on adventures from sun up til sun down.  We would stay outside and play all day only stopping to grab sandwiches at someones house.  I wonder if our mom's got together with a schedule of who was providing lunch on what day...I'll have to ask. Once we ate lunch we were back out to play picking up right where we left off.  Then the dreaded street lights would start buzzing letting us all know it was time to get home because it was going to be dark soon.  The next day would be more of the same and again we picked up right where we left off.

Now the kids sit in the house playing video games or on the computer.  When they do venture out with the neighborhood kids they will play for a few hours then there always seems to be an argument of some sort and they all go back in and back to the video games.  If we had an argument we had to figure it out or fight it out because no one was willing to go home and go in, we would have been bored in the house.  Maybe this is why kids  today get into some of the messes that they do, they haven't been forced to learn to compromise or work things out with others and they have stuff to do inside.

It's been fun reminising but at the end of the day I think I will come back to 2012 where my children and husband are.  Maybe I'll go outside with my son and gather up the neighborhood kids and show them how to play red light green light or mother may I.

What would you bring back if you could?

The Fast Children At Play Indoors pic is from Conrad Abraham