Archive for July, 2012

Continue reading Is ‘Dora the Explorer’ becoming a live-action movie? »

Generally for summer reading you want something light like “Death Comes to Pemberley” by P.D. James. If you loved “Pride and Prejudice,” you’ll enjoy revisiting with all your favorite characters while they sort out a murder at Pemberley. It’s fun and truly captures the feeling of Austin. My only complaint is that James feels the need to have “Pride” characters interact with Austin characters from other books.

Earlier in the summer, I tried to read “Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson.” We had seen part of the documentary of the book on TV but the book proved too academic to wade through. So I gave up.

I found a medium-ground by visiting classics that I should have read in high school or college but never did. (Not meaning they were assigned and didn’t read them, just meaning as an educated person I should have read them.)

By my bed right now:

“A Farewell to Arms” – I just finished

“For Whom the Bell Tolls”

“Old Man and the Sea” – I read this in Freshmen …

Continue reading Summer reading for mom: What’s on your list? »

The Huffington Post published a slide show of the top 50 healthy foods. I broke the list down into stuff my family eats every day, often, sometimes and never.

I think summer time makes it easy to eat all the fruit. They are shoveling down strawberries, blueberries, cherries, cantaloupe (not on the list), watermelon (not on the list).  They’ll eat the spinach as a salad. We do the Brussels sprouts in the winter.

Tell me which of these foods your family is eating on a regular basis? Which won’t they touch?

Every day

Almonds –(We usually have almonds, pecans, walnuts or pistachios open and they dip in during the day.)

Apples – Always on the counter

Blueberries – Always in the fruit drawer

Brown rice (almost) – They don’t even comment on the difference. They also don’t mind whole grain pasta either.

Cherries – They love.

Coffee – This is just me.

Dark chocolate – All of us.

Eggs – Rose likes fried. Walsh and Lilina like scrambled, but none of them like boiled.

Oatmeal – Have at …

Continue reading Does your family eat the top 50 healthiest foods? »

My phone has app where you can track your cycle. It marks your last period in red, shows you your fertile day, and then projects when you should start.

It’s a free app called My Days on Android. I’m sure there are other similar apps out there. I like it better than just marking a digital calendar because then you don’t have to go searching for the start date. You can see it automatically.

I think it’s supposed to be for ladies trying to get pregnant but works just as well if you just want to know when you’re going to start.

A few months ago I was stressed and really late and the app actually posted a question to me: “Are you sure you’re not pregnant?”

I showed it to Michael. It was very funny for the phone to ask the question.

Are you tracking your cycle with a phone app? Which app do you like? Have you found one where you can track multiple ones like your daughter’s too?

Continue reading Do you track your cycle on your phone? »

The Huffington Post picked up on Reddit string where fast food workers were describing things they would not order in their stores. Here’s some of what they said:

From The Huffington Post:

“Fast food workers of Reddit, what is the one menu option at your employment that you would recommend people never eat? (Because of cooking safety, cleanliness, unhealthy, etc),” asked user 4ScienceandReason. This thread, which generated over 6,000 comments in 24 hours, brought some amazingly gross things to light — some expected and some unexpected — as well as some good-to-know tricks for the fast-food customer….

“Chicken Nuggets: Some of the grossest stories on this thread talked about the dubious material nuggets are generally made of. As noted by 4ScienceandReason,pictures and videos like these have already scared a lot of us off of chicken nuggets forever. Just in case that wasn’t enough, this comment by Dfunkatron might seal the deal for you, “When I worked at McDonald’s, I …

Continue reading Fast food workers reveal what NOT to order »

A friend posted an interesting comment the other day on Facebook. He pointed out some things that he would have considered treats growing up that just seem commonplace to his daughters.

Some examples were: watermelon, eating at a sit-down restaurant (not a pizza place) and going to the zoo.

Michael and I discussed if the difference had to do with having more affluence than one’s parents, but Michael didn’t think so. He thinks it’s more about parents spoiling their kids these days. (But those items don’t seem like expensive things.) Could that be softened a little to say parents want to offer their kids more experiences?

What are some example so treats from your childhood that your kids would consider commonplace now? Why do you think that is?

Continue reading What were treats to you but are commonplace to your kids? »

The PBS series “Civilization: The West and the Rest with Niall Ferguson” looked at six reason why Western culture flourished and dominated the rest of the world.

I caught only part of the second half of the show that examined how the Protestant work ethic was a major contributor to the West’s success and why Europe today is falling behind.

From The New York Times:

“If the West’s moment of dominance is ending, the good news, for American viewers, is that this is apparently Europeans’ fault, a point Mr. Ferguson makes in Part 2 while discussing the rise and possible fall of what Max Weber outlined as the Protestant work ethic.”

“ ‘Today there’s a schism at the heart of Christendom,’ he says. ‘Europeans these days work a whole lot less than their American counterparts. And they don’t only work less. They pray less.’ ”

“He adds, ‘That’s a real anomaly in a world where, everywhere else, religious faith is not just strong but growing.’ ”

Ferguson throws out a fascinating statistic …

Continue reading Why is the church so prevalent in Southern family life? »

The July issue of “The Atlantic” has reignited the debate about if women can have it all and the AJC’s Helena Oliviero has waded into the discussion.

From the AJC article:

“…“Why Women Still Can’t Have it All” by Anne-Marie Slaughter, recently reignited the debate about juggling work and family life. Slaughter stepped down from her job as director of policy planning at the U.S. State Department. She left partly because she needed to return to her job at Princeton University once her two-year public service leave was over. But she also left because she missed her spouse and two teenage sons, and they needed her.”

“The magazine article went viral; it reportedly had nearly a million views online within a week. Responses ran the gamut: Some welcomed a conversation about more flexibility in the workplace, some saw the piece as whiny and still others lambasted her for equating feminist success with “having it all.”

So can women really have it all?

From “The Atlantic” article:

“A …

Continue reading Can women have it all? The debate continues »

The last time my dad visited us he made a reference to Brer Rabbit and my 5-year-old had no idea what he was talking about. It bothered my dad, who is from Savannah, that she didn’t know the character. He kept saying I needed to read “Song of the South” to her. I said “Dad, people don’t read that to their kids anymore.”

I am pretty sure we don’t have a copy of the Disney version of the famous Joel Chandler Harris tales in our house. We did have a copy growing up.

Various articles online seem to indicate that the objections are not to Joel Chandler Harris’ folklore stories about the South but instead the Disney adaption.

Here are some of the common objections to the Disney adaption of the Uncle Remus tales.

Here is a synopsis and good reviews for the Disney movie version of it

Here is a history of how the Uncle Remus tales were created by Georgia author Joel Chandler Harris.

From the New Georgia Encyclopedia:

“[Joel Chandler] Harris’s four years at Turnwold (1862-66) shaped his …

Continue reading Do parents still share Brer Rabbit and Uncle Remus stories? »

We have decided to go way outside of our comfort zone for our vacation this summer, and go CAMPING!

We will be spending about five days later this month in two of the greatest national parks in the United States: Sequoia and Yosemite.

You know we are not an outdoorsy kind of family. We love road trips and are good for day hikes but then generally end up back in a comfortable hotel. It’s the sleeping outside part and sharing a public bath house that I find difficult.

You’ll remember our first and only camping trip with the Cub Scouts to Stone Mountain where we slept on granite and had to have help to get our tent up. We were very happy to be home 20 hours later so I am definitely concerned about how we are going to do roughing it for close to a week. (I’m going to go back and read the advice from that entry.)

However, we are very excited to experience the grandeur of these national parks and to be off the grid — internet and cell phones generally don’t work in the parks.

We …

Continue reading Need Advice: What to bring camping in Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks? »