It may have been coincidence, since he can’t even count to 10 consistently.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was interesting. It was a bit slow for me. A bit hard to follow. It all came together in the end (as much as it could). The story is of a boy who’s father dies in the 9/11. And his father’s parents both survived WWII bombings in Germany.

And it seemed weird, but then again, I’ve never lost anyone close in a war, let alone as an innocent casualty, and I can’t even imagine what that would be like or how I would have reacted, especially if I had been 9.

I’m not sure if I recommend this… that would probably be a sign to not read it. I am fairly certain I won’t see the movie.

View all my reviews

Crockpot Honey Sesame Chicken

Ingredients:

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, about 5
Salt and pepper
1 cup of honey
1/2 cup of low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
Cornstarch
Sesame seeds

1. Place the chicken thighs in the crockpot insert and sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides.
2. In a medium sized bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, ketchup, oil, garlic, onion, and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine well. Pour over the chicken in the crockpot.
3. Cook on low for 3-4 hours or high for 1 1/2-2 1/2 hours.
4. When done, remove chicken from stock pot and cut into chunks. Prior to putting the chicken back in the stockpot, combine some cornstarch in water and whisk it into the crockpot to thicken up the sauce a bit. Throw the chicken back in and stir around to recoat the chicken in the sauce.
5. Serve hot over a bed of white rice (optional) and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.

Sorry besides books and recipes I haven’t been much of a blogger.  Apparently we’ve had lots going on.  But nothing that really requires a lot of “reporting”

Shortly into April, we decided to take dairy out of Maria’s diet, because of her tummy aches that were less and less random.  We also started her on a probiotic regularly to see if that was the problem.  So far it’s going well. She has been a champ on missing out on some of the foods she loves the most…  ice cream, anything with cheese, yogurt…  And her tummy issues seem better.  We’ll probably start to reintroduce some things in again this month.  It sure has opened my eyes to how much we all eat dairy.  And also the challenges to making this work, which includes extra grocery trips to the local food co-op for the non-dairy versions of a lot of things (cream cheese, sour cream, cheese, yogurt…)

Maria has had 2 overnights in the last few weeks.  And what we’ve learned from that is that Charlie is a talker!  But only if there isn’t someone (Maria) here to dominate the conversation.  It’s pretty cute and definitely makes me worry less about his speech.  Although I wish I could figure out how to give him more opportunities to dominate the conversation.

I’ve definitely been doing a lot of cooking lately too. Trying new things (without dairy) and just trying to be more holistic with eating as well which means I’m trying to understand what the ingredients are in my food.

So good stuff going on, we’re enjoying the warmer weather and looking forward to Maria’s birthday in a few weeks followed by preschool graduation and the start of summer!

A co-worker lent me this book and I really liked it. I liked the characters and could empathize with each of them, even though their actions were frustrating.

It’s the story of an Indian woman who gives her daughter up for adoption when they “needed” a boy. The story follows the life of this woman and the girl and the parents who adopted the girl.

Very good.

View all my reviews

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It took me awhile to get into this book. I wasn’t sure where it was going and with the whole backdrop of a magic challenge, I thought this was going to be either dark or too much of a fantasy book for me.

But the characters and story engaged me and I couldn’t put the book down once I picked it up. I highly recommend. I’ve never read a book quite like this before.

View all my reviews

“Wear these to work tomorrow”