Books on my nightstand.

I don't often read more than one book at a time, unless I'm reading fiction and non-fiction. Although right now I've got four books going. Sheesh. The only non-fiction I seem to read these days are parenting books. Currently Lovey is going through a picky eater stage so I'm loading up on how to get your kid to eat books from the library. There's also the books I'm reading for book club and another book I grabbed from the library that is much better than I thought. So without further blabber:

The Night Stranger by Chris Bohjilian
Chris Bohjilian and Anne Lammott are my favorite authors. But even favorites have some duds sometimes. This might be one of them. I have put it down about 60 pages in and I will eventually pick it back up but I'm not in a hurry. The premise is the surviving pilot of a crash that killed all but 8 people moves into a haunted house. It has potential, I just haven't found it yet.

Stories I Only Tell my Friends by Rob Lowe
This one was the surprise. I picked it up when I went to the library to get the picky eater books. It is really good. Rob Lowe has an enjoyable writing style. His stories do sound like ones he'd tell his friends at a lingering dinner party with lots of wine. The number of celebrities that he has crossed patches with is pretty astounding, even for someone who is a celebrity. But at the end of the day, he really is just a middle class kid who made good. Definitely worth a library borrow.

Take the Fight Out of Food by Donna Fish
and Food Chaining by Cheri Falker
Ah yes, the picky eater books. The first one is great. It describes my daughters eating style to perfection. The Beige Food eater. In addition it also provides strategies to teach nutrition and good health to your child as a way of encouraging healthy eating habits. The best part is that it tells parents not to worry about the picky eater if they are growing and thriving. I needed that.
The second book is a little too technical and scientific for me. It delves into a feeding disorder evaluation and how to know when to seek one. We don't need that so aside from the chart in the appendix that lists all the different foods, drinks, and textures a child eats, this book is largely unhelpful. Really glad I didn't spend the money on it. It goes back to the library.

Other books yet to be read are Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins and One Morning, One Moment by Sarah Rylant. Both of these are book club books. We read the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy and got sucked in so decided to read the whole series. I zipped through the first two but I got the third for Honey for his birthday so I actually had to wait until his birthday to put it in my book pile. I'm looking forward to it. The other book I might not even have the title and author right on. I know nothing about it. We picked it randomly at book club for those people who finish the trilogy and are looking for something else. I'll let you know.

What books are on your nightstand right now? The club is always looking for suggestions. I am too.

Keep it simple.

In the ever present quest for self improvement I finally came up with three simple goals I'd like to accomplish everyday. The point of the goals is not to give me more work to do, but to make me feel more me. It seems I always have an issue with time for myself. I used to think it was just a mommy problem, now I've come to learn its actually a woman problem. We put everyone else first before us. I have struggled with this my whole life. Having a family certainly doesn't help. Don't get me wrong, I think men and daddies have this issue too, but it's different. I don't think men put as much pressure on themselves. I could be wrong. Any men care to weigh in? Oh, that's right, only two people read this.

Which leads me back to my goals. Three things I need to do everyday to feel like myself.

1) read. Anything. Well, not Facebook. But blogs count as reading, as do books or magazines.

(2) write. It doesn't have to be here on the blog, but anything. Writing has always been my creative outlet and I'd like to be more creative in my daily life. And I'd eventually like to write a book. But that's a story for another time. Literally. In all honesty, if I write daily I will get that much closer to the big-fear-scary-goal of writing a book.

(3) exercise. Every day. It helps me keep my sanity. It doesn't have to be hardcore cardio. It just has to be something exercise. I'm hoping my jeans will thank me.

It seems simple and so far I'm 1:1. I hope I can stick to it and see a difference in my overall attitude (and waistline) as a result.

The daughter takes a wife.

The other day Lovey was singing The Farmer and the Dell. She happily sang "the daughter takes a wife, the daughter takes a wife, hi ho a derry oh, the daughter takes a wife". I didn't correct her. I was actually proud. It means Honey and I are doing our jobs. It means Lovey doesn't see anything wrong with a girl marrying another girl. Since she was born Honey and I have made sure that when we talk about love and marriage we are either gender neutral or all inclusive. We tell her she can marry whomever she wants boy, girl, black, white, short, tall, fat, purple. You name it. As long as that person treats with respect. Now I just need to see if I can get her to teach that song to Kitten.

My inner voice called and I sent it to voice mail.

On Saturday Kitten had an accident and ended up in the ED. She's fine. Although her Dare Devil status still stands. Now that I've gotten over the mommy guilt of letting her get into a situation where she could hurt herself I found the lesson. Don't ignore your inner voice.

You know the one. Everyone has it. The little thought in your head that tells you something bad is about to happen. Well, I ignored it. And now my kid looks like a prize fighter. The last time I ignored my inner voice was the day Kitten was born. I knew I was in labor but somehow I ignored the voice. Kitten was born an hour after I got to the hospital. And then there was the time my inner voice told me to go in the basement because there was a tornado. But I ignored the voice. It was a tornado.

I wonder why it is that this voice gets ignored so much. Is it because we think we are invincible? Do we assume it's worth the risk and nothing bad can happen? I wish I knew. It does no good to ignore it. Whatever the reason I think I've finally gotten the strong dose of reality to ensure that I will always listen to it again.

The other blog.

A while back I said I started another blog. It's just as neglected as this one. I'm trying to keep track of the allergy safe recipes somewhere. If you're interested you can check it out here.