April Reads

After reading Lorrie Moore for the first time earlier this month, I'm going to pick up her short story collection Birds of America and novel Gate at the Stairs later today.

Two thirds of the way through How Toddlers Thrive -- a peek into how to deal with the roiling toddler psyche. Three isn't going to be a picnic - several moms have mentioned recently (Becky here and hey Becky it was great to meet you this weekend!) how hard that age is. I must plan some coping strategies because I am not patient by nature. (Author intro below)

Oh cookbooks always cookbooks to thumb through -- The Cook's Illustrated Baking Book (a beautiful book except that it's in black and white -- food photography looks terrible in b&w! Reminds me of the vignette "The Case of the Colorblind Painter" in Oliver Sacks' Anthropologist on Mars in which an artist loses his color vision and one of his many challenges is overcoming his disgust of food that looked so unappealing - for a while he was able to eat only foods that looked 'right' in black and white -- black beans, white rice, etc).

Healthy eating kick  Going to re-peruse Martha Stewart Inc's Meatless and Power Foods. I was feeling good about pregnancy weight gain for the first trimester but now something like this has happened:

oh dear.

Anyhoo healthy, reasonable countermeasures must be employed. Cutting down on meat has left carbs carbs carbs; it shouldn't but I haven't figured out how to swap meat for not-cheese, not-pasta. I've started reading the blogs Skinny Taste and Eating Whole for inspiration. I made the crockpot skinny buffalo chicken last night, scooped it on to romaine leaves, proclaimed it tasty (same for this salad - no stone fruit in season so I swapped strawberries). We'll have lettuce cup tacos later this week. Another post for another day is the stressful dinner situation I find myself in: C is starving when she gets home, Luke is on his way out the door (if not gone already), and I want to cook something nutritious and sit and eat it together Around the Table Like All the Studies and Anecdotal Evidence Say We Should (as does How Toddlers Thrive).

Reading good stuff? Recommendations, life coaching, and childrearing tips welcomed.

Happy spring everybody! Seems like the abominable snow-winter has finally loosed its grip.