What's for dinner, Mom?

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? I used to ask my own mother that question, and now it's my turn to answer it. The thing is, I do not always have a ready answer, and most of the time I cast a sheepish glance at the dining table often helplessly and mutter something like, 'let's see...' or 'pass me my phone please, we're ordering food' or worse, 'get dressed; we're going out for dinner.'

What's for Dinner, Mom? has definitely better answers. This printed book presents bulk cooking: the secret to a successful kitchen career. Author Lorrie Flem shows you examples to follow, explains methods you can adapt and plans you can execute to help you produce nutritious meals for your family at regular intervals without losing your sanity or feeling tethered to a rope due to time constraints.

Biblical references and quotes on food injected into the contents of this book triggered nostalgia for home.  The Homemaking Tips from the 1800s appealed to the history lover in me. You will love finding how to involve your children as you work your way around cooking and dining.  The multi-tasking tips are apt for busy moms. I chuckled when I got to this part of the book thinking how at my international business communication job I could multi-task in three languages, but do not know how to multi-task at home. This book has given me ideas how to domesticate such skill.

Now the recipes. They're the yummy stuff in the book and you've been waiting to hear from that, haven't you? I guarantee they are easy with ingredients you do not have to look further for than your nearest grocery. I am excited to try the 'stretchers.' You will know what I'm talking about and more by getting this spiral-bound book in your hands.

The good news is you have a chance to win a copy of this book by leaving your email with your comment below. One winner will be drawn on June 23rd. To find out more about this book, go to the Eternal Encouragement site and see other products available there as well.

I received a copy of this book for an honest review.

Encouragement: Colorado power pack and a giveaway

Encouragement. Don't we all need that?!

Unless you are a super natural being you need encouragement, just like any normal person. We are talking of the type that we need for day to day living.

As a working mother I need lots of encouragement and tips on how to run my household while raising a boy whose hyperactivity often coincides perfectly with times I tidy a certain part of our home. One minute everything's in order. The next I see the same things crumble right where they are like a sand castle dissolving in a rush of waves.

The Colorado power pack audio set by Lorie Flem works nicely for me. It is an audio bundle filled with help, suggestions and yes, encouragement for wives, mothers, or women contemplating a home and family. As I listened to it, I nodded several times, thinking 'how true!' or 'haven't I encountered that situation before?' 'How did I survive it, I wonder....'

This audio set is filled with inspiring examples of women in the Bible who, just like you and me, are wives and mothers who also had issues and struggles of their own.  They had personalities. They had attitudes. Exactly just like us. If they can be successful in their roles in those days so can we.

Check out these valuable inclusions in the bundle:

• Keys to a queenly castle


• Attitude Adjustments


• Encouragement for the weary homeschooler


• Cheerful children and challenging chores


• Teach so they'll learn


• Dawdling or diligence


• Welcome home, Daddy


• Doing enough and fortifying the foundation

Ladies, take this hint I got from the set: there's a way you can impact a certain thing when your husband walks through the door.

You can find out what is that and more from www.eternalencouragment.com for $29.97

And the giveaway: Get a copy of this audio bundle for yourself here. Leave a comment by May 31st. The winner will be notified via email.

I received this product as part of the Gabby Moms review program in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This post is also shared with Mommy Moments friends.

Pet names

In this post: Booking Through Thursday and Thursday Thirteen

Lu asks

Do you have any pet that has a name inspired by your readings?

If not, what would you pick if you DID?

Do any of your friends have book-based names for their pets? (Or their children?)

Piano lessons were imposed on me when I was a little girl. My love for reading extended to the short background of the music or biography of the composer written on my music books. I think I enjoyed the reading part more than working on the keys. Fast forward to 2002 I bought a toy poodle and named him Mozart, that's him on the sidebar, after the composer. I use his photo as a bookmark.

My mother's dog is named Shakespeare, after you-know-who. (sorry for the HP reference). A fairy tale - addict young niece named one of our cats Snow White, and the other George, after King George.

Thursday Thirteen: Books the feature dogs

1. Odyssey by Homer features Argos
2. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov features Banga
3. Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie features Bob
4. Call of the Wild by Jack London features Buck
5. The Roly-Poly Pudding by Beatrix Potter features John Joiner
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck features Candy's dog
7. Two Gentlemen of Verona, by Shakespeare features Crab
8. Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens features Diogenes
9. Harry Potter by JK Rowling features Fang
10. Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien features Garm
11. Ulysses by James Joyce features Garryowen
12. Adam Bede by George Eliot features Gyp
13. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens features Jip

Live in

In this post: Booking Through Thursday and Thursday Thirteen

abookandashortlatte1 asks

If you had to choose to live within a novel, which would it be?

Without much ado Harry Potter's Hogwarts! What a place to explore! I'd like to transfigure arrogant Malfoy into a cross-eyed cockroach. *kidding* And when I feel like cutting Snape's class I'll hang out at Hagrid's hut. Then during summers head to The Burrow. As Ron Weasley says, "it's not much, but it's home."

Thursday 13: My favorite places in Harry Potter

1. Hogwarts the moving staircases and all the magic learning!
2. The Burrow 'dilapidated and standing only by magic' ah!... wonderful
3. Hogsmeade Village appeals to the country girl in me
3. Madam Puddifoot's is where we will have high tea
4. Diagon Alley shop til I drop
5. Shell Cottage a newly-weds' home must be sweet and lovely
6. Weasley's Wizard Wheezes I want their anti-acne cream
7. Honeyduke's Sweetshop for my sweet tooth
8. The Leaky Cauldron when one day in Diagon Alley is not enough
9. The Three Broomsticks running a pub and living above it
10. Scrivenshaft's Quill Supplies good old writing paraphernalia
11. Magical Menagerie offers advice on animal care and health
12. Florean Fortescue's choco-raspberry with chopped nuts
13. Flourish & Blotts books of course

In or out

In this post: Booking Through Thursday and Thursday Thirteen

Heidi asks:

Do you consider yourself an extrovert or an introvert?

Perhaps a combination of both. I have been living alone since my big D in 2006 and I don't seem to mind; rarely wish for company. Seventy five percent of my king size bed is littered with books. I occupy the remaining 25% when I sleep. As for socializing I am happy meeting friends for lunch, dinner or high tea in or outside my nook. I love cozy cafes. Church, concerts, lectures, or family get-togethers  - I welcome them as revitalizing shot to my routine which is being alone.
 

Thursday 13: They are also in and out

Breakfast this morning was spent watching CNN's Pierce Morgan talking with people about President Barack Obama's support for gay marriage. I wonder what would these writers have said if they were the ones interviewed.

Source: Famous Gays and Lesbians in History

1. Sappho (600 B.C.) Greek poetess
2. Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) British statesman and writer
3. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
4. Lord Byron (1788-1824) British poet
5. Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) Danish poet and writer
6. Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) Euro-American writer and journalist
7. Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Euro-American poet
8. Herman Melville (18-19-1891 Euro-American writer
9. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish writer and dramatist
10. Marcel Proust (1871-1922) French writer
11. W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) British writer and dramatist
12. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) British writer and publisher
13. Truman Capote (1924-1984) Euro-American author

Siblings

In this post: Booking Through Thursday and Thursday Thirteen

Heidi asks:

Do you have siblings? Do they like to read?

As an only child I often wondered what it was like to have siblings who like to read. Would we have a contest on who could read how many books in a month? Share and discuss each other's reads while munching chocolate? There were cousins. But all one did was devour comics while another read the same author I read hundreds of full moons ago - Irving Wallace. Parents regulated my reading pile, and Wallace wasn't exactly on their list of approved material, so it was fun sharing the secret read with a cousin who did the same experiment. We were probably looking for supplemental info to our high school sex education. I'm a fan of my parents' literary gifts; didn't mind reading alone almost all the time.

Thursday 13: Famous siblings - except perhaps the last pair, there's one common denominator among most of them: rivalry

1. Kate and Bianca in Taming of the Shrew- fought bitterly
2. Orlando and Oliver in As You Like It - relationship was marked by antagonism
3. Cain and Abel in the Bible - one brother's jealousy led to murder
4. Leah and Rachel in the Bible - competed for the love of Jacob
5. Ares and Athena in Disney's Hercules- competed over territory
6. Venus and Serena Williams, in tennis - compared with each other by the media
7. Janet and Michael Jackson, in music - compared with each other by the media
8. Rose and Maggie in In Her Shoes - alternately loving and argumentative
9. Michael and Fredo in The Godfather - their conflict was fatal
10. Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren, advice columnists - very close and publicly antagonistic
11. Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine, actresses - had an uneasy relationship from childhood and later stopped talking to each other completely
12. Ann and Mary Boleyn, The Other Boleyn Girl - contended for the affection of King Henry VIII
13. Elinor and Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - two sisters very different in their ways of thinking and feeling

 Reference for nos. 1 - 11 here.

Organizing Happiness: review

Do you sometimes think bad moods you feel may be due to the disorganized state of things around you?


If you suspected so, Organizing Happiness can help you, like it helped me deal with clutter issues, acquaint or reacquaint yourself with habits that will make you and others happier, and use spiritual weapons and organization inspiration for happiness.

The longer I have been busy with job and social responsibilities, the farther I have strayed from bible-based advice on living an organized life so well-presented on this ebook.


Being used to having paid help do cleaning and cooking chores for me, my place has become a war zone of clothes, books, stilettos, and my kiddo's toys here and there  following changes in our living arrangement. Having the practical illustrations and gentle advice of this darling ebook around mitigated my personal struggle with domestic chaos.

Author Lorrie Flem's attribution of clutter on "not having a designated place to put things" nailed it for me. I actually went to a supermarket to buy keepers.  I also tried the '15-minute' suggestion and indeed was amazed to see the bedside table got tidied up, the dresser tamed and the garbage sorted in just 15 minutes.

Under one of four headings in this ebook, I am especially delighted to be reminded of Philippians 4:8 - “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

Be inspired as I am. You can read Organizing Happiness for free by signing up for the Eternal Encouragement newsletter. Find details of this ebook here. Unmistakably relevant to fellow moms keeping a home as well as working single ladies, I am sharing this post over at Mommy Moments , Happiness is..., & Color Connection.

Changes

In this post: Booking Through Thursday and Thursday Thirteen

Charlie Quillen asks:

Has a book ever inspired you to change anything in your life, fiction or non-fiction alike?

Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad inspired me to change the way I look at money.  Kate White's Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do helped me change the way I evaluate myself.  The Da Vinci Code inspired me to change my attitude toward The Bible.  The entertainment of puzzles in Dan Brown's work and its references to concepts that ring a bell around times long ago when the Bible was spoon-fed to me, sparked a fancy to rediscover non-fiction mystery that the Bible has abundance of, as well as advice and knowledge that never gets old.

Thursday 13: Inspiring changes. Which ones speak to you best?

1. Change brings opportunity. ~ Nido Qubein

2. Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein. ~ Life's Little Instruction Book

3. Your life does not get better by chance. It gets better by change. ~ Jim Rohn

4. Use what talents you possess, the woods will be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. ~ Henry van Dyke

5. Each person's task in life is to become an increasingly better person. ~ Leo Tolstoy

6. Remembering you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.  You are already naked.  There is no reason not to follow your heart. ~ Steve Jobs, 2005 Stanford commencement address

7.  The greatest mistake you can do in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. ~ Elbert Hubbard

8. Twenty years from now you will be disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ~ Mark Twain

9. Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix                     ~ Christina Baldwin

10. We all have big changes in our lives, that are more or less a second chance.      ~ Harrison Ford quoted by Gary Jenkins, Imperfect Hero

11. Someone was hurt before you, wronged before you, humiliated before you, frightened before you, beaten before you, raped before you, yet someone survived. You can do anything you choose to do. ~ Maya Angelou

12. We have a strategic plan. It's called 'doing things.' ~ Herb Kelleher

13. Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful is it is encouraging because it means things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.     ~King  Whitney Jr

Literary pet peeves

In this post: Booking Through Thursday and Thursday Thirteen

Bookish Sarah asks:

What are your literary “pet peeves”?

Put too many swear words in a story and I lose interest. Too much cursing sounds like limited vocabulary, stunted creativity. The other one is something I have experienced for the first time - a novel with an unlikeable character. The Wise Woman is my first Philippa Gregory. If I wasn't fond of historical fiction (besides thinking that Gregory is brilliant at her genre) I wouldn't have minded not finishing the book. The heroine is so unlikeable almost every page developed in me a distaste of her that even her death in the conclusion didn't convince me it redeemed her. I want my reading experience (outside work) to be a pleasure; not characters that I don't enjoy.

 Thursday 13: Unusual words that begin with letter N

You may be familiar with or have encountered the following words already. If you do not know what they mean, I hope you have as much fun guessing as I had fun putting them together. 

1. nephogram - is a photograph of (a) lungs     (b) diaphragm     (c) clouds
2. nodated - means (a) knotted     (b) sprained     (c) inundated
3. neuralgiform - is like or shaped like a (a) brain     (b) nerve     (c) esophagus
4. nidify - to build a (a) nest     (b) an invalid argument     (c) wooden box
5. nesiote - means living (a) by a lake     (b) on a dessert     (c) on an island
6. ninon -  is (a) silk      (b) cotton     (c) taffeta
7. nacarat -  means (a) tangerine     (b) bright orange-red     (c) gold
8. naology - is architecture study of (a) a temple     (b)a manor house     (c)a castle
9. natiform - is shaped like (a)a nose     (b) buttocks     (c) hips
10. nemoricolous - means living in (a) valleys     (b) forests     (c) mountains
11. nervure - means vein of a (a)petal     (b) leaf     (c) fruit
12. nipter - is ceremony of washing the (a) feet     (b) nose     (c) hands
13. nepenthe - is something capable of making one forget suffering such as              (a) a drink     (b) an inhalant     (c) a liniment

Answers: 1. (c) clouds   2. (a) knotted   3. (b) nerve   4. (a) nest   5. (c) an island        6. (a) silk   7. (b) bright orange-red   8. (a) temple   9. (b) buttocks   10. (b) forests   11. (b) leaf   12. (a) feet   13. (a) drink

Courtesy to The Phrontistery for the list.

Relating

In this post: Booking Through Thursday and Thursday Thirteen

Are there any fictional characters whom you have emulated (or tried to)?             Who and why?

Nowadays, none. But as a kid I was all over Nancy Drew from the first time I got my hands on Clue in the Crumbling Wall.  In many ways ridiculous, but I could relate. Her dad never seemed to be home - mine came home once a month. She was surrounded by people who instantly responded to her - my father's side of the family showered me with lots of attention. Possible attribution here is I'm an only child, kind of usually got what I wanted, things like those. Perhaps I unknowingly behaved like Nancy Drew at times as I always had fun imagining I was her in those adventures she did.

What literary character do you feel is most like you personality-wise (explain)?

Now this is interesting. I once took a Harry Potter personality test for fun and emerged as Mad Eye Moody whose profile goes like this:

Noble yet ruthless. Brilliant with a twist of insanity. Excellent wizard who became the most feared dark wizard catcher. While not as moral as Dumbledore, he is just as honest with the same essential values.

As a Jane Austen fan I am unable to resist "which Austen heroine are you?" so I took the test too and results show I am Marianne Dashwood.

I wrote a research proposal on integrative complexity of four Asian leaders during terrorist crises to the University of Copenhagen. It's fun to be curious. The feedback was very positive.

Whatever makes me brilliant, ruthless, insane one minute and all lovey-dovey sensibility the next?

No voice divine the storm allayed, no light propitious shone ... to love is to burn! to be on fire! *clutching heart*

This stuff makes me laugh and frown at some parts I can't believe but I took those tests, and although they were just for fun, what and where else could I have based my answers on? Quite entertaining.

Thursday 13: Classes for Women at the Adult Learning Center

A friend sent this to me.  There were only 12. I added the 13th, or if you have a better idea I'd like to hear it.


NOTE: DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY AND DIFFICULTY LEVEL OF THEIR CONTENTS, CLASS SIZES WILL BE LIMITED TO 8 PARTICIPANTS MAXIMUM.

Class 1. Up in Winter, Down in Summer - How to Adjust a Thermostat
Slide Presentation. Meets 4 weeks, Mon and Wed for 2 hrs.


Class 2. Which Takes More Energy - Putting the Toilet Seat Down, or Moaning About It for 3 Hours? Round Table Discussion. Meets 2 weeks, Sat 12:00 for 2 hours.

Class 3. Is It Possible To Drive Past a Marks & Spencer Without Stopping?               Group Debate. Meets 4 weeks, Saturday 10:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 4. Fundamental Differences Between a Purse and a Suitcase -Pictures and Explanatory Graphics. Meets Saturdays at 2:00 PM for 3 weeks.

Class 5. Curling Irons-Can They Levitate and Fly Into The Bathroom Cabinet?
Examples on Video. Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours 

Class 6. Help Line Support and Support Groups. Meets 4 weeks, Fri and Sun 7:PM

Class 7. Can a Bath Be Taken Without 14 Different Kinds of Soaps and Shampoos?
Open Forum. Monday at 8:00 PM, 2 hours.

Class 8. Health Watch--They Make Medicine for PMS - USE IT!
Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 9. I Was Wrong and He Was Right!--Real Life Testimonials.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM Location to be determined.

Class 10. How to Parallel Park In Less Than 20 Minutes Without an Insurance Claim
Driving Simulations. 4 weeks, Saturday's noon, 2 hours.

Class 11. Learning to Live-How to Apply Brakes Without Throwing Passengers Through the Windshield. Tuesdays at 7:00 PM, location to be determined

Class 12. How to Shop by Yourself
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Class 13. Sympathy v. Solution: what to offer friends in trouble. Serious lecture.  Meets 4 weeks, Monday and Tuesday for 2 hours beginning at 5:00 PM.

Upon completion of ANY of the above courses, diplomas will be issued to the survivors.