Wednesday, February 25, 2015

What I've Been Reading Lately

The One Thing I Stopped Doing to Improve My Marriage:- After reading this article, I really thought about it. Sometimes, I do treat my husband like a child and micro-managing him.

Age-Appropriate Chores List :- Now that my daughter's 2.5 years old, I think it's time for her to start doing some chores around the house. There are some more suggestions here for now and once she's older too.

Getting Lost in Just Doing :- There are times when I've done this unconsciously and it really does help you.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Friendships

Recently, I've been reading about how important it is for women to have friendships and how important it is to connect with other people. Not only is it good for the soul but good for the body too!

I've been lucky that I have a few close friends from high school and college that I regularly talk with and I'm really close to my sister and talk to her about almost everything. I'm also really close to my parents and talk to them very frequently. I really cherish these relationships, more given that most of them don't even stay in the same state as me. Through all the rough patches, I've always been able to sail over it because of these relationships bolstering me mentally even if they weren't present physically.

I recently read this quote below in my email from George Washington and it struck me how true that is.



Thursday, February 19, 2015

Parenting Difficulties - Getting your toddler to listen

These days, it's been a struggle to handle Agirl - she's 2.5 years old and doing everything per the book - testing her limits, tantrums... the works. I've been struggling with getting her to listen to me. She does all sorts of shenanigans to get my attention.

In desperation, I turned to the internet to find some help in what to do to get her to listen to me.

Most of the articles on the internet seem to agree on the following:
  1. Avoid situations from being created by making sure they're not sleepy or hungry. 
  2. Carry some small toys to distract their attention
  3. Give plenty of attention
  4. Praise them when they are good
  5. Stay calm and don't yell
  6. Get on his level and talk to him with eye contact
  7. Keep your message short and to the point and clear
  8. Follow through on warnings
  9. Try a reward system
  10. Try Timeouts if the child is old enough
Hopefully, these should work. They are certainly worth trying.

Some of the articles I read were:


Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Recipe Tryout: Skillet Potatoes

I've been meaning to try out some recipes which I've come across online or on Food Network TV shows. So here's my first try.

I saw the Food Network TV Show "Daphne Dishes" on TV the other day and saw her make Skillet Potatoes. It looked tasty and I love potatoes and seemed simple enough - so thought I'd try it. I followed her receipe for the most part with some substitutions - I substituted Gold potatoes instead of russet potatoes and used 1/2 a stick of butter instead of a whole stick. Also, I used a 8-inch cast iron skillet instead of 10-inch.

And here's the result! I made it 2 times and both times it got a little burnt instead of even heating - not sure if it was the skillet or the heat was not correct.


My husband's verdict was that it tasted good except for the burnt parts. I might try this receipe again some time but use a different skillet and see how it comes.

Monday, February 16, 2015

What I've Been Reading Lately

15 Secrets To Saving Money on Amazon :- I shop at Amazon a lot and am an Amazon Prime member. I was familiar with a lot of these secrets but there were a few I hadn't heard of - Amazon Warehouse and Amazon Outlet.

An Easy Lowtech way to limit screentime :- This is a cool idea - only charge your device once every 2-3 days; this means the kids have to budget their screen time or they are not going to get till you recharge next. This is also a great way of teaching them to budget time like money.

Kitchen Tool School: Everything About The Cast Iron Skillet :-  I bought a cast iron skillet recently and just seasoned it following the directions here. This should be useful as I start using this skillet.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Should I Be A Stay-At-Home Mom? Review



I recently read the Should I Be A Stay-At-Home Mom? book on the kindle. The book talks about the pros and cons of being a stay-at-home mom and how to make the decision and once you make the decision, she gives some tips about staying at home and how to manage.

I'm a working away from home Mom and a lot of what she said made sense. However, I felt like the book was strongly skewed towards staying at home and not exposing the other part of the debate enough.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

What I've Been Reading Lately

Unique Difficulties That Women Face with Weight Loss :- This was a good article and had good information about why women find it more difficult to lose weight. It made me feel better about not losing any weight last month.

Protect your child's credit :- Made me think about AGirl's credit too. I made a note to check her credit report when she's older, especially before she goes to college so she doesn't have any issues.

Questions for the modern playdate :- This was an interesting read. My daughter's not old enough yet that I would drop her off at somebody else's place for a playdate. But at some point she will be and this is something I should think about before she does. Gun control & vaccinations were never thought of as issues when and where I grew up but in today's world, we need to ask these questions.


To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate?

Over the last few days, I've read and heard so much about the measles outbreak and people coming out to talk on both sides of the issue.

I'm vaccinated and my daughter's vaccinated. My personal viewpoint is that parents should have a choice in whether they should vaccinate their kids or not and when making that decision, they should think about how their decision affects others too - not just their kids but their neighbor's kids, the kids they go to school with, anybody they come in contact with.

That said, here are some blog posts and other articles that I read recently that made me think more about this issue.

I Wish My Mom Had Vaccinated Me :- Talks about how she was not vaccinated as a kid and how she caught whooping cough, was not treated for it and suffers to this day because of side effects.

Enough is Enough with Blaming “Anti-Vaxxers” :- I have very mixed feelings about this one. I don't agree with a lot the author has to say but she has a few valid points too.

Dear Parents: There are more unvaccinated kids than you think

This Dad's argument for Vaccinations is a Game Changer


Monday, February 2, 2015

January Update for Goals

January wasn't a very good month for me. I had a bunch of health issues along with vertigo and combined with my daughter's sleep issues and snowstorms, I didn't get a whole lot done - mostly because of lack of time. Still, here's my update. 
  1. Lose 12 lbs: My weight machine stopped working. But I don't believe I've lost weight. 
  2. Learn swimming: I need to fix my vertigo issues before I can try to learn swimming. My vertigo is because of inner-ear issues and I don't want to make it worse. 
  3. Read 12 books this year: I did read one book "Cinder and Ella" and half of another book - Should I Be A Stay At Home Mom
  4. Do 12 craft or knitting activities this year: Didn't have time to get to this.
  5. Introduce a new experience to AGirl once a month: Unfortunately, didn't get to this either becoz of the weather and AGirl falling sick.
Hopefully, I'll get more done next month. 

Slid off again!

The last few weeks have been extremely busy and I have not spent much time on the computer at all. So I have not been blogging much - hope t...

Popular