Recent reads

I haven't made a list of books I've read recently in a while, so here's a new list! It's definitely NOT all-inclusive; I don't remember all of the books I've read since my last "Books I've read recently" post.

Fiction:
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede (loved it!)
Across the Great Barrier by Patricia C. Wrede
The Far West by Patricia C. Wrede
Golden by Cameron Dokey (would recommend!)
The Storyteller by Cameron Dokey
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (too violent)
Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale (meh)
Princess Academy: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale


Non-fiction:
Queen of Scots : the true life of Mary Stuart by J. A. (John Alexander) Guy
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen
To the Rescue: the Biography of Thomas S. Monson by Heidi S. Swinton
Life's Lessons Learned by Dallin H. Oaks
Yearning for the Living God by F. Enzio Busche

I highly recommend all of the non-fiction books listed above. They were all very informative, and many were inspiring (I think you can guess which ones).

I also tried to read some biographies for John Taylor, but neither was what I was looking for. I am open to suggestions!

Want to read:
Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times by H. W. Brands
Glimpses into the life and heart of Marjorie Pay Hinckley
a biography of Pearl S. Buck
quality biographies on all Church presidents

Pumpkin pie smoothie

Too good to forget!

3-4 ice cubes
1 small banana
1 pear
1/2 C canned pumpkin
1/2 C milk
dash allspice

Place all ingredients in blender; blend, enjoy!

Broccoli chicken casserole

I just made a broccoli chicken casserole that is delicious, and I don't want to forget how I made it. Here:

2 heads of raw broccoli
1 egg
1 10 oz can cream of mushroom soup
1 chicken breast
4 oz (?) mozzarella cheese (enough to cover the broccoli)
garlic, salt, and pepper to taste

Cut broccoli into bite-size pieces. You should have mostly florets. Place in casserole dish with soup, egg, garlic, salt, and pepper; mix together. Sprinkle mixture with cheese.

Meanwhile, slice chicken breast into strips; layer evenly on top of cheese.

Bake everything in 350 deg F oven for 25 min; serve with rice or pasta.


EDIT: I just made this again and I think I forgot to say that I included milk in the original recipe, probably the same amount as the amount of cream of mushroom soup in the casserole.

Quack, quack!

Too adorable to not share!

My son the duck :)

Toddler Literacy: recent developments

Levi has started saying ending consonants regularly!

He used to say "ha" for ham, hat, and heart. He still says it for hat and heart, but now he says "ham" for ham! Yay :) Also, it's super cute to hear him say "ha...mm."

The first word he put an ending consonant on was "house." He says it pretty much perfectly. I'm impressed that he says the diphthong as well as the ending syllable.

Levi now also has two formula sentences: "I want" and "It's." It took a while to figure out what he meant by "it's" because it sounded like "es," but we did eventually.

He also *finally* will listen to a story in a book as it was written. He's a far cry from the 10-month-old that would rip up any book he got his hands on, or be fascinated with the mechanism of turning pages just to ignore the beautifully illustrated pictures. To encourage his now budding interest in books, Austin and I have decided to drop everything when he asks for us to read a book to him (unless of course, there's an emergency with something else).

The other day, Levi suddenly got very quiet. He usually talks to himself as he plays in addition to moving his toys around, so I was worried that he'd gotten into something he wasn't supposed to have gotten into. I peered around the couch to see that he was looking very intently at the pictures in one of his books. I smiled and resumed what I had been doing. A couple of minutes later, Levi said, "Ha(t)!" I said, "Do you see a hat?" and with his reply "Mmm-hmm," I looked over to see a picture of a party hat in his book.

I've caught him examining the pictures in his books on other occasions, too. It makes this bookworm of a momma happy!

BMI: reliable or outdated?

I realized just a few weeks ago that I was overweight according to my BMI (I was just barely overweight, at 140 lbs and 5'2"). I was surprised at that because of all the positive attention the media has been giving lately to people who say that models are overly skinny and "real women" are much bigger. The media (and my friends) had been giving so much support to this movement that I thought I was just fine as a "real woman."

So when I found out that I was overweight, I was taken off guard. I was so surprised that I figured that other people probably didn't know that they were overweight, either. I mentioned how surprised I was about being overweight in a recent conversation. The person I was talking to said that using your BMI to determine if you were overweight or not is outdated and inaccurate in many cases. At the time, all I could say was that it's really only inaccurate for people who have a lot of muscle mass. Since then, I've realized that BMI is what has been used in the studies about how weight and health are related. Therefore, even if it's an outdated and inaccurate means to determine your body's fitness, the average person's health risks can be determined by their BMI.

According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention - a government-funded organization), some health issues from being overweight or obese are these:

-Coronary heart disease
-Type 2 diabetes
-Cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon)
-Hypertension (high blood pressure)
-Dyslipidemia (for example, high total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides)
-Stroke
-Liver and Gallbladder disease
-Sleep apnea and breathing problems
-Osteoarthritis (a breakdown of cartilage and bone within a joint)
-Gynecological problems (abnormal periods, infertility)

This isn't about my vanity; it's about my health!

Also, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) states that "If you have abdominal obesity and most of your fat is around your waist rather than at your hips, you're at increased risk for coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The risk goes up with a waist size that's greater than 35 inches for women or greater than 40 inches for men."

On the flip side, I have a friend who is the same height as me, 5' 2". She stays at 125 lbs "no matter what" she eats, according to her. She says her ideal weight is 107. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't function very well at 107 lbs, and that for my very individual body, I would be underweight. (Just FYI - "normal" body weight for someone that's 5'2" is 101 - 136 lbs). I was surprised that the range for normal was 35 lbs apart from low to high. I think that alone factors in the differences between body types and shapes.

I think 120-125 is probably my ideal body weight, and not lower. You see, I have a very close relationship with food, and need my energy. I will also probably have a relatively slow journey to get to that ideal weight (I'm ~136 now, after 2 months of exercise and almost 1 month of eating better). However, one little-known fact is that most of the energy that you use throughout the day is energy stored in your muscles (from food you ate that day), not your fat. Prolonged exercise is what uses up your fat stores.

For your convenience, here are two BMI calculators, one from the CDC website, and the other from the NHLBI website .