Update: Life Interrupted

Friends,

I apologize for being MIA. Full week and life in my household is equally challenging. Will update tonight and make my rounds of reading and commenting.

If I owe you a book or an article, please drop me an email if you're concerned. Will mail all books this week.

Confession Tuesday: An Affair with Food

It's Tuesday. That means it's confession time. Keeping this short. Dinner's ready. My confession tonight is about why I can’t lose weight. I could name a few reasons but you all would undoubtedly say "lame excuses" and tell me to step away from the table, and I couldn’t argue so I’m going to share the biggies with you and they are big. I don’t care if you agree with me or not.

The truth is I LOVE to eat and my guy is a helluva cook. In fact, smelling dinner is what inspired this post. It’s hard to lose weight when the love of your life satisfies your second greatest love affair.

Thank Maude I worked out like a demon at the gym right after work and I walked home from the gym. And let me count my blessings that the incredible aroma coming from the kitchen is Polenta. That saves me a confession I don’t have to make.

Back from Dinner which was fantastic. First course was a layered mozzarella salad with fried tomatoes, fresh basil leaves and a three vinegar and Dijon mustard dressing served with kalamati olives. Main course was a lovely polenta cake with flecks of red and yellow peppers and smoked salmon served on a bed of mixed greens, basil and lemon wedges.

According to my guy the meal was not the fat fest I feared. The tomatoes were quickly fried and drained. And the dressing was three parts vinegar and one part mustard. The meal was aromatic and seasoned perfectly. The presentation beautiful. No seconds. No guilt.

Loving a cook is a wonderful thing.

Little Lov'n Monday

It's Monday. It's a day we give a little lov'n. Comments let bloggers know you're reading them. "I like this" in the comment section says plenty. Commit to reading and commenting to 5 blogs this week. Stop by the following links and drop a few links of your choice, too.

"Growing Up Asian American" @ Moms of Hue
My parents immigrated from the Philippines in the 70s. Both had three jobs each at any given time to make ends meets.

Tim Tingle's SaltyPie @ American Indians in Children's Literature
I always knew we were Choctaws, but as a child I never understood that we were Indians. The movies and books about Indians showed Indians on horseback. My family drove cars and pickup trucks. Movie Indians lived in teepees. We lived in modern houses. Indians in books and on television hunted with bows and arrows. My father and my uncles hunted, too, with shotguns, but mostly they fished.

"Ain't they black!" @ Fledgling
How could it be that with two black girls now living in the White House, African and African American authors are credited with less than 2% of the five thousand books published for children in the US each year?

Foxy: My Life in Three Acts Book Giveaway @ Color Online.

It's Monday: What Are You Reading?

Each week readers share what they are reading for the week. I joined because there is no way I can review every book I read.

Very hectic week. See my Sunday Salon post.

Read:

The Most Loved In All The World: a story of freedom by Tonya C. Hegamin, illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera. This children's book tells a compelling story in a way small children can comprehend. It might raise some worry or concern but the tenderness is clear. Focusing on the love, a caregiver or teacher can help a child understand why a mother would send her child away to freedom. Ms. Cabrera's illustrations are impressive. The colors are vibrant and warm, and her images translate the urgency and passion of the undertaking. Ms. Hegamin's measures up, too. Writing isn't easy for any writer but for the children's writer, the challenge is even greater. The language has to be precise and accessible. The writer has to have a keen awareness of how children process language and information. Ms. Hegamin's has that skill. I am so glad I read this. I'll be sharing it often with as many readers as possible.

In the queque: see last week's post.

Another good week for donations. See my New Crayons post here and the one at Color Online. Looking forward to reading the Aya Sequels.


What did you read this week? What's next on your tbr? Find more posts at One Person's Journey. WAYR is hosted by Sheila.

Sunday Salon: Taking Steps To Be Heard for Crohn's & Colitis Foundation

If you noticed the lack of posts last week, it's because I've been busy with off-line activities. In short order: I'm gearing up for an district contest with Toastmasters on Saturday. I'm facilitating our Brown Bag It Book Club at work on Thursday. On Friday, I'm launching a fit challenge with a newly formed club, The First Friday Fit Club. The fit club isn't officially running yet we've signed on for a local walk to help raise money for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation. I'm Team Captain.

My personal weight loss goal is 15 pounds over 12 weeks (length of the challenge). How about matching me dollar per pound? You can make donations at my Take Steps page here.

Not much reading. I've exercised three of the last four days and spent some time spring cleaning. The weather is nice. Yesterday I was ambitious and walked 1.5 each way to a local retail store to get prizes for our fit club. I have literature to print for my meetings next week and I promised my guy I'd make potato salad to go with his Easter ham.

Today is my daughter's 25th birthday. She's spent most of it at church. She's a teen leader. Where did the time go? Hope you're enjoying time with those you love today.

New Crayons: What's New On Our Shelves

Remember when you were a kid and getting new crayons was a big deal? Getting new books holds the same kind of magic for some of us big kids. Every week on Sunday, I post what's new in our box. I think crayons is a pretty cool metaphor for multicultural lit. Every week we receive a book at Color Online is a good week.

This week turned out to be equally plentiful so I'm blogging here and at Color Online about the wonderful donations we received. Check these out:

Rattlesnake Mesa: Stories form a Native American Childhood by Ednah New Rider Weber
I have rediscovered children's books. Thanks to Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children's Literature, I'm interested in finding positive and authentic Native titles. I'm looking forward to reading this.
After her beloved Grandmother dies, EdNah, a seven-year-old Pawnee girl, goes to live with a father she hardly knows on a Navajo reservation miles away. Heartbroken but resilient, she begins to create a new life for herself in this unfamiliar place.

Born Confused by Tanuji Desai Hidier
This is funny and smartly written. The combination of Hidier's artistic sensibility renders a fresh, face-paced read for a mammoth of a book. No character was a prop and Hidier manages to touch on budding sexuality, romance and sexual orientation without be stiff or didactic.
Not quite Indian, and not quite American, Dimple unsuccessfully tries to blend in, riding on the coattails of her blue-eyed, blonde best friend, Gwyn. The author nimbly describes the shared outsider status that drew together the two, "the rich little girl who lived like an orphan and the brown little girl who existed as if she were still umbilically attached to her parents." During Dimple's 17th year, however, the tables suddenly turn when Dimple's parents introduce her to Karsh Kapoor, the son of their close friends from India. Through their meeting, the author reveals Dimple's mother's own secret creative aspirations (to become a dancer in her youth) as well as another first-generation teen's attempt to straddle both cultures.

Aya by Magurerite Abouet (GN) I read this first volume and I can't say enough of how pleased I was to see a modern African society with characters today's teen could relate to. The graphic novel is so entertaining, the reader could easily fail to realize the informal way the author relays a cultural and history lesson.
spinning a multifaceted romantic comedy that would satisfy even without any political agenda behind it. Set in 1970, Aya follows the travails of some teenage girls in the peaceful Abidjan working-class neighborhood of Yopougon (which they call "Yop City, like something out of an American movie")

Aya of Yop City by Magurerite Abouet (GN) and Aya: The Secret Comes Out by Magurerite Abouet (GN). I've been looking forward to the sequels. Thanks to Olugbemisola, I'll have a chance to read these before sharing them with others.

What did you get this week in the mail, at the book store or on trade? Post a link to your Crayon post at Color Online, and your name is entered in a monthly random drawing. Kristi at the Story Siren also hosts In My mailbox.