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.

Benefiting from English

Monday, June 11th was CJ's first day in first grade and the next day I was still on the phone, hungry for updates. My foremost concern was how did he find and take it. Any friends? The first day, I was told, they did mostly orientation stuff. What I liked hearing best of all was that CJ found a friend and behaved just fine.


"Oh, that's good," I said to the Grandma. "Who is that kid?" Like any mom I am interested to know who are my child's friends. CJ's new school friend, I found, is a transferee student from Cebu. "Looks like a smart kid," Grandma observed, "he and CJ hit it off quickly as they have one thing in common - they both speak English."

Apparently, CJ's English language training has benefited him. And I have yet to 'unboggle' my mind about all this talk of local dialects in Philippine schools being adapted as medium of instruction, translations to English, and back to conversational lingo. Sometimes it seems to me Moms have more schoolwork to do than kids.

Mommy Moments & Color Connection

Vineyards of Thailand

Thailand's wine-making industry has come a long way.... Vineyards across three distinguished wine-making regions now produce quality wine. CNN GO

These vineyards are found in Khao Yai, the South of Bangkok, and Northeast Thailand. Wine tours are available. In Hua Hin Hills visitors can tour vineyards in a way you  normally can't in Burgundy or Tuscany: riding on an elephant. 

En route to the sunflower fields in Saraburi, we passed by this vineyard and made a quick stop. We didn't expect to see such a charming spot of the Thai countryside, but we're glad we did.  I call this our tour serendipity.

ABC Wednesday

Vineyards of Thailand

Thailand's wine-making industry has come a long way.... Vineyards across three distinguished wine-making regions now produce quality wine. CNN GO

These vineyards are found in Khao Yai, the South of Bangkok, and Northeast Thailand. Wine tours are available. In Hua Hin Hills visitors can tour vineyards in a way you  normally can't in Burgundy or Tuscany: riding on an elephant. 



En route to the sunflower fields in Saraburi, we passed by this vineyard and made a quick stop. We didn't expect to see such a charming spot of the Thai countryside, but we're glad we did.  I call this our tour serendipity.

ABC Wednesday

Chubby doctors

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="172" caption="E.D. Leavitt, Physician, Butte, Mt (Photo credit: Butte-Silver Bow Public Library)"][/caption]

Is your doctor fat, thin or just right?  HealthDay Reporter Randy Dotinga didn't actually say fat or thin in his Medicine Net report. He called them 'chubby' doctors, and that they could be bad for your health.

How? Yes, I asked the same question. Possible reasons derived from a new study are:

• a doctor with extra pounds to his weight may be unlikely to advise patients to shed excess weight


• overweight doctors who responded to a survey say that they are less likely to talk to their patients about weight control


• even doctors of normal weight aren't prone to talking about  weight loss to their heavy patients

It doesn't seem far from the pot calling the kettle black. Study author Sara Bleich of the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says "you can't look at overweight doctors and say, 'You're the problem.'" Research did find that -

doctors of normal weight were more confident than their overweight counterparts about their ability to counsel obese patients about diet and exercise.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="253" caption="A patient having his blood pressure taken by a physician. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)"][/caption]

Bleich did this study on doctors' tendency (or the lack of it) to counsel their hefty patients after she went to a dentist with bad teeth. Indeed. How can that dentist take care of his patients' teeth when he can't take care of his own? It is also similar with doctors or parents who smoke. Can they really be authoritative or credible if they advise their patients or children to stop smoking?

 

So could chubby doctors be bad for your health? With the absence of likelihood that they could be of help to a patient's ballooning weight, they could be. Unless if you have no issues with weight; but something just seems off about being treated or examined by an overweight physician, don't you think?

The first grader

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Garuda as national symbol of Thailand (Photo credit: Wikipedia)"][/caption]

Due to a previous school experience in Thailand that CJ had when he was 3, we relaxed adherence to schooling tradition and let him take his time at kindergarten in the Philippines.  But two weeks ago he turned 8 and from the info that the Grandma got from his K1 teacher, CJ would be in K2 next. K2? At 8? Time for horribly expensive overseas phone calls again.

Things could sometimes be downright opaque with long-distance parenting. I know though that CJ lacks learning motivation despite surprising shows of reasoning that under his circumstances I never thought he would be capable of.

Thanks to DepEd guys-slash-close friends Vi and JL who shared what they know upon which I based my decision to sort out CJ's grade level. JL alerted me to the K+12 basic education program that kicks off this year. That certainly bears an impact on CJ's age angle even more. Remedial classes should be available for children with difficulty catching up. All matters considered, including recommendations from CJ's psychologist and developmental pediatrician, he ought to be in first grade this school year.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="137" caption="Department of Education (Philippines) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)"][/caption]

That K2 thingy hangs like a black cloud above my head. Plan B includes sending CJ to public school if CJ's present (private) school refuses to admit him to Grade 1. Vi tried to diffuse my tension by saying everything will be fine. Let Grandma pull a few strings as a school board member. Wry smile: Grandma is no longer holding such post, and even if she does I still need to arrange things properly.

So krinnnnggggg goes my phone. I sorted CJ's case with the school principal who discussed with me exactly what I hoped to hear from him. He also confirmed my observation that most of whatever the Department of Education regulates or implements, private schools follow. CJ would be in first grade come Monday, June 11th.

 Mommy Moments & Color Connection

Ughten

Experienced an ughten recently?

Ughten, an obscure word, means morning twilight, according to The Phrontistery.

The last time (and first time in 19 years) I was awake in an ughten I was observing photographers mounting their high tech, high-powered cameras in front of Cambodia's Angkor Wat.  They were waiting to capture sunrise there. Here's wondering if I could stand the cold in a Stonehenge ughten.

 Sunrise over Stonehenge on the summer solstice, 21 June 2005 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ughten

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sunrise over Stonehenge on the summer solstice, 21 June 2005 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

Experienced an ughten recently?



Ughten, an obscure word, means morning twilight, according to The Phrontistery.

The last time (and first time in 19 years) I was awake in an ughten I was observing photographers mounting their high tech, high-powered cameras in front of Cambodia's Angkor Wat.  They were waiting to capture sunrise there. Here's wondering if I could stand the cold in a Stonehenge ughten.

Lady Gaga's Bad Bangkok Romance

[caption id="attachment_11176" align="alignleft" width="212"] Photo Credit: omg! from YAHOO[/caption]

January 1st 2011 (1.1.11) at The Hilton, I asked a friend over martini and repetitive ra-ra-roma-ma- ma-oh-la-la, 'what's that song and who sang it?'

Out of curiosity I would have watched Lady Gaga's concert Friday night At Rajamangala Stadium if the bleachers had not run out. Thai Ticket Major Central Bangna branch offered me what's left, and I get to choose which among the 7,000 baht-seats I would pay for to stand. That's right: to stand. I went, "what? 7000 baht to stand while some pop artist  screams in my face?"

I resisted calling a student whose company organizes concerts and has connections with tickets to every major concert in the kingdom. She did it successfully for me at the Eagles concert in 2011. Somehow with this Lady Gaga thing I decided it's not worth making calls. And now I'm glad I'm finding affirmation for my reasons why I decided so.

Take a look at her tweet

"I just landed in Bangkok baby! Ready for 50,000 screaming Thai monsters. I wanna get lost in a lady market and buy fake Rolex."

It is said that she is 'stirring nationalist fervor in Thailand, where people tend to get upset when the country's seedy underworld is highlighted by outsiders.'

Just like black people who may call each other nigga, that's not a problem. But if you're not nigga and you call someone black a nigga, that's a different story.

News surrounding her Born This Way Ball are on her 'provocative lyrics and costumes' which have angered Christian groups in South Korea and the Philippines and Islamists in Indonesia.'

I personally do not have issues with the state of her lyrics and costumes, and any impact they could have done on me. Bangkok University has made sure her graduate students know how to analyze and evaluate social events. It's good to watch from the sidelines and pick a favorite 'monster' reaction from a fan -

Welcome to the land of counterfeit products, love. I'm sure there are plenty of fake Gaga CDs, too.

The heck there are. But I'll pass those up even if they are free. My money is getting spent, like it has been, on time-tested quality entertainment - ballet and opera.