WWRW: #housewifespicereads and Self-Help Books

Another possible title for this post is Lazy Blogger Links Up with Her Own Link-Up.

I'm a big Laura Vanderkam fan.  Like Malcolm Gladwell, her non-fiction prose is readable by my fiction-loving mind. Her book All the Money in the World: What the Happiest People Know About Wealth is a keeper. I bought it. I rarely buy books. 

Okay. That's not quite true. I only buy the best books.

All the Money in the World: What the Happiest People Know About Wealth explains how the happiest people are not the wealthiest. Far from it. The happiest people are the people who live within their means. Shoot. Now you don't need to read the book. But you should! I found it very inspiring!

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: And Two Other Short Guides to Achieving More at Work and at Home also by Laura Vanderkam has some interesting insights.

For example, did you know that willpower is a muscle in your brain?

Did you know that it's easier to exercise a muscle, any muscle, including willpower, earlier in the day?

It's more difficult to exercise willpower later in the day because we get tired. That's why people blow their diets or blow off exercising or procrastinate more later in the day.

But wait!

If something is a habit, you don't use your willpower muscle to do it.

Vanderkam uses the example of brushing one's teeth.

Hopefully, teens and adults have made a habit of brushing teeth before bed. We don't have to talk ourselves into it. It takes zero willpower.

At some point, an action repeated regularly becomes a habit.

I'm not exactly certain when that transformation occurs because my three year old still must be cajoled into brushing her teeth. And wiping for that matter. And washing her hands after wiping.

TMI? My apologies.

I'm not quite through with What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: And Two Other Short Guides to Achieving More at Work and at Home buxt I'm insprired to make better use of my early morning hours. Perhaps even to *gasp* blog more!

#housewifespicepicturebooks

Because my blogging time is severely restricted what with running the insane asylum in tandem with running St. Jude's School for Kids Who Wanna Read Good, I've started using Instagram more.

Taking my cue from some other book-loving bloggers, I've started taking pictures of books and using the #housewifespicepicturebooks hashtag for kiddie lit and #housewifespicereads for everything else.

Don't run and search those hashtags this minute because you will find less than four posts. My hope is that my collection will grow over time. Someday you may find yourself in the library and wonder "What did Jessica recommend for toddlers?" Then you can search the #housewifespicepicturebooks hashtag and see lots of good book ideas.

I 'grammed a picture of Trim Healthy Mama by Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett.  This book is nearly 600 pages. Jam packed with nutritional information, scientific and medical studies, and recipes, the former Christian music artist sisters promote a healthy way of living that boils down to one recommendation.

Eat healthy fats (in moderation). Eat good carbs (in moderation). But don't eat them together.

They have lots of other recommendations too such as cutting out sugar and refined wheat, waiting three hours between your fatty meals and your carby meals.

I know giving up sugar aids weight loss. I joined Whole Parenting Family's Nell for a No Sugar for 30 Days Facebook group. Not only did I start waking up on my own, but I lost four pounds without even trying.

Trim Healthy Mama has a whole chapter devoted to hormones and why birth control pills are bad for you.

I've been reading and re-reading the same chapters over and over again, because I'm having difficulty remembering what all of the acronyms stand for. However, I'm test-driving their plan and trying some recipes.

Serene and Pearl have large families, are Christians, and homeschool. I appreciate getting advice from someone who understands my lifestyle as they do. Their distinct personalities come through when you read how Serene soaks all of her nuts and grains before eating, whereas Pearl advocates the use of "Franken" foods like fat free Redi-Whip.

I'm linking this post up with the April WWRW Link Up.  It's still alive, it's still open for now. Come May 6th, I'll have a brand new sparkly link-up all ready for you.  Until then check out all the wonderful reviews of what other bloggers are reading.

7 Quick Takes Mostly About Food

1.

Apparently last week was Doughnut Week!  And no one told me!  And I read ZERO blogs about doughnuts!  It's like I just missed Christmas or something.

Imagine me singing this.  Right now.



Fortunately, I follow @CatholicFoodie on Twitter and he linked to this piece about Spiced Banana Donut Holes on the Healthy. Delicious. blog.

Yes.  I said on the Healthy. Delicious. blog.  These donuts are made with whole wheat, so that makes them a health food.  They are also made with bananas which also makes them a health food.  Eating one of these is like eating kale.  But better.  Because it's a donut.

Don't like bananas?  Healthy. Delicious. also did a Salted Peanut and Honey donut recipe this week.  I can only imagine that Salted Peanut and Honey donuts taste like a Payday married a Krispy Kreme and they had delicious little babies.

2. Catherine at Catholic Mom Apologia linked up to my weekly What We're Reading Wednesday Virtual Bookclub, and mentioned that she read a borrowed book on Kindle.

WHAT!?!?

YOU CAN BORROW Kindle BOOKS FROM FRIENDS?

Did you feel that minor earthquake?  Like tectonic plates just shifted?

YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO HAVE A KINDLE TO BORROW OR LEND E-BOOKS!  You just have to have the free Kindle app!

So, I have a copy of Laura Pearl's Finding Grace that I would like to loan to somebody, because I really like Laura and everybody loves her novel.

I would also like to borrow somebody's Kindle copy of Rebecca Frech's Teaching in Your Tiara, because I'm new to this homeschooling thing, and my tiara keeps slipping down over my eyes when I'm demonstrating math on the dry-erase board.  My email is in the right-hand sidebar if you want to be a borrower or a lender.

3.  The Show 24, Pork Shoulder Roasts, and the Easiest, Most Delicious Dinner Ever.

Have you ever bought Pork Shoulder Roasts from Costco?

They come two to a vacuum-sealed package, and they are roughly the size of human heads.

Patrick and I have watched exactly one episode of 24 ever in our lives.  It was the episode where Jack is toting a human head around in a duffle bag.  I believe the part of the human head, may have been played by a pork shoulder roast.

I know.  I know.  Everyone says it's a great show, and normally not that gruesome, and that we should give it another chance.  One of these days...

Anyway, pork shoulder roasts, aka Boston butt roasts (which come from the shoulder not the butt, c'mon Boston butchers!  What the heck?), are very inexpensive.  They can also be very work-intensive.

It takes a lot of hours to cook one of these heads roasts, and you don't want to be off by an hour or two come dinner time.  Not around here.  You could lose your head.

I had a brand-new double-head package in the fridge and googled "easiest pork shoulder recipes."

This Pork Roast Recipe is what I found, and made, and Patrick said it was the best pork shoulder roast in the slow cooker that I've ever made.

Here's what I did:

Trimmed off some of the thicker pieces of fat, because there is a lot of fat on a pork shoulder roast.

Put the roasts in the slow-cooker.

Shook Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce all over the roast, about 10-12 shakes.

Shook some dry rub over my now wet roast.  I used Penzey's BBQ 3000 rub, but salt, pepper, and paprika would have worked just fine too.

Turned the slow-cooker on low for 10 hours.  TEN HOURS!

Approximately 9.75 hours later, I used a slotted spoon to remove the tender morsels of meat and put them on a cutting board where they shredded easily.  I removed some more of the remaining fat.  Poured a little of the de-fatted juices back over the now-shredded meat, and served a side of TJ's tortellini and a skillet Mexican corn salad.

We used the leftovers to make pork tacos, but they would work well with soy sauce over rice, or on a bun with barbecue sauce too.

5 and 6. That last take was not-quick, so I'm counting it as two.  I'm counting this quick take as two too, because it has two recipes in it.

Have you ever seen this 20 Meals from Costco for $150?

I've only made two of these recipes and both were vegetarian, and both were surprisingly good!

The Potato and Egg Breakfast Tacos are my Friday morning staple now, minus the apples, plus the salsa and cheese.

And last night, I made the Spicy Quinoa with Kidney Beans, Corn, and Lime.  Even my pickiest eater (Patrick) ate a big bowlful and said it was good.  He also said it could be better, if it had slices of grilled strip steak on top.

I ate my quinoa dinner with cotija cheese.  Susan doused hers with Frank's Red Hot.  Patrick sprinkled chipotle chili powder on his.  But the main thing is, we had no leftovers.  Except for Jill's untouched bowl.

7.  If you're not following me on Twitter or Instagram (see those cute buttons on the sidebar again), you're missing out on gems like this:

Which carried the caption:  Guess I'm not the only one around here with a bun in the oven.

Go see Jen and the more timely quick-takers.