2017 Cooking Adventures

I'm so excited. I bought this book, and I can't freaking wait to eat everything! Every recipe so far that I've flipped through looks delicious and so I'm pretty sure I'm going to be able to cook a lot of recipes from this... WOO HOO!! I think The Monkey will eat most of the rice and chicken dishes, but probably not too many of the veggie dishes unless we make her at least try everything. 

I'm planning on trying at least one recipe each week - except for the eggplant recipes, I'll just ignore them. HA! I'm sure I can combine some of the main dish recipes with a veggie and a rice dish too - and I LOVE RICE. YUM. So I'll probably randomly post some recipes from this book in the next year. I can't wait to try some new foods. 

2017 New Year's Resolutions

I have no resolutions.

Well, except to put together a list of banned books and read them. Collect them. Figure out which books may become banned and read them. Collect them.

I'm half mortified at the election of Donald Trump. Maybe more than half mortified. I'm just shocked at the blatant racism of some Americans. Well, that's not true, I really shouldn't be shocked.

Because truly - when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression - and that's not my quote, I saw a meme on Facebook and that struck me as true for the white blue color working class. But you know what else is true - we're all born human, we're all born equal, and we're all born naked. I can't fathom for the life of me why so many people care so much about the color of skin.

In any case, I'm trying to gather up as many banned book lists and try and come up with a comprehensive list so that at some point I can read all the books. Because I love reading. And I think that it's important to read about subjects that make you uncomfortable. And I think this new administration that we have wants to ban all the liberal things they can. So that's my mission this upcoming year - to make sure everyone has access to books. Especially books that make you uncomfortable and have subjects that people might not like. It's important to learn. Because learning makes you think in new ways, it makes you see things you might not have seen before. The more you learn, the more you know, the more open person you are to ACCEPTING (not tolerating) people for who they are.

So far I've come up with these links -

Banned Books Week

American Library Association's List of frequently challenged books

Most frequently challenged books

And I'm planning on reading all that I can (which may end up being only 20, but still, I'm going to read those 20 books and enjoy the shit out of it!).

So, I challenge everyone to read books. To challenge those that challenge books. To challenge those that challenge our freedom to learn.

Take 2017, grab it by the pussy, and fucking read the shit out of all the books you can!

The End of the Year

I feel as if I'm at a crossroads in my life and I have to decide which way to go - and neither way looks bumpy or harder or easier or more random or whatever, it just seems as if I've hit a fork and I have to decide where to go. It's not like I've hit any random crisis or anything strange is going on in my life, it's just where I've somehow ended up.

The Monkey goes to Kindergarten next Fall, which means it will be just Chewie and me at home (but most likely going to ECFE classes, etc...). This means that I don't have my preschool moms to chit chat with 6 times per week, I don't have my usual in-depth chats about raising a 4 year old with her teachers. We've just hit the point where The Monkey is going to REAL SCHOOL. I want to jump for joy and cry all at the same time. It absolutely wouldn't be fair to her to keep her home for another year - she would be bored and act out a ridiculous amount. I can't do that to her, so I need to send her off to school where she can be social, make new friends, and learn. A lot. And she already reads. Yep, she reads.

And now Chewie is awake so I get to sign off. Happy Wednesday!