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Citrus Roasted Mahi-Mahi
I confess, I do not cook fish as often as I should, despite the fact that three of the four of us love it, and it typically makes an easy (and fast) meal. Salmon, swordfish, and mahi-mahi are my three go-to choices at the fish counter of our favorite market. Leaving the soccer fields yesterday afternoon, I asked the Boy if steak (which was sitting in the refrigerator) would be too heavy before his next match. It was a tournament weekend, and he has been pretty diligent about taking his coaches direction on eating healthier. He gave me a look that replaced the typical response of “duh” and asked for fish, instead,…
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Tips to Keep Your Young Athlete Hydrated
I received product from BODYARMOR in exchange for sharing my thoughts. I was not otherwise compensated, and all opinions remain my own. #BlogginMamas When my son got out of our car yesterday after soccer training, he said “EW” as he looked at the pool of sweat on the leather seat. I looked at the jug of water he was carrying and asked how much of it he had consumed. “All of it” he said. “I ran out halfway through practice.” I gave him THE LOOK and warned him about letting himself get dehydrated. He cracked open a StrawberryBanana BODYARMOR and chugged it down. It was hot outside. It was also 8pm and only May.…
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Two Middle Grade Books for Summer Reading
My 10-year old is an avid reader, and her reading pile is ALMOST as tall as mine. We both have a problem walking away from a tempting book (and what a good problem to have), particularly as we are both making sure we are set for summer reading. Of all the books we’ve both read lately, two stand out as superb choices for your kids: The Real Boy by Anna Ursu, and The Girl Who Could Not Dream by Sarah Beth Durst. Both are excellent options for your kiddo to pick up over the summer because they are fun and engaging. I picked up The Real Boy at the encouragement of our…
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The Mother’s Day Gift That Keeps on Giving…Laughter
Yesterday I was trying to take a break from social media and be present and in the moment and all that stuff but today, I really need to share with you the gifts I was given for Mother’s Day. My Mother’s Day started with the offer of breakfast. Ish. “Would you like me to make you a bagel, Mom?” Hmm. “How about a bowl of Cheerios, with strawberries?” My 10-year-old nodded confidently. “I can do that, Mom”. (I guess it’s well past time to teacher her how to scramble an egg. She’s finally tall enough where I won’t worry – much – about her setting fire to herself at the…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Relativity
Generally, I judge the strength of a book by a combination of how difficult it is to put down and how much effort it takes to slow down and let myself sink into the story and the language. It’s a difficult balance, after all, setting a reading pace when you can’t wait to see what happens next but you don’t want the story to end. Antonia Hayes debut novel “Relativity” scores a ten on both specs. Beautiful language, a few twists and turns, it is an emotional, compassionate and carefully crafted look at familial relationships, the lengths we go to protect someone from hurt and disappointment, and forgiveness (the seeking and the…
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Weekend Read: Girls’ Weekend
/ I picked up the e-galley of Cara Sue Achterberg’s “Girls’ Weekend” because the blurb intrigued me. Had I known I’d still be sitting in my favorite chair at 2am, racing to the finish, I probably would have put on my pajamas before I started. (Sometime before lunch…) Yeppers, it was that good. It was compelling, touching, and a bit soul-searching. Oh, and it was fun, too. Have you ever been on holiday and thought “what if I just don’t go home? I wish I could stay here and hide from the rest of the world…”? Well, Girls’ Weekend is the story of friends Charlotte, Dani and Meg. Frustrated and in need of a…
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Swimming with Dolphins in Cozumel
I loved our little stay in Cozumel! We did loads of things, like Cozumel scuba diving and we even did something I’ve always wanted to do. There’s nothing like the thrill of knocking something off your bucket list. I was finally able to check off one: swimming with dolphins. While several of our port stops offered a dolphin interaction excursion, we opted for the Royal Dolphin Swim offered by Dolphin Discovery. This was a 60 minute adventure that included a foot push (I’ll get back to that in a minute), a dorsal tow, a handshake, hand target, and the chance to touch these lovely creatures. We met up with the…
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Ten Things Of Thankful: Rainy Days Edition
It’s raining. Again. I could be all “April showers bring May flowers” but the flowers and trees and grasses really just bring on allergic reactions, so it’s a struggle to appreciate the “ending a drought” aspect of the current situation. Particularly since the volume of rainfall is making me consider brushing up my Ark building skills, and also because we’re in the process of building a pool, and we’re only to the “dig a giant hole in the ground” stage. Given the current forecast of rain for the next 15 days, it becomes a bit worrisome. So I shall dig deep into my soggy wellies and offer up my ten things of thankful…
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Exploring “Eye of the Collector” at the Perot Museum
My daughter is a bit of a magpie – a collector of things, some shiny, some not. If you open any small purse or pouch in her room, you’ll likely find a collection: plastic butterflies, acorns, pressed flowers, feathers, rubber bouncy balls. (I’m sure there is a fine line between her kind of “collecting” and hoarding, but for the sake of my sanity and the story, we’ll just call it collecting.) The newest special exhibition at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science focuses on the hobby of collecting – and why people (and museums) do it. After all, that’s what a museum does: they conserve and collect the world as we…
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Thoughts on The Jungle Book (and a few Printables, too)
Last night, while my family huddled in the bathroom as tornado sirens went off and baseball-sized hail fell on surrounding suburbs, I was comfortably kicked back in the IMAX-3D theater waiting to see The Jungle Book at the AMC North Park Cinema. Without a doubt, I won twice over. Long a fan of both Walt Disney’s 1967 animated film and the book by Rudyard Kipling, I’ve been looking forward to seeing Jon Favreau’s take since the first teasers landed in my inbox. If you aren’t familiar with the tale (and if not, what kind of childhood did you have?) The Jungle Book is the story of Mowgli, a boy (“man-cup”) orphaned in the…
