Around the Web in Six Clicks

A round-up of random things that struck my fancy - enjoy! 

We love some banana bread around here (paleo version, of course) so I'm excited to try these five ways to kick it up a notch.

You might think you're a book nerd but here's one way to know for sure.

Thinking about trying this the next time I have trouble falling asleep.

Reinier Gerritsen is working to capture the lost art of reading real paper books.

While the rest of the house is not really my taste, I want this over my mantel. But the million dollar question - what book cover?

How many of these most mispronounced Texas city names do you actually say correctly?



Plus bonus link because it still makes me laugh. Maybe you missed it?


See you Monday!

No More R-Word

I remember Kasey Studdard from his football playing days at the University of Texas.

I knew a little bit about him, mostly the kind of stuff you pick up from TV announcers in between game plays. But what I didn't know is that Kasey used to be a special education student.

I'm sharing an article he wrote for Medium because this is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. As the parent of a child with special needs, I love it when people like Kasey use their platform to bring attention to an issue that needs to be talked about so that positive change can occur.

See if this doesn't get your attention:

Click here to read Kasey's article. 

I also wrote a little more of my thoughts on this subject back in 2011 in case you're interested. 

Money Can't Buy Happiness But.....

I read an interesting article a few days ago and I can't seem to get it out of my mind.

It's called "How to Buy Happiness:  The Purchases Most Likely to Bring You Joy" and the premise is that while money cannot actually buy you happiness, there are some purchases that might make you happier than others so it's wise to really think about how you're spending your hard-earned cash.

It suggests things like spending money on others, investing in your financial security by paying off debt, or spending money on experiences rather than material goods.

But here's the part of the article I keep coming back to - to be happy, buy the right kind of material goods.

I'm pretty sure we can all agree that buying a cute pair of new shoes makes a person way more happy than buying, say.... four new tires.

So what's the right kind of material goods?

Well, it's different for everyone and is based on this thing called "the comfort principle", which means  that we should try to spend our money where we spend our time. And if we do, those purchases could actually have the highest impact on our happiness.

Here's a handy little chart taken from the article that can get you thinking about where you might spend most of your time:

• 8 hours: (Work) Office chair, computer, office desk, monitor
• 2 hours: (Commute) Car, car stuff
• 1 hour: (Cooking) Kitchen utensils
• 3 hours: (Living room recreation) TV, video games, music
• 1 hour: (Reading) Kindle/iPad
• 1 hour: (Exercise) Running, treadmill, elliptical

So here's what I'm thinking....

I spend a whole lot of time in my kitchen, not always because I love cooking so much but because special diets tend to take quite a bit of prep time.

Based on the comfort principle, you know what purchase would have the highest impact on my happiness?

A really, really good set of knives. 

I don't even know the best kind to buy. Just no more cheapie ones that come in a set of 6 in a plastic blister case. The ones I tell myself I'll just pitch when they're dull and get new cheap ones again. Because I never pitch them and never get new cheap ones. I just keep sawing away at veggies and meat, not worrying about sawing my fingers off because the knives aren't sharp enough to do damage to human flesh. Pretty soon, my teeth will be just as effective as my current knives and I'll be youtubing videos of beavers taking down trees to perfect my kitchen cutting skills. 

So yep. Some good knives would make me pretty happy. 

Another thing? A crockpot that can be also used on the stovetop for browning meat, like this one: 

No more dirtying and hand washing my ceramic dutch oven just for the 5-10 minute step of searing a roast for the crockpot. 

And since sleeping, snuggling Bird in the bed, and showering are things I do every single day of my life, if I apply the comfort principle here, my "high-impact happiness" purchases would be a set of really nice sheets, a better pillow, and some big ol' soft, fluffy towels. 

Ryan and I have been married for 23 years and I seriously think we're still using towels that were wedding gifts. Our towels are so worn out that if I pull too hard when trying to dry my back, they will actually tear.  I'm not even embellishing to make this a better story like a good preacher would do. It is just the gosh-honest truth. 

So yeah... some nice, new towels would be a good investment in our happiness - and the key to getting a drier back.

We don't go out that much because we have to arrange a sitter for Lily but mostly, it's because Ryan and I are basically homebodies by nature. Once we tuck Bird in for the night, we often watch a show or two on the DVR. So when we moved to Katy, we unknowingly applied the comfort principle to our living room and got a great television since we spend time there every evening having a "home date". So we spent money where we spend our time and that makes us happy when we sit down to catch up on our shows.  

Now what about you? What would you spend money on if you had a little extra cash and allowed the comfort principle to help make your decisions?

PS - Thanks to Brenda Hughes for reminding me that we spend a lot of time eating so it would probably be smart to spend our money on bacon, which would make us very, very happy. :) 

Five Favorites - Things I Like About Katy/Houston

I think it goes without saying that Austin is pretty much the coolest town in Texas. It just has its own quirky personality that you can feel the minute you arrive in the city limits.

I grew up outside of Houston so it's not like I'm a native Austinite. But Austin is where Ryan and I got married, where we lived for 15 years and pastored for 10 of those years, and where we raised our kiddos. so it just feels like home to me.

And living in Austin has spoiled me to other Texas cities.

But since our move last June, I'm discovering that Katy and Houston have a whole lot more to offer than I thought.

Here are five of my favorite things about this area, in no particular order.

1 - HOV lanes
      Two people counts for high occupancy so Birdie & I join the other commuters in the "fast lane" on the way to and from school. And even better? One of them practically runs straight from my doorstep to the driveway of Lily's school.

2 - Seafood
      It's everywhere and in all price ranges. And being just a teeny bit closer to Louisiana means we've got some great gumbo in these parts.

3 - Shopping
      Whatever I could possibly need or want, I swear there is a store (or multiple stores!) that sells it in this town. That's great.... but possibly dangerous, too.

4 - Rain and Thunderstorms
      I had forgotten just how much I love a good thunderstorm in the evening. And how enough rain makes for some great "goin' barefoot" grass. I even bought rain boots (see #3 up there) and have already gotten my money's worth!

5 - Major League Sports Teams
      I don't watch as much sports as the rest of my family but it's fun having local home teams like the Astros, Texans and Dynamo. Now if we could just get a hockey team down here, it would be the perfect sports city.
      And just in case you're wondering, we are die-hard Spurs fans in this house so you'll find no mention of the Rockets here.

I know that Houston has much more to offer, like amazing museums, live theater, the ballet, a great zoo, and the symphony just to name a few, so there's a whole lot more for us to discover.

I'm expecting to add more favorites to the list the longer we're here.

Your turn - what do you love about your city?

What I Didn't Want to Be

What do you want to be when you grow up?

That's a fairly common question for children of all ages.

For me, this was easy as pie to answer.

I wanted to be a teacher. From the moment I realized that people had jobs, I wanted to be an elementary school teacher.

To be fair, I come from a long line of educators. My Papaw was a teacher, a coach, a principal, and a superintendent for 35+ years. My Mamaw was a teacher for over 40 years. I had two uncles that were teachers/coaches, one of them for a little over 30 years. And my mother was a teacher for 9 years.

I have fond memories of spending the weeks before school started helping my mom set up her classroom, cleaning her erasers on the electric "chalkdust sucking machine", getting rides around the school on the janitor's dolly, and taking a peek at the forbidden boys bathroom just to see what it looked like. I remember seeing my mom grade papers at night and looking forward to the day I could use a red pencil to make check marks and smiley faces. And one summer day, I remember having the school library all to myself while my Papaw worked in his office.

I graduated from college with an Elementary Education degree and finally got to wield my own red pencil for a while.

But as Ryan and I were prepping for Lily's IG infusion last week, I got to thinking about a question that most people don't ask children -

What do you not want to be when you grow up?

Again, for me, had anyone thought to ask, this would've been easy as pie to answer.

A nurse.

I vividly remember thinking at various times during my growing up years that I did not want to ever be a nurse. I wasn't afraid of needles or blood or snot or vomit or anything like that. I just knew as much as I knew that I wanted to be a teacher that I did not want to be a nurse.

I also remember voicing this my junior year of high school when we were taking one of those standardized tests that was supposed to calculate your strengths, weaknesses, interests, personality traits, and the like and "match" you to good career choices.

Of course, when the results came in, the test revealed teaching to be my best career choice. Ironically enough, nursing was my third best match but whatever.

I did not want to be a nurse.

But since life is crazy and unpredictable and funny and doesn't really care about standardized test results, I have become what I did not want to be.

I am a nurse.

Oh, I don't have a nursing degree. Or any letters after my name. Or a paycheck. And I can't actually go apply for a nursing job.

But I am a nurse.

And let me tell you a few reasons why.

I have...

• given insulin shots in the arms, thighs, tummy, and upper behind area
• mixed insulin cocktails of fast-acting & long-acting insulin
• used LMX (lidocaine numbing cream) like a boss
• an unbelievable vocabulary of medical jargon & acronyms
• treated both high and low blood sugars
• checked blood sugars on a sleeping kid in the dead of night
• learned how to work 4 kinds of insulin pumps
• done site insertions
• never had to administer glucagon but I know how to do it if I need to
• counted carbs until I had every food in our pantry memorized
• worked a breathing monitor and responded to alarms at any time, day or night
• seen so many x-rays that I know what normal and abnormal looks like on various internal organs
• learned the difference between hospital alarms that mean an emergency and those that don't
• calculated input/output on whiteboards that could be considered works of art
• monitoring chest drains after open heart surgery
• been the only assistant to a real RN starting an IV and getting blood samples - I was wearing gloves, clamping tubing, opening & closing vials for samples, applying tape.... crazy, actually
• kept EEG electrodes on a kid's head for 5 days straight
• given sponge baths while keeping open heart surgery stitches dry
• collected urine and stool samples like it's no big deal
• at one time or another, cut out gluten, dairy, casein, grains, tropical fruits, white sugar, dyes, preservatives, additives, hormones, and any other nasty thing in food you can think of 
• administered multiple drugs at various times of the day for years
• cleaned up endless amount of bodily fluids

So.

I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up.

And I did that.

I did not want to be a nurse when I grew up.

But I did that, too.

And I've done it a whole lot longer than I ever taught school. 

And seeing that Lily is supposed to receive IG infusions every two weeks until she's 18, I'm not done being a nurse anytime soon. 

Which just goes to show, life is crazy and unpredictable and funny and doesn't really care about standardized test results.

What about you? What did you not want to be when you grew up?

To Borrow or To Buy? - That is the Question

When I discover a new book that I'd like to read, I am often faced with the dilemma of deciding whether I want to buy the book or borrow it from the library.

Here are a few ways I decide what to do:

I borrow from the library if....

• I think the book is a one-time read
• the book is fiction (see below for exceptions)
• I'm not sure I'll like it
• its not a favorite genre
• its written by a brand new author
• its a cookbook that I only want a few recipes from

Once I decide a book is worth buying, then I choose between the paper or digital version. Since I discovered that readers absorb less on Kindles than on paper (and I find this to be true for myself), it's usually easy to determine which format I want.

I buy the "real" book if....

• I know I'm going to underline, write and highlight all over it
• I'm going to want to read it again
• I want Ryan to read it
• I'm using it for a Bible or book study
• I want to save it for my kids to read one day
• its a favorite from my own childhood and I want to give them to my kids so they can give them to their kids (like Nancy Drew, Pippi Longstocking, or the Beverly Cleary books)
• its a great series and I want to own the complete set (like The Mitford series by Jan Karon or the Fairacre series by Miss Read)
• its a cookbook with lots of great recipes
• I just want to own it for some reason (some books just speak to me that way)

I buy the e-book if it meets the following criteria...

• If I know I like the author 
• its the next book in a series 
• its cheaper than the hardcover/paperback
• the library hold list is way too long and I just can't wait
• if its on sale for $5 or less  

What about you? Do you have a preference for borrowing or buying books and how do you choose?