It’s what immigrants are taught when they come to America.  It’s what they teach their children.  It’s practiced in immigrant households throughout the nation.

And what a shame that is.

I grew up with 2 French parents.  Who spoke only French with us when we were born.  In America.  And slowly started speaking English with us as well.  When we got to school we stopped speaking French at home, choosing instead to increase our English vocabulary, grammar and syntax.  And slowly started losing the ability to think, speak and write in French.

Embrace language.  Teach whatever you know to your children and encourage them to use it, practice with others, read it, write it, etc.

Please, please, if you speak a 2nd language and are raising children in this blessed country, speak to them in your foreign tongue and make them respond to you in it, as well.  It’s not enough to hear you speak it.  Sure, they’ll understand but they won’t feel confidant enough to speak it themselves.

This is America.  And the language spoken here is English.  Make sure that you know how to speak English.  But don’t give up your native language.  Ever.

Speak English at school.  At work.  With friends.  Speak your native language at home…

 

No matter how tired you are…

hold it in….

you can do it!

Someone yawning while you are talking to them, regardless of them being legitimately exhausted, will make you believe that they are uninterested in what you are saying.

Translation:  Yawning while someone is speaking to you comes across as rude and inconsiderate!  Do whatever it takes to suppress it!

Imagine if the shoe were on the other foot…

my lad, a thistle cannot grow.

Much more surprising things can happen to any one who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one.  Two things cannot be in one place.”

• Frances Hodgson Burnett

in life?  That’s ok…

 

 

Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I really enjoyed this novel.  It was meaty and long, without being boring or unoriginal.

There are parallel themes throughout the book; that of a great love and that of racism.  It’s about a young woman in love who leaves her love, family and country to study at University in America.  It chronicles the hardships of surviving in a foreign land despite being highly educated and young and capable.  The story lays bare the racism towards blacks and the differences between black Africans and black African-Americans.  The difference in skin tone, attitude towards race, and being a minority in America.  And it gives an honest portrayal of a love tested by the span of 2 continents and almost 2 decades.

Extremely well written.  Will make you ashamed to admit that you too are racist in ways that you were trying so very hard not to be.  A fantastic cultural study through the eyes of an immigrant in America.

There are the truly modest out there…

• those who don’t recognize or take credit for their accomplishments
• those who don’t boast
• those who humbly accept praise
• those who lift up others and praise others above themselves
• those who are humble
• those who are unpretentious
• etc

and there are those who try so very hard to portray the image of modesty that there is something immodest about their modesty:  it announces itself.

 

Ok, ok.  I know.  Why don’t I just use a toothpick?  Same difference right?

I love this little kitchen tool.  It obviously takes up no space, no precious real estate in your gadget drawer.  And it is much easier to use when testing the doneness of your cakes.

You always want to be careful when you open the oven door when you’re baking a cake, that the loss of heat doesn’t affect the outcome of the cake.  So you have to be quick and efficient.

The toothpick is neither quick, nor efficient!  I have to open the oven door, pull out the rack, and insert the toothpick into the center of the cake.

With the cake tester, I can just reach into the oven with the door partially open and because it is so long, I can stick the cake tester in at an angle and figure out whether it’s done or not!

You can buy them for less than $4 here.  So worth it!

Time for a new blender.

So many choices, so little time to properly research all the different brand names.

You can definitely google “blender reviews” and get a bunch of info on many brands, performance, price, material, quality, etc.  And you will see that what I am about to tell you rings true…

Here’s my 2 cents:

I had a $100 KitchenAid blender.  And it worked ok.  It didn’t “fully” blend. It didn’t pulverize.  And it certainly couldn’t handle ice well.  You’d end up with tiny pebbles of ice in your smoothie, which made it look like it had broken and made you feel a bit queasy when you drank it.

So when it stopped working all together, I decided to do lots of research to see which blender would work best.  I was looking at the Vitamix, the Ninja, the KitchenAids, etc.  Prices ranged from $100-$400.  And the promises were laid on thick.  I’m pretty sure that buying a Vitamix at $400 ensures that it’ll mow your lawn for you 2x a month.

I then noticed the reviews for a $34 blender.  And they were great reviews.  For an Oster blender.

I had pretty much sold myself on buying a more expensive version of the KitchenAid.  It had all the bells and whistles and promised to “pulverize ice”.

And then I got to thinking.  What if I got the Oster.  And I paid $34 for it and it worked.  And it worked for a few years and then I had to replace it with another $34 model that worked for a few years, etc, etc.  Pretty economical.  Not a bad idea…

and here I am.  Proud owner of an Oster blender.  2 years now.  Works like it did the first day.  Glass canister (can get it in plastic, but I wanted glass), pulverizes ice to smithereens, blends perfectly on medium speed (have never even used high speed) and the blades are just as sharp today as they were when I cut myself on them the 1st time I cleaned it!

 

 

Yikes!  I forgot to cook up some spinach/broccoli/swiss chard etc to go with my Beach Rose’s lunch.  She’s starving…what do I do?

This is the perfect backup veggie.

A freezer pak of salted already cooked soy bean pods.

So yummy.  Kids love them.

How do I know “kids” love them and not just my kid?  Well, let’s just say, to be safe, that kids who love peas will love soy beans!

Since they’re always in your freezer you can either plan to use them as your “veggie of the day” and thaw them on the counter or you can pop them into the microwave to defrost them in a matter of minutes.

Phew!  Disaster averted…daily veggie portion – check!