Category: Thoughts & Words

Jumbles of words that I felt necessary to release from my brain and put out there…

Favorite Childhood Books (part 1)

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I often find myself wondering if elementary school students today are reading the same books that I was reading back in the day. Even though new books get written, I like to think that some will be read by generations of children who want to read them to their own children someday.

Here are a few of my favorites books from early childhood, mostly pre-elementary to elementary school. I know I’ll have more to add to this soon:

  • The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
  • The Art Lesson by Tomie DePaola
  • Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
  • Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
  • Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
  • If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
  • Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series  by Betty MacDonald
  • Wayside School series by Louis Sachar
    Sideways Stories From Wayside School
  • Max and Ruby series by Rosemary Wells

Honorable mention goes to The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, because it was kind of a tradition for me to read it every holiday season although I don’t remember much about it. (You know that all I really took away from the movie was that stellar hot chocolate musical number.)

Another honorable mention is Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, which I never really loved as a child, to be completely honest. But again, it was kind of a tradition for me to read it when I was young.

Where_The_Wild_Things_Are_(book)_cover.jpg (400×355)

I definitely have more to add, but I’ll leave you with these for now. I had fun reminiscing, so I’ll be back with more!

What were your favorite childhood books? Did I mention any of them? Which ones did I miss? Have you read all of these?

Foods I Used to Avoid

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When I was a little girl, my tastes were strictly defined. I only ate butter pecan ice cream, but would sometimes make an exception for strawberry and maaaaaybe chocolate. I only drank apple juice. I only ate cut up hot dogs for lunch.

Not only did I have very set favorites, but there were a lot of foods I would never touch or look at.

However, now that I’m older, I’ve expanded a little. I’ve given some of these foods a second (or… hundredth) chance, and now I almost like some of these previously Untouchable foods! The list of reformed foods includes:

  • Celery: I forced myself to like celery. I like the crunch a lot, but the flavor was always so weird to me. Now, I’ve mostly gotten used to it, and I think I like it. (Or I tell myself I do, anyway?) The first time I ate celery, it was weighed down in a really unhealthy amount of ranch dressing. I take it a bit easier with the ranch now.
  • Mac & cheese: The most controversial item, because I still detest cheese. I think what I really like is creamy baked pasta casseroles, so I really enjoy baked mac. With a nice breadcrumb topping? And maybe some veggies mixed in? Don’t go overboard with the cheese or I will hate it. The first time I ate mac & cheese, I wiped all the cheese off the macaroni. It was good, though. The first time I ate it with the cheese, I was half-starved at a graduation party and I ate a quarter of the tray. Oops.
    REE_2559
  • Onions: I was really scared of onions. I still can’t eat raw onions because the flavor is too strong (although I’ll put a pinch in when I make guacamole). The first time I ate onions was with my ex-uncle, who I was scared of because he had a mean-looking neutral face, and he sauteed onions for dinner. I was too scared not to eat them, and luckily they were really delicious.
  • Mayonnaise: Okay, mayo is freaky-looking and weird-smelling. I just didn’t want anything to do with it, I didn’t want to eat chicken salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, anything with mayo was like no thank you! The first time I had mayonnaise was in a potato salad, I believe. And I liked it! I also found that I liked my turkey sandwiches with mayo even better than without and I regularly make chicken salad now. Say whaaaaat. Also I’m an even bigger fan of spicy mayo, yum.
  • Mustard: I don’t really love the flavor of mustard, it’s a really sharp spiciness that I feel mostly in my sinuses and less in my mouth. The first time I had mustard was at DC’s famous Ben’s Chili Bowl, where I had a half-smoke. I don’t like chili (I know, I know, Ben’s Chili Bowl) but I was surprised but how I didn’t dislike the mustard. Now, I’m more than happy to put mustard on hot dogs, burgers, and sandwiches.
  • Chili and jalapeno: I am still quite a bit pansy when it comes to spiciness, but I am actively trying to increase my spice tolerance! Spicy foods boost your health, after all. I can’t pinpoint the first time I ate chili peppers or chili oil on purpose (although it happened plenty of time without my agreeing to it!) but I do remember a few moments of eating something with a kick and thinking “Hmm…… this actually isn’t so bad. I am not in pain.”

I currently have all of these in my fridge/pantry right now. Oh, how the times have changed!

What are some foods that you used to avoid but now eat?
I still avoid some foods… what are some that I definitely shouldn’t?

(Sorry I’m a little late, but I promise this is for Saturday, BEDA-wise.)

Coming soon: Travel Tips!

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(Struggling a bit to blog every day while adjusting to my new work schedule, so please pardon posts that are incoherent and/or don’t have images.)

Remember back when I came back from China, and I had all these ideas for blog posts that I wrote down so I wouldn’t forget them?

I almost forgot about them but I think this month is as good a time as any to start rolling out the new series!

I have really been super fortunate to have had as many opportunities as I have had to travel. My parents were always big on using our family vacation time to travel and take photos experience something new. Over time, I feel like travel has become much easier for me, as I have learned a lot about how to travel efficiently. (Often, I learned the hard way…)

SO! I have a handful of posts that I’d love to share with regards to how to make your life (as well as the lives of others) easier when you travel. I don’t always follow my own advice, and some of my tips may not apply to everyone.

Look forward to seeing those in the coming weeks/months/eventually. (You know how this blog works by now :P)

BEDA – Blog Every Day April

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I thought I’d try blogging every day for the month of April as an exercise to remind myself that not every blog needs to be something that I put a whole lot of thought and effort into. Blogging used to be really casual for me, and I liked that about it. I started gaining a small readership when I started posting more frequently, and I think that made me feel like I had to step up my game a little bit.

BUT duh, people started reading when I was posting frequently and without spending too much time on posts. So why not let myself off the hook a little and just relax?

Posts that you’ll see in April include:

TL;DR – I will be word-vomiting every day for the month of April. Brace yourselves.

BEDA with me? 😀

{ UPDATE } This is challenging, but it’s a good exercise for me to just push out posts and just focus on hitting “Publish”.  I hope the quality isn’t suffering too much! (aka my posts weren’t that great before anyway :P)