MamaManagement

photo from pinchofyum.com It's been a while since I shared a recipe and this one was so good, I knew that it would be my next post. Sadly, I did not realize this until after we'd devoured the entire batch...so I have no pics! I'll likely make it again next week, so I'll come back and add some pics then. So, this quinoa salad is pretty simple; it's nice and light, making it perfect for spring/summer; it's healthy, so you can feel good about eating; and, of course, it's delicious! Let's get to the recipe! Spring Pea and Quinoa Salad with Honey-Lemon Vinaigrette * For the salad: 1 cup uncooked quinoa 3 cups frozen, organic peas 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese 6 slices turkey-bacon, cooked and chopped 1/2 cup raw almonds, pulsed in a food processor until crushed (or super finely chopped) For the dressing: 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice 1/3 cup olive oil 2-3 tbsp raw honey (or to taste) 2-3 tbsp basil paste (or to taste) or 1/2 cup f...

Fear is a funny thing. It can invade our subconscious with ninja-like stealth and get us to do things we don't really want to do without our even realizing it. Fear is the creepy puppet master behind so many of our bad decisions. After lots of hard work, I am staring at the near-end of my work on one of my books. I am so excited to get it done and I want nothing more than to share this story with the world. Until fear enters the picture. The next step in the process is to have a few people beta read the book before I ready it for agent pitches and queries. While this is something you can pay someone to do, my plan is to ask people I know to read it and share their thoughts. It's not line by line edits, but bigger picture feedback, like: "It gets a little slow in the middle;" or "I didn't really like this character;" or "This chapter made no sense at all;" or "This totally sucks." As a writer, you hope for mostly glowing...

Confession: I don't know what to write. I'm here. I showed up. I'm ready to write. But...about what? I have lots of thoughts: jumbled thoughts, tangled thoughts, fast running thoughts, lazy river thoughts. But, fast or slow, I can't seem to catch any of them. They slip through my fingers like dandelion fuzz on the wind. I feel jittery and scatterbrained and, at the same time, heavy...like one of those over-loaded old pick-up trucks carting a house-full of belongings strapped on with bungee cord and riding low to the ground. It's a weird dichotomy of physical and mental sensations. Hence the jumbliness of it all. Confession: Things have been weird on the inside lately. My inner world is the manifestation of a tired, old, wooden roller coaster. Ups, downs, and some extra fear thrown in because you're never quite certain if the whole thing might not just come down right in the middle of the ride. And there's buzziness. I'm pretty sure that the buzzin...

My family has been on edge, people. February was yuck. And March wasn't any better for them. The recipe has looked something like this: 2 cups Winter Blues 1 cup Cabin Fever 1 cup General Life Stressors 1/2 cup Grey Skies 1/4 cup Freezing Temperatures 2 tbsps Stuffy Noses and Sore Throats 1/2 tsp Aches and Pains 1/3 cup Sick of Everything Mix all together for a big batch of blah, and then go back to bed. My husband's been massively stressed out at work. My daughter doesn't even want to go to school because she's so sick of the noise and chaos of stir-crazy kids. Everyone's so on edge that they're blowing up and breaking down over even the smallest annoyances. Even my always happy little man has a lower tolerance for frustration these days. This family is in massive need of a mental health break. And that's exactly what we're doing right now. It's Spring Break week at the kids' school and we have run away to North Carolina ...

I know you've been wondering what's keeping me from turning out the light at a decent hour lately. Well, here's what I've been reading the last couple of months... Hint: After writing this post, I realized that there's a clear theme here-- perspectives different from my own . I'd say it's been an eye-opening few months! :-) So here's a quick run down on the pages I've been turning... An Abundance of Katherines by John Green ...I really enjoyed this book. It's a generally light and easy read. I think Green captures the voice of teenage boy on the cusp of manhood so well, and I LOVE the best friend character. It's a fun little ride. Recommend. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion ...I wasn't sure about this one when I started it. Getting into the main character's "Autism-spectrum" voice, because it was so unlike my own, took a few pages. But I'll tell you what, it was so worth it. This book was entertain...

I love it when I get to combine favorite things...like writing and coffee shops, and friends and red wine, and delicious food and my favorite foody/hubby. Great combinations get bonus points if you throw in some coffee, too. Well, I've been working one of those kinds of combinations a lot lately by reading books (favorite thing #1) that inspire and motivate (favorite thing #2). (And yes, I often enjoy some coffee...or tea...while I'm at it.) It is possible that I'm even a little obsessed with this combination right now...not that I'm the type to go overboard with a good thing... I've mentioned many of these books in various recent posts, but I thought I'd share them all in one big ol' book post. So, if you're looking for a little inspiration, if you need some motivation, consider checking out one of these books and see if, perhaps, they are the kick in the pants, or the shift in perspective, that you're looking for... Present Over Perfect ...

Words of Wisdom... Not from me, of course. These are words I've been gathering, like wild flowers for a field bouquet. If you've been reading my blog this year, then you've probably gathered that I'm doing a lot of reconfiguring of my life and my brain. When I get into this mode, I tend to try to saturate my mind with words of wisdom from as many different sources as possible. I read books and blogs and articles; I listen to music and interviews and guided meditations and TED talks. When something catches my attention and makes me pause, I write it down...or, more often, I type it into the reminders on my phone. And then I look at it again and again, trying to absorb it in a way that makes it a part of me. And I am hard-core in this mode right now. Hard. Core. So, as I procrastinate working on my novel, I thought I'd share some of these little nuggets, these words of wisdom, with you all. Maybe they'll speak to you, too... Be still and know. This i...