Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

Tuesday Treat: Pita Chips

Okay, so today's Tuesday Treat is not a recipe. But I do want to recommend the pita chips found at the Dollar Store. There are tons of flavors and they are yummy! I'm sure they are available elsewhere if there are no Dollar Generals or Family Dollars or whatever near you. My favorite right now is Bacon and Cheddar. Yum!

Friday Five: 5 Questions with Elizabeth

... about teaching reading!

Elizabeth is a dear friend of mine, though we haven't seen each other in a long time. I got the chance to chat with her over the weekend about teaching reading to elementary students. Just so you know, Elizabeth hates all things computer related. So much so that she doesn't even own a home computer or a cell phone. I know... how crazy is that in this day and age? I try to convince her to join the technological era every time we speak, but so far she has been resistant to my common sense arguments. This was a phone conversation, where I tried to scribble notes and she tried to speak slow and keep things short, which she failed of course. Answers may not be 100% verbatim, but I read this to her and she agrees that I got it pretty much right. haha

Thursday Thought: Tradition

W. Somerset Maugham, one of the highest paid writers of his time, said this about traditions:

"Tradition is a guide and not a jailer."

I'm a fan of traditions so long as it doesn't become an extreme view on life. Unfortunately, many people keep hurtful traditions over helpful traditions. Maybe that will change one day. It is a work in progress, I think. :)

A View From the Margins

I found an awesome thing from the New York Times this weekend. A Year in Reading is an interactive look at a snippet from 12 different reading materials that literary critic Sam Anderson read over the past year. Included is an audio of Sam speaking about the selection and an interactive photo of his "notations" in the margins of the selection. For every piece, Sam has written something, sometimes funny, sometimes serious, and underlined the specific lines that produced his reactions. Roll your mouse around each photo to see it up close, or just read the caption below each photo to see what he wrote. Selections include A Pale King by David Foster Wallace; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert; John McFee: The Art of Nonfiction, No. 3, an interview with writer John McFee by the Paris Review; and Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Good stuff here! The commentary is short in each section and well worth the listen! Also, I don't know Sam Anderson, but he sounds like a hottie. :D

Tuesday Treat: Favorite Snacks of the Great Scribblers

I ran across this awesome article/cartoon this weekend. Illustrator Wendy McNaughton, writer and illustrator of Meanwhile, pondered the snack foods that inspired some of the greatest writers. The article itself is very short. A single paragraph. The cartoon is the biggest draw of course. Did you know that Walt Whitman started every day with oysters and meat for breakfast? Um... yum? I guess. Check it out!

My newest snack inspiration is bacon and cheddar chips that I found at the Dollar Store. Oh such deliciousness! I still keep pretzel rods and Goldfish snack crackers on my desk (which is now in a bedroom instead of the den and/or dining room!!!). Baby Cat had a kitten on April 1st (what a terrible April Fools Day joke on us lol) and I've been doing my darnedest to keep Baby Cat out of my bacon and cheddar chips while she is "under house arrest" until the kitten is weaned. Huge struggle!

Do you have any new/old favorite snacks that help you focus on your work?