Follow-Up

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Wow, I'm just blown away by all the great healthy eating tips you guys gave me on my last post. I know a lot of people didn't get a chance to read the tips given in the comments, so I decided to do a follow-up post. I really wish I could share them all here, but I'll try to keep this short by only passing on the highlights.

* Instead of ice cream, try fruit smoothies made with yogurt, milk, and fruit. (yummy!)

* Freeze low-fat yogurt in popsicle molds for yogurt pops. (This will be especially helpful for me this summer since my kids are popsicle fiends!)

* simplehealthytasty.com and skinnyrecipes.com offer yummy, healthy recipes.

* Make your own fresh-squeezed juice. Use honey to sweeten it instead of sugar.

* Make green tea with honey and lemon.

* To cut down on sodium, make your own salsa.

* Hummus on pita chips or baby carrots is a tasty snack.

* Make banana whips by whipping frozen bananas in the food processer.

* Instead of refined sugar, use raw agave nectar or stevia for sweetener.

* Put the fruits and/or vegetables out first at mealtime, so kids will eat more of the healthy stuff.

Thanks for all the awesome tips! My daughter has a track meet this weekend. Hopefully our new healthy eating habits will start paying off! I'll have to miss her meet because I'll be with my younger daughter at her Destination Imagination state tournament in Joplin, Missouri, but my husband will be at the track meet to cheer her on.

What have you got going on this weekend?

Small Changes

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This is my daughter's first year running high school track, and with the track season just getting started, I'm trying to have healthier foods around the house. I talked to a friend who's also a runner and quite knowledgeable about nutrition. Here are some tips she gave me for eating healthy without necessarily dieting:

I wondered what healthy snacks I could have around in addition to fruits and vegetables. She suggested chips and salsa. Go easy on the chips, of course, but salsa is full of healthy vegetables. Another friend suggested carrots and celery with salsa.

I want to get the cookies and ice cream out of the house, but my kids are used to something sweet after dinner. She suggested trail mix with chocolate chips or M&Ms. They still get a taste of something sweet, but they're also getting healthy nuts and seeds. Of course, there's also a lot of fat, so don't overdo. I'm not sure how this one's going to go over with the kids, but I'm hoping the promise of a weekly family visit to the frozen yogurt place will encourage them.

We like to drink juice, but I was concerned about the high sugar. She suggested buying 100% juice and putting it in pitchers with water mixed in to cut down on the sugar.

After a workout, your body needs carbs and protein. She said chocolate milk is a great way to get both.

I'm hoping with these small changes, the whole family can eat healthier without it being all that different from what the kids are used to. Do you have any tips to add?

Interview and an Award

Please go read my first ever interview over at Michelle Merrill's blog! Thanks so much, Michelle!

Michelle also gave me the One Lovely Blog Award. Thanks again!

I'd like to pass this award on to some of my newer blogging friends:

#1 - Kari Marie @ Writing By Heart

#2 - Nas @ Romance from the Paradise in the Pacific

#3 - Deniz @ The Girdle of Melian

#4 - The Happy Whisk

#5 - Tracy @ My Thoughtful Spot

Happy Friday, Everyone! I'm going to be watching my kids play soccer most of the weekend. What are your weekend plans?

Dogsled Dreams Review

A captivating and exciting debut novel. - Superior Outdoors Magazine

I'll say! This book is unlike anything my kids and I have ever read before. I read it out loud to them, and I was a little nervous my fantasy-loving offspring would have a hard time getting into a book about dogsledding. Not to worry! This book grabbed us right away and kept us turning pages straight to the end.

From the back cover:

Twelve-year-old Rebecca dreams of becoming a famous dog sled racer. She's an inventive but self-doubting musher who tackles blinding blizzards, wild animal attacks, puppy training, and flying poo missiles. All of her challenges, though, seem easier than living up to the dogs' trust in her abilities.

The writing is so vivid and the descriptions so clear, I felt like I was right there with Rebecca, caring for her dogs, dreaming of becoming a famous musher, and running her first dogsledding race. Details like the sound of the Northern Lights and the smell of Juicy Fruit gum on the breath of the boy she likes put me right in the moment. With a perfect balance of Rebecca's personal life and dogsledding adventures, plus plenty of obstacles to keep me in suspense, Dogled Dreams is a joy to read.

Added bonus #1 - My kids and I learned a lot about a topic we previously knew nothing about, and we had fun doing it. I love a book that educates as well as entertains, especially one I can share with my kids. It even includes a glossary of terms at the end of the book.

Added bonus #2 - By reading Terry Lynn's blog, we continue to learn even more about dogsledding. I especially loved when she posted a photo of the real life Apollo, one of the dogs in the book. If you haven't checked out Terry Lynn's blog, I highly recommend it. And if you haven't read Dogsled Dreams, I highly recommend that as well. :)

How about you? Have you recently tried a book outside your usual genre that you really liked? Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

Second Crusader Challenge

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For our second Crusader Challenge, we were to write a flash fiction story of 100 words or less that starts with the words, "The goldfish bowl teetered". As an added challenge, we could write our story in our own genre, so mine's a fantasy.

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The goldfish bowl teetered on my knees. Water sloshed. Red and Dot flapped their fins.

“Your parents’ estate is worth billions,” Mr. Driscoll said. “It’s all yours.”

I concentrated on an ant crawling up the wall. It sprouted a seventh leg and then an eighth. Then, as if too stunned to hold onto the wall, the spider fell.

“I’m sorry for the loss of your parents,” Mr. Driscoll said. “How tragic that Red’s and Dot’s bodies were never found after the fire. I miss them already.”

“Thank you.” I wrapped a protective arm around the fishbowl. “I miss them, too.”

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So there's a little insight into my twisted mind. :) Have you ever tried writing flash fiction? I'll admit, I've never written anything this short before and I found it very, very hard!

I'm going to change my blogging schedule to post Monday and Thursday evenings, so be sure to stop by Monday for my review of Terry Lynn Johnson's Dogsled Dreams!

Have a great Thursday, everyone!

Getting to Know J.C. Martin

As many of you know, I joined Rachael Harrie's Second Platform-Building Crusade a while back. The Crusade is an awesome way to support fellow bloggers. One blogger who's really gone out of her way to do that is the wondeful J.C. Martin. J.C. is quizzing several of the Crusaders (look for my quiz on her blog in April 19!), so I decided to turn the tables on J. C. and pose her own questions back to her.

When did you start writing?
I 've always been writing. When I was a kid, I drew and wrote comics for my younger brother called The Adventures of Buffy & Misty. The stars of the comics were our pet dogs at the time! English was my favourite subject at school, especially when we're asked to write essays or short stories. Now I was brought up in Malaysia, and although English was my co-first language, it wasn't for most of my friends, and I soon got a reputation as a budding writer--I even 'ghost-wrote' a couple of my friend's homework! ;)

I wrote my first novel at 14, by hand, in a notebook. I hated it, and gave it away to a friend who liked the story. I like to dream that once I'm a famous author, he'd have agem mine on his hands!

Writing sort of fell by the wayside when I started university and the years after, as I struggled to decide what I wanted to do with my life, from medical research to school teaching, to martial arts instructing. Then, I started writing fanfiction for a bit of fun, and realised just how much I missed it! I started writing seriously from last September, when I left my teaching job, and started submitting short stories to publishers.

What genres do you write?
Two of my WiPs are crime and suspense, but one of them have a paranormal twist to it. Most of my short stories have been horror, although I've tried writing literary pieces and one romance piece, and I have a couple of ideas for novels in the YA/fantasy/paranormal genres...I'm all over the shop, really!

Sum up your current WiP in 10 words or less.
For ORACLE: Serial murders based on Greek mythology leading up to Olympics.
For SOUND OF THE UNDERGROUND: Serial killer stalks the labyrinthine tunnels of the London Underground.
For my as yet unnamed short story collection: A collection of horror stories about seemingly everyday objects.

What's your ultimate goal as a writer?
To see my book on bookshelves in stores.

How close are you to achieving this goal?
My short stories have been published by Pill Hill Press, Static Movement, IFWG Publishing and New Asian Writing. I'm working on publishing a short story collection with IFWG Publishing, but it'll be in eBook format. I'm also toying with self-publishing ORACLE, but again as an eBook. Until I complete SOUND OF THE UNDERGROUND and start querying, I'm nowhere near yet! :)

Any quirky writing habits?
I'm a terribly slow writer! Against all advice, I sit staring at the screen until I figure out the perfect phrase. I edit as I go, which hopefully means revisions will be easier...

Best writing snack?
Chocolate leaves my fingers sticky, but a jar of Nutella and a spoon--heaven!!

Mmm...Nutella and a spoon - sounds yummy. :) Thanks for stopping by, J.C., it was fun to learn more about you! And good luck with your writing. It sounds like you have a lot of exciting stuff going on!

In other news, my copy of The Hating Game, which was donated by Laura Howard and I won on Talli Roland's blog, arrived yesterday! I can't wait to get started - thanks Laura and Talli!

So how about you? Can you sum up your wip in 10 words or less? Try it, it's not easy!

Happy Tuesday, Everyone!

Books!

I've started working my way through my BooKrushers 11 from 11 during 11 reading list, and I'm really excited about my most recent arrivals!

I read to my kids before they go to bed. We're all fantasy fans, and we pretty much always read MG fantasy, but this time I suggested we try something different:

I'll tell you more about this soon, as I intend to review it when we're finished, but for now I'll just say "Bravo, Terry Lynn!" And if you haven't checked out her blog, you really should!

I've just finished The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting and am now reading Desires of the Dead from my BooKrushers list. These books have all the stuff I love best in my YA: romance, paranormal, and lots of suspense.

I recently received J'adore New York by Isabelle Lafleche from the awesome Talli Roland:

And Delirium by Lauren Oliver from the wonderful Becky Taylor:

Also on my BooKrushers list, Across the Universe by Beth Revis:

Update: I just won a copy of The Hating Game on Talli Roland's blog!!! I've been dying to read this one and just waiting for the publication date (today - 3/9!) to get my own copy. If by some chance you don't know Talli yet, be sure to stop by her blog and tell her congratulations!
So much to read, so little time. *sigh*

What are you reading?

I'll be taking a little unplugged break while my kids are on spring break. I'll be back in a couple of weeks. Have a great Tuesday, Everyone!