Inspired to Link

University Study Shows People With Lower IQ's Are Political Conservatives

More intelligent children may be more likely to grow up to be liberals, a researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests.

Does helping Palestinians beautify the occupation?

There is a thorn in the side of the Israeli prohibitions industry, in the guise of several stubborn and persistent women of retirement age. In a word: nudniks. They are the MachsomWatch volunteers, who during the past seven years have been offering their persistence in order to appeal the travel ban…


Kristin @ Rage Against the MiniVan posted
should kids be punished at home for bad behavior at school?
Recently, we were talking about this with a friend who is a teacher, and she suggested that it wasn’t a good idea to give a consequence at home for something that happened at school. She felt like we were undermining the classroom consequence and the student-teacher trust, and that whatever punishment was received at school should be sufficient.


Layla @ Images of Saudi posted The Saudi IKEA Experience.
Though she is speaking of the IKEA in Riyadh, our experiences at the Jeddah IKEA are very similar (and I don't have a cool phone to be able to sneak pictures).

I've Got Nothing

It is Friday so I need to make sure a post is up before I go to bed. Well, I am on my way to sleep, one way or another, and I've got nothing for you. I am pretty sure that as we approached Friday I thought of a couple of brilliant options. I am almost certain that near the end of the week (remember Saturday - Wednesday) I had an idea ruminating. Now that it is Friday and school is nearly upon us again and I've got nothing. I think my body may be fighting the crud going around as last night I fell asleep at 7pm, just after putting G down. When my husband got home and found me curled up, he woke me with a kiss. I put clean sheets on the bed (accomplishment) and crawled in. So, I got 12 hours of sleep last night and I am still ready to fall over, with a scratchy throat and all, before 9 p.m. It just means you'll have to check back and see what brilliance I remember tomorrow! For right now, I've got nothing.

Gotta Share!

I can't believe it! Wow! If I had known it would turn out even half as well as it did I would have documented the process with my camera. I will next time, (and there will definitely be a 'next time',) but I can't keep this to myself!

My husband has a new job this year and it is taking loads of his time. I am happy to let him put in the time because a)he loves it and b)it won't always be like this. He is spending time with G in the evenings and once she is in bed he works from home. Well, we both do, but I finish HOURS before he does. Since I can't actually help him with his work I have decided (timing would allow it, but I am not calling this a 'New Year's Resolution') to do more than my 'share' in the kitchen.

What am I doing? The dishes every night…. Well, let me back up.

Remember, we live overseas. One of the many benefits of our lifestyle is being able to have a 'helper'. We hire a woman to come to our house, twice a week, for a couple of hours each time, to clean and cook. So, I don't do the dishes the two nights before she comes. And I don't have to cook every night to ensure a home-cooked meal.

I am also doing more meal planning and preparing. Since I can't drive here, I make sure I put what I need for the week on the grocery list before my husband's Friday (remember our weekend is Thursday / Friday) trip to the store. (He did most of the grocery shopping at our last school too, but if I didn't have it all together I could hop in the car and take care of the last minute items.) This way I am not asking him to take the time on a weekday evening (for us Saturday - Wednesday), which would make his nights even later.

Anyway, on with today's story…
This week I picked out a Crock Pot recipe called "Savory Chicken and Oregano Chili". It calls for two cups of shredded, cooked chicken. Easy, I thought. I will have him pick up a little, cooked chicken and I'll shred it and throw it in. Except he hasn't found a place that sells little, cooked chickens here. When he called from the store (very typical) to inquire I told him to get a raw one and I would cook it.

I am finally getting to what I have to share. I went online (I especially like this website for slow cooker recipes) to figure out if and how I could cook the chicken in my Crock Pot. I ended up simplifying the ideas I found. This is what I did. Are you ready? I will finally get to the point. I put the chicken in the Crock Pot (breast side down since that is how I roast turkeys), put the lid on, turned it on low, and went to bed. 10 hours later I reluctantly took it out and OH MY GOODNESS! The meat literally and completely fell off the bone. I tore it apart and threw it back into the crock pot with the fixings for my recipe and went to school. 10 hours later we came home and dinner was fabulous. Even G, at 2.5, had 3 helpings.

So, I gotta tell you.
If you need to cook a chicken, toss it in the Crock Pot and walk away.
That's it!

(And it took me 593 words to tell you that one, simple point.)

 

 

laptop photo credit
shopping cart photo credit
Crock Pot photo credit

Inspired to Link

SOPA and PIPA Explained in Plain English [Infographic]
By Jeffrey Thomas at Tech The Plunge

It’s hard to believe that anyone in the educational technology world is not aware of the proposed SOPA andPIPA laws. However, sometimes it is difficult to understand exactly what is going on.

Grace’s All Time Favorite Books

As of right now and in no particular order…

Everywhere Babies By Susan Meyers and Marla Frazee

One Ted Falls Out of Bed By Julia Donaldson and Anna Currey

Hiccupotomus By Aaron Zenz

Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go By Richard Scarry

Good Night Moon By Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd

Sheep In A Jeep By Nancy E. Shaw and Margot Apple

“Grace Books” By Mommy and Shutterfly

The Belly Button Book By Sandra Boynton

Hurry, Hurry! By Eve Bunting and Jeff Mack

Rub-a-Dub Sub By Linda Ashman and Jeff Mack

And If the Moon Could Talk By Kate Banks and Georg Hallensleben

“Pater and Grandma Tina Books” are Hallmark Recordable Story Books
She LOVES hearing them read to her. (They alternate pages as they read.) And since we are on the other side of the planet most of the year this connection is really important.
She has this one , this one, and this one.

U-Turn, Saudi Style

On our journey home from school we got to wait at every… single… traffic light we came across. For the final light we were in the front row. There are three lanes painted on the street and we were sitting six cars across. Our black truck is in position five, second from the sidewalk. As the traffic to our right takes their turn, the car to our right decides it is the perfect time to sneak around the corner - to our left. Yes, he, (and there is no doubt it was a 'he' as we are in Saudi) made a u-turn crossing in front of five cars when other lanes of traffic are making their way through the intersection. Unbelievable? Not really. This is a u-turn, Saudi style.

Yup, only two links this week

A well written article about the non Palestinians living in the West Bank, illegally. Unlawful, Unresolved: Israeli Settlers in Foreign Land by Graham Peebles

 

When I first saw a picture of the Concordia my stomach lurched. I have been taking it all in ever since. The captain of the Costa Condordia, Francesco Schettino, unfortunately turned out to not be a great captain. Which article to share with you about that? How about this one. The story that we are not hearing much of is the work the crew did to safely evacuate over 4,000 people, in less than two hours, on an extremely listing ship, in the dark. In a previous life I worked for a cruise company including a chunk of months on board. I look forward to the time when the stories of those crew members, doing their jobs and saving lives, are told.