I’m spending a few days with my mom while she recovers from an unexpected illness, so I had to put a few of my plans on hold. But I thought this would be a fun opportunity for me to share some Internet resources I’ve found useful and interesting as I work on my project.

• This recipe for slow-cooker shredded chicken is a recent favorite, because we can do so many things with it. It’s super-easy. Taco night is popular in my house because it gives each of us a chance to do our own thing. I’m partial to quesadillas, but my husband prefers soft tacos. I make a big batch of this chicken and we can both fix what we like. I usually end up with lots of extra to freeze, and this freezes really well. So I get multiple easy meals out of making this chicken once. A warning: this is very spicy, and I like spicy food.

• I’m trying not to buy any books, period, but I like my e-reader a lot and I love a bargain even more. I’ll be going away a couple times over the summer and I plan to just bring my e-reader to simplify the packing process. My library has a great selection of e-books, but if I see anything I really want to read I’m going to treat myself to a few books before my trips. This site releases great deals every day, both free and deeply discounted, for any device.

• My mom told me she’d like to clean out her garage within the next few months, with some help from her kids. I’m happy to help, but I’m feeling a little stressed about what this might mean as I know we’ll unearth things she may want us to take. This article about baby boomers attempting to pass their stuff onto their millennial children resonated with me even though I’m too old to be a millennial. I thought it was worth sharing because I thought it was interesting to read about the generational differences. As a Gen-Xer, I’m wondering where my generation falls on the scale of having lots of stuff vs. having less stuff. Right now I’d be inclined to say that I’ve gravitated more towards having too much, but I don’t know how much I represent my group as a whole.

• I know it’s a ways off, but my tendency to go overboard at Easter made me think about my tendency to go overboard at Christmas, something I don’t want to do this year. I tried to think of Easter as my ‘test run’ because the feeling I have of wanting to buy as much as I can for all the children in my life is almost as strong at Easter as it is at Christmas. This year I felt a lot more aware of my tendency to go overboard. Earlier this evening I was in Target and got sucked into their dollar aisle. This section, full of cheap junk, makes me want to run but it also makes me want to grab lot of small, cute things I don’t need.
  

  I resisted.

  This Christmas, I’m going to adhere to the want/need/wear/read approach to give giving. It’s pretty self-explanatory but you can read more here if you want. For Easter, I went with a similar approach I called eat/use/eat/read. I purchased Emma one chocolate bunny, a bottle of coconut body wash, a peanut butter egg and two Magic Tree House books. And no plastic grass. Somewhere in my mom’s house, plastic grass from 1979 is still waiting to be unearthed.

I hope everyone who celebrates Easter and Passover has a joyous celebration and I will be back on Monday.

I do not get any compensation for the above links. They’re simply things I saw, enjoyed and wanted to share.