sassymonkey

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  1. Meal Plan Monday February 6

    2/6/12 8:36am by sassymonkey in Loving food and sharing recipes! Comments (13)
    • Discussion

    Last week wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, seeing as we didn't really have a meal plan. There was one take-out meal (I had a shawarma craving) and for the rest we rummaged in the freezer and pantry and found plenty to eat. But this week we have, more or less, a proper meal plan. I feel very relieved.  Read more >

  2. Redefining Our Ideal Body

    2/3/12 9:52am by sassymonkey
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    I thought that one of the most powerful messages in William D. Lassek, M.D. and Steven J. C. Gaulin's Why Women Need Fat: How "Healthy" Food Make Us Gain Excess Weight and the Surprising Solution to Losing It Forever was that our bodies are at their best when they feel healthiest, not when they were at a certain size or looked a certain way. What the authors were saying is that our thinnest point may not be our healthiest.  Read more >

  3. BlogHer Talks to William Lassek & Steven Gaulin

    2/3/12 9:33am by sassymonkey
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    Grass Fed Cow

    BlogHer caught up with William D. Lassek, M.D., and Steven J.C. Gaulin, Ph.D., co-authors of BlogHer Book Club's pick, Why Women Need Fat for more information on what women eat and how it affects them, especially as they age.  Read more >

  4. Would You Do What Ella Did?

    2/2/12 11:28am by sassymonkey
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    In Seré Prince Halverson's The Underside of Joy, Ella had to make some very important decisions. It was never a question of if she would fight Paige's petition for custody of the children, but how she would fight it. Would she be honest? Would she give all the information that she had on hand?  Read more >

  5. Loosey-Goosey Not On Monday Meal Plan

    1/31/12 11:27am by sassymonkey in Loving food and sharing recipes! Comments (10)
    • Discussion

    I had great plans for this week. Or rather, I had great plans of making great plans for this week. Then I sat down on Sunday and couldn't figure out anything. "I'll just put it off until Monday," I thought. Then Monday happened and well, it didn't happen. So I am without a meal plan. Kinda.  Read more >

  6. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

    1/31/12 10:41am by sassymonkey in BlogHer Book Chat Comments (0)
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    I like a good animated short. After all, like many Canadians my age I grew up on The Big Snit (it's less weird if you are Canadian... or maybe we've just embraced its weirdness). After the Oscar nominations were announced and everyone started talking about The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore I knew I had to see it but every time I sat down to watch it something came up. I just sat down to watch it and well, the Eggman MADE ME CRY. *sniff*  Read more >

  7. BlogHer Talks to Seré Prince Halverson

    1/31/12 7:17am by sassymonkey
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    Picnic Basket

    BlogHer caught up with BlogHer Book Club author Seré Prince Halverson to ask some questions about her debut novel, The Underside of Joy BlogHer: Even though we realize you are not your characters, do you identify more with either Paige or Ella? Do you like one of them better?  Read more >

  8. The Things We Keep Hidden

    1/26/12 8:55am by sassymonkey
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    Many of the conflicts that arose after Joe's death in Seré Prince Halverson's The Underside of Joy were due to the things that people kept hidden. There were things of which people did not speak and yet their presence was felt. These hidden things shaped their lives.  Read more >

  9. Do You Know Your Natural Weight?

    1/25/12 6:59am by sassymonkey
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    In their book Why Women Need Fat: How "Healthy" Food Make Us Gain Excess Weight and the Surprising Solution to Losing It Forever, authors William D. Lassek, M.D. and Steven J. C. Gaulin suggest that we have a natural weight. They advocate that this natural weight is based on our genetics and that our weight is much harder to change than we've been led to believe. To put it simply, we have a weight we're meant to be and for many people it's simply not a size two.  Read more >

  10. Monday Meal Plan January 23

    1/23/12 9:35am by sassymonkey in Loving food and sharing recipes! Comments (23)
    • Discussion

    I am back and determined after last week's no meal plan thing. Life is just darned easier with meal plans. Also, I don't know how we were doing in late November and December with our $60 grocery store runs. We haven't had one under $100 the last couple of weeks.  Read more >

Karen Ballum

Full Name
Karen Ballum
Member Since
January 2006
About Me: 

Hi, I'm Karen Ballum. but I'm better know around the web as Sassymonkey.

I live in Ottawa, Ontario -- Canada's national capital. (No, I do not work politics or the government.) Keeping me company are my husband and cat, commonly known on the internet as the Fake Husband and the Fake Cat. Last I checked they were both still very real to most people but according to Denise, it's not real unless she can see it.

I have been blogging since 2004 on my personal blog, Sassymonkey.ca, and started my book blog, Sassymonkey Reads, in August of 2005. I read a lot and found I was starting to forget which books I had read and what I had thought of it. So I started my book blog as way of helping me track the books I had read.

I may have a slight addition to the overuse of parentheses. (Maybe.) (Sometimes.) (It's a sickness but one I am not seeking help for.)

I am the Section Editor for Books here on BlogHer as well as the BlogHer Book Club Host.

 

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