13 Books In 2013-Book Three

I burned through book number three in less than a week. It was that good.

I read The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

 

I couldn’t put this book down. It was so beautifully written. I absolutely loved it. It was heart wrenching and lovely. The author paints such vivid pictures with her words and you feel everything the characters feel. By the end I was sobbing. 

I would say that it has become one of my favorite books of all time. 

I highly recommend this book. Five stars.

 

Happy Monday!

P.S. I have no idea what to read next because I don’t know how anything can compare. I think I’ll have to go with a nonfiction book. 

Quiet Here Lately

Things have been very low-key around our house lately. I was sick all last week. I didn’t read. I didn’t blog. I didn’t run. I didn’t cook. In fact, the only thing I really did do was take care of my kids and spent a little time planning Hudson’s birthday party which happens this Saturday. His birthday is actually tomorrow, so I’ve been trying to come up with a plan for the day. Maybe going to the zoo and out for pizza to celebrate.

On Sunday, I started a new book called The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman. It’s good. Really good.

I also started a birthday party related project. I’m attempting to make a pull string pinata for Hudson. You should see it. It’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever made. Of course, it’s not filled or decorated with tissue paper yet, so I’m hoping I can salvage the poor thing and make it look half way decent for the party. I know the kids don’t care what it looks like, but I do.

I’m feeling much better this week. I got on the treadmill yesterday for the first time in at least 9 days. It felt good.

The weather is supposed to finally turn around by the weekend and I can’t wait. I can’t remember ever being this angry or disappointed about the weather. And I’m not the only one. Everyone I talk to these days can’t stop complaining about how awful it’s been.

I haven’t even been able to take any pictures really either. I would like to start booking outdoor sessions, but it’s been either rainy or really windy. Which I’ll admit has been okay with me because I’m extremely nervous about starting my own business and taking pictures for other people. I’m working on getting past those nerves and just focusing on doing what I love to do. It’s not like me to be so self-conscious.

On a much lighter note, I love birthdays. All birthdays. So, of course I’m looking forward to celebrating our little guy’s 4th birthday. He asked for a puppy party. He loves puppies right now. I designed the invites and all the decorations. He’s going to love it! And bonus, it’s supposed to be at least 70 degrees and sunny!

I think have a little more coffee on this cloudy morning. Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

13 Books in 2013-Book Two

It didn’t take me long to finish book two of thirteen! The second book in my challenge was Dinner: A Love Story.

 

I received this book as a gift from my husband for Valentine’s Day. I’d been wanting it for a long time.

I fell in love with it instantly. It does have a lot of recipes, but there is a great story about how the author’s family dinners evolved over the years. She in no way makes you feel guilty about your own approach to family dinners. In fact, she makes you feel like you can easily accomplish family dinners on your own terms, but that the important thing is the family bond it creates when you follow through.

I was able to really relate to so much of her story. We almost always sit down together and eat as a family, even if we’re just eating sandwiches. Not only is she relatable, but she’s really funny. I laughed a lot. She kept the writing light and entertaining.

I’m looking forward to trying out quite a few of the recipes and will definitely share my thoughts on them with you.

If you simply just enjoy cooking, enjoy cooking and are thinking of having a family, or enjoy cooking and already have a family, I would totally recommend picking up a copy of this book.

Now, on to the next…only I haven’t figured out what I want to read yet.

P.S. The sun is sort of shining today. I’ll take what I can get at this point…

Happening Now

Reading Dinner: A Love Story. I’m almost done with this book and have loved everything about it!

Hating this horrible weather. We haven’t seen sun all week here. I’m so over it.

Loving a new magazine that was sent to me called Modern Farmer. No idea why I got it, but it’s awesome.

Putting off cleaning so far this morning…

Running, running, running

Planning to convert all of my beauty products to organic. My skin hasn’t been the same since having Harper…it’s awful. But it’s expensive, so I’ll switch one at a time.

Drinking lots of ice tea.

Making some artwork for our walls.

Finishing up our 2012 Family Yearbook on MyPublisher so I can get it ordered while they’re having their free pages sale.

Wanting some new clothes for Spring.

Procrastinating.

Feeling tired and uninspired. I blame the weather.

Craving some sunshine and fresh air. Hopefully this weekend!

Enjoying the fact that things are starting to turn green and grow.

I hope the weather is better where you are!

Have a fantastic weekend. Next week I’ll be posting some of the little projects I’ve been trying to tackle around here.

 

(my day lilies)

 

 

 

Project Life-Week Eleven

I ran out of photo paper to print my photos for Project Life, so I’ve fallen behind again. But I’ve been working on getting caught up again the past couple days. Here is what I have completed so far.

Week Eleven

One thing I did this week that I haven’t done yet in this album was cutting a 4×6 in half and splitting it across the two layouts. I like the look of it and it works great if you have a lot of photos for a particular week.

I did try something new by using one of the 3×4 cards from the kit and added it next to a 4×4 Instagram. I like how it turned out and am sure I’ll do it again.

On the picture below, I used some of Elise Cripe’s stamps directly on the photo for the kids Easter eggs. Love these stamps. They work awesome for photos involving Jeremy and I, as well as, the kids.

So there you have it. Not a very exciting week, but a very busy week full of kid-friendly activities!

If you have any questions about Project Life  just leave them in the comments section.

Have a great day!

 

Instagram Obsession

It seems like I’ve posted more photos on Instagram this time around. Here are some of my favorites!

 

Awesome.

Happy Monday!

Spring Has Arrived!

FINALLY! It’s starting to feel like Spring around here! I’m so happy and even somewhat relieved, because now the kids can be outside and not going bananas in the house. We were all suffering from intense cabin fever. That’s actually why I haven’t been posting as much this past week. Oh, and because it was my birthday and Easter so we had a lot going on.

The kids and I have been outside every day this week and it’s supposed to be even warmer the next few days. So far, we’ve just been playing in the backyard, running around and playing in the sandbox. I have a big tub of pool/outside toys that I take out with us every day. But I can already tell that if I don’t come up with some activities, the kids will soon be bored with just being outside.

So, yesterday as I was browsing Pinterest for ideas, I came across a blog called Playful Learning. It’s awesome! I only had a chance to look through a few posts, but can already tell that this will be a great resource for me this summer and into the fall and winter.

www.playfullearning.net

It’s full of beautiful photos and tons of family activities built around learning.

Images found here

There is also a section on Well Being for kids that includes activities such as yoga and stress management. Love that!

I was just so excited to come across this blog that I had to share it with you!

I totally recommend checking it out!!

Enjoy your day! Get outside and breathe in the fresh air.

13 Books in 2013-Book One

The first book of my 13 books in 2013 is Daring Greatly by Brene Brown.

Image found here

It took me way too long to finish. And not because it wasn’t good, because it was a good read, but for some reason I had a hard time getting really into the book. Maybe that was because I would only read a little bit every night before I fell asleep.

I connected with the content and found it to be very interesting and eye-opening. It talks a lot about vulnerability and how it’s so important in our lives with regards to living wholeheartedly and our ability to dare greatly. I would definitely recommend it. It was much different from what I thought it would be, but so worth reading.

Up next: Dinner-A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach

Can’t wait to dive right in!

I have a lot of catching up to do…

Have a great day!