Eating, Reading, Listening, Loving

Hi All,

Welcome to another edition of ERLL! Let’s jump right in, shall we?

Eating: Since two of my kids have moved out in the last six months, how we eat dinner has changed. I used to fix a big family meal most nights which required planning and thawing and cooking and cleaning up and putting away, but now since there are only three of us (and one of us is picky and typically makes her own dinner) dinner is a much more laid-back low-ley affair. A lot of times, we’ll just have sandwiches for dinner, or a quick pasta dish, or a salad, and if my husband isn’t home, sometimes the youngest and I will just have cereal for dinner. It’s such a difference from just less than a year ago, but it’s nice not constantly having that “what am I going to cook for dinner” worry.

Reading: I just finished The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg. I LOVED this book. It’s a quick read that covers all the emotions, but mostly it’s just a sweet story. This is one of my book club picks, and since it was such an easy read, I still have time to read it again, which is something I always say I’d like to do but never seem to find time. This time I think I’ll actually be able to do it before our next meeting. (Side note: do you read on an e-reader or do you prefer actual physical books? Since my tablet bit the dust, I’ve been getting my books from the library because I don’t like reading books on my phone, and I have found that I actually enjoy that more. I’d still like a new Kindle though – maybe for Christmas. 🙂 )

Listening: Another podcast for you: Criminal. I look forward to this podcast every week because the host’s voice is just so soothing to me. Phoebe Judge has a distinctive way of speaking and as soon as I hear that velvety lilt, I exhale and sink in to the story. I also love the different views they take on what it means to be a “criminal” – sometimes it’s exactly what you think when you hear that word but other times, it’s more subtle – and it’s always interesting to me.

Loving: Yoga. I’ve been trying to do a little bit of yoga every morning because it just feels good to stretch my body and I’m also building a little bit of strength at the same time. I’ve been following SarahBeth yoga on the Youtubes and I love that she says “your daily practice is your best practice” – no matter how little time you have, even just five minutes of yoga every day is good. When I’m pressed for time, I try to do at least ten minutes, but I always end up wishing I had time for more. But something is better than nothing, right?

Photo by Cedric Lim on Pexels.com

What are you eating, reading, listening, and loving this week? Share below ’cause I wanna know!

Wednesday Wins

Hello hello!

I didn’t do a Mental Health Monday post because Monday was kind of a busy day and plus I just couldn’t think of a good topic. So I skipped it, which relieved my mental stress about it, so I guess these two sentences are my Mental Health Monday post. You’re welcome.

However, I DO have some wins for today’s post! Let’s get to it:

• I changed my Harvest Bag delivery from every-other-week to every week because I am enjoying it so much already. And they give so much produce that I am able to share it with others, which I really enjoy being able to do.
• I am hitting my 10,000 steps regularly. Being in this Fitbit challenge with my friend is super motivating and has made me aware of just how little I was moving throughout the day previously. It’s a good thing I am in an office alone because most days you will find me walking laps in my office or busting out a few Zumba moves at my copier. The most surprising thing is this: I thought it would take a Herculean effort to get 10k steps in a day…but actually it only takes a small but conscious effort to get that many steps. And a Zumba class doesn’t hurt either.
• 
• I found my book club book at the library. I’m trying to be more mindful of how I spend my money and so when we decided on our next book, I checked on our library’s website and sure enough, there was one copy available. I got that book, plus a couple of others to tide me over until our next meeting. In a world of Amazon Prime shipping, I often forget how much I enjoy going to the library where I can spend time getting lost in all the available options and oh, also, get books FOR FREE. As much as having a full book case at home thrills me, what thrills me even more is not spending money on things I can get for free.
• My tax refund landed in my bank account today! And here’s where I have to reign in my Emotion Mind who says SPEND ALL THE MONIES!!!! My husband and I are going to discuss how we want to use this money, and I am going to fully fund some of my budget categories, and yes we’ll use some of it to treat ourselves to something small we’ve been talking about getting for awhile. We just need to figure out which thing we want, out of a list of a dozen things. But man, having a fat bank account (at least for a little while) brings such peace of mind.

What are your wins for this week? Chime in below!

What I read in 2017

Hola!

I don’t really have anything to say today, just felt like coming over here and writing for a bit.

OH! Let’s talk about books! What’re you all reading right now?

I just finished reading Liane Moriarty’s Truly Madly Guilty
(and I think I heard that Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman bought the movie rights to this one) for my book club selection for November. We had our meeting yesterday to discuss it and even though only two of us were there (usually there are 5 of us, but yesterday was one of those dreary, cold, couch-sitting days where you don’t wanna get up and go out, so I understand why hardly anyone showed up), we both decided it was…weird and icky and it just wasn’t what I was expecting. I didn’t find the characters to be particularly likable and the unveiling of the mystery of what happened at the bbq was sort of anticlimactic. And it wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. I’ve read a few other books by this author and I’m always left feeling sort of “meh”. But that’s just me.

For December, we decided to keep things light and easy and Christmassy, so we are going to read Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

Has anyone read this one yet? Did you like it? It’s available on the Kindle App for only $1.99 right now if you want to read along with us.

I need to make a list of all the books we’ve read this year. Well I suppose I can do that right here and now…

We started in March I think, nope…just checked and we had our first meeting in January with our first book discussion in February. Wow – I can’t believe it’s been almost a year! Anyway, here’s a list of the books we’ve read so far:

February: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

March: Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

April: Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran

May: The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman

June: Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

July: In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

August: The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

September: The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

October: The Dry by Jane Harper

November: Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty 

December: Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Just as a side note, we loved all of the Ruth Ware books, and the Ember book. We didn’t so much love Claire DeWitt and we all pretty much hated The Zookeeper’s Wife (it read like a documentary instead of a story). You’ll notice these are not serious literary efforts, but honestly I think what we all want out of this book club is a good story and a reason to get out of the house for a couple of hours, that’s all.

Have you read any of these? Do you have any recommendations for future books? We’re always open to suggestions – and if you want, we can have some book discussions in the comments too. 🙂

These were just the book club books that I read, I usually try to read another book after I finish my book club book. I’ll have to see if I can remember what else I’ve read this year, but I’ll save that for another post later.

Oh, and as always, Amazon links are affiliate links, which means if you click on a link and buy anything from Amazon within the next 24 hours, I get a small commission on whatever you buy. Thank you for clicking!