A Few Things I Recommend

I’m finally remembering to link up with Lauren and Bre for their “add it to your list” recommendations post which happens the last week of every month.

Here are a few things that I don’t hesitate to recommend, although some of these are for children, so if you aren’t super interested in those recommendations – understandable! haha

1) Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover This book absolutely blew me away. It took me awhile to get into, and it made me feel a VERY wide range of emotions while simultaneously making me feel extremely grateful for my own childhood and the opportunities I have had in my life. At times, I forgot that I was reading a memoir because this book reads a bit like extreme fiction. It’s a READ NOW book on Netgalley right now, so definitely check it out if you use Netgalley or if you don’t, you could still sign up for this one because it’s free for everyone! (Until Apr 23)

2) Hoopla App – After hearing reading friends talk about this for months, my library JUST got Hoopla. It is a digital lending service that works a bit differently than overdrive. You can access certain ebooks, audiobooks, tv shows, music, and movies and there is a limit to how many you can borrow each month (my library has a limit is 5, which is perfectly sufficient when I still have access to my regular library digital holds AND tons of other books). The great thing about Hoopla is that you get the book RIGHT AWAY (that is, there aren’t any holds to wait for!) It doesn’t have everything and does not seem as exhaustive as my regular library digital catalogue, but it is worth checking out!! I found a few books I’d been dying to read for months on there and it was so exciting.

3) Chocolate flavoured yogurt – since I make our own plain greek yogurt in the Instant Pot, I sometimes want to spice it up a bit so I add a teaspoon of cocoa powder and 2 squirts of liquid stevia. To me, this tastes like dessert and it is still pretty healthy. My kids also go crazy for this.

4) Yoga with Adriene – I’ve raved about her before, but I particularly love some of her videos about headaches and neck pain and I think they would be great if you experience any kind of tension from your work posture (like I do). Try this one, this one, this one, and this one.

5) HasFit App – GREAT workout app that I’ve been using sporadically.

6) Zootopia – my girls’ favourite movie right now. They’ve watched it 3 times in the past month (and they don’t get movies very often). They love the Shakira song too. Lol.

7) Disney read along CD books – Lucy listens to these every single day. We currently have about 15 out from the library. They retell Disney movies in a read along story book. They are wonderful for the car.

8) IKEA coffee – way better than I expected it to be, and inexpensive, and organic. Yum.

—-> And on that note, Ikea’s Smaland where my kids had the time of their life for one hour during March break and I sat in a comfy Ikea chair and read my book for 45 minutes.

9) Jimmy Kimmel’s Lip Sync Battles – Brian and I spent 2 hours watching comedy on Youtube instead of a movie a few weeks ago and it was GREAT. This particular video of Triple H singing How Far I’ll Go from Moana is hilarious. lol.

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18 Things Before 2018

For some reason, I feel substantially more motivated in September than I do in January. I love the start of the new year in January and all of the goals to accomplish in a calendar year, but truth be told, January is SUCH an unmotivating month where I live. It’s not easy to start to develop fitness goals when it’s -30C outside for the next 3 months and there’s a pile of snow 6 ft high in your driveway (this is an exaggeration but not too far off). It’s harder to find fresh and delicious veggies too. However, I love setting reading goals and writing goals in January, and it is a good time for decluttering and organizing.

This year, September feels like a fresh start. Next week, I am switching to a permanent part time position in my current job. When this came up as an option for me as my full-time contract was ending, I talked to Brian about it and we both decided that this is right for us right now. Our younger daughter will now have the chance to go to preschool, and I’ll have more time with both of them. I’m also hoping to have more time for ME. (and maybe a cleaner house, too :)). It’s very exciting and very motivating overall.

All of this being said, September is feeling great so far. We are eating quite healthy and making real lifestyle changes. I have been running more than I did in the summer heat. I’m getting back into reading after vacation left me drained. I have more energy, and I am sleeping better. I am nurturing my relationships as best I can. I am hoping to get back into blogging more too and I have some fun updates in mind.

So here are 18 things I’d like to accomplish before 2018 (thanks for the inspiration for this post, Steph!)

1) Complete my Goodreads goal. I know, I know, quality over quantity, etc. Actually, this should be no problem if I keep reading at my current rate, but I always read a bit less when I’m not working full time because I am parenting more, and I don’t have as much commuting time to read (Right now I’m at 76/100).

2) Beat my 10K time from 2015. I’m aiming to do this at the end of October in my last race of 2017.

3) Par down my wardrobe. I don’t think I’m ever going to be cut out for a capsule wardrobe, but working only 3 days a week means I don’t need quite as many “office” outfits.

4) Develop a new budget and stick to it. Our finances will change a bit with my work situation, but there’s no reason we can’t stick to a new normal.

5) Sort my way through the ultimate homemaking bundle I purchased earlier this year and start utilizing all of the resources.

6) Read and implement suggestions from The Four Tendencies and Reading People. I’ve been anxiously awaiting both of these books and pre-ordered both of them to have on my shelf. Can’t wait to learn more about personality and achieving goals.

7) Carve out more quality time with Brian (at least 3 meaningful date nights before Christmas).

8) Set up and maintain a reasonable “office space” in our home for myself. Along with this goes blogging more regularly. Brian is all for building me a new desk, but I’m not committed to that idea yet.

9) Organize and set up a great system for the girls’ entertainment during the days I’m home: craft supplies, puzzles, etc.

10) Send out homemade Christmas cards to all of our loved ones

11) Finish a travel scrapbook with Molly about our trip to Toronto this summer

12) Actively participate in my new French course (starts next week, 3 hours/week for 8 weeks) and move on to the next level in 2018. So excited to get back into learning French.

13) Soak up all the fall things in our beautiful province (apple picking, hiking, soup-making, corn-mazing).

14) Create a clear chore chart for the girls and work on cleaning up after ourselves.

15) Finish Erin’s challenge. I have 4 books left: Beach Music, Dark Matter, and Young Jane Young (which I am almost halfway through), and Flowers for Algernon.

16) Make a dent in my Netgalley shelf.

17) Create some great playlists to enjoy at home for the kids and for myself. We have Google Play music (Spotify’s best friend/biggest competitor? haha) and I don’t use it nearly enough.

18) Back up all of the files from my 2008 MacBook (which has seen better days) and sort photos

I love fall! We’ve still had pretty summery weather here, and I’m not complaining, but this time of year brings so much joy to all of us and I am especially looking forward to this change in my work-life balance.

Here’s to ending 2017 with a bang!!

Happy weekend, everyone 🙂

Why I Read

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I joined a book club on Facebook, which is a great place to see what others are reading, interact with other readers, and have an online discussion about a book once a month. Last week, an interesting discussion came up in the group. It was based on a comment made by Uli Beutter Cohen on a recent episode of the What Should I Read Next podcast. Since I had just listened to that episode, I got to thinking about what she had said. Essentially, she stated that she had recently read Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (as had I!), and Anne Bogel commented that she wasn’t sure if she liked the book after reading it until she thought about it more. Uli Beutter Cohen then said, “One of the things that Subway Book Review is teaching me…is that the whole purpose of a book is to make us think, and to make us consider our perspective, and to dive into a world, maybe ideally, that we know nothing about.” She was saying this in reference to the fact that we don’t necessarily need to feel that we like or dislike a book.

This comment, and the ensuing conversation on the book club group, really got me thinking about what I get out of reading, and why I pick up books. Although I can see where she is coming from, I have to disagree a bit with her comment. Primarily, for me, reading is for enjoyment. For me, reading is relaxing, and I want to feel the emotions of characters, view a new setting or place, and yes, sometimes I want to learn about something new. I want to read books that I can talk to other people about and learn what they got out of the pages. I sometimes want to read books that definitely challenge me either in language or subject matter, but often, I just want to read a book that will allow my brain to relax and take on someone else’s story for awhile. I think this is why I gravitate towards fiction overall, as I’ve mentioned before.

We all have different tastes and different reasons for reading. I know I am a bit of a mood reader. If I’m feeling really tired, I don’t necessarily want to pick up a non-fiction book, or a piece of literary fiction, or a classic. I might just want to pick up a YA book or something that feels “easier” to read. If I’m craving a bit of a break from a busy life, I want a book that I can think about constantly and absorb myself in until I know how it ends.

In general, listening to What Should I Read Next over the past year has REALLY made me think about what I look for when I’m selecting books. Anne Bogel tries to find the connection between her guests’ three books they love and one book they don’t love and really base her recommendations on that. I know that I love rooting for certain characters. If I don’t like ANY of the characters in a book, I probably won’t like the book unless it was just crazy exciting or something.

What do you think? Why do you read? Are you a mood reader? I have a few more thoughts on this that I will be sharing soon. I find it interesting because I feel like I interact with a lot of avid readers, both online and in my family but I think we all hope to get something different out of our reading lives!

Non-fiction books + Me

It’s no secret that I love to read. Actually, pretty much all I post on here these days is my thoughts on books and some monthly updates (but I’m hoping to change that soon!). One thing I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is how I feel about non-fiction books.

In theory, I love non-fiction. I truly love research, and spent a lot of time doing research during school and even in work. I feel that knowledge is power. I like to be well-informed about the world around me. I truly enjoy seeking out more information about things that are important to me, such as parenting, marriage, friendship, life improvement, and health. So my problem with non-fiction is that I simply cannot sustain my attention long enough to finish most non-fiction books.

People read for a lot of different reasons, but I think that a lot of people read to relax, unwind, or “escape”. Of course, many people (myself included) read to learn more about certain time periods, or to “visit” countries or scenarios that we wouldn’t experience in real life. Reading fiction can really open your mind to a lot of possibilities and make you think about things in a new light. For me, non-fiction just doesn’t captivate me the same way, and it doesn’t really provide the same “escape” feeling that I so crave from fiction.

I want to enjoy more non-fiction because I believe that there is a lot of wonderful knowledge being published that I need to get my hands on, but I just only have so many hours in a day to read & I use that time to read favourite fiction novels. When I sign out a non-fiction book or download it from Netgalley, I will usually read excerpts of it, and enjoy what I read A LOT, but I just can’t bring myself to sit down and read the book from front to back. Is this how most people read non-fiction? Just the segments that are important? I’m not sure.

For instance, I recently signed out The Fringe Hours from the library. I read bits and pieces of all the chapters, and I enjoyed the concepts a lot. I did not read every page, and I did not read all of the anecdotes. I did not browse all of the workbook activities, but I still feel like I got something out of the book despite not “finishing” it. I don’t regret not finishing it, and I probably won’t sign it out again, because it served its purpose for me. I don’t feel like I can really review the book on my blog or recommend it completely because I didn’t finish it, although I admit that I’m not overly concerned about that aspect.

However, I’m currently reading The Happiness Project and I am finding that this is one of the first non-fiction books in AGES that I’ve been able to absorb each and every page of information. It is told like a story of a project, and I find it extremely interesting. I felt similarly about The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up last year. It was no problem for me to read through it like my usual fiction choices. Maybe I just need to accept that certain non-fiction books that are extremely specific are books that I just need to skim.

With the abundance of information available in article/blog post/podcast form on the internet, I just don’t see lengthy non-fiction books as a priority for my time. If I’m really interested in a topic, I can find an abundance of quick information on it with a simple Google search. I am also interested in pursuing more non-fiction in audiobook format because I think it might seem a bit more like a podcast to me and keep my interest.

Anyone agree with any of these thoughts?!?! A bit long-winded for a humpday but I am really curious about any tips others might have for enjoying non-fiction reads. Do you need to read the whole book to get something out of it? What do you think?

A few that I am really interested in reading:

Brene Brown’s books.
John Gottman’s books about marriage
A few parenting books here, here and here.
Malcolm Gladwell’s books
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalinithi (planning this on audio from the library asap)

Freaky Friday thoughts

This week has been a complete and utter whirlwind. Today I am feeling a mix of “wow, it’s already Friday!” and “Wow, what a long week!” Work has been busy, home has been busy, but it has been mostly fun too. However, our kiddos have alternated (or both have tried) waking up at 5 am almost every day this week, so they are exhausted!! It doesn’t bode well for Daylight Savings time on Sunday because their 5 am wake up will be 4 AM ON THE CLOCK. Ahhhhhhh. I am hoping they fall into a slight sugar coma from Halloween and sleep in. They don’t have sugar very often so it might only take a treat or two 😉

Anyway, here are some random thoughts going through my head this week.

My 10 K run on Sunday went well, and I am proud to say I finished it *almost* in the time I was hoping for – 1:10:20 (off by 20 seconds, ugh!). I was in a bit of pain later that day, but fine the next day. I know that for some people, 10K is nothing, but for me it was a long way to run and I can’t wait to get some more races in next year (winter is coming here soon – haha).

After the race with my favourite little cheerleaders 🙂

On Sunday night, we finally made it out to see The Martian in theatres. I loved it! I also love that Brian now knows why I am so obsessed with it (he is not a big reader at alllll). I thought it was pretty close to the book in a lot of ways, but I also feel like I was at that perfect window between reading the book and seeing the movie. Does that make sense? If I read a book and then see the movie immediately after, I am almost always disappointed in the movie. This happened to me 3 times with Harry Potter. However, if I’ve forgotten some parts of the book, I’m usually able to enjoy the movie more because I’m not dwelling on the parts they left out. Anyway, The Martian on the big screen was fantastic and I loved the casting & all of the scenery. 5 stars for me for sure. My friend Laura also hosted a Moms Reading online (Facebook) book club chat on Wednesday night and we chatted about The Martian! The book club questions really stimulated my thoughts on the book/movie and it was fun!!

Although I was in a bit of a reading slump (too busy at night? Too tired? I don’t know?), I have finished a few books this week and right now I’m partway through The Husband’s Secret and SO HOOKED. What is it about Liane Moriarty’s writing? I felt the same way about Big Little Lies when I read it this summer. I get completely hooked and absorbed in the novel to the extent that I can barely think of anything else until I’m finished, and then when I finish it, I still ruminate on it for days. I started The Hypnotist’s Love Story awhile ago on audiobook, but it just didn’t captivate me, so we’ll see how that pans out. I hate not finishing books, but I feel these days that I just don’t want to waste my time reading something that I am not enjoying!!

I’m trying to do some better meal planning in November. In October, I tried to plan all of our suppers in advance, but I think this plan will work out better if I do it weekly. I did manage to reduce our grocery budget significantly in October, but I know I can do even better with it this month. In a lot of ways, I feel like November is a bit of a “blah” month. The weather is kind of chilly, kind of grey, kind of stormy sometimes, the only holiday is a solemn one (Remembrance Day), and you’re stuck between beautiful October and exciting December. I’m planning to make our November really count this year so that I can enjoy everything coming our way this year at Christmas time.

I am torn between desiring a weekend away with my husband (we need one!!) and a weekend in my house by myself so that I can clean and tidy a la KonMari. SO torn. Can’t I have both?!?! haha.

Links and posts I loved this week:

This post about making social plans with new parents. We are absolutely fortunate because our family and friends will happily come to our house to hang out with us and see our kids, or we’re easily able to have someone babysit them and go out ourselves but not everyone is up for that.
These apple carrot oatmeal cookies were delicious and my kids gobbled them right up
My go-to-book-recommender posted her 10 books that she can’t stop recommending today…I haven’t read all of these yet, but I can say with certainty that they are great recommendations!!!
I need to follow this video on foam rolling. Last week, I foam rolled my upper back and caused red lines all over it (I have since had it checked out and it is fine – but I need more education on foam rolling, obviously)
10 Best Yoga Moves for Beginners to increase mobility – love this.
Printable Adult Colouring Pages – I never seem to have time to colour (#avidreaderproblems) even though I bought myself an adult colouring book, but these ones look nice!!

Happy Halloween everyone! We have a butterfly and a bumblebee lined up for tomorrow, but the bumblebee is 18 months old and runs to hide in a corner every time she sees her costume – so we’ll see how that turns out!!! 🙂