I just finished reading the book Eat, Pray, Love last night. I had heard of it a couple years ago and I picked it up from our local library last week and finished it pretty quickly. I really enjoyed following along on her journey from brokenness to happiness and peace.
Because I have visited Italy, I found it easy to envision the places she went in the first leg of her journey – Rome, Naples, Venice, Florence. When she described the pizza in Naples, I could almost taste it again. This strange doughy creation with sauce that is nothing like the pizza we’re used to. I loved Italy so much and reading this book made me want to go back. Like now.
The book has been made into a movie starring Julia Roberts, which will be coming out sometime this summer. I found the trailer online. Can’t wait to see this one.
• Came across this little gem this weekend while browsing movies on Netflix. “Lost in Austen” is a fun, quirky retelling of Pride & Prejudice from the perspective of a girl who loves the world of Jane Austen more than her real life. Through strange (and unbelievable) circumstances, she switches places with Elizabeth Bennett and lives in the story. It was a mini-series in the UK a couple years ago and I really enjoyed watching it. Found the trailer on youtube:
• Still having some shoulder pain. It’s better than it was, but still annoying. Just want it to be normal again. Spent most of the weekend relaxing. Put the heating pad on a bit. Watched a lot of HGTV.
• Enjoyed church at TVC again on Sunday. We are really loving Pastor Jeff. He’s a great speaker and I’m getting a lot out of his sermons. Do sort of miss the comfort and familiarity of the church I grew up in, but am glad we stepped out of the comfort zone to try something new.
• Zach made the honor roll with all A’s and B’s. So proud of him!
• My camera made its way back to me safely. All fixed and they even cleaned the sensor for me. Yay!
• Just found out my sis-in-law Michelle is going to have a baby in the fall. Sort of unexpected (their youngest is a teenager now), but it’s exciting to welcome another baby into the family. My SIL Heather is due with her first baby in June, so it will be nice to have two little ones running around at family gatherings.
• Mom and I went walking this morning. It’s so nice to walk on clear sidewalks again. No more snow. We had lots of the nasty stuff when we woke on the first day of Spring, but by Sunday afternoon it had all melted away.
• The kids teacher conferences are this week. That’s really a sign that Spring Break is almost here. Can’t believe it’s almost April. Where did March go? Isn’t that the way it goes, though. In the winter months, when you want time to move along to get to Spring, the days go by at a snails pace. Now that we’re getting some nicer weather, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Ah well … such is life.
• I think it’s time for some serious Spring cleaning around here as well as some home improvement projects. We are in the process of figuring out how to make our current office into a bedroom for Chloe. The kids are getting older and it’s hard to get them to go to sleep when they’re in the same room. They stay awake and goof around for hours after bedtime and it’s just not working anymore. So we’ll probably be doing some painting and moving rooms around and getting Chloe situated in the next couple months. I think she’s kind of excited about the idea of having her own space. Zach is thrilled!
I recently watched the movie “Bright Star” about the poet, John Keats, and the love of his life, Fanny, and I adored it. It is a gorgeous movie, beautifully shot, and such a sweet, romantic, heartbreaking love story.
This may sound strange, but one of my favorite things about this movie visually is the wind. Maybe it’s because we’re in the midst of a cold winter and I’m longing for warm breezes, but I love the way the wind blows in so many of the scenes – the trees and grass blowing, the curtains in the house and in Fanny’s room, Fanny’s hair as she sits sewing by the window. Love it!
“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its lovliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness”
I thought this movie was definitely a “thing of beauty”.
Took this out the window last week when it was snowing hard. Played around with focusing on the snow as it fell. Looking at this too long makes me a little dizzy actually.
Here I go again. Another winter and once again it’s time to complain about how much I hate it. We’ve actually been blessed with some beautiful sunshine the past couple days, but it’s making the temps bitterly cold. Mom and I are still out there walking in it, though. Determined to keep it up. The inches are coming off little by little as the weeks pass. Lost another inch on both my hips and waist. Feels good when the jeans become loose fitting. Maybe by summer I’ll actually be down to the size I want to be.
LOVING that I joined this Bible in 90 Days group. Getting into Leviticus right now. So many rules/laws about clean/unclean things and sacrifices. God was very specific about everything and He wasn’t joking around. If you didn’t follow His rules, you were dead. Literally. Two of Aaron’s (Moses’s brother) sons found that out the hard way.
One more family Christmas next weekend. We had to postpone it until late January because of work schedules, but it’s kind of nice to have the holidays drawn out a bit.
The movie Jake helped with last year and had a couple small roles in, “Homeless for the Holidays”, will be playing in Grand Rapids at the Woodland Mall Celebration Cinema starting January 29th. If you’re in the area, check it out.
Enjoyed watching Chuck this week. That show is so much fun. Glad it’s back for another season.
Not loving this whole craziness over The Tonight Show. It’s sucks what they’ve done to Conan O’Brien. I’d rather watch him than Jay any day. Not that I actually watch late night TV anymore anyway. But whatever Conan does, he’s got a huge fan base, so he’ll be just fine!
If you’re local, did you hear the news the other night about some idiots stealing the baby Jesus from the nativity downtown? That nativity has been in the courthouse lawn every year for as long as I can remember. It sucks that someone did this. Hope they find it or the person gets a conscience and returns it.
Posted this sweet little slideshow over on my photo blog of Janna + Dan’s sweet baby Jackson. She requested the song “You Are My Sunshine” and, while searching for it, I came across this wonderful artist, Elizabeth Mitchell, who has a way of singing children’s songs so even parents can enjoy them. I love her music. Here’s the slideshow, click the image to begin show.
A woman Jake works with started a group over on Facebook to read through the Bible in 90 Days starting this past Tuesday with Genesis 1 and working our way through. I’ve always thought about doing this, but I’ve never actually followed through. Seeing as I’ve had a Bible in my possession since I was pretty young, I should have read the whole thing by now, right? There is so much in there and I’m really excited to do this. I hope this will be the first of many times I will read through God’s Word.
If you’d like to join along with us, CLICK HERE. You can catch up! Each week she will post an Event on the Facebook group, which details the readings for the week. This week so far has been Genesis Chapters 1 – 39.
I did it again! This is my second year taking part in NaNoWriMo. I really didn’t think I was going to do it this year. I wrote a book I really love last year and it still needs so much work before I let people read it. I really thought I didn’t want to tackle another tale before the first one was complete. But when I got this idea for a YA novel on the day NaNo started, I felt like God had given me the idea. So I went with it. And tonight, only a few minutes ago, I reached the goal of 50,000 words. I’m really proud of this book and I hope someday, when I get this one all edited, some of you will be able to read it and enjoy it, too.
I was really pushing this one until almost the last minute. Tonight is the deadline at 11:59 pm. The past few days I’ve been a writing machine. I have to thank Mom O. for the delicious meal she made last night. We went out there to hang out and I basically sat in Dad O’s chair the whole time, laptop in front of me, headphones on, and wrote and wrote and wrote. As of last night, I still had about 9,000 words left to go. Jake let me write all last night when we got home. He got the kids all ready for bed and even did laundry and folded it for me. I have a wonderful husband.
(P.S. He secretly hates me because I keep finishing my NaNo novel every year and he doesn’t. hehehe!)
- garage sale went well. thankful for that.
- total exhaustion. too many late nights working and getting ready for the garage sale.
- went to bed at 10 pm Saturday. that’s so unlike me.
- planned meals and grocery list on sunday. stocked up for the week. proud of us for doing this.
- chicken on the grill. yum!
- jake prepared salad fixin’s for his lunches while I pureed some veggies to mix into some meals this week. Lovin’ THIS BOOK.
- getting control of our budget feels great!
- swimming with the kids.
- worked late sunday.
- rainy Monday.
- my brother stayed with the kids so I could run a few errands. so much easier (quieter) without kids along.
- got embroidery floss at the craft store to teach kids how to make friendship bracelets. chloe is awesome at it. zach could care less.
- hot dogs and french fries for dinner. peanut butter banana muffins (recipe from book above) for dessert.
- drank two cups of coffee in the late evening and worked on wedding pictures until the wee hours of the morn.
- played Mamma Mia and Fool’s Gold in the background while I worked.
- woke at 9:30. sat down to check email and ended up sitting here for two hours.
- made lunch for the kids.
- spent a couple hours in the pool.
- started reading “Chapter After Chapter” and “Have A New Kid by Friday“.
- fixed “brinner” (breakfast for dinner) using recipes from the above book.
- It’s Amanda Bynes night – watched Sydney White and What a Girl Wants while editing wedding pics.
- The time is now 2:17 am and I’m hitting the hay. Nighty night.
This is what Jake and I were watching Sunday night. Twilight. It made me really anxious for New Moon. I hope it’s done even better than Twilight was. I liked the Twilight movie. There are things about it that could have been improved – their “fast” running for example. That effect could have been done SO much better. And Edward’s “sparkle” was dull compared to what we thought it should be – light refracting off him like a prism or something instead of the glitter. But the story stuck to the book and there are even some extended scenes on the DVD that followed the book more closely – a conversation where Bella asks Charlie about the Cullens is right out of the book where he talks about his respect for Dr. Cullen and how the “kids” are all well behaved and don’t cause any trouble. There are some deleted scenes on there that I’m glad they didn’t put in the movie, but they’re fun to watch. Still need to check out the “making of” on the extra disk. That will be interesting to see. Really looking forward to the next movie, though. Can’t wait to see Bella’s relationship with Jacob strengthen, her crazy stunts to make herself “hear” Edward, and can’t wait to see Italy and the Volturi. This one’s gonna be fun!
Thank you everyone for commenting on the giveaway post! It was so fun to read what you all love about Christmas. I put all the names in a hat (see the pictures in my header above of Jake wearing the hat?) and had him draw three. For some reason he developed an accent as he was picking.
“Und zee first vinner is …”
Anya, Byron Center MI
“I am pretty faithful at checking up on my Favorite photographer. So, my favorite things include the birth of our Lord, CHRISTMAS CARDS, Family and Friends, the smell of cookies in the oven and yummy candles. Merry Christmas Kris, You rock!!”
“Zee second vinner is …”
Josette (Josette forgot to put where she was from, but I’ll forgive her!)
“I love being with my family for the holidays and all of the yummy food!
Hope your family has a great Holiday!”
“and zee third vinner is …”
Liz McCoy, Atlanta GA
“OOOH fun! I’m from Atlanta, GA and one of the things i love about the holidays is that my birthday is 2 days before christmas. Which means my celebrating and opening of presents starts early I also really love the time spent with family it’s such a treasure to be able to see them and spend time with them and enjoy their company.”
Josette and Liz, email me with your mailing addresses and I’ll get those sent out to you after the holidays. (Anya, I’ve got your address!)
Congratulations, girls! And Happy Birthday to Liz!
And I’ll leave you with the words of another of my commenters, Erin …
Scrooge has left the building. With less than a week until Christmas, I think I’m finally feeling a tiny spark of Christmas spirit. Been listening to some of my favorite Christmas songs (O Holy Night always makes me cry) and all this snow (at least 12 inches fell yesterday) certainly makes it a white Christmas.
So, in the spirit of giving …
Scrapbook Trends was nice enough to send me a little box this week with some extra copies of their new Digital Scrapbooking Idea Book with my layout on the cover. Zach and Chloe were so excited to see their faces on a book.
I have a few that I’d like to give away to you, my faithful blog readers. Please leave a comment with your name, the city/state where you live, and something you LOVE about the holidays. Please comment no later than Tuesday, December 23rd by midnight. I will do a drawing on Christmas Eve and the winners will get a nice little belated Christmas gift.
Thank you guys so much for following along on here. It’s been so fun connecting with so many of you and I’d like to get to know you all, so comment away!!!
” about the poet, John Keats, and the love of his life, Fanny, and I adored it. It is a gorgeous movie, beautifully shot, and such a sweet, romantic, heartbreaking love story.
So, my favorite things include the birth of our Lord, CHRISTMAS CARDS, Family and Friends, the smell of cookies in the oven and yummy candles. Merry Christmas Kris, You rock!!”
AJAXed with AWP