LADDventure

Random Reading

The last couple of days have been filled with doing two things that are so important and often neglected for me (well three things if you count cleaning the bathrooms):

 #1 Spending quality time talking with some of my favorite women in life...my grandma, my sister, my best friend, good friends and coworkers.  I am not a "girl's night out" kind of girl usually.  I like my husband, I like guys around, I like being home in sweats if I'm being honest.   So, I often do not put in the kind of effort I should into my female relationships, but am so glad when I do.  They refresh me, they are an outlet for me, they support me, and we can talk about things that I just wouldn't otherwise.  I have been less than a model friend or family member this year.  So, making the effort, showing up, and just being more available are things I want to work on in my friend and family relationships.  

#2  Reading, reading and more reading.  Just like when I write, when I read I am a better person.  Period.  I am more reflective, creative, and open when I'm actively literate.  I've burned through 3 books since school ended, and am downloading left and right to my Kindle (best invention since the wheel).  I am also soaking up all kinds of hilarity and wisdom from the internet.  My favorite thing to do in the morning is make myself an iced coffee and catch up on all my favorite blogs.  So here is  a collection of the best things I've come across in the blogosphere this week for your weekend clicking and reading pleasure.

One Year Olds (Honest Toddler)
This entire blog is hilarious, all written from the perspective of the toddler.  But, this particular post I find hysterical because it expresses my chihuahua, Buddy's exact sentiments toward one year olds.

Wild & Precious (Shauna Niequist)
Shauna is one of my favorite authors and a major inspiration to me in writing and life.  I love her voice, her outlook, and her honesty.  I eagerly await each blog post and this one did not disappoint.

Club Unicorn (The Weed)
This guy, this family, this post completely blew me away.  Such a brave, humble perspective about homosexuality and how we treat other people.  This is a long post, but well worth the read.  Pour yourself another iced coffee.

The Jesus Dream (Tamara Out Loud)
A guest post by Renee Ronika Klug, about truly seeing and understanding Jesus and people...the two most important things in life.

Penelope  (Saturday Night Live)
And just for funsies, thanks to an aforementioned friend who spontaneously invited me to coffee this morning, I spent the next hour at home watching clips of this familiar one-upper.  Everyone knows someone like this, and I heart Kristen Wiig.  Enjoy!

Book List

I have been wanting to put together a book list on the blog forever and have been trying to figure out a way to link it right to amazon.com (like I've seen on some blogs) when I highly recommend a book. That way everyone can buy it immediately! Anyone know how to do that? In the meantime, I guess I will have to do it the old fashioned way with a list:

What I've Read Recently or Highly Recommend:

Cold Tangerines, by Shauna Niequist - The best book I have ever read...no exaggeration. I've read it twice and want to read it again. It's a collection of thoughts on life and faith, specifically the little things in life that are so beautiful if we stop to think of them that way, and that everyday life is something spectacular!

Little Bee, by Chris Cleave - A novel about a girl who is a refugee from Nigeria to the UK. Her outside perspective on western culture is both hilarious and insightful. She is connected to a British woman through impossible circumstances and a complicated story unfolds.

Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, by Anne Lamott - Absolutely a hilarious, irreverent, honest, and profound look at Anne's own experience through life and faith and deciding who she is and who God is. I just have to quote one line that will sum up the kind of book this is. This is from a chapter called Forgiveness where she is talking about her "enemy", another mother in her child's first grade classroom. "I smiled back at her. I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish." Highly recommend :-)

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life, by Donald Miller - All about the idea of what makes a good story and what makes a good life story from the author of Blue Like Jazz (another must-read to those of you that haven't). Loved it.

What I'm Reading Now:

The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart - This is the first book in a series of children's novels. I love to read children's lit. and have recently been trying to read lots of it to get ready to teach third grade. This series is like Harry Potter meets Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Very fun.

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen Table, by Molly Wizenberg (creator of Orangette food blog) - I have just started this one, but love the idea of food and cooking for others intertwined with memoir.

On My To-Read List:

Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace, and Learning the Hard Way, by Shauna Niequist - Shauna's second book just came out and I am beyond excited to get my hands on it! I am going to amazon as soon as I'm done posting to buy it. After the way Cold Tangerines has stuck with me, I look forward to #2!

Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert - Ok, I know I'm a little late on this one, but I am a stickler for making myself read a book before I watch the movie, and the movie is just coming out so I better read the book.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott - When I love an author, I figure they'll have pretty good advice on writing, which I am getting more and more serious about, so add this one to my amazon cart as well!