Eye to Wonder

I always love to look back on the month and find what books, music and media stood out. My favorite and most well established hobby is reading, but it’s fun to track other things I enjoyed too. Favorite books this month: * Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell (5 stars). I completely devoured this book. I absolutely love Rainbow Rowell, and this book didn’t disappoint. This got mixed reviews on Goodreads and the plot was definitely more slice-of-life than action packed, but I loved the characters: Cherry herself, her estranged husband, her sisters, her mother, as well as a new love interest. Each character felt real and complex to me, and I also enjoyed the dynamics that emerged and evolved throughout the book. *Blue Sisters by Coco Mellars (5 stars). I picked this up on a whim when I was browsing for alternate reads at the library after I left my kindle in Philly. I remembered Stephany recommending about it and picked it up. I don’t know if I would have picked this up on my own, but thi...

Happy Thursday! Life here has been pretty good. We have had a few tricky parenting phases with sleep and school drop offs, but I’m definitely feeling in a better place about it than I was when we began the month. 1. Like I mentioned above, we had some kid phases in the past month that took a lot of energy. Things have definitely improved. I really took Nicole ’s advice to heart. She wrote, “they need their "tanks filled," and so when they are clingy and needy, it's because they just need a little extra, and to give them the extra love and attention.” This really helped me to dig deep and provide that extra love and snuggles. I also tried to make pain points in the day more enjoyable. If we had extra time before school drop off, I snuggled my toddler in the front seat of the car while we listened to Frog and Toad. I packed snacks for the car ride pickups, which I resisted because it seemed unnecessary, but made our afternoons so much more peaceful. Round trip, the whole t...

This is the first year I’m trying to set seasonal goals. Since I have kids, I’m using the quintile system from Best Laid Plans , which lines up with the school yearl calendar. It’s been a helpful way to prioritize what matters and plan ahead. Yearly Goal Progress: *100 strength training workouts. 29/100. Ahead of schedule! *Experiment with the Read Harder Challenge. I've read one book from the challenge, but I'm abandoning this goal since it doesn't feel fun anymore. *Post 52 times or more on my blog. 15/52. On track! *Make a playlist of favorite new songs released this year. I created the playlist, but don't have too much on it. Hoping to find some new music I love soon! *Complete monthly planning and reflection pages in my planner. I've been very consistent with this, and I love it. Marriage: *Find a babysitter. Check! The kids really like our new babysitter, and that has been great. *Go on 12 dates this year. 4/12. It's been fun to try new restaurants ...

Hello after a bit of a blog break! We were away visiting family in Philly where we spent the kid’s spring break. It was nice that the kid’s spring breaks coincided with my MIL’s birthday and Passover this year, since we don’t often get to celebrate with my husband’s family. Joel was already in Philly for a conference, so we flew out and met him. I was worried about the TSA lines being crazy and flying cross country with the kids by myself, but they were happy with all of the snacks and tv/movie time. It was nice to catch up with family and have the week there! March highlights: *Joel’s dad and his wife came to visit at the beginning of the month. It was a fun visit with a beach trip, bbq, and a boat trip to the harbor. *Getting to celebrate my cousin at her bridal shower and catch up was great! I also loved getting to see my 8-month-old niece. *Watching Zootopia with the girls--we rarely do family movie nights/afternoons, but it was a relaxing and cozy Sunday afternoon activity...

About a week ago, we were having a tough morning. One of my kids was really tired and not in the mood to go to school or get ready. Then out of nowhere, she asks, “isn’t there a painting kit I got for Christmas we haven’t opened yet?” My immediate instinct was to say that she had to get ready for school first or that we didn’t have that much time and painting was messy, but then I thought that maybe this was a moment she needed to reset. And while we didn’t have tons of time to paint, we did have a little. So we busted out the paints and both girls were happily immersed in painting with brushes of all different colored textures. As I tidied the kitchen and watched the kids paint, I remembered a phrase from a book I read several years ago, “beware the soul sucking force of reasonableness” from The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath. It would have been reasonable to stick to the routine, or push off painting until after school. A lot of days, I would have made that choice. But, b...

Like many here, I loved participating and reading along with everyone’s FIG posts. It was great to focus on the good that’s present, and so I decide to reflect on some recent small good things. 1. St. Patrick’s Day. We have zero Irish heritage, and my main memories of the holiday as a kid revolve around my grandfather’s birthday (which was on St. Patrick’s day) since he would sometimes embrace the theme for his birthday parties. However, this year my older daughter was obsessed with the idea of catching a leprechaun and made a few traps. Seeing her tinker and problem solve on these traps was awesome, and her excitement was contagious. So this year, we embraced the holiday a bit more with green milk and overnight oats, lots of coins and shamrocks left near the trap, and a corned beef and cabbage dinner with beer bread. It was fun to have a randomly celebratory Tuesday! 2. I’ve posted before about trying to find good books for my first grader to read. We picked up a Dog Man book at ...