Grace in small things, October 13, 2016
- Halloween costumes are coming together, thanks to the kids' fabulous grandma...love October and the big deal we make out of Halloween...
- Zo insisting I sit with her this morning and watch a very glitter-y "Shimmer & Shine"...I usually work while the kids do cartoons, but was nice to just relax snuggled up with my girl...
- Hot springs this morning with the kids...such luxury to have that in our backyard...
- The cute "what color shirt was everyone wearing today?" tally the kids brought home from preschool...
- Orthopedist today and I'm going to be getting a new brace for snowboarding...the old one worked pretty well but there was definitely some room for improvement so I'm psyched...
- 5 HUGE moose on Fox Creek Trail at dusk seen from the car (that's the trail right next to our house), a couple with the huge horns...so fun to see, but I won't be taking the kids down there for a week or two!
- Zo insisting she and Luke have a slumber party tonight...I love that they want to sleep together even though they don't have to...
What we're reading, watching, listening to: September, 2016 edition
Things we've enjoyed—and would highly recommend—as we move out of summer and into fall:
Kid books
- Beautiful Birds by Jean Roussen and Emmanuelle Walker—An ABC book with birds, the illustrations are spectacularly cool. Also like how inside the front cover are eggs and on the back cover they've all hatched...
- Nadia: The Girl Who Couldn't Sit Still by Karlin Gray and Christine Davenier—The kids are excited about gymnastics lessons and this book is inspiring them. I get teary each time I read it and 14-year-old Nadia scores the first perfect 10 but they don't have the scoreboard programmed to show it. Such a sweet book...
- Silly Wonderful You by Sherri Duskey Rinker and Patrick McDonnell—A mama talking to her toddler about how her life is so noisy and messy now that she has a child but also so incredibly filled with love...
- Alphabet City by Stephen T. Johnson—Another ABC book, this one photographs of things in the city that look like letters...so cool...
Grownup books
- The Art of the Photograph by Art Wolfe and Rob Sheppard—It's been a really long time since I bought a book and I talked myself out of this one I found in a bookstore on a weekend vacation with my mom and then went back and got it. I'm so glad I did. I'm learning a lot...
- The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky—You know, this book is interesting and engaging so far (first 50 pages or so), but I'm having a little trouble getting into it, much as I'm liking it. Jury's out on how far I'll get. Not sure Russian novels and 4-year-olds mix...feel like I need some long, leisurely reading hours on the porch...a luxury I currently do not have...
- The House by the Sea by May Sarton—I borrowed this from my mom and have read it very slowly...it just seemed like a book to digest in small chunks...it's the daily happenings of a writer who moved to costal Maine and is for the most part relishing the solitude. I like the small pleasures she finds. I love that this is one of my mom's favorite books...I can see her in it...
Music
- You Are my Little Bird by Elizabeth Mitchell—This has been a constant in our car lately, it's kids songs but the singers are amazing and the songs are done in a very sophisticated way...it hasn't gotten old after what feels like a million plays either...
Movies and TV
- Stranger Things—Oh, how I love Stranger Things. I just finished Season 1 last night. It's scary. The story's cool. The acting is great. It's its own thing, which I love. A number of nights I watched this right before bed and then couldn't sleep after. I love that twin brothers have created it. And that they tried and tried to sell it...showing that even very good ideas need some nurturing and love and persistence sometimes. I can't wait for Season 2. I actually think I'm going to watch Season 1 again...
- Last Week Tonight With John Oliver—This is the one show I make an effort to consistently watch. Honestly it's been a little uneven this season, but when it's funny, it's so very funny...
- Kubo and the Two Strings—A kids movie that played like and indie film and was so good, so original and so complex, I feel like adults could watch it multiple times and get something new out of it each time. This is definitely one for our video library...
- Mad Tiger—Seen at our local monthly foreign film night, it's the story of a Japanese band in New York and how things kind of fall apart. Loved watching the strangeness of this, and also had so much empathy for the main character who was trying to find his way...
Anything you've found fabulous lately??
Happy reading/watching/listening!
XOXO