Kristen 9/9/16 Kristen 9/9/16

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...

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...

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...

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

Kristen 9/6/16 Kristen 9/6/16

Starting to get some bits of color on Emerald Mountain across from us...I love fall...
Took a nice little hike with the dog today mid-day...super warm out...nice to be able to take a break and get out...
Kids seem to be loving preschool...and Zo made me a plastic rainbow bead necklace today...and Luke a painting with blue and green glitter paint circles that is just the coolest...
Snuggled up with the kids before bedtime, reading some great books together...
My husband doing the grocery shopping on the way home from work...he's so amazing...

XOXO

Kristen 8/24/16 Kristen 8/24/16

After-dinner-treats with Daddy...kids both ate all their avocado and cherry tomatoes and peppers and watermelon and paleo pasta...so nice when I can get lots of good food into them!
Zo up super super early, but snuggling up in bed with us so sweetly...
Friends at the monkey park this morning...oh, and Zo went across the monkey bars swinging from one hand to the next...the first time I've ever seen her do that...
Work projects with friends this afternoon...
Reading to the kids before dinner and at bedtime...library books before dinner, Herbie and Lottie books before bed...

Preschool orientation tomorrow...big day...

XOXO

Kristen 8/14/16 Kristen 8/14/16

Kids have each been spending 2 nights with their Grammy and Papa...and it's been a wonderful experience for us to have some one-on-one time and kids have LOVED being with their Grammy and Papa...love seeing their relationships with them develop
My husband and I (and Sis) worked very hard today to clean out the store unit we've had...feels so good to be getting rid of that! We need to make our stuff fit in our house...
The kids and I ordered a bunch of used books on Amazon the other day and the first one was in the mail we picked up today...Sis and I had a great time sitting on the couch reading it...
Butter pecan ice cream today...yum...
Trying a new way of working starting this evening looking ahead at the week...scheduling the time when I'll actually do each project vs just having a big long list that either doesn't get done or it's 10 or 11 at night and I'm trying to get on top of things and exhausted...I'm excited to try something different in an attempt to keep my hours from creeping up to the point where everything becomes unmanageable, which is my biggest weakness in running a business. I feel good about this new strategy...we'll see how it pans out...

XOXO