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Hopefully you had a chance to read Kristin Hannah’s latest book, The Great Alone. And hopefully, you loved it as much as I did.
Years ago I was first introduced to Hannah’s work when I read Firefly Lane. And I’ll be honest, I can’t say that the book stuck with me one way or another. Fast forward 10+ years, I stumbled upon Nightingale, and decided I needed to read this book solely because of the great reviews it had on Amazon. And it was one of the best books I’ve read in a long, long time.
Sorry that this post is a few days late – the first week of April was a proverbial sh*t show and I couldn’t get my act together to finish this post up! But hopefully the tardiness on my part helped give you a few more days to finish up Little Fires Everywhere – CCReads’ pick for March. A few people recommended this book and, after loving Celeste Ng’s first novel, Everything I Never Told You, I thought I should give her second novel a whirl. And boy, was I glad I did. Little Fires Everywhere intricately weaves a story of commingling families from different socioeconomic backgrounds, secrets, and simmering racial tensions, and quite frankly I couldn’t get enough!
SPOILERS AHEAD – If you have not finished Little Fires Everywhere, skip ahead to the reveal of CCRead’s pick for April.
Like her first novel, Ng let’s the reader in on the ending first, and then proceeds to tell us how each of the characters got to that point. In Little Fires Everywhere, Ng tells the story in large part through multiple mother-daughter relationships. From biological mother-daughter relationships to adopted mother-daughter relationships to more pseudo mother-daughter relationships these women and girls do the heavy lifting in Ng’s story.
What I like about Ng’s writing is that she is able to tell a story in a way that makes the reader sympathetic to all of the various characters, despite their flaws. She effortlessly highlights all of our human tendencies – the good, bad, and ugly. And so I leave her stories unsure who my favorite character is because I can identify parts of myself with parts of each of her characters. For example, at first, I couldn’t get past what I viewed as Mia’s unnecessary baggage. But after we learned how she became pregnant with Pearl, why she became estranged from her family, and why she’s a girl “on the run”, I understood her and quite frankly, could see how she ended up how she did.
I also didn’t anticipate Lexie’s own brush with motherhood, and particularly was fascinated on how Ng was able to naturally soften up Mia as a character through her handling of that situation.
What were your thoughts? Any favorite characters?
And now… for April’s pick…The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah. I recommended her book Nightingale back in February. I knew that when this new book was released, I had to read it. And it didn’t disappoint! The book follows a family attempting to help a troubled husband/father find a fresh start in the Alaskan “bush” country. Hannah knows how to pull on the heart strings! Can’t wait to meet you back here next month for a recap. Happy reading!
First, Happy 2018 friends! I hope that your year is off to a fantastic start! I always like to spend some time at the end of a year / beginning of the next to reflect on the previous 12 months. When I reflected on 2017, I realized that I considered “traveling” as both money and time well spent. Though it typically contributes to my MS fatigue, there is something about exploring a new city and leaving reality for a few days that leaves me feeling refreshed.
When a law school friend suggested that we go visit some other law school friends in Cali, I jumped on board. It’s been a hot minute since I was last in CA and was also definitely looking forward to visiting and catching up via Levin High reunion style (for all you non-UF law grads, we affectionately refer to the UF Levin College of Law as Levin High). Aren’t we cute?!
I’m a little late, but it’s finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas at my house. I usually try to have my house fully decorated, or at least mostly decorated, before Thanksgiving. This year, I hosted Thanksgiving, which put me behind the 8-ball. But I’ve gotten caught up and I can’t wait to show you how I’ve decked my halls!
If you follow me on instagram (and if you don’t, what are you waiting for?!) you probably noticed that I recently was in Chicago for a girls’ weekend with my sister and my two cousins. Ya’ll we had the best time!
Hard to believe we are almost through April! Which means only one thing…Derby weekend is just around the corner!
If you know me, you know I love a good party. Especially if it’s a good themed party. Hosting my very own Derby party has always been on my party bucket list.
Unfortunately, this year won’t be the year. Wah.
But, I wanted my loss to be your gain. So today, I have a ton of Derby party eye candy to share. Be ready to be inspired (and host your very own Derby party)!
If you follow me on Instagram (and if you don’t…what are you waiting for?) or if you’ve read this post, then you’ve probably heard me talk about my new morning routine. I’ve never been a morning person. Ever. I can sleep through the light being turned on, the radio blasting, I can fall back asleep if I get up and turn off the alarm, shoot, I can fall back asleep after walking the dog. I despise mornings. I’ll do anything to avoid mornings. It had gotten so bad that I’d literally sleep until the last possible second and then run around like a crazy person to get out of the house.
Towards the end of the year, I was searching for some personal growth books to add to my reading list and stumbled upon Hal Erod’s The Miracle Morning. About a third of the way through it, I knew I wanted to implement this practice as my “New Year’s Resolution.”
Hal believes that how you wake up each day and your morning routine dramatically affects your levels of success in every single area of your life. What you do each day will determine what you become, and who you’re becoming will always determine the quality and direction of your life. What really hit home was the idea that hitting the snooze button and resisting the inevitable act of waking up, basically signals to the universe that we’d rather lie there in our beds unconscious than consciously and actively live and create the lives we say we want.
“Your entire life changes the day that you decide you will no longer accept mediocrity for yourself. When you realize that today is the most important day of your life. When you decide that now matters more than any other time because it is who you are becoming each day based on the decisions that you are making and the actions that you are taking that is determining who you are going to be for the rest of your life.”
There are so many ah-ha moments that I literally could talk for hours about this book.
Life S.A.V.E.R.S
Life S.A.V.E.R.S are those things that Hal believes we all should be doing every morning in order to create the life we want. None of these ideas are new in the least bit. But the idea of doing all of these first thing in the morning was a new concept to me. It’s true, if we push these things off to the end of the day, chances are, we won’t ever get to them.
So what exactly are these Life S.A.V.E.R.S?
How to Implement
In the book, Hal talks about giving yourself 30 days before your morning routine will feel like a habit. I can say, I’m about 2.5 months in and there are some days that are definitely more of a struggle than others. The past couple of weeks have definitely been tough to keep this routine up, but I feel good after I complete it and so I continue to get up (sometimes later than I’d like) and get it done!
My Morning Routine
My morning routine varies day to day, and really depends on how much time I have / what time I need to be out the door. I typically give myself between 60 and 90 minutes, if possible.
Wake Up
I typically wake up between 5:50 and 6:30. The first things I do are brush my teeth, splash my face with water, drink a glass of water, and make myself some coffee. The chances of me going back to sleep after all of that is slim.
Meditation
The “S” in S.A.V.E.R.S. for me is mediation. I use a guided meditation from the app Headspace. Each of the guided meditations in the free version of Headspace is 10 minutes long. I was actually surprised at how fast the 10 minutes actually goes by. Easy peasy.
Affirmations
The next thing I do is read my affirmations aloud. I have around 15 affirmations that I’ve added to my affirmations list that I gathered from Pinterest, instagram, and books I’ve read. In order to have my list in a handy place each morning, I’ve added my list in my bullet journal (more on that later).
Visualization
There are a ton of ways you can satisfy the “V” in S.A.V.E.R.S., I choose to create a vision board on Pinterest. For me, I like having an actual picture to associate with those things I want because I have a tough time imagining the same thing in my head day in and day out. Pinterest boards are great because you can add to them over time and really look at your board anytime you have internet access. A lot of people use a vision board app as well. When I get my act together, I’d like to try and see if I like it better.
Exercise
Exercise is probably the weakest part of my morning routine. If I give myself enough time, I will go for a walk in the mornings with my dog. Often times I end up just stretching or doing push-ups or something. Guh. Major fail! But I continue to work at it and hope that I can continue to increase the amount of time I have in the mornings to sufficiently accomplish all of my S.A.V.E.R.S.
Reading
At any given time I’m usually reading at least 2 personal growth / spiritual books. The amount of time I’ll spend on this step will vary on how much time I have. Sometimes, it may only be a couple of pages in the morning. If I haven’t been able to read at least a chapter, I usually will also pick this back up in the evening before bed.
Scribing
This is my absolute favorite part of my morning routine – journaling. At the same time I started The Miracle Morning, I also started bullet journaling. I was a little late to the bujo party, but let me tell you, it’s been just as life changing as my morning routine! I can keep track of anything and everything in my journal – habit tracking, gratitude journal, to-do lists, the list is really endless. I could go on and on (and plan to in future posts). I usually try to spend at list 15 minutes planning out my day in the morning and then re-visit my progress in the evenings before bed.
Benefits so Far
Hal’s entire practice really has changed my life in a short about of time. I found that I have more patience, seem to be happier, and are getting things accomplished. I also really like the future planning aspects of The Miracle Morning – from reciting my affirmations, to reviewing my vision board, to coming up with a list of goals, it’s helped me to focus more on what it is that I want.
If you are looking for a way to change your life, check out Hal’s book! I think you’ll be inspired!
What are some things in your morning routine?
* This post contains affiliate links. In plain English, this means that I may receive a small commission (at no cost to you) if you subscribe or purchase something through the links provided. I only post links to products or services that I have used and absolutely love!
Cruise 2016 – Halloween Night
If you grew up in the late 80s / early 90s then any time you hear “you got the right stuff”, you immediately break out in oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, the right stuff….a rather well known song by New Kids on the Block (or NKOTB). Am I completely dating myself right now?!
I grew up a HUGE NKOTB fan – my room was covered floor to ceiling NKOTB posters. JoeyMac was going to be my future husband. I knew all the dance moves. I owned NKOTB sheets, shirts, toys, and games. I was a super fan along with most other females born in the seventies / early eighties.
Ok, so I have a confession. I am obsessed with lettering. It gets my heart beating a little faster. I swoon over fancy signs, chalkboards, posters, and envelopes.
Pinterest has slightly added to this obsession. It’s just so easy to get inspired with good lettering (ok, probably a little too easy). The other good part is that you really don’t need many tools to play around – just a pencil, eraser, and some colored pens / markers in various thicknesses.
If you are interested in stepping up your lettering game…there are a ton of easy ways to improve.
For the past 2 years (who am I kidding, it’s probably 3+ years), I’ve been wanting to pick new light fixtures for my house. See, I had a small flood in my house…resulting in almost a complete re-do. The old light fixtures work but don’t work as well as with the old decor. Hence adding light fixtures to the never ending house projects list. Fast forward years later and all I’ve accomplished is pinning a bunch of options to Pinterest (hey, that’s something at least).
This year, I’m committed to getting some things crossed off the list. And so here I am. Originally, I thought it would be easier to pick them all out at once…but it’s proving to be much harder than it looks. Seriously. I need a light for the entry, dining room, kitchen, and hallway. Since I live in a townhouse, you can see all of these lights pretty much from any view point. What I’m struggling with is how to pick lights that “go together.” Ugh.
Here are a few of my favorite options for the entry and hallway:
From left to right: Faceted Glass Paxton Pendant; Eldridge Pendant;Penn Collection 1-Light Natural Brass Pendant; Traditional Hanging Pendant
And a few of my favorites for the dining room and kitchen:
From left to right: Geometric Gold and Silver Leaf Lantern; Galaxy Star Modern Chandelier; Rose Chandelier; Trough Chandelier; Acrylic Frame Chandelier – Rectangle
So far, I’m split between these two combinations:
From left to right: Dining Room; Kitchen, Entry, and Hallway
From left to right: Dining Room, Kitchen, and Hallway/Entry.
Thoughts? Anyone have any sources for lights that I must check out?!