Five Favorites: Linking Up with Links!

Linking-up with Moxie Wife for some faves!

Speaking of favorites and favors - can you pray for a friend? Her dad passed away. He was young. She is young, younger than me. She and her husband just married last month. Thanks peeps. I can't imagine how deep her grief is.

How about some good article reads?

Interesting might be a better word - because you aren't me and surely "good" reads is a personal preference. Anyway!

1. ModernMrsDarcy has a nice article about Highly Sensitive People - very intriguing. I'm not going to lie. Just about everything Anne writes captures my attention! A blog worth following.

Early riser. Busy in the kitchen!

2. Bonnie wrote a post back in 2013 that I still muse over. It's good stuff. I tend to want to do something if I think I can do it perfectly - but if I think I might "fail" in some way, I just don't attempt. Tragic. So this post about Little Moment Parenting really touched my heart.

Thankfully we have raincoats and the kids delight in the constant cold and rain
...for like six minutes...but who's counting? ;)

3. Does your Amazon cart stay filled with items that you reluctantly click "save for later" when you finally do make a purchase? I know, me too. But here is a screen shot of some books I've read and others I haven't that I really would like to own. My children and I have collectively incurred nearly $200 in library fines and damage over the 2013 year. So honestly, buying on Amazon saves us money!

Is it so obvious we have Amazon Prime? We love it. Serious.

4. I still love Auntie Leila's post about debt and life, etc. I think it really shows her depth of wisdom.

Primary color painting. My girl loves window sunshine and the freedom to create. It's awesome. Messy. But awesome.

5. Finally, Hallie Lord's letter to a young bride.
It hits home for me. Tyler and I knew each other a couple months before we started dating, then were engaged nine months later and then eight months after that the bells were ringing and these two imperfect souls were united with all the love and grace that comes with the sacrament of matrimony. A few months before our two year anniversary we had our first bambino and have been steadily (and prayerfully) growing our family ever since. It hasn't been a walk in the park as we have sort of learned each other all the while learning to be parents. It has been so incredibly deep and wonderful. It has made us throw back the veil and really reflect on who we are, who God is calling us to be, etc. It has actually been an amazing journey. Amazing. I would do it all the same!

Five Favorites

I'm so so so very excited to be joining Hallie Lord for Five Favorites this week.

Have you read her book Sex, Style and Substance?

Get thyself to Amazon my girl!

It is WONDERFULLY written and a great Catholic read.  Seriously.  Go! Click! Redeem Swagbucks if you must!

Anyway, all the cool chics are writing books.  Simcha and Cari both have one out which I NEED to read ASAP...sounds like I myself need to cash-a-rooski thine own Swagbucks.

Let the reading begin! But of course we all know that sometimes it just doesn't happen.  And that's ok. Put the kids to bed, draw a bath, pour a glass of Pinot Noir (love this one lately) and read until your hunka-hunka burning love bids you to be present - I'm totally banking that he himself is winding down too.

But alas, I am off on a tangent again.

FIVE FAVORITES!

My first five, ever!

Because I am in a shopping mood that is being squandered by ye olde budget, I will wistfully speak of clothing here and other equally as awesome but not so cute favorites.

1. ModCloth. (heart) These leggings.  Best $14 of my life.

2. Linking-up with MMD - a link-up within a link-up.  Watch-out!
Books! Specifically these:

My cookbooks. Creativity and tasty yum all in one.

Talk About Good: My Granny's copies, including personal notes, recipe clippings from elsewhere, and pages that smell of libraries of long ago.  Opening this book has never failed to produce something delicious and bring me down memory lane.

Keeping Food Fresh: An incredible read with recipes that are simple and steeped in history...I'm a bit of a sucker for the old days. ;-)

Medicinal Herbs: A must-have in our home.  A reference for sickness, sudden or lingering, as well as yummy ideas of how to safely blend herbs.

Herbs Encyclopedia: A great companion to Rosemary's Medicinal Herbs.  Helpful with gardening too.

White binder: Best wedding gift. For real. A sweet friend put together tried and true recipes from her kitchen, complete with personal notes - it has been such a neat cookbook and I'm thoroughly convinced that it is one of the best wedding gift you can receive!

Sacred Feasts: Not yet used, but lovely to peruse. My motivation to incorporate soups into our weekly meals.

The Art of Simple Food: The best postpartum gift I have ever received. Sort of "endless meals," ya know? Alice Waters is such a culinary genius. I'm so grateful to the gift-giver of this book. ;-) TO everyone else: You need this book. Seriously. You do. It has ALWAYS amazed both me and Tyler - me with the simplicity and ease and beauty and Tyler with the depth of taste.

3. Boots!!!!! One day I will get all fancy-pants and STUN you with boots.  Heck even frugalista Dweej has boots!! I will attain! Ok, sorry to get all like mad-scientist on you.

Aren't these great! Small heel, gorgeous color...mmmm..oh, $199? (cough! sputter!)

4. On to real life. This "mop" has revolutionized the flooring department of our home, which is for sale, and thus YOU should buy it!!! it = my house  I will leave the mop for you, if you want. ;-) It doesn't do a great job, but it gets the job done.  As a sweet friend pointed-out, nothing is an efficient as scrubbing on your hands and knees, but hold the phone yo' cause somebody is being neglected if I have to scrub floors on hand and knees. Thus:

Found at Target.

5. The weekend of July 26th 2014!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Need I say more? Yes, I do. Need to say: start saving!!!!!!!!!!!)
Best gathering EVER EVER!!!!!

None of the links here give me a cent for the plugs, and that's all good.  Just had to let ya know!

Reading Lists AKA Books On Our Coffee Table (Link-up Love!)

UPDATE: My brain is pan-fried my friends!
I totally forgot to say where I'm linking-up!  HERE with Micaela who blogs at California to Korea.  Check out the other great reads!

Well, in order to keep my reputation of randomness and disorder I'm joining yet ANOTHER link-up! I mean, WIWS, I love you, I have a ZILLION outfits as blog drafts... but my Sundays just POOF! disappear and I've never hit publish.

Moving on.

I'm SO excited about this link-up!

BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS!

I am so passionate about books.  Maybe obsessive.  Like, I go kinda nuts-o when Rita dumps the bookshelf on the floor every. single. day. But they are just so special and were totally my coping mechanism in middle school and high school!  I could escape and just be myself or pretend to be someone else.  Books, I love you.

So hear are books that we are loving, loving, loving at the moment.  Some need to be replaced with a new copy because pages are missing, but hey, when you have it memorized ain't no worries! Plus, my ole' chum the budget doesn't have moo-lah for books.  So, on to memorizing!

Dr. Seuss's ABC

Dr. Seuss

Classic, timeless, great for learning sounds, articulation, pronunciation, concept of rhyme, and letter recognition

Where the Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak

Classic, timeless, imaginative, introduces idea of you being in charge of you imagination (hello bad dreams!), emphasizes that discipline does not mean you aren't loved, wonderful illustrations

Rhyme and fantastical dreaming.

Lift-the-Flap Books

Where Can It Be?
Ann Jonas
Great for sight words, memorization for early emergent literacy, interactive, awesome fabric prints (hey-o 1980s!), and sequencing

Where's Spot?
Eric Hill
Sight words, memorization for early emergent literacy, interactive, short (sometimes necessary and very helpful when the baby needs to nurse but toddler needs attention)

The current lift-the-flap books we're loving.

Curious George Board Books (Box Set of Four) 
Margret and H. A. Rey
All of the stories are great, classic, short, one is about opposites and another feelings (we are HUGE Curious George fans - Tangent: I especially love the innocence in the books and the emphasis that he isn't trying to be naughty/bad/disobedient, he is just intrigued to the point of action! This is hard to understand with babies but the more I understand it the easier discipline is.)

Little Loon and Papa
Toni Buzzeo
Recent publication, animals, presence of father-figure, great illustrations

Noah's Bark 
Stephen Krensky
Recent publication, rhyme, animal sounds, legend of how animals have their particular sounds, biblical, wonderful illustrations

My First Songs
Tomie dePaola
Classic nursery rhymes and songs, rhyme (we love all literature by Tomie dePaola)

Other much-loved and often-read books.

We love reading!  Rita is slowly coming into Dr. Seuss, but many of his books don't hold her attention yet.  Curious George and Tomie dePaola are two favorites in our home.  But Noah's Bark wins the cake for being the most loved, most read book.  

Happy Page-Turning!