Things I like - February

I feel like I've been sick this whole month.  That's a reasonable excuse for it being the 24th before this is posted...right?
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1. Kisses from Katie

I think I found this book because of a review in Entertainment Weekly, which is crazy considering how Jesus based it is.  Katie was a normal high school student in Tennessee when she heard a calling to go to Africa.  She ended up moving there at 18, shortly after graduating and adopting 13 African girls.  She has quite the story of adjusting to life in Africa and life as a instant mom.  I was telling Matt about the book and he said it sounded weird, like she's talking about how great she is for doing this.  That's not how she wrote it.  She writes about the challenges and learning to trust God in all situations.  It was really inspiring for learning that absolute trust we'd all like to have by many fail at (I know I do).  I highly recommend it.


2. LOST 

We own a decent number of tv shows on DVD.  We actually watch most of them fairly regularly.  I've been working my way through the entire series of The Office over the past year while I work out.  We watch Community and Cougar Town pretty often.  Right after Christmas we started rewatching LOST.  Partially because I was contemplating selling the DVDs since 3 of the 6 seasons were still in plastic.  We just started season 5 and I am really liking it.  I know it gets a lot of hate for dragging on, not answering questions, and having a bad series finale...but it's certainly enjoyable.  I forgot how much I liked this show.  Plus, I get to admire Hawaii and try to talk Matt into going back.  I should have started counting how many times they show this valley:

It's pretty much every episode and for different things, like one episode they'll be hiking through it supposedly on the other side of the island when a few earlier it's where Hurley's golf course was, within easy walking distance of camp.  I don't think viewers are supposed to pick up on that.  I also should have started a tally of how often someone gets hit in the head and knocked out.  Probably averages once an episode.

3. Annie's Eats

This is my go-to food blog for recipes. (I've been following her since before Pinterest.)  When I need a recipe for sandwich bread or homemade vanilla or baguettes or caramel sauce, this is where I go.  One of her big things is making things from scratch and that's probably part of my inspiration for doing the same.  I end up saving a lot of her desserts too.  Everything I've made from her site has been great and the directions are always spot-on (not always the case with recipes I find on Pinterest).

4. Instagram

 

This is probably my favorite social networking tool.   Matt will roll his eyes at me (if he actually read this, that is) but I've been on here before everyone was.  Early adapter...whatever.  Haha.  But it's great.  You share photos, like other people's photos, people like your photos.  Yep.  I mostly post vacation shots and scenery type things, not very much personal stuff.  I follow a few people I know in real life but then people from around the world - I have London, Paris, Australia, San Fran, Hawaii, NYC, Newport Beach.  Places that are very pretty to look at daily.  It's made my travel itch even greater but it's also a nice way to see the world from home.  You can see my gallery here: instagram.com/superstar5622 but you really should just join if you have a smart phone or other Apple device.

5. Happier at Home

This was the first book I read this year and it was a great way to start the year.  I read Gretchen Rubin's first book The Happiness Project in 2012 and picked up a lot of little hints to improve my life.  I liked this book even better.  Some of my favorite tips:
1) Get enough sleep.  I know it sounds simple but we are pretty bad at this.
2) Make a positive argument.  When someone does something to make you mad it's pretty easy to remember all the other things they have done that have made you mad.  However, it's pretty easy to argue the opposite to yourself, remember some of the wonderful things they have done.  Try it the next time your spouse makes you mad.  It works.
3) Make your passwords things you need to remember.  I type a lot of passwords a day, especially at work.  The book recommended making them little sayings you should remember like "IAmAwesome" or "TrustGod" or whatever.  For the record, I don't use either of those but I do use other ones and every time I type them I'm like "oh yeah, I need to remember that."

There are more notes I wrote to remember...but I'm on cold medication and distracted by the Oscars so...really just go read the book.