My 2015 Reading List

Happy New Year everyone!! Here is my reading list for 2015 and I can’t wait to get started. I got some books for Christmas and am almost done with them so I needed to find some new ones. I’m super excited to read these as they were highly recommended on a variety of other reading lists. Do you have any good book suggestions?

1. Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

2. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

3. I Forgot to Remember by Su Meck

4. The Second Life of Abigail Walker by Frances O’Roark Dowell

5. Love Stories of World War II by Larry King

6. Summerset Abbey by T.J. Brown

Life In Five

Reading: The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans. Ever since The Horse Whisperer I have wanted to read something else by Mr. Evans. So far this is a really good book! I love books about fire jumpers and his writing style is so easy to read, it’s the perfect before-bed book!

Craving: Cheesecake. I LOOOOOVE cheesecake and it just sounds so perfect right now. This recipe sounds amazing!

Learning: Some new tools to make Project Life more interesting as well as some new Photoshop techniques. I am loving this and this action from The Coffeeshop Blog.

Drinking: Lots and lots of juice. I have been pinning recipes like crazy and I am really enjoying the various combos that I have come up with. So far my favorite is green apples, lemon, ginger, green grapes, and pear. You can find more juice recipes on my Healthy Living Pinterest Board. Anticipating: Valentine’s Day and Klint’s birthday. I have a special surprise coming and am super excited to see and share!

What does your life in five look like in five?

Today

Today it was freezing out… again. So we ventured out to the Cleveland Rainforest to warm up and visit some of our favorite animals. It was a lot of fun and a welcome feeling, the warmth and humidity. The animals were playful and thankfully the zoo wasn’t too crowded.

After the zoo we ventured out for lunch and then a quick trip to the library, which turned out to be not so quick. I don’t know what it is about libraries, but they suck me in. I could spend hours at the library, curled up in the chair with a good book. I always try to limit how many books the girls take home, but really I am the one who needs a limit. I always get more than I can carry! The girls love exploring the different libraries and meeting new kids.

One of the coolest books that I found was one called Sneaky Art by Marthe Jocelyn. It is basically a junior covert art installation how-to. I love it!! All the projects in the book are simple, very do-able, and sneakily cute- everything the girls and I like!

And finally, the day ended with relaxation (especially since Moira is getting over a cold, and me getting some Project Life pages done since last night my photo printer came! (Insert SQUEALS of JOY!) Here are two of the pages that I have done- more photos to follow!

Whew!!!! It was a loooooong day! Tomorrow promises to be another doozy as well, have a good night friends!

My Reading List 2014

One of my Christmas presents was a book that I have been wanting called One Good Deed a Day. It is super cool and is just the thing I need to really get going in 2014. What I like is that some of the deeds are for your own benefit, some are for the greater good of the world. Today I chose one for myself because one of my focuses this year is to concentrate more on my personal well being.As you all know I love to read, it is a daily habit that makes me super happy. So today’s good deed is to make a list of books that I want to read this year. Fun!!!! Here are some of the books that I want to read, and if you are interested, you can see the whole list here. (If you click on the books at the end then you can read the synopsis and such!)

1. To The End of June by Chris Beam
2. The Lions of Little Rock by Kristen Levine
3. Slated by Teri Terri
4. The Collector by Nora Roberts
5. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
6. The Time Between by Karen White
7. Island Girls by Nancy Thayer

Sea Dragons, Books, and Ballet Shoes!

Whew! What a week so far!! This week has been chock full of funness and it seems like the fun isn’t going to be over anytime soon. =) Hmmmm… where to begin?

Well Tuesday the girls and I got to model for my friend Ali who is a face painter and VERY gifted artist. It was beyond a blast! I am just as giddy about it and can’t wait to have her come to AJ’s birthday party to paint faces. I think my friends and their kids are in for a treat, just check out Gabby’s cat face and the awesome sea dragon on mine. (AJ blurred hers out accidentally before I could get a good pic.)

Aren’t they amazing! I am in love with sea dragons so this was especially cool for me. =)

 

We have been spending a lot of time in the various libraries lately, always a plus in my book.It’s funny because we always agree to not get more books than we can carry and then end up taking out way more books that this poor mama ends up carrying. I honestly don’t mind though… the girls and I have a lot of interests and books only fuel the fire. Here are some of the books currently on our shelf:

A wonderful list and only a small fraction of what we actually have out, lol!

 

Finally, Miss Amelia had her first real dance class yesterday! It was exciting and a little bittersweet because it made me see the little lady that she is all too quickly becoming. I would have put her in dance last year but I wanted a year at my studio to get acquainted before I threw my kids in the mix lol! I also didn’t want her to be in one of my classes, been there done that, it just doesn’t work out well. So this year AJ is in Miss Mandy’s class, a lovely teacher who I know will both teach and inspire. She couldn’t stop talking about class and her favorite teacher, lol, it was cute. Here are some of the photos this proud Dance Mom had to take, lol!

Sigh… she is growing up too fast!!!!!

Have a great day friends!