What I’m Into {January 2014 Edition}

What I'm Into ~ Plumfield DreamsThis is my first time participating in Leigh Kramer’s monthly “What I’m Into” linkup. I’m excited! I love this sort of thing. Hopefully some of you gentle readers do, as well. (Speaking of what I’m into…when I typed “gentle readers” my mind went to a specific Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode. Can you go there, too? Oh, I hope so, because that means you lead a happy life.)

What I’m Reading

I’ve been sick so much, and subsequently so busy when I’m well, that I haven’t gotten much reading done. I even missed book club. A Million Little Ways has been my primary read this month, and it is fantastic. It’s been a while since I’ve done much underlining in a book, but this one is getting heavily marked up. It has inspired a lot of thoughts, all milling around waiting for me to have the time to focus properly on each. It’s a book to savor, for sure.

The books most heavily in rotation with the kids this month are Katie Loves the Kittens, a couple I Spy books Aria got for her birthday, Madeline’s Rescue, one of Andy’s Garfield comic strip books Aria found on the bookshelf, and Charlie the Ranch Dog.

What I’m Watching

Downton Abbey AND Sherlock came back this month, so I’m basically in television heaven. I’ve also been rewatching NCIS. I’m up to season nine, which is the last one I own (no, I did not watch nine seasons this month). There are many things to appreciate about this show, but one of my favorite aspects is the subtlety. They don’t spell things out, and they don’t show a lot of the relational situations. Instead, they drop hints – verbal, contextual, and physical – and trust the viewer to follow. It’s refreshing.

Geeking Out

I just learned about this awesome curated box of bookish things you can receive quarterly. I AM SO EXCITED. I only wish I had learned about it before the first box went out, because I want everything in it. Oh, and I also wish I could afford to do this one, too. And that I could gift one to everyone I know.

Around the Web

Emily Freeman is one of my favorite bloggers (she also wrote A Million Little Ways). This post about Choosing the One You Least Expect is moving and inspiring.

I can very much relate to the whole waffling thing Anna discusses in Moms Need More Swagger (also to the idea my mom knew everything with confidence, and to the waiting for that to kick in).

The Kids Are Learning 

Aria (two) has started saying “I love you” and “I like you”. The latter is a song from her favorite TV show, “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood”. She has also started singing – more than just mimicking me – beginning with the “I like you” song. She has become extremely polite. It’s cute. She says “thanks” for pretty much everything, is getting quite good at remembering her “pleases”, and (my favorite) says “excuse me” if she needs to pass you. I hear “‘Scuse me, Mommy” a couple dozen times a day. She has also learned to apologize to her brother if she does something mean, or something thoughtless that results in him getting hurt. She’s pretty good about it, but sometimes I feel badly because I’ve heard her saying “Sowwy, Noey” when he cries about something totally unrelated to her. It’s cute, and a little sad, but I think she just doesn’t quite understand it yet. She seems to be basically trying to get him to be quiet. 🙂

Noah (6 months) is starting to play independently on the floor for short periods of time. Yesterday I left him in the Bumbo seat on the living room floor, and when I came back ten minutes later he was hanging out on his belly on the floor. We may be about done with the Bumbo seat. He isn’t crawling yet, but he does push himself up almost onto his knees regularly, and he pulls himself around the room. He got three more teeth in a period of about four days, so he now has a total of five. We started him on solids a couple weeks ago. Thus far he’s eaten avocado, banana, sweet potato fries, roasted carrots, green beans, and homemade chicken fingers. He seems to have enjoyed all of it.

What I’m Pinning

Super Bowl food! We started our clean eating endeavor this month, and I’ve been pinning food like crazy.

Here’s what we think we’re going to try for the Super Bowl:

Buffalo Wings with Dairy-Free Ranch Dressing

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Spinach Brownies

Texas-Style Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus

 

What I'm Into

6 thoughts on “What I’m Into {January 2014 Edition}

  1. So much good stuff here! 🙂 I love that we have been reading A Million Little Ways in the same month – I JUST finished it a few days ago! I’ve been reading it slowly on purpose to highlight all of the wisdom. I’ve also been watching the Incourage Book Club videos Emily made that correspond with each chapter–if you haven’t watched them, you’ll love them. I also heard about the Book Riot quarterly, and it looked awesome! I clicked on your link, and discovered all of the other amazing curated packages too – I actually just ordered one I found on there for $25, instead of $50. We’ll see if it was worth it. 🙂 (It was Scott Belsky’s–I liked his mix of creativity and productivity). Your recipes sound amazing! I’m doing the Paleo thing right now. The Whole30 has kicked my honey, but I still think I enjoy eating Paleo in general. LOVED your article on clean eating. I’m hoping to post my ‘What I’m Into’ by Monday.

    • I hadn’t started the Incourage videos, because I’ve felt overwhelmed by ALL THE THINGS this month. But now that you recommend them, I’ll definitely go check them out. I just adore Emily Freeman. She’s so real and challenging, so poetic and self-deprecating at the same time. I’d like her to come live next to me so we can be best friends (you can come, too!).

      Ooh, let me know what you think of the one you ordered! I didn’t know there was more than the one option originally, either. There are so many cool packages to choose from!

      I’ve been too wimpy to try a Whole 30. We are really enjoying our clean eating endeavor, though. There is SO MUCH flavorful food out there we’d never discovered.
      The wings, meatballs and hummus recipes were fantastic! We ended up making cookies instead of those brownies, because the brownies were just too much work. I wanted to actually watch the game (though that turned out to be a miserable experience…even if I weren’t a Peyton Manning fan, I just can’t stand to watch anyone get trounced that badly…my heart hurts for the poor, struggling team). Anyhoo, the recipes were winners.

  2. I tried to read A Million Little Ways a few months ago – when Freeman was running the online book discussion/read through – and I just couldn’t get into it. I need to give it another try because I always hear such great things about it.

    I followed along on that Uganda/Compassion trip via another blogger/writer who attended – Jeff Goins. I also read Joy the Baker occasionally but haven’t check to see if she blogged about it.

    • It may be one of those books that either resonates because you need to hear it at the moment, or just flies right past you because it’s not “where you are” at that point in time. I’m not sure, because it’s definitely what I need to hear right now. 🙂

      That’s kind of funny – I follow the other two of the four bloggers. I’ve read some of Jeff Goins in the past, though, and enjoyed him. I had never heard of Joy the Baker before she went on this trip, and now she’s popping up everywhere! I need to look into her.

  3. I finished A Million Little Ways last month, too, and really enjoyed it. I love whenever Emily writes about art and creating so I’m glad the book lived up to my expectations. I haven’t tried Book Riot yet but I’ve been keeping an eye on their boxes and plan on doing it one of these days. Spinach brownies?! Is that for real?!

    Thanks for linking up with What I’m Into!

    • Oh, they’re for real. Although I confess I didn’t try them. We had too many irons in the fire that day, and when I realized I had to melt chocolate I just wussed out. I’ll bake ’em one of these days. Probably.

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