2018 Books in Review

2018 was the year of the audiobook. It just made sense. I easily spend an average of 2 hours per day in the car with three different school drops off, three different school pick ups, dance rehearsals, band and dance private lessons, soccer practices and games. Who has time to actually look at a book?

My audible subscription is definitely a gift that I give to myself that keeps on giving all year!  I just do one book per month subsciption but when they have periodic sales throughout the year when you can pick up extra credits for less than the monthly price, I tend to take advantage of those. Still I probably only average about 1-2 books per month as I also like to listen to music as well.

I started the year listening to the book How Not to Die. This book is full of the best health advice I have ever received and explained in a way that anyone can understand. I highly recommend it but will warn you that if you are a big meat eater, you won't like what you will hear but still I think everyone should listen to this and then decide for themselves what they want to take away. I ate a mostly plant based diet for some time after listening to this but have reverted back to some poorer eating habits again. I made need a re-listen! Definitely read if you want to know more about diet and the "whys" behind eating plants.

The next book I read was The Wife Between Us. This was a good mystery/suspense with plot twists that you don't see coming. Very much like Gone Girl if you are into those type of books. This personally wasn't my favorite but I know many loved it. I think I just didn't get invested enough into the characters.

After that, I read When Life Gives you Lululemons. This was a cute, quick read. I enjoyed it though it felt a little predictable at first but stick with the story because it definitely gets unique. The author did a really good job with character development in this one and made you really like the characters. The ending did feel a little like.... well, didn't they wrap that up with a pretty bow? But it still works in my opinion.

Next I read Then She Was Gone. I will be honest. This one was soooo boring to me. I honestly don't think I even finished it. The plot sounded like you would be hooked... but the author spent so much time dwelling on mundane things that really didn't support the story... anyway, I say PASS.

How to Walk Away was next. This was cute. The story was very endearing. But that was just it for me. I know a lot of people just loved this and it was one of their favorites from last year but it was meh for me. One sidenote, I started reading this one on the plane ride home from a girl's trip last summer and the book starts with a plane crash. Don't do that.

The next read (listen) was Educated: A Memoir. This was probably my second favorite book of the year. I don't know what it was about the main character that I felt I identified so much with, but I did. Which is sad because she really had one of the very worst childhoods that I can think of a child having other than maybe one who grew up on the streets. She and her siblings were abused emotionally and physically by their father and sometimes their other siblings. It is a story about rising above the circumstances you are born into and maybe that was the part I most identified with. But the author of this story just has that way of drawing you in and not letting you go. I definitely recommend this.

Next up was the audiobook Little Fires Everywhere. This book was a good, solid choice. It deals with a lot of tough topics and makes you really think about things from different points of view. I usually love any book that is able to do that. The way that the author intertwines the characters' lives is definitely unique and this book will have you thinking about your own life, your own community and how you may or may not identify with the characters in the book.

This past fall I read my favorite book of the year, The Great Alone. I shouldn't have been surprised. Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale was my favorite from a few years ago. The Great Alone has stuck with me since I read it. It makes me want to visit Alaska and I often find myself thinking about the characters. Again if you like a good book about rising above... especially if you are into the whole land being its own character thing, you will love this book. I really think Kristin Hannah is one of the best current writers out there.

The last book I read of the year was probably my least favorite, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. If you are okay with a book with very little plot and mostly all just character development, then you may be one who really likes this one. I mean lots of people do. It gets thousands of five star ratings and I believe Reese Witherspoon is playing Eleanor in the movie, right? But there just wasn't enough going on for me despite the fact that Eleanor is a very complex character who can, I guess, carry a story all on her own. It just didn't do it for me. I forced myself to finish it.

Well there you have it. My 2018 reading list! What was YOUR favorite book of 2018? I need to update my wishlist for the year on Audible and would love your suggestions. If you spend a lot of time in the car and like to read, I would highly suggest an audible subscription. $15 a month for a new book that I don't have to leave my house to get? Yes, please!

The Weekend Top 5

So it's been a couple of months... haha! How did I go the entire holiday season without posting? Because it was the holidays!! #amiright

Oh well. No guilt. Just.keep.posting.

Weekend Top 5 in no particular order...

#5

Hanging the television over the newly finished outdoor fireplace! (pics to come)

#4

Watching Graceland Ninjaz at House of Blues

#3

getting an extra day off to sleep in!

#2

getting my new Shark cordless vac... this vacuum is everything!!!

#1 and completing the weekend with this winner of an instant pot recipe which I will share with you lucky people. All children deemed this a winner which NEVER happens so take my advice and make this tomorrow. So easy!!

Instant pot chicken alfredo

melt 1 tsp butter in instant pot on saute

put in chopped up precooked fajita chicken, about 3/4 of big 1 pound bag or all of smaller bag.

saute 1-2 mins, add 1-2 tsps chopped garlic

add Italian seasonings, salt and pepper

saute 1-2 mins, don’t let garlic burn

dump one box penne in 

cover penne with chicken stock. Just enough to go over top about 2.5 cups.

set instant pot to manual and 6 mins

quick release steam

pasta should have absorbed most all of liquid

stir in 1 tbsp butter, 1 cup heavy cream, more salt and pepper

stir in 1 cup parmesan cheese.

optional, saute and add mushrooms for those that want them, I do this on stove separately bc not everyone likes them but if they did you could do this at the beginning with the garlic I think.

Have a great week friends!!

What's up Wednesday!

I will get a new post up today, I will get a new post up today! I keep repeating this to myself!!

It has been about a month so definitely not as bad as years, but.... I need to do better!

So it is What's up Wednesday?!

In no particular order...

What we are listening to...
I took this girl to her first concert last Friday night so it has been all Taylor all day and all night!

What we are eating....
I make this instant pot chicken corn chowder about once every couple of weeks and everyone other than Colton loves it! (Hey, you can't win them all) It's from the blog My Food Story and turns out excellent every time. LOVE my instant pot. I use it at least three times a week. Last night I made Mexican Rice in it.

What I am loving...
False eyelashes. I never thought I would be a girl to wear false eyelashes on the daily but I will say that I have gotten pretty good at putting them on!! I had extensions several times over the past year and they really did just shoot my real eyelashes to hell, so while they are growing back I will gladly wear the falsies. On days when I mostly am feeling like a dowdy stay at home mom in my leggings and oversized shirts, all I have to do is slap on a little makeup and my eyelashes and it makes me feel about 100% better about myself. Add curling my hair on top of it and I feel like freaking Betty Boop. I have been buying this inexpensive brand called Bepholan on Amazon prime and have been thrilled with them. I have cleaned and reused them at least 10 times and they are keeping their shape pretty well! They are not over the top and really do just look similar the extensions I previously had at a fraction of the cost and none of the damage. Also, I hated that I couldn't peel my extensions off at night because I want to be totally comfortable when I sleep and I love that with falsies you can. Win!!!!

What I am working on...
I got a cricut a couple of years ago mostly to have for my classroom but honestly never found the time to learn too much about how to use it while I was teaching. Since I am home for now, I have been trying to read up and watch more about it. I got Zoey a couple of blank dog shirts off of amazon and some glitter heat transfer vinyl and am going to try to make her a couple of "personalized" dog shirts. Is this really what my life has come to? Making dog shirts?!?! Ha! Only kidding. I love my life and love the chance to delve more into my hobbies right now. Incredibly blessed and taking advantage of a "slower" week around here.

What I am dreading...
more rain this weekend. I can't remember a late summer/fall where we have EVER had this much rain. We are supposed to get more this weekend and I am OVER it. The kids have a four day weekend and it sure would be nice to get out and do something fun. The cool weather has also put an early end to our pool season. #notafan

What I am watching...
All the Gilmore Girls episodes. I am a #foreverfan And something about Fall just makes me want to fall asleep watching #alltheepisodes

What I am reading...
I just started The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. I really love this book so far and I am hoping it stays as good as it has started!! It's a fictional story about a teenage girl in the 1970s who relocates to Alaska with her mom and dad and how they deal with the culture and environmental shock of the new land while also coping with her father's mental illness. The character development is spot on so far with Alaska being just as much of a main character as anyone. I don't always agree with thousands of 5 star ratings. I am reeeeeeeallly picky about my books and I can't tell you how many I have read that others have raved about that I was just like... "eh" so I definitely don't choose my books that way.  I usually go by past books I have read by the same author, genres, and then maybe read a few reviews. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is in my top five books ever so I have high hopes!!

Happy Wednesday! What's up for you today?

Weekend Top 5

ONE!
Would have to be watching this guy and his team play in the rain!
They won their first game of the season 7-1 and I have no idea why they let them play in the rain when literally everything else was cancelled on this day due to weather.

TWO!!
Date night with Rob at a new place we had never been before on the McKinney downtown square called Sugar Bacon. Super cute place and the food was great. We both loved it!!

THREE!
Later that night, we went and saw a band play that I really like and it was fun to hear some live music since we missed just about every concert that we were wanting to go to in August other than Eric Church!

FOUR!
On Saturday afternoon we took apart Lainey's twin bed in preparation for the arrival of her queen sized bed that is coming this week. This girl who weighs 65 pounds soaking wet, thinks she is too big for her twin bed *insert roll eyes here* and has been sleeping in the guest room most of the summer and the beginning of this school year. Although I think she would have been fine in her twin bed for at least another year or possibly two, I found a great deal on hayneedle for this bed that I have been eyeing. There was an additional 20% off for Labor Day so it was definitely time to jump on it!


FIVE!!
And we will cheat a little and back the weekend up to last Thursday when we had our first home football game. Rob got to see Nolan's marching band show for the first time this year as he was out of town the last time they really performed it so that was fun!! I sure love watching that kid do his thing!

Friday Favorites... A Little Late!

Good morning friends. Yesterday was the longest day ever... Game Day Friday!

Marching band kids seriously get no respect for the amount of time they put in to their shows. And Nolan joined leadership this year which means he puts about an additional hour into every rehearsal over what the other kids do, setting up for each rehearsal and then tearing down or on game/competition days, loading the truck/unloading the truck. He absolutely loves it though and I know he is learning so much about discipline and hard work. Game days, he us up at 5:45, to school by 6:30 to set up for practice and then his days end about midnight after they return back from the game and unload the truck. That's an 18 hour day friends. And there is no downtime to speak of after school really... the don't get out of school until 4:10 and they eat and then load the truck and leave for the game by 5:00 to 5:30 depending on where it is at.

So my first Friday favorite is... this guy! (Pic is from last year, I got NO good photos last night)

Friday favorite #2 is definitely... a 3 day weekend! We are supposed to have great summer weather for the next two days and then rain moves in Monday. You can find me here for the next two days!

See you Monday with a finished project and a new one starting!

Thursday musings...

Thursday is my day of the week when I often want to throw in the towel. All three kids have activities (well Band is hit or miss on Thursdays) and at least one to two Thursdays per month Rob has meetings so I am left to figure out how to be in at least two places at once, some weeks three. It can be downright maddening. #passthewine

Tonight, I got a bit of a reprieve. No weeknight meeting for Rob, and Colton is carpooling to soccer! So I just poured a glass of wine. #yesplease I am trying out a basic instant pot mac and cheese, steaming some broccoli and heating up some smoked sausage and calling it a day. Certainly not my favorite meal but a kid pleaser.

Today I bought the supplies to end cap my bottom bank of cabinets in beadboard. We had our cabinets painted two summers ago but they are already peeling on the ends. The doors and drawers and cabinet fronts seem to be fine but not the ends for some reason!! I am excited to get this project started and will be sure to post before and afters!

What I am looking forward to... first football game of the season tomorrow night. It's going to be so, so hot and it's away... the other side of downtown Dallas away so it will be a haul to get there on a Friday in rush hour holiday traffic. Wish us luck!

Open House

Last night, I accompanied my new middle-schooler to his school's open house. Per usual, his teachers had nothing but glowing things to say about him #yesiambragging

He says he doesn't mind having a bottom locker because it is on the end and that is better than a top locker that's in the middle any day! Ha, I would have to agree! #dontcrowdme #claustrophobic

Today on the agenda, Lainey has dance company practice after school and this is our one night of the week when everyone can be home to eat dinner together! #allthepraisehands 

I am currently scouring Pinterest for a good chicken recipe and it doesn't have to go in the Instant Pot or slow cooker for once!

Happy Humpday!!!