A Few of My Favorite Things

err... I mean blogs.

On this snowy, cold Saturday, I thought I would share some of my favorite blogs. Just so you know on top of reading lots of books, I read a ridiculous number of blogs {I subscribe to 178 in my Google Reader}. To be completely truthful, I browse rather than read all of them - I probably only read a handful. The others, I look at to get inspiration for work, remodeling, do-it-yourself projects and new recipes.

Some of my favorite blogs {that I actually read} are as follows...

Five blogs written by real-life friends:  

Life As We Know It With Izzy Bug is written by my sister about life with her new baby, Izzy. Since I live in a different state, this blog allows me to keep up with what is going on in their day-to-day lives. Not to mention, my little niece is ridiculously cute {but I'm not biased}.

 

The Cutest Thing

My friend, Sally Loftis, writes a blog where she gives a "Girls Movie Review" of secular movies. She does an amazing job of giving a Christian perspective to things that are of this world. I truly appreciate her insight. She also has an ongoing commentary of Grey's Anatomy. 

A college friend of mine writes a hysterically funny blog called Mabel's House. I highly recommend checking out this blog if A) you want a good laugh; B) you are looking for design inspiration or C) you want to look at beautiful photography or read witty commentaries about life. Mabel's House has been featured on Apartment Therapy and Design Sponge.

I also read two different cooking blogs by friends... 

My college friend, Eralda, writes a blog called The Split Pea. It is full of her spectacular photography and offers recipes from around the world, including some from growing up in Albania. She tells beautiful stories that go along with her recipes. 

Deanna, a friend from high school, writes What's For Dinner?. Her recipes reflect her southern roots and how to juggle cooking for a young family.

Five blogs written by people I wish that I was friends with in real life:

Ashley Anne Photography - she has 4 little {sweet} kids to wrangle and still manages to offer amazing ideas for do-it-yourself projects that I adore. She is also an AMAZING photographer. She has been featured on Apartment Therapy here and here.

Smitten Kitchen - a cooking blog that I love. She never cooks the same thing twice {something I strive for} and her recipes are ridiculously good. Seriously. If you love to cook. Check out her blog. NOW. I'm not kidding.

Design Mom - this woman has 5 kids with one on the way. And she still manages to be an Art Director and plan things like the Alt Design Summit. Since becoming pregnant {again}, she has shared a series of posts by other bloggers about their experiences becoming mothers. It is a touching series that I have enjoyed reading. I enjoy this blog for its design aspects as well.

The Pioneer Woman - I know. I know. Everyone knows about PW, but if you haven't checked out her blog yet... be sure to read it for her {amazing} recipes, gorgeous photography, stories of life on a ranch; and ESPECIALLY take the time to read her love story {Black Heels to Tractor Wheels} of how she met and married Marlboro Man.

NieNie Dialogues - this is a blog about surviving. About hope. About raising your family, especially when things are hard. I highly recommend this blog to everyone. If you haven't read Stephanie and Christian Nielson's story about surviving a plane crash, you must live under a rock. You can read it here if you don't have the time to read her entire blog. Be prepared to cry...

There are so many other blogs I love dearly. But I am going to limit this post to 10. What are your favorite blogs?

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Books 4&5

For the past two weeks, I have tried to read two books with little success. Normally I am able to plow through books, even those I don't particularly care for. But on occasion, I opt to not finish. This would be the case for both of these books.

The first, Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, examines the world of Wall Street trading and how randomness plays a part. I found the writing to be extremely arrogant and condescending, not to mention outright boring. This book was extremely disappointing, especially after reading a review that compared it to Freakonomics (which I found fresh and interesting).

Quotes I came away with {from the parts I read}:

Symobolism is the child of our inability and unwillingness to accept randomness; we give meaning to all manner of shapes; we detect human figures in ink blots. Mild success can be explained by skill and labor. Wild success is attributable to variance.

One cannot judge a performance in any given field  (war, politics, medicine, investments) by the results, but by the costs o f the alternative.

Heroes are heroes because they are heroic in behavior, not because they won or lost.

Sensationalism can divert empathy toward wrong causes. (ex. mad cow disease killing less people than car accidents)

"Common sense is nothing but a collection of misconceptions acquired by age 18." - Einstein.

The second book was Moral Clarity by Susan Neiman. I think I picked this up on a recommendation from a blog I read. I wish that I had taken the time to look into what this book was about. In the first chapters, it comes across as a political rant more than a discussion of morals in a modern world. The book snidely proclaims that liberals do not need religion to have morals. I won't pretend to agree with the content of the book, it is one I will not be finishing.

18,000 Pounds and Some Good News

Today a lady from the moving company came by to do an estimate of our stuff. We are allowed to have up 18,000 pounds moved free of charge. Beyond 18,000, we will have to pay some hefty fees {or move the extra ourselves.}

It is just the two of us in a 1,800 square foot house, but we do have quite a bit of stuff. Thanks to all of the tools we have accumulated, our total weight estimate comes in at 15,000 pounds. We won't know the true total until moving day, but the estimator said that she normally shoots a bit high and is generally within 1,000 pounds. Let's hope so.

Now for the good news... Daniel talked to TVA today and it looks like there is a really good possibility (95% chance if you are into statistics) that he won't have to start work until February 15. Thank you God for that!!! We were both starting to get overwhelmed with the idea of Daniel leaving so soon. An extra two weeks means we should be able to accomplish everything on the house and have some overlap time of him being here while the house is on the market.

Traffic Calming

In Engineering terms, traffic calming is the slowing or reduction of motor-vehicle traffic to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists. (I know this term because my husband is an engineer). One example of traffic calming is a roundabout. This is a type of circular intersection in which traffic must travel in one direction around a central island forcing the traffic to slow down, but enabling traffic to continue to flow.

 

Example of traffic calming. Photo found here.

Another example of traffic calming can be found in our living room. We recently added a coffee table and found that this prevents our dog {Sophie} from hurtling herself across the room and onto the sofa at full throttle. Instead, we find her running {at a somewhat reduced pace} through the living room, around the coffee table and onto the couch where she proceeds to find a comfortable spot and go to sleep.

 

Traffic calming for our dog. Photo by Cheree.

Overwhelmed

Taking a moment to feel overwhelmed and indulge in a cookie {or three}.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookies 

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground clove (I did not have this ingredient, so opted for all spice instead)
1 cup quick-cooking oats (I didn't  have quick-cooking oats, so I used the regular kind, this may have contributed to their flatness)

 2 cups chopped pecans (I used what I had on hand - about 1 cup)
2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest (I substituted 1 tsp of orange extract - the orange gives a beautiful, unexpected flavor to the cookie)
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (I used 6 oz because that is all I had on hand. They turned out really chocolaty and I am thankful I didn't use the full amount) 

Preheat oven to 350°F

Line a large cookie sheet with parchment.

Beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy.

Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla, and beat until well mixed (about three minutes).

Stir in eggs, one at a time.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in a separate bowl.

Add half of the flour mixture to the butter with the mixer on low speed. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the second half. 

Stir in the oats, pecans, orange zest, and chocolate chips. 

Drop the dough, by the tablespoon, onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. (I actually had to bake each batch for closer to 20 minutes and mine turned out huge and super flat. But they are oh-so-scrumptious). 

Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on a rack. 

Store at room temperature in a cookie jar or other airtight container.

Capacity for Joy

Daniel and I have been married for a little over 7 years and it has been a wonderful 7 years. We have a great marriage. Not perfect, but pretty darn good. In 7 years, it is easy to fall into the routines of life and what is normal.

When we got Sophie, we weren't really sure what to expect. The night before she came to us, we even doubted the whole idea of getting a dog. Were we ready for this? It was so sudden, and we didn't *feel* excited or ready. We didn't even get to meet to meet her beforehand - we had only seen a photo and had a guarantee that if it didn't work out, we could give her back.

So here we are 8 months later and we are amazed at how much she has become a part of our lives. Before we had her, we thought we were pretty happy (and we were). But now, we have experienced a new type of joy. One we didn't even know existed. We were perfectly content but now we can't imagine our lives without her.

As I write this, she is cuddled up next to me and it makes me forget that I have to get up and feed her or make time to walk her. Or clean up after her. Or deal with her idiosyncrasies.

I was recently talking with a friend about heaven and how much joy we will experience there - joy beyond anything we can imagine here on earth. I shared with her how we felt about Sophie. How before we had her, we were happy. But having her has opened this whole new dimension of joy for us. That's how I think heaven will be - capacity for joy beyond anything we can comprehend right now.

Countdown

We are officially in countdown mode. Daniel will start work two weeks from today. Kind of hard to believe. We are {hoping} to put our house on the market this weekend. Realistically, it may not happen until next week, but it is good to have goals.

Today our friend, Benjy, came over to help with the final projects on the house. They were able to install the vanity in the hall bathroom and measure all of the walls for the baseboard and crown molding that still need to be installed.

Tomorrow will be a big push to install Pergo flooring in the hallway and get baseboard installed.

It is such a relief to already have friends in Chattanooga that Daniel can stay with when he starts work. It would be even more stressful to be trying to finish the house and find a place for him to live.