What I'm Reading: February & March (and some recs for the littles).

So much of my reading list these days revolves around motherhood with a sprinkle around work and creative living. Now that I'm buying books for the boys as well as myself, I'm including a few recommendations for little ones too.

For me:

Hands Free Mama. Sherry from Young House Love touted this book as the practical complement to Chasing Slow, which I loved. I'm feeling the squeeze on quality time with my boys, so I'm learning to be more intentional about being present and not distracted by a device, work or chores while I'm with them. I've teared up in more than a few places reading this book and reflecting on how quickly these precious moments pass. I'm learning that the quiet moments spent being completely present with my little ones can be just as soul-restoring, if not more, than alone time.

The Wellness Mama Cookbook. Healthy, budget-friendly recipes in under 30 minutes? Count me in. I really like that for the most part, the recipes in this book are super simple with no fancy ingredients that I have to make a special trip to the grocery store for. I've only had this book for a few weeks, and it's already the cookbook I turn to first for meal-planning. The slow cooker recipes are especially useful for me these days.

The New Preschool is Crushing Kids is an article that came on The Atlantic that has been influencing my thoughts about preschool (and this op-ed as well). Noah is all about stories – reading, listening, telling, and as this article states, "Conversation is gold." Education is such an investment, so I want to make sure that we're choosing the best one possible.

Brazen: The Courage to Find the You That's Been Hiding. My good friend told me about this author, who spoke at her MOPS group, so I looked up her book. This book is totally speaking to where I am in my creative life right now. I'm so skeptical of myself! This book is such an encouragement and provides the road-map for soul check-ins that I need.

A Woman's Place. I'm constantly asking myself, Am I doing what I am meant to do? This book adds another dimension to the women and work conversation.

The Magnolia Journal. Is there anyone who doesn't like Fixer Upper? This is a bonus dose of the home and life inspiration in print form. 

For the babes:

If You Give a Mouse A Cookie. I loved that this popped up on my Amazon feed, and knew immediately that Noah would get a kick out of it. We read this at least once a day, and he references it whenever I give him a cookie. In the cookie vein, I also bought Cookies Board Book: Bite-Size Life Lessons. We haven't read it yet, but after reading Amy Krouse Rosenthal's essay in the New York Times, I was hooked.

If you asked me what keeps me up at night, I would say children in vulnerable circumstances. The refugee crisis is breaking my heart. Teacup is a picture book about one boy's journey to a new homeland. It's never too early to start teaching empathy, and I'm confident that Noah will be interested in this story.

On a lighter note, Noah, like every other two year old boy it seems, is super into trucks. I bought him I Am a Garbage Truck, which we have read so. many. times. I Am a Fire Truck just dropped down to $2 (!) on Amazon, so of course I purchased it. Noah is like me and loves surprises and treats, and this book will be one for sure.

*note: this blog post contains affiliate links.

What I'm Reading: January.

Ah, January is almost over, and here I am sharing my January book list. My goal is to be more intentional about my creative outlets this year – more on that later – so here goes.  What I've been reading lately:

The Year of Living Danishly. I saw this on Shauna Niequist's instagram feed. A few chapters in, and I'm ready to book a flight to Denmark. I actually looked up the flights for January, and they were only $330+ for roundtrip flights out of LAX! Given, it's the middle of winter, but still.

Chasing Slow: Courage to Journey Off the Beaten Path. I've been sneaking chapters of this while the boys nap, and I've dog-eared so many pages. It is one of those books that speaks so well to where I am right now.

The Big Enough Company. This book came up in one of the recent Young House Love podcasts, and I purchased immediately. I don't consider myself an entrepreneur (yet, anyway), but this book speaks to larger work and work-life balance type issues that I'm always interested in.

Styled by Emily Henderson and Loveable Livable Home. Interior design inspiration books are my jam right now. Actually, since forever. A good chunk of my childhood was spent poring over design books and Architectural Digest at the library.

I'm re-reading The Magnolia Story, because I'm all in the Fixer Upper mood right now and #relationshipgoals. I don't have high expectations for a "celebrity" book, but this was actually well-written and a fun read.

The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother. I bought this for myself a couple weeks before my due date. I appreciated the philosophy behind this book so much: nourishment, grace, warmth. I wasn't about to try a raw placenta smoothie recipe, but the bone broth and granola recipes are now staples in my repertoire. 

The Kinfolk Home: Interiors for Slow Living. This book was a gift from a dear friend for my 30th birthday. It's a beautiful book to leaf through over coffee. All the coffee.

books, lately.

JANUARY

Big Magic was the first book I read this year, and I'm so glad it was. I keep coming back to it when I hit a creativity rut. I have a hard time linking creativity to curiosity because my curiosity tends to be so academic and career-driven. Example: my current obsession is supply chain design & operations, and I'm pursuing a Supply Chain Credential from MIT on the side. I'm naturally disciplined when it comes to work, but not creativity, and I'm excited for my sister-in-law to move into town, so that we can be creative-work partners.

FEBRUARY

When Breath Becomes Air – I wrote about this book earlier this year, and I still think that it's one of my defining books for this year.

MARCH

The Expatriates. – I was immediately hooked on this book. The story follows the intersection of the lives of three women, with the underlying themes of motherhood and belonging. We spent about a year and a half living as expats in Shanghai, so the backdrop of expat life in Hong Kong resonated strongly.

APRIL

If I had a book club just focused on business,  Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World would be at the top of the list. So, so insightful. I would read passages out loud to Dave, s so we could discuss. I have a feeling this will be a book that I re-read every year.

MAY

All the Light We Cannot See is a book that I admit I still haven't finished reading. It's the perfect bedside book because the "chapters" are short, and the writing is stunning, so it's like a grown-up lullaby. I've stretched reading this book out over months, but I'm still hooked. It's a gem.

JUNE

Essentialism has been on my to-read list for a while, but I finally pulled the trigger after my friend Ashlee's recommendation (read her related post, here). I'm not quite finished, but I've already been talking about the books examples and principles with Dave and folks at work. The ideas overlap with some of other books I've been reading lately (see my book pairings below), but in a good, reinforcing way. It takes deliberate, sustained effort to do only the things that we alone are meant to do, and the pruning of the 90% of the non-essentials is my work in progress.

Book Pairings: Thrive and The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington; also: Shauna Niequist's essay "Things I Don't Do" in Bittersweet

SUMMER READING, SNEAK PEAK.

This season's releases are so good. Liane Moriarty's newest book – Truly, Madly, Guilty – comes out this month, and I can't wait to read it. I devoured her other books. There's always a twist, and they are always funny. I'm also a huge Shauna Niequist fan – I preordered Present Over Perfect months ago, even though it doesn't come out until August 9. Visit her website, and you can get a sample chapter delivered to your inbox. More of my summer reading list, coming soon.

When breath becomes air.

It feels both heavy and appropriate to start the year off reading one of the most existential books I've ever read: When Breath Becomes Air. 

This book was all of it: beautiful, brilliant, simultaneously esoteric and grounding – about calling and purpose and the work that only he could do. The last few pages of my copy are wrinkled in spots where tears fell. Watch the Katie Couric interview with Dr. Lucy Kalanithi, here - I tear up without fail.

Book pairings: Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

January Book Club: Date Night In

The day that David proposed, he assembled a picnic of food from our favorite places. He picked up roast beef sandwiches from Clementine’s, mint lemonade from Literati, strawberry steak salad from Damon & Pythias, cupcake babies from Vanilla Bake Shop. I had an early class, and all I wanted was to go back to my room and take a nap. But the food convinced me. He was speaking my language, a language that I had discovered sometime in college, somewhere along our string of dates.

Seven years since then, some of my favorite memories involve food, with him.

There was Athens on our honeymoon. We took naps in the afternoon, sunburned and tired form the heat of the day. By the time we woke up, the subway was closed, so we would take a taxi to the plaka. One night, we had street gyros after seeing Public Enemies on a building rooftop. Another night, we ate dinner by moonlight, al fresco at a restaurant that served us watermelon after our meal. It was the best watermelon I’ve ever tasted.

Then, on our first anniversary, there were strawberries in wine at a little restaurant on a corner in Santa Barbara, one of my favorite places in the world. On vacation in Palawan, on our island-hopping tours, we ate fish, bought fresh at that morning’s market, grilled over a fire, small enough that we could each have our own. And afterwards, in town, halo-halo that we ate out of pastel-colored plastic ice cream sundae glasses.

In Shanghai, our home for over a year, we lunched at Mr. and Mrs. Bund for David’s birthday, one of about five days in the city where the sky was actually blue. The sauce served with the steak was foamed, and the fruit with lime and pop rocks will always be a favorite. The first time we went to Da Dong in Beijing, we walked for miles in the freezing cold, not realizing that there was a location down the street from our hotel. The Peking Duck is the best there – the skin so crispy that it melts in your mouth and the sauce almost a molasses, rich and dark. They have complimentary drinks in the waiting area, because there is always a wait at Da Dong, and the last time we went, they had pitchers of a strawberry whisky cocktail.

We celebrated our 4-year anniversary in Paris and the wedding of one of my college roommates. The only time we’ve ever ordered a full bottle of wine for ourselves was in Paris, at Le Bistrot Paul Bert, where Dave picked out the best Pinot Noir i’ve ever had and where the raspberry macaron we had for dessert was the size of my head.

Fancy dinners out aren’t at the top of our list now, with a baby and my strong affinity for sweat pants. But date nights are more important than ever, when we take time to connect not about work or bills, but about our hopes and fears and the work that God is doing in our hearts these days.

This month, I’m reading

Date Night In: More than 120 Recipes to Nourish Your Relationship

 not only in the kitchen, but on the couch. It’s already found a place on my coffee table, along with

Our Q&A a Day: 3-Year Journal for 2 People

that I get so excited to fill in every day (that would make a great gift for Valentine’s Day, if you’re looking ahead).

One of the big themes in my life seems to be 

waiting

. And the other big theme, it seems, is 

creating space

. I want to do more of it in 2015, starting with date nights in, starting with cooking through this book, creating space to connect month by month.