Eat. Read. Love.

I'm all tapped out of meaningful stuff to write. 'Tis the weight of life and its responsibilities. It's still messy, just in case you're wondering. 

And so I shift gears and share with you the simple objects of my affection these days. Everyday indulgences have a way of soothing my soul and unfurrowing my brow. 


Eat:

My friend, Kelly, introduced me to the pita pizza a few weeks ago and it's revolutionized lunchtime for me and my littlest guy. 

Get yourself a package of quality pitas. I use whole wheat but use whatever you like. Spread on tomato sauce. Top with your favorite pizza items and add cheese. I bake ours at 400 degrees directly on the rack for about 10 minutes. It's a nice change from PB & Js. 

I blame Pinterest for my latest snack obsession: Marshmallow caramel popcorn. 

I can't find the source but here's the easy recipe: 

1/2 c. brown sugar; 1/2 c. butter; 9-10 marshmallows; 12 c. popcorn. Microwave brown sugar and butter for 2 minutes. Add marshmallows. Microwave until melted, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Pour over popcorn.

I started making it for our family movie nights and then it became an after school snack and I may or may not be guilty of making it when there's not even a kid in sight. It's a tad habit-forming.


This soup. 

I mentioned it in the "mess post" but it deserves another shout out. Flower Patch Farmgirl always has the best recipes at her place. This cheesy vegetable soup was a hit with 4 1/2 out of 5 members of my family. "1/2" because my oldest guy said he almost liked it. Around here, 4 1/2 out of 5 is considered success.


Read:

Per usual with me, I've got an eclectic mix of books littering my nightstand and my van and my coffee table. But let me just mention two of them for now. 

Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott. Her memoir on faith has me laughing, crying, nodding, and wishing all of us who call ourselves Christians could just step outside our stuffy boxes and breathe in the beauty, grace, authenticity, and freedom that is Anne's journey. This book is raw and real and tragic and so very beautiful. Also? Her conversion experience involves the F-word. I love her. 

Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo. I'm still in the early stages of this book so I can't give a report yet. Have any of you read anything by him? I started watching interviews with various authors about a month ago and one of them recommended this book because the characters are so good. But now I can't remember who recommended it. It was either Anne Lamott or Kate DiCamillo {who I also double heart love.} 

Oh and the older kids and I finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire this week. Finally. We have big plans to watch the movie and can't wait to jump into Book 5. 

And here are a couple of books that I look forward to reading. {By two more ladies I love but have actually met in real life.}

The first one is Spiritual Formation: A Primer and it's written by Richella Parham, a writer and a blogger at Imparting Grace and someone I'm honored to call a friend. It just came out and you can easily get your hands on it here. 

The second one isn't released yet but you can pre-order it on amazon. A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live  by Emily Freeman. Just order it okay? Emily wrote Grace for the Good Girl and Graceful. I have them both. I'm tapping my foot with anticipation over her next one, which is quite a departure from her previous books. She blogs at Chatting at the Sky.  


Love:

The Man have spent our not-so-long southern winter on the sofa watching great TV together. And now we're out of stuff to watch...which is sad, but probably for the best now that spring is springing. We loved / hated every moment of Downtown Abbey, along with the rest of the free world. 

In between episodes we watched The Last Enemy, also a BBC series, and it was pretty good. It's all about a hypothetical UK in which Big Brother is tracking everyone. It's full of conspiracy and unexpected turns and a love triangle. The guy who plays Sherlock is the main character. The only thing I didn't like was the eerie, 80s, space-agey kind of background music. Totally threw me off but I'm kind of weird like that.

Then we watched both seasons of Luther. You guessed it, another BBC series. We love Luther. But I recommend it with a serious caveat. It's dark. I can only watch dark if there's the faintest hope of redemption and light and there is with this show ... though in some episodes you have to squint kind of hard to see it. He's a British cop who investigates murders while dealing with his own personal demons; he's a fantastic character. And he's brilliant, but not in a nerdy, uptight Sherlock sort of way. In fact, he's quite the opposite. I hear they're making a third season and since it's on BBC's timeline, we'll probably get it see it in 2019. 

I'd love some good TV series recommendations. What are ya'll watching out there?


Other stuff I'm loving right now: 

My 5-year-old's prayers {Jesus, please help me learn to read. Help me not to wet my pull-up at night...but thank you that you love me even if I do.}

This necklace I made out of junk thrift-store jewelry. 

The beads are wooden and it has 3 chunky turquoise stones. It's fun and lightweight and feels like spring. 


This wine. 

It's perfect. Lily introduced me to it and we always love the same food and drink. Always.

And last but not least, I'm loving that I'll get to hang out with my whole family this weekend...all 22 of us. I'm the oldest of four kids and it's still weird for me that my younger siblings are all grown and married and have the same number of kids as me. 

Technically, we're all hanging out together because it's March Madness and we're kind of a basketball-loving family. But my brother, the one who's the baker, has renamed it March Fatness. His dessert list for the weekend: Cream Cheese Coffeecake, Golden "Eggs," Boston Cream Pie Cake, Candy Bar Cookies, Bale Bars, Banana Pudding, and the Helga Cake.

I feel that we may need to set up a colonic tent by the end of the weekend. I'm getting bloated just typing out that list of decadent goodness. 

{Oh and here's a random bit of trivia: "Ferris Bueller" turned 51 today. I think my forehead just grew another wrinkle.} 

.............................................

Happy eating, reading, loving, and basketballing to you and yours this weekend! Anything you're especially loving right now?