I’m linking up again with Leigh Kramer’s monthly round up dubbed What I’m Into which is a somewhat open ended free for all opportunity to write about the books, movies, tv shows, recipes, life stuff, links, etc. worth sharing. Pick the stuff that matters to you, ignore the rest. Read what other people are into. Have fun. Eat cake. The cake is mandatory. Unless you don’t like cake. Weirdo.

Here’s what I’ve been into this month:

Books I’m Into:

This month I read:

The Summer Before (Babysitters Club #0) by Ann M. Martin

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a Baby Sitters Club book so this was definitely a walk down memory lane! I thought the prequel concept was a great idea, it was cool to read about the girls before the BSC became a reality and before some of them had even met! I’ve tried reading BSC books as an adult before and had a hard time getting into them but this one sucked me right in and the writing seemed a little more polished than some of her earlier books. This could all be my imagination though.

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

This book has been getting a lot of hype and just this once I feel like the hype is deserved. Very well written with beautiful details that rarely felt excessive. I enjoyed the rotating narrators and was quickly captivated by the story. It took me a long time to read but it was worth the time. My book club had a lively discussion about it and everyone seemed to agree that they enjoyed reading it – not bad for a gigantic book written about World War II.

Right now I’m reading Nightmares by Jason Segel which seemed like a fitting choice to read as Halloween draws closer. It’s a middle-grade book about a boy named Charlie who has to learn to overcome his fears to save his town. I listened to Jason Segel talk about this book on a couple of talk shows – about how he wrote it because as a kid he had a lot of nightmares growing up and was afraid of everything – and he wanted to tap into that and make something that might help kids going through the same thing. It’s a funny book and well written with adorable illustrations. If it’s not too intense, I’m planning to pass it along to my nine year old when I’m done.

TV Shows I’m Into:

Of course we’re still watching all the usual suspects like Big Bang Theory, Castle, The Middle, Brooklyn 99, Modern Family, Doctor Who (anyone else still absolutely geeking out over this season of Doctor Who btw?). I am anxious to see the next episode of Project Runway but also feeling like the season went by WAY too fast and knowing that America’s Next Top Model is on its last season is bittersweet. It’s the end of an era guys. We’re still watching Last Man on Earth which has really come into its own. Season 1 took awhile to warm up to me but I’m enjoying this season a lot.

Some new shows (or new to me) that I am loving are Crazy Ex Girlfriend which my husband has declared over the top but I cannot get enough of the song and dance numbers, the hysterical characters and plot developments and just the everything. I think it’s perfection walking.

I also just started watching Jane the Virgin when I heard that Season 1 was on Netflix Instant and oh my god guys, why did nobody tell me? It’s SOOOOOOOOO good. I’m marathon it as hard as I can (which isn’t very hard right now since the kids have a long weekend from school). I’ve got season 2 recording on my DVR for when I catch up but I missed the first two episodes so I’ll need to find a way to track those down.

Speaking of my DVR, it’s kind of overwhelmed right now with shows that we need to catch up on, mainly the 1 hour dramas that I’m having a hard time wanting to dive into right now. I’ve been in a comedy only zone for awhile now which seems to be typical when my life is a little too hectic. Maybe life will level out so that I can watch grown up shows, too.

Movies We’re Watching:

We finally broke down and watched The Hangover and I’ll admit, it was better than I thought it would be. I don’t know if it was amazing or life changing or deserving of soooooooo much praise but it was good and we’ll probably watch the 2nd one, too.

We watched the first Mockingjay movie and Insurgent and liked the first and kind of loathed the second. Mockingjay is tough for me to watch because I’ve read the books and I know what is coming and I’m not pleased but Jennifer Lawrence is so extraordinary that I can’t help but love it anyway. The Divergent series does not have this going for it. The casting is so meh in my opinion that it feels like Twilight all over again – we found ourselves heckling the whole movie and I think I need to just give up the ghost on this story and not make myself sit through the last one which will be both terrible and depressing and not as good as the book and not worth it.

There are so many movies in theater that I want to see right now so I’m just biding my time and waiting for some of them to find their way to DVD because finances are definitely not going to make that many trips to the movies happen. But I really want to see the new Peanuts movie, Pan looks amazing, Hotel Transylvania 2 actually looks like it will be really good (I liked the first one a lot). Everyone is talking about The Martian (though I want to read the book first). I really want to see Spy and The Intern and Our Brand is Crisis and I even kind of want to see Jem and The Holograms against my better judgement.

Life Stuff Worth Mentioning:

This month my husband and I made the super weird decision to switch sides of the bed after almost ten years of marriage. I went into Hulk Mode and rearranged all the furniture and we’ve been slowly adjusting ever since. I’m still getting used to where to put my arms at night but I swear it’s worth it to not sleep next to the drafty window and also the room has never been cleaner (read: my room is not clean, it’s just cleaner).

BB lost her first loose tooth and she’s pretty sure it’s headline news and has been showing EVERYONE from her teachers past and present to the nurse who administered her flu shot. She’d like you to know that just like her brother, she reached in and yanked that tooth out herself (after weeks upon weeks of moaning and complaining obvy).

We flew to Massachusetts Columbus Day weekend for a wedding and I took lots of pictures of inanimate objects and declared war on pantyhose. We were in town for pretty much one day but somehow managed to see an enormous amount of relatives thanks to the savvy planning of some of my favorite people. My uncle snapped the picture above of Dan pretending to be super serious with BB and everyone finding this hysterical.

We’ve found board game utopia in Forbidden Island which has opened up a new world of gaming with the kids. It took a long time to find a game that the whole family can enjoy together but this one has been fun for the whole family. It’s our first foray into cooperative gaming but likely not our last. Next up to try with the kids is Pandemic.

We had Parent Teacher Conferences yesterday and between that and their first report cards we are kind of overflowing with parent pride right now. I’m trying really hard not to humble brag into oblivion because both kids are excelling in all the academic areas and are apparently a joy to have in the classroom as well. Now we just need to work on getting BB to bring home all her homework on time which sounds like second verse same as the first because these are the same things MM had to work on last year (that he has made leaps and bounds improvement on since so I’m hopeful that BB will be able to do the same).

Links I’ve Loved:

Popular quotes you are probably misquoting was kind of life changing guys.

McSweeney’s 25 words your kindergarten must know before first grade is kind of everything. The last word? Imperative.

Sleepyti.me will tell you when to go to sleep. But in a way more open ended way than your mother will.

Speaking of your mother, tell them your mom tried made every mom on the internet explode with feels this week.

The GAP by Ira Glass is a must watch video for struggling creative types.

Scary Mommy nails why Generation X is the glue of universe.

Picmonkey is here to rescue our Halloween photography with some timely tips.

Jessica at Life as Mom shared how she made laundry easy and I bought a new laundry basket.

I’m kind of in love with all the businesses like REI who are taking a stand against Black Friday nonsense.

What have you been into this month?

I’m linking up with Leigh Kramer again this month to share what I’ve been into in the month of August. This month was filled with summer fun and back to school momentum, all rolled up into one ball of busy. Let’s look back at the action, shall we?

What I’m Reading

I read four books this month – one young adult book, one more literary novel and two books in a delicious and nostalgic chick lit romance series.

1. REALLY LIKED Looking for Alaska by John Green – Finished August 1, 2015 – This book was a roller coaster of emotion, which I guess I should have seen coming after TFIOS. I liked this but I didn’t quite love it – While I love how John Green creates his characters and navigates his stories, parts of this one were just hard to sink into.
2. REALLY LIKED The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown – Finished August 15, 2015 – I really enjoyed this. The POV was interesting and well done. I found the characters easy to root for, their family dynamic was both fascinating and believable. You’ll find yourself relating to all three of the sisters. I appreciated the moments that didn’t happen just as much as the moments that did.
3. REALLY LIKED Remember When by T. Torrest – Finished August 25, 2015 – I had mixed feelings towards this book. I could relate to the main character, Layla, in a lot of ways but felt alienated by her sometimes also. She is a very complex character who often seems to have characteristics that are at odds with each other, which I suppose makes her pretty realistic, but as a reader it was sometimes hard to tell where she was coming from. The love story is adorable and the concept for the book is pretty unique – I found myself quickly hooked on the plot and downloaded the 2nd book almost immediately after finishing the first – so there you go! Note: This is a fairly graphic story – the characters in the book are pretty realistic, flawed teenagers who make some less than stellar choices. Which is pretty typical for real life but I probably wouldn’t recommend this book to a young teen. I think it is actually probably more likely to be enjoyed by older readers anyway – half the fun of this book is the 80’s references anyway!
4. LIKED Remember When 2 by T. Torrest – Finished August 29, 2015 – This sequel picks up 10 years after the first books leaves off, so it’s now the year 2000 which should feel a lot more current and yet, if you think about it, it’s still 15 years ago! We were barely online back then! Layla has grown up a lot, but in my opinion she still has a lot of growing to do – she and Trip continue to make a lot of the same mistakes with each other and occasionally they were almost too frustrating, but I continue to root for them and you better believe I bought book three pretty much immediately after finishing this one.

Right now I’m kind of reading everything! I’m still knee deep in The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer, kind of still working on The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo but losing steam on it, if I’m going to be honest. I downloaded book 3 in the Remember When series but it was having trouble loading in my kindle app last night so I broke into Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen.

What I’m Watching

We finally caught up with the rest of the world and watched The Imitation Game this weekend, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kiera Knightly. Yeah, it was everything – heart breaking and funny and brilliantly written – it gave me all the feels.

We also finished season one of Game of Thrones this month, slowly attempting to catch up with all of the cool kids. I was sort of shocked by the first episode, not at all convinced that this was my cup of tea, but I hung in there and now I’m impatiently waiting for our friends to get back from a vacation so that we can get started on season two (the downside to watching with friends, but worth it to have more people to squeal and cheer with). So basically, I’m that girl who suddenly says “Winter is coming” and “It is known” now like all the time and everyone else is like, “Welcome to the party, Jen. What took you so long?”

Somehow we fell behind big time on Castle and Bones last year so we are working our way back through before they start up again next month. We are 100% caught up on Castle and about 60% through the last season of Bones.

Is anyone else watching Top Model or Project Runway this season? I’m not sure who I’m rooting for yet on Top Model (but I can name several models I’m totally 100% done with) but I’m seriously loving Ashely and Candice on Runway.

We also rented Rock of Ages and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone which were both better than I was expecting. Rock of Ages had a great soundtrack and a funny, heartfelt story that was both occasionally predictable and often surprising. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone was fantastic – this one will appeal to the geek and misfit in all of us who have ever felt like we didn’t quite fit in.

I had a nostalgia overload watching the Backstreet Boys: Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of documentary – and I was surprised by how much I learned watching it! If you knew me in the 90’s, then you are aware that I was kind of a BSB super fan. I could order for these boys at McDonalds at gunpoint, knew all the songs and ton of useless trivia. This documentary gives you the grittier story that media didn’t really want us to know. It was fascinating.

What I’m Cooking

I made this slow cooker spiced porridge last night – sort of. I had to improvise a lot because I’m not good at following directions, like “buy all of these ingredients” – so in place of all those awesome fruits, I just used the dried cherries in my cabinet. And I may have forgotten to add the brown sugar all together but between the juicy dried cherries and a sprinkling of sugar the next morning over my bowl, it still came out super delicious.

This overnight refrigerator oatmeal also came out good – I ended up warming mine up in the microwave because apparently cold oatmeal does nothing for me – but it warmed up nicely after about 1 minute and tasted wonderful. My husband ate and enjoyed it still cold so clearly it works both ways.

We had dinner with some new friends and old last night and I brought my mother in law’s famous rum cake which always impresses and comes together so quickly it must be dark magic. I’d give you the recipe, but then I’d have to kill you.

I’m also continuing to love this Dude Mom recipe for sausage, potatoes and broccoli. And my husband continues to love when I make end of summer pasta with zucchini, summer squash and cherry tomatoes.

What We’re Up To (IRL)

The kids took a second session of swim classes after we got back from our summer vacation and continued to make leaps and bounds style improvement in their swim skills and water comfort level. MM went from being a pretty timid swimmer to water slide obsessed!

Dan and I celebrated our 9th anniversary of being married geeks. We got dinner at the Melting Pot (one of our favorite places) and saw Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (cause that’s how we do).

The kids started school this month and I’ve been reorganizing and purging in bits and stages this month in preparation for needing to be on my A Game this fall. I took down the little shelf Dan built a few years ago to put lunch boxes, etc. on – and stained it a nice cherry woodish color, then I hung some hooks all around it for jackets and hats, sweaters, etc.

MM promoted to Level 3 purple belt which places him approximately halfway to earning his black belt – it’s crazy to think how far he’s come since we started talking karate classes two years ago.

I updated my computer to Windows 10 and it sounds like I was one of the lucky ones who didn’t have massive craziness surrounding the upgrade (like my husband whose laptop decided that it didn’t like his password anymore and made him start from scratch – what??

We played a lot of games this month. The kids and I are all hooked on Apples to Apples still and we got a couple expansion packs for Munchkin that added all new levels of craziness to an already insane game.

And lastly: Links I’m Loving

This buzzfeed video: the 5 types of parents – which one are you?

Things that will happen if I don’t take out my phone right now at The New Yorker

When Mike Melgaard won the Internet by angering people who were super angry at Target’s decision to remove gender specific labeling in some of their departments.

What I wish I knew when I started wearing glasses at Hello Giggles was perfection.

Instagram removed it’s square requirements and my life became complete.

Now you can visit Westeros and other Game of Thrones locales for the most epic vacation of all time.

This Vintage Moment wrote about how she is not an octopus and it was amazing.

Hello Natural shared 3 pretty & easy hairstyles and I immediately wanted to try all three.

Happy belated Halloween bloggy friends! We woke up yesterday to snow! Snow! On Halloween! To be fair, it wasn’t much more than a dusting but it still seemed like a cruel Halloween Trick. It’s pretty cold again this morning so let’s curl up with a warm cuppa and talk about what we’ve been into lately. I’m linking up again with the lovely Leigh Kramer to share what last month looked like in terms of what we’ve been reading, watching, listening to, cooking and looking at.

BOOKS I READ: 

Apparently October was the month of final installments to dystopian serials that I started ages ago. This month I read (and finished)

1. *** Requiem by Lauren Oliver – Finished October 5, 2014 – I read the last book in this series so long ago that some of the details were fuzzy by the time I picked up this final installment in the Delirium series but on the whole I still enjoyed it. It was interesting to see how the story would wrap up – who would end up with who? Would Lena consider love worth fighting for in the end? I think she nailed the ending perfectly all in all.
2. **** Reached by Ally Condie – Finished October 2014 – I thought this was a fitting ending to the series. The concept for the book’s overlying truths was fascinating and struck close to home – there are a lot of small details of this book that made it stick with me and linger throughout the day even when I wasn’t reading and days later I still think of it often.

And we won’t talk about the plethora of books that I started but didn’t finish because the list is long and sad.

Right now I am reading Gnarr by Jon Gnarr, which is a kind of political memoir by the last mayor of Reykjavík, Iceland’s capital who won the election back in 2009 when they were in a financial crisis. If that sounds dry, you should know that Gnarr was a stand up comedian before creating his own political party which he named The Best Party. During his campaign he promised to get the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park into downtown parks, free towels at public swimming pools, a “drug-free Parliament by 2020” . . . and he swore he’d break all his campaign promises.

TV SHOWS I’M MARATHONING:

I’ve fallen into the deep end of binge watching old seasons of America’s Next Top Model to a nearly pathetic level a regularity. Like the children now know and expect that if the tv turns on, Top Model is happening and they love to curl up and watch the eliminations with me and try to guess who will have to “pack their belongings and go home.”

Hubby and I have also been watching a fair amount of The Flash, the only new show this fall that seems to continue to hold our interest in addition to our usual rotation (Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, The Middle, Castle, Bones, etc.)

MUSIC I’M JAMMING TO:

I’ve had the song Habits by Tove Lo stuck in my head a lot which is less depressing than it should be. The actual story behind the song? Depressing. Yup. But it’s so gosh darned beautiful. I’ve also had a lot of Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Paramore, Allison Trainor and sometimes that horrid Joe Jonas song stuck in my head.

LINKS I’M LOVING:

How to turn any cookie recipe into a cookie bar recipe by Snail Pace Transformations

If you celebrated Halloween only on Pinterest by Mommy Shorts

Self Care for the Highly Sensitve Parent at Simple Homeschool (guest post by Anne of Modern Mrs. Darcy)

The  Great Pumpkin Pie Recipe by Sally’s Baking Addiction

What have you been into lately?

April has not been the funnest month ever in spite of a few fantastic bright spots. Like, on the one hand, my aunt came to visit us for a few days and we had an amazing time showing her around town. On the other hand, the house keeps trying to fall apart. My son turned eight this month and my dog had new mystery ailments. BB made huge strides in potty training but still throws temper tantrums over the most Four Year Old things daily.

On the one hand, I took the kids to the zoo during spring break and the weather was gloriously beautiful. On the other hand, I think that might have been the only gloriously beautiful day this month. I’m being near sighted with that statement and I know it but we’ve had a few too many consecutive days of gloomy, rainy, windy, hail storms putting holes in my house kinda days. So I’m a little over it, you know?

Anyway, before I consciously uncouple with the month of April, let’s talk about what I’m into lately. I’m linking up with the lovely Leigh Kramer today to share all the best of books, music, movies, tv and life that April has had to offer in between hail storms.

APRIL READING

This month began with a lot of me reading books and then not finishing them – so far this is the one lone book I read to completion this month:

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell – Finished April 24, 2014 – I think it’s safe to say that Rainbow Rowell is becoming a new favorite author of mine. This book sucked me into the story and its characters in all the same ways that Fangirl did. I found myself anxiously waiting to continue reading the story during the day, as though Eleanor and Park might do something drastic or need me there badly during my non-reading hours and it would ruin everything. And much like Fangirl, I found myself eventually just sitting down and ignoring everything for a few hours so that I could finish it – and then being sort of sad it was over, because now what? – full review –

Right now I’m reading (and looooooving) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle. Like, seriously, where has this book been all my life and also did Madeline L’Engle invent sliding doors? This book has me asking a lot of questions and thoroughly enjoying this sort of coming of age / science fiction / fantasy / social satire conglomeration. Truly fantastic and I’m already planning to buy the entire serious because YES.

APRIL WATCHING

TV

For the most part April has been a big long Veronica Mars marathon. My husband and I have made it through to Season Three of our “It’s been too long, let’s rewatch the series before we see the movie” mission and we’re just as hooked as ever. Luckily my memory is terrible so I only remember half of the plot twists as they come up and the relationship foils don’t feel like one big spoiler alert. I’m very impatient to see the movie and find out what happens to everyone.

I’ve also been really enjoying American Idol still. My two favorites: Alex and Jena are still in the competition so I’m pretty darn pleased and I’ve been enjoying all their music week to week – and the lack of drama at the judges table continues to make me a very happy fangirl.

MOVIES

I made my husband watch 12 Monkeys with me because he’s never seen it and um Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis. Seriously. He says he enjoyed it but that it was incredibly cheesy and he wants to watch Fight Club now. He’s not entirely wrong but I still consider it basically a classic.

We also watched Harriet the Spy with the kids. MM laughed uproariously throughout the whole movie and Dan and I reminisced a lot. It is so different to watch the movie as a parent than as a kid and I couldn’t get over how young all the actors were.

We rented the newest Thor movie a few weeks ago and of course it was awesome and sets you up perfectly for a second movie. We also rented The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and it was… just wow. I wanted to travel EVERYWHERE even more than usual after seeing it. Such a beautiful movie, I’m so glad we finally watched it.

BROWSING

This Huff Post article: I’m Done Making My Kid’s Childhood Magical was probably the best thing I read online this month. It sorta speaks to all the little thoughts and feelings I’ve been having for awhile now and I have tried to think back on it throughout the month when mothering gets overwhelming.

I dyed Easter Eggs using this easy red cabbage dye to make blue eggs recommended by Design Mom and was really impressed with the results. We used two different homemade dyes this year but the red cabbage eggs were my favorite.

Pro tip: Remember to refrigerate your dyed and hard boiled eggs before leaving the house for 3 hours or you won’t be able to keep all the pretties.

Did you read about how a teen discovered that changing their font could save the government millions? And it’s my favorite font!

I’m not really into the news that Craig Ferguson is leaving the Late Late Show but I sure am thinking about it a lot. I’ve been really pleased with some of the newcomers to the late night talk shows – Colbert taking over for Letterman is fantastic news for me and I’ve been enjoying Seth Meyers as well but thinking about late nights without my favorite grumpy Scottish host is not fun at all. I wonder what the odds are that they have another UK Late Night Rebel in their pocket because I’m really going to miss the accent and the antics.

Speaking of UK Antics:

That’s about it for this month though I’m sure I’m forgetting something majorly important.

Tell me, what are you into lately?