Five Favorites Vol. 4

Linking up with Hallie for some #5faves:

1. Something Other Than God, by Jen Fulwiler (who I now feel is my close, personal friend as I have been with her each step of the way through her epic faith journey via her awesome memoir). I finished it this afternoon and have just been thinking about it since. I'll try to put a full review together soon, but it is definitely a favorite this week. 

2. Get Balanced by Prescribe Nutrition

Has anyone heard of this program before? I saw it come up on another blog this week, and I'm really interested in trying the course. They offer nutrition-based help for the following symptoms:

• You have the ability to feel tired yet wired at the same time.
• You hit the snooze button 6 times on your alarm.
• You have a ‘no speaking to me’ rule before your morning caffeine.
• You are eating well, exercising, and the scale will.not.budge.
• 4 pm strikes and you need sugar. And there is no stopping you.
• 10 pm strikes and you feel inexplicably motivated.
• 2 am strikes and you are wide eyed, yet exhausted

Most of which describe me pretty closely. Interesting stuff!

3. Maybelline Color Tattoo in Pomegranate Punk

I've mentioned these Color Tattoos before and they are SO good: they go on easily and don't budge. If you have green eyes, get yourself a Pomegranate Punk. Trust.

4. Bloglovin (would including the final "g" have killed them? Typing that word hurts me.)

I don't know the consensus on Bloglovin. Do people love it? Hate it? No clue. My Feedly feed was out of control so I moved over to Bloglovin to start fresh and... I like it. 

5.  Through the Dark by One Direction. 

I know. I KNOW! But I love this song and I can't hide it any longer!

7 QT Vol. 5(?)

Some questions: Did they shoot this at Sears? What's with the crushed velvet backdrop? Also, is Chris holding a watch? Why? 

1.  (I'd love to link to the moment, but there are no decent Youtube vids available. What kind of fascist state are we living in??)
Listen, I know I'm supposed to be up in all kinds of arms about Mileygate, but I honestly couldn't get through 30 seconds of that awfulfest, so I skipped it. I've read some lovely essays and analyses of the cultural momentum we are riding that led to that, but mostly I'm just disgusted by the 50 year old executive(s) that undoubtedly agreed to and vetted the whole mess. The only reason I even knew the VMAs were happening was because in my heart I am still 16 and wearing sparkly blue capri pants and an ill-advised amount of glitter to my first NSYNC concert and that girl would smack 29 year old me for missing their (very short) comeback. I loved every bit of it and I may have done some Wade Robson choreography in my living room in a fit of joy.

2.  We are sort of not doing dessert right now and these are seeing us through. They are currently selling them at Costco and Stephen and I are totally obsessed. They come in little 100 calorie packs and are the best dessert if you're not really having dessert. SO delicious.

Disclaimer: not my work.

3. I've been trying to journal lately, and a combination of these fine point Sharpie Pens (in lots of colors!) and the awesome selection of journals at Target has me very motivated (I have these for little things and these for the journaling). I'm a terrible, terrible scrapbook/memory book person, but I thought I could manage a bit of a journal for each of my kids. We shall see.

4.I love and want these earrings. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.

5. Maybelline Color Tattoo in Barely Branded and L'oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in Bronzed Taupe
Together these two make a very easy, very pretty natural eye look that lasts a reasonable amount of time. I toss on some mascara and look reasonably polished, which is the most that I can ask for from my makeup on the regular.

6. Is it obvious this post started as a five favorites until I realized that not only is it not Wednesday, it's almost Friday (!) and I turned it into a 7QT?

7. We started "real" dance this week (Juliana was in a "Wiggles and Giggles" class last year, but this year she is in a real class with real leotards, tights, ballet shoes and buns) and it is the cutest darn thing in the whole wide world. I took way too much video of the first class, but I just couldn't help myself.

I told her to dance. This is what I got. Sammy wanted to join. 

Go see Jen for many, many more takes!

Seven Quick Takes

1. Might I be the least consistent blogger on the planet? Perhaps. Onward!

2. Grace requested a mascara recommendation, so I told her about my new favorite mascara (there is one every quarter or so, so don't get too excited until at least three months have elapsed and I'm still using it), Revlon Lash Potion. I like big lashes (not spidery, but emphatic, let's say), and this one delivers for me. It also stayed on through a pool session with my crazy water babies without running and -- get this-- it's not waterproof. Amazing! It also supposedly makes lashes healthier? Which I can't really speak to at this point, but sounds good.

3. Yesterday was crazy. We ran a million errands in the morning and I started dinner early (miracle!) because we teach the baptism class at our parish once every other month and last night was the night.  I put up the baby gate to keep the kids in the dining/play area so I could see them (is this good parenting? Shouldn't they obey obediently when I ask them to stay where mommy can see them for the 12th time?) while I cooked dinner, but! The gate was around corner down the hall about three feet, and in that nefarious, unseen three feet of hallway, Juliana managed to get a hold of a Costco-sized bottle of hand lotion and pump it all over Samuel's head. I'm going to guess at least 15 pumps of extra-rich moisturizing hand lotion. When I found him she had styled it into very fashionable spikes while he sat happily enjoying all the attention.

4. Oh, and this was her outfit yesterday. She doesn't like to wear clothes during and after naps (in the morning it's fine; we don't run into a problem until naptime when she strips herself naked every day). Sometimes we make compromises to get her into clothes. Any clothes:

Princess dress: check.

Crown and apron: check.

All taken within 10 seconds of each other.

Vamping while cooking.

5. We got a little vacation in before the madness of the school year descends, and it was wonderful. We spent two mornings at the zoo and two afternoons in the hotel pool. Both kids were in absolute heaven. I even managed to get one whole picture of the kids and me.

Sammy gets his deadpan from his daddy. 

6. In case anyone is keeping score, I'm still totally addicted to these (Costco size, obvs.). As far as I can tell, they're health food. Antioxidants, right?

7. Is anyone watching Project Runway anymore, or is it just me and Tom and Lorenzo (lots of salty language at that link!)? This Timothy kid, am I right? This week got gnarly and I'm not sure who came off looking worse: Tiny Tim, his crazy mean partner, or the Russian guy. I think probably the Russian guy. 

Go see Jen for lots more takes!

Quick Takes Friday

1.  I have been known to declare (dramatically, with great self-sacrifice) to anyone who will listen once I finish any sort of project that I'm not going to blog about it because I just don't have the time: I can either do the project or blog about doing a project, but not both.  This, while mostly true, is maybe also an exaggeration, so I'm working on trying both for a bit just to see how it works out (if my hero, P-dubs, can homeschool four children, assist in the running of a ranch, star in a cooking show, write two cookbooks and two children's books, make dinner every night (while blogging about it) and still post like 5 times a day maybe I can manage a couple posts a week.).


2. I have to use my time wisely, right?  For instance, right now the hubs is going to watch The Walking Dead. I can't watch The Walking Dead (seriously I don't know why they'd make a show that is unwatchably gory) but I like the storyline.  Blogging while not-watching The Walking Dead is a perfect use of my time and resources (what's that? "Laundry?" No, I don't know anything about that.).

3. New favorite mascara alert (don't get too excited, this is a bi-monthly event): Maybelline The Colossal Cat Eyes Mascara.  It is GREAT.  My "HG" ("holy grail" for those of you who don't spend time watching YouTube makeup tutorials. I know, I'm cool.) is Clinique High Impact mascara, but I have to go to the mall to get it, and I don't go to the mall much these days (they're not double-stroller friendly).  This is a very good substitute.  

4. I have many projects floating around in a half-completed state over here, but lately I have managed to finish a few.  At one point we made a frame for a poster I had and wanted to frame, but it didn't work out (we couldn't figure out how to safely mount it with glass/plexiglass so we just had the poster framed professionally).  Anyways, we have a very large (maybe 3'x4'?) very light frame that I want to do something with, but I'm not sure what.  I was thinking one of those frames-within-a-frame projects I keep seeing on Pinterest, but I haven't quite worked out anything.  Any thoughts?

Not quite this busy, though.  Via Pinterest.

5. Ugh maybe I can't even listen to The Walking Dead. The sound effects are hideous.  But the plot is extremely compelling!  Perhaps I should just read the comics.


6. Baby picture time!  Juliana loves these "blue ice popsicles."  They're actually Pedialite pops.  I figure they're slightly better than Otter Pops? Maybe?  Sure!

7. And here's Sammy because he's cute.

We play in the playpen in the backyard so the dog will give us some room.  Otherwise he'd be licking Samuel while beating me with his wagging tail and scratching Juliana.  He's very friendly.

Go see Jen at Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1

I loved this essay by Pat Gohn on developing a practice of praying with others.  That is NOT something I am generally comfortable with outside of a relatively structured church/pre-meal grace/bedtime situation.  Nope.  But I have discovered something lately (this is a real revelation, so get ready): I'm pretty sure God didn't put us down here for comfort.  I know, right?  Mind-boggling.  That truth has been ringing across most of my days lately, though, so I figured I might as well embrace the discomfort a bit and try to provide some grace to those around me at the same time.  So, uh, we'll see how it goes?  

2

I've started reading 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess which has only been reinforcing the discomfort thing.  That is not a comfortable book.  Has anyone else out there read it?  

3

Lest you think I'm starting to become very holy and impressive (she says), the thing I've been most excited about this week is the new eyelash curler I got.  It's heated.  It's amazing.  

4

Since Hallie posted about visiting Grace and mentioned something about Simon's being funny, and since I just recently discovered Grace's blog, I just fell down the rabbit hole of Simon Says posts.  Oh. My. Gosh.  I was laughing out loud at work, ya'll.  I mean it's slow around here so no one cares, but that kind of behavior isn't exactly promotion-worthy.  Worth it.  

5

Sammy hasn't had much play on the blog yet.  Gratuitous baby photo ahead.  

Yes, that is spit up.  Look we can't all be clean and hygenic ALL the time.

I love this baby stage.  They're so cute and squishy and milky but also all big-eyed and cooey.  Yum.

6

This weather in Southern California is weird.  Hot, humid rain.  It's like Florida's climate decided to take a little jaunt Westward.  I'd like it to go home now.

7

Have a wonderful weekend!!!  Go visit Jen for more Quick Takes!

Makeup Tutorials

I love makeup tutorials on YouTube.  There. I said it.  I love them so much my husband thinks I'm crazy.  I honestly don't even know why.  I just find them mesmerizing.  All my favorites are ones where the artists are from the UK or Australia, so maybe we can chalk it up to my love of makeup + my love of England/accents.

In case you've never seen one, this is the gist:

Pixiwoo



I actually went out and bought the eyeshadows she talks about after watching this one.  Gorgeous!  I also love Lisa Eldridge and Amysass7 and many others.

I have  literally no comment to make on these other than that I love them.  That's all.  Little window into my psyche.