What I'm Into | February 2017
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I'm a little late this month, seeing as it's already March 6th!
What I Read
Just two books this month. Both from the library, of course. Because, frugal.
Left Neglected
This is the third Lisa Genova book I've read in pretty short order. I liked this one better than Love Anthony, but not quite as much as Still Alice.
(Both of those are in my January reading list.)
Left Neglected wasn't boring, the writing was good, and it was really interesting to learn about this Left Neglect condition.
But I just felt like the last third of the book was a little lackluster, and the main character is a little bit hard to love.
So, if you pick one of these three Lisa Genova books, go with Still Alice.
Emma, a Modern Retelling
I have mixed feelings about this book. Of course, the story was fun because, well, it's Emma! And I liked Austen's Emma. But it was a little weird to read about the characters in a modern setting...my brain was having trouble adjusting.
I mean, I was reading about characters driving Mini Coopers, but I was still imagining them in Regency dress! I couldn't get fully into the modern times with the story.
I did really like this quote from the end of the book:
"She had been able to make that sudden imaginative leap that lies at the heart of our moral lives; the ability to see, even for a brief moment, the world as it is seen by the other person. It is this understanding that lies behind all kindness to others, all attempts to ameliorate the situation of those who suffer, all those acts of charity by which we make our lives something more than the pursuit of the goals of the unruly ego."
Yes, yes, yes.
In my parenting, I'm frequently trying to get my kids to think about how they'd feel in someone else's shoes, or how they'd feel if they were on the receiving end of their own behavior.
When you manage to see the world that way, you feel motivated to be kind instead of feeling like you have to force yourself to be kind.
Once you've understood someone's pain/perspective, compassion often follows, and compassion drives kindness.
Anyway! The book was a fun and fluffy read, but the quote at the end was probably the best part.
Just FYI, I wouldn't consider this version of Emma to be very kid-friendly. It's not a bodice-ripper or anything(!), but I wouldn't give it to Sonia or Zoe to read.
What I Watched
Umm, nothin'.
Which is pretty frugal, I suppose.
Mr. FG did take Zoe to see Rogue One at the cheap theater for a special birthday outing. But it was just a Dad/Zoe trip, not a Mom/Dad/Zoe trip.
(Which was fine with me because I really super duper do not dig sci-fi.)
What I Listened To
I got a little bit caught up on my podcasts, though I am still behind. Right now I'm mostly keeping up with What Should I Read Next, but I also sometimes listen to The Simple Show.
Other Stuff I'm Loving
Biking
I went to Florida with Mr. FG for a short trip at the beginning of the month, and while we were there, we took a bike ride together. Which reminded us that we used to love to bike together before we had kids.
(Biking as a couple is an activity got curtailed for a while due to having kids!)
So, when we had a nice warm day after we returned, we dusted our bikes off and took a ride together, and it was great!
Hopefully there'll be some more of that when winter weather is gone. We already own the bikes, so this is a pretty delightfully inexpensive thing to do together.
Longer Days
I am SUPER EXCITED that the days are getting longer and that DST starts on Saturday night. Woohoo! Even though warm weather is rarely here at the start of DST, the long days make me feel like summer is nearly here.
52 New Recipes
(I set a goal to try one new recipe per week in 2017, in case you missed that!)
I've only missed one week of new-recipe-trying so far, which is a lot better than I expected. While not every recipe has been a favorite, we've found lots of keepers, and we're eating some new and different dishes, which is fun.
Blogging about this project has been key to me sticking with it. There have been a lot of weeks where I was tempted to put off trying my new recipe and make something familiar instead, but I forged ahead because I knew I was supposed to blog about it.
So, thanks for keeping me on track, guys. 😉
(You can see all the 52 New Recipes posts here.)
My Cook's Country subscription
I let mine lapse, but I renewed it with some Christmas money. I got my first new issue in February, so, yay!
I almost always find a good recipe or two in each issue, which makes it totally worth the subscription price.
It's $25 a year, which, when you consider the cost of takeout, is a great bargain. Good recipes are so valuable.
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Aaaand that wraps up this month's What I'm Into.
I'd love to hear what you were into in February!
Hi Kristen
I am very disappointed that your posts are now truncating in RSS. I am a subscriber, and read your posts as soon as they appear in my feed; in fact, you are one of my favorite blogs and first choices for my morning coffee and blog reading time. I have bookmarked (and pinned and shared) a number of your posts, and I am sure that clicking on your links has contributed to your affiliate traffic. I may not visit your actual site and add to your web visitor stats, but I engage and consume with your content in a number of other valuable ways. I never read blogs that truncate their feeds (and rarely click through on a post that is shortened on a home page if I come across it on the site). I urge you to reconsider your decision. Thanks so much for such good reading.
+1 I really prefer reading you in my feedly, and usually read your blog first since so many other people make a person click through.
Same for me -- whether a blog makes me click through def impacts my decision of whether to read it or not. I really enjoy your blog and respect whatever decision you make, but wanted to provide feedback that this will likely reduce the amt of times I read your posts.
I agree with Kelly. I have seen many "Frugal" advisers start out with their reader's best interest in mind (Everyday Cheapskate is one) and then they become popular and advertisers notice a subtle way to market their products to the subscribers that are endorsed by the trusted authors...I definitely respect the allure-who doesn't like and need money,right? However, I wonder if it taints the integrity and original mission of the endeavor? Instead of receiving advise from a "trusted friend" over coffee, I feel like they are setting me up to be an Amway dealer. Just food for thought. Thank you for your valuable posts but sometimes I feel like I'm being set up to buy something.
The movie Clueless from WAY back in the 90's is a "modern day" remake (interpretation?) of Emma. Oddly I make comparisons of the two when I read the novel. I like movies based on classics. Bridget Jones's Diary - Pride and Prejudice. 10 Things I Hate About You - Taming of the Shrew. Of course there are countless "modern" Romeo and Juliet movies.
Try checking out the cooks illustrated an cools country from your library. I get my magazine fix and no clutter. Or $$$
My library has recently begun to carry way fewer magazines than before, sadly. Plus, it's always been pretty hard to get my hands on a copy of CI...those are always checked out!
You are lucky you can get them from your library. So great!
Our library is carrying fewer magazines as well. However they are migrating to a digital service called Zinio. Love it. I can download the magazines to my iPad and carry 10 at a time. They do not expire. Ever.
Ooh, nice!
I totally see what you mean about the redone Emma. I thoroughly enjoyed the way Alexander McCall Smith remade Mr. Woodhouse's character, though. I think he was my favourite. And I love your one new recipe a week project. I always enjoy trying new recipes (Pinterest is so great for that), so I'll have to keep an eye on what you find.
I jumped on hour bandwagon to try 1 new recipe a week, and so far have been happy that I am learning some new recipes to add to our rotation. I forgot how fun it was to cook new things!
I prefer to read nonfiction books, and recently I have been enjoying books by David Brooks, I most recently read Social Animal : the hidden source of love, achievement and character.
I'm way into the podcast, Missing Richard Simmons! New episodes come out every Wednesday and I wait, (mostly impatiently) for the new episode every week...then am sad when I've listened to it and have to wait for the following week for the next one! I wrote more about it here:
http://www.introvertsguidetosobriety.com/shopping/frugal-friday-favorites-4/
Ah, Love Anthony is what I'm reading right now! Did you read Inside the O'Brien from the same author? Not bad.
No new recipe for us this week, we have a sick girl (not eating much) and a fridge and freezer that are too full so we're working on this first.
I also used to love riding my bike but it took a dip when I got my girls....
Have a great day!
It's still hard to believe that DST is this weekend! I'm in the Great Lakes Region, so it will most likely be a little chilly for a while. But the longer days will surely be nice, especially for taking photos!
I purchased the illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and have been reading it aloud to my 3 year old. My husband even stops what he's doing and listens to me read. It's been some nice quiet family time, and my daughter LOVES Hermione. Couldn't ask for a better heroine myself 🙂
Oooh, I completely forgot to see Rogue One. I've always been lacking in my viewing of the latest movies. It usually takes me until the movie is on Netflix to check it out. Oops! Mr. Picky Pincher's mom gave us movie tickets for Christmas so we need to get to using them. 🙂
Aww, it's cute that you and the hubs got to go biking again. That's something Mr. Picky Pincher and I would like to get into. We plan on having two kiddos, so we could each pull them behind us in those cute lil' wagons on our bikes. It's all about making the time for it I suppose. 🙂
I can't believe you are looking forward to DST! Spring forward is always the worst two weeks for me. This old body takes that long to adjust to getting up earlier. Could we please just stick to one time, people?
I've been wanting to get onto a bike again, but I haven't. I have a problem in that I live on a 2-lane, skinny shouldered country road which is also the truck bypass for the town. No matter which way I go, I have to take that road to get anywhere else to ride. It's something I'm still thinking on -- do I want to have to drive my car to get to a safer place to ride my bike?
I'm reading religious books only for right now, as they are my Lenten studies. I have a book of historical fiction about E.A. Poe that was given to me by a friend, waiting on me to have time to read it.
My small group is planning to watch "The Shack," so there will be one movie I'll see, at least.
I haven't come up with a new recipe for this week, but I'm inspired by this blog to at least try to find one. I'll keep looking around. I hesitate choosing because I want them to all be winners, and I know they can't be. I must get past that!
It's not so much that I'm looking forward to the process of DST but that I'm looking forward to it staying light later. I really, really hate it when the sun goes down early!
I really, really hate DST. Yes, when it starts it stays light later, but then in mid-summer it gets dark TOO late. My husband and I love to sit out on the deck on summer nights (we have a great view of the city), with the cool breezes and the twinkling lights. But waiting until 10 p.m. to do that is past our bedtime. I wish for no DST ever - just stay SDT all year.
Massachusetts has talked about eliminating DST and joining Atlantic time, which would in a sense do nothing in the summer but give us later sunsets in the winter.
I was so bummed to see your blog truncated in my email this morning! I hope it's just a temporary thing.
I agree. I stop reading blogs when they make that switch. I don't want to do that with this one, which is such a refreshing treat in my inbox!
I love Jane Austen so much, but I think the modern takes are just not as much fun as the original. (Although I do love Clueless, which I saw before I had read any Jane Austen.)
I am in the last week of studying for comprehensive exams for my phd in history. So I have been reading hundreds of books and none at all. 🙂
Even my listening has been exclusively to audiobooks on American history. I'm in it to win it.
I do make an exception for television. After we put the toddler to bed, my husband and I like to watch an hour of TV with the boys before we put them to bed. We watch a lot of Nova and Nature. In February PBS premiered the Spy in the Wild series, where they made spy animals with hidden cameras and placed them in the company of their real counterparts. It enabled the film makers to get very intimate portraits of animals. We really enjoyed the series. Its conclusion was that animals have a lot more in common with humans than we think. I find the argument interesting but also troubling. Interesting because it gives us better insights into how animals think and interact. Troubling because of its implications for how we think about human nature. By that I mean thought processes like "science says apes and humans are very much alike. In ape societies the leader controls who has sex with whom. Therefore it is "natural" for leaders to control sexuality. Therefore it is okay for leaders to pass laws against miscegenation." I digress. I'm such a grad student. We still enjoyed the show a lot.
What have I been up to? Well, with having a small child at home; not very much.
I am reading The Wind in the Willows to my daughter. She's too young to get it but I'm enjoying it and she'll hopefully pick up some big words via osmosis or something.
I've been on a silent movie kick lately so I'm trying to sneak one in now and again. I'm also watching some Mystery Science Theater episodes in preparation for the new series coming to Netflix.
Have you ever read McCall Smith's 'No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' series? They're some of my favorites. Not detective stories in any traditional sense of the word - just gentle, wise, and often hilarious stores about human nature and human foibles, set in Botswana. Right now I'm reading #16 in the series, Precious and Grace. So, so good!
For those of you who work full time outside of the home , don't feel bad that your list of " what you are in to" consists of showering regularly, squeezing in a walk to the park with your kids and finding time to snuggle up with the man you love . Give yourself a break. Hang in there! You are AMAZING!
Thank you so much for that. I do work outside of the house and need to get my two little kiddos to two different daycares. Showering, sleeping and eating tend to be the "biggest" to-do's in our house. Cleaning, reading, etc. get pushed to the side.
Have you looked into the Instant Pot? I got mine for Christmas, and am still trying out recipes. Seems like something that you'd love.
First, DST. Love, Love, Love! It is a celebration in my world. I thrive on light. Second, I was introduced to Left Neglected in the days after my father had a brain bleed which left him "left neglected". It was a very timely read for me and gave me an amazing insight into what was going on in my dad's head. I would have had no idea that he wasn't just "not looking left". The left had ceased to exist. I think this author is amazing at reaching her target audience and providing a bit of understanding to those who care for people suffering from neurological issues. And, did I mention I LOVE daylight savings time?
How does one find podcasts to listen to?
I have a new job which involves a couple hours of repetitive medial work a week, which would be the perfect time to listen to something. I've considered books on tape (from the library, of course!). But finding a podcast might be nice.
I just am not sure where to go to sample them.