Monday Rumination List

Reading

I'm reading Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore and I'm absolutely loving it.  Beautiful writing and great story.  A recommendation from me!

We are doing lots of holiday reading over here with the kids including The Snowy Day, Christmas in the Manger, Rabbit's Gift, and If You Take a Mouse to the Movies.

And this article in response to the 'Affluenza' absurdity from the teen case in Texas.

This love letter written to Pittsburgh which is sweet and gets right to the point of why we love living in western PA.  

This hilarious list of a 10-month's sample letter to Santa.  Oh my, so spot on.

And this inspirational story about Leo; a homeless man, who was offered from a stranger learn code or receive $100.  He picked to learn code and has since created an app for sale for $0.99 in the app store.  amazing.

And this image hit a chord in my heart.

Watching

Speaking of techology/math/science, which I am notorious for announcing 'is not my thing,' - this video is reminding me that I need to hold myself accountable for learning something that is uncomfortable for me.

As does this video that explains how if we want to change the way the future looks - we need to be involved in the technology.  but seriously.

This video from the Mimi Foundation in which they gave cancer patients a chance at a moment of carefreeness.

Unilever Project Sunlight put out this beautiful video entitled, "Why bring a child into this world."  watch it.

And surely by now, you've all already seen this awesome WestJet video.  If you need a holiday boost of happy, watch this on repeat.

Obviously not going to leave this watching list without mentioning Soul Pancake since they are generally my daily dose of happy.  Check out this video of grown-ups making friends in a ball pit.

Eating

We have made this Brown sugar & Garlic shredded chicken multiple times before and just made it again this past week.

And these breakfast enchiladas are delicious and filling.  We make them on days that Brandon is off of work and we can usually last until dinner (with some mid-day) snacks.  We loaded them up with sausage and lunchmeat ham this past week.

I also whipped together some chicken & noddle chowder - which Brandon loved having while finishing up the last few days of rifle hunting season.  We left it in the slow-cooker overnight, so the following afternoon, it was all super yummy and mooshy - if that's your sort of thing (it is ours!)

New Happenings

CHECK BACK HERE TOMORROW for the big reveal of our 'secret project' that I've been mentioning over the last few months.  Holy Moley, exciting and scary!!  eeeeeek!

Personally Loving

getting to spend time with my two best friends in NC the first week of December for Karpy's baby shower.  It was a seven and a half hour drive down to NC, but I talked the.whole.time (hahaha, sorry Kate) and somehow, it wasn't even a bad drive.  I guess two mommas in a car without kids is sort of like a vacation in itself.  Karpy is a beautiful momma already and we loved spending the weekend all together.  Can't wait for that baby boy to arrive <3 nbsp="" p="">

Triumphs

literally, Brandon's first win as a coach came last Friday night at a home game.  So far, they are 1-2 for the season.  The kids have attended all three games so far and their getting a little better and better about sitting still for the whole thing.  We'll see, I got an offer for a babysitter (hi, Taush!) that I might be taking up very soon to get a game in peace :)

Marco has been consistently getting into daily mischief without any issues.  My little monthly calendar has been such a huge help in keeping us on target.  We have had to switch a few days around because of lack of supplies or whatnot, but every morning, Marco has had a new surprise for us without fail.  I'm counting that as a big 'ole win.

Working Towards

finding time to write.  the holidays and our secret project and brandon's coaching have seemed to swallow whole all of my time.  I certainly could do better about carving out time to write.  besides getting to a blog post or two a week, I have done ANY other writing (for my novel).  ugh.  new years resolution?

12 months of kindness 2014 - starting to think about what worked this year for us and what we could try for next year.  I'll be writing more about this after the holiday!  i hope you'll join in with making a family commitment to 12 acts of kindness over the year!


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What are some things on your mind these days?