On My Bookshelf in January

I started out the month weary from Christmas and with no real plan to read anything.  When Anne from Modern Mrs. Darcy mentioned a few books she wanted to re-read this year, it reminded me of one I had forgotten I wanted to read.

Bread & Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes is beyond fabulous and has become one of my favorite food memoirs of all time.  I've tried out a handful of recipes already, and they all have gone into regular rotation in my house.  Beyond the food, Shauna's story draws you in like a conversation with one of your best friends.  At times, I was literally laughing and crying all at the same time.  Definitely moving this to my "to buy" list.

I'm always on the hunt for something new to read, so when Carmella mentioned she was learning how to cook a wolf, I was completely intrigued. More cookbook than cooking memoir, How to Cook a Wolf by MFK Fisher was first published in 1942.  It is full of advice for the home cook to be creative in frugality, which is what I expected.  I didn't expect to laugh so much!  Fisher is hilarious and full of sarcastic humor.  Her words are just as relevant today as they must have been 70 years ago.

Just as I was finishing reading Sense & Sensibility in December, Nicole from Gidget Goes Home announced the Motherhood & Jane Austen Book Club.  I love Jane Austen, but I tend to watch movies based on her novels rather than read the real deal.  I'm not sure if I'll follow along and read all 6 novels this year, but Pride and Prejudice is a favorite, so I'm determined to read at least this one.

I came across Rachel Held Evans' A Year of Biblical Womanhood somewhere online, and honestly I wasn't that interested.  But then I kept seeing references to it randomly, so I thought "eh...I'll give it a go" and checked it out from my local library.  Wow.  I'm really not sure what I expected (actually that's not true...I'm pretty sure I expected to be turned off by this book) but this book was surprisingly awesome.  As in, I couldn't put it down awesome.  As in, I still haven't watched this week's episode of Downton because I was reading this instead.  It's an incredibly thought provoking read, so if you're just the slightest bit interested in what the Bible has to say about women, I highly recommend this book.

I was a huge Full House fan growing up.  The wait list for Candace Cameron Bure's latest book is insanely long at my library, so I grabbed Reshaping It All: Motivation for Physical and Spiritual Fitness instead.  It's autobiographical as well as being a diet/motivational book.  I'm only halfway through it, so I don't feel like I can give a fair assessment of the book as a whole.  I'm enjoying the autobiographical side of the book, but I have mixed feelings on the way she intertwines spiritual and physical fitness.  Jury's still out on this one...

And that's about it!  Do you have any book recommendations?  Share with us in the comments!

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The Fastest and Best Hot Chocolate

It got cold again.  As the winds turned from calm to blustery late yesterday afternoon, my son and I sat cuddled up listening to the wind chimes blow and he asked for hot chocolate.  I looked at him and realized that at 3 years old he already knows that when it gets cold we need to cozy up, hunker down, and have something warm in our hands.  With all of the craziness of the evening hours comes dinner and baths and stories and tucking little feet into their beds.  It's just me and the kids in the evenings, with me running back and forth between the two littles.  It's not usually leisurely, at least not for me.  But here was an opportunity to change that.  A chance to make, at least one evening, special and different.



The best recipe I've ever found for hot chocolate came off the back of a can of HEB Cocoa Powder.  I've tried so many different recipes, but this is the one I hold all other recipes to.  As fabulous as the recipe is, it makes a huge pot of hot chocolate.  I only needed 2 cups, and I really didn't want to wash a pot.  So I reached back into my memory and tried to remember my shortcut for this recipe...the way I used to make it long before babies, when it was just me and my husband.  I'm not sure this is the way I used to do it, but it turned out fabulous.  Just as good as making on the stove in a large pot, but without the extra dishes.

Microwave Hot Chocolate 

For each mug of hot chocolate you will need:

1 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 Tbsp sugar

a pinch of kosher salt

2 Tbsp water

1 cup of milk

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

In the bottom of your mug add cocoa powder, sugar, salt, and water.  Stir with a fork to combine until smooth.  Add milk and stir gently.  Microwave on high for 2 minutes or until heated through.  Remove from microwave and stir in vanilla extract.  Enjoy!

Baby Moccasins

I'm so excited to share these with you!  I love to knit and crochet and sew, but its so hard to find good chunks of uninterrupted time to work on those types of projects.  These were a long overdue project that took very little time to complete.



I used a sport weight cotton yarn from Hobby Lobby (I Love This Cotton in Carousel Ombre).  The pattern is one I've used many times over the last few years from Linda Permann's Little Crochet: Modern Designs for Babies and Toddlers.



Cotton is a great year round choice for our climate.  70 degrees one day and 30 degrees the next is pretty typical for Winter in South Texas, and while wool is breathable as well, the cotton is more forgiving on our frequent warm days.



They're soft and cozy, and because they were quick to crochet I have that wonderful sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing what you start.  Funny how that feeling so often eludes me these days.  ;)

Have you recently finished a fun project?  Share in the comments!

The Friday 5

Good morning friends!  I can't believe it's already Friday.  I am unbelievably excited about the cold weather in Texas!  True Texan right here...jumping up and down over the very slight chance of maybe having snow in South Texas.  Here's a quick roundup of some of my favorite recent reads.  Enjoy and stay warm!

1. Making my Bed by Emily A. Clark

I love how light and airy her room feels.  This is similar to how I envisioned our master bedroom once upon a time, before I got sidetracked with 2 babies and 2 dogs.  A girl can dream, right?

2. On Giftedness and Calling {5 Clues to Your Calling} by Edie @ Life in Grace

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Really, I do believe I love everything Edie has ever written.  She has written before on vocation, many times in fact, but this post is truly a masterpiece.  If you only get the chance to read one of these links, read this.

3. Oh Dear, Can He Breathe? by Sherry @ Young House Love

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I'm loving this terrarium so much that I'm feeling the need to make my own!  I have a decidedly brown thumb, but if Sherry can make it work, maybe I can too?

4. National Handwriting Day by Darling Magazine

How did I not know there was such a day as National Handwriting Day?!?!  As a self-professed stationery freak this is right up my alley.

5. The Wardrobe Architect Series by Sarai at Coletterie

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This is an ongoing series on finding and defining your personal clothing style, which is awesome and fun all on its own.  But I can totally see applying the series to interior design (or any kind of design really), using it as a tool to help you create an atmosphere which is uniquely you.  Intro, Week 1, and Week 2.  Make sure you check out the worksheets Sarai created.  Such a great resource!

What about you?  What have you read and loved this week?