Library list: Sounds like Titanic

Sounds like Titanic by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman. Loved it. Memoirs are some of my favourite books, and this book had all the things I love. This was a lot about faking it. Pretending you are a violinist. Pop stars pretending they are singing when they are not. And the author talks about why we fake things. And it's because we are all expecting perfection now. We are soo quick to notice the shortcomings in our music, our celebrities, ourselves. So we all have to fake things so we look perfect. And it sucks. That's basically what I got from this book. Also I laughed out loud a few times, which I consider to be a huge plus with a memoir.

Library list: more reading

Lots more reading:

Everything is figureoutable. by Marie Forleo. I love Marie Forleo, and have seen lots of her stuff on youtube. This book was more of what you see on her youtube videos. She talks about how she started with nothing, and worked super hard for her success. One of my big takeaways from the book is that we should all be working at all the jobs. She has done lots of jobs including years of waitressing and also cleaning toilets, etc. And she feels that all the jobs she has done have helped her in her success. For me, working lots of jobs has been really beneficial. Now that I am a successful business owner, I think my experiences as a deli girl, waitress, pharmacy tech, sandwich artist, etc are super valuable.

This book also talks about following your gut. Marie says to take lots of jobs, but to not hesitate to quit if you are not feeling it.

If I stay. by Gayle ForemanThis book was made into a movie a few years ago. I didn't see the movie, and I probably won't. The book is young adult (a personal fav genre of mine), and I liked it, as cheesy as it was.

The Nickel Boys. by Colson Whitehead. Oh wow. This book hooked me from the start, but then I read on the jacket that the story is based on a real place. Sometimes when a book involves child abuse, I can't even read it. But this book was super readable, even though the subject matter was really horrendous. I loved it, and now I have to go back and read the Underground Railroad.

I heart reading: A thousand names for joy

Maybe I am going to write about books I read in 2020. I read a lot. Like definitely a book a week.  My favourite is non fiction. I also love to read popular books that end up on all the lists. 

This book found me via Oprah’s podcast, like so many other books. I reserved if from the library, and finished it in less than a week. 

This book is kind of crazy. I am a huge lover of self help books (I always have been), but this was sooo different. The overall idea that I got from it is that we are all connected and we should try to live in the moment. This book felt really similar to The power of now by Eckhart Tolle. But the way the author explained it was so literal. Like she actually believes she is the same as each and every stranger she meets. And she literally loves every single person she meets. 

I love a reminder that the place you are in your life is the exact correct place you have to be. And it absolutely does not matter what happens, because there is a silver lining to every single situation. 

The author does this thing where she takes the worst thing that can happen to someone, and makes you see the silver lining. Losing a loved one is a huge example, and she makes people see that death is not horrible, even if it feels sudden and too early and unfair. 

Jon asked me if I thought he should read it after me. And I don’t know. I think this book would be mind-blowing if you are really struggling with accepting something. But it could also sound crazy, because the author basically said she kinda found joy with the help of a cockroach in 1986. 

This book is going to stick with me for a long time. I’m still thinking about it a couple days later. More books to come. 

On drinking and not drinking

(This is a completely unrelated picture of the boys and I doing some holiday baking)

Not drinking feels like one of those things that I am hearing about constantly right now. I have read so many magazine articles and blog posts about people not drinking as much anymore. Some people are doing the non-alcohol beer thing for January. Some people do sober October. 

For me, a couple things made me feel like I want to drink less:

- I read the newest Malcolm Gladwell book, Talking to Strangers. He talks about the Stanford rape case, and how the more recent research about alcohol is defying what we think we know about alcohol. Basically, alcohol makes you dumb. It does not make you more honest or more yourself. It mostly just makes you dumb.

- Addiction runs in my husband's family. In the ten plus years that I have been a part of his family, the thing that stands out to me the most is this: alcoholism and addiction are not yes or no, black or white. It't not like you are either an alcoholic or you aren't. It is on a spectrum. I haven't done research. I have just observed a number of my family members for ten years. I see that alcohol and other substances like weed and pills are definitely not always detrimental every single time. But sometimes alcohol and other substances like weed and pills are really really detrimental. And I don't think you can predict which times will be positive and which times will be negative.

- My good friend (who I have shared many bottles of wine with) heard somewhere that basically we should all only drink three drinks max in any one session. The idea is that beyond three, you are past the point of having fun. She noticed that her and her boyfriend seemed to get into fights more when they had more than three drinks. So she has recently started limiting herself to three drinks and she says she feels better in the morning and she still has fun. 

- Jon and I are trying to eat more plants and less animals when we are home. We are both noticing that we feel better when we eat better. And drinking less alcohol just kind of feels natural when we are trying to eat healthier.

This holiday season, I would guess that I drank half what I normally would. I still had a beer or moscow mule or two with my siblings and parents. And then I would have a bubbly water. One night, instead of having a beer with supper, I split a beer with my mother-in-law, and then switched to tea. And if we were having a mimosa or sangria, I would drink half, then fill it up again with club soda to make it more of a session drink. 

I am definitely not the type of person to go all-or-nothing. I would probably never stop drinking completely (and I would probably never completely stop eating meat). But drinking way less feels great to me right now. 

Sushi dates

I am just finding these old pictures from 6 months ago that I still want to post. Both our boys are so into sushi. Actually, they are mostly just into avocado maki, but Jon and I will take it. 

In the summer, we love to do a family date to the sushi place (Haru sushi) a mile away from our house. We bike there, sit on the patio, and order 6 avocado makis for the boys, and some sushi for Jon and I. And we always get the dessert, which is always a little bit different, but mainly black sesame ice cream with whipped cream and sometimes fried bananas. This time, the boys got a little pocky stick in their ice cream, which pretty much made their day. And the whipped cream was abundant, and at the bottom of the glass. Which made me want to serve ice cream sundaes at my next dinner with whipped cream at the bottom, and pocky sticks to top it off. 

Also wondering if I should get an ice cream maker so I can make sesame ice cream. And also sundaes served in normal water glasses seem so simple and nice. I for sure don't think you need special glassware for it. Also loving the little bits of rice on W's sleeve while he enjoys his sundae.

Cirque de soleil (from the summer)

This was so long ago, but these pics are so cute I still want to post them. Cirque to Soleil came to Moncton in the summer, and Jon immediately bought 4 tickets online. I think after years of living in Newfoundland, we are just so jazzed when exciting events come near us. Jon and I figured we would take Cohen and his cousin Grayce to the show, leaving Will with my parents. But then on the day of the show, Will was just so excited, we decided to bring him too. Kids under 2 can sit on a lap for free, so Jon and I were able to take the three kids. 

To keep things super simple with the three kids, we ate at the hotel across from the Avenir Centre. The kids thought it was pretty fancy, and loved the grilled cheese sandwiches with fruit. At the Avenir Centre, we let Cohen buy cotton candy with his own money. It was the first time these kids had ever had cotton candy, which I consider a win for 5-year-olds. 

I was a little nervous to have Will at the show because I was super aware that all the people around us had spent a lot of money on their tickets, and didn't want to be distracted by a loud wiggly 1-year old. We were in the second row, which was nice because the kids could see perfectly. I figured Will and I would make it for maybe half an hour. But we lasted for the whole entire two hour show! The show was so so good, the kids were completely into it, and were pretty much still as statues for the whole time. The show was on ice, and there was so much action happening all over the stage the whole time. Doing stuff like this makes me excited for the future. I love the thought of taking the kids to see live music and local plays.