soccer practice

if you hadn't already guessed, we are very serious about soccer around here. very. in the backyard, tovi set up a soccer goal for cruz and a blue "x" on the ground so that he can practice his free kicks (watch him in action here). cruz oh so carefully sets the ball up on the x, winds up with his left foot (always the left foot-- this kid's gonna be a star), and kicks a goal. he's surprisingly accurate, which is lucky for us because he's also a perfectionist. if he doesn't score, the tears come pretty fast and furious. i don't like to fail either, so i understand. but cruz is a better person than me, and he keeps fighting through the tears and the slump and keeps on playing. that's just the meaty stuff of parenting right there-- encouraging him to press on in the face of defeat when all i want to do is make it easier for him. i want to prevent those tears at all costs, and yet, tovi was wise to put the x back far enough that it would be a challenge. i am so glad that we're parenting this kid together. 

the things we're into lately

it's almost the weekend, which means that it's time for laying around the house, cleaning the house, seeing friends, planning the next week, and all the other good things that weekends are for. i hope your's is lovely. here's what we've been into lately:

+ something kind of unnecessary that i want for the house: fridge coasters. so cute, right?

+ something i want to make this weekend: DIY chalkboard (dreaming big, i know)

+ something we're really into reading: frog and toad are friends. tovi thinks these books are boring, but i think they're clever and sweet. cruz loves them. so i win.

+ a post that made me say, "eschet chayil!": I Am Damaged Goods. i love sarah bessey's writing, and this piece was beautiful and brave. i loved the take-away of it-- there is nothing about us that God cannot redeem.

+ a video that made me cry: jj heller - who you are. one of my favorite authors and future best friends (right??) shauna niequist posted this video and i instantly became a fan.

+ something really delicious: creamy maple dressing. the first time i made this dressing, tovi paused and asked that we have a moment of silence for its goodness. we're kind of obsessed.

+ the etsy shop i'm ordering our baby bedding from: iviebaby. and you would too, right? so sweet and modern.

+ what's putting me on my high horse these days: hating on the "mom on your iphone." i've read several blog posts with this theme, and they make me mad every time. there's a post about it brewing in my mind, but it's not that grace-filled yet, so i'm not ready to write it. maybe next week?

+ what cruz prays for every night: "thank you God for bowling." that's the good stuff right there.

what he wore on wednesday

good morning, cruz-man! is it a little early for pictures?

it was so sunny and warm(er) today that at one point we just ran out of the house for a quick walk around the neighborhood. it wasn't planned and we didn't really have time for it, but suddenly there we were, outside. sometimes you just have to obey the spirit and go.

 cruz was rocking his tool shirt and red shoes today. 

 and this was the moment that cruz spotted the garbage truck. joy, pure joy. 

 so we stopped awhile to watch them work. meet cruz, your friendly neighborhood supervisor. 

cruz has been growing like a weed lately. clothes that he received as christmas presents that were supposed to last all year fit him perfectly. doesn't he look like a real big kid here? i know when the baby comes he'll look so grown up.

speaking of baby...

... my cousin thais sent us this precious outfit. she's the mom of two girls, so she knows her way around dresses and bows. honestly, that cardigan is the size of my hand. who remembered that babies start so small? (and yes, for those of you keeping score at home, this means that 100% of baby girl's outfits are blue-and-white striped. we're going to keep it that way, right?)

+++

here's how i'm dressing the bump these days:

 a few notes on maternity dressing this week:

+ i am getting very tired of my clothes and am also resisting the urge to buy too much more

+ when i was pregnant with cruz, i feel like my non-maternity shirts took me much further into my pregnancy, but these days they aren't really cutting it

+ good thing i have three pairs of tory burch flats because apparently i wear them everyday. worth. every. penny. 

+ we are officially in "outie" zone!

happy wednesday!

simplify saturday

on friday morning, cruz and i both woke up cranky and feeling yucky. our moods didn't improve as the day went on, and i was really feeling the burden of tovi leaving on friday night for a weekend conference. 

we needed a reset, quick, before our weekend alone turned into a disaster.

as he was leaving, tovi pulled me into a hug and gave me this incredibly needed reminder:

you are pregnant. you are growing a baby right now. your body is spending all of its energy and brainpower growing our girl, and if you're not at the top of your game right now, you need to accept that. 

hard to hear, but so true. 

i cancelled all of our weekend plans and decided that my job as mama of this family was to slow us down and only make choices that would {speak life} to us, even if it was just for one day.

we cleaned to the sounds of brazilian jazz. we played in the backyard for hours. we sat on the neighbor's front lawn to watch some construction. baths were given midday. so many cupcakes were eaten.

and at the end of it, i felt rested and well. i felt ready for the week ahead. slowing down and taking a sabbath and giving God glory in the midst of it was downright worshipful. so i just went with it. after all, God has given me this home as a sphere of influence. i can be the queen, the ceo, the captain of the ship, the shepherd. and on saturday, me and my little sheep needed a rest. 

{book review} here i go again

here i go again by jen lancaster is a breezy novel about the high school "it" girl, lissy ryder, losing it all and facing the reality of what her "itness" cost others-- and herself. through a glossed-over method, lissy is able to go back in time (again and again) in order to find the the moment that her future (and the futures of her classmates) hinges upon. it's fun. it's full of pop culture references, and it was a quick read.

honestly, this is not the genre of book that generally leaps off the shelf into my hands. given the opportunity to review it, i wanted to give it a fair shot and hopefully open my eyes to a new genre of novel. as fun a read as it was (i definitely had some chuckles), the book fell short to me. it was as fast-paced as an episode of gilmore girls, but without the depth or heart. even lancaster's main character seemed flat to me (she's vain! but she has funky taste in music!); a paper doll instead of a living, breathing woman. i wasn't sure if i was supposed to root for or against lissy. i know how to identify with the losers or outsiders from high school (hello!), but i kept waiting to discover the heart and soul of lissy; that magic moment that would allow me to see her as human. however, the essential question that lancaster explored, i can resonate with: if you could go back and change your past, would you? or has your past (good or bad) made you who you are today? there are some past experiences that i think might want to skip over, but on the whole, i hope that i've used pain or humiliation or boredom or even tons of good to grow and learn and just simply become me. i hope we'll get to explore a little more of that in the blogher book club.

are you going on vacation soon? do you have hours in your future that should be spent curled up reading? (or better yet, stretched out in the sun reading?) here i go again is a perfect choice. fun, funny, and fast.



This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own

+++

here are a couple of other books i've read recently:

dark places by gillian flynn. this is the author of gone girl and the title is not a lie. this book is very, very dark. flynn employs the same back-and-forth storytelling device as in gone girl, but less effectively.

under the dome by stephen king. i am obsessed with king's 11.22.63. that book is as thick as a dictionary and i couldn't put it down. i wanted to give another recent king novel a try. i wasn't as into this one, but i can appreciate king's mastery of storytelling.

the school of essential ingredients by erica bauermeister. this is a short, sweet novel of a cooking class told in vignettes. it made me want to approach cooking with more romance and less get-it-on-the-table. i am now girding up my loins to attempt beef bourguignon and homemade pasta sauce.

where'd you go bernadette? by maria semple. semple was a writer for arrested development. enough said, right? this book was hysterical. i think i read it in 24 hours.