Spring Reading List {2015}

In Virginia, Spring Break is timed around Easter, so it's quickly approaching. I thought it would be fun to share my Spring Reading List for 2015 with you today. I've already read a few of these books, but am including them since they did not make it on the Winter Reading List.

I'm excited about these titles...I've spent most of my free time reading lately...instead of blogging. With stomach bugs, colds, flu, and viruses making the rounds in our house, I've felt like escaping into a good story at night instead of writing and editing. Here are some of the books I'll be reading this season. 

Unbroken- Laura Hillenbrand

Confession: I finished this yesterday. Had to read it quickly because it's due back at the library, and is a highly sought after book. You may have seen previews for the Angela Jolie-directed film based on the book. It's the true story of Louie Zamperini, an Olympian, American solider, and survivor of Japanese POW camps during World War Two. 

It is one of the most inspiring personal stories I've ever read. Ever. A true testament to the human will, written with an almost cinematic quality to it!

Love the Home You Have- Melissa Michaels

Planning on starting this one tomorrow, and will share a review next week! Just browsing the table contents told me that this book was going to be a must-read for me...and anyone else who struggles with loving their home, just as it is...no comparisons, no wishing for more. 

The Girl on the Train- Paula Hawkins

Book club read for April...finished this one too, and it was a really good read! I love a good "whodunnit". Follows a girl who takes a daily commuter train and sees something suspicious...but is her witness reliable?

The Secret Life of Violet Grant- Beatriz Williams

I loved A Hundred Summers, so I have high hopes for this one. It's billed as a beach tale full of history and family intrigue. 

From Amazon: "Passion, redemption, and a battered suitcase full of secrets: the New York Times-bestselling author of A Hundred Summers returns with another engrossing tale."

Bitter Greens- Kate Forsyth

In short, a retelling of the Rapunzel story. I mean, how could it not be good???

The Emperor's Children- Claire Messud

A chronic judge-a-book-by-the-cover-reader, I picked this one because it looked nice. Amazon lists it as a novel that follows the lives of three friends in good old New York City.

Tyringham Park- Rosemary McLoughlin

The cover looks like Downton Abbey.

Amazon says, "Tyringham Park is the Blackshaws’ magnificent country house in the south of Ireland. It is a haven of wealth and privilege until its peace is shattered by a devastating event which reveals the chaos of jealousy and deceit beneath its surface."


Lisette's List- Susan Vreeland

I spotted this one at the library and snatched it up. Amazon calls it "a richly imagined story of a woman’s awakening in the south of Vichy France—to the power of art, to the beauty of provincial life, and to love in the midst of war."

These should keep me busy for a couple of weeks. I'm sure I'll have a whole new list for you soon!

What's on your Spring Reading List? Please share titles in the comments section!

If you enjoyed this post or found it helpful, I hope you'll click your "Pin It" button to add this post to Pinterest, or a +1 for Google+. And I always appreciate kind comments, Facebook shares, and Tweets!

Weekend Bloggy Reading :: Link Up!

Hello, hello! Ready for some creative inspiration? Welcome to my Weekend Bloggy Reading link party. Fridays are fun because this is the day of the week where other bloggers stop by to link up their best post of the week here at Serenity Now, and readers get to browse tons of fun project ideas. If you're new here, don't forget to "Follow" or subscribe so you don't miss future parties and projects!

*Please be sure to read my guidelines before you add a link--I've had to bypass so many great projects lately because they didn't include a link back to my blog in the post!

This party is a great place to showcase your very best post of the week (home decor, crafts, party ideas, recipes, DIY, tips and tricks, etc.) and to see what else is out there.

Don't forget to visit Centsational Girl today for the BOTB column! See what Kate and I rounded up for you...the very Best of the Blogosphere. Post will be up some time this weekend. 

Time to link up your best post of the week!

Weekend Bloggy Reading :: Link Up!

Happy Friday! Ready for some creative inspiration? Welcome to my Weekend Bloggy Reading link party. Fridays are fun because this is the day of the week where other bloggers stop by to link up their best post of the week here at Serenity Now, and readers get to browse tons of fun project ideas. If you're new here, don't forget to "Follow" or subscribe so you don't miss future parties and projects!

*Please be sure to read my guidelines before you add a link--I've had to bypass so many great projects lately because they didn't include a link back to my blog in the post!

This party is a great place to showcase your very best post of the week (home decor, crafts, party ideas, recipes, DIY, tips and tricks, etc.) and to see what else is out there.

Did you miss any of my posts this week? I'd love for you to click over:

Vintage Stainless Steel High Chair Makeover
It's as Simple as Support
Inspiring Project Ideas

Time to link up your best post of the week!

Inspiring Project Ideas {link party features}

Hello, and Happy Thursday! The weekend's just around the corner, hurray! I love it when features day rolls around because I always hope to show off a project or two you haven't seen around the blogosphere yet. I'm pleased to share some good creative features from this past weekend link party and the weekend before (got sidetracked with a hectic schedule) with you today.

The party opens up again tomorrow morning, so be ready to join the fun. If you're new to the blog, I take a couple of days each week to let other bloggers showcase their project ideas here, and I take a day to feature a few of my faves. We have crafts, home decor, DIY, recipes, party ideas, organizing, sewing, tips and tricks, seasonal projects, and more!

Here are some projects that caught my eye this week:

~Apple Cream Cheese Bundt Cake via The Honeycomb Home

~Navy Powder Room Makeover via 24 Cottonwood Lane

~DIY Tassel Pillow Cover via Architecture of a Mom

Vintage Stainless Steel High Chair Makeover

If you follow me on social media, you may remember a Salvation Army steal I posted about seeing on Instagram and Facebook page several months back. I passed up on a $25 vintage stainless steel high chair because at the time I didn't know if I'd be able to take it apart to add new covers, and I didn't have the time with the holidays approaching. My mother-in-law surprised me by buying it for me, and today I want to reveal Harris' new-old Vintage High Chair Makeover.

With the holidays past and long stretches of seemingly endless snow days in sight, I started plotting how I could give the high chair a new life. We have a plastic Fisher Price booster high chair that sits on one of our kitchen chairs, but I loved the stainless piece because it had character! And with seven cousins, having an extra baby seat is super helpful.

Aside from a little rust, it was in great shape. The cover was (at one time) white, and had a cool moroccan tile pattern. Over the years, it had yellowed and had a few tears, so I knew it was time for a replacement. Vinyl fabric was going to be a necessity...easy to wipe clean and pretty durable. The problem was that I wasn't finding many patterns or colors in vinyl fabric that were on trend. I also looked in all the local shops for a vinyl tablecloth, and the only only ones I could find were country grape festooned a la an episode of the Golden Girls in 1986.

Until I remembered that I had a cute-ish outdoor vinyl table cloth sitting in my kitchen sideboard. Like, for free.

So my friend Mandy came over, and we managed to unscrew the seats, remove them, use the gross grody old fabric for a template on the back of my new-ish tablecloth, and cut to fit.

Then we folded the fabric over the existing foam cushions and screwed them back onto the high chair.

Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

Vintage Stainless Steel High Chair. {mic drop}

Of course, the legs need some scrubbing to make 'em shiny again. But I will probably leave the chair base as-is. I want to keep the original character instead painting it. Like most folks, I go crazy for freshening things up with spray paint, but I really liked the vintage look to this guy.

So, to recap...high chair cost me $0 since my mother-in-law surprised me with it. The covering cost me $0 because I used a tablecloth I already had.

Not bad for a free makeover, huh?

My little guy has been pretty happy with it!

Do you have any vintage pieces in your home?

If you enjoyed this post or found it helpful, I hope you'll click your "Pin It" button to add this post to Pinterest, or a +1 for Google+. And I always appreciate kind comments, Facebook shares, and Tweets!

It's as Simple as Support #sisterhoodunite

This sponsored blog partner post brought to you by The Sisterhood of the Motherhood. Today's post is meant to be directed towards moms, but I think it could really be applied to any woman out there who takes the time to read this. This is a continuation of our discussion on ways to stop the mommy judging. I want to talk about supporting moms, whether they make the same choices you do, or not.

It's easy to support the moms we have things in common with. The mom you invite over for coffee when you're not snowed in, the mom who makes you laugh at every book club get-together, the mom who has the shoe collection and fashion sense you envy.

But what about the mom whose parenting style or philosophy differs from yours?

Maybe she homeschools her kids and yours go to private school. Maybe her family only eats organic food and you are a regular at the Chick-fil-a drive-thru. Maybe her kids have a strict bedtime and routine, and yours are night owls. 

If you're a regular reader, you read about my first breastfeeding experience with my older two kids and know that I was able to exclusively pump with both of them. 

I had everything all planned out for baby number three. I planned to pump for as many months as I could, knowing it would be difficult with two girls in school and activities. I planned for him to be a healthy, thriving, breastfed baby.

But, as we all know, life is what happens when you are making other plans. Fast-forward a few weeks after Harris' birth, and I knew something wasn't right.

After some visits with the pediatrician and allergist, we determined that even after me going completely dairy free in my diet for over a month, Harris was not tolerating breast milk, though he wasn't allergic. Both physicians recommended that we immediately switch him over to a special (very very expensive!!) formula. 

It seems silly now, but despite the fact that my son's pain and discomfort went away within a few hours of starting the special formula, I was wracked with horrible guilt. 

I'd never given any of my babies formula that young before. Everyone up until that point had told me that "breast is best." Would he be okay? Was I a terrible mother? Terrible for not recognizing the signs of his pain earlier (it wasn't colic!)? Terrible for giving him formula? My sister did her best to encourage me, but living hundreds of miles away from each other made things difficult.

I focused more on me and my guilt than the fact that my son was finally able to take nourishment without horrible pain.

Enter Joy.

Joy was a lady I knew from my local MOPS group. She wasn't a close friend, but she knew about our situation. Not only did Joy take the time to encourage me to ignore the guilt and any commentary from other moms, but she offered me support.

We're pretty different. 

Joy has six kids, I have three. She does some homeschooling, mine go to the public school across the street. She likes tea, I like mochas...and so on.

But Joy knew I needed someone to speak some positivity into my life. She showed up on our doorstep out of the blue with dinner. She pulled me aside before our MOPS meeting to see how I was doing and to tell me how cute my new baby was.

But most of all, she let me know that there is no one right way to be a mom. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude. Her kind words helped me see how blessed I was with a baby who was thriving...and continues to thrive a year later.

In the past year, I have learned that you don't have to agree with another mom's parenting choices to support and encourage her. I'm sure that there are some choices I make as a mom that would be different from the choices Joy makes. 

But she didn't let that stop her.

Don't let it stop you.

Find a mom who could use some support this week. Give her a hug, send her a hand-written note with a Starbucks gift card, send her a private email with an inspiring quote, or stop by her house with a plate of cookies (after sampling a few to make sure they aren't gross or anything- I mean, be willing to make that sacrifice). 

Tell that mom that she's doing a great job! She is just the mom that her kids need. 

I guarantee that not only will this make her day, but it will make yours too.

As moms and women, we need to do more building each other up and less tearing down. Social media, especially, seems to be a hotbed of vicious activity. Why fuel the fire with all of the circular arguments going on? Are you really really going to change someone's mind with that article you share on Facebook or the comment you leave on an Instagram photo?

Our free time is limited as is with little ones needing to be diapered, fed, driven to activities, homeworked, bathed, and sent to bed. If we used those little windows of free time as opportunities for SUPPORT, think of what we could accomplish!

It's as simple as support.

What's one way you could encourage another mom or woman this week?

*You can learn more about Similac's The Sisterhood of Motherhood on Facebook and their website. There's also a hilarious Mommy Judging video you can watch!

If you enjoyed this post or found it helpful, I hope you'll click your "Pin It" button to add this post to Pinterest, or a +1 for Google+. And I always appreciate kind comments, Facebook shares, and Tweets!



Disclosure: Similac partnered with bloggers such as me for its Sisterhood of Motherhood Program. As part of this program, I received compensation for my time. All opinions expressed are my own. Similac believes that consumers and bloggers are free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words. Similac’s policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines and social media engagement recommendations.

Weekend Bloggy Reading :: Link Up!

Happy Friday! Ready for some creative inspiration? Welcome to my Weekend Bloggy Reading link party. Fridays are fun because this is the day of the week where other bloggers stop by to link up their best post of the week here at Serenity Now, and readers get to browse tons of fun project ideas. If you're new here, don't forget to "Follow" or subscribe so you don't miss future parties and projects!

*Please be sure to read my guidelines before you add a link--I've had to bypass so many great projects lately because they didn't include a link back to my blog in the post!

This party is a great place to showcase your very best post of the week (home decor, crafts, party ideas, recipes, DIY, tips and tricks, etc.) and to see what else is out there.

**Don't forget to check out this week's BOTB article at Centsational Girl. See what Kate and I picked to share for the Best of the Blogosphere...lots of DIY fun!

Time to link up your best post of the week!