Blergh. I haven’t done a Weekend Links post for three weeks, and that means I have a whole lotta stuff to share with you today! I’ll try to organize it so it doesn’t seem so overwhelming. After all, I would hate for your weekend reading to stress you out!

Encouraging Posts

• A Modern Proverbs 31 Story | Crystal Stine at Allume
• Do Your Thing | Laura L. Smith at Devotional Diva
• Why Mothers Cannot Give Up | We Are THAT Family
• Seasons and Silver | Vanessa Dorsey at (in)courage
• One Thing Your Daughter Doesn’t Need You to Say | Emily Freeman

Deep Thoughts & Important Stuff

• Why Progressive Christians Should Care About Abortion | Rachel Held Evans
• Flabby Thighs and Flappable Confidence | Jamie the Very Worst Missionary
• Wherever It Rises | Jen Hatmaker at A Deeper Story
• Depression, Part Two | Hyperbole and a Half

Help for When Google Reader Goes Away Forever

• How to subscribe to blogs (Or, why you shouldn’t panic about Google Reader’s demise) | Simple Mom
• the best way to read blogs: feedly vs. blog lovin’ vs. email | Hollywood Housewife

Huh. It looks like I’ve been all serious, all the time for the past few weeks. You know me – the odds of that are pretty slim. And what’s coming next will prove that I have spent plenty of time laughing my face off. Because . . . I have a billion HIGH-LARIOUS videos for you to watch.

Fine. Not a billion. But five. In one post. It seems like a lot, but please trust me. You don’t want to miss a single one of these. I’ve watched each of them at least twice, if not several times. Hence the face laughed off.

The best thing about these videos? After I’d already watched them, friends kept making sure I’d seen them. I got tweets, Facebook messages and Skype notices about at least three of these! My friends know me so well . . .

What are the best posts you’ve read and written lately? Please share it with us in the comments!

This post will be linked to Linky Love at Vanderbilt Wife.

Weekend Links, 5.18.13 is a post from Giving Up on Perfect. Join me in giving up on perfect {and getting on with life}! Subscribe here, follow me on Twitter and join my Facebook page.

Related posts:

1. Weekend Links, 11.10.12
2. Weekend Links, 12.8.12
3. Weekend Links, 4.6.13

When it comes to my shows, I’m an all or nothing viewer. I will watch Every. Single. Episode., or I won’t watch at all. And no matter how many times a formerly fresh and clever show has jumped the proverbial shark, I will watch loyally until the very end of the series.

Usually.

But every once in a while, I get so frustrated or disappointed with a show that I quit. I erase it from my DVR schedule and try to forget it even exists.

• It worked with Grey’s Anatomy. [As long as I avoid those commercials!]
• It worked with Big Bang Theory. [We'll always have reruns.]
• It worked with Bones. [As if I'd come back after that surprise pregnancy stunt?]

And it almost worked with The Office.

Once I began watching The Office (after co-workers convinced me I was The Only Person not watching it back in 2005), I never missed an episode. I stayed through the Stanford years and the Angry Andy episodes and the Michael and Jan insanity. I watched – and loved – it all.

But when Steve Carell left, the lights went out for me. I came back the next season, but not every week. And eventually, I stopped watching at all.

This is The Office’s final season, though. And if there’s one thing that will woo me back, it is a final season.

As I checked back in with the show I used to love so much, I saw major drama unfolding between Pam and Jim. Jim had started a new company in Philadelphia and was spending lots of time away from home while Pam quietly grew more and more resentful of the situation.

Was it possible our beloved PB&J weren’t going to make it?

As I’ve once again become a regular viewer, I’ve also started reading recaps and reviews of The Office again, too. And I have been so surprised by what I’ve found.

Why I’m Still Rooting for Jim & Pam is a post from Giving Up on Perfect. Join me in giving up on perfect {and getting on with life}! Subscribe here, follow me on Twitter and join my Facebook page.

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After “just a few more minutes” of the Disney channel, I finally told her to turn off the TV. Four shows in one day was plenty.

“But WHAT CAN I DOOOOOOOO?” she whined.

I wasn’t buying it. I reminded her of the MANY books and toys just down the hall in her room. And sure enough, it took her all of five seconds to find a balloon she’d gotten the day before at our favorite Mexican restaurant (and our obvious choice for Mother’s Day lunch).

She then proceeded to make up a “don’t let the balloon hit the floor” game, alternating shouts of “Watch, Mama!” and “Bibbity Bobbity Boo!” while I worked on dinner.

Glancing her way when she asked – and when she got a little too close to the dishwasher I was emptying – I chuckled at her enthusiasm and determination to Have Fun With the Balloon!

Eventually she moved from asking me to watch her into telling me how awesome she was. “I’m awesome! I’m the best balloon catcher! I’m going to get a trophy! There’s going to be a PARADE!”

Oh, to have that sort of confidence – even in a make-believe balloon game.

After a while she paused and asked me, “Mommy, am I awesome? Do you think I’m an awesome balloon catcher?”

Of course, I told her. Then she asked, apparently needing not just affirmation but SPECIFIC compliments, “Why do you think I’m awesome?”

“I think you’re awesome for making your own fun and having a great imagination.”

That satisfied her and she went back to running in circles and playing balloon catch with herself.

As I started peeling potatoes [Remember that time I was going to cut back on carbs? No, me either.], I smiled. How often have I wanted to whisper those words: “Am I awesome? Do you think I’m awesome? WHY? Why do you think I’m awesome?”

You, too?

Yeah, I bet you’ve felt those words bubble up and stick in your throat, begging to be asked, just once. But of course, we don’t ask. We can’t. It would be weird. It would sound so needy. Or desperate. Or weird.

So maybe we should take time to tell someone we love that we think they’re awesome – and even explain exactly why. Write a note. Send a text. Meet for coffee and say the words to her face. I can’t guarantee someone will return the favor right away, but just think: loving someone in your life enough to say, “You’re awesome!” will inevitably help you remember how awesome you really are.

Do you think I’m awesome? is a post from Giving Up on Perfect. Join me in giving up on perfect {and getting on with life}! Subscribe here, follow me on Twitter and join my Facebook page.

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I wasn’t always a chocoholic. I wasn’t. I don’t think . . .

But no matter my past preferences (or memory gaps), I am a big fan of the chocolate now. As in, if I can’t have a chocolate dessert, I don’t want dessert.

Unless I have to have dessert. (Right? This situation happens in real life, doesn’t it?) And if MUST eat dessert and no chocolate dessert is available, well, then, I’ll settle for apple. Apple desserts come in a close second.

Last weekend we had some friends over for dinner. When Mark and I were planning the menu, we settled on shredded beef tacos and jalapeno popper dip pretty quickly.

But we got stuck at dessert.

I wanted to make brownies – the easiest (when made from a box, which mine always are) and chocolatey-est dessert ever. But Mark thought the fact that I recently made brownies (from a box) meant I should make something different.

Now, I suppose I could’ve informed him that if he was so particular about what desserts should be made or not made, he could just figure it out and make it himself. But the thing is, I really like making desserts. It’s practically the only reason I have a Pinterest account. So, a dessert challenge? Is pretty much the exact kind of challenge I was born for.

[Fine. Perhaps I was born for something more. Good grief, I hope so. But this post is about dessert, so let's just go with it.]

{Although…IS this post about dessert? Because now that I think about it, I’m nearly 400 words in and haven’t even told you what I ended up making on Saturday. (Granted, the title kinda gives that away. Never mind that.)}

So, to recap: Friends coming over for dinner. Taco dinner planned. Dessert challenge issued. My next step? Consult the Pinterest, of course – where I found a delightful photo or twenty of something called a “Sopapilla Cheesecake.”

Clearly this was The Recipe, and I would be the winner of The Dessert Challenge.

Mark loves cheesecake – and what better dessert to accompany a Mexican dinner of tacos than sopapillas? I mean, not actual sopapillas, because my mom and I tried to make those one time and it was a dismal failure. And on a day full of last-minute cleaning, a gymnastics birthday party for my daughter’s BFF, and deciding just how many types of salsa I wanted to fix for dinner, I really didn’t have room for attempting complicated puffy pastries.

So a fake sopapilla combined with a fake cheesecake seemed like the perfect solution. And it was.

Oh wait! I forgot to tell you the best part. In the comments of the recipe blog post, readers shared variations of this dessert – including one with apple pie filling. WHAT! Apple dessert. In a husband-approved cheesecake. And a Mexican dinner-complementing sopapilla. It was obviously a Dessert Challenge Trifecta.

Apple Sopapilla Cheesecake
Source: My Chocolate Therapy

2 cans crescent rolls
2 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 can apple filling
1/4 cup butter, melted
Cinnamon and sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (the recipe recommended 325 degrees if you’re using a glass pan, which I did, but it took an extra long time to bake). Unroll one can of crescents and smush the seams together, forming one 9×13 rectangle. Place that in a 9×13 pan (surprise!). Mix together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla, then spread the mixture over the dough. Pour can of apple filling (or can of fried apples) over the cream cheese mixture. Unroll, smush and spread the remaining can of crescent rolls, then place over the apples. Brush melted butter over the top of the dough, and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

You can serve it warm or cold. We ate it – and loved it – both ways. I didn’t actually add apples to the whole dish, because Mark wasn’t sure he’d like it. He was wrong, but that’s his loss. The apples cut the richness of the cream cheese mixture – and make the whole thing healthy.

What? It’s still WAY not healthy? Fine. But it was REALLY good – and I’ll definitely be making this again. Even if it’s not chocolate.

How was your weekend? What kind of dessert is your favorite?

Monday Morning Mmmm: Sopapilla Cheesecake is a post from Giving Up on Perfect. Join me in giving up on perfect {and getting on with life}! Subscribe here, follow me on Twitter and join my Facebook page.

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1. Monday Morning Mmmm: Chocolate Pudding Pie
2. Monday Morning Mmmm: 60+ Delicious Recipes
3. Monday Morning Mmmm: Snickers & Apple “Salad”

A video was made from my friend Lisa-Jo’s blog post about mothers. And it is lovely. [Click here if you can't see the video.]

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms. You ARE mighty.

To the Mothers: You Are Mighty. is a post from Giving Up on Perfect. Join me in giving up on perfect {and getting on with life}! Subscribe here, follow me on Twitter and join my Facebook page.

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After the infamous ebook bundle sale, I don’t really have a stomach for sales of any sort (unless they involve JC Penney and the gift card my parents gave me for Mother’s Day). But I do know about a few great deals right now and don’t want to leave you out, just in case you feel like shopping this weekend.

First up are a couple of books – both of which would make great last-minute Mother’s Day gifts!

Bread & Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes by Shauna Niequist is probably the book I’ve heard most about in the past few months. EVERYONE I know who has read it has loved it.

I wasn’t sure, because though I adored Shauna Niequist’s first two books (Bittersweet and Cold Tangerines), this one sounds really . . . foodie-ish. And while I love food (duh.), I’m no foodie. But everyone I’ve talked to has said this is her best book yet.

Bread and Wine is a collection of essays about family relationships, friendships, and the meals that bring us together. This mix of Anne Lamott and Barefoot Contessa is a funny, honest, and vulnerable spiritual memoir. Bread and Wine is a celebration of food shared, reminding readers of the joy found in a life around the table. It’s about the ways God teaches and nourishes people as they nourish the people around them. It’s about hunger, both physical and otherwise, and the connections between the two.

So when I saw that the Kindle version was on sale for $3.79 yesterday, I bought it immediately – and can’t wait to read it!

KidVentures: 50 Outdoor Experiences of Wonder, Discovery & Childhood Memories by Jen Murray is a new ebook released this past week – and it’s already ranked at the top of several ebook categories on Amazon!

This weekend only, you can get the book for just $2.99 – either on Amazon or here as a PDF.

KidVentures is a simple and motivating how-to guide for getting your kids outside and having some fun. As a indoorsy couch potato type, this is exactly the kind of book I need as we head into the long summer! And though Jen is the consummate “boy mom,” having six-year-old quadruplets, she’s included all sorts of activities in the book. So while I don’t imagine Annalyn and I will be jumping into creeks anytime soon, we can definitely make a zipline for her Barbies or try out so many of the other ideas.

Other than these books, I’d highly suggest checking out DaySpring’s monthly sales and specials. As always, they have a variety of beautiful items on sale – and no matter what gift-buying occasion you might have this month, they’ve got something for you.

Graduation? You’re Made for a God-Sized Dream is the perfect message for any graduate, and right now, you can get Holley Gerth’s book by that name and a Lisa Leonard bracelet with that engraved message for just $39.99 (regularly $51.99)!
Wedding? How about this Mr. & Mrs. Gift Set? 30% off this month only, this cute set includes Mr. and Mrs. mugs, as well as a Mr. & Mrs. journal for exchanging notes and a coupon book. Who would love this sort of thing more than newlyweds?
New baby? She’ll love this super soft plush musical monkey! (At least I hope so, since I stocked up on these earlier in the year for all my friends having babies this spring!)
Housewarming? Try these Redeemed ceramic coasters, 50% off regular price.

See? I told you. Great deals. So shop if you need to – and then go enjoy your weekend! I’m headed to a gymnastics party for my daughter’s “BFF,” then having friends over for dinner. Church tomorrow morning, then editing a friend’s ebook tomorrow afternoon (which sounds like work, but really, holding a red pen in one hand and a manuscript in the other is simply my happy place). Have a great weekend, friends!

{Perfect} Deals for the Month of May is a post from Giving Up on Perfect. Join me in giving up on perfect {and getting on with life}! Subscribe here, follow me on Twitter and join my Facebook page.

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1. {Perfect} Deals for Easter & Spring
2. {Perfect} Deals to Start the Fall
3. {Perfect} Deals for Back to School

Summer is coming…

And you know what that means, right? Long stretches of time without a single new episode of your favorite shows. {Insert sad trombone sound here.}

Sure, these days the cable channels air plenty of new shows during the “off” seasons – some of them my favorites, like White Collar, Franklin & Bash or So You Think You Can Dance. But still, we have fewer shows to choose from during the summer and sometimes, we don’t have any shows at all.

Enter Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video and all the DVDs you can find at the library and clearance bin at Walmart.

I’ve actually discovered some of my very favorite shows during rerun season: Arrested Development, Freaks and Geeks, Firefly and Parks & Recreation. And I keep a running list of “shows I want to watch on DVD” for emergency nothing-new-on-TV situations. But while that running list is great in theory, it’s gotten so long that I’ve become a paralyzed TV viewer. I don’t know what to watch first!

Here’s where you come in. Help me decide what shows to catch up on this summer?

I’ll give you a place to start. Here are the top shows on my list:

• Friday Night Lights: I know. It’s ridiculous that I have not watched your beloved Friday Night Lights. I KNOW, okay? I want to, I really do! But I also think Mark would like it, and our time for watching TV together is so limited that we just haven’t been able to get to it. I promise, this is first on my “catch up” agenda, though.
• West Wing: And how about this? How did I not watch this show when it was first on? Again, this is one I want to watch with Mark and oh my word, it’s SEVEN seasons long! That is a major time investment! Still, I really want to watch this show. I’m about 99% sure I’ll love it.
• Parenthood: See, here’s the thing. I watched the first couple of seasons sporadically, but I just couldn’t commit. Not because it’s not good, and not because I didn’t love it. It is, and I did. But holy box of Kleenex, it is TOO MUCH emotion for me! It’s just so MUCH. Still, everyone else in the world adores this show and the weekly cry-fests, so I figure I should give it another try. Right? Should I?
• Scandal: This show looks cuh-raze-y. I mean, just insane. But I hear it’s really good. So…
• 30 Rock: I missed the last several episodes of the season (and series) this past year. Much as I love Tina Fey and this show, I was never a faithful fan. But as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a sucker for finales, so I want to catch these last episodes.
• Call the Midwife: So many people say this is good, but it really doesn’t sound good. Then again, neither did Downton Abbey. (Oh, shoot, That reminds me I still need to watch the last season of Downton Abbey…)
• Mad Men: I’m torn on this one. People who know me – and know that I’ve worked in advertising and really kind of love marketing of all sorts – are always surprised to find out I don’t watch this show. But I don’t know…it seems so serious, and there are so many seasons…is it worth it? No, really. Is it?
• Veronica Mars, second season (again): The second season of VM is my favorite season of any show, ever. I’ve watched it several times and before the movie comes out, I’ll probably watch it again.
• Arrested Development (again): It’s probably not possible for me to rewatch all three seasons of AD before the weird fourth season comes out later this month. But I’d like to.

So, what do you think? Do I have the right shows on my list? What should I skip? What should I add? And…

What TV shows will YOU be catching up on this summer?

This post includes affiliate links, which doesn’t change the price of anything you buy but does support this site.

Top Shows to Catch Up On This Summer is a post from Giving Up on Perfect. Join me in giving up on perfect {and getting on with life}! Subscribe here, follow me on Twitter and join my Facebook page.

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2. 14 Books for Great Summer Reading
3. Sometimes shorter is sweeter.

I remember the phone call so clearly. At a bar with some friends during happy hour, I only answered because it was Smitty. When I told her where I was, she said, “Okay. Well, call me when you get home.”

So as I drove home later that evening [completely sober, mind you. This was during my teetotalling days.], I called her back. She told me that she’d been at her parents’ house, skimming through several back issues of our tiny hometown newspaper. She told me that she’d read an obituary. She told me my friend Darren had died.

This was before Facebook, so I didn’t know he’d been sick. I didn’t know he’d died. I didn’t know anything. I thought of the last time I’d seen him–a couple years ago, at church on Easter, I thought, but I wasn’t sure. Though we’d been close friends for a time, we’d lost touch.

Still, if I’d known–if only I’d known!–I would’ve gone to his funeral. I would’ve prayed when he was sick. I would’ve sent a card. I would’ve cared.

But I didn’t know. And so, for me, Darren’s death has always seemed incomplete . . . or incomprehensible . . . or a little surreal. I didn’t feel like I could very well miss someone I hadn’t seen in more than a year, but finding out after the fact made it feel, strangely, as if perhaps it hadn’t happened at all.

Now that Facebook is pervasive and I. Must. Friend. All. the. People! I find myself wanting to search for him and send him a friend request. It’s as if part of my brain truly believes he’s still out there and we’ll reconnect one of these days.

Grief is complicated.
Loss can be a strange thing.
Mourning is different for every person, and different every time.

I’ve thought about this a lot in the year since my brother-in-law died. See, for most of the 18 years I knew him, I didn’t really like him. Perhaps that seems disrespectful to say now, but it’s true–and I think pretending otherwise would be worse. For more than a decade, he and I stood for everything the other one despised. We rolled our eyes at each other, we avoided each other, we said nasty things to and about each other. We REALLY didn’t get along.

Thankfully, our relationship had thawed significantly in the past few years. He changed some. And I changed, too, realizing that–for better or worse–my in-laws ARE my family, and loving them was not only the right thing to do, but would make everyone’s life more pleasant. Most of all, he loved my daughter. And if there’s a sure way to my heart, that’s it.

So while we had a fairly long history of not getting along, in recent years I’d come to appreciate my brother-in-law and even, after some hard heart work, love him.

That didn’t stop some people from assuming I wasn’t sad when he died last year, though. And though I recognized even then that nothing about death is appropriate, at the time, those assumptions hurt me. Anyone who knows me well knows that I feel things deeply–even when it’s grief for the brother-in-law I couldn’t stand for so many years.

Because in that case, it wasn’t just my own sadness at play–though I was, and still am, personally sad. I was so very sad for my husband and my daughter, for my father-in-law and for my nephew. I was sad, in general, for a life cut short, for a family that can’t seem to catch a break, for the holidays and family dinners to come that, I just knew, would be quiet and subdued and simply different.

And all that twists and turns into a ball of grief that, even a year later, catches in my throat every now and then. Last weekend, after spending the day with my husband’s family, all of us avoiding talk of the reason we were together on that certain day, I was surprised to find myself crying on the drive home. Mark asked what was wrong, and I told him nothing. What was I supposed to say?

“It’s the one-year anniversary of your brother’s death, and I’ve been annoyed about having to spend the day with your family for days now, but we did it and it was fairly pleasant and I think that makes me more sad than anything and oh yeah, I know you don’t think I ever feel sad about this, but I do“?

No. It’s so complicated. It was easier to just say it was nothing.

As I’ve thought about how complicated grief can be, I’ve realized that simple, straightforward, easily understood and explained grief doesn’t really happen. No, more often than not, death and loss are rife with complex relationships and emotions. It’s messy. It’s hard to process. It’s complicated.

I think about my beloved family friend, the one who’d been a third grandmother my entire life–until the day she was upset by something during my senior year of high school and stopped talking to my family. I think about how much it hurt for my letters–and wedding invitation–to be ignored, and I think about how shocked I was to hear not only that she’d died several years later, but that she’d left me a significant (to me) inheritance.

I think about my uncle, who had been in pain and trapped by addiction his entire life–or at least as long as I’d known him. I think about wasted potential and a father, brother, uncle missed–but I also think about how death meant, for him, healing and peace.

I think about my childhood friend’s dad, who died in a tragic accident the week of my wedding. I think about visiting her and trying to find the words and wondering how to possibly explain why I would miss the funeral, as she explained that she’d miss my wedding.

I think about my friend Carrie, who I knew for just a few months. But I think about those few months, those months during our freshman year of college, those months when lifelong bonds were formed and plans were hatched and adventures were made. I think about the phone call and the funeral and the fight with my parents, wanting to just be with my other friends. I think of how amazing she would be today and wonder if we’d have stayed in touch. But most of all, I think about how I blew her off the night before that car accident, because I assumed I could catch up with her on Monday.

Guilt. Relief. Regret. Confusion. Shock.

Grief, loss, death–it’s so complicated, isn’t it?

Have you ever experienced a complicated grief?

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Grief is complicated. is a post from Giving Up on Perfect. Join me in giving up on perfect {and getting on with life}! Subscribe here, follow me on Twitter and join my Facebook page.

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As I was moving some things around my calendar last week, my heart sank as I noticed something I’d added a few months ago. The June 10 square on my calendar says the most awful thing: “Start training for 5K.”

What?! When – and WHY – did I think attempting another 5K was a good idea?!?

Well, even if I don’t remember when this particular madness occurred, I vaguely remember thinking:

a) I’d love to participate in the Kansas City Marathon.
b) It’s in October, so it won’t be hot.
c) Its charity of choice is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
d) Maybe if I give myself 18 weeks to go through the 9-week Couch to 5K program, it’ll work this time.

So, in just over a month, I’ve got to get back on my treadmill and get back to work.

Which, as horrifying as that is, is also a bit of a relief, too.

See, I recently received a Fitbit to try out from Verizon Wireless. Since I’ve been wearing it [almost] every day, I’ve been – unsurprisingly – bummed out to see how few steps I actually take each day. And I’ve been wondering how anyone possibly hits the recommended number of daily steps.

Do you even KNOW how many steps we’re supposed to take each day? 10,000. TEN THOUSAND! Now, maybe you walk that much. But as someone who works online (and, FINE, likes to watch the television), I have yet to get anything close to that. As a matter of fact, on a couple days (FINE, on MORE THAN A COUPLE DAYS) I didn’t even hit 2,000 steps.

OUCH.

So, wearing a pedometer plus deciding I should attempt to run another 5K equals MORE STEPS FOR ME. At least that’s the goal. I’ll let you know how I’m doing in a few weeks. Promise. (For real.)

Have you heard of the Fitbit? I’d heard my friends at Weight Watchers talk about them but hadn’t seen one – much less bought one – for myself. Now that I’m wearing one I wonder why I waited so long!

The Fitbit Zip Wireless Activity Tracker is a pedometer, but it also tracks your calories burned and distance traveled. AND it syncs wirelessly with my computer and my phone. So if I want to look at charts and graphs and whatnot, telling me how many more steps I should be taking each day, it’s there. You can wear it anywhere on your body, but it’s small enough that I actually just clip it on my bra.

(When I remember. Because, like I said, I have forgotten to wear it a couple days.)

Until I start my “formal 5K training,” I’m still trying to up my steps a lot. My first goal is 5,000 steps a day – that’s still progress, okay?! So far I’m doing my Walk Away the Pounds video, though not every day. And I’m going to start following all those annoying tips for walking more that I’ve heard over and over: park farther away, take an extra trip around the grocery store, march in place or pace when doing everyday tasks, take the long way around . . . anywhere. I hope to even start an after-dinner walk with my family once a week.

That’s about all I’ve got, though – and given how low my daily steps number is now, I’ve got a lot of work to do. Meeting my immediate goal of 5,000 steps – not to mention my eventual goal of 10,000 steps – is going to require a lot more than parking in the back forty. So, let’s talk walking.

How do YOU add more walking and more steps to your daily routine?

Verizon Wireless gave me a Fitbit to use this year, but all opinions and lazy habits are my own.

Photo source

Gimme three steps towards the door… is a post from Giving Up on Perfect. Join me in giving up on perfect {and getting on with life}! Subscribe here, follow me on Twitter and join my Facebook page.

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“You’re in my spot.” I swear that’s what that lion is saying to the other one. As we watched through the glass, the lion already sitting didn’t move, so her friend sniffed and pushed and turned in circles just like my cats do. And finally, she just sat on top of the other lion!

This was about the only interesting animal sighting we had during Annalyn’s field trip to the zoo. Most of the other animals were smart enough to stay inside when the weather dips to 42 degrees.

April was a really full month!! We had the zoo field trip, as well as an Awana program. I had (in)RL and that pesky ebook bundle sale. I went back to Weight Watchers for the bajillionth time and also started wearing a Fitbit, which is an awesome pedometer and health monitor. (I’ll tell you more about that soon.) I enrolled Annalyn in kindergarten, helped throw a surprise baby shower and found a pretty good routine for working at home.

Still, don’t you worry. I had plenty of time for reading, watching and listening. Here’s my April recap:

What I’m Reading:

I’d been waiting to read both The Survivor by DiAnn Mills and Vanished by Irene Hannon for a few months. I love the mysteries and relationships that both authors write, and as soon as I hear they’ve published a new book, I reserve it at the library. It just so happened that both were available this month, and I enjoyed both.

Vanished was my favorite of the two, the beginning of a new series about private investigators. It was an interesting take on the normal cop and civilian team up to solve a crime story, and I won’t lie–reading about a PI made me think of Veronica Mars. Which is never a bad thing.

Speaking of bad things, though…Requiem by Lauren Oliver. Uggghhh. I adored Oliver’s first book of this trilogy, Delirium. The post-apocalyptic YA novel created a world where love was considered a disease and all citizens are, basically, given some sort of lobotomy at age 18 so they can’t love–or feel other irrational or dangerous emotions. Of course, the protagonist fights the man and the system, while also falling in love with an outsider. And though that’s the same outline so many other books follow, this one stood out as original, interesting and well-written.

And then we got to the third book in the trilogy. So many things happened. Lots of things (those pesky FEELINGS) were overexplained while other, plot-important things were left unexplained or vague. And then…THEN! The book wraps up crazy fast with little resolution and then…just…ENDS. It was a disappointing end to what, until that point, had been an outstanding series.

I read about the Dairy Queen series by Catherine Gilbert Murdock in the “If you liked this, you’ll probably like this, too” sections of both Amazon and Goodreads. So, on an evening when I had nothing else to read, I snagged these three books from my library. I didn’t have high hopes for a YA series about a girl who plays football and works on her family’s dairy farm. I WAS WRONG.

This series is, first of all, really funny with great dialogue (the most important part of a novel for me), but it also raises some serious questions and is incredibly moving. And while I still don’t give two cents about football or cows, the main character of this series was so strikingly different than 99% of other novels’ main characters that she has stayed in my head for several weeks now. If you like YA, I highly recommend this series. (And because it’s a few years old, you can probably get all three books from your library right away, too.)

I also bought two books I’d already read (and loved) because the Kindle versions were on sale. There You’ll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones was one of the first YA novels I read after Harry Potter, and I still love it. And am anxiously waiting for Jones to write another book. And goodness gracious, Bossypants by Tina Fey is The Funniest Book I’ve Ever Read. Period. So at 99-cents, I couldn’t pass it up–and I look forward to reading it again many times.

Finally, I would be remiss in my book-talking-about duties if I didn’t tell you this great news. Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan, also known as my favorite comedian and the Hot Pocket guy, will be released on May 7. And, not to brag but I’m going to brag, I’m going to meet him at a book signing a couple weeks later. I’m going to walk right up to him and say something so witty that he says, “Oh my, you’re funny. You might even be funnier than me!” and we’ll be fast friends, forever. What’s that? You don’t think that’s how it will go down? Yeah, you’re probably right. But I AM going to his book signing, I AM going to read his book, and I just know it WILL BE hilarious. Stay tuned for an update on that whole thing.

What I’m Watching:

Well, obviously I’m watching a truck load of TV right now. April was a little slow, but May is sweeps and finales, so the drought was well worth it. For more about upcoming finales, read my post from yesterday–and then come back every Friday in May for more chatting about our favorite thing, the TV.

I also saw Admission with Tina Fey and Paul Rudd on a much-needed date night. Simple romantic comedies are hard to come by these days, and we tend to spend our occasional movie nights on action movies (I’ve already got “Date Night: Iron Man 3″ written on my calendar for this month!). So I was thrilled when Mark suggested this one. We’d both read or heard reviews that it wasn’t exactly what you expect and might not even be that good. But really? Tina Fey AND Paul Rudd at his cutest? Come on. We both thought this movie was really good–cute, funny and a little thoughtful. Perfect for date night.

I did watch one other new movie this month, though it wasn’t in the theater. The second I saw a commercial for a Hallmark movie called Remember Sunday, starring Zachary Levi (Chuck!) and Alexis Bledel (Rory!), I set my DVR. Because…HELLO?! Chuck! and Rory! Remember Sunday was essentially a sweet, pretty version of 50 First Dates–except in this version, it’s the guy who has no short-term memory and the girl who falls for him. It was awesome. I loved it. And saved it on my DVR to watch again. I might even watch those dang, tearjerking Hallmark commercials they played at every break. Because I am a sap. Okay? I am. But if you are, too (or if you miss Gilmore Girls or Chuck [or both!]), you should find this and watch it.

What I’m Listening to:

Just give me a reason
Just a little bit’s enough
Just a second we’re not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again
It’s in the stars
It’s been written in the scars on our hearts
That we’re not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again

It’s been exactly a year since my marriage fell apart and then slowly grew into something a million times better than we’d ever seen or dared hope for. And just recently I shared all that with you–and then with thousands of women who watched the (in)RL videos. So it’s extremely fitting that the duet from Pink and the lead singer of Fun. has been stuck in my head all month. “Just Give Me a Reason” is definitely my favorite song right now.

[Another song that I can't quite get over--but in a totally different way--is "1994" by Jason Aldean. It's just...you guys...I DON'T KNOW. If you don't like country music, just move on, but if you do? Could you help me process this? I mean, I love Jason Aldean. And 1994 is when I started dating Mark, so it holds a special place in my heart. But this song? It's just so...ridiculous. Is he mocking Joe Diffie? Honoring him? I DON'T GET IT.]

What I’m Eating:

Ah yes, what have I been eating? Well, there was the time I re-discovered the chocolate cake in a mug trick. I also made some fun mini fruit pizzas that I’m going to share with you soon. Oh, and I also bought some kiwis–and then realized I had no idea what to do with them.

So, really, I have nothing exciting or important to say about what I’ve been eating.

Best of this Blog:

Happy {Blog} Birthday to Me! And to YOU!
I started the month with my 5-year blog anniversary. Looking back on half a decade of blogging was a lot of fun!

For When You Think it Would Take a Miracle
And then I bared my soul about the miracle that my marriage received last year when we fell apart. Opening up like that was excruciating, but you all were incredibly supportive and some were even encouraged to keep hoping for your own miracles.

Teacher Gift Idea: Brown Sugar Body Scrub
Finally, I shared an easy but awesome gift idea for Teacher Appreciation Day (coming up on May 7)!

And then there were the videos:

If you love New Girl (NICK!! AND JESS!!), and if you love Auto-Tune (um, hello? WHO DOESN’T?), you will watch this video over and over again. Or maybe that’s just me…

I’m sure many of you have seen the Dove Real Beauty Sketches video, showing that women are more beautiful than they think they are. Well, this spoof breaks the harsh news to men that they are actually NOT as beautiful as they think they are. It’s pretty much hilarious. And…spot on.

What were YOU into in April?? This post will be linked up with HopefulLeigh. And it includes affiliate links.

What I’m Into :: April 2013 is a post from Giving Up on Perfect. Join me in giving up on perfect {and getting on with life}! Subscribe here, follow me on Twitter and join my Facebook page.

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