Favorites on Friday

1. Autumn!  Monday a cool front rolled in all nonchalant like with a few rain drops, but like it was no big deal.  It was a big deal!  Those 90F+ days were getting old.  Mornings are now in the mid50s and highs in the high 70s or low 80s.  Thank you!  And finally!

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2. This relatively new Yoga with Adriene video.

Every single day my life is a little different or a lot different from the one that came before.  Habits change as quickly as my toddler's moods.  In other words, hourly, sometimes every few seconds.  To say I have a habit or routine seems silly and like I'm jinxing it.

I have, however, been in a good flow with a few minutes of morning yoga and at least five minutes of yoga as soon as the little one is put to bed.  This is mandatory on Sundays through Thursdays in the evening.  More than five minutes is great, but I have to do at least five minutes.

This video is longer, but it's super gentle and a very sweet way to end the day if you're looking for mostly stretching and being easy with yourself.

3. Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

I have the hardest time finding children's board books that I love.  Maybe it's because I end up reading the ones we buy 5,000 times or because I think it's CRAZY to spend more than $5 on a board book.  That means I buy a lot of used children's books.  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  We happened to be out and about without enough nap time reads... blasphemy in my family and splurged on a few new ones.  This was one, and I LOVE it.

It rhymes.  I want my toddler stories to sound like poetry and be fun to read.  It has a cute, sweet story about inclusion.  No bullies or meanies in this story except the actual fire breathing dragon.  Gold star, Donaldson.  I must go get her other one.

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4. Shameless Plugs!  Go check out my newest novel Autumn Leaves.  It's a clean romance which basically means a sweet love story about a small town girl and a soldier minus the explicit scenes and cursing.

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What I'm Reading Wednesdays

Hello!  I'm back in this little space to rejoin the wonderful world of bloggers.  I was struggling with several things when I hastily departed and focused on my whirlwind life.

1. Mommy dilemmas!  I am now a mother to little miss who just turned 1.  As other moms will know,  that first year is very time consuming.   I had to scale way, way back to basics to keep my sanity.

I was and do really struggle with what parts of my life to share and what to keep personal.  While I easily got wrapped up in the beauty of sharing little miss's journey in my life, I also want to protect her.  I didn't know how to open up here but also keep some boundaries intact.  I'm not sure I know how to do this now even, but I'm ready to give it a try.

2. Hubs got a new job, and we moved!  Crazypants, right?  We didn't move far, but it knocked all our socks off for a hot minute there.

3.  Reading slowed way down when little miss stopped sleeping on me.  I still manage to get one book read every 2 or 3 weeks, but it made generating content really tough.

And without further adieu, here's What I'm Reading...

I am a little more than halfway through I Let You Go by Clare MacKintosh which is fortunate, because I've got it on loan from the library with holds on it so it MUST go back next Wednesday.  I was being a little sluggish with it for a lot of reasons, not all of which are Ms. MacKintosh's doing.

My first novel launched on Monday!  That has been taking up a lot of my non baby time which is very minimal to start with, and it has been taking up lots of brain activity.  If you want to check it out, look me up on Facebook or Amazon under Cassie Zabek.

Also, the book didn't hook me right at first.  I am going through a serious mystery thriller phase, and I thought this one would hit the spot.  The writing is engaging and pleasant.  The story and plot are interesting.  Somewhere near the 30% mark, however, I asked myself why I was reading about these peoples' lives.

Being the optimist that I am, I kept reading, and I am glad I did!  Part 2 hit me like a wallop!  For the first time in years, I had to flip back to the beginning to figure out what was going on!  I'm still a little confused, honestly, but in a good way.  Here's hoping when I report back next Wednesday that I will be finished with it since I have to give it back then.

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What are you reading?