Austin Family Diary's Baby Shower

I've been following Tiffany at The Austin Family Diary for  a while now.

Her link up 10 Day YOU Challenge which evolved into Tuesday Topics with Life.Love.Lauren quickly became one of my favorite link ups to participate in. It changed every week and it was a great way to get to know other bloggers better.

She even used the 10 Day YOU Challenge link ups final topic {One Photo} to announce her pregnancy to the blogging world.

Several bloggers worked together to throw a virtual baby shower. I've never done anything like this before, but it sounded like fun. 

Here's what we fixed for the shower:

I originally wanted to make a mustache cake to go along with the mustache "little man" theme, but that was a huge disaster. Me and icing cakes do NOT get along!

So, I went with a plan B that was more suited to my dessert decorating abilities.

Mustache Brownie Sundae

Since I couldn't make the mustache cake work, I made a mustache brownie. I've never had a brownie sundae at a shower, but I figured why not?!

I'm sorry I don't have a fancy recipe to give you. It was really simple. I made brownies as I normally do-from a box. This one is my favorite. 

Then, I used something round to cut a circle out of the pan of brownies.
Next, I cut it like this:

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Then, I formed it into a mustache, added a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and drizzled it in chocolate syrup.

I thought I'd end this post by showing you the kind of baby gift I like to give.

I like giving gift baskets because they're fun to put together.

I also like to give practical gifts.

These are pictures from a gift I recently gave to a friend of mine, but for the sake of this post-we'll pretend it's my virtual gift to Baby Austin.

I found these books at a local book store. I think books are a great gift that the child can use for many years. These are such classics!

I started off with the wipes, baby Q-tips, and baby lotion.

Then I added the books, Desitin, baby nail clippers, monkey toy, and teething rings.

 Here's the completed gift basket with tissue paper.

Congratulations Austin family!

Cleaning Out My Diet

So,  I'm a little nervous to write about this topic because I know I am going to fail. But, I want to share my journey with you.

Before I get started, I just want to say that on my blog I never want you to feel like I'm saying that my way of thinking is the "best way" or even the "right way." I believe each person has to come to decisions on their own. However, my blog is a place for me to share my thoughts and my journey through life. 

I shared at the beginning of the month how I read the book 7: an experimental mutiny against excess. I also shared how this book really changed my perspective about a lot of things. Well, one of those things was how I eat. 

On page 36 of the book, Jen Hatmaker quotes a study from EurekAlert stating some disturbing facts. 

U.S. life expectancy was projected to rise indefinitely, but a new study suggests that this trend is going to reverse itself due to the rapid rise in obesity. Our kids are the first generation in the history of America that has a shorter life span than their parents.

I also heard this fact when I watched the documentary Food, Inc. 

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Our Western Diet basically includes:

• highly processed food
• chemicals used to raise plants and animals
• massive consumptions of fast food
• absence of fruits and vegetables
• a tiny handful of crops, such as wheat, corn, and soy

(Seriously, watch Food, Inc. and all of this will make sense.)

So, I felt convicted. I don't feel like this is the way God intended for us to eat. 

Genesis 2:16: "And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden.'"

God gave man plants for food.

After Adam and Eve sinned and ate the forbidden fruit, God cursed them.

 Genesis 3 starting at the end of verse 17 and going to the beginning of verse 19: "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food."

An interesting thought was given to me by someone else. In the same way, there is now some ways around some of women's curse of pain during childbearing, men also do not toil in the field for our food. We don't have to work and sweat just to have food to eat. We go to the grocery store and pick it up. 

Now, I'm not saying I'm going to give up meat and only eat plant based foods. I don't know if I could do that. I just know that God gave us food by nature. I believe that is the food we're intended to eat. 

I also feel that changing my diet will help me to be an overall healthier person which I would hope would prevent me from dealing with certain diseases and illnesses as I age. I also would hope to pass along good habits to my future children to help them be in good health as well. 

I don't want to spend this whole post listing my reasons for wanting to change my diet. If you're interested in reading more reasons to cut out processed food, 100 Days of Real Food has a great list here. 

Along with having reasons to cut out processed foods, I also have plenty of reasons not to. My number one reason is convenience. It's SO much easier to just eat whatever. My second reasons is taste and the fact that I am a very picky eater. 

So, please know that this is going to be hard for me. I love food. It's quite obvious in the weight I've gained in the last few years. However, I know that my health and future is more important than all of that. I feel like if I take it slow and make it a lifestyle change rather than a quick "fad," I can succeed. 

I don't think I can ever be 100% real food. I think I'd be happy with 75-80%. 

Here is my plan for the first phase towards better eating:

1. Buy grass fed meat. 

I have found a couple of places where I can buy this and we also have deer meat during part of the year. 

2. Eat fruits and vegetables every day.

The number of fruits and veggies I like is very limited. I'm going to have to branch out and learn to like new things. I'm also going to have to learn to cook new things.

3. Switch to whole grain.

I found a bakery nearby that sells bread made from whole grain. When it comes to pasta, I think I'm going to have to start with a 50/50 mix. Lee is not on board with the whole grain thing. 

4. Limit snacks.

I want to have a very small handful of processed items that I snack on. Most of my snacks need to be things I've made from natural ingredients. 

5. Eat out less.

For us, it is sometimes necessary to eat out. I don't know if we can ever truly cut it out completely. I want to work on only eating out when necessary and making wiser food choices when we do have to eat at a restaurant. 

6. Begin reading ingredients labels.

I want to begin to try and buy things with less ingredients. I also want to try and cut out as much high fructose corn syrup as possible. 

I know this may seem like a lot, but I'm already doing several of these things. I also don't plan on switching to a new phase until these things are coming pretty naturally. 

If you're interested in knowing more about eating real food, 100 Days of Real Food is a great website to get you started. There are also several documentaries out there including the one I mentioned earlier. I also started a Real Food Pinterest board and a Real Food Recipe Pinterest board. 

 I know I've seen several bloggers recently posting on this topic. I'd love to know your tips or where you get information or recipes from. Do you have any book, documentary, or website suggestions?

March Book Reviews

Here are the books I read during the month of March. I was off work for half of the month, so I had lots of time to get reading done.

My goal for 2013 is to read 40 books with 10 of them being nonfiction and 5 being classics.

So far, I've read 14 books. I've read 3 nonfiction and 0 classics.

I'm doing terrible with the classics (as you can tell). I started Pride and Prejudice, but just can't make myself finish it. I'm also currently reading The Lemonade War to my students; and I'm still trying to finish the nonfiction book, When Helping Hurts. Look forward to those reviews at the end of April.

I'd love to have you follow me on Goodreads. 

Echoes by Robin Jones Gunn

I received this book through the Blogging for Books program. I wrote a separate review for it here if you'd like to read it.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Book Description:

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years, from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding, that puts the violence, fear, hope and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives, the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness, are inextricable from the history playing out around them. Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heartwrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love, a stunning accomplishment.

Book description and image via Goodreads

My review:

I really liked this book. It's probably my favorite book that I've read this year. I read The Kite Runner and reviewed it during January. While The Kite Runner centered around male characters in Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns is mainly about females living in Afghanistan. Once again this story taught me a lot about the history and people of a place I know very little about. Reading about the devastation that has taken place in the Middle East makes me truly appreciate my freedoms, but also it breaks my heart for the people who have lived through this. This story centers around Miriam and Laila who are from different generations and different upbringings, but due to war and tragedy find themselves living together and becoming friends. I couldn't put this book down and read most of it in a day. It also had me in tears throughout. I highly recommend it. 

I give it 5 out of 5 stars.


In the Land of Blue Burqas by Kate McCord

Book Description:
 The author speaks the local language and has interviewed and conversed with hundreds of Afghans, both men and women. She listened to their stories and lived among them. And in the midst of all of that, she found Kingdom responses to the beliefs Afghani Muslims hold to be true.
Riveting and fast paced, In the Land of Blue Burqas depicts sharing the love and truth of Christ with women living in Afghanistan which has been called "the world's most dangerous country in which to be born a woman." These stories are honest and true. The harsh reality of their lives is not sugar-coated and that adds to the impact of the book. Through storytelling the author shows how people who don't know Christ come to see Him, His truth and His beauty. The stories provide insight into how a Jesus-follower brought Jesus' teachings of the Kingdom of God to Afghanistan. They reveal the splendor of Christ, the desire of human hearts, and that precious instance where the two meet. This is a collection of vignettes tethered together by the real danger that muslim women face in Afghanistan. These are firsthand accounts from the authors experience drawn from living among these women. The reader will see just how revolutionary Christ's message is today, and how radical it was during Christ's lifetime - the present day Afghan cultural attitudes are not unlike they were 2000 years ago.  All of the names of those involved - including Kate's - plus the locations have been changed to protect the participants. Just take a few minutes and read the opening pages. You'll be hooked.

Book description and image via Amazon

My review: 
One day a package arrived at our door from Amazon and this book was inside. My husband thought it looked like a book I would enjoy so he got it for me. I was captivated instantly and probably read 1/3 of the book in my first sitting. Right after reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, this book continued to teach me about Afghanistan and Islam only in a nonfiction and from a Christian point of view. I found it fascinating. I was constantly telling my husband some new fact I learned from this book. From this book I was able to continue to learn more about a people who I think we are quick to judge but know so little about. Afghanistan is also the perfect context to better understand the context of the Bible because their lives look more like the lives in the Bible than our lives ever will. From reading this book, I was better able to understand some of the stories from the Bible for myself. There were times it felt like the author was repeating herself. The book is divided into chapters based on topics, so it is not written chronologically. Reading this book felt more like having a conversation with someone. There was also one chapter that I didn't agree with the author's beliefs. Overall, though, I enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Book Description:

The majestic and haunting beauty of the Italian Alps is the setting of the first meeting of Enza, a practical beauty, and Ciro, a strapping mountain boy, who meet as teenagers, despite growing up in villages just a few miles apart. At the turn of the last century, when Ciro catches the local priest in a scandal, he is banished from his village and sent to hide in America as an apprentice to a shoemaker in Little Italy. Without explanation, he leaves a bereft Enza behind. Soon, Enza's family faces disaster and she, too, is forced to go to America with her father to secure their future. Unbeknownst to one another, they both build fledgling lives in America, Ciro masters shoemaking and Enza takes a factory job in Hoboken until fate intervenes and reunites them. But it is too late: Ciro has volunteered to serve in World War I and Enza, determined to forge a life without him, begins her impressive career as a seamstress at the Metropolitan Opera House that will sweep her into the glamorous salons of Manhattan and into the life of the international singing sensation, Enrico Caruso. From the stately mansions of Carnegie Hill, to the cobblestone streets of Little Italy, over the perilous cliffs of northern Italy, to the white-capped lakes of northern Minnesota, these star-crossed lovers meet and separate, until, finally, the power of their love changes both of their lives forever. Lush and evocative, told in tantalizing detail and enriched with lovable, unforgettable characters, The Shoemaker's Wife is a portrait of the times, the places and the people who defined the immigrant experience, claiming their portion of the American dream with ambition and resolve, cutting it to fit their needs like the finest Italian silk. 

Book description and image via Goodreads

My review:
I really enjoyed this book and even though it is quite thick, I finished it in a few days. I was hooked on this book from the beginning. The characters were enjoyable and evoked a lot of emotion. I felt what they felt. I cared about what happened to them. This is one of those love stories where the timing is always wrong. Historical fiction is my favorite genre and this one did not disappoint. I loved reading about the struggles of the immigrants who came to America to better their life. It's fascinating how hard they worked and how our country was built by these hard working people. I know I said A Thousand Splendid Suns was my favorite book so far this year, but this book is right up there with it.


I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Book Description:
Alice is twenty-nine. She is whimsical, optimistic and adores sleep, chocolate, her ramshackle new house and her wonderful husband Nick. What's more, she's looking forward to the birth of the 'Sultana' - her first baby. But now Alice has slipped and hit her head in her step-aerobics class and everyone's telling her she's misplaced the last ten years of her life. In fact, it would seem that Alice is actually thirty-nine and now she loves schedules, expensive lingerie, caffeine and manicures. She has three children and the honeymoon is well and truly over for her and Nick. In fact, he looks at her like she's his worst enemy. What's more, her beloved sister Elisabeth isn't speaking to her either. And who is this 'Gina' everyone is so carefully trying not to mention? Alice isn't sure that she likes life ten years on. Every photo is another memory she doesn't have and nothing makes sense. Just how much can happen in a decade? Has she really lost her lovely husband forever?
 Book description and image via Goodreads

My review:
Think about how much your life has changed over the last 10 years. Think of all the new relationships you've developed, the old relationships that have fizzled out, how you've grown and changed as a person, what you like now that you didn't like 10 years ago. Now, imagine waking up and not remembering any of it. That's what happens in What Alice Forgot. This was unlike any book I've ever read before. It was very eye opening to think of how much we change throughout our lives and what has brought us to the point where we are now and where we'll go in our future. I loved how I was trying to figure out Alice's life right along with her. Then, the end kept me guessing as to how everything would turn out. 

I give it 4 out of 5 stars. 

Have you read any of these? 

Have you read any good books this month?

I love getting recommendations.