Showing posts with label films. Show all posts
Showing posts with label films. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 03, 2016

What I'm Into Lately (January 2016 edition)

We started the month in full twirl with wedding, family and holiday festivities.  We ended the month at a quiet retreat center.  Seems fitting.  And, I think, now I'm finally ready to get started with 2016!  

 Here are some other things I've been into lately...



[photo credits]  

 Although, it wasn't January yet, I should mention that we made a Christmas Day family trip to Alamo Drafthouse to see the new Star Wars flick (in 3D).  From what I could tell, it was very good. (The rest of my family are the true fans -- some more rabid than others.)  Also, it was late in the day, and I hadn't had my traditional Christmas Day nap. Please, please don't tell the world that I fell asleep.  This, in no way, reflects on the quality of the movie.

The biggest viewing event this month was our Making A Murderer binge (along with the rest of the country, apparently). I have no words that haven't already been shouted in all-caps across social media.  Had you been near our house during the hours we were watching you might have seen a neon blue streak shooting out of the walls.  (My daughter told our son "I've never heard Mom curse like that before.")  Well, some things are, indeed, curs-ed.  

We tried to settle down after the final episode by scrolling through the @makingamurderermemes IG page.  I was inspired to create my own (which my kids tell me is lacking in some key meme-ish qualities, but it made ME feel better.)
Other than that, I've half-heartedly followed the final season of Downton Abbey.  I really wish we'd been given more scenes of Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes' wedding, don't you? Also, if Mary and Edith can even one time treat each other like loving sisters, I will admit to liking the show. 

 I've decided that if a cooking show could reflect a personality, than Brian's would be Chopped and mine would be The Great British Baking Show .  We spent an afternoon watching and drooling over breads and cakes and dreamy British pastures. I can't bake a lick, mind you.  

 We spent another evening catching up on some great Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee episodes (especially enjoyed Jerry Seinfeld's conversation with new Daily Show host Trevor Noah). 

 I spent a bit of my wedding recuperation time watching old favorites: Babette's Feast, Once, and -- I'll admit it if you promise to tell NO ONE -- The Notebook. (The latter prompted a long conversation with Brian and Natalie about what to do with us when we die -- which, of course, will be in each other's arms.)
I may be the last person on earth to really get YouTube.  I mean I'm finally understanding that if you happen upon a video you really, really like YouTube will kindly give you lots and lots more suggestions of other videos you  might like. This is what happened when I watched James Cordon's Carpool Karaoke with Adele, and then watched every single one of his sweet karaoke sessions. (favorites after Adele: One Direction & Stevie Wonder, which includes the sweetest of moments when Stevie Wonder sings to James' wife over speaker phone).  

 Discovering the magical powers of YouTube kept me company during a 24-hour bout with food poisoning and I watched every possible clip of Ellen interviewing adorable kids.  Seriously cute kids.  


 This year, I'm part of two different reading groups made up of friends and sisters. You can find the lists here:  Take Our Ultimate Reading Challenge / A Year of Reading the World, & Liturgy of Life reading group. 
Go to my Book Pile page to see my reading lists from 2015 and previous years.

Here's my reading list for 2016 .  I've also finally figured out Goodreads, and am slightly addicted! I think I'll be adding my book blurbs there instead of in a monthly post here.  Not sure yet.  Here's my Goodreads page, though.  Let's be friends!


Audio streaming anything makes the daily mundane of my life better:  albums, playlists, podcasts, sermons, live concerts, your kids saying cute stuff on Facebook. On rare occasions (rarer than I'd like) the sound comes alive in a concert or house show or public reading. 

 Here's some of what I heard and enjoyed in the past few months.


  • Brian's carpool karaoke cover of Imagine Dragons covering Taylor Swift's Blank Space (& a bit of Stand By Me)
  • Reasonable Doubt: Update: In light of the Making A Murderer documentary, Radiolab re-aired and updated the 2013 episode when they reported out the story of Penny Beerntsen, the rape victim, and the wrongful judgement against Steve Avery.  The interview with the documentary directors is especially enlightening.
  • On Being with Martin Sheen & Spirituality of Imagination - fascinating and delightful (did you know that Martin Sheen has been arrested more than 60 times in vigils and protests or that he made some specific requests of Aaron Sorkin for the religious leanings of President Bartlett?)


ePantry | I learned about a this automatic delivery service for earth-friendly household products from my friend Tsh at Art of Simple.  I got in on a crazy-good introductory offer in January that gave me a whole bunch of free Mrs. Meyers' products (which we can't help but love). Not sure how I'll use the service moving forward, but sure did love getting that delivery to make my house sparkle and smell good in 2016!  
(Spiked) Cranberry Mulled Cider | We used this favorite recipe (via Tiger In A Jar) over and over again through the holidays.  With more adults than minors in the family now, we tried giving a little bourbon kick to the mix this year.  As you might imagine, it was a huge hit.  So much so, that we used the same recipe for the cocktail hour at the wedding.  This recipe will join the few family legacy recipes we've gathered in our 25 years.   
Slow Cooker Chicken Caesar Sliders | We first made this for Kendra's graduation party and it remains our go-to for feeding a crowd -- like our family reunion / NYE party.  I like eating the chicken on a bed of lettuce, but small slider buns (like these) are great for everyone. 


 FoodHeads Cafe on W. 34th St. | WIt wasn't our first time to enjoy this place, but it was our first time to hire them as caterers (as well as renting the venue). Now I can't stop raving about our son and daughter-in-law's rehearsal dinner.  Highly recommend!  
Ranch 616  on Nueces & W. 7th | A sweet mid-week ladies' lunch with my co-workers.  Fun ambiance + really yummy food + reasonable prices + a new to-to for work lunches (or anytime, really).  I ordered the Chili Lime Grilled Tiger Shrimp and Parmesan Truffle fries with dipping sauce.  My mouth is watering now just thinking about it! 





(top posts in January)


Epiphany, week 2: of bridegrooms, good wine & better things to come |  My Epiphany daybook for these 5 weeks of witness. Join me, won't you? (Read here for a brief description of the liturgical season of Epiphany. See previous Epiphany daybook 2015 posts here)
WALKING EPIPHANY in the Rio Grande valley: neighborhood notes from Erica Jarrett | I'd been counting down the days to re-start one of my favorite blog series of the year.  In the WALKING EPIPHANY guest post series I invite friends from near and far to respond to some thoughtful prompts about neighborhood and community with photos and captions of their own neighborhoods. My new friend Erica Jarrett kicked off the series sharing the light of Christ she lives and sees in her neighborhood at the border of Texas and Mexico. And it is a beautiful light indeed.


The gift I finally have permission to share with you | Like every musician I know, Kendra was hesitant for us to share her song publicly. I think we all understand that phone video is not the most conducive quality to translate beautiful music. I think it was worth the risk, and you find this beautiful anyway. 
What were you into in January?
Linking up with Leigh Kramer to share what I’ve been into lately. 
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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

The Giant List of What I Was Into: 2015




We've almost completed the first month of 2016. Rather than a blank slate, turning the calendar page this year felt more like riding a boomerang than relishing a blank page.  It's this crazy season of fortunate events, with all the rest of the ordinary joys and sorrows mixed in between the celebrations. 

 With one last glimpse backward, here's a sampling of what I was into and experienced in 2015.  (It's not too late to share your 2015 favorites with me, and it's always the right time to share recommendations.  Feel free to list away in the comments section!)

favorite art experiences

Oddly, this area of my life is a bit stale right now.  Here I am living in the middle of one of the artsiest cities in the country, with entire world-class museums digitized so I can see their exhibit online and when I think about this category for 2015, I can barely muster a memory.  But there were some good experiences, and I guess that's why this annual documentation is important to me.  The power of recalling a year's worth of impressions and experiences helps me sift through time, and, hopefully gives me direction for the coming year.  The following art experiences made an impact on me last year:

favorite movies

For a whole bunch of reasons Brian and I watched more movies in the theater this year than we've ever done before in our lives.  I was far less discriminating in what I'd normally see for the sheer joy of getting caught up in a story together.  These 5 movies rose to the top of my mind when I thought back over the year.

favorite television experiences

First, The Viral Video Clip That Wrecked Me: Church Shooting Victims' Families Cry, Forgive at Court Hearing

I say "experiences" because most of what I watch is not current TV.  I'm horribly illiterate when it comes to current programming.  Still, I've enjoyed some great moments watching television. Here's what comes to mind at the end of the year.
Seriously considering naming Call the Midwife my favorite television series of all time.  The seasons following the original three which were taken from Jennifer Worth's memoir trilogy are not my favorite of the series. I miss Nurse Jenny Lee (Jessica Raine), but it's still beautiful, power television.  The reboot of Partners In Crime, starring Jessica Raine (and her a-MAZ-ing, mid-century, London wardrobe) makes up for missing Nurse Jenny a bit.  Rectify is powerful, still.  It's hard to watch at times, but so well written and cast and filmed.  The Waltons was a total nostalgia binge, but I was surprised how well (the first few seasons, at least) stands up to the test of time -- and even comes across as quite current in many of its themes.  Grantchester really is a placemarker for all I love about British murder mysteries (Endeavour, Inspector Lewis, Sherlock, Foyle's War, etc.).  This series, though, has the special quality of a young, Anglican priest/war veteran who wants very much to serve his Cambridge-area parish well, but suffers from doubt and loneliness. Sort of a post-modern portrayal Father Brown, but set in the same general era. (both also start as novels)  I'm looking forward to another season.

art of homemaking 


With the cold temps and the sinus suffering last January, I started out 2015 with great recipes in liquid form!  Our dear Rebekah made us the homemade Spiced Pear-Infused Vodka (after soaking pears for like 2 weeks!) which made perfect hot toddys. I also decided that raw garlic and lemon really does heal.  Try it.  The trick is to pretend you're eating an Italian appetizer. 
The late spring introduced us to the wonderful adventure of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and neighbors sharing vegetables on Fridays. In our first month, we've tried about 7 varieties of vegetables for the first time:  pattypan squash, Lebanese zucchini, cured German red garlic, Swiss chard, fresh fennel, French Sorrel (blushing to confess we've never cooked with some of these ingredients). 
Spring also brought some good, old-fashioned housekeeping:
  • Make the Bed Remodel | My first week transitioning from a forty hour workweek to 20 hours made me feel so full of new life I sprang into spring cleaning.  Well, I least cleaned all of our bedding, air-fluffed our pillows in the dryer, rotated our mattress and took the comforter to the laundromat.  Ahhh....a fresh bed is a beautiful way to celebrate new life.
  • How to have hanging ferns that are the envy of the neighborhood | I'm on a quest to keep our Boston Fern alive all summer.  It seems the secret lies in repotting the plant into a coir-lined wire basket.  I swear the fern thanked me audibly after giving her a new home.

As always, the first day of school pumpkin chip cookies & milk party. It was the biggest year yet.



favorite reads

I listed my favorite reads in a post last week:  My top 10 reads in 2015.
You can see all I've read in years past at the following links (I know only people like me would even want to see these lists, but since a lot of people like me also like to read and write blog posts I think it's fairly safe to included these links for you.)
  • 2014
  • 2013
  • 2012
  • 2011
  • before I started lists and then after I made lists with shorter summaries, I try my hand at writing reviews for some of the books I read each year and you can find them here:  Book Reviews, 2008-2014
  • For my top 15 life-changing books since I started writing this blog in 2008, click here 
This year, I'm using a reading challenge checklist with a Facebook group of friends (and sisters).  You can find the 2016 checklist here:  Take Our Ultimate Reading Challenge.  Our group is also using this list as part of the challenge: A Year Of Reading the World (196 countries, countless stories)  

I'm also looking forward to another great year reading with this group: Liturgy of Life Reading Group 2016

favorite listening experiences

Audio streaming anything makes the daily mundane of my life better:  albums, playlists, podcasts, sermons, live concerts, your kids saying cute stuff on Facebook. On rare occasions (rarer than I'd like) the sound comes alive in a concert or house show or public reading. Here's some of what I heard and enjoyed in the past few months.

favorite journeys

a whole bunch of neighbors and friends



On the blog
WALKING EPIPHANY through all the neighborhoods [a guest post wrap up]  the blog series was a complete and surprising joy for me. Here's my thank you to the gracious guests who shared their neighborhoods and stories with us each week of Epiphany 2015.
Lent daybook series. Look, Read, Pray, Listen and Do for the 40 days of prayer.
Retrieve Lament: 7 mourning stories during Holy Week. Each year during Holy Week I ask friends to share a mourning story from their own life as a way to help us see Christ in the midst of suffering. Each story reflects on one phrase of Jesus' dying words and gives me a real-time glimpse into the suffering of Christ.

 Easter daybook, 2015. Look, Read, Pray, Listen, Do for the 7 weeks of Hallelujah!

Practice Resurrection: your photo stories for 2015. One of my favorite blog series ever.  Simple, beautiful, joyous mini-stories of the ways you practice life every day.  Thank you, friends!
16 thoughts for 16 stanzas about practicing resurrection & regretting that hashtag | Holding the Mad Farmer's poetry in one hand and the newspaper in the other.
This is an opportunity to repent. In the outpouring of response to the evil event in a Charleston church, the quietness and strength of the family member's forgiving words cut through my own questions: How should I pray? How should I respond? What does it look like to be a Christian right here, right now? 
Instead of Facebook, a book of faces [sharing at Think Christian] | If these folks filled your Facebook news feed with selfies, you’d probably be tempted to click the “hide” option.
Monday morning thoughts: dancing bear acts, crash helmets, and a Doxology | a hopefully undramatized stream of consciousness meditation about Sunday worship

 Anyone want to read stories about staying married? (I'm asking for a friend) | perhaps the most commented-on post from this year, and to which I have not yet been able to formulate a response

A polite disagreement with Jayber Crow and the Mad Farmer [sharing at ArtHouse America] | Publishing at one of my favorite blogs was a dream come true.  I hope Mr. Berry didn't mind.

My friend A (also M & L) |an homage to an imperfect, long-lasting friendship with good women

This is why I broke a promise to myself on Facebook | In which my best made plans for civil and gracious social interchange got waylaid by the subject of providing refuge within our borders for Syrian & Iraqui refugees fleeing persecution. 
I mean this question sincerely: When Jesus said love your enemies, did He mean Muslims too? | The follow-up post in which I lost more friends than anything else I've ever written (at least, that I'm aware!) 
Advent daybook, 2015 | Look, Listen, Pray, Do for the 24+ days of waiting
Christmastide daybook, 2015 | Look, Listen, Pray, Do for the 12 days of celebrating

What were you into in 2015?
What are you hoping, dreaming, planning, wishing, pinning and making for 2016?

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