Yellow Butterflies and Funky Music

Yes, friends, it's Monday. And once again that means it's time to reflect on the things that made us happy over the past week. And of course now is also the perfect time to set the tone for a great week to come! 

If you missed my take on LML, you can find it here. If you missed the explanation of LML Monday, you can catch up here.


An Abundance of Butterflies
We have to deal with some unpleasant things here in the Sonoran Desert... scorpions, spiders, and snakes, just to name a few of the worst. But there is another far more pleasant thing that we get to see a lot of this time of year.

Photo: arizonensis.org

 I'm not an expert, but from what I could learn, I believe they are cloudless sulphur butterflies.

I don't know if there are more of them this year, or if I just didn't notice them as much in years past. But lately I have been seeing these happy little yellow butterflies everywhere.

Okay. To be fair, I don't know for sure that they're happy. But I like to believe that they are. At least they always give me a smile


Play That Funky Music
I freely admit that I am not much of a singer, and I have no rhythm for dancing. But for some reason, when I'm driving alone, none of that matters. I can turn up the music, sing along as loudly as I want, and do some awesomely terrible dancing in my seat. I'm sure I look like a crazy person while I'm doing it, but it makes me feel better, so I continue unashamed.

The music varies, and I always enjoy a wide variety. But lately I've discovered that it is absolutely impossible for me to be in anything less than a fantastic mood when I'm singing along to this song:

Ok. I shared mine - now it's your turn! Please leave me a comment and share some of your recent LML moments. 

Focus on the happy thoughts, and let's all have a great week!

Movie Review: The Fault in Our Stars

I don't typically do a lot of movie reviews here, but since I reviewed the book by John Green earlier this year, I thought I would follow up with a review of the adaptation.

I'll skip the plot synopsis here, because it very closely follows the story laid out in the book (which you can read about in the above link.) I know that people have differing opinions about how closely a movie should stick to the source material. Should it make you feel like you're re-reading the book, or should it only share the title, and completely - and sometimes regrettably - rewrite the entire plot? (I'm looking at you, World War Z.)

I don't think that either option is necessarily correct or incorrect; it all depends on the individual project. In this case, I thought it was very well done. There is enough of the original book kept in tact that John Green fans can relive his beautiful writing, and there is also enough creative variation to make the movie stand on its own.

The passion involved in making this movie - from the writer and director through the entire cast - is obvious, and makes a tragic story that much more beautiful to watch. Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort are brilliant, and their on-screen chemistry made me fall in love with both of them. They are sweet, and smart, and witty, and completely bring to life everything that we all love about John Green characters.

This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a feel-good movie. There are some charmingly funny moments, but there are also some very brutal moments. Even though I knew what was coming, and thought I was prepared for it, I still sobbed like a baby. But at least I wasn't alone in that, because the entire audience was doing the same thing.

As far as adaptations go, I give this one a thumbs up, and recommend it just as much as I recommended the book. When you're in the mood for a beautiful story of love and loss, this is the one for you.



*****

Want to see what other people have to say about the letter F this week? Be sure to visit ABC Wednesday.

Party Like The Doctor

As I'm sure many of you will recall, last November marked the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. And when my kids found out that it was coming up, they asked if we could have a Doctor Who Party. Being a fan of the random reasons to celebrate (remember the 12/12/12 Party?) of course my answer was "Sure. Why not?"

The party was small, and kind of thrown together without a lot of time to plan ahead, but it was still a huge hit. And it led to the conclusion that we must have another one some time. In fact, we eventually decided that we should mark each series premier and finale with a party. Because... why not?

So in preparation for the Series 8 premier on August 23rd, I thought I would help us start getting ready to celebrate its return. 

I haven't really started the preparations for this party yet (that's coming soon) but I figured I'd share some of the things that we did last year, in case any of you would like ideas for your own Doctor Who Party.

Of course my daughter and I had to do our now famous Dalek nails.

And I made some Sonic Screwdrivers.

But the food was the most fun part.

The wormhole pizza was okay.

And the DW pizza was okay.

I was a little disappointed with the TARDIS pizza. (I'll have to experiment with that one a little more before next time.)

But the Dalek pizza was definitely the best.

We had some fruits and veggies.

And of course lots of other fun treats.

If you get all of those references, then you can live your life happily, knowing how awesome you are. If there are some that you didn't get... you should really watch more Doctor Who. :)

The next party will include even more fun and games (I'm thinking "pin the face on Cassandra" will have to be a thing.) So come back after the 23rd and I'll tell you all about it. I'd tell you more now, but, you know...

*****

If you'd like to see what other great things that people are doing with the letter D this week, be sure to hop on over to ABC Wednesday.

Quiet Houses, Girlfriends, and Motivational Coffee Mugs

Yes, friends, it's Monday. And once again that means it's time to reflect on the things that made us happy over the past week. And of course now is also the perfect time to set the tone for a great week to come! 

If you missed my take on LML, you can find it here. If you missed the explanation of LML Monday, you can catch up here.


Back to School Time!
My kids went back to school last Thursday. (I now have a first grader and a third grader - I can hardly believe it!) My daughter was incredibly excited. My son was dealing with it as a necessary evil. And I was... well, if you have kids, you know how I was feeling.

Sure, I'm going to miss having them with me all day. But it's been a very long time since my house was this quiet, and I have to admit that I'm thoroughly enjoying it.


National Girlfriends Day
Last Friday - the day after the kids went back to school - happened to be National Girlfriends Day. And with perfect timing like that, I just had to take advantage of it. Since several of my friends have first graders this year, we decided to mark the day with an our-kids-are-finally-in-school-all-day-so-now-we-can-have-adult-time lunch. It was fantastic, and I am blessed to have such wonderful friends.

Because this is true, and a very important thing to have in life:

Of course, this is also true:

And perhaps most importantly:

Motivational Coffee Mugs
Y'all know that I love coffee. A lot. So it stands to reason that I also love coffee mugs. And I have a lot of really cute ones that I love to use. But lately, this one has been my favorite go-to mug.

It makes me smile every time I use it, and helps remind me that yes, life is most certainly good.


Ok. I shared mine - now it's your turn! Please leave me a comment and share some of your recent LML moments. 

Focus on the happy thoughts, and let's all have a great week!

May/June/July Reading Challenge Update

As you may recall from my post earlier this year, I decided to take part in the 2014 Reading Challenge through Goodreads. I set a conservative goal of reading 26 books this year, and (despite some recent setbacks) I'm still doing well.

I started off the year really strong, and was loving how many books I was able to make it through. I was also happy that I was well ahead of schedule to reach my goal, because I knew that sometimes in life there just isn't much extra time to do the things we love, like reading every day.

This summer was one of those times, and sadly I was only able to finish two books in the last three months. However, I'm still at 69% of my goal, and three books ahead of schedule, so I guess I'm still doing alright.

Here is a recap of what I did manage to read this summer. You can find the full reviews by following the links below.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo