books — Giving Up on Perfect

Christmas Books & Holiday Traditions

November 26, 2012 By Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect 10 Comments

You’ve seen them, right? Seasonal or holiday-themed bucket lists? They seem to be all the rage in the mommy blog world and have been made even more popular with Pinterest.

The second I quit my job to stay home with Annalyn, I started creating lists and plans for every season. Driven by my fear of boredom and my ambition to “do this mom thing right,” I painstakingly sifted through events calendars and other moms’ lists, picked the perfect font and literally placed a check box in front of every “meaningful” activity I chose for my family.

It actually worked well and was a lot of fun for a while. Annalyn loved helping me pick out things to put on our lists, and she’s inherited my love of checking things off a list. So there was that, too. Then this summer happened.

After all my plans for a fun anything crumbled this summer, I was wary of making many fun plans for this fall. So I didn’t. We were super busy, so we wouldn’t have had time for much anyway. But I’ll admit that I missed having a list.

It turns out that while having a “fun list” for each season makes me more likely to go over the top with my type A tendencies, it also ensures we’re intentional about experiencing something new, keeping up a family tradition and having a little fun among the busyness of the everyday.

Still, I know how hectic the holiday season is. And now that I’m working outside the house again, I’m well aware that our family time and our fun time is limited. So this year, I’m not making a holiday bucket list. No printout, no check boxes, no gotta-get-it-done schedule. Just a decision that these are the holiday traditions we’ll keep this year.

What holiday traditions will you keep this year? I know that’s what you’re dying to ask me. It’s only fair, since I’m going to ask you, too, right?

This year, we’ll . . .

Decorate the tree together.
Listen to so much Christmas music that we hear it in our sleep.
Drink hot chocolate and watch Elf.
Watch The Grinch (the real [animated] one) with my parents and brother. (Done!)
Watch the Claymation Christmas Special with them, too.
See the Plaza lights.
Use Truth in the Tinsel for our advent calendar (with the printable ornaments).
Read a Christmas book every night.

I think I’ve figured out the key to creating and keeping traditions without turning it into just another item on a to-do list. This year, at least, we’re not adding a lot of things to our normal routine; we’re just Christmas-fying the things we already do.

We normally listen to music together in the car. So we’ll listen to Christmas music.
We occasionally watch a movie as a family. So we’ll choose a Christmas movie.
We always read a book before bedtime. So we’ll make it a Christmas book.

Reading a Book a Day for Christmas

This one’s a pretty simple tradition to start, if you’re looking for something to make your holiday season a little more special without adding dozens of cookies or homemade ornaments or caroling around your entire subdivision.

Here’s what I did:

I looked up all the Christmas books I could remember reading (as a child and to Annalyn in past years). Then I filled in my list with recommendations from friends, blogs and Amazon lists. Then I requested every single one from the library the day after Thanksgiving. Most of them will be here before December 1, but even if a few are later, it’s no big deal. We’ll just read those later in the month.

Once I get a stack of books from the library (and before December 1), I’ll wrap them up and put them in a basket under our Christmas tree. (Yes, that means I wrapped up non-Christmas books for that photo up above. Busted.)

What books should you read? You can get them from the library like I did. You could also buy 25 books or use books you already own. I didn’t have the budget for that many new books this year, and we don’t own more than a couple Christmas books (including one vintage Golden Book from my childhood!). As for which specific books to use, my friend Jessie has a great list of Jesus-centered books on her blog.

For my family, I’m gathering a variety of books that has both Jesus and Santa, elves and camels, real and make-believe. These are the books we’re reading:

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss
The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore
God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa Tawn Bergren
Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner
Who Is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate
Humphrey’s First Christmas by Carol Heyer
Merry Christmas, Curious George by H. A. Rey
Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas by Jane O’Connor
The Perfect Christmas Gift (Gigi, God’s Little Princess) by Sheila Walsh
A Berry Bitty Christmas (Strawberry Shortcake) by Amy Ackelsberg
Room for a Little One: A Christmas Tale by Martin Waddell
Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
Olivia Helps with Christmas by Ian Falconer
How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas? by Jane Yolen
Charlie and the Christmas Kitty by Ree Drummond
Christmas in the Big Woods (Little House) by Laura Ingalls Wilder
A Very Handy Holiday (Handy Manny) by Susan Ring
Clubhouse Christmas (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) by Susan Amerikaner
Why Christmas Trees Aren’t Perfect by Dick Schneider
Olive, the Other Reindeer by Vivian Walsh
Christmas Cookies: Bite-Size Holiday Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
A Pirate’s Night Before Christmas by Philip Yates
The Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving by Michael Berenstain
Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini

As promised, I want to know about your traditions. What will you do to make this Christmas season special?

For more ideas, read Simple Mom’s ideas for Christmas traditions and Amanda’s alternatives to the Elf on the Shelf.

Filed Under: Entertainment & Pop Culture, Family & Friends Tagged With: books, holidays, parenting

What I’m Into :: September 2012

September 29, 2012 By Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect 4 Comments

We’ve reached the end of another month. Does this make you:

a. Want to say, “Wow! Time flies!”
b. Want to ask, “Where did the month go?”
c. Excited to put on jeans and decorate for fall?
d. Worried that your jeans might not fit this fall?
e. None of the above

My jeans fit as badly as they did in the spring, so I guess that’s a good thing. Or, at least it’s not a bad thing! And I’m excited to pull out my favorite sweaters. I will admit, though, that resisting the “time flies” cliches is hard, and even though October is my very favorite month, I’m a little anxious for all the busy-ness it brings.

Good thing we have apple harvest candles and pumpkin spice everything to get us through the tough times.

What I’m Reading: For the first time in a long time, I haven’t read many books. I’ve read some fluffy books (and some awful books) I got free with my Kindle app, but they’re really not worth mentioning. I did read The Mediator series from Meg Cabot. It’s a YA series about a girl who can see ghosts, and yes, it’s as silly as it sounds. Despite that, I actually enjoyed it and kept picking up the next book until I reached the end of the six-book series.

(I was fooled into thinking that I’d like some of Cabot’s other YA books. I was wrong.)

What I’m Watching: Most of my favorite shows are back (How I Met Your Mother, Castle, NCIS, New Girl and Parks & Recreation), so of course I’m watching them. But I’ve also been watching the trailers for two new movies, wishing it was my birthday so I could force Smitty to go see them with me. I’d probably want to see 10 Years no matter when it came out (hello?! The adorable, married stars of Step Up are in it!), but its premiere so close to my own class reunion certainly raised my interest even more. For the record, it’s my 15-year reunion taking place this weekend. And I’m not going.

But I guess that’s a story for another post.

The other movie I want to see is Pitch Perfect, about competitive a capella singers. I’m fairly positive there is no conceivable circumstance under which Mark would agree to see this. So I’ll probably be waiting for the DVD.

What I’m Eating: Oatmeal, carrots, bananas and grilled chicken. Yes, that’s right. I’m back on the wagon. That didn’t stop me from making a tasty candy mix for my small group last week, though – and yes, you can look for that recipe in a couple weeks!

What I’m Listening To: A while back, one of the entertainment sites I read posted the video for Mumford & Sons’ new song, I Will Wait. They wrote, “Hey! Are you a white person in your 30s clinging to the notion that you’re kind of cool and relevant, but really, you drive a mini-van and wear Doctor Who T-shirts covered in spit-up? Wow! That’s weirdly specific, but if so, you probably love Mumford and Sons, hipster music for people too old to be hipsters!” (Source)

Harsh, but hilarious. And pretty true. Thankfully I neither drive a minivan nor wear spit-up-covered shirts, but I do love Mumford & Sons. And that’s why I downloaded and love their new album, Babel. You, too?

Last but far from least, you’re going to love this video. Jimmy Fallon and the actors from the new (and, according to every review I’ve read and my assumptions based on the commercials, terrible) show, Guys with Kids, sang about theme songs. And it was awesome. Enjoy!

What were you into in September?

This post was inspired by Sorta Crunchy’s monthly post. And it contains affiliate links.

Filed Under: Entertainment & Pop Culture Tagged With: books, what i'm into

Graceful (for young women) :: A Giveaway

September 10, 2012 By Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect

This spring I read through my friend Emily’s book with a group of friends. Though I’d known these three women for several years, the Sunday nights we spent discussing Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life by Emily P. Freeman taught me so much about my friends. They shared stories I hadn’t heard before, and I did the same – because the book also taught me so much about myself.

More than once, as we answered the study question and shared our struggles and our lives, a new realization about why I am the way I am – and how different it is from what God wants for me – hit me between the eyes. I’ve written about wearing masks before, and I still struggle with feeling safe enough to be authentic instead of whatever I think you want to see. Grace for the Good Girl helped me work through some of those issues, but when we finished it, I knew my work and growing weren’t finished.

So when I was asked to review Emily’s book on the same topic for young women, I jumped at the chance.

Graceful (for Young Women): Letting Go of Your Try-Hard Life is written for girls of every kind. Chapters are written for the girl next door, the intellectual, the dreamer, the bystander and more. Because girls of all types – and ages – fight with expectations, the fear of not living up and the masks we wear to cover it all up.

Here’s a little more about Graceful:

As girls grow up, they are told to be nice, make good grades, don’t complain, serve the poor, find the right answer and above all be a good girl. But what happens when a girl’s identity is overshadowed by the idea of being “good” rather than being loved by God? The girl next door who hides behind her image, the activist who hides behind her causes, the bystander who hides behind her comfort zone – each of these girls needs to hear that she doesn’t have to try harder.

Freeman’s message to young woman: “You are not merely a rule-following, reputation-making, image-maintaining, responsible, intellectual good girl You are not just a girl who needs to try harder, do better, be more, look good, be perfect. You are not the boring one, the responsible one, the counselor, the peacemaker, the background friend, or the problem solver. These hiding places may have been helping you cope, but they are not who you are.”

“Life isn’t about trying hard to be good,” Freeman tells her readers. “It’s about trusting God to be graceful – to be specially marked by divine grace.” Through an honest look at the roles girls play, she helps them learn to stop trying and start trusting that the Jesus who came to save them also comes to live with them.

Do you know a teen girl who could benefit from letting go of her try-hard life? If you know a teen girl, then you probably do.

(Maybe she’s not even a teen. Or maybe she is you. I won’t judge if you want to read this one for yourself. After all, I’ve made it no secret that I adore many young adult books – and this one is no exception. As a matter of fact, after seeing the chapter titled, “The Intellectual: Hiding Behind Her Report Card,” it took me a full minute to remember that, Oh yeah, I haven’t gotten a report card in more than a decade. The point is, even though I’m no longer “a young woman,” this book totally spoke to me.)

No matter who you think should read Graceful, I’ve got exciting news! I’m giving away one copy of Graceful (for young women) by Emily P. Freeman.

To enter, leave a comment and tell me something about your high school years. Good, bad, stressful or joyful – just tell me something about who you were (or still are!) as a young woman.

The giveaway will close at midnight (CST) on September 16. Affiliate links are used in this post.

Filed Under: Deals & Giveaways, Entertainment & Pop Culture Tagged With: books

What I’m Into :: August 2012

September 1, 2012 By Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect 15 Comments

Last night a transformer blew in our neighborhood, and our power was out for about two hours. The good news is that a) I found a flashlight that worked (and three that didn’t) and b) Dirty Dancing played twice on cable, so I got to watch pretty much the whole thing, despite the hours without electricity.

In other news, the watermelon in the photo above did, unsurprisingly, cause me to snap a photo and quote Dirty Dancing on Instagram. I carried a watermelon?

Really, though, not many days go by without me quoting Dirty Dancing.

And with that, let’s move onto a quick review of August. How was YOUR August?

What I’m Reading:

I’m actually in the middle of several serious, grown-up books. But if we’re only talking about books I finished this month, then I have to confess that it’s been pretty light fare on my reading list. (That’s what summer’s for, right?)

Irene Hannon is one of my favorite Christian authors, and her latest romantic suspense novel didn’t let me down. Neither the romance nor the suspense is too intense, but she still writes realistic stories with relatable characters. Lethal Legacy was the third book in the Guardians of Justice series about law enforcement officers based in St. Louis, and I really enjoyed it.

I also read the fourth and fifth books of the Mortal Instruments series. I can’t say I regret it, but they weren’t that great either. I loved the original trilogy and had decided not to read the additional books. Apparently, I fancied myself a Mortal Instruments purist. But one tweet from my friend Jessie was all it took to send me to the YA stacks at the library. So, I read them. I liked them. But I think I might have been better off having stopped after the third book.

Now for the good stuff. If you are a fan of YA paranormal novels, I highly recommend Unearthly by Cynthia Hand. It’s the first in a series about angels, and it is awesome. I loved the characters and the way Hand writes dialogue. And now I cannot wait until the third book comes out next year!

Gah! This is the curse of the YA trilogy! The angst! And the wait! The angsty wait!

Anyway. I also finished reading through the Psalms this month. I may not have gotten as much out of the book as I should have, just “checking the box” more days than I’m proud of. But it felt good to follow through and finish something for once. And now I’m off to finish reading through the Proverbs . . . which I started three months ago!

What I’m Watching:

I’d planned on telling you about how much I enjoyed The Bourne Legacy, and how I’m not sure Matt Damon can actually compete with Jeremy Renner. And then I was going to talk again about how we rented The Muppets a couple weeks ago, and Annalyn has barely stopped giggling and shouting, “Mahna Mahna!” since. Finally, I was going to ask if any of you watch Suits on USA. Because despite the fact that I think it’s a pretty boring show, I got sucked into it this summer and ended up really enjoying it . . . which may have something to do with the fact that it’s a show about Powerful Men. Wearing Suits.

And then I was going to be thankful The Muppet Movie keeps me from sounding completely shallow. (In my defense, I heard that Suits is way better this year than last year. So it kind of makes sense that I liked it better this year. Okay?)

But all that is a moot point now. Because for the past few days, it has been all Downton Abbey, all the time at my house. Oh. My. Word! I kept hearing how great this series is and how I should watch it and it’s unbelievable that I’m not watching it and do you not know you’re missing out, Mary?! But honestly, I just couldn’t see it. I mean, really? A show about snobby British people and their servants? On PBS? And you say it’s good?

Surely not.

Um, right. RIGHT. I stand corrected. I was wrong, wrong, wrong! Downton Abbey is simply . . . delicious. I don’t know why I love it. But oh, I do. I love it, and it’s taking every ounce of willpower I have (so, you know, all three ounces) to not devour Season Two RIGHT THIS SECOND.

What I’m Eating: The bad news is that I’ve rediscovered no-bakes . . . and eaten a LOT of them. The good news is that I’m now out of cocoa and refusing to buy more. I think. Yes. No. I’m not buying more! I won’t make more no-bakes! I won’t do it! (I might.)

What I’m Listening to: Yesterday at work, I cranked up my Mumford & Sons Pandora station – and promptly earned points from both our worship arts guys. One when he heard an actual Mumford song and the other when he said, “Are you listening to Imagine Dragons?” Why yes, yes I am. I mean, fine. It was just one song, but I knew it. So that counts, right? I’m cool? Kind of?

I also love Home by Phillip Phillips. Love. It. So all that time I didn’t understand why my friends were going on and on about some guy on American Idol, I was missing out.

And now, a gift for you. (Wait! A warning for you. This video is about eating greasy fast food, and it uses a bit of profanity. If either of those bother you, don’t click. But if you enjoy the occasional burger from Five Guys, you might enjoy this high-larious video as much as I did!)

This is how bacon is supposed to be. Five Guys autotune video.

What were you into in August?

This post was inspired by Sorta Crunchy’s monthly post. And it contains affiliate links.

Filed Under: Entertainment & Pop Culture Tagged With: books, what i'm into

What I’m Into :: July 2012

July 28, 2012 By Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect 3 Comments

I think I have a problem. And I’m not referring to my car that’s headed to the mechanic because it won’t go, the big zit on my neck, or the fact that my daughter seems to think accessorizing her dress-up outfit with one glove, ala Michael Jackson, is fashionable. I’m referring to the fact that I didn’t take a single non-blog-related picture with my camera in the entire month of July.

Luckily for me, the photo of marshmallows up there, taken last July, is relevant once again this month. S’mores are always in season, aren’t they?

Anyway. July has been a good, though photo-less, month. How was yours?

What I’ve Been Reading

Looking for Alaska by John Green: Hey, look! Only one YA book in this month’s list! Is it possible my tastes are maturing? Nah. Only temporarily, I’m sure. Anyway, this novel was about a teenage boy sent to a boarding school, the friends he makes and the adventures they have. Of course, in the edgy-almost-raw style of today’s YA, the adventures they have are more accurately described as the trouble they cause, but even though the story’s juveniles are, in fact, a bit delinquent, they’re smart and honest enough to be appealing.

That’s the thing about Green’s books. Though I have nothing in common with his main character, I still saw myself and my heart in his thoughts, words and actions.

Also, as a side note that’s actually pretty central to the book, the format of the story is done exceptionally well. The first two-thirds of the book is a countdown to some unknown event, with chapters being marked as “26 days before” and the like. It reminded me of the How I Met Your Mother episode, when Marshall’s dad died, and this book packed a punch just as visceral as that show – and then some.

Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe: Two readers recommended this autobiography (hi, Jennifer Young and Adele!), and since I loved Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling’s books so much, I thought, Why not? I mean, it’s not like I have a stack of serious spiritual books waiting for me. Clearly I have time for a movie star’s autobiography!

Well, here’s the thing: I really liked reading this book.

I’m a few years too young to really understand the appeal of 80s and 90s Rob Lowe. Fortunately, he made sure to tell his readers – repeatedly, in case we forgot – just how beautiful he is. He also name-dropped like crazy and gave his unapologetically biased view on his entire life, glossing over controversy and detailing his relationships with rising stars such as Sean Penn, Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise.

And I ate it up. I didn’t necessarily love Rob Lowe when I finished the book, but the insider’s look into the making of a star – even such a biased look – was fascinating.

Glamorous Illusions by Lisa T. Bergren: As you know, if you’ve read any of my book reviews in the past year, I have adored Bergren’s River of Time series, as well as Susan May Warren’s Daughters of Fortune series. So a book by Bergren set in approximately the same time period as Warren’s series seemed like a good bet.

And it was. I read almost the entire 400-page book in one sitting, staying up way, way too late to finish it. And because it’s the first in a series and leaves all the story lines open-ended, I am now dying to read the next one!

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Here’s the best thing I can say about this one: I can cross another book off my I Need to Read the Classics List. I know people love this book and all, but I didn’t. And I cannot fathom how a movie based on this book (even if it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire and is supposed to be fabulous) could possibly be good. I just can’t.

iPhone Photography: a Visual Guide by Alli Worthington: This, though, I love. When I got my smartphone, I was so excited to use instagram. That is until I realized how lousy my camera photos are! Alli has written a book full of tips and information about taking excellent photos with your camera, and she’s still selling it at the introductory price of $5 – but just through tomorrow (Sunday) night. So, if this sounds like your sort of thing, you should get it now!

What I’ve Been Watching

We’re skipping TV this time (gasp!) and going straight into movies. Mark and I went to see The Amazing Spider-Man a few weeks ago, and it was really good! It was long, which I do appreciate after paying a million dollars for a ticket, and the two main characters were adorable and funny.

I remember very clearly watching Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire, and I remember being surprised at how much I really enjoyed it. So I’m not sure this new rendition is necessarily better, but I will say that the third Tobey-Spidey movie left a bad enough impression that I might be swayed into voting for the 2012 version. That might not be fair, but neither was assaulting my eyes and ears with a singing, dancing Peter Parker. Bottom line: I love Spider-Man, and the new movie was a lot of fun.

I’ve also been watching the Bourne Legacy preview every single time it comes on and counting down the days until it premieres. If there’s one thing I love more than a spy movie or a conspiracy movie, it’s a conspiracy spy movie. Is that the name of the genre? No? Well, that’s what I’m calling it.

What I’ve Been Listening to