Friday Links and Loves, 6th ed.

Grown-Ups Shouldn’t Finish Books They’re Not Enjoying, by ModernMrsDarcy.  I recently read Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller and she made an interesting point about teaching kids it’s OK to abandon a book they aren’t enjoying.  It never occurred to me that some readers might not know that this was acceptable.  I started asking classes as they came in if it was OK to stop reading a book they didn’t like and every single kid yelled a confident NO.  To which I yelled back, YES!  If you aren’t enjoying a book, reading isn’t going to be fun for you.  My rule of thumb is 3 chapters.  If you aren’t enjoying it 3 chapters in, for all that is holy, STOP READING 🙂

This post and this post, both about the same surprise trip.  Katie planned a surprise day trip for Ali, complete with air travel and everything.  Love it.  If you want to plan a surprise trip for me, please know that I am all for that type of thing.

Beauty In What Remains.  I despise clutter.  Like, really despise.  I throw things away constantly.  Jean (my assistant at the library) tells everyone that she doesn’t like to sit still for too long because she’s afraid I’ll throw her away.  This is probably why I enjoy moving–you get to clean everything out and start fresh.  I SO identified with this post.

This home office.  I’m wanting to create a home office for myself and this post was terrific inspiration.

Motherhood isn’t a Competition, It’s A Calling.  Lisa-Jo really hit the nail on the head with this one.  She is somehow always able to reach into my undeserving, unfit, never-good-enough mothering heart and make it all seem ok.  Because, moms, we ARE all in this together.  Motherhood is a team sport, ya’ll.

Like these bamboo baskets.  You know, for my new office space.