A monthly list of good things to do, buy, read, watch, and more.
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The air is turning milder, the sun is slanting to give that autumn golden light, and the garden is producing it’s abundance. Welcome, September!
For us, hopefully September will see us weather-proofing the outside of the farmhouse and starting on the expansion of the master bedroom (we’re waiting on that permit…). The deer fence didn’t get finished last month, and to be honest, getting the farmhouse ready for rain has to be the priority right now. We’re pulling nails from the siding and our builder is adding molding and caulking all the windows and corners. It’s moving along!
This month’s good things include something I’ve been working on for you for months – my newest ebook! It’s all about easy gardening and it’s included in the Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle that’s available starting today through September 10th only.
I’m also sharing some sweet mugs I bought and the three tops I’m adding to my fall wardrobe that you may like, too. And of course some reviews of the books I read (I have a new monthly reading record!) and the shows we watched. Be sure to let me know your good things, too!
Good Things:
You all know that I’m a big fan of Ultimate Bundle deals. Some of my best ideas and life changes for everything from gut health, to crafting, to blogging, have come from resources that have been included in previous ultimate bundles.
So of course a good thing to share with you this month is the 2018 Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle: 96 products worth $2,235.92 for only $29.99! Note: the sale has ended – click here to be notified of any upcoming sales.
Not only are there 62 eBooks, 12 printable packs & workbooks, 20 eCourses and 2 membership sites covering topics like fitness & weight loss, home & beauty, healthy children, real food & recipes (1,514 recipes total…), this year’s bundle also includes homesteading and gardening topics!
Which is really exciting for me because I was able to include my newest ebook in the bundle which I’m sharing with you here for the first time:
Vegetable Gardening The Easy Way is your one-stop shop to get all the easy gardening tips I’ve share on the blog over the years without hunting through old articles. I’ve added some new things, too, including more tips and a whole resource of printables (some old, some new) to help you go from seed to harvest with ease. If you are tired of spending all your garden time digging and weeding, I have the answer for you (spoiler: you don’t have to).
Go here to read more about Vegetable Gardening the Easy Way.
I just bought a set of these sweet tinware looking black and white mugs (but they’re ceramic, so no hot fingers!) from Magnolia during their September Sale, where all the sale items are half off. I saw these when we visited the Silos last spring, but couldn’t fit them into our luggage and didn’t want to wait in the looooong line for free shipping.
But now I can get two for the price of one, which saves the $6 shipping anyway. 🙂
I also did a bit of fall shopping at Old Navy when they had a 50% off tops sale (they often run 40% off sales and sometimes 50% – if you get their emails you will be notified). I love sage/army green colors and am glad they are back this season. Here’s what I bought (from left to right above):
Hunter Pines Shirt Jacket – I’m often cold and do a lot of layering – basically all fall, winter, and spring, ha! This heavy “shirt jacket” appealed to me not only because of the color, but as a nice substantial layer over a long sleeved tee when it’s colder or with a cami when it’s warmer.
Black Dot Popover Shirt – I have another lightweight shirt like this in a black and white floral print and I’ve found it to be very versatile – it looks good on it’s own (though I tuck the front in), with a long sweater, or with a blazer when I need to be more “business like.” Which honestly doesn’t happen much, but it’s nice to have options when it does!
Green Printed Lightweight Blouse – Since the black styles have worked so well, I thought this color would be a fun addition. I’ve already styled it in my head with jeans, my long black sweater, and black booties.
Okay, as much as I love the warmer weather, it’s okay for fall to come now. 😉
August Reads
Well, I have a new record – 10 books read in August! (Well, technically 9 if I can’t count a book we got halfway through and just couldn’t finish from boredom…it was The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins if you’re curious, though it was a terrible recorded audiobook, so that may have been the problem.) Here are the six that stood out:
A Grief Observed, CS Lewis. Still working my way through CS Lewis’s works that I can find on audiobook from my library. While I don’t have the major loss of a loved one right now, there is loss of one kind or another throughout our entire lives. It was refreshing to hear Lewis’s ruminations on living, loving, and losing – and what that meant for him as he went on. This quote is one of those that apply to everyone, no matter what type of hardship you may be going through:
The time when there is nothing at all in your soul except a cry for help may be just that time when God can’t give it: you are like the drowning man who can’t be helped because he clutches and grabs. Perhaps your own reiterated cries deafen you to the voice you hoped to hear.
Talking As Fast As I Can, Lauren Graham. I mentioned this book in our last podcast’s cool things segment – the kitchen timer writing technique to be specific. The rest of the book is a memoir of her early years as an actress, how she got on Gilmour Girls, Parenthood, and about the Gilmour Girls reboot. Fun and fluffy.
The Secret Keeper, Kate Morton. I have read so many good things about Kate Morton’s books – many people put them on their ‘best of’ lists. I finally decided to start with one that is mentioned quite a bit. It was okay. I’m not sure why it didn’t grab me. I actually didn’t care for the back-and-forth in time concept. I found it harder to really learn or care about the characters. There is quite a twist at the end that for me was foreshadowed quite a bit. I don’t know – should I try with her other books? At this point I’m just not drawn to them.
Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty. I succumbed to all the hoopla over the Netflix show based on this book, so when I saw it come up in my library app, I downloaded and listened while I worked pulling nails from our siding on the farmhouse. What a soap opera! I honestly didn’t like this at all. It just seemed so small and insular. In fact, this was another book I didn’t finish, but I did make it 3/4 of the way through and just read a synopsis to get the ending (another so-called “twist” – is that the way to write books now do you think?). Warning: there is language and tough situations.
My Name is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout. This was a sweet little book, though I thought there would be more of a plot. When it ended, I was totally taken off guard – really, that was it? I did like how the background and issues with the mother and daughter were gently unfolded, though, and I know many people love this book.
Rendevous with Rama, Arthur C Clarke. One word: boring. This was the book Brian and I listened to this month – he has read other Arthur C. Clarke books and liked them. But literally nothing happens in this book. And when you do think something will…it doesn’t. They find a ship-planet. They explore it, going into minute details that we could care less about (so many chapters about going up and down huge flights of stairs…). They leave and the ship flies off. Riveting, right? Apparently, we are in the minority, because I saw on Amazon that this won lots of awards and the reviews are good. Oh well – to each his own, right?
Watching
Movie:
Mission Impossible: Fallout. This was the movie we saw in theaters this month with our daughter and it was what we expected from the Mission Impossible movies – lots of action and good production. This one also had a pretty good storyline, so we all enjoyed it.
TV/Streaming:
ER on Hulu – I encouraged my daughter to watch this old show from the 1990’s to see if she’d like it because Brian and I loved it back in the day. Thursdays were always ER nights. Not only does she like it – I do too, still! It’s really just as good and has held up well – I only remember general things, so a lot of the smaller storylines are new. I look forward to watching this with her now.
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel pie Society on Netflix – We heard lots about this movie, so when it became available, we watched it with our daughter right away. None of us had read the book, though, so we can’t say how it compares. It was a sweet movie and we appreciated knowing a bit more about that time in the war for the island of Guernsey.
Wanted on Netflix – This was a complete surprise – we found it, watched a trailer, decided to give it a go and so far really like it. It’s about two women in Australia who through no fault of their own become entangled in a botched robbery/killing and have to go on the run because of crooked cops. They didn’t know each other and each has secrets, making them both seem like real people. We’ve watched three of the episodes so far and are wondering where it will go. It’s TV-14, which is like PG on Netflix, ha!
This is How It Ends on Netflix – Oh gosh, how I wish we had heard even one of the bad reviews for this movie (one from Forbes I just read actually said, “Don’t waste 2 hours of your life on this movie” or something to that effect). It’s a movie with lots of questions but no answers, ever – and no ending (is the title supposed to be ironic?). Characters that take up space and just…leave. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be about, but I do wish I could get those 2 hours back!
That’s it for another addition of the Good Things List! If you’d like to see more of what I’m enjoying, you can check out all the Good Things Lists here. I’d love to know what you think – if you’ve tried any of these or what you’d recommend. Leave a comment below with your thoughts!
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Kate Morton is one of my all time favorite authors! All her books do the back and forth like that, so if you didn’t like Secret Keeper you might not like the others. The Forgotten Garden is my favorite.
Well, I didn’t NOT like it, I just didn’t love it. 🙂 I’ve already got the Forgotten Garden in my Audible account, so I’m in for that one!
First of all if you get a chance to read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pis society – please do, the movie did not do it justice at all. It is a book in epistolary style and reading each character’s voice really develops the character for the reader. It is not a long book – but so enjoyable and emotional and the insight to what the island went through is much further detailed. I am currently listening to the Secret Keeper and enjoying it but the has taken me a a while to keep the time line/character stories straight, however I have had The Lake House recommended to me numerous times, so I think I will try that one next. I enjoyed Big Little Lies – found it very interesting and because it was so relevant to the suburbs I was living in, shocking that this occurs in Australia as well. Great Bundling – now I am off to take at it closer. Enjoy the beginning of September and keep turning those pages.
That is so good to know about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Rebecca, I didn’t know it was written like that. It sounds wonderful – I will add it to my TBR list. 🙂