.bittersweet.

I am a huge nerd and love to read. My roomate from college (who is recently engaged..see post below..woo!), recommended I read the book Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist a few years ago. I seriously read the book in one day...I LOVED it!! Well she recently came out with another book called Bittersweet  and I cannot get enough! I am trying to pace my way through it because I already don't want it to end! Her books are kind of like a journal where one chapter doesn't flow to the next but they are more thoughts and revelations that she comes to....kind of like reading a blog where every post is usually different. She has such a unique way of describing  certain situations and making you feel like you relate to her. The way she writes makes it seem like she is writing down your exact feelings....she makes  you feel normal, like you are not the only one feeling a certain way. Reading her books makes me want to be her friend...haha...I think we would be great friends! haha but for now I will leave you with a few little snippets of things that have spoken to me!

On the importance of gathering friends with friends and eating dinner together:

{when we stop everything else to gather around the table and eat a meal made by someone's hands, we honor our bodies and the God who created them. We honor the world he made and the beauty of creation. And in that moment we acknowledge that even though life is fast and frantic, we're not machines and we do require nourishment, physically and otherwise}

On coming to the realization that you cannot do everything, and making a list of things you do well and things you don't do:

{It's brutal, making the list of Things I Don't Do, especially for someone like me, who refuses most of the time to acknowledge that there is, in fact, a limit to her personal ability to get things done. But I's discovered that the list sets me free. I have it written in black and white, sitting on my desk, and when I'm tempted to go rogue and bake muffins because all the other moms do, I come back to both lists, and I remind myself about the important things: that time is finite, as is energy. And that one day I'll stand before God and account for what I did with my life. There is work that is only mine todo: a child that is ours to raise, stories that are mine to tell, friend that are mine to walk with. The grandest seduction of all is the myth that DOING EVERYTHING BETTER gets us where we want to be. It gets us somewhere, certainly, but not anywhere worth being.}

About throwing parties and seeing your house filled with people you love:

{I don't know where we'll be in five years or how exactly we'll pay the mortgage the next few months or when we'll have another child, but I do know how to make dinner, and to see the people I care about gobble it up makes me feel like something is right, even when it seems like nothing is. There's something so healing about those quiet moments at the table, when everyone's mouth-or mind or heart-is full, when you feel connected and nourished and content, even if it's just for a split second.}

Read it. Seriously. Walk Run to the nearest bookstore and buy her books. You won't regret it!