Wise Words Wednesday: Amy Poehler

I finally finished the Amy Poehler book "Yes Please" a few weekends ago and I wanted to share some of my favorite quotes. It's such a great book filled with funny stories, emotional insights, and inspirational ideas.
Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“People are their most beautiful when they are laughing, crying, dancing, playing, telling the truth, and being chased in a fun way.” 

“I want to be around people that do things. I don’t want to be around people anymore that judge or talk about what people do. I want to be around people that dream and support and do things.” 

“Telling me to relax or smile when I’m angry is like bringing a birthday cake into an ape sanctuary. You’re just asking to get your nose and genitals bitten off.”

“I think we should stop asking people in their twenties what they “want to do” and start asking them what they don’t want to do.” 

“Hopefully as you get older, you start to learn how to live with your demon. It’s hard at first. Some people give their demon so much room that there is no space in their head or bed for love. They feed their demon and it gets really strong and then it makes them stay in abusive relationships or starve their beautiful bodies. But sometimes, you get a little older and get a little bored of the demon. Through good therapy and friends and self-love you can practice treating the demon like a hacky, annoying cousin. Maybe a day even comes when you are getting dressed for a fancy event and it whispers, “You aren’t pretty,” and you go, “I know, I know, now let me find my earrings.” Sometimes you say, “Demon, I promise you I will let you remind me of my ugliness, but right now I am having hot sex so I will check in later.” 

“Change is the only constant. Your ability to navigate and tolerate change and its painful uncomfortableness directly correlates to your happiness and general well-being. See what I just did there? I saved you thousands of dollars on self-help books. If you can surf your life rather than plant your feet, you will be happier. Maybe I should have called this book Surf Your Life. The cover could feature a picture of me on a giant wave wearing a wizard hat. I wonder if it’s too late. I’ll make a call.” 

“Treat your career like a bad boyfriend. Here's the thing. Your career won't take care of you. It won't call you back or introduce you to its parents.Your career will openly flirt with other people while you are around. It will forget you birthday and wreck your car. Your career will blow you off if you call it too much. It's never going to leave its wife.Your career is fucking other people and everyone knows but you. Your career will never marry you. (...) If your career is a bad boyfriend, it is healthy to remember you can always leave and go sleep with somebody else” 

Do yourself a favor and read this book NOW. You will enjoy every second of it, I promise! I'm sure you'll be like me and wish that Amy was your best friend after this and feel like she would agree if only you got to meet her...a girl can dream! ;)

xo

Friday Favorites

Happy happy Friday!

How incredible are these 11 beautiful bodies of water? I'd be happy to see all of them in my lifetime.

This article describes what your pet says about your personality. Pretty interesting! Apparently you can even tell if someone is liberal vs. conservative based on their breed of dog. 

This Thai butternut squash, sweet potato, and carrot soup with roasted honey siracha seeds recipe looks incredible! Definitely on the meal list for next week! 

A quote that hits hard for me. I always say that I feel the pain of the world, but I just started reading  a book, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, and it is a necessary, but hard read regarding the fate of our Earth. Stay tuned for more on that.

 Interesting article about how to lose a woman for good. Men, take note. These 9 tips are pretty spot on.

Google Fiber is coming to Decatur! Such amazing news for Atlanta and the surrounding cities. 

This new Netflix series, naturally!

This weekend will be spent having a sleep over with my niece Natalie and most likely going to the zoo (her request and who am I to deny a little girl who loves animal a trip to the zoo?) and doing crafts.

Despite not being a football fan, we'll probably watch the Super Bowl since J has requested that I make his favorite spinach + artichoke dip!

What's on your radar for the weekend? 

xo

Radical Simplicity

For my husband's 30th birthday, his best friend bought him the book "Radical Simplicity" by Dan Price. Everyone joked that J never finishes any books, but with this book, he proved them all wrong.

Dan's message is “You can live a life of freedom, in harmony with the rhythms of nature, and your own internal rhythm and creativity. You can live very well with very little money. That’s what I’ve done, and I can show you how.” The book illustrates the way he lived and how his life evolved by living minimally. Although the discussions with J about this book didn't make me want to go live in a hobbit hole, it did get us thinking about living more "authentically." 

Lately we've been swooning literally over the Tiny House Swoon website. The website shows tiny homes all over the world. We are very fascinated by these homes and would love to build one eventually. While planning for a Spring yard sale, it's amazing all of the clutter that we have in our home. I have an aunt + uncle who moved into a camper and they have no desire to ever live in their home again! I think there is something really wonderful about living with the little that you need. 

We definitely have some plans to change things around our household.

In the meantime, check out these incredible tiny homes!

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Do you have any wish to live more simply? How do you try to implement these changes?

a clear horizon

i absolutely love hitchcock and this video makes me love him so much more! in college, my best friends and i had a long stint of watching as many hitchcock films as possible. to this day, "rear window" and "strangers on a train" are still some of my favorite movies.

i am still recovering from our trip to costa rica and missing the land and people there something fierce. we are working to get the pictures uploaded so i can share them with you and share some of our adventures. please be patient with me as i get back into a routine. while away, i read a book that i can't stop thinking about and it ties in so closely to this thought of happiness by hitchcock. i can't wait to share this book with you and hopefully it has the power to change your life like i can feel it changing mine.

until then, have a wonderful weekend with lots of love! xo

[video via open culture]

world vegetarian day!

guess what tomorrow is? october 1 is the annual kickoff of vegetarian awareness month!



j and i have been vegetarian for almost 3 years and it is a cause very dear to our hearts. when we first became vegetarian, we were really just seeing if it was something we could do and our plans were to eventually eat organic meat periodically [i.e., rarely] because we figured if people could just eat less meat, then the demand would go down which would lower the need and possibly improve animal welfare. however, after doing just a tiny bit of research, we knew we could never go back to eating meat. most people don't know [or want to know] what happens to the animals that are raised for meat. it's not just how these animals die that is atrocious, but how they live.

if you've ever considered becoming vegetarian [or at least trying to consume less meat], please check out this link to learn more!

in the meantime, below are some ways that becoming vegetarian can help save the world!

for all you meat-eaters, you can go to the website and pledge to go meat-free for one day and win prizes even. you may even realize how easy and tasty being vegetarian can be! if every single person gave up meat for even just one day, it would be revolutionary. so please do your part tomorrow!

i will say that the vegetarian lifestyle is something that i am so proud to be living every day. plus more restaurants are growing their vegetarian-friendly menus all the time.

lastly, if you would like more information on the factory farming industry and exactly what you are feeding your family and yourself, please read "eating animals" by jonathan safran foer [who also wrote "everything is illuminated" and "extremely loud and incredibly close"]. as a soon-to-be father who will be responsible for his child's life and health, he decides to take a deeper look into what he will feeding his child. what he finds is absolutely shocking and will blow you away. the book even helps give options for those not wanting to adopt the vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.


regardless you deserve to know what you're eating so please stop turning a blind eye to what happens behind the scenes of the food on your dinner table. if you don't do it for yourself, your partner, or your children, who will?

five years

can you believe that on sunday it will have been 5 years since hurricane katrina destroyed new orleans and numerous lives? it feels like just yesterday that i was in my women studies course and our professor told us that she was heading down to new orleans to see what she could do to help. her husband and her ended up bringing back 2 families to live with them until they were able to get enough money to start a new life. i've never forgotten that professor and she will always inspire me.

when i was in seattle a few years ago, j and i went with my best friend to volunteer for pasado's safe haven. she had organized a work event to go and volunteer and we were lucky enough to be able to join them! we helped them load up all of their equipment as they were about to drive all the way down to texas and louisana before hurricane gustav hit. they didn't know for sure if it'd hit louisana, but they were making the drive regardless to ensure that any abandoned, misplaced, or injured animals were taken care of. during katrina, they were the first rescue organization on site and rescued over 1200 animals! how amazing is that? they also have 85 acres which is home to hundreds of dogs, cats, cows, chickens, ducks, goats, turkeys, pigs, and donkeys (most were brought to pasado's due to abuse or neglect and now live out their lives in peace). after loading up the trucks, we got to drive an hour outside of seattle to see this sanctuary and it was so magical. all of the animals get to roam free and they have some incredible views!



here's the crew after a hard day's work!

see what i mean? anyways, if you are a huge animal lover and want to support an awesome organization, definitely check out pasado's.

sorry for the tangent, but as i was watching the today show this morning and they discussed katrina, it was ironically relevant considering i just finished reading "zeitoun" by dave eggers for our next book club meeting. it is a book that tells the story of the zeitoun family, a muslim family, before, during, and after hurricane katrina. although i've never been a huge dave eggers fan (actually i've always been anything but), i did actually really enjoy this book. it highlights how so many families stayed behind like they had done numerous times before with minimal damage. it is a story of heroism and horrible government injustices. i don't want to say too much since we haven't had a chance to discuss it yet in book club; however, i definitely recommend the book. plus it's so important that we don't forget the atrocities that occured 5 years ago and the book even ends with resources so that you can continue to help rebuild new orleans.


happy friday! have any fun things planned?
j and i may be having my niece over for a sleepover, but other wise we're going to take it easy. i just want to spend as much time together since i'll be traveling for work all of next week. hope you get to spend some time with your favorites this weekend!

♥

half the sky

a few months ago i read the book "half the sky" by nicholas kristof and sheryl wudunn. the title of the book stems from the chinese proverb "woman hold up half the sky". if you have not yet read this book, please stop what you are doing and buy it immediately. everything else can wait, seriously.


"half the sky" shares the stories of women all over the world who have faced maternal mortality, sex trafficking and forced prostitution, and violence due to gender. the stories of these women are absolutely shocking and captivating - what amazed me in reading their stories was that these women have survived some of the largest atrocities done to human beings and yet they don't consider themselves victims. they have survived to tell their stories and they just try to live their lives for themselves, their families, and to help other victims.

the number of women who die from giving birth without proper medical care is frightening. in the book they state that during WW1 more women died giving birth in the usa than men died fighting in the war! it wasn't until suffrage that women's lives were given value which led to better care surrounding child birth; however, women all over the world are still fighting for this type of access to doctors and health care.

i also found it very interesting how the authors described how much effect women can have in developing nations when they are able to have a say in the families finances. children are more likely to be educated and healthy. ok - enough of my feminist rant.

once you read the book, i guarantee you it will change your life. it will make you care, it will make you cry, and it will push you to want to save the world. this book is my calling and i know now what issues matter to me most that i want to support as much as possible. i still have to determine exactly which organization(s) that i want to be a part of but any of them would be amazing.

go buy the book, go read the book, go cry for women's struggles, and then go get involved.

"it's never too late to be what you might have been" - eliot