Five Favorites

 

Joining the link-up at Moxie Wife with five of my current favorite items:

~~1~~

Lennon and Maisy

This sister duo is just adorable!  The girls and I enjoy watching all their videos on YouTube.
This is my current favorite!

~~2~~ 

Otterbox for my iPhone 4

The Otterbox has saved my iPhone from many a fall.  But they only stand up to my abuse for about 6 months before the rubber starts ripping and they must be replaced.  This one above cost $18 when I bought it in October, so I didn't think it too bad to pay $20 for a new one last week.  When it arrived I realized it was not the Otterbox "Defender" but the "Commuter," which seems like it will not be able to "defend" my phone from the abuse it gets in my family.  The Defenders now cost $44!  Quite a difference!  Any advice from iPhone abusers?

~~3~~
The Charlotte Mason Companion


Although I don't follow a full Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling, I find such inspiration from her writings, and the reflections on her writings in this book by Karen Andreola.  Here's a beautiful Charlotte Mason quote I read this morning...

On the will:

"It is something to know what to do with ourselves when we are beset, and the knowledge of this way of the will is so far the secret of a happy life, that it is well worth imparting to the children.  Are you cross? Change your thoughts.  Are you tired of trying? Change your thoughts.  Are you craving for things you are not to have? Change your thoughts; there is a power within you, your own Will, which will enable you to turn your attention from thoughts that make you unhappy and wrong, to thoughts that make you happy and right.  And this is the exceedingly simple way in which the Will acts."

Okay, just one more.  On motivating children by ideas:

"Ideas are held in that thought environment which surrounds the child as an atmosphere, in which he breathes in unconscious ideas of right living emanating from his parents.  Every look of gentleness and tone of reverence, every word of kindness and act of help, passes into the thought-environment, the very atmosphere which the child breathes; he does not think of these things, may never think of them, but all his life long they excite that vague appetency [relationship] towards something out of which most of his actions spring."

Okay, I lied.  This one is the best.  Read it even if you skipped the others!

"To bring the human race, family by family, child by child, out of the savage and inhuman desolation where He is not, into the light and warmth and comfort of the presence of God, is no doubt, the chief thing we have to do in the world."

If you are a homeschooling mom who hasn't read Charlotte Mason, you should!


~~4~~
Revlon Colorstay Overtime in Bare Maximum


I think it was Danielle Bean who first turned me on to this lipstick and I've used it for years.  It truly works "overtime" and this color is my favorite!  It includes a lipcolor and glossy topcoat.

~~5~~
Walt Disney World


This place is calling my name.  I just found out that the yearly Free Dining offer for September is probably going to be released next week.  My thoughts are consumed with this dreamy world in Orlando, Florida right now.  I think we might just be crazy enough to drive 20 hours with 4 kids for a fun family vacation this year.  We'll see!