JUST COULDN'T WAIT....

to share these titles!  I usually share about several books I've read just a few times a year but both of these books really deserve a post all their own.  Maybe they are so good to me because of my personal interest in the subjects.  But I think anyone interested in living intentionally and organization would love them.

Notes From A Blue Bike, The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World is the second book of Tsh's I've read and loved.  She's a young mother who, along with her husband, knows what has value for them and how they want to raise their family.  It's about saying no to some things and intentionally embracing what they value.  I am  not a young mother anymore, but many of her ideals were similar to the way we chose to raise our children.  Now I'm figuring out how to live intentionally as an almost empty nester with more free time available.  She vividly shows how to live this out through examples of eating, work, travel, education and entertainment.  They have lived with plenty and with less.  It's a book I would highly recommend to young couples just starting out.

This book is what I was referring to when I mentioned slow food on my last post.  Slow food means a lot of things to different people, but what I'm getting out of the concept is that spending time preparing food with your children and family is time well spent. Buying locally sourced food and even growing your own is worth the effort. Taking the time to enjoy food together is valuable to your relationships.  Tsh addresses this, contrasting her time living in Turkey and then coming back home to the States.  I hope to be able to do more of this after what seems like years of rushing around!

The Organized Mind, Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, was one I just happened to pick up on the new book rack at the library.  If you've ever felt like you were drowning in information, this book helps clarify how exactly your brain works and encourages us to really think about what we are doing to ourselves.  We can control the use of our cellphones and all that constant information (novel idea!).  It gives examples of how to slow down and even use some old-fashioned methods to gain some peace and control in our lives.  Habits can help us control it.  There's also an interesting chapter on sifting through medical advice when you are thrust into situations and have important decisions to make.  Some of this book was too much for me but most of it was helpful.