Hello, my friend!
I hope your week has been wonderful! Ours has been a wet one, with swimming and splash pads and numerous baths to wash all the dirt and sweat from outdoor play off our sticky bodies.
Summer is hands down my favorite season because outside is my favorite place to be…so long as it’s above 70 degrees lol! My husband has been steadily increasing his cold tolerance via nightly cold plunges (he stayed in 48-degree water for 90 seconds last night, the mere thought of which makes me shiver and long for hot cocoa!), but I’m content to increase my heat tolerance with every minute spent outside chasing my kids, playing with the dogs, and working out in the driveway.
If you could only live in one climate for the rest of your life, would you choose tropical or subarctic?
In writing news, my second “Little Bear Goes Night-Night” book is in the expert hands of my editor! I’m so excited to receive the final draft so I can send it over to my fabulous illustrator and dear friend Annelise. Once the remaining three books are edited and published, it’ll be time for me to edit my YA fantasy, Ring of Wishes. Stay tuned for more on that one! We will just have to see how much I can accomplish before Baby #3 arrives this October or November…
Okay, time to dive into this week’s Top 4. I hope you enjoy!!
BENEATH A SCARLET SKY: INSPIRATION FROM A CURRENT READ
I joined a fabulous book club recently, and our May read was World War II historical fiction novel, Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. In this week’s podcast episode of “The Inadequate Mom Show,” I discuss how the book can help each of us shift our attitudes from gloomy to grateful by taking our focus off ourselves and considering others’ circumstances. Check out the 20-minute episode HERE.
MAKE YOUR LIFE A LITTLE EASIER
I love this line of wisdom from one of my favorite productivity gurus, James Clear:
“A simple rule that makes life easier: Always strive to give value before you ask for value.”
How can you give value to someone, or perhaps to some group, company, or organization, today?
COOL APP RECOMMENDATION
This is random, but it’s too cool not to share! Isaiah, my five-year-old, is an entomologist in training. The kid LOVES looking for bugs with his handy-dandy bug vacuum and assortment of various bug cages, jars, nets, and magnifying glasses.
Since it’s tough to keep up with bug books while out on the trail, I thought it’d be neat to find an app to help us quickly identify the insects we collect. The “Seek” app by iNaturalist is amazing! It uses image recognition technology to identify plants and animals. All you do is open the app, point the Seek Camera at whatever you find, and voila, you’ll get the name and info in seconds! Find the app HERE.
YOUR BRAIN ON (AND OFF) EXERCISE
I saw this powerful graphic on the @qualialife Instagram account and wanted to share. I hope you find it as motivating to keep fitness at the top of the priority list as I do!
The caption reads: “Going for a 20-minute walk is an underrated form of therapy and ‘fertilizer’ for the brain. Walking improves recovery by stimulating blood flow throughout the entire body. Walking as little as 6,000 steps a day has been correlated with decreasing all-cause mortality by 45%. Walking enhances your cognitive function by boosting BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) and promoting neuroplasticity.”
Thank you as always for your support of my writing!