Manic Monday: the first of many

As a complement to my new Foodie Friday weekly post, I've decided to add in Manic Monday, sort of like bookends for the weekend. What's Manic Monday? It's a bunch of quick blasts that will cover different topics, from music I'm listening to and books I'm reading to photos and interesting quotes. It's a blog buffet. All you can read.

Soundtrack...Adele, Adele and more Adele, courtesy of my two girls, who love, love, love this young and talented artist. Specifically they play and replay Rolling in the Deep, Rumor Has It, and Turning Tables. I've got cool kids.

Bookshelf...I just finished Everything Beautiful Began After: A Novel by Simon Van Booy. I discovered this book by accident in a shop at the Orlando airport when our flight was delayed for hours and hours -- a reminder that having a book on a shelf where people can catch an interesting cover, feel the pages, read a few paragraphs is how you sell books. I never would have found this book just scrolling around Amazon. I loved it -- beautiful, poetic, thoughtful. Everything I want in a good novel.

Favorite line: "Loneliness is like being the only person left alive in the universe, except that everyone else is still here."

I'm also re-reading I Will Not Die an Unlived Life by Dawna Markova. This is an amazing book about living life to the fullest and being true to yourself and the people you love. I couldn't pick a favorite line from this one because the whole dang thing is my favorite. If you could see it, you'd know by the ridiculous amount of underlining throughout.

Viewfinder...A scene from Chiara's sixth birthday party at Del Lanes. Thirteen kids, four lanes, three pizzas, one cake, lots of fun. This one captures all three of my kids in motion, and yet none of them are actually bowling:



Roll tape...This weekend I finally got around to watching Of Gods and Men, the true story of a group of Cistercian monks living in Algeria under the threat of death by Muslim extremists. I won't tell you much more about the plot because I don't want to post any spoilers. I will say this, as I said on Facebook this weekend: I wish everyone I know could see this film. It is an incredibly powerful film about courage, faith and love. If you've ever wanted to know what's the big deal about the Catholic faith, what that faith looks like at its very best, watch this movie. Even if you don't like movies with subtitles. It's a truly beautiful film. By the time I got to the scene near the end where they are listening to Swan Lake and taking a sip of wine, I was sobbing.

Mangia...Cross another item off our Beach Bucket List. We finally had homemade waffles and ice cream. Doesn't this look yummy?