5 Bits

Happy Friday everyone! It was chilly here this week in Wisconsin, and as a summer lover I was not a fan. When it's time for fall, just like the rest of you I'll be ready for chili, football games, cozy sweaters and hot chai lattes. But until then, I'm still in summer mode! ;) This weekend we're headed to an outdoor luau party with friends, the girls and I will be cheering on Mr. Evans in a triathlon Saturday morning, I have to sing in church on Sunday and we'll definitely hit up our local Germanfest celebration!

Here are 5 things I'm loving this week...

1. Prayers for the Dreamers & Doers
Click here to read what this book is all about. I learned about on the Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey podcast and have really enjoyed picking it up and reading a few pages here or there... especially when I need an extra boost of encouragement!

2. Watermelon Mojitos 

Ina Garten can seriously do no wrong in my book and these Watermelon Mojitos are one of my summer favorites. My mom whips these up with mint from her garden and blends up watermelon in her Vitamix. It honestly doesn't get much better!

3. This Quote

"You are not a messy person. You are a feeling person in a messy world." - I pretty much LOVE anything Glennon Doyle Melton says or writes. She's such a truth teller. You must hop over to her blog if you haven't before!

4. Gluten Free Zucchini Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are delish, super simple to make and are helpful to use up that zucchini that seems to be on everyone's doorstep this time of year. I made these and shared them with my sister-in-law and she promptly asked for the recipe - which is saying a lot because she's a cookie baker master!

5. Back to School Flashback

As we're gearing up for back to school, I thought I'd link back to last year when Nina was off to 3K. How cute is she? Can't wait to take a photo of both girls this year! For all you mama's out there with kiddos back at it already, I'm thinking of you!!

5 Bits

I hope everyone had a great week! I came down with a cold, but luckily I'm just about through the worst of it. Mae got a few new teeth this week and Nina's favorite new thing is to ask how to spell words and write each letter one by one. So sweet! Tonight Mr. Evans and I are doing our annual anniversary goal setting for the year to come. We pop open a good bottle of wine and set intentions for ourselves and our marriage ... financial goals, trips we want to take together, memories we want to make as a family, things like that. This year it's year 7! Whoa!! :) 

Here are 5 things I'm loving this week: 

1. Watermelon, Arugula & Goat Cheese Salad 

I love how they used a melon baller... so pretty! Tastes delish too!

2. The One Thing by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan 

I first learned about this book over here and recently picked it up. It's fantastic and I totally recommend it to anyone with the entrepreneurial spirit looking for clarity and answers about how to get results. 

3. This Quote

"Saying yes to happiness means learning to say NO to things and people that stress you out"

4. Rose Lemonade

I'm a big fan of Rose wine in the summer, so this cocktail just sounds amazing. I think it will be on the menu this weekend!

5. These Shirts by Thug Life

I first saw the shirts here and loved the one's Meg picked. They crack me up! I don't know that I'd actually wear them, but the sayings are totally hilarious. I think one of my favs is "Not my circus. Not my monkeys" - I saw that all time. Ha!

5 Bits

Happy Friday!! 

1. What you do every day matters more than what you do once in awhile. - Gretchen Rubin

2. We are our choices. - JP Sartre

3. It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. - ee cummings

4. You will always be too much of something for someone: too big, too soft, too edgy. If you round out your edges you lose your edge. Apologize for mistakes. Apologize for unintentionally hurting someone - profusely. But don't apologize for being who you are. - Danielle Laporte

5. Motivation is what gets you going. Habit is what keeps you going. - Jim Rohn


--
P.S. I loved this TED talk from Glennon Doyle Melton called "Lessons from a Mental Hospital"

P.P.S. I also LOVE LOVE this TED talk from Mel Robbins called "F--- U, how to stop screwing yourself over"

5 Bits

1. Life is very short. Insecurity is a waste of time. - diane von furstenburg

2. Stop the glorification of busy. - unknown

3. Healing doesn't mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives. - unknown

4. The most precious jewels you'll ever have around your neck are the arms of your children. - unknown

5. The C's in Life: Choice, Change and Change. You must make the choice to take the chance, if you want anything in life to change. - unknown

5 Bits

1. Rejection is God's way of saying "wrong direction." - unknown

2. I choose to start with cocktails, because no great story ever started with a salad. - amelie laurent

3. There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. - nelson mandela

4. Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an experiment where excellence is expected. - steve jobs

5. Your greatest contribution to the kingtom of God may not be the something you do but the someone you raise. - andy stanley

5 Bits

1. Two things define you. Your patience when you have nothing, and your attitude when you have everything. - unknown

2. Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff. - catherine m. wallace

3. Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company. -booker t.washington

4. If we wait until we're ready, we'll be waiting for the rest of our lives. - lemony snicket

5. It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. - thoreau

5 Bits

1. People inspire you or they drain you - pick them wisely. -Hans F Hansen

2. People wait all week for Friday, all year for summer and all life for happiness. - unknown

3. Keep your mind on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious, the best not the worst, the beautiful not the ugly. - Philippians 3:8

4. Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change. - Jim Rohn

5. Be grateful instead of complaining for what you do not have. You will never see God's favor in fullness as long as you are not thankful. When facing hard times do not go round talking about your problems. Do all things without complaining or disputing. - Phiilippians 2:14

5 bits

1. What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits. - Carl Jung

2. People overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in their whole lives. - Unknown

3. We have to CHOOSE JOY and keep choosing it. - Henry Nouwen

4. When things aren't adding up in your life, start subtracting. - Anon

5. The what-ifs and should-have's will eat your brain. - John O'Callaghan

Five Bits

A special edition of five bits...

1. At first glance it may appear too hard. Look again. Always look again. - unknown

2. Keep your face always toward sunshine and shadows will fall behind you. - walt whitman

3. Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings, and emotions. - unknown

4. Most people do not listen with the intent to understand. Most people listen with the intent to reply - stephen r. covey

5. Faith in God includes faith in His timing. - neal a. maxwell

Five Bits

1. Ritual is routine infused with mindfulness. It is habit made holy.

2. Our home is the caretaker of our memories. From our windows, our imaginations take wing.

3. To raise a child is an honor. To raise a child well is a gift.

4. We all live in fear of being judged by others, while the empty space between us is waiting to be filled by a simple gesture of honest caring.

5. Great joys make us love the world. Great sadnesses make us understand the world.



** All of today's bits are from Kent Nerburn's Small Graces: The Quiet Gifts of Everyday Life.

Five Bits

1. Have the courage of your desire. - george gissing

2. Elbow grease is the best polish - english proverb

3. Even a small star shines in the darkness. - finnish proverb

4. If you wish to reach the highest, begin at the lowest. - publilius syrus

5. Inside of a ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong. - muhammed ali

Five bits

1. Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize.

2. Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed among the top three ingredients.

3. Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.

4. If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, try to avoid it.

5. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well.

6. Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

7. Have a glass of wine with dinner.

8. Eat slowly. Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it.

9. Cook.

10. Break the rules once and a while.



** These are my favorite "rules" from Michael Pollan's Food Rules and In Defense of Food. I've had these books for a few years and every once and awhile I like to revisit them to remind me how to eat. I highly recommend them.

** I know there are 10. Whoops. :)

Five bits

1. You can't cross the sea merely by standing on the shore and staring at the water. - rabindranath tagore

2. Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. - samuel beckett

3. Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow." - mary anne radmacher-hershey

4. You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. - eleanor roosevelt

5. At the center of your being, you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. - lao tzu

Five bits

1. I know He has purpose in even the things I cannot understand. - romans 8:28

2. We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. - joseph campbell

3. Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. - albert einstein

4. Faith assures us of the things we expect and convinces us of things we cannot see. - hebrews 11:1

5. She stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow her away, she adjusted her sails. - elizabeth edwards

Five bits

1. There will always be a "lie" in believe, an "over" in lover, and "end" in friends, an "us" in trust, and an "if" in life. - unknown

2. And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you. Because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. - roald dahl

3. Failure isn't falling down. It's remaining where you've fallen. - unknown

4. In every way, in every day, you are showing people exactly who you are. You're letting your life speak for you. And when you do that, you will receive in direct proportion to how you give in whatever platform you have. - oprah winfrey

5. God is love. - rev run :)

Five bits

1. Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And, you can't save time to spend it on another day. - denis whitley

2. Imperfection is beauty. Madness is genius. And it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring. - marilyn monroe

3. Wanderer, there is no path. You lay down a path in your walking. - antonio machado

4. Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you. - john de paolo

5. Do not mistake ... movement from achievement, activity for productivity and rushing for results - unknown

Five bits

1. We must not be shallow during the depths of our life. - unknown

2. Teamwork makes the dream work. - rev run

3. Change is an easy panacea. It takes character to stay in one place and be happy there. - e. dunn

4. Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are little coarse and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice? Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble. - emerson

5. If you aren't going all the way, why go at all? - joe namath

Five bits

1. Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible--it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, off you more joy than any material possession could. - barbara de angelis

2. A woman unsatisfied must have luxuries. But a woman who truly loves a man would sleep on a board. - d.h. lawrence

3. I carry your heart with me. I carry it in my heart. - ee cummings

4. Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold. - zelda fitzgerald

5. A successful marriage requires falling in love, many times, always with the same person. - mignon mclaughlin

6. To keep a fire burning brightly there's one easy rule: keep the logs together, near enough to keep warm and far enough apart for breathing room. Good fire, good marriage, same rule. - marnie reed crowel

7. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. - ephesians 4:26

8. A peaceful home is as sacred a place as any chapel or cathedral. - bill keane

9. I am always interested in how big things begin. You know how it is; you're young, you make some decisions... then swish, you're seventy. You've been working your profession for over fifty years and that white-haired lady by your side has eaten over 50,000 meals with you. How do such things begin? - thornton wilder

10. Love is patient, love is kind. - 1 corinthians 13


Note: I know this is really 10 bits, but with Valentine's Day I wanted to add a few I liked. :)

Five bits

1. I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. - maya angelou

2. Keep not standing fixed and rooted. Briskly venture, briskly roam. - goethe

3. The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea. - isak dinesen

4. You're not going to get somewhere if you don't know where you're going. - unknown

5. None of us suddenly becomes something overnight. The preparations have been in the making for a lifetime. - gail godwin

Five Bits

1. There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self. - hindu proverb

2. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist. - oscar wilde

3. Walk by faith, not by sight. - 2 corinthians 5:7

4. The things you're scared of are usually the most worthwhile. - unknown

5. If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid. - epictetus