What I’m Into | mid-summer

A few years back, I did this kind of post monthly, and I thought it would be fun to dust off this blog post genre.

Since I’m The Frugal Girl, most things on this list are cheap or free!

What I’m Reading

Trauma Room Two

Because I can’t stop reading medical memoir-type books…I read Trauma Room Two. Written by an ER doctor, it’s a collection of fictional medical stories that are based on his actual real-life experiences as a doctor.

My favorite story was the one at the end, told from the perspective of a woman at the end of her life; it is a lovely story about dying beautifully, after a lifetime of memories.

This is a book that one of you recommended to me; the library didn’t have it, so I got a copy on eBay. And now that I’m done with it, it’s listed back on there for sale! 🙂

Frugal Hedonism

Sonia heard about this book and suggested it to me. I really enjoyed it, although I wouldn’t say I exactly learned anything new! This was a case of the authors preaching to the choir. Ha.

One of the concepts in this book is that you can get a whole lot of enjoyment out of your life simply by learning to appreciate what is around you. I think this is so important; it costs nothing to open your eyes to see what is wonderful.

For example, it costs nothing to savor and appreciate:

• the lovely feeling of sliding into fresh sheets
• the beauty in a blue sky
• crusty fresh-baked bread
• the gorgeousness of fog, or hazy morning light, or the golden sunlight at the end of the day

Those are all free or nearly-free things, but the authors also point out that it’s also important to really savor the things we do buy. We get the most bang for our buck when we buy things mindfully and then enjoy the heck out of them!

I did actually buy this one new on Amazon because it wasn’t at my library and the eBay copies weren’t cheaper than Amazon.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful

A friend, one who has also been through the marital wringer, recommended this book to me.

I read almost all of it in a single day; I had no other responsibilities, so I just sat on my living room floor, on a rainy day, and I read and I cried.

I did not expect to cry; the story of the author’s marriage dissolving is, on the surface, different from mine.

But the further I got into her story, the more things matched up with my lived experience, and I burst into tears so many times.

I would say that this was a hard read, but also a good one. I felt so understood; to see that someone else has had the exact same thoughts and feelings as me was validating.

And the resultant crying was cathartic.

This is a new release, so it took a while but it did eventually come through on my library holds list! And now I have another of her books (Keep Moving) on my hold list.

What I’m Watching

I usually have very little to share for this section. But when Sonia and I were at the beach, we did watch some TV!

Shiny Happy People

This is the documentary about the Duggars and also Bill Gothard’s organization, which was really more of a cult than an organization.

I was homeschooled during the time when Gothard was very popular, but mercifully, my parents never got into his stuff, and I can remember us rolling our eyes at his legalistic rules back then.

Still, this was a little bit hard for me to watch because some of these concepts and beliefs really were pervasive in evangelical homeschool circles, even for those of us not under Gothard’s umbrella.

And while I have not suffered from these beliefs nearly as much as some of the people interviewed for this documentary, those ideas did still cause problems and hurt for me.

I never watched the Duggar reality show, but my goodness, I had always assumed that the kids had gotten some sort of monetary compensation for their participation as adults, and I was pretty dang horrified to see that that was not the case.

Mad Men

I know I’m a little late to the game…but Sonia thought I’d enjoy this show, so we watched several episodes together.

My main two thoughts:

1. WHOA, THERE’S SO MUCH SMOKING.

I dunno how anyone in that era escaped from having lung cancer. It made me thankful that indoor smoking is almost never allowed here anymore.

2. My goodness, the sexism and misogyny is terrible.

If the show is accurate (and it probably is), it made me feel very thankful that I live now and not in the 1960s. I know things are still not as they should be in terms of sexism, but I do think we have made a lot of progress since the 1960s!

What I’m Listening To

Well, of course, I am listening to all my usual podcasts.

I made a partial list of those podcasts here (I didn’t share them all because some of them are related to the problems in my marriage.)

And I have a list of liked songs on Spotify that I cycle through at random. I can’t really share them all because, see above, and also there are too many.

But a few:

Human, by Christina Perri – This one makes me cry.

You Can’t Stop the Girl, by Bebe Rhexa -I like the slightly defiant energy of this one. 🙂

Final Breath, by Meghan Trainor – I used to not be able to listen to love songs at all, but I am at a point where I can listen to this and hope that one day, it will describe my life.

If I Dare, by Sara Bareilles – I like this one mainly because of a lovely little cello part in the middle!

Happy or Whatever – a song by a Christian artist, Taylor Leonhardt. I wrote a whole post inspired by this song, and I still listen to it when I am tempted to throw a pity party for myself.

________________

What are you into lately? If you’ve listened to, watched, or read something good lately, do share!