What I'm Into

I missed last month's 'What I'm Into' post and link up over at Hopeful Leigh since we were in the midst of traveling from the midwest to Hawaii and back to LA, so for the past two months here are the little things that have brought much joy to my life.

Gadgets: My new immersion blender.  This was my Christmas gift from my best friend and it is something I never would have thought to ask for but am now wondering how I ever lived without it.  It is an amazing invention.  I've been making smoothies (no need to drag out the whole blender every day!), homemade salad dressings, milkshakes, and baked potato soup.  Every time I came across a recipe that called for blending a soup after simmering I always skipped over it--I have had a few messy and disasterous attempts at blending a hot soup in a regular blender and decided never to do that again.  Now, when I come across one of those recipes I just pull out my handy dandy new immersion blender and blend right in the soup pot!  Love it!

My iPhone.  I can admit it, I was wrong.  Until a month ago I had never had a smartphone.  My husband has had one but we only wanted to pay for 1 data plan so I've had the "free" Verizon phone.  About a month ago for a variety of reasons we asked Verizon to swap our phones, so now I have the iphone.  I honestly didn't think I would like it.  I haven't ever really liked typing on the touch screen, and didn't think I would have any use for the aps.  Umm, I can admit when I am wrong.  I love my phone.  I love it so so much.  I don't love typing on the touch screen and wish I could go back to my T9 word typing, but I love having internet with me when I'm sitting nursing the babe (man I wish I'd had this all year!).  I love instagram and taking photos and uploading them straight to facebook (mostly because I'm with our kiddo all day and he's super cute and photo-worthy in my opinion!)  It's a great phone and I'm super excited to have it.

Books:

I really only read one full book in the past month.  I know, pathetic for me.  But I found I kind of hit this lull--I didn't want to be reading.  But I did read our book club's January selection which was The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and oh my word did I love this book.  Most of us did.  It's a story with so many layers--it's part mystery, part love story, part coming of age story...it's full of symbolism and all kinds of lovely literary tricks that make for a fantastic book.  I'd highly recommend this one!

In the Blogosphere:
My favorite post of the past month or so was by Rachel Held Evans and was written after the Connecticut school shooting.  It was titled God Can't Be Kept Out, and many of you probably read it, but it's worth a re-read if you have a moment.

My favorite new series is the series One Good Phrase being hosted by Micah Boyett over at her blog.  I love this idea & have a few good phrases that have shaped me mulling around in my head waiting for their own posts in the near future.  Check out her blog and the guest posts that have contributed to this series so far.

On the Silver Screen:
Does the Silver Screen only refer to movies?  Or does it refer to TV shows as well?  I don't know but I don't have a lot of time to watch either, so I'm going to lump them together in this category :)
My beloved Parenthood wrapped up it's season already.  What a season it was.  I loved it.  I laughed and cried with every episode which I think is the mark of great writing.  The professor I work for was talking about the finale in class this week, saying how it was one of the best images in Hollywood of what the body of Christ can look like--an intergenerational family seeing a kid in need and adopting him to be one of their own.  It was a beautiful season and I'm hoping it returns for another run.

The Biggest Loser came back on and my hubby and I enjoy watching this one together.  This year they're focusing on childhood obesity & they have 3 amazing teens on the show participating to various degrees with the other contestants.  The 12 year old boy Biingo (that's what he goes by) might be my favorite kid ever.  Besides my own that is.  He's adorable, and has an amazing amount of personality.  I heart him.  Jillian is back as well but I'm not sure that's a great thing--her team is down to one player, which isn't the greatest track record!

I had the chance to see 2 movies in the past 2 months, which is 2 more than I saw the rest of 2012!  On Christmas day I went to see my long awaited love Les Miserables, and I was blown away.  I loved it.  I thought it was cast almost perfectly (I was not crazy about Russel Crowe), and I loved the artistic rendering of it.  It's one I can't wait to own.  I thought Anne Hathaway was heartbreakingly perfect as Fantine, and I thought Marius was incredible.  I hope it wins all the Oscars it's nominated for!

This past weekend I had the chance to go see Silver Lining's Playbook with a friend.  We have worked out a great system for movie watching :)  She's also a mom with two young kids and she and her husband have become good friends.  The guys have gone to see a few movies together after the kids are in bed on Saturday evenings and this weekend we decided we wanted in on this deal too!  So she and I went to a matinee while our kids were home with their dads and then our husbands went to see some guy movie that night after bedtime.  It worked wonderfully :)  Anyways, I had no idea what to expect with this film, I didn't know anything about it other than that it has been getting a lot of Oscar buzz and it wasn't violent like so many other films are.  So we gave it a try & both of us really really enjoyed it.  I would definitely recommend it--it's funny, sweet, deals with some incredible family dynamics (it would be a great movie to assign to a class on family systems!) and is pretty honest and real.

I think that's about it for the past two months!  How about you?  What are a few things you've been into lately?