I can’t even believe the week is over already, but I’m hoping to finish it out with a nice, relaxing Friday (it’s possible, right?). Here are some of my favorites from this week, and I hope they make you smile!

Favorite Podcasts:

Is This Podcast Paleo?  — Fair warning, this is not censored, so if you don’t want to hear occasional foul language, this one isn’t for you. I don’t love foul language and it isn’t enough to turn me off, but I know it might be too much for some. I’ve only listened to a few of the podcasts, but I like a lot of the topics they address and plan to keep listening to it.

Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod — Hal Elrod is the author of one of the books I’ve been reading, Miracle Morning. The mornings that I implement the routine he suggests I’m a lot more productive, and I feel less overwhelmed and scattered throughout the day. Right now I’m working on making sure I don’t snooze my alarm anymore so I always have time for it, because it makes a huge difference! I feel like listening to his podcast helps me to keep that same mindset throughout the day, so I don’t lose it when life gets crazy.

Gardening:

I don’t exactly have a green thumb (fingers crossed that’s changing!), so it feels especially exciting to see more green popping up in our seeding tray! The raised boxes are pretty expensive, but I’m hoping we can find a cheaper way to make some more once we get all these seedling transplanted. They’re especially perfect because they’re too tall for the dogs to mess with them! I know it’ll take a long time before anything will be ready to harvest and actually eat, but it’s still exciting for me.

These books

I never used to be able to read more than one book at a time, but lately it actually helps me get through all of them faster. The Obsidian Chamber is the newest in the Agent Pendergast series (I know I was just talking about Crimson Shore, but I somehow didn’t realize I was a book behind), which my husband got me obsessed with years ago. This is the 17th book in the series and somehow it’s still interesting, believable, and not repetitive. I keep waiting for them to run out of ideas and jump the shark, but I’m always pleasantly surprised.
The other three books are more for personal development than enjoyment. I’ve already talked about Miracle Morning and I’m almost done with it, but it still deserves a mention because it’s seriously transformed my mornings.
I just joined a Facebook group that’s reading Unconditional Parenting together, so I’ve barely started this one. Even though I’m not entirely convinced that punishments are always a bad thing, I’m hoping this will help me use punishments much less frequently. There are days when I seriously feel like my kids spend the majority of their waking hours in time out, and I’d like to find a way to get through to them without that being the case.
The Wisdom of the Enneagram looks really New Age-y, but it was given to me by a PhD in psychology so I can guarantee that it’s not. I don’t even know how to summarize this one without sounding a little crazy, so I’ll just say that most people would benefit from this one, both personally and in their relationships.
I’ve also been really good about reading scriptures every day, which is something I’ve let slide more often than I’d care to admit. Productivity feels awesome!

What are some things that are making you smile this week?