Only Nuns Change Habits Overnight

Jesse is home from work today with the flu. We both got the immunization, but he must have caught a different strain. Hopefully it won't pass on to the rest of the family. We won't be going to Madison tomorrow to celebrate a late Christmas with his brothers. Instead, he'll be trying to regain his strength, and I'll be getting done what I can around the house.

Mia has recently acquired a love for movies with talking animals. Not cartoons, but live action like Airbuddies and Snowbuddies. I've ordered the whole series of them from the library, but I don't know of many other titles like them. If you have any suggestions of good family-friendly movies with talking animals, especially dogs, leave me a comment or drop me an email!

Only Nuns Change Habits Overnight by Karen Linamen is the perfect book to start reading at the beginning of the year. There are hundreds of books out there that will tell you just how to fix your life: budgeting, diet, exercise, self-improvement, etc, but the reason there are always more of these books is that we find it hard to stick with any plan that requires us to change, even if we desire it! Linamen seeks to help us stick with actual change by determining what holds us back from making changes and helping us overcome those obstacles. Her writing is always funny, yet incredibly smart. Most chapters include the opportunity for journaling and self-discovery exercises. I didn't do all of them, but the ones I did revealed a lot, even to me! There are many reasons why we can't stick with serious change, but Linamen addresses each one with the encouragement to never give up. I do recommend reading this book in the morning or midday. I read it each night before bed, and I sometimes forgot to keep the vows I made to myself the night before, but that's my own fault. I've passed the book on to my husband in hopes that we can both makes changes together.

The two winners of a copy of the book were Lynn Stymiest and Melissa Mier. Congratulations to both of them! It looks like my next contest will be the first week of February. Have a terrific weekend! Today's pic is in honor of Jesse's feeling miserable, like this poor kitty.