We all hit slumps, right? We all three of us hit a blog slump at the same time. A little bit of holiday overload, some traveling, and a lot of sickness - 2019 came on like a bear and laid us flat just a little bit. But now we’re pulling ourselves up and out of it and kicking off our 2019 … just a month late!

We’re back on our Saturday rotation: this & that, a curation of thought provoking or interesting reads that we’ve bookmarked through the month; Mixed Media, in which we share books, movies, music, or podcasts that we’ve been enjoying; Looks We Like, or the clothes and home styles and fashion that we’re into; and Recipe Roundup, a collection of recipes from around the internet that we’ve tried or intend to try.

So join us this morning for our February installment of this & that. Happy Reading!

• This is just an excerpt of a longer autobiographical book, but I was moved deeply to read about something which in our culture is so ubiquitous as to be overlooked being in another culture so rare as to be coveted and prized. Bread as power and privilege.

• This is a great defense of memorization in education - not of facts and data but of poems, orations, speeches, and literary works. Another example of how structures and boundaries can, in fact, be more freeing than anarchy and formlessness.

• We just watched Beautiful Boy on Netflix, but I’ll save my thoughts for this month’s Mixed Media. Regardless, drug addiction is a parent’s worst nightmare. I don’t mean to be glib when I say it’s hard enough to love your child through a temper tantrum. But how about loving a child through addiction …

• Read this for some much needed levity. And perspective. So much of this resonates with me right now, and because I have older and younger kids I’m experiencing both sides of it. But seriously, trips to the dentist being near-heavenly respites … yeah, that’s my life right now.

• Wherever you come down on the vaccination issue - and it’s a touchy one! - this is food for thought.

• This is also an enjoyable read, a take on the Kondo craze.

• WORST NIGHTMARE. I have food safety paranoia. This stuff happens!

• Wine and chocolate are staples of my life. But chocolate wine…?!

• Oooooohhh I kind of think this is amazing. But I haven’t tried it yet. Have any of you? Eat Your Books.

• This really is just visually satisfying.

• These just don’t get old. Literally, LOL.