3 hours ago
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
I binge-watched Gilmore Girls on Netflix a couple years ago, and I just couldn't pass up a themed day like this at a coffee shop no less. So a Gilmore-Girl-loving friend and I went to check it out! For those of you who couldn't make it - the free coffee was black, and though I love black coffee, my friend and I upgraded to a latte. They had a "Luke's" sign out front; a sign reading "No Cell Phones!" (since Luke hates cell phones); Lorelei coffee quotes; and all the baristas dressed in plaid, aprons, and backward hats like Luke. We waited in line for 40 minutes (it was a long line) and discussed Rory's relationships (Team Jess!). It was a great way to spend the morning.
So, in the spirit of Gilmore Girls and Rory's love for books...
Today I am going to talk about how to start a Literary Society - because a couple months ago, I started one!
What is a Literary Society you may ask? According to my definition, a Literary Society is like a book club, only there are no assigned books - you just get together every month or two with your bookish friends to talk about what you've been reading and maybe get some recommendations!
A couple months ago I was listening to The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society - which is a great audiobook, by the way - and I thought, why do we not have Literary Societies anymore? Why can't bookish people get together every now and then and blurt out all their bookish thoughts? As a busy mom, I like the idea of a Literary Society much better than a book club - because I'm pretty sure if I started a book club, I would rarely make it through the assigned chapters before the meeting, and I'm pretty sure other busy women would have the same problem. This way we could read what we like and just meet up to talk about what we thought, which is much less pressure than a book club.
So, I threw it out on Facebook, and before you know it we had our first meeting over coffee and cheesecake. It was everything I wanted it to be, and one of my goals for October is to get our next meeting set up!
We are still working on a name. It's hard to top The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society. I'll keep you posted.
If any of you are interested in starting your own Literary Society, I have a few suggestions...
Invite a bunch of people.
Some of your best girlfriends may or may not be readers, so my suggestion is to put it out there for extended acquaintances and see who is serious enough about books to join! We had five of us at our first meeting, and several more who will probably come this next time. Some ladies I knew well, and some I didn't know very well - but talking books will help you get to know someone better pretty quickly!
Don't be snobbish.
If you're the type who only reads high literature or classics, make sure you don't make someone feel silly if they like popular fiction - or vice versa. Focus on making sure everyone feels welcomed and validated for their reading choices. One thing that I've learned is that not very many people read, period, so choosing to spend time on books in general gives you something in common!
(Note: Be welcoming of all kinds of reading choices, but do use good judgment too - our group is full of Christian ladies that I know well enough to trust not to be recommending something inappropriate or racy. If your group is more mixed you may need to set a guideline for discussing racy or controversial books to respect each other's convictions.)
Set up your Society plan.
Our group decided to meet every other month to give us time to get through books between meetings (we're all busy moms), and we are all going to read The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society at some point, since it inspired the group. Our group has kept it pretty casual as far as guidelines go, but depending on the mix of personality, politics, and faith, you may need more structure or discussion guidelines. I'd say to keep guidelines as simple as you are able, whatever you decide on as a group, and make it clear that everyone is to be as respectful as possible to each other.
Make it fun!
If meeting at The Cheesecake Factory doesn't make a book club fun, I don't know what does, but I'd love to hear your ideas on ways to make meetings interesting since our Literary Society is still in the early stages!
Have you ever been a part of a book club or Literary Society? What was your favorite or least favorite part?
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This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and GREATER Productions. but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #GREATERMovie #GreaterTheMovie http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV
Confession: I have absolutely no sports ability; but despite this fact, I love sports movies.
There is something about a good inspirational sports movie that makes me wish I could have been on a team. (But then that thought flits out of my head, because trust me, I am doing everyone a favor by staying off the field.) Sports stories appeal to a few things that touch my heart, things that I want to teach my own kids - maybe while watching a good sports movie.
Sports movies remind us that we weren’t meant to do life alone.
Sports movies reflect this in the most poignant way, because no player really succeeds unless the entire team succeeds. And when when player is successful, it’s because their teammates have been there to help them along the way. God didn’t make human beings to live alone, raise their families alone, or do life alone, and I think sports teams and movies are a good reflection of a deeper truth.
Sports movies remind us that hard work and doing the right thing pay off.
Though sports movies are obviously about successes, it’s the parts where the players have to overcome obstacles to achieve greatness that are most poignant. Does hard always pay off with your dreams becoming a reality? No, not always, but it always pays off with good character, and I love when sports movies reflect that.
Sports movies remind us that true teammates are there for you even when you fail.
One of my favorite parts about sports movies is seeing how the main character develops relationships with teammates, and how those teammates are there to pick them up and encourage them when they fail. Everyone will want part of your successes, but true teammates are the ones who are there to give you a hand up and slap on the back when you fail.
Sports movies speak to that intrinsic desire to be a part of something greater.
I think the main reason I love a good sports movie is because the best ones make your heart swell as you watch the individual players work together to achieve something greater, a goal none of them could reach alone. I love that. I believe that all of us were made to do something greater than just strive for our own success on earth - I believe we were made to bring glory to God, and we were made to do that together with others, and there is something about sports movies that speaks to that truth that God hid inside us.
With fall and football season coming up, I am ready to break out all my sports movies and be inspired! And if there is one sports movie that encapsulates everything I listed above, it is the new film, GREATER. This movie follows one of the greatest walk-on stories in college football, how Brandan Burlesworth went from an underdog to an All-American football player.
The Brandon Burlesworth story incorporates everything I love about sports stories, and his story in GREATER makes the perfect inspirational sports movie. It reflected the support Brandon had from his mother and family in achieving his dreams, and how he supported his teammates and they supported him in the wins and losses. It showed his consistent hard work it takes for players and teams to be great. It showed how respect and friendships develop among teammates. But my favorite part of GREATER was the reminder that our lives serve a greater purpose than just what we can see on the surface.
GREATER was such a moving movie for me, and a wonderful one for a date with my football-loving spouse! When the kids are a little older, I am going to love watching this movie together as a family! There are so many good lessons and examples in GREATER, and I think it is a wonderful way to teach our kids about what is most important. After watching the movie with Derek, I was inspired to put together a few discussion questions to get the conversation going.
GREATER Discussion Questions:
1. When Brandon was a child, he was discouraged and bullied. When did things start to turn around for him? Do you think he would have been able to achieve so much if he hadn’t had some voices of encouragement around him?
2. Brandon was told over and over again that he didn’t have what it took to play college football, and he experienced some failures - but he used that to inspire him to work harder. Even if he was never successful on football, what other advantages do you see from his determination to work hard against the odds?
3. Brandon’s coach said character is what you do when no one is watching. How did he display good character? How does a person develop good character?
4. Brandon faced a lot of bullying and name-calling, but he persevered in kindness and doing what was right. Why do you think he did that? What effect did it have on his teammates?
5. One quote from the movie is “Our loss is great, but God is greater.” How did Brandon’s football journey serve a greater purpose beyond himself?
GREATER comes out on August 26th in select theaters (check to see if it will be available in a theater near you) - just in time for football season! I highly recommend this movie and hope you all get a chance to see it! Come back and tell me what you think when you do - this is definitely going on my list of favorite sports movies.
Watch the trailer below, and follow GREATER The Movie on social media for updates on when and where the film is released!
What is your favorite sports movie? Are you planning on seeing GREATER?
Writing this post strangely feels like writing a confession, but here it goes - I watch the Bachelor.
I was really late to the Bachelor train, since I only started watching with Sean's season. Derek was traveling at that time, and every Monday night I would snuggle on the couch with a newborn Gwen and tune in. I did the same in 2014 when I was pregnant with Clyde, and again in 2015 when I was pregnant with Clarice. And now I nurse Clarice every Monday night while watching Ben make his picks (I'm not holding my breath on him finding a wife, but you never know). I even rope Derek into watching with me, and my sister and I talk on the phone to discuss the Bachelor happenings.
So I have a confession. I've been watching the Bachelorette.
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That's a confession because after watching the Bachelor and learning that they have overnight dates I was sure I would never watch the show again. And I still think that's pretty horrible. I suppose it's reflective of where our culture is, but to include it as part of a TV show? I still don't like it.
But back to topic. I think with Derek being here and then gone so much, I just needed something to look forward to during the week, and so I got sucked in again. I'm still evaluating if this is okay or not.
So I watched this last season. And I watched the finale last week. There was one thing that stood out to me.
In the "After The Final Rose" show, Chris was talking about when he felt confident that Desiree's feelings for him were the real deal, and he mentioned that moment when she told him he was the greatest man she'd ever known.
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I watched his face when he said it. He absolutely lit up. And then I wondered - when was the last time I told Derek he is the greatest man I've ever known?
I think every girl tells that to the man she marries in one way or another while they are dating or engaged. That is a time when you are in love and carefree, when everything is fresh and new and exciting, when you want to say everything you are feeling because you are so in love.
Then after the wedding things settle down. This isn't a bad thing. You figure out who you are together as a couple, you get into a rhythm, and your love grows less heart-pounding and flighty, and more steady and deep.
But in the midst of this deepening, I think it's easy to forget that your man still wants that affirmation. He still needs to know that you think he's the greatest man in the world. He fell in love with you when you looked at him with adoration and told him how wonderful he was at everything, told him how brilliant his ideas were, told him how great he was.
I think seeing Chris's face light up on the show reminded me of that time of early love in my relationship with Derek. It made me think. I know even more about Derek now than I did then, the good and the bad. And I still think that he's the greatest man I've ever known.
I want to make his face light up like that again.
It was a good reminder to say the things that I sometimes assume Derek already knows. Because he still needs to hear it.
Maybe these shows aren't completely worthless after all.
The other day Wyatt was taking a nap, and I decided to turn on the TV to see what was on. And for those of you who have been reading for a while, yes, we got cable back! It was really good to take a break from it for a year, and we probably will take another break in the future - but there is so much going on this year, like the Olympics and the election, and we decided to get cable again for now.
Anyway, I came across this show about women who hide their pregnancies, so I decided to see what it was all about. But one of the stories stood out.
One of the girls on the show decided to hide her pregnancy because a few months before she had a son that was stillborn. And when she shared this heartbreaking news on Facebook, hoping for some support, she got a grand total of 6 responses. Out of 300 Facebook friends.
I found that to be so sad, and I honestly didn't blame her a bit for not wanting to share the happy news of her pregnancy after getting no support from her "friends" on Facebook or in real life. I'm not sure I would want to share anything for a while after something like that either.
And it got me thinking - is this what the world is coming to? A place where people can't muster up the energy (or even just the courtesy) to reach outside of Facebook in the face of a tragedy? Worse than that, that these people couldn't even reach out properly within the confines of Facebook? I find that so disturbing.
One thing that I dislike about Facebook is the fact that it does promote apathy when it comes to friendships. It's one of the reasons I took a Facebook break not long ago, and why I limit what I share on it now. I don't like the thought of someone just checking my Facebook page to see what I've been doing when they could call or e-mail me directly. If they want to feel like they are interacting with me, the only effort they have to put out is one click on the "Like" button.
I think it creates a false sense of friendship, one where someone can get all the benefits of knowing what is going on with their "friend" without having to put out any actual effort to find out. Where they can feel like they are being a "friend" to someone without doing anything but clicking a couple times and hitting a few keys.
Obviously there are exceptions to this, like in the blogging world (all of our interaction is online by necessity!), or in the case of people who combine Facebook interaction with real life interaction, which I think is good.
But it is not fine to see something so tragic happen to your friend and comment on Facebook but never follow up with them in real life to see how they are doing. It is not fine to see an announcement of something so tragic and be so lazy in your friendship that you can't even take the time to type out an "I'm so sorry."
That is not okay. That is not a friendship. And it frustrates me that someone could have the nerve to call themselves a friend to someone when they can't even be there, in the flesh, when they are needed most.
At the end of the show this girl reconnects with her friends, tells them the truth, and it appears that these friendships are on the road to healing after that. And I'm sure they probably did reach some level of trust again. But I don't think those people can ever reach the level in their friendship with this girl that they could have reached if they had just been there for her in the face of tragedy. They've forever missed that chance. And that is sad.
I guess I say all this to remind you (and me) to take the time to be an outside-of-Facebook friend to someone this week. Because the people who can reach outside of social media to touch someone else are the ones that are the true gems in the midst of all the people that social networks call our "friends".
I don't want to just be a digital version of someone's "friend". I want to be a supportive-on-social-media-and-in-real-life, all-in, gem of a friend to someone.
I want to be a friend worth having.
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