Shauna Niequist : Cold Tangerines

After sharing my Multitude Mondays this week, I was struck by how often I'm inspired by quotes from my favourite authors. Shauna Niequist, the author of Cold Tangerines which I spoke of on Monday, has so many gems in each of her pieces. I want to soak up every word that she writes, and yet sometimes, I can only take it in small doses, like really good quality chocolate. She's one of my favourite Christian authors that truly writes from the heart.

Many of my favourite lines and pieces of Niequist's work can't be taken out of context without reading the whole paragraph or story, but the quote above is one of my favourite stand-alone pieces. The quote is from the book that I own, Cold Tangerines. I created a little print of it using a photo from one of my summer adventures. Feel free to save it as an image for your desktop - simply open the image in a new tab to get the photo at the full size before saving to your desktop or background. It's a freebie from me to you!

I've had the rest of Shauna's books in my Amazon wish list forever. This is one of the first years that I've been trying to be more careful with my online spending, and my wish list is suffering a bit. With the baby on the way, I've been less self indulgent. Dan and I are both big readers: we used to place an Amazon book order at least once a month, sometimes every payday. I miss those days, but it simply means that when I do receive a new book in the mail, it's even more special. I think it may be time to place an order soon!

I hope that you're having a lovely weekend, spending time with your loved ones and avoiding stress as much as possible. I know that my to-do list seems to grow larger by the day, but I'm trying to stay focused on enjoying the little things, and Niequist's quote is a great reminder. We have friends coming over for lunch that we haven't gotten to see in almost a month, so I'm going to take the time to light some candles this evening, do a little tidying, and get as much food prep done as I can so we can get our meal on the table after church tomorrow with as little strain as possible. School and work can wait: I want to enjoy these moments, as they are what I'll remember a year from now, not assignment #4365.

Happy weekend!