I thought I'd start something new here this week, a weekly roundup of articles and links that caught my eye for one reason or another. Maybe they'll be helpful or interesting to you as well!
First off:
*Why Kids Benefit From Fewer Toys*
This is something I've long suspected, and it's something I've been pondering over again since I read this. My daughter is currently drowning in toys. Her room, when I don't go in and put every last piece away in its proper spot, is a sea of toys that makes it impossible to walk anywhere. It's messy, it looks terrible, and I'm pretty sure it's overwhelming to her, but I have no idea how to stem the flow of toys into our house. I almost never buy her things, but Papa does, and then there are the gift avalanches that come twice a year at Christmas and birthday time. If (and that's a big IF) I can get the rest of the house in the order that I want, I can possibly start in on our mostly-furnished-but-in-terrible-shape-as-it's-mostly-a-dumping-area basement, I can start switching her toys out every once in a while, storing the extras downstairs and changing them when she gets bored. But there needs to be a lot of work done for that to happen. It's good to have goals, though, right?!???
*10 reasons I have my food storage, from Making Cents of It All*
I love this post! I don't necessarily consider what I have a food storage, but it fits the bill. I have a very small pantry (about half the size of a tiny coat closet), two tall shelves, and a small set of Ikea Algot shelves (which used to hold our cable box and my son's video games in the living room) where I keep my food, along with a deep freezer in the garage. Before we moved back to be closer to our families, I didn't shop the way I do now, which is outlined in The Complete Tightwad Gazette (buy what's on sale and stock up enough so that you don't have to buy until the next sale; buy ingredients, not food; keep a price book so you know when and where an item hits the lowest price, etc). I live in a great place with some fantastic grocery stores that offer deals good enough for me to shop like this (before, I really didn't; I found the stores to be expensive, with the exception of Aldi and Walmart). Having a well-stocked pantry is convenient, it's a time and money saver, it's absolutely a sanity saver- no running out at the last minute to pick up that missing ingredient, because if I don't have everything I need for a recipe, I have all the ingredients for another! I'm never, ever running to the store right before a major storm, because I already have what I need on hand. Keeping a well-stocked pantry has really changed the way I cook and think about food, for the better.
And from the same source, Making Cents of It All's Things That Are Making Me HAPPY! provided a bright spot for me this week. I know that I don't stop and acknowledge the little things often enough, and this was a lovely reminder to do so. :)
*How (and Why) I Keep My Goodreads To-Read Shelf At 100 Books*
Well THAT'S right up my alley, isn't it???
"What good is a TBR list if it just stresses me out?" the author asks, and I agree. That's exactly the point I was at at the end of December 2016/January 2017. The list was far too long and I began questioning why I was adding to it but never actually reading any of those books. And thus began my TBR adventure. Having started with the list at 332 books, I'm currently at 164 books, which means I've tackled 168 books from that list in the past year and a half. Not too shabby! I'll never, ever let it get that high again, and keeping it at a manageable number is definitely a goal of mine.
Lastly, Readercoin just came to my attention right before I sat down to write this post. It seems to be an app that will pay you in their currency for reading books from their site, and you can redeem that currency for giftcards and whatnot. It looks as though it'll be for both public domain fiction and self-published (via their site, is what I'm seeing, in my quick jog through). It's something I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on and I'm really curious as to what the buzz will be around the book world. Is this going to hurt profits for writers? Will it be frowned upon by the publishing industry? I did a quick search for it around Twitter but didn't see any industry officials commenting on it, but I'll be watching.
What about you? Anything interesting in your cyber neck-of-the-woods this week?
*post contains affiliate links
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