Coffee and Blogs no. 13

This week was whirlwindy.  Last weekend was spent in Chicago, celebrating my kick-ass marathoning sister and hanging with my family.  I got home on Monday for a quick celebration of Milo's birthday, and then the rest of the week has been a little off- late bedtimes, random evening obligations, routines gone to hell.  Real talk: I haven't spent enough time with Ben and I'm feeling it.  Today is full of errands and cleaning, but tomorrow we're headed off for some one-on-one time in Salem.  I'm really looking forward to it.

Even through all this craziness, I've been stockpiling some links to share.  We had a humidity wave all week and THIS MORNING IS COOL AGAIN.  Get your quilt and coffee ready.

I'm going to lead with Ebola, because there's no way you're sick of this yet.  Another blogger shared this link, which I found strangely comforting.  It also inspired me to get my flu shot and go to the gym.  Is this a silver lining to what I still find to be a scary and intriguing health story, even if my personal risk is very low?

Amanda is cute, all the time, and I want a mustard cardigan, stat.

Kate Baer (of the Ebola article share) writes a lot that I relate to about the struggle to reconcile religion with our current adult beliefs and values.  Her son is starting to ask questions.  I hope I have to courage to teach Milo and Elliott how to be good people and believe in things that are larger than them without tapping into any particular doctrine.  Kate's answers are my starting point.

I've been lazily wishing for a book club for most of my adult life, especially lately when I was gifted some awesome books at my birthday. I've been toying with the idea of an online book club, but I can't tell if it would be too tedious to share our thoughts in comments?  I'd love to know what you think!  These women nixed the problem of reading a long book by creating an articles club.  Bonus in this post- they share the list of articles they've read and discussed, some of which look really interesting.

This is a bummer, I'm not going to lie.  We all grew up spouting rhymes about 1492 and accepting at least partial credit for our awesome American country belongs to Christopher Columbus.  This comic from The Oatmeal reveals a lot of ugly things about a terrible man and his terrible legacy.  It's truly atrocious that he has a federal holiday.  I was worried that info in the comic was one-sided, since I'm not a scholar of Columbus or the early Americas, but the quotes pulled directly from his diary entries and letters were enough to turn me off to Columbus.  This is a petition to change the holiday.  I've signed.

42 Ways To Make Sure People Like and Respect You.  Take even a handful of these to work with you and become instantly more awesome.

I love Kerri at Your Wishcake.  She writes about caring for her daughter, keeping her creative process fresh, and running her little home with thrift and style.  I especially love her honesty about the things her family goes without, a bit of a rarity in the mommy/lifestyle blogging world.  Her article about things she's quit made me think.  No cable?

I'm getting super into my monthly horoscope and following astrological events.  On the lighter side of that cool craziness, here is a handy guide to determine which Halloween candy is appropriate for your sign.  Libras are so eager to please that we lose our king-size bars to keep everyone happy, womp womp.

I've been writing about friendship (confessing my checkered past and picking the people you spend time with), so this article about courting your friends was quite timely.  One of my goals in my 29th year will definitely be about cultivating friendships.  Still open to tips and stories!

Ben has been the unsung hero of a lot of my fun lately.  He watched the boys all weekend while I was off in Chicago, has been putting the boys to bed so I can dash to the gym as soon as he's home, put together more Ikea furniture than is fair for our new office (pictures to come!), and encouraged me to take my sister up on her offer of a dinner cruise tonight.  I am the luckiest.  Here are some of my favorite posts signing the praises of Mr. Swicker: My Film Maker, My Funny Valentine (my favorite memory of dating Ben), Ben is a Rad Dad

What did I miss?  Send me your lovely links!  Enjoy your weekend!