The Saturday Six

** A happy birthday to my sister and to our Braeya girl today! **

One.

I find silicon baking cups both adorable and fascinating...and I still don't own any. Womp womp. But I found this post with ideas of ways to use them beyond the baking! (And I also learned that there are many more shapes available than I knew!)

Two.

Dashing Dish posted a list of Christian songs to listen to you while you work out! If you're looking to update your playlist, check out her ideas! (Spoiler alert: David Phelps is nowhere on the list. He's usually my entire playlist.)

Three.

I stumbled upon this little post this week, and not only did I learn a couple of things about seagulls, I learned a good life/soul lesson. It's a quick read...check it out!

Four.

STOP. IT. How adorable is this little pin holder??? Hello, Up! fans...you might need this for cuteness alone!!

Five.

The end of the school year is approaching. Do you need a gift idea for a teacher? I loved this one. I'm not a teacher, but I'm always accepting these - ha!

Six.

A couple of years ago, some friends of mine introduced me to a friend of theirs: Christy Cabe. She was on the verge of releasing her first book, titled Brownie Crumbs, and I shared about it here on the blog - and interviewed her about the book, too! I found out a few weeks ago that she had her second book ready, and much to my delight, it has a food-related title, too! If Only it Were a Piece of Cake officially launched this week, and I want to tell you about it!

Though it included other things as well, Christy's first book talked quite a bit about some of the harder pieces of her life: losing her mom when she was very young and walking through her son's cancer diagnosis when he was very young. In her new book, Christy's chapters look at the general difficulties we all face in life. She shares some of her own experiences with things like anxiety, disappointment, loss, regret, and more...and then she offers hope for each season.

Christy and I have many things in common: we're almost exactly the same age, we love a lot of the same things, and we process life in many of the same ways. But our lives aren't identical. Christy's a mom of three and she's experienced things I've never known in my life. But in the similarities and differences alike, I found her incredibly easy to relate to in the pages of the book.

In fact, I just about turned into a bobblehead while I read, because I identified so much with her thoughts! From living every moment of life just waiting for the other shoe to drop...to drowning in guilt over the smallest mistakes...to wrestling with God's will...I understood her. And I felt like she surely understood me, her bobblehead reader.

With sprinkles of Scripture and excerpts from her blog incorporated throughout the book, Christy doesn't leave you wallowing in the hard feelings. After she helps you understand that she understands, she shares what she learned in those seasons of her life so you can learn in your own seasons.

I giggled with her as I read, I nodded in agreement, and sometimes my breath caught hard in my throat as I entered that place of deepest heart exchange. The best of all the feelings in one book.

I'm excited for Christy on the release of her new book, and I'm excited to have a sneak peek at it myself. If you enjoy a book that feels like a conversation with a good friend, grab a copy. And for goodness' sake, have a piece of cake while you read!

* Christy provided a digital copy of the book for me to read, but all opinions (and excessive head bobbling) are my own! *