Weekend Reading: September 22, 2012

The thing that always gets me about life is how tragedy and joy can coexist together. It seems like the world should stop when a tragedy happens, but it doesn’t. Babies still giggle, friends still laugh…there is JOY in the midst of pain and tragedy and heartache.

This week I watched a friend say goodbye to her husband and the father of their five children in an unspeakable tragedy. It has affected me in deeper ways than I can express, and I can hardly wrap my mind around what she must be experiencing.

And yet, in the midst of that, I got 3 days with one of my closest friends, Shaina from Food for My Family, who I rarely get to see in person and almost never get one-on-one time with. She came with her youngest son (seen in the picture above proposing to three of my daughters at one time) for a laid back visit, and she took pictures of our family while she was here (which I’m dying to see!).

We laughed, talked and just enjoyed our time together, and it was a lot of fun to watch our kids connect.

And my heart felt like it was pulled in two…

Here are some of my favorite posts from this week. As always, check out what I’m reading to see the other posts that make me stop and think. You’ll find new posts all week long!

Family {Doing Life Together}

• Teenagers Are Our Future…and Our Present | Simple Mom

• We Get to Do This…Together | Simple Homeschool

• 5 Tips for Teaching Gratitude to Your Children | The Pennington Point

Blogging {Copyright, Plagiarism & Fair Use}

• The Night I Scrubbed Peanut Butter from the Floor and Then Wrote About Plagiarism | Finding Joy

• NickMom, MotherFunny? Nah, More Like MotherRipOff | Colorado Moms

• Hands Off Our Content | Resourceful Mommy

Pinterest {It’s All About Fall}

My latest pins to my It’s All About Fall board…

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pumpkin Poppers

Pumpkin Toffee Cheesecake

Have a great weekend!

	Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy on the way, and together, they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. She loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.