reading Archives - 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Posted by Meaghan Barry on June 30, 2014

Keelin and I have been talking since the beginning of the year about putting out a monthly post with some of our favorite things each month. Since we are approaching the halfway point of 2014, it seems only fitting that I actually get going with my first post of this new series! We hope to continue these types of posts in the future as our way of sharing our latest finds! Without further ado, here are my top five things I’m loving this month:

International Delight Iced Coffee

1. International Delight Vanilla Flavored Iced Coffee: Although I love to make cold-brewed iced coffee, sometimes I don’t plan ahead and it can take 12-24 hours to “brew.” International Delight’s iced coffee line is perfect when I’m in a time crunch and need my iced coffee fix for the day! ID’s iced coffee also comes in Original, Mocha, and Caramel Macchiato.

fitbit

2. Fit Bit Flex: Our entire family has recently jumped on the Fit Bit bandwagon! The Fit Bit Flex is a pedometer that you wear on your wrist to track your daily steps, but is also estimates your distance, active minutes, calories burned, and sleep efficiency. You can add friends who have a Fit Bit to compare 7-day step counts and that has proven to be a great motivator for me!

Here’s what the main dashboard on the iPhone app looks like:

fitbit stats

It measures my daily steps in 15-minute increments throughout the day:

fitbit steps

It even measures your sleep efficiency (at least I’m efficient at something!)

fit bit sleep

raised garden beds

3. Raised Garden Beds: Earlier this spring, we built raised garden beds using these very detailed and helpful directions from the Pioneer Woman. We planted lots of vegetable plants about a month ago and we love checking out how things are growing every day. I’m crossing my fingers that we will soon be making Caprese Salad and Mediterranean Dip with our garden bounty (that is if our pesky forest critters stay away!) I’m chronicling my gardening journey this summer with Instagram- follow me at 2Sisters2Cities and search for the hashtag #barryfamilygarden.

Audible

4. Audible: One of my favorite hobbies is reading books, but I struggle to get through a lot of books these days with my two little guys pulling me in all directions. I try to read at night before bed, but I usually get through a page and a half before I’m falling asleep. I recently started listening to audio books via the Audible app on my iPhone and I’m loving it so far. I’m already on book #3! I try to use the app whenever I’m cooking, cleaning, folding laundry, or out running errands (without T in the car as he pretty much insists on listening to kid’s music 100% of the time.)
Dark_Sky_App

5. Dark Sky app: I love that the kids can play outside almost everyday lately, but summer weather can be a bit unpredictable with sudden rain and storms. Someone recommended I try out an app called Dark Sky. It can tell you (pretty accurately) if it’s going to rain or not within the next hour. It also has detailed forecasts of periods of rain or clouds for a full 7-days on a hyper-local level.

So there you have it…my first round-up of things I’m loving this month. What are you currently crushing on this summer?

sister m signature

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions and text are all mine.

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on January 3, 2013

goals for 2013

It’s now an annual tradition to share my goals for the year on this blog (Here were my goals for 2010 and 2012…apparently having a newborn baby made me less goal-oriented in 2011.) Instead of drafting lofty resolutions, I always like to break it down into smaller goals that I’m more likely to accomplish throughout the year. I don’t always follow up on all of them, but it’s nice to sit down and prioritize how I want to focus my life. Here are some of my goals for 2013:

Read 26 books in 2013. Last year, I set 26 books as my Goodreads 2012 reading challenge number, but I fell short by 14 books…oops. I’m hoping to try to reach this challenge this year by skipping the tv more often each evening and reading instead.
Try yoga again. Since moving to the ‘burbs, I haven’t belonged to a gym or any kind of fitness studio. I recently bought a 10-pack of yoga classes through one of those group coupon deals and I’m hoping to incorporate more fitness into my weekly schedule.
Focus on eating more “real” breakfasts and lunches. I’m pretty good at making a “real” dinner each night for our family, but often I find myself just grabbing whatever throughout the day whenever I’m hungry. I made this Greek Veggie Wrap yesterday for lunch and it was so good (and healthy!) I’m hoping to try a lot more smoothie recipes for breakfast as well.
Keep organizing! Even though we have lived in our home for over a year now, I still find there are spots that I haven’t touched since I initially unpacked them. I’m planning on doing some major basement reorganizing this winter and some garage projects this spring when it starts to warm up a bit.
Grow 2 Sisters 2 Cities. While K and I are very proud how much our little blog has grown in the past few years, we want to keep growing and improving it every day. I want to try many new recipes this year and also continue to work on my food photography and editing skills.

What are you hoping to accomplish in this upcoming year?

sister m signature

Posted by Meaghan Barry on September 12, 2010

I’ve gotten the chance to read these books this summer:

1. The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help your Baby Sleep Through the Night by Elizabeth Pantley- I figured since I have some free time now, I should start reading up on how to get babies to sleep through the night. I figured when I am actually starting to have this issue, I will have the least time to read this book! It definitely had some good tips, but I will probably need to re-read through the book again once baby arrives!

2. The Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp- Once again, I read this one to be proactive for baby’s arrival. This book goes over the 5 s’s to soothe an infant…swaddle, swing, side/stomach, shoosh and sucking. Husband M and I took a Newborn Essentials class at Isis Parenting the other night. After reading this book, I felt I did not really learn much from this class as I had already learned it in the book. Fortunately, it was not a total bust going to class because Husband M said he actually did learn a great deal. We’ll see how we do with the tips from the book in a couple months once baby is here!

3. The Happiness Project, Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin- This book is not necessarily for people who are unhappy, just people looking to add more happiness to their life (and who wouldn’t want that?) The author spends an entire year with different resolutions for each month to try to bring more happiness into each day. It’s a nice thing to think about doing on a daily basis and she has lots of different ideas on things you can try. She admits that not all things she does is for everyone…it’s more important to decide for yourself what are some things you can add to your life that actually make you happy.

4. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson- Thanks to cousin K, she rescued me from being 400th in my library queue for this book and brought her copy out to Nantucket for me. It was a great book to read on the beach all week. You definitely need to read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo first to understand a lot of the background.

5. Twelve Rooms with a View by Theresa Rebeck- The premise of this book is that 3 sisters find out that they have inherited a multi-million dollar property on Central Park after their reclusive, alcoholic mother passes away. However, the estate gets challenged by their mother’s step sons and the building co-op board. The sisters battle it out with their new enemies, and also learn a great deal about their mother’s secret life she lead.

-m