A Wednesday list....

1. Apple pie for breakfast.

2. Ellie Holcomb has been around and making music for a while, but I discovered her album Red Sea Road earlier this year and I've been loving it. This month, she came out with a short kids' album - Sing: Creation Songs - and it is fantastic! Simple yet meaningful songs about God and his creation. I love it when musicians make children's albums that are as enjoyable for the parents as they are for kids -- just good music. (another one of those is Young Folk, by Josh Lovelace. When you have everything from a lullaby to a song about a bear eating your underwear, you know it's a good album).

3. The church we attend hosts a women's Bible study every Fall and Spring. This year we're doing a study based on Matthew 5-7 (the Sermon on the Mount). I'm really enjoying it so far. The teacher is doing a good job of encouraging us to test and challenge the way we've always read those passages, and to really look for practical application within the Scripture. For someone who has grown up reading the Sermon on the Mount countless times, it's easy to read it but not really absorb what you're reading.

4. It's concert week at our house! Needtobreathe comes to The Woodlands on Saturday night and we'll be there hoping the weather cooperates. (it's an outdoor venue). And speaking of concerts...the Americana/folk/indie duo Beta Radio has a new album out (which you should totally check out if you like music that sounds like it grew up on the back of North Carolina and the Apppalachians then spent some time chilling out at the beach). The new album is great, and the guys are on tour and coming to Houston next week! I haven't bought tickets yet, but I'm considering it. Fun fact: I worked for a year or two with Ben Mabry, one half of Beta Radio, back when we were both baristas at Port City Java in Wilmington.

5. I'm in between books at the moment. I'd like to work through a few more from my bookshelves, but nothing's jumping out at me so I grabbed a few possibilities at the library last week: I've been meaning to try a Flavia de Luce mystery for ages, and finally picked one of those up. Then I grabbed a book of  sci-fi/fantasy short stories by Mary Robinette Kowal who co-hosts one of my favorite podcasts (Writing Excuses), and a young adult novel in verse by Kwame Alexander after hearing him do an interview a few weeks ago. I've never been a big fan of novels in verse (in other words: a narrative story told through poetry), but I was feeling like doing something different and he seemed like a really interesting person.

6. I just realized this week that This is Us started this week! Yay! Who else is in the mood for emotional drama? I haven't checked, but I hope that means Superstore starts up again soon. Oh, and speaking of TV, the kids recently discovered Dinosaur Train. It's not super annoying, so that's good. However, because Amazon Prime only has three seasons included for free, they've been watching the exact same episodes over...and over....and over. Which IS super annoying. But this week, I discovered I can add a PBS kids subscription to our Prime account for $4.99 per month, thereby unlocking seven more seasons worth of shows. WORTH IT.

What are you watching and reading and listening to these days?