What I'm Into: February — Becca Stanley

What I'm most into this month: Lupita. Y'all, she is simply gorgeous. And then her words about beauty, they about did me in. Love her, and so glad she won that well-deserved Oscar last night (ps - loved her acceptance speech too).

via Time

"I remember a time when I too felt unbeautiful. I put on the TV and only saw pale skin, I got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin… And when I was a teenager my self-hate grew worse, as you can imagine happens with adolescence. My mother reminded me often that she thought that I was beautiful but that was no conservation, she’s my mother, of course she’s supposed to think I am beautiful. And then…Alek Wek. A celebrated model, she was dark as night, she was on all of the runways and in every magazine and everyone was talking about how beautiful she was. Even Oprah called her beautiful and that made it a fact. I couldn’t believe that people were embracing a woman who looked so much like me, as beautiful. My complexion had always been an obstacle to overcome and all of a sudden Oprah was telling me it wasn’t. . . You can't eat beauty: you can't rely on how you look to sustain you. What actually sustains us, what is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself and for those around you. That kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul. . . But also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside: there is no shade in that beauty."

Some readings etc from around the interwebs that I'm into this month:

Lord Lord - DL Mayfield

Resources for Lent and Easter - SortaCrunchy

Walking the Second Mile: Jesus, Discrimination, and 'Religious Freedom' - Rachel Held Evans

Sacred Scared series - Momastery

In light of my post on mothering this last week, my sweet friend sent me this video, What moms think about themselves vs. what kids think. You guys, all of your kind words and encouragement and especially your ME TOOs, they made me verklempt. Because sometimes I try to hide behind pretty words, to mask my vulnerability in flowery language and things that will make it less-scary. And y'all see right through it and encourage my heart. Thank you for that. Seriously.

Books I'm into this month:

I just finished reading The Good Lord Bird: A Novel, and really enjoyed it. And now I'm reading Americanah, which I'm super-into (I'll keep you posted on if I love the whole thing, but it's looking good so far) *note: check out my last post for my 2014 reading list/book recommendations.

And Movies:

Adam and I just watched 12 Years a Slave this past weekend. Which was painful, but important. (And also, Lupita, as I've already mentioned). We also watched a documentary called The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, which was also important, albeit maddening.

Less heavily, we also really enjoyed About Time and Drinking Buddies.

What I'm also into:

Stitch Fix y'all. For those of you unfamiliar, it's an online personal styling business. You pay $20 and fill out a really detailed profile of what your body, style, and budget is like and what you need clothes for. You schedule a "fix" and wait. A personal stylist in California looks at your personal profile & puts together a box for you of 5 items, sends it to you. You try on said items. If you keep anything, your $20 fee goes towards whatever you buy. If you keep nothing, you send it all back for free; just pay that first $20. If you keep it all, your entire order is 25% off! Repeat.

I've received 3 "fixes" so far, and kept every single thing from 2 of them. I even, miracle-of-all-miracles, was sent a pair of jeans that magically fit like a glove. This has never before happened in the history of the world. And truth be told, I almost didnt even bother putting them on, scoffing at the audacity of my sweet stylist to try and send me jeans. But thankfully I did try them on, and now I would wear them every single day if I could. I would highly recommend trying it out. If you don't like anything, you're only out the $20 styling fee. But seriously, for those mommas (such as myself) who have neither the time nor the will to go shopping, it's perfect.

(please note: if you do decide to try Stitch Fix, please use my referral link! It would make my day/week/month/wardrobe. I am not, however, merely telling you about this for the possibly referral credit, I really do love this service!).